It seems insane to me that I have never posted a spring roll recipe because I love those little suckers more than life itself. I would never have an order of Chinese food without them and a pack always makes its way into my basket when I’m shopping at home. But sadly they are not as popular in Korea as they are in the rest of Asia. You can find them in your local Thai restaurant, but when you enjoy eating them as much as I do you have to make them in bulk. They call be a a bit fiddly, but once you get in the zone you can churn them out by the dozen. Sit in your living room to roll them out while watching an episode of your favourite show and in no time you will have a pile of the little beauties. I got my spring roll wrappers from the foreign food market in Itaewon. They usually have 3 or 4 sizes. I chose the medium sized ones. Obviously the bigger the wrappers the bigger your rolls will be. I only used about half of the packet making these, so they go a long way and they only cost about 5,000. You can also use them to make samosas. Use whatever veg and meat you like, I just used up all my leftovers.

Ingredients

½ a packet spring roll wrappers

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

1/2 a carrot

A small wedge of cabbage

100g of shredded chicken

2 eggs beaten

1/2 an onion

2 inches of ginger

3 cloves of garlic

1 packet of instant noodles

A bunch of cilantro leaves

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of sesame seed oil

900ml of soy bean oil (for deep frying)

Directions

1. The first step is to finely slice your vegetables. Get them the peppers and cabbage as thinly as possible and grate the carrot.

2. Boil the noodles until soft then drain.

3. Fry the onion, garlic and ginger for a minute or two to soften, then add the rest of the vegetables. Fry on high for five minutes until softened. Add the drained noodles, chicken, cilantro, soy sauce, sweet chili sauce, and sesame oil, and mix. Turn off the heat and put into a large bowl.

4. Peel off one spring roll wrapper and put it out on the chopping board. Place 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture into the middle of the wrapper. Like below. Fold the top edge up, then wash the three remaining sides with the beaten egg. Fold the two other sides in and roll until you have a neat little spring roll. Set on a clean plate and repeat until all your mixture has been used.

5. When all of the spring rolls have been made, heat the oil to 190 degrees. If you don’t have a thermometer let it heat on medium for about five minutes. Carefully put a spring roll into the oil, if it sizzles and floats to the top then it’s hot enough, if it doesn’t, turn it up a little higher and wait until it reaches temperature. Cook them in batches of about 5 for a couple of minutes until they are golden brown. Remove from the pan when they are done and let them drain on kitchen paper. Serve with your favourite dipping sauce and enjoy!

I first fell in love with empanadas when I backpacked my way around South America. I started in Venezuela and ended in Brazil, and there was hardly a day that went by that I didn’t partake of these delicious delights. Empanadas vary from country to county whether the pastry is baked or fried, but they are constantly delicious. Some of my favourites were the fried chicken variety from Venezuela. They came with this amazing avocado sauce. I could have eaten them until my belly popped. Even to this day I still long for that delicious delicious sauce and thought it was about time I got around to making some. Mine aren’t 100% authentic but they were  very very tasty.

Ingredients

Filling

2 chicken breasts

3 red peppers

4 cloves of garlic

1 onion

2-3 tablespoons of taco seasoning

5-6 tablespoons of salsa

Avocado dipping sauce

2 avocados

A bunch of coriander

1 lemon

5 tablespoons of sour cream

1 tablespoon of olive oil

3 cloves of garlic

Empanada dough

400g of  all purpose flour (I use the one for noodles and dumplings)

A pinch of salt

6 oz unsalted butter (1 ½ sticks), cold and cut into 12 pieces

1 egg

4-5 tablespoons of  water

2 eggs beaten with a drop of milk for brushing

Directions

Sift together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until it resembles fine bread crumbs. In a separate bowl just beat together the egg and water, then add to the butter and flour mixture and bring together to form a dough. Once the dough forms, wrap in clingfilm and store in the fridge for an hour.

