Coleslaw

I have never checked a coleslaw recipe before preparing this post just to compare my ingredient list with what is the norm. It's good to know it is not far off.

Coleslaw

Ingredients
Equal quantity of Cabbage and Carrot, shredded or cubed
Spring onion, slice thinly
salt, to taste
sugar, to taste
ground black pepper
Mayonnaise, to taste
2 tsp of sour cream
a little water

Method :
1) Rinse cabbage and carrot before shredding or cubing
2) In a salad bowl, put in the thinly sliced spring onion follow by salt, sugar and ground black pepper
3) Put in half the vegetables, drizzle with some mayonnaise and a teaspoon of sour cream. Place the remaining vegetables and again drizzle on some mayonnaise and another teaspoon of sour cream.
4) Mix well and let it chill in the fridge for minimum 30 mins.

Roasted Radish

It is common to eat radish raw. However, in Chinese cuisine, radish is also cooked in soups and also sun-dried. I much preferred the taste of sun-dried radish than raw. Since I am not so adventurous to sun dry radishes myself, I tried roasting them in the oven. The results is quite similar to dried ones but with enhanced sweetness and milder peppery taste.

Roasted Radish
Radishes
salt
oil

1) Pre-heat oven at 170˙c
2) Slice radishes into rounds. Place on oven-proofed dish, drizzle with some cooking oil and sprinkle with salt.
3) Bake for 30mins. until slightly brown.

raw radishes

Carrot Salad

Carrot Salad


Ingredients
Carrots, julienned or grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
1cm ginger, minced
a pinch of cumin seeds
a pinch of turmeric powder
a squeeze of lemon
1 bunch of parsley, chopped finely
salt, to taste
sugar, to taste

Method :-
1) In a pan, toast the cumin seeds, then add in some oil. Once oil has been heated a little, add in the minced ginger and garlic. Fry until fragrant.
2) Add in sugar to caramelise. Then turmeric, stir a little.  Put in the carrots, a little water and cook until just crunchy. Season with salt and garnish wit finely chopped parley. Eat warm or cold.

A little bit of everything

Links Recipes /adaptation

Cauliflower acar (spicy pickle) http://kitchenat19.blogspot.hu/2010/08/spicy-pickled-vegetables-acar.html

Tzatziki http://kitchenat19.blogspot.hu/2013/03/tzatziki.html

Mediterranean Millet Salad http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-couscous-salad-with-cucumber-red-onion-herbs-recipes-from-the-kitchn-190535?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=managed


Stuffed sweet pepper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXwtO4fptL4

Steamed fish fillets, surimi with glass noodles

Happy Lunar New Year!
I have this carp fillets sitting in the freezer and since I'm unfamiliar with this fish, I was wondering what to cook with it. My thought process was, ok nothing too complicated like frying and too much effort since I'm not sure ..hahaa. So, let's just steam it in garlic, soy, shaosing wine and oil. Simple enough

Steamed carp fish fillets , surimi with glass noodles
Inspired by Thai steamed prawns like this one by The Woks of Life

Ingredients
350gm fish fillets
100gm glass noodles, soaked in warm water for 10-15 mins. until softened
Surimi sticks, imitation crab meat

seasoning
salt, to taste
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
oil for sauté
soy sauce, to taste
sugar, to taste
water, not too much
a dash of shaoxing wine (I've substitute with white wine)

Garnishing
Spring onions, green only
Coriander / Parsley leaves

Preparations:-
1) First prep. glass noodles as mentioned above. Set aside. You can do this in advance and keep in the fridge until you need it.
2) Start by heating water in your steamer. Meanwhile, on a plate, big enough for steamer. Lay the soaked glass noodles evenly. Then place the fish fillets/surimi sticks on top. Sprinkle salt over the fish, to taste
3) In a jar, mix together soy sauce, sugar, water and dash of shaoxing wine. Pour over the fish and glass noodles.
4) Sauté finely chopped garlic in oil, don't burn it.When ready pour all over fish and glass noodles.
5) When water is boiling in steamer, place the fish platter into steamer and steam for 10 mins. After 10 mins. check for doneness. If not continue to steam for another 5 and check again until it is ready.
6) Serve immediately garnished with spring onions and coriander/parsley.

Homemade Yee Sang / Yusheng

To understand what this is all about , please visit wiki

Homemade Yee Sang / Yusheng

Ingredients
carrots, julienned
daikon, julienned (I've used local white radish)
cucumber, julienned
pomelo segments then into pieces (I've substitute with grapefruits) 
+ and other crispy vegetables to your liking
raw salmon (I've used smoked)
friend wonton skin (I've homemade based on this recipe by kitchen simplicity  )

Garnish
pinch of 5-spice powder
pince of white pepper


pickled Japanese ginger (I've made my own by shred ginger finely+water+brown sugar+salt+vinegar)

Salad dressing
Plum sauce (I've used apricot jam)
sesame oil
1 lime juice
pickling juice from ginger

Methods :-
1) Prep. the ingredients the vegetables and fruit. Put the prepped veg., pomelo, fried wonton skin and salmon in a bowl or arrange nicely on a plate. Sprinkle on the seasoning. Mix all the salad dressing ingredients together. Drizzle salad dressing all over the bowl/plate. Check seasoning, adjust if need to. Mix well and serve.

