Karaage Chicken

Continuing with our Japanese theme (happens for a few days every month coz we love love love Japanese food), this time it is Karaage Chicken, which is basically small pieces of chicken marinated in soy sauce and spices and fried in a batter. This is wonderful served with hot rice, miso soup and salad and is always welcomed by my kids, especially when served like this :

Do you see a smiley face?

But my plate looked like this :

(I really should invest in Japanese style bowls eh?)


Karaage Marinade Ingredients:

1 teaspoon garlic powder/grated garlic
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder/grated ginger
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons Japanese soya sauce
Salt
White pepper

400g chicken thigh fillets or chicken breast meat, skinned, cut into little squarish pieces

Put all ingredients in a plastic bag or a tuppaware and give everything a good rub and shake. Or use the usual method of putting everything in a bowl and mix everything together with your hands or with a spoon. Set aside for at least 1/2 hour but I do it overnight.

For the batter

1/2 an egg
2 tablespoons cornflour
4 heaped tablespoons all purpose flour
generous sprinkle of pepper and a little salt

Oil for deep frying

Ready? Set. Go!

When ready to fry, put all this batter ingredients (except the oil of course) into the plastic bag/tuppaware/bowl and give everything another good mix, making sure every piece of chicken is coated. No mess, no fuss, you fingers don't even have to touch them! 

You do not need a deep fryer, just a highish-rimmed pan (to prevent excessive spritzing) and some oil.

Fry the chicken pieces a few at a time, making sure that the oil is hot enough (you will hear the sizzle when the chicken pieces hit the pan). Do not fit too much or they will not crisp up. Turn if necessary and fry for about 3 minutes until nice and brown. Drain and serve hot on rice.

Oishii!

Okonomiyaki fritter-pancake-pizza

What is that? That, my friends, is my attempt at the 'Japanese Pizza' or japanese-ly known as Okonomiyaki. Japanese food being super expensive here and since Okonomiyaki is nowhere to be seen, I am therefore forced to learn Japanese cooking if I were to satiate my Japanese food cravings without breaking the bank. Japanese ingredients are available here at my beloved Tiger and Dragon Asia Supermarket. We go there every month and spend about 200 euros on Asian things like lemongrass and tumeric, tofu and prata (both from Tuas, Singapore mind you!) as well as the quintessential Dashi, Jap rice, bonito flakes and various other Japanese seasonings that previously did not catch my attention when shopping at Takashimaya, Singapore. Nowadays, we also go there for durians, but I digress. This post is about Okonomiyaki and how easy it is to make and how much I (and the children) love it. And I hide vegetables in them so the don't know that it is good for them too hur hur. Ok and now to the recipe, that is adapted from various Internet websites. There are so many out there, ranging from the Americanised version that did not add Dashi (and yet dare to call itself Japanese vegetable pancake) and others that are such purist versions that i don't know half the ingredients they call for (what is Koji and where can I get it?)

Anyway, here it is.

Ingredients (serves 4 for dinner)

The batter :

• Half a small cabbage (anymore and the gas is your own doing!)
• 1 carrot (not usually added, but this is my way of making sure that my kids get their beta carotenes)
• 2 cups flour (I used plain all purpose flour, self-raising is also possible)
• 2 1/3 cups water
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons dashi powder (or can be replace by chicken stock powder, but it ain't Japanese no more!)
•  About 200g shelled, uncooked prawns 

Shred the vegetables, by cutting finely by hand or using the food processor. Then in a bowl, add in the flour and 4 eggs, water and dashi powder and mix them using a mixer. Finally fold in the vegetables and there you have it, the batter is ready to go.




Heat oil in a frying pan. When hot, add batter to make a circle of whatever size you want. I made mine about the size of the pan. Let it cook until the bottom is crisp (about 3-5  mins). While waiting, add the prawns to the batter. Then flip and let the batter with the prawn side cook until crisp (another 3 mins).

