Mu- Saengchae (Spicy Korean Radish )

I saw this dish in a Korean cookbook and immediately felt a urge to make it at home.  I combined two recipes together to bring out the best spicy Korean radish dish for myself.  I liked this as it was spicy and went well with rice or jajangmyeon.

Usually this is served as a Korean side dish called Banchan (반찬).  I ate it with rice and toasted seaweed, made Korean pancake, made omelet with it, added it in my Korean spicy instant noodle, or just have it as a side dish to my everyday meal.  Surprisingly my little Edda loves this and she didn't complaint that this was spicy.  I guess I trained them well.  Evy on the other hand, doesn't like this banchan.

Ingredients:

1- 1.5 lb Korean radishes, julienned into 2-inch long strips

1 tsp. salt

3 scallions, cut into 2-inch pieces

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1-inch piece of ginger, grated

2 Tbsp. red pepper powder

2 tsp. granulated sugar

1 Tbsp. pure sesame oil

1 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

1 tsp. soy sauce

Method:

1.  Put julienned radishes into a big bowl.  Add in 1 tsp. of salt, mix well and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Drain and gently squeeze the water out.  Place in another bowl.

2.  Add in cut scallion and the rest of the ingredients.  Mix well with your hands (wear a glove) or until the radishes are red from the red pepper powder.

3.  Keep in the refrigerator and serve as a cold side dish.  Should be able to keep up to two weeks in the refrigerator.

[S$20 Budget Meal] Steamed Tilapia Fillets, Eggs with Napa Cabbage and Seaweed Tofu Gochujang Soup

Above was one of the everyday dinners I made at home.  I was trying to be healthier so I steamed my fish in my steamer basket.  Usually I would pour hot oil to finish my steamed fish (made the fish glossy and shiny),  but decided to skip this step with the "healthier" in mind.  I added eggs in my napa cabbage because I wanted to submit this dinner to $20 Budget Meal.  This veggie dish could be cooked without adding eggs.

Total cost for this dinner was about $6.87 and I was not budgeting this meal at all, it was just a meal I prepared often at home.  It would be even cheaper without adding soup.  I would beak down the cost and provide recipes in the next page.  Again, it prove to me that it is so affordable to cook healthy meal at home, however I do need my break on weekend, it's great to eat a meal cooked by someone else and not have to stay for the clean up.  :-P

I am submitting this to "S$20 Budget Meal"  or "US$15 budget meal" hosted by Cuisine Paradise.

Steamed Tilapia Fillets with Ginger and Scallion

Cost of ingredients:

3 Tilapia fillets = $4.20

Ginger = 20c

Scallion = 20c

Total for this dish = $4.60

First rinse the fillets and place it on a steamer basket or ceramic plate.  Then, spread the ginger slices that had been soaked with soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil (for at least an hour) on top.  Lastly top with some thinly sliced scallion and steam for 15 minutes.

Eggs with Napa Cabbage

Cost of ingredients:

1/4 Napa cabbage = 50c

2 large eggs = 17c

Garlic = 10c

Total for this dish = $0.77

Wash and cut the Napa cabbage into pieces.  Heat up wok with some cooking oil.  When heated, add in the chopped garlic, stir-fry until almost golden, add in the harder part of the Napa cabbage (the white part), stir-fry for a little while, then add in the rest of the Napa cabbage, stir-fry well.  Add in salt and mix well.  Add some water and a little chicken powder.  Then pour beaten eggs on top, lightly stir until the eggs are cooked.  Serve.

Seaweed Tofu Gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) Soup

Cost of ingredients:

1/2 soft tofu = 50c

Seaweed = 50c

Gochujang = 40c

Garlic = 10c

Total for this dish = $1.50

The recipe for this soup can be found here and here.

Total cost for this dinner was $6.87.  It's cheaper than a chicken fried rice we order at take out.  Chicken fried rice here cost $7.95 not including tax and tips. 

