Braised Beef with Oats & Flax Seeds

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 cup rolled oats ground

2. 1/4 cup flax seeds ground (Hørfrø)

3. 4 pieces of Osso Bucco beef shanks cut into chunks

4. 4 TBS dark soy sauce

5. 2 cups homemade tomato soup or 1/4 cup store-bought tomato sauce

6. 1/2 cup frozen green peas

7. 1/2 cup frozen sweet corns

8. A handful of mushrooms

9. 2 cloves garlic minced

10. Salt & pepper to taste

11. 2 TBS cooking oil

12. 1 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Grind rolled oats and flax seeds separately in a blender or food processor into flour and set aside.

2. On a plate, add 1/4 cup of oats flour, 1/4 cup of flax seeds flour, 1 tsp salt and a sprinkle of pepper and mix well.

3. Lightly coat meat (without the bone marrow) with the flour mixture.

4. Heat pan with cooking oil on high heat, add meat and lightly fry until golden (may have to reduce the heat a little so that it would not be burnt).

5. Transfer the meat to a pot, add the bone marrow and add one cup of boiling water.

6. Cover with lid and simmer the beef shanks.

7. After one hour or so, you will notice a thick layer of fat that is floating on top. Skim it off and discard.

8. Add tomato soup/sauce, dark soy sauce, frozen peas and corns, mix well and simmer for another hour until meat is tender.

9. Serve with rice :-)

Additional Information:

Traditionally, corn starch is used to coat the meat for frying to tenderize the meat. I am using oats and flax seeds instead because it is healthier and much more nutritious, but also flavorful. I find that using a mixture of oats and flax seeds give the best effect, as these two ingredients complement each other. Flax seeds have a low smoke point, and thus it is not suited for frying directly. Mixing it with oat flour helps to blend it into the flour and at the same time, bringing out its flavor. 

The oat flour also helps to thicken the liquid for simmering into a nice sauce, but be careful not to overcoat the meat with too much ground oats, as it will make the sauce too thick.

On a plate, lightly coat beef shanks with ground oats and ground flax seeds

Heat pan with cooking oil on high heat, add coated meat and fry until golden (may have to reduce heat a little so that it would not be burnt).

Transfer to a pot

Add boiling water to keep the temperature hot

Add back the bone marrows

Cover with lid and simmer the beef for 2 hours...

after one hour...

skim off the layer of fat floating on top and discard it.

Add homemade tomato soup (or store-bought tomato sauce), dark soy sauce, mushrooms, frozen peas and corns, mix well and simmer until tender.

Serve with rice :-)

Katsudon - Japanese Pork Rice Dish

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1. 4 pieces of pork cutlets (kottelettet)
2. 4 eggs separated yolks and whites
3. 2 big onions sliced
4. 1 handful of frozen peas
5. 1 plate of Japanese Panko breadcrumbs (rasp)
6. 50ml soya sauce (optional)
7. 100ml water
8. 50ml Japanese sake
9. 1 TBS sugar
10. 1 packet of dashinomoto (Japanese fish stock powder) (optional)
11. cooking oil

Directions:

1. Make square slits in the pork cutlets, but only halfway through.
2. Coat them with beaten egg yolk and then coat with panko breadcrumb.
3. Fry in deep oil until golden (must put quite a lot of oil in the pan).
4. Turn pork around and fry the other side until golden.
5. Meanwhile, in a pot, add soya sauce, water, Japanese sake, sugar, onions and dashinomoto and bring to boil.
6. Transfer pork cutlets into the pot and cook for 1 minute.
7. Turn the pork around, add the remaining eggyolk and egg white into the pot under low heat.
8. Add the frozen green peas
9. Cover and simmer under low hear for 8 minutes or until egg and peas are cooked.
10. Serve with rice - scoop rice into a bowl and put the pork on top and serve.

Additional Information:

Daddy and I took a course in Japanese cooking class before Joshua was born, and we learned this from our Japanese teacher. This dish is one of My Superstar's favorite and I made it today.

Chinese Braised Chicken/Kinesisk Braiseret kyllinge/三杯鸡

Serves 4

Preparation & Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
- 8 chicken drumsticks (or you can use any chicken meat you like)
- 5 slices of ginger
- 4 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 leek white portion sliced or 1 stalk spring onion chopped (optional)
- 2 TBS cooking oil
- 2 TBS Chinese light soya sauce
- 2 TBS Chinese dark soya sauce
- 2 TBS Chinese Sesame oil
- 2 TBS Shaoxing wine
- 2-3 carrots loosely chopped (optional)
- 2 TBS oatmeal ground into flour (to thicken the sauce)
- 500ml water
- Pepper

Directions:
1. Heat frying pan or wok with cooking oil and fry ginger, garlic until fragrant.

2. Add spring onions or leek and fry until fragrant.

3. Add chicken and do a few quick stirs.

4. Add dark soya sauce, light soya sauce, sesame oil, shaoxing wine and pepper and quick stir to coat the chicken.

5. Add water and carrots, cover lid and bring to boil.

6. Once water starts boiling, immediately reduce heat (no. 3 on my stove) and simmer for 15 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, grind oatmeal and add a little water to mix well. Mix in oatmeal mixture and stir for a minute or until sauce/soup thicken.

8. Serve with rice.

Pressure Cooking Method:
Add all ingredients, cover lid and once pressure cooker reaches pressure according to your cooker, let it cook for 6-8 minutes (for me: no. 2 setting on pressure cooker and no. 2 on stove) .
Tips:
Can also add in tofu if you like.

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Additional Information:
The Taiwanese call this dish "3-cup chicken", because it uses the same proportion of dark soya sauce, sesame oil and shaoxing wine, but I like to add the light soya sauce as well.

Traditionally, carrots is not added as Chinese usually have separate dishes for meat, vegetables and soup. But in the modern life, one-pot dish is popular because it is convenient. I like to add carrots into this dish, as it makes it a more complete meal. Usually while I cook my rice to go with this dish, I also steam some vegetables such as broccoli or french beans on top of the rice cooker.

You don't have to add all the water or all the oatmeal flour, depending on how thick you want the sauce to be. If you add too much water, you can eiter let it evaporates or add more oatmeal flour to thicken it. Personally I like my dish to be a little more like a thick soup, thus I add the amount of water recommended in the recipe.

This is very similiar to Chinese confinement food. The only difference is to add more ginger and exclude the carrots.

Joshua enjoyed it and ate one full drumstick and a full bowl with rice this evening.