For the Topping

• Okonomiyaki sauce or Tonkatsu sauce (store bought) 
• 1 to 2 spring onions sliced thinly 
• Japanese Mayonaise
• Bonito flakes 

Then add the toppings as generally as you want. I lacked Bonita flakes in the picture coz I ran out of them before remembering that I had to take a picture. I told my kids (who love pizza) that Japanese Pizza is ready and it was nice seeing them eating eagerly :-) Little did they know, there were eating cabbage and carrots too!

(I had some leftover batter and for breakfast the next day, I added chicken ham and Gouda cheese that I had in the fridge. Equally delicious and a great breakfast too! And reminded me somehow of Tako pachi balls. Hmm that would be my next project it seems!)

Mission accomplished.

Seafood noodle soup for the soul aka Mi Soup

The problem with writing a blog about cooking with 2 toddlers is sometimes the 2 toddlers take up most of your (my) time that cannot write it! Luckily it is just a hobby though. And baking cookies and cakes for the festive season, though a pleasurable past time and certainly a pleasurable deed when eating them, does lead to a somewhat thicker waistline that creeps on you (that is, me). But unlike some people who start the year with a resolution to eat less, or to exercise more, I simply do not bother. I did read a book, however, titled 'French woman for all seasons' in which the writer espouses the French woman's way of eating light after eating well, heavy stuff. And being basically Asian and familiar with a yin-yang approach to life, as well the tendency to eat soupy things when the weather gets cold and rainy in Singapore, I found myself craving for one of my childhood favourites that has the ability to satisfy all the senses in one slurp.

I suppose this is a Malay take on a Chinese noodle soup dish. The broth is a flu-chasing tonic of pounded onions, garlic and ginger,  enriched with chicken (or vegetable) stock. Add to it the slippery rice noodles, plump fishballs or prawns and top it all with spinach, fresh coriander and spring onions as well as the pre-requisite crunchy fried onions and fresh chilli pickle. The result is an explosion of tastes and sensations on your tongue that is comforting and delicious at the same time. And you just know that it is good for you. Just writing and thinking about is making me hungry! Actually, I do think I'm ma get a bowl of this 'Mi Soup' as a reward for finishing this blog myself.

Seafood Noodle Soup aka Mi Soup (serves 2 adults and 2 kids)

The Noodle Broth.

1 white onion
2 cloves garlic
1 inch length of ginger root
Vegetable oil for whizzing and frying
1 litre (more or less) of chicken or vegetable stock (or Ikan Bilis stock cube, if you wanna go native)

1 cinammon stick, bruised
2 star anise
3 cardamom pods, bashed to break them up slightly
Pinches of salt
Dashes of white pepper

1/2 packet of rice noodles (the thin kind)


As much prawns and fishballs as you want
As much spinach as you can stand (or other green leafy vegetables)

Ready? Set. Go!

Pound the first 3 ingredients using a pestle and mortar or, if you are feeling modern, place them in a food processor with some water and vegetable oil and whizz until pureed.

Fry the spice paste with about 1 tablespoon of oil and the cinammon stick, star anise and cardamom pods until fragrant (about 1 minute depending on the heat). Then add the stock and stir. Adjust for seasoning with salt and white pepper. Then add the fishballs and prawns. When everything is cooked and tastes good, add the spinach, cover the pot and turn off the heat. Easy peasy.

In the meantime, soften the rice noodles according to packet instructions. Once soft, drain and set aside.

As Topping

Coriander leaves
Fried onions
Fresh cut chilli
Salty soya sauce
Sweet soya sauce
Tomato Ketchup
Rice Vinegar

Are you ready to eat?

Now what I do, is first put some noodles into the bowl, pour some broth over it and add all the toppings. Mix to taste, bring to table with your chosen implements for eating and enjoy slurping while the cold goes on outside. Mmm happiness.

