The secret to congee is low heat and constant stirring. Low heat and constant stirring. For hours and hours, in this case around 4. There is another trick however that i learned, if you set your rice cooker on warm and bring it to boil every hour it also works with less effort!
Egg Yolk in miso works if you leave it over night. The egg yolk turns jelly like and with a creamy rich consistency. Drop it in the piping hot congee which helps cooks it and eat right away.
Ingredients:
4 Cups of Rice – Warm on Low in Rice cooker and bring back to boil every hour and stir (Min 4 Hours)
4 Fillets of Salmon – I used Organic Raised
6 Tablespoons of Miso
6 Egg Yolks
Spring Onion
Pepper
Salmon – Rub Miso on Fillet and Keep in Fridge over 24 hrs / Draining Water off every few hours
Egg Yolk – Line a small tupperware box with miso – separate the egg yolks and gently add the miso to cover. I left mine over night. Gently remove the egg yolks and drop in hot congee.
Everyone craves a good homemade sausage roll once in a while, yet no one who has a job, family and a bunch of dogs should even have to time to act Martha Steward and roll her own puff pastry. Guilt as charged. Buy a roll of ready made puff pastry from the freezer section, in Bangkok we have a great brand that made fresh with no preservatives – hence the short life span. Usually i made a mixture of pork, carrots, potatoes as the mince but after a hectic week i just grabbed a package of Cumberland sausage, a few carrots and potatoes. I thawed my pastry overnight in the fridge. Makes it easier to roll without breaking.
Dice the carrots a bit smaller than the potatoes so you have an equal cooking time, saute them in some olive oil and garlic. Season well with salt, pepper, paprika and a tiny hint of sugar. Just a small touch to offset the saltiness of the pork.
Lovely golden brown and not soggy at all!
I unwrap the baking paper on the baking sheet and unroll the puff pastry directly on the baking sheet. I mix the sausage mixture into the cooled veggie mixture and mix well gently. I dont season anymore now as sausages tend to be quite salty. Shape into logs on the puff pastry and roll it over. Leave a bit of space before cutting it. No need to be neat. Roll it over again so the edges are on the bottle. Flatten slightly and cut into pieces with a wet knife wiping in between. As you see i cut into different sizes and they bake at the same time.
Rub a bit of beaten egg and throw in oven with fan at 125 degrees. Rotate tray after 15 mins and brush some more egg wash and they are ready to be eaten hot in 10 – 15 mins.
Cooled & Sliced – Perfect Medium & Medium Rare Parts
Another rough day at work and wishing for a sumptuous dinner. Sister says want beef the night before. Nice beef tenderloin defrosting whilst at work. Everyone arrives home and demand to be fed.
45 Mins Dinner Challenge:
1 Beef Tenderloin – Rubbed with Olive Oil and Smashed garlic with salt into a puree
Package of Pasta from Italy
Home Made Tomato Puree (Roasted Tomatoes and crushed)
Home Grown Basil from Garden
Salt & Pepper
Heat Pan to HIGH. Use non burning oil, I used Rice bran. Sear Beef on all sides – 3 Mins on each side, lower and cover pan for 5 mins. Reheat to high and sear again on all sides (pouring off juices to make gravy) Cover and set aside.
At the same time I have boiled a medium salted water and threw in the dried pasta. This type takes around 9 mins to cook on the pack. I turned of the heat at 6. And took pot of stove. In another pan, heated the tomato sauce, threw in the beef drippings and flavored with salt, pepper and a touch of sugar to help balance the acid.
Drain pasta and mix with sauce. I find that if you time pasta correctly you can turn it off the heat before cooking time is over but this takes experience and lots of mistakes on my part. I find that you dont need to add any more pasta water as the pasta has water in them.
Slice beef and place on pasta, sprinkle basil to each person’s liking and serve. Usually i serve with thin slices but Sister said she was hungry.
Guaranteed it was soft and tender. Was hoping for leftovers but everyone devoured it. Completely. Happy Tummy, Happy Family.
Tsimsha Sui is always one of my favorite spots in HK. There’s lots of things to see and do, and of course Mong Kok. There’s cheapo things among the more prestige labels, cheap eats mixed with the affordable and the luxury delicacies. On our trip we went to Chee Kei which is quite well known franchise in HK with i think a few shops around Hong Kong and Kowloon side.
Menu with English
Hot strong tea is served while waiting for your mains to arrive.
The funny thing is they are famous for crab congee and wontons but I always order plain congee and the pork leg. Although we ordered the wonton this time. In Hong Kong the norm here for veggies are boiled and served with a side of oyster sauce. In Thailand, vegetables are always stir fried with some sort of sauce, the only naked veggies are salads. And then Thais plop dressing on top.
Enter a Kailan with oyster sauce.
