Blog Post & Recipe:
Apple Pork Ribs Soup 苹果猪骨汤
The flavour of this soup really depends on what type or how big the apples are. The original recipe calls for 4 apples but I used 3 instead as the apples I used were quite large and I was afraid that the soup would be too sweet. So remember to adjust accordingly to your taste.
Blog Post & Recipe:
How to make mulled cider
The basic idea of making any mulled drink is to warm the liquor gently with spices. Which spices to use is up to you – nutmeg, star anise and vanilla can be used, though we're going to stick with tradition and use just cloves and cinnamon. Sugar or honey can be added to taste but because of the unusual addition of the very sweet sloe gin in this recipe, you probably won't need it.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Nabeyaki Udon and
Three Mushroom Vegetarian Nabeyaki Udon
So find some loved ones and get yourself into the kitchen to make some nabeyaki udon. This udon has the thick chewy udon noodles and vegetables of the regular nabeyaki udon, but is made with a mushroom stock base. Plus it sports three varieties of mushrooms—shiitake, king trumpet, and enoki mushrooms and cubes of sauteed tofu. If you can’t find some of the mushrooms, substitute your favorites!
Blog Post & Recipe:
Salmon Dill Crepe Recipe Paired with Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand
You can make the crepes ahead of time and store them layered between wax paper in the refrigerator for up to 2 days (or freeze). As well, you can make the salmon mixture ahead of time and just heat before assembling the crepes.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Steaming Large Clams with Dashi & Sake
Then Nobuko, my M-I-L, prepared 2 cups of kombu dashi, adding a pinch of salt to the liquid, and setting aside. She arranged the clams in a dry cast iron skillet, covered the skillet and placed it over high heat. After about 7 or so minutes, the clams opened up.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Chickpea Casserole with Lemon, Herbs & Shallots
This is a meatless vegetarian dish, bright with lemon zest and herbs. It gets finished off with a crunchy, olive oil-drizzled crust of Parmesan and breadcrumbs. It's creamy inside, crisp on top. But it leaves out old-fashioned canned soups and all those heaps of cheese and cream. Instead I use some low-fat yogurt (so tasty and tangy!) and some cottage cheese to bind the casserole together.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Spicy Shoyu Ramen
If you prefer no spicy taste at all for yourself or young children, you can use regular chili bean paste (doubanjiang) and not spicy chili bean paste (la doubanjiang).
Blog Post & Recipe:
Sausage rolls with apricots and whisky-caramelised onions
Anyway, [whisky-caramelised onions are] incredible in these sausage rolls too, together with re-plumped dried apricots and a good pinch of chipotle chilli flakes to play off that smoky thing going on with the whisky. At first I was worried the rolls might be a little on the sweet side with the onions and fruit but god damn if they weren’t just plain sexy.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Nigel Slater's mincemeat pasties and lamb recipes
Chunks of meat are all well and good, but few things beat a whole joint, slowly roasted on the bone until the meat slides away at the slightest prod. Lamb shoulder is arguably the king of such joints. It's tough as old boots, but so perfectly fatty that when sympathetically cooked the fat melts through the meat
Moroccan slow-roasted shoulder of lamb ... Bramley and mincemeat pasties
Blog Post & Recipe:
Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam)
Som Tam is the epitome of the perfect blends of hot, sour, salty, and sweet—the iconic tastes of Thai cuisine.
Blog Post & Recipe:
just back from japan
It’s a tender, silky tofu with a crisp fried coating in a small pool of dashi-based broth. There would be grated ginger, daikon radish, and bonito flakes served on top.
Recipe: agedashi tofu
Blog Post & Recipe:
Mussaman beef curry
The preparation began with a method I’ve never come across before: an initial two hour cooking of the meat with just coconut milk, cinnamon bark and black cardamom, the last of which lent a smoky, almost funky aroma. The fattiness of the coconut milk kept the meat moist, while the liquid reduced and took on a nutty flavour and hue. With about 45 minutes to go, cubed potatoes, fish sauce, tamarind, palm sugar and a curry paste were added.
Article & Recipe:
Marque of excellence
Sweet and sour, hot and cold, this symphony in a shell delivers with magnificent simplicity.