Chocolate cake with chocolate outside, chocolate inside and more chocolate in between

Pardon me, but the pictures do not do this chocolate cake any justice. Allow me to describe how it really is - it is a bed of chocolate sponginess for a creamy chocolate spread doused in chocolate icing. So yes, it has a lot of chocolate. And sugar and butter and all those mood-enhancing things. But the best part is, you need only to eat one slice, just ONE to get all the mood-enhancing benefits. And when it is dark and grey and drab outside or when one is feeling blah, this cake just lifts you. And contrary to the all the butter and sugar, this cake is a life-saver - it has saved me more than once from the depressing winter blues.

The recipe is taken off Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake but I went freestyle on the icing. And although she called for 30% fat content sour cream, I took a leap of faith and used 10% Greek Yoghurt, just because that was all I had in the fridge. And it is a perfect substitute! So not only is this cake a mood-enhancing life-saver, now it is also good for you! (As if I need another reason to eat chocolate cake!)

So here it is folks, my version of Chocolate Cake with chocolate outside, chocolate inside and more chocolate in between.

My kids requested candles as decoration and blew them out ..oh about 20 times before we got to eat the cake!

 For the cake 

• 200 grams plain flour
• 200 grams caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 40 grams best-quality cocoa powder
• 175 grams soft unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 150 ml Greek Yoghurt (the thick kind) or Sour Cream

The Super Easy Method :  

• Put everything in a food processor and let it run for a few minutes until everything is mixed well into a brown batter. It should be of a thick consistency.

• Pour everything into a pan and slide into a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for about 25-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean and the cake is spongy.  

The Usual Mixer Method.

• Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl

• In another bowl, beat the soft butter (at room temperature) until you have a creamy mixture. Then add in the flour mixture.

• In yet another bowl, whisk the cocoa, greek yoghurt or sour cream, vanilla and eggs together and beat this into your bowl of flour and butter mixture.

• Pour everything into a pan and slide into a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for about 25-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean and the cake is spongy.

For the Icing

• 50 grams unsalted butter
• 125 grams 70% dark chocolate (broken into small pieces)
• 150 grams icing sugar
• 125 ml Greek Yoghurt or sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the butter and chocolate in a microwave. I microwave for 1 minute, stir to melt all the clumps and microwave for another minute or less until I get a smooth chocolate syrup that I cannot resist dipping a spoon into (and licking it clean)

In the meantime, blitz your icing sugar in the food processor to get rid of all the lumps. Or you can just sift it.

Finally, add all ingredients into the food processor and whizz away until you get a sticky decadent, chocolate cream. Or add everything into a bowl and mix away using a mixer or, an old fashioned hand-whisk.

Cool it off in a fridge (or outside on the balcony on winter day- to let winter know that your mood reinforcements are coming!)

The you are ready to spread it on the cake.

The Assembly


Let the cake cool and then cut into 2 halves, top and bottom. Make a chocolate cake sandwich with icing in the middle and then spread more chocolate icing generously all around. Decorate as you see fit. Or not as a chocolate cake is a gorgeous sight in itself. Cut yourself a big piece and enjoy with your cuppa! Mmmmm...

Tuna and grilled vegetables tart

It is Christmas market time again and the delicious smells are wafting the air. I think that is the best part, together with the glittering lights. If you are not familiar with Christmas markets in Germany, it is when the market squares are filled with stands selling food to eat and things to buy. And a skating rink or two if you are lucky. And talking about food, the air is constantly filled with delicious, and I mean delicious smells of food that somehow seems even more mouth-watering when smelt in the cold 0 degree air - sausages frying on a wood fire grill, soups in large pots, waffles baking in open ovens, various cinnamon and vanilla-filled treats topped with cherry jam and whipped cream, hot fruit punches punctuating the air with scents of orange and grapes -  the list goes on and on and I will add a few pics of the Heidelberg Christmas market in the upcoming posts, but right now, I just want to encourage your imagination (since nobody seems to do that anymore in this day and age of instant gratification!)

