As close as I can get to an Irish meal to celebrate the occasion.
Corned beef brisket, colcannon and carrots.
I forgot to buy any beer but a nice pint glass of an Irish beer (is Harp beer good?) would be a nice accompaniment, I think. Dessert will be a slice of cran-apple pie though a piece of Irish “Brick” cake with some custard sauce might be more appropriate.
PS: I have some creamy potato-leek soup in the fridge but just wasn’t hungry enough to serve it.
I still have a backlog of recipes/posts to share but got very excited about today’s bake so it jumped the queue. I’ve got several recipes for steamed buns (Chinese bao or Korean jjinppang) in my recipe archives but I went to my favourite YouTube channel, TabiEats, for a small batch of buns, especially as I was able to use up a container of leftover runza filling (shredded corned beef, sauteed red cabbage and shredded cheddar cheese) for them.
It’s also a very fast recipe … no yeast proofing, a few minutes to knead, 30 min bulk proof, shaping and a final 20 minutes to final proof. Steaming took only 15 minutes and my buns were ready to eat. I didn’t bother with the squid ink variation so I added a total of 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to the dough in the kneading step.
Before proofing and after steaming
I had about 360 gm of dough so I divided it into six equal portions. There was a lot of filling (about 300 gm) but I shaped into tight balls and used it to fill the buns. There was a high filling (a bit under-seasoned) to bun ratio which was a plus.
REVIEW: Highly recommended recipe. There’s nothing I’d do differently.
You may recall that in my second knish trial I ran out of filling, so I wrapped up and froze the extra dough.
Before going to bed on Christmas day, I placed the dough into the fridge to defrost and, on Boxing Day, I attempted a filling that was inspired by the brisket and sauerkraut knish fillings that I had seen while surfing the net. The proportions of the three ingredients; shredded sauerbraten, red cabbage and riced (or leftover mashed) potatoes, may be adjusted according to your preference, or the amounts of each that you have leftover from the day before.
Knish … delicious with a spicy Dijon mustard
Sauerbraten, Potato Knish and Red Cabbage – makes 9 knish
Half batch of potato knish dough, (see Potato-Leek Knish post link above)
Filling
1/2 cup shredded sauerbraten
1/2 cup riced potatoes
1/4 cup braised red cabbage
salt and pepper to taste
Egg wash
1 large egg
1 tsp cold water
pinch of salt
In a small bowl, add the egg and beat well with a fork. Ad the water and salt and beat again to mix.
* * *
To make the filling, combine the potatoes, cabbage and shredded sauerbraten. Taste and season as needed. Set aside
Preheat the oven to 400 deg Fahrenheit.
Line a baking sheet with a sheet of parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough about 1/8th inch thick. Cut into 3-4 inch squares. (NOTE: I rolled my dough out into a 10-12 inch square and cut it into nice equal sized squares.)
Spoon about 2 tbsp of the filling into the palm of your hand and squeeze gently to form a firm ball, about 1-1 1/2 inch in diameter. Place each ball of filling in the middle of one of the squares. Be careful not to overfill so that you can seal up the knish. Pull up the dough into the middle, around the filling, and pinch the four seams well to seal.
Brush some egg wash on top of each knish. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Rotate the tray half way through so that the knish will bake evenly.
Let cool briefly before serving. The knish are also tasty at room temperature.
You may refrigerate the knish for up to 3 days or freeze for up to a month.
I had planned on a traditional Christmas meal featuring a roast turkey and its accompaniments, but, less than a week before the event, I changed my mind, and decided on a German themed menu. Perhaps because I made gingerbread cookies. Or perhaps because I ran across an eye of round roast while rooting around in the freezer, which had been labelled ‘for sauebraten’. In any case, this is what I ended up with.
For the vegetable side dish, I went outside my comfort zone and chose to try ‘rotkohl’ or braised German red cabbage. I started with the Better Homes and Gardens recipe but added some more vinegar (cider), because the flavour seemed flat after tasting. I also added a heaping tablespoon of home made cranberry sauce. I cooked the cabbage for about thirty minutes until it was limp but still had some chew to it. If you want it more tender, cook it longer.
Braised Red Cabbage (Rotkohl) – serves 4
1 tbsp vegetable oil*
1/2 onion, finely diced*
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp caraway seed
1/4 tsp salt, add more to taste
dash of freshly ground black pepper
2 cups shredded red cabbage
3/4 cup coarsely chopped peeled apple
1-2 tbsp cranberry sauce, to taste
* Substitute with 2 tbsp sauted onion.
