Chef's choice Banh Trang (Spring Roll Wrapper) $2.40 for like 25 pieces, makes a much more pleasant wrapping experience. Took about half the kitchen bench and 20minutes to wrap myself 2 pork viet rolls and 3 lamb rolls. Sat down, listen to my Japanese Podcast 101 while dunking and munching my rice rolls, very very satisfying.
Learnt that you should always bend the rice paper before purchase to test quality, and sweet sauce gets sticker when cooled down (obviously).
$1.30 Fish cake icecream!! sugoi oishi, great for the 3:30 afternoon tea snack =)
Monday, April 30, 2007
lessons learnt...
Coriander does not keep in the freezer. At all. Goes all mongy. The wide world of the internet offers two solutions, wrap in paper towel before freezing which would remove the extra water on the coriander which makes it all mushy. Or stick it in water in teh refrigerator (like a rose in a vase) will try and post results. Making vietnamese rice rolls without coriander is like making rice without water =P
Do not every be drawn into cheap arse rice paper for vietnamese rice rolls (50c per packet of 10) becaues they are thin dry and break into about a million pieces. Although they still do taste the same, its a heck load harder to eat, like those soggy bendy pizzas that inevitable stain ure white shirt.
I packed all the ingredients and will try to buy proper rice paper tomorrow and make them at work. *humph*
trish: photos are coming up... 2 busy eating my busted rolls *yawn*
Ingredients:
How it was all put together:
Well, i intended to have two different styles of rice rolls, the traditional one which would contain lettuce, rice, shallots, coriander, processed pork and the pork belly, with the more experimental one with lamb, baby tomato, cabbage, rice and shallots. Unfortunately i didnt get around to making the lamb ones, since the rice paper i was using was absolutely horrendous.
the sauce was made by combining hoisin sauce + water + sugar + sesame oil + sambal + peanuts reduced to a semi runny texture.
my tasty, yet busted rice rolls
The sauce, coriander and viet processed pork was awesome together, plus that fried bit of pork belly. *yum* As i threw away the rice paper i did have an idea of using it as something to toast and add into soups, but too late it was in the bin. Hopefully lunch tomorrow will be a better rolling experience =P
Do not every be drawn into cheap arse rice paper for vietnamese rice rolls (50c per packet of 10) becaues they are thin dry and break into about a million pieces. Although they still do taste the same, its a heck load harder to eat, like those soggy bendy pizzas that inevitable stain ure white shirt.
I packed all the ingredients and will try to buy proper rice paper tomorrow and make them at work. *humph*
trish: photos are coming up... 2 busy eating my busted rolls *yawn*
Ingredients:
- We have the obvious greens, lettuce, shallots and coriander. I am missing cucumber which would be a great addition. oh and grape tomatoes.
- Rice, (vermicelli is commonly used, except i really dont have any other ideas for vermicilli atm so i didnt want to buy it and have a lot sitting around)
- The meats are processed pork (vietnamese style, with garlic in banana leaf, ill get the viet name), crispy fried pieces of pork belly, seasoned pan-fried lamb.
- garnishes such as crushed peanuts and freshly prepared sweet sauce.
How it was all put together:
Well, i intended to have two different styles of rice rolls, the traditional one which would contain lettuce, rice, shallots, coriander, processed pork and the pork belly, with the more experimental one with lamb, baby tomato, cabbage, rice and shallots. Unfortunately i didnt get around to making the lamb ones, since the rice paper i was using was absolutely horrendous.
the sauce was made by combining hoisin sauce + water + sugar + sesame oil + sambal + peanuts reduced to a semi runny texture.
my tasty, yet busted rice rolls
The sauce, coriander and viet processed pork was awesome together, plus that fried bit of pork belly. *yum* As i threw away the rice paper i did have an idea of using it as something to toast and add into soups, but too late it was in the bin. Hopefully lunch tomorrow will be a better rolling experience =P
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
more spending!
went shopping again for groceries today. It seems somewhat excessive as my roommate has pointed out. I think i've stocked up enough and should be quite good for hopefully two weeks. If that's the case 100 bucks will have lasted very well. Today's focus was on meat, for 28 bucks i picked up 1kg of pork loin chops, 600g of thick rump steak and 600g of lamb. I really dont have a handle on how long this meat will last me though. I freezered it all, and plan to defrost in the morning what i plan to eat at night.
rice, veges ( leek, capsicum, eggplant and carrot) made up the rest of it which came up to $44.57. *CHA CHING* perhaps that is the cost of food, but my gut feelings tell me i can go cheaper, somehow. Perhaps find a proper butcher, shopping at woolies can't be economical.