And one of the yummy treats that I like to eat at the Christmas market is called the Flammkuchen , which is kinda like a thin-crust pizza topped with creme fraiche and various toppings like the original of ham and onions, or my favourite of smoked salmon and roasted leek and another of grilled vegetable and feta cheese. But the problem of eating a Flammkuchen for me is, that I usually get bored after the 4th slice and then I will stop eating it, after which I will be hungry again an hour later since I basically have eaten 4 very thin slices of dough with a scant topping. So I have made this homage to the Flammkuchen using a thicker (puff) pastry and having more toppings. Once you have tried this version, feel free to substitute the vegetables and remember to spread the word coz everyone should know how to make something this delicious and easy!


For the topping :

1 small zucchini sliced thinly
1 small red capsicum/bell pepper in thin strips
A handful of chopped olives
2 cans of dolphin-friendly tuna in water or sunflower oil mixed with
As much mayonnaise as you want to drench your tuna in (I used 5 tablespoons!)
A sprinkling of grated parmesan


For the base :

The easy way - Use one pack of ready rolled puff pastry from the supermarket. This is the time to pat yourself on the back for being so clever.
 

Ready, set and roll out the dough!

Spread the tuna mayonnaise evenly over the dough. Arrange the zucchini, capsicum over it and artfully (or not) strew the olive pieces over everything. Take a step back and admire your edible painting. Then put in the oven at 180 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the sides are nicely golden brown and the vegetables grilled. Take it out of the oven and sprinkle the grated parmesan and watch it melt deliciously over everything. Slice and serve with more salad if you want, or roll the slice and tell your children these are edible fingers. Crunch and munch and let it be known how easy deliciousness can be :-)

Edible Craft - Vanilla Almond Cookies

Can you smell it already?

I got this recipe off a German women's magazine while at the hairdresser's having a haircut (yes, very Desperate Hausfrau I know). But the kindergarten was having a bake sale for the Christmas market on the weekend and this was one of the simplest, most delicious cookies that I know and never mess up. And it was one of the classic German Chrismas cookies (kinda like Pineapple Tarts for Hari Raya/Chinese New Year in Singapore) so what better to sell at the Christmas Market? The only problem was stopping from popping one in my mouth (and my son's) every time we put the sugar topping on 5 cookies. But then again, that was merely quality control testing at its most efficient.
 
Usually, these cookies are crescent shaped. According to stories, these cookies were 'invented' in Vienna to commemorate the retreat of the Moors/Muslims from that area. Thus the crescent shape which, I suppose, represented Muslims. How it became popular for Christmas, I do not know. But they are crispy melt-in-yuor-mouth delicious. A note of warning though - this short-crust pastry dough can be tough to handle in a hot tropical climate. In this case, the fridge is your best friend. Put in the fridge whenever you think the dough is melting, ok?

Vanillakipferln (about 50-70 cookies, depending on size and shape)

200g all purpose flour
80 grams sugar
175 very cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 large egg yolks, beaten lightly
100g fine ground almonds
Extract from 1 vanilla pod
A pinch of salt
Icing sugar for dusting

Ready? Set. Go!

I have 2 secrets for this cookie - 1) frozen butter 2) food processor. If you don't have a food processor, you can just use a normal mixer with a kneading function or go old school all the way - use your hands (obviously butter cannot be frozen then). But the less you touch the dough with your warm hands, the better.

Food processor method

Put all ingredient EXCEPT the yolks in and mix until mixture represents dry breadcrumbs. Then add the beaten egg yolks a little at a time until the mixture kinda curdles. It will not form into a ball, but merely look like small dough balls. At this point, turn the machine off, (whole process takes about 5 minutes) take the dough out, form into rough log shapes, wrap it up in cling film and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes before moving on.

Mixer with kneading function


Pretty similar as above, but it will take slightly longer and the mixture will form into a ball. At which point you refrigerate as above.

Using hands.

Make sure you have cold hands by running under cold water and wiping them dry. Mix the dry ingredients until they form breadcrumbs (or use a pastry cutter). Then add the beaten egg yolks and knead until you can form a ball shape. Then refrigerate. The less you knead the dough, the better.

