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Recipe

Appetizer / Chef / Cheryl Gonsalves / Culture / Recipe / Side Dish / Trinidadian / Vegetarian — View Comments
25
Jul 11

Trinidadian-style Fried Plantains

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Fried Plantains

This post is long overdue but here goes! Plantains are a fruit that look very much like what most of us refer to as a banana. They are actually in the same family, but plantains generally are more starchy and less sweet than bananas. For that reason, they are generally not eaten raw, but are great in cooked dishes. Today we’ll show you a simple way to enjoy plantains, as taught to us by Cheryl Gonsalves, who grew up in Trinidad and and was sweet to invite us to her home to share her love of food with us!

Summary

Preparation Time: 5 min
Total Time: 15 min
Servings: 5 portions
Meal type: Appetizer

Ingredients

5 plantains, ripe;
salt
oil

Instructions

1. Peel the plantains. The easiest way is to chop off both ends, cut a slit from one end to the other, and roll the plantain out of the skin.

Cut the ends
Cut a slit from end to end
Roll out the plantain
2. Cut the plantains into 1/2″ slices, on a slight diagonal”

Slice the plantains
Sliced plantains
3. Sprinkle a little bit of salt over all the slices to bring out the flavour.
Sprinkle salt
4. Heat oil at ??? high heat in a medium-depth frying pan, making sure that you have enough oil to prevent the plantains from sitting on the bottom. Add the slices carefully, one by one, to prevent any splashing!
Fry the plantains
Plantains in the pan
5. Flip them gently when they have turned a nice golden brown colour.
Flip the slices
6. When they have become golden brown on both sides, remove from the oil and set them in a bowl lined with paper towel to remove the excess oil.
Fried plantains in paper towel

Results

Fried plantains

It took very little prep work and it’s hard to resist stealing bites of finished ones while frying the whole batch up! Hope you enjoy this wonderful appetizer as much as we did.

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Bal Arneson / Chef / Cookbook / Dessert / Indian / Ingredient / Recipe — View Comments
11
Apr 11

Mango Lassi

Rating: 4.8/5 (4 votes cast)

Mango Lassi

Lassi is a popular yogurt-based drink originating in India. There are salty versions that use salt and spices such as cumin and mint and there are sweet versions that use fruits or a combination of sugar and spices such as cardamom or saffron. The popular kind most often served in restaurants here is the fruity mango lassi. Here’s a quick recipe you can try at home taken from Bal’s Quick & Healthy Indian cookbook by Spice Goddess, Bal Arneson.

Summary

Preparation Time: 5 min
Total Time: 10 min
Servings: 4 portions
Meal type: Drink
Cost: $6.25

Ingredients

3 mangoes, medium ripe; $5
1 cup plain yogurt; $1
1 tbsp pistachios;
4 drops rosewater; We found our bottle in a Persian grocery store $3.00 for one 250ml bottle
1 cup cold water
1 cup crushed ice

Instructions

1. Peel, pit, and cube mangoes.

Mashing Pistachios
2. Shell pistachios if they aren’t already shelled. Crush pistachios into pieces. We used a potato masher!

Shelled Pistachios

Crushed Pistachios
3. Mix all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

Processing the ingredients

Results

Mango Lassi

It was simple and doesn’t get much easier to make than this. We added a few more drops of the fragrant rosewater and crushed some extra pistachios to sprinkle on top. Enjoy!

Rating: 4.8/5 (4 votes cast)

Main / Recipe / Seafood / YouCook — View Comments
4
Apr 11

Turkish Grilled Fish Wrapped in Grape Leaves

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Fish grilled in grape leaves

We were inspired by a Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook to make Asma Yapraginda Sardalya. We found a jar of grape leaves at a local Persian supermarket and unfortunately couldn’t find fresh sardines so we opted for a fresh larger (mackerel sized) fish at the Korean supermarket. I’ve always been curious as to how to use grape leaf and have always loved Greek/Turkish/Persian dishes with grapeleaf so I was curious to see how it would do with seafood.

On further research, this dish is very popular in Greek cooking and called Psari Fournou me Ambelofia.

