Asian stir-fried vermicelli rice noodle dish is quick and easy to make within 30minutes. I make this dish often when I don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen and have cravings for a delicious Asian noodle dish.
Ingredients to use can vary on what you have in the fridge. Meat ingredients can be chicken, pork tenderloin, frozen/left-over roasted duck or shrimps. Main vegetable can be Chinese bok choy (there are different types and each type can be used in this stir-fry dish), kai-lan or easier to get from the supermarket is bimi, broccoli or tauge (bean sprouts). Side vegetables can be carrot, canned sweet kernel corn or baby maize and spring onion for the finishing touch.
Cooking time: approx. 30 minutes for 2 persons
Ingredients & Tools
250gr chicken thigh filet – I like to use chicken thigh or roasted duck meat
100gr rice vermicelli – I prefer the brand Wai Wai because of the refine texture but any will do
2x stalk shanghai baby bok choy
1x carrot
1x garlic clove
Optional: 1x chili
2x stalk spring onion
70gr canned sweet kernel corn
Seasoning: sesame oil, soya sauce, white pepper, salt
Oyster sauce
(Extra virgin) olive oil
Big frying pan
Bowl for marinating the meat
2x spatula
2x sieve
What to do?
————- Soften the vermicelli ————-
Soak the vermicelli in cold water until it gets a little bit soft. Optional is to cut the noodle in approx. 10cm length, this makes it easy to stir in the pan and to eat. Drain the noodle in a sieve and makes sure it’s almost dry before you cook, otherwise it will become a moisty noodle dish. You can drain the noodle a few hours before cooking.
————- Cut the meat ————-
Remove fat and slice the chicken in thin slices and put in bowl. If you use roasted duck, slice this in slices, not too thick and not too thin. You don’t need to marinate as the roasted the duck is marinated and pre-cooked.
Put 1 tbsp sesame oil in the chicken.
Put 1 tbsp soya sauce in the chicken.
Put a pinch of white pepper and salt, and mix the marination in the chicken.
————- Cut the vegetables ————-
Cut the bok choy in bite pieces. Rinse in water and drain in a sieve. Important is to dry the vegetables as much as possible, otherwise it will become a moisty noodle dish. You can wash it a few hours before cooking or dry it out with kitchen paper.
Peel the carrot skin and cut in thin slices.
Chop the garlic fine or use a garlic presser. If the latter, only do this when you start cooking.
Optional: slice the chili in thin slices. Keep the seeds as well if you like a spicy punch.
Slice the spring onion.
Drain the liquid from the canned corn.
————- Start cooking ————-
Heat the frying pan and put 3tbsp olive oil. Do not overheat the oil in the pan.
Fry the garlic in the pan to light brown and add half of the chili slices.
Start frying the chicken until cooked and put it back in the marination bowl. Keep the oil as much as possible in the pan.
Stir-fry the bok choi in the pan, first the white stalks and later the leaves together with the carrots and corn. The stalks take a bit longer to cook than the green leaves. Don’t cook the vegetables too long if you like veggie crunchiness.
Then move the vegetables on the side of the pan or make a whole in the middle.
Put the vermicelli in the pan, half of the slices spring onion and stir it together with the vegetables for about 1 minute.
Put 2 tbsp oyster sauce, a pinch of salt and stir everything in the pan for a very short time and serve it on the plate.
Sprinkle the remaining spring onion over the noodle as finishing touch.
Asian fried spring rolls are one of my favorite food. Spring rolls are a large variety of filled, rolled appetizers or dim sum found in East Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian cuisine. The name is a literal translation of the Chinese chūn juǎn (春卷 ‘spring roll’).
In Chinese cuisine, spring rolls are savoury rolls with cabbage and other vegetable fillings inside a thinly wrapped pastry and are usually eaten during the spring festival in mainland China, hence the name. Meat varieties are also popular such as with pork, chicken or shrimps. Every culture makes their own variety of ingredients which make this appetizer so diverse and special.
My recipe is with chicken, but you can replace that with something else or just stay with a delicious vegetarian bite. If the latter, prepare with more vegetables and vermicelli.
