Cool Ghosts Cool Food

Suan la fen

Or Hot-Sour noodles. Recipe from here https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/hot-and-sour-sweet-potato-noodles/ and a few additions:  

the topping at 1 o'clock on the bowl is bamboo shoots in chilli oil

at 9'o clock is reconstituted dried tofu skins

Tonkotsu Ramen

It’s easier than you think! It just takes time and a bit of planning... And bones. Lots of bones.

The complete process is quite long but you can split it up over two days if you don’t want to do it all in one go, e.g. you can make broth on day one and the pork + eggs on day two. It does mean the eggs won’t marinate over night but they’ll still be tasty. Or you can spread it over 3 days if you’re feeling patient. With that out of the way...

Tonkotsu Broth

Time: 10-12 hours, up to 24 hours.

Ingredients

2kg pork bones (cleaned trotters cut in half if you can get them are good)

1 large onion, cut in half (don’t bother peeling completely, just take whatever is loose off)

Whole bulb of garlic, cut in half (same as onion, no need to peel)

Large piece of ginger, roughly sliced

5-6 dried shiitake mushrooms

Salt to taste

Optional

2 carrots cut into large chunks

¼ bulb fennel

Process

Place bones in a large pot, cover with water and boil for 20 minutes or so.

Drain into a colander and rinse bones thoroughly. This is to get rid of blood, impurities etc. Clean the pot.

Put bones back into pot with 4L of water (or more to cover the bones) and bring to a rolling boil. Not a hard boil since that will make the broth cloudy. Skim any scum off the surface and top up with water regularly.

While the bones are boiling, heat a frying pan on medium heat and place onion and garlic with cut side down, leave until caramelised.

Option 1: leave bones on a rolling boil for 8-10 hours, add vegetables etc and boil for the final 2-3 hours. Option 2: add veg once they’re caramelized and leave to boil for 10-12 hours. Personally, I add them towards the end to get maximum pork flavour with a light extra flavouring. If you add them earlier, you obviously get a different flavour profile.

Reduce until you have about 1.5-2L of broth

Strain into a clean pot, discard bones etc.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can leave the bones to simmer over night for maximum flavour (plus ultra), just make sure you have enough water in the pot before going to bed (or get up during the night and top it up).

Once cooled, pour into an airtight container and store in the fridge, or if you’re like me and finish this around 11pm at night, leave it to cool on the hob with the lid on and put it away the next morning.

Good video: https://youtu.be/nscTA7QxryM

Chashu Pork

Time: 2.5 - 3 hours

This is an easy dish that takes about 2.5h to make and will hopefully result in melt-in-your-mouth tender pork belly with a lovely flavour that isn’t too salty. Personally I prefer rolled up pork belly because it just looks so pretty, and I think it’s a little bit more moist compared to flat pork belly (not that flat pork belly is dry!). One thing to remember: do not discard the liquid once your pork is done. This is very important, you will need it later!

A few recipes I’ve tried (both books linked here are good btw):

https://www.justonecookbook.com/homemade-chashu/

http://adamliaw.com/recipe/ramen-school-002-three-styles-of-chashu/

Nanban – Tim Anderson https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19186358-nanban

Japanese Soul Cooking – Tadashi Ono & Harris Salat https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17262625-japanese-soul-cooking

The combination of which is below

 Ingredients

600-750g pork belly (I prefer pork belly, other cuts would be pork neck, pork loin although loin is not fatty enough imo,). This is enough for 4 portions, use bigger piece if you need more portions

1 piece Kombu

6 Shiitake mushrooms

150ml Japanese soy sauce (or just use 250ml soy sauce instead of dark soy)

100ml Dark soy sauce (saltier than Japanese soy, also adds colour)

125ml Mirin

125ml Sake

Optional (I use these)

2-3 Spring onions

1 inch Ginger

1 Star anise

Process

Roll up pork belly and tie it up with butchers’ twine.

Boil for about 20 minutes

Remove pork from water, rinse under running water, rinse pot

Return pork to pot with kombu and mushrooms, cover with water and bring to boil

Once water is steaming, remove kombu since it will turn bitter and unpleasant if boiled

Simmer uncovered for 1 hour then add everything; soy sauce, mirin, sake, spring onion, ginger.

When done, remove the pork and leave to cool. Once cool, place in fridge over night to firm up. Don’t discard the liquid!