Summary

Preparation Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 20 min
Total Time: 40 min
Servings: 4 fish (serves 1-2)
Meal type: Main
Cost: $7.33

Ingredients

Fish on grape leaves

4 sardines (or Whiting fish, in our case), $2
8-10 pieces grape leaves, $5 for a jar 16oz jar; you’ll use about a tenth of the jar)
1/2 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lemon, $0.33
to taste, salt
to taste, pepper

Instructions

Prepare the fish
1. Slice fish down the belly, reach in and discard guts from fish. If it has few scales on it, just run the knife over the skin to remove.
2. Pull out the backbone then wash with cold water and drain.
3. Rub the fish with olive oil and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper.
The easy way to do this is the combine the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl first, then use a spoon or brush to spread it onto the fish.
Olive oil and lemon juice marinade in a bowl
4. Put the marinating fish in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes in a shallow plate.
Fish in the refridgerator
Wrapping the fish
5. Rinse the grape leaves and cut off the stems
6. Lay down enough grape leaves to cover the length of the fish, matte side up (shiny side down). The difference between the matte and shiny side is minute, but the matte side is the side that the veins of the leaf are slightly raised.
7. Place the fish on the grape leaves, then roll it up nice and tight.
Fish on matte side of the grape leaf
Rolling up the fish in grape leaves
Fish rolled up in grape leaf
It’s okay if the ends of the leaves don’t entirely stick to the wrapped package, but if there is one that is sticking up too much for your liking, you can take some of the stems you cut off and poke them through to hold the leaves down.
Fish rolled up in grape leaf with stems holding leaf shut
8. Brush some olive oil all over the grape leaf.
9. Preheat the grill or oven to medium-high, or about 375F.
Grilling
10. Place the fish on the rack and grill for about 5 minutes each side.
Because we used a slightly bigger fish, ours took about 8 minutes per side. Juices will flow from the wrapped fish; when they start to dry and the grape leaf starts to dry, it is probably done.
Fish on grill, almost done
Inside of wrapped fish

Results

Fish served with bread and salad
Served the Turkish way, the fish should be presented with lemon wedges, radishes, and an arugula or green salad. We served the fish with a fresh salad tossed in a light oil-based vinaigrette dressing, and some delicious bread, also from the Persian grocery store. It made a great light meal that felt fresh and healthy. As we ate, we wondered what else we could possibly wrap in grape leaf that could be as yummy as this dish. We think that other more dense white fish like halibut or cod (without the bones) might go well with grapeleaf. What do you wrap in grape leaf?

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Appetizer / Bal Arneson / Chef / Cookbook / Indian / Ingredient / Recipe / Side Dish / Vegetarian — View Comments
23
Mar 11

Avocado and Chickpea Salad recipe from the Spice Goddess

Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)

Avocado and Chickpea salad

As promised in our recent interview post, we’re sharing with you a recipe from Bal’s Quick & Healthy Indian cookbook by the Spice Goddess, Bal Arneson. With just over one hundred recipes in the book, it was hard to settle on just one, but we were drawn to the Avocado and Chickpea Salad.

This salad is a very interesting alternative to guacamole. The chickpeas, spanish paprika really work well with the avocado. If you are a fan of guacamole, you’ll love this recipe!

Summary

Preparation Time: 20min
Total Time: 30 min
Servings: 4 portions
Meal type: Salad
Cost: $5.25

Ingredients

avocado and chickpea salad ingredients

Dressing

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom; we used whole cardamom and removed the seeds from the pods to crush
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp Spanish paprika
1/8 tsp salt

Salad

4 avocados, cubed (save the avocado shells if you plan to serve in it); $4
14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed; $1
1/4 cup green onion , finely chopped; $0.25

Instructions

1. To make the dressing, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, ginger, cardamom, cumin, paprika, and salt in a small bowl and mix well.
We actually ended up doubling the amount of cumin, paprika, and cardamom because we found it was quite light and wanted to have a bit more of a kick. We suggest following the original recipe and tweaking it to suit your own taste buds!

2. Combine the avocados, chickpeas, and green onion in a large bowl and toss gently. Just before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and toss to thoroughly coat the ingredients.

avocado and chickpea salad ingredients

3. Serve in an avocado shell.

Results

The YouCook team loved this dish! The recipe was straightforward, simple and we put it together in under half an hour from start to finish. It was fresh and had great texture from both the avocado and chick peas, while the spices were a welcome addition.

