Koroke Vail Style

Today's koroke are a bit of a fantasy, I admit. The reason why I came up with this, was that I had some leftovers of the gyouza filling, and I needed to get rid of it.
If you want to know about Japanese Koroke; there are several different versions, but most are either with potato or with a kind of béchamel sauce. My koroke are based on potatoes, mashed and mixed with the gyouza filling, which consists of chinese cabbage, carrot, ginger and pork mince, seasoned with soy sauce and pepper. I peeled and boiled the potatoes, then mashed them (I use a fork because prefer to not have real puree, but still small bits of potato in it). Added the gyouza filling, 1 egg and some flour, seasoned with salt and pepper. Formed the koroke (I chose a more oblong shape), then coated them with flour, egg, and panko. They should be fried in a frying pan with a bit more of oil, but not too hot, or else the breadcrumbs will become black too quickly. (7 on my electric stove)
Tonkatsu sauce goes well with the koroke, but they are fine with ketchup, too. Or simply natural.


~Vail~

Haddock in Herb Crust

It's been some time since I last updated. Now that I am temporarely back in my parents' house, I don't have the opportunity to cook much. Unfortunately! But today I had the great task to cook for my dad, and he really liked it a lot. ;)
This is a very easy & fast recipe for many white fish, like codfish, haddock or whiting, but I guess you can even use salmon or other fish you like.
Now, on to the recipe (makes about 2 servings):


What you need:

*  400-500g haddock, whiting or any fish you want
* a handful of parsley
* 6 big leaves of fresh basil
* olive oil
* breadcrums
* tomatoes
* salt, pepper
* 1 tbsp ground parmesan

Wash the fish, then dab it off with kitchen paper. Season both sides with salt and pepper. Use a baking dish and grease it well with olive oil, then put the fish inside.
Wash and chop the parsley and the basil, then put it in a bowl with a handful of breadcrumbs, about 2-3 spoonfuls of olive oil and parmesan. Use a blender to get a paste. You can add more breadcrumbs or oil if needed. The important thing is that you receive a paste that's neither too dry, nor too wet.
Decorate the fish with the paste. Wash and dice the tomatoes and put them into the baking dish as well.
Preheat oven to 200°C and bake about 12-15 minutes.
The fish will be all juicy with a nice crust.
Enjoy!

~Vail~

Speculoos Cheesecake Muffins

 ☆~Cheesecake Mania - christmas special~☆

My nephew's birthday was the reason why my mom made me bake all weekend, and the delicious speculoos paste I'm having on my bread every morning incited me to go for some christmas flavoured baking session (even though it's still a little early). And these small speculoos cheesecake muffins are the result! Sweet and sour - such a good combination. I am sure there are many different recipes on the internet, but when it comes to cheesecake, I will ALWAYS and without exception, stick to my family recipe, simply because it is the BEST cheesecake I have ever eaten (and I've tried quite a few)! The secret is NOT to use cream cheese, but light curd and sour cream instead, to use a little lemon juice, and the RIGHT vanilla pudding powder (some have a bad off-taste), NO butter and little sugar. The speculoos crust only consists of ground speculoos cookies and melted butter, pressed into a baking mould. I recommend the speculoos cookies from LOTUS (see picture beneath) since they have the original taste (sometimes I stumble upon almond cookies called speculoos in the supermarket, but that's something completely different, so don't be fooled!)

Ah, I love cheesecake~
I still have to try out the pumpkin and matcha cheesecake! And gingerbread cheesecake sounds great too. Well then, they might be coming up soon.

~Vail~

Maple Walnut Rolls

Ok, I admit, telling my mom that I only want to get rid of the yeast that was still in our fridge seems like a lie when you look at these delightful treats, but I didn't have them in mind from the start. I found the recipe for these soft rolls HERE (sorry in German only, and I am lazy to translate the recipe)
The only alteration I made was to leave out the cinnamon, as I felt that it would ruin the whole maple-walnut taste, and dabbed the still hot rolls with a little more maple syrup to make them sweeter.

As soon as I opened the oven, the whole house started smelling like yeast-risen pastry....delicious!
These rolls are best when they're still warm inside, and this is the autumn version of the wintery cinnamon rolls.

Here some pictures of the process: (from left to right and from top to bottom)

1. Maple syrup covered chopped walnuts
2. How to arrange the filling
3. Roll this thing...
4. ...and cut it into pieces
5. Leave some space on the baking tray between each roll...
6. ...because they will grow while baking, as you can see
7. Cooling down a little
8. Close up.

