Free Recipes!

Do you like cooking or baking? Or perhaps you want to make something handmade for your other half, or family, or friends this upcoming occasion?

I've got just the place for you.

Next in my recommendations for free stuff, is AllRecipes.com! They offer many free recipes, as well as downloadable cookbooks for various occasions!

Need an inspiration for your next endeavour in the kitchen? Perhaps AllRecipes can help ;)

I may consult this handy site for inspirations for Christmas too- Before I abuse the oven and render it unusable ^^;

Signing off... ...

Tempting....

Picnic Day

Yesterday was 'Picnic Day' for me =)

I spent a total of 4 hours (yes, shows how much of an inexperienced cook I am) to prepare, cook and pack everything- My theme was Japanese Food (with an exception of 1 item), and my parents said that it turned out pretty good =)

So, I thought I would share the recipes with my readers =) The items I prepared were:

• Baked Potato
• Rice Balls (I'll just be sharing the sushi & steamed rice recipe. The rest of it is up to your imagination)
• Teriyaki Chicken
• Crabstick (I will not be posting the recipe as it just requires dropping the crabsticks in boiling water) <-- This didn't come out the way I wanted it to anyway due to a lack of time

I hope these recipes help if you ever decide to do up a Japanese meal!

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Baked Potato

INGREDIENTS:

• Large Potatoes (such as Russet Potatoes)
• * Salt
  
• * Butter

* These items are optional

PREPARATION:

• Adjust the rack in your oven to the middle position and preheat oven according to your preference from the chart below.
  
• Wash and scrub each potato under running water, as these are the skins that you will be eating with the potato later. Dry the potatoes.
  
• Pierce each potato with a fork or sharp knife, four times on each side at approximately 1 inch intervals. This allows the potato to let the steam escape during baking.
• For a soft skin (and taste), rub the potato skins with olive oil or butter. You can also roll the potatoes in coarse salt instead. What I did was to mix salt and butter and apply that on the potato.
  
• You can choose to wrap each potato in aluminum foil (which will produce a soft skin instead) or just bake it like that to produce a light, flaky texture instead =)

Temperatures/Times for baking
(for potatoes approximately 150g/5oz each)

These timings are for the conventional or regular oven:

45 minutes at 400 degrees F (204.44°C). 60 minutes at 350 degrees F (176.67°C). 90 minutes at 325 degrees F (162.78°C).

• When baking with a higher temperature (and with a shorter cooking time), the skin will turn out more crispy. Do take note that larger potatoes will take longer to bake. Adjust the baking time appropriately.
• Turn the potatoes over halfway through the baking time to prevent browning/wetting of the undersides. (I forgot this step so the bottom of my potatoes turned soggy -_-")
• When finished, slit across the top with a sharp knife and gently pinch in each end towards the middle so that the fluffy interior will be loosened from the skin. I did it the non-conventional way, however, by cutting a 'cap' out, and placing butter and bacon bits in the hole. Then I replaced the cut-out piece in a slightly slanted position.

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Teriyaki Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

• 3/4 pounds chicken breasts or thighs
• 2 tbsp sake (rice wine)
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsp mirin (sweet rice wine)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• * grated ginger

PREPARATION:

• Poke chicken with a fork.
• Mix the rest of the ingredients (except for the ginger) in a bowl. Place the chicken in the mixture marinate it for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.
• Heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the skin side of the chicken on medium heat until the skin turns brown.
• Turn the fire down to low heat and fry the other side of the chicken.
• Pour the marinate into the pan with the chicken and cover the pan. Allow the chicken to steam until done.
• Remove the lid and simmer until the sauce becomes thick. (Do not overdo it as the chicken and sauce may become burnt)
• Turn the heat off once the sauce is done and remove the chicken to slice.
• Pour the thickened sauce over the chicken.
• If you wish to, you may garnish the teriyaki chicken with grated ginger.
  

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Steamed Japanese Rice

This recipe is good for 4 - 6 servings (For me, it was enough for at least 5 or 6)

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups Japanese rice
• 3 1/4 cups water

PREPARATION:

• Put the rice in a large bowl and wash it with cold water.
  
• Repeat washing until the water becomes almost clear.
  
• Drain the rice and set aside for 30 minutes. (I missed this step but the rice still turned out really good)
  
• Place the rice in rice cooker and add water.
• Soak the water for AT LEAST 30 minutes. The best timing is an hour.
• Start the cooker.
  

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Sushi Rice (Continued from Steamed Japanese Rice)

This recipe is good for 4 - 6 servings (For me, it was enough for at least 5 or 6)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/3 cup rice vinegar
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

PREPARATION:

• After cooking the steamed japanese rice, prepare the sushi vinegar (sushi zu) by mixing the rice vinegary, sugar and salt in a pan. Put it on low heat until the sugar dissolves.
• Let the vinegar mixture cool.
• Spread the hot steamed rice into a large non-metallic plate or bowl (to prevent chemical reactions between the metal and rice vinegar). Sprinkle the vinegar mixture over the rice over a few times, and fold the rice with a rice spatula quickly. Be careful not to smash the rice.
• To cool and remove the rice moisture well, let a fan blow the rice as you mix it. This will give the rice a nice shiny finish.

# Sushi Rice is best used straightaway

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The below pictures are my end-product. I particularly like my onigiris (rice balls) that are shown in the 2nd picture.






Signing off... ...
In love with my onigiris

Japanese Soba Recipe

While I am still trying to find a way to upload my photos, I thought I might as well post about something else first.

A few months ago, I hosted a Japanese girl from Hiroshima. She spoke English, so there wasn't much chance for me to practice my Japanese (since I figured she would want to practice her English language).

Singapore seemed most well known for food, so we (my dad, actually) stuffed her with loads of food during her stay with us. He cooked a lot, bought a lot of food for after-dinner snacks (Although I'd be scolded if I did that on normal days -_-"), and we brought her around Singapore to the famous food stalls.

In return on one of the days, she taught us how to make the traditional Japanese Soba. The recipe is as below:

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Sauce ingredients:

• 4 ladles of water
  
• 1 ladle of soya sauce
• 1 ladle of sweet rice wine (mirin)
  
• 1 ladle of un-sweet rice wine
• 2 small packs of bonito flakes

Misc ingredients:

• Soba noodles
• Seaweed strips
• Lots of ice

How to make sauce

1. Place the water, soya sauce and the 2 rice wines in a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add the bonito flakes once the mixture boils and turn the fire off.
3. Leave it till the flakes sink (approximately 5 mins)
4. Remove flakes and refrigerate.

Cooking the soba

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
2. Add the soba and wait till the water boils again.
3. Bring down the flame to a slow fire for 3 mins.
4. Turn off the fire and place the noodles in cold water.
5. Wash the noodles 3 times under running water to cool them down.
6. Place the noodles in ice.

When ready to serve, place each serving of noodles on a plate and the sauce in a separate bowl. Place some seaweed strips on both the sauce and noodles.

Enjoy. =)

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My family's subsequent experience with cooking the soba has brought us to change step 3 of cooking the soba to:

- Turn off the flame and leave it for about 2 mins.

We found that the noodles would be more springy and less soggy when we changed that step. If you are one of those whom are afraid of changing the original recipe, rest assured that the slight change does not screw up the recipe ;) Keeping the step as it is is alright as well.

For those who are intending to try the recipe out, I hope you like it! =D


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