What a weird day! My fab astrology guy Cainer said that I should live my day in a happy mood so the day will pass by sooner. Guess what? I am living my day as everyday; the happiest as I could; by cooking everyday! I am so bloody lucky to be a chef! Sometimes I want to shout out loud that " I am a chef! and I am so happy I cook for a living!" Lovely Stevie gave me 2 books on Scottish cuisine today! I am so glad to connect to people this way. Food is life and you must eat to live! Food is the essential part of our culture and I just love it too much to talk about it with people and cook what reminds them for who they are!
Anyways, enough about my enthusiam about my chosen profession. Let's have a go at what happened today.
I started at catching this unfamiliar rid to work. Made it! At 06:30. I love living in central! So convenient you are allow to be lazy from time to time to wake up 25 minutes before work (that's including brushing teeth and kiss the teddy bears good bye!) and still make it!
All were peachy and I started with cooking the Japanese menu today with my all time fab - Japanese curry. The smell of it reminds me so much of my grandma; the good old fashion wooden drawers with all the mysterious Japanese stuffs and her fridge which forever packed with some pickle jars and random curry blocks. The trick of cooking Japanese vegetarian curry (as I did today) was pre cook all the vegetables before hand and you just throw everything together in a huge pot with a few curry blocks (1 small block is good for about 4!) with enough water to cover them. Leave it to simmer for 10 minutes then you can move the pot away from the stove and keep it in a warm place with the lid on until you need to serve them.
While the veggie curry is cooking I rinsed some rice and leave it to my trusted rice cooker (you'd be surprised with how large a professional catering rice cooker is.) Always do like this: measure with your index finger! The water has to be about 1/3 of your index finger depth above the rice. (about the bend of your 1st section of your precious finger!) Fluffy rice comes easily!
I carried on with blanching some trimmed french beans. You can just trim the top like I would love to do, I often think of the tiny tails of them as tadpole tails. Rather cute! But then I remember the "good lady" who tried to TEACH me about how to trim those beans from the surpermarket packs. I just obediently trimmed off the baby tails as well. Pan fried some tofu cubes in a sorta non sticky pan with a bit of oil. They will brown all over beautifully as long as you remember to turn them- individually. Lazy trick about the wilted baby spinach- rinse those love babies in a large colander in hand warm tap warter then just throw those blanched french beans over with water from the pan. Turn them about like you would to toss a Italian salad. And you can leave the baby spinach, french bean and fried tofu in the same bowl before you add any dressing to them.
I've decided to do a healthy side salad like you would normally get in a Japnese Bento. Nothing fancy just some shredded iceberg or greens with baby plum tomatos, halved hard boiled eggs and some chopped cucumbers. They love to serve it with "thousand island" sauce which is just like the French "marie rose" sauce.
Next I cooked the topping for the steamed rice. Started with cooking those loving little shimps from frozen then add some enoki mushroom. When you see the juice is about dry, add a tbsp soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil. Pour the mixture over the rice in the dish you wish to serve. Sprinkle some dry seaweed flakes over. That's it! Simple as that.
I did the chicken miso soup with a bit of cheat's way. Boil about 2 litre water in a pan, start chopping 1 carrot to julienne (match sticks shape but don't worry. It doesn't have to be perfect! It is food! Don't get obsessed!) and throw them in the pan. Chop some more greens (I use about 4 small pok choi)and throw them in. When it looked like it's about to boil, stir in about 8 tbsp miso paste. When it is desolved, add a sprinkle of bonito pellets for the taste of sea! I added some chopped green part of the spring onion after I remove the soup from the heat source. (ok, maybe I should not call it like that but if only you know what I am cooking on everyday! We will have time...) Season it with salt if you want. Or with a drop of soy sauce. (Too bad Festival has some problems with soy base food so I couldn't use it.)
The last but the best! The Pork katsu! Simple! Don't be afraid! This is really the last minute food. Think about Fish "n" Chips. Who wants a piece of fish cooked 15 minutes ago? Sad people in the canteen! You can change the meat option to chiken, fish but not beef and lamb. It would be too much of waste! Beef should always be eaten at least medium, and lamb? Pink! Pink! Pink!
Ok, so you would have your pork or chicken or fish properly portioned- about your palm size and 1 cm thick. Prep your beatened eggs- 1 standard egg for 3 pieces of meat. Some bread crumbs- Japanese panko, flaky and light. Some random flours. 1st coat the meat portions in flours all over then dip them into the egg mixutre. Finally coat them in the bread crumbs. Have a pan of oil about 1 cm heated ready on the stove. Fry those babies until they are golden brown in both sides. (May I add something? a thermometer comes handy when you are cooking chicken! You need at least 78C for health and safety reason!) Dry them on kitchen paper towel for excess oil after. A pinch of caynne or parprika in the end.