Enjoy!

~Vail~

Gyouza

I had a friend coming over for lunch today, and I had planned to make japanese fried gyouza, starting from scratch. I found a recipe for the dough, so I didn't have to bother to actually get my lazy ass up and move it to the asia store ;)
This actually is quite time-consuming, so if you're in a hurry, you better buy the gyouza pastry. If you feel like spending a whole morning in the kitchen, this is the right recipe for you!

I found the recipe for the pastry here

I doubled the recipe as I planned to make a bigger amount and put the other half into the freezer.

You need: (about 60-65 pieces)

* 500g flour
* 200ml water
* 10 drops of Kansui (I didn't have Kansui at home, so I replaced it with 1 tsp baking soda dissolved in a little bit of water)
* 2 eggs
* 1tsp salt

With a whisk, beat the eggs with 100ml of water and Kansui. Add the salt. Pour it into a bowl with the flour and knead, while adding the rest of the water . Knead well until you get a nice dough. Cover it and let it rest for 1/2 hour.

Roll it out, take a drinking glass (∅8cm) and prick out the circles from the dough until nothing is left. (picture top left)

For the filling, you need:

* 200g white cabbage
* 2 carrots
* 1 tbsp japanese pickled ginger
* 400g pork mince
* soy sauce
* salt

Shred the cabbage and the carrots (works fine with a food processor). Heat some oil in a pan and fry the vegetables for a few minutes, reduce heat a little and cover it. Let it rest until soft, then add the ginger. Season with soy sauce.

Once it's ready, put it away and let it cool down. Salt the mince, then mix well with the vegetables. Now comes the hard work: take 1 tsp of the filling and put it in the middle of your small circle, brush some water along the edges and fold the sides up. Press together and make small foldings. Repeat this step with every circle until you're done.

In a pan, heat some oil and fry one side of the gyouza until brown, then add 50 ml of water. Cover the pan quickly and wait until the water has evaporated. In another step, add some more oil and fry the steamed gyouza on both sides so that they become brown and crispy. Serve hot with raw cabbage and soy sauce. Enjoy!

Vail's Note: This was my first time ever trying to make gyouza, and even though the recipe is not authentic, they tasted nice. I renounced garlic, or whatever it is they put inside *laughs* but you can basically fill these small turnovers with everything you like. Also, for the dip, I dissolved a bit of dashi in hot water and added soy sauce as well as 3 drops of sesame oil. The cabbage is optional too. I just prefer to always have some vegetable side dishes ;)

~Vail~

Whiting In Parmesan Coat And Pesto Sauce

Admittedly, I never liked spaghetti with pesto sauce, but when I tried pesto chicken, I just couldn't get enough of the creamy rich sauce, and wondered if it would suit fish as well. Here is the result: it tasted great!





What you need: (1 serving)

* 1 whiting fillet
* flour
* 1 egg
* breadcrumbs
* 2 handfuls of grated parmesan
* salt&pepper
* 2 tbsps olive oil
* 1 handful of fresh basil
* optional: pine nuts
* 1-2 tbsps light cream

In a plate, mix the breadcrumbs with 1 handful of grated parmesan, in another, beat the egg. Remove the fishbones from the fillet (if there are any), season with salt and pepper, coat it first with flour, then egg and finally the breadcrumb-cheese mixture.

For the pesto sauce, mix the washed basil leaves, the rest of the grated parmesan, the olive oil, the pine nuts (as much as you like) and the cream with a blender shaft,, then season with salt and pepper.

Heat some oil in a pan and fry the fillet on both sides until crispy. Take it out and keep it warm. Remove the oil from the pan and add the pesto. Stir well and reduce heat quickly. Serve hot and enjoy. :)

~Vail~

I Wanna Noyu?

I recently stumbled upon this brand in my local supermarket. Noyu. They have several different flavours, but the one that caught my eye the most was this unsweetened, pure green tea. Everytime I visited Japan, I would buy my favourite bottled o-cha, which, unfortunately, isn't sold anywhere here. (They do have it in Düsseldorf but it's a little far from here)

When it comes to green tea, I am quite very picky, and usually I only drink Japanese green tea but still I wanted to give this brand a chance. The tea leaves they use for this tea are grown in Taiwan, and of course I can taste the difference, but it's still quite nice and refreshing, especially if you drink it really cold.

Check their homepage for more information: http://www.noyuteas.com/

~Vail~