Panfried scallop and black pudding with creamy mushroom and honey sauce - ホタテ揚げとブラックプディングとクリーミーマッシュルームと蜂蜜ソース - かまきの食事時間#11

Tonight, I try out a new combination (組み合わせ[くみあわせ]) using mushroom (キノコ) and honey (蜂蜜[はちみつ] ). 蜂蜜とキノコの組み合わせはよくお味です。Just to make something a little fancier than usual, I decided to use scallop and black pudding.

This is my recipe for pan-fried scallop and black pudding with creamy mushroom and honey sauce.

Ingredients (serving for 1)
Scallops - 4 pieces

Black pudding - 4 slices

Thickened cream - 50mL
Brown mushroom - 2
Ironbark Honey - 2 table spoon

1. Slice the black pudding into thin but adequate size as a base.

2. Make the sauce by panfrying the mushroom, and then add the cream and honey in. Simmer for about 1 minute and remove from stove. 

3. Pan-fry the black pudding slices for about 1 minute on each side

4. Season the scallops with salt and pepper.

5. Pan-fry the scallop, and turning it once only.

6. Serve by laying the black pudding slices first, scallop on top, and dress dish with the creamy mushroom and honey sauce.

ホタテ揚げとブラックプディングとクリーミーマッシュルームと蜂蜜ソースを作った！

どうぞごゆっくり召し上がってください。

Ochazuke - お茶漬け - かまきの食事時間#10

美味しくて簡単な日常日本料理です。

Ochazuke (お茶漬け[おちゃづけ]) is a common Japanese household dish which literary translates as pouring tea onto cooked rice. Various toppings can be added, but seaweed and salmon are the most popular ones. The common tea for the dish is green tea, but I used genmaicha instead because of is additional rustic flavor.

The following is my recipe of making Ochazuke. Too bad I don't have any Japanese styled ceramic bowl to accompany this.

Ingredients (serving for 4):
Rice - 2 cups
Salmon fillet (Skin On) - 1
Dried Seaweed - 1 sheet
Dried Skipjack Tuna Flakes (鰹節[かつおぶし]) - as desired
Eggs - 1 per person
Tsuyu Sauce - 100mL
Garlic - 3 cloves
Genmaicha Tea (玄米茶[げんまいちゃ]) - 50g

1. Wash and cook rice.

2. Season salmon fillet with salt and pepper, and then pan-fry with garlic.

3. Remove the salmon fillet when cooked, and "shred" with spoon.

4. In a tea pot, add in the tsuyu sauce. Place the genmaicha tea leafs in the filter and then add boiling water. Wait for 2 minutes.

5. Shred the dried seaweed sheet with hand into small pieces.

6. Place cooked rice in bow. On top, place the salmon and seaweed.

7. Cook egg in the form of similar to egg Benedict.

8. Add the tea into the bowel until 2cm below the tip of the rice. Place the egg and dried skipjack tuna flakes on top, and finish with a sprinkle of Genmaicha tea leafs.

9. Serve

お茶漬けを作りました！長時間のために日本料理を作っていませんね。今回の料理に福岡県からの玄米茶を入れました。

どうぞごゆっくり召し上がってください。

Pan-fried Whitings with Lemon and Grapefruit - 揚げ牙鱈とレモンとグレープフルーツ - かまきの食事時間#9

昨日、魚を突然食べたくなるので、地元の海鮮市場に行った。

Whiting (牙鱈[きばタラ]), is a silver colored cod-like fish that is available in all season but best during the winter. The name "whiting" is a common term given to a number of different fishes based on its appearance (rather than biological class). Currently, thirteen "whitings" are found around Australia. The fish itself is very tender when fresh, and quite flavorsome; although not as much as the other cods.

Following is my recipe for making pan-fried whitings with lemon and grapefruit (揚げ牙鱈とレモンとグレープフルーツ). The idea of using lemon and grapefruit came after watching an episode from Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare.

