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.