Strain the braising liquid into an airtight container, this will be the marinade for the eggs and can also be used to braise meat and veg for other meals.

Ajitamago

Time: 6 minutes 30 seconds for boiling, anywhere from 1 to 48 hours of marinating

Ajitamago are an essential part of ramen in my opinion. Lovely soft boiled eggs with a savoury salty sweet exterior is always a lovely accompaniment and very easy to make. You can either make a marinade ahead of time or you can use the braising liquid from the pork belly. A simple marinade recipe is below, but if you’re using the braising liquid just skip to the egg part. Using the braising liquid has the advantage of more complex flavour, plus there’s quite a lot of it so you can marinate more eggs which is always a good thing.

Simple marinade

Ingredients

225m Water

225ml Soy sauce

125ml Sake

2 cloves of Garlic

25g Ginger

1 Star anise

Process

Put all the ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil then immediately take it off the heat.

Leave to cool, transfer to airtight container.

It will last a few weeks, up to a month, in the fridge

Ajitamago ingredients

 4-6 eggs

Ice bath (or just very cold water bath)

 As much marinade as needed to cover the eggs

Process

 Carefully pierce the bottom of the eggs (rounded part) with a pin/needle.

Bring enough water to completely cover the eggs to boil

Set a timer for 6 minutes and 30 seconds

Gently place the eggs in the water and start the timer.

Use a pair of chopsticks to gently spin the eggs for about two minutes.

Once the time is up, transfer eggs to the ice/cold water bath.

When the eggs are cool, peel under cold running water.

Place eggs in a bowl, add marinade until eggs float then place a paper towel on top to weigh the eggs down alternatively you could place them in a zip loc bag.

Leave to marinate anywhere from a couple of hours to 24 hours. If marinating for a long time, rotate them regularly.

Personally, I feel that any longer will make them too strong but it’s possible to marinate them for 48 hours.

The book Nanban has an interesting alternative which involves Lapsang Souchong for a smokier flavour.

Tare

Tare is a concentrated sauce that adds additional flavour to the broth. It can be soy based (as in shoyu ramen), miso, salt (shio ramen) and almost anything else. I tend to try different things every time I make ramen and most recently, we tried two different things:

Version 1

 1tsp Nduja - spicy Italian (Calabria) spreadable salami. The idea was to use something that has a lot of flavour and spice, and doesn’t take away from the pork flavour of the broth (we spent 10+ hours getting that flavour, why would you want to dilute it?).

 Version 2

0.5 - 1 tbsp Miso

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp chicken powder

Technically the tare is supposed to be a separate thing you put into the bowl first then add broth but it’s up to you how you want to do this. There are plenty of recipes online and in the books I’ve linked that will show you how to do it “properly” 😊

Toppings

Apart from pork belly and eggs, other toppings can be

Pickled ginger (Gari)

Pickled bamboo shoots (Menma)

Spring onion

Toasted sesame seeds

Seaweed (Nori)

La-Yu (chili-sesame oil)

There’s an almost unlimited number of combinations for toppings, the above is just what I used this time.

Assembly

Start by bringing a big pot of water to the boil and heat up the broth. While that is heating up, thinly slice the pork and any other toppings that need slicing, e.g. spring onion, seaweed etc.

Depending on how fancy you want to be, you can either heat up the pork slices in the broth or you can use a grill/frying pan/blow torch. I used a frying pan since it was easiest and you get a nice light browning on the slices.

Once the water is boiling, add noodles and cook until they are done to your liking. I prefer a little bit of a bite to them which is about 3 minutes but this varies depending on what kind of noodles you use and your preference.

Heat the bowls by adding a ladle or two of broth then pour it back into the pot.

