Food Lab Asia

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2010-04-22T16:55:00.000-07:00

So... I've decided to move to Word Press....

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Kimchi (Part 2)

2010-04-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Experiment: Kimchi

Introduction:
My Kimchi is done! Please refer to here for the ingredients and recipe.

Result:

Discussions:

1) It’s finally done! This kimchi has been fermented for 2 weeks. I don’t kow if you can see in the picture, but there’s a bubble between the kimchi and the saran wrap. I read in other blogs that the bubble is a result of the “fermentation.” Anyways… once I open the wrap, wow…. it smelt SOOOOO GOOD! And of course, I tasted it immediately, and it tasted…

2) like Kimchi! hehe! It actually tasted pretty good! The only thing is… it’s a little spicier than the kimchi that I usually have. I think next time I’ll put less chili powder in next time.

3) I used this batch of kimchi to make Chicken and Kimchi Rice bowl. I used this recipe. I substituted chicken with pork, and I used less kimchi (coz Mr. Clam can’t take spicy food that well). It was yummy!

4) I’ll try another batch after I finish this one! Hehe! I’m just so excited!!!!

Japanese style breakfast

2010-04-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

Experiment: Japanese Style Breakfast

Introduction:
Mr. Clam and I went to Marulilu Cafe (Cambie and Broadway) to have lunch yesterday. Well I guess I shouldn’t say lunch because, I actually had JAPANESE STYLE BREAKFAST! I love Japanese style breakfast. Japanese style breakfast usually have raw eggs and natto/tofu, a few of my favorite food! I guess that’s why I love having Japanese style breakfast so much. When I was in Japan, I tried to have Japanese style breakfast everyday (but in reality I couldn’t, because Mr. Clam couldn’t stand it). Here are a few pictures that I took when I was in Japan:

Japanese style breakfast is really easy to make. You just need a bowl of rice, a bowl of soup, an egg, natto or tofu, and then… a dish or two of whatever you like. I decided to have it since I’m still on holiday and I have time to make it. I didn’t use a raw egg because of salmonella… I wish I could ship eggs from Japan!

Materials:
Here’s what I used… but of course you can substitute any of the following dishes with whatever you like.
A pack of seaweed
A pack of natto and a bunch of chopped green onoins
A bowl of miso soup
Sliced pig ears and cabbage
Baked salmon and a piece of lemon and Japanese mayonnaise
Sunnyside up egg
A bowl of rice

Procedure:
1) Open the pack of seaweed.

2) Open the pack of natto. Take away the film on top of the natto, then put the dashi sauce, mustard and green onions into the box, and mix, mix and mix until there’re a looooot of strings.

3) Miso soup – uh… refer to your miso package. For this particular miso soup, I used onion, tofu and green onions. 1 cup of water to 1 tbs miso.

4) Put the sliced pig ears on the left side of a pate, and boiled cabbage on the other side of the plate.

5) Bake the salmon until it’s cooked, then put it on a plate. Put the lemon and mayonnaise on the plate as well.

6) Pan fry a sunny side up egg then put it on a plate.

7) Put rice in a bowl.

Results:

Discussion:

1) Ok it’s actually a lot of food! I was REALLY full after finishing everything. And… Ok even though I said it’s breakfast, I actually had it at night time. Who actually has time to prepare so many things in the morning?

2) The preparation time for this meal isn’t really that long… The thing that actually takes the longest to make is the RICE! Unbelievable.

Kimchi (Part 1)

2010-04-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

Experiment: Kimchi

Introduction:
I saw a few Kimchi recipes on a few blogs a while ago. I never knew that I could make Kimichi at home! So after I saw those recipes, and knowing that the ingredients are quite accessible, I decided to give it a try. I modified the recipe a bit (because I don’t have some ingredients), but hopefully it’ll still taste good!

Materials:
1/2 Korean cabbage (about 500g)
1/2 Korean raddish
1/4 onion, chopped
2 tbs chopped ginger
2 tbs chopped garlic
4 bunches of green onions
4 tbs salt

Kimchi sauce:
6 tbs crushed red pepper (or red pepper powder)
6 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
1/2 tbs sugar
2-3 tbs sesame

Korean Cabbage:

Crushed red pepper:

Procedure:

1) Cut the cabbage into small pieces. (OR just leave the leaves as they are. There are many different ways.)

2) Put the cabbage into a big bowl, sprinkle the salt onto the cabbage. Mix the cabbage and the salt together until the cabbage leaves are soft. I think I left the cabbage in the big bowl for roughly an hour.

3) Wash away the salt from the cabbage leaves. Taste the cabbage leaves (the acutal leaf part) and see if it’s still salty. Keep washing (or soak the cabbage in cold water) the leaves until it’s not salty. And then air dry the cabbage for about 2 hours.

4) While you’re drying the cabbage, it’s time to prepare the other ingredients. Cut the green onions into 2-inches pieces. Cut the Korean raddish in half. Grate half of the radish, and thinly slice the other half of the raddish.

From top left clockwise: chopped onions, chopped ginger, thinly sliced Korean raddish, grated Korean Korean raddish, choped garlic and green onoins

5) Mix all the Kimchi sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Taste it and see if you like it. You can add more crushed red pepper if you like it really spicy.

6) When the cabbage leaves are dry, then you’re ready for the mixing! Simply put all the ingredients in a biiiiiiig bowl, and mix them together. Mix them well! It’ll start to look like kimchi.

7) Put the mixed kimchi in a container.

8) Put saran wrap on top of the kimchi. Cover the lid, then put it in the fridge for 7 days.

