Asian Style Fish with Ginger and Chilli

Dear me... Starting from today I am officially putting myself on a diet. A strict Garfield-like diet. All that baking and cooking has left me with some extra Kilos and I'm not amused! I won't be baking or making desserts until I leave Switzerland! The only thing I will be doing is cooking healthy and mainly low-fat food!!! Pleeeease go away extra kilos, I beg you! The other reason I will not be attempting any sweets and breads, is that I have a whole freezer full of all the things I have been making so far. My task for the next few days will be to eat the frozen goods one by one without making anything new! Wait a minute... How am I supposed to diet if I have to eat up all of that?!




Ingredients

(serves 4)

• 6 filets of fish (I used Flounder, but you're free to use almost any fish you want! Salmon, Hailbut... whatever)
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 2-3 garlic cloves, pressed/crushed
• 1 tablespoon grated gresh ginger
• 3 teaspoons gochu garu (Korean dried chilli flakes)
• 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce (thai chilli sauce)
• some chives or spring onions, chopped
• steamed white rice

Preparation

Cut each fish filet into 4 pieces. Mix the sesame seeds, grated ginger, gochu garu, soy sauce, crushed garlic, sesame oil, water, sweet chilli sauce and some chopped chives into a large bowl and mix well. Add the fish pieces and marinate the fish in the sauce for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 250°C or more! The oven has to be hot hot HOT! Then place the fish into a large gratin pan, drizzle the sauce over the fish and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes!

Serve with steamed white rice and eat with chopsticks!

Bulgogi

Bulgogi in Korean means fire meat. But don't get scared, the fire does not refer to the spiciness of the dish but rather the cooking technique used. Bulgogi was one of the dishes that were served to royalties in the late dynasties of Korea. Bulgogi is now one of the most popular Korean dishes among natives and foreigners and if you're interested in making Bulgogi at home, it's really easy, just read on!




Ingredients


(serves 2 big eaters, 4 small eaters)

1 hour preparation in advance

Marinating the beef

• 400g beef sirloin, cut into strips
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• ground pepper

Vegies and seasoning

• 1 stalk of spring onion
• 1 carrot, chopped into strips
• 200g dried chitake mushrooms (soaked in water)
• 1 medium onion, cut into half then sliced
• 1 red pepper (optional)
• 1,5dl water
• 1,5 teaspoon beef bouillon (stock)
• salt
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• vegetable oil
• Steamed white rice 

Preparation

In a medium sized bowl, combine the beef with the marinating ingredients and mix well with a spoon or your hands. Cover with wrap and place in fridge for 1 hour. Soak the dried chitake mushrooms in water and set aside for 1 hour.

Slice your vegetables into stripes, NO cubes! Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Fry the carrots, onions and pepper (if using) with 2 pinches of salt until medium-soft. Take the veggies out onto a plate. In the same frying pan, heat another tablespoon of oil and fry the meat on medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the mushrooms, a sprinkle of salt, pre-fried vegetables and water with the beef stock (bouillon) and simmer on medium heat.

1 minute before serving, stir in the chopped spring onions and sprinkle some sesame seeds into the pan and give everything a good stir!

Serve the Bulgogi with steamed rice! Bon Appetit!

Hungarian Gulasch Soup

One of the best things about knowing lot's of people from all over the world is that they can teach you how to cook their countries specialities. In this case, a good friend of my mom, who is Hungarian, taught us how to make the original Gulasch Soup from scratch! This recipe will definitely be treasured in one of my many recipe note-books for the rest of my life. I love soup. I love spicy soup. I love soup with vegetables and meat. What better soup than Gulasch?!




Ingredients


(serves 8 people)

• 1kg beef ragout meat, cut into 1,5cm cubes
• 2 large carrots, peeled, diced into 1cm cubes
• 4 potatoes, peeled, diced into 1cm cubes
• 4 peppers (red or yellow), diced into 1cm cubes
• 1 knob of celery, peeled, dices into 1cm cubes
• 4 celery stalks, peeled, diced into 1cm cubes
• 6 medium onions, peeled, blended
• 1 whole garlic, peeled, blended
• 1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds
• 1,5 tablespoons tomato paste (from tube)
• 2 tablespoons red paprika powder
• 1/2 tablespoon Gochugaru/red hot korean chilli powder (optional)
• salt
• pepper
• beef stock
• vegetable oil
• water, water, water

Preparation

Prepare the meat and vegetables including garlic and onion as listed above.

Heat a large soup pot on high heat with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot add the onions and stir until glossy and soft. Add the garlic and cummin seeds and stir once again until garlic and onions become softer. Now add 2 tablespoons of paprika powder, 1,5 tablespoons of tomato paste and the gochugaru (if using). Give everything a good stir.

Add the diced meat to the onion mixture, lower heat to medium and stir occasionally. The meat will release some juice after a few minutes, so don't worry if the mixture looks dry in the beginning. Stir to prevent from sticking to the bottom. Let everything simmer until the juice has reduced to half. Now add 2dl water and wait for it to reduce again. Repeat this step for 1 hour. Occasionally stiring. This procedure will help tenderize the meat so that it will literally melt on your tongue.

After 1 hour have a taste of the meat to see if it is tender enough. If not, let it simmer longer.

Now pour in some water (about 700ml) so that all the meat is covered, sprinkle 2-3 teaspoon of beef stock into the soup, add the diced carrots and diced celery knob and simmer over medium-low heat for 2 hours.

After 2 hours of simmering, add the potatoes and peppers into the soup. Add more water to cover all the vegetables completely. Simmer once again. About 15 minutes before serving, mix in the celery stalks and bring everything to a boil over high heat. Gind in some freshly ground pepper and add some salt if needed. Try the soup to see if the taste suits you. Slice some pieces of fresh bread and dig in! Yum...