Bibimbap - Mixed Rice with Vegetables

Whenever I travel, I always like to observe what is the eating culture of that particular country. I love to pick up a few cooking tricks or recipes from the locals.  In fact, I find that Korean are very pragmatic. Their regular food is so practical & easy to prepare. Though Korean food is not made with expensive raw material like the Chinese (especially Cantonese food- expensive fish,  abalone, crab, lobsters, expensive sea cucumber..etc). But I still think their food is quite healthy& good. Besides, we do appreciate the simplicity of their cuisine. When I prepare the Bibimbap,  I feel like I am making a very similar Chinese dishes - 擂茶，which is also made with different variety of vegetables.

I will provide the authentic bibimbap recipes here. You will find some of the ingredients I use is slightly different because we use whatever raw material that are available in the fridge. Just be flexible & create your own Bibimbap. You can sneak in some of your family favorite vegetable or etc..... As you can see, my kid favorite fish cake is in her bibimbap. Feel free to adjust the amount of vegetables. There is no hard & fast rules.

Ingredients:

Pre-prepare cooked rice

Handful of bean sprouts

Handful of spinach

1-2 stick of celery

6 pcs of shiitake mushrooms

250g of ground beef or pork

1 carrot

2 eggs with spring onion

Soy sauces

Hot pepper paste  (Korean Gochujang)

Garlic

Sesame seeds

Sesame oil

Vege oil 

** Options my sneak-in ingredients:

Some stir fry fish cakes

Some stir fry onion with pork strips

Some bell pepper

Some cucumber with gochujang

 1) We need to cook all the ingredients separately & arrange on the plate for easy assemble on the later stage.

2) Bean sprouts -cook it in a pot of hot water + pinch of salt for about 2-3 mins. Drain & mix with 1 clove of garlic & sesame oil.
3) Spinach -cook in a pot of hot water + pinch of salt for about 2-3 mins. Drain & mix with a tsp of soy sauce & sesame oil.
4) Celery -stir fry with vegetable oil + garlic in high heat for about 1-2 mins.
5) Mushrooms - Slice it & stir fry with vegetable oil + 2tsp of soy sauce + 1tsp of sugar. Add sesame oil.
6) Ground beef- stir fry ground beef with 2 cloves of garlic +2 tsp soy sauce + 1tsp sugar + black pepper + sesame oil.
This is what I have observed , in Korean kitchen, they add sesame oil to almost any dishes. Sesame oil is a very important ingredients in Korean food.
6) Carrot - stir fry carrot with 1 garlic + vegetable oil.
7) Eggs- pan fry eggs with spring onion & cut into strips.
8) Prepare a bowl of cooked rice. It is the fun time to assemble the bibimbap.

 9) Get everything ready. Prepare a chopstick to arrange the mix vegetables. I find it easier to use chopstick.

10) Assemble the assorted vegetables nicely on top of the rice. Display your proud moment & present it to you guest.

This plate belongs to my 7 years old, she make a big fuss because I spend too much time arranging the vegetables. It was almost 8pm & she is creaming for dinners. She make a big fuss & tell me next time mummy can cook this dishes but mummy need not arrange it so nicely. That's is because she is too hungry.

To enjoy Bibimbap, serve with a bowl of pipping hot seaweed soup. Yummy~

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Classic Butter Tea Cakes with Cherry

Last week, I craved for the Classic Butter Tea Cakes (with cherry). So I decided to make one for our Sunday afternoon tea break. It taste exceptionally good with coffee. This is a very simple & easy recipes, it can be made using electric hand mixer. It is very suitable for beginner in baking. Do give it a try. It is very nostalgic to to bake a butter cake in ring tin. In fact, it was quite popular in the 80s.

Classic Butter Cakes Recipes:
125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
1 tsp vanilla essence
200g glace cherries ( or prune cut into small pcs)
2 cup of all purpose flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 cup of full cream milk

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 175'C.
2) Ready a round 18-20cm ring tin. Use butter to grease the pan. Lay a baking paper at the bottom. It helps to remove the cake easily when the cake is done baking. You can also bake this cake in a loaf pan.

