.

Another cross-posting, but as this was an ‘adventurous’ dinner, thought it belonged here as well. The taco soup tastes divine, recipe is included here but not at ‘the other’ blog . That’s cause this blog is SPECIAL . Maybe Skipps would have a comment on this post re taco rice.

/—————————————————————————————

.

If you’ve been following me on twitter, you would’ve seen a large flurry of twitter taco party messages yesterday! A bunch of us on twitter decided to hold a virtual taco party and make tacos!!! It was amazing that all our tacos are completely different, and I seriously wished we could’ve actually do this in real, all the tacos from the vietnamese version to the soyrizo version looks fabulous! The other tweeps who ‘attended’ this fun-filled taco party were @hapabento @fujimama @passthepocky @sherimiya & @LovelyLanvin . Go drool at their yummy taco pictures!

I fell asleep long before the twitter taco party started – what can I say, it had been a looooong monday and I’m on GMT 0! I made taco soup, with home made tortilla chips cut from a large tortilla. Just oil them slightly, pop in the oven at 250 F until it crisps up! I left mine in for 10-15 mins as I forgot about them, and were slightly burnt. Sprinkle some paprika over it when it gets out of the oven – I did it before and it burnt in the oven . Very pretty addition, and may I say, even nicer than your regular tortilla chips as I made it extra crispy to dunk in the taco soup. Mm Mm good. I first had taco soup in New York this year (recommeded by another tweeter friend, Megan! ), and had not looked back since. It’s perfect for the perpetually bleah weather that we get in the UK, a hot bowl of steaming taco .

.

.

Taco soup recipe

1 can tinned tomatoes
300g lean mince beef
1 pack taco meat seasoning
1/2 diced ripe avocado
1 red onion & 1 clove minced garlic
1 can beans (I used soy cooked in tomato sauce)
1/2 jar salsa
pickled jalapenos
sour cream
cilantro (I forgot to buy any!)
nachos
grated cheddar
shredded lettuce

Spoon into flat wide bowls, and top with jalapenos, sour cream, grated cheese, shredded lettuce, more salsa, nachos and anything else that you love with your taco! Bacon like to dunk soft tortillas into his

.

I was going to turn the taco soup into a bento, but as it was so delicious, we actually finished it for dinner. Uh- oh. Fear not, I had prepared and saved 1/2 my taco-seasoned beef before I turned it into taco soup! My submission was actually between taco soup and taco rice, and I had saved the taco beef to turn into taco rice. Therefore, tomorrow would be taco rice lunch.

Taco rice is a REAL dish (no, I didn’t make it up) from Japan. Okinawa to be precise, and is also known as takoraisu. The invention for this crazy dish was accredited to the US Marines located in Okinawa. Homesickness for good ole tex mex food paired taco staples with rice (tortillas are pretty hard to come by out of the Americas – or North America to be precise) transformed this tex mex staple into something that is quinessentially Japanese. And I love Japanese take on foods from other cultures – youshouku (western-influenced) and chuka (chinese-influenced) food love all around!

.

.

Taco rice contains all the fixings of tacos – with rice replacing the main job of the taco. My taco rice is slightly deconstructed (like my taco soup) , usually all taco fixings are piled on top of a plateful of rice. It’s still all there though – rice, taco beef, salsa, jalapenos, cheese, lettuce and a small pot of sour cream. You could replace the beef with taco-flavoured soy beans for a veggie version. I popped in some of my homemade flower tortilla chips as well for additional crunch…I love their shape

.

Aren’t they just the cutest?

.

Taco rice FTW! Actually, TacoTwitterParty FTW. It had been so much fun – and I think we’re going to be doing this monthly, which is so great! Not only it gives me the motivation to do something different, it was so fun seeing everyone else’s take on the humble taco. Everyone’s invited, so come join in our party for next month!

.

UPDATED 12 Feb 2011: Step by step pictures

.