Ingredients:

For a 250ml glass

1. Salt

2. Ice cubes

3. 2 tablespoons tomato juice 

4. 2 dashes Worcestershire sauce

5. 4 dashes Tabasco (original)

6. 1 teaspoon light soy sauce

7. Black pepper

8. 1 lime

9. Mexican beer (I used Sol, only because I couldn’t justify 12 bottles of Corona)

Recipe:

1. Rim the glass with the cut lime and salt the rim. Then juice the lime

2. Put the tomato juice, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, soy sauce, pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, ice cubes and tabasco in the glass

Oven Baked Baozi

Dough:

3 1/2 cups of bread/000 flour

1/2 cup of cake/0000 flour

1 cup + 1tbsp milk

2/3 cups heavy cream

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp salt

10g yeast

1 egg

Sauce:

1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp dark soy sauce / tamari

Filling:

25-30g dried pine mushrooms

1kg pork shoulder

3 cloves of garlic

Method:

Make the dough: Mix until really sticky and wet. It takes a lot of mixing, by hand approx 15-20min, if you dont have a machine. Let rise somewhere warm for 60-90 minutes

Hydrate the dried mushrooms in black tea, or red wine if you like a stronger, more acidic taste.

Chop your pork into tiny cubes, trimming off and setting aside the fat.

Chop the garlic, and saute in olive oil for about 30 seconds

Add the pork, stir-fry, then add the sauce and mix well.

Once fully mixed, add the mushrooms, mix again, reduce the heat and let it reduce. You can add flour at this point ot thicken the mixture - use your judgment!

Separate the dough into 100g porotions and shape them into thick disks. 

Add roughly 1/4 cup of filling to the center of each, and close by pinching the edges of the discs over the filling, and twisting closed.

Invert onto a baking tray, so that the twisted seam is on the bottom. Add some egg wash if you like at this point.

In a preheated oven, bake for approx 25 min until the dough is cooked through.

Mochi Tofu Donut

Bonus: entirely vegan!

Easy Burgers, Cheese and Pickle optional

The easiest burgers you can imagine, done in less than 30 minutes. The only equipment you need is a lid for your frying pan.

Ingredients (makes lots of burgers)

  Patties

1kg beef mince, 20% fat. The better quality you can find the better but I used Asdas own and it was fine. Higher fat content also works.

2 tsp Paprika powder

1 tsp Garlic powder

Black pepper, 6 or so twists

  Quick Cucumber Pickle

1/2 Cucumber, preferably 4-5 Baby/Mini Cucumbers

100 ml white vinegar

40g sugar

1 tsp salt

  The Rest of the Burger Building Blocks

Brioche buns

Cheese slices, e.g. Emmental. Monterey Jack, Cheddar

Tomato

Lettuce, e.g. Gem or Iceberg

Red Onion

Mustard

Mayo and/or Ketchup

Lets make Burgers!

First up, pickles.

Pour white vinegar, sugar and salt into a saucepan on low heat to dissolve.

Slice up cucumbers. I tend to cut it in half then do diagonal sices to get half elipses. If using baby cucumber, just slice lengthways.

Once sugar and salt has dissolved, take off the heat, add cucumber and stir. Leave it for now.

Next, make patties

Add mince into a big bowl

Add 2 tsp of paprika, 1tsp of garlic powder and several twists of black pepper.

Give it a good mix to distribute the spices

Depending on how big you want your patties to be, make balls out of the mix. 5 patties would be roughly 200g each, which is quite big. For quarter pounders, make about 8-9 patties. I just grab a handful, shape it to a ball roughly the size of an apple and then flatten it on a plate. Freeze any patties you’re not using for future burger goodness (I now have four patties in the freezer).

Cooking time!

Heat up a frying pan on medium heat. Once hot, toast the brioche buns to get a nice light browning on the inside of the bun.

Add two to four patties depending on how big your frying pan is, how big your patties are and how many burgers you want to eat! Season with some salt and pepper.

Put a lid on the frying pan and leave them alone for a good couple of minutes so they get a good browning on one side.

While the burgers are browning, slice tomato and red onion. Tear a few leaves of lettuce.

Flip the burgers. Hopefully they’ll have a good crust, if not, no worries. Optional: brush the browned side of the burgers with some mustard for extra tang. Put the lid on again, leave for another couple of minutes.

Flip burgers, brush with mustard if you fancy. If both sides are nicely browned, add a slice of cheese so it melts a bit.

Burgers should be done, time to assemble!

  Burgers Assemble!

Bottom of bun

Lettuce leaf (I like to put the leaf between the burger and bun to prevent soggy bottom bun)

Burger (with cheese)

Red onion slices

 Pickles

Tomato

Spread the inside of the lid with condiments; mustard, may, ketchup, anything else you might fancy.

Pasta with Tomato, Redpepper and Goats Cheese

A quick(ish) pasta dish that tastes great; roasted red peppers, goats cheese and chilli. What’s not to like?

