Tag: homemade

Recipes

Chickpeas and then some: Cocido Madrileño

After visiting Madrid and discovering the highlights of Spanish traditional cuisine, I naturally felt like trying to reproduce it at home. Following the same idea as the Sardinian hen broth – a dish that is designed to feed a whole family reunited for a weekend meal; and in the same fashion, Cocido delivers several dishes on the table in one go. The richness of the meats and the goodness of the veggies, the comfort of the soup and the flavour of the chickpeas all come together to create a small feast that will fill up your table and stomach and leave you incredibly satisfied on a chilly March day.

Ingredients:
1 chicken of the weight of 2kg max, even better if you can get a small hen
200 g cut of beef for stews
50 g pancetta
150 g piece of bacon
1 small piece of ham bone (which I imported from Spain, but any bone would do)
1 chorizo for cooking
1 morcilla for cooking
200 g chickpeas
1 green cabbage
2 potatoes
2 carrots
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
Paprika
Bay leaves
Salt and pepper

Continue reading “Chickpeas and then some: Cocido Madrileño”

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Japanese_Chicken_Curry
Product Review, Recipes

Japanese chicken curry with S&B Golden Curry sauce mix – a simple recipe

There are a couple of sauces that are good to stock in the food cupboard for a quick and tasty meal, and if you want to cook Japanese curry (aka kare raisu), then S&B Golden Curry sauce mixs are one of my favourites. They are like stock cubes, and come in three strengths: mild, medium hot (as above) and hot. I’m using the medium hot one below, as it seems to provide the best balance for the chicken curry. They’re also stocked in various supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. If they don’t have it in your local store, then you can even buy it on Amazon.

You won’t need to add any other flavourings or spices to the curry – the cubes are all you’ll need. There are clear instructions on the box on how to use the sauce mix, although the cooking times are a bit vague. My favourite to make with the sauce mix is a chicken curry with carrots, potatoes and garden peas (plenty of vitamins)!

The following serves 2-3 people (closer to 3), and you’ll need to cook some rice separately. The total cooking time is around 30 minutes, and the prep is very simple, as you don’t need to slice any of the ingredients into very fine pieces.

Japanese_Chicken_Curry

Ingredients
300-350g of chicken breast fillet
1 large potato
1/2 an onion
1 carrot
1 tbsp of shaoxing rice wine (optional)
150g of garden peas
2 curry cubes

You’ll also need a dash of oil and some water.

Continue reading “Japanese chicken curry with S&B Golden Curry sauce mix – a simple recipe”

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Da_Lu_Mian_Sauce_Noodles
Recipes

Noodles with mince, mushroom and tomato sauce (Da Lu Mian) -a simple Chinese recipe

When I read about a Chinese version of spaghetti bolognese, this recipe came to mind (although unlike Lizzie Mabbott‘s version, it does contain tomatoes). The sauce differs depending on which region you’re from, much like ragù. In general, you’d find it made from a bit of pork, lots of dried shiitake mushrooms and an egg or two. I’m also using wood ears (mu er) and dried lily flower. Tomatoes aren’t 100% necessary, and many versions use a dash of vinegar instead.

In terms of the noodles, you can try different types. I’d go for something as similar as possible to ramen.

This dish is really easy to make, and apart from the soaking for the various dried ingredients, it only takes 15 mins to prep and cook. This version serves 2.

Da_Lu_Mian_Sauce_Noodles

Ingredients
6-7 dried shiitake mushrooms
1 handful dried wood ears
1 handful dried lily flowers
1 tbsp of plain flour
1 tbsp of soya sauce
1 tbsp of shaoxing rice wine
100g minced pork belly
1 tsp of chicken stock powder
Pinch of sugar
1 egg
5-6 mini vine tomatoes (or 2 normal sized tomatoes)
2 servings of ramen noodles
2-3 drops of sesame oil

You’ll also need water and a touch of olive oil/other cooking oil to line the pan. Continue reading “Noodles with mince, mushroom and tomato sauce (Da Lu Mian) -a simple Chinese recipe”

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Pebble_Yuan_Xiao
Recipes

Pebble effect red bean paste rice ball recipe for the Lantern Festival (Yuan Xiao/Tang Yuan)

Now that Chinese New Year is over (happy year of the monkey!), it’s time for arguably the even bigger festival of the year: the Lantern Festival (also known as Yuan Xiao festival). Yuan Xiao are basically fillings wrapped in glutinous rice flour, and the fillings can be anything from minced meat to sesame paste. I’m using red bean paste (azuki bean paste) here. If you want to make the paste from scratch, you can try this anko recipe.

