Category: Cooking

Home-made Mentsuyu

The image shows a glass jar filled with a dark liquid, labeled "Mentsuyu Geconcentreerd 2:1." The jar has a white lid with a red arrow and the word "OPENING" on it. The jar is sitting on a black, textured surface, likely a stovetop. In the background, there's a blurred view of kitchen utensils hanging on a rack and a Miele appliance.

Ingredients:

  • half a cup of sake
  • 1,25 cup mirin
  • 1 cup dark soy sauce. The saly type, not the sweet one.
  • 1 piece kombu 14 x 18 cm
  • 1 cup katsuobushi or bonitoflakes

How to make:

  1. Add everything in a saucepan
  2. SLOWLY bring it to a boil on medium heat
  3. Simmer on low for 5 minutes
  4. Pour through a sieve into another container

Done.

Remember that this is a concentrated brew, so use two parts water and one part Mentsuyu. If you use this for Tonkotsu, use 30-40 ml per bowl of 250-300 ml of broth.

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Spiced Fox Cakes

I am currently experimenting with a new cookie/cake. Let’s just stick to cake, because they are not crunchy.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup of eggs (or two medium sized eggs)
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 1/4 cup of sunflower oil
  • 1 cup of flour
  • 1 tablespoon of spice mix

Spice mix:

  • A 1-1-1 blend of ground Ginger, Cardamom and Mace.

Preparation:

  • Oil up two mini-muffin(?) forms. My forms can fit 12 mini-muffins.
  • Heat up oven to 180C or 365F and depending how good your oven is, let it warm through for a bit. After my oven beeps at the supposedly right temperature, I wait at least 15 minutes before opening the door.

Making the cakes:

  • Beat the eggs and sugar until smooth
  • Add the oil
  • Add the flour
  • Add the spice mix
  • Fill the mini-muffin forms with a piping bag up to the rim. (optional: If you chose to add baking powder, just fill them half-way.)
  • Put the forms in the oven
  • Remove them after 15 minutes
  • Store in a tin

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Oven temperatures

I found a printout of a website that of course does not exist any more unfortunately. Luckily, there is archive.org. #send_them_money

So, here’s some oven temperature conversion data. It covers conversion from Celcius to Silly and if your oven is old and has only settings, then I have a list for that as well.

TEMPERATURE
ºC
Celcius ->
 ºF
<- Fahrenheit		 ºF
Fahrenheit ->
 ºC
<- Celcius
0 32 32 0
25 77 50 10
50 122 100 38
75 167 150 65
100 212 200 93
125 257 250 121
150 302 300 149
175 347 350 177
200 392 400 204
225 437 450 232
250 482 500 260
275 527 550 288
300 572 600 315
OVEN SETTINGS
Electric oven
10 settings		 Temp Gas oven
8 settings		 Temp Gas oven
10 settings		 Temp
1 50°C 1 140°C 1 140°C
2 – 3 100°C 2 160°C 2 155°C
3 – 4 125°C 3 180°C 3 170°C
4 – 5 150°C 4 200°C 4 185°C
5 – 6 175°C 5 220°C 5 200°C
6 – 7 200°C 6 240°C 6 215°C
7 – 8 225°C 7 260°C 7 230°C
8 – 9 250°C 8 280°C 8 245°C
9 – 10 275°C 9 260°C
10 275°C
Convection oven
8 settings
 Temp Convection oven
10 settings		 Temp
1 125°C 1 40°C
2 140°C 2 – 3 85°C
3 155°C 3 – 4 105°C
4 170°C 4 – 5 130°C
5 185°C 5 – 6 150°C
6 205°C 6 – 7 170°C
7 225°C 7 – 8 190°C
8 240°C 8 – 9 215°C
9 – 10 235°C
WARMTE AANDUIDING (Old dutch ovens, can’t reliably translate this)
Temperatuur Oven Aanduiding
lauw 100-125°C
lauw warm 125-150°C
matig warm 150-175°C
warm 175-200°C
zeer warm 200-225°C
matig heet 225-250°C
heet 250-275°C
zeer heet 275-300°C

 

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Make your own Togarashi power (and Aioli)

the top view or a kitchen mortar, looking directly at the ground spices.
It’s hard work, I can tell you that.