Ingredients (serves 2 for sure, maybe 3)

400-500g plum tomatoes, halved

2 red peppers, de-seeded and quartered

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 fresh red chilli, (mostly) de-seeded and sliced finly

100g Soft Goats cheese

Oregano

Handful of parsley, chopped

Olive oil

Pecorino Romana (or parmesan), finely grated

Pasta (spaghetti in the photo)

Prep

The first thing to do is to get the peppers going because they take the longest.

Heat the oven to 225C. I used grill + oven setting

De-seed and quarter the peppers. Quick de-seeding: cut off the top of the pepper, grab the seed + white flesh lump and take it out. I saved the tops, minced and put in the sauce towards the end for a bit of crunch

Place the red pepper quarters on parchment paper under the grill/in the oven and leave to char which will take about 20-25 minutes. Check them every now and then to rotate them around to get an even roast

While the peppers are roasting, get a pot of water on the hob and prep the ingredients for the sauce.

Halve the plum tomatoes

Mince garlic (I like the smash with flat of knife, julienne and mince way)

De-seed and slice the chilli

Cut the thick outer edge off the goats cheese, cut it up

Chop some parsley

Grate some pecorino

Time to check the peppers again. Once they are done you can peel the skin off and slice them into strips.

Once your pasta water is boiling, add a generous helping of salt. How much is debatable but be generous with it, add more than a pinch.

Cooking

Time to bring it all togther!

Heat a frying pan on low-meidum heat with a glug of olive oil

Add tomatoes and leave alone

Put pasta in the water, start timer (11 mins for spaghetti)

Give tomatoes a stir

Stir in garlic and chilli

Leave it alone for a few minutes, stir the pasta

Add red pepper strips (and minced pepper if using), stir

Add goats cheese

It should look a bit like this:

Add a few twists of black pepper and a large pinch of oregano, give it a stir

Give pasta a stir, check for doneness

Add a splash of pasta water to the frying pan to help make the sauce a bit more saucey

Add parsley to the pan, stir.

Give the sauce a final stir. The cheese should be melted and it should smell great by now so it’s time to

Plate up: pasta, sauce, a generous helping of grated pecorino

Enjoy!

Kålpudding - Classic Swedish cabbage pudding

Very filling and very good, even if the name might sound like something that should have been left in a book full of novelty recipes from the 70s.

The “pudding” has a nice meaty flavour that’s brightened up by the cabbage, but the real magic happens when you pair it with potatoes and lingonberries.

Would definitely recommend hunting down some jarred lingonberries if you’re set out to try this recipe. 

Ingredients

Filling to prep immediately

1/2 dl rice, simmered in:

2 dl milk

Cabbage and friends

600g white cabbage

1 tbsp golden syrup, or other sugar

1 tbsp soy

1 dl water

Salt and pepper

Rest of filling

400g minced meat, ideally 200g beef and 200g pork

1 egg

1 tsp salt

white pepper and a little allspice (or just black pepper)

1dl milk + 1dl heavy cream

Instructions

Start heating the oven to 200C. Put the rice to simmer in 2dl milk until soft, around 20 minutes. Let the rice cool a bit.

Meanwhile, chop the cabbage and fry it until browned. Add syrup, soy and water, cover with a lid, and simmer until soft. Spice to taste.

Mix together the filling - meat, egg, milk, cream and spices - in a bowl, adding the rice when it’s ready. Don’t worry if it appears to be a lot of liquid, the filling should be quite wet and loose. 

Layer the cabbage and filling on top of each other in an oven dish, making sure to end with a layer of cabbage. Bake in the oven for around 45 minutes.

Crispy tofu rice bowl with soy lime dressing

Serves 2

Ingredients

250g brown basmati rice

200g pack smoked tofu, drained well on kitchen paper

2 tsp vegetable oil

100g Tenderstem broccoli, halved

75g sugar snap peas

1 carrots, cut into matchsticks

2 tbsp brown miso paste

2 tbsp reduced salt soy sauce

1 tbsp maple syrup

3 tbsp lime juice

1/2 red chilli, thinly sliced

Sesame seeds, to serve, black if you can find them

Method

Preheat the oven to 220°C, gas mark 7, 200°C fan oven. Simmer the rice in a medium saucepan over a high heat with plenty of water for 20-25 minutes until tender. Drain, return to the covered pan and keep warm. (Alternatively, use a microwave rice pouch)

Meanwhile, cut the tofu into 1cm slices, and brush with the oil. Place onto a baking tray and cook for 15 minutes, or until crisp at the edges.