Each time, I make a batch of unfried rolls and freeze them in for a next snacking moment. This would save me a lot of prep-time when I’m craving for an Asian crispy fried spring roll 😊
Cooking time: approx. 2hrs and serves ~15 rolls, including cool off time.
Tip:
Make a batch and freeze unfried spring rolls in the freezer. You can fry frozen rolls easily and it taste like freshly made.
Buy your dipping sauce or make it homemade: spicy sweet chili, soy sauce & rice vinegar or Vietnamese nuoc cham (fish sauce).
Ingredients & Tools
250gr chicken (thigh) filet or ground chicken meat
8-10x shitake mushroom
2x garlic clove
2x medium size winter carrots
4x stalk spring onion
1–2 chili, depends on if you like a spicy punch to it
100gr or 1 piece rice vermicelli, you can buy this in an Asian store.
1x egg white
Seasoning: sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper, salt
Optional: romaine lettuce to wrap spring rolls for a refreshing taste
Sweet chili sauce for dipping
Spring roll pastry sheets ~20x20cm, you can buy this frozen in an Asian store. Unfreeze the pack and try splitting the pack in batches or in half. Use 1 batch and put the rest back in the freezer for the next time.
0,5 – 1 litre sunflower oil, depends how big your deep fry pan is. No need to fill it up, you just need a layer for about 5 cm up from the bottom.
1 big bowl
Grater for carrots (thin slice grater)
1 big frying pan
1 big pan to deep fry
Frying plier or long chop sticks
Sieve
Deep bowl and kitchen paper
To keep extra spring rolls in the freezer, required: airtight bags or box and baking paper.
What to do?
————- Soften the vermicelli ————-
Break the vermicelli in ~4cm length and soften it in hand warm water until it gets a little bit soft. Then drain it out in a sieve.
——–Cut ingredients & Pan fry ——–
Cut the chicken filet in very thin sliced pieces (simpler way is to use ground chicken meat) and put in the bowl. Personally, I like to use chicken thy because its more tender.
Season the chicken with a sprinkle of soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and salt.
Chop mushrooms in thin slices. Put in the bowl.
Mince 2 garlic cloves. Put in the bowl.
Grate 2 carrots. Put in the bowl.
Slice the spring inion and put in the bowl.
Optional: slice the chili very thin and put in the bowl including the seeds.
Mix all ingredients in the bowl and add a pinch of salt.
Pan fry all ingredients on medium heat until the chicken is cooked. Then switch off the heat.
Mix the vermicelli in the pan to make it softer by the heat.
Let the ingredients cool off in the pan.
When its cooled down, scoop the ingredients back in the big bowl.
————- Start rolling & Heat the oil ————-
Beat 1x egg white.
Heat the sunflower oil at the lowest stand.
Take a sheet, put a layer of ingredients close to a corner and start rolling towards to the opposite corner. Important is to roll the ingredients tight in the sheet and there should be no empty spaces in between. Use the egg white as glue by closing the sheet end. Watch the video here on how to roll a spring roll.
Storing spring rolls in the freezer: layer the rolls on a baking sheet with at least ½ cm distance from each other, the sheets should not touch each other. When you lay an extra layer on top, put a baking sheet between the layers. This is to avoid spring rolls sticking on each other.
Put a kitchen paper sheet in a deep bowl. This is to drain out the oil after frying.
Heat the oil up until you see little bubbles in the oil. Lower the heat stand a little bit, the oil must not overboiling.
Gently put the spring rolls one by one in the oil pan. Do not fill the pan full as you need some space in turning the spring rolls with a frying plier or chop sticks.
Fry the spring rolls until the sheet is hard and light brown, approx. 3min each side.
Take the spring rolls out of the pan and let it drain upright in the deep bowl
Leave it for 3-5 min and layer the spring rolls flat on a plate.
————- Ready to Eat ————-
Dipping sauce, most simple is to have a bottle of sweet chili sauce at home.
Wrap a spring roll in a lettuce leaf, dip it in the sauce and bon appetite.
