Hijiki & Ginger Rice

 I made flavored rice to serve with spring rolls and would like to share the recipe.  Hijiki is a kind of sea vegetable traditionally consumed in Japan, which is very rich in essential minerals and fiber.  You can find it in Macrobiotic or Asian food store but it's usually dried so you will have to rehydrate before using.  I love making Onigiris (rice balls) with leftover rice (if we get some)!

Ingredients (serves 4-6)
3 cups rice
3 1/2 cups water
2 medium carrots
30g ginger
10g (dried) Hijiki
1 tsp. Dashi powder
1 tbsp. sake
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. salt 

Directions
1. Slice carrots and ginger very thinly.  Rehydrate Hijiki in water for 30 min. 
2. Wash rice and place in rice cooker/pot with water.
3. Add carrots, ginger, Hijiki (cut if it's too long), Dashi powder, sake, soy sauce and salt.
4. Cook in a rice cooker or pot as usual.

Spring Rolls

 Chinese food and their cooking style is very much incorporated to every day meals in Japan and spring rolls are definitely one of my favorites since childhood.  Well, they are deep fried and time consuming so I don't make them so often though.  The basic is with pork but many varieties exist, from vegetarian to shrimp&avocado!!  They do freeze very well after frying and cooled.   

Ingredients (about 30-35 spring rolls)
500g ground pork
100g(dry) vermicelli
300g canned bamboo shoots
2-3 dried shiitake
50g ginger
3-4 stalks of spring onion
2 medium carrots
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. Chinese chicken stock powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tbsp. corn starch

1/3 cup water

30-35 spring roll wrapper

2 tbsp. corn starch/flour & 1/2 cup water as "glue"

vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1. Soak both dried shiitake and vermicelli in a plenty of hot water for 30 min. Chop softened shiitake, vermicelli, bamboo shoots, ginger carrots and spring onion finely.

2. Heat vegetable oil in a large wok and fry ginger and spring onion for 2-3 min.  Add pork and cook until the color changes.  Then add shiitake, bamboo shoots and vermicelli.  Season with chicken powder, salt&pepper, drizzle sesame oil and cook for another 2-3 min.  Dissolve corn starch in water and pour over the wok to thicken the filling.  Turn off the heat and cool to room temperature.

3. Wrap filling. (See the sequence of photos below.)  Place wrapper diagonal and place 1-2 tbsp. filling near bottom.  Fold over the bottom corner, then both sides.  Roll up towards the end and seal the end with starch glue.  

* Try to wrap as tight as possible in order not to leave any air pocket!!  

4. Heat vegetable oil to 180°C/350°F and fry the rolls until golden brown. 

-Jun. 18 grocery shopping € 16.57/ € 157.55 left

Croquetas de Bacalao

 I probably haven't been off my cooking duty like last two weeks since I moved to Germany.  We've been too busy going out to bars, restaurants, friend's place to watch World Cup games and never had proper meal at home.  How weired it feels to have an empty fridge!  Well, the exception was for Mexico VS Brazil game night; salt cod croquettes.  This Spanish pinchos can be served with Aioli sauce or tomato sauce and makes a perfect snack for a sports night.

Ingredients (makes about 30 small bolls)

250g bacalao/salt cod (desalted and boiled)
50g butter
1/4 cup and 2 tbsp. flour
700ml milk

1/2 cup flour
1-2 eggs
Panko/bread crumbs
olive oil for frying

Directions

1. Melt butter in a skillet and cook bacalao.
2. Add flour and cook for 3-4 min.
3. Then add milk gradually just like making Bechamel sauce.  Turn off the heat and cool to room temperature. 
4. Prepare flour, beaten eggs and bread crumbs in separate bowls/baking pans.  Make small bolls of cod mixture.  Dust them with flour, dip in eggs and coat with bread crumbs.
5. Deep fry in olive oil at 180°C/350°F  until golden brown.  

-Jun. 12 grocery shopping € 11.64/ € 189.59 left
-Jun. 14 grocery shopping € 15.47/ € 174.12 left

Chilaquiles

What Mexicans love for breakfast?  Chilaquiles.  With home made salsa and corn tortillas, it's 5-minute express dish.  Some make it with beans, other do with chicken, but my husband's recipe is simple with cheese only.  I made Ancho chili peppers (dried poblano peppers) salsa for sweet and smoky flavor but it's totally fun to experiment on different salsas each time and create your original Chilaquiles!   With small salad on the side trying to offset the guilty pleasure...

