Korean Japchae (Stir Fried Korean Glass Noodles with Vegetables 杂菜炒)

We had Japchae for the 1st time during our trip to Korea. We thought that was very good. As usual we will try to figure out how to cook it at home.  We miss the Korean glass noodles which is very different from the Chinese glass noodles. It was made with potato starch. My hubby loves the texture of these noodles so much. As the Korean wave is very strong in Malaysia & Singapore,  we have these noodles import into this region with reasonable price. It is actually quite easy to cook. This noodles are great for partis as it tastes good even when it served cold. It has a lots of vegetables in it. For the vegetarian versions, just skip the meat & it tastes just as great.

The infamous Korean Glass noodles made from potato starch.

The Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):
350g Dried Korean Glass noodles
6-8 cloves of minced garlic
Light soya sauces
2-3 eggs
Cooking oil
Some water
Salt & Pepper
Sesame oil

Cut everything below in strips: to
Fresh mushrooms
Onion
Carrots
French beans
Green bell pepper
Spring onions
Black wood fungus  (fresh)
300g Meat strips marinated with 1tsp of oyster sauces
Garnish with cucumber strips & sesame seeds (toasted)

Tips: You can throw in any kind of vegetables. Any amounts. As long as it is well season with soya sauces. It  will taste great.
Tips: You can use the Korean soya sauces which will it even more authentic.

I

1) Separated the eggs yolk and eggs white. Fry with vegetable oil, let it cold, cut into strips, set aside.

 

2) Heat oil with mince garlic & fry the french beans & carrots. Season with salt & pepper. Set aside.

 

3) Put a big deep pot with lots of water over the noodles & cook according to the instruction on the packaging. I noticed that different glass noodles with slightly different size has different cooking time. The rule of thumbs, always pick up one noodles from the pots & eat it. This classic grandma method work perfectly well.

4) Drain the cooked noodles & put in into a big bowl, pour some light soya sauces to flavor it. The noodles is very long. Need to cut it with a scissors. I use stainless steel bowl. Mix the noodles with clean hand.

i

5) Heat oil with mince garlic, cook the onion with green bell pepper, season with soya sauces. Just put all the cooked vegetables on top of the noodles.

 

6) Heat oil with mince garlic, cook the meat strips with mushroom & black fungus. Cook this last as it will stain the wok. You don't really wash the wok pan every time when you cook.

 

7) Finally mix in the fresh cucumber. Use clean hand to mix is the fastest way. Season with sesame oil or additional soya sauces if needed.

Serve immediately.

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Garlic Fried Brown Rice with Fresh Mushroom

Fried Brown Rice is always a popular option in local vegetarian restaurant. Today, I am not doing the vegetarian version as I need to please the kids. However, you could omit the roast meat in the recipes if you want a vegan version fried rice. The highlight of this recipes is MUSHROOM & GARLIC. 

Ingredients:

3 bowl of  brown rice (it is ok to replace with white rice)

4 cloves of minced garlic

Handful of varieties fresh mushroom (cut into slices)

200g of roast pork (cut into little cubes -see pics below)

2 stalks of spring onion 

2 tbsp of light soya sauces 

1 tbsp of vegan oyster sauces

2-3 tbsp of water if needed

See Vegan oyster sauces below. It also included the dark caramel soya sauces. 

Method:

1) 1 tbsp of vegetables oil dry with the garlic in small medium fire together with the roast pork.

Do not let the garlic burn as it will taste bitter. Do not leave the non stick wok, keep stir frying.

2) In all the fresh mushroom & continuing stir frying. Add in the oyster sauces.

3) Add in the spring onion & brown rice.Keep on stir frying.

4) Add in the soya sauces,pouring the soya sauce in circular motion over the fried rice over medium high fire.

5) You can add around 2 tbsp of water if you think the fried rice is too dry. 

6) It is best served hot.

For those who are fans Japanese Garlic Fried Rice, you just need to change the recipes slightly:

3 bowl of  round sticky Japanese rice

4-5 cloves of minced garlic

3 stalks of spring onion 

3 tbsp of light soya sauces 

Pinch of salt if needed
2-3 tbsp of water if needed

**Tips: The ratio of water : brown rice is 2:1.

Pre-soak the brown rice 4-6 hours ahead before cooking in the rice cooker.