In a large skillet, saute the onion in vegetable oil over medium/medium-low heat until soft and just beginning to get golden brown.
Add the brown sugar, vinegar, caraway seed, water, salt and pepper. Cook 2 to 3 minutes until everything is hot, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the shredded cabbage and diced apple. Cook, covered, over medium/medium-low heat 20 to 30 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally.
After 20 minutes or so, taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper as needed. If you want a tangier cabbage, stir in some more vinegar. For a sweeter cabbage, add a bit more sugar. For a seasonal touch, stir in some cranberry sauce (home made or bought) and let it melt into the cabbage.
Sauerbraten Dinner – Yes, I forgot to plate the braised red cabbage until after I took the pictures. I may post the sauerbraten recipe I used in the New Year just for my own records. Until then, enjoy the pictures.
For the starch, I stuck with mashed potatoes, but topped them with ‘sauerbraten gravy’ … crushed gingersnaps/gingerbread cookies stirred into the strained braising liquid from the sauerbraten. To be honest, I couldn’t picture this actually turning into a gravy, so I prepared a ‘beurre manie’, a paste consisting of equal parts of soft butter and flour which can be whisked into a hot liquid until it thickens to the degree desired. It turned out that the crushed cookies were more efficient at thickening the liquid than I expected and, in future I would use half the amount that I used because I had to thin my gravy down a LOT to get it to be pouring consistency.
Cooking the meal was a true learning experience, and, on the whole, a successful one. I don’t know that I’d repeat the menu in the future but, for this Christmas, it was a delicious meal.
I had a recent conversation with a work colleague and the topic of sourdough came up. (See, it’s not MY fault.) Anyway, I offered him a sample of my dried starter so he could try to bake some. When I got home, I had a moment, or three, of insecurity, and decided to rehydrate a sample, to make sure that it was still viable after twenty-two months spent at room temperature in my pantry. The house is relatively cold (70 deg F) and it took three days to get a nice bubbly starter. And then, I had to figure out something to do with that starter.
As a consequence of the romaine lettuce recall, I’ve switched to raw vegetables and coleslaw as veggie sides. Coleslaw is relatively perishable so I planned on making my usual coleslaw staple … okonomiyaki. However, I decided to substitute the flour and water (and baking powder) in the recipe with sourdough starter. I did two, poorly planned trials, as I started by using active starter (plus half the baking powder from the original recipe). The resulting pancake was a bit loose to start with but did firm up. In the second trial, I used discard starter, cut back on the water (and NO baking powder) and was much happier with the results so that’s the recipe I’m including below, along with the accompaniments.
Sourdough Starter Okonomiyaki – savoury cabbage pancake served with smoked cheese sausage
Sourdough Starter Okonomiyaki – makes 1 pancake
Pancake base
60 gm sourdough starter, active or discard
1 whole egg
1/8 tsp salt
Fillings
3/4 cup cabbage, shredded (or bagged coleslaw mix)
2 tbsp sliced green onion tops
Optional Vegetable Add-ins – use a couple of your favourites
grated seasonal vegetables such as carrots, daikon radish, sweet potatoes and squash
grated firm fruits such as pears and apples
Optional Protein Stir-ins/Add-ins – pick one
2-3 slices cooked bacon
1/4 cup diced surimi (fake crab legs)
2-3 chopped poached large shrimp
1/4 cup diced Chinese bbq pork
a few slices of leftover pork roast, julienned
Okonomiyaki Toppings
1 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise (or western mayonnaise diluted with 1 tbsp milk to make it easier to pipe)
A few pinches of aonori (ground dried green seaweed) or a couple of tbsp of shredded nori
Dried bonito shavings or flakes (to taste)
Making the pancake
In a small bowl, stir together the starter, egg and the salt. Add the shredded cabbage and green onion and mix together thoroughly. If adding other vegetables, fruits and proteins, do so at this point.
Heat the griddle (or frying pan) over medium heat and with a paper towel, dipped in a bit of vegetable oil, season the pan. Spoon the okonomiyaki mixture onto the griddle and spread it into a round shape about 1/2-3/4 an inch (1.2 – 2 cm) thick.