Result:
It’s not ready yet! I’ll post it again after 7 days… but… OH! I’ll be out of town… so maybe I’ll post it after I come back… hehe!

Discussion:
1) I didn’t know that the leaves would shrink so much… I think I should’ve used ONE whole cabbage instead of half.
2) I saw in a recipe that you can add shrimp paste in the kimchi sauce as well. Too bad I don’t have it at home! I really like the smell of shrimp paste.

3) You can also add grated apple, thinly sliced cuccumber, and thinly sliced carrots in the kimchi as well… I don’t have it at home. But I’ll definitely try them next time!

Basic Japanese style Hamburger patty (ハンバーグ)

2010-03-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

Experiment: Basic Japanese style Hamburger patty

Introduction:
Hamburger patty is a very common dish in Japan. You can find recipes in many Japanese magazines or books. There’s this recipe book that I have that shows you what can go with you hamburger patties. Well… before I try those fancy recipes, I think I need to make sure that my hamburger patties taste good first. I’ve made it 4 times before… the first and third time tasted well, but the second and forth time were really bad. Not sure why! I guess odd numbers are good for me? Anyways… I tried a simpler recipe this time… and guess what, this 5th time that I make hamburger patties was good! (it’s odd number again though) Hmm… not sure about next time though… hahahaha!
Materials: (make 6 patties)
300 g minced meat (beef or pork or mixed)
1/2 onion, chopped
50g bread crumbs
1 egg
1 clove of garlic, minced
Chopped ginger
1/2 soy sauce
1/2 sake
Black pepper

Procedure:
1) Put the chopped onion, garlic, ginger, bread crumbs and egg in a mixing bowl, and mix well.

2) Put the meat in 1), and add soy sauce, sake and black pepper. Mix well.

3) Divide the mixture in 6. Put a portion in your hand. Make it into a round shape. Throw the patty between your hands to make the air out. (This prevents the hamburger patty from falling apart when you cook it)

4) Put the hamburger patties into the fridge for an hour for the flavour to come out. (Optional step)

5) Pan fry the patties or bake the patties. Depends on what you wanna make.

Result:

Discussions:
1) I use worchester sauce for the patties this time. It tasted well!

2) It’s better to chop the onion REALLY FINE. It’s easier for you to make the patties round. This time I made the onions a bit too big, so it acutally didn’t mix well with the meat… and then I couldn’t make nice round shape patties.

Miso Soup with Clams

2010-03-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

Experiment: Miso Soup with Clams

Introduction:
I have always liked seafood, especially clams. I always see Japanese soup with clams in it, but I had never tried to make it. Since clams is on sale, so I decided to buy 1/2 pound and make this miso soup.
Material: (serve 2)
2 tbs Miso paste
2 cups of water
1/2 lb clams (I bought 8 clams)
2 tbs chopped green onion

Procedure:
1) Soak the clams in water for 30min – 1 hour. Rub the clams against each other.

2) Boil the water. Put the miso paste into the water, and dissolve it.

3) When the miso paste is well dissolved into the water, put the clams in. When the clams open, put the chopped green onion in. It’s ready!

Discussion:
1) I didn’t take many pictures coz I was being lazy…

2) It’s pretty easy to make… the only trouble is to get fresh clams… I usually do grocery shopping once a week… which means I can only have it once a week at most… acutally, can you put the clams in the fridge? Not sure if it’s ok…

Kimchi, pork and mochi okonomiyaki

2010-03-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Kimchi, pork and mochi okonomiyaki

Introduction:
I have always liked okonomiyaki. When I first heard about okonomiyaki few years ago, I knew that people usually use pork or seafood as the main ingredients. I then usually only used pork or seafood (or just cabbage) as the main ingredients, and nothing else. Well, I wasn’t that adventurous back then…

When I went to Osaka, Japan last November, I went to a popular okonomiyaki restaurant. WOW! They had lots of different types of okonomiyaki and I didn’t even THINK of! We ordered a set meal that included the 3 most popular okonomiyaki in that restaurant – house special that included 6 or 8 ingredients, Yamaimo okonomiyaki (okonomiyaki that were made with yamaimo, not flour), and green onion-pork-kimchi okonomiyaki. They were all very delicious! I was so surprised that you could use so many different ingredients for okonomiyaki. After I came back from Japan, I started trying different ingredients in my okonomiyaki. Today, I decided to try a kimchi, pork and mochi combination.

Materials:
1 cup Okonomiyaki powder
1/2 cup water
1 egg
Lots of thinly sliced cabbage
1/4 cup chopped green onion
Thinly sliced pork (put as much as you like)
Chopped kimchi (just put as much as you like)
2 mochi, sliced

Condiments:
Bonito flake
Seaweed flake
Mayonnaise
Okonomiyaki sauce

Procedure:
1) Mix the okonomiyaki powder, water and egg together. Mix it well so that there’s no clump.

2) Put the chopped green onion, cabbage, mochi and kimchi in the batter, and mix well.

3) Heat up a frying pan and put some oil in. Then put the pork in and stir fry a bit. Put the batter in, then mix with the pork.

4) Make the batter into a round shape. Remember not to make it too thick! Turn the heat to medium.

5) When the bottom’s almost ready, i.e., you can flip the okonomiyaki, flip the okonomiyaki.

6) Check if the centre’s cooked, use a chopstick/skewer to poke the centre of the okonomiyaki, if the centre’s dry, it means it cooked.

7) Put the okonomiyaki on a plate, then put the condiments on as you like.

Result:

(Without the condiments)

Discussions:

1) Not sure if it’s because the kimchi has sauce in it, which makes the batter more watery, I find that this okonomiyaki is harder to flip.

