Taco Rice

I only heard of Taco Rice last year and was really intrigued by it. Checked online to find out what it was and saw the video from Cooking with the Dog on Youtube and thought it was a must try recipe. It is a Japanised version of tacos and it's really delicious and easy to make! ^^ (basically, you eat it with rice). 

Here is the video: Taco Rice -Cooking with the Dog-

I did not follow the recipe/video step by step and I think it still turned out pretty good. Like for example I didn't make the salsa myself (I'm lazy like that) and just bought the jar :P

For the meat, I added the salsa and some soya sauce instead of Worcestershire sauce. I placed the rice in the bowl, lettuce pieces, meat in the middle, tomatoes and sprinkled some grated cheese AND added cheese blocks. Then the avocado and tortilla chips, and added some sour cream (made the whole dish a bit creamier hehe).

Anyways, very good recipe that I should make more often! 

So many colours! 

Rendang

Today I will be writing about an Indonesian recipe, a first! It's called Rendang and it's a kind of meat stew. My boyfriend made this for me and my parents and it was absolutely delicious! His mum (who's Indonesian) gave him the instructions! According to him, this is a simplified version of Rendang! It's a very easy recipe with lots of different flavors. A must try if you like spicy food :P 

Recently I have been discovering Indonesian cuisine (thanks to my boyfriend's mum, thank youu ><) and absolutely love it! In Holland, it is relatively easy to find Indonesian products. What you need here the Boemboe Rendang mix is easily found (in Holland and England at least, check picture below next to ingredients :))

Ingredients:

Bag of spices

• Boemboe Rendang mix, the roux
• 1 big onion
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 500g beef 
• 2 sticks of lemon grass
• 3 bay leafs
• 4-5 cups of water
• Coconut milk
• Basmati rice

Preparation:

1. Cut the onion into strips. 
2. Cut the beef into bite size pieces (we had the already cut ones hehe)
3. Cut the garlic into small pieces
4. In a pot, add a little bit of oil and cook the onions. When they become transparent, add the meat and garlic. 
   
5. When the meat is almost cooked, add the Rendang spice mix. Mix thoroughly. Add the 4 cups of water (you can also add more if you are not so good with spicy food like me :P)
   
6. Dissolve the rendang spices and add the bay leaf and lemon grass sticks. 
   
7. Add the coconut milk. You can also add some more water if you're afraid it will be too spicy (but make sure not to add too much because otherwise there is less taste ><)
   
8. Boil on medium heat for 20 min. It's done! Yey! 

Let it sit for a day and then it's done! Its best to do this as the flavours are intensified and really enter the meat. It's absolutely delicious! You can also eat it with sticky rice but Basmati rice or other non-sticky type is best! :D

I made this before but without the lemon grass and bay leaf and it was good but definitely nothing comparable to this one. You should really add them and make it the day before to fully enjoy this dish! 

:3

Saint-Agur Pasta

This is a little recipe I made about 3 times now. It has a little french twist since I used a French blue cheese called Saint Agur. It's a free style recipe, meaning I just added ingredients I like and it became how it is now :P
Being a cheese addict, cheesy pastas are one of my favorite dishes to make. It's easy, yummy and unhealthy T-T I've made this dish before for people who don't like blue cheese and they still liked it! :D
Must try at home!

Ingredients (for 4 nomsters)

• Pasta (any kind, in the photos I used 500g of fresh tagliatelle)
• 1 onion
• 1 courgette
• 1 pack of mushrooms (the quantity is really up to you, I just love mushrooms so used a lot :P)
• 3 cups of milk
• 3 teaspoons of flour
• Around 1 teaspoon of mashed garlic
• Saint-Agur (or any other type of blue cheese)
• Cherry tomatoes
• Wild Rocket