We found that adding some chili flakes and salt really enhanced the flavours. We will definitely try this with tomato and onion next time since this salad really reminded us of guacamole. We were inspired by the pictures in Bal’s cookbook to serve this salad inside the avocado shell as well. Not only did it look nice, it was a perfect serving size and meant less dishes to be washed.

Indian Guacamole

Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)

Appetizer / Olympics — View Comments
14
Mar 11

Arancini

Rating: 5.0/5 (3 votes cast)

Arancini

Deep fried risotto. Need I say anything more to sell this dish? I can’t think of any better combination than the creamy texture of risotto bursting out of it’s crispy deep fried shell. It’s also the perfect way to use up leftover risotto, and can even be made partially in advance and stored in the freezer until it’s time to fire up the fryer!

This version of arancini, supplied by Chef Taryn Wa from Savoury Chef Food last year at a Vancouver Olympics event at the Northern House uses Japanese panko for breading and provolone cheese with sundried tomatoes as filling. It’s so delicious and there’s almost no way you can make this dish not tasty! We even put in fillings of pancetta, mushroom, red peppers into our arancini balls.

Summary

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 60 min , including 15 mins cooling time.
Total Time: 70 min
Servings: 20 balls
Meal type: Appetizer
Cost: $17

Ingredients

120 g arborio rice, $4 for a 750g bag. ~$0.65
20 g white onion, diced fine, $1
2 g garlic, fresh whole peeled, $0.50
4 sprigs of thyme, fresh, $2
12 ml olive oil extra virgin
20 g grana padano cheese, $3
20 ml dry white wine, $4 for a 200 ml bottle
2 l water, boiling
100 g provolone cheese, $5.49 for 250 g package. ~$2.50
40 g sun dried tomatoes, $0.90 from antipasto bar
0.5 g sea salt
0.5 g pepper
2 eggs
100 g flour
100 g panko bread, $2.50

Instructions

Make the risotto
1. Heat water in pot
2. In a separate pot, sweat thyme, onion and garlic in olive oil until transluscent
3. Add rice and sautee for 2 minutes
Rice, thyme, onion, and garlic being sauteed
4. Add wine and cook until wine has evaporated
5. Add 125 ml water and cook until evaporated
6. Repeat until rice is fully cooked (just slightly past al dente)
7. Add Grana Padano and stir until combined
8. Cool rice in a thin layer on a baking tray

Tip:Make some extra risotto and have some dinner while you wait for the rest to cool

Assembling
Roll 20g of rice into a ball and fill
9. Once rice is cool, take 20 g rice, roll into a ball and fill with 1 piece each of provolone and sundried tomato
Tip:While the natural instinct is to just pick some risotto up and start rolling it around in your hands, we found that we just ended up with risotto stuck to our hands. It was a lot easier to assemble the risotto balls using a spoon (or a small ice cream scoop) than rolling it around in our hands.
Using a spoon to ball the arancini
Also, get creative and try different fillings such as roasted tomatoes or prosciutto

Breading
10. Beat eggs with salt and pepper in a shallow dish
11. Put flour and panko in shallow dishes
Sundried tomato, provolone, panko, flour, egg in shallow dishes

Breading method
12. Dip arancini into the following:

Flour
Egg
Flour
Egg
Panko

Rolled Arancini

Frying
13. Fry at 375 degrees F until golden brown.
We used an infrared temperature gun to get to the right temperature. We found that right after putting in the arancini balls, it brought down the temperature significantly so we had to keep playing with the stove settings to keep the oil at that temperature.
IR temperature gun
Use a high temperature oil to fry the arancini, such as canola oil, soy oil, or sunflower oil. If you don’t have a deep-fryer, just put some oil in a pot – just be careful not to let the temperature get too hot or it will smoke and eventually combust. Do not use olive oil, this is not a high temperature oil.
Frying arancini

Results

sundried tomatoes inside arancini
Like I said, I don’t think there’s a way you can go wrong while making this dish. The risotto takes some patience as it takes a good 20-30 minutes of active cooking time, but almost anything you throw in the risotto or stuff in the arancini tastes so yummy.

