gamjatang

I just discovered that you can boil soup in a rice cooker! did you know that? just press "cook" and it'll keep cooking until you stop it because the water's never gonna reach the level that would stop it automatically. so, in our newly obtained 2nd hand rice cooker that we got for $12,
we made this korean pork soup [gamjatang] but used pork fillet instead coz the pork ribs were too expensive. not a good move! because, for soups, it's always better to use pork with bones.

anyway, despite the meat being slightly tasteless, the soup was really tasty and we'd definitely make it again. some of the ingredients can only be found in korean grocery shops like the "doenjang" [bean paste], korean chilli flakes and korean anchovy sauce [somewhat similar to fish sauce but smells much more pungent! it's not as fiery hot as it looks, the red colour just comes from the chilli flakes.

it's perfect for a cold night but then again, even with hot weather we still like our hot steaming bowls of soup with rice. try it with kimchi on the side if possible.

instant kimchi jigae!

got this packet mix at the asian grocery at clayton [again] and all you need to do is prepare the ingredients, dump them all in and boil!
so, here we have chopped chilli, beef, mushrooms and tofu. and chinese cabbage to be put in just before serving coz they cook quickly.

sorry for the bad photo but it tasted pretty good with rice. perfect for a freezing cold night...

bakuteh pack

we bought a pack of "instant" bakuteh spices/herbs from "hong kong grocery" shop in clayton for $2. it was from malaysia, but somehow, for some inexplicable reason, it stated to use beef or chicken. which is quite silly, really! of course we used pork.
we boiled it up with some whole garlic in a ricecooker pot since we didn't have a proper soup pot. also, cooking on a hot place isn't a walk in the park!
it tasted pretty good, with tofu, mushrooms and lettuce leaves.

teochew porridge

salty, preserved, jarred things from china are delicious with plain rice porridge.
here we have preserved "olives vegetables", preserved chilli beancurd, kimchi, fried anchovies and soy sauce minced beef.

5 minute pizza

I dumped some tomato paste, chopped onion, garlic, ham, olives, "pizza" cheese and capsicum on these pita breads and into the toaster oven. and topped it off with black pepper. "instant" pizza!