So anyway, last night we had dinner with a friend and Chef prepared a very nice warm hot buttered rum drink. It’s definitely better than rum coke and it’s another alternative to mulled wine. And it’s very easy to make.

Buttery good…

Ingredients:
Cinnamon – a few sticks
Apple juice
Cloves -2
Moscovado (or brown sugar)
Nutmeg
butter

Procedure:
1. In a saucepan, heat apple juice, cinnamon, grated nutmeg and cloves until it boils
2. In a cup, put one teaspoon moscovado, one teaspoon butter and put a stick of cinnamon
3. Pour the apple juice in the cup and stir until butter melts
4. Pour a shot of rum (50ml) and stir. Serve immediately and enjoy.

Careful it’s hot

Tanduay Rum Superior

New Year’s was spent in the hometown (Dagupan) and Royal Chef cooked for the family. Menu was spaghetti meatballs, shrimp tempura, beef fajita with salsa and guacamole, baked potatoes, and chocolate mousse for desert.

Baked potatoes weren’t actually in the menu but my aunt asked Chef how it is done because whenever she makes it, it seems like it’s never right. They mentioned the Wendy’s baked potato style (to which I never heard and tried). And so, Chef made some baked potatoes!

Ingredients:

Potatoes – 5 pcs

Butter

Cheese – grated

Bacon – fried to crisps; crushed

Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Thoroughly poke the potatoes with a fork.

2. Microwave the potatoes in high heat for 30 minutes. Be careful and check on the microwave from time to time as our microwave made weird grunting sounds 28 minutes in.

3. Remove the potatoes from microwave. Brush a thin layer of oil on the potatoes and sprinkle salt. Place them in a pre-heated oven for 30-45 minutes; high heat for the first 15-20 mins then lower the heat for the rest of the time.

4. Remove the potatoes and slice each in half. Be careful as it’s really hot. 

5. Scoop the potato out in a bowl while maintaining the potato shell intact.

6. Mash the potato and mix butter, some cheese, bits of crushed bacon and salt in.

7. Re-scoop the mashed potatoes in the shell, sprinkle cheese and crushed bacon on top. Re-heat in oven for a few minutes.

8. Serve hot and enjoy!

Sweaty potatoes in the microwave

Scooping the potato insides out… be careful it’s hot! 

Hot and cheesy! 

Arroz caldo is (accdg to Wikipedia) served to the ill and elderly. It’s also a nice comfort food during rainy season in the Philippines.

I remember this was the second dish (the first one being Beef Steak Filipino-style) I ever cooked for Royal Chef and he loved it!

Ingredients:
1 big ginger
1 onion – chopped
2 tbsp garlic – chopped
1 1/2 cups rice – uncooked
chicken – preferably bone-parts
5 cups water
4 pcs medium/hard boiled eggs
scallions – julienned
ground pepper
fish sauce
chicken cube
lemon/lime or kalamansi
2 tbsp oil

Procedure:
1. In a big pot, fry 1/3 of the garlic, onions and ginger in oil
2. Add the chicken in and fry until the chicken skin turns golden brown (or you may also cook the chicken separately to brown it faster), dash in some fish sauce and ground pepper
3. Add the rice in and cook for several minutes; add the chicken cube and dissolve properly

4. Pour in water and bring to boil
5. Let it simmer and stir occasionally until rice cooks (30-40 minutes)
6. While waiting for the arroz caldo to cook, fry the rest of the garlic until it turns golden brown
6. Serve with fried garlic, scallions and kalamansi (or lemon/lime) on top. Enjoy!

PS. As I like my congee to be really creamy, thick and sticky, I’d boil the rice for a long time. But some people prefer their congee to retain the shape of the rice, so boil less or until rice is just cooked. So it really depends on you if you like your rice to still be intact or disintegrated.

Here’s a quick post about Bibimbap (石锅拌饭 shí guō bàn fàn), literally meaning "mixed meal". It’s a famous Korean meal, and it’s me and Royal Chef’s favorite.