There are two “schools” of making these rice ball dumplings: you can either make the fillings first, then roll them around in the rice flour to coat them in a thick layer of the flour, or you can make the flour into a sort of dumpling skin, then stuff the filling inside.

I usually use the first method, but in order to make these pebble-effect Yuan Xiao, it makes more sense to go for the latter. You can mix different ingredients into the rice flour to create all sorts of colours. I’ve only used cocoa powder and strawberry jam here, as I wanted to make brown and rose-coloured swirls.

Portions of the ingredients are fairly rough again, as is always the case when making dumplings. Please use it as a guide only. This makes roughly 10 “pebbles”.

Pebble_Yuan_Xiao

Ingredients
200-250g glutinous rice flour
2 tbsp of cocoa powder
2 tbsp of strawberry jam
150g red bean paste

You’ll also need water throughout. Continue reading “Pebble effect red bean paste rice ball recipe for the Lantern Festival (Yuan Xiao/Tang Yuan)”

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Espresso_Macarons
Guest Posts, Recipes

Espresso macarons recipe – a guest post

This is a guest post by Isaac from Baken.

Having a bit of a sweet tooth means that I often find myself taking unintended trips down the dessert aisle at my local supermarket. One observation is the increasing number of “healthy” and “wholesome” desserts, but that is not a surprise given our ever increasing health conscious lifestyles. It’s not all gloom and doom for us sugar tooth fairies though!  Luckily, I have noticed one sugar filled product that is becoming more and more common place. The macaron. The internet is littered with recipes, McDonald’s now serve them around the world and even Tesco is selling them at a very reasonable price.

I am all for making food more accessible and offering more choice but having sampled a lot of these I do feel that they are often very one dimensional with an overpowering sweetness. Compared to the more traditional boutique patisseries such as Ladurée and Pierre Hermé, these “mass market” macarons lack the depth and character I want to be able to associate with such a luxury.

That is why I want to share this espresso macaron recipe, the bitterness of the coffee beans balances out the inevitable sweetness of the macaron shells. The espresso infused ganache not only adds yet another layer of complexity to the flavour but also extra texture to help the dark chocolate bond the two halves of the macaron together. Don’t just take my word for it, go see for yourself below!

Let’s get started! For this recipe we will need:

Ingredients
125ml double Cream
200g dark Chocolate (85% cocoa)
20 – 30g freshly ground coffee beans
15ml coffee extract
1g brown food colouring
125g ground almond
200g icing sugar
50g caster sugar
120g egg white
2g cream of tartar (optional) Continue reading “Espresso macarons recipe – a guest post”

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Dumplings_Jiao_Zi
Recipes

Pork and Chinese chives dumplings recipe (jiao zi) – the Northern way

It’s soon to be Chinese New Year, which means making dumplings (jiaozi – similar to gyoza or mandu). It’s more fun making this as a family, but with a few hours to spare over the weekend, it’s perfectly doable on your own.

One thing to note: these are probably bigger than any you’ve had in a shop. The philosophy behind dumpling-making is to have more filling and less skin, so bigger is better. This is also because we eat them by breaking each dumpling in two and dipping the centre in Chinese vinegar, so the size we’re aiming for is basically 2 mouthfuls per dumpling. And yes, that means the fillings are around twice the size of your normal dumpling from the shop.

You can make jiaozi with all sorts of fillings. My favourite is actually pork and fennel fronds, the fronds weren’t in season at the shops, so this version is with Chinese chives (jiu cai, aka kow choi).

The recipe serves 3-4, but only 2 on Chinese New Year! Traditionally, we’d put a coin into one lucky dumpling, but that’s not done here because we wanted all our teeth intact.

This includes instructions for both the fillings and the skin. Some people prefer to buy pre-made frozen dumpling skins, but the frozen skins are not as stretchy, and you’ll need to wet them with some water for them to seal properly. This means you can’t fit as much into the dumplings, and they are also more likely to break when you’re boiling them.

Again, with this type of recipe, the specific amounts are more fluid, so please use the below as a guide only, and hopefully there are enough photos to make this easy to follow.

Dumplings_Jiao_Zi

Ingredients
2 cups of plain flour (300g)
500g of Chinese chives
500g of minced pork with high percentage of fat content
2 teaspoon of five spices powder
2 tablespoons of chopped/marinated garlic
1 teaspoon of soya sauce
A few drops of sesame oil
Salt to taste
1 egg (optional)

You’ll also need water and more flour for dusting. Continue reading “Pork and Chinese chives dumplings recipe (jiao zi) – the Northern way”

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Red_Braised_Pork
Recipes

“Red” braised pork belly recipe (hong shao rou)

Red braised pork belly is a popular dish throughout China, and there are many ways to make it. This is just one of the many, and although the cooking time is quite long, the prep time is only 5 minutes. A specialised version from Hangzhou is Dong Po Rou, and named after the famous artist/poet Su Dongpo.

