Kimchi pancake with beef and shiitake mushrooms

 

Continuing my Asian adventure with a kimchi pancake. Kimchi is Korean fermented spicy cabbage, which is a real staple of Korean cuisine. It can be used as a side dish of its own or be added to a variety of dishes like this one. When added to pancake batter, it gives it not only the flavour, but also it makes it beautifully orange. While ready-made kimchi is more and more readily available in Europe, it is actually much nicer and cheaper if done by yourself (it takes a few days but it is worth it). Kimchi is not only sour but also very spicy, yet the pancake batter works to cool it down. That's why it pairs well with the spiciness of shichimi hogarashi (Japanese 7 spice mix) and the sweetness of the brown sauce.

You'll need:
5 spoons of wheat flour1 egg
50gr of kimchi 
shiitake mushrooms
a beef steak
Japanese 7 spice mix (shichimi togarashi)
yuzu powder 
Japanese brown sauce
spring onion (for decoration)

 

1. Prepare the pancake batter by mixing the flour and the egg with some water. You will want to make the batter slightly denser than the batter for french pancakes, since the juice from kimchi will water it down a bit. Add the kimchi (cut into smaller pieces if using whole leaf kimchi) to the batter and put aside.
2. Warm up some oil on a pan and fry your steak seasoning it with shichimi togarashi, yuzu and some salt. Once done to your liking, put it aside to rest.
3. Slice the shiitake mushrooms and fry them on the same pan as the steak. To add variety to the plate one could also add shimeji mushrooms, but in covid times one has to deal with what's available.
4. Fry the pancakes on a separate small pan. Due to the fact that the batter has kimchi in it, it is more easily breakable, similarly to  okonomiyaki, so making them on a bigger pan might be more of a challenge. Thus, be careful when turning them over.
5. Slice your beef and start assembling the ingredients together. Pour some brown sauce over the pancake, beef and the mushrooms et voila!

Itadakimasu!

Udon hoisin with beer onion rings

When the West met the East: this vegan recipe joins the crunchy beer onion rings with sticky hoisin udon, all accompanied by zucchni covered in shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven spice) and shimeji mushrooms. It is both sweet and spicy and a surprisingly great mix of intense flavours. And the leftover onion rings tasted great with wasabi mayo! 

You'll need:

udon pasta
1/2 courgette
shimeji mushrooms
1 onion
Hoisin sauce
soy sauceginger
shichimi togarashisalt & pepper
flour
beer (I used Leffe blonde)
hot smoked paprka
garlic powder 
sunflower oil
spring onion

1. In a bowl mix 3 spoons of flour with smoked paprika, garlic, salt and some beer to reach a consistency of pancake batter. Leave aside for around 10 minutes before using.
2. Boil your udon in salted water.
3. Melt some butter in a pan and fry shimeji mushrooms adding some black pepper. 
4. Remove shimeji mushrooms from the pan and fry sliced zucchini together with shichimi togarashi and some oil. I cut my slices into half moons to add some shape variety to the dish.
5. Add some chopped ginger to the pan, then put back the mushrooms in, followed by udon pasta, a spoon of hoisin sauce and some soy sauce. Mix it all together and set aside.
6. Peel the onion and slice to form rings. Cover the rings in flour and then transfer in batches into the mixture prepared in step one before frying in hot oil. Make sure the rings are well covered in batter before putting in oil and dry them on a kitchen towel once fried.
7. Assemble the pasta and the onion rings together, sprinkle with chopped spring onion for colour et voila!

Itadakimasu!

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savoury pancake. Okonomi means 'how you like' which goes to show that it can be served with a variety of ingredients. One thing that's always there is cabbage. Two other elements that to my mind are indispensable to making okonoiyaki are Japanese mayonaisse (kewpie) and brown sauce that bring all the other ingredients together. Typically, it would also have dancing bonito flakes on top and powdered nori. The rest is left to the imagination of the cook, it can be meat, veggies or seafood. Just as the English do on pancake day, Okonomiyaki is good for dealing with leftover food. Hiroshima style it would also include noodles in the pancake base, but today I'm doing it Osaka style, with a prawn filling. It would be easier to prepare on a grill, but it can be done in home conditions on a pan as well.