2) AND not sure if it’s because of the mochi, which sticks to the pan when melted, it’s not easy to flip the okonomiyaki.

3) It actually tasted VERY GOOD! The mochi makes the okonomiyaki very chewy, the pork is quite crunchy, and the kimchi… I put too much kimchi in this time, Mr. Clam found it a bit spicy… I think I’ll put less kimchi in next time.

4) A few other ingredients that I really like with okonomiyaki are: corn, chopped konnyaku, ekoni mushroom. Give them a try! You’d be surprised! :)

Tofu with thousand year egg (皮蛋豆腐）

2010-03-01T20:33:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Tofu with thousand year egg (皮蛋豆腐）

Introduction:
Few weeks ago, my co-worker brought an thousand year egg to office, and said that she’ll have that and tofu for lunch. I was like, “REALLY? I have always heard about it but never tried it!” At lunch time, she cracked the thousand year egg, sliced it, and put it on top of the tofu. She poured some soy sauce on top… and TaDa! There’s a dish of Tofu with Thousand Year Egg. The whole process took like maybe… 2 minutes? It was so simple, yet it tasted so good. So tonight, I decided to give it a try, and make my own version of it.

Materials:
1 box of soft tofu
1 thousand year egg
Bonito flakes
Sliced red ginger
Soy sauce
Sesame oil

Procedure:
1) Take the tofu out from the package, put it on a plate. Steam it if you like, or you can serve it cold.

2) Crack the thousand year egg, peel it, and slice it. Put it on top of the tofu.

3) Put as much bonito flakes as you like on top of the tofu and thousand year egg.

4) Put some sliced red ginger on top of the bonito flakes.

5) Pour soy sauce on top, then sesame oil. DONE!

Result:

Discussion:

1) In case you’re wondering what a thousand year egg is, it looks like this:

Picture taken from Wikipedia.org

You don’t need to cook the egg. When you crack it open, it looks like a hard boiled egg, except that it’s black. And if you’re lucky enough to get good eggs, the yolk would still be quite liquidy, like a soft boiled egg, as shown in the above picture. OH btw, thousand year eggs are made with duck eggs, not chicken eggs.

2) There are many versions of this dish. Some people like to put coriander instead of bonito flakes, and some like to put chopped green onions on top. Well basically you can put whatever you like on top of the tofu!

Pork and Kimchi Rice Bowl (豚キムチ丼）

2010-02-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Pork and Kimchi Rice Bowl (豚キムチ丼）

Introduction:
Last weekend, Mr. Clam and I went Downtown to watch some Olympic stuff. We went in a restaurant called “Ebi Ten” fo food. There I tried a rice bowl called “Buta-Kim,” and I REALLY LIKED it! When I was eating it, I thought to myself… “It shouldn’t be too hard to make at home…” So I gave it a try tonight.

Material: (serve 2-3)

200g thinly sliced pork
100g kimchi
1/4 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tbs chopped garlic
2 tbs chopped green onion
Oil
Mayonnaise
Egg (optional)

Rice
Small pieces of lettuce

Sauce:
1 tbs mirin
1 tbs sake
1/2 tbs soy sauce
1/4 tbs sesame oil
1/2 tbs brown sugar
Salt

Procedure:
1) Mix all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.

2) Heat up a frying pan, put some oil and chopped garlic in. Then put the onion in. Stir fry until the onion is brown and soft.

3) Put the pork in. When the pork has changes colour, put in 1) and the Kimchi. Stir fry until the pork is well cooked.

4) Now it’s time for the rice. First put the rice a rice bowl, then put some lettuce on top. Ok, now it’s time for the trick – MAYONNAISE! I never thought of putting mayonnaise in a rice bowl until I tried it at Ebi Ten. So remember to put some mayonnaise in your rice bowl! It makes it taste SO much better!

5) Now, if you like eggs like me, you can put a sunny side up egg on your lettuce. If you don’t like eggs, then you can skip this.

6) Of course, now you’ll need the kimchi pork! Just simply put the pork on the lettuce, and green onion on top of the prok. Viola! There’s your Pork and Kimchi rice bowl!

Results:

Without egg:

With sunny side up egg:

Discussions:
1) It was suprisingly good! And the good thing is it doesn’t take long to make! I think from cutting the onion to the finished product, it took me less than 20 mins.

2) I think I’ll start to put mayonnaise on EVERYTHING now coz it tastes so good!

Stir Fry Daikon Cake with XO Sauce

2010-02-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Stir fry Daikon Cake with XO sauce

Introduction:
I tried to make the Daikon Cake again. This time I tried it with Rice Flour:Corn Startch 2:1 ratio, but then... it turned out to be quick firm. Still not the texture I want. BUT! Since this is so firm, it's actually quite good for stir frying. So today I tried stir fry daikon cake with xo sauce - a common dish now in many dim sum restaurants.

Materials:
Daikon cake
A bunch of bean sprout
2 -3 tbs XO sauce (depends on how spicy you like it)
1 tbs of chopped garlic
Chopped green onions
Pepper, salt to taste
Oil

Procedure:
1) Cut the Daikon Cake into cubes.

2) Heat up a frying pan, then some oil, and then add the chopped garlic. When the garlic turns golden brown, put the bean sprouts in and stir fry for a bit.

3) Put the daikon cake in and stir fry with the bean sprout. Then put the XO sauce in. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.

4) When the daikon cake is well cooked, put everyone on a plate and sprinkle grenn onions on top.

5) Time to eat!

Result:

Discussion:

1) Just in case you didn't know what XO sauce is, it's a seafood sauce that's usually made of chilli pepper, dried scallope, dried shrimp etc. It's usually spicy. You can find it in most Asian supermarkets.