Sticky aromatic rice dumpling Zhong is a delicious festive snack. My mum made these little treats when it was “Dragon Boat Festival” which falls each year on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar, approx. late May to mid-June.
On Wikipedia, there is a great write-up about the tradition of making Zhong. In short: this Chinese historical event began with the Duanwu Dragon Boat Festival and the making and eating of zong zi are seeped in love. A loyal senior state office named Qu Yuan (340-278 BC) of the kingdom of Chu spoke out to his leader about his truthful views about how to lead the kingdom. However, others were jealous of him and turned the leader against him. Qu Yuan was banished and eventually the kingdom fell to outsiders. Qu Yuan, in his grief, committed suicide by jumping into a river.
The common people loved Qu Yuan so much that they rowed out to try to find the body. When they could not find it they wrapped rice with bamboo leaves and threw it into the river to distract the fishes from eating the body. And thus began this now ancient yearly love memorial from the Chinese people: the dragon boats racing through the rivers and the wrapping of the bamboo rice dumpling.
Zhong (in Cantonese), is a Chinese traditional festive food made of glutinous rice with different sweet or savoury fillings wrapped in bamboo leaves. After being cooked in water, all the ingredients stick together and stay in a particular shape when unwrapped. In the Western world, they are also known as rice dumplingsor sticky rice dumplings.
This aromatic and flavoursome treat involves a tremendous effort and specific preparation but definitely worth than buying as the ingredients you use at home are better in quality and in taste. The filling used and wrapped shapes varies from region to region.
I make my Zhong on my preferred ingredients which does not come from any specific region… at least I think. It’s all about what you want to eat right 😊
First time making Zhong might take quite some effort and time in tying the Zhong in the bamboo leaves. I really thought, never again but until the moment I had my first bite on my very own wrapped Zhong… I loved it! All my childhood memories being together with my mum overflood me with emotions and joy. The second and third time went much smoother as the process and skillset was apparently still there while I haven’t wrap it for a long time.
You can store the Zhong for a few days in the fridge after it cooled down from the cooking process or store in the freezer for each time consumption. Re-boil in a pan of water or steam the Zhong for about 20-30min. In my opinion, the latter taste better. The structure and flavors remain well contained in the wrap for a delicious snack bite.
40x bamboo leaves, take extra leaves in case some will torn during wrapping
1kg glutinous rice
3x Chinese sausage
10x Chinese/shitake mushroom
8x dried scallops or handful dried shrimps
400-500gr boneless frozen roasted duck (defrost before cutting) or chicken thy fillet with skin. Do not remove the skin because the fat will give some extra aroma. In general, pork belly meat is being used.
Optional: 200-300gr mung beans
Chinese five spices
Soja sauce
Rice wine
Sugar
2 big bowls
1 big plastic tray or something to put the bamboo leaves on
Aluminum foil
Sieve
Some smaller bowls to put the ingredients in
1 large soup pan
Natural (cotton) strings
Scissor
1 Tbsp = table spoon
1tsp salt in the soup pan when you start boiling the Zhong
What to do?
————- Prepare ingredients overnight – 30min ————-
Soak the bamboo leaves in water. This will make them soft for wrapping. You can put the leaves alongside in a big pan
Soak the rice in water in a big bowl.
Soak the mung beans in water in a big bowl.
Soak the scallops or dried shrimps in water in a bowl.
Roasted duck: cut the duck in small chunks or pieces and put them in a bowl.
Chicken thy fillet or pork belly: cut the meat in small chunks or pieces and put them in a bowl.
Add 1 Tbsp rice wine to the meat bowl.
Add 2 tsp sugar.
Sprinkle a bit of soja sauce (2 Tbsp) and add 2 Tbsp Chinese five spices and mix the meat with everything in the bowl.
Cut the mushroom in thick slices.
Cut the sausage in thick slices.
Cover the bowls with aluminium foil and store in the fridge.
The rice and bean bowl can stay on the kitchen table.
————- Prepare ingredients next day ————-
Take the bamboo leaves out of the water and drain it upright.
Drain the water out from the rice and mung bean bowls. You can use a sieve to catch up the rice/beans.
Drain the water out from the scallops or dried shrimps.
