Yes, I know this is my third post about sushi - but I just love sushi...! I am a quite picky sushi eater though. For example even though sushi almost always connotates raw fish, I don't eat any sushi with raw fish, except salmon - I am not that fond of fish actually ... So everytime I go to a sushi restaurant, or whenever I make sushi myself, I always choose (or make) something like prawn tempura, cooked prawn, chicken teriyaki or schnitzel. Not very healthy I know...but I still eat my salmon ;).

For tonight's dinner I made sushi with prawn tempura and chicken teriyaki (boring I know... but I just love them!). I have this kind of ritual to eat sushi for dinner while watching dvd with my partner - that's why sushi is such a regular in my household... Enjoy and salivate in front of your screen...;-)








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Pearl Milk Tea or Boba Milk Tea originates from Taiwan. Traditionally it is a beverage containing tea with creamer/milk plus tapioca balls. It is actually one of my all time favourite beverages. My first time trying a glass of pearl milk tea was in a Chinese restaurant in Sydney. I eyed somebody having an interesting purple-coloured drink with black balls swimming at the bottom of the glass. It looked somehow charming and appealing. I asked the waiter what drink it was and then decided to order the drink. The drink was fantastic - I got addicted afterwards. At that time pearl milk tea was still not that popular in Sydney, you normally could only grab it from a few Chinese or Taiwanese restaurants available around. A few years later, pearl milk tea started to get more attention in Australia because there were more and more milk tea franchise outlets appearing - the most successful one is I guess Easy Way.




There are many varieties of milk tea, the most popular ones are the normal black milk tea, Jasmine milk tea and taro milk tea (the purple drink that I tried in the restaurant). My favourite milk tea is black milk tea with pearls, I also like Jasmine and Taro milk tea - but Jasmine and Taro can be overpowering sometimes in fragance (for jasmine) and taste (taro). It really depends on which milk tea outlets you go to though, because different outlets have their own different 'milk tea taste'. It's nevertheless also just my personal point of view. I find the Taro milk tea in Easy Way way too sweet and thick, but I know many many people who love it to death.

As far as I know there are no pearl milk tea outlets in Germany - which is a pity... There are so many delicious things missing here...! I even cannot find uncooked pearls (tapioca balls) in Asian supermarkets, the only types of pearls I can find are the ones from Thailand, which are white, instead of greyish black. I had to ask my mum to send a packet of pearls from Australia, that I can finally satisfy my craving for a glass of milk tea. Some people might wonder, why I need to wait for my mum to send a packet of pearls if I really crave to drink a glass of milk tea, anyway it's just tea with milk, you can always have it all the time, even in Germany...But, hell, no, the highlight of this drink is not really the milk tea, but it's the tapioca balls. Yes, some people might think: "What are those ugly, slippery and disgusting looking black balls?". But for me tapioca balls are just superb. They taste chewy and just so addictive... But of course it's important to cook the pearls well, and pearls cannot be stored for a long time, because they will get hard. So after you cook and cool them, eat them all, or you can throw them away the next day.

I guess, after 3 days of blogging I finally get the feeling of being a blogger - I just noticed it from the amount of blabbings I have written today...;-)

Pictures

Uncooked pearls


First boil the pearls, add sugar and wait till pearls caramelise


Yummy, luscious pearls


Yum, yum, yummy, pearl milk tea

This is a perfect drink for summer. Add lots of ice cubes to your milk tea plus sugar and put this mixture in a blender. Serve it with pearls in a glass.

I personally think that milk tea tastes better when you use creamer than milk. With creamer, the tea just mixes so well together.

Update (5th August 2010) - I have recently found two online German bubble tea shops: Chooba Bubble Tea and (20th February 2011) Botschafter Fairer Köstlichkeiten :). There is also a bubble tea shop in Frankfurt called Chakka Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Bubble Tea...!! Double Yay!! Finally :). I will try it for sure in the next few days:). Thanks to Token, because of her informative blog regarding Japanese/Asian foods, I was able to find out that there IS a bubble tea shop nearby, here in Germany:)!




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As you know from my previous post, I made a lot of mandu (korean dumplings) today. During the last few days I had eaten quite some pan-fried dumplings, that's why I didn't want to pan-fry the mandu anymore. I wanted something different...


Since I am also a very avid soup lover, I decided to make a rice noodle soup with mandu. For the stock I used beef stock that I made yesterday (I boiled 1 kg of beef with ca. 1.5 litres of water) and then I added a dash of salt, pepper, 2 slices of ginger, 1/2 tsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of garlic powder. Since just eating a noodle soup with dumplings would be boring, I also added some chopped green onions, bean sprouts, bok choy and fried onions for garnish. This soup was very tasty... And it's quite healthy too, considering that everything is boiled, except the fried onion, which is optional.

