How to Make a Really Delicious Pasta Aglio e Olio

I try to avoid gluten as much as possible. Only occasions where I eat gluten are desserts and some pasta with volgole and aglio e olio. 

The reason I like the above pasta is because I make the world's best-tasting garlic-based pasta. Today, I will give you my recipe for capellini aglio e olio.

Ingredients (for one person)
capellini (or any pasta)               70g                 
garlic                                           4 cloves
extra virgin olive oil                     2 tablespoons
peperoncino                                3-4

1. Mince garlic. Do not slice it. Mince it.

I usually mince all 4 cloves of garlic. But, today I will slice one of them and use it as a garnish.

What gives garlic the flavor and health benefits (i.e. anti-cancer property) is Allicin. However, this allicin is a quite unstable thing. You don't get it by just eating garlic. A whole garlic, for instance, has no allicin.

Sliced garlic is barely better than a whole garlic. To develop allicin, you have to mince or crash it. For the best result, paste it.

Further, you have to wait for 10 minutes for allicin to fully develop itself after minced. That is why I mince garlic as a first step for every dish.

In case you put garlic to boiling water, most of allicin disappears after 30 minutes. Thus, it is best to add garlic 15 minutes before you finish.

2. Add two tablespoons of olive oil to a pan. It should be cold oil on a cold pan. Add minced garlic and stir it until golden brown.

3. Sprinkle peperoncino flakes on the pan.

4. Add capellini (boiled for 3 minutes in salted water) to the pan. Have a half ladle of starch water on the pan and mix everything together.

5. Although it is not traditional, grate some parmigiano reggiano on the pasta, which partly replaces salt.

6. Sometimes, I have shrimps, cherry tomatoes and broccoli on my pasta aglio e olio...

 

 

 

...although I prefer a simpler one.

 

 

 

 

Stir-Fried Rice - the Chinese Restaurant Style

Have you tried stir-fried rice at Chinese restaurants? They are so delicious.

But, in case you tried to duplicate this at home, you probably found it difficult. I am so happy to share this little secret recipe of mine with you.


Ingredients (for two persons)
left-over rice                     200g                  
eggs                                 2
green onions                    2                         
shrimps                            9 large ones
soy sauce                        2-3 tablespoons  

1. Keep rice in a freezer if it is still warm

2. Put shrimps in salted water if shrimps are frozen

3. Cut green onions and shrimps

4. Break eggs over rice. Mix them thoroughly with hands. Every grain of rice should be coated with eggs.

5. Drain shrimps. Coat shrimps with potato starch.

6. On a preheated pan, pan-fry shrimps. When they are cooked, remove them from the pan.

7. Add more oil to the pan. Pour green onion pieces on the pan and stir them.

8. Add egg rice to the pan. Stir it for one minute.
If undercooked, raw egg will be tasted. If overcooked, the rice turns rubbery due to egg whites.

9. Drizzle soy sauce in a few areas of a pan.

The amino-acid and suger in soy sauce develop hundreds of nice flavors at the temperate 120-180 degree C. This is why we use soy sauce instead of salt.

10. Put shrimps back to the pan and mix them with the rice.

11. Serve the rice.

 

 

Crispy Squash Pancakes and Carrot Pancakes

There are a lot of versions of squash pancakes in Korea - most Koreans like squash pancakes. However, I was never satisfied with them. I wanted my squash pancakes to be crispy and I finally found a way to make crispy squash pancakes.

This is the best way to eat a squash. When you bite into the squash pancake, you will hear the crispy sound and will be pleasantly surprised by how sweet the squash is.

You may use my recipe below to make any vegetable pancakes. I often make a carrot pancake. This is my favorite way to eat a carrot...

Ingredients
young squash               1                                                         
carrot                            1
potato starch                1/2 cup each for a squash & a carrot  
corn starch                    1 teaspoon
cooking oil                    1-2 tablespoon to wet a dough          

1. Cut a squash into thin strips (use a julienne peeler)

2. Season the above with salt and add one egg white

3. Mix potato starch with corn starch thoroughly.

Without corn starch, the pancake will not hold together. With too much corn starch, there is no crispiness.

4. Mix the above with potato starch until there are some white powder, which is not absorbed by a squash yet.

5. Drizzle cooking oil over white powder and mix it - the oil will come out of the squash while cooked on a pan.

6. Ladle a small bit of the squash dough on a pan and spread it thinly.

7. Turn the squash pancake over when it looks half translucent.

8. Make a carrot pancake in the same method.

 

 

 

Stir-Fried Pork in Fish Sauce

I am very excited to introduce you to this surprise dish. It takes you only at $4 (for 3 persons) and several minutes to cook this. But, this is surprisingly delicious. In this dish, we use only one pan.

