pak choi soba salad with asian dressing & spare ribs

certain someone had been talking about spare ribs for the longest time. he'd seen a cooking show where they barbequed spare ribs...with all the snow bbq isn't going to happen so i decided to bake some in the oven.

this is a no-brainer, place the ribs in a heavy duty plastic bag and pour in the sauce...

...mix well and let marinate over night, or at least a few hours.

found these in the pantry and thought it was time to utilize them. the asian markets have such a variety, i always buy something with the good intention to cook something with it soon, like the next day, sometimes the items lurk around a wee bit longer...

normally i'd cook this much for one person but since they were going into a salad...

before cooking the noodles, i put the ribs on rimmed baking tray lined with foil (clean-up is no much easier) and placed the tray in 180C oven for 40min, after that hiked up the heat to 200C and put the fan on for 5 mins more.

got the pak choi at oriental market in helsinki. i see their point in selling them in 1 kg packages but that's a lot of pak choi...need to ask them to sell ½ kg packages as well.

rinsed the pak choi well and chopped quite thinly...

...like it did with this very bendy spring onion.

normally i'd use red chilli but i had some green ones left from the indian cooking. used only about a half of one since they were rather hot...

made the dressing with soya sauce, sesame oil, grated ginger and the minced chilli. the soba noodles were rinsed with cold water after cooking, strained them and mixed the dressing first with the noodles...

...before adding the pak choi and spring onion and mixing well, yammy!

there are about 1600 pics from india and i'm still in the middle of the arduous job of sorting them out...they will appear, one day.

pork chops like grandma used to make

some time ago i was venturing the part of town that has most of the asian markets, the hakaniemi markethall is also there. i went there with the intention to get chicken for my indian cooking but ended up getting something else as well, namely these pork chops and short ribs (will post those later). my intention, one day, is to live close to the market hall to be able to shop there for all food items. well, one can dream, right?

when i was a kid we used to go to my grandparents for sunday lunch, every sunday, or at least that's how i remember it. i've been told that my favourite was " bone meat" something that grown-ups called pork chops. grandma used pressure cooker a lot, but i don't think she used it for pork chops, but there is no way of knowing as lunch was ready when we got to their house and i was about 4 years old.

the "secret" ingredient that grandma used was mustard (may have been dijon, may have not) and had i known that at the tender age of 4, i would have probably flat out refused to eat those pork chops. though, those who have seen pictures of me at the age of 4 might find it hard to believe that i ever refused to eat anything...

well, the recipe is very simple, pork chops (one per person or more if you feel like it), dijon mustard, salt, all purpose flour, meat stock and cream. the chops were organic and when compared with the ones you get from the super-market very fat, like in the olden days.

start by spreading 1 tsp of mustard on each side of the chop. if you're in no hurry, there is no reason why you couldn't spread the mustard in the evening and let the chops marinate in the mustard overnight. i wasn't in a hurry but figured this out only later on...

i found it easiest to smear one side then place the chop smeared side down on the flour (with just a hint of salt mixed into it), then smear the other side and flour that side as well. less mess this way.

the browning part...i know for a fact that grandma never used anything market "light" in her life (and got to live until 93) and her method would have been butter and cast iron pan. the cast iron pan that i inherited from her leaves nasty marks on the ceramic stove at the shack, so that was out. i used one of those ceratec plated sautépans that is large enough for four chops.

as the chops had so much fat on them, i used just a tiny bit of rapeseed oil to get the browning going, 4 mins per side on medium high, then add 2 dl of good veal stock (or 2 dl of water and fond like i did), bring to a boil and turn heat to low, simmer for 20 mins per side. to finish, pour in 1 dl (or more if you're serving this with something that absolutely needs to have a lot of gravy on it...) and bring everything to a boil. the flour on the chops thickens the sauce, as does the long simmering.

i made potato-parsnip mash to go with the chops, the ultimate comfort food combination, i think. oh, you also need to have some nice bread to scoop all the gravy from the pan, probably the best part of the whole dish...

spring weather & march moon

spring weather is weird, one day it's a snow storm, next day it's sunny, the temp anything between +5C and -20C (during the night). in a sunny looking weather you never know by looking out the window if it's going to be warm or very chilly outside.

i drove to work in this storm, along the very slow 11km trip there were 2 cars wrapped around street signs...

this fine day was hell to walk the dog as the road was super icy. i did have the attachable studs on my shoes to very little help, though.

the dog enjoys the sunny days.

he loves to stop and have lookouts for rabbits or deer on the fields.

but gets very impatient when i call the stops for taking pics...