Lay out all the ingredients on the kitchen table.
Top left to right: sticky rice, mung beans, Chinese sausage, dried scallops, shitake mushroom, duck meat, bamboo leaves
I pre-boil water in a water cooker at 70C. What temperature is your own preference and is not a must.
Fill the big pan until the last layer of Zhong. Do not overfill, especially not close to the lid edge. While boiling the Zhong, boiled water might overspill from the pan.
First boil 20-30min on medium heat, then lower the heat with the lid on.
Check from time to time that water is not flooding over or drying out. You can refill water if needed as the Zhong need to be covered in water. The longer you boil, the softer and stickier the rice get.
Take all Zhong out of the pan and let it cool down or start enjoying your hard effort of work 😊
————- How to eat ? ————-
Cut the string off from the Zhong.
Unwrap the bamboo leaves.
Dip with a little bit soya or spicy sauce for extra flavors.
Let me know if you like my Zhong or share your view on where I can improve my wrapping skill.
Discover things to do and where to eat in Costa del Sol – updated on 30 December 2022: Living semi in Andalucía brings me much joy in life and one of them is exploring interesting places on an easy pace across four seasons with sunshine almost all year round 😊. Most of the time, I combine my trips with a nice outdoor activity such as a village/city/beach walk or a nature hike and ending my day with a culinary experience.
On this blog, you may not find tips on museum visits (only exceptional) or historical stories about the places I’ve visited. Nevertheless, I hope you will find something on this post that triggers your interest for your travel plans or maybe just find a nice restaurant for your day.
Most of my stay in Spain, I stay in Axarquía. This is a district of Málaga province in Andalucía on the east side of Malaga. Its name tracks back to Arabic meaning of “the eastern region” and covers the sunniest places on the east coast of Costa del Sol with an average of 320 sunny days a year. Axarquía is composed of 31 municipalities and I will share the places which I like or visit the most.
Towns and villages covered in this blog are: Frigiliana, Nerja, Torrox Costa, Torre del Mar, Caleta de Vélez, Vélez-Málaga, Salobreňa. More recommendations to be updated for Lake Viñuela, La Maroma.
Frigiliana
Frigiliana is my most favourite village so far which is also Spain’s most beautiful and well-preserved village.
Take a stroll in this picturesque village, explore the small streets with beautiful blue painted doors and window shutters, see colourful flowers in pots or pink bougainvillea growing on white walls that bring a heart-warming feeling. Ladies don’t forget to wear comfy shoes as the streets and alleys are charmingly cobbled in this village. Note that shops are often closed during siesta time (14-17pm) and in winters (Jan/Feb), some may be even totally closed having their winter break.
Prefer a guide telling you all the historic stories of this village? You can book a guided tour in English. Costs for an adult is €4. Check out for more information on this link www.frigilianatours.com
Want to go for a spectacular hiking route Rio Higueron and El Fuerte? This route takes you from the beautiful village of Frigiliana into the waters of the Rio Higueron following it upstream to near its source in the Carrascal. Find more about hiking routes in Frigiliana and in its Natural Park Sierras de Tejeda on this link.
Restaurante El Jardin – serves a range of fresh Mediterranean cuisine/Marrocan food. It has a divine terrace looking over Frigiliana village. To get there, it’s quite an uphill walk but worthwhile. Main dish approx. €20
Transportation
You can easily drive to Frigiliana by car from Nerja, it’s about 4km. There is one big parking garage, or you can park along the main road for free if there is a spot available. At high season, very unlikely to find something though. Taxi always possible.
Another option is taking the bus that runs every hour between 07:20am until 20:30pm. Bear in mind, there is no bus service outside these service hours, also not on Sundays and not on public holidays. The bus departs from Nerja bus station. Ensure you have small bills/change to pay in the bus, one-way cost €1,20. For bus time table, please check here.
Nerja
Nerja is well known across Spain for its natural beaches, with many of its coves frequently featuring amongst the candidates for the best beach in Spain.
Balcón de Europa, undoubtedly the heart of Nerja (balcony square) with amazing sea and mountain views.