Let it cool down before frying. Normally, I will cook all the rice in the afternoon, half portion is for lunch consumption & the other half to be kept in the fridge for dinner fried rice.

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ABC Soup - Everyday Simple Vegetables Soup with Ribs

This soup is as easy as ABC. And it is so comforting for the kids. I used to love this simple soup when I was a kid. Guess what, my little ones love it too. It is a simple delicious soup that is full of nutrient for growing up small kids from 1 year old to 18 years old. It is good to eat these vegetable when drinking the soup.

Ingredients for 3 servings:

300-350g of ribs/chicken chunks with skin removed 

2 carrots (cut into thick slices)

1 medium size tomato (quarter)

1 medium size red onion (quarter)

3-4 medium size potato (cut into half)

1200ml plain cool water

Method:
1) Remember to blanch all the ribs with hot boiling water for a min & then wash it clean with running tap water.
2) Chop all vegetables according.
3) In all the ingredients above into a pressure cooker with 1200ml water.
4) Let it boil for 20 mins in the pressure cooker & it is done.

If you do not have a pressure cooker.
1) Just put all the ingredients in a deep pot over the stove & boil with high heat.
2) You will need to increase the water slightly to 1900ml as the water will evaporate while boiling.
3) Once the soup is boil, reduce the heat to the smallest setting & let it simmer in small fire for 2-3 hours.

This soup is best served warm.

Tips: You can also add one pcs of corn into this soup. Chop the corn into 4pcs. The soup will have the sweetness of the corn. Yes, kids love it. Who doesn't love corn?

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Easy Sambal Ikan Bilis ( Spicy Chilies Condiment in Anchovies -Malaysia Style)

As I have promised, I would like to share my Easy Sambal Ikan Bilis. Trust me, this taste as good as the original recipes that start from scratch. Looks yummy?

3 simple Ingredients:

1 tub of store bought Sambal Chili paste

Half bowl of dried anchovies ( rinse with running tap water)

1 medium size red onion 

Pinch of salt & sugar

Method:

1) 3-4 tbsp of vegetable oil, fry the ikan bilis (pre-wash & drained dried anchovies) until crispy.

2) Drain the excess oil with kitchen towel & put aside.

3) 1 tbsp of vegetable oil into the non stick pan, red onion in, brown it with medium fire. By using non stick pan, we reduce the oil needed to cook the sambal ikan bilis.

4) Stir fry for 3-5 mins in medium fire, add in 2-3 table spoon of the sambal paste ( chili paste). You can add more if you think it is not enough. Don't worry, cooking do not need to be so accurate compared to baking.

5) Tips: Need to add pinch of salt & pinch of sugar ( 1-2 tsp). The sugar will caramelize the onion in the sambal & it taste even better. Feel free to adjust it to your liking:

* Add more sambal paste if  you like it hotter

*Add more onion & sugar if you like it sweeter (kids love this)

6) Finally, stir in the fried ikan bilis & let it simmer for a while about 2-3 mins.

Serving recommendation: Taste best with Nasi Lemak & Curry Chicken. Stay tune for the Curry Chicken Recipes.

Thanks to my sister in Singapore, the below recipies was her home science recipes in secondary school.

I think she doesn't even remember this was the recipes she shared with me. I could still remember my late father who was so supportive & he was trying so hard to finish the sambal. Why? My sister double the spiciness of this recipes. 

Here is the traditional Sambal Ikan Bilis if you like to make it from scratch.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp dried anchovies (cleaned & pre-washed)

4ea shallots

1 knob of gingers (sliced thinly)

6 dried chilies

1cm dried belacan ( dried shrimped paste, toasted- optional)

1 stalk of lemon grass

1/2 cup of asam juice (mix some asam paste with water, drain the juice)

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp of sugar

2 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

1) Grind all these ingredients or you can smash it finely using a mortar & pestle- dried chilies, lemongrass, shallots, ginger, belacan.

2) Heat 2 tbsp of oil & fried the anchovies until crispy. Put aside & drained.