Rating: 5.0/5 (3 votes cast)

Appetizer / YouCook — View Comments
9
Mar 11

Roasting (Korean) Chestnuts

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

On our Korean grocery shopping trip, we came across these large chestnuts they labelled as Korean Chestnuts. Craving them, we bought some but realized that none of us had ever roasted chestnuts at home before! The only times I ever ate them have been off a street corner in the winter so I figured it’d be something nice to do at home. Thankfully, the internet saved the day with this great blog post from Dog Hill Kitchen.

The motivation for this post was the shock I felt the week before when my friend bought chestnuts from a pretty package – unpeeled ones! This is infuriating to me since: it is a waste of packaging, encourages mass produced food instead of buying local, further separates consumers from knowing what real food is, and really… roasting chestnuts and peeling is the simplest thing you can do – do we really need a factory to do this?

Packaged Chestnuts

Summary

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Total Time: 40 min
Meal type: Snack
Cost: $3/lb

Ingredients

1 lb Korean chestnuts

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.
2. With a sharp knife, cut an X into the shell of the rounded side of each chestnut.

3. Place chestnuts flat side down on baking pan.
4. Roast in oven for 20-30 minutes until the shell starts to curl where you cut the X.

5. Let it cool before trying to peel. Remove everything: the shell and the furry skin.

Results

The chestnuts kept warm for a long time, so this is definitely a nice thing to roast and snack on while playing outside in the snow. The X slits in the chestnuts help for initial peeling, but I was not able to peel a whole chestnut without breaking it into pieces, therefore no pretty pictures of peeled chestnuts. If you have any tips on how to peel whole chestnuts, we’d love to hear it!

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Seafood / Vietnamese — View Comments
6
Mar 11

Canh Chua Ca – Vietnamese Sour Fish Soup with Tamarind, Pineapple and Okra

Rating: 4.2/5 (5 votes cast)

Canh Chua

This is my favourite comfort soup to make. It’s a healthy combination of so many vegetables (pineapple, tomatoes, okra, taro stem (bac ha) and bean sprouts. The classic fish in Vietnam to use is Cat Fish but I prefer to go with fresh fish that I find – this time I used a whole salmon coho. The best part of the fish for the soup is the head (and tail) so if you want to live on the cheap, pick up some fish head (sometimes obtained for free or dirt cheap). This is my family’s recipe for Salmon Fish Soup. Andrea Nguyen‘s Into the Vietnamese Kitchen is also a good reference for this recipe and more.

You can find this dish in more traditional Vietnamese restaurants (no guarantees that the fast food Pho places will have it). In Vancouver, I loved it at Phnom Penh. In the Bay Area, there were so many: Vung Tau, Khanh’s Restaurant, Anh Hong to name a few. In Toronto, well the best place to have Canh Chua would probably be at my parents home.

Summary

Preparation Time: 20 min Chopping and Tamarind prep
Cook Time: 20 min
Total Time: 40 min
Servings: 6 portions I made double the portion (12 people) in a big pot since we had a whole fish but will just refer to half here.
Meal type: Soup
Cost: $15

Ingredients

1 lb salmon steaks (or catfish and any fish head/tails)
4 oz tamarind pulp – this was my first time making tamarind concentrate from pulp+water but it is time consuming! Put about 4 tablespoons concentrate tamarind liquid
6 cups water
1 cup chunks of pineapple – frozen or fresh
1/2 lb okra – de-stem and cut in halves
3 stalks bac ha (taro stem)
2 tomatoes cut into wedges
1 cup bean sprouts
2 sprigs culantro and Vietnamese rice paddy herb
2 sprigs cilantro
1 medium cooking sliced onion
1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon fish sauce – adjust with taste

Instructions

1. To make the tamarind concentrate from tamarind pulp, take a look at this recipe. You can make this in bulk and freeze in ice cube tray or just buy tamarind concentrate which is what I usually do.

2. To separate the pulp and seeds as the paste reduce, we used a french press since we didn’t have a course mesh sieve. We ended up having to put some of that pulp back to get more than a few drops of concentrate tamarind.

3. In a pot, heat canola oil in medium heat and add onions until soft. There was a shortage in pots in the kitchen so we used a pan to cook the onion before pouring it into the pot.