No Bake Strawberry Yogurt Cheese Cake

I saw this easy no bake cheese cake recipe while browsing the Albertson's ad. online.  What attracted me to this recipe was that yogurt was used instead of sour cream.  Most of the no bake recipe that I came across used sour cream, which was not in my shopping list.  So, I was glad to find this recipe.

Just liked the name implies, no baking required, just mixed all the ingredients together, add in gelatin and let it set in the refrigerator.  It was not bad at all, I quite liked it, especially it was so easy to make.  Definitely can be a dessert that I would bring to a potluck. 

Happy Easter!!

I'm also submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #6 Say Cheese (April 2011) hosted by Jean of Noms I Must.

Recipe inspired by Albertson's monthly ad.

Ingredients:

1 envelope (0.25oz) unflavored gelatin 

1/4 cup boiling water

2 (8oz) cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup strawberry yogurt (or any flavored you prefer)

Raspberries preserved, as needed (optional)

1 prepared 8" graham cracker pie crust (or make your own)

Method:

1.  In a medium glass or ceramic bowl, use an electric mixer to blend cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Fold in yogurt.

2.  In a small bowl, empty the gelatin and add boiling water.  Stir until gelatin dissolves thoroughly.

3.  Fold in the gelatin mixture into the cream cheese mixture until incorporated.

4.  Pour mixture into the pie crust.   Drop tsp. of raspberries preserved on top and try to swirl it with a toothpick.

5.  Cover with a cling wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours.  Slice and serve.

Dried Laver Anchovies Soup (野生紫菜汤)

This was a soup I learned from my girlfriend while studying in university ages ago.  Both my hubby and I loved this soup a lot and now my two girls also loved it.  I even have this recipe published in a cookbook called The Best Soups in the World by Clifford A. Wright. 

This soup was not a stranger to a lot of people, it can easily be one of the rotation of the soups made at home.  But in case you don't know, I am sharing the recipe here.

Ingredients:

1/2 of a round dried laver (a type of seaweed)

1/4 cup dried anchovies, rinsed

1/4 of a large carrot or 1/2 of small carrot, thinly sliced

2 medium eggs or 1 large egg (add one more if you love egg), beaten

1 Tbsp. sesame oil

1000ml water

Salt to taste

Chicken stock powder to taste

(or you can use chicken stock instead of water and minus the chicken stock powder)

Method:

1.  In a pot, turn on heat and add in sesame oil.  Then, add in dried anchovies and stir-fry until slightly golden, add in water.  Let it boil.

2.  When boiling, turn the heat to low.  Wash the dried laver with cold water (if will soften when wash) and add it into the soup.  Stir well.

3.  Add in carrot, stir well.  Add in beaten eggs slowly to create egg drop effect.

4.  Season to taste with salt and chicken stock powder.  Skip this step if used salted chicken stock.  Simmer for 5 minutes and serve.

Haiji White Bun Using Pullman Tin

When I went back to Malaysia in 2008, a Pullman pan was on my to-buy-list.  I was fascinated and wanted to get one to play with it.  I was in luck as I easily found this pan in the bakery supply shop, it came in three sizes, short, medium and long.  The one I bought was the shortest one, 4" x 4" x 8.5".  You can see the picture of my Pullman pan in the following page.  While searching for Pullman pan recipe, I came across that this pan was also called Pain de Mie.  Pain de Mie is a fine-textured, moist bread baked in a special lidded pan.  The lid gives this bread a flat top and perfectly square-edges slices.

While blog hopping one day, I came across a Haiji White Bun recipe.  This recipe really caught my attention because the blogger said it was super soft and delicious.  I browsed the ingredients and noticed that it didn't have bread improver or bread softener that I was trying to avoid using.  So, immediately I bookmarked it with the intention of trying it out.  And of course finally gotten to use the Pullman pan that I bought three years ago. :-)
 
Verdict:  Super soft and super yummy!  I am so glad I tried this recipe as I will be making it again and again.  I highly recommend anyone to give this recipe a try.


