I just can’t get enough of stew at the moment. It’s just so comforting and such a pleasure to come home to. The nights have grown cold and it’s always dark by the time I get home. What better way to warm my cockles than with a hearty stew of meat and vegetables served with dumplings. I have already brought you my chicken and lamb stews so here is that old classic beef. I bought a cheep cut of beef at my local butcher. I just got a slice of frozen meat, then cut it into chunks myself. I served this stew with roasted cabbage steaks. I’m not fond of boiled cabbage at all, but roasted it is delicious. It really brings out the sweetness and I would definitely recommend that you give it a try.

Ingredients

Beef Stew

500g of Beef or steak chunks

1 large onion

1 carrot

3 cloves of garlic

A glass or two of red wine

1 litre of beef stock

2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

A  few sprigs of fresh herbs or 2 tablespoons of dried (thyme, rosemary, parsley)

Dumplings 

100g of butter

200g of flour

1 tablespoon of mixed herbs

salt & pepper

ice cold water

Cabbage steaks

1/2 a large cabbage

Salt and pepper

A drizzle of olive oil

Directions 

1. Chop the onion and garlic into chunks and fry off in a little olive oil for a few minute until translucent. Then put them into your stew pan. Chop the beef into chunks then toss in seasoned flour and fry for a minute or two until browned on all sides. Do this in small batches so you don’t overcrowd the pan. Then add them to the stew pan. Then chop the carrots and potatoes into large chunks and fry off in the same pan for a few minutes and add to the stew pan

2. Put the stew on a medium heat and add the herbs, Worcestershire sauce and wine, then cook off for a few minutes. Add the stock to the pan and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat so it is simmering. It will need to cook for about 2 hours. If the stock gets too low, you can add a little more. The stew is done when the beef is tender. If you used a cheap cut be patient as it will get to the falling apart stage in the end.

3. To make the dumplings  mix the herbs, salt, pepper, and flour together and then grate the butter into the flour. Gently mix it together. Add the cold water a spoon at a time and very softly bring it together in to a loose dough. Do not work it into a ball, keep it loose then break off lumps and roll them gently to form balls. Add them to the top of the  stew, then cook for another 20 minutes.

4. To make the cabbage steaks, slice the cabbage into one and a half inch slices. Lay them onto a flat baking tray then sprinkle with salt and pepper and brush them with olive oil. Be careful not to use too much oil as you don’t want them to be greasy. Bake them in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes then flip them over and bake them on the other side for 10 minutes. They may be a bit hard to handle so be careful they don’t break apart.

I have been lusting after a BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger for months now. For so long I have lusted over the joy of a juicy patty of meat, smothered with melted cheese, topped with salty crisp bacon, tangy BBQ sauce, and housed in a delicious soft bun. But after eating various burgers my craving just wasn’t satisfied. Yes, I could have just visited Burger B in Hongdae, but I’m a very lazy girl, and feel Hongdae is just too far to go for food. I live in HBC (Haebangchon) which is actually better known to residents as Ham Burger Central. Our street is actually littered with places selling burgers. There is Burgermine of course, all you can eat burgers but no matter how many I ate, I wasn’t quite satisfied. Phillies, which I will say do a great burger and almost hit the spot but not quite. The restaurant  that changes it’s name one a month, currently named Bombs Burger, Indigo and Hungry Dog, but none of these restaurants meet my meat needs. I moved on to Jacoby’s. Jacoby’s has become a phenomenon in the last year after it was shown on a Korean drama, most nights of the week there is an endless queue of Koreans desperate to eat there. But I have never rated it, they are so over-hyped for a mediocre burger. I’ll take the one at Phillies any day of the week. So I did the only thing a fat lazy girl could do and decided to make my own. I came, I saw, and I conquered. They were exquisite and I couldn’t be happier. I scarfed down two in a matter of minutes. Every need was met and I am now sated for the time being.

The first thing that needed to be made were the buns. If I had been to Costco I would have just bought some, but we hadn’t, and you can’t get decent sized buns anywhere else. So I had no choice to make my own. I tried to cheat and found a no rise recipe, and, despite being delicious with melted butter, they were more like scones. My lovely fiancé Niall managed to find this recipe online at allrecipes.com and made these buns. They came out perfectly, which just goes to show you don’t have to be a great cook to make good bread. In fact I think it helps if you are not as you are more scrupulous when it comes to following the recipe!

