Food Cravings - Bibimbap

Ok, I'm completly hopeless at blogging, I just realised I hadn't added anything for well over a year, maybe I should try a little harder :) I went shopping today in Zürich at a Korean store, just off Bahnhofstrasse called Yumihana at Schützengasse 7.  Really handy to get to and the lady at the counter was super nice, but it is a little more expensive than other Asian food stores in Zürich. You can also eat there - sitting at a counter, but I'm still easily shocked at Zürich prices, so 20CHF for Bibimbap seemed outrageous! I'll probably find an excuse to one day eat there - I haven't eaten Korean food for such a long, but for tonight, I'll just have to make my own....what a suprise.

So, Bibimbap (pronounced 'Bee beam bop' I think) hot rice with various toppings, and if you're lucky, "dol sot" when it's served in a sizzling hot stone bowl that makes the bottom of the rice golden and crunchy *drooling slightly* but not tonight, as I don't own any stone bowls.....yet.

Bibimbap - the egg was overcooked, and my photography skills are pretty poor!

Bibimbap is one of the most famous dishes from Korea and I used to eat it all the time at a little hole in the wall joint near the University in Canberra (I say 'hole in the wall joint' but it was actually bigger than Yumihana AND you could sit down at a real table).

So, this can be as simple or as complicated as you like, just make more or less of the suggested toppings. Generally, all vegetables are thinly sliced (julianned) and then stir-fried in a little sesame oil, garlic, and a pinch of salt. You can also make this as a vegetarian meal or use chicken, or pork instead of beef....in that case don't bother with the Bulgogi recipe, just stir fry. These amounts are only approximate as it depends on how many toppings you use, but here I'm cooking for 2-3 people. The red chilli sauce is vital (and rather addictive) I buy one from the New Asia Market here in Zürich that is quite similar. I think there is a more authentic Korean chilli sauce called gochujang that I want to try.

Ingreedients
Short grain rice - such as jasmine
2 egg yolks (or you can use whole eggs, but fry them first)
red chilli sauce

Toppings
2 Carrots
2 zuchinni
1 white radish (daikon)
dried shitake mushrooms
spinach
chopped garlic, salt and good quality  sesame oil

Bulgogi beef
250g rump steak
marinade
1/4 cup soy
1 tbl chopped garlic
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tbl brown sugar
1/4 white onion grated
2 tsp honey
1 tbl roasted sesame seeds

Cucumber salad
1/2 long cucumber
1 tsp salt
2 tbls red paste:
(2 tbs chilli paste 1 tbl honey, 1tbl cider vinegar, 1 tbl water, 2 tsp sesame oil).

Bean sprouts
200g bean sprouts
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbl chopped spring onions
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp roasted sesame seeds


1. Prepare the rice - wash throughly, 3-5 water changes, and I also soak the rice for 30 minutes before cooking. At the moment I'm trying to build a better relationship with the rice cooker, so I'm not going to write out any other instructions on how to cook rice. Don't cook the rice too early as it will take some time to prepare the toppings.

Sliced beef and Phoenix brand chilli sauce.

2. Prepare the bulgogi. I freeze the meat for about an hour to make it easier to slice thinly, I aim for paper thin and usually manage about 2mm. Mix together the marinade ingreedients then add the meat. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight. When ready to cook, just stir-fry.


3. Prepare the cucumber salad. How you slice this is up to you, but I would reccomend cutting the cucumber in half, scooping out the seeds and then slice each half into thin little half moons, 2mm - 5mm thick. Add the teaspoon of salt and leave for 5 minutes. Squeeze out any excess moisture and add the red paste. Mix and set aside.

4. Prepare the bean sprouts. Put the salt, water and sprouts in a saucepan and steam for 5 minutes. Drain the sprouts and add the toasted sesame seeds, sesame oil and spring onions.