Preparation

1. Boil water for the pasta
2. Cut the onion into thin stripes and the courgette into cubes. Cut the mushrooms into stripes
3. With a little bit of oil in a pan, add the onions. When they start to become transparent, add the courgette. Once the courgettes start to soften, add the mushrooms and the minced garlic. 
4. Add the flour (to thicken the sauce), mix well so it covers the ingredients equally. Add the milk. 
5. When the milk starts to warm up add blue cheese little by little (I diced mine) and mix so it slowly melts :3 The quantity is really up to you. I love blue cheese so I like to put a lot of it in the sauce but some people don't like it when the taste is too strong. Best is to try the sauce as you go until you find the perfect taste! Little advice: the more cheese you add the less salt is needed as blue cheese already contains natural salt! :) It's also best to not let the milk boil as it gives a strange appearance (it becomes kind of grainy) and it's just better to let the cheese melt really slowly hehe
6. Cook the pasta, drain it well!
7. On a plate, place some rucola or rocket on a plate. It will be like a little bed for your pasta :3 Place the pasta in the center and add a generous amount of sauce and some pepper to taste. Place the cherry tomatoes on the side (I cut them in half) and it's ready! :D 

I think blue cheese and rocket goes together really well! I am not a fan to rocket usually as it's so bitter but I think it counters the strong taste of blue cheese really well! For this recipe I used french blue cheese called Saint Agur but of course gorgonzola is also great with it! You can also add more cherry tomatoes on the side (but can also just be little decorations) as it brings some freshness to this cheessy dish!

Enjoy! 

Carbonara a la Rithuu 1

Today, I would like to post about how I make Carbonara. I have different ways of making it and this is the first one which would be the closest to the traditional one. Some people might accuse me of misusing the term Carbonara but this is why this post is called 'Carbonara A LA RITHUU' :P And its number 1 because there will be another post about my Japanized Carbonara in the very near future. Very exciting, I know.

I actually think Carbonara is quite difficult to master (I think it took me 3-4 years to become confident about how I make it) but do not be put off! Maybe I was just an extreme noob :P (high possibility hihi)

This recipe is very easy and fast to make! It's extra creamy and garlic-y and I think Carbonara is one of the best comfort food evaaaa! 

Despite not being the traditional recipe, I hope you still enjoy this post and try making it at home! :)

Ingredients (for 2 nomsters):

• Spaghetti (approximately100-120g per person) AL DENTE
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 tablespoons of milk + half a cup of milk
• One pack of bacon (some people like to put a lot others not so much so quantity is up to you :))
• 1 Onion
• LOTS of garlic = 1 tablespoon of mashed garlic
• 1 tablespoon of white wine
• 3-4 table spoons of Parmesan cheese (or any other type of hard cheese)
• Grated Emmental cheese or any other kind of grated cheese (optional)
• 2 teaspoons of flour
• Salt and pepper
• Parsley (optional)

Preparation: 

1. Boil the water for the pasta
2. In a bowl, add the egg yolks, mashed garlic and 2 tablespoons of milk. Mix well. Then add the parmesan cheese and a little bit of salt and pepper. 
3. Cut the bacon into bite size pieces. Cut onion into stripes. In a large pan, (large enough to contain your cooked spaghetti afterwards) add the bacon. I don't use any oil or butter as the bacon already has plenty of those! When the bacon starts to get cooked, add the onion. 
4. When the onion starts to become transparent, add some white wine. At this point you can also add extra garlic ;)
5. When the alcohol completely evaporated, add the flour. This will help the sauce become creamier by just adding milk. Let's be honest, cream is delicious but also really fatty... This will help making this recipe a little healthier! :D Mix the flour evenly on the bacon and onion and add the milk.
6. Let it simmer and you will see that the sauce will start to thicken! At this point you can add emmental cheese (around 2 tablespoons) and mix well. At this point everything will look like this: 

Hi, I'm creamy. 

