Korean Style Pan Fried New Potatoes with Sweet & Spicy Glaze

I made these as a side dish at lunchtime and they are absolutely delicious. All you have to do is par boil some new potatoes. Then you pan fry them with a sauce made from Korean bean paste, Korean hot pepper paste, ginger, garlic, a pinch of sugar and some rice wine. The sauce cooks down and turns into a delicious sweet sticky spicy glaze that coats the new potatoes.

Cockle Warming Sausage Casserole

This was originally supposed to be a warming Sausage Hotpot recipe from a Halloween edition of Asda magazine. But I tend to use recipes for inspiration rather than following them, so instead we have a Sausage Casserole.

You will need:

1 pack of Cumberland sausages
2 small onions, chopped
garlic, minced
2 carrots, sliced
1/2 a leek, sliced
about 100 - 150 ml of stock
1 carton of tomato passata
1 tin of butterbeans
five spice powder
worcestershire sauce
chilli powder
some dried herbs of your choice

Method:

1. Gently pan fry the sausages until they have browned nicely. Remove and slice them when they are cool enough to handle.
2. Add the onions and garlic to the pan and gently cook until soft. Then add the carrots and leeks and sausages. Cook for a few minutes.
3. Add the passata, stock, butterbeans, five spice powder, chilli powder, worcestershire sauce and some dried herbs. Bring up to the boil, reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook for about 20 - 25 minutes.
4. Dish up and serve with some boiled rice, or whatever takes your fancy.

Spicy Chicken Jambalaya

We love a good jambalaya. It's perfect fork food for a cold winters night in front of the TV.

I adapted the recipe from an Ainsley Harriet recipe.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 Chinese sausage, halfved lengthwise, then sliced into small pieces
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 medium onion, chopped
2 chicken thighs, skinned and chopped
200g long-grain rice
2 bay leaves
Five spice powder
Ground cumin
Ground coriander
Freshly ground black pepper
Paprika
500ml tomato passata
400 ml of chicken stock
Chopped carrots, green beans and peas
Large handful of freshly chopped coriander
2 spring onions, finely chopped

Method:

First of all, fry the chopped onions and garlic in a mega large wok until soft and golden brown. Remove and set asaide.

Add the chicken to the pan and gently fry until just coloured. Remove and set aside.

Return the onions and garlic to the wok, add the ground spices and uncooked rice and stir until the rice is coated with the spices.

Add the chicken back into the wok, together with the chopped Chinese sausage, bay leaves, passata and chicken stock. Give it a good stir, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer, cover and leave it to cook for about 15 minutes.

Then add the chopped vegetables, cover and cook for a further 10 - 15 minutes.

Stir through the chopped coriander and chopped spring onions and serve.

Okonomiyaki

I love okonomiyaki and I made this for dinner last night. It is simply a Japanese pizza/pancake. You make up a basic batter with flour, eggs, dashi, soy sauce and sake. There are a few ways you can make okonomiyaki, but I just pour some batter into a pan, then add whatever ingredients I have on hand (last night was chopped ham, leeks and beansprouts), pour over some more batter to cover the filling, cook for a few more minutes and then flip over and cook the other side. When the okonomiyaki is done, squeeze some okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise over the tope, sprinkle with nori (seaweed) and bonita flakes (I leave this out as the Hunny doesn't like bonito flakes) and ta da it's done!

Pad Thai

Pad Thai made with rice noodles, leftover roast chicken, orange and yellow peppers, beansprouts, dried shrimps, spring onions and lots and lots of coriander. The sauce is made from sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce and tamarind juice.

Pei Dan (Century Eggs) and Pork Rib Congee

Look how pretty these century eggs are!!!. Cenutry eggs are traditionally made my preserving eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime and rice straw for up to a few months. This method of preserving the eggs turns the yolk into a dark green/greyish/black colour and turns the egg white into a dark brown transparent like jelly. The yolk smells of sulphur and ammonia, whereas the white doesn't taste of anything. I'm not sure how the pretty pretty patterns are formed though.

I'm ashamed to say that this was the first time that I have ever tried century eggs. I was a bit aprehensive at first because when I removed the shell when the eggs were still warm, they REEKED of ammonia which was really disgusting. But once the eggs had cooled down, the smell wasn't too strong.

As the Hunnyy hasn't been feeling well, I made some congee using some pork ribs that had been marinated in a mixture of garlic and black beans. I stired through some chopped century eggs when the congee was ready to serve.

Fish Baked with Mixed Peppers & Tomatoes

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what type of fish this is (The Hunny's mum gave it to us). But instead of steaming it with ginger and spring onions as I usually do with fish, I decided to bake it.

I chopped up some red pepper, yellow pepper, fresh tomatoes and shallots and mixed them together with some finely grated ginger, finely chopped ginger, finely grated lime zest, fish sauce, mirin, soy sauce and some dried mixed herbs. Half of this mixture was used to stuff the inside of the fish and the remaining mixture was just spooned on top of the fish.

Then I wrapped the fish up in some foil and baked in a hot oven for about 45 minutes.

