Month: May 2017

”Let’s Fight Ghost” Hoisin-Garlic Sausages

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Welcome back!

What a week… I am sooo tired! My dad came down last weekend to visit with his girlfriend and her kids. It was super fun, but then I had to do all my weekend stuff after they left. You know what I mean, like… Laundry, changing the bed, vacuuming all the pet hair… No? Just me? Alright then…

On a different note, I decided to try something new for this week’s post. I’m going to combine a Korean Drama review of sort, with a recipe! Let me know if you like it in the comments section below.

Lately, I have been obsessed with the drama ”Let’s Fight, Ghost!” (싸우자 귀신아). I watched it something like 4 times already. Yes, I am very much aware of how sad that is…

lets fight ghost

It’s a 2016 drama that originally aired on tvN. Starring Ok Taecyeon (Dream High) and Kim So Hyun (School 2015) and it’s hilarious!

It’s also slightly creepy sometimes, some of the ghosts are ugly and scary as hell! I would not want to be able to see those in real life. Nope, hard pass on that one!

I believe I have read somewhere that it’s a manga adaptation, if you know more about it, tell me in the comments, I’d like to read it!

The story is about Park Bong Pal, a college student who can see (and beat up) ghosts. He meets Kim Hyun Ji, the ghost of a High schooler who can’t cross over as she doesn’t remember anything from her life. They become unlikely partners in helping ghosts cross over and even starting an exorcism business with some of Bong Pal’s college mates.

You absolutely have to watch it, it’s amazing, I personally watched it on Dramafever, but you can also watch it on VIKI. EDIT: Dramafever ceased activities in late 2018. VIKI is still up and running.

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Kim Hyun Ji loves to eat, I’m not sure if it’s the norm for ghosts but she eats A LOT! She spends half her time trying to get Park Bong Pal to buy meat and make her food. Go feminism! I mean, who’s the sandwich maker now uhh??

Anyway, in episode 2, Monk Myung Chul asks Bong Pal for some sausage. It looks like regular sausage grilled with some onions and broccoli and it looks fantastic. Obviously, this is when I decided that I had to make something similar.

 

 

See those sausages in the very last image? Doesn’t it look fabulous? Well since I had zero clues how to do it, I kind of improvised. Good thing I did too, as my husband now requests it every week!

Hoisin Garlic Sausages

(Serves 3-4 or two who eat a whole lot… STOP JUDGING!)

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Ingredients:

  • 1 pack of Maple Lodge Farms fully cooked smoked chicken ” Smokies” sausages (or whichever sausages you’d like really)
  • 1 head of broccoli
  • 1 big onion
  • 1/4 cup of VH Hoisin-Garlic sauce (yeah, that’s cheating, I know!)
  • Sesame oil
  • 1/2 cup of water

 

How To:

  1. Cut the sausage in diagonal slices (just because it looks prettier).
  2. Dice the onion and cut the broccoli in small florets.
  3. Grill the sausages in a pan or a wok.
  4. Add in the veggies and grill them for a few minutes. You can add a bit of sesame oil if too dry, it’s going to depend on what sausage you use I think.
  5. Add in about 1/2 cup of water to finish steaming the vegetables.
  6. Once the water is all gone, add in the sauce.
  7. Serve with rice, or noodles, or any starchy leftovers you have in the fridge.
  8. Eat all the sausages!

 

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You can hardly mess that up, so simple it’s embarrassing to put it on here really… I guess you could make your own sauce with hoisin, garlic, a bit of soy sauce… I am lazy so I used pre-made, I know, shame on me. Recently I’ve been adding bell peppers to the recipe and tteok. Delicious additions but unnecessary.

On the other hand, it’s really good AND it looks pretty close to the dish made by Park Bong Pal sooooo I say it’s a win.

Let me know if you try it, and what you think about it!

 

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So that’s it for this week’s episode of  ”Andreanne tries to make food from k-dramas” I hope you enjoyed.

On a completely unrelated subject, I’m thinking of taking a Pets First Aid course next month, has anyone done that before? Is it worth it? I read a story online about a dog choking to death on a tennis ball and it kinda traumatized me… I’m a bit sap for my fur babies!

WELL, I guess I’ll see you next time,

 

Andreanne

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Char Siu Pork and Soba Noodles

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Hi everyone!

Remember when I mentioned my obsession with noodles? Yeah? Well, this is it! Although to be absolutely fair, the pork is the star of this plate. Delicious, savory, fabulous pork.

Before getting right into it, how’s life treating you these days? In here we’re good, lots and lots of rain but I guess that’s Canada for ya!