I have been meaning to publish this recipe for ages now. Since making it the first time around, I’ve reproduced it with varying success – mostly due to me changing the recipes slightly and tweaking thickness. ‘Bah Kwa’ is a traditional favourite within the chinese community in South East Asia and Taiwan. ‘Bah Kwa’ is literally translated from the Fujian dialect to mean dried meat. It is pronounced as ‘Yuk Kwong’ in Cantonese, but most people irregardles of dialect, understands bah kwa. Especially popular during Chinese New Year as a gift for family and friends, the price of bah kwa shoots up during that period, with a corresponding hike in demand. However, l I love it at any time during the year and I can just eat it….all…day…long. It tastes fantastic grilled and sandwiched in a sweet bun; I regularly have this for breakfast and just microwave the whole bun for 15 seconds when I get to work. It brings back a rush of childhood memories of watching chinese opera and then heading to the charcoal-fired pushcart hawker for a freshly grilled bah kwa sandwich .

.

I would have been more than willing to pay through the nose for this delicacy in the years that I’ve spent abroad – alas, I had never managed to source some authentic tasting bah kwa. They were mostly too dried, under flavoured and not to mention way too overpriced for the quality and quantity. So this recipe is heaven-sent for a bah kwa addict like me, I no longer have to import it from Malaysia nor miss it !

.

Some people associate this with the American-styled beef jerky, but the depth of flavour and the texture is completely and utterly different from the dry stringy meat of the American styled jerky. I have tweaked this recipe from various others that I found online, and you might want to experiment yourself on the amount of sugars and seasoning – or even using minced chicken or beef! Caution: if you are using 5-spice powder purchased from the supermarket, it might be an idea to put more in – the one I use is freshly mixed 5-spice powder which is way more fragant than the supermarket version. Too much 5-spice powder can make food taste slightly bitter, so just becareful, but do not be afraid to season away! It’s the same with all other ingredients, do not be afraid to change and tweak the levels, this has been tweaked to my taste, but I do sometimes add an extra splash of soy sauce or different sugars i.e. muscavodo.

.

Recipe for Bah Kwa – Chinese sweet meat jerky

500g minced pork (slightly fatty)
2 Tbs five spice powder
150g sugar (more sugar will caramalise the meat more, but less with be tasteless)
2 Tbs shaoxing wine
1 Tbs fish sauce (this is very important)
3 Tbs light soy sauce
red food colouring – optional, it turns out brownish otherwise. I do not use this

waxed/parchment paper
cookie trays

Step 1
Marinate all the inggredients for at least 6 hours; best if left overnight.
Ensure that it is well combined before leaving it in the fridge.

.

Step 2

Cut two pieces of parchment paper that is the same size as the cookie sheet
Lay one sheet on the upturned cookie sheet (turn it upside down)
Scoop about 1.5 cup of the meat mixture on the bottom parchment that is resting on the cookie sheet (approx – depending on tray size)
With the other parchment sheet, slowly press the mixture down from the top, trying to spread the meat mixture as evenly as possible over the cookie sheet.
Try to get it to cover the whole cookie sheet, using more meat mixture as needed and another cookie sheet if it is not large enough
Your meat mixture should be around 5-7mm thick, and even all around.Use a rolling pin over the top parchment paper if needed; I usually only use my fingers to flatten it out.

.

Step 3

Traditionally, this meat mixture is then air-dried for a day or two in the sun. The modern way would be:

Leave it in a 80c oven for 50 -60 minutes to dry it out. Do NOT turn the oven up higher than 100 degrees as this will cook the meat.
We want to dry it out, not cook it.
After about 1 hour, the meat layer should be ‘welded’ together from the fats in the mince.
Leave to cool, and then carefully cut it into squares at this point.
You can freeze this for later, OR

.

Step 4

Turn on the grill (charcoal bbq is best) and grill it for about 4-5 mins on each side
The bah-kwa should sizzle and spit and be slightly charred on both sides
Leave it to cool before tucking in – or stuff it into some sweet buns immediately for a great snack
You can keep this (wrapped in more parchment paper) in the fridge for at least a month in a tightly sealed container.
It tastes best warmed- up, you could grill it again prior to consumption or I just stick it in the microwave for 15 seconds

.