You'll need:

250gr flour

water

1 egg

4 napa cabbage leaves, finely shredded 

3 spring onions

prawn tails

ginger

red peppercorns, crushed

Japanese 7 spice mix

Kewpie mayo

brown sauce

Bonito flakes

nori powder

some oil for frying

1. Prepare the pancake batter. It should be the same consistency as for the European pancakes, i.e.  the batter should not float out immediately from a spoon. Add salt. I also add some red pepper to it, to add a bit of spice, but this is optional.

2. Add cabbage and finely grated ginger to the mixture.

3. On a grill, the prawns would easily cook together with the pancake, but this can be more difficult to achieve on the pan, when turning a layered pancake becomes more difficult, so I fry the prawns first, seasoned in Japanese seven spice mix. I will later make the pancakes on the same pan, allowing the flavours to mix.

4. pour the pancake batter into the pan. Once it turn golden, turn it to the other side.

5. Add spring onions and prawns on top.

6. Pour kewpie and brown sauce on the pancake and then sprinkle nori powder and bonito flakes on top. These ingredients are not so widely available and might require a trip to a japanese or Asian store, but they do make all the difference to the dish.

Itadakimasu!

Gyoza

Continuing on the Japanese theme. If using ready made gyoza wrappers, these little pockets of delight can be made within minutes. They are different from the ones I ate in Utsunomiya, but also very good. Ponzu sauce is an absolute must.

You'll need:
300gr pork mince
3 pak choi leaves, finely chopped
spring onion, finely chopped
3cm ginger, finely chopped
sriracha sauce or chilli flakes
Worchestershire sauce
20-25 gyoza wrappers
ponzu sauce to serve with

1. Mix the pork mince with pak choi, spring onions, ginger, chili and a sprinkling worchestershire sauce and season with salt.

2. Put a spoonfull of the filling in the middle of the gyoza wrapper, wet the edges with some water and close into a half moon shape. Pinch the edges. TIP: do not put too much fillling inside - gyoza wrappers are not as elastic as dough for Polish pierogi or Georgian chinkali and so they would break if overfilled.

3. Heat up some oil on the pan and fry the gyozas until golden brown and then add some water to the pan (1-2cm), cover with a lid and steam the dumplings for a minute or two (no more as they become soft very quickly). This way they will be both crunchy and soft. Serve immediately with ponzu sauce!

Buon appetito!

Japanese beef and mushroom wok

I recently set off on a culinary journey to Japan and came back full of new inspirations, having discovered some new extraordinary flavours and ingredients that were previously completely unknown to me. So, today I propose a dish that uses some of the classical Japanese ingredients and plays on Japanese flavours, even if the end result might be far from authentic. I found pak choi and the different mushrooms in a supermarket around the corner, so depending on where you live, they might not be as difficult to get as it may first seem. Mirin and Japanese seven spice mix might be more difficult to get, but luckily I found a great Japanese store here in Brussels (to buy the former, I brought back with me lots of spices from Japan as is my usual habit when travelling abroad).

 Udon and soba noodles from a Japanese shop in Bxl (Tagawa, I highly recommend it)

You'll need:
a beef steak
soba or udon noodles
one baby pak choi
spring onion
one red chilli
4cm ginger, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
lime zest
Japanese 7 spice mix (shichimi togarashi)
epoki mushrooms
shiitake mushrooms
chestnut mushrooms
dark soya sauce
mirin
salt

1. Start off by preparing all of the ingredients, the cooking time is very short so there won't be time to prep while it cooks.

2. Season the beef in salt and shichimi togarashi and quickly fry on a hot pan. Remove from the pan and let it reston the side.

3. Put the sliced mushrooms on the same pan on which you just fried your beef. Add ginger, garlic, chilli and lime zest.

4. Boil the noodles. One minute before they are ready (follow the instructions on the packet, they should take a just a few minutes to soften) add pak choi and spring onion.

5. Slice your beef, add it to the pan with the mushrooms. Add soya sauce and mirin. Add noodles with the vegetables and stir so that the sauce covers everything, et voila!

Bon appetit!