Homemade Ramen

 

In my family, no one can say no to ramen.  Well, we're a japanese household anyway.  But this is definitely one of our family's favourites. 

Every part of ramen is time consuming and special in its' own ways.  First off, the soup.  It is a whole day task.  I usually combined chicken bones and pork bones to make the broth.  This a slow process since it must be simmered for at least 3 to 5 hours for good broth.  The beginning part of the process is the most tedious. This is another of those time, where I pull a chair and my trusty lap top where I slowly skimmed out the "aku" (the white scums that floats to the top as the soup simmer in the beginning part of the process) while watching K-drama.  Once, the soup stop producing "aku" I will let it simmer without care for the next few hours with the lid on.

Then, there's the charsiu (roast pork).  There are many types of charsiu which can be used for ramen.  But I like the roasted version.  There is another version which stewed the rolled up pork belly tied in strings in a good amount of marinade.  But I think this way a soy sauce consuming effort.  Besides, I like roasted meat.

After marinating the chunk of pork (I do not use port belly, but pork shoulder or the butt for a little mixture of fat), I just dump into the broiler for 45 min (depending on the size) and turning it half way through.  I find this way simple and tasty.

The noodles, I often just use packet ramen noodles.  But I have tried to make hand-pulled noodles for my ramen, which turned out good, but the effort was time consuming.  I would have like to make ramen noodles, but it was hard to get lyme water which is a critical ingredients for ramen noodles.  Plus I don't have noodle machine to make the thin or curly shape.

One all three (skipped the noodle making), my ramen can be plate-up (I mean bowl-up).  This of course is at least at 3 day process.  One day for prepping the charsiu meat (marinade at least a whole day before roasting).  On second day, prep for soup.  And at the same time, I can roast the charsiu.  Once these two are done either I can have my ramen that night, or the following day.

Happy slurping!!!

Peanut brittle

 Peanut brittle sound western, but I often have this when I was a child growing up in Malaysia.  Those days, it was never one of my favorites.  But today, I missed them, mostly because I can not get it easily.  So, with the help of Google-sama, I finally found a good recipe to try out.

Asian peanut brittle has sesame in it, but I cannot get good quality sesame here where I am at, so, I skipped them.  Recipe is quite simple, but having too much is really not pretty to the teeth.  The brittleness of peanut brittle comes from the hardened caramel (basically cooked down sugar with butter in this case).

I limit myself to one to two pieces a day if I were to eat, otherwise, I am probably going to have cavities. Hahaha!!!  Anyway, I like to have them around.  Why?  Because us, humans are just weak to sweets.  It is good way to sooth my "glass heart" as many Chinese might relate to this.  What is "glass heart"?  You know, a heart that is easily broken....well, I have days where my heart seems to crack.  I need sweets to glue it back.

Cheesecake Souffle

One of the best creation in our culinary is dessert.  I truly believe we need to have sweets in our dietary system.  Why?  Because it is one of the best ways we can slow down and enjoy a relaxing day.  So, when I am tired or feeling a little broken, what do I do.  I think of sweets to give my emotion a lift.

Yes, I am a normal human being, with ups and downs as well.  So, when I am feeling a little blue, a little down, I make one of my favorite dessert---cheesecake souffle.  Tones of recipes when you google.  Very easy to make but takes time to bake (water bath for one hour).  I often makes it in the evening and unmold it in the morning.  This is just right for my breakfast.  Believe me, it pairs well with coffee.

What better way to make my day first thing in the morning?  Eating good dessert with a cup of my favorite coffee.
 

Chinese New Year 2021 dinner

 My husband is Japanese and I am Chinese Malaysian.  So, this is what happened when we have cross culture celebration.  Tonkatsu, steam garlic shrimp and stir fry vegetables.  And since it was Chinese New Year celebration, I didn't have miso shiro but meatball soup.

Actually, this is more of a every day meal than celebration meal.  Why?  Well, didn't have variety of ingredients to make fancy festive meal. Plus, I was tired of doing a lot when I am the only one cooking.  Imaging all the cleaning I still have to do.  You wonder why my kids and husband are not helping, well, it's a working week.  No holidays here where I am at.

Oh well, I can just do the best I can.  It was still a good meal.  Coming a little late, but wishing all a prosperous and healthy 2021!!!

