My First Post For 2018 - Ramen From Home

Happy New Year to all my readers , friends, and loved ones who have been so supportive of my food blog since the day I started blogging in 2008.  Today, I have turned a packet of instant Ramen for two person into delicious Ramen like those served in Ramen Restaurants by adding pork butt slices , lava egg and roasted seaweed.  Hubby was happy with his first meal of 2018.  Wow, who say packet Ramen cannot beat those from restaurant ! The broth is thick and so delicious, you won't even think it is out of a packet.

To make the pork slices, I used pork butt cut.  Boiled in chinese wine broth with ginger till tender. Chill in fridge and slice them while still cold, reason it gives a clean smooth cut. Then the next thing to do is to make the lava egg , the steps to make a perfect lava egg is taken from here

The rest of the garnishing is some chopped spring onions ( homegrown) and roasted seaweed.  Let me tell you this...this is so delicious that hubby and I can't stop talking about this Ramen that is cooked from home and out of a packet :)  The best breakfast to start the new year.  Hope you guys had a great breakfast too !

my kids from Singapore gifted us a bag full of instant Ramen (Japan)

love them all

 so happy with the pork butt slices and Ramen lava egg

 the thick and aromatic broth is so yummy good

that hubby and I are still craving for second helpings

added the roasted seaweed

and spring onions last

to complete this bowl of deliciousness

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

MAY THE NEW YEAR BRINGS JOY, PEACE, HEALTH

and

MORE HOME COOKING !

Tempura Seafood And Vegetable

I remembered I still have a packet of Korean tempura powder in the fridge and it is 6 months to expiry. I know I have to use it before it expired.  I bought  it from a Korean grocery in Singapore when I visited my son and wifey last year.  Time flies and now that packet of tempura powder  has a shelf life of another 6 months...trust me to buy and buy and forget.  Okay , so I whip up the tempura batter and fried some squids and sea prawns and I even tempura the homegrown brazilian spinach besides brinjal, homegrown okra  And guess what ? the brazilian spinach tempura is the star !   It is so crispy and remained crispy till the last bite.

It is so much easier to use the ready store bought tempura powder.  Once this batch is used up, I will ask the kids in Singapore to get me another packet...maybe a Japanese tempura powder this time so that I can compare and see which is better :p 

this is the Korean brand of tempura powder

1 cup of  tempura powder to 1 cup of cold water

serve the tempura with wasabi and soy sauce

this is the star of night.....the homegrown brazilian spinach tempura

so so crispy :)

gosh... I am going make more the next time...

Tempura Seafood And Vegetable

Ingredients :

10 pieces of sea prawns - shell and devein and butterfly cut , season with

salt and pepper to taste

1 large squid - clean and cut into 1/4 inch thick rings

1 japanese brinjal - cut at a slant of 1/4 inch thick slices

2 okras - cut at a slant of 1/4 inch thick slices

a bunch of brazilian spinach - wash and pat dry with paper towel

tempura batter

1 cup of store bought tempura powder

1 cup of ice cold water

enough rice bran oil/ vegetable oil for deep frying

Method:

1.  Shell and devein and butterfly cut the sea prawns, season with salt and white pepper . Clean and cut the squids into rings of 1/4 inch . Pat dry prawns and squids. Put aside.

2.  Cut brinjal and okra at a slant of 1/4 inch thick slices.

3. Wash and pat dry the Brazilian spinach. Use the young leaves with stem attached.

4. Mix 1 cup of tempura powder with 1 cup of ice cold water and using a whisk, give a quick whisk. It is okay to have a lumpy batter.  Coat all the sea food and  cut veggies with the first coat of batter and leave on a plate for 3 mins.  Meanwhile , heat up oil in wok.  Dip a wooden chopstick into the hot oil, if there is bubble at the end of chopstick, it means the oil is ready for frying the tempura.

5. Dip all the ingredients  a second time in the tempura batter before putting them into hot oil. Working in batches, using tongs or chopsticks dip shrimp and vegetables into batter and fry, turning occasionally, until golden, about 1 min for brazilian spinach , 2 mins for seafood and other vegetables.  Transfer to paper towels to drain. Return oil to 325 F between batches and, using slotted spoon, remove any residual bits of batter from oil before adding next batch. 