Nerja caves, one of Spain’s most popular and spectacular historical sites. Sometimes, they hold classical music concerts onsite. For the early birds, they offer limited free entrance for EU citizen from Monday until Friday, on the first opening slot at 09:30am. Check for reservation rules on their website.
Wet and wild hiking trail along (in) the river Rio Chillar. The river flows through Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama Nature Reserves. On your journey you will have the opportunity to bath in a natural gorge and waterfall. Be prepared that your shoes get soaked and bear in mind to wear steady walking shoes. Accidents has happened here and would be good to have urgent SOS numbers to reach out to.
For some beach moment, go to Burriana beach, it’s a cosy ‘posh’ beach with nice and modern restaurants. There are nice natural beaches along the coast nearby Nerja but bear in mind there are limited facilities. Access is often along the national beach road.
Tuesday market, located in Almijara II urbanization on the way up to Capistrano San Juan neighbourhood. They sell leather goods, textile, Spanish artisan pottery, spices, vegetable and fruit. Opening hours at 09:30-ish until 13/14:00pm. Take the Verano Azul blue bus from town, approx. €1.
Sunday Nerja Flea Market (also called as Rastro), find all kinds of second-hand items eg lamps, paintings, furniture, fabrics, clothing, books etc. Location is the same as the Tuesday market in Almijara II urbanization and starts from 08:30am until 14:00pm.
Spanish & seafood: La Marina Marisqueria. There are two types of seating areas. On the left side of the entrance is the tapas area. You can choose one free tapas from a designated list with each single drink you order. On top, you can also order dishes from the menu. On the right side, these are tables where you can order from the menu but no free tapas 😉. Tip – be assertive when you want to get their attention to place your food/drink order.
Italian: L’antica Nonna Mia. I highly recommend their fresh pasta dishes and tiramisu. Just superlicious and super value for its quality, price and quantity! On a nice sunny day, you can enjoy the surroundings at their divine terrace with sea view.
Italian: for a typical Italian style pizza, I would go to Vitaliano da Cristina (close to Nonna Mia and has a nice terrace with sea view) or go to Paparazzi.
For carnivores go to Posada de Iberica. I just love this place! Small menu, delicious food prepared with passion and all managed by a friendly man from Argentina. It’s a small cosy brown café style restaurant, a one-man show who serves quality food, good quantity and for a good price.
At Burriana beach, one of my favorite trendy gastronomic tapas place is RAW Lounge.
Do you like drinking cocktails? Go to Hemingway’s, I always go back to this place to get close to my cocktail standards. Wanna go for a nice holiday feeling with amazing rooftop views? Go to Terazza Buddha Lounge bar or the Volk’s Bar Sevillano (take the elevator situated inside Sevillano restaurant).
For the best churros in town, I go to a simple local place at Café Bar las Cuatro Esquinas. They serve fresh fried churros between 09:00-12:00 noon and from 17:00-19:00pm. Chocolate lovers, order a cup of hot chocolate to dip in, you will not regret!
Breakfast: is your breakfast the most joyful meal to start with your day? Go to Parador Hotel, it isn’t cheap, ~€20pp but they serve an amazing buffet breakfast with a divine sea view on the terrace. They serve fresh orange juice, various bread, amuses, cheese/meat cuts, cereals, yoghurts, cold & hot platters and sweets and more to have a happy day.
Like to enjoy your morning coffee with a nice sunny sea view? Go to Café Anahi, they have a small balcony terrace in the back with decent local prices in a top touristic location.
For a nice tea-time, I like to go to Mena Garden Nerja. It’s situated at the back of the hotel in a charming inner garden. Their carrot cake is delicious! Not too sweet of not overly layered with crème.
For good bread or pastry, especially their carrot cake, go to bakery Panadería Confitería Salvador Nerja.
Torrox Costa
Have a nice morning or sunset run or walk on the beach boulevard of Torrox Costa. This beach can be quite windy comparing to other beaches but gives an uber relaxing holiday feeling. The boulevard offers plenty of beach cafés and restaurants, and a nice simple breakfast menu for about € 5
Monday market next to Iberostar hotel building. They sell leather goods, textile, Spanish artisan pottery, spices, vegetable and fruit. Opening hours at 09:30-ish until 13/14:00pm.