It would work better if you have a stone pot at home (shi guo). If you’re in China, search up 石锅 on taobao, it’s just RMB 27.97!

So anyway, you can mix whatever stuff you want. For our recipe, we’ve used chicken, shredded carrots, sprouts, mushrooms, and spinach. You may add more stuff like cucumber, tofu, etc.

How to:
1. Prepare cooked white rice
2. Marinate the chicken in chili paste (gochujang), sesame oil, a pinch of salt and sugar
3. Fry the spinach in a little bit of water until soft, set aside
4. Fry the sliced mushrooms in oil until soft, set aside
5. Fry the chicken until cooked, set aside

6. Coat the inside of the stone pot with a little bit of oil
7. Put the rice in
8. Spread the vegetables and meat around for "visual appeal"
9. Put the stone pot on top of your stove and cook for about 5-10 minutes or depends if you want crispy rice to stick around the bowl
10. Fry an egg "sunny side up" and serve on top, ENJOY! (or you can put a raw egg in as it will slowly be cooked anyway once it’s mixed, although it might not be safe here in the Middle Kingdom)

Disclaimer: Royal Chef is so square that he says what we cooked is not the traditional Korean bibimbap; we were just using up whatever is left in the fridge. To know more about traditional Korean cooking, leave a comment on HIS website and he will attend to your nitty-gritty questions, thankyouverymuch.

PS. Not sure how this post would look like in this blog, I’m just using the post-to-email option because the internet.is.freaking.non-existent!!! AGHH!!!

I suggested to Royal Chef that we use graham crackers as the crust; surprise, he has never heard of what graham crackers are! What they usually use, he said, is digestive biscuit.

Originally, we wanted to make cookies or maybe cupcakes, but unfortunately we needed a proper mixer for the ingredients or else mixing by hand won’t be as smooth.

Ingredients

For the biscuit base
7 digestive biscuits
35 butter, melted
4 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp clear honey

For the filling
350g mascarpone cheese – tastes so much like cream cheese
1 lemon, juice and zest
100g sugar, plus more to taste
mint, to garnish

Procedure:

Since we didn’t have a proper cake tin, Royal Chef had a brainwave and said we will use the round plastic take-out containers.

1. Brush the bottom and the sides of the plastic container with butter.
2. Crush the biscuits and tip them into a bowl, add the melted butter and honey and stir until well combined.
3. Tip the mixture into the bottom of the cake tin. Using the back of a spoon, gently push the crumbs from the centre outward, until smooth and level. This will form the base of the cheesecake. Chill in the fridge while making the filling.
4. For the filling, combine and boil in low heat the lemon juice, zest, and sugar; once everything is dissolved, pour it in the mascarpone cheese. Do not mix the mixture too much as this will cause it to split. Taste the mixture and add more sugar, to taste.
5. Spoon the mixture into the plastic container on top of the chilled biscuit mixture and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
6. Remove from plastic container by wrapping the container with hot towel to ease the cake out of the container.
7. Garnish with mint and serve immediately! Best with coffee.

Preparing the cake mould. Be careful with the cutting as the plastic is quite brittle. This was Royal Chef’s first try, I had to do it again with my more “delicate” hands. Use cutter to cut through, but follow with scissors to cut the rest of the plastic. 

Crush seven pieces (or depending on how thick you want it to be) digestive biscuits and add melted butter and honey. 

Korean brand digestive biscuits. Available at JennyLou’s for 8.80RMB.

Pour crushed biscuits into mould and chill while preparing the filling. Don’t forget to “cover” the plastic container underneath. 

Boil lemon, lemon zest, and sugar in low heat until sugar is dissolved. 

Add mixture to mascarpone cheese and mix gently.

Mascarpone Cheese, also available at JennyLou’s for 48.80RMB (!expensive).

Fill it up gently and chill for two hours. 

Heavenly creamy good.

Note: To satisfy Royal Chef’s craving for “super-lemon-cheesecake”, he added a bit too much lemon juice so the cake was a little bit “juicy” at the bottom but nevertheless it was very very good!