Blanch the broccoli and sugar snap peas in a pan of boiling water for 1 minute. Drain, rinse in cold water, dry on a clean tea towel and mix with the carrots.

Mix the miso, soy, maple syrup and lime juice together. Divide the rice between 4 large bowls. Top with the vegetables, tofu, chilli and sesame seeds. Serve drizzled with the dressing.

I adapted this from a recipe for four people - most ingredients have been not-quite-halved, except the dressing ingredients which I kept the same because I like a lot of dressing. As the tofu is being baked, it didnt need pressing to squeeze out excess moisture, and was lovely.

(The perfect...) Vegetable Lasagne

Another one from Felicity Cloake at the Guardian, next time I will probably add a tiny bit of cream to the last bit of ricotta on the top layer so that it covers more evenly, but otherwise this was lovely

Ingredients (serves 6)

3 aubergines

2 red peppers

50g pine nuts

2 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

600g chopped tomatoes

Slug of balsamic vinegar

500g ricotta

75g pecorino romana (or parmesan or a vegetarian alternative), finely grated

12 dried lasagne sheets or 6 fresh ones

Small bunch of basil, leaves picked

Method

Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark six. 

Prick the aubergines and put the aubergines and peppers on a lightly greased baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes until charred and collapsing in on themselves. Put the pine nuts in the oven for the last five minutes to toast.

When the aubergines and peppers are cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh of the aubergines and mash up any large pieces. Peel the peppers, remove the seeds and finely chop the flesh, then add to the aubergine.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the garlic for a minute or so. 

Add the aubergine and pepper mixture and fry for about 10 more minutes, stirring fairly frequently, until you have a thick pulp, then add the tomatoes and a generous slug of balsamic vinegar. Rinse out the tomato tins with a little water and add this to the pan as well. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 10 minutes until reduced. Season to taste.

Mix the ricotta with the toasted pine nuts and about three-quarters of the pecorino/parmesan. Season to taste.

If you're using dried pasta, blanch in boiling salted water for about a minute until just floppy. 

To assemble the lasagne, spread a quarter of the aubergine mixture in the base of a shallow oven dish (about 20cm x 25cm) and top with a few torn basil leaves and a layer of pasta, cutting it to fit if necessary. Spread with just under a quarter of the ricotta mixture and add another quarter of the aubergines, and some more basil. 

Repeat these layers (ricotta, aubergine, basil, pasta) twice more, finishing off with a thicker layer of ricotta. 

Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and bake for about 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes before serving.

Chicken Riggies

Super rich and lovely pasta dish with chicken, Italian sausage, peppers and olives.

Works really well for leftovers, especially with the chili and olives giving it some bite. Freezes and reheats well if you chop the chicken quite finely.

You’re going to remove the sausage meat from its casing, so fresh, non-precooked sausages are preferred. They’re usually sold for barbecuing.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1-2 links fresh salsiccia, or any non-precooked spicy sausage. Garlic and paprika are nice tastes.

1 onion, diced

2.5 dl mushrooms, sliced

Salt and pepper to taste 

600-700g chicken, finely diced

1 dl wine, or vinegar to taste

800g canned tomatoes

2.5 dl chicken broth

1dl cream

1dl water (or as needed)

1 bell pepper or canned peppers, diced

Any other peppers you have lying around (I used 1 red hot chili pepper)

Dried peppers to taste (the peppers are central)

1 dl olives, halved

3 cloves garlic, minced

500g penne pasta

Parmesan cheese

Method

Remove the sausage from its casing (this is easiest if you use fresh, non-precooked sausage) and cook with onion and mushrooms until things start softening up and browning. Add salt to draw some moisture out. Add the finely cubed chicken and continue cooking until browned, around 5 minutes.

Deglaze with wine (or water if you don’t have any), and stir in tomatoes, chicken broth and cream. Let simmer for 30 minutes, adding water if it starts looking too thick.

Halfway into simmering, add peppers, olives and garlic.

Cook the pasta until nearly done, drain it, then stir the finished sauce into the pasta. Let the pasta sit and chill in the sauce until it’s nice and soft and has absorbed all the good flavours.

