I got a bag of apples and didn't know what to do, too many recipes out there.  Apple sauce, apple pie, chicken apple, you name it!

Then, when I stopped by at Hyundae mart, I found a great deal on roasted buckwheat (kasha) and beans.  Beside buying more miso, I grabbed some beans and kashas.  Hyundae mart used to be a Kosher food grocer,  I guess the Korean took over the management, changed the name and added more Korean and Japanese products.

Thanks to Irma for her Eid goodies that was sent from Germany.  I have few packages of almond flavour to boost my baking.

The mix of almond flour and buckwheat is used to substitute  the oat which contains gluten.

Apple Buckwheat Crumble
adapted from Canelle et Vanille
Yield: 10 ramekins

Ingredients:
400 g apples, cored and diced
2 key limes, zest and juice
1/8 tsp almond flavor*
25 g sugar
15 g cornstarch

Topped:
100 g butter, cold and cut into small pieces
100 g sugar
100 g buckwheat
100 g almond flour
1/4 tsp salt



Directions:
Toss apple, key lime, almond flavor, sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl.

Mix the sugar, buckwheat, almond flour and salt in a bowl. Add the cold diced butter and work it into the flour until a crumb forms and small pieces of butter remain.

In small ramekins or a pie dish, add apple mixture and top with buckwheat and almond crumble.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes or until fruit starts to bubble over. If the crumble turns dark before the fruit is bubbling, cover with aluminum foil.

The rest of the unused crumble may be frozen until next time.

*Almond flavor can be used interchangeably with vanilla pods, powder or flavor. Almond flour can be substituted for soy flour.

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A Canadian adaptation of Japanese tempura. It's often to be offered at Japanese restaurants and served with a special sauce.

Salmon heads and trims are common to be sold at the markets here.  At Asian markets, I often see salmon heads on sale. 

Special for this tempura, the Japanese restaurants in town don't serve with tentsuyu (Japanese: ????/??), regular tempura dipping sauce.  Hence, I re-created the sauce at home and perfect match to the one that I used to have.  It is a mix of miso, ginger, mirin, ground sesame seed, garlic, soy sauce and sugar. In this case I substituted for honey. 

I figured out why they serve with this special sauce.  By dipping pieces of salmon heads tempura into the sauce, it reduces the odour of the salmon itself.   In this recipe, I specifically had to marinate them with minced gingers and garlics before dipping into tempura batter.

Finally, I found the perfect composition to what I tasted for the sauce. The batter's recipe was adapted from Marc of No Recipes.

Salmon Heads Tempura
 
Ingredients:
2 salmon heads, halved of each head
minced garlic and gingers for marinating

Tempura Batter:
1 large egg white
1 cup ice cold water + 2 ice cubes
1 cup sifted unbleached flour put in freezer
1/2 tsp kosher salt

Dipping Sauce:
2 tbsp aka miso (red miso)
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp ground sesame seed
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp minced ginger

Directions:
Prepare the Salmon Heads:
1. Rinse off halved salmon heads under cold running water. Rub minced garlic and gingers on, marinate for 20 minutes and keep them in the fridge.

2. Rinse them off once more and pat dry.

Tempura:
1. Get a wire rack ready for the tempura by covering it with a layer of brown paper bag.

2. In a heavy bottomed pan, add about 3 cm of oil. Heat the oil until it reaches 340 F then quickly make the batter. For the batter, you want to whisk the egg yolk into 1 cup of ice cold water then dump it all into the cold flour then gently stir. The key here is that everything is very cold and that you don�t stir it too much (having lumps is fine). The batter should be like thin pancake batter, if it�s too thick, add a few more tablespoons of ice water.

3. Use a fork, quickly dip each halved salmon head in the batter shaking off the excess and carefully drop into the hot oil.

Dipping Sauce:
Combine everything.

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These pictures have been long overdue. Seven months ago when I still stayed in Boissevain, I was kinda craving for Ethiopian food. But, no Ethiopian restaurants in the province except in Winnipeg. Then, I read on the Brandon local newspaper that there would be the 7th Annual Lieutenant Governor's Winter Festival in Brandon. The distance between Brandon and Boissevain is about an hour driving.

The festival's concept was pretty much similar to Folklorama in Winnipeg. Just for your information, Folklorama is the largest and longest running multicultural event of its kind in the world!

Today, I just realized that I have had these pictures (make sure you see all the pictures below) when I went back to my old photo stocks on Flickr.

I was first got to know Ethiopian cuisine in 2008 when my husband and I went to the Ethiopian restaurant in our neighbourhood. Then, we felt in love with the food right away.

Traditional Ethiopian cuisine employs no pork of any kind, as most Ethiopians are either Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, Muslims or Jews, and are thus prohibited from eating pork.

