The Joy of Cooking School

The Joy of making kimchi! All delivered 🌈 Thank you very much!

It's been some time since my last post. Came back from a recent vacation in the Middle East and managed to make a healthy and yummy dash of humuus. For those who are unfamiliar, humuus is made from marshed chickpeas and some ingredients. Stay tuned to this page as I will sharing something soon.

Easy and fast pizza with pita bread & common supermarket ingredients

Quick vegetarian pasta, great for minimalists..

Tonite's dinner- A salad dish I created using Koka Purple Wheat noodle with steam fish fillet with miso sesame oil dressing

What's in a wrap?

In September, I wrote about a lazy Saturday wrap and someone asked if I could share what is inside the wrap. It's my pleasure.

Slice the sweetest Thai mangoes you can find. It has to be reasonably ripe. It must have sufficient weight/density to demonstrate that its fluids are substantial and must have the look of beginning to develop ripening brown spots on the skin. This is also when the mango is the most nutritious.

Add lettuce, both red and green. Always add slices of the cool and crunchy cucumber as well. Cucumbers have this quality of going well with dry foods such as the chicken masala and wrap skin.

Pepper the wrap with organic mint leaves from my garden to give the wrap a fresh aftertaste.

Juice for the Olympians?

The next time you see some beetroot at the market, think of juicing them at home. It is reportedly a natural beverage for athletes (see link below).

For me, a foodie, I am thrilled by its red hot look. When you blend it with ice and gulp it down, you may just give the off-the-shelf energy drinks a run for their money...


http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/looking-for-fitness-in-a-glass-of-juice/

Thai Beef Salad

This dish has all it takes to give your appetite a sense of "balance". According to traditional Chinese belief, beef is regarded as "yang" or something that could warm the body. The accompanying herbs are generally "yin" or things that cool the body. My take is that getting the yin-yang proportions right will be the key to this dish. The beef should sustain your protein needs, but not be too heavy. The herbs should titillate you with aromas, but not be too over-powering.

Cook the beef slices for a few minutes. Be generous with lime/lemon juice, tomato/onion slices, coriander leaves, dissected chillies, basil, oil. lettuce.

Beef Stew

There has been a fair amount of rain today. What else but a nice beef stew to make a comforting dinner?

Observe two secrets in beef stew. Your spices matter a lot - try thyme and rosemary. The meat has to be made tender - season the beef cubes with salt & pepper, to be followed by light frying.

Thereafter, set the beef aside and prepare the sauce. Try chicken stock and while it is simmering, you could enhance it with butter, wine, fried garlic/onions pieces, tomatoes, carrots.

Cantonese Pumpkin Soup

It's the seasons of pumpkin in the West, with Halloween and Thanksgiving. But here at home, check out this Cantonese edition for the sweet tooth and those who prefer a fuller-bodied soup.

Remove seeds from a pumpkin and cut a portion into chunks. Use chicken breast and bones as your stock which usually requires 1-2 hours of simmering. Pumpkin is an excellent source of vitamins, but to seek protein, kidney beans may be added to the soup. As a rule for cooking any bean, never eat beans raw and make sure they are fully cooked to inactivate any toxins.

Vegan's Brown Rice Express

It's one of those weekdays where you look to something light, easy and filling. A variant of Hakka thunder tea rice, this dish can be prepared within 20 minutes!

To make the brown rice very pleasant, the secret is adding organic quinoa seed. This is a super rice-cereal hybrid available at the supermarket. Somewhat less starchy than normal rice, and packed with protein/nutrients.

The veggies can be stir-fried - french beans, roasted peanuts, finely shredded kai lan (Chinese brocolli) and onions. Pan-fry a little taro to inject a sweet paste. For those who like a bit of smoked food, pan fry onions until they are slightly smoked.

Risotto with cream of cauliflower

Said to have descended from wild cabbage at Asia Minor, the cauliflower is quite an understated vegetable in cuisine use. An excellent companion for risotto, you should soak in its excellent antioxidant properties too. Identifying a good one at the local market is not difficult. Just make sure you pick one that looks clean and creamy. Avoid those with spot or discoloration. The bud clusters should hold together as compactly as possible.

Use both the bud and stems for soup stock. Feel free to enhance your stock with butter, onion, garlic, wine, salt etc. Coat the rice with olive oil and add the simmering stock to the rice. Stir and add a little more stock each time until the rice absorbs the stock. The rice grains should be soft and pleasing to the palate, but firm in its texture (Italians call it"al dente"). Don't be dismayed if you take a long time stirring. I took close to an hour today, but it's well worth in the end. Good authentic risotto should produce cream on its own. Abstain from adding external cream as this could distract your palate from the true flavors.