Rice noodles (at the bottom, you can't see), boiled mandu, bok choy, bean sprouts, green onions and fried onions


Add the delicious beef stock



The rice noodles finally show up...!




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I made Mandu today - korean dumplings filled with minced meat (pork or a mixture of pork and beef), tofu, shiitake mushrooms, various types of onions and egg. Mandu tastes similar to Jiaozi (chinese dumplings), but I think that the main difference between these two types of dumplings is that korean dumplings usually use tofu but chinese dumplings do not.

Dumplings are one of my most favourite foods. (Before I moved to Germany, I loved to indulge myself with dumplings from various Dim Sum/ Yum Cha restaurants and food courts in Sydney China Town - it's such a shame that there are so little Dim Sum restaurants in Germany, at least not in the area where I live...).


There are countless variations of dumplings around the world, unfortunately I am only familiar with the types of dumplings from some regions in Asia. I used to try Pelmeni, Russian dumplings filled with pork - they tasted great, even though I got them from the frozen section of a supermarket. I guess one day I need to try the real thing...! I know German Maultaschen, I also like them, but they are not really something that I can eat again and again and again like Mandu, Jiaozi or Gyoza (japanese dumplings).

Well, however, enough rambling for now. Here is my Mandu recipe. You can of course always change the filling as you want, as dumplings are very versatile.

Ingredients:
  • Mandu/Wonton wrappers
  • 1 cup of ground pork
  • 1 cup of minced tofu
  • 1 egg
  • Shiitake mushrooms, chooped
  • 1/2 onion, chopped
  • Green onions, chooped
  • Chives, chopped
  • 3 tbs fish sauce
  • 3 tbs oyster sauce
  • Sesame oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • A pinch of sugar

Ground pork, shiitake mushrooms, tofu, onion, green onion, chives and egg
(Yes, you need to do a lot of chopping!)

Add fish sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper, sugar, sesame oil then mix all up.



I shaped the mandu like a tortellini. I actually wanted to pleat the mandu like a traditional-looking jiaozi, but my mandu skins were square, not round, that's why I decided to shape it like tortellini. The last two pictures at the bottom look completely different, but they are actually the same, it's just the front and back view of the mandu.


You can steam, boil, pan-fry or deep-fry the dumplings. The most healthy choice is of course to either steam or boil the dumplings, but the taste of pan-fried dumplings can be heavenly...! Have fun in the kitchen...!



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I made these cookies last year. I used an egg mould to cut out the teddy and bunny shapes. They're actually just simple butter cookies and I got the chocolate colour by mixing the normal butter cookie dough with chocolate powder. Aren't these cookies cute?? I know that a more handy and crafty baker would be able to produce a much better looking teddy cookies than these, but I am quite proud of my cookies and they tasted yummy too...!

I am thinking of baking some cakes or cookies in the following days, but I am still not sure when. I have a lot of food-related pictures to upload actually - I started to cook and 'bake' (I say 'bake' in quotation marks because I enjoy decorating cookies and cakes much more than the process of baking a cake itself) seriously since 1.5 years ago, but I just joined bloggers 3 days ago...! So, I do have a lot of picture-stories to tell indeed...! Well..., till next time then...





"Hello, I am Teddy...!"





"And I am Bunny...!"



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Banh Xeo ist eine vietnamesische Spezialitätet. Sie sieht wie eine Crepe aus, aber die Hauptzutaten für den Teig besteht aus Reismehl, Wasser, Kokosmilch und Kurkuma, um die Farbe des Teigs, gelb zu machen. Ich habe nie zuvor Bahn Xeo gemacht oder gegessen, aber ich habe schon viel über diese Delikatesse gehört und gelesen. Heute habe ich entschieden, diese Crepe zu probieren. Es war eigentlich gar nicht kompliziert, sie zu machen. Man kann eigentlich auch die Zutaten in Deutschland sehr leicht finden. Reismehl, Fischsoße und Nuoc Cham (süße Chili Soße) sind normalerweise immer erhältlich in Asia Märkte in Deutschland. Bitte die Bilder des Kochvorgangs aus meinem vorherigen Post anschauen.

Zutaten
Der Teig (für 30 Minuten stehen lassen)
  • 1 Tasse Reismehl
  • 1 Tasse Wasse
  • 1 EL Kokosmilch
  • 1 EL Kurkumapulver
  • 1/4 TL Backpulver
  • Salz und Pfeffer
Die Füllung
  • 100 gr Garnelen
  • 100 gr hackfleisch
  • 100 gr Sojabohnensproßen
  • 1/2 Zwiebel, dünn schneiden
  • Frühlingszwiebel, dünn schneiden
  • 2 EL Fischsoße
  • Salz und Pfeffer
Mit Nuoc Cham und frische Gemüße od. Kräuter servieren. Viel Spaß beim Probieren...!


