Cucumber banchan (Oninamul)

Banchan (also spelled panch'an) refers to side dishes of food served along with cooked rice in Korean cuisine.

Got this from Perpiplus cookbooks. A gem of recipe since its really quick and easy to make. And yes, it tastes pretty good and refreshing too.

Ingredients

4 cucumber, remove skin and sliced

1.5 tbsp coarse salt

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp Korean sesame oil

1.5 tbsp roasted sesame seed

1-2 tsp kocharu or Korean red pepper chili flakes (to taste)

Drop of soya sauce and Korean fish sauce (optional)

Method:

1. Soak cucumber slices in cold water and salt for 30 min. Reason for this is to keep texture of the cucumber crunchy.

2. In meantime, prepare sauce by mixing rest of the ingredients in separate bowl.

3. Rinse cucumber slices with fresh water and squeeze out excess water.

4. Mix properly cucumber and sauce, cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Note that mixture can be prepared at least a day ahead.

Bench note - If living in humid country, best to store kocharu in an air-tight container in the refridgerator as otherwise it may get mouldy.

Cannelés revisit

Made this previously based on Tartlette's recipe.

Over the weekend, chance upon a cookbook called “Just Desserts” – just by the title I knew that this would be my type of book and true enough, with a quick flip I knew that I won’t be leaving the bookshop without it. It has almost all the lovely desserts I heart like macaroons, strawberry shortcake, cannelé and many more delectable desserts. The other plus point is that it wasn’t expansive unlike other cookbooks where you have to think once, twice or may be more than that before getting – the book is available at an affordable RM20 and I think its definitely a good buy for the price!

Doing a search over the internet, found out there are two books, the one above and the other “Just Desserts and other baked treats”. Can’t tell the difference since both books were not available on shelf for comparison - could be a marketing-strategy rationale????

Anyway, if you don't know and I didn't until I read up more that, Daniel Tay is the owner of Bakerzin, a chain of dessert cafes originating from Singapore.

For more critique comments of the book, you can read more here. I agree that the instructions are some what simple and would have appreciated more tips on techniques to ensure a successful bake - so do take note for those new to baking.

Anyway back to the recipe at hand :) ….which came out well, easy to make and taste good. Only regret I have is not being able to make these the traditional way of using copper mould and bees wax! Oh well, if there were other recipes I could use for the copper molds, maybe I could consider getting them as they are rather pricey.


Ingredients

250g full cream milk
1 vanilla bean
30g butter
125g all purpose flour, sieved
3 egg yolks (45g)
1 egg white (25g)
195g caster sugar
3 tbsp rum

My method used:

1. Infuse vanilla bean (seeds & pod) in milk overnight (optional).

2. In a heavy base pot, gently warm milk with butter. Do not boil, once butter melts, turn off fire and set aside to cool.

3. In meantime, whisk eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy, ie. ribbon batter test - draw and '8' with batter and count at least 10sec before it disappears.

4. Fold in flour in parts into egg mixture.

5. Slowly pour in slightly cooled milk into flour-egg mixture. Use spatula to combine mixture until you get a nice smooth batter.

6. Rest batter in refrigerator overnight (highly recommended) or at least 8 hours. Next day, stir in rum and refrigerate until ready to bake.

7. Pre-heat oven to 190C degrees. Grease moulds and bake for about 45min to 1 hour, depending on type & size of mould used.

8. Once cooled, can be stored in air-tight container for up to 7 days.

KDS - more updates

Gee....looking at my list here since my last post, seem to have chalked up quite a bit *shocked*

That explains the big dent in the couch and sore neck/shoulders. I need to get out more!

Enjoyed Most

Time between dog & wolf - Ah....Lee JunKi at his best - think he should do more action movies/dramas.

Painter of the wind - First drama with Moon Geun Young. Understood why she won the Baeksang Arts for this drama. And that is the only reason I bothered with Cinderella's Sister but doubt I'd go beyond reading recaps as personally didn't like all the angsty dark anger.


