Recipe: Presto Paella

Here I am again, hopefully not taking any long breaks for a while. There is going to be some changes in the blog, not so much on the schedule but in the content. First to change is Foodporn Monday. I don’t see it’s rewarding to just put photos of food up. I rather write a decent recipe, either one I’ve made up myself or inspired by someone else. Or meal prep recipes. Or a restaurant or food product review. But Monday is going to be more focused from now on. If I don’t have a recipe to share or anything to review, I would simply not update on Monday. So let’s get this week’s recipe, a presto paella, presto cos I made it in under 20 minutes. This is perfect if you have some cooked rice leftover in your fridge.

Foodporn Monday – Roast Duck and Colorful Meal Prep

Another great week of culinary adventures! Let’s begin.

Meatball sandwiches, I might have said this before but I really never understood them. The concept of it doesn’t sound anything special. Until Sir Atticus made me one to crush my doubts, and it was so good. And now I find myself craving for it for time to time. I guess any savory meaty stuff you put between a baguette can’t go wrong. I had some slow cooker meatballs in tomato sauce leftover from my previous lunch meal prep so I made a great meatball sub out of it. So good!

I’ve been getting into soups lately, quick and easy, fridge-cleaning kind of soups. I got a piece of steak, different mushrooms so I made an Asian style beef soup. With some chicken stock, lots of ginger and Chinese red vinegar and lots of coriander. I should save soups like these for the winter cos I was sweating bullets while eating this. But it’s so warming and comforting and so good.

 

My mom’s friends are visiting from the US so there have been many dinner parties lately. This time, the main star dish is the traditional Cantonese roast duck. In Canton, they usually use geese cos they are fattier. The secret for a crispy skin is the layer of fat underneath the skin and ducks are in such a good shape in Finland. It’s still delicious, you can’t really go wrong with roast ducks. I really should get the recipe from my dad. The picture on the right you can see other dishes. From top left going clockwise, there are black pepper pork chops, steamed lotus root and pork, shrimps with salted duck eggs, the before mentioned roast duck cut into pieces and finally, a unique Southern China dish – fried beef and bitter melon. Yes, the infamous bitter melon of which so many had done challenge Youtube videos. I don’t like bitter melon at all, but for some reason I really like the beef in this dish. Mixed with garlic and black bean sauce, they are really delicious and had a mild bitter taste that is oddly addicting. But I would be very careful not to get any bitter melon in my bite of meat cos that thing is nasty.

On Sunday, another meal prep. This time I tried to make one of the Whole30 recipe chicken cacciatore in the slow cooker. It turned out tasting different, kinda like sweet and sour chicken. 😀 Well, I don’t care, it still tastes pretty good. I tried to eat low-carb but I was in the mood of eating the chicken with rice, so I compromised. I used a two person portion bag of Mexican rice (yes instant rice cos they were on sale), mixed with chili kidney beans, chickpeas, corn and coriander. I have quite a lot of paprika and onion and mushrooms in my chicken, but I still want something green. I happen to have two big bag of kale in my bridge so I wanted to make a Southern collared greens kind of side dish from the kale, so I just fried up some prosciutto and mixed in some butter and fried the kale in the glorious mixture. It tastes pretty freaking awesome.

Have a decent Monday and hope you have a delicious week!

 

Foodporn Monday – Korean Dinner Party and Back to Work Meal Prep

Ah, last week of summer holiday and I had a dinner party on Wednesday to plan. I decided on a Korean theme because it’s easy. The recipe I’m most excited to try was the braised lotus root, a recipe by Maangchi.

It’s super simple, although it did take about an hour to make. You need only a few ingredients: the lotus root, I used frozen, chopped garlic, soy sauce, and rice syrup. I didn’t have rice syrup so I used regular dark syrup, you can also use plain sugar too. It turned out a little sweeter than I intended, guess rice syrup is not as sweet. But the smell of them is incredible and it goes so well with white rice. I would also be a great lunch box item as it can be served warm or cold. Who knew with such simple ingredients you can make such delicious things. Frozen lotus root are usually pre-boiled so that makes things quicker but they wouldn’t become as tender as fresh ones. I didn’t mind, I like the crunch.