Ingredients 

1 cup milk

1 cup water

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon white sugar

5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon water

1/2 teaspoons salt

Sesame seeds for decoration

Directions 

1. Combine the milk, 1 cup of water, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then remove from the heat and let stand until lukewarm. If the mixture is too hot, it will kill the yeast.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour and yeast. Pour in wet ingredients and stir until the dough starts to pull together. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook to mix for about 8 minutes. If not, knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let stand until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3. Punch down the dough and divide into 12 portions They should be a little larger than a golf ball. Make tight balls out of the dough by pulling the dough tightly around and pinching it at the bottom. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil. After the rolls sit for a minute and relax, flatten each ball with the palm of your hand until it is 3 to 4 inches wide. You may want to oil your hand first. Set rolls aside until they double in size, about 20 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Mix together the egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of water in a cup or small bowl. Brush onto the tops of the rolls and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Position 2 oven racks so they are not too close to the top or bottom of the oven.
5. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove the rolls from the oven and return them to different shelves so each one spends a little time on the top. Continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until nicely browned on the top and bottom.

My next job was to make the burgers. I popped over to my local butcher, and chose the cheapest wedge of beef he had and had him grind it up for me. It had a great ratio of fat to meat so was perfect. I like to to add breadcrumbs to my mixture too, probably because my mum does so that’s the way I have always done it.

Ingredients

600g of ground beef

1/2 an onion

1 1/2 slices of bread

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 a teaspoon of salt

1/2 a teaspoon of  black pepper

1 teaspoon of mixed herbs (parsley, rosemary, oregano, thyme, whatever you have…)

1 egg yolk

Directions

Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry off in a little oil for a few minutes just to cook out the raw taste from the onions, then set aside and leave to cool. Meanwhile make the bread into bread crumbs. Put the ground beef in a bowl then add the breadcrumbs. Add the salt, pepper, and mixed herbs. When the onions have cooled add to the bowl and mix everything together thoroughly. Add the egg yolk and mix again, then form into patties. Wrap the patties in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour. If you are not using them all straight away, they will keep in the fridge for a couple of days, or you can put them in the freezer. Fry them in a pan, pop them under the grill or dust down your barbecue. Cook them to your liking with is medium – well for me.

Lastly I had to make the Chips, you can’t have a burger without chips. It would be sacrilege. I have been making Heston Blumenthal’s famed triple cooked chips for the past 2 weeks now. Yes they are somewhat time consuming, but they are well worth the extra effort. If you are spending a lazy Sunday on the sofa watching back to back episodes of Project Runway like I am then, it’s a good way to use your time. I followed Heston’s directions to the latter except I used soy bean oil as its very cheap here, and I just used the biggest potatoes I could find. They turned out well even if they weren’t exactly the kind we get back home.

Ingredients

1kg of potatoes peeled and cut into chips

Oil for frying

Salt

Directions 

Last week we tried Marakech Night’s new sandwich place. The original restaurant is still open but they have added another string to their bow. Hidden just in the alleyway where Wolfhound is, it serves up delicious Moroccan food in a small friendly environment.

Thanks to the wonderful people at Casablanca, I am crazy about Moroccan sandwiches so I could barely wait to try the offering from Marakech Night. They have various other Moroccan dishes on the menu too, which, for the size of the place, is actually quite varied.  They have all the favourites on there, kebabs, hummus, pita, baba ganoush, falafel so there are plenty of options for the veggies and vegans. However, it was the sandwiches that I was interested in.

We ordered up one Panachi (chicken sandwich with fries 7,000).  The bread was tasty and the filling was quite satisfying. A slightly different take on the Moroccan sandwich than the one at Casablanca, but not in a bad way.  It was a good sandwich filled with the delicious potatoes which were covered in batter, cheese, meat, salad , and lots of sauce.

We also ordered a Moroccan beef sandwich (5,000), it would have been churlish not to. The beef was thinly shredded, a bit like bulgogi, and the filling was the same as the chicken one. All in all a very hearty sandwich for such a cheap price.

