Discovery of the year

Picture is illustrative only
I am totally addicted to dolsot bibimbap. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that making bibimbap at home is not as difficult as I'd thought. The first time I tried Korean food was a few years back and for some reasons I didn't have a very good impression of their cuisine. At the time I thought Korean food is just a passing craze popularised by Korean dramas. Kimchi was the only Korean dish that I loved then.
The second time I tried Korean food was when some Hong Kong friends organised a farewell party at a Korean cafe in Manchester and I had the chance to try cold buckwheat noodles then and I had to say it kind of cemented my serious doubt about Korean food. I just didn't understand how can something so tasteless like that is so much loved by many people. In hindsight, I suppose it wasn't a good idea to eat cold noodles in the middle of the winter so that could explain why cold noodles were so tasteless to me.
The third time I tried Korean food was we went on holiday to Hong Kong last year. We had never tried bulgogi before and it was so good that it made me completely change my mind about Korean food.
Needless to say I've been converted since and have also added udon, Ojingeo sundae (Tofu, egg, sesame, chili and vegetable wrapped with 1cm-wide pieces of steamed squid) onto my favourite food list and of course I am very eager to discover more about Korean cuisine.

Banh mi lover

(THIS POST IS A COPY-AND-PASTE JOB FROM AN OLD ENTRY ON MY OTHER BLOG)
I have just discovered a useless fact that the 'butter' I had been eaten as a kid in Vietnam wasn't actually butter. The soft, spreadable yellowy stuff that they normally spread on banh mi was actually ghee, an Indian clarified butter.
Apparently ghee was made by simmering butter in a pan until all water has boiled off and protein settled to the bottom. It does taste slightly different from normal butter.
Since I have been in the UK I have never attempted to make a proper banh mi. I have eaten baguettes as a substitute for banh mi but for some reasons ham and cheese baguette still doesn't taste as good as a banh mi cha lua. I suppose it's mostly to do with the fact that it is always more comforting to eat your 'childhood food'.
When I was at junior high school my grandma always made me banh mi for my lunch. The fillings were varied, ranging from the simple cha lua to siu mai in tomato sauce and sometimes spicy beef. Yummy. Just thinking about it made my mouth water again.

seafood pasta

Easter Weekend - which can only mean one thing -it's the hubby's turn to cook. He whipped up this spicy seafood pasta and it tastes amazing. Nothing fancy, just tagliatelle pasta with seafood saute in a spicy tomato sauce. As a chilli lover, I even put a tsp of chopped chilli in afterwards and it worked a treat.
I love the weekend.
P.S: picture of the novice cook's kitchen:D

Herb Blogging - Easy New-and-Improved Chicken Broth with star anise

I swear I must have come across this before while I was living in Vietnam. Thing is, I never cooked when I was in Vietnam. Yep, I was a spoilt-rotten kid who never had to lift a finger in the kitchen. I did enjoyed helping out in the kitchen but I didn't pay much attention to my mum's cooking and thus, at the age of 20-something, I still am a novice cook who struggle to do basic food when my mum at the same age was more than competent in doing elaborated food.
Anyway, back to the main story. I discovered these little stars when I was browsing in a Chinese supermarket last week. I picked a bag of star anises up and gave it a sniff. It was definitely familiar, I just couldn't make out what it was or where I had seen it before. I rang my mum and found out that star anise is one of the essential ingredient that made up the gorgeous, fragrant smell of the broth in pho
So a few days ago I decided to make my own chicken broth using star anise and a few more ingredients. I have never attempted to make chicken broth before due to my laziness and my tendency to rely on chicken stock cubes.
It is by no means the best chicken stock but the star anise does enhance the smell and flavour immensely and most importantly, it is incredibly easy to make.
So here is my very own new-and-improved chicken stock recipe:
1 chicken carcass
1 turnip
1 onion
1 carrot
1 bayleaf
1 stalk of lemongrass, bruised with a cleaver
2-3 star anise
5 black peppercorns
fish sauce to taste
Method:
Put all ingredients in a deep pan and pour enough water to cover the chicken carcass. Bring to the boil, skim all the brown bits that float on tops and turn heat down. Leave everything to simmer for at least 2 hours, skim off fat and brown bits occasionally.
I normally pour 2tbsp of fish sauce to taste as well at the end of the cooking process.
This chicken stock is easy enough for me to follow and the star anise definitely makes the broth much more fragrant than normal.
The more I know about herbs, the more I love them :D

Chewy Butter Cookies

I tested hoangtam's chewy butter cookies recipe today and as can be seen from the picture, I burnt the cookies a little bit. They still taste all right (better than what I'd expected anyway). To be honest I've never been good at baking and it really does help to boost my confidence with an easy-to-follow recipe like this one.
I specially made 2 heart-shaped cookies for the hubby, as an apology for...(ahh, never mind)
I'll definitely do this again...

Confession of a noodle addict

I am an Oriental so noodles and rice are my staple food. When I was at home my mum had this unspoken rule that we should save noodle dishes till the weekend and just eat rice during the week (Don't ask, I haven't got a clue why she did that). Anyway it may be the reason for my apparent obsession with noodles.
I cannot survive a week without noodles. When I don't eat noodles I feel irritated and short-tempered, basically I have to eat noodles at least twice a week to satisfy my craving.
Yesterday I decided to make banh canh cua. However, I couldn't find the particular type of noodles that I need for the dish. So I asked a friend and she said I could substitute it with udon noodles.
Anyway, long story cut short, the end-result was a bizarre concoction of noodles, crab meat, egg yolk, shitake mushroom and chinese leaves in a spicy curried broth.


It is definitely not what I had in mind but luckily it doesn't taste too bad.
So I've learnt a lesson in cooking: when in doubt, ask for the recipe before starting on a dish that you have absolutely no idea how to make.
I will try again one day.

Cherry Shortbreads

Ingredients:
25g glace cherries
100g self-raising flour
75g butter
50g caster sugar
*Cut the cherries into small pieces. Sift the flour and mix with the cherries. Cream the butter and sugar until soft(very important), add the flour mixture, work together with your fingers.
*Form into 12-14 balls. Place on lightly greased baking sheets and bake in the centre of a preheated oven (160C/325F/Gas mark 3) for 15 minutes. Don't over do it as it can easily be burnt.
*Take out and leave to cool down. Shortbreads get really hard upon contact with air so they may seem a bit soft when you first take them out. Don't worry that's absolutely fine.