The pork belly is cooked on very low heat, and you can cook it from 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how soft you want the meat to be – the longer the softer. Cooking it for longer than 1 hour risks the meat going too dry.

This recipe serves 2.

Red_Braised_Pork

Ingredients
400g of pork belly
1 spring onion
30g of sugar
4 slices of ginger
5 star anises
2 tbsps of soya sauce
2 tbsps of shaoxing rice wine

You’ll also need salt to taste, water and a touch of olive oil/other cooking oil. Continue reading ““Red” braised pork belly recipe (hong shao rou)”

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Scallion_pancake_flatbread_recipe
Recipes

Scallion pancakes/flatbread recipe (cong you bing) – a Chinese paratha

Breads don’t always come out of the oven. This simple flatbread/pancake is very popular in China, both as breakfast, an accompaniment and as a snack, and is cooked in a frying pan. Now that the weather is colder, it’s even better straight out of the pan. Many claim that it’s the predecessor of the pizza, and I suppose, looking at how pizza doughs are made, there are similarities. The ingredients are simple: you just need some flour, salt, oil and spring onions (sesame seeds, sesame oil and five spice powder are optional but highly recommended).

The recipe is a lot looser than the others here, because there’s no set amount of oil to use, for example. In order to make it easier to follow, I’ve included more photos than usual.

The pancakes take around 40 minutes to make, but this includes 20 minutes of waiting for the dough to settle. The following recipe makes 2 pancakes.

Scallion_pancake_flatbread_recipe

Ingredients
1 cup of plain white flour (around 150g)
1/2 teaspoon of five spice powder
8-10 baby spring onions
3-4 drops of sesame oil
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

You’ll need water, more flour for dusting, and salt and olive oil at each folding stage. Continue reading “Scallion pancakes/flatbread recipe (cong you bing) – a Chinese paratha”

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Beer Braised Duck
Recipes

Beer braised duck recipe (pi jiu ya)

Legend has it that beer braised duck (also known as beer duck stew) was invented by the Qing dynasty emperor Kangxi. The story goes that he accidentally knocked his sorghum wine into a duck stew, and found that it improved the taste of the dish. Nowadays, the recipe usually uses Tsingtao beer, but most beers work, so you can test it out with your favourite.

In this version, I’m using Lowland Glen from the Harviestoun Brewery because the description mentioned a fruity finish with malty undertones. In the past, I’ve also used Guinness, which gave the duck a heavier taste.

The following recipe will give you quite a spicy version of the dish, so if you prefer a more lightly spiced version, I’d strongly suggest halving the chilli, peppercorns and fennel.

The cooking time is 50 mins (although prep time is super short), and this recipe serves 2. It’s really easy to make – as you can see, there are fewer steps than usual. Ideally, use a wok when you cook this.

Beer Braised Duck

Ingredients
2 duck legs or 1/4 duck
2 star anise
1/2 tsp of fennel seeds
1/2 tsp of Sichuan peppercorns
5-6 dried chilli
1 tbsp of soya sauce
1 bottle of beer (around 330ml)
1 baby spring onion

Oil for frying, and salt to taste. Continue reading “Beer braised duck recipe (pi jiu ya)”

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Chocolate_Salami_Recipe
Recipes

Straight to the heart: Chocolate Salami (salame di cioccolato)

Chocolate salami (salame di cioccolato) is the easiest Christmas dessert there is to make. There isn’t much work involved; even the oven can stay turned off. I usually use the same recipe you can find on Giallo Zafferano, but this time I mixed it up a little with a recipe from the book At Elizabeth David’s Table, where she calls it torrone molle (lit. soft nougat). All you need is 20 minutes of your time and patience, as it is a lot more delicious if made a day before you want to serve it. Despite being so simple, it is always a huge success, and I constantly get guests asking me to have a piece to take home. Consider it if you are out of ideas or time for a dessert for your NYE party, but also keep it in mind for any occasion.

David’s recipe uses the same amount for all the solid ingredients, but I have used a bit less sugar because I don’t like it when chocolate desserts are too sweet. Also, she uses cocoa, and while I much prefer a good dark chocolate bar to melt, it still gives a soft texture.

For up to eight people.

Ingredients:
175g butter
175g dark chocolate
175g ground almonds
100g sugar
175g plain biscuits such as Petit Beurre or Rich Tea (broken into almond-sized pieces)
1 whole egg and 1 yolk

Continue reading “Straight to the heart: Chocolate Salami (salame di cioccolato)”

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