My Favourite TV Drama Final Episode - The Moon Embraces The Sun

I watched the final episode of “The Moon Embraces The Sun last night” last night. I only watched this drama to see Kim Soo Hyun and Jung Il Woo who are rising celebs in Korea at the moment.


Kim Soo Hyun is so handsome and even in the usual traditional costume he is inevitably noticeable. He is the CUTTIEST KING in the whole Korean TV Drama series. This Drama is a total fiction and is not based on Korean history at all. The plot is almost like a cartoon. It’s fun, not too heavy to watch even if you know nothing about the history and romantic.


Many of Kim Soo Hyun fans will miss the KING~




And my another favorite celeb Jung Il Woo. 

Korean Ramen - Nagasaki Jjamppong

In my presvious posting, I wrote a review on KKo KKo Myeon which is a Korean instant noodle.


After it became a trendy new product as one of the biggest seller among clear broth based instant noodle, other leading Korean Ramen companies started to come after their own version of clear broth based ones. (You can click the image link below to buy it at Amazon)

Pho, Vietnamese Beef noodle Soup

Vietnamese noodle, known as Pho, is one of my favourite noodles. There are many recipes on this but it’s very hard to make the broth because you need lots of effort to simmer the beef stock with lots of spices. Here, I would like to share with you 3 different recipes I tried. I personally tested all other recipes and these are the best 3. Out of these 3, the very last one is my own recipe which I was taught by my friend. In my opinion, this personal recipe was the simplest and easiest of all to make Pho without the hassle of getting all spices and boiling for long hours. And yet, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed by the actual result despite the  simplicity of actual ingredients you use in this recipe. At first, I was very sceptical when I was told about this recipe since it sounded too simple until I actually decided to give it a go. I am glad I tried.


1. Traditional recipe


(This is from Women’s weekly recipe which I  tried myself and found it took excessive amount time and effort but the outcome is worth it.)


INGREDIENTS


2 pieces cassia bark, about 5cm each in length
2 whole star anise
6 cloves
3-4 cardamom pods, bruised
1 large onion, peeled and halved
1 large piece of ginger, bruised and slightly crushed
2kg veal bones, including split chin bones
500g piece beef brisket
3-4 litres cold water, to cover bones
1/3 cup fish sauce, to taste
1 teaspoon sea salt, to taste
1-2 teaspoons sugar, to taste
200g rice stick noodles, soaked or blanched in boiling water 2-3 minutes until tender, cooled and drained until needed
2-3 spring onions (green shallots), cut into 2-3 cm batons
200g eye fillet or sirloin or rump steak (optional), sliced very thinly
1 bunch coriander, picked and roughly chopped
1 bunch chives, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh herbs (to serve)
1 cup bean sprouts, trimmed
1 cup Thai basil leaves, picked
1 bunch long coriander (Mexican coriander, thorny coriander, saw-leaf herb, saw-tooth herb), washed and trimmed
2-3 long red chillies, sliced on the angle
2-3 limes, cut into wedges


Preparation


1. Pre-heat salamander style grill or top element of oven to a high heat.


2. Place cassia, star anise, cloves, cardamom, onion and ginger in an ovenproof pan or baking tray and grill 3-4 minutes until fragrant. Remove. Turn off grill.


3. Place grilled spices, onion and ginger in a large stockpot. Add veal bones, brisket and enough cold water to cover, bring to a slow boil.


4. Simmer two hours, skimming the surface of any fat or scum as necessary, then remove brisket and store, covered and refrigerated until needed.


5. Continue cooking stock a further 2 hours, skimming as necessary. Season with fish sauce, sea salt and sugar to taste, using the above quantities as a guide.


6. Strain stock and discard bones, onion, ginger and spices. Cool and store refrigerated until needed or strain stock to a clean pot and bring back to a simmer, ready to serve.


7. To serve, place sprouts, herbs, chillies and lime wedges in little bunches around a serving plate, place on table for guests to add to their pho as desired.
8. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a rapid boil. Using a small blanching basket or chinois, blanch a small handful of noodles and spring onions for each person. Transfer each portion to individual serving bowls (pho is one of the few Vietnamese dishes not shared, with each diner receiving their own bowl).
9. Slice reserved brisket thinly and place atop noodles. If using, add 20-30g thinly sliced raw beef per portion. Ladle hot stock over beef and noodles (the heat of the stock will cook the finely sliced raw meat).


10. Garnish with chopped coriander and chives, season lightly with pepper.
Serve hot portions to each guest, accompanied by Asian soup spoons and chopsticks (for the handling and choice of the fresh herbs).
 
