First Attempt making Kimchi Fried Rice!

Hi everyone! Today's recipe is going to be a little spicy, it's Korean Kimchi Fried Rice (김치볶음밥). Without further introduction, let's get into it straight away!

You will need:

(2-4 servings)

3-4 bowls of rice

3/4 bowl of kimchi

1/2 bowl of kimchi juice

2-3 tablespoon of korean red pepper paste

1-2 carrots

cooking oil

mince pork (size of your fist)

soy sauce

sugar 

corn starch

sesame oil

dried seaweed (optional)

eggs (one egg per serving)

Steps:

1. Marinate the mince pork using soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and corn starch. Fry the pork.

2. Dice up the carrots and boil it.

3. Fry the kimchi with some cooking oil in a frying pan. This helps to store the juice within the kimchi, so when you bite into it, it's more juicy.

4. Add in the rice, and kimchi juice, carrots and the mince pork and keep frying.

5. Add in a bit of sesame oil for more fragrance.

6. On a separate frying pan, fry a sunshine egg as a decoration. You may add in some dried seaweed and spring onion as well for decoration.

Tip: if you want to create nice and round shaped egg without the use of a shaping mould, you can cut out a piece of onion and place it in the frying pan and the have your egg inside it. See picture below:

Ice Cream Dessert

Hi! Today is a little different, rather than showing you a main meal dish recipe, this is going to be a quick dessert that even kids can make! I bought some vanilla ice cream the other day and just thought.. having just ice cream is a bit boring, so I just kind of spice it up with what ever I found in my kitchen:) Just like when you have frozen yoghurt in dessert shops where you mix and match toppings, I just did the same but with ice-cream! Taste just as good. Should give this combination a try:)

You will need: 
(1 serving)

Vanilla ice cream
Honey
Bananas

I just add the ingredients randomly, so did not really keep track on the actual amount used. so the measurings mentioned below just the estimated numbers. But really, you can just add whatever you want and adjust the quantity to your preference.


Steps:

1. Cut up some bananas, I used about half a banana for my bowl of ice cream above.
2. Add in about 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream and add in the bananas.
3. Drizzle some honey on top. 

Highly recommend adding in some biscuit crumbs/chunks, it really goes with the dessert, and adds more texture to it. Digestives, oreo and rich tea biscuits are my personal favourite choices of biscuits to add.

Spring Onion and Cheese Bread

It's been exactly a month since I last posted. This recipe I am going to share is something I found online and wanted to try it since it is so easy and simple to make, also, the pictures I saw online looked really attractive and delicious that I can't resist but to try it out myself. This is the outcome:)

Oops, the middle part the bread is gone:P My sister and I were too tempted to try it before we remember to capture some food shots.

You will need:
(2 servings)

A big loaf of hard crust bread
3 strips of spring onions
200g grated mozzarella
3 slices of bacon (I forgot to get bacon this time, but it is definitely more flavoured when there is bacon)

The amount of ingredients are really up to you to adjust, if you want a more meaty bread, add more bacon, and more cheesy if you are a cheese maniac!

Steps:
1. Preheat the open at 250C while you prepare the ingredients.
2. Cut the bread diagonally in both ways to create a grid pattern. Make sure the cuts are deep enough to fit the ingredients in, but do not cut it all the way through that breaks the bread up.
3. Wash the spring onions and cut away the ends of it.
4. Cut up the bacon and spring onions into tiny bits.
5. Add in the ingredients into each gap and add the mozzarella cheese in the end.
6. Place it in the oven at 250C for 20 mins, then take it out and sprinkle more mozzarella cheese on top and then place it in the oven for another 10mins.

Simple eh? These are all super affordable ingredients and this quick recipe is just perfect for lazy days.

You can have it with soup to compensate the slight dryness of the bread.

Excuse the slightly pixelated pictures,
I forgot to charge my camera batteries, so had to use my phone instead.

Korean Style Marinated Chicken!

I got a bit bored with the few chicken dishes I always eat, so I wanted to make something different from what I normally have. With the ingredients I found in my kitchen, here's what I made.

It's a slightly adapted version of the Korean Gochujang Marinated chicken! I found the original recipe online, but I did not have all the ingredients mentioned at home, so I just used something else as an alternative, which turned out just as tasty! Beware: this is a spicy dish!