5. Prepare the other vegetables. whichcever vegetables you choose, they are prepared in essentially the same way. Slice thinly into matchsticks (or a bit smaller if you can manage) and lightly stir-fry with a teaspoon of chopped garlic and sesame oil and a pinch of salt. Note that dried shitake mushrooms need to be reconstituted in hot water for about 20 - 30 minutes, the stalk discarded and then the caps finely sliced.

6. Assemble!  Divide the hot cooked rice between 2 bowls and arrange the various toppings over the rice, like the spokes on a wheel, radiating out from the centre.  If you're really keen and th ebowls are super hot you can place an egg yolk in the centre, otherwise, use a fried egg (with a runny centre).  To eat, add some chilli sauce and mix it all together :)

Yoghurt cake with ouzo-lemon syrup

Cake Challenge.
I find baking a bit of a challenge - I have two different approaches: One, I blithely throw myself into the recipe, cut a few corners, 'improve' the recipe a bit and wonder why it doesn't work, or, two, I slavishly follow the recipe and still mess it up! btw, confessions of an Australian, I can't make ANZAC biscuits....well I can, if you like the traditional 'concrete style' biscuit.

I've decided to take a step back from the dreaded biscuit challenge and start with cakes. I absolutely love any dessert with lemon, and a lemon cake made with yoghurt is perfect. I have a recipe for such a cake drizzled with an ouzo-lemon syrup from "The Olive and the Caper" by Susanna Hoffman (see below).

I would like to try and alter the recipe a little (since I actually made it successfully the first time) by replacing some or all of the butter with olive oil and adding honey. I think the syrup can be changed as well by replacing some of the sugar with honey. I will add the results of this experiement at th eend of this blog. Until then, here is the original cake recipe, which is delicious!

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup yoghurt
1 tablespoon chopped lemon zest
1 3/4 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
ouzo-lemon syrup

1. Grease and flour a 10 inch cake tin and preheat oven to 180 celsius.
   
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy, then beat in the egg yolks. Add yoghurt, zest, then flour, baking powder and salt (pre-sifted together).
3. In a seperate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff ( I add a pinch of creme of tartare), then mix in half the egg whites to the egg yolk mixture and then carefully fold the remaining egg whites into the mixture.
4. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for about 45 minutes until a skewer/knife inserted into the middle comes out clean and the sides of the cake come away slightly from the pan.
5. wait 5-10 minutes and then release the springform sides and invert the cake onto a plate - yes it's upside down.
6. spoon a third of the ouzo-lemon syrup over the cake and let it soak for 5-10 minutes. Repeat 2 more times. Then set the cake aside for at least an hour before cutting.

Ouzo-Lemon Syrup
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup ouzo
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon zest

1. put all ingreedients into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer vigourously for 10 minutes until it thickens. Cool and use (or store in the fridge).
   

Chinese Peanut BIscuits

We just arrived back from Malayasia a few days ago...both feeling rather jetlagged, and my sinus infection returned with a vengence, but otherwise intact. Despite sampling foods from a number of rather dubious looking stalls in Melacca and Singapore neither of us succumbed to a stomach bug. My only concern was that I couldn't eat more!

In Melacca we stayed at the most incredible hotel....probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at, The Melacca Majestic. Around the Lounge, Library and Bar area near reception were large glass jars full of snacks such as peanuts, salted plums (not reccommended). coconut caramels and the most amazing little peanut biscuits. I must have scoffed more than my fair share and vowed to find the recipe when I got back to Zürich. It turns out they are Chinese New Year biscuits - Fah Sang Peng, and very popular in Malaysia.

Here's the recipe:
300g Peanuts
250g flour
200g castor sugar
1 tsp salt
250ml peanut oil

Roast the peanuts in a wok/pan until fragrant then finely grind. Add flour, sugar and salt and gradually mix in the oil until the mixture comes together (you may not need all the oil). Then need the dough until the sugar 'melts' and the crystals disappear.

Roll the mixture into little balls (about the size of macadamia nuts), glaze with egg, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 200 celsius.