2. Secret Pho base soup Recipe from a Vietnamese noodle restaurant


 (With this recipe, you will have to guess how much you will need for each ingredient. What you need to do is to refer to the first recipe and guess how much of each ingredient you might need. Basically, they are vey similar except the last secret ingredient, dried sandworm. I didn’t know until I came across this recipe but apparently, this is very commonly used in pho in Vietnam by asking many of my Vietnamese friends. It was very hard to find dried sandworm but I got it from a Chinese herbal medicinal place in China town once. To this recipe, you will need to add lime juice, coriander and basil otherwise, the broth itself is not quite what you expect to get at a Vietnamese restaurant.)

Ingredients

Marrow bone
Oxtail
Brisket
Boiled chicken
Cinnamon
Star anise
Cardamom pods
Dried sandworm
 
3. My own personal recipe
 
Ingredients


1 litre Campbell beef liquid beef stock
100g thinly sliced beef (get shabu shabu cut from a butcher)
1-2 Star anise whole
1/2 thinly sliced brown onion
1/2 lime (just use the lime juice)
some fish sauce to season
1 bird eye chilli chopped
bunch of long coriander, chopped
bunch of basil, pick the leaves only
2 cups bean sprouts
1-2 piece of lemon
2 TBS dried fried onion (optional, you can get it from Asian groceries. It’s only added because some Vietnamese restaurants, pho is served with sprinkle of it on top)
Rice noodle (I use fresh noodle which you can get from an Asian market. If you use dried noodle, it’s not quite the same as what you would get at a restaurant)
 
Serves 2


Preparation


1. Place Campbell beef liquid stock in a pot and add the whole star anise.  (I personally like the taste of Campbell but it’s totally up to you. But do not use stock cubes. I used it before and the result is quite different)


2. Boil the stock on medium heat. When it’s boiling add 100g of beef in the stock and simmer. Add in lime juice and fish sauce to season.


3. In a separate bowl, boil some water and soak the noodle for 2 minutes. Discard the water after 2 minutes.



4. Place the rice noodle into a bowl. Pick out the cooked beef (Originally in Vietnamese noodle, you would place thin slice of raw beef and pour in hot broth to cook it but I don’t like the raw meat in the soup. If you prefer it that way, that’s also doable) and place them in the bowl around the noodle. Pour in the hot broth and sprinkle sliced onion, dried fried onions (only optional), chopped coriander, picked basil leaves. Now, when you serve it you can serve it with bean sprouts to add in and a piece of lemon. I like adding a little bit of chopped fresh bird eye chilli just to add heat. But again, it’s personal choice!!


5. When you go to a Vietnamese restaurant, you will almost always see two sauce bottles on each table. They are chili sauce and hoisin sauce. You can add combination of both into your soup if you like or dip the beef in the sauce. The most common brands the restaurants use are all shown below. 

Great tip for poaching eggs

Found this at my google plus stream. I am going to try this technique.

Kid’s favourite Cooking Video Clips

I came across by searching cake making long time ago. Recently, I have visited my friend’s house, and her kids and I were playing with my iPhone. They asked me to play Howdini. At first I wasn’t sure what it was but soon I realised that it was the video clip I found at Youtube on cake making. Yes, I was very inspired by the ideas, especially, I know that the look of the cakes they make would surely fascinate kids. But it was very surprising to see kids were actually interested in watching this. They don’t get to actually make such cakes at home but why do they like watching it? For adults, especially mums would watch it since they want to make such cakes. But why do kids like just watching it?

My kids also love being involved in cooking. They are far too young to give me a hand, rather they cause mischief in the kitchen throwing everything everywhere. But I want them to be involved sometimes. It’s very educational for them to learn what is healthy and how can they make healthy food. They show a lot of interest in food when they are actually involved in the making process.



I ask my kids what they want to eat and they choose what vegies they want to put in. Of course, this is not always success because they are cheeky sometimes by saying, “Mum it looks awesome but I am too full to eat it.” But most of the time, they will show more interest towards if they are in the process of making.

For cakes, I am a little cautious since it has too much sugar content. It’s very hard for my kids to absolutely avoid it but at least, they know how to moderately control their temptation. I know some parents are very strict on what to eat and what to avoid. But even I sometimes like a piece of chocolate, some cakes or biscuits. It would be a lie if I tell my children not to eat any of those just because they are bad for their health. How can you all avoid something bad in our busy everyday life? I’d rather teach my kids how to control their temptation and to eat in moderation.

But it’s still very tough to make the young ones understand why eating too much sugar is bad. I try to bake cakes with less sugar content and try to add healthy stuff in them such as blueberries, carrots, rice flour etc. I get ideas from such video clips like Howdini and try to substitue the food colourings or even the icing. I guess it doesn’t take much to impress kids when it comes to baking. In fact, they often get fascinated by the idea of putting the “play-dough” (of course the flour dough I mean. Do not bake kids’ play dough!!!) into an oven and get a loaf of bread.