Ingredients:
pork (front leg)               300g              
fish sauce                      1 tablespoon
sugar                             1 tablespoon  
onion                             1
chive                              to garnish       
salt and pepper

1. Cut vegetables.

2. Sprinkle sugar on the preheated pan. Make sure that the pan is very hot.

3. When sugar turns brown, place pork on the pan.

4. Season it with salt and pepper. Use a minimum amount of salt as we season this more with fish sauce.

5. When the surface of pork is cooked, add fish sauce and stir it.

6. Add vegetables. Place pork on top of vegetables.

7. Serve the pork in the cooking pan.

Eggs Benedict or eggs cheddar mustard to be exact

I like eggs benedict. Who wouldn't? I really like my eggs soft cooked, which is best done when poached. The creamy sauce with acidity on top of eggs and savory bacons...and they are also pretty to look at.  

There are lot of reasons to like eggs benedicts. However, I hate the fact that I end up eating 4 egg yolks. I don't mind cholesterol. But, why do I have to eat one item of food for a brunch, which in fact replaces two meals. So, I have found a perfect sauce for myself.

Ingredients

eggs                            2
Canadian bacon          2
English muffin             1

sauce:
heavy cream               1/2 cup
lemon juice                  1 tablespoon
Dijon mustard              1/2 teaspoon
cheddar cheese           2 slices
potato starch                to cover 3 areas of cheddar cheese

1. Coat both sides of one of the cheddar slices with potato starch. Put the other cheddar slice on it. Sprinkle the top of the cheddar slice with potato starch. Only 3 areas should be coated with potato starch. This will give a perfect consistency to the sauce. Cut the cheese into smaller pieces.

2. Make the sauce. In a saucepan, pour 1/2 cup of heavy cream and add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice when the pan is not hot (lemon juice might break the cream if added at a high temperature). Stir the mixture well.


3. Add 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard.

4. Put cheddar pieces in the sauce. Season it with salt and mix the sauce well.

5. Roast English muffin and Canadian bacon on a pan without oil.

6. Bring a pot to a boil. Place an egg in a small bowl.

7. When water starts to boil (around 80 degree C), place the above egg in the water, using a spatula. Keep the egg in water for 2-3 minutes.

8. Assemble the above on a roasted muffin.

Korean-Style Spicy Rice Cake (dduck-boggi)

Dduck-boggi is a Korean street food. The beauty of a street food is that we should go low-end at every element of a dish. Usually, we use dried-anchovy stock to make this. But, making fish stock to make a street food? I don't think so.

But, without the stock, we need to use MSG. But, that is not acceptable. Then, what should we do? I can't eat something not tasty.

I have found a perfect solution.

Ingredients (for two persons)
rice cake                         200g              
green onion                     1-2
cabbage (sliced)             2 cups           
water                               2 cups
fish sauce                       1 tablespoon 
red pepper flakes            2 tablespoon
maltose syrup                 1 tablespoon 
apple vinegar                  1/2 teaspoon
fish cake                          2 sheets       

1. Stir-fry green onion and cabbage on a preheated pan. Make sure that the pan is hot enough and there is not much liquid coming from vegetables. 

If there is liquid from vegetables, the temperate of the pan doesn't go beyond 100 degree C. Then, there will not be enough caramelization or Maillard Reaction - which are developed at 120-180 degree C. 

2. Pour fish sauce on the bottom of the pan - NOT on vegetables. 

Fish sauce has protein and sugar in it. When protein and sugar are cooked at 120-170 degree C, they create explosive chemical reactions, which develop hundreds of different flavors - this is what they call "Maillard Reaction" or "browning reaction". 

If we pour fish sauce over liquid, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to develop flavors from it. We will just get the Umani (savory) flavor from fish sauce. But, it is not enough to make the sauce flavorful.  

3. Deglaze the pan with 2 cups of water. When we poured fish sauce on the pan, it got stuck to the pan and left brown bits. We need to melt these in water - this makes our dduck-boggi sauce tasty without stock or MSG.


4. Put rice cake in the pan. Put the lid on and wait until rice cake gets soft. 

5. Pour red pepper flakes. Then turn the heat to a lower level and wait until dduck-boggi sauce thickens. 

6. Taste it. Even though we have no sugar yet, it should be sweet from caramelization of green onion and cabbage. Put 1 tablespoon of maltose to make the sauce glossy. 

7.  Add 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar to take care of any fishiness from fish sauce and fish cakes.

8. Enjoy the dish with a cut of boiled egg.

I have a Korean maekbansok egg on my plate. I did this to make a point. This egg has also gone through the Maillard Reaction and that is why it is brown.

It is cooked at much lower temperature than 120 degree C though. It seems that each food has a different temperature to reach the browning point or the high pressure built under the egg shell during the cooking process helps increase the temperature in the shell.