Kimchi Fried Rice with Smoked Ham

 

If I have to name one dish that I must eat before I die, this must be the dish! Kimchi is a national dish of South Korea. It's a pickle made of Chinese cabbage, garlic, ginger, hot pepper flakes and fish sauce. It is then fermented and can last indefinitely.

At my house, we frequently have leftover cooked rice in the fridge and chances are, we also never run out of kimchi. This is a dish that I whip up quickly for a busy weeknight family dinner. You can either use a homemade kimchi or store bought kimchi for this dish. The rice is perfectly seasoned with gochujang, a Korean fermented hot pepper paste, which you can find easily in Asian grocery stores.

Skill Level: Easy 

Serves: 5-6

INGREDIENTS: 

• 5 cups cooked long grain white rice, overnight in fridge 
• 1 cup chopped smoked ham 
• 1.5 cups kimchi
• 1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, corn, green beans, lima beans) 
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp gochujang (Korean fermented hot pepper paste)
• 2 springs of green onions, finely chopped
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced 
• 5 tbsp cooking oil
• black pepper, to tast

METHODS: 

1. In a wok or cooking pan, heat up cooking oil till medium hot
2. Add in sliced onions and garlic. Saute till translucent
3. Stir in chopped ham, cook over high heat till slightly brown
4. Add in frozen mixed vegetables and kimchi. Cook for 2 minutes
5. Add in cooked rice, gochujang paste, soy sauce and black pepper
6. Stir all ingredients till the rice is uniformly coated with all wet ingredients with no white granules left. Cook under high heat for another 5 minutes or until you hear some "toasted popping" sounds
7. Stir in chopped green onions, saute for another minute and turn off the heat
8. Serve hot with sunny side-up eggs

Fabulous Flourless Chocolate Cake

This past weekend, Ju had a few friends over at their place for a holiday get together and I was in charge of dessert. It proved to be the perfect opportunity to try out some gluten free/no flour recipes. I made a cake and some cookies, the cake made it to the party, the cookies were consumed too quickly (but not before I took pictures, so I will be posting the recipe). Both used no flour, lots of chocolate and cocoa and were delicious. The Flourless cake is thanks to the recipe on www.epicurious.com; it is heavy, dense, almost fudge like in texture and is a real treat for chocoholics. I am sure it will be an equal success among those who are avoiding gluten and for those with no gluten issues. This cake is easy to make with only 5 ingredients; it is rather heavy so a 9" cake serves 12 people. You can get creative with the topping - I macerated very ripe raspberries with some sugar and lime juice, then used a potato masher to make a thick pulp which I poured on top of the cake. I wanted to strain it and make a coulis but only had a half pint of berries on hand so that is an option for you folks reading this. 
One change I made from their recipe, was using a 9" springform pan as I do not have an 8". I doubled the recipe and it made 4 ramekins in addition to the 9" pan. Perfect if you want to serve individual cakes for a small group.
This one is for Mitra, who had the best reaction to my foray into flourlessness :) Enjoy.

Skill Level: Medium

Serves: 12 - 14

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate (do not use unsweetened)
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

Raspberry topping:

• 1/2 pint (one clam shell) raspberries
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• juice of 1/2 a lime

METHOD: 

1. Pre heat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Butter the sides of a 9" round baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper and set aside
3. Break chocolate into small pieces. Place a glass bowl (or use a double boiler) over a pot of simmering water on the stove. Reduce heat to medium and add chocolate and butter. Stir until most of it has melted, then remove from heat and continue to stir until all of it is melted 
4. Add sugar and whisk. Then add eggs and mix well
5. Sift the cocoa powder over the chocolate mixture and mix until well combined
6. Pour the batter (it is quite thick) into the cake tin and give it a good thump on the counter so as to have a batter without any air pockets
7. Bake for 25 minutes, this does not rise because there is no baking powder, it will form a thin crust on top
8. Macerate the fruit with sugar and lime juice, allow it to sit for 10 minutes. Mash the fruit with a fork and pour it on top of the cake; it will not soak through even if you top the cake  up to 4 hours before serving
9. Cake keeps well for 1 week in an airtight container
   

Sambal Telur (Eggs with Spicy Sauce)

A very traditional Indonesian dish which you can find anywhere from street corner to high end Indonesian restaurants. It is commonly served with nasi lemak, nasi campur or nasi tumpeng. Whenever I make this dish, it reminds me of home and my mother. The eggs are hard-boiled and then deep fried. The outer golden crust gives them unique texture. If you love spicy food, this is a must to try! Best to serve with a plate of hot steamed rice.

Skill Level: Between easy and medium

Serves: 4 - 6

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 eggs, hard boiled
• 3 shallots, sliced thinly
• 1/2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 cup all-purpose sambal
• 1/3 cup cooking oil plus enough oil to deep-fry eggs
• 2 tbsp sugar or brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt

 METHOD: 

1. In a wok, heat up enough oil to fry the hard boiled eggs 
2. Once the oil reaches 375 degree Fahrenheit, drop the eggs slowly and stir till golden brown. Leave the eggs aside and drain extra oil on paper towel. 
3. In a separate cooking pan, heat up 1/3 cup of cooking oil. Add in shallots, cook till brown 
4. Stir in tomatoes, sambal and cook for 4 minutes
5. Add in the sugar and salt and stir for another 5 minutes
6. Serve the eggs with the sauce