When the edges of the pancake lose their shine (look dry, about 2-3 minutes), lay the cooked bacon pieces on top, turn the pancake over with a spatula and fry while pressing down on the pancake slightly until the middle is cooked through and set (a couple of minutes should be enough).
This pancake was topped with crispy bacon and diced avocado
Home-made Okonomiyaki Sauce – mix the following together
3 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
NOTE: Tonkatsu Sauce may be used instead of the Okonomiyaki sauce
Transfer the pancake to a serving dish, bacon side up. Spread the okonomiyaki sauce over the top, drizzle the top with mayonnaise in an attractive pattern. Sprinkle the seaweed over the top and the dried bonito flakes.
Dig in.
Cross-section of the pancakes
Carole’s No Knead Sourdough Loaf – cottage cheese (1/3 cup), crispy fried onion (1 tbsp), dill seed (1/2 tbsp) and dill weed (1/2 tbsp)
The shaped sourdough loaf was allowed to proof in a towel lined, rice flour coated, colander. To turn out into the preheated dutch oven, a parchment paper lined baking sheet was placed over the dough, FLIPPED over, and the towel removed. The loaf was scored and transferred, using the parchment paper as a sling, into the dutch oven before being baked.
I was reminded of this elaborate variation of okonomiyaki today while playing with a sourdough adaptation of the basic recipe and decided to share the LJ post from four years ago. It’s a lot more work than I normally have the energy for these days so I’m unlikely to cook it again in the near future.
It’s been a while since I made this tasty Japanese pancake so I decided to take it to the next level with a Hiroshima style okonomiyaki.
It’s a bit labour intensive because you have to do a lot of prepping of the ingredients, but the actual execution is a breeze. So, once you have everything in its own bowl, you can crank out 1 or 2, or 4 okonomiyaki in a row and everyone can have their own flavour combinations.
Overview of the Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki
1 portion of yakisoba noodles
1 egg, fried sunny side up and yolk still runny
1 okonomiyaki with desired garnishes
Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki
1. Make the Yakisoba noodles
Yakisoba Noodles – you can divide this batch of noodles in half to serve as the base of 2 portions if you wish.
1 bundle of Y&Y brand 3 minute chow mein noodles (from a 1 pound package)
1 recipe of yakisoba sauce
1-2 tsp vegetable oil
In a medium saucepan boil 4-5 cups of water. Add the bundle of chow mein noodles and gently tease apart. Cook for 3 minutes. Drain well. If using immediately, heat a large non stick frying pan to medium and add vegetable oil. Add noodles and fry for a few minutes until the noodles start getting some colour. Pour the yakisoba sauce over the noodles and stir through.
If making ahead, drain the noodles and rinse them with cold water. Drain again and store in a plastic wrap covered bowl so they don’t dry out. When frying make sure the noodles warm through before adding the yakisoba sauce.
Yakisoba Sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sake/mirin/water
1-2 tsp soy sauce
1/4-1/2 tsp wasabi paste (add more if you like it hotter)
Stir together in a small bowl and pour over the noodles as required.
2. Fry the egg
3. Make the Okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki – makes one pancake
2-3 strips bacon, cooked, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup shredded cabbage (or bagged coleslaw mix)
1 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) all purpose flour
pinch or two of salt
3 tbsp water or dashi soup
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped green onion (optional)
Other meat choices
– a few cooked shrimp, shredded surimi, 3-4 pieces thinly sliced pork
Okonomiyaki Sauce – mix the following together
3 tablespoons ketchup
1 teaspoon Soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Okonomiyaki Toppings
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (diluted with 1 tbsp milk to make it easier to pipe)
Aonori (ground dried green seaweed) or shredded nori and dried bonito shavings (to taste)
Mise en place – From left to right. Top row: yakisoba sauce, cooked yakisoba noodles, shredded coleslaw/carrot mix, 2nd row: shaved bonito flakes, egg, 2 stalks of sliced green onion, okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise in squeeze bottle, bottom row: sliced surimi, fried bacon cut into 1 inch pieces
Making the Okonomiyaki batter
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Gently mix in the water and egg. A whisk will assist with this. Next, add all the remaining ingredients and mix them together thoroughly with a large spoon.
Okonomiyaki batter and surimi
Heat the griddle (or frying pan) to medium or medium-high and lightly oil. Spoon the okonomiyaki mixture onto the griddle and spread it into a round shape about 1/2 an inch (1.2 to 1.5 cm) thick.
