oyako-don

Image from Wikipedia:

Serves one:

• 4oz chicken breast, bite-size
• 1/4 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 1/3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 1/3 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 beaten egg
• 1~2 mitsuba (honeywort)

Throw all ingredients except the mitsuba and egg into a pan and boil for 3~4 minutes. Trickle in the egg slowly, and cook until the egg is almost cooked. Garnish with mitsuba, and serve over rice.

Note:

1. I ended up using chicken thigh. Cutting it in cubes might actually be better than bite-size as the recipe specified.
2. I omitted mitsuba from the recipe because I couldn’t find any. Maybe next time I’ll use chopped up green onion or enoki.
3. I also might add more sugar to the recipe to my taste.
4. The egg ended up coming out crumbly and grainy, still soft nonetheless, when I finished cooking. I think it’s because I turned down the heat and started stirring it. I also ended up using two more eggs at the end because the balance between the chicken and egg seemed to be off.

Grilled peaches

I found this recipe on GQ’s June issue, and I couldn’t find any reference to the article online, so I decided to transcribe it from there. This was also loved by most people who tried it out at the grill party, except it was on the bit buttery side – I might have rubbed the melted butter sauce too much when the peaches were on the grill. Oh well.

Serves two:

• 4 firm, not-quite-ripe peaches (grilling softens them up so you want them harder)
• 2 tbsp salted butter
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• dash of cinnamon powder (optional)

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add sugar and cinnamon powder. Remove from heat. Halve the peaches, leave the skin on, and remove the pits. Brush the melted butter on the flesh side generously. On medium or mellow heat, grill the flesh side first for 5 minutes, then skin side for 3 minutes. Serve immediately. Optionally serve with vanilla ice cream.

Jerk chicken

This recipe is from Epicurious, and I ended up doing just the chicken, and also toned down the spice level to cater to the entire party group. Everyone at the grill party loved this too. I added a little bit more olive oil than specified, which made the wet rub more wet and thus easy to manipulate when marinating the meat beforehand. Lastly, I doubled the serving by making this recipe as a side instead of main dish.

Serves six:

• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 Scotch bonnet chiles with seeds, chopped (wear gloves when handling chiles)
• 2 scallions, green and white parts, chopped (about 3 tablespoons)
• 1/4 cup dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 boneless, skin-on chicken breasts (buy bone-in breasts and cut meat from bone)

In blender or food processor, purée oil, chiles, scallions, thyme, dry mustard, salt, and pepper until smooth. Arrange chicken in large glass baking dish and coat on all sides with paste. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours. Grill well-done in medium heat.

Cherry cola BBQ sauce

This is the recipe I used to make the BBQ sauce for the grill party I had last weekend. The sauce looks just like any other BBQ sauce, so no need for pictures I guess. I ended up using less onions and garlic than required because I was running out of time to buy more, but it turned out fine. Make sure you cook the garlic well so that the potent smell and flavor of raw garlic will go away. (recipe from Bon Appetit)

Serves four cups:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 cups chopped onions
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 12-ounce bottles (ketchup-style) chili sauce
• 1 12- to 13-ounce jar cherry preserves or jam
• 1 cup cherry cola (regular, not diet)
• 1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon (or more) hot pepper sauce

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions; sauté until golden, about 7 minutes. Add garlic and stir 1 minute. Stir in chili sauce, preserves, cherry cola, brown sugar, and vinegar; bring to simmer, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer uncovered until reduced to 4 cups, stirring often to prevent scorching, about 50 minutes. Stir in 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce. Season to taste with salt and pepper and more hot pepper sauce, if desired. Transfer to bowl and cool completely.

Japanese eggplant with miso and sesame seed

Super-easy dish. The Life (Time) of Cooking put in a bit of a more effort to decorate with white and black sesame also, but I haven’t bothered trying that. Also, every time I made this I forgot to use the miso paste before I sprinkled the sesame seeds so I had to slurp in on the sides of the eggplants. Lastly, I found my miso paste (red) quite strong and salty so If you can come up with a way to dilute it or use it without smearing its flavor all over your mouth and mask all other flavors then feel free to do so.

0.5 – 1 eggplant per serving:

• mirin
• toasted sesame oil
• dark miso paste
• sesame seeds – white or a combination of black and white

With a sharp knife, slice the eggplants in two lengthwise, then score deeply right around the edge of the flesh and cross-score the cut face to make a criss-cross pattern. This not only looks good but also makes the eggplant easier to eat. Bake in 200 degrees for 5~10 minutes.