Serve tempura immediately with dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

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Erynggi Mushroom And Eggplant Tempura

First time making mushroom and eggplant tempura . Not easy to make tempura.  It really needs a lot of skills and practice but I am not discouraged. I will make better ones the next time.  The moisture from the eggplant and mushroom makes it soggy fast so have to eat it fast :p  Love the crumbs ..it remained crispy all through...those that I took out from the oil.  YUmmy!  If  you have not tried tempura..you must...it is crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.  Love the erynggi mushroom slices especially. Dip it in the tempura sauce and gosh...it was finger licking good :)  Practice makes perfect ! Like what Nami shared on her blog...the key for perfect tempura is the batter and the temperature of oil.  You can go read for more tips on her blog :)

Note:  Excuse the poor photography...my arm is still not completely functionable

still shaky :(

Erynggi Mushroom And Eggplant Tempura - adapted from justonecookbook Vegetable Tempura

Ingredients:-

4 Erynggi Mushrooms- cleaned and cut into 1/8 in slices 
2 eggplant- cleaned and cut into 1/8 in slices

Tempura batter - rule is egg water: flour = 1:1 ratio

1 cup (250ml)  egg water ( 1 cold egg (40g) + 210ml cold water )
1 cup (250 ml ) cold all purpose flour

Tempura Sauce

3/4  ( 200ml)  cup of dashi stock/ konbu dashi for vegetarian )
3 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tbsp of mirin
2 tsp of sugar
2" daikon  radish

Make the tempura sauce:

1.  First, make Tempura sauce. Combine dashi stock, mirin sugar, and soy sauce in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil.  Then lower the heat and let it simmer ntil sugar is completely dissolved.  Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Now clean and wash the erynggi mushrooms and eggplant and cut into 1/8 " thick slices. Dry dry them using paper towels.

3. Heat the 1 1/2 inch of oil in a pot.  When the oil temperature is  (160C-180C ), start making the batter.

4.  Crack the cold egg into 210ml cold water . Whisk vigorously and remove foam on the surface. As you slowly pour the  egg mixture into the cold flour, mix the batter with chopsticks in a figure of 8 motion. ( mix about at the most 1 minute ) Do not over mix the batter and leave some lumps in batter. Keep the batter cold at all time.  It is best to place the bowl of batter over a basin of ice cold water.

5.  For root vegetable deep fry around 160C, for mushroom around 175-180C. Do not over crowd the pot with ingredients. Remember you only put ingredients taking up 1/2 of oil surface. Transfer tempura to a wire rack or paper towel to remove excess oil.

6.  Between batches, remember to remove the crumbs in the oil, which will burn and and turn oil darker if you don't take it out.

Serve with the tempura sauce.....or wasabi with soy sauce

YUmmy!

Have a nice day!

WB's Birthday Celebration Started A Day Earlier @ Sushi Zento , Festival Walk, Ipoh

We had an early birthday celebration  for WB because I was too tired to cook and we both have a sudden craving for something Japanese....we both agreed to have at Sushi Zento coz Mokuren was closed on Monday and yay..excuse to celebrate early  LOL!   WB had a stir fry beef set that comes with a miso soup, sashimi , japanese coleslaw, and chawanmushi and I had a grilled salmon rice. WB is basically a meat eater so I took his share of sashimi  and chawanmushi .  Had some ebiko sushi and not to forget my favorite chuka idako :)  I remembered last year celebration was at Mokuren :)  We would prefer Mokuren but since it was closed on a Monday and we had this crazy craving so let it be Sushi Zento then :)  Anyway, we are a crazy pair....we always have an excuse to celebrate when the craving comes LOL!

WB happy with his set and I was eyeing the sashimi while

taking some shots  :p

mine ......my favorite grilled salmon

 

haha finally the sashimi was all mine  :)

 

love their coleslaw...love the fine shreds of cabbage

and the japanese mayo

took a close up of the tuna..lightly pan seared on the outside

and yet maintaining the raw inside...lovely

2nd birthday treat for Wild Boar.....

WB birthday celebration 2012

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Mokuren Japanese Cuisine - Wild Boar's Birthday

We celebrated Wild Boar's birthday at Mokuren Japanese Cuisine two months ago.  Forgotten to blog about it :p until I saw the photos in one of my photo folders in my PC :p .    Piggy Jo came back with the boy , now the fiance :) , to celebrate the dad's birthday.  Josh was in UK then , so he missed out the event.  Nothing to shout out about...just a simple dinner at Mokuren with the loved ones.    Read on to see what we had for his birthday....no birthday cake too coz the ' Sow ' was too lazy to bake the Wild Boar a cake LOL!