For dinner (and tomorrow's lunch) I cooked up an old favourite of mine, Japanese beef and potato stew. It's very simple homecooking style of dish, so although cooking time is about an hour (35 if u dont put too much water in) it's quite worth it. Potatoes are soft and meaty, while the meat is sweet and tender. I'm perplexed about tomorrow though, I can't think of anything id like to cook...
rice, veges ( leek, capsicum, eggplant and carrot) made up the rest of it which came up to $44.57. *CHA CHING* perhaps that is the cost of food, but my gut feelings tell me i can go cheaper, somehow. Perhaps find a proper butcher, shopping at woolies can't be economical.
For dinner (and tomorrow's lunch) I cooked up an old favourite of mine, Japanese beef and potato stew. It's very simple homecooking style of dish, so although cooking time is about an hour (35 if u dont put too much water in) it's quite worth it. Potatoes are soft and meaty, while the meat is sweet and tender. I'm perplexed about tomorrow though, I can't think of anything id like to cook...
Sunday, April 22, 2007
super veges
Unfortunately the range of chinese veges are very poor here in brisbane, with one of the main chinese supermarkets only stocking bok choy, which is nice but i could never consume a whole bunch without getting completely bored of it. I'd like to find a good source of spinach, and bean sprouts so i can try to make gado gado.
I've decided to maintain a list of veges that one should definitely keep around the house. The basis for entry into this list are a balance between taste, versatility and keepability.
At the moment the two most obvious entries are (roma) tomatoes and onions. Good tomatoes cooked with onions seem to the basis for a lot of curries in indian (not that i cook indian) or african curries. Good tomatoes are fantastic raw as well and they keep relatively long. So top of the list for tomatoes and onions. Oh and potatoes as well, sometimes I get sick of eating rice and they keep for yonks.
So to add to the obvious, i'm including eggplant and brocolli. Eggplant cos cut thin, fried up with a dash of vinegar makes it an awesome side not to mention i love it when its cooked really soft and gooey. Brocolli cos, well its a sauce absorber, keeps well and is very very healthy, apparently.
I've decided to maintain a list of veges that one should definitely keep around the house. The basis for entry into this list are a balance between taste, versatility and keepability.
At the moment the two most obvious entries are (roma) tomatoes and onions. Good tomatoes cooked with onions seem to the basis for a lot of curries in indian (not that i cook indian) or african curries. Good tomatoes are fantastic raw as well and they keep relatively long. So top of the list for tomatoes and onions. Oh and potatoes as well, sometimes I get sick of eating rice and they keep for yonks.
So to add to the obvious, i'm including eggplant and brocolli. Eggplant cos cut thin, fried up with a dash of vinegar makes it an awesome side not to mention i love it when its cooked really soft and gooey. Brocolli cos, well its a sauce absorber, keeps well and is very very healthy, apparently.
welcome!
i decided to start this blog to document what it's like to attempt to cook most meals of your day. The idea that one has to plan ahead for what will need to be consumed for the week, then the considerations of quantity vs keepability, some things spoil faster then others, some things are great sides to the main theme, some things you use once and the rest rots away. It makes the whole experience somewhat daunting. All this contemplation while shopping for groceries, makes me feel like i should write it down because by next week i'll probably forget the lessons learnt. E.g. i love tofu, yet one has to buy so much at one time that it makes it absolutely impractical to purchase =(
Today i spent around 55 dollars on groceries. Although I enjoy variety, its actually impossible and unwise to stock ingredients for say 5 different culture of food. I've decided to stick mainly with japanese and chinese ingredients, branching a little out to viet (rice rolls and viet preserved pork).
Main players are staples such as fresh egg noodles, dried egg noodles and rice paper rolls. Jap staples, umeboshi, mirin, wakame, aka misso were bought. On the chinese side, charsiew, roast pork, ginger, bitter melon, soybeans, shallots and coriander.
Now that the main ingredients are around, i just need a range of meat and veges to cook with.
Today i spent around 55 dollars on groceries. Although I enjoy variety, its actually impossible and unwise to stock ingredients for say 5 different culture of food. I've decided to stick mainly with japanese and chinese ingredients, branching a little out to viet (rice rolls and viet preserved pork).
Main players are staples such as fresh egg noodles, dried egg noodles and rice paper rolls. Jap staples, umeboshi, mirin, wakame, aka misso were bought. On the chinese side, charsiew, roast pork, ginger, bitter melon, soybeans, shallots and coriander.
Now that the main ingredients are around, i just need a range of meat and veges to cook with.
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