7. When your spaghetti are cooked, drain them well and add them to the bacon and onion pan. Lightly mix and add the egg yolk mixture and mix well again! You should still have the stove on at this point so the egg yolks are lightly cooked, making the sauce thicker. But make sure it doesn't over cook and become clumpy >< (it also shouldn't be too liquid)
Aaaand it's done, YEY! You can add some parsley as decoration. Now, just enjoy this delicious comfort food.

Oh and little warning, since it uses A LOT of garlic, best not to make this when you have date? ;) Or reduce the quantity of garlic hihi

Quite a lot of bacon

Add some pepper! :D

How to: Afternoon Tea

I discovered afternoon tea in England. It is very typical british, and I love the way it looks. It's supposed to be taken in the afternoon (around 3 or so? until more or less 6) It makes you feel like having something super shmancy when it's actually pretty simple to make!
I've had quite a few afternoon teas here and there in England and I can tell you the ones in London are just... SO GODDAMN EXPENSIVE! Always more than 15£. When you go outside of London, you can have some for maybe 12. They might not look and be as fancy as but still a nice afternoon snack ^^

Afternoon tea consists of: a couple of finger sandwiches, scones, and some cakes/pastries. And of course, TEA. Sometimes you can also have Champagne afternoon tea which can add another 15£ to it -_-
So the price of afternoon tea can be rather discouraging... why not make it at home? I think it's very nice to do when you have guests (the whole thing usually leaves quite an impression on people? :P). I would really recommend you to try making it yourself, it's fun, easy and it just looks good :D

How to:

• Cutlery: What is essential for the afternoon tea is this little afternoon tea set, where you can place your food. This, really makes it an afternoon tea. To make it more into a british atmosphere, it is important that you have some nice tea cups. If you don't have that double/triple story set (I don't know the correct term sorreeeh) just nice looking plates will also do! :D
• Drinks: tea of course, whatever you like (english breakfast, or just simple early grey?). And if you want to make it fancier, have some champagne or prosecco (it's cheaper too :P)
• Sandwiches: try to buy the bread without the crust or otherwise you can always cut the crust out. Usually, you always have salmon one and an egg one (some places also have a cucumber one). For the salmon one, I put a thin layer of philadelphia cream cheese and salmon. For the cucumber, again a layer of philadelphia and thin slices of cucumber (remember it's supposed to be delicate and fancy so best when it's thin slices :P). And for the egg one, hard boil 2 eggs, add some mayonnaise (personally I use the japanese one) until it becomes quite creamy, pepper and a little bit of parsley. Cut the sandwiches into either triangles or rectangles and it's DONE!
• Scones: if you live in the UK, you can just buy the already made scones in local supermarkets (which is what we do most of the time :P) or make them yourself! :D (recipe coming soon ^^)
• Pastries: here you can basically make any cake you want! Sometimes I made cup cakes, or get French pastries (Eclair au chocolat? hehe). Carrot cake, cheese cake, lemon tart, nutella cake... As long as it's a small portion since you might already be stuffed from sandwiches and scones, everything is good. I've had pretty creamy/heavy cakes which I could really not finish anymore so I think keeping them either light or small portions will be best! :)

So these are pictures I have taken of the most recent afternoon teas at home! We also offered some chocolates (on the picture: Ferrero Rocher, my favorite chocolates of all time and orange-chocolate truffles).

If you want to spoil yourself some more, you can also do Champagne Aternoon Tea. Yes, it makes you feel even more luxurious and fancy. Champagne is a bit too much you say? Cheaper alternatives are prosecco or some other Italian spumante (sparkling wine)!

Prosecco Afternoon Tea I did with some of my girlfriends

With usual finger sandwhiches, steamed cup cakes, raisin scones and short bread ^^

Hope you try this at home! :D

Hayashi Rice

Hayashi rice is a delicious Japanese stew! I used to buy the roux in Japanese stores in London and in Holland but after the tsunami, it either just disappeared or the prices went up.... So finding the recipe online was perfect to solve the problem of non-availability or high prices!