I’ve used the Aioli for a pokebowl, matches really well with Sashimi Tuna.
You need besides a mortar and a jar the following ingredients:

  1. 3 tsp szechuan pepper
  2. 3 tsp chili flakes
  3. 3 tsp dried orange peel
  4. 2 tsp ginger powder
  5. 2 tsp sesame seed
  6. 2 tsp poppy seed
  7. ½ sheet of Nori

Grind the heck out of everything until everything looks evenly ground and the result should be medium coarse, if that’s any way of indicating it.

a close-up of the togarashi powder, the end product of a many spices ground together

Now put everything in a jar for later use.

The sauce:

  1. 1 cup of good mayo (will make a recipe for that as well, both the fast and slow version)
  2. 2 tsp smoked paprika powder
  3. 1 tsp sesame oil
  4. 1 tbsp soy sauce
  5. 1 tsp lemon juice
  6. 1 tbsp Togarashi powder

Mix everything together so there is an even consistency and let it rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours before use.

the top view of a recently made pokebowl with tuna, sugar snaps, paprika, lemon and cucumber.
See the orange-y blobs? That’s the sauce.

 

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Chimken Skewer Marinade

Who likes chimken? I do!

  1. 500 gram of chimken thigh
  2. ¼ tsp Salt
  3. ¼ tsp Pepper
  4. ½ tsp Garlic finely chopped, grated is better
  5. ½ tsp Ginger grated
  6. 1 tbsp finely chopped onion
  7. 2 tbsp Rice vinegar
  8. 2 tbsp Brown sugar or brown sugar syrup
  9. 1 tbsp Sesame oil (not sesame flavoured oil, pls)
  10. 4 tbsp proper soy sauce
  11. 2 tbsp Chilly sauce spicy
  12. 2 tbsp Ketchup
  13. a good splash of wustershershireshur sauce

If i remember correctly, I also used lemon juice. Add it if you like it.

  • Chop de chimken in small pieces. Look at the street vendors; they do not have large chunks of chimken on their skewers.
  • Put the pieces in a bowl and add the marinade and mix well.
  • Put the bowl in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
  • Stick the pieces on the skewers, about 50 gram of meat each.
  • Grill on a fiercely hot coal grill until ready.

Enjoy!

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Perfect Chips

From Heston Blumenthal’s In Search of Perfection, Season 1, Episode 4 named “Fish and Chips”.

  1. Buy floury potatoes with a dry content matter of around 22%. This is very hard to measure, so just see what you can get.
  2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into thick(ish) and equal parts. Perhaps a centimetre thick.
  3. Wash the chips and place them in a pot with lightly salted water.
  4. Cook them on simmering. Simmer to as close as possible to breaking up. If they break up, you will have potato soup. You should be able to scoop them out, and they need to look a bit fluffy. Cooking time is somewhere between 10-15 minutes.
  5. Place the chips carefully on a cake rack and place the rack in the refrigerator for 30-45 minutes. You want the moisture content to be as low as possible, and the dry air in a refrigerator helps greatly with that.
  6. The first fry is at 130C for about 5 minutes. The outside of the chip should get a bit of colour by then.
  7. Take the chips out, place them on the cake rack again and place the rack in the refrigerator for another 30-45 minutes.
  8. The second and last fry is at 190C for about 3-5 minutes. Look at the colour and test while frying the chips.

Enjoy!

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Rye and Buckwheat cookies!

Note: you can also use 140 gram whole weat and 140 gram oat flour.