To make the filling, boil your two chicken breasts until they have cooked through and leave to cool. Finely chop the onion, garlic, and red peppers and fry off in a little oil for a few minutes until they have softened. Shred your chicken breasts using two forks and add to the frying pan along with the taco seasoning and fry for a few more minutes. Add the salsa and cook for a further minute making sure everything has combined. Leave the mixture to cool while you make the dipping sauce.

To make the amazing avocado dipping sauce put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. You may wish to add more sour cream if you think it’s too thick. Also make sure your avocados are very ripe, as they will difficult to blend if they are too hard.

After the dough has chilled roll it out flat until it’s about 1mm-2mm thick. Cut  out your circles using something circular. I used a lid of a plastic container that was about 4 inches in diameter. The larger your circle the bigger the empanadas will be. I managed to make 16.

Put two spoonfuls of filling into the empanada

Brush beaten egg around the outside then fold over to make a half moon shape. Then seal by pressing a fork all the way around the edge.

Brush the empanadas with more egg wash and bake in an oven at 200 degrees celcius for about 12-20 minutes or until they are golden brown.  Serve with your delicious avocado dip and enjoy. Voilà a taste of South America.

I’m rather partial to goat’s cheese. The creamy taste, the velvety texture and the gooey inside. Sadly in Korea its not all that easy to come by. In fact I don’t think I have bought any since I have been here. Luckily I visited Hong Kong last week and picked some up. I pondered what to make and decided I would use up the pastry I had sitting in the freezer and would make some tarts. You just cant beat a goats cheese tart. The pastry and cheese are such a winning combination. I always choose this if it’s on a menu.

Ingredients

1/2 a round of goats cheese (about 100g, I think they sell in it in Shinsegae department store)

8 squares of puff pastry. ( I found mine at the foreign food mart in Itaewon in the freezer section)

250g of spinach

4 rashers of bacon(optional)

150ml of tomato sauce (I always keep a jar of homemade in the fridge.)

Fresh parmesan

1 beaten egg

2 tablespoon of onion jam (you can find mine at the Pinoy mart)

A knob of butter

Directions

If using the bacon cook on high in an oven until its very crispy, I had some to use up, which is why I added it, but I think it worked rather well. Finely chop the spinach and then wilt in  a pan in a knob of butter. Once the spinach has wilted take the pan off the heat and crumble in the goats cheese and bacon. Grate in some fresh parmesan and stir well. Add in in a couple of tablespoons of onion jam and tomato sauce (homemade or store  bought).

To make my tomato sauce finely chop an onion and about 5 cloves of garlic. Fry off in a little olive oil until softened. Throw the onions into a blender along with 5-6 tomatoes or a can of tomatoes. If tomatoes are cheap I use fresh, in the winter its usually canned. Add a tablespoon of mixed herbs and blend. Pour the sauce into a saucepan and cook for about 10 minutes. I usually add a tablespoon of tomato ketchup at this point too, to sweeten it up. I also add glug or two of red wine if I have some open. I change the sauce slightly depending on what I’m making but this is a basic I would use for lots of things.

Take the pastry square and make 4 slices down the middle of two of the pieces being careful not to cut through to the end. Put a few tablespoons of the goats cheese spinach mixture into the piddle of the uncut pastry square leaving a the edges free. Brush the edges with the beaten egg then place the scored piece on top. Press down the edges to make sure it’s joined together. Then brush the beaten egg over the top. Bake in an oven at about 180 degrees celcius for about 15- 20 minutes or until the pastry has cooked through. Be careful to check the bottom layer as its easy to have this under cooked.  If you notice mine on the picture it is a little underdone and I had to put them back in the oven for another 5 minutes. If the tops are getting too brown cover the tarts with foil. Enjoy on their own or with a side salad. Voilà easy goats cheese tarts, a food I never though I would enjoy in Korea.