Recipe adapted from CosyBake.  But I was using a bread maker and a Pullman tin (Pain de Mie).  If you don't have a bread maker, you can refer to her link for the traditional method or use a loaf pan.

Ingredients:

250g bread flour

3g instant yeast

200g milk

10g sugar

3g salt

10g butter (I used 1 Tbsp.)

Method:

1.  In a bread-maker, add the following in order.  First add milk, butter, sugar, flour, salt and lastly make an indentation to one side of the flour and add yeast.  Turn the bread-maker to dough function and let it does it work.

2.  After the dough is done.  Take it out, cut it into three portion.  Punch the air out and roll each into a cylinder shape that would fit the Pullman tin (4"x 4"x 8.5").  

3.  Spray the Pullman tin with baking spray with flour and place the dough in.  Cover the tin 2/3 with the lid, so that you can see the progress of the proofing.

4.  Let it rest until it rise until the picture below, 1 inch before reaches the top (50-60 minutes).  You can use the normal loaf pan if you don't have a Pullman tin.  Preheat the oven the 350'F.

5.  Spray the lid of the tin with baking spray with flour and cover it like picture below.

6.  Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.  Then, open the lid and bake for 5-8 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

7.  When it's done, take it out and turn the bread out to cool on a wire rack.  Top side up.  Brush the top with melted honey.  And let it cool completely.

8.  Wrap it with cling wrap and place in an air-tight container at room temperature.  Serve with your favorite jam.

[S$20 Budget Meal] Ginger Chicken with Rice Wine, Spicy KangKong and Laver Anchovies Soup

Recently, I spotted a  Singapore "$20 Budget Meal" event that got me interested.  For US dollar, it would be $15 Budget Meal.  You have to cook two dishes and a soup or a one dish meal that priced less than S$20/ US$15.  Frankly, I never really counted how much each dinner that I prepared at home cost me.   But I believe it would be less than $15.  For April, one of the dishes must have an egg as an ingredient, so above was what we had on April 11, 2011 which I submitted to this event.

I am submitting this to "S$20 Budget Meal"  or "US$15 budget meal" hosted by Cuisine Paradise.

Dried Laver (野生紫菜)Anchovies Soup.  The cost of this soup is US$1.00.  The recipe can be found here. 

Cost of ingredients:
Dried laver - 50 cent
2 medium eggs - 20 cent (on sales)
1/4 of a carrot - 10 cent
1/4 cup of dried anchovies - 20 cent

Spicy KangKong/Morning Glory/ On Choy with shrimp paste in soy bean oil.  The cost of this dish is US$2.24.  The recipe can be found here.

Cost of ingredients:
Kangkong - $1.50
1 Shallot - 20 cent
Shrimp paste in soy bean oil - 54 cent

Ginger Chicken with Rice Wine.  The cost for this dish is US$1.80.  This recipe can be found here.

Cost of ingredients:
1 skinless and boneless chicken breast - $1.30 (on sales)
Ginger - 25 cent
Wood Ear - 25 cent
Fermented sweet glutinous rice wine - FREE (given by a friend)

The sweet glutinous rice wine

I added the wine and residue together in stir-frying this dish thus the cloudy gravy you see above.  But sweet and flavorful.

To sum thing up, the above meal only cost me US$5.04.  Served 4.  A healthy home cook meal at a fairly cheap price.  All you need to have is a little time at home to prepare this wonderful meal for you and your family.  By doing this event and really sat down and counted the amount of each ingredient I spent on this meal made me realized that home cook meal is really cheap.  :-)  Imagine, for $20, I can eat four meals at home!!

Deep Fried Italian Panko Shrimps

Have you ever wonder how the chef deep-fried the shrimps without it curled up?  One time when we were visiting our friend's restaurant, her chef made a similar dish for my girls.  His was without seasonings, just dip in flour, then beaten egg, then panko and deep fried.  What caught my eyes was that the shrimps were not curled up so of course I had to pick one to examining it.  When I tasted the shrimp, I sort of gotten the idea of how it was made.  I would share with you the secret in my next page.

