Tender Red Wine Beef Cheeks

I thought I might document the games I play with Asher at home while I can still remember. They grow too quick I think. Asher is already 5.5 months now and I'm counting my blessings that I'm home with him. Certainly there are days when I miss the intellectual side of work and freedom in doing things by myself but I still wouldn't ask for anything else but him.

In fact, I'm a little embarrassed that I have become one of those mums who gush about their child. Oh and wear gym clothes all day- they are comfy, dry quicker and looks good. Ha!

Back to baby games and activities...

"Aeroplane"- I placed him on my legs between ankle and knees and lift him to table top position with my back on the floor. It's another form of tummy time but I call him my little captain Asher and he fly to the left, right or crash on my tummy.

"Parachute"- Using cloths of different texture, I lift it up and let it float on his face. He loves this one and I reserve it for "cranky times"!

"what texture is this?"- As I fold clothes, I would rub some different texture cloths or items on his face. Terry towel, plain cotton, draw strings of a shorts..etc

"warm and cold"- I alternate between an ice-cube and a spoon that was dipped in warm water.

"Peek-a-boo"- Ahh.classic baby games. Sometimes I use the cushion, or hubby holds him while I hide behind the sofa/door.

"Let's fly up high"/"superman"- Lifting him up to the air and flying to different or things to the house. Superman is when he rests on my forearm and we fly to different rooms and places in the house.

"Dance"- haha, put on some music and we do a mummy and baby dance in our hall.

"Singing"- We do "this little piggy" or "incy which spider" up his body. He loves a good tickle!

"Do a good stretch"- I sing and stretch his hands and legs using "hokey pokey" or "How much do I love you...this much!"

"Boxing"- How can I not do this? We "box" or "high 5" using alternate hands and then we do a jiggle of the arms or a tickle. So it's "boxing boxing jiggle jiggle jiggle and then boxing boxing tickle tickle tickle".

"Upside down"- In a sitting position, I slide him forward, hold him by his thighs and hold him upside down. Or standing up, I cradle him across his shoulder and bum and put him upside down.

"Puppet"- I use several hand puppets and make silly noises or conversational speech with him.

"how many colours are there in a rainbow?"- I have several ribbons tied together. I tend to wave them around, front and back of him and on him and sing colours in my new inventive song (i invent a lot of songs including bath time songs..haha).

"Let's talk to the mirror"- He is so fascinated with the mirror. Sometimes, I stick him in front of one and we just look in the mirror. He talks to his own reflection and to mine. It's quite funny to watch.

"Jelly on a plate"- I place him across my thighs and jiggle around.

"Baby massage"- Some mornings I do a longer, 30 minutes massage on him. Other times, I choose to use a rhyme from Gymbaroo and he loves it!

Of course, the other activities I do with him are reading, talking to him, walking around our garden or surrounds, or simply just lying next to him while he does tummy time. I'm conscious as well that a child needs alone time to develop (supervised), so every morning and evening, I like to put him on his play gym and leave him there. It's actually quite interesting to watch him twist turn and explore his toys.

On other news, I have cut my hair to shoulder length. It's such a big thing for me as I always have relatively long hair. But it's getting unruly, untidy and falling out heaps :( I know it will get back to normal in time but I just thought it's time for a change.

This has been a strange summer for us in Perth. The weather has been really good except over the weekend when it reached 44C. Yes, we stayed in the air con for most of the weekend. We also had some chilly evenings as well. On one of my recent visits to the butcher, I spotted a pack of beef cheeks and thought I might give it a go in our pressure cooker. The result was amazing. Why have I not discovered this cut of meat before?

Tender Red Wine Beef Cheeks (serves 4)
1 kg of beef cheeks
1 red onion diced
1 tsp of garlic
2 cups of stock
1 cup of red wine
1 can of diced tomato
1 carrot sliced
3-4 bay leaves

Brown onions and garlic. Brown beef cheeks. Add in all liquid, carrots or mushrooms and bay leaves. Bring to a soft boil and place pressure cooker lid on. Cook for 30 minutes or so. Dig in with mash cauliflower.

