Nikujaga & Gyouza  

Posted by: anna* in , , , , , , , ,

Finally some cooking again.

Ingrediences:

Nikujaga (Beef-Potato-Onion-Stew)
750g Potatoes
400g Onion
200g thinly cut Beef
Vegetable Oil
400ml Dashi
75ml Soysauce
3 TS Sugar
2 TS Mirin
1 TS Sake
Gyouza (Potstickers)
"Japanese Style"
250g Groundbeef
Springonion
Soysauce
1/2 big Mushroom
Ginger
Corn

"Korean Style"
250g Groundbeef
Springonion
1/2 big Mushroom
Kimchee
So I had lovely Gesa over last weekend. We hung out, watched silly stuff on Youtube, saw "The Good The Bad The Weird" (my sixth time), cooked and had an overall good time.
We made Nikujaga, one of my favorite japanese homecooking dishes ever. I´ve been told that you can get married for a good Nikujaga so... I´m trying.
I got this recipe from Kurihara Harumi`s book but everyone should know by now that I hardly ever follow instructions properly. I always use way more potatoes because I love the way they suck up the sweetness from the sauce. They´re even better the next day. It´s also pretty hard to get thinly cut beef around here so we usually use Gulash-Chops and cut them even smaller. I´m also pretty generous with the soysauce, the dashi and the sugar...
Here´s what you´re supposed to do:
Peel potatoes, wash them, get rid of the starch.
Peel onions, cut into 6 wedges each.
Cut meat into small pieces.
Heat up oil in a big pot, put in potatoes, then onions and beef. Fry for a few minutes.
Add Dashi, Soysauce, Sugar, Mirin and Sake (all of which is just NECESSARY for cooking japanese stuff and should be available at any respectable asian supermarket).
Get rid of the foam if any builds up. Let simmer until Potatoes are done.
Add more sugar or soysauce if wanted. Always remember: You have to like it, it´s yours, you decide. (Yeah, this is me trying to get everyone into wildstyle cooking again)
We usually eat Nikujaga on rice which is apparently not what the japanese do but... whatever. It´s good.
We also made Gyouza. This time I forgot to buy Cabbage and thought it would surely end up in epic fail but it didn´t. I just added tiny chopped mushrooms (well not that tiny but small enough), chopped springonion, a few tablespoons of (leftover) corn, and some grated ginger to the groundbeef, threw some soysauce on top, mixed well and put it in and it worked.
Gesa did pretty much the same with her ingrediences: ground beef, mushroom (her´s was smaller than mine), springonion and Kimchee. Tug in, done. Yes, it´s that easy. Well, you might have to practise folding a bit but that´s not hard, either. Gesa did it without folding, she just glued the Gyouza-thingies together with water.
Should I do a tutorial on how to fold Gyouza next time?
The folded dumplings go into a pan, get fried a little bit, the you pour water over them, put on a lid and let them steam. I usually let them fry some more after the water is all gone to get the underside of them crispy again. Because I like it.
And that´s it.
My only good note for this one is that if you keep ginger in the freezer it grates much easier than it does fresh. It peels really easy and you don´t have to fight the fibre-thingies that usually are a pain in the ass...



My gyouza filling.













Gyouzawrappers. This time not homemade but bought.









Gesas gyouza filling. Mmmhh, kimchee! Next time I´ll try Kochujang-Gyouza...










Ready to be fried and steamed. Gesa´s to the left, unfolded, mine to the right.





















We had grated daikon, soysauce and soysauce with lemonjuice to go with it. And Takuwan, yellow pickled radish, a korean speciality. Very good!









Fried and all. I didn´t manage to get them out of the pan prettily so this is the best pic I could do.










So Gesa: anytime again. It was delicious and fun. We´ll try baking next, right? Yay!

1 comments

Cheese & Mustard  

Posted by: anna* in , ,

It sounds so complicated and yet...
Ingrediences
Paneer Cheese:
1 liter Milk
4 TS Vinegar

Sweet Mustard:
100gr Mustardseeds
10gr Salt
50gr Sugar
60gr Vinegar
40gr Water

See, not many ingrediences, right? Usually that means it´s easy. And it is!
I hereby admit to being obsessed with cheesemaking! Yes, I can´t deny it. Any documentary about cheesemaking on TV, I´m glued to the screen. No clue why but I´d love to make cheese myself. This is the best I can do at home so...
For the Cheese bring the milk to boil. As soon as the milk starts coming up, add the vinegar and take it off the range. let it stand there for a few minutes. The whey should seperate itself from what it to become our cheese. Pour it all into a clean cloth or use a self made "tofu press" like mine. Basically you need to get rid of the whey and kinda press the rest into a shape. The harder you press, the firmer the cheese will be in the end. You can pour it into a cloth, tie the four ends together and just let the cheese hang there overnight, maybe over your kitchen sink or the bathtub. You´ll have a lovely cheeseball in the end.
I let mine sit there for about four hours and it was so firm that it could be cut. You can, of course, go with whatever you like and just use it immediately as creamcheese or something.

Yeah, that´s it. Easy, right?
The Mustard is just as easy, just takes more time. This recipe is for Sweet Mustard, hence the sugar. You grind the mustard seeds as fine as you like. Traditionally sweet mustard still has some intact seeds in it so I didn´t really pulverize it. This done you bring the water to a boil and pour it over the mustard...stuff. Let it cool for about 5 Minutes (yes, it´s okay to stir and mix it). Add the rest, mix well, put in a glas, let it rest in the fridge for at least two weeks.
Careful, it´s very hot at first and gets milder with age. I also found that it smells of vinegar but doesn´t taste much like it. Oh, and I used Apple Binegar because I like that best. My lovely tandem partner M`s husband even tasted the apple. Wow.(And they both said they liked it...)
And again: easy. I wanted to make fig mustard and apple mustard with it but didn´t have the time yet. And now it´s almost used up already because it´s good. I guess I´ll have to make more. Betting this´ll make good christmas gifts.





Milk minus whey plus vinegar in my "tofu press".










Cheese is ready!







I have so much more stored here but uni eats my time and my soul so bear with me. I promise I´ll do my best to update more often.

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