Japanese Seaweed Salad

This salad always reminds me of our stay in Japan a while ago. The hotel breakfast (Villa Fontaine Ueno) always provides this salad, boiled eggs and a variety of Japanese breads every morning. The breakfast was like that every day during our stay.  But yet, we did not complain at all since the salad was very nice and somehow addictive. I found the recipe online how to make the sesame salad dressing. It is just perfect and exactly like what we had in Japan. If you want to cook something Japanese, make this salad and the Chicken Teriyaki that I posted last month. I guarantee it will be very satisfying.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs Wakame seaweed (usually sold as dried form, soak in cold water for 5 mins then drain)
• 1 fresh sweet corn (boiled and cut the kernels)
• 1 cucumber
• a small amount of cabbage (cut very thinly)
• lettuce (optional, cut thinly)
• carrot (optional, cut thinly)
  
• a pinch toasted sesame seeds

Sesame Salad Dressing:

• 3 tbs rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbs sesame oil
• 1 tbs kikkoman soy sauce
• 0.5 tsp sugar

Preparation:

1. Prepare the Sesame salad dressing. Ensure that the sugar is completely dissolved
2. Prepare the veggies
3. Add the salad dressing on the cut veggies. Sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds.
   

Five-spice Roasted Quails

I got the recipe for these quails from my mum. She is the best cook in my family. I learn so much from her. She used to hold a cooking class at home, people watched her cooking demos and wrote notes with a pen and paper. Anyway, these quails are very easy to prepare and you can serve them with sliced cucumbers. They taste so delicious!!




Ingredients:

• 6 Quails (cut in half)
• Marinating sauce: 3 tbs five-spice powder & 6 tbs soy sauce
• A slice of lemon
• 2 Brown onions (chopped into small squares)
• 3 Bird's eye chillies (chopped into small pieces)
• 1 tbs Salt
• 1 tsp Five spice powder
• Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

1. Marinate the quails overnight in the fridge with the marinating sauce.
2. Roast the quails at 180 C degrees for approx 15 mins or until golden.
3. Fry on the pan the salt and five-spice powder until they are fragrant. Put it aside.
4. With a small amount of olive oil, fry the chopped onions and chillies until they are cooked. Sprinkle with the ground black pepper.
5. Once the quails are roasted, add a pinch of salt and five-spice powder (from step 3) around them and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Almond Choc Chip Cookies

I baked these cookies since I had spare condensed milk in the fridge. I got the original recipe from BestRecipes.com.au for Cafe Choc Chip Cookies. The recipe has 5 star-review. I made a slight change to the recipe and it gave the perfect sweetness. You need to spend a bit of time to roll the cookie balls.







Ingredients:

• 180 gr butter, softened
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 125 ml condensed milk
• 1.5 cups self-raising flour
• 125 gr dark choc bits
• 110 gr of blanched almond kernels (break into medium-sized pieces using a food processor)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C degrees. Beat the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer until light and creamy.
2. Beat in condensed milk. Add the flour and mix with wooden spoon until smooth.
3. Stir in choc chips and almonds until well combined.
4. Roll about 2 teaspoonfuls of the mixture into balls. Press each ball with a floured fork.
5. Bake for 12-15 mins or until lightly golden.

Almond Puff Pastry

I got this recipe from Debora Agahari, my friend at church. As in our evening service routine, we always have dinner prepared by some people on every first Sunday of the month. She made this a few times and people love it. So, I asked her for the recipe. It is very easy to make and best to serve with a cup of tea. If you have a gathering, make this. It will be cleared out so quickly!




Preparation:

1. Cut puff pastry sheet into 4 squares
2. Combine 0.5 cup almond meal (ground almonds), 2 tbs caster sugar & 50 gr melted butter
3. Spoon mixture onto the centre of the squares and sprinkle with 1 tbs flaked almonds
4. Fold puff pastry edges in to create a border and dust with icing sugar
5. Bake at 200 C degrees for 12 mins or until puffed and golden
6. Cut into strips

Kue Nastar (Indonesian Pineapple Cookie)

These cookies are very popular in Indonesia and you can find them everywhere. My family never baked 'nastar' at home. I had always thought that it will take at least a whole day to prepare the pineapple jam, dough, and bake them. 

Anyway, I was so curious how difficult it is to make 'nastar'. I searched the recipe online and found one from this link.

I tried to bake 'nastar' and it was surprisingly simple. Yes... I had to start from making the pineapple jam but the result was very satisfying. I was very glad with my first 'nastar' attempt. I recommend those who are challenged to bake these cookies to use the recipe from the link above. It is in Indonesian though, but I have it translated here.

Ingredients:

• 250 g soft wheat flour/ Indonesian flour (brand: cap kunci). You can find this in Kingsford/Randwick asian groceries 
• 30 g cornstarch 
• 200 g unsalted butter/margarine (I used 150 g unsalted butter + 50 g margarine) 
• 20 g skim-milk powder 
• 60 g caster sugar 
• 2 egg yolks 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• Clove for decoration. You can find this in any asian groceries.

Pineapple jam:

• 400 gr fresh pineapple, grated 
• 200 g sugar 
• 3 cloves 
• 5 cm cinnamon/ 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1/4 tsp salt

For last touch before placing them into oven, mix:

• 3 egg yolks 
• 2 tbs skim milk/ 1 tbs skim milk powder dissolved in 2 tbs water
  

How to bake 

1. Mix soft wheat flour, cornstarch and milk powder, shifted. 
2. Add caster sugar, egg yolks, butter/margarine and salt into the flour mixture. Mix with mixer (low speed) until they become grainy. 
3. Press the dough together. Massage the dough with hand/ wodden spoon until the dough is ready to be rolled using rolling spin. 
4. Shape the dough with a round cookie cutter/ use a particular lid with diameter around 7 cm. 
5. Put some pinneaple jam on it. Shape the dough into a round ball. 
6. Brush the nastar with the egg yolk mixture and put a clove on it. 
7. Bake at 150 celcius degrees for 20 mins. Until they turn slightly golden.  
8. Pineapple jam: Mix grated pineapple, sugar, cinnamon, clove and salt, mix well. Cook in a wok with slow heat until it become thick. Cool the jam for 1 hour.   

Tips: 
Do not overmix the dough with hand. The butter will become slightly warm and hence the cookie will turn very hard. A good nastar should be hard outside but the dough inside should be soft and melt in your mouth. You can change the pineapple jam with other jams. Original version is using pineapple jam. Many Indonesians use durian paste. This is very delicious too!! They cost much more than the pineapple ones in the shop.