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I made Banh Xeo for my lunch today. It's my very first Banh Xeo - I'd never eaten Bahn Xeo before but had heard and read a lot about it. That's why I really wanted to try to make one myself today. I got the recipe from Quick and Easy Vietnamese Home Cooking for Everyone by Andre Nguyen and Yukiko Moriyama, but I changed the measurements for the ingredients a bit here and there. My Banh Xeo turned out to be very good, although it was quite tricky to make sure that my crepe didn't break - I suppose the trick is to make sure that the batter rests for quite some time.





Here is the recipe:

Ingredients (makes 3)
Batter
  • 1 cup of rice flour
  • 1 cup of water
  • 1 tbs of coconut milk
  • 1 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • a pinch of salt and pepper
Filling
  • 100 gr prawns
  • 100 gr minced meat
  • 100 gram bean sprouts
  • 2 tbs fish sauce
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1/2 medium onion, sliced
  • Spring onions, chopped

The ingredients



The cooking process

First, combine all batter ingredients in a bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes-1 hour. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a skillet and cook the ingredients for the filling, set aside in a bowl.

Grease skillet and pour a quarter portion of batter into it. Make a thin omelete-like crepe. Sprinkle the crepe with some of the cooked filling - you can actually also add the bean sprouts now, instead of frying it together with the meat and prawns, but I just don't like the taste of raw or almost raw bean sprouts, that's why I pan-fried it longer with the meat and prawns in advance.

Fold the crepe in half. Make 3. Serve with lettuce, cucumber slices, carrot slices or any kind of greens of your choice. Don't forget the Nuoc Cham (sweet chilli sauce) dipping sauce! You can get this sauce in most Asian supermarkets.

I hope this recipe can help anyone who wants to have a go at making their own Banh Xeo! Enjoy!



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I made these sushi platters the beginning of last year. At that time I still had a lot of free time because I just finished uni and just moved to Germany. My only occupation then was simply doing the German intensive course, so I still could cook and bake a lot. But since I start going to work, I almost never really cook something interesting anymore which is a pity...



But now I have my summer holiday, so I want to spoil myself with something yummilicious and 'be creative' again. Hopefully I would still be able to update this blog when my holiday is over...!

Some Sushi porns....All made a year or two years ago...:)











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Gebratene (dünne) Reisnudeln (Bihun od. Beehoon Goreng) sind ziemlich populär in Süd-Ost Asien, besonders in Indonesien, Malaysia und Singapore. Die hier ist meine Version gebratene Reisnudeln. Es ist ziemlich wichtig Schweineschmalz und Knoblauch zu benutzen, weil dann das Aroma von dem Gericht richtig rauskommt.


Rezept für 3-4 Personen

Zutaten:
  • 200 g trockene Reisnudeln
  • 100 g Garnelen
  • 6 Fischkuchen (dünn schneiden)
  • 1 EL zerhackter Knoblauch
  • 2 Stück Chili (entkernen und klein schneiden)
  • 2 Stange Frühlingszwiebel (kleien schneiden)
  • 1 Stück Ei
  • Pak Choi (optional)
  • 2 EL Schweineschmalz
  • 4 EL Austernsoße
  • 2 EL Sojasoße
  • 3 EL Fischsoße
  • 3 EL Kecap Manis (süße Sojasoße)
  • Pfeffer

Links: Die Zutaten, Rechts: Trockene Reisnudeln


Man kann natürlich auch das Rezept selbst nach einem eigenen Geschmack anpassen. Ich koche normalerweise auch immer nach Gefühl (und natürlich auch mit Gefühl...wenn ich nicht zu müde oder faul bin...:))




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Ich habe gestern Sushi mit Prawn Tempura und Chicken Teriyaki gemacht - das war lecker.

Übrigens, ich bin eine neue Bloggerin - also entschuldige bitte die mangelnde Professionalität. Hier möchte ich nur eigentlich meine Einsammlung von meinen Kochabenteuern einstellen und mein Deutsch verbessern. Ich muss mehr auf Deutsch schreiben, dass ich die komplizierte deutsche Grammatik nicht vergesse... Viel Spaß beim Umsehen!


Inside-out Tempura Sushi mit Sesam und Tobiko (Fischrogen)


Inside-out Sushi und Temaki (handgerollte Sushi)

Close-up Inside-out Sushi - hhmmm..!


Mein Abendessen...!




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