Ingredients
 ...<for salsa>
2 1/2 cups water
5 small tomatoes
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
5-6 dried chile de arbol
3 dried Ancho chili peppers
1 tbsp. chicken stock powder
1 tsp. salt

 ...<for Chilaquiles and toppings>
1 cup shredded cheese (Corby jack, cheddar or Gouda)
a bag of tortilla chips (of course you can use leftover corn tortillas, cut and fried)
avocado
sour cream
refired beans

Directions
1. Make salsa.  In a pot, put water, tomatoes, onion, garlic, deveined and seeded chilis cook for about 20 min.
2. In a blender, blend 1 together with cooking water until smooth.
3. Heat oil in a pot and add salsa, season with chicken stock powder and salt.  Cook for 10 min. stirring constantly.
4. Make Chilaquiles.  Put tortilla chips/fried corn tortillas, salsa and cheese in a pan.  Heat and mix for 4-5 min.  Serve with sour cream, avocado slices and refried beans if you like.

-Jun. 11 grocery shopping € 15.59/ € 201.23 left

Pollo con Mole Verde

 Every time I go to Mexico, I always come home with a suitcase full of food; dried chili peppers, jars of salsas and Mole, packs of juice mix powder and etc.  I bought this green Mole paste last Christmas and it's been sitting on my grocery shelf.  Mole with chocolate/cacao is well known, but this Mole Verde is my favorite.  The key ingredients is pumpkin seeds (pepitas), which gives nutty flavor to the sauce.  Living in Germany where I can't obtain certain ingredients like epazote or serrano peppers, it's not easy to make good sauce from scratch but this little jar can make the magic happen to recreate the exact taste like in Mexico!

Ingredients
a jar (about 200g/7oz) of Mole Verde
1.2kg/2.5lbs chicken thigh
a small onion
2 cloves of garlic
a bay leaf
5-6 whole black peppers
2 tsp. salt

Directions
1. In a large pot, cook chicken with onion, garlic, bay leaf, black peppers and salt for about 30 min.
2. Drain the chicken and and reserve the stock .
3. Dissolve Mole paste with 5-6cups of chicken stock in a pot and bring to boil.  Put the chicken thighs back in and cook for another 4-5 min. over low heat.

-Jun. 10 grocery shopping € 11.21/ € 216.82 left

Gratin Dauphinois

 Another favorite of my husband, Gratin Dauphinois.  I had it for the first time at our French friend's place and I immediately asked for the recipe.  This easy version requires very few ingredients and time so it's become a usual dish for when I have to use up potatoes!!  You can sprinkle Pamiggiano or Gruyere cheese on top if you like.

Ingredients
500g/1.1lbs potatoes
1 cup creme fraiche
garlic powder
salt
1 tbsp. butter

Directions
1. Peel and slice potatoes to the thickness of a coin.
2. Spread butter on the bottom of the casserole and lay potato slices, slightly overlapping one and another.
3. Spread 2 spoonful of creme fraiche over the first layer of potatoes, sprinkle some salt and garlic powder.
4. Layer potatoes, creme fraiche, galic powder and salt until you use up all the ingredients and bake at 160°C/320°F for 1 hour and 10 min.

-Jun. 4 grocery shopping € 1.99/ € 232.81 left

Zurek

Zurek is a polish soup using soured rye flour.  When we visited our friend Marek there, I was amazed at how delicious Polish soups were, and the best one was this Zurek.  I got a big jar of soured rye (zur/kwas) from Marek's mom and it had been sitting in my fridge for 2 months.  It was time for Zurek!!   I added potatoes, carrots and white beans on the second day in order to change the taste.

Ingredients
400ml Zur
6 cups water/vegetable broth (I used water with vegetable broth powder)
200g pork belly (chopped)
200g ham
salt&pepper

hard boiled egg
farmer's cheese (I used Greek goat cheese instead)

Directions
1. Cut pork belly and ham into small dice.  
2. Fry 1 in a large pot for 4-5 min.  Add water/vegetable broth and bring to boil. 
3. Add zur/zurek and simmer for 2-3 min.
4. Serve with hard boiled egg and cheese. 

