Bolognese Sauce (Meat Sauce)

Ingredients:

2 medium onions, finely chopped

4 celery ribs, finely chopped

2 medium carrots, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 pound chopped bacon

1 pound ground veal

1 pound ground pork (not lean)

1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste

1 cup whole milk

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup water

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Direction:

Cook onions, celery, carrot, and garlic in oil in a 6 to 8 quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add bacon, veal, and pork and cook over moderately high heat, stirring and breaking up lumps, until no longer pink, about 6 minutes.

Stir in tomato paste, milk, wine, water, and thyme and gently simmer, partially covered, until sauce is thickened, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Add salt and pepper and remove from heat.

Sauce may be made 2 days ahead and cooled, uncovered, before chilling, covered. Frozen, it keeps for 1 month.

Based on recipe from Epicurious.com

Kimchi

Emergency Kimchi by Maangchi

Kimchi is an absolute must at Korean table, be it at home or in a restaurant, breakfast, lunch or dinner. There is Museum of Kimchi in Seoul, South Korea, that lists over 150 types of kimchi. Check this video, it is quite interesting.

This recipe is based on Emergency Kimchi developed by Maangchi, author of one of the blogs that I follow. I am also subscriber to her website. Video of how to make her Emergency Kimchi (that I call Simple Kimchi) is on her website as well as almost 100 videos on YouTube channel.
This is the best kimchi I had in long time. What is really nice about making your own is that you can control how much garlic and pepper flakes you use. As you can see at bottom of this post, I like it hot and Marjo’s is on milder side. In Korea, kimchi in North is mild and farther South you go, spicier it gets.

Note: I used traditional Napa Cabbage since I didn’t have any emergency. The Napa cabbage was in refrigerator J.

Ingredients:
1 Cabbage
1/4 cup salt
1/3 cup hot pepper flakes, or to taste
1/4 cup fish sauce
1 Tbs. sugar
1/4 cup garlic, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1 small carrot, julienned

Directions:
Cut 2 pounds of cabbage into thin strips about 2-3 inches in length and ¼ inch wide. Place into a large bowl.
Add 1 cup cold water and ¼ cup kosher salt. Mix it well with your hands to properly salt the cabbage.
Set aside for 10 minutes.
Make kimchi paste by mixing these ingredients in a bowl:
1/3 cup hot pepper flakes, 1 tbs sugar, ¼ cup fish sauce, ¼ cup minced garlic, 3-4 stalks of chopped green onion (1/3 cup worth), ¼ cup’s worth of julienned carrot.
Wash and rinse the salted cabbage in cold water a couple of times. Drain the water.
Mix the kimchi paste into the cabbage thoroughly.
Put the kimchi into a container, jar, or plastic bag.
Press the top of the kimchi down with your hands to protect your kimchi from being exposed to too much air.

Roasted Duck with Red Cabbage & Dumplings.

This is not a new recipe, just one interesting experience. The recipe is basically same as the one for Roasted Duck Legs.

I must have roasted at least 100 ducks, either whole, split or just legs or breasts but I have never come across such a lean, and on first try, tough duck. I say first try because I had to have a second go it. The duck was too tough after 2-1/2 hours of roasting at 350 °F and another 30 minutes at 375 °F. Not only that, but there was hardly any fat rendered at all. Usually I would have at least 1-1/2 cups of fat but this time I had one measly tablespoon. Makes you wonder if they were chasing the duck around or racing her/him on some duck race track. Anyway, nothing was lost, except I had to scramble to prepare emergency super. I just put the 2 halves back in roasting pan with a cup of water, covered the pan tight and basically steamed it in oven at 350 °F for another hour and half. Then uncovered the pan, raised heat to 375 °F and roasted half an hour more. It came out with nice crispy skin and moist meat that was falling of the bone. That bird spend as much time in the oven as barbecued pulled pork! Lesson learned: Check for amount of fat and adjust the cooking time accordingly.

Chicken Fried Rice

Another fried rice recipe, this time chicken tenders (part of chicken breast) being main ingredient. This is very similar to Fried Rice with Char Siu recipe posted last February. Major difference is omission of shrimps and use of chicken tenders in place of Char Siu.

Here is my version of this dish.

Ingredients:

1 cup chicken tender strips, cut in half lengthwise

1 carrot, julienned

3 Chinese mushrooms

2 green onions, chopped

1/2 cup green peas

1” piece ginger, chopped

Garlic, 1 clove chopped

2 eggs

3 cups leftover and refrigerated rice

2 Tbs. peanut oil

1 tsp. sesame oil

1/2 tsp. white pepper

Preparation (mise en place):

§    Soak mushrooms in a 1:1mixture of hot water and dark soy sauce, for at least 1/2 hour. Remove stems and cut into 1/4” slices. Reserve 1/4 cup of the water.

§    Marinate chicken strips, in 1 Tbs. of rice wine, 1 Tbs. dark soy sauce,1/2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. white pepper.

§    Peel and julienne carrots into 1/4” pieces. Parboil for 1 minute in boiling salted water. Drain and plunge into cold water. Drain again and set aside.