Chaud-froid free-range egg and grissini
Blog Post & Recipe:
Dorayaki (Japanese Red Bean Pancake)
Today’s dessert Dorayaki is best described as a dessert sandwich with red bean filling between two slices of pancake.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Dawood Basha - Lebanese meatballs in tomato sauce
This dish gets its name from the Ottoman pasha Dawood who governed Lebanon in the 18th century. The dish is easy to make, tender, melt-in-your-mouth meatballs with a simple tomato sauce over rice, is irresistibly good.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Pickled Cabbage Rolls with Mushroom and Brown Rice Stuffing
This is the vegan version of the Romanian traditional dish "sarmale" which usually contains ground pork/beef meat.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Beetroot cake with cream cheese frosting
The recipe is based on Joanne Chang’s classic carrot cake recipe from Flour. If you don’t like beetroot, make it with carrot, and be sure to make it in your favourite baking pan.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Chicken Katsu Don
My mom always make Chicken Katsu with chicken tenders so that’s how I make it, but you can use chicken breasts or thighs. If you use chicken breasts, make sure to cut each piece thin so it will cook faster ... Even though you don’t like deep frying, shallow deep frying is less scary and the easiest way to deep fry.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Recipe Comix: The Updated Noonday Reviver
Our cast of characters / this time / consists of gin, stout and espresso.
Recipe:
Pumpkin Spice Latte
Heat the pumpkin, sugar, and spices over medium heat for a few minutes, then add the milk and whisk until smooth and blended. Heat until the milk is simmering, then either pour into mugs, or, if you’re super fancy, blend for a few minutes until frothy.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima Style
Recipes for okonomiyaki vary from region to region in Japan and there are two main styles of okonimiyaki the Osaka style where all of the ingredients are mixed up into a batter and cooked and the Hiroshima style where the ingredients are layered as the pancake cooks.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Yaki Onigiri
Some say that it’s the Japanese equivalent of a sandwich, well if that’s the case then the grilled version, yaki onigiri must be the equivalent of a toasted sandwich.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Recipe: Wild Rice Burgers
The chewy texture of wild rice really lends itself to a burger, and we rounded out the nutty flavor with some sharp Asiago cheese and a hint of spice. To hold the burgers together, we used breadcrumbs and eggs.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Basic taco meat mix
It’s hard to believe that I have never posted this really basic basic, but looking though my archives I have not. So here it is, a ‘taco meat’ mix that I make all the time in some quantity, freezing in portions. It can be used in tacos of course, as well as a sort of Western-tasting soboro to top rice. Try it in pita bread pockets too. I try to get as many vegetables as I can into the mix, making it almost an all-in-one type of recipe.
Blog Post & Recipe:
the chicken and egg situation
Its sinister translation literally means ’mother and child’ although we would prefer to describe it as simply chicken and egg on rice. There are many variations of this dish, this is an adaptation on the one we serve at Bincho
Blog Post & Recipe:
Braised Rabbit with Prunes
Rabbit cooked with prunes is a classic French dish, known there as "lapin aux pruneaux". In this version we sear the rabbit pieces first in a little olive oil and butter, and then braise them in white wine with shallots, garlic, thyme, and prunes.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Baccalà Mantecato
Upon further query it turned out to be salt cod, whipped up into a spread and gobsmackingly good. So smooth and creamy it was that I could have sworn it had some potato in, but part-owner Russell Norman told us no, it just requires emulsifying the cod with oil to make a smooth paste; labour-intensive but ultimately worth it..
Blog Post & Recipe:
seeing red
A traditional accompaniment is sliced cabbage and since you soak it in water for about an hour, it’s advised that you start with that step first. Once you get the cabbage soaking, break out the pork loin! Well, I used pork loin chops. You just need pork loin chops, salt, pepper, an egg, flour, and panko (flaky Japanese bread crumbs – flaky as in texture, not in terms of reliability). And oil for frying.
Tonkatsu (Japanese Pork Cutlet)
Blog Post & Recipe:
Look no further roast chicken
Until I came upon Thomas Keller technique for perfect and comforting roast chicken; his philosophy is pretty simple, straightforward and 100% foolproof: the drier the meat, the crispier the skin, the better the roast chicken. All he does is pat dry the chicken with paper towel, season it inside and out with salt and pepper and roast it in a heavy skillet for almost an hour without basting or disturbing until crispy and irresistible.
Spice rubbed roast chicken
Blog Post & Recipe:
Tomato and cucumber salad with cornbread croutons
But the final piece of the dish—the cornbread croutons—ended up being a bit trickier. On my first attempt, I added them when the salad was marinating, but they soon turned to mush. After some experimenting, I learned the best way for them to stay solid was to add them right before serving. The cornbread croutons will still soak up some of the dressing, but they take on the bright fire of the jalapeños, which is always a welcome thing.