-Jun. 3 grocery shopping € 7.55/ € 234.80 left

Garlic Shrimp

 This is a dish I definitely need some improvement on.  It tastes good as it is, but there is a specific taste I'm looking for; Kahuku garlic shrimp from Hawaii.  There are several famous food trucks around the North Shore area and I tried one of them (don't remember which) on family vacation about 8 years ago.  I fell in love with their literally finger-lickin' good shrimps!!  I guess garlic, butter and soy sauce are key ingredients but the recipe to get Kahuku-level of wowness is still under experiment.  Here is my latest version of garlic shrimp just for the reference.

Ingredients (serves 4)
500g shrimp/prawn (preferably with shell)
5-6 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. sake
1 tbsp. soy sauce
salt&pepper
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 tbsp. butter

steamed rice

Directions
1. Clean and devein shrimp leaving the shell.  Chop garlic finely.
2. Marinate shrimp with sake, soy sauce and salt&pepper and half of the garlic in a Ziploc for 2-3 hrs. in fridge.
3. Combine flour and cayenne pepper.  Coat shrimp lightly with the flour mixture.
4. Melt butter in a skillet and cook garlic for 1 min. then add shrimps.  Cook for about 3-4 min. each side.  Serve with steamed rice.  

-Jun. 2 grocery shopping € 7.65/ € 242.35 left

Baked Cheesecake with Strawberry Glaze

We had holiday on ascension day and enjoyed strawberry picking at a farm just outside Hamburg.  I made a pot of strawberry glaze on the very next day to go on top of cheese cake my husband requested me to bake!  The cheesecake recipe is based on Betty Crocker's "Razzle-Dazzle Berry Cheesecake."  So, I will just post the recipe for home-made strawberry glaze that is preservable and perfect on pies, angel cake, chocolate cupcakes, parfait, ice cream and whatnot!

Ingredients
900g/2lbs strawberries
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup corn starch
1/8 tsp. salt

Directions
1. Hull and cut strawberries in half.
2. Put sugar, water, corn starch in a pot and bring to boil. stirring constantly.
3. After boiling for 2-3 min. reduce the heat and add strawberries, lemon juice and salt.  Cook for about 7-8 min.  Don't forget to stir!
4. Let it rest in fridge at least 4hrs. before using on cakes.

Bolognese Caserole with Eggplant & Zucchini

A main dish idea using a half of the Bolognese sauce I made previously.  Grilled zucchini and eggplant make layers between the sauce and topped with Parmigiano cheese.  So simple and so good!



Ingredients (serves 4-6)
2-3 cups Bolognese sauce
1 large eggplant
1 large zucchini
olive oil
1 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano  

Directions
1. Slice zucchini and eggplant very thinly and brush with olive oil.  
2. Grill vegetables on a pre-heated grill pan until tender.  3-4 min. each side.
3. Spread zucchini on the bottom of the casserole, layer with Bolognese sauce, 2-3 tbsp. Parmigiano cheese, eggplant.  Keep layering until you finish your ingredients. 
4. Sprinkle the rest of Parmigiano-Reggiano and bake over 180°C/350°F for 20 min. until cheese is golden brown.   

-May. 28 grocery shopping € 13.13/ € 29.74 left

Cilantro & Cream Cheese Pasta

Once I had spaghetti with cilantro sauce in Mexico and fell in love.  I never tried to reproduce it so far but last Tuesday was finally the day.  I didn't get my Mexican friend's recipe (I'll make sure I will next time I see her!) so I wasn't so sure where to start but I just walked into the kitchen and started cooking with what I had.  Despite my concern about not using any kind of nuts in cilantro pesto, it was a hit.  Tastier than I expected!

Ingredients (serves 2)
2-3 stalks of cilantro 
1/4 cup olive oil
a pinch of salt
60g/2oz cream cheese
1/4 cup. heavy cream
1 tbsp. butter
100g/3.5oz smoked salmon
1 1/2 cup steamed broccoli

200g/7oz pasta 

Directions
1. Cook pasta al dente.
2. In a food processor or blender, blend cilantro (large stems removed) with salt and olive oil.   
*If the portion is too little to blend, you can double the ingredients and store the rest
3. Melt butter in a skillet and cook chopped salmon and pre-steamed broccoli for 2 min. 
4. Add cilantro pesto, heavy cream and cream cheese and cook until cream cheese is melted. (1-2min.)
5. Add pasta and combine over remaining heat. 