§    Cut green onions diagonally into 1” pieces and separate white and green parts.

§    Soak frozen green peas in salted hot water for 1/2 hour, drain and set aside.

§    Beat eggs in a bowl with fork, add salt and white pepper and set aside.

§    Crush and chop ginger and garlic and set aside.

§    Break up clumps of cold rice till you have individual grains. Set aside.

Sauce:

1/4 cup mushroom soaking water

1 Tbs. of Oyster sauce

1 Tbs. of Hoisin sauce

Stir together all ingredients till well combined.

Directions:

§    Heat a wok and add 1 tsp. of oil and spread with steel spatula till sides are well coated. When wok is very hot add eggs and scramble lightly. Remove to preheated bowl, break up the eggs, set aside and keep warm.

§    Wipe the wok clean, add 1 tsp. of oil and spread with steel spatula till sides are well coated. Sprinkle 1 tsp. of salt and drop in the rice. Stir till rice is evenly coated and grains are separated. Remove to bowl with eggs.

§    Wipe the wok clean, add 1 tsp. of oil and spread with steel spatula till sides are well coated. Add chicken with marinade and stir-fry for 2 minutes or till cooked through. Remove to bowl with rice and eggs and keep warm.

§    Wipe the wok clean, add 1 tsp. of oil and spread with steel spatula till sides are well coated. Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry for few seconds then add mushrooms and stir.

§    Add previously prepared green peas, carrots and white parts of green onions. Stir-fry till well combined.

§    Add reserved rice, shrimps and eggs and mix well till all ingredients are very hot.

§    Pour sauce on side of wok and stir.

§    Serve immediately in individual preheated bowls and garnish with green parts of onions and coriander (optional).

Salted Cod with Potatoes, Tomatoes and Olives.

Patate e Baccalà

This is another comfort food. Again, this is not a dish you decide on in the afternoon for that night’s super. Salted cod takes time to soak and remove most of the salt. First day change water every 4 hours or so and next day after 36 hour soak rinse under running water and boil for 20 minutes. Rinse again, then remove all traces of bones and skin. Some bones will be very short. Regardless of how careful I was in removing the bones and then double checking I have always found 1 or 2 on my plate. This is very tasty meal and worth the extra effort.

Ingredients:

1 medium-large onion, thinly sliced

1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 pound salt cod, weighed after it has soaked for 36 hours, and cut into
1/2-inch thick slices

3/4 pound red potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices

2 canned peeled plum tomatoes, with their interior juices

12 black olives, pitted and halved

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 cup white wine

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

§    Preheat oven to 350 °F.

§    In a 10-inch Dutch oven or stove-top proof ceramic baker, sauté the onion and the garlic in the olive oil until the onion is golden, about 10 minutes. Remove and reserve about half the onion and garlic mixture.

§    Place layer of salt cod over the onions remaining in the pan, then arrange sliced potato in a ring with potato slices overlapping. Spread around the reserved onion mixture in centre. Cut or crush the tomatoes directly into the pan and spread them in centre. Spread the olives over tomatoes and pour the wine over all, then drizzle with the additional tablespoon of olive oil.

§    Cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat, then place on middle rack in oven and bake for 45 minutes.

§    Let stand, covered, for 10 minutes, during which time the potatoes will become softer, absorbing some of the juices; the juices left in the pan, although reduced in volume, will become a rosy colored sauce. For maximum visual effect, bring the pan to the table undisturbed and serve, hot or warm, directly from the pan.

SERVES 4 TO 6

Loosely based on Sicilian classic.

Stir Fried Beef with Peppers

This must be one of the tastiest flank steak recipes that I have come up with. Originally I wanted to do my version of Mongolian Beef but somehow it evolved into this lightly spiced Hoisin sauce based stir fry. The meat was very tender due to fact that it was thinly sliced across the grain and marinated overnight in mix of Hoisin and Oyster sauce, garlic, ginger, sugar, Sake and white parts of green onions.

Half an hour before serving this meal I cooked the rice in rice cooker and prepared garlic, 1” chopped ginger, julienned 1/2 red pepper, sliced 1/2 onion, 3 sliced water chestnuts and chopped green tops of scallions.

 Heat up wok, add 1 tsp. peanut oil, 1/2 tsp. sesame oil and when hot add garlic and ginger and stir fry for 1/2 minute. Add pepper, onions and water chestnuts and cook for another 1/2 minute then add the beef with marinade and stir fry till beef is slightly caramelized, about 1 minute. Serve on preheated individual plate, garnished with green tops of scallions and with steamed rice on side.

Singapore Noodles with Seafood Mix

This was my third experiment with frozen seafood mix and again it worked out great. This was basically version of Singapore Noodles recipe that I have posted  while ago.  Basically, I have just replaced the pork with seafood mix and added steamed Chinese sausage (Lap Chong).  Also, I have marinated the seafood mix in the sauce with the curry powder. One benefit was that since the curry never touched hot dry wok our house didn’t smell curry for hours like it does when I pass the curry in over high heat.

It is a definite repeat.