Here you go: the delicious lunch or dinner for the people you care about! Healthy and crowd pleasing! Hope you love it too!
Anyways, enough about my enthusiam about my chosen profession. Let's have a go at what happened today.
I started at catching this unfamiliar rid to work. Made it! At 06:30. I love living in central! So convenient you are allow to be lazy from time to time to wake up 25 minutes before work (that's including brushing teeth and kiss the teddy bears good bye!) and still make it!
All were peachy and I started with cooking the Japanese menu today with my all time fab - Japanese curry. The smell of it reminds me so much of my grandma; the good old fashion wooden drawers with all the mysterious Japanese stuffs and her fridge which forever packed with some pickle jars and random curry blocks. The trick of cooking Japanese vegetarian curry (as I did today) was pre cook all the vegetables before hand and you just throw everything together in a huge pot with a few curry blocks (1 small block is good for about 4!) with enough water to cover them. Leave it to simmer for 10 minutes then you can move the pot away from the stove and keep it in a warm place with the lid on until you need to serve them.
While the veggie curry is cooking I rinsed some rice and leave it to my trusted rice cooker (you'd be surprised with how large a professional catering rice cooker is.) Always do like this: measure with your index finger! The water has to be about 1/3 of your index finger depth above the rice. (about the bend of your 1st section of your precious finger!) Fluffy rice comes easily!
I carried on with blanching some trimmed french beans. You can just trim the top like I would love to do, I often think of the tiny tails of them as tadpole tails. Rather cute! But then I remember the "good lady" who tried to TEACH me about how to trim those beans from the surpermarket packs. I just obediently trimmed off the baby tails as well. Pan fried some tofu cubes in a sorta non sticky pan with a bit of oil. They will brown all over beautifully as long as you remember to turn them- individually. Lazy trick about the wilted baby spinach- rinse those love babies in a large colander in hand warm tap warter then just throw those blanched french beans over with water from the pan. Turn them about like you would to toss a Italian salad. And you can leave the baby spinach, french bean and fried tofu in the same bowl before you add any dressing to them.
I've decided to do a healthy side salad like you would normally get in a Japnese Bento. Nothing fancy just some shredded iceberg or greens with baby plum tomatos, halved hard boiled eggs and some chopped cucumbers. They love to serve it with "thousand island" sauce which is just like the French "marie rose" sauce.
Next I cooked the topping for the steamed rice. Started with cooking those loving little shimps from frozen then add some enoki mushroom. When you see the juice is about dry, add a tbsp soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil. Pour the mixture over the rice in the dish you wish to serve. Sprinkle some dry seaweed flakes over. That's it! Simple as that.
I did the chicken miso soup with a bit of cheat's way. Boil about 2 litre water in a pan, start chopping 1 carrot to julienne (match sticks shape but don't worry. It doesn't have to be perfect! It is food! Don't get obsessed!) and throw them in the pan. Chop some more greens (I use about 4 small pok choi)and throw them in. When it looked like it's about to boil, stir in about 8 tbsp miso paste. When it is desolved, add a sprinkle of bonito pellets for the taste of sea! I added some chopped green part of the spring onion after I remove the soup from the heat source. (ok, maybe I should not call it like that but if only you know what I am cooking on everyday! We will have time...) Season it with salt if you want. Or with a drop of soy sauce. (Too bad Festival has some problems with soy base food so I couldn't use it.)
The last but the best! The Pork katsu! Simple! Don't be afraid! This is really the last minute food. Think about Fish "n" Chips. Who wants a piece of fish cooked 15 minutes ago? Sad people in the canteen! You can change the meat option to chiken, fish but not beef and lamb. It would be too much of waste! Beef should always be eaten at least medium, and lamb? Pink! Pink! Pink!
Ok, so you would have your pork or chicken or fish properly portioned- about your palm size and 1 cm thick. Prep your beatened eggs- 1 standard egg for 3 pieces of meat. Some bread crumbs- Japanese panko, flaky and light. Some random flours. 1st coat the meat portions in flours all over then dip them into the egg mixutre. Finally coat them in the bread crumbs. Have a pan of oil about 1 cm heated ready on the stove. Fry those babies until they are golden brown in both sides. (May I add something? a thermometer comes handy when you are cooking chicken! You need at least 78C for health and safety reason!) Dry them on kitchen paper towel for excess oil after. A pinch of caynne or parprika in the end.
Here you go: the delicious lunch or dinner for the people you care about! Healthy and crowd pleasing! Hope you love it too!
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