Category Archives: Uncategorized

Easy Beef Stew

1, Heat a pan with a little oil.

2, Fry beef chunks till each side turns slightly golden brown. Add in chopped garlic and onion to stir fry till aromatic.

3, Pour in 1 1/2 cup red wine, bring to boil for around 2 mins.

4, Transfer everything into pressure cooker.

5, Add in potato and carrot chunks together with 2 tbsp tomato sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, star anise, cinnamon, and black pepper.

6, Cook for 30 mins under pressure cooking mode.

7, Transfer everything back to pot. Simmer with low heat.

8, Starch solution will help to reduce and thicken sauce.

Good choice to serve with rice or pasta.

Lettuce with Oyster Sauce

1, Boil a big pot of water.

2, Remove the root of the lettuce and wash them clean.

3, Scald lettuce in boiling water for about 15 seconds. Once the colour gets greener, bring them out.

4, Drain the lettuce and put them in a plate.

5, Heat a pan with 2 tsp oil.

6, Drop in 2 tsp chopped garlic and stir fry till aromatic.

7, Add in 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 2 tsp oyster sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce and 1/2 1 tsp sugar. Mix well.

8, Thicken the sauce with starch solution.

9, Glaze the lettuce with sauce.

TTEOKBOKKI- Spicy Rice Cake

1, Heat a pan with 2 tsp oil. Stir fry chopped garlic (3 or 4 cloves), onion slices (1/2 onion) and green onion slices till aromatic.

2, Add in 1 cup water or stock, 1/3 cup Korean chilli paste, 2 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp light soy sauce. Mix well. If you want the taste to be really spicy, you can also add in chilli flakes.

3, Put in rice cake (around 500 g) and luncheon meat slices. You can also put in fish cake or fish balls if you like.

4, Bring to boil with high heat and then turn to low heat and simmer for about 6 mins. Keep stirring gently to prevent rice cake sticking together.

5, Garnish with green onion and ready to serve.

Pork Ribs & Lotus Root Soup

Ever since we moved to our new house, I have started cooking with gas stove instead of induction, which means I can finally use clay pot.

I really like to make soup with clay pot. I was not a soup person as in my hometown, soup is not included in our food culture. But my husband really likes soup, all kinds of soup. I guess I got influenced by him gradually.

Lotus root is a good choice to make soup and it’s very easy.

1, Soak pork ribs in water for 20-30 mins.

2, Put ribs into clay pot, Add in enough water. Bring to boil and skim the broth.

3, Add in lotus root pieces, black beans (soaked before cooking), red dates, and some peanuts (half crushed).

4, Put the lid on and simmer with low heat for 40 mins.

5, Add in wolf berries and salt and simmer for another 3 mins.

Red dates make the soup taste sweet.

Sweet and Sour Pork Chop

1, Season pork chop with salt and black pepper.

2, Dust pork chop with potato starch. A thin starch layer is enough.

3, Heat a pan, add in oil. Fry pork chop till both sides turn golden brown. And put them aside.

4, Use the same pan, add in a bit extra oil. Fry chopped garlic till aromatic.

5, Add in sweet and sour sauce, I used Lee Kum Kee sweet and sour sauce and 1/4 cup water. Stir evenly.

6, Put pork chop back in the pan. Simmer with low heat for 5 mins. Flip once or two times while cooking.

And ready to serve.

Pizza with Homemade Pizza Sauce

1, In a big bowl, add in flour, yeast, and a bit olive oil. Water in, stir and knead to make a dough. Cover it with a towel and let it rise.

2, Prepare 2 big rotten tomatoes. Cut a cross at the bottom. Put them in a bowl and add in hot water. Let them soak for 2 mins and it will be more easily to peel them.

3, Cut tomatoes into small dices.

4, Heat a pan, add in olive oil.

5, Fry chopped garlic and onion till aromatic.

6, Add tomato dices in, sprinkle salt, black pepper and mixed herbs. Stir fry a bit.