I got the recipe from Cooking with the Dog on Youtube! :D It's a super good recipe and even if it looks a bit of a hassle, I would really recommend you making this! The fact that it's a video also makes everything easier since you get a visual of how to. To watch the video click here! Follow all the instructions and success is guaranteed :D

The most annoying thing is making the roux but you just need to be patient and thorough with it. Made it quite a few times now and I never burnt the roux (maybe I jinxed myself now nooo). Maybe my problem is that it doesn't become as brown as in the video (since I am always so scared to burn it).
Also don't be discouraged by the amount of ingredients! Most of them are common ingredients (ketchup, honey, soya sauce) and for the not-so-common ones I just skip them! (like bay leaf and Worcestershire sauce) and it still tastes very good. To make a liiiiittle healthier, I also skip the whipping cream at the end...

I also used fresh tagliatelle once because one of the guests I made it for was not a fan of rice ;) And I think it was a really good combo! So if you are not a fan of rice, or just don't have any, pasta also goes great together! :)

Tuna Mayo Spaghetti

This is a recipe my dad makes and it's soooo. guuuuud. As usual, it's a very easy recipe and I made it myself (Of course, it will never be as good as my dad's T.T.). There aren't many steps and the ingredients are pretty easy to find even in Europe!
It's a wafu recipe, meaning it's a fusion between Europe and Japan (more specifically Italy and Japan here)! I love these kind of wafu recipes, especially when it involves spaghetti :P Oh and wafu pasta is always made with spaghetti... Don't ask me why :P I'm sure it's still delicious with other types of pasta but for me it has to be with spaghetti...

Anyways, hope you try making it!

Ingredients (3-4 nomsters):

• 400-450g of spaghetti
• 1 can of Tuna (no oil no nothing)
• Couple of spring onions 
• 1 onion
• 4 table spoons of Japanese mayonnaise
• Somen/Soba tsuyu
• Wasabi (Optional)
• Sea weed (Optional)
• butter
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Boil the water for the pasta
2. In the meantime, cut the spring onion as thin as possible, you can use the photos as guide line :P Place them in a bowl in the meantime as you will only need them at the end.
3. Cut the onion into large stripes. In any case, you don't have to be super thorough with the cutting ;) Yey!
4. Before cooking the onion, open the can of tuna, and place it into a bowl. Add the Japanese mayonnaise (you can use normal mayonnaise of course, but the Japanese Kewpie Mayo has more flavour I think.) and mix well. I put 4 table spoons but you can also put more or less. It's up to you :). Add some pepper and a little bit of salt. Make sure not to add too much salt as the tsuyu is already quite salty. Set aside. 
5. In a large pot, add a little bit of butter and cook the onion. 
6. When the water is boiling cook your spaghetti. When they are cooked, drain them well and throw them (not literally... water might splash everywhere and you might burn yourself/make a mess) into the large pot that contains your onions. At this point, add somen/soba tsuyu. Just add enough so that it coats your spaghetti and mix well. 
7. Place on to a plate with some onion. Add a spoon or two of the tuna mayo sauce, add the spring onion. Rip some sea weed into small pieces and wasabi! On the picture, the wasabi is in the middle but usually I just put some on the side of my plate and add some to every bite I take ;)
8. You mix a little yourself and ready to nom nom nom....

I recommend using Japanese sea weed for this recipe (Korean/Chinese sea weed is also nice but they have a stronger smell/taste). 

Enjoy! :D

Yo-yo Kitchen

Today I will be reviewing this place called yo-yo kitchen in West London. It's a Japanese place where you can buy bento (lunch boxes) and other nibbles. I've been going there to get some lunch boxes for the past 4 years now and it's super delicious! 

They have quite different varieties of bento and other take away dishes (Japanese curry rice, gyuu-don, katsudon, gyoza etc). They also have already made sushi and onigiri (the 'little rice bowls' they eat in Pokemon :P). 

They also sell random stuff like Japanese notebooks to practice your ideograms and basic for Japanese cooking (soya sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, etc). They also have different Japanese drinks and you can even eat instant noodles there (have to pay for the boiled water though I think hehe). 

