***Annual Regional Cookbook sent/received***.....COMPLETED!!

[PrincessInOz]

Snail Mail is taking a long time....



Dinner from last week.

My starting ingredients for 3 people:

• Seabream, 3 pieces of fillet, about 450 g (roughly 1 lb).
• Carrots, which I julienned; broccolini and chinese cabbage (wom bok).
• Sunflower oil, sesame oil and oyster sauce.

I placed some sunflower oil on a piece of foil (double thickness) and then placed the carrots at the bottom. If your DS has an issue with carrots, then you could try another vegetable like turnip or something similar. I wrapped the bream in the chinese cabbage, which went on top of the carrots. The broccolini went on top of everything and I seasoned it all with about 3 - 4 drops of sesame oil and about 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce.

I placed a single sheet of foil on top.

And double folded the edges together...

...to end up with a parcel.

Everthing went into an oven at 180 C (I think this is about 350 F) for 20 - 30 minutes. This is what it looked like when it came out and I opened the parcel.

I decided to use a cereal bowl and plated up....

The broth was fabulous!

We had the meal with some green salad; but you might prefer to have some crusty bread, pasta or rice for carbs.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Okonomiyaki (Japanese omelette)

My starting ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 3 eggs
• 1.5 cups vegetable stock or water
• 1 potato - boiled for about 20 minutes and when cool, peeled and diced
• (about) 2 cups vegetables - I buy Coleslaw mix from the Supermarket which includes carrots, cabbage, corn kernels and spring onions. You could add additional vegetables to your meal.

For my meal, I had some seafood extender or crab meat; but for a vegetarian meal, you can substitute with mushroom.


You'll also need some mayonnaise and okonomiyaki/teriyaki sauce.

I got the above from my local chinese grocer. The mayonnaise is Japanese kewpie mayonnaise, which I believe is less sweet than the normal mayonnaise. The tip of the bottle is also a special star shaped tip (see later).
The okonomiyaki sauce can be substituted with teriyaki sauce; but it is effectively tomato sauce, worchestershire sauce and soya sauce.
I don't believe that either of these two sauces contain any dairy....but I could be mistaken.

Mix the flour and stock together to make a cold roue. You should end up with a batter the consistency of thickened cream (before whipping).

Add the eggs and season with salt and pepper and mix in the batter.

Add the vegetables and diced potato. (If you are adding mushrooms, do not add them to the batter.)

Mix well.

In a low-medium pan, place some oil and when hot, put some of the mix in the oil and form into a circular pancake shape.

(For added protein, you can make a hole in the middle and crack an egg into the centre at this point.)
The trick to cooking this is to have the heat on a low-medium heat. It needs to cook on this side for about 10 minutes.


(If cooking with mushroom, place the sliced mushroom on the top of the pancake/omelette about 5 minutes into the cooking and press the sliced mushroom down so that it is part of the mix.)


Turn the pancake over and cook for another 7 - 10 minutes on the other side.

When the pancake is cooked through, remove from the pan and plate up. Drizzle some of the okonomiyaki sauce over the pancake and then do the same with the mayonnaise.

I hope you can see what I meant earlier about the kewpie mayonnaise having a nozzle tip. It piped out as a star shape!

You should be able to get about 4 pancakes from the ingredients above. You just have to either cook with 2 pans; or just cook, keep them warm in a warm oven as you go and serve them all together.


Enjoy!

 

[PrincessInOz]

In case anyone is wondering, I've started to play on the "What's For Dinner" thread on the Community Board....this one is from tonight's dinner.



Fried Rice Noodles

My starting ingredients:

• Rice Noodles – about 150 g
• Shrimp, peeled and deveined – about 300g
• Fish cake (or balls) – cut in half. I buy these from my local Chinese store. You can substitute with other types of protein.
• Carrot and Cabbage – finely sliced (julienned). My local Chinese store sells a pack of 250g already cut.
• Snow peas – about 200g. These are in season over here; you can substitute with green beans or broccoli.
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Ginger, finely sliced.
• Soya sauce, 1 tablespoon
• Oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon
• Kecap Manis (sweet soya sauce), 1 tablespoon – if you can’t get this, then add another tablespoon of soya sauce instead.
• A little water
• Salt and Pepper

Soak the rice noodles in some boiling water until soft. Should take about 10 - 15 minutes. Strain to remove all the excess water.

Mix the sauces together and add a little water. I ran out of stock today otherwise I would have added some stock for additional flavour. If you have stock cube, then add it to the sauces and use a little hot water to dissolve the stock cube.

In a wok add some oil and heat up. Quickly fry the shrimp until the shrimp changes colour. Do not overcook. Remove from heat and leave to one side.

Fry the fish cake in the same way, although it takes a bit longer to heat up. Remove from heat and leave to one side.

Diced chicken would be a good alternative.

Add more oil to the wok and fry the garlic and ginger for about 1 minute (or until the garlic starts to colour).