7, Also add in 1 tbs tomato sauce.

8, Turn to low heat and let it simmer till tomatoes are fully cooked.

9, Press the tomato with spatula gently.

10, Keep heating with low heat and let the sauce to reduce till thickened.

11, Preheat oven with 220 degree C.

12, Press the dough into a big flat disc. Brush it with sauce evenly. Sprinkle cheese all over it.

13, Dough into the oven for 10-13 mins.

Persimmon Pancake

Autumn is persimmon season, yet I haven’t tried persimmon before. Last Sunday when my husband and I were shopping in a Chinese supermarket, we found persimmons on the shelf. My husband was also very curious about them. So we bought 1 box of persimmons.

Persimmons taste very sweet but also with a bit astringent. So I was thinking maybe I could use them to make something sweet but at the same time to reduce the astringent taste.

1, Choose soft persimmons. As a Chinese saying goes “挑软柿子捏” which means to pick the soft persimmons as they are rotten and sweeter. But now in Chinese soft persimmon means someone who is a pushover.

2, Put persimmons in a bowl, pour hot water over them. This is to make the peeling process easier.

3, Remove the stem and peel and put persimmons in blender to blend them into paste.

4, In a big bowl, add in persimmon paste. Stir evenly.

5, Add in flour. Keep stirring while adding flour until it can be kneaded into a dough. I actually add in some sticky rice flour, so the ratio is close to sticky rice flour: plain flour= 1:3. No water is needed. I didn’t add in any sugar either, cos the persimmons are sweet enough. As I was going to use red bean paste as the filling, so I didn’t want my pancakes to be too sweet.

6, Let the dough rest for 20 mins. And then divide it into small doughs. My small doughs are about 60-70g, and the red bean paste filling for each one is about 40g.

7, Make dough flat and put the filling in the center. Wrap it up and roll into round shape. Press gentlely.

8, Heat a pan, brush it with oil. Fry the flat dough till both sides turn golden brown.

Beef Pasta

1, cut beef into small cubes, or you can just use beef cubes.

2, heat a pan, drizzle in oil. Fry beef till slightly golden brown.

3, add in chopped garlic and stir fry till aromatic.

4, add in 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp tomato sauce, bayleaves, salt, black pepper and pour into stock covers all ingredients.

5, into high pressure cooker for 15 mins. (cook the pasta at the same time).

6, heat the pan. Cut in 2 tbsp butter. When butter melts, add in 1 1/2 tbsp flour. Quickly mix them.

7, Pour the beef stock into the pan, stir gently. Bring to boil.

8, Add in beef cubes and reduce the sauce.

9, Add in pasta. Season with salt and herbs. Mix everything together and let pasta fully absorb the flavour of beef stock.

Ground Peanut Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup chopped walnut

200g ground peanut

Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

1, Cream butter with sugar till light and creamy.

2, Beat in egg and stir in vanilla.

3, Add in flour, salt and baking soda. Mix till just combined.

4, Add in ground peanut and chopped walnut. You can adjust walnut and ground peanut according to your preference. I used the ground peanut bought from local supermarket. It already contains sugar and some white sesame, so You can add more sugar if you are using plain ground peanut.

5. I put the dough covered into fridge for about 30 mins before baking.

6, Divide dough into smaller ones and arrange on baking tray.

7, Into the oven and bake for 12-15 mins.

Tuna & Vegetable Kimpab (Korean dried seaweed rice roll)

1, Blanch spinach in water for about 30 secs. Drain them and squzze the water out.

2, Stir fry carrot strips till a bit soft.

3, Put cooked rice in a big bowl, season with a little salt and sesame oil.

4, Put bamboo sheet at the bottom layer. Then dried seaweed over it. Rice on the bottom, and arrange carrot, green spinach and canned tuna over rice. Remember to leave 1/4 space of seaweed blank with no rice.

5, Roll it and squeeze hard at the same time till roll to the end.

6, Cut the roll into slices.

Super simple and yummy.