I found the unseasoned one quite bland, so I seasoned mine and added dried herbs.  We all loved this, but who could resist this type of fried food anyway?  Flavorful and crispy, hard to stop at a few.

Ingredients:

18 Extra large shrimps (26-30/lb), cleaned and cut like picture below, set aside.  Notice how I cut the shrimp?  It will straighten the shrimp and won't make it curl when deep-frying.

Self-raising flour, about 3 heap Tbsp.

Italian seasonings, few dashes

Salt, 1 tsp.

Peppers, 1/2 tsp.

Water as needed

Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), as needed

Method:

1.   In a bowl, add in appropriate self-raising flour (depending on how many shrimps you want to make), add in some Italian seasoning and season with salt and peppers.  Then, slowly pour in a little water at a time while stirring the mixture into a thick batter.

2.  In another bowl, pour in the panko (as needed).  You can omit the panko if you don't have it on hand.

3.  Heat up a wok with medium heat oil.  Take a piece of the shrimp, dip into the batter and then coat it well with panko and slowly place into the hot oil and deep-fry until golden brown.  You can put 4 shrimps to deep-fry at one go.  Drain on paper towel and serve hot with the condiment of your choice.  Or serve it plain without condiment since it's already seasoned.

Alternative:  You can dip the shrimp into beaten egg, and then the seasoned panko (add the seasonings into the panko and mixed well), before deep-frying.

Oatmeal Raisin Yogurt Muffins

I often buy the big tub of yogurt for my girls when it goes on sales.  I came upon this recipe when I opened a strawberry nonfat yogurt for my girls.  This easy and healthy muffin recipe attracted me at first glance.   As my readers know, I am a sucker for healthy and easy recipe, so this whisk and bake recipe got my vote.  This strawberry yogurt came with pieces of strawberry bits so it was a plus and the muffins turned out well.  Not very sweet and good for breakfast.

Both my girls loved this muffin as well.  Evy would take this as a snack for school and the daddy can grab one before going to the office.

Recipe adapted from Dannon Light & Fit Recipes attached to the yogurt I bought.

Ingredients:

(A)

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup raisins, plumped

(B)

1 cup Dannon Light & Fit strawberry or vanilla nonfat yogurt (or any brand)

1 large egg

2 Tbsp. canola oil or sunflower oil

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 375'F.

2.  Place paper liners in a muffin tin.

3.  In a big bowl, whisk together (A).

4.  In another bowl, whisk together (B).  

5.  Add (B) into (A) and use a spatula and blend both wet ingredients and dry ingredients together.

6.  Spoon batter into prepared paper liners and bake for 22-25 minutes (I baked mine for 23 minutes).  

~Yields 10-12 small muffins.  If 10 muffins is about 180 calories each and if 12 muffins is about 150 calories each.

Easy Cheese Pasta

This is one super duper easy cheese pasta targeted for kids.  My girls loved macaroni with cheese, but I am staying away from the box kind (processed food).  So, I bought these tiny wheel, alphabet, flower pasta that I saw in a Hispanic market recently intended to cook something for my girls.  I thought of this idea based on the Korean spicy noodle with cheese post that I did recently.

I will provide pictures with illustration in my next post, so that you can use this easy method to cook for your kids too.

I am also submitting this recipe to Aspiring Bakers # 6:  Say Cheese! (for April) which will be hosted by Noms I Must.

1.  In a small saucepan, boil the water and cook the mini pasta per package instruction.  Add in some salt in the boiling water before cooking the pasta.  When cooked, drain and put the pasta back in the pot.  Add in two slices of American cheese (made with milk), 1/4 cup of milk and 1 Tbsp. of butter and stir to melt the cheese.  Note:  instead of milk, you can also use chicken/vegetable broth and go light or omit the seasonings.

2.  Season to taste with salt and black pepper.  You can add a little sugar if you like.  Serve when the cheese is completely melted.  You can use any flavor of cheese that you like or add breadcrumbs and bake it in the oven to finish.  Super easy right?