After 15 mins or so, roll out the dough between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper until about 2 cm thick. Cut into whatever shapes you fancy. Place in an oven at 160 degrees for about 15 minutes (they should remain fairly white/beige). Then take them out, and let them cool a little before turning them them onto another tray (be careful as they are crumbly when hot). Then dust the icing sugar on top while the cookies are still warm, to help the sugar stick to the cookies. Try not to eat all at one go.

These cookies keep well in an air-tight container for about 3 weeks. If they last that long. Enjoy!

A Wanton Char Kway Teow Story

Sometimes a Singapore girl just needs Singapore food. What is Singapore food, you may ask. Now that is not so easy to define. It is a reflection of our heritage and our culture that is based on the major immigrant groups back when Singapore was still a British colony pre-1965. Our forefathers back then came via ships from parts of the then 'Malay Archipelago' which included Indonesia and the Riau islands, India and China. And Singapore, being a busy trading port back then (and still is the biggest port in the world in terms of volume), attracted various traders and even more immigrants from other parts of the world. They came, they worked and they stayed and they interacted and even learnt each other's languages and cultures. Which led to the rise of 'Singlish' as a form of communication (a mixture of English, Hokkien and Malay slang which is now an integral part of our culture). Not only did the cultures and languages mingled, so did the food. And thus, you have situations like this where a Singaporean girl with a Malay cultural background living in Germany hankers for 'Chinese food'. Specifically Char Kway Teow and Wanton noodles. Oh Hawker Centre uncle, where are you?

Having no luck with finding someone to cook what I wanted for me, I had to go pick up the ingredients from the Asian Supermarket and cook it myself (story of my life!). Luckily all I needed were dried rice noodles, sweet and salty soy sauces, frozen seafood and dumplings, eggs and a bottle of (damn shiok!) sambal (Malay-style chilli paste) that luckily, I could buy from my neighbourhood Malaysian restaurant. Thus it was on that cold Sunday night that I rolled up my sleeves, took out my trusty frying pan, channelled a hawker centre uncle and set to wok (forgive me, but how could I resist that pun?)

The result is just like a Singaporean - a mashup of cultures on a plate. Happy tummy makes a happy mummy. And happy kids too :-)

Wanton Char Kway Teow aka Fried Flat Rice Noodles with Soya Sauce, Prawns and Chicken Dumpling Topped with a Generous Amount of Chilli Paste, Spring Onions and Fried Onions too!

1/2 packet of flat rice noodles (it was just me and the kids)
5 tablespoons of thick dark sweet soya sauce
3 tablespoons of light salty soya sauce
A handful of raw prawns
6 frozen dumplings of your choice
About 3 tablespoons of oil for frying
1 or 2 eggs
1 fat clove of garlic, minced

Chopped spring onions
Fried onions
Sambal

Prepare to wok!! (Ok, ok I'll stop!)

Prepare the noodles according to packet instructions. Mine said just soak in warm or cold water.

Heat the wok with the oil. Don't be afraid to crank up the heat. When the oil is hot, add the minced garlic. Then add the noodles and soya sauce in quick succession. Mix well. Add more or less of the soya sauces as your taste buds deem fit. Then add the prawns and the dumplings and a little bit of water to let everything meld together. Stir, while enjoying the smell. When the prawns and dumplings are cooked, make a hole in the centre of the noodles and drop an egg into it. Scramble and then cover it with a noodles. Wait for a few seconds and scrape the bottom of the wok and turn the noodles and the egg over and over again, moistening the noodles. Turn of heat, and let the leftover heat cook the egg while it clings onto the noodles. Note that all this should take about 10 minutes or slightly less, depending on how hot your stove gets. A slightly burnt flavour is actually rather desirable as it adds another depth to the taste sensation.

Pile the noodles on plates and garnish generously with chopped spring onions, fried onions and a BIG dollop of sambal (ok none for the kids), with a squeeze of lime. I actually closed my eyes, sighing with happiness when the sweet-salty silkiness of the noodles topped with the crunch of the onions, melded with the bite of the chilli paste in my mouth. Happiness is, finding the perfect antedote to the cold grey and rainy weather wíth a taste from home. Even though it was cooked far, far away.