4. Add tamarind concentrate, sugar, fish sauce, salt and water and bring to a boil.
5. Lower heat to low and add fish heads, fish steaks and pineapple and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
soup
soup

6. The remaining vegetables only need about 2-3 minutes to cook so add this when ready to serve. Add the okra , tomatoes, bac ha.
soup
7. Add bean sprouts.
soup

8. Add chopped up sprigs of culantro, cilantro and rice paddy herbs.
soup
9. Take out the fish steaks onto a place and serve fish soup in a family style bowl.
soup

Results

Usually a Vietnamese dinner consists of jasmine rice and a few dishes, always finishing with a substantial soup. I’m a fan of just having this soup and rice as a complete meal since it’s so filling, delicious and healthy! Here’s how it could be served.
Fish Soup

Rating: 4.2/5 (5 votes cast)

Appetizer / Cookbook / Ingredient / Korean / Recipe — View Comments
3
Mar 11

Craving Kimbap

Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)

Kimbap

This weekend we decided to go for a Korean-themed cooking day. We love all different kinds of Korean dishes and set off to Galleria Supermarket to satisfy our hunger and to grab ingredients. Kimbap is one of the most ubiquitous foods in Korea and super popular because it’s

Cheap
Easy to eat
Easily found at any kimbap stores open 24/7 so you can pick it up anytime
Healthy

It looked simple enough to make so we picked up all the ingredients for your basic kimbap as well as a jar of kimchi. Be sure you have a lot of hungry mouths to feed because what you’ll buy is enough food to feed a small village.

Summary

Preparation Time: 45 min including cooking the rice.
Cook Time: 30 min , which can be done while waiting for the rice to cook.
Total Time: 60 min
Servings: 10 rolls (1 roll = 6 pieces) so 60 pieces
Meal type: Appetizer
Cost: $16

Ingredients

Ingredients

3 cups short grain rice, $5.50 for a 5lb bag. ~$1.10
1 package roasted seaweed, $3.99 for 20 sheets ~ $2
1 carrot
1 bunch of fresh spinach, $1.69
1 package fish cake, $2.65 for 5 sheets
4 large eggs, $0.65
1 package surimi (imitation crab), $3.99 – used half – $2
1 package seasoned burdock and pickled radish, $3.39 – used 2/3 ~ $2
1 jar kimchi, $4.99 for 1L – used $2
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 rolling mat, $2

Instructions

1. You’ll want to start first thing on the rice because you can prep other ingredients while waiting for it to cook. It would be great to allow some time to let it cool as well since working with steaming hot rice for rolling just isn’t a good idea. We used a rice cooker, but feel free to cook rice however you’re most comfortable with. Just note that you want the rice to be ‘just’ cooked and not on the overcooked side or else it may become mushy when you mix it with the seasonings.
Short-grain rice
2. Wash the spinach to get rid of the sandy grit. An easy way to do this is in a sink half-full of water. Separate the spinach leaves off the stalk/root as well. Remove the leaves from the water and drain as much water as you can.
Wash the spinach in the sink
3. Next, peel and cut off the ends of the carrot. We need to get it finely sliced, which you could do with a knife, but using a mandolin will make it faster.
Peeled carrot
4. Crack the 4 eggs into a bowl and mix well.
Whisk the egg
Now we can move onto the stove, where we can quickly prep some of the ingredients.
5. Heat a bit of oil in a frying pan at medium heat and saute the spinach for 5-10 minutes until all of it is wilted.
Wilt the spinach
6. Add some more oil to the frying pan and now saute the carrots for about 5 minutes. We just want to make them less crunchy, but not super soft so don’t overcook them.
7.Next, take the sheets of fish cake and place single layer on the frying pan. They are already fried so this is just to brown and soften it up.
Pan-fry the fish cake
8. Lastly, take your bowl of whisked egg. After heating a bit of oil at medium heat, ladle some egg into your frying pan. The goal is to make a thin crepe so put enough to cover the entire pan.