Anways, you can eat it there or take it back home! My all time favorite is definitely the karaage bento (Japanese fried chicken), sooo yummmzzz! Price is decent (6£ for my favorite bento) so you should really try if you are around! ^^ It's the best way to have real Japanese bento! :D

Leaving the site over here you can check their menu! It's right next to West Acton tube station!

---> http://www.yoyokitchen.co.uk/

Here are some photos of their nom-nomz!  :)

Teriyaki chicken bento

Kara-age bento ><

Inari zushi

Courgette Feta Quiche -Recipe-

Once you know how to make one quiche, you will be able to make a billion of other ones. This is a recipe of mine that I tried making last night.  As usual, it's easy to make (too lazy to make complicated stuff anyways :P) and I think it was pretty tasty too :P Hope you try this at home!

Sorry for the bad lighting... No natural light in London T.T

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Pastry:

• 200g plain flour
• 100g melted butter 
• a pinch of salt
• a medium egg 

Filling:

• 1 Courgette
• 1 medium sized onion
• 1 tomato (optional)
• 1 block of feta cheese
• some garlic
• 50g of grated cheese (I used emmental)
• 200-250ml of creme fraiche
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg yolks

Preparation:

Shortcrust Pastry:

1. Add the flour, salt and butter and mix well. 
2. Beat the egg and add enough of it to bring it together and it becomes a dough
3. Make a little ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for at least 30min or in the freezer for 10-15min before placing it in the mold.
4. Using a rollin pin, flatten the dough (More or less 1cm thick. First time I made dough it was so thick it was basically raw... Nasteeh. So make sure it is thin enough!)
5. When already placed in the mold, use a fork to make little holes all over the pastry. 

If you are lazy like me you can also use already made shortcrust pastry and just place it in the mold hehe

Filling:

1. Cut the onion into small pieces and cook it with garlic. When it's cooked, set aside and let it cool down
2. In a bowl add the 2 whole eggs, the 2 egg yolks, and mix well. Add the cheese, salt and pepper. I prefer not to add too much salt because cheese is already salty. But quantity is up to you! :)
3. Cut the courgettes into very thin slices (as thin as you can and try to make sure they are the same size) and cook them with a bit of oil and garlic without breaking their shape.
4. Cover your mold with the dough of the quiche. 
5. Cut the feta into very thin slices as well and cover the entire bottom of the quiche. 
6. When the onion has cooled down, add it to the creamy mixture and mix well. You can then empty the bowl on to the dough (make sure the onions are spread out equally)
7. With your hands, take each slice of courgette and starting from the outside, line them one next to the other until reaching the center (maybe easier to check the photo :P).
8. Optional step: when I made it, I was feeling creative (haha) and I added thin slices of tomatoes in the center. My idea was to create a 'tomato flower' or something... Anyways, you don't have to do this of course :P Another way to use tomatoes is to have one circle of courgette then the next is diced tomatoes etc. I think it's a nice combination of colours, and taste wise tomato goes great with feta and courgette ^^ 
9. You can sprinkles the left over feta if you want or keep it for salad :)
10. Bake at 180C for 30-40 min depending on your oven! :) If your oven does not bake equally everywhere like mine, turn your quiche around every now and then so there isn't just one side cooking... 

Enjoy! :)

Maapo Harusame

As a massive noodle fan, having learned how to make maapo tofu, my next step was to make maapo harusame (maapo with rice vermicelli). I actually don't know if they eat this in China since I always had the Japanese version (from already made packs). Rice vermicelli are very thin, transparent noodles and I think you can easily find them in local Asian grocery stores :)

In an earlier post I explained how I made maapo tofu. If you mastered this already then you will be able to make this dish too! It's a pretty easy recipe and you just need to replace tofu with a bag of rice vermicelli and buy a pack of shiitake mushrooms (this was not in the maapo tofu recipe).