2) I think I put too much oil from the XO sauce in... so the whole dish turned out to be quite greasy. Not good.

3) Hmm... About the Daikon Cake I think I'll try a Rice flour:Corn Starch 3:1 ratio... Wish I'll succeed next time!

Inari sushi

2010-02-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Inari sushi

Introduction:
I usually cook noodles on weekend (noodles is quick!), but Mr. Clam complains that I cook too much noodles lately and he wants rice for dinner. I opened the fridge and see what I can make, and I found that I didn’t have a lot of food left. I saw that there’s a pack of aburaage (leftover from the mochi-kin from Oden.) So I decided to make Inari sushi.

Materials:
5 aburaage (Deep fried tofu pocket)
2-3 bowls of rice
White sesame

Sauce:
1 cup of dashi stock
1 tbs soy sauce
1.5 tbs sugar
1 tbs mirin

Procedure:
1) Boil a pot of water. When the water boils, put the aburrage in water and boil for about 2 minutes to get rid of the oil. Then take the aburaage out and drain out the water.

2) Cut the aburaage in half, and open the pocket. Be careful not to tear the pocket. (I tore one… >.<) You’ll then have 10 small pockets.

3) Put all the sauce ingredients in a pot and bring to boil. Put the aburaage in the pot and turn down the heat. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until the sauce is almost gone.

4) Take the aburaage out and drain out the sauce.

5) Mix sesame seeds with rice. I like sesame seeds a lot so I put quite a lot in. Anyways. After you mix the sesame seeds and rice, put the rice into the aburaage pockets (be careful not to tear the pocket here!).

6) It’s READY!

Result:

Discussions:

1) You can put chopped carrots and shitake mushroom in the rice as well so that the inari sushi has more flavour.

2) One piece of inari sushi is actually quite a lot of rice! I was surprised how quick the inari sushi used up my 3 bowls of rice.

Chinese Radish Cake (蘿蔔糕)

2010-02-17T21:52:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Chinese Radish Cake

Introduction:

I saw in my friend’s facebook that she made Radish Cake last year. I was sooo tempted to make it last year, but then… since it involves MANY steps, I was quite reluctant to do it. This year, since I have time in my hands, I decided to give it a try. I’ve done my research – I went to MANY recipe websites. But very interestingly, the flour proportion vary from site to site. In the end… I just randomly put the two types of flour together… in the end… It was too sticky. Hmm… I’ll definitely try it again (when I feel like it). But anyways… here’s what I did…

Materials:
1.5 Chinese white radish (about 800g)
2 shallots
2 dried scallopes, pre-soaked in water

5 dried shitake mushroom, pre-soaked in water

2.5 Chinese sausages
2 tbs Chinese dried shrimp, pre-soaked in water
A bunch of green onion, chopped
Sesame
Rice Flour
Corn Starch
Oyster Sauce
Sake
Grounded white pepper
Oil

Procedure:
1) Cut the shallots, dried scallopes, dried shitake mushroom, Chinese sausages, Chinese dried shrimp in tiny pieces.

2) Shred the radish. When you shred the radish, water will come out. Don’t pour out the water, you’ll need it for later.

3) Heat up the frying pan. Put the Chinese sausage in first, the oil from the sausages will come out. Then put in the shallots, dried scallopes, dried shitake mushroom and dried shrimp. Put this mix in a bowl when everything’s cooked.

4) In the same pan, put in the shredded radish. Fry for a while, and then add in 3), oyster sauce, sake and grounded white pepper, and keep stirring. When the radish becomes half cooked, turn off the heat.

5) In a small bowl, mix the rice flour and corn starch with the radish water. If you don’t have enough radish water, then just use water to substitute. I think I used roughly 500g of flour in total.

Ok this is the part where I had problem. I didn’t know what proportion of the rice flour and corn starch I should use… from lots of websites that I’ve read, I know that I should put more rice flour then the corn starch. So I just randomly mix them in. From the result that I got, I think next time I’ll try:

Rice Flour:Corn Starch
3:1

6) ANYWAYS… after you mix the flour with the radish water (mix it well!), pour it in the frying pan and mix it with the radish. Keep stirring. It’ll become thicker and thicker.

7) Brush oil all over the steaming container. Then put the radish mixture into the container. Then steam it for roughly 30-45 minutes.

8) Use a chopstick or skewer to poke into the center. If the radish cake doesn’t stick onto the chopstick/skewer, it means that it’s cooked.

9) While it’s still hot, sprinkle sesame and chopped green onions on top and let it cool.

10) You can either eat it steamed, or cut it into slices, and pan fry it.

Discussion:

1) Hmm… I acutally do like the taste of this radish cake… the bad thing is that it was toooo sticky, which is not good if you wanna pan fry it. I acutally liked to eat this batch steamed.

2) I cheated and used V-Slicer to “shred” the radish. People told me that the radish slices were too thick. I think I really have to SHRED! (Which means it’ll take me MUCH LONGER!)

3) I’ll defintely try to make it again!!!

Glutinous rice ball with sesame filling 芝麻湯圓

2010-02-13T22:47:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Glutinous rice ball with sesame filling 芝麻湯圓

Introduction:
It’s the Chinese New Year’s Eve today. Usually families gather together and eat glutinous rice balls. I usually buy rice balls in the supermarket, but since I have time this year (this year’s new year’s eve falls on Saturday!), I decided to make it myself.