When the edges start to look done, you can take a quick peek underneath. When it looks slightly browned, flip the crepe to brown the other side.
Browned egg crepe
Now for the final prep of the ingredients, we just need a cutting board and knife.
9. Slice the sheets of fish cake and the egg crepes into one inch thick strips.
Slice the egg crepe
10. The surimi usually comes in short fat sticks so we cut them in half length-wise.
11. By now, the rice should be done cooking and ideally had time to cool off a bit. Scoop the rice into a large bowl to mix well with 4 tablespoons of rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar.
Ingredients to mix with the rice
Seasoned rice
You’re now finished prepping all the ingredients for the kimbap filling. On to the rolling!
Plate of filling ingredients
11. It’s not absolutely necessary, but covering your bamboo mat with saran wrap will make cleaning your mat a lot easier.
Cover the mat with saran wrap
12. Place a sheet of seaweed on the mat with a very thin layer of rice. Leave about an inch of seaweed uncovered along one edge.
Cover the seaweed sheet with rice
13. Start placing your filling ingredients along the edge of rice nearest the uncovered seaweed. You can add any mix of ingredients you want, but just remember that the more you put in, the harder it might be to roll later!
Place ingredients along one edge of the rice
14. Start rolling by folding the uncovered seaweed portion over the filling.
Fold the seaweed over the ingredients
15. Continue rolling, using the bamboo mat to help press down around the roll and make it nice and compact.
Half-rolled kimbap
Use the bamboo mat to help press the kimbap together

16. All that’s left to do is cut it into bite-size pieces! Using a sharp knife and keeping the blade slightly wet will help to cleanly-cut it for presentation.
Cut the kimbap

Results

Kimbap on a plate
The fun of kimbap is that you can put any variety of filling inside! Some common popular Korean versions are tuna kimbap, kimchi kimbap, and bulgogi kimbap. If you want a vegetarian version, you can leave out the surimi and fish cake.
Making a kimchi kimbap
Preparing all the filling ingredients is the time-consuming part of this recipe. Once you have it all laid out in front of you though, you’ll have a dozen rolls up in no time. Making it with friends is great because everybody can customize what they want in it. We definitely had a lot of fun and it was hard to resist stealing bites while making it but we finally got a picture of a plate full of kimbap!
Kimchi kimbap

Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)

Beef / Indonesian / YouCook — View Comments
27
Feb 11

Beef Rendang

Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)

insert name

Indonesian food has always been a mystery here in Toronto. Throughout the years several restaurants have opened but none have remained open long. As far as I know, there is only one lonely fast-food joint serving up Indonesian food in the north end, but unfortunately only has perhaps 3 items that I would say are truly Indonesian among the menu that includes Malysian, Chinese and Thai offerings. But, with this recipe you’ll be able to enjoy an Indonesian favorite!

Rendang is a popular Indonesian dish where the beef is simmered for hours in a mixture of spices until you get super tender, melt-in-your-mouth meat in a thick gravy-like sauce. The traditional mixture of spices; including galangal (blue ginger), candlenut, shallots, cloves, star anise, and chili; are the core to this yummy delight. Unfortunately, as with many traditional dishes, hours of prep with a mortar n’ pestle and low n’ slow cooking are required.

There are various resources on the interweb for traditional, from-scratch, beef rendang recipes – what we’ll show you in this article is a simplified version. It will still take time to simmer the beef, but this version reduces the prep!

Summary

Preparation Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 3 hours
Total Time: 3 hours, 15 mins
Servings: 6 portions
Meal type: Entree
Cost: $10

Ingredients

2 lbs cubed stewing beef

ingredients

2 medium onions

ingredients

2 shallots

ingredients

1 can of coconut milk
1 package of Rendang sauce

We like to use Munik or Indofood, both brands are imported from Indonesia. It is essentially a paste of the traditional ingredients that allows you to skip a good chunk of prep work and get straight to the stove.

Instructions

1. Slice onions. I like rings, because they look prettier.
onions
2. Dice shallots.

3. Fry the onions over medium heat for 3 mins.

4. Add shallots and continue to fry until onions brown.
5. Add the beef. Fry until meat starts to brown.

6. Add the rendang paste.

7. On high heat, add cold water to cover the meat 3/4s and stir well to mix paste. Bring to boil.

8. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 1 hour stirring occasionally to ensure the food does not stick to the bottom.
9. Add coconut milk, stir to mix, leave lid partially on and simmer for 2 hours. Stir occasionally. You’re looking to reduce the broth to a thick gravy which coats and clings to the meat.
shallots

Results

black cod curry

Serve on a bed of rice and some fresh vegetables on the side for a complete meal! The longer the stewing beef has to simmer, the more tender it is. Feel free to try other cuts of beef and different brands of the Rendang curry.