Ingredients (for approximately for 4 big nomsters):

• 3 teaspoon of chicken stock diluted into 500ml of water
• 2-3 teaspoon potato starch (to thicken the sauce)
• 4 teaspoon soya sauce
• 3 teaspoon sugar
• a drizzle of sesame oil
• 3 cloves of garlic or 4 teaspoon of mashed garlic
• 4 teaspoon of minced ginger
• 8 green onions (white parts and green parts)
• Doubanjiang (chili bean paste; you can easily find it in asian supermarkets)
• 400 g of minced beef (you can also use minced pork)
• a bag of more or less 250g of rice vermicelli (available at local asian grocery store)

Preparation:

• In a bowl, mix the chicken stock, potato starch, soya sauce and sugar. 
• In a deep frying pan or a pot, add a drizzle of sesame oil and add the garlic, ginger and white parts of the spring onion on medium heat. When it's cooked add the minced meat. Try to make sure to break the clumps of meat with the spatula :)
• When the meat is almost cooked, add the shiitake mushrooms (I cut them into very small bits but you can cut them bigger of course)
• In a pot, boil the water for harusame (rice vermicelli). 
• When the meat is cooked, add the doubanjiang. I did not put a specific amount in the recipe because I always just randomly add the paste. I just keep adding until the meat is evenly covered and becomes red-ish.
• Mix the sauce that you kept on the side one last time before adding it to the pot. 
• Let it boil until the sauce thickens
• When the water in the pot is boiling, add the rice vermicelli. Check the package to know how long you need to boil them (mine were 5 min). When they are done, drain them and rinse them with cold water. This is to ensure the cooking stops completely. Drain them well and add them to the sauce. 
• Serve with fresh rice (optional) and sprinkle the green part of the green onion as decoration. 

As you can see pretty straight forward preparation! My only problem was the rice vermicelli... I didn't want to use the entire pack at first but it was impossible to cut them. Tried with scissors, knife... I put the entire bag and there were some left overs. 

Luckily, this dish was still good to nom-nom the next day. If you have leftovers you will see the vermicelli will drink up aaalll the sauce and they will look a bit fatter than the day before. But no worries the taste will still be the same! :) 

Enjoy!

Vichyssoise Soup

Finally, a soup post for cold days! I personally love soup since it makes you feel so warm inside and it's sooo comforting somehow :3 Anyways, today I will be writing on vichyssoise soup, basically a leak-potato soup!To be honest, I'm not really sure where this soup is from but what I know is that I found this recipe from a Japanese cook book my parents have. So here it is, in English :P

Vichyssoise soup in traditional Breton bowl

Ingredients (4 nomsters):

• 2-4 leaks (depending on the size of the leaks)
• 1/2 or 1 onion (depending on the size)
• 4 small potatoes or 2 big ones
• Chicken broth (1 cube or 3 teaspoons) in 2 cups of water
•  4 cups of milk
• Salt/pepper
• Nutmeg (optional)
• 1 cup liquid cream

Preparation:

1. Cut the leaks into small pieces and the onion into stripes. If the potatoes are small you just have to peel them and throw them in the pan. If you have big potatoes just cut them into medium pieces. 
2. In a pot, heat a little bit of oil. Add the leak and onion. When they are starting to be cooked, add the potatoes with the chicken broth. Add salt and pepper and let it slowly cook.
3. When the potatoes are cooked (I usually poke them with a knife) add half of the milk and use the mixer. Make sure to get all the potatoes! 
4. When your soup looks like a soup, add the rest of the milk. 
5. At this point you can also add the liquid cream but I always skip this step to make the recipe healthier. And even without it, it's just as nice :)
6. You can add some nutmeg on top but this step is optional.

Usually, this soup is eaten cold but having it hot on cold winter days is also very nice :D This soup is very tasty and healthy and a perfect dinner would be the soup and a salad. It's very light and refreshing for maybe the day after a heavy meal?