We prepared the cheesecake first, marinated the chicken, then prepared the dips. After the dips are done, then we started to grill the chicken, onions, and pepper. Last to go in the pan is the wrap.

Note: Text post is quite long as there’s so much stuff to do. Especially chopping and mincing the onions, tomatoes and avocado. But it was all well worth it. It took us about 2 hours to cook everything, and by that time, the cheesecake was ready, too.

Ingredients for Chicken Fajitas:

1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin Juice of 1 medium lime
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
2 pcs boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
salt
Freshly ground black pepper

8 (6-inch) tortillas (corn or flour)
1 medium bell pepper (any color), cored and sliced into 1/2-inch strips
1 medium red onion, halved and sliced into 1/2-inch pieces

Procedure:

1. Place the cilantro, garlic, chili powder, coriander, cumin, lime juice, and 2 tablespoons of the oil in a big glass bowl and whisk to combine. Add the chicken and turn to coat with the marinade. Set the chicken aside for at least 10 minutes.
2. Heat a grill pan to medium. Once hot, add the chicken pieces, season with salt and pepper, and cook undisturbed until well browned on the bottom, about 10 minutes. Flip, season the second side with salt and pepper, and cook undisturbed until well browned on the bottom and cooked through, about 10 minutes more. Remove the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest while you prepare the remaining ingredients. Set the grill pan aside.
3. Warm the tortillas by heating a medium cast iron or frying pan over high heat until hot, about 3 minutes. Place a tortilla in the dry pan and heat, flipping once, until warmed on both sides. Wrap the tortilla in a clean dishtowel to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.
4. Place the bell pepper and onion in a medium bowl, drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, season with salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Return the grill pan to medium heat and add the vegetables in a single layer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and slightly charred, about 10 minutes. Remove the vegetables to a serving dish.
5. Slice the chicken into 1/2-inch-thick pieces and place in the serving dish with the vegetables. To serve, fill a warm tortilla with chicken and vegetables and top with guacamole, salsa, and sour cream (if using).

Preparing the marinade for the chicken.

Grilling the chicken, 10 minutes each side on medium heat.

Let chicken cool down and cut into strips.

Grilling the onions and pepper.

Ingredients for Guacamole:

2 large avocados (makes one bowl)
2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 to 2 medium chilies, seeded and minced
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice 1 tablespoon salt

Procedure:

1. Halve the avocados, remove the pits, and scoop the flesh into a large mixing bowl. Mash with the back of a large fork or a potato masher to make a chunky paste.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Taste, adjust the seasoning as needed.

Pitting the avocado. 

Holy Moley, Guacamole!

Ingredients for Salsa:

3/4 cup white onion, minced (about 1/2 medium onion)
1 1/2 cups tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped (about 2 tomatoes)
1 tablespoon chilies, stemmed, seeded, and minced (about 2 medium chiles)
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice (from 1 small lime)

Procedure:

Combine ingredients in a medium nonreactive bowl and season well with salt. Add more lime juice as desired.

Salsa time! 

After preparing everything, I felt like it’s quite tedious to make the marinade, chopping the tomatoes and onions although I was just there taking photos while Royal Chef slaves away. But it was worth it in the end.

After our meal, I searched the internet for photos of fajitas and told Royal Chef:

Me: We should have put more stuff in our fajitas, Chef. Look at theirs fajitas, it’s packed so full it’s almost bursting.

Royal Chef: Hey, but at least we get to eat six of them rather than just one!

Yes, it’s like eating Mexican Spring Rolls.

Some helpful recipes for chicken fajitas, guacamole, and salsa from chow.com.

Last weekend, we were invited to a friend’s BBQ party (blog about previous BBQ here) just before it gets too cold here in Beijing, so me and Royal Chef contemplated on what to throw in the grill to make the most out of the BBQ.

Royal Chef said he wanted to grill lamb patties, so Lamb Burger it is.