Pomegranate tapioca pudding

(That is the actual pudding I made.)

This pudding was quite a success at my Christmas party last year, everyone liked it. I left it in the fridge for a bit too long, however, because the party was for roughly 20 people, and I had to make them in advance. The cold air sort of hardened up the pudding too much. Next time, I’ll just leave them in room temperature.

Serves two:

• 30g small pearl tapioca
• 250ml coconut milk
• 1 egg yolk
• 30g sugar
• seeds and juice from one pomegranate

Place the tapioca and coconut milk into a thick-bottomed pan, quickly mix and soak for 40 minutes.
Mix in the egg yolk and sugar and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, or until the tapioca is cooked through.
Fold in the pomegranate seeds and juice and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Nutella hot chocolate

Stole the idea from Big City Little Kitchen, and it came out really well. It’s so easy to make it. A perfect drink for wintertime!

Serves one:

• 1 cup whole milk (feel free to substitute skim, rice, almond, etc)
• 3 tbsp Nutella or other chocolate-hazelnut spread
• 1 cinnamon stick (I skipped this)
• 1 tsp high-quality cocoa powder
• 1 or more marshmallows (optional)
• pinch of espresso powder (optional)

In a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over a low flame, whisk together the milk, Nutella, cocoa powder, and espresso (if using). Add cinnamon stick. Simmer for about 5 minutes, to allow flavors to meld.

Chai tea cupcake

KimberlyC can make her chai tea cupcakes look cute and tasty. I can’t. This came out horribly mainly because I am dyslexic sometimes, and made the rookie mistake of reading “1 T salt” as “1 t salt”. Plus I overbaked them. I am determined to make this perfect next time so that people won’t tell me “you can’t even bake a cupcake?”.

Serves six~eight:

• 1/2 Cup of milk
• 3 tea bags of Chai tea (but I ended up using 4 – more the stronger)
• 1 1/2 Cup flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs

Mix them in a large bowl, and then bake them in a cupcake tray. I also forget how long you’re supposed to bake for, but I’m sure you can check it easily. I think the temperature should be set to the standard 350 degrees.

Pumpkin custard

I followed the recipe from Taste Buddies and gave this pumpkin custard a shot. It didn’t come out great when I tried making it because the pumpkins ended up becoming a mush, plus the custard tasted too egg-y. I feel like it has a pretty good potential to be a great dessert, done right. When I have the guts and desire to try it again, I’ll try to make it look like this on the left.

Serves four:

• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup of coconut cream
• 1 cup of loose palm sugar
• 2 small Japanese pumpkins or squash

1. Gently cut the top of the pumpkin or squash. Scoop out the seeds and stringy bits and set aside. Keep the tops for covering.
2. Combine the eggs with the coconut cream and palm sugar. Beat on a medium speed until frothy.
3. Pour the coconut mixture into the pumpkin shells and cover them with the tops.
4. Gently place pumpkins in the steamer. Cover with a lid and steam for about 30-35 minutes.
5. Once the custard has set, remove the pumpkin from the steamer and set aside to cool for about 15 minutes.
6. Finally, place the pumpkin in the fridge for about 1-2 hours.
7. Serve chilled.

Mapo Tofu

Mapo tofu (Chinese: 麻婆豆腐, Korean: 마파두부) is a Chinese tofu dish that’s usually made spicy and meaty. This used to be my favorite dish to make in college – 5th year for masters, to be precise, when I had lots of time to cook, ironically. Multiple tries allowed me to perfect the dish, plus add my own twist to it: Korean pepper paste, sesame oil, scallion and mushroom.

Serves two (or one hungry guy like myself):

• 1 pack of pre-made mapo tofu sauce
• 1 block of tofu
• 10 oz ground beef or pork
• 1 green onion
• 2 whole mushrooms
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• veggie oil
• 1~2 tbsp Korean pepper paste, to taste
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced

Heat up a wok and add some veggie oil. Cube the tofu, and chop up the vegetables. Pour in the sauce pack with pepper paste, minced garlic and meat, and cook them until the meat is not read anymore. Add tofu and veggies, and sesame oil to taste. Cook until tofu is done.