Materials: (make about 20 glutinous rice balls)
150g glutinous rice flour
100ml warm water
1/4 cup grounded black sesame
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup unsalted butter (or pork lard)

Soup:
1.5 litre water
4-5 slices ginger
3-4 tbs black sugar

Procedure:
Sesame filling:
1) Mix the grounded black sesame and sugar together. Melt the butter, and add in the grounded black sesame and sugar mix. Stir well until it becomes a paste. Add more butter in if the mixture is not sticky, or add more gounded sesame and sugar if the mixture is too wet.

2) Use a small spoon to scoop the sesame filling into small balls, and put them on a plate. Make sure that you leave space between each filling.

3) Put the filling into the fridge for a few hours, so that it becomes harder, and easier to be put into the glutinous rice balls.

Glutinous Rice Ball:
4) When the filling is hard(er), you can start preparing the glutinous rice balls. Slowly pour warm water into the glutinous rice flour, and mix it WITH A SPATULA. Mix it into a dough ball. Pour more water in if the dough ball is too try, or add more flour in if it’s too wet.

5) Separate the dough ball into smaller pieces.

6) Roll the dough intoa small ball, the press ih the centre so that the centre is flat. Then put the sesame filling into the cente, and close the glutinous rice ball. Roll it into a ball again.

7) Boil water, and put the glutinous rice balls in. When the glutinous rice balls are floating, then they’re ready!

Soup:
8 ) Boil the 1.5 litre water. When water boils, put the ginger and black sugar in. Feel free to add more sugar if you like really sweet stuff.

Result:

Discussions:
1) Make sure that you use unsalted butter, otherwise… it’ll be salty and sweet.
2) You can use raw sugar, cane sugar or brown sugar to substitute the black sugar.
3) Apparently using pork lard will make the filling smoothier… but… I think I’ll stick with butter.
4) If you can’t make the 20 glutinous rice balls at once, you can put them into the freezer. Just boil them (without difrosting) when you wanna eat again.

Dace Fish Paste Omelette

2010-02-11T22:05:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Dace fish paste Omelette

Introduction:

Dace fish paste was on sale at T&T this week, so I bought a tub home. I was thinking of making soup with it… but in the end I decided to make this super easy omelette since it’ll take less time.

Materials:
4 Eggs
Dace fish paste
A bunch of coriander

White pepper

Procedure:
1) Panfry the dace fish paste.

2) Take the cooked dace fash paste out from the pan, and then cut the fish paste into small(er) pieces.

3) Wash the coriander, and then chopped it into small pieces.

4) Beat the eggs, and then put the coriander and white pepper in.

5) Put the cut dace fish paste into a frying pan again.

6) Pour the egg mixture on top of the dace fish paste. Use a lid to cover the pan, and turn to low heat. Cook until both sides are cooked.

Result:

Discussions:

1) If you don’t like coriander, you can try using green onions to substitute it. I think that’s how my mom usually make it.

Oden (おでん)

2010-02-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Oden (おでん)

Introduction:
The very first time I had oden was in a convenience store, Lawson, in Tokyo a few years ago. I really liked the oden back then… probably because I was really hungry at that time… A few months when I went to Osaka, I was looking for oden in convenience stores. I thought ALL convenience stores have Oden… but it turned out that, only Lawson carries oden. So when I saw Lawson at Kyoto station, I went in immediately to get oden.

I always thought that you can’t make oden at home (uhh… not sure why but I have the notion that you can’t make food that are sold in convenience store), so I didn’t even bother looking for recipes. Until recently, my co-worker and I were talking about oden. She thinks that we can make oden at home. So I went to

cookpad to look for oden recipes.

It turns out that… it can easily be made at home.

Materials:
(Soup base that I made today)
Dashi stock 5 cups
Soy sauce 1.5 tbs
Mirin 1.5 tbs
Sake 1.5 tbs
Brown sugar 1 tbs
Yuzu powder 1/2 tbs
Japanese mustard to taste

Food items:
Daikon (radish)
Tofu
Various kinds of konnyaku
Various kinds of fish cake
Egg
Mini sausages
Mochi-kin
(Pretty much whatever you like)

Procedure:
1) Peel the daikon skin. Cut into big pieces, rougly 3 cm thick. Boil a pot of rice water, and boil the daikon for 15 minutes. (I saw in a few recipes that you need to boil daikon with rice water. Not sure why. I did put in like a tbs of rice in the pot)

2) For the big black piece of konnyaku, put in boiling water for about a minute or two. Then cut in quater. (I cut into triangles)
3) Boil eggs, then peel the shell off.

4) Put all the soup base ingredients (except for Japanese mustard) into a big pot. Bring to boil, taste the soup, and see if the flavour is good enough for your taste. If it’s not strong enough, add more soy sauce, mirin and sake.
5) Put the daikon, konnyaku and eggs into the pot to boil first, as these 3 items require longer time for the flavor to get in. Let it cook for 30 minutes (at least).

6) Put the remaining food items in the pot. When they’re ready, then your oden is ready!

Result:

Discussion:
1) I find that 30 minutes isn’t quite enough for the daikon. So I’m leaving more daikon in the soup overnight. I’ll try it again tomorrow. I think it should taste better.

2) I thought I have bought Japanese mustard… but it turned out that it was actually ginger paste!!! I didn’t know that it was ginger paste until I squeezed it out. Sigh… (well both mustard and ginger paste packages are yellow… next time I know I should READ instead of just picking a yellow box)

3) I really like the yuzu taste in the soup! I think it’s like the “secret ingredient” for oden. Of course if you have fresh yuzu it’ll even taste better! (I forgot where I read about the Yuzu… I tasted the soup before and after I added the Yuzu. The soup with the yuzu powder tastes definitely more like those in restaurants.)