The wontons came in a steaming piping hot claypot, it was shrimp wontons with pork broth or soup. Not too salty and quite savory, a good porkiness. The wonton wrapper was not over cooked like most shops so when they are sitting around for a long time. This is a firm, chewy lovely consitency. The Shrimp mixture was a good mouthful with chunks of shrimp. Good. It’s a nice professional homey feel to it. I like mine witha spash of vinegar and chilli paste.
Nice & Plump!Spicy, savory, yummy XO sauce.
For those in the know, XO sauce isn’t sauce with congnac, I’m not sure exactly where the real origins are but every seafood restaurant has their own recipe or like amazing traditonal housewives. It’s made of according to recipie, the black ham, conpoy or the dried scallops, dried shrimps, oil, chillies and garlic.
Hot, creamy and comforting!
Hong Kong Congee I think is the reigning King of all rice porridge dishes. The rice is a silky, creamy thick delicate thick soup. I can’t replicate the taste, i’m not sure why but it’s just not the same which is why every trip back to HK is a treat. This time we ordered the fish which has raw slices of fish in our boiling congee, it’s cooked within seconds!
5 spice poweder blend and turnip pork leg stew
Yummy and not at all oily. Usually the feet part isn’t fatty, if you go up the leg then it gets more fatty and less meaty kind of. This is stwed until soft but has a firm texture, a soft delicate taste with the turnip. I like the balance of flavours, sometimes the 5 spice blend is too harsh and it covers up everything else. I think that is for people who like a dark sauce.
Feast for 3!
For a normal lunch or dinner 200 HK bucks is quite steep, still affordable but a bit pricey since cha cha teng or side stalls are like 30 – 40 bucks a bowl but it’s nice to order from an english menu and eat in a nice surrounding. So i recommend this for an affordable cheerful eats in HK.
2 Months ago at the Milan Expo, it was rather hot and i walked past a curious looking stall. Upon a closer look it was a display of various toppings and there was quite a que.
So what you do is you pay at the counter if my memory serves me right it was 5 Euros, and we can choose between white, milk or dark chocolate and they dip your choice of magnum flavor into the bubbling chocolate. Then you choose from the dozens of toppings. Nuts, marshmallows, sprinkles, cookies, brownies, you name it they got it! I think it’s a very good concept, but people will probably try it once since 5 Euros for an icream bar is a bit pricey though its a great experience!
Traveling during work always makes me homesick on the 4th or 5th day. At nice hotels they always have egg stations which offer a choice of poached, fried, scrambled or the stuffed omelet. Now the usual omelet if you’re not from thailand would be in a long wormy shape, nice and yellow and undercooked in the middle with a plethora of stuffings. In thailand we have our own omelet which is everyones favorite dish, be it at home or in a restaurant this dish is emptied out first. How to make your own? You need a hot pan and hot oil, because you want your egg to brown and have crispy spots. Do not put in too much stuffing because your egg would break andn it would resemble a brown scrambled egg. Trust me i’ve fallen prey to this one too many times. I used 3 eggs, half a tomato, 6 minced shrimps and some kale. Beat it all up together until foamy, you want lots of air inside so it becomes nice and fluffy. I used a table spoon of soy sauce and a sprinkle of white pepper. Drop a few drops of egg into the oil, if it bubbles up then the oil if hot enough. Pour everything in and let it bubble for a 2 minutes, when the bottom is firm enough quickly flip it over and cook until golden brown. Serve with siracha sauce with congee, or hot rice. Easy dinner. Done… PS: Every kid loves this… really….
Returning from a holiday from the Baltics my mom carried back with her a huge half salmon gravlax. Since i had steamed some brown rice i felt eating it raw would match, it was a busy week and i didn’t grocery shop so my fridge was bare and nothing to pair it with. So out came my trust pan, heated high and then a slash of rice bran oil, skin side down and flipped over. (My shallots were caramelizing 10 minutes earlier) The skin was crispy and delicious. Now with my previous trips to Cambodia brought back jars of kampot pepper, and yes it has a deeper aroma than normal peppercorns, and slices of lime for decoration and wedges for squeezing. Luckily i didn’t salt the fish, i suspected that curing would mean it has quite a bit of salt into it and yes it was salty. Great for mixing with hot rice though, but now i’m wondering how much salt does cured or smoked salmon have? It doesn’t taste salty raw but when cooked all the brine just comes out!! Interesting… Yum….
Comfort Food. Thick toast, crispy and runny yolky middle, crunchy bacon on the outside and a bit of lettuce and sprinkled cheese to bring it all together…
It really looks harder than it really is!!! I brought a thick english loaf, buttered on both sides and start toasting it on a pan. When one side is done, flip over and break egg into the middle. I close the lid of the pan for a minute just until the yolk is set, i scatter the cheese, sprinkle the bacon and pop it to the grill just for a nice brown caramel on the cheese. A sprinkling of shredded lettuce for a spot of green completes it. It took me a total of 15 minutes to make a breakfast for 3, healthy wholesome start! What’s important are fresh eggs, because it will hold together and not be so watery and seep everywhere. Cheers!!!! Happy Morning to all!
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