Here is some video clips of HOWDINI. Get inspired and enjoy baking with kids.

Cooking Apps 1234

Cooking apps are very handy when it comes to find recipes today. 


I have many hard copy cookbooks since I love to look at the pictures of lots of dishes that I can get inspired, especially the pictures give an idea on the presentation of the finished meal. But when I actually try to cook the actual recipe, printing out that page is difficult unless you have a photo copier. I don't have enough space to lay my book in the kitchen and flipping the page through is awkward with wet hand whilst cooking.
It's when cooking app comes handy. Today I would like to review some of the cooking apps that people recommend and I personally use.

K-Pop Star Live Audition Top 9

Here's my favorite TV series again! K-Pop star! Go Ha Yee ~~ I love you.


We need your voice. Soul Queen~ Your voice is just so mesmerising. Amazing Girl.






You sing so Naturally well. I love your sweet voice, Ji Woong.





OMG~ You're not an amateur. You are already a singer :p Park Ji Min



My second favorite candidate~ Michele. Love you !!!


This week's unfortunate candidate, Kim Na Yoon. She chose too hard song for her voice, I think. But she's so so pretty.

Korean Ramen

Today, I am introducing a special Koran Ramen (instant noodle) to you.

There is a story behind the birth of this special ramen. There is a TV comedy program called, Nam Jae Ja Gyuk in Korea. It is a group of TV entertainers, all men mainly comedians, who challenge many different things in the pursuit of becoming a worthy man. Of many series, they participated in a competition held by leading Korean Ramen companies. The Ramen companies held the competition in order to get an idea on a new products. No one actually expected any of the entertainers in this TV program might win because their cooking skill was way below the average compared to many other competitive participants. It was rather experimental for them to cook authentic ramen. Anyways, the rule was that all the participants could choose to begin their cooking with any of the ramen companies' products using their secret ingredients to enhance the outcome flavour. Many interesting skills and ingredients were introduced.

Of the least expected winner among the show hosts, Lee Kyung Gyu (very well known Korean comedian), came with an idea to make a spicy ramen with clear chicken broth. His idea was easy to adapt to make an instant ramen since he only used simple ingredients unlike many other participants. The flavour was also suitable for Korean ramen buyers who love spicy heat in the soup. There aren't many clear broth based ramen in Korea. His idea was a big hit amongst the TV program fans. Of course, he won the competition and his idea actually came reality when one of the ramen company bought his product idea.

Way before the product actually came out, people were eager to taste this new ramen. As soon as it became available on the market shelf, it was the biggest hit seller in ramen industry. I waited a long time before I could even taste this ramen because it was always ALWAYS SOLD OUT!!! I think I could try it about 3 months after it came out!!! Even Lee Kyung Gyu revealed in the interview that he had to order it online because it was hard to get it from a market as it was always first thing to go.

Here is a TV ad on the KKo KKo Myeon (Name of the ramen).




It says...to enjoy KKo KKo Myeon most deliciously, you add 500ml of water and boil just 4 minutes.

Yes, I liked it very much. Warning though, it is very spicy!!!

K-Pop Star Live audition

Last time, I posted on K-Pop Star, Korean Audition program.

I love watching this TV show and this week I watched the episode on live with my friend.

Here is some video clips I've fetched from Youtube. Enjoy~

Radish broth with Oyster mushroom

Did you know some mushrooms have medicinal use?

Of many mushrooms we eat today, oyster mushroom is commonly used in Korean, Chinese and Japanese cooking as a delicacy. The unique scent resembles anise and almond. Because the scent is not too overpowering, it is well suited with many other ingredients in stir fry.

Traditionally, it is known to strengthen veins and relax tendons. In China,  oyster mushroom is used for joint and muscle relaxation. A product containing oyster mushroom, called "Tendon-easing powder," is effective in the treatment of lumbago, numbed limbs, and tendon and blood vessel discomfort.

In Chinese, they are called píng gū (平菇; literally "flat mushroom"). In Vietnam, the mushroom is known as nấm sò or nấm bào ngư. It is called chippikkoon (ചിപ്പിക്കൂൺ) in Malayalam.

WordPress Vs Blogger

Hi, everyone.

I have been experimenting with my blogger blog for the last month or so. But I know a lot of people use wordpress. I was starting to wonder what difference they may have. People say wordpress has many theme templates to choose from and how easy it is to create a website with it.