Steamed Eggplants with Garlic

2010-02-03T20:43:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Steamed Eggplants with garlic

Introduction:
I’ve always liked eggplants. I used to just panfry eggplants and drizzle sesame sauce on top. One day I was talking with my co-worker about eggplants, she told me that she usually steam eggplants with lots of garlic. She said it’s super easy and it tastes very good… Easy and Yummy sound good to me! so I decided to give it a try.
Materials:
Eggplant
Lots of minced garlic
2 tbs chopped green onion
Soy sauce
Sesame oil

Procedure:
1) Cut the eggplant into small pieces. Put them on a plate. Put lots of garlic on top of the eggplants, and steam.
2) Mix soy sauce and sesame oil together.

3) When eggplants are done, put the chopped green onion on top, then pour the soy sauce and sesame oil mix on the eggplants. DONE!

Result:

Discussion:
1) I usually only use this Garlic+Green Onion+Soy Sauce+Sesame oil combination for seafood. When I ate this eggplant… for a moment I thought I was having seafood!
2) Love this easy dish! Very easy and quick and yummy!

Tofu Steak with mushrooms　(豆腐ステーキきのこあん)

2010-02-01T21:51:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Tofu Steak with mushrooms　(豆腐ステーキきのこあん)

Introduction:
I’ve been craving tofu lately. I flipped through my recipe books and found this Tofu Steak with mushrooms. Yay! One dish with 2 of my fave food…

Materials:
1 pack tofu
1 pack enoki mushroom
1 pack maitake mushroom
1 tbs chopped green onion

Sauce:
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs sake
1/2 cup water
1.5 tbs corn starch
Salt, white pepper

Procedure:
1) Cut the tofu into big pieces.

2) Wash the 2 types of mushrooms. Cut the bottom part of the enoki mushroom, then cut the remaining part in half. Cut the maitake mushroom into small pieces.

3) Heat a frying pan. Add oil into pan, and put the tofu in. When one side is done, flip over to the other side. Put the tofu on plates when both sides are golden.

4) In a small pan, stir fry the mushrooms. When the mushrooms are half done, put the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sake and water in. Stir well. Sprinkle salt and white pepper as you like. When the sauce is ready, put the corn starch in. Mix well until sauce is thicken.

5) Put the mushroom sauce on top of the tofu. Sprinkle the green onion on top of the mushroom sauce.

Result:

Discussion:
1) It’s a quick and yummy dish!

2) You can try other types of mushroom as well. I just happend to have enoki mushroom and maitake mushroom at home. By the way, it’s my first time trying maitake mushroom… the texture is like oyster mushroom, but maitake has quite a “woody” taste. Interesting! Definitely will try again (too bad it’s quite expensive… otherwise I’ll buy it more often.)

3) Acutally 1 pack of tofu is not enough for me and Mr. Clam… I think I’ll make 2 packs of tofu!

Chinese soup - Dang Shen, Huai Shan, Lily Bulbs and Dried Longans

2010-01-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Dang Shen, Huai Shan, Lily Bulbs and Dried Longans Soup

Introduction:　 Last night when I was searching for something in the freezer, I saw 2 big chunks of pork by accidents. (I don't know what I have in the freezer... I always find things that surprise mysel) I then realized that I haven't made soup for a while now. So I flipped through a soup recipe book and made this soup.

Materials:

Dang Shen - about 3 sticks, cut into small pieces (top left pic)

Huai Shan - about 8 pieces (bottom right pic)

Lily Bulbs - a handful (top right pic)

Dried Longans - a handful (bottom left pic)

Ginger - 2 to 3 slices

Pork - 2 big chunks

Water - 6 to 8 litres

Procedure:
1) Put the pork in boiling water. Let it boil for 3 to 5 minutes to get rid of the dirty stuff inside the meat. Take the pork out of the pot. Do NOT reuse the water for the soup.
(I don't know if it really gets rid of the dirty stuff, but that's what Hong Kong families do to prepare the meat for soup)
2) Wash all the ingredients
3) Boil water, and then put all the ingredients in. Let it boil for 20 minutes, then turn the heat to medium-low, and boil for 2 hours.

Result:

Discussions:
1) I think it's a pretty good soup. Hmm... acutally I like all kinds of soup. Hahaha! So ok not much for discussion today.

Steamed minced pork with salty egg

2010-01-28T22:14:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Steamed minced pork with salty egg

Introduction:

Another experiment to prove that I can't cook Chinese food.

I made the preserved salty eggs a while ago, and I thought it's time to somehow finish the eggs. I thought, "Maybe I can try to make the steamed minced pork with it." Ok so I gave it a try, and it was a total disaster. The minced pork turned out to be SOOOO hard... I pretty much had to use fork and knife to pick it up instead of using chopsticks.

Sigh... I guess no more Chinese food for a while... >.<

Materials: (Please do NOT follow this unless you want a meat cake)

1 lb extra lean ground pork

4 dried shitake mushrooms

1 salty egg

Marinade:

Soy sauce (as you like)

Brown sugar (as you like)

Sake/wine (as you like)

White pepper (as you like)

Corn starch (as you like)

Procedure:

1) Soak the dried shitake mushrooms until soft (it usually takes about an hour). Cut into small pieces.

2) Mix all the ingredients of the marinade together, then mix it with the ground pork.

3) Mix in the cut mushroom

4) Crack the salty egg

5) Put the salty egg at the centre of the minced pork. Steam it for roughly 10 minutes, or until cooked.