There were only six people eating so I only made one main dish, two sides and three starters. Those familiar with Korean cuisine would know that there are usually many tiny side-dishes/starters served. I didn’t have so much time to make so many so I just made three in a slightly larger portions: the lotus root, eggplant and a kimchi-cucumber salad. One of the side dish, the chicken wings were made by my parents.

Let’s start from the left top photo, I really love the combo of cucumber and kimchi. I simply cut up the cucumber, marinated it with some vinegar, Tabasco hot sauce and fish sauce and then mix it all up with some kimchi. Then there’s the eggplants on top right, it’s actually a Japanese recipe: Eggplant cooked in dashi powder, soy sauce, mirin, sake and sesame oil. Very succulent and tasty. Bottom left there’s my newest Korean favorite dish japchae aka stir-fry veggies and beef with sweet potato starch noodles. Here’s the recipe. You can basically choose any veggies you prefer or meat or even leave the meat out. I love the vibrant colors and it’s a real party food that pleases everyone. Last but not least, a Korean spicy pork stew. There were five different mushrooms cos I love it, pork pieces, tofu and Korean rice cakes, all bubbling in a spicy delicious kimchi-filled sauce. Korean spicy stews go perfectly with sticky rice.

And then something fresh into the mix – strawberries. It’s probably not that well-known, but Finnish strawberries are one of the best in the world. They might not be the prettiest, or biggest, and you can get them fresh only in summer time and that also depends on the weather that year, but holy shit they are delicious. They are very juicy and sweet and they just taste much more intense than strawberries from elsewhere. If you are lucky, you might even get a batch that tastes like candy. If you ever visit Finland during summer, buy a liter from friendship market vendors around the city. And the variety called ‘polka’ are usually the sweetest. Do not let their less pleasing to the eye appearance fool you. 😛

And finally on Sunday, it was time to face the cold truth that my summer holiday had ended. But on the other hand, I was quite excited to mealprep again. I saw a slow cooker meatball recipe on Instagram and decided to give it a go. It turned out pretty good, but the meatballs were slightly on the dry side, I think I will go with fattier minced beef next time. I struggled with deciding what to eat with the meatballs, cos I didn’t want to just eat spaghetti. So I decided on pasta salad. I found some super cute looking black and white bow pasta, cooked some broccoli and greenbeans to go with it and seasoned with some olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, lemon zest and salt. On top I put some balsamic glaze and it went pretty well with the meatballs. They do look very pretty. And that’s it for last week. Have a delicious week!

Foodporn Monday – sushi and lots of eggs

Monday began with the awesome Game of Thrones season seven premiere. And what better to accompany good TV than good food? One of my comfort food? Indian food. I love lamb but I hardly ever make it myself, so I make sure to get my feel whenever I order Indian takeouts. Here I have some garlicy, coriandery, tomato based sauce with big lamb chunks. Soooo gooood.

Now on holiday, I often eat some form of omelettes for my first meal post-workout. Eggs are just so easy and so versatile to build your healthy meal on. I usually eat 2-3 eggs, depending on their size. I sometimes add spinach or onion to it, but I’ve recently been making a lot just plain cheese omelettes. So just eggs and then shredded cheese on it, no salt needed. Bacon is of course my favorite, I sometimes mix it up with some sausages or even fish. And then a LOT of veggies, like 2-3 portions of it, if not more. I make sure it’s versatile with my veggies by simply choosing different colored ones. So if your plate has more than 3 colors on it, it’s bound to be healthy. XD And I never am stingy with butter.

I’ve tried to reign in my snacking and keep the junk food part to the weekends or when I’m with friends, but sometimes a girl need a pick-me-up. Greek yoghurt had been my recent go-to. It took me a long time to find a full-fat Greek yogurt. In yogurt world, more fat means less sugar, at least in my country. A portion of my Greek yogurt has 10 g of fat in it and only one teaspoon of sugar. I like to add a splash of coconut milk cos I like runny yogurt. And on top I would had fresh and/or frozen fruit and berries, mostly berries when I want to keep the sugar monster at bay. But I hardly ever can resist fresh sweet mango. 😛 I like to buy fresh berries that are on sale and then freeze them myself, cos yes I like them looking pretty and that way I know they were in good shape. I’ve seen too many suspicious looking berries from frozen food aisle.