Recipe:
Stir Fried Dried Cuttlefish (Ojinguh Chae Bokkeum)
A staple side dish in most Korean kitchens and lunchboxes. Takes less than 5 minutes to make and will stay good for a long time. Adjust the amount of red chili paste and sugar depending on how spicy and sweet you like it.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Takuwan-Japanese Daikon Sweet Pickles
Making the takuwan yellow comes from the artisan method or old fashioned method of making takuwan in Japan, this longer method can be seen on Takuan/Japanese Pickled Daikon: Basic Recipe by the Shizuoka Gourmet. Mrs. Miyake's recipe is sweet and takes a lot less time.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Pok, pok, pok… Somtam!
Somtam comes in many variations depending on the region and personal preferences. In Isaan, or northeastern Thailand, where somtam is often called tam bak hung, plaa raa (fermented fish sauce)—no problem for me in small doses but often an acquired taste for many others—is often added in a papaya salad. The central Thai version often sees the addition of items such as salted egg, grilled pork collar or plaa haeng (ikan bilis, or dried anchovies).
Blog Post & Recipe:
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
This combination of lemons, raspberries, and blueberries with some ricotta cheese for tang will have you making this batter again and again. You could even make the batter the night before, and that beats a pancake mix any day.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Recipe: Autumn Udon with Vegetables
Tara shared with us a recipe from the book that's perfect for fall: a simple udon noodle served with shredded carrots, spinach and shiitake mushrooms. Like much of Japanese cooking, the beauty and taste lies in the simplicity of the recipe.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Poulet Antiboise
I was reading The Financial Times and came across this Elizabeth David’s recipe recited by Rowley Leigh, the in-house cook ... Despite the short list of ingredients, this dish was nothing like I’d tasted before. The onion cooked down to something sweet. The olives were salty shrapnels which went very well with the rather neutral chicken.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Lamb Burger | Bifteki Arniou
This dish came about when we were looking for a Greek “hamburger” with the flavors of Cypriot cuisine.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Pesto Eggplant Rollatine
Slices of eggplant are brushed with garlic oil, roasted, then filled with a concoction of cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, pesto, and spinach. Like a little Italian explosion in your mouth.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Homemade Furikake |Japanese Rice Seasoning
So what is it exactly? In it’s basic form -the form I’m giving you today- it is toasted sesame seeds, sea salt, nori, bonito flakes** and an optional pinch of sugar ... Furikake: the salt and pepper of Japan.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Agedashi Tofu
A couple months ago I shared my non-traditional Agedashi Tofu. Instead of deep fried tofu served in the traditional dashi broth, it was served deep fried with homemade teriyaki sauce. Recently one of my readers asked me to share the traditional Agedashi Tofu recipe so here it goes.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Vietnamese Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Cham)
One important element of Vietnamese cuisine is nuoc cham or a Vietnamese dipping sauce. Nuoc cham is a fish sauce based dipping sauce that deftly balances sweet, salty and sour aspects and it is really easy to make at home. The basic recipe includes fish sauce, water, sugar and lime juice and chilies and garlic are often added as well.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Uighur Nan [
via]
It's different from Indian Naan. It's a flatbread, cooked in a Tandoor oven, but it is pricked all over by an instrument called a durtlik before baking, both to keep the bread from puffing up, and as a decorative measure. It's also seasoned lightly with cumin and sea salt, although rosemary is very nice too. It's basically pizza dough without the oil, and it's made the same way.
Blog Post & Recipe:
plum & vanilla jam
Ever since I made this luscious Cherry & Vanilla Jam, I realised vanilla is the most wonderful thing you can add to jam.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Mapo Tofu Ramen (Mabo Ramen)
So here’s my version, which involved slightly tweaking my mapo tofu recipe to accommodate the addition of chicken broth and noodles. It’s not quite as thick as the version I had in Yokohama, but you can certainly change that by doubling or tripling the cornstarch-mixed-with-water amount.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Gruyere Bacon Leek and Sun Dried Tomato Spätzle
Spätzle is made from flour, eggs, water, and salt. Comparing it to Italian pasta, the spätzle dough is moister and softer, like a thick runny cake batter. The dough therefore cannot be rolled out as is the case with Italian pasta dough. Instead a special spätzle-press or a spätzle sieve is needed to form the spätzle noodles, which are then dropped into boiling water. The classic way to form these noodles however is to spread the dough over a wet wooden cutting-board and cut thin strips of dough with a knife, scraping the strips into boiling salt water.