After searching the internet for lamb burger recipes, Royal Chef has decided on Lamb Burger with Cucumber Relish.

Lamb meat can be a bit too fragrant, so cumin and mint makes it a little bit balanced as well as the cucumber makes it refreshingly crunchy and nice.

Ingredients:

500 grams ground lamb

1/4 minced white onion

1 medium garlic clove minced

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp fresh black pepper

1 tsp ground cumin

4 burger buns

Procedure:

1. Combine all the ingredients except bread in a large bowl until evenly incorporated and form into 4 patties

2. Once grill is hot, cook each side for about 7-10 minutes or until juices run clear (to know if juices run clean: prick meat with sharp knife, if it’s still bloody, then obviously it’s not clear).

Cucumber Relish:

3 cucumbers, peeled, in small cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup yogurt
2 tbsp wine vinegar
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint leaves
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp whole coriander seed, crushed to a powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

Procedure:

1. Cut cleaned cucumbers into small dice and place in a colander set over a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and toss to coat. Weight down cucumbers by setting a bowl on top, and let drain for 10 minutes. Occasionally press down on the plate to extract excess water.
2. Meanwhile, combine yogurt, vinegar, mint, sugar, coriander, cumin, cayenne, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium mixing bowl, stirring until evenly combined.
3. Add to yogurt mixture, and stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

Assemble lamb burger by grilling the burger buns, place lamb patty and top it with cucumber relish.

Photos are taken from two instances that we made lamb burger. It was so good last BBQ that we made another batch just the other day.

Ground lamb meat, onion (that we “chopped” with the blender, which wasn’t a good idea because it made the patty too moist), garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt.

Cumin – what most Muslim restaurants here sprinkle on their lamb BBQ. 

Coriander seeds – very itchy to the nose while pounding them in the 2RMB mortar and pestle. 

We were able to make seven patties from 600 grams of lamb meat.

For the Cucumber Relish:

In a bowl: yogurt, salt, vinegar, sugar, coriander seed, cumin, cayenne pepper and fresh mint. 

Mix the little cubed cucumber in..

Refreshingly crunchy cucumber relish.

Royal Chef is happy with the lamb burger. 

I haven’t quite perfected my mom’s beef broccoli, so there’s no blog post about that yet. In this post, it’s pork broccoli. I’m not sure if I’ve had pork in broccoli before or if it works, but there’s ground pork in the fridge and I can’t be bothered to cook a time-consuming dish, so pork broccoli it is!

Ingredients:

2 cups broccoli

1 cup ground pork

Ground pepper to taste

For the sauce: 2 spoons cornstarch, 3-4 spoons oyster sauce mixed in 3/4 cup water

Following my mom’s instructions, the broccoli is boiled for 2-3 minutes and rinsed/soaked in cold water, to preserve its crunchiness.

Tip: Let the water boil first before putting the broccoli in so it doesn’t get soggy.

Next, I’ve smashed some garlic and fried it for 1-2 minutes until it’s almost brown, then put the pork in and fry for 2-3 minutes or until it loses its pink color. Then put the broccoli in for 2-3 minutes then pour the sauce in. Season with pepper to taste.

Keep mixing the broccoli and pork for another 2-3 minutes or until the sauce is a little bit thick. I’ve added few drops of Tabasco so it’ll be nice and spicy.

Good news, pork and broccoli works and even Royal Chef says it tastes good.

Enjoy!

It’s quite different from the Filipino or Chinese spring roll that I’m used to; it’s fried or rolled fresh with flour wraps. And the ingredients are all chopped up and mixed together with crushed peanuts and sugar, and the sauce is quite sour-ish.

Actually, my first taste of Vietnamese roll was just a few months ago, with Royal Chef at Susu. There was a bowl of water (for the rice paper wrap) on our table and I asked Royal Chef is that for washing our hands? Errr…

So anyway, here’s the recipe for Vietnamese rolls. Royal Chef rates it 8 to 8.5 out of 10 stars! He is very pleased, though he said the sauce should have been a little bit sweeter (there’s a reason for that, read on).

