going south african

the other week, JLB had me over for dinner and made bobotie (pronounced ba-bu-ah-tea), a south african dish. i liked it so much that i wanted to make it again. she made it a little different so we could it sooner, but i did get the recipe from her which is from bbcgoodfood.com

bobotie is a curried beef casserole with a egg and milk baked topping. yellow rice goes really nicely with it. and i did use some sriracha to give it a little more kick.

i brought some bobotie for my colleague who is south african to get her opinion. she enjoyed it so i have my stamp of approval from a south african.

i've converted the metric units to US measurements. i found this site to be very helpful when i need to convert measurements. for the step of soaking the bread, i soaked it in milk so i could use that milk for the topping, a tip from JLB.

Bobotie recipe
Ingredients

• 2 slices white bread
• 2 onions , chopped
• 25g butter(1-3/4 tbsp)
  
• 2 garlic cloves , crushed
• 1kg packet lean minced beef(2 lb ground beef)
  
• 2 tbsp madras curry paste
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• 3 cloves
• 5 allspice berries
• 2 tbsp peach or mango chutney
• 3 tbsp sultanas
• 6 bay leaves

FOR THE TOPPING

• 300ml full-cream milk(10oz)
• 2 large eggs

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4/350F. Pour cold water over the bread and set aside to soak.
2. Meanwhile, fry the onions in the butter, stirring regularly for 10 mins until they are soft and starting to colour. Add the garlic and beef and stir well, crushing the mince into fine grains until it changes colour. Stir in the curry paste, herbs, spices, chutney, sultanas and 2 of the bay leaves with 1 tsp salt and plenty of ground black pepper.
3. Cover and simmer for 10 mins. Squeeze the water from the bread, then beat into the meat mixture until well blended. Tip into an oval ovenproof dish (23 x 33cm and about 5-6cm deep). Press the mixture down well and smooth the top. You can make this and chill 1 day ahead.
4. For the topping, beat the milk and eggs with seasoning, then pour over the meat. Top with the remaining bay leaves and bake for 35-40 mins until the topping is set and starting to turn golden.

Yellow rice recipe

Ingredients

• 350g basmati rice (1 - 3/4 cup)
• 50g butter(3tbsp)
• 1 heaped tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon or 1⁄2 cinnamon stick
• 6 cardamom pods , shelled and seeds crushed
• just under 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 5 tbsp raisins

Serves 6

1. Put all the ingredients in a large pan with 1 tsp salt and 500ml water, then heat until boiling and the butter has melted.
2. Stir, cover and leave to simmer for 10 mins. Take off the heat and leave, still covered, for 5 mins. Fluff up and tip into a warm bowl to serve.

a zucchini? a courgette? a marrow?

my friend has a lovely garden where she grows all kinds of vegetables (or veg as they say in the UK). she gave me this zucchini which measured 14 inches.

so what do you with a courgette this huge? so far, i've made ratatouille, stir-fried zucchini, zucchini lasagne and chocolate zucchini bread which is actually a recipe from my friend.

I wanted to share the bread recipe. I made it for coffee morning at my work, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. (I've attempted to convert to US baking standards.)

Chocolate Courgette Loaf

175g dark chocolate (min. 60% cocoa, broken into pieces) - (or 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate morsels)

225g courgettes (2 small courgettes)

200g plain flour (1 3/5 cups)

1 teasp. baking powder

1 teasp. bicarb of soda

1 teasp. ground cinnamon

110g caster sugar (1/2 cup)

175ml sunflower oil (3/4 cup)

2 medium eggs

1. melt the chocolate in heatproof bowl over barely simmering water, stir

til smooth and keep warm. if you use the morsels, add the chocolate to the batter.

2. finely grate courgettes

3. sift flour, baking powder, bicarb and cinnamon into large bowl - mix in

sugar and grated courgettes

4. in another bowl, beat together oil and eggs and stir into dry

ingredients, then stir in melted chocolate

5. pour into lined or greased loaf 900g tin and bake for 55-65min or until

well risen and skewer comes out clean

Gas mark 4 (350 degrees F)

6. leave to cool for at least 15mins before turning out onto colling rack

anytime carrot cake

sometimes i crave carrot cake, but i just want a slice. i don't want a whole cake. a few years ago i made a two layer carrot cake for my mom's birthday. it was a lot of work.

but now if i'm craving carrot cake, i can buy a box of Gu anytime carrot cake. six individually wrapped carrot cake bites with walnuts, mixed fruit an cream cheese frosting.