You're beautiful - First came across Jang Geun Suk in Beethoven Virus. Loved the teen-idol drama. Liked the fun-loving character Jeremy very much!! ha ha

Enjoyable

Prosecutor Princess - Interestingly, found this more enjoyable than Personal Taste....could the reason be the fetish for fashionable high heel shoes?! Before watching, would have placed my money on the latter.

City Hall - Only watched it because I'm just a HUGE Kim Sun-Ah fan. Frankly didn't quite like the lead actor Cha Seung Won (just one of those things, nothing personal).

Brilliant Legacy - DH thinks Han Hyo Joo is very pretty. I agree and also like Bae Soo Bin, so that makes us 'even'. ha ha


Will it Snow for Christmas - Yes....I cried buckets and got bad puffy eyes, so if pick this up if you need a good cry movie!

Last Scandal of My Life - Ajuma fighting!

OK-lah, can watch

Personal Taste - Shallowly picked this up because of Lee Min Ho but found his character very serious most of the time, ah but when he smiled - just too cute for words. *guys reading this can just roll their eyes and just ignore this statement*


Thank you - In the dramas I've seen with Gong Hyo Jin, noticed the roles/character she portrays always seems somewhat sad, down cast & pitiful.


Return of Illjamae - Picked this up based on javabeans recommendation since bored waiting for World Cup to end. Enjoyed reading the recaps more than actually watching the drama. No offense to Jung Il Woo but found his acting too wooden for me - didn't like the acting in My Fair Lady either. But must say that he has a nice smile. As for the scenery and kung-fu moves, what can I say, I'm just spoilt by the likes of Zhang Yimou, John Woo and other HK action movie stars like Jet Li, Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan which really make the 'action' in this drama pale in comparison. Granted Il Woo is not a martial arts expert but he definitely wins hands down in 'pretty' looks!!

So-so

Boys Before Flowers - Only watched it because of the hype. Fast forwarded most of the way. Lots of googly boys. Reading recaps was more interesting. What pretty cool was probably getting to see GJP's bento box.

3 dads, 1 mom


SaRang Hee - picked this up by mistake, thinking it was another drama.


Sweet 18


Currently reading recaps on Coffee House, looks like a fun drama to watch, can't wait for the DVD release. Could the reason be Kang Ji Hwan?? Hm...in the meantime, will check out the drama Hong Di Gil.

Simple Birthday cake

Back-dated post.

We celebrated Master Prince's 8th birthday in May. Decided to opt for an easier cake decoration using M&Ms compared to complicated figures/pictures like Naruto, Ben 10, Ultraman, Power Ranger, etc.

Due to certain circumstances, MP didn't have a big party bash - only celebrated with family. Needless to say he was very happy to have all the attention especially blowing out the candles. Hm, but without other kids, it was a tough job trying to finish the rainbow M&Ms!!!

Was thinking of trying to locate all MP's birthday cakes made to date. Think when he was younger I made more effort in his cakes....as he gets older my motivation wanes - why is that?? Poor boy.

Parenting Book Review

Just sharing a book.

I'm still in the first 2 chapters and even without finishing it (takes time to digest, reflect & think) wanted to share this book to those who are interested.

From the book, I'm definitely a bossy, controlling, drill-sargent parent to Master Prince who is growing up. Sometimes I feel VERY FRUSTRATED (blood boiling, vomit-blood & ready-to-strangle level) when I can't 'get' to him with my so-called 'dogmatic authoritarianism' methods and him rebelling - everyone usually loses and almost always ending in tears. No wonder!

As parents, the natural instinct is to love, protect and nurture our kids. We all want the best for our child, right?

Sometimes, maybe due to past experiences or know-how, lack of patience and/or understanding, we seem to be pushing a dead horse (metaphorically speaking of course) and just getting no where. Each child is unique and I'm not saying that this book offers a total solution. It provides some ideas for parents to think about while offerring some possible approaches to apply.

