Nakji Muchim / Spicy Octopus Salad

Been wanting to make this Nakji Muchim / Spicy Octopus Salad as a side dish. Korean called side dishes Banchan. I had bought a large frozen octopus from the Japanese shop when I went to buy the salmon fish some weeks . Grab some frozen Korean Oysters and NZ mussels too. I keep stock of them in my box freezer so that at any time I need seafood for my cooking, they are there for me. Lol ,I am like running a small restaurant but nope just keeping them for convenient sake. That's why it was a great thing that I had the octopus in the freezer for making this delicious Spicy Octopus Salad. I made a small portion as side dish. Seriously it tasted so good and we both love it . A keeper for sure! Recipe link is at the bottom of page. I used Korean Bapsang's Spicy Squid Salad. Except I used Octopus instead of Squid. And I added homegrown Water Spinach to the dish. So good that I will make this again for sure.

 easy to whip up and the taste is fantastic

spicy and the cucumber and water spinach adds crunch to the salad

boil the octopus first before slicing

and blanch the water spinach

We don't go wet market anymore

so frozen octopus will do for now

It is easy to put together the dressing for the salad

I have most of the basic korean sauce ingredients in my fridge as I cook Korean dishes very often

Recipe Link

Nakji Muchim/

Spicy Octopus Salad

Homemade Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream

Weather is hot and humid. Best time to have ice cream for dessert. I made a small batch of Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream using Just One Cookbook 's recipe. Just four ingredients and it is so creamy smooth and fragrant. There are many grades of Green Tea Powder. I used the Culinary Green Tea Powder from Japan as the packet stated . the Lower grade gives a dull colour but not to worry, it is still fragrant, just that the colour is not as bright as the top quality ones which gives a brighter green. In the area where I stay it is hard to get good quality ones so perhaps I need to order online for a better quality matcha powder. For now, it helps fix my cravings and it puts me a happy mood.

Smooth and creamy and fragrant

Recipe link 👇

Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

It's been quite sometime  since I last made ice cream and it is about time to make some using the balance of some heavy cream and strawberry compote after making a layered cake with them. What better to use them up in making creamy strawberry ice cream. There are many recipes out there but I chose one from my own cookbooks collection. It's Ice-cream & Sorbets by Lou Seibert Pappas. I have the ice maker bowl sat in the freezer for 24hrs  before I made the ice cream. The Cuisinart ice cream maker was a gift from a friend. So blessed. The recipe is for two to three persons which is perfect for the two of us. The ice cream turned out great, smooth and creamy and not overly sweet. I reduced the sugar though as my strawberry compote has a bit of sweetness in it and has a slight sour taste to it. So I omitted the lemon juice as required by the recipe. A keeper and I shall fellow the recipe for my next ice cream project - Matcha ice cream :)

 

Smooth and creamy and has the 

rich strawberry flavour

cook the heavy cream, egg yolk, and milk till the right consistency, the custardy texture that coats the back of the spoon

perfect custardy texture cooked over 

low heat 

Strawberry Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy ( whipping ) cream

1/2 cup half and half  or milk

3large egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar, divided ( I reduced sugar to 1/2 cup)

2.5 cups fresh strawberries ( I used canned strawberries- 1 cup)

1tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Prepare a large bowl or pan of ice water.

In the top of a double boiler, heat the cream and half and half over simmering water until steaming. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks until blended, then whisk in 1/2 cup of sugar the sugar. Whisk in about half of the hot cream, and pour the yolk mixture into the pan of cream. Stir and cook over simmering water until the custard coats the back of a silicone spatula or spoon, about 10 mins. Immediately place the custard pan in the ice bath and stir the custard occasionally until it cools to room temperature.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, mash the strawberries with a potato masher, sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the lemon juice, let stand until the sugar dissolves. Stir  into the custard and transfer to a container. Cover and refrigerate until throughly chilled, about 3 hours.

Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer 's instructions. Transfer to a container, cover, and freeze until firm, about 2 hours.

 Enjoy!

Lazy Hotpot - Anniversary Celebration

For our 39 th Wedding Anniversary celebration, we had lazy hotpot from home for dinner. It is better have it at home then to eat at restaurant during this Covid pandemic time. Lazy hotpot? Cook everything and serve at the table ready to eat kind. We had chilled Mango flavoured Soju with the hotpot. Simple and  a satisfying meal with our favourites in the hot pot. First I placed the Chinese cabbage at the base of my favourite claypot. Then I place the meat balls, mussels, beef slices, beef tendon balls on top of the veggies. Then pour over them with precooked beef broth. Place over stove fire and give it a rolling boil. Once the meat stuffs are cooked. Off heat and served at the table ready to eat.  We had toasted laver, kimchi and crispy garlic oil for the hotpot. We had a great time over hotpot.

our favourite beef slices wrap in laver and kimchi

the Soju is a great drink to have when having hotpot

this is how I placed the meat balls and mussels on top of the veggies before adding the beef broth and radish, once it is done, put on stove at med heat till everything is cooked. 

Just sharing what we had for our

anniversary celebration.

:)

39th Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday 2nd July was our 39th Wedding Anniversary. Wow, can't really imagine we have been married  for 39 years now. Can't wait to celebrate our 40th year, the Ruby Anniversary next year, God's willing , that is if we are alive then. I made a simple Strawberry  layered sponge cake with strawberry whipped cream frosting to commerate our special day. Supposedly to be a bigger cake but unfortunately I dropped the cake while unmoulding the sponge cake. Looking thru the egg rack on the fridge door , I found that I had 3 eggs left for a smaller cake. Thus, the cake is a small one. This will do as I just wanted to commerate this special day with a cake. The cake turned out great. Fluffy and light yet moist at the same time. I used canned strawberry for fillings. The strawberry filling ,surprising not overly sweet and have a tangy taste, which is perfect for layered cake . I added fresh flowers from the balcony as decorative item for the cake top. We had a wonderful day together and I wrote a love note to the hubby though. 

Here is what I wrote to him.

We have endured the actual test of time, growing with one another and closer together every year, through good times and bad. Our anniversary will remind  us of the happiest time of our relationship but it also reminds us of the hardship we had to go through to get to those happy times. Our love becomes stronger over time. If we had a day full of heated but healthy marriage fights, remember I would cook your favourite dinner that very evening to make things right. On our anniversary I swear we will spend the rest of our lives watching Netflix  and  having lots of chats and chilling out on the balcony drinking Soju and counting the stars above.

Wishing many more years with you my Soulmate. May God's countenance continue to shine upon us as we live the balance of our lives together with Him as the Head of our marriage.

Loving you and our kids to bits. Happy Anniversary and still counting!

not a pretty one but a taste good one, made from the heart. The hubby favourite cake

Flowers are from the balcony and from edible plants

the texture is light and moist 

Recipe link for the sponge cake

Click here