Tag Archives: Cashew

Cashew Chicken

Posted in Recipes by

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This is pretty much the best chicken cashew that I have ever had. It tastes better than one from a restaurant, or even the streets of Thailand . It’s also exceptionally easy to make and mega, mega cheap. You can pretty much source all the ingredients from your local Korean supermarket too. The only thing a tiny hard to get is the dried chilies (말린고추), but most supermarkets should have them. If you cant find them just use regular chillies , don’t deny yourself the pleasure that is this dish of delightfulness.

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts (trust me you will want this many)

5 tablespoons of cornflour

3 tablespoons of flour

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 inch of ginger (optional)

1 red pepper

6 mushrooms (optional)

2-3 small dried chillies

100g of cashews

A bunch green onions

Oil for frying (soy-bean or grape-seed, not olive oil)

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

1 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce

6 tablespoons of oyster sauce

1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil

Directions

1.  Mix the flour and cornflour together, then season it with salt and pepper then set aside.

2. Chop the chicken breasts up into bite size pieces and coat in the seasoned flour. Heat the oil up very hot then quickly fry the pieces of chicken. They only need to be browned on the outside, no need to cook them the whole way through. When they are done remove from the oil and set aside.

3. Drop the dried chilli into the oil and fry for a minute or so. How much chilli you use, really depends on how hot you like it. Remove from the pan and place with the chicken.

4. Pour away most of the oil leaving a tablespoon or  two and return to a medium heat. Chop the onion and add to pan. Chop the garlic and ginger and add them too. Stir regularly.

5. Chop the mushrooms and pepper and add to the pan as well. After frying for a minute or so, add the chicken, chillies and cashew nuts.

6. While the chicken and vegetables are cooking, make the sauce. Put the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar and sesame seed oil in a bowl and whisk together. Pour the sauce into the pan and make sure everything is coated. Cut the green onions into pieces and stir and turn off the heat. Serve with plain white rice, or egg fried rice if you are feeling really special.

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Indian Rice Salad

Posted in Recipes, Vegan / Veggie Friendly by

106 ㅡ

Here’s a little salad I knocked up last week for my school lunches. I get bored eating the same things all the time so I wanted to mix it up a bit. It was delicious with a few falafels. Switch up the ingredients to suit your own tastes, but keep the cashews and raisins so it looks bejeweled. I would love to throw some pomegranate in next time  if I can afford one.

Makes 6 – 8 portions

Ingredients

1 cups of Jasmine rice (i-Herb)

25g cashew nuts

50g raisins

2 roasted red peppers

5 spring onions

1 teaspoon of turmeric or a few strands of saffron

A  bunch of cilantro (coriander)

Directions

Cook the rice using the 2 cups of water to one cup of rice method, adding the saffron or turmeric to the water. Rinse the rice when it has cooked and leave to cool. Lightly toast the cashew nuts and break into pieces. Chop your roasted peppers into pieces and mix in with the rice, raisins, cashew nuts, finely chopped spring onions, and some freshly chopped cilantro.You could also drizzle over a little dressing or olive oil if you like.  Voilà Indian rice salad.

Crispy tofu with a sweet and spicy sauce

Posted in Recipes, Vegan / Veggie Friendly by

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I have always been quite a big fan of tofu. I enjoy those spongy chunks you always get served at the Chinese restaurants back home. However when I came to Korea I found that the tofu was too soft. I tried several different brands but to no avail. No matter what I did the chunks would always break up when I was making stir-frys. Lately I have been attending the Seoul Vegan Potluck and have finally learned the secret to good tofu. Rule 1 is that you to get all the water out, usually by putting something heavy on it. Rule 2 is freezing it.  I don’t know how, but freezing it turns it back into that lovely spongy goodness I enjoyed back home.  To make my tofu a little unhealthier I decided to batter it first. You will need to prepare the tofu a day or two in advance to make it spongy.

Ingredients

Tofu

2 blocks of tofu

230g of ottogi frying mix

200ml of cold water

A pinch of salt and pepper

Soy bean oil for frying

Sauce

4 tablespoons of sweet chili sauce

3 tablespoons of sugar

3 tablespoons of vinegar

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of ketchup

1 baby orange (the juice and zest)

1 tablespoon of cornflour (corn starch)

Directions

Open the two packets of tofu and drain off all the water. Place the blocks on a plate and put something heavy like a frying pan on top of them. This will help to remove a lot of the excess water that is in them. It may take several hours to get out as much water as possible. Once the water is out wrap them in cling film or put them in a zip lock bag and pop them in the freezer. You can leave them in there as long as you like but they need to be in there for at least 12 hours to get the desired texture.

The day you want to use the tofu, take it out of the freezer and let it defrost. Make sure you squeeze out any remaining water that is in the tofu. It will be very spongy at this point. Cut your tofu into chunks ready to be used.

Put the ottogi frying mix in a bowl with a dash of salt and pepper. You could also add any herbs or spices too if you want extra flavour. Combine the dry ingredients then put your tofu into the floury mix and make sure all the pieces are coated before removing. Put the pieces on a separate plate. Meanwhile heat your frying pan and add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Add the water to the remaining dry ingredients and whisk until you have a smooth batter. Dip your floured tofu pieces in one at a time then put them straight into the pan of oil. Turning them until they are golden brown on all sides. Once they are all done remove them from the pan and leave to drain on a piece of kitchen paper.