* 140 gram rye wheat
* 140 gram buckwheat flour
* 1 tbsp oat bran
* 8 gram vanilla sugar
* 52 gram fine sugar
* 1 tsp baking powder
* a pinch of salt
* 150 gram cold butter
* 60 ml cold water
* 1 egg
* 2 tbsp whole milk

– Paper baking sheet
– Fork
– Brush

* Grab kitchen machine and deploy the K hook (if you have a kenwood)
* Add all dry ingredients into the bowl and mix it with a whisk
* Shred the butter in small pieces and add it to the bowl
* Mix ingredients until you have a rough but even substance
* Deploy dough hook and resume mixing while adding the water slowly
* Keep mixing until you have a smooth dough
* Wrap ball of dough in kitchen foil and stick it in the freezer for 30 minutes
* Preheat the oven to 160 C

* Sprinkle flour on the kitchen counter and roll out the dough until it is 5 mm thick
* Cut circles in the dough with a cookie cutter or a drinking glass
* Place the cookies about a centimeter apart from each other on the bakingsheet that you already put on the baking tray
* Make a number of holes in the cookies with a fork
* Put the egg and the milk in a cup and whisk it with the fork until smooth and fully blended
* Cover with the brush the cookies with the egg/milk mix

* Put in oven and set a timer for 30 minutes
* When done, take them out of the oven and place them on a tray (preferably a mesh tray) to let them cool down.

Enjoy!

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The best almond cookies ever

RECIPE FOR GINGER/ALMOND COOKIES

75 gr – Generic flour
75 gr – Almond flour
1/4 tsp – Baking powder
1/8 tsp – Pinch of salt
50 gr – Dark brown sugar
50 gr – COLD butter
6 balls – Ginger on syrup
2 tbsp – Caramel syrup
2 tbsp – Ginger syrup

Oven 175C

* Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt together
* Shred the ginger into little bits and add to the mix
* Add the syrup
* Shred the COLD butter into little bits and add to the mix

Mix in machine until smooth. Make balls, bake for up to 20 min.

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Stoofperen Recipe

Stoofperen

Ingredients:
◦ 2 kg Gieser Wildeman pears
◦ 500 ml red wine
◦ 250 ml water (or wine if you have enough, this is just to make things cheaper)
◦ 1 Star anise or “Illicium Verum”
◦ 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
◦ 4 tbsp dark-brown sugar that contains inverted sugar syrup. We call this “basterdsuiker.”
◦ Few drops of vanilla extract
◦ Few drops of almost extract
◦ Handful of Sultana raisins

Tools:
◦ Tea egg
◦ Thick-bottomed pot
◦ Timer
◦ Measuring spoons
◦ Measuring cup

Manual:
⁃ Peel the pears as thin as possible
⁃ Quarter the pear and cut the rigid stem lines, core and butt out
⁃ Place the pears in the pot
⁃ Place the raisins in the pot
⁃ Put the anise in a tea egg and place it in the pot
⁃ Pour de wine and water in the measuring cup (or just the 750ml wine and no water)
⁃ Add the Cinnamon, vanilla- and almond extract and the brown sugar
⁃ Stir well so the sugar and cinnamon is well dissolved in the wine
⁃ Pour the wine in the pot and make sure that the amount of wine is enough to cover the pears

Bring the content of the pot to a boil and then put the lid on it and turn the heat to low. Just enough to keep it simmering.
Keep it at this heat for 90 minutes and GENTLY stir it at the 45 minute mark.

When done, let it cool down and then you can divide it into storage containers. Be careful, the pears are now soft and fragile.

This recipe is made to my personal flavour and you can always give it your own variation to it!

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Square pancakes

  • 150 Gram of flour
  • Pinch of salt
  • Half a sachet of baking powder (so for 250gr of flour)
  • 1 Egg
  • 250 ml Whole milk
  • Bottle of syrup
  • Butter
  1. Put the flour in a bowl, together with the salt, baking powder, egg and milk
  2. Mix together by hand
  3. Heat up pan, add some butter
  4. Use large soup ladle to add one portion of batter to the hot pan (there should be 4 scoops available)
  5. Flip pancake when needed
  6. Put pancake on plate, add some butter, go to item 4
  7. Meanwhile put a layer of syrup on the ready pancake
  8. Stack until done
  9. Cut to size
  10. Eat

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