Now, I wanted to learn more about wordpress. So, I set up an account at Wordpress.com

As far as the template goes, it appears to me that they have better template designs to choose from. But it is a lot harder for me to lay out the custom designs within the selected template.
For someone like myself, who has too little knowledge on such things, all the menus on the sides are not user friendly. It appears to me that you have to have some basic knowledge otherwise, you will have to go back and forth to read the support articles and go back and try to find out what each menu does.

Whereas blogger menu and template design station is very self explanatory.

Even so, I wonder why many people still use wordpress. I am still stumbling to find out how to better post my stories using wordpress, in fact, I have spent my entire day going through it. What is so special about it? I compare my blogger blog vs wordpress blog to see which one is better.
Well, both need lots of work!!! But can anyone tell me your honest opinion? Which one looks more welcoming and cozy?

See my new wordpess blog here.

For comparison sake, I have posted duplicates temporarily.

Lunch pack ideas for mums & kids

By Bellalean

   When there is vegetables in the fridge, perhaps the easiest, quick meal solution would be fried rice. You can add any veges of your own choice. For kids, it is great because you can feed them lots of veges. I often add veges that kids don't usually like to eat in the salads. This speedy lunch pack is also handy to make if you have frozen veges or frozen shrimp. Of course, it would be great if you can have fresh prawns   but I save my time by using frozen ones.

Freeze Cooked Rice in Advance

For many working mums, frozen food is a quick solution to save up time. If you cook rice in advance, instead of leaving it in the rice cooker, freeze them in portions so you can always have freshly cooked rice whenever you want. If you leave cooked rice in the rice cooker for long, it often gets dry and yellowish in discolouration.

K pop Star

I like watching this survival audition program. The boys and girls in this audition have fabulous talent. It's amazing how good they sing despite their young age. The youngest contestant is only 16.

Of the songs they sang in the audition, there are some of my favorite songs and I share them with you. 

Good luck with you guys!!!

My favorite Celeb Bi Dam

  His name is Kim Nam Gil but I remember him as Bi Dam. His character in the drama, Seon Duk Yeo Wang (Original Korean Drama title), The Great Queen Seon Deok. I don't watch Korean Drama as often as before but I still remember his charismatic look.

He was also in this drama bad boy. How come I didn't watch this one?

  

When you have hangover

   Many people have their own choice of food for relieving hangover. Some suggest honey, warm milk, and soups. The most common food for relieving hangover among Koreans is Dried Pollack Broth or Mung bean sprouts soup. Today, I am showing you how to make a quick Dried Pollack Broth.

By Bellalean

Quick survival meal

I haven't had a time to do my grocery shopping so I searched the pantry to see what I could cook with. The time was already very late for dinner and my tummy was growling. Hey look what I found!

Found by Bellalean

Desert for Kids

Use Pan cake mix for batter~

By Bellalean

By Bellalean

Spicy Curry Meat Samosa

  I love Indian food since I love spices. One of my favorite is Curry Samosas. Of course, you can buy the frozen ones but if you have a spare time, you can actually make your samosas and freeze it. I never tried to find the samosa recipe since I make it my way. 

Spicy Curry Meat Stuffing

  This delicious stuffing can transform into lots of different dish. I make dumplings, samosas, and bread with this stuffing. If you love spicy curry like I do you will like the flavor. I used minced beef with this recipe but it is well suited with other meat e.g. pork, chicken, and lamb. Give it a try with your own creation.

Healthy Cereal Bar

     Let's make your own Cereal Bar.
I always keep nuts, dried fruits and muesli in my pantry. It makes great breakfast and contains lots of fiber. If you like the nutty taste of cereal bars, why don't you make your own? It's very simple to make and it's also great if you have kids for their snack pack in lunch box.

By Bellalean

Google Adsense

To my disappointment, my blog got rejected by Google Adsense. I have decided not to apply again until I know exactly what it is.

I came across many other people struggling to get into Google Adsense. Whatever the reason they got rejected, I am sure advertisers have all the rights to choose their own partners. Well... I give up on Google Adsense for a while then. On my second thought, my blog is way too young anyways...

But this isn't a bad news at all. I still have lots of rooms to grow just like many other bloggers I admire and follow. Until then, bye bye Adsense. Join me in a few years time.

For people who are still looking for tips and advice, try 

http://www.adsensehowto.net/google_adsense/what_is_adsense.php 

It summaries on Google Adsense and other useful tips on affiliate programs. I found it very useful. But for the time being, I've decided to put such information aside and only concentrate on my blog. 

Good luck with you all!!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Where to go Korea

  My family enjoys going out for a meal at various places. It is a small part of my life to discover delicious food in different places. Often, I get a good recommendation from family or friends on wonderful places to dine. I would like to share with you some of my good picks in South Korea.