My impulse buy in Malaysia when I just happened to be wandering through a cooking supply shop was a moon cake mould, and I used this for the biscuits....worked beautifully!

I think these biscuits must be foolproof as I have a rather deplorable record with baking biscuits, yet these turn out rather well.....even Doug likes them!
They are very fragile, I think I need to grind the peanuts finer and then maybe increase the proportion of flour. Here are my final attempts:

Sausage Making

Doug bought me (us!) a Kenwood Chef for Christmas, we call it "The Beast" and if I'm lucky it gets to sit on the bench (Doug has a clean bench policy that is occasionaly enforced). I've used it to make bread, Challah, chapattis and pancakes....it's simply awesome! It also came with a glass blender attatchement but the quiet call of the meat grinder is what really attracted our attention. In Australia, I wouldn't dream of making sausages, but in Switzerland, I think it has become necessary. Wurst is what you buy in Switzerland, there is something called "Italian Sausages" which look more like "sausages" but considering how expensive meat is here, somehow I don't think they are saving the best cuts for these products. Everything we have tried has been a bit disappointing, if not a little scary, so we bit the bullet and ordered the machine :)

That was the easy part.

Suasage making in Switzerland doesn't seem to be the done thing. Finding the casings for the sausages has been frustrating and really a bit embarassing. We don't have a local butcher here in Adliswil so I asked the butchers at the large supermarkets for 'wursthällen' and told them I wanted to make my own wurst. This is not terribly hard to say in German but all I got was a blank look and then after further clarification, the feeling that I had asked him to chop up his pet dog for me......'We don't have that sort of thing here!'.

All the meat here is chopped and processed to the nth degree. Nothing has a bone (except what is either shanks cut up or ox-tail - very expensive) in fact you buy shiny clean bones seperate! At Christmas time there was no ham on the bone and Pork roast doesn't have crackling.....it's crazy! Somehow I don't think the butchers (Metzgerei) take delivery of whole carcasses and then chop them up, it arrives that way and they package and sell it.

Finally I was given the address of a Metzgerei in a rather out of the way place that looked promising. I wrote to them and asked if they had schweindärme (pig intestines....I didn't think I would have much luck with collagen here) and Hallelujah, they did! I can't believe I was getting excited about finding schweindärme. I now have a bundle of pig intestines and 4 kilos of pork in the fridge. I'm just waiting for the machine to arrive, and the courage to untangle the casings.
Here are the recipes I want to try (from - TheSpicySausage.com):

Hot Italian Sausage

2.26 kilos pork
1-cup cold red wineç
1-cup chopped fresh parsley
5-tsp salt
1-tbsp garlic powder or-4 to 5 garlic cloves, minced
1-tbsp fresh ground pepper
3-tsp cayenne
5-tbsp fennel seed
2-tsp crushed chili peppers
5-tbsp paprika

Seems to have all my favourite ingredients. Might need to add speck to boost the fat content.

Anyway, we'll see.

The Meat grinder arrived today! I've just finished making Italian suasages from 2 kilos of meat.......quite a lot really! The fennel seeds were rather strong so I reduced 5 tbs to 4 and mixed sweet and hot paprika together. I bought some uncooked speck (for the fat content) and then forgot to add it :( oh well.

The whole process did take all afternoon, but I was also reading the instruction booklet for working the machine. The recipe is rather hot and spicy, so I could reduce the hot paprika content, and also crush the fennel seeds. Here are the sausages cooking:



The other recipe I tried I made up (with some guidance from the internet). Equally Delicious! I also made meatballs out of the spicy Italian sausage mix and it used it for spaghetti bolgnaise with meatballs.....fantastic :)

Sage and onion sausages
2.26 kilos coarse ground pork neck
1-cup cold white wine
4-tsp salt
4- cloves of smoked garlic
1- bunch of sage (and some parsely)
2-tsp crushed fennel
1- onion minced
1 -tsp mixture of nutmeg/ginger/cloves
1-tbs freshly ground black pepper