The Internet is allowing home cooks to share their recipes, techniques and their love of food. I’ve been following Maangchi for quite some time. Her simple and authentic Korean recipes are great and the videos provide lots of great instructions. Maangchi, authored by ex-Torontoian Emily Kim, got an article written about her in the Globe and Mail, and now her popularity has exploded, with even interviews about her back in Korea. My pork bone soup in the picture is based on a recipe on Maangchi.

Rasa Malaysia is a food blog that my Dad mentioned to me. It features great recipes from lots of different Asian cultures and LOTS of great food photography.

It features sections for Chinese, Malaysian, Thai, Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Filipino and Nyona cuisine. One absent member are Korean recipes but given the breadth that they cover it’s a forgiveable oversight. Especially since I’ve already discovered Maangchi.

Both the recipes and photography on the site are top notch. I definitely need to start working on my own cookbook!

I made this stir fry today quickly and with a bunch of stuff that was in the fridge, however it came out quite nice. The secret was lots of “rooster” sauce to make it extra spicy.

Since it was thrown together I’ll just put down the quick recipe instead of writing the full setup. Beef was sliced thinly on the biased and marinated with soy sauce and sesame oil. After stir frying I added all the vegetables that were cut bite size: bok choy, carrots, celery plus garlic and green onion for taste. Added udon noodles instead of normal thick-cut shanghai noodles because they were in the fridge. Finished with soy sauce and “rooster” sauce.

My proximity to the Korean Grill House, Oja and Little Korea has me craving a lot of Korean food at home. For a while I’ve been getting recipes online and making them on my own, however I just discovered a great website with both recipes and videos. Called Maangchi, it’s made by a Toronto ex-pat who now lives in New York. Her a great list of recipes of home-style Korean dishes.

Her recipe for Bibimbap is below, I used a variation of it in the picture above.

Bibimbap from Maangchi on Vimeo.

The perfect omlette is nice and fluffy, and not overcooked on one side. My way of doing the omlette requires no flipping! Instead, use that “broiler” function on  your oven that you never use. Be sure to move the racks in the oven as close as possible, leaving enough room for your omlette pan. Yes, this means you have to have an omlette pan without oven-melting plastic handles.

• 3 large eggs
• Soft white cheddar
• Ham, green onion, tomatos

1. Whip the eggs together using a whisk, not a fork. This makes it easier to get a light, fluffy omlette. Don’t overwhisk the eggs! I add just a touch of milk after whisking and gently fold in.
2. Turn the oven onto “broil” mode at a high heat setting (400F).
3. Turn the stove up to medium high, and melt a small pad of butter.
4. Pour in the eggs and let them form curds on the bottom. Once soft curds are formed, genlty push into the middle of the pan and let uncooked egg move to the sides. Repeat until most of the egg is cooked (usually when it’s hard to pour uncooked egg to the sides).
5. Layer your toppings on top of the pan, then put under the broiler until cooked (usually only a few minutes)
6. Enjoy!

I found this recipe on egullet and it’s quite a good one. The site includes lots of pictures of this process.

Main ingredients (middle right, clockwise):
- Beef  about 3/4 lb
- 1 small onion
- 1 pack of fresh rich noodles, 2 lb (dry rice noodles also acceptable, soften in hot water first)
- 5 stalks of green onions
- 1/4 lb bean sprouts (mung bean sprouts)
- 1/8 lb yellow chive

Cut the beef into 1/8 inch slices.Marinate with sesame oil, chinese cooking wine, corn starch, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and ground white pepper.

Peel, trim and cut the onion into small wedges. Trim and cut the green onions into 1 to 2 inch pieces.

Use a small bowl, add 3 tsp of light soy sauce and 3 tsp of dark soy sauce. Mix well.

Use a pan/wok, set stove to high. Add 3 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil is hot. Add marinated beef slices to velvet for a few minutes. Remove and drain the excess oil.

Clean and dry pan. Heat it over stove. Set stove to high. Add 4-5 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil start fuming.

The following steps must be completed very quickly: Add the wedged onions and 1/2 portion of the green onions. Dash in 2 tsp of ShaoHsing wine. Immediately add the small bowl of light/dark soy sauce mix. The soy sauce will boil immediately.

Immediately add the rice noodles. Mix well and add the rest portion of the green onions. Mix again until the soy sauce spreads evenly over the rice noodles.

Return the velveted beef slices. Continue to mix well. Stir-fry for another minute or so, completed. Transfer the rice noodles to a serving plate.

My version of beef stew is an variation of Alton Brown’s recipe from Good Eats. It involves seperately roasting the stew meat low-and-slow in the oven before adding it to the stew. This accomplishes a few things – makes the stew meat extremely tender and keeps the vegetables in the stew from being all mushy.

• tomato paste
• canadian rye
• Worcestershire sauce
• paprika
• dried herbs, any combination of thyme, oregano and rosemary
• stewing beef, bought from the grocery store
• kosher salt
• large yellow onion, thinly sliced
• carrots chopped
• celery chopped
• red potatoes, unpeeled and diced small
• Freshly ground black pepper
• chopped fresh parsley leaves

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the tomato paste, rye, Worcestershire sauce, paprika and dried herbs. Set aside.Season the stewing beef with kosher salt. Place a large grill pan over medium-high heat and sear the meat until browned on all sides. Once browned, remove the meat to the bowl with the paste and toss to coat. Transfer to a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil and seal tightly. Place the package into a metal pan and put into a cold oven on the middle rack. Set the oven to 350 degrees F and cook for 2 hours.

In a large saucier heat some butter on medium heat. Add the onion with salt and stir to separate the onions into rings. Allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the potatoes along with a pinch of black pepper and stir to combine. Next, add the liquid from the meat and stir. Cover tightly and decrease the heat to low so that no heat is escaping the lid. Cook for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

Once the potatoes are tender, uncover and set the meat atop the vegetables. Add carrots and celery and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Serve sprinkled with the parsley.

The holidays always mean nice roasts for dinner – turkey and roast beef are traditional, but we’ve also done lamb and small hens too. For the last few years I’ve used a digital meat thermometer to get perfect “doneness” of the roasts. These eletronic probes are put into the meat before cooking and then stay in there while the meat cooks. Alarms are set for when it reaches the temperature you want, and most have a guide for different types of meat and levels of doneness (e.g. rare or medium-rare).

They’re not that expensive, running $30-50 and the fancier ones have two temperature readings, internal (the meat) and external (the oven). Useful when you’re not sure if your oven thermometer is accurate.

Out of icing sugar? Or never had it in the first place? Take 2 cups of regular sugar and put it in the blender and blend until smooth!

My friend got this recipe from All Recipes – their description reads: “Chocolate cream cheese cupcakes, rich and gooey. Serve these little gems with a tall glass of ice cold milk.”

INGREDIENTS

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin tins with paper cups or lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, egg, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt until light and fluffy. Stir in the chocolate chips and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, 1 cup sugar, cocoa, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make a well in the center and add the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Stir together until well blended. Fill muffin tins 1/3 full with the batter and top with a dollop of the cream cheese mixture.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.