it was yummy and moist. however, maybe they're a little too small because now i want another piece. it's a good thing there are six in a box.

korean bbq

as a thank you to my conference team, i wanted to treat them to some korean bbq, something that most of them never had before. the challenge was finding the right cut of meat. I went to a local butcher, but it was hard to explain the kind of cut i needed for bulgogi (korean marinated beef) so in the end i went into london to a korean grocery store to buy the beef.

i haven't marinated my own bulgogi in a long time because in the past i could easily buy at the korean grocery store. well, living in the outskirts of london, korean food isn't as accessible. also i wanted to make sure the marinade was gluten free. (did you know that kikkoman soy sauce has wheat?)

i found a good recipe from maangchi.com. i used her bulgogi recipe (minus the pear) and substituted regular soy sauce with tamari soy sauce which is gluten free. she uses a food processor to make her marinade which saves a lot of chopping time. lucky for me, we have a food processor in our home.

i marinated the meat for most of the morning (almost 6 hours). we grilled it to give it a bit of a burnt edge. along with the bulgogi, i prepared a spinach side dish, a bean sprout side dish, as well as egg-battered zucchini slices. i showed everyone how to eat the bulgogi in their own lettuce wrap.

in the end, everyone loved it! i want to make bulgogi again, but i need to find a local butcher. that is my next quest.

a foodie's day in barcelona

one of the places we had to visit in barcelona was la boqueria, the famous indoor market for fresh fruit, meats, etc. the metro stopped right at the entrance of la boqueria. it's pretty huge so we just started walking from one side. most of the vendors sell similar things. they sell either fruits, fruit juices, eggs, meats, hams, and then some stalls are eating places.

because we didn't have breakfast, we decided to eat at el quim de la boqueria. we weren't sure what to order so we just asked the server what he recommends. he told us to get the two fried eggs with baby squid and the cod with vegetables. both were fantastic. the squid was so fresh. the cod just fell apart but it was still moist.

as we continued to eat, a gentleman came out and started talking to us. later on we found out that he was the owner of the restaurant, Quim, short for Joaquin pronounced like "Kim". i asked him (through my friend) why the hams are so expensive? he explained that they are fed acorns so because it's expensive to feed them, the ham is expensive. then he made us a little sample of the ham on top of toasted baguette with a layer of tomato puree. delicious!

i asked him where we can get churros, and he offered to take us to a place he goes nearby. so we followed him through the streets of barcelona to his favorite churro place. unfortunately it was closed so we went to his second favorite place.

i love days like this when you experience something you didn't imagine!

foods that freeze well

sadly this blog has been neglected because i have been so busy with work. alas, my cooking has become minimal as well as i heat up fish fingers (fish fingers here in the UK) or store bought breaded chicken.

the other week i was out with a friend at a local pub, and we both ordered lasagna. then i realized that lasagna is an easy dish to make (as long as you have enough time for the prep and baking which is usually 1 1/2 hours) that freezes really well! so last weekend, i made a meat lasagna that i divided up into six parts. four parts i froze, and the rest i will eat this week.

buying the ingredients for lasagna was a bit tricky. i spent about 10 minutes in the cheese aisle looking for ricotta cheese. i scanned each shelf carefully, but i eventually found it next to the marscapone cheese. apparently, the brits don't use ricotta cheese too much. i guess it's considered a posh cheese. But what else would you put into your lasagna? to me lasagna isn't lasagna without ricotta cheese. i did cheat a little as well, and i purchased the lasagna noodles that you don't have to pre-boil. anything you can do to save time.

one to thing to remember when you bake it in the oven, cover it for the first 30 minutes so that you don't overburn the top. i made that mistake with the first lasagna i made. uncover afterwards and continue to make to give the mozzarella a nice melted surface.

well, only a few more weeks until work calms down and life returns.

kimchi pressie

on my birthday, my dear friend gave me kimchi and tofu along with a few korean goodies. usually, i probably wouldn't be excited about receiving kimchi on my birthday, but when you live in a country where it's hard to get these items, it's a completely fantastic thoughtful birthday gift!

my friend, who is not korean, was near the korean grocery store by new malden. luckily she remembered what the kimchi looked like from a photo i had taken. however, she didn't know where to look so she asked someone where she could find kimchi. when she was directed to the refrigerated section, she was looking at jars with no english. but using her detective skills, she looked for a similar jar like the photo i posted, and she examined the label.

and somehow she picked my favorite tofu! this discovery was by accident! what made her choose that specific tofu? she liked the color of the packaging. (green is her favorite color).

thanks, friend, for making my birthday so special!