My favourite food places in Torrox Costa:
For the best ice-cream in Nerja and neighbourhoods, I tried them all and this is in my opinion the best place for milky ice cream at Vistamar Helados Artesanos. Note that they are closed during the winter season, I believe from October until March. It could be that they are open for weekends with limited opening hours in March.
Spanish & Seafood: Marisquera Encinas, one of my favorite typical local places where Spanish families gather for a weekend lunch. The food is delicious! Highly recommend their creamy Russian salad, almejas, boiled gamba’s, shell fish conchas finas naturale, grilled fish, paella or soup rice meal – arroz con bogavante (local lobster) or arroz con carabineros (mix seafood with giant shrimps). If you want to lunch during Spanish time, after 14pm, I highly recommend you in booking a table in advance. Bear in mind, this is not a fancy place, tables are setup on the pedestrian street facing a busy road. However, the seafood is divine with local cosiness! Another nice place and has a beautiful terrace on the seafront boulevard is at Restaurante La Farola. It’s a very popular place among locals and tourist, a table reservation for lunch would be highly recommended. Especially on the terrace.
Spanish: restaurant El Tito Arenas, a hidden gem with a relaxed local atmosphere. Excellent service and delicious food at great value. Their back garden terrace is nicer than the street side. Highly recommend their entrecote and on Friday’s lunch time, you can pre-order arroz con bogavante dish for €9,5 pp. On other days, its minimum 2 persons order and cost more. For the latter, suggest a table reservation.
Spanish: a little bit off from Torrox Costa boulevard, along the main road towards Nerja at the beach front, you have chiringuito Jose Jimenez 34. Great service and delicious paella! Pre-order your paella with your table reservation to avoid disappointment as they won’t make this for you when its busy. They have mix (chicken/seafood) or seafood paella. Cost ~€22 for 2 persons and lobster paella for €46,-
Breakfast or lunch: trendy small cosy place at Entre Vientos, close to the lighthouse with nice sea view. Craving for real German bread or torten (sweet pie)? Go to Wolfgang und Karina’s Backstűbel. They serve an amazing breakfast set for ~ €5,5 that includes excellent coffee, various bread, cheese/ham and jam, or add ~€1,5 for scrambled egg.
Craving for some good Belgium beer and good simple food? Go to Le Comptoir Belge. In my opinion, when a place serves good crunchy tasty fries, that’s the place to have a good meal! They have a nice terrace with sea view.
For gastronomic Spanish go to Restaurante Pata Negra Playa. Serves Spanish food in a modern twist with excellent quality and price.
Torre del Mar
A popular beach site for local tourists with nice chiringuitos (beach bar/restaurant) along the boulevard. This nice promenade goes all the way to Caleta de Vélez, approx. 4km.
My favourite food places in Torre del Mar:
Spanish: Chiringuito Casa Miguel, a nice trendy place with great service serving delicious grilled/fried seafood. In- and outdoor seating at the beach front.
Spanish & seafood: El Señuelo, a very popular place among the locals. They have a tapas seating area at the entrance or tables on the terrace (however facing a parking place) or indoors. Spanish lunch time in weekends (after 2pm), I highly recommend you booking a table in advance.
Caleta de Vélez
Take a nice stroll at the little harbour where all the sailing boats are docked and have lunch or a drink at one of those bar/ restaurants.
My favourite food places in Caleta de Vélez:
Spanish & seafood: Marisqueria Mani, popular among locals with decent prices. The fish is fresh and delicious!
Spanish & seafood: Chinchin puerto, a trendy posh place located opposite of the little harbour. Atmosphere is superb, food is good but prices are a bit high-end.
Vélez-Málaga
Take a very nice town walk along the alley’s, especially walking up to the fort (Alcazaba La Fortaleza). It’s quite uphill but you will get an amazing 360 view over the town and sea. This town still has preserved its local vibe. There aren’t many tourists here and this is what I like the most.