Tzatziki

Tzatziki
Ingredients
2 medium-sized cucumber, peeled and sliced thinly
1x175gm yoghurt
few tablespoon of sour cream, or to taste
salt
pepper
garlic powder
parsley, chopped finely

Method
1) Slice or julien cucumber thinly. Sprinkle liberally with salt and let it sit for 10-15 mins. not more
2) Meanwhile, mix together yoghurt, sour cream, garlic powder and finely chopped parsley. Check taste and adjust accordingly. *Leave out the salt for the time being.*
3) After 10-15 mins. squeeze and drain all the liquid from the cucumber and mix into yoghurt, then check seasoning. And it is ready!

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}

Hungarian "Francia Saláta", literally translates to "French Salad", is often served in new year's eve party platter. The origin of this salad is unknown to me, but this year I thought why not make my own instead of serving the store bought one.

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}
source : http://www.nosalty.hu/recept/franciasalata

Ingredients (I have halved from the original)
150gm frozen green peas
100gm carrots, diced
1 apple, diced
1-2 pcs of gherkins, diced
185ml sour cream
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Method
1) Cook diced carrots in cold salted water. When carrots are almost done (al-dente) add in frozen green peas, when both are ready, drained and set it aside to cool
2) When carrots and peas are cooled, start the dressing by mixing mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, salt and lemon juice.
3) Finally mix in carrots, peas, diced apple and gherkins.
4) Keep in the fridge until time to serve. You can serve this as a side to any main meals or cold cuts.

Simple sweet and sour salad dressing

Simple sweet and sour salad dressing

whisk together
2 Tbsp olive oil
1.5 - 2 Tbsp sugar (brown, white or palm)
5 - 6 dashes of white vinegar (or half - 1 lime, adjust to balance sweet and sour)
a pinch of salt
freshly ground pepper
few dashes of chilli flakes , to taste
1 spring onions, finely chopped - green part only
few leaves of parsley, finely chopped

Spicy pickled vegetables { acar }

Whenever I have excess cauliflower I like to make this pickled salad to accompany meat dishes.
To learn about its origin, please read here .
As I intend to eat the salad on the same day that it's prepared, I didn't follow the usual process of pickling. What I did was ...

Spicy "pickled" vegetables
Ingredients :-
Cauliflower
Cucumber
Carrots
ginger
garlic
vinegar
sugar
turmeric
fish sauce
spicy Hungarian chili paste (erős pista)
sesame seeds, toasted , for sprinkling


Method
1) Blanch the cut vegetable in boiling water. Start off with carrot (longer to tender) followed by cauliflower and finally cucumber. Do not over cooked as you want a little bite to the vegetables.
Set aside to drain off excess liquid on a kitchen towel. Put aside some of the boiling water to wet the salad later.
2) Grate ginger and garlic. Heat a little oil in a pan and saute the grated ginger and garlic. Once fragrant, sprinkle a pinch of turmeric and stir a bit. Next add in the spicy Hungarian chili paste, sugar to your taste and few dashes of fish sauce (not too much , as the sauce is very salty). Set aside until assembling salad.
3) Place drained vegetable into salad bowl, splash a few dashes of vinegar, and add in the cooked spiced mixture . Coat salad evenly. Taste to check the balance of sweet and sour. If needed add the water earlier.
4) Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds before serving

Crunchy Peanut Slaw

Yummy new recipe from here !

Alterations :-
1) I didn't follow the quantity exactly but based the quantity on my own preference. For example, I dislike using too much of sesame oil which I've reduced to only a few drops.
2) Replaced rice wine vinegar with white vinegar
3) Replaced corriander with parsley. Not available in the shops near me* sigh* ..with corriander the taste would have been more interesting for sure.

Red onion relish

We just had this very simple and refreshing relish for the past 2 days.. with our hamburgers. Yeah I know it is not a healthy diet but I was thinking about this relish so much that I had to make the hamburger again for dinner tonight. Of course you can accompany it with other meat dishes but hamburger was the easy way for me ;)

I tweaked the ingredients a little based on what I have in the fridge. Here's the recipe

Red Onion Relish
adapted from BBC Good Food

Ingredients
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 pickle red chillies (an asian brand-vietnamese specifically) , slice finely
small handful flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 small red onion, cut into wafer-thin slices
a few dashes of fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
freshly milled black pepper

just toss all ingredients together and top it on the hamburger!

Mango and apple salad

This salad was adapted from salt n tumeric 's recipe with couple of substitutes. The combination of aroma of lime , spiciness of Erős Pista , sweet and soury apple and mango make this a great dish as an apetiser.

Mango and apple salad :-

1 mango , roughly grated or julienned
1 apple , roughly grated or julienned
1 red onion, chopped
1 juice of lime
sugar , to taste
fish sauce , few dashes
Erős Pista (Hungarian sambal oelek ?) , to taste - substitute for Thai chilli
Peanuts , roughly ground

Prepare all ingredients and toss them together. Voila!