3) Beat butter with sugar until fluffy. It will turn light & creamy.
4) Add eggs one by one until the mixture is well combined.
5) Add cherry in to the mixture. Use a spatula to mix it in.
6) Fold in shifted flour alternately with milk. Can flour divide into 3 portions for easy mixing.
7) Mix until just combined. DO NOT over mix. I notice most of the time, people easily over mix the batter & the cake become tough.
8) Bake for about 30-40 mins until the inserted skewer come out clean. If the skewer come out clean, it means the cake is fully baked to perfection.
9) Let it rest for about 20-30mis, then only remove it from the tin. It tastes best on the day itself.
10) You can keep the classic butter cake in the refrigerator for 1 week or 1 month in the freezer.

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Stir Fry Spaghetti with Olive Oil

This is my another quick & fast recipes to cook up something in the kitchen to fill up three hungry tummies. Yeah~! Stir Fry Spaghetti  with Olive Oil to the rescue. You can consider this a vegan recipes too because it doesn't contain any meat. This is a very delicious stir fry pasta.

Ingredients (2 serving):
200g Spaghetti
3 tbsp good quality Olive Oil
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp chili flakes
Season with Salt & Pepper
Some Basil leaves (slightly cut into thin strips)

Retain some pasta water - 1/4 cup

Some smashed bread crumbs
(optional :you can use croutons, pls refer  -http://fabulouscake.blogspot.com/2011/02/delicious-croutons-for-salad.html. Just smash the croutons in a plastic bag with roller pins)

Method:
1) Cook pasta according to package instructions. Cook less than 1-2 mins or slightly below al-dente because we need to stir fry it later. It will become al-dente after stir fry.
2) Heat olive oil with small fire together with the garlic & chili flakes. Let it soak in the oil to cook for 5 mins, we need to infuse the olive oil with garlic fragrance. Keep an eye on the pan so that it doesn't burn. You just need to brown the garlic.
3) Turn to middle fire, add the smashed bread crumbs, stir fry to 30 seconds, then add in the cooked pasta. Stir fry quickly.
4) If the pasta is too dry, you can add some water  to stir fry it for about 1 mins. In the mean time, season the pasta with salt & pepper, basil.
5) Must serve warm. Enjoy~

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Simple Oriental Pork Chop

If you prefer something light & easy for weekday dinner, this is a good recipes. It is so easy to prepare & my kid love this pork chop so much. It tastes exceptionally good with a bowl of white rice.

You just need to marinate the pork chop one day ahead in the refrigerator. Then, pan fry it until it is thoroughly cooked. Normally, I will do the marinate & get my hubby to pan fry it.

Marinates for 2 servings:
3 pcs of pork chop ( get the butcher to recommend the best cut for pork chop)
2 tsp of light soy sauces
1tsp of sugar
1 tsp of Shao Xin Wine (Chinese cooking wine)
Some pepper
1 tsp of ginger juice (optional)

Method:
1) Marinate overnight in refrigerator. 
2) Heat 1 tbsp of oil in the non stick pan, then lay the pork chop & pan fry it accordingly.
3) It will depend how thick is the pork chop, the thicker the cut, the longer it takes to pan fry it. You will be able to tell when it is cooked by looking at it.
4) Let the pork chop rest for about 20mins before serving because it will keep the pork chop moist.
5) Enjoy~~

My kid love lean meat, therefore I use the lean meat to make those pork chops. Personally, I prefer to use the regular "pork chop" cut that have some fat on it. It tastes better that way. Keep the fat when pan fry it. Discard the fat when serving it.

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How to Gut a Markerel?

A lot of people think that gutting a fish is very difficult. Actually it is not as complicated as you think. Let us show you how to gut a Markerel. Markerel is quite an easy fish to handle if you want to make fish paste especially in oriental cooking. You can get quite a lot of flesh from this fish. It can be made into fish cakes or stuffing.
1st thing 1st, we got to prepare the tools & wash the fish clean with tap water. Use a paper towel to dry it.

2nd- Cut the fins off.

3rd- Slice from the back of the fish.

4th- Slide the fillet knife from head until the tail.

5th- Now, do the same on the fish belly.

6th- Slide the fillet knife from the end of the tail.

7th- Continue to separate the flesh from the fish bone.

This is how it looks like.

8th - Do the same on the other side of the fish

9th - Use a spoon to remove the flesh from the fish bone. This is a very effective way.

10th- It is all done. Left the skin & bone behind.

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