My favourite food places in Vélez-Malaga:
Spanish tapas bar: Restaurante la Gamba Dorada, this place offers a nice vibe with great services. You can choose one free tapas from a designated list with each single drink you order. What I most like about this place is, they offer a wide variety of red, white and rose wine per glass, so you don’t need to buy a bottle to taste the wine.
Salobreňa
A beautiful white village on the Costa Tropical, dominated by a hilltop castle from the Al-Andalus period. This castle transitioned from a Phoenician to a Roman site, then to an Arabic fortress and at last conquered by the Catholic kings.
Take a stroll in the old town, walk along the narrow streets and relax in tranquility.
Visit the fortress castle that offers a mixture of architecture from different periods. At the top, you will have a 360’ panorama view. At clear blue sky, you can even see Sierra Nevada.
Don’t miss the beautiful beach that is at the bottom of the town. Take a nice stroll along the boulevard and enjoy a glass Tinto de Verano (soda mix with wine) or sangria.
More recommendations to be updated for Lake Viñuela, La Maroma.
Japanse braised Kakuni aubergine is soft with a savory and spicy flavour. I had this dish in a Japanese restaurant which I cannot forget, and they call it ‘eggplant nanban’. But after searching online for the recipe I got many different results that didn’t match what I ate at the restaurant.
I got so confused with the Japanese sauce or type of cooking methods like nanban, agebitashi and kakuni. After some research on these different cooking styles, here a brief summary on what each means.
Nanban means deep-fried and common accompanied with tartare sauce. Ingredient is usually deep-fried chicken in batter. Agebitashi means deep-fry and soaked in sauce or broth. Kakuni means stewed cube. Ingredient is usually pork belly cut into large cubes.
After some home cooking attempts and the flavours I remembered (well… I went back to the restaurant a few times), the closest style is Kakuni pork belly but then with aubergine. You can eat it cold or warm as appetiser. If you serve the aubergine cold, the flavours are denser and superlicious. For example, you can eat it with rice or as topping in your soup noodles.
Cooking time: approx. 30-45min and serves 5-6 persons
Ingredients & Tools
6x Chinese aubergine
6x Tbsp cooking sake
6x Tbsp mirin
3x Tbsp grated ginger
4.5 Tbsp soy sauce
150cl water
Optional: 2-3x thin sliced medium-hot chili
Garnish: sesame seeds and/or thin sliced spring onion
Olive oil
Grater
Frying pan 24-28cm diameter, not too big because you want to braise the aubergine in the sauce
Cut baking paper to use it as lid on the pan
Small medium bowl
Big bowl
What to do?
————- Aubergine ————-
Peel the skin in ‘zebra stripes’ down the aubergine.
Cut aubergine into 2-3cm cubes
Soak the cubes in big bowl for 5min in cold or hand warm water. This is to decrease the bitterness of the aubergine.
Tiramisu, who doesn’t like it? One of my favourite desserts and it is simple to make. Superlicous and fancy for a dinner close out accompanied with a glass of digestive. I learnt making this dessert from an Italian friend. I slightly change the ingredients after making it multiple times and found my own right balance of sweetness and flavours. I hope you like it 🙂
Cooking time: approx. 30min and serves 4 portion
Tip:
Make tiramisu 1 day before serving as it bring more flavour
Replace lady fingers with cantuccini biscuits if you like trying out a different tiramisu texture
Ingredients & Tools
250gr mascarpone
2x egg white
2x cups black coffee
1x pack lady fingers, you might only need 4-5 fingers per glass
Cacao powder
Cacao spreader or use a sieve
Optional liquor: e.g. Tia Maria, Grand Marnier, Amaretto or Pampero rum
Optional topping: e.g. fresh mint leaves, raspberries, blueberries, red berries, or chocolate flakes
Mixer
4x water glasses
1x big bowl
1x small bowl
Tea spoon
Aluminium foil
What to do?
————- Prepare coffee mix & cream ————-
Make 2 cups of black coffee and let it cool off with a splash of liquor in a small bowl. Be careful with pouring too much liquor as it can bring your tiramisu flavour out of balance. Leave out the liquor for alcohol free tiramisu.