Japchae (Vegetable Beef Vermicelli)

The original JapChae, a Korean style vegetable beef with sweet potato vermicelli/cellophane noodles uses beef, but I used chicken in mine.  While looking at my old JapChae recipe, it was so different.  I used to add dark soy sauce because as a Malaysian, I seem to be addicted to dark color food in the beginning of my cooking.  My noodle, fried rice and stir-fried dishes were mostly dark in color.  But over the years, it has change, my cooking seem to be more balance now, not all dishes were dark in color, more white color food came out from me actually.  With the birth of my girls, my cooking also became less spicy.  Guess I would suffer when I go back to Malaysia for a visit as I am not use to that level of heat anymore.

This JapChae was served with Myulchi Bokkeum (Stirfried Anchovies).   The recipe is mostly adapted from the back of the sweet potato vermicelli (dang myun) that I bought in the Asian market.

Ingredients:

1 16oz packet of sweet potato vermicelli/cellophane noodles, soaked in warm water until soften.

2 dried flower shitake mushroom, soften in hot water and thinly sliced.  Season with soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil

1/2 cup of dried woodear fungus, soften in hot water and drain

1 small carrot, thinly julienned

1/2 yellow onion, julienned

1 skinless and boneless chicken breast, thinly sliced and marinated with soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, white pepper and cornstarch.

2 scallion, shredded

1 big bowl of washed and ready to eat spinach

2 gloves of garlic

1 Tbsp. Toasted white sesame seeds

Sauce:  Soy sauce, Kadoya sesame oil, salt, sugar and pepper to taste

Method:

1.  In a heated wok, add in oil.  When hot, stir-fry the chicken until cooked.  Dish out and set aside.

2.  In the same heated wok, add in more oil.  Add in onion, then garlic and stir-fry for a minute.  Add in mushroom and woodear and stir-fry well.  Then, add in carrot and mix well.  After that add in cooked chicken and spinach, stir-fry until spinach is cooked.  Add in sweet potato vermicelli and the sauce.  Add some water if needed.

3.  Stir well with a chopsticks or two forks, mix well with the sauces and until the vermicelli turns transparent.  Add the scallion.  Lastly add in the toasted sesame seeds and mix well.  Serve!

Myulchi Bokkeum (Stirfried Anchovies)

When I saw this recipe at Little Teochew's blog, I knew I had to try it.  I had this at a Korean's family house ages ago and really liked it.  However, I hardly get to eat this at the Korean restaurant here, granted I hardly go to the Korean restaurant, but the times that I did go, this side dish was not served.  This side dish was sold at the Korean market though but quite pricy.

It was sweet and spicy and if you eat it right away, the anchovies were crunchy.  However, if you kept it for later or kept it in the refrigerator, then the anchovies would turn soft.  I liked it better when the anchovies were still crunchy, then I got the crunchy, the spiciness from the gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste), and the sweetness from the honey and sugar.  Simply irresistible!!  Even both of my girls were enjoying this spicy snack!  With water alongside of course.

 

Recipe adapted from Maangchi and seen at Little Teochew.  I changed some of the method and used short-cut (buy bottle toasted sesame seeds).

Ingredients:

1 cup of dried anchovies

1/2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds (I used 2 tsp.)

1 tsp. sesame oil

(A)

1 Tbsp. brown sugar ( I used pure cane sugar)

1/2 tsp. minced garlic

1 Tbsp. gochujang

1/2 Tbsp. corn syrup or honey (I used honey)

4 tsp. water

Method:

1.  In a dinner plate, spread out the dried anchovies.  Spray the top with cooking spray.  Place in the microwave for 2 minutes or until the anchovies are toasted and crispy.

2.  In a small saucepan, add in (A).  Then put on the stove and stir until sugar, honey and gochujang are melted and thicken.  Turn the heat off and add in the anchovies.   Add in the sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds and mix well.  Serve right away if you like a crispy bite, serve later if you like it soft.

Note:  Can keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.  But for just 1 cup, it won't stay for more than a day.