Article & Recipes:
Marrying Mexican and Armenian cuisine
Armenians, just like Mexicans, love the comingling of sweet and sour and spicy and mild; they love strong flavors like lamb and garlic.
Stuffed grape leaves ... Pilaf with topping ... Carne asada ... Jocoque dip
Blog Post & Recipe:
Unagi Kabayaki [
via]
If you like Japanese food, and have had unagi kobayaki--broiled eel--at Japanese restaurants, you will be surprised at how easy it is to make at home. When I was making this dish, I thought of my nephew Tyler. He really likes unagi. I thought, 'How can Ty make this at his house in Oregon?' Simple. Just like my grandfather did--in a pan on top of the stove.
Blog Post & Recipe:
roasted peppers with capers and mozzarella
I will turn on the oven for one thing, and that is to roast my peppers for the better part of an hour. I prefer this over blistering them on the stove, which makes them easy to peel but not supple and sweetly cooked as they get in the oven. After peeling their skin and cutting them into strips, I let them sit overnight in some salt, pepper, garlic and red wine vinegar which punched up their flavor a bit.
Blog Post:
Bleu de Gex
I said to her; “What is the one cheese you would tell someone from the United States that they absolutely should try while in France, which is not available in America?”
Not missing a beat, she said; “Bleu de Gex.”
Blog Post & Recipe:
Indian Omelet
Anyone who has experienced a train trip in India, would easily remember the little stalls flipping innumerable omelets in one huge skillet, quickly and efficiently. These are then sold wrapped in foils at the train windows.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Homemade Chashu Miso Ramen
Cooking ramen requires fast pace, especially after noodles are cooked. Overcooked noodle completely ruins the right ramen experience so make sure EVERYTHING, including your table setting, is ready before you start cooking noodles. It’s a serious matter.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Making Gyoza Skins [
via]
One of my favourite things to make that I can freeze and eat it with soup, rice and noodles - would be gyoza or potstickers also plainly known as 'dumplings'.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Vegetarian Nihari (Spicy Tofu Recipe) [
via]
One of my most favorite Indian dishes is nihari. It's a goat (or any other meat) stew dish. It's spicy, flavorful and the meat is extremely tender. I love dipping naans (flat Indian bread) in the sauce. But I always end up feeling so bad when I see my husband Lulu, who is a vegetarian, staring at me. So this time, I also made a tofu version using the same gravy sauce.
Blog Post & Recipes:
Breakfast Club #11 Vegetarian Savoury - the round up
The event is here to remind us that breakfast should be about more than toast and tea or cereal and coffee.
Savoury breakfast wraps ... Cheese and chive pancakes ... Cheesy Courgette Breakfast Scones ... Baby Egg Pies ... Bread Rolls ... Savoury Oatmeal with Soy Sauce and Nutritional Yeast ... Moong Dhal Dosa ... Tofu Scramble ... Pea and Sun-Dried Tomato Porridge ... Breakfast with Oats ... Goats Cheese and Rosemary Muffins ... Savory Muffins with Herbs, Oven-Dried Tomatoes and Green Onions ... Black Buckwheat Waffles with Mushroom Gravy ... Breakfast "Sausage" Patties ... Chive Scrambled Eggs with Goats Cheese ... Dippy Eggs and Asparagus Soldiers ... Thalipeeth - Multigrain Indian flatbread/ Crepe ... Spinach and Brie Sourdough
Blog Post & Recipe:
Mushroom Udon Noodles
I love thick, chewy udon noodles and the two kinds of mushrooms add another layer of chew to the dish. They are lightly seasoned with ginger, garlic, soy and sesame.
Blog Post & Video:
Video: Atsushi's Way to Wash Rice Perfectly
Grains of rice need to absorb just the right amount of moisture before cooking so they can steam properly (humidity is how heat travels in foods) -- so washing the rice is key.
Blog Post & Recipe:
Soto Medan
The soup is simple coconut milk-based soup, cook with spice paste and serve with condiments. Spices used that gives it the vibrant yellowish hue is fresh turmeric root paste. Almost all of fresh and dried spices found and grown in our region is used in the soup. The condiments are shredded chicken meat, bean sprouts, glass noodles and perkedel (potato patties). The soup is served warm with all these, sprinkled with shallot flakes, chopped spring onions and Chinese celery and liberally dosed with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce).