My husband just repaired the fence in the backyard so the dogs can be in the backyard unsupervised for a while… Nice change, they were always escaping so we had to be outside with them for the whole time they were out… Gets old pretty fast. We also discovered something called ”Happy Tail” when Sirius busted his tail open by wagging it too hard on the wall… Fun fact, bandaging a dog’s tail doesn’t work very well! With some antiseptic spray 3 times a day, antibiotics and 2 vet visits, he is on the mend… No bandage actually stayed on, we are just holding onto his tail everytime he gets excited…

I’m also trying to cook more. Recently, my schedule has been really hectic so we were eating on the go a bit… Now, everybody who knows me knows that I love Asian food. I recently tried a recipe of Hainanese Rice that was good but not perfect. The search for that one continues!

Last night though, I made a variant of Char Siu Pork that was amazing, therefore I decided to share it on da blog! The best thing about it is that you boil the pork instead of marinating it for ages!

Here goes:

 

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Char Siu Pork and Soba Noodles

(feeds 4)

Ingredients Pork:

– 2 pork loins
– 1/2 onion sliced
– 4 green onions, roughly chopped
– 5 garlic cloves, smashed
– 1 cup of  rice wine
– 1 cup of light soy sauce
– 1 cup of dark soy sauce
– 1/4 cup of sugar
– 2 tbsp of Hoisin sauce
– 1 tbsp of Oyster sauce
– 1 tbsp of Chinese Five-Spices
– Sesame oil

How to:

1. Brown the pork on all sides in sesame oil,
2. Put all the ingredients in a pot, and add in the browned pork,
3. Boil covered on medium heat for about 1 h 15 minutes,
4. Let rest in the sauce while you make the noodles.
5. While you cut the pork (after the noodles are done) reduce the sauce on high heat.
6. Eat all the pork!

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Ingredients noodles:

– 1 pack of soba noodles
– 4 baby bok choi, chopped
– Sesame Oil
– Epicure Asian stir-fry spice mix (or ginger, sesame seeds, and garlic)
– Pork sauce (see above)


How to:

1. Boil the noodles following instructions on the package,
2. When the noodles are half cooked, add in the non-leafy parts on the bok choi to start cooking it.
3. Drain the noodles and bok choi,
4. In a pan, sautée the leafy parts of the bok choi with the drained noodles and the rest of the bok choi.
5. Add in the spice mix and the pork sauce to taste.
6. Eat all the noodles!

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So there you go! Easy peasy! Very tasty pork that is ready in far less long than regular Char Siu Pork. I am a biiiig fan of fast meals, as you all know!

See you next week folks!

Andreanne

Tteokbokki 떡볶이

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Hello peeps!

Glad to be back! I was actually wondering if one new post a week is good… Should I post more often? Like, two times a week? Let me know what you prefer!

Before we get into this week’s recipe, I have to confess something. I am absolutely obsessed with Korean Dramas. They are so weirdly addictive! I got a premium account on Dramafever just because I was binge watching so much… That being said, my obsession is actually paying off, in food form. They are eating such cool looking things that I neeeeeeed to try. Since Korean restaurants are pretty scarce where I live, I am making my own. It’s usually good, although I do wish I could compare to the real deal.

I discovered ”Tteokbokki” while watching the drama ”High School- Love on”, as the Grandma is the owner of a tteokbokki restaurant. I was craving some, but I had a bit of trouble getting all the ingredients. I did it though, and it’s fairly easy to make!

Turns out, it’s really good, but also ridiculously spicy. I can handle it for a small portion, but it’s some serious spice… My husband declared (after my second, less spicy try) that he was out of any future tteokbokki experiments…

I shall share with you my first recipe, I assume it’s closer to what you would actually get in Korea.

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Tteokbokki 

(makes 4 small portions, or like, 1 giant portion, I’m not judging you)

 
Ingredients
 
– 1 bag of tubular rice cakes
– 1 sheet of fish cake
– 3 tbsp of Gochujang paste
– About 3 cups of water
– 2 tsp of crushed/ minced garlic
– 1 tbsp corn syrup
– 1 tbsp sugar
– 1 tbsp soy sauce (I used light soy sauce)
– 1-2 green onions
– 1 tbsp sesame seeds
** Most recipes also added Korean pepper flakes to the recipe, I didn’t because I didn’t want to die…
*** You can also add cabbage, I didn’t because I didn’t have any….
How to
 
1. If your rice cakes are hard, soak them in water for 15-30 minutes, mine were frozen, so I mostly thawed them, then soaked them for about 15 minutes.
2. Add the water to a pan and all the ingredients for the sauce (except the sesame seeds) and bring to a boil. You may need to whisk the gochujang paste to dissolve it completely as it’s pretty thick and sticky.
3. When boiling, turn the heat down to medium and add the rice cakes.
4. While the rice cakes are cooking, chop the veggies and fish cakes for them to be about bite size (except the green onions, they’re for decoration, or garnish, if you’d like to fancy it up)
 
