New Eats // Smokerless Smoked Chicken

This Smoked Chicken that was baked in the oven turned out to be a big success. For the smoky flavour, I used chipotle sauce instead of liquid smoke. And I injected brine for a more juicy texture.

Here are the ingredients:
For Brine:
300g Water
25g Salt
5g Chipotle sauce

For Glaze:
100g Blackstrap Molasses
50g Chipotle sauce
25g Soy sauce

1. Cut a whole chicken into half, so you have two halves.
2. Inject about 75g brine with a syringe into each breast and thigh section.
3. Glaze and let it sit in the fridge for as long as 24 hours-48 hours. But of course you can take it out earlier if you don't have much time. I took mine out in 3 hours.
4. Take it out from the fridge and place the chicken in the oven (195°F) for 10 min.
5. Remove chicken from the oven and glaze it and put it back into the oven. Repeat this 2 more times.
6. Allow the chicken to cook for about 45min to an hour.
7. Increase the temperature to 395°F and let it roast/broil for 6-7 min.
8. Remove from oven and enjoy with salt and pepper or sauce of your choice.

New Eats // Stir-fried Lamb with Broccoli

My husband and I both love lamb. We had lamb we bought for Shabu Shabu a while ago. At first, I thought I would make Lamb Shabu since it was meant for that, but yesterday was just too hot... It went up to 30 degrees in our home. Since a hot pot would make my husband sweat endlessly, I came up with stir-frying idea- like a mushroom and broccoli dish at a Chinese restaurant, but with more of a honey-garlicky taste. My husband loved it. I was happy it turned out nicely.

Ingredients:
1/4 purple cabbage
1 onion
2 cup broccoli
1/4 zuccini
2 mushrooms
1 spoon garlic
dill (garnish)
sesame seeds (garnish)

For the sauce:
3 spoon soy sauce
3 spoon oyster sauce
2 spoon yoridang (요리당)
0.5 spoon sugar
1 spoon corn starch (whisk in a little bit of cold water before putting into the pan to avoid it from getting clumpy)

Korean Eats // Stir-fried Spicy Baby Octopus

Nakji Bokkeum 낙지볶음 (Stir-fried Spicy Baby Octopus)

Ingredients:

2 Nakji (Baby Octopus)

1/4 cabbage

1 portobello mushroom

1/2 zuccini

1/4 carrot

1 onion

2 perila leaves (garnish)

sesame seeds (garnish)

For the sauce:

3 spoon red pepper paste

2 spoon red pepper flakes

2 spoon soy sauce

2 spoon sugar

1 spoon Mirin

1 spoon Yoridang

2 spoon sesame oil

1 spoon garlic

1 spoon corn starch

Brunch // Poached eggs and salad

Same as yesterday minus the potatoes. On a different plate... ;)

Korean Eats // Ja Jang Rice Ball with Roasted Pork

Ja Jang Rice Ball with Roasted Pork
Ja Jang sauce, pork roasted with garlic, pickled radish, green onion, sesame oil and raspberry balsamic sauce...
We had it with Kimchi-Jjigae..!!!

Brunch // Shredded Potato and Ham

Sometimes, if you think too much about the visual presentation and plating of the dish, you may be inclined to cut down on the portion of the dish or forget about daily nutritions we need. However, I refuse to cut down on the portion for the sake of how it looks. Without compromising the portion, I made breakfast today with poached eggs, butter toasted bread, salad, shredded potatoes and ham.

Today is my third day of making my own poached eggs. The first time I made poached eggs, I did it as I was told- putting salt and vinegar in the boiling water. It is meant to solidify the eggs but I found out it is not really necessary to put those things in. The second time I made it, I swirled the water around before sliding in my eggs. The water got a bit cloudy and messy as the egg white that has not yet set was swirling around along with the swirling water. The result was not bad. And today, I didn't do any of the things that I did in the previous days. I just waited for 4 minutes after putting in the eggs. No swirling, no salt and vinegar. And voila, it is just as perfectly poached as it should be. :) 

Korean Eats // Bibim Noodles

Bibim Noodles is one of the popular summer dishes in Korea. Bibimbop is more popular and well-known internationally but the noodle version is also one of my favorites. You can put as much veggies as you like for the noodles but I like to keep it simple and have sauteed kimchi and fresh cucumber with it. This time I added some lightly pickled radishes and hot pepper from our little garden. 

Ingredients:

Somen noodles (about the size of a loonie / 1 person)

1 cup of Kimchi

Half a cup of shredded Cucumber

1 Radish thinly sliced

For the sauce:

2 spoons Hot pepper paste

4 spoons Soy sauce

1 spoon Vinegar

1.5 spoon Sugar

0.8 spoon Sesame oil