Mix in some Parmesan cheese to taste (and budget).

Teriyaki Donburi with Kimchi

A quick and easy teriyaki donburi to which you can easily add whatever you feel! For example, a bed of sliced iceberg lettuce, some julienned carrots, japanese pickles or maybe a fried egg!

Ingredients

1 cup of so rice - just your standard Japanese rice to put in the bottom of the bowl

1 boneless chicken thigh (skin on optional; if you do have skin on, pierce it a couple of times with a fork)

1 small yellow onion - sliced in half then sliced into half circles

Teriyaki sauce

1.5 tbs Soy

1.5 tbs Sake

1.5 tbs Mirin

1 tbs Sugar

Toppings

Kimchi

Spring onion - sliced on the bias

Toasted sesame seeds (non-toasted if you don’t have any is fine)

Other toppings, e.g. carrot, lettuce, pickles.

It’s worth noting that if you want the teriyaki sauce to be less sweet, you can reduce the sugar and/or mirin and increase sake but be careful with how much soy you add since it might make it a bit salty. Finally, there are endless variations on Teriyaki sauce, some adding more of this and less of that or add grated ginger, garlic etc.

Method

Mix together the teriyaki sauce ingredients and whisk until sugar is dissolved.

Wash the rice gently, cook.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan, place chicken thigh with skin side down (or if no skin, the flat side). Mop up any excess fat/liquids with a paper towel

Once it’s cooked and browned, flip over and cook for a little bit longer and tip in the onion

When the chicken is almost done, add the teriyaki sauce

Baste the chicken with the teriyaki sauce by angling the pan and spooning the sauce over the chicken, give the onions a stir every now and then.

If all goes well, you should have a nicely glazed piece of chicken and some almost caramelized onions. Put the chicken on a cutting board and slice into strips for easy eating.

Put a good amount of rice in a bowl, top with sliced chicken then pour the sauce and onion over the chiken. Add toppings and...

Tuck in!

Inspired by sirogohan.com which has a great teriyaki chicken video:

Kabocha and Oyster Mushroom Risotto

Adapted from this no-stir risotto recipe. The kabocha and oyster mushroom amounts are estimates because I just eyeballed those!

Ingredients

300g risotto rice -- I used regular medium grain rice because I am a heretic, also, because I didn’t want to buy more rice

Half a medium kabocha squash, cubed into approx. 1cm cubes -- can substitute with butternut squash or any sweet soft autumn squash

Oyster mushrooms -- I find these work best, though you should be able to use button/chestnut mushrooms in a pinch

1 large shallot or half an onion, sliced or diced according to what you feel like doing

3 cloves garlic, minced

1000ml light chicken or vegetable stock

180ml dry white wine

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp miso, preferably white/shiro miso

~2tbsp butter, substitute olive oil for vegan recipe

Salt and black pepper, optional chopped parsley

Important! You must cook this in a wide, shallow pan with a lid! Otherwise the method doesn’t work.

Method

Wash the rice gently in the stock. Strain rice, reserving all the stock. Allow rice to drain while preparing other ingredients.

Heat the butter in the pan on medium and add the oyster mushrooms. Cook until nicely browned, around 8 minutes. Add the onions and cook until they are translucent, about 3 minutes.

Add drained rice and garlic to the pan and stir to coat with fat. Toast rice on medium until the rice grains look translucent, like little ice cubes.

Add soy sauce and miso, stirring to mix well. Then add the white wine and cook until the alcohol has evaporated.

Stir the stock to mix up the starch. Add all but one cup. Add the kabocha squash and stir, making sure no rice is sticking to the sides of the pan. Bring to a simmer, cover, and turn down the heat to low and cook for 10 minutes.

Stir the rice once or twice, cover, and cook for 5 more minutes. Most of the liquid should be absorbed and the rice should be cooked through after those 5 minutes.

Spicy Savoury Oatmeal (With An Egg On It)

recipe loosely inspired by a similar thing I had in a shop once. Ingredients

1/3 cup quick-cooking steel cut oats

1/2 tbsp peanut butter or other nut butter

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 egg

Sriracha or other garlicky hot sauce, to taste

Chopped green onion and sesame seeds, to garnish

Method

Cook oatmeal according to instructions. Add a little extra water, since the peanut butter will thicken it significantly.