Result:

Discussions:
I talked with my co-worker at work to find out why I totally failed this dish... and here's what she told me:
1) Use half regular ground prok and half lean ground pork. The fat in the pork makes the meat not as hard.
2) Add water when you mix the ground pork with the marinade. Not sure why though.
3) This is from me: 4 dried mushroom is not enough for 1 lb of pork. So next time I'll make it 6.

Conclusion:
Ok I think I'll stay away from cooking Chinese for a while now... I ALWAYS fail... it's sorta frustrating... >.<

Reference:
There's no reference... it's a dish that almost all moms in Hong Kong know how to cook... Fine, my excuse for not able to make it is that 1)I'm not in HK and 2)I'm not a mom!

Zakkushi on Denman

2010-01-25T21:02:00.000-08:00

Mr. Clam and I went Downtown on Saturday, and we walked along Robson Street to look for food. Both of us felt like Asian food that night. For a moment, I was half jokingly telling him that if we couldn't find anything we wanted by Denman street, we'd go to Hon's. Of course, he didn't like that idea. (Nothing wrong with Hon's Wun-Tun, it's just that if we wanna have Chinese food, we'd go somewhere else.) So! We were at the end of Robson and Denman, and we still couldn't find anything we wanted. In the end, he decided to try a restaurant on Denman St. - Zakkushi.

It was our first time at this restaurant. We took a look at the menu... it has LOTS of grilled skewers. It took us a while to decide what to eat. In the end, we ordered:
(sorry the pictures are taken from cell phone, so the quality is not good)

Asahi Black. Mr. Clam it's hard to find in other restaurants.

Assorted Oden:

Ume Shiso Tsukune (Chicken meat balls with ume and shiso leaf):

Omochi maki:

Kushi set:

Chicken Gyoza:

Banana Gyoza:

Mr. Clam and I liked all the dishes!!! I could eat the tofu pocket with mochi (もち巾 in Japanese, not sure what that's called in English) in the Oden dish, which made me SOOOO HAPPY! I was surprised that the plum sauce (ume and shiso) tasted so well with chicken meat! I'm definitely going to buy a bottle of plum sauce now! The mochi was really crunchy on the outside - loved it! Chicken Gyoza... I thought it was just regular gyoza, but it turned out to be chicken wings deboned and then stuffed with chicken meat. Hmm... I"m thinking maybe I'll try it some time (when I'm really bored and have nothing to do). Banana Gyoza... the idea is very new, but to be honest, it's just ok.

We paid about $60 for 2 people, which is not bad for Japanese food downtown. We also knew that they have 2 other stores in Vancouver. I guess we'll try those 2 restaurants later! :)

Preserved Kumquats with Salt

2010-01-24T21:55:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Preserved Kumquats with Salt

Introduction:

I never really liked preserved kumquats when I was young, because... they're REALLY salty. Little did I know that preserved kumquats with salt is actually REALLY good for your throat. When my co-worker decided to make her own preserved kumquats last year, I thought... "Oh maybe I should make my own too!" Yet... when I finally made up my mind to make it, the kumquat season was over. This year when I saw kumquats in a produce store, I bought it right away to make my own preserved kumquats.

Materials:
Kumquats
Salt (I use sea salt)
Glass jar

Procedure:
1) Wash the glass jar and the kumquats, air dry the kumquats.
2) Cover the bottom of the glass jar with salt, then put a few kumquats in.
3) Pour salt over the first layer of kumquats, then put the second layer of kumquats in.
4) Just keep on layering salt and kumquats until you reach the top of the jar. Make sure that the top layer of kumquats is completely covered with salt.
5) Close the lid and put it in a dark and cool place. It'll be ready in a few years. (Yes! A few years!)

Result:

Discussions:

1) I used coarse sea salt and fine sea salt for this jar... Well... it's because I ran out of coarse sea salt! :P But I think you can use either coarse or fine for preserving kumquats. (You can sorta see the difference of the course and fine sea salt in the picture above)
2) You can use table salt for this.
3) People say, "The longer you preserve them, the better they'll be." Apprently there are some 50+ years kumquats out there and they're still edible. But... do you dare try?
4) Keep an eye on the preserved kumquats. My other co-worker made a jar, but then later since the kumquats shrank, and the kumquats were exposed to the air... they molded.

Conclusion:
There's no conclusion yet... since the preserved kumquats won't be ready til a few years later...

Reference:
- I think most Hong Kong families have at least a jar at home... so I'm just trying this out.

Nikujaga (肉じゃが)

2010-01-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Nikujaga (肉じゃが)

Introduction:

Ok technically this dish is not an experiment for me anymore, since I make it quite often. But evertime I make it I could change something. So this time, the new things are: nugget potatoes and beef slices.

Materials:

150g sliced beef

1 big carrot, cut into bite size

12 nugget potatoes

1 white onion, cut into slices

1/4 cup frozen edamame

1 pack konnyaku

1 to 1.5 cups of water

Oil

Sauce:

3 tbs brown sugar

3 tbs soy sauce

2 tbs mirin

2 tbs sake

Procedure:

1) Boil water in a small pot. When water boils, put the konnyaku in, and let it boil for a minute. Turn off the heat and take the konnyaku out. Cut it into small pieces. (Or if you have time, you can curl the konnyaku like I did)

2) Heat up a medium/large frying pan. Put some oil in, then put the onions, beef and konnyaku in. When the beef changes colour, put the carrots and nugget potatoes in. Stir.

3) Put the water in. (water should just be enough to cover the food)

4) Mix the sauce together and pour it into the frying pan.

5) When it boils, turn the heat to medium. Cover the lid and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.

6) Put the edamame in. When the edamame is ready, serve.