5. When the rice cakes are almost done and the sauce is thicker (about 10 minutes), add in the veggies and fish cakes.
6. Cook until the sauce is really thick and is coating the rice cakes.
7. Serve with sesame seeds and green onions on top.
8. EAT ALL THE RICE CAKES (and burn your mouth in the process)
 
 
** Note: Rice cakes are sticky, so you’ll need to stir pretty much the whole time.
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Prepare to be amazed, it’s ridiculously spicy, but in a weird way. My husband loves Jalapenos peppers and he said to me that this is a building spiciness. Jalapenos are instantly burning, whereas tteokbokkis are insidiously burning…

If you are used to spicy food, you should be fine. If you’re not, well, you’ll get used to it! Fighting!

 

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I hope that I made you hungry! Let me know if you try these, I want to know if the spicyness is actually hell-like or if I’m just a wimp (my money is on the wimp…) 

Also, if you so happen to want to dive into the K-Drama world, I suggest you go check out http://www.dramafever.com  you can watch for free with ads or get a premium account for pretty cheap. Before long you’ll catch yourself binge-watching for days on end… And don’t worry, you get used to the subtitles really quickly! EDIT: Dramafever has actually closed down in late 2018. I suggest ”On Demand Korea” or VIKI for your KDrama fix. Netflix is starting to have a pretty decent collection too.

I hope you guys have a great week! I’ll see you next time!

Andreanne

Better than take-out noodles!

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Welcome to Fork & Fantasy!

I am so excited to launch this brand new blog! In here, I’ll share my best recipes, my latest read, my TV show obsessions… A bit of everything! Let’s be real though, my one true love is food (Please, no one tell my husband!) 

Food and I have a great relationship. I love it, and I’m fairly sure it loves me. Therefore, it was a no brainer for me that my very first post, would be a recipe.

 

Have you ever come home after a long day at work and contemplated the task of making dinner with growing hatred? I did. My love for food is unconditional. My love of cooking, however, comes and goes as it pleases.

This situation usually leads to one thing. Take-out. Which is not only pricey but also slightly unhealthy… Not that it stops me, but sometimes you just want homemade, yet quick.

On this particular day, I needed something that could be ready in under 15 minutes so I wouldn’t cave in and order pizza.

I mindlessly took out some pre-cooked chicken breasts from the freezer and threw them in the microwave. Now what? Well a few ingredients later, and about 12 minutes, I had myself these ”better than take-out noodles”!

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Alright so, while my chicken was re-heating (and becoming a little dry might I add) I pulled out some Bok Choy from the fridge, some green onions from my window sill (I’m regrowing them after cutting them, it’s a revelation). There, proteins and veggies, check.

Cooking rice was wayyyy too long for my hungry stomach, but lucky me had somen noodles in the pantry. A little boiling water and those noodles were ready in under 5 minutes. Genius, I’m telling you!

 

So by then, I had all it took to make dinner, but how to season it? Peanut sauce? Oyster sauce? So many options… That’s when I remembered that my Dad (bless him) got me a box of Asian spices mix for Christmas.

They’re from the company ”Epicure”, as I understand it, they specialize in spice mixes and cooking stuff. Anyway, you can order that stuff online, and you should because it’s da bomb man!

I used the vinaigrette mix from the ”Good Asian Real Fast” kit. It has sesame, ginger and, I’m assuming, magic and unicorn tears. It’s THAT good!

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So I dumped a ton of those spices into my noddles, added a little chicken stock and bam! Done!

All under 15 minutes, watch in hand. I’m not saying that I could beat Jamie Oliver at his own game but you know… close enough…

Here’s the full recipe:

Better than take out noodles

(serves 2 who eat a lot)

Ingredients:

– Somen noodles (About a 1/3 of a package, or you know… a big handful?)
– 2 Chicken breasts, pre-cooked, or not…
– 4 bok choy, chopped.
– 3 green onions, also chopped.
– Sesame-Ginger Epicure mix, as much as you can!
– 1/2 cup chicken stock
– 1 tsp of sesame oil
– 1 tbsp of canola oil

How to:

1. Cook or re-heat your chicken
2. Cook the somen noodles (3 to 5 minutes)
3. Chop the veggies and chicken
4. Throw the veggies in a little sesame oil and a little canola oil, sautée until half cooked.
5. Add in the chicken and lots of the spice mix.
6. Add the chicken broth and the noodles.
7. Stir until all mixed up and warm
8. Eat all the noodles!

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You can’t really get easier than that, and if you can, please tell me! I need to know!

So this is it, the very first post of Fork & Fantasy! Just so you know, I have an ongoing obsession with noodles, so you should probably expect more recipes in the future.

Please let me know if you make this recipe and happen to love it!

Now I believe this is all until next time!

 

Andreanne