And finally of course, the BIGGEST challenge for us-parents to change or perhaps improve on our parenting approach/style (we need to be true to ourselves that maybe perhaps our method does SUCK or, ahem just need a little refinement *coughs*) which hopefully, will ultimately lead to a more positive and encouraging response / reaction from your child.

By the same authors, Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish, they also published another book - which I didn't get because it wasn't available on the bookshelf. But plan to check it out after finishing the one I got first.

Do drop a note if you have come across/read any useful parenting book.

*Feeling silly to add this disclaimer that all opinions in this post are all mine (can't help but wonder if not mine, then whose, afterall is this not my blog space?) and am not paid to promote this book*

Thoughtful gift

Got this a couple of weeks back and been wanting to share.....someone must have thought I needed a push since I've been rather quiet!! Not complaining by the way :) It was a lovely surprise.

Thank you MW - the book is really cute with some fun ideas and recipes. What I found really amusing was the character/role-playing stories on the side of each recipe - do you mind talking food? Actually I prefer less chat more chew....there are days where I wish I could just open MP's tummy and put all the food in as starting from the mouth is just insanely & painfully slow!! Ha ha, but I digressed.

The dark chocolate is superb too - Master Prince's loves munching on them, he has this uncanny preference/taste for good quality chocolates! *looks like I got some competition, heh heh*

Blueberry Muffin, anyone??

Ingredients
300g self raising flour
150g fresh blueberries
1 large egg
180g buttermilk
125g vegetable oil
160g brown sugar
Zest of one lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 170C degrees.
2. In a bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, milk, egg and extract.
3. In another bowl, make a small ‘well’ in bowl of seived flour.
4. Pour in wet ingredients into dry and fold gently.
5. Throw in blueberries and lemon zest. Combine to mix, avoid over-mixing.
6. Divide into greased muffin tins or paper cups.
7. Bake for about 20 min or until skewer in the centre comes out clean.
8. Cool on rack before serving.

*******************

Yes I know I’ve been rather quiet on my end. Thank you for your continued support especially those who have dropped comments/emails enquiring ‘what’s going on???’.

I am fine and do apologise for taking off suddenly.

While I did want a break, didn’t intend for it to be so long (pre & post birthday blues). One thing led to another and others, with time passing so fast, mocking me in the face!

Am I back?? The answer is yes but probably not as frequent as I would like to be – but then can never tell when I saja-saja got inspiration to go blog-overload.

What have I’ve been silently doing? This and that....also been trying to lose some weight (hence my break from surfing & drooling over foodie blogsites, cut back on food related activities....which practically dousinge the inspiration & motivation in me). It was tough, believe you me – the finger got all-twitchy (itching to 'click' on all my favourite blogsites) and definitely felt some deep blog withdrawal symptoms.

Lose weight and lower cholesterol was and still is my goal – lower carb and increase fibre intake – that’s the basic & essential requirement, if only practically this can easily and diligently be implemented! *boo to you who can, kidding (well not really!!) pout*

But you know (and those of you who are much younger in age may not believe it) but TRUST ME, after a certain age – can gain weight just looking at food (almost)!!!! Doubt this is a problem with guys though. Also, more effort is required exercising and even then, so hard to budge the numbers on the scale!!! *warring over negligible 0.00xx numbers…!!!!*

So its been a long slow extended drawl with ups and downs.

I’ve also been trying to do a program ‘walk to run’. I’m just one of those blessed with two left elephant feet and could never (as far as I can remember) run properly or for too far. Can I just blame it all on my physical structure?? *pathetic excuse I know* With a 'step/gradual program', it takes time though I can proudly say that I can ‘jog’ (albeit run) further than when I first started this without my heart racing in my mouth!! A dream would be – one day, maybe I can join and achieve a half marathon run or something. But with this, have been suffering some knee/joint issues – not good I know – just one of those things with age and weight I suppose....its all catching up wrinkles and all!! Anyone wanting to run, do invest in a good pair of shoes!

Ok gonna post this as is cos I’ve got to complete some urgent work (new project means more work and more busy, not necessarily more pay) which needs to get out and don’t want to delay this post.

Have a good weekend.