Result:

Discussions:

1) It's my first time trying nugget potatoes. I actually like it better than the regular potatoes! :)

2) You can substitue sweet potato with potato, chicken with beef, green peas with edamame... basically, any vegetables that you like!

3) You can add some Dashi Stock powder in as well. I'm thinking next time maybe I'll use Dashi stock instead of water! Not sure how it'll taste though. Will post it up! :)

Conclusion:

It's one of the very first few Japanese dishes that I learned to make. After trying it the first time, Ijust fell in love with it! It's good because it's easy to make and it has lots of veggies in it! Me love eating veggies! :)

Refernce:

Tomato tofu beef soup

2010-01-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Tomato tofu beef soup

Introduction:

I haven't had soup for a while now... mainly because I'm too lazy to prepare the pork or chicken for soup. So today I decided to make a quick soup.

Materials:

4 tomatoes

100g sliced beef

1 pack of tofu

2 eggs

2tbs chopped green onion

2L water

Procedure:

1) Cut up the tomatoes into wedges. Cut the tofu into small cubes.

2) Boil the water. When water boils, put the tomatoes and tofu in. Boil for around 20-30 minutes.

3) Put the beef in and let it boil for a few minutes.

4) Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Stir the soup with a big spoon and then slowly pour the eggs into the pot. Keep stirring while slowly pouring the eggs in.

5) Sprinkle the chopped green onion in. Cover the lid and turn off the heat. Let it sit for 2 minutes. Serve.

Result:

Discussion:

1) You can add salt to taste.

2) I usually don't put beef in... but since beef was on sale... so I added the beef

Conclusion:

It's a quick soup, and it's a good way to cook tomatoes! :P

Bento - Jan 11, 10

2010-01-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

I bring lunch to almost everyday, but I mostly have leftover for lunch. When I have time AND when I feel like it (which is not very often), I make bento boxes.

For today's bento box, I have 6 items. From clockwise from the left, I have potato salad, sausages, tamagoyaki, edamame, cherry tomato and fishballs.

The only new thing that I tried was potato salad. I have some leftover boiled small potatoes, I mashed them, and added 2 chopped crab sticks, mayonaise and black pepper.

The rest of the food? Well, they're mostly in their original form, so I guess I don't have to write too much. :)

Coca-Cola wings

2010-01-09T20:36:00.000-08:00

Experiment: Coca-Cola Wings

Introduction:

I have a big bottle of Coke sitting in my fridge for months... Yeah I know the coke is not good for drinking anymore... so I decided to finish the Coke with cooking. What can I cook with Coke? Chicken wings!

Matierals:
20 chicken wings
Few slices of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
Coca-Cola
Oil

Procedure:
1) Boil a pot of water. When it boils, put a few slices of ginger in, and then put the chicken wings in. When water boils, cover the lid, turn off the heat and let it sit for a minute or two. This step is to get rid of the "frozen taste." Make sure you don't over cook the chicken wings. This step should only make the outside sorta cooked; the inside should still be raw.

2) Put the chicken wings in a bowl of ice water. Let it soak for about 10 minutes. This step makes the chicken wings "crunchier/chewier."

3) Of course, you can skip the above two steps... I someitmes skip them when I'm lazy... anyways! Step 3 is, heat a frying pan. Put some oil in the pan, and then put in the ginger and garlic. Put then chicken wings skin down in the frying pan.

4) When it's half cooked, pour the coke it. Pour in just enough to cover the wings. Bring to boil, then trun to medium heat. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Serve.

Results:

Discussions:
1) You can add a few slices of lemon, and/or green onions as well. It will taste better! :) But of course, if you happen to have no ginger, no garlic, no lemon or green onions at home, just using coke is fine.
2) I like to put the chicken wings skin down in the pan. As you simmer the wings, some black stuff will form, and it'll be stuck on the no-skin side. When you serve the wings skin up, no black stuff is seen and the wings look prettier.
3) You can add some soy sauce to make the wings' colour darker.

Conclusion:
Mr. Clam likes the taste to be richer. I think next time I'll marinate the chicken wings with soy sauce, sugar, black pepper and mirin overnight.

Reference:
Online recipes.
When I was young, I always heard people talking about Coca-Cola Wings, but I had never tasted it before, as my mom never made it. A few years ago while I was thinking of what to cook, this dish came to my mind. I searched for the recipe online and tried making Coca-Cola wings that I had always wanted. I expected it to taste like pop... but actually it tasted just like "sugar chicken wings." Well I heard that there are 8 spoons of sugar in each can of coke.... go figure!

Food Lab Asia

I'm moving...

Kimchi (Part 2)

Japanese style breakfast

Kimchi (Part 1)

Basic Japanese style Hamburger patty (ハンバーグ)

Miso Soup with Clams

Kimchi, pork and mochi okonomiyaki

Tofu with thousand year egg (皮蛋豆腐）

Pork and Kimchi Rice Bowl (豚キムチ丼）

Stir Fry Daikon Cake with XO Sauce

Inari sushi

Chinese Radish Cake (蘿蔔糕)

Glutinous rice ball with sesame filling 芝麻湯圓

Dace Fish Paste Omelette

Oden (おでん)

Steamed Eggplants with Garlic

Tofu Steak with mushrooms (豆腐ステーキきのこあん)

Chinese soup - Dang Shen, Huai Shan, Lily Bulbs and Dried Longans

Steamed minced pork with salty egg

Zakkushi on Denman

Preserved Kumquats with Salt

Nikujaga (肉じゃが)

Tomato tofu beef soup

Bento - Jan 11, 10

Coca-Cola wings

Tofu Steak with mushrooms　(豆腐ステーキきのこあん)