Ingredients (for one):
Whiting fish fillets - 2 pieces
Grapefruit - half
Lemon - half
Garlic - 2 cloves
Chives - as desired
Crushed mixed nuts - as desired
Corn flour - as required to cover fillet
Brown sugar - half table spoon
Salt as desired

1. Season the whiting fillets with salt and pepper, then coat the whiting fillets with corn flour.

2. Pan-fry the fillets with garlic and olive oil.

3. While waiting for the fish to cook, peel and cut grapefruit into bite sizes, and mix with brown sugar.

4. Plate the grapefruit, then lay the whitings on top. Garnish with lemon juice, chopped chives, and crushed mixed nuts

揚げ牙鱈とレモンとグレープフルーツを完成！ちょっと西洋らしい料理です。
どうぞごゆっくり召し上がってください。

Tom Yum Soup - トムヤムクン - かまきの食事時間#8

すべてのタイ料理は甘さ, 辛さ酸味が需要です。

I walked through the Asian market in Sunnybank the other day, and browsed through the pre-made sauce section for cooking ideas. There, I ended up in the Thai food section, which highlighted the popularity and complexity of making Thai dishes. Thai food is all about spices, with the well-balanced strength of sourness (酸味 [さんみ]), spiciness (辛味[からみ]), and sweetness (甘味[かんみ/あまみ]). However, such combination requires multiple herbs and spices, where its preparation is time consuming for most house-holds. I took up the challenge to see if I can re-create an authentic Thai dish from scratch.

The following is my attempt to make a popular Thai dish, called the Tom Yum Soup (トムヤムクン) [泰式酸辣蝦湯/冬蔭功湯].

Ingredients:

Smoked pork bone - 1 piece

Bacon - 3 slices

Red cod fillet - 1 piece

Prawn - 6 pieces

Lemon - 1 whole

Grape fruit - half

Garlic - 6 cloves

Onion - 1 whole

Spring Onion - 2 sticks

Tomato - 1

Lemongrass - 3 sticks

Thai Basil - as desired

Red chili pepper - 3 (or as desired)

Chicken stock - 500mL

Water

Salt - as desired

1. Pan-fry garlic and diced bacon in the stew pot, then add in the smoked pork bone, spring onion and lemongrass (I wrapped the spring onion and lemongrass together as they were only intended for flavour and not to be served in the dish). Add water and chicken stock. Cook for 10 minutes.

2. Squeeze lemon and grape fruit, then add diced chili (removing its seeds), tomato and onion.

3. Separate the head of the prawns, and add them into the stew. Cook for 60 minutes on low heat.

4. Only add the peeled prawn and fish into the pot about 4-5 minutes prior to serving. I also added diced oyster blade steak to my own liking.

5. Add Thai basil on top, and serve with noodle or rice.

Apple Tart - りんごタルト - かまきの食事時間#7

初めて、お菓子料理を作ってみた。ちょっと心配される。「なんで？」とあなたが尋ねます。美味しくない食べ物を作ることが嫌だなー

Trying to step into pastry food, and to tell you the truth, I am a little nervous. The only two desserts I made are chocolate biscuits and brownies, and they both turned out horrible. So I went on a mission to find something simple. Something that only requires a few ingredients, few steps, and easy to make.

Dessert du jour

Baking requires precision. A mixture without exact measurements will create an unbalanced and distasteful food. Since I don't have any measuring tool to weigh any ingredients, and with the lack of experience in baking, I decided to start with an apple tart (りんごタルト). 

The following is the recipe for apple tart. I got inspired to make this after watching apple dessert recipe challenege from "Gordon Ramsay's F Word".