When air bubbles start to rise in the middle of the okonomiyaki, lay the cooked bacon pieces on top, turn the pancake over with a spatula and fry while pressing down on the pancake slightly until done.
Bacon and Okonomiyaki – before turning over to cook the top of okonomiyaki
Underside of okonomiyaki
Transfer to a serving dish, bacon side up.
Yakisoba noodles and fried egg – waiting for their okonomiyaki top
Okonomiyaki (top side up) on top of noodles and egg and ready to be garnished
Spread the okonomiyaki sauce over the pancake, top with mayonnaise in a pretty pattern.
Sprinkle on the aonori and dried bonito flakes, if using, as well as any other garnishes. The okonomiyaki is now ready to eat.
ETA: Version #2 with avocado garnish and green onion mixed into batter. Bean sprouts are good inside the batter as well.
Playing with the toppings … and what is inside the pancake as well
Closeup with oozing egg – I’m still working on cooking the yolk less.
This adaptation of the last Korean pancake post may be considered heresy by fans of the authentic version, but I think it’s a great improvement in texture.
Korean Kimchi Pancake Version 2 – makes a single large 6 inch pancake (or two 4 inch diameter pancakes)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt (optional)
1 tbsp water
1 large egg
2-3 green onion tops, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup quick kimchi
1 tbsp vegetable oil, for frying the pancake
Preheat a large cast iron frying pan over medium heat.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt with a fork. Add the egg and water, using the fork to break up the egg and moisten the dry ingredients. Add the kimchi and green onion tops and combine briefly.
Add the oil to the frying pan and give it a quick swirl so as to coat the bottom of the pan.
Turn out the pancake batter into the middle of the frying pan and pat out into a circle about 1/2 inch thick. Fry until bubbles start to break through to the top of the pancake and the edges are dry, two or three minutes should be enough. Using a spatula, carefully turn the pancake over and continue frying until the bottom is browned, and the pancake is cooked through, another minute or so.
Transfer onto a flat serving plate and cut into 1-inch squares.
Serve with the dipping sauce from the previous Korean pancake post.
Unlike the previously posted pancake which I found ‘gummy’, this one was fluffy and tender, like a regular pancake, while still retaining the flavour and crunchy texture of the kimchi-jeon.
This savoury pancake is usually made with chopped fermented kimchi, but I chose to use my home made quick ‘kimchi’ instead. Kimchi-jeon is similar to another savoury cabbage pancake I make and love … Japanese okonomiyaki … in many ways. It’s also similar to the Chinese green onion/scallion pancake that I’ve made.
Since I’ve never tasted the real deal, I’m not sure what the pancake SHOULD taste like, or the general texture desired. I incorporated elements from the various recipes found on line into one cohesive recipe, for my first attempt, and posted it below. Variations are found in the type of flour used (just all purpose or all purpose and rice flour) and in the inclusion of egg. In the vegan version, the only liquid used is water. I have even seen versions in which crumbled tofu or ground meat (pork) may be incorporated into the batter. In the latter case, leftover cooked ground meat may be used or the raw meat may be added directly to the batter, which then needs to be cooked a bit longer, in order to cook the meat through.
Other variations are in the size of the pancake made. Smaller, individual pancakes are more convenient if one wishes to freeze some away. For a family, a single larger pancake maybe be served in the pan it was fried in and eaten ‘pull-apart’ style. Or it may be cut into wedges or squares and served ‘appetizer’ style. A dipping sauce, similar to that used for pot stickers, is often used.
Korean Kimchi Pancake – I thought it was delicious if somewhat ‘gummy’ in texture, like the green onion pancake, even hot out of the pan. I don’t know if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I’m thinking of adding some baking powder to the pancake next time, as is done with the okonomiyaki, so it puffs up more.
Korean Kimchi Pancake (Kimchi-jeon) – makes two 4 inch pancakes
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup water (reserve 1 tbsp water to add at the end if needed)
1 1/2 tbsp kimchi ‘juice’**
1/2 cup quick ‘kimchi’
2-3 green onion tops, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 green onion top, thinly sliced on the diagonal, for garnish
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil, for frying the pancake
Since the ‘kimchi’ that I made earlier was fairly dry, I made a kimchi ‘juice’ to incorporate into the batter for the pancakes.
