All About Sushi

California Roll is actually sushi with cucumber, crab (imitation crab will do) and avocado or mango slices for filling. My family loves sushi very much that a week seldom passes by without having it either at home or at our favorite sushi bar. I'm not an expert in making sushi, in fact, this is something I have learned by myself through trial and error and by surfing the internet for tips and how-to's.

First off, is to make the sushi rice. Short grain rice is recommended. There are a lot of recipes for sushi rice which I'm sure will work just fine, but what is important is that you find one that works for you. Check it out first to see if it is up to your taste, add more sushi vinegar if needed.

To cook rice, rinse first in cold water. Others recommend draining the rice on a colander and setting it aside for 30 mins to 1 hr, but for me I just add water (1:1 ratio) and cook it in my rice cooker right away. When the rice is done, transfer to a wooden bowl (or glass) then add the sushi vinegar working quickly and gently with blending/folding strokes, taking care not to mash the rice.Use a fan to cool the rice quickly and prevent it from absorbing too much moisture. Make sure that you have enough rice though, (a cup of rice would make roughly one roll of sushi) so you won't have leftovers as sushi rice tends to harden if refrigerated. Now we're done with the rice, let's roll on...

Rolling the sushi...

1. Take out your mat, place one sheet of nori (others recommend using half a sheet but when I tried this, the sushi did not close right, I guess I'm still at the beginner's stage huh?maybe next time!). If nori is not available, try using plastic wrap. This might be a little tricky since sushi rice won't stick to the plastic wrap as much as it does to nori. It is also a good idea to use a plastic wrap under the nori since rice has a nasty way to getting off the nori and onto the mat.

2. Spread sushi rice on top of nori (how much? that would depend on how thick you'd want your roll to be). Using your thumb, create a groove on the rice. This is where you put your filling, starting with mayonnaise , mango and the crab or whatever else you want to put inside your sushi roll, it's your call! I started with mango and crab but when I ran out of the crab, I substituted it with yu-ho which is dried fish flakes something like ba-ho (dried pork flakes sold in Chinese stores) BTW, it is also a good idea to wet your hands with vinegar to allow easier handling of the rice.

3. Slowly fold the mat over (away from you), hold the end of the nori (nearest you) and tuck that end of the nori to start a roll. Lift up the mat and plastic wrap and tuck as you go.Until you reach the other side of the mat, end with the seam down, you might want to dab a little bit of mayonnaise to seal it.

4. Finally take the roll out of the mat and slice it into desired thickness. You might want to dip your knife in water to prevent rice from sticking to it. You can also slice the sushi at an angle on one end for a different style. After all, a sushi can be a beautiful work of art too!

Enjoy!

the verdict? always a HIT!!!



special thanks to sassy for the lesson on links....

Beef Noodle Soup

Beef Noodle Soup

Beef Noodle Soup 牛肉麵 (niu-rou mian)is an all-time Taiwanese favorite, more so during the winter. Slices of tender beef shank and tendon with flat noodles served as a dish or with soup......

Noodles used can vary from thin or big flat noodles; dried or fresh. There is also the special fresh la-mian 拉麵 or pulled noodles, which can be machine made or 手工 (shou-gong), that is, handmade noodles. Most Taiwanese prefer the hand-pulled noodles.

Shandong da mian

cook noodles like pasta

arrange on a bowl

In this recipe, I used flat noodles (dried). As the name on the wrapper implies, the noodle is of the 山東大麵 Shandong da(big) mian(noodles) variety. Now, I am not an expert in noodles according to various regional areas in mainland China, but I guess Shandong is popular for their flat noodles hence the name. Anyway, in cooking (dried) noodles, it's pretty much like cooking pasta. Let water boil, add oil and salt, drop in the noodles, cook it to al dente, drain and rinse. Place noodles in a bowl. Set aside.Then on to making the soup...

beef & spice bags

inside the spice bag

mga sangkap

For this recipe, I used beef tendon and shanks. These beef cuts can be quite tough and thus needed to be simmered until tender. I don't have a crockpot nor do I have any pressure cooker, so on the whole it took me more than 4 hours to get it tender to my satisfaction (I wanted it to be extra tender because of the kids, especially my 3 yr old, otherwise you probably wouldn't want it too tender).

simmer till tender

reduce stock

add veggies

So here's how I did it:

I boiled the meat, discarded the first boil, boiled it again but this time simmered (low heat) it until tender (more than 4 hrs). Since my husband bought about 2 kilos of shank and 5 pcs of tendon, I decided to just boil everything together to conserve gas and time.