Pineapple tarts for Chinese New Year

 Pineapple tarts, a favorite of my daughter.  Also, a popular must have cookies for Chinese New Year celebration in Malaysia.

It is hard for me buy this here where I am at.  Of course, this means I'll have to make it myself.  With the convenience of online recipes available with just a quick search on Google, I immediately went to work.

First of, the pineapple jam...of course this needs to be made ahead of time.  Easy right.  Yeah, just time consuming.  But with the wonders of technology like the food processor, I don't even have to grate the pineapples like how olden days pineapple jam was made.  With a blitz, my pineapple pulp was ready to be cooked down with sugar into thick jammy consistency.  Yeah, this is where I pull a chair and my little computer with K-drama playing while I stir the pineapple pulp occasionally while it simmers,

Once the jam is done, now on to the next step, the cookie dough.  I just pick the recipe with the nicest picture.  Hahaha...I cannot tell if it taste good or not until I made them, but at least the picture looks good.  Most cookie dough recipe available in the Internet are simple, so, I was able to make that in one trial.  Once the dough is done, chilled for at least half-an-hour.  Then it's ready.  Rolled it out, cut out with cookie cutter and put a dollop of pineapple jam on top.  Recipe even make thin strips to criss cross on top of the jam, but I find that too much work just to buff up the ecstacticness.

Preheat oven at 350 F, popped the trays into the oven and wait for 15 to 18 min.  I like my cookies a little brown.  They are done.  Quite simple right, but it is a 3 days job (I took my time).  One day for jam, another day for dough and final day for shaping and baking.

All in all, it was a satisfying effort for my non-festive Chinese New Year here where I am at.

Thanksgiving meals

Thanksgiving has always been busy for those who celebrate it.  The last few days had been like that for me.  I opted to cook a pork dish than the traditional turkey, much to my son's dissatisfaction (he wanted the traditional roast turkey, of course). On top of that, I have recently pick up trading in the stock market again after being burn big time during the credit crisis.

Yes, I have sacrificed my nap time for stock time.  And it has kept me quite busy as time do not wait for you.  In stock trading, every second counts, especially if one is day trading or even swing trading, which is what I am 'somewhat' doing.  Haha...you must be thinking I'm not taking it seriously.  Well, I'll just move on to food topic for now---side way glance.

Truthfully, I have been swing trading on natural gas...and guess what, winter has been turning its back on me.  What can I do, I am talking about mother nature here....she's is going against the odds this winter.  My heart is bleeding, but well, mother nature is not planning to sooth me, I can only turn to food.

So, this Thanksgiving, I am going all out.  What I mean is making everything from scratch.  I started with dessert, apple pie.  But I don't really like the usual American apple pie, plus I'm not a big fan of cinnamon.  So, I opt for French style apple pie---apple galette, a favorite in my family (picture below).

Next, I prep my meat.  I planned to make rolled pork with olive spread inside.  So, I bought a whole 'loaf' of pork loin.  Yes, the entire 'loaf' was a little over 1 foot long.  I made a brine with salt and brown sugar, sliced open the pork loin by going around in a spiral form so that it was a thin piece of meat that spread about 1'x1"x 10".  Soaked the meat in the brine overnight, so it'll be ready the following day for roasting.

Then, I prepared the bread.  As usual, instead of buns, I prefer french loaf.  Of course, I used started to make it.  I often make it, so making this wasn't a big hassle. The only issue I have was the time it takes to rise especially now in the winter.  It tends to take longer than usual to rise, which also increase the sourness in the bread (since I used sourdough starter).  This is of course not a problem, since my family loves sourdough bread.  But, I find it hard to balance the acidity and the rise of the bread (haha, I still have ways to go in making sourdough bread).  Anyway, the bread did come out nicely.

I also went ahead to finish up the cranberry sauce.  One, it is easy to make and second, I prefer eating it cold.  I like to keep the cranberry sauce on the sour side.  In fact, I even added granny smith apple to perk up the sourness.  This was the last thing I did before turning in for bed, ready for Thanksgiving day.

See, my cranberry sauce all served up.  Nothing spectacular, it is really the simplest one to make among the other dishes I had.