Mise en place for the pancakes
Briefly whisk together the flour, water and kimchi juice. Fold in the kimchi and green onion tops. If the batter seems very thick, add the reserved tablespoon of water and stir through gently just until mixed in. (Stirring too long will develop gluten and may make your pancake tough.) Add additional water if needed, one tablespoon at a time.
Place a large cast iron frying pan on the stove and preheat at medium/medium-high. Add one tablespoon vegetable oil to the pan and, when hot, ladle about 1/4 cup of the pancake batter in a small mound on the pan, patting out to about 4 inches in diameter. Depending on the size of your pan, you should be able to fit 3-4 pancakes into the pan at a time. (If you’re not confident about cooking so many pancakes at one time, feel free to make them individually, adjusting the heat level as needed.)
When the pancakes seem almost totally set, flip over to the other side and cook until the second side is set. Then flip again, and finish cooking the first side for another minute. (NOTE: You want SOME charring but you don’t want to burn your pancakes. The sugar in the batter contributes to that charring. Start your pancakes on medium heat if you know your pan heats quickly and retains the heat. You can always turn it up a bit or cook the pancakes longer, if needed.)
Kimchi ‘juice’ – makes about 1/3 cup of juice
2 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1-2 tbsp gochujang (hotness level 3) **
pinch or two of ginger powder
pinch or two of garlic powder
** For my first attempt, I only added 1 tbsp of the gochujang to the juice. It was pretty spicy but tasty. I wouldn’t add more.
Whisk together and use as needed. The excess may be poured over the remaining quick ‘kimchi’.
Dipping Sauce
1 tsp Asian chili sauce, Sriracha or sambal oelek**
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil (reduced to 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp sugar (if using dark soy sauce, as I did, omit the sugar)
1/2 tsp rice wine vinegar
** What I used
Mix together until the sugar dissolves. Taste. If needed add more vinegar, soy sauce or sugar. Sprinkle some sliced green onions and/or sesame seeds on top … just to make it look pretty. 🙂
I’m open to trying new foods but some items hit all my food no-nos. This is because I have texture issues … as well as some taste and odour ones … so most kinds of pickles make me shudder. (On a side note, I love ‘pickled’ ginger or gari with sushi. How weird is that?)
Kimchi is one such dish for a number of reasons.
However, in the interest of experimentation, as well as economy, I wanted to see whether I could recreate some of the features of kimchi starting with a base of a commercial coleslaw mix instead of the usual Napa cabbage.
I recently came home with a new container of gochujang or Korean chili paste, which I decided to use instead of the traditional gochugaru or Korean red pepper flakes, to make the kimchi.
It’s only my second purchase and a different brand than the one I’ve used before, since the store where I bought it didn’t have the brand I had first tried. Incidentally, I was told (by the Japanese owner/cashier of the grocery store, I bought it at) to transfer the paste from the plastic tub it comes in into a clean glass jar which could be tightly sealed and kept in the fridge, to preserve freshness for as long as possible. I’m also going to portion part of the paste into 1 tbsp amounts, wrap them individually in food wrap, place into a freezer bag and freeze.
The recipe I used was found here but I made some changes: substituted shredded coleslaw mix in place of the cabbage, used gochujang in place of the Sriracha chili sauce, omitted the radish completely and the only carrot was what was already included in the mix.
Coleslaw salted (1/4 cup of water and 1 tbsp of coarse sea salt for 1/4 lb/227 gm of coleslaw), let sit for 1 hr and then drained and squeezed dry. About 1/2 cup of salted water came off the coleslaw at this point. The salted coleslaw was then rinsed several times, drained and squeezed dry again and combined with the gochujang mixture and refrigerated.
Quick Coleslaw “Kimchi”
Korean Kimchi BBQ Burger
Korean Kimchi BBQ Burger for One
1 bbq’d burger
1 toasted hamburger bun**
2-3 tbsp quick kimchi
** I used my home made sweet potato bun
Spread the top and bottom of the hamburger bun with butter or margarine and toast in a pre-heated grill pan over medium heat for 2 -3 minutes or until golden brown. In the same heated pan, fry the kimchi until it’s heated through and a bit crispy.
Spread the spicy mayo (recipe below) on the top and bottom of the hamburger bun. Top with the bbq’d burger and crispy kimchi.
Serve immediately
Spicy mayonnaise – enough for one burger
1 tbsp mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
1/2 tsp gochujang
Mix well, taste, and add more mayo or gochujang depending on hotness level desired.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 