I had never made a lemon meringue pie before. I’m not all that sure if I’ve even eaten many. However all that changed today when I made my very first one. In one of the books I have been reading with my students the main character makes a lemon meringue pie and I haven’t been able to get it off my mind ever since. I had seen ready-made pie crusts at the Pinoy Mart but when I went to get one they were all sold out. Undeterred my lust for this lemony treat lived on, and I finally picked up some ready to roll pie pastry at the foreign food mart in Itaewon. It was actually quite cheap, 6,500 for a pack of two. Yes I could have made my own pastry, but it’s not really the easiest thing to make and frankly life is just a too short. However I will have to master it sooner or later if I wish to achieve my dream of winning The Great British Bake off! I have to say, that considering this was the first I ever made  one and it was cooked in a toaster oven I nailed it! Watch out Mary Berry….

Ingredients

Pastry

Ready to roll pie crust (if you want to make your own, then good luck to you)

Lemon Filling 

3 lemons (zest and juice)

100g of white sugar

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons of corn flour

85g of butter

100ml orange juice

100ml of water

Meringue

4 egg whites

200g of white sugar

2 teaspoons of corn flour

Directions 

Take the pastry out of the packet, unroll it and fit it into your tin. In an ideal world my tin would have been bigger but C’est la vie. Bring the pastry over the edge and trim off the excess. Using a fork prick the surface of the pastry all over the pie.

Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes. The instructions said 12-15 minutes but mine was done in a about 8, so keep an eye on it.

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.

To make the meringue, whisk the egg whites and a small pinch of salt until they have quadrupled in volume and form soft peaks. Add your sugar to the egg whites 2 tablespoons at a time and keep whipping on your highest setting. Some folks have enough elbow grease to do this by hand but I am not one of them. I got my mixer from Gmarket for a mere 27,000 and it’s the best thing I ever did. When all the sugar has been incorporated they should form stiff peaks which are shiny and glossy. Whisk in the cornflour then set aside. Warm up the lemon curd until it just begins to bubble. Then put the warm curd into the pie case and put blobs of the meringue all around the outside of the pie making sure to cover the crust. Cover the middle last so it doesn’t sink.

Put the pie in the oven and bake for about 20-30 minutes. I did 10 minutes on 150 then another 10 at 100. Your oven times will vary but this worked for me. Just keep an eye on it to make sure you don’t burn the top. When the pie is done take it out of the oven and leave to set for 2 hours. I was a bit of an eager beaver so my lemon curd was not perfectly set but it tasted damn good and that’s the main thing. Voilà there you have it scrummy yummy homemade lemon meringue pie.

So last week I actually achieved the impossible. I finally managed to find puff pastry in Korea. I am a huge fan of puff pastry but no matter how hard I looked, I have never been able to find it until now. I did have a go at making some rough puff pastry last year, but sadly it didn’t puff up in my oven and just burned a little on the top, it still tasted good, but didn’t really come out like I hoped.

So perusing the aisles at the foreign food mart, I came across a clear bag which what looked like squares of puff pastry in it. “Could it be?”, I wondered. I asked the man how much they were and he told me the small bag was 6,000. “I’ll take it!”, I exclaimed and ran home eager to try my delicious new treasure.

I have to say that they don’t puff up amazingly but you do get a rise out of them and I am happy to take this rather than have a go through all the rigmarole of making my own pastry every time I want some. If I was making my own large pie then I would make my own but for these little ones it works out pretty darn well.

Ingredients

500g lamb mince

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 carrot (grated)

2 tomatoes (finely chopped)

1/2 beef Oxo cube (stock cube)

5 drops of worcetershire sauce

1/2 tablespoon of mixed herbs

10 tablespoons of cheesy mashed potato (I wont insult you by writing how to make this)

8 puff pastry squares (defrosted)

Directions

Fry off the onion and garlic then add the mince. Fry until the lamb has browned then add the herbs, worcestershire sauce and the oxo cube and cook for another two minutes. Throw in  the carrot and tomatoes and stir on a low heat until the tomatoes form a sauce and the carrot has softened. Allow the mixture to cool.

Take one of your puff pastry squares and roll it out to make it a little bigger. In the middle of the square put a tablespoon of the mashed potato then a tablespoon of the mince.

Bring up the four corners to meet in the middle like a pyramid.