Mix at lowest stand 250gr mascarpone and 2x egg white until well mixed. The mixture might be a little stiff but no need to over-mix.
Bring a splash of liquor into the mixture and continue mixing to a creamy consistence. If consistency is to fluid, you might need to add more mascarpone to get the right balance.
————- Layer the Glasses ————-
Break the ladyfingers in line with the glass width size from bottom to top when you do each layer.
Dip the fingers in the coffee mix, not too long and not too short. It should absorb enough coffee mix without falling apart. Layer the bottom of the glass first.
Then layer with cream by using a tea spoon and gently smoothen it flat on the fingers.
Spread a thin layer of cacao on the cream.
Repeat step 6 until 9, until the glass is nicely filled upto 1 cm below glass top
Cover aluminium foil on each glass.
Chill the glasses in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Before serving spread an extra thin layer of cacao.
Optional: chop mint leaves to fine flakes and sprinkle a little bit on top of the tiramisu. Finishing touch by putting a full mint leave on top.
New year, new resolutions and I definitely need to slow down with snacking 😅. Home working for almost a full year and not able in loading off your stress with social engaging in a nice bar makes life so much challenging now!
More days are becoming in reaching out to comfort sweets which brings happiness for a moment but then when I look in the mirror…. hmmm, I think I must reduce some sweet treats.
Starting from February, only on Tue/Fri/Sat and only if I have hard craving for sweets.
Together, we can motivate each other and then we might have a better chance of succeeding. And because today is Tuesday, Johan is baking his 1st Swedish Semlor for our treating day 😋. If you bake or buy your sweets, try to get some baby versions so that you have the option to choose and eat a smaller piece.
Semla (plural Semlor) is a Swedish delicious pastry. The dough is kneaded with crushed cardamom seeds, the center is hollowed out for almond paste filling and topped with fresh cream.
Don’t know why they call it Finish sticks but they are superlicious origin Swedish pastries. These cookies taste like butter cookies and are very simple to bake. With the same batch of dough I will bake Finnish sticks and will also make Raspberry Caves for some deli variation. If you prefer one type, then you can skip the other ingredients.
Baking time: 20-25min + 30min dough resting time, serves approx. 40-50 cookies
Ingredients & Tools
200gr butter on room temperature
1dl sugar or lesser
1Tblsp vanilla sugar
4,5dl all purpose flour
1x egg
Optional: handful pearl sugar
Optional: handful crushed almond nuts or any that’s your favourite
Optional: raspberry jam or any jam you like
Baking paper and baking tray
1x big bowl
1x baking brush
1x teaspoon
1x fork
What to do?
Put all ingredients in one big bowl. Knead by hand or in a baking machine until its smoothly mixed. By hand it takes between10-15min.
Split the dough in 2x plastic bags eg sandwich bag and flatten the dough.
Put the bags in the fridge for 30min.
Pre-heat oven on 175°C at conventional heating (oven symbol stripe on top and bottom).
Beat the egg in a small bowl with a fork to use as egg wash for later.
Take the dough out of the fridge. Break a piece and make a ball with your hand palms.
————- Make Finnish Sticks ————-
Roll the dough on finger thick size strings.
Cut stick pieces for about 4cm width.
Brush a bit of egg wash over the stick pieces.
Mix the sugar pearls and crushed nuts together (or use one of the two ingredients) and layer on the stick pieces.
Put the sticks on the baking tray.
————- Make Raspberry Caves ————-
Roll small balls for a cookie size and press a whole in the centre with your dumb.
Scoop a bit jam with the teaspoon in the cookie centre.
Egg wash is not needed here.
Put the cookies on the baking tray.
————- Cookies in Oven ————-
Bake for 9-10min in the middle of the oven.
Cool off for at least 30min.
Enjoy your coffee & tea time with your delicious home baked fluffy Swedish cookies 🙂
100gr or 1 piece rice vermicelli, you can buy this in an Asian store. 
Spring roll pastry sheets ~20x20cm, you can buy this frozen in an Asian store. Unfreeze the pack and try splitting the pack in batches or in half. Use 1 batch and put the rest back in the freezer for the next time.