Pan Fried Spicy Salmon with Vermicelli Noodles, Mixed Peppers and Lychee Salsa

The salmon was lightly seasoned with coriander, paprika, cumin and onion powder and then gently pan fried until just cooked. The salmon is then served on top of a bed of vermicelli noodles and mixed peppers and drizzled with some nuoc cham.

Orignally, I had planned to serve mango salsa on the side, but the so called "fresh" mango I had turned out to be not so fresh, so I substituted with some chopped lychees instead.

Barbecued Pork Chops

Here is a tasty barbecued pork chop dish I made using a homemade barbecue sauce marinade. The pork chop was served with coconut rice and some mixed vegetables.

Baked Sweet and Spicy Chicken

This was last night's dinner and tastes like barbecued chicken!

It's a really simple dish, all you have to do is marinate your chicken overnight in the fridge in a mixture of onions, garlic, pepper, sugar, rice wine, kecap manis and chilli flakes. Then when you're ready, whack it in the oven with some potatoes and leave it for 40 minutes to work its magic.

Potato Rosti with Rustic Fishcakes & Sweet Chilli Sauce

We bought a huge sack of potatoes recently and as I'm bored of making jacket potatoes, mash and potato wedges, I thought I'd try something different and make some potato rosti.

They're really simple to make; just grate a few potatoes, put them in a clean tea towel and squeeze out all the moisture. Then I seasoned with garlic, onion salt and pepper. Beat a few eggs together and add to the potato mixture together with a few tablespoons of plain flour.

Next heat up a frying pan, drizzle with some oil and gently pan fry the potato rosti in batches until nice and golden brown.

While you're making the potato rosti, heat up a wok, drizzle with some oil and gently pan fry your homemade fishcakes. When the fishcakes are almost cooked, add some white wine, a splash of soy sauce, a splash of mirin, salt and pepper and some sweet chilli sauce.

Place each rosti onto a warm serving plate, top with a fishcake or two and drizzle with the sweet chilli sauce.

Serve with vegetables, salad, rice or whatever your heart (or your stomach) desires!!

These were really nice, and I can certainly see myself making these again... but with a whole different range of toppings to go on top.

A touch of Italy - Lasagne

Lasagne is one of my favourite Italian meals.

I made this delicious lasagne last night for dinner and served it with fresh garlic bread and a side salad.

Braised Pork and Potatoes

Apologies for the poor photo quality, but my camera is rubbish and the lighting in my kitchen isn't great.

We had this yummy braised pork and potato dish last night for dinner. It was made by the Hunny's mum and is what I would call a simple traditional homestyle Chinese dish. An old fashioned Chinese comfort food that reminds me of my childhood.

Chicken, Mushrooms & Leeks in Black Pepper Sauce

This is another really quick and easy dish I whipped up at the last minute for dinner last night.

You simply chop up some chicken, slice some leeks and slice some mushrooms. Marinate the chicken for about 30 minutes in some Mae Ploy sauce. Then you stir fry it all together with some garlic, some more black pepper sauce, a splash of mirin and a smidge of sesame oil just before you finish cooking.

I served this with some plain boiled rice and a spinach and egg Chinese style omelette. No photo of the omelette available because the photos I took were rubbish!

Fusion Spagehetti with Roast Duck, Char Siu and Siu Yuk

This was a really quick and simple dish that I whipped up in less than 10 minutes one night for dinner when I was in one of my 'can't be arsed to cook' moods. I had some leftover spaghetti and just stir fried it with some Chinese roast duck, char siu, siu yuk and spinach. Then I added more flavour by adding plum sauce, freshly ground black pepper and a smidge of sesame oil to finish.

Delicious!

Honey & Wholegrain Mustard Chicken Casserole

Recipe serves 2.

2 chicken legs
Seasoned flour
1 garlic clove, crushed1
red onion, sliced
100g button mushrooms
250ml medium cider
250ml chicken stock
1 tbsp clear honey
1 tbsp Maille wholegrain mustard

Method:
Heat oven to 190 C/375 F/Gas Mark 5
Dust chicken with flour and fry until browned.

Fry garlic, onion and mushrooms for five minutes, then transfer to a suitable dish.

Add cider, stock, honey and mustard.

Cover and cook for 1 hour.

Thicken if required and cook for another 15 minutes.

Serve with seasonal vegetables.

I alterered the recipe slightly. I used white wine instead of cider, normal onion instead of red, and I only used about 300ml of liquid all together. I also used about 2-3 tbsp of mustard and 2 tbsp of honey. Plus I cooked mine on top of the stove rather than in the oven. Takes half the time if you cook on top of the stove!!! Credit crunch - gotta save the pennies.

Chicken Chasseur

On Saturday mornings, I like to watch Saturday Kitchen on BBC 1. A few weeks ago, chef and presenter James Martin cooked up a delicious looking Chicken Chasseur with Mashed Potatoes. I downloaded the recipe here and made it for dinner a few nights ago. I served my chicken chasseur with rice rather than mashed potatoes though as I didn't have any potatoes at the time.

This is definitely a good recipe. The chicken was meltingly tender and just fell of the bones. I will definitely be making this recipe again in the future.

Thai Red Curry

I made this Thai Red Curry for dinner last night and served it with some plain boiled jasmine rice. The curry is made with chicken, onions, potatoes, spinach, coconut milk and Thai red curry paste.