Meanwhile prepare ingredients for your soup. You can choose any veggie available, slice it to desired size (or shape for that matter). You can cube it, julienne it, slice it thin or in chunks you're on your own here. Anyway, for my recipe, I used onions, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, straw mushrooms, bean sprouts (I think you should skip this though), and bokchoy. You can also use celery, ginger, much like the beef nilaga that we have back home. For topping , I used cilantro and fried minced shallots.

Anyway, to get back to the cooking, I got another pot and placed some of tender beef slices I simmered, (how many?that would have to depend on how many are eating) from my wok and added beef stock. Since the stock was already flavored (used spice bags remember?) I just added a bit of the ever-dependable patis (fish sauce) and ground pepper ( no salt was added as the patis was salty enough) to taste.

Got it rock boiling then dropped in all the other ingredients. Now here's the trick. Drop in ingredients according to the time it needs for that particular ingredient to be cooked. Carrots for example, if sliced in big chunks needs longer cooking time, so I'd put it in first. Mushrooms cook real fast so you'll have to add it last. I think you get the point. Oh and don't forget that stone! (clueless?)

When you're all done, pour it over noodles, top with cilantro and minced shallots. and we're done!

the verdict? definitely a hit!!!

Stir-fried Camote tops

My mother-in-law picked some camote tops from her garden, so this came as a side dish to the Beef Ribs in A1 sauce.

How To:

Heat wok, add olive oil. Stir fry minced garlic. Add camote tops. Stir fry and do not cover. Takes about 2 mins or less. Do not overcook. Dish out and serve at once

Beef Short Ribs in A1 Sauce

Beef Short Ribs in A1 Sauce

My husband loves beef so much any way I cook it. Since beef cannot be usually found at our local market, whenever he gets the chance to drop by our suking beef vendor in Changhua City (about 15 mins away from our place)he would buy a lot! And yesterday, he did!

So I wouldn't be surprised if the succeeding posts here will be more on beef recipes...

Anyway, I started it last night with Beef Short Ribs. Most of the time, I just marinate the beef with soy sauce (we use low-sodium), pepper, worcestershire sauce and maggi(tm) savor. This time, however, I used Lee Kum Kee(tm)oyster sauce, soy sauce and pepper, but no salt since I didn't want the dish to get too salty 'coz I'll be adding on more sauce towards the end of the cooking. Why oyster sauce? Mostly because I ran out of my usual pang marinate and all I had was oyster sauce...so I thought I'd give it a swirl or two...

So here's how it went...

Heated my wok til it was smokin'hot...




...then dropped (gently!) rather, more like arrange the beef ribs on the wok.


Turn over to brown the other side.


Just before dishing it out, pour in desired amount of A1(tm) steak sauce on top



Mix well, dish out and serve at once while piping hot.

Note to myself: The disadvantage of using a wok in frying beef is that the juice tends to accumulate on the bottom of the wok, thus lengthening the browning time. So I had to let the wok heat up really hot!

Welcome to my Kitchen

I 've been cooking for almost half of my life. My father first taught me to cook. He didn't (still doesn't) use cookbooks, he plays it by taste and scent. Yes, by scent! With this kind of initiation into cooking I guess it is of little wonder then, that although I have quite a collection of cookbooks, I don't follow a recipe to the last pinch!

I improvise (in case some ingredients are unavailable) or adapt the recipe to my or my family's discerning(?!) tastes. Settling down in Taiwan has also provided me with more experience in working the wok! As a homemaker, I cook two meals a day. Although I have to admit I consider it a chore on some days but most of the time, I find it a challenge to satisfy my children's discriminatory taste buds!

I will be posting some recipes which have been tried and tested (hits!) through the years. This way, friends and family who ask for my recipes can have this resource readily available to them ( and to you too!) I will also be posting some new recipes which I am still working on, fine tuning the taste or whatever...this will probably where we'll see more misses than hits!

Either way, I welcome you to share this experience with me! Your comments or suggestions are most welcome and can even help tip the balance towards more hits (or more misses? nah)!!!

You may also notice that most of my recipes (except baking which require exact measurements) do not contain exact, measured ingredients (I will provide estimates), so you are free to do a little experimenting on the side to make this dish uniquely your own!