This is sort of a processed food version that I made within half an hour or so. Which doesn't really include the time it takes to prepare the ingredients but still considerably pretty good considering you're really hungry.
Note: I usually purchase the Korean variety fishcakes, which comes with fishcakes of all different shapes and sizes and taste pretty decent. And also they usually include packets of seasonings in the batch so you don't really have to buy stocks.
Ingredients
3 cups of water
several mixed pieces of fishcakes
6 beef meatballs (OPTIONAL)
1 celery stalk, julienned
1 carrot, cut on an angle about 2cm thick
2 cabbage leaves, cut into large square pieces
a handful of green beans, cut into medium length
a dash of salt
a flick of pepper
a fling of sugar
vegetable stock powder (OPTIONAL)
Method
1. Boil a pot of water (not the 3 cups of water). Place beef meatballs and fishcakes into pot. Drain the ingredients as soon as they float to the surface and the water boiled once again.
Note: I usually boil the beef meatballs and fishcakes separately because the fishcakes tend to leave oil residue in the boiled water whereas the meatballs won't.
2. Boil 3 cups of water in (preferably another) pot. Place stock powder in the pot and stir to mix. Place the carrot in the pot. Wait for carrot to cook.
Note: To check whether the carrot is cook stab the carrot pieces with a fork. If the fork glides well into the carrot then they're cooked.
3. Place green beans in the pot. Wait for about 3 minutes before placing cabbages and celery in the pot. After all the vegetables are relatively cooked place meatballs and fishcakes in the pot. Wait for the soup to boil. Add a dash of sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
Note: Sugar helps to add a bit of sweetness into the soup because when I cooked it the salty taste of the stock overpowers the sweetness of the veggies so sugar was added as an additional taste enhancer.
4. Serve and eat. : )
To be honest I'm not quite sure whether the measurement is right or not. And I'm a very bad estimator as well. So apologies if there turned out to be excessive amount of water. I usually don't measure my ingredients when I cook so let your instinct take over. ;)
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Bubur Manado
I suppose you can call it 'Manado Congee' in English. I'm not too sure how authentic this recipe is but my aunty loves cooking it this way. So here goes nothing.
Ingredients (to be added while cooking Simple Congee)
1 carrot, cut into chunks
½ sweet potato, cut into chunks
Ingredients (to be cooked separately)
1 bunch of water spinach
1 corn
Method
1. Cook the water spinach and corn separately. Strip the corncobs using a knife.
2. Add everything once congee is cooked in a bowl.
Additional Condiment
This dish is usually served with a special condiment that complements the congee very well.
½ spanish onion, small diced
1 tomato, small diced
3 chillies (small ones)
a squeeze of lemon juice
a dash of salt
And then just add all of the ingredients together for the condiment.
To Serve
Serve the congee in a bowl for each person. Top with the condiment. Add a splash of soy sauce, salt and pepper. If possible, top with salted fish.
Ingredients (to be added while cooking Simple Congee)
1 carrot, cut into chunks
½ sweet potato, cut into chunks
Ingredients (to be cooked separately)
1 bunch of water spinach
1 corn
Method
1. Cook the water spinach and corn separately. Strip the corncobs using a knife.
2. Add everything once congee is cooked in a bowl.
Additional Condiment
This dish is usually served with a special condiment that complements the congee very well.
½ spanish onion, small diced
1 tomato, small diced
3 chillies (small ones)
a squeeze of lemon juice
a dash of salt
And then just add all of the ingredients together for the condiment.
To Serve
Serve the congee in a bowl for each person. Top with the condiment. Add a splash of soy sauce, salt and pepper. If possible, top with salted fish.
Grilled Bacon Congee
I know, it sounds weird. But this tastes sooo delicious! You can always replace the bacon with salted fish or chopped up ham if you want to. This is merely a way to serve a bowl of congee, so no stirring around in pot.
Ingredients
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 bacon
1 spring onion stalk, chopped
pinch of salt
soy sauce to taste
sesame oil to taste
pepper to taste
Method
1. Grill bacon. Chop celery. Scoop up congee into a bowl add a little bit of salt and mix.
2. Chop bacon after grilling. Add chopped celery (a scoop would do), spring onions and pepper on top. A splash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Add the bacon on top.
3. Serve. And best eaten whilst it is still hot. :D
Ingredients
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 bacon
1 spring onion stalk, chopped
pinch of salt
soy sauce to taste
sesame oil to taste
pepper to taste
Method
1. Grill bacon. Chop celery. Scoop up congee into a bowl add a little bit of salt and mix.
2. Chop bacon after grilling. Add chopped celery (a scoop would do), spring onions and pepper on top. A splash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Add the bacon on top.
3. Serve. And best eaten whilst it is still hot. :D
Simple Congee
When you are away from your family it is always good to know a thing or two about congee. It certainly helps. Like chicken soups, they are like the Asian version of home-cooking when you are unwell and refuse to eat that your mother usually whip out from her magical kitchen onto the bowl.