Are there other cuisines you’d like to see on YouCook? Let us know in the comments below!

Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)

Main / Pork / YouCook — View Comments
21
Feb 11

Ming’s Fall-Off-The-Bone Ribs

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Ribs

After a scrumptious visit to one of Toronto’s famous ribfests in the summer of 2008, I was determined to cook something equally yummy at home. I scoured the Internet and found a wide range of methods and recipes all claiming that they were “Smack-Yo-Momma” good. I tried many of them, but I found that practically I had constraints. I live in a condo, which means no barbecue and no smoking. My early attempts at staying true to the popular indirect smoking method triggered my building fire alarm and would have surely resulted in my eventual eviction. Also, I’m an impatient cook. I chewed through my right hand (which tastes surprisingly good with BBQ sauce) waiting 7 hours for a particular “low and slow” recipe.

After much trial and error, I turned to braising – a tried and true method for turning tough, uncooperative chunks of meat into submissive, tender bites of yum. Braising makes the ribs soft and tasty, but the moist heat leave the ribs gray and without the crispness that dry heat would. To remedy this, the last step is to broil the ribs to caramelize the sauce and slightly crisp the meat.

Summary

Preparation Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 3 1/2 hours
Servings: 4-6 servings (depending on size of rack)
Cost: $25-30
Meal type: Main

Recipe Rating:

Ingredients

Ingredients

Pork back ribs – 2 racks – Approx. $20

Back ribs are the best cut, but if you’re looking for something a bit leaner and cheaper (but less tasty!), side ribs work well.

Diana’s Maple BBQ Sauce – 2 cups or enough to cover the ribs three times over – Approx $5

Use your favorite BBQ sauce. There are many resources on the internet if you’re looking to make your own and tastes vary widely. I used a bottled sauce for speed and convenience.

Liquid Hickory Smoke – 4 tablespoons – $5

Since I live in a condo, and I’m cooking these ribs in an oven, traditional indirect heat smoking is just not an option. But I needed that smokey taste I loved so much. This works and gets me the flavour without eviction.

Honey – 2 tablespoons
Chili Flakes – 1 teaspoon
Waterloo Dark – 1/2 a bottle or enough to cover the bottom of the baking sheet about 1/4 inch deep – $3

Braising the Ribs

1. Trim excess fat from the ribs
2. Place the ribs on a baking sheet, convex side up.
3. In a bowl, combine the BBQ sauce, liquid smoke, honey and chili flakes. Mix well.
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4. Add beer to the pan. Don’t pour the beer over the ribs, but instead into the corners.
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5. Baste the ribs in the sauce. Cover generously. It’s not necessary to baste the side facing down. Save a bit for the last step.
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6. Pre-heat your oven to 270 degrees.
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7. Tent the foil over the baking sheet. Make sure that the foil doesn’t sit on the ribs, and that you have a tight seal with the making sheet. This is very important, because if the steam escapes, you’ll have very dry ribs.
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Tip: If your piece of foil isn’t large enough, join two pieces together, by simply folding the length-wise edges over each other.
8. Place the ribs in the center of the oven then sit back and relax for the next three hours. Enjoy the remaining 1/2 bottle of beer or watch them cook with your dog.
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Finishing the Ribs

1. Remove the ribs from the oven and drain the liquid.
Final Product

2. Take the remaining BBQ sauce and coat the ribs

3. Turn your oven on broil and place the ribs in the middle rack of the oven.
4. Watch closely, it’s very easy to burn the ribs at this point. What you’re looking for is the sauce to start bubbling on the surface of the ribs. Once the ribs are bubbling everywhere, take them out of the oven.
Final Product
Optional: If the sauce you’re using is runny or you like your ribs extra saucy, baste and broil the ribs one more time.
5. Coat the ribs lightly one last time and they’re ready to serve. If everything is done right, the ribs should just pull apart.

Results

Final Product
Serve with garlic mash potatoes and a simple salad for a complete meal. The flavouring choices I made here are wide open to your own personal tastes. Try different braising liquids – I chose beer because it adds some bitterness (a great dish must have four flavours: salt, sweet, sour, bitter), and use a sauce that even your hand will taste good with. If you can’t decide, follow the directions to a tee, you’ll still come out with some ribs that you’re sure to enjoy!

Let us know below how your ribs turned out!

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)