To make the sauce put all the sauce ingredients into a pan and whisk to combine, making sure the corn flour has dissolved. Turn the heat on and bring the sauce to a boil, stirring occasionally to dispel any lumps.

Serve on a bed of wilted pak choi and scatter on a few toasted cashew nuts. Place the tofu on the pak choi and top with the sauce. Voilà crispy tofu Chinese style.

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Taste of Thailand – Sukhumvit

Posted in Restaurant Reviews by

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Just a few weeks ago I wrote a review for Buddha’s belly in Kyungnidan. Well last Friday night I was craving Thai food once again. However I decided to make a change and try the restaurant opposite Called Sukhavit – A taste of Thailand. A taste of Thailand was exactly what I got. It trumped Buddha’s Belly in pretty much every department and will now be my new Thai restaurant of choice. Not only do they provide a great take away service with an extensive menu far longer than the one at Buddha’s Belly, they also have a large restaurant that can accommodate many people.

First up were the spring rolls. Slightly expensive at 7,000 for 6.  But they were fairly good none the less. I have to say rolls are slightly better at Buddha’s Belly but the dipping sauce at Taste of Thailand was better.

Our next choice was the cashew chicken 11,000. This dish blew my mind. It was exactly the same as the ones I used to eat in Thailand. full of flavour without blowing my head off. There were plenty of cashews and lots of chicken  The sauce was slightly sweet and spicy, just how I like it.

I also ordered the Pad See Ew – black-bean fried noodles with chicken 11,000. This is my favourite dish from across the road so I was curious to see how it would compare but it was just as good with lots of noodles, chicken and sticky sauce.

Last up was the Thai green Curry 11,000. The moment I opened the lid I could smell the lemon-grass wafting out. It was perfect. they also asked us how hot we would like it, which was a nice touch, everyone likes their curry differently and they got this one spot on. It also came with white rice, but I think we have all been in Korea long enough to know what that looks like.

They also have a great sweet and sour chicken dish that I don’t have a picture of it but it certainly gets the thumbs up from me.

I chose chicken for all my dishes but you have the option for tofu, pork, shrimp, or beef if that’s what floats your boat.

Sukhumvit is located in Kyungnidan at 671 Itaewon 2-dong, Yongsan-gu. Seoul. 140-861. To get there take a train to Noksapyeong station (line 6)  exit 2 and walk straight down until you reach the under pass then go underneath. Sukhumvit is on the second floor above Noxa just opposite the exit of the underpass. You can call them on 02- 790- 2722 to place an order or make a reservation.

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Pho Mein

Posted in Restaurant Reviews by

I like to think of myself as very lucky food wise. Living in HBC I am surrounded with foreign food stores and restaurants. Even the shop across the road stocks everything I could want for any western dinner. As well as all this goodness I am blessed to work around the corner from Pho Mein.  Pho Mein is the best Vietnamese restaurant in Korea ever. Just walking past that place on my way to get a vanilla latte has me drooling.

I don’t think you could go to Pho Mein without trying the pho. They had various varieties of these soup noodles on the menu.  We opted for the Pho Meins Pho (9,500). The pho arrived in a huge steaming bowl with the various accompaniments. The broth was very tasty and full of flavor. Some pho that you have really need a good amount of the hoi sin sauce in them before they get tasty but this one was fine on its own. It had a generous amount of meat which was good too. Although you couldn’t compare it to the pho we had in Vietnam, there was just something different about those, it was very good.

We also ordered the shrimp rolls (5,000) They are king prawns wrapped in a crispy coating and served with a sweet chili sauce. I think we all know by now that I enjoy anything deep fried and these are no exception they have a great texture and taste. They also have various other spring rolls and wedding shomais on the menu.

This time I was keen to try to the fried rice, they had several varieties on the menu and we chose the pineapple shrimp fried rice (10,500). It was everything I hoped it would be. I had the true taste and smell of an authentic fried rice, which bok um bab (korean fried rice) just can’t seem to replicate. There were plenty of chunks of pineapple and shrimps. We had this to accompany the cashew chicken but it could easily stand alone as a main dish.

Lastly we ordered the pièce de résistance – fried cashew nut chicken (16,500). I literally could not fault this dish, it is absolutely perfect. The chicken is coated in this amazing crunchy batter. There’s a generous portion of cashew nuts and the vegetables are fresh and crisp, just what I look for in a dish like this. The sauce is perfect too, sweet and spice balancing in perfect harmony. If you enjoy kung pao chicken at home then this is the dish for you. China factory could learn a lot from this place. I think this one is also even better than the one at Ho Lee Chow, but I would have to do a taste off to make sure.

As you can probably tell I am a huge fan of Pho Mien, they have served me some of the best westernized asian food I have eaten in Korea. The price is also fairly reasonably, considering the amount we ate. We visited the Bangbae location but they have restaurants all over Korea. Take a look at their website to see the menu and find your nearest one. You won’t be sorry.  http://phomein.com/Main/