Having said that, congee does seem to be a boring dish to almost everyone that I ask. But when your mother's not around and you are sick as a dog, could be a kitchen disaster to whip up. Here's the recipe for just the congee. Any additional ingredients may be added later except for the ones you need to add early on which are listed in this recipe.
Also just to note this is not the recipe for cooking congee that restaurants usually serve. This is more like the thick chunky less watery version of congee.
NB. It would be wise to do this hours before you need to eat it.
Ingredients
1 cup of rice grains
4 cups of water (if you think you need more you can always add later)
1 tbsp of sticky rice grains (OPTIONAL)
1 carrot, cut into chunks (OPTIONAL)
Method
1. Put the rice grains and sticky rice grains inside a pot (preferably with a lid) and wash. Add water and carrot and bring to boil on high heat. You don't have to stir the ingredients around at this point so just leave it until it boils.
2. After boiling stir the content around every once in a while with a wooden spoon. This is to prevent burning the bottom of the pot. Lower heat to low to medium after congee thickens and begins to splatter around in the pot.
(note: stir at the bottom of the pot to check whether any of the congee are sticking to the pot, if you think there are chunks stuck onto the bottom carefully scrape them with the wooden spoon)
3. After a while the content should thicken and the carrot cooked well. Keep stirring and keep in mind the splattering congee because it will burn your hand. (no, seriously, it will, I've had a few scars on my hand because of it)
4. Make sure the congee is really thick and coagulated well (the way I see it all I can see is melted rice, but again that's just really vague description for reference) and then put the pot lid on. Turn heat until very high for about 10 seconds and turn off the stove.
5. Leave for about half an hour until the rice really has soaked the water and 'melted'. Stir around the pot and scrape any chunks of congee stuck on the bottom of pot.
6. Enjoy. : )
Note: If you are thinking of keeping the congee for another day or two I suggest not to add salt until you want to eat it. This is to prevent the congee from going sour. Though having said that the last time I added salt it went bad after four days. ... yes, I've done it before.
To Serve
• Grilled Bacon Congee
• Bubur Manado
To Re-Heat
Option 1: Microwave
Option 2: Steam in a steamer
Option 3: Re-heat on stove with a little bit of water and stir around until hot
Serve 1 to 2 people. May be stored for 2 or 3 days in fridge.
Having said that, congee does seem to be a boring dish to almost everyone that I ask. But when your mother's not around and you are sick as a dog, could be a kitchen disaster to whip up. Here's the recipe for just the congee. Any additional ingredients may be added later except for the ones you need to add early on which are listed in this recipe.
Also just to note this is not the recipe for cooking congee that restaurants usually serve. This is more like the thick chunky less watery version of congee.
NB. It would be wise to do this hours before you need to eat it.
Ingredients
1 cup of rice grains
4 cups of water (if you think you need more you can always add later)
1 tbsp of sticky rice grains (OPTIONAL)
1 carrot, cut into chunks (OPTIONAL)
Method
1. Put the rice grains and sticky rice grains inside a pot (preferably with a lid) and wash. Add water and carrot and bring to boil on high heat. You don't have to stir the ingredients around at this point so just leave it until it boils.
2. After boiling stir the content around every once in a while with a wooden spoon. This is to prevent burning the bottom of the pot. Lower heat to low to medium after congee thickens and begins to splatter around in the pot.
(note: stir at the bottom of the pot to check whether any of the congee are sticking to the pot, if you think there are chunks stuck onto the bottom carefully scrape them with the wooden spoon)
3. After a while the content should thicken and the carrot cooked well. Keep stirring and keep in mind the splattering congee because it will burn your hand. (no, seriously, it will, I've had a few scars on my hand because of it)
4. Make sure the congee is really thick and coagulated well (the way I see it all I can see is melted rice, but again that's just really vague description for reference) and then put the pot lid on. Turn heat until very high for about 10 seconds and turn off the stove.
5. Leave for about half an hour until the rice really has soaked the water and 'melted'. Stir around the pot and scrape any chunks of congee stuck on the bottom of pot.
6. Enjoy. : )
Note: If you are thinking of keeping the congee for another day or two I suggest not to add salt until you want to eat it. This is to prevent the congee from going sour. Though having said that the last time I added salt it went bad after four days. ... yes, I've done it before.
To Serve
• Grilled Bacon Congee
• Bubur Manado
To Re-Heat
Option 1: Microwave
Option 2: Steam in a steamer
Option 3: Re-heat on stove with a little bit of water and stir around until hot
Serve 1 to 2 people. May be stored for 2 or 3 days in fridge.
Another Blog
But this time I am hoping to devote this one into just the food that I've been cooking my whole life. They're simple food so you will not find anything unusual other than what I usually (forced to) cook because of time constraints and laziness. ... though when I think about it it is mostly out of utter laziness and lack of ingredients in our fridge.
I hope this will somehow help others and I may not give good explanations but I simply enjoy sharing these recipes because I wanted to. And have fun cooking! : )
I hope this will somehow help others and I may not give good explanations but I simply enjoy sharing these recipes because I wanted to. And have fun cooking! : )
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