-May. 27 grocery shopping € 22.54/ € 42.87 left

Pumpkin Waffle

 When I was a child, my mother used to take me to a bakery called "Petit Maison" after school.  Their wooden racks were filled up with delicious snack pastries but I would always buy pumpkin waffle for my sweet-snack time.  It was one of the first bakeries in the town where I grew up and I remember jumping for joy just to get to visit the bakery.  I often dream of savoring this waffle but sadly I live 9,000km away.  The only way is to recreate the flavor in my German kitchen!  To tell the truth, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I was happy about how tasty and delicate dessert it turned out to be :)     

Ingredients (makes 5-6 waffles)
...<for pumpkin cream>
200g/7oz squash/pumpkin
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. heavy cream
a few drops vanilla
1 tbsp. butter
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp. sugar

 ...<for waffle>
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
200ml milk 
200g/7oz all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
half a stick/55g butter

Directions
1. Make pumpkin cream.  Cut pumpkin in small dices.   Microwave cook or steam to cook through.
2. While it's hot, put pumpkin in a blender together with 2 tbsp. sugar, 1/4 cup heavy cream, butter and vanilla extract and puree.  Strain through a chinois or fine sieve and cool.
3. Beat well chilled heavy cream with a electric mixer, adding vanilla extract and sugar gradually (until you get stiff consistency).  
4. Combine pumpkin puree into whipped cream little by little.  Chill in the fridge for 2 hrs.
5. Make waffles.  Beat eggs in a bowl adding sugar gradually.  Add milk and mix well.  
Combine in strained flour and BP.  Finally add melted butter and mix.
6. Pour mix into slightly oiled waffle iron maker.   Set aside and cool.
7. Make sure both pumpkin cream and waffles are chilled well.  Make waffle sandwich with the cream and cut in half to serve.
    

Steamed Veggies with Sesame Dressing

I'd like to share this sesame dressing I made for the salad on Tagliatelle Bolognese night.  It surely comes in handy if you're tired of ordinary oil&vinegar dressing.  I had steamed (oh it's a great way to consume dark green and deep yellow vegetables, preventing them to lose vitamins and other nutrients!) broccoli, squash and cut mini tomatoes with this sauce.  I recommend not to overcooking because crispy veggies taste better!  Your family wouldn't eat vegetables alone!?  Trust me, this sesame dressing will turn even veggie-haters into veggie-lovers!!     

Ingredients
2 tbsp. white sesame paste (Tahini)
2 tsp. white sesame
1 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. rice vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar

Directions
Combine all the ingredients well and use for your favorite steamed or fresh veggies, such as; tomatoes, broccoli, squash, green beans, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, sweet potatoes, asparagus, cauliflower or...anything you like!!

Tagliatelle Bolognese

We juice.  Since we watched a very inspiring documentary about healthy eating, we stopped buying packaged juice and started drinking freshly squeezed of veggies& fruits juice.  I don't know if other juicers have the same problem but we always get some excess veggies that are about to rotten.  The best solution seems to be, other than throwing them in soup, to make Bolognese sauce.  You can consume a good amount of celery and carrots for this sauce.  Plus, you can freeze to store and use for another dishes later, like for Shepherds pie, lasagna, in pastries...  

Ingredients (serves 4)
500g/1.1lbs ground beef
4 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
1 large/2medium carrots
2 stalks of celery
1 canned tomato/tomato puree
1 1/2 tbsp. concentrated tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1 bay leaf

400g tagliatelle
grated Parmigiano-Reggiano  

Directions
1. Make the sauce.  Chop garlic, onion, carrots and celery very finely.
2. Place a large pot over medium-high heat and heat olive oil.  Add chopped garlic and onion and cook until translucent.  Then add carrots and celery and cook for 4-5 min.  
3. Add beef into the same pot and fry until the color changes.  Then salt&pepper, add wine and simmer to burn off alcohol for about 4-5min., stirring constantly. 
4. Add canned tomato, tomato puree and bay leaf.  Cook over low heat for at least 1 hour (preferably 2 hrs.)
5. Cook tagliatelle as instructed on a package.  Grate Parmigiano-Reggiano and set aside.
6. When tagliatelle is cooked al dente, drain and put it back in the same pot you used for boiling and add Bolognese sauce.  Combine sauce and pasta over remaining heat. Serve with Parmigiano-Reggiano.

-May. 26 grocery shopping € 7.64/ € 87.95 left