Burmese Style Beef Curry

Experimenting with curries has been interesting. It certainly took me out of my comfort zone in the kitchen.  Blending of spices, chopping of ginger, tasting and making sure the blend of tastes is ok... woah! I am used to quick and easy in the kitchen!

But out of comfort zone is good. It's ok. I read somewhere that when your mind stretches, it can never go back. I believe it is the same with cooking. Every other week, I want to see if I could go further, taste more and make another batch of curry.

I have to confess that the original recipe does not use beef. I don't think burmese would used that much beef since many burmese are buddhists. Nevertheless, hubby requested for beef curry and he gets beef curry!

The tang from tamarind, the saltiness from the balachan or shrimp paste... yum!

Burmese Style Beef Curry- Adapted from Asian and Thai Curry by Hermes House Serves 4
4 cm fresh ginger grated
3 red chili padi chopped
2 lemongrass white bit chopped
1 tbsp shrimp paste
1 tsp brown sugar
500 grams lean beef cubes
1 cup of water
2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp dark soy sauce
5-6 tablespoon of tamarind juice
1 tbsp fish sauce


Food processor- grind ginger, chill and lemon grass. Add shrimp paste and brown sugar to make it to a paste.

Saute paste till nice and fragrant. Add beef and brown them. Then lower heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Stir in some water, turmeric, soy sauce into the pan. Taste, season and cook for another 30 minutes or so. Last 5 minutes, add the tamarind juice. Serve with veges.

Beef Rendang

 Have you caught the Masterchef fever yet? I have. Every time I watch an episode, I learn something new. According to some newspaper reports, home cook meals have increased by more than 100% following the series. They could even predict what ingredients are more in demand after the show!

Last season's winner Adam Liaw published his first cookbook "Two Asian Kitchens" not long ago. He separated recipes into "old kitchen" and "new kitchen"- concepts that I embrace immediately. Afterall, I'm always trying to learn how to create recipes that my heritage and family taught me but at the same time, love to re create new stuff in my new kitchen from experiences and life.

I picked his rendang recipe to try first. Most people who cooked rendang before would tell me that it is a tedious and long process to get it right. It's a very thick beef coconut spicy stew, cooked so long that the meat is tender and has a melt in your mouth texture.

His ingredients are easy to source in my local oriental and vegetable market- a big bonus because I often find it hard to locate items from cookbooks bought overseas. He made it easy for the Aussie Market!!

I love mixing the toasted coconut at the last 20-30 minutes. It provides the texture that only the rendang can claim king. It tasted better after the next day.

Adam Liaw's Beef Rendang (serves 4-5)
1 tsp oil
600 grams of lean beef chunks. He recommended braising steak as well.
3 stalks of lemongrass
2 kaffir lime leaves shredded
1 tsp sugar
400 ml coconut cream
100 grams grated fresh coconut or 130 grams desiccated coconut if needed.

Base Paste
1 red onion (or 8 eschalots)
6 red hot bird eyes chilies
at least 6 garlic cloves. I added 2 generous tablespoon of minced garlic
3 cm piece of galangal, ginger and tumeric. All peeled and thickly sliced.
2 tsp sea salt flakes

Place all base paste ingredients in a food processor or mortar. Grind to a paste. Heat oil in large saucepan, fry paste for 5 mins or so till fragrant.

Add beef, lemongrass,, eric, kaffir leaves, sugar and toss to coat in mixture. Add coconut cream and around 200 ml water. Simmer for 30 mins. Then uncover and cook for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, toaste coconut till slight brown. Transfer to a mortar and grind it to a paste. This will release the oils. I cheated and just use a pestle to gently press the coconut.

The beef would have been cooking for 1.5 hours. Add the coconut and cook for another 20 minutes or so. Stir often. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly. Serve with hot rice or coconut rice.

Cheat's Version Vietnamese Beef Pho

I'm very appreciative of Vietnamese eateries- especially a small one near where we live. It offers convenient and reasonable priced healthy food. My favourites of course are the Pho and paper rolls.


While this is not the real deal, it provides a quick and tasty alternative. The real deal says that the stock has to be simmered for hours with the right blend of fish sauce, onions, ginger and cinnamon. I cheated by purchasing beef stock. Where I cheated, I saved time by simmering the stock with the above ingredients for 20 minutes or so.