Add the cabbage and carrots to the wok and quickly stir.

I cover the wok for about 1 – 2 minutes so that these vegetables are cooked for a little longer.

Add the snow peas and quickly stir.

Place the noodles in the wok and pour the sauce over the noodles.

Quickly stir and add the fish cake back to the wok. Stir through and allow the sauce to infuse into the noodles. Keep stirring.

When the liquid is nearly all evaporated, add the prawns back and continue to stir.

Taste to see if you need to add any additional salt and pepper.
When cooked, transfer to a large bowl and serve.

I served this for the family, so I didn’t dress it up. If you are serving it to guests, put some cilantro over the top for additional colour appeal.


My dinner bowl:

Enjoy!




p.s. Nancy - instead of rice noodles, you can get Bean Thread noodles instead. It looks like rice noodles only made from mung beans. You soak it in water the same way...it just comes out more translucent than rice noodles. Just cut back on the additional water if you decide to use mung bean noodles.

BTW for those of you that are weight conscious...food for thought.....mung bean noodles have ZERO calories!!

 

[Meriweather]

We used to do foil packet cooking a lot when DS was in scouts.

I should add, they don't eat seafood.....but I can always sub things. And they don't like most vegetables....also tomatoes are limited.

I think I found things for the next couple of weeks. Asian seems to be the most non dairy friendly, which they do like.
But no cheese is making things hard We all love Mexican and Italian.

 

[taylor3297]

Okonomiyaki (Japanese omelette)

My starting ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 3 eggs
• 1.5 cups vegetable stock or water
• 1 potato - boiled for about 20 minutes and when cool, peeled and diced
• (about) 2 cups vegetables - I buy Coleslaw mix from the Supermarket which includes carrots, cabbage, corn kernels and spring onions. You could add additional vegetables to your meal.

For my meal, I had some seafood extender or crab meat; but for a vegetarian meal, you can substitute with mushroom.


You'll also need some mayonnaise and okonomiyaki/teriyaki sauce.

I got the above from my local chinese grocer. The mayonnaise is Japanese kewpie mayonnaise, which I believe is less sweet than the normal mayonnaise. The tip of the bottle is also a special star shaped tip (see later).
The okonomiyaki sauce can be substituted with teriyaki sauce; but it is effectively tomato sauce, worchestershire sauce and soya sauce.
I don't believe that either of these two sauces contain any dairy....but I could be mistaken.

Mix the flour and stock together to make a cold roue. You should end up with a batter the consistency of thickened cream (before whipping).

Add the eggs and season with salt and pepper and mix in the batter.

Add the vegetables and diced potato. (If you are adding mushrooms, do not add them to the batter.)

Mix well.

In a low-medium pan, place some oil and when hot, put some of the mix in the oil and form into a circular pancake shape.

(For added protein, you can make a hole in the middle and crack an egg into the centre at this point.)
The trick to cooking this is to have the heat on a low-medium heat. It needs to cook on this side for about 10 minutes.


(If cooking with mushroom, place the sliced mushroom on the top of the pancake/omelette about 5 minutes into the cooking and press the sliced mushroom down so that it is part of the mix.)


Turn the pancake over and cook for another 7 - 10 minutes on the other side.

When the pancake is cooked through, remove from the pan and plate up. Drizzle some of the okonomiyaki sauce over the pancake and then do the same with the mayonnaise.

I hope you can see what I meant earlier about the kewpie mayonnaise having a nozzle tip. It piped out as a star shape!

You should be able to get about 4 pancakes from the ingredients above. You just have to either cook with 2 pans; or just cook, keep them warm in a warm oven as you go and serve them all together.


Enjoy!

I had Okonomiyaki when I visited Takarazuka, Japan. My favorite was the cheese and shrimp. It was served with the terriyaki like sauce on top but not the mayo. Yum!

 

[PrincessInOz]

It's HERE It's HERE

Thank you Jessica14. I love the cookbook (both DH and I eyed the 3 layer cheesecake)....and the fridge magnet and the bag and info pamphlet! You never know.....be very very careful.......just when you think it is safe to go back in the water.........Aussies might come a-calling!

Thank you so much

 

[Meriweather]

So glad it has arrived!

And that completes this exchange

This is an annual one, so watch for it next spring too.........usually April 1.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks for organising Nancy...and have a great holiday at Disney!

 

[Jessica14]

It's HERE It's HERE

Thank you Jessica14. I love the cookbook (both DH and I eyed the 3 layer cheesecake)....and the fridge magnet and the bag and info pamphlet! You never know.....be very very careful.......just when you think it is safe to go back in the water.........Aussies might come a-calling!

Thank you so much

Sooo glad you got it! I'm glad you are enjoying it! The kids and I wee very excited to be sending to a place we've only seen on the Wiggles, Crocodile Hunter, and now Oprah!
Jessica