You can use a little egg wash if you have trouble making them stick. Stab a few holes in the pastry to help it rise, then egg wash the outside to help give it a little color. Bake in the oven for around 10 minutes or until the pastry has cooked and is lovely and golden brown. Voilá shepherds pie meets pasty.

Yes I know I’m supposed to be on a diet but I have been watching the Olympics, which has made me come over all patriotic and crave all things british. I spent a summer working in a pasty shop in Cornwall, so I like to consider myself quite the connoisseur. I love a nice bit of pastry but rarely make my own, so my boyfriend was delighted when he came home to find these in the oven.  Traditionally the filling of pasties is uncooked, but I prefer to cook mine as they don’t take long to cook in my toaster oven and  no one wants to eat raw potato!

Ingredients 

Pastry

330g of plain flour (I used the one for dumplings and noodles)

160g of butter

2 teaspoon on salt

2 eggs

Filling

150g of chopped steak

1/2 a carrot

1 potato

1/2 an onion

1 – 2 cloves of garlic

250ml beef stock

1 teaspoon of mixed herbs

A pinch of coarse ground pepper

Directions

Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil for a few minutes until softened, then add the steak and fry until its been browned on all sides.  Add your potato and carrot to the pan (these should be chopped into 5mm cubes or smaller). Fry this mix for a minute or so then add the stock and stir until it is bubbling. Then turn down the heat and cook for 20-30 minutes until all the stock has been absorbed. Set to the side and allow it to cool whilst you make the pastry.

Put the flour and salt into a bowl then rub in the butter. Butter is pricey here in Korea so you could use margarine instead but the flavor will not be as good. When the butter is rubbed in and the  mixture resembles bread crumbs you can mix in the beaten egg. Form your mixture back into one big ball of pastry, cover in cling film and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.  Take a rest and watch an episode of your favorite show.

When the pastry has been chilled you can start to roll it out on a floured surface. Roll it out so it’s about 1/4 of an inch thick. It’s up to you how big you want to make your pasties. Personally I like them smaller rather than bigger. I made 7 with this amount of pastry.  You can use any round implement you have to cut the circles, I used a bowl which has a diameter of about 13cm. Spoon in your filling (I used about 2 teaspoons for each one), then fold the pastry over and crimp the edges. Traditional Cornish pasties have the lovely twisted edge with 20 crimps but I was too eager to eat them and didn’t want to faff around with doing that. I just did a thumb print the whole way around. Brush them with an egg wash and bake them in a preheated oven for about 10-20 minutes at 200C or until the pastry is cooked and golden brown. Oven times can vary so just use your own judgement, my toaster oven seems to  cook things far faster than my oven back home. You can eat them hot or cold although personally I think you can’t beat a warm one.

I really miss being able to buy ready-made pastry. Short-crust, filo or puff I love them all. Being able to go to the store and just throw a couple of things on a delicious pastry base makes such a lovely dinner. However with the lack of ready to roll pastry here in Korea, it’s a pain in the neck to have to make your own every time you want it.

I have been looking at my spring roll wrappers for a while now, they look very similar to filo pastry, would they work for a tart? Turns out they do, they worked even better than expected. They cook really quickly and have a nice crunchy texture. They are also really cheap so you can save those pennies and put them towards the filling.

Ingredients

16 Springroll / samosa wrappers (I got mine at the foreign food mart in Itaewon)

1 sliced tomato

150g grated cheddar/ mozzarella

4 teaspoons of Garlic herb Philadelphia

50 g spinach

2 red onions

Directions

Defrost the spring roll wrappers so you are able to peel them off one by one. Arrange them in your tin by layering them on top of each other. Try and skew them so you get the pointy bits the whole way around, about 3 or 4 will do it. Then choose your filling, pretty much anything will do here so let your imagination run wild. I just had a go with what was in the fridge. I caramelised some red onions with a bit of balsamic vinegar then topped them with the Philadelphia and then the grated cheese. The other ones I made had the spinach, tomatoes and grated cheese . Put them in the oven for about 5 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the cheese has melted. Serve on their own or with a side salad. Voilà a quick and easy dinner.