The rest of it is really quick and easy, just blanching the beef with the stock and then it's ready to serve. I thought I was lucky enough to get my hands on some Vietnamese beef balls from our local oriental shop-but I found them a little too tough with small bits of sinew. Not a good match at all. I spotted another brand- frozen though, and might give that a go another time.

Hubby gave me credit for trying to match the "atmosphere" of Vietnamese eateries, seriving my soup with a dish of bean sprouts, basil leaves, lemon and chopped chili. Hey, that's the least I could do with my cheat's version!

Cheat's Version Vietnamese Beef Pho (Serves 2-3)
100 grams of lean beef fillet sliced really thinly
100 grams of Vietnamese beef balls
1 ltre of beef stock
1 cinnamon stick
1 small piece of ginger peeled
1 red onion sliced
2 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 tsp of sugar
1/4 lemon juice

1/4 pack of rice sticks- soaked in warm water for 5 minutes.

Serve with bean sprouts, basil leaves, lemon quarters and chopped fresh chili.

Fry onions till soft. Simmer stock, spices and sauces for 20 mins. Meanwhile cook noodles and set aside in bowls. Taste and season if needed. Cook beef balls in it till done. Then, quickly blanched sliced beef. Ladle the soup on the noodles straight away. Serve hot with all the condiments.

Slow Cooked Red Wine Beef Casserole

There is something about slow cooked food that warms the heart. The meat in your mouth meat combined with the rich taste just seem to fulfill you. There are two big reasons why I love slow cooking 1) it's usually low fat and 2) It could serve as a one pot dish.

One could even argue that this is very similar to my Red Wine Beef and Onion Pies that I posted recently. This slow cooked casserole has more liquid (ie wine) and veges. The pies are thicker and richer in its gravy and certainly not as many ingredients to it.  I love having mash potato to this dish- especially with a good squash of garlic to it.

winter love....

Slow Cooked Red Wine Beef Casserole (serves 4)
450 grams of lean beef chunks
2 onions sliced
1.5 cups of red wine (cabernet sauvignon)
3-4 carrots diced roughly
2 cups of button mushrooms stems removed
1 tablespoon of flour
500 ml beef stock 

Brown beef in batches. Remove from pot. Cook sliced onions till soft. Add in a tablespoon of flour with the beef. Throw in  wine and beef stock. Simmer for 1 hour. Add vegetables and simmer for another 30 minutes. Serve with garlic mashed potatoes.

Jamie Oliver's "Pregnant Jool's Pasta"

So Jamie Oliver calls this "Pregnant Jool's Pasta". Seems that this is the pasta that she often craved when she was pregnant. Well, no one here is pregnant, I was simply intrigue by his use of sausages in the sauce. One thing I found was that Jamie Oliver seems to be addicted to the use of his food processor in this cookbook. In this dish, everything was blitz up (Including the sausages which was why I was intrigued!). In really saves time in preparation- just that the cleaning up takes longer than what it usually would. I can't wait for a dish washing machine in our next home.

One thing that got me hooked right away was the smell of fennel seeds. Oh, how come nobody told me that fennel seeds smells so good!?

The other (personal) achievement, was that I managed to sneak balsamic vinegar in this dish without hubby noticing. Yes, he dislikes anything vinegar- and thinks that salad should come fresh the way it should be.

I adapted this recipe-adding in more veges instead. I think it worked just as well!

It's meaty, hearty and tasty. That's alot of -ty. See, that book is really winning me over now.

Jamie Oliver's Pregnant Jool's Pasta (Serves a generous 4 portions and more to freeze)
a small bunch of spring onions (around 5)
2 carrots
4 celery stick
4 fresh chili padi (original calls for 2 normal chillis)
400 grams of italian sausages (or good sausages)
1 heaped tsp of fennel seeds
1 tsp of dried mixed herbs (or oregano)
1 heaped tablespoon of garlic
4-5 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
a few springs of basil

500 grams of rigatoni pasta

Cook pasta in salted boiling water. Drain.