PS. I did the cooking!!

For the grilled pork:

pork chops, loin, butt or shoulder. Sliced thinly
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 onions, minced
1 Tbs fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil (i used vegetable oil)

Hoisin Peanut Dipping Sauce Recipe

1 cup (8 oz) hoisin sauce (if sauce is thick, add warm water to reach desired consistency)
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 Tbs rice vinegar
2 garlic, crushed
1 minced thai chili, or more for desired spiciness

*Hoi Sin sauce in Mandarin is hǎixiānjiàng 海鲜将 or seafood sauce.

For spring roll rice paper assembly:

Rice paper wrappers
Lettuce
Cucumber, cut into long slices
Fresh herbs: mint, cilantro, basil, coriander, balm or perilla
Bean sprouts

Procedure:

1. Combine all ingredients for the grilled pork. Let marinade for about 20 minutes. Grill both sides of pork for about 2-3 minutes, or until desired texture.
2. In blender, combine all ingredients for the hoisin peanut dipping sauce. Blend until everything combines smoothly together. If it is too thick, continue adding warm water until desired consistency.
3. In bowl of warm water, dip each rice paper wrapper for about 3-5 seconds (depending on rice paper thickness). Do not over soak your rice paper wrapper! Place on work service and allow rice paper to soak up water and become gelatinous and pliable (about 30 seconds to 1 minute, again, depending on the thickness rice paper).
Here, we just applied the “dip, roll and eat” – repeat until you’re full.
4. On top 1/3 side closest to you, lay lettuce on the bottom for added strength to the wrapper. Then place meat, herbs and other vegetables. Roll up spring roll about 1/3 way through, then fold in the sides.
5. Serve with hoisin peanut dip.

Grilled pork. This time the pork wasn’t hard, because I kept an eye on the timer! 2-3 minutes.

Hoi sin or haixian sauce. It didn’t have the consistency that we were expecting, so we’re still looking for another brand of haixian sauce (should be similar to Peking duck sauce).

And instead of peanut butter (since we have crunchy), I used sesame paste instead. In the end, Royal Chef put some of the crunchy peanut butter anyway. It worked, kinda.

Rice paper available at SanYuanLi market.

Rice paper texture.

Clockwise from top left: bowl of water, empty plate, pork chops, cabbage leaves, plate of: cucumber, sprouts, mint and cilantro, and the dipping sauce.

Contents of the roll on top of a wrapper.

Alien-looking but delicious!

There are a lot of variants to lengmian. Those sold in 7-11 are quite good, but Royal Chef said it’s loaded with MSG; while the ones sold in Carrefour are ok, but they aren’t quite as tasty. The noodles also differ in size, shape as well as what it’s made of.

So here’s Royal Chef’s version.

Ingredients:

Noodles

1 cup chicken breast – cut into small pieces

Cucumber – shredded

Carrots – shredded

Cilantro – shredded

Sesame Paste

Chili Paste

Procedure:

1. Fry chicken breasts in little oil until brown, set aside.

2. Boil the noodles for 5 minutes, drain, and then rinse with hot water to remove the starchy texture then rinse quickly with cold water to cool it down.

3. Mix sesame paste with hot water until creamy.

4. In a big bowl, place noodles, cucumber, carrots, cilantro, chicken, chili paste and sesame paste. This depends to your liking, you can also add some mushrooms, sprouts, spring onions or wood ear mushroom (tenga ng daga).

5. Top with black vinegar and soy sauce.

5. Mix thoroughly. Enjoy!

Shredded carrots and cucumber

Noodles – any kind will do. 

Boil for 5 minutes or until cooked…

Rinse with hot water to wash the starch, then rinse with cold water to cool it down

Mix sesame paste with hot water to soften it…

Mix thoroughly until soft and creamy.

Top noodles with cucumber, carrots, cilantro, chili paste…

Then pour 2 tablespoons of vinegar and soy sauce.

Mix thoroughly and enjoyyy! =)