3) Then, add in all the no (1) finely grind ingredients, fry until become thick, you can see that the oil is turning into slightly red color & the aromatic smell of spiciness.

4) Add in the asam juice, let it simmer for a while. Add in salt & sugar.

5) Finally, let the mixture simmer & add it the fried anchovies, let the sauces become slightly thicken.

6) Serve the sambal ikan bilis with Nasi Lemak, accompaied with cucumber slices, hard boiled eggs (sliced half), fried peanut. This is a authenthic Malaysian breakfast!

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Nasi Lemak (Malaysia Style)

Nasi Lemak- Malaysian or Singaporean all time favorite. In the Malaysia language; Nasi means Rice; Lemak means Fat. These fat is from the coconut milk. The Nasi Lemak was classified a national dish for Malaysia. It is well loved by almost everyone includes the tourists, be it Japanese, Korean..etc. The Nasi Lemak is usually served with sambal (spicy condiments), crispy ikan bilis (anchovies), fried peanuts, cucumber, curry chicken or spice fried chicken (for those who can't take spicy food). I love Nasi Lemak for breakfast with spicy condiments.But, I can only eat once a week due to its "lemak" is making me fat.

Today I am going to show you how to cook the Nasi Lemak- the "Nasi" or "Rice" only. I will share with you the recipes on others sides dishes in the next post.

Don't worry. It is super easy to cook the Nasi Lemak.

Ingredients (3 servings):
2 cup of white rice (use the cup that come with the rice cooker)
2 cup of coconut milk* (use the cup that come with the rice cooker)
2 slices of ginger (slightly smash it)
2ea of Pandan leaves (tie to a knot)
1 stalk of lemongrass (slightly smash it)- i forgot to put this in.

How to extract coconut milk- The traditional way:
- Buy 1ea of young fresh grated coconut from the wet market, then, add 1 cup/150ml of hot boiling water.
- Let it sit for a while, it is too hot to handle it at this point of time
- Use a clean cloth to wrap up a portion the coconut mixture & squeeze all the liquid out.
- After a round of squeezing, pls check if you have enough of the coconut milk.
- You can add extra hot water to repeat the above steps again to squeeze extra coconut milk.

The modern way:
- Store bought coconut milk in packet. This is easily available in any supermarket.
- It saves time & avoid messy clean up.

Method:
1) Wash the rice & rinse it clean for 3 times.
2) Put all the ingredients in.
3) Let the rice cooker do the work.
4) After half an hour, you will have fluffy Nasi Lemak.

In South East Asia-Nasi Lemak usually serve with Sambal Ikan Bilis (spicy chili paste cooked with anchovies) & Curry Chicken. Enjoy~

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Simple Lady Finger (Okra) Salad

Super simple easy salad for a busy weekday nights. Okra or ladies fingers are surprising one of the super food that have a lots of health benefits. Okra is packed with dietary fibre that helps stabilisation of blood sugar levels by regulation of the rate of absorption of sugar from the digestive tract. The anti-diabetic property of okra is also attributed to its ability of inhibition of enzymes metabolizing carbohydrates, enhancement of production of insulin, regeneration of beta cell of the pancreas and increased secretion of insulin. In short, we shall include okra or lady fingers into our vegetables list. It is a very common vegetables in this Asia Pacific region.

Salads for 2-3 servings:

6-9ea lady fingers or okra (washed & cleaned)

2 tsps Seaweed sauces* (usually made in Taiwan, made in Korea or Japan)

1/2 tsp shallots oil or garlic oil (fried some vegetable oil with slices of shallots or garlic)

Some toasted sesame 

* If  you can't get the seaweed sauce, just replace it with light soya sauces will do.

Method:

1) Boil a pot of boiling hot water & cook the okra for 4-5 mins.

2) Drain & cool with running tap water. Put aside & slice it.

3) Mix the sliced okra with shallot/garlic oil.

4) Season well with the seaweed sauces or light soya sauces.

5) Sprinkles some toasted sesame on top.

6) Serve immediately.

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Happy New Year 2015

Thank you for following this blog. We would like to wish you a very Happy New Year 2015.

We will continue sharing new recipes & master chef tips for cooking /baking. Stay tune.

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