Meanwhile, roughly chopped all vegetables. Blitz them in food processor with chilis. Add chopped up sausages, fennel seeds and dried mixed herbs. Keep pulsing till well mixed.

In a hot pan, heat a tablespoon of oil. Add mixture. Fry it up and stir it as you go. Add the pasta to the dish. Toss. Tear basil leaves into the dish. Serve with parmesan.

Basil and Tomato Sausage Soup

If you are wondering, yes this was the soup I made when it was 35C. The week when we had bizarre hot/cold/can't make up its mind weather.

It was also the soup that hubby requested me to make. I love the chunky veges in a soup. Somehow, it bulks it up and makes it very yummy. Hubby likes this soup and he calls it the man soup-because it has plenty of spicy Italian sausages in it. (well, he thinks it is plenty, but really there were only 4 ...the trick was to slice them up! ;) shhhh.....

(honey, if you are reading this-refer to the previous post about complementing each other....)

I had some basil on hand and a leftover jar of pesto sauce as well. So I saute the sausages and veges with the pesto before adding in the stock. The result was a flavoursome and rich soup. It tasted even better the next day.

Now, I just need to make this for our cold 10C night, instead of the 35C day.... ;)

Basil and Tomato Sausage Soup (Serves 6-tastes even better the next day)
4 Italian Sausages sliced
4 tablespoon of pesto
1 onion sliced thinly
6 stalks of celery diced
1 cup of button mushrooms sliced
1 carrot sliced
1 cup of frozen peas
2 tomatoes diced
1 can of mixed beans
1 can of 400 grams diced tomato
1 small bunch of basil leaves
1 ltre of beef stock
2-3 cups of water

Saute sausages till nearly done. Add pesto and all veges. Toss through. Add stock and simmer. Add water when needed. Simmer for around 20 minutes or so. Add basil in the last 2 minutes of simmering. Serve with crusty bread and a tsp of presto.

Grilled Beef Sesame Japanese Salad

Are you the type of person who likes making decisions or perhaps prefer to ponder your choices for a while? For me, it depends on the situation and type of problem. Take food for instance, I plan my meals on a weekly basis a and around work schedules. The usual weekly conversation hubby and I have goes something like this:

me: "any meal requests for the week?"
hubby: silence
me: "I need suggestions!
hubby: "erm... beef?"
Me: "ok, how about a beef salad?"
hubby: "ok...." (and probably feeling relieved that I'm not pressuring him to give me more answers)

When it comes to general house issues though..it's the reverse.

hubby: "sooo, what light switches would you like..how about electrical points, do we need 5 in the study?"
me: silence
hubby: "I need you to have a look..."
me: "I didn't know there are actually TYPES of light switches? and yes, 5 is too many in the study..."
hubby: "ok, we go with the white switch and remove 2 electrical points and put in a surge protector board."
me: "ok" (relieved as I have no idea what he was talking about but it makes sense...)

That's why I guess God make sure that I am there to feed hubby, and hubby is there to make sure I have enough electrical points in the house to use...

Speaking of confusion, I'm not sure if the weather knows what it wants lately either. We have been going through a series of winter, summer and autumn weather in one week. It is freezing one day, and super hot the other. It's getting harder to plan meals. Take this salad, I made this while it was below 20C. And then made a soup when it was 35C!

Hubby likes his beef medium rare. I like mine towards medium. We compromised as the rump steak has a side that is thinner than the rest (Which makes it cooked quicker). I sprinkled some peanuts and made a sauce based on sesame dressing from the shops.

Grilled Beef Sesame Japanese Salad (Serve 2)
250 grams rump teak (tenderized or with sea salt sprinkled and left on for 10 mins or so. Rinse and pat dry. This will make the meat tender).
1 tsp olive oil
cracked pepper

3 cups of salad leaves
1 carrot shredded
1 avocado diced and sprinkled with lemon juice

Dressing
3 tablespoon of sesame dressing
2 tablespoon of mirin
1 tsp of soy
1 tsp of sesame seeds

granulated peanuts to serve.

Heat grill pan till very hot. Spread olive oil on beef and some cracked pepper. Sizzle steak on both sides for 3 mins each. Rest steak. Sliced thinly.