Once cooked, mix in the peanut butter, hot sauce, and soy sauce. Adjust to your liking.

Fry the egg any way you want (I did mine with a runny yolk)

Recipe from https://www.justonecookbook.com/takikomi-gohan/

Wonderful spicy lentil stew (daal)

A staple in my weekday meals with a multifaceted spicy taste. Cook it today and you have lunch or dinner sorted for several days. A perk of living alone! Technically serves 6 people.

The spice mix used is basically a garam masala, so you’re free to use that and complement with some extra individual spices to taste. 

And yes. Use a whole garlic. It comes out great in the end.

Nicely served with some rice, flat bread, yoghurt and chutney.

Ingredients

0.5 dl oil

1 tbsp Ghee (optional, or use butter)

1 finely chopped red hot chili pepper

1 finely chopped onion

1 finely chopped carrot

1 whole garlic, minced or grated

1 proper chunk of ginger, minced or grated

2 tbsp cumin

1 tsp cinnamon

a bit of coriander

a bit of cardamom

a bit of honey (or sugar)

lime

4 dl red lentils

400g canned chopped tomatoes

2 cubes or 3 tbsp of vegetable stock

400ml coconut milk

Method

Finely chop the onion, carrot and chili. Mince or grate the garlic and ginger.

Heat up the fats and add everything above, as well as spices, into a deep pan. Fry until fragrant.

Punjabi style chicken curry and pilau rice

A good chicken curry is actually quite easy as long as you have roughly the right spices and a big pot. Pilau rice can be as fancy or as simple as you like! Alternatively you can eat this with chapattis (which is the “proper” way to eat it) but personally I really like using the rice to soak up the sauce.

Chicken curry

2 medium yellow onions, chopped

A bunch of cloves of garlic, 6-8?, minced

Big knob of ginger, minced

1 fresh chilli or 1 tsp chilli powder

1-2 tsp turmeric

1tbs ground cumin

2 tbs ground coriander

1 tin of chopped tomatoes (alternatively use rough equivalent of fresh)

Optional: 1 cup/250ml natural yoghurt

1kg of chicken thighs, bone in, skin off

Whole spices

5-6 cardamon pods

2-3 cm piece of cinnamon or a cinnamon stick

2-3 bay leaves

6-8 whole cloves

6-8 black peppercorns

Fresh coriander, to serve

All spice measurements are suggestions, putting in more by design or accident is never a bad thing!

Pilau rice

1 cup of basmati rice

2 cups of chicken stock

1 bay leaf

4-5 cardamon pods

a few cloves

some cumin seeds

some saffron strands for flavour and colour, soaked in a little bit of hot water (or use turmeric)

small onion, finely minced

optional: small piece of cinnamon

First the curry

Add a generous helping of oil to a big heavy pot and sizzle the whole spices for a little bit then add the onion. Sauté onion, garlic and ginger until golden then add the ground spices. Fry for another minute or two

If using fresh tomatoes, add them here with a pinch of salt and let it simmer for a while to break them down

Add chicken pieces and sauté on high heat, stirring well to lightly brown the chicken.

Add optional yoghurt here, sauté for a few minutes to dry it out

If using tinned tomatoes, add them now

Add a splash of water to make sure the chicken is mostly covered

Put the lid on and leave to simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 30-40 minutes. While this is simmering away, make the pilau rice:

Second the pilau rice

Add a splash of oil to a pot, add spices except saffron and sauté for a moment to bring out the fragrance, then add onion and sauté until golden

Pour in the rice, stir to coat it with the oil and let it fry for a moment until it turns translucent. Be careful not to burn it.

Add stock, bring to a boil and put the lid on.

Leave it alone on the lowest heat for about 15-16 minutes then take it off the heat. Leave it to rest until the chicken is done which will hopefully be in about 5-10 minutes at most.

It’s worth noting that a nice rice can be made with just some chicken stock and a bay leaf, you don’t necessarily need all the other bits (but they do make it taste nice and if you made the chicken curry you’ll probably have most of them)

Everything is done

Time to eat; a nice portion of pilau rice and/or chappatis/naans with one or two thighs per person depending on how hungry they are, sprinkle some coriander leaves over the chicken and tuck in!

Very roughly adapted from:

https://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe/Punjabi-Chicken-Curry.html