On Friday it was the Junk Food Day. I know sushi is not junk food, but it definitely was fast. I got a delivery home in 25 minutes. Here I have grilled salmon with mayo, grilled eel with eel sauce, salmon roe ‘boats’ and wakame aka seaweed boats. All of my favorites. They definitely made a dent in my wallet but so worth it.

Sunday I went to my parents’ restaurant since some old friends of my mom’s were visiting. So some delicious Chinese food was being served. 😛 Going clockwise from top right there were delicious steamed pork ribs with garlic and black beans, then a dish called ‘stuffed three treasures’ which is stuffed tofu, eggplant and green pepper. Then shredded chicken, a whole chicken is boiled and then de-boned and shredded. Chinese pulled chicken. 😀 And it’s usually eaten with a ginger/chive oil dip. Then some more crispy pork belly. And finally some fried veggies with shrimps. Very satisfying.

Another great week of delicious food, another undoubtedly great week coming up because I’m planning to pay a visit to this little market hall that’s almost 130 years old. It is called Old Market Hall. 😀 It’s full of local food stalls and I’m so excited about it. I definitely needs some cheese to celebrate tomorrow’s cheese and wine day. So looking forward to it. ❤

Japchae – Noodle Goodness from Korea

I have had a long loving relationship with Japanese cuisine. It’s versatile, simple but beautiful at the same time, with fresh, quiet and delicious flavors. It’s usually very healthy too. Recently, I’ve become enamored with Korean cuisine. It’s louder than its neighbors’ cuisine, often spicy and has some strong vibrant flavours. Especially during the cold winter evenings, I would find myself craving for a spicy Korean stew. Although I do like them in summer too because I do love spicy food all year round. So for last week’s lunch meal prep I made japchae, aka sweet potato starch noodle.

Here’s the simple ingredients laid out for japchae, lots of veggies and side dishes.

I boiled a whole bag of jachae cos it didn’t look that much. Well, now I know that 500 g of dry noodles can easily serve 8-10 persons. I made a spicy sauce to accompany it. For the sauce, I used Youtube Korean cooking star Maanghi’s recipe for spicy noodles. Just search for Maangchi and noodles on Youtube and you will get all her recipes. I just used different noodles. I fell in love with jachae’s texture. It’s really chewy although I over-cooked it a bit. Usually glass noodles get soggy if overcooked, but jachae didn’t. And it soaked up all the sauce like a sponge. Also, it didn’t get all hard when eaten the next day, you just have to cover it up well when microwawing. I fried up veggies and just mixed it up with the noodles. I also fried some tofu as side dish, and also some beef and shiitake mushroom stir fry. It was a very satisfying meal.

While I try to be healthy by doing lunch meal preps, I don’t always prep for dinners. And sometimes the starving teenage boy in me would crave pizza in the middle of the week. Last Thursday was one of those days so I ordered some from my local pizza place. It sure looked pretty but after few slices I lost the appetite for it and ended up throwing the left-overs away. What is happening to me?! First pasta, and then pizza…

Friday I had a day off since it was Midsummer Eve. I worked out in the morning and made some delicious food for breakfast. I fried up some mushrooms and a cabbage omelette with parmesan cheese. For something sweet I mixed up half an orange, a ring of fresh pineapple, some cherry tomatoes and carrot slaw.

On Saturday, Midsummer Day, my parents came to my place to have a dinner. Dad made a roast duck Guangzhou style. I might be biased since my hometown is Guangzhou, but I like our style of roasted ducks the most. It was a little lean but well seasoned. On the left, there was some duck innards fried with mushrooms and chives (not sure which organ). And then I just made a simple kimchi cucumber salad to cut the fattiness of the duck. It was a simple meal but delicious.

I didn’t had steak on Friday, but I did buy a steak. So on Sunday, I made a little appetizer for myself with a corn taco and wrapped up some ribeye steak, carrot slaw, tabasco hot sauce, sour cream and coriander. I waited for the oven to get hot.

And for the main course I had this beautiful steak sub. I watched a documentary about the Vietnamese sub banh mi and got inspired. But at the same time I really wanted steak and cheese sub, so I decided to combine the two. I fried some steak, put it on a opened sub, put some cheddar cheese on top and grilled it in the oven on high heat for about 5 minutes. On top, I added some carrot slaw, coriander, mayonaise and hot sauce. I was freaking delicious, even if I do say so myself.