Dressing-whisk everything.

Assemble salad but placing carrots on top of salad leaves. Beef. peanuts and dressing on the side.

Mongolian Beef - Kylie Kwong 's Recipe

Years ago, I tried Mongolian Beef. It was a sweet sticky stir fry from a local Chinese take away shop in Perth. It was yucky and have nothing to do with Mongolian Cuisine.

I have been collecting small recipe booklets from our weekend newspaper reads. One of the booklets was from the famous Kylie Kwong who brought Chinese cooking too households in Australia. I tend to stay away from her recipes because I usually look towards my grandmother for some inspiration for home cooked meals.

I nearly flipped the page when I saw "Mongolian Beef" as one of the featured recipes. Interestingly enough though, it featured beef mince and salted cabbage. Especially the salted cabbage- can it really make a difference?

The end result? The salted cabbage added texture and crunch to the overall dish. I like how easy it is to eat this with some rice. Best of all, it is an one pot dish. Some fresh chopped chili and spring onions-and a meal is done.

I'm still not sure if it is Mongolian, but at least it is delicious to eat!

Mongolian Beef (Serves 5)

600 grams beef mince
5 cups of shredded Chinese cabbage (I had english cabbage though)
2 tsp sea salt
2 tablespoon of shao hsing wine
2 tablespoon of hoi sin sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 carrot shredded
1 red pepper sliced finely
3/4 cup of sliced spring onions.

marinate
2 tablespoons of shao hsing wine
1 tablespoon of light soy
1 tablespoon of corn flour
garlic cloves diced
1/2 tsp of sesame oil

Marinate beef mince for 30 mins.

Place cabbage and sea salt in a bowl. Mix well. Stand for 15 mins, then rinse under cold water and drain. Squeeze out any excess liquid.

Heat pan till out. Fry beef, and break up lumps. Pour in sauces and fry for 30 seconds. Toss in cabbage, carrot, red pepper and fry for min. Add spring onions. Toss. Remove from heat. Spoon beef onto bed of rice. Top with spring onions and sliced chili.

Teriyaki Meat Loaf

I am very much in love with my oven. I love the ease of it- just placing something in a hot oven and out comes a hearty hot meal (or dessert!we win either way). Having some left over teriyaki sauce in the fridge, I tipped the rest of the bottle out to marinate our meat loaf. Talk about Asian influence in our styles of cooking! It wasn't anything too fancy but enough to survive another night of dinner- and left overs to boot for the next day.

To add more veges in our diet- I mixed in some shredded carrots and chopped onions. Does the treat I say. I love the texture and would not hesitate to make this again! 

I served these with stir fry veges.

Teriyaki Meat Loaf (Serves 4-5)

500 grams lean beef mince
1 egg
1 cup of bread crumbs- fresh or from packet
2-3 tablespoon of teriyaki sauce
2 tsp of chili powder (because I like it hot!)
1 carrot shredded
1 red onion chopped
2 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
pepper


Line loaf pan. Pre heat oven 200C. Mix everything in a bowl. Spoon and press mixture into loaf pan. Bake for 30 mins. Serve with salad or stir fry veges.

Mini Cornish Pastries

Sometime back, I was sick and at home.... doing some ironing while watching TV- Huey's Cooking Adventure to be exact. He was attempting to make cornish pasties which of course, means a light bulb went on in my head thinking that I could do this in my home kitchen too.

My cornish pasties turned out to be... like CHINESE DUMPLINGS! except it is beef and baked. I can't help but have a giggle when I saw them.

Since I have no idea how to fold the corners and I used my dumplings cutter to cut the circle out of the shortcrust pastries...that was what I got. It was tasty though and I dipped it in some chutney. Hubby loved this! That batched lasted us for 3 meals!