On Thanksgiving day, I first baked the potatoes to make potato salad (japanese style).  Since, we are asian family, I often kept some of the dishes asian style like this one.  What is the difference? Well---looking at the name, 'salad' makes the difference with normal mash potatoes.  In japanese style potato salad, it has sliced cucumbers and onions mixed in the mash potatoes.  I also added carrots in the mash potatoes, making it orangy in color as noted in the above picture.

Then I moved on to make the soup.  In most asian meals, they are often accompanied with soups.  So, being the asian family we are, I had to include soup in our Thanksgiving meal.  And to keep with the western theme, I didn't make wonton soup or eggdrop soup.  I decided to make shrimp bisque.  Although this is not a typical Thanksgiving dish, well, it is good anyway.

Next, I moved on to the meat.  I took the meat from the brine and left it to dry while I was making the soup and also making the olive paste to go inside the meat before rolling it.  Actually, instead of calling it olive paste, I just make olive tapanade.  Whatever leftover of this olive tapanade can be eaten with crackers or bread later.

I left the meat to dry about 1 hour.  Pat dry again in case it is still wet.  Spread the olive tapanade on the meat evenly, and then rolled it up.  Tied it with cooking twine and pan fried it in a dutch oven if you have one, or in a pot that can go inside the oven.  Once it is browned on all sides, add a splash of alcohol into the meat and covered the pot.  I used sake, since I don't have white wine handy.  I could have used red wine, but I just decided with sake.  Then put the entire pot into the over covered for 40 min at 375F.  After the 40 min, uncovered, increased temperature to 425F and basque the pork with the juice and cranberry sauce for another 15 min.  Walla, I have my roast rolled pork.

As a last minute decision, I also made two traditional Thanksgiving dishes---brussel sprouts and baked sweet potatoes.

Both dishes are easy to make, recipes are from the internet I found.  So, by 6 pm, I have my Thanksgiving meal ready.

And today, I thinking of chinese again.  As asian family, I lean towards asian meals, though my kids (born here in the States) do not often like it.  Oh well, the person cooking is the Queen!

Today, the day after Thanksgiving, my natural gas stock is  not looking good...weather outside is cold but not frigid cold.  I am trying to sooth my heart with food, which is why I am thinking 'chinese' today.  Soul food to keep my bleeding heart happy.

Happy Holiday everyone!!!

Yesterday

Yesterday was a beautiful day to be out.  I personally do not like to be out that often, but I actually was out in the yard.  And no, I was not outside for picnic or frolicking among the fallen leaves.  I was racking up a whole bunch of eaves and dried leaves, stirring up the small dust storm off the dry dirt.

I often think about my days in the evergreen tropical land, Malaysia.  There is hardly that many leaves I had to rake or sweep.  Nor were there any snow days where I have to shovel, or grass that grew the minute I mowed them down in the spring.  Days in Malaysia were rather easy, if I think about it.

As I aged, I often think about life.  Some people had a hard life, while others not.  But then again.  I believed, whether it is hard or not is a matter of relativity.  I knew someone who often claimed their life is miserable, but that person had three meals and a place to sleep everyday.  Yet, I knew someone who barely had a meal in a day nor a place to live, yet, not a single whisper about such unfortunate circumstances.  I asked, "Are you not angry about the way your life turned out?"  The respond:  "Life is a choice."

Yesterday, I was raking for almost three hours.  It got me thinking.  I probably should just have a picnic and frolic with the fallen leaves, because I have a yard to do so.  Yes, I at least have a big yard to do so.  As I was complaining about why there were so many eaves and leaves, I was glad that my yard is an open nature with lots of trees and animals.  I even found a beautiful pine cone that fell from one of the pine trees.  It is the most beautiful pine cone I have seen so far.  And believe me, I have tonnes of pine trees in my yard.  This pine cone is so big---bigger than my palm, and still green on the edges.  At the bottom by the stem, there is still fresh sap on it.  When I saw it, I thought it was so magical.  It was then, my tiredness from raking was relieved a little.  It put a smile on my face.

I shouldn't be too greedy.  That's what yesterday had taught me.  I have a big yard with lots of pine trees, crab apple tree, maple tree, tri-color beech tree and cherry blossom tree among others.  So, why should I cry about raking the eaves and leaves.  I should be frolicking around them or having a picnic under the shades.  My backyard is an open nature.  I don't even need to go elsewhere to enjoy such natural beauty.  I am actually very lucky.