...but then remembers i'm his key to food that waits after we get home.

march 8th, 19.05 hrs at the cottage, the full moon was rising

it rose quite fast, i struggled to get my camera ready to get these...

...it wasn't that cold but the wind was biting my fingers badly.

okra & aloo gobi

so the third part of last sunday's lunch didn't appear the next day, but here it comes, okra and aloo gobi. yes, i found fresh okra in one of the asian markets in helsinki! my next mission is to find those small eggplants and make peanut stuffed eggplants. now to sarojini's recipe for dry okra. she made this while i was visiting and i might have some of the spices wrong but the okra tasted great (not as good as saroj's!)

the spices from top: 4 cloves of garlic chopped, ½ tsp turmeric, 1 tsp jeera, 1/4 tsp chilli powder, 4 pieces of kokum, ½ tsp cumin seeds and ½ tsp fenugreek seeds.

start by heating up 2 tbsp oil on high heat and fry the cumin and fenugreek seeds until they start to pop...

...then add the garlic, fry for a minute...

...then add the sliced okra and the kokum. still on high heat fry the okra for a few minutes, turn the heat to medium low and add rest of the spices (and some salt if you wish).

put the lid on and cook for another 15 to 20 mins, remove from heat.

the aloo gobi...this was the point i got busy with everything cooking along...i did manage to take pics of the cauliflower florets...

...the spices which included cumin and black mustard seeds, ground coriander, turmeric, chilli powder and salt...there was also potatoes, but they didn't get their picture taken. i think i used (very freely) laxmi khurana's recipe, but the web is bursting with different aloo gobi recipes.

cooked cauliflower has never been a huge favorite of mine, but in this curry it's nice.

zoom was right, cooking indian is time consuming and a lot of work! one dish is ok, but indian meal isn't about just one dish, you need your chapati or rice and one or two things to go along. i did show certain someone and his mom how you eat with your hands...certain someone stuck to his fork, the mom tried her fingers...

kozhy curry & mung dal

part two of sunday's lunch dishes, chicken curry and mung bean dal. i now have 4 indian cookbooks (two more are on their way...), the chicken curry is from das sreedharan's simple ways to success indian. i couldn't find his recipe online, but you can find one that looks similar here.

whole spices, bay leaf, curry leaves (my addition), cloves, anisseed (saunf), cinnamon stick and black cardamom.

ground spices from top, ground almond, garam masala, chilli powder, turmeric and coriander.

garlic and onions...

...that went into the pan first with whole spices.

then added the ground spices and the chicken. the recipe says to use smaller pieces but this was the chicken i had so i went with the whole piece, and the recipe does say that "using chicken on the bone will give the sauce a richer flavor".

as you can see the pan is very crowded. i had decided to use the wok shape pan for this as i thought that it would work on ceramic stove as well. once again i was reminded why i would like to have a gas stove, the wok shape just won't heat up as well on ceramic stove...i had to take a regular pan with a lid and pour everything in it to continue with the simmering. will i remember this next time i want to use the wok pan...

the result was very tasty, spicy but not hot as i didn't put in as much chilli powder as the recipe called for. i now regret not cooking rice with this meal, the rice would have soaked up all that delish gravy.

now, drums please! my pressure cooker makes its first appearance... the booklet that came with the cooker says to start simple, like boiling potatoes. i felt brave and went with mung beans (well, now that i got over the "first time" i think mung beans ARE simple, too).

measure the amount of beans the recipe calls for, add water and close the lid...

...wait for 8 minutes, patiently (hah!)

and the beans are done!

for this i used wendy hobson's recipe from 1000 classic indian recipes. why the llink says the book is by carolyn humphries i don't know, my book has the exact same cover and wendy hobson's name on it...anyways, the recipe is called whole moong beans, i can't find it online.

the recipe calls for cooking the beans separate in water with a pinch of turmeric, and the tarka (seasoning)separate. the tarka had cumin seeds, onion, ground chilli powder, turmeric, ghee / oil and canned tomatoes.

started by sauteing the cumin seeds and the onion and it seems that at this point the stove was really crowded with pots boiling away and i forgot to take pics...

...here is the finished dish.

two more dishes tomorrow...