 Huey's Cornish Pasties (Recipe from his website)

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 smallish potatoes, peeled & cut into about 1 cm cubes
• 1 small turnip, peeled & cut into about 1 cm cubes
• 300 gm rump steak, trimmed of fat & sinew, cut into about 1 cm cubes
• sea salt & freshly ground pepper
• a splash of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup milk
• 2-4 shortcrust (or puff) pastry sheets
• plain flour

 

• Preheat oven to 180°C fan forced (200°C normal). 
• Combine the onion, potatoes, turnip, steak, seasonings and Worcestershire with your hands. 
• In another bowl, whisk the egg with milk. 
• Cut a large round in a pastry sheet and place it on a lightly floured workbench. Spoon a quarter of the mixture in the centre, brush around the edges with egg wash and bring up the sides to meet in the centre. Then crimp the edges to seal and place the pasty on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Repeat the process. 
• Make a small cut in each side of the pasties, brush them all over with egg wash and cook in the oven for about 35-40 mins. (If browning too much, loosely cover with a piece of foil.) 
• Serve with a good dollop of your favourite pickles or chutney.

Italian Sausage Hot Pot

For a change, we decided to cook up a storm using chat potatoes. The "healthy" me says that's better for us because we can have the skin too. But really the "lazy" me just didnt want to peel the potatoes! After a good scrub, they go into a pot of salted boiling water.

I picked up a packet of lean italian sausages from Woolworths the other day. Being time tight, I made this one pot dish for some winter warmth. This tastes better the next day for sure! We even freeze some for a rainy day (pun intended). ;p

Italian Sausage Hot Pot (Serves 4-6) 
1 packet (around 6 small size sausages) lean Italian Sausages
1 onion diced
garlic
1 chopped chili
1 zucchini diced
1 cup of diced mushrooms
1 red capsicum diced
1 carrot sliced
1 tin of diced tomatoes
1 cup of water
2-3 tsp of red chili flakes


8 chat potatoes cooked, drained and set aside.

Saute onion, chili and garlic. Add sausages and cook till brown. Add tomatoes and all other veges. SImmer with some water. Add chili and other seasoning. Simmer for around 15-20 mins. Serve with potatoes.

Red Wine Beef and Lentil Soup

Another winter meal for us. I have been using lentils in soups more often because it is tasty, cheap and good for us! The red wine provided a robust flavor to the soup. I like the use of celery and carrots as it seem to add a sweetness to the dish.


Red Wine Beef and Lentil Soup (Serves 4-6) 
200 grams of lean beef chunks
1 cup of red wine
1 cup of mixed lentils soaked overnight
1 ltre beef stock
2-3 cups of water
1 cup of chopped mushrooms
1 carrot chopped
1 onion diced
1 bunch of celery diced
1 can of diced tomato
1 tomato chopped
1 tsp of garlic

Saute garlic and onion. Add beef. Cook till brown. Add lentils and veges tossing them together. Add stock, can of tomatoes, wine and water. Simmer for 2 hours till cooked through. Serve with crusty bread,

The classic- Chili Ricotta Meatballs with Spag!

My awwww moment with spaghetti must be watching Lady and The Tramp sharing a plate of spag together.

I mean how sweet is that? The innocence of it all!

While I rarely make meatballs- I find the whole rolling meat into balls, pan frying/baking, then cooking them again in tomato base sauce a little too time consuming, I do occasionally venture out of my  "quick quick chop chop" meals.

Especially if it is a very special occasion. It's Presto Pasta's BIRTHDAY! HAPPY 3 years Presto Pasta! This event was founded by Ruth. This week, the founder is hosting the birthday party and everyone is invited! 

So I rolled my sleeves and make my version of meat balls. Adding ricotta cheese gave it a rich texture without necessary adding too much saturated fat in it. I pan fry all meat balls without oil as well and reserve it on one side as I simmer my sauce. Great comfort food I say!

Chili Ricotta Meatballs with Spag!  (Serves 4)

Meatballs
1 tub of low fat ricotta cheese
400 grams of very lean heart smart beef mince
1 egg
1/4 cup of corn flour
1 chopped chili diced finely
1 cup of spiced bread crumbs ( used packaged but fresh will be better)
1-2 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce 
1/2 red onion diced finely 
crack pepper

Pasta sauce
1 tin of chopped tomato
2-3 tsp of mixed herbs
2 fresh tomato chopped
1 small bunch of celery chopped
1-2 cups of sliced mushrooms 
2 carrots diced
1/2 red onion sliced or diced-whatever u like!
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
1 chili chopped 

Wholemeal spaghetti cooked and drained.