You will need:

(2 servings)

3-4 chicken thighs

1 tablespoon gochujang (Korean Red Pepper Paste)

half tablespoon golden syrup

some garlic

1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce

1 teaspoon of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil

cooking oil

Steps:

1. Using the back of the knife,pound the chicken to tenderize, then cut the chicken thighs into smaller pieces.

2. Mash up some garlic into small bits.

3. Marinate the chicken with the gochujang, golden syrup, garlic, sweet chili sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil. Massage the ingredients into the chicken and leave it for 15-30 mins.

4. Heat up a pan, add in some cooking oil. Then cook the chicken at low heat. As there is syrup in there, the chicken can burn very easily before it is cooked on the inside if it is on high heat. Put the lid on to retain its flavour.

5. Turn the chicken pieces over when one side is done. 

6. When both sides are cooked, stir fry it so the sauce is thoroughly mixed with the chicken.

I highly recommend to have this with rice, since the chicken is quite strongly flavoured.

Chinese Style BBQ Pork

On Christmas Eve, I tried making the Chinese style BBQ Pork - Char Siu. This was the first time me attempting this, and gladly, it turned out just the way I hoped! Highly recommend anyone to try this at home, I promise, they taste much better when freshly made at home than those you buy in markets in Hong Kong!

You will need:
(4 servings)

3 pieces of pork shoulder steak
4 big spoons Lee Kum Kee Char Siu Sauce
1.5 tsp of soya sauce
3 spoons of honey

Steps:
1. Prepare a baking container, line it with aluminium foil. Reserve extra aluminium foil as you will need extra length of aluminum foil to wrap around the pork steaks. Marinate the meat in there.
2. To marinate the pork, add some soya sauce, massage it and then add in the Char Siu sauce. Continue massaging it so the sauces spreads over the pork evenly. Then wrap the pork steaks with the excess foil.

3. Store in the fridge for at least 4 hours, I left it for one day.
4. Preheat the oven to 200-230C for 10-15 mins.
5. Take out the marinated pork steaks from the fridge and place it in the oven for 50mins. Every 15-20 mins, turn the whole "wrap" over. This is to ensure the sauce inside does not just sit at the bottom, but is spread evenly on the top and bottom.
6. After 50mins, open up your "wrap" and apply a layer of honey the pork steaks. Place the steak back into the oven for 10 mins. You do not need to wrap it up again. At 5 mins, turn the pork steak over and apply honey to the other side.
7. Now that it is ready to serve, slice the char siu into thin slices.

It's great when having cha siu with rice.

Soup for Winter!

In such old weather, a bowl of soup is always something good to have to keep myself warm! Today's soup of the day is..sweet squash soup!

You will need:
(approx. 6 servings)

1/3 squash
3 carrots
1/4 bowl of pearl barley
1/4 bowl of rice beans (red coloured)
LOTS of water! About 5L ( This is just a rough estimate as the water boils off and you will need to keep adding more, so I lose track on how much I added)

Steps:

1. Mixing the rice beans and pearl barley, leaving in a water bath for 1hr.
2. Boil lots of water.
3. Dice up the squash. Peel and dice up the carrots.
4. When the water is boiled, add in all the ingredients. Boil it at full heat.
5. When 1/3 of the water has boiled off, add more water. Repeat this twice.
6. Reduce to medium heat and let it boil while keep tasting it at times to make sure it is too "watery". The soup should be sweet, and should not require sugar.

This soup should require 2-3 hours to make.

Hotdog!

Craving for a hotdog but your nearby hotdog cart is still too far away to walk? Here is a quick and easy recipe for you to make at home yourself to satisfy your craving!

You will need:
1 frankfurter sausage
A slice of processed cheese ( if you prefer a more "cheesy" hotdog, then use more slices:))
Ketchup
1 plain bread roll

Steps:

1. Toast the sausage in a toaster. or fry the sausage with a frying pan.
2. Cut the bread into half, Toast the bread to warm the bread, If you prefer a more crispy bread texture, then toast it for longer until it's golden brown on the white surface.
3.When the bread is still warm, place the cheese in bread so that it can melt. Then place the sausage into the bread roll.
4. Finally, add how ever much ketchup you want. You may add mustard as well!

Ta-da! Just looking at the picture makes me salivate~