UPDATED INSTRUCTIONS: Step by step pictures

1) Empty cookie tray with parchment paper
2) Marinated meat
3)Spread meat on tray with fingers
4)Flatten it out an oiled spoon

.

5) Should look pretty flat like this
6) Place another piece of parchment paper on top. Flip the parchment sandwich paper over; so the top paper is now on the bottom.
7) Slowly peel the top parchment off. Use your fingers if nessacary to ensure all the meat is ‘peeled’ off.
The meat-sheet should now be flat on both sides. Stick in oven at under 100C for 50 minutes.

.

9) When it comes out it should look like this, still soft but the meat has all melded together.
10) Cut into squares -the meat sheet now looks like this with the bottom part a lighter brown
11) Put the oven on broil/grill function at circa 180 on the lighter side up, and grill on both sides, around 5 mins each. Watch carefully to ensure it doesn’t burn.
12) Cool on wire rack once both sides of the meat has sufficiently caramalized. Serve up!

.

.

I’ve even managed to bring a couple of pieces back to Malaysia over the summer, and everyone agreed that it tasted like the real thing! Amazing! I made a batch for my grandmother as well and she was amazed – I don’t think anyone I know had ever thought that bah kwa can be made at home. It is cheaper, better for you (no preservatives – or colourings if you don’t mind it brown) and as you can control the seasonings and tailor it to your tastebuds. Seriously – the best invention yet from my kitchen. And what’s more, I’ve trained bacon to make this!

.

If you had never tried bah kwa before, I strongly suggest that you try this recipe out. It is amazing what sweet-salty meat tastes like – I know most people that had not tried this would be pretty skeptical on a ‘sweet’ meat – but it really IS mind blowingly amazing. I can chomp on it all day long….all day every day….

.

.

It’s product review time! I love doing product reviews, and I am very passionate about saying it like it is as well. It is unfair to your readers if you review a product/restaurant/food favourably just because it is free. I hate that. It is quite obvious that some bloggers are doing that, but I do not swing that way.

I’ve been approached by CSN stores to do a product review for them. CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from a platform bed to fantastic fitness equipment to cookware! All their products looks really of high quality and I am really excited! They even have a store in the UK – I like . Stay tuned for more info…..

As you can tell, I’ve been severely MIA again. Been off enjoying September, one of my very favourite months. Been having friends around which always means more explorating = good thing! The bad thing is the level of neglect this blog had gone through this year – seriously, it had been a dry spell even for me. There is only so many hours in the day, and I am ashamed that I had devoted more time to my bento blog compared to my main blog. I have been highly unfair. It’s probably because I can post a bento blog in about 10-15 minutes, but here my posts takes up to 2 hours at a pop; which is very exhausting. I might pilot doing shorter blogs more often – there is nothing worse than neglecting my blog

But on to happier things

Why do I love September?

September is when the brambles comes out!

.

And I get to go out and play! No, seriously, these blackberries get turned into jams that my whole family loves – it is ironic that I don’t like jam myself.

.

Also September is when the tomatoes grow!

.

Ain’t they pretty?

.

This is just one of my harvests – I have more. Gulp.

.

Speaking of produce – this is my courgette/zuchinni. No idea how it got so massive; but I love it!

.

September is also when I get to go to the beach – this is the lovely Whitby

.

And go camping at the Lake District – we camped right in front of the lovely Ullswater this time. I love waking up to a body of water .

.

The views are magnificent, don’t you think? Which makes me miss Lake Tahoe & Yosemite even more. It’s all I can think of this past week .

.

Which gives way to perfect picnic weather with friends, washed down with lovely Australian white. Ahh.

I’m not going to be heading anywhere until early October, so it’s going to be a couple of weeks rest for me, in which time I really should be catching up with all my backlog of blogs. Even bacon is pestering me to blog – apparently that’s how he remembers what we did .