Ingredients:

Apple - 4

Shortcrust pastry - 1 base

Cinnamon powder - 2 tablespoon

brown sugar - 4 tablespoon

Butter

1. Peel, core, and slice apple. Dice a small portion of the apple for the apple puree.

2. Add the diced apple into a sauce pan, add brown sugar, cinnamon powder and water. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

3. When the diced apple becomes soft, crush them with the back of a spoon or simply use a blender. This is the apple puree.

4. Brush butter onto the baking pan and place the pastry base. 

5. Fold the margin of the pastry into any shapes as desired, along as the apple puree doesn't escape out from the pastry. 

5. Place the apple slices on, and cover the entire puree. I place it in a counter-clock wise direction. Then brush butter on top of the apple slices.

6. Bake for 30-40 minutes on Fan-force 180 degree Celsius.

7. Serve with any additional toppings (such as ice cream) if desired.

りんごタルトを完成！いつも甘いお菓子が好きですが、歯医者の考え方があるのでお菓子を少し食べた。

どうぞごゆっくり召し上がってください。

Miso Ramen - 味噌ラーメン - かまきの食事時間#6

「寿司を作りたい」と思って、でもこしひかりがも食べ終わった。

With shortage of rice in the house, I had to pull out my noodle storage today. Throwing a bit of my love for Japan, I decided to make ramen (ラーメン) for dinner. Ramen is an iconic Japanese dish that can be served with versatility. Various form of ramen noodle requires careful selection of specific thickness of the soup base. It is often said that when eating a bowl of ramen, the soup must be "pulled" with the noodle itself in order to taste the intended texture and flavour of the dish as a whole. With some people calling the "theory of ramen" (ラーメン理論), multiple ramen shops therefore strive to create the most balanced, and perfect, ramen dish.

A commonly used soup base for ramen is miso (味噌). Miso comes in various type, but the most common types are (1) white (白味噌 [しろ]), (2) yellow (信州味噌 [しんしゅう]), (3) red (赤味噌 [あか]), (4) barley (麦味噌 [むぎ]), and (5) soybean (豆味噌  [まめ]); with 白,信州, and 赤 being the most widely used. People living in different part of Japan may tend to use different type of miso, some finds specific miso more suitable for specific dishes. Although I cannot say for sure, but a few of my Japanese friends like 赤味噌 with sashimi (刺し身). I personally like 赤味噌 because of its intense and rustic flavour.

The following is my recipe for miso ramen (味噌ラーメン). Unfortunately, I am unable to make the typical ramen toppings (ラーメントッピング) from scratch.

Ingredients (serving for 4)
Pork belly - 400g
Garlic - 3 cloves
Shallot - 2 sticks
Sliced Onion - 1
Red miso paste - 2 table spoons
Seaweed (わかめ) - as desired 
Dried Skipjack Tuna flakes (鰹節[かつおぶし]) - as desired
Chinese Five spice - 1 table spoon
Ground coriander seed - half table spoon
Chicken stock - 250mL 
Eggs - 1 egg per person if desired
Salt and pepper - as desired

 

1. Season the pork belly by rubbing salt, pepper, diced garlic, Chinese five spice and ground coriander seed on all surfaces.

2. Pan fry garlic and shallot, then place the pork belly with its fat part faced down. Pan-fry until the fat turns golden brown.

3. Remove the pork belly from the pan, and then tie it up into a roll shape with a stick of shallot in the middle.

4. In a stew pan, place in chicken stock, shallot, onion and the residual shallot and garlic from the fry-pan. Place the stringed-up pork belly into the stew pan, and add water until the whole meat is covered. Stew for at least 2 hours.

5. To make the miso soup, add 4 cups of water and bring to boil. Add the miso paste in, and add about a cup of the sauce from the stew for additional flavour. Then add the seaweed and dried skipjack tuna in.

 

6. Slice the pork belly. Don't forget to remove the strings!

 

7. Serve ramen noodle with miso soup, pork belly and any other toppings as desired. I added eggs and a vegetable in this case.

 味噌ラーメンを完成！！
どうぞごゆっくり召し上がってください。