Kimchi

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My darling Kimchi..

This is two jars of red and white Kimchi that I made a few weeks ago. Good to go now after a right amount of fermentation.
Kimchi is a Korean traditional side dish and one of the world’s healthiest foods.
Why it is good for you? It has high dietary fibre, but low calories. It is fully loaded with vitamin A, B and C, calcium and iron.

Most importantly, lactobacilli is found in Kimchi, that is healthy bacteria crucial for your gut health.
It helps with digestion, prevent yeast infection and fight against the growth of cancer.
It is made of cabbage mixed with garlic, chilly, ginger, onion, fish sauce and pepper.
Different types of Kimchi are made at different times of the year in Korea. Koreans consume so much of Kimchi everyday in every meal.

Myself? I didn’t eat this goodie for years when I moved to Australia.
I helped my grandma and aunty to make Kimchi in Korea, but honestly didn’t know all the ingredients and recipes. I was kind of scared of making them >.<
Then after a few attempts and failure, I can now make a okay Kimchi by myself. Yay! Definitely no where close to my aunties proper one, but it tastes fine by me:)

You need to wash chinese cabbage throughly and get rid of outer leaves. Cut them in halves and put lots of good quality salt between the leaves. Leave it for 30 mins up to one hour until the cabbage gets tender.
While you are waiting for this happen, you can make a paste that will go between the leaves, that consists of half cup of coarse chilli powder (not for white Kimchi), one table spoon of minced garlic, minced ginger, fish sauce, chilli paste and grated onion. Mix all together until you get a paste consistency and season with salt and pepper. You can add other vegetables here, like carrots, spring onions, chives, etc.
Rinse the cabbage and then mix with the paste really well. Put it in a sterilised jar and store in fridge for a couple of days before serving.

Seriously once you make one, you will realise it is not that hard and it is so versatile to use for other dishes. You can have it with rice, noodles, meats or even with salads.
I find myself I don’t get much digestion problems in Korea as long as I stick to Korean traditional diet since it is mainly rice, vegetables, fermented foods and some meat and fish.
It is so nice to see other food bloggers who try to make Kimchi at home and put recipes up. I should promote more Korean food myself because it is so good for your health.
Eat more Kimchi and your gut will be smiling 🙂

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Sushi

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Sushi (well..a.k.a Kimbap in Korea) used to be a special meal for me when I grew up.
We had a picnic day in Spring and Autumn twice a year when I was at school. Sushi was a must dish that everyone brought in their lunch box and compared whose tastes and looks better. I liked that excitement the night before, waiting for a picnic day, sometimes sleepless night with a big smile on my little face. Mum used to get up really early and made noises in the kitchen to make my lunch box when I was still sleeping in bed. Then I wake up and walk to the kitchen. The kitchen bench is a full of colourful ingredients like a rainbow. Spinach, carrot, pickled radish, ham, cheese, eggs, some herbs, etc. My family ends up having mum’s sushi for breakfast, lunch and dinner that day. She made the prettiest sushi in the world and it, of course, tasted delicious! Ah..nostalgia..my childhood food 🙂

I know sushi has become a big trend of healthy take-away food. To me, though, western sushi has so much rice and no flavour compared to Korean sushi. And did I mention it is a bit pricy for a small roll of sushi >.<
I normally make one myself home because it is so easy and fun to make. If you haven’t done it before, it may look a little intimidating task but trust me on this! You just need to practice a couple of times until you get the hang of it. Always the first one is the ugliest, exactly like when you make pancakes. I used two cups of sushi rice and some vegetables to make two big rolls. A bit of chilli sauce to spice it up as well. I find it helps to have the sharpest knife you’ve got at home in runny water before you slice them up so that rice doesn’t stick to your knife and ruin your beautiful sushi. Writing this post…I think myself I really should call this Kimbap, not sushi!!!!

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Raw Cheese Cake

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I’ve been craving for nice cool sweets as a snack recently and been meaning to try to make “raw cheese cake” to see what all those fusses are about.

So here it is…my very first attempt to make “raw cheese cake” with no cheese. This delicious dessert is gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free, but has a full of flavour and nutrition in it!

I soaked 200g of raw cashew nuts in water for about 6 hours, then drained and washed them. Put them in the blender with two table spoons of coconut oil, a cup of frozen blue berries and a heap teaspoon of maca powder. Whiz all up until you get a nice smooth texture. Pour into the mold and set in the fridge before you serve. You can also keep them in the freezer for a hot summer day!

Did you know cashew nuts have a lower fat content than other nuts? 75% of this fat content is unsaturated fatty acids, and 75% of this unsaturated fatty acids is oleic acid a.k.a omega-6, which is good for your cardiovascular system. Cashew nuts are high in antioxidant and a good source of protein, fiber, potassium, vitamin B, folate, magnesium, phosphorous, selenium and copper. On top of that, soaking nuts not only releases the enzyme inhibitors but also starts the gemination process, which releases the good enzymes and nutrients.

This awesome dessert blew my mind away!

Firstly, it has a beautiful creamy texture like a real cheese cake. It is super-easy to make – no baking involved, don’t need to measure ingredients accurately. You can be creative with ingredients to make other types of cheese cake, for example, lemon, green-tea, chocolate, you name it! It is incredibly easy to digest cause it is made of soaked and blended nuts. It definitely fills you up with a little piece and satisfy your sweet tooth or teeth 🙂

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Vegetable Stack with Blue Cheese

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Another vegetarian dish I made up from what I have in the fridge!I made a jar of char-grilled red capsicum and caramelised red onions last week, which lasts in your fridge for a couple of weeks. It means that you can save time when cooking and it is a great addition to other dishes.
I highly recommend preserving vegetables like this so that you can quickly grab from the fridge and make something up when you are in hurry or don’t have many ingredients in the fridge.
I always have some kind of pickles and kimchi in my fridge, never run out of it! Also it is fun to make them.
Tonight I just needed to cook some eggplant and zucchini in the pan and stack up all the vegetables in beautiful layers:) I try to have as many colours of vegetables as I can on my plate. It is good for you and looks pretty too.
As a treat, I also put some gorgonzola cheese on top. When I tried blue cheese for the first time, I was in a shock why people consume this moldy cheese which both looks and smells horrible. Seriously it smells like old socks >.< After some courageous attempts and my taste buds have developed over years, now I’m so enjoying this distinctive flavour of blue cheese and it is one of my favorite cheese. Especially French and English ones, so yummy! A good combination is blue cheese with a slice of pear, caramelised onion and walnut wrapped in prosciutto. Juste delicieux!

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Grilled Halloumi Cheese on Ratatouille

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I like all sorts of cheese but halloumi is one of my favorites when I cook vegetarian dishes.

Halloumi cheese is a semi-hard brined cheese made from a goat’s and sheep’s milk. Because it has a high melting point, it is perfect for frying or grilling.

I don’t normally put any oil in the frying pan or grill because it releases natural oil itself and gets beautifully caramelised outside.

Its unique flavour and texture is hard to describe if you haven’t had one. It’s salty and crispy outside but soft inside.

Ratatouille also, stewed vegetables, is a beautiful vegetarian dish I often cook. I chop up all the vegetables I have in the fridge such as onions, eggplant, zucchini and carrots.

Add some passata sauce, season and cook them until they are all tender. Garnish with some herbs ( I used mint last night ).

A good thing about stewing veggies like that and making a big batch of it is that you can have it as breakfast or lunch next day.

You can crack a couple of eggs on top of ratatouille and cook in the oven until eggs are slightly set but still runny inside. It would be a yummy but super easy breakfast:)

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