Marinate meatballs the night before.

Roll meatballs. Heat a large pan and pan fry all meatballs. I use tongs to turn them over. Set aside on paper towels.

Meanwhile, in another pan, sizzle garlic, chili and onion with some olive oil. Cook all veges adding 1 cup of water if needed. Taste and adjust accordingly. Gently toss through meatballs and sauce.

Separate spag in each bowl. Top it with meatballs and sauce. Serve with some Parmesan cheese and cracked pepper!

The German Version of Sukiyaki

My version of Sukiyaki is meat cooked on the table in a simple clear broth. Traveling to Germany recently to see our lovely friends, our host welcomed us with his specialty- his version of sukiyaki. Haz's father-in law is an awesome cook-and I was staring at the precise way of him cutting up the veges, clearing the kitchen and then cooking this dish up. As it was below 0degrees, you can imagine how warm this dish feels to our tummies. Seriously yummy. 

As he cooked, he told us how he traveled to Japan in his younger days to be with his then girl friend. Alas, the relationship did not work out but he came back to Germany with this dish that he cooks for his family. 

We ate from the pan at his home-made dinning table. No kidding, they sand and build their dinning table from scratched. It was such a heart warming experience-we ate with gusto and laughter. 

Coming back to Australia, I made this dish with the memory of us eating at his table with love. 

The German Version of Sukiyaki   

1 leek sliced and washed

red onion sliced 

2 carrots sliced 

2 cups of chopped mushrooms 

4-5 shitake mushrooms re-hydrated and sliced

2-3 cups of bean sprouts washed

2 portions of noodles 

slice beef thinly 

around 3-4 tablespoon of soya

2-3 tablespoon of white pepper (oh yeah!) 

2-3 tsp of sugar 

2-3 tablespoon of mirin. 

2-3 cups of water/stock

fresh eggs 

Cook leeks and onions till soft. Add mushrooms and cook till soft. Add all seasoning and water. Simmer and boil.Break noodles and cook till it becomes soft. Add beef (by this time, the water should be boiling so it will only takes 2 mins for the beef to cook). Put in bean sprouts and toss gently through. 

Break a fresh egg into each bowl. Scramble it slightly. 

Dig into the pan with your chopsticks and dish noodles on your bowl.  Eat it steaming hot!

Sending this with my love to Presto Pasta created by Ruth Daniels! This is a special week for Presto Pasta- 150 posts! WOOHOO! Hosted by Susan from The Well-Season Cook

Horseradish Beef Wrap and Indian Chick Pea Salad

As the weather gets warmer, you can see that my posts on wraps increased exponentially. Truth is that I find wraps really easy to prepare. Besides, they are usually low carb and filling. Where do I get my inspirations from? Usually from lunch bars or cafes where they serve up gourmet recipes for $14 a sandwich. I like to take a peak into what they put into there and re-create in our home kitchen.

I have never used horseradish cream before and have only had a hint of it in a sandwich some time back. Keen to experiment, I bought a tiny jar and thought of pairing it with roast beef.

Not knowing how pungent it was, I put a generous spread on quite a few wraps. OH MY GOODNESS. It stings on the tongue. Eventually, both hubby and I had to scrap some of the horseradish off our wraps. Having said that, I love the combination of roast sliced beef with the horseradish cream + salad. Totally delish and "gourmet" ...again.

The chickpea salad is an adaptation of my previous version.  What changed was that I toasted mustard seeds and the spices with some olive oil before tossing the chickpea through. That little step actually made the salad tastes more roburst, the flavors seem to blend in better.

Horseradish Beef Wrap and Indian Chick Pea Salad

1 packet (around 100 grams of roast beef slices)
horseradish sauce
2 cups of baby spinach leaves
crumbed feta cheese

Place some spinach leaves on choice of wrap. Place 2 slice of roast beef (You can use left over roast beef if you have some instead of store bought packets) on leaves. Spread a tiny amount of horseradish cream on the beef and sprinkle with crumbed feta. Wrap up, toast and serve with chickpeas salad or your choice of salad.