This is the perfect restaurant for a quick bite or some late night eats after way to many drinks. I’d say these lovely sandwiches would definitely go a long way to curing a hangover! Marakech Night 2 is located in Itaewon. To get there take a train to Itaewon station (line 6) Come out of exit 4 and turn left,(you may have to come back on yourself slightly). Walk straight past Geckos and the bank, and take the first right. Walk straight down the road, past the supermarket and the wolfhound. Marakech Night 2 is on the left at the end of the road.

This was a cute little post I was hoping to bring to you before Valentines Day. Sadly for you I am very lazy and spent all my time eating and looking at Pinterest instead of writing, luckily I’m just in time for White Day! (For those not in South Korea, White Day is celebrated on March 14 where men give the women they love chocolate. I am obviously a big fan). However truffles aren’t just for Valentine’s Day, they’re for life. So make these babies up any day you feel like it. I got my box at Daiso for 1,000, they had quite the variety. These will make such a cute gift for a friend’s birthday, and it’s always nice to have something a little bit thoughtful or home-made.

Ingredients

200g couverture white chocolate (I got mine at the bakers mart)

2 tablespoons of butter

150ml of cream

150g of crushed or ground almonds

Directions

Melt the chocolate and butter in a metal or glass bowl over a pot of simmering water. Be very careful to make sure that you don’t get any water into the chocolate mixture. Once the chocolate and butter have melted together, stir in the cream. Mix together thoroughly then put in the fridge to set for a few hours. Once the mixture has set, take a teaspoonful and roll it into a ball in your hands. Roll the truffle into the crushed almonds and put on a tray. Repeat until all your truffles are made.

Pop them back in the fridge for another 30 minutes just to let them reset. Pop them into your lovely gift box, or if you are greedy like me, devour them immediately. Voilà easy home-made white chocolate truffles.

A week or two ago I made up a batch of my lovely lemon curd to make my lemon  rice-cooker cake. I found I had quite a lot left over. I wanted to find a recipe to use the lot and suddenly realized I could make some good old lemon bars. Lemon curd can of course be eaten on its own or with all manner of breakfast goodies like pancakes, muffins, waffles, etc. But I wanted to make one of my favourite lemony goodies. I was rather disappointed with the ones I had eaten the week before at Tartine  so I decided to knock up a batch myself.

Ingredients

Base

100g all purpose flour

30g of icing sugar (sugar powder)

90g of butter

A small pinch of salt

Lemon Curd

3 lemons (zest and juice)

100g of white sugar

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons of corn flour (corn starch)

85g of butter

100ml orange juice

100ml of water

Directions

To make the lemon curd put the corn flour, sugar, lemon zest and juice into a saucepan and stir. Add the orange juice and water then turn on to a medium heat. Continue stirring, until it starts to bubble. Turn off the heat and add the butter. Continue to stir until the butter has melted, then whisk in the egg yolks one at a time. When the mixture has completely combined, turn the heat back on to low and stir continuously until the mixture begins to thicken and bubble. Let the curd cool a little before adding to the biscuit base.

To make the biscuit base, preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celcius. Line a square or rectangular tin with baking paper, making sure that it comes at least an inch or two higher than the sides. This is how you will remove them from the tin once they are done. Put the flour, icing sugar and salt in a bowl and mix together. Cut the butter into chunks then rub it into the flour, until it forms a bread crumb like texture. Put the crumbs into a tin and press down to make the bottom layer. Bring the crumbs up around the edge to form a small ridge around the side. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until it is golden brown and firm to the touch.

Allow the biscuit layer to cool before putting the lemon curd on top. Use a knife to make sure it is an even layer. Pop the tray back into the oven for 15-20 minutes or until it has set. The middle may still have a bit of a jiggle but it will firm up as it cools. Once the lemon bars are done, leave them to cool to room temperature then pop them in the fridge overnight. The longer they have to set the firmer they will be.

To remove the bars from the tin, tug on either end of your baking paper and lift the squares out of the tin. They should come out easily. Cut them into squares or rectangles with a clean sharp knife then decorate with icing sugar. Voilà lovely lemon bars.