Look how pretty the Massobs are! Massob/Mesob is an Ethiopian communal serving basket and made from woven grass.




When I entered the room and breathed in, the aroma rang a bell right away. Smell just like dupa in Indonesian or kemenyan in Javanese. It was incense that burned inside Kirkira (sorry if I misspelled).



This was my portion of Injera, Wat and Tibs. Injera is an Ethiopian large sourdough flatbread, which is about 50 centimeters in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour; Wat is meat Stew, it can be chicken, lamb and/or beef; Tibs is sauteed vegetables.


Teff flour is a gluten-free flour substitute that you can use in any of your recipes calling for all-purpose flour. It has nutty flavor and adds a pleasant sweetness to any recipe.

First time, I had a goat stew at the Ethiopian restaurant, I was stunned. It did remind me of goat curry in Indonesia. For those who love South East Asian curries, you won't have a hard time to like Ethiopian dishes.

Since I got to know Ethiopian tradition, I found similarity between Ethiopians and Indonesians. Traditionally, we eat the food with the right hand, no cutlery. Honestly, I sometimes do eat by hand at home :-P. The difference, the Ethiopians use injeera to pick up food. They also have small bowl with water and a slice of lime for washing the hand.


Stay tune for my next post, Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony.

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Please find 3 more pictures below that have been in my file since early January and April this year. I went to this place about 3 times already.

I first came to try this restaurant with a friend and chose Ohjinguh Bokkeum meal. It came with onjinguh bokkeum (Stir Fried Spicy Squid with Vegetables), stew potatoes, kimchi, stir fry bean sprouts and rice.



Then, I recommended to my husband and he agreed to try. Even though this Japanese and Korean restaurant isn't big, it has accommodated my husband who loves Japanese food and myself, the Korean food junkie. As usual, he went for the sashimi and I picked the spicy dishes. So, it was my second visit; I chose Gae Jang Baek Ban due to my high curiosity of raw crab taste. It was really really spicy, but good; a mix sweetness and spicy of gochujang. The blue crab tasted fresh no fishy or unpleasant odour. The sashimi was good too (no picture for that as you know how it looks already).



With medium range prices, friendly service and efficient, you can see why I came back to this restaurant for 3 times. However, for myself, I'd rather stick to their sashimi and Korean dishes.

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Summer is almost over, but we still do grilling or barbecuing, don't we? After choosing several different Vietnamese recipes from Vietnamese bloggers that I trust for its authenticity, I decided to go for B� Nu?ng L� L?t (B� = Beef, Nu?ng = Grill, L� L?t = Wild Betel Leaf). Other names for L� L?t are:
- Botanical Names: Piper sarmentosum/ Charvica Sarmentosa/Piper difusum
- English: Wild Betel Leaf
- Indonesian: Daun Sirih Dudu/Tanah, Daun Cabean, Daun Karuk, Daun Karok, Amelaunune, Gafutofure, or Kado-kado
- Malaysian and Singaporean: Daun Kaduk or Daun Kadok

The leaves contain high in antioxidant and can be used as a herbal medicine for asthma and cough. If you live in Winnipeg and wonder where you can get it, there are two Asian stores that sell it, Lucky (on Winnipeg ave.) and Dong Thai (on Notre Dame ave.)

Don't get confused with L� Tr�u (Piper betle L.)! L� Tr�u is known as betel leaf in English and a popular leaf for chewing in traditional South East Asian culture. In Indonesia, betel leaf (daun sirih) has been approved as traditional feminine hygiene.

Back to my Vietnamese dish here, I compared three different recipes from Wandering Chopsticks, Viet World Kitchen and Ravenous Couple. Thank you folks for the recipes!

I made two different seasonings, one was with Chinese five spices and another one was with curry powder. Sun brand curry powder is Andrea's recommendation for this. However, I used the Jamaican curry powder instead. At least, I am still on the track of curry. I didn't try to say that pho is Thai soup and substituted banh pho for angel hair pasta as Rachel Ray did. Speaking about that, my husband threw his sarcastic comment, "if it's not Chinese or Japanese then it's got to be Thai." If you don't know what I'm talking about, please read on Andrea's post of "How funky is Rachel Ray�s Phunky Pho?"

This recipe goes for Delicious Vietnamese #5, hosted by Anh Nguyen of A Food Lover's Journey.



B� Nu?ng L� L?t
- Vietnamese Grilled Beef in Wild Betel Leaf -
Makes 25 to 30 rolls

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (divide into two for two different seasonings), chuck preferred

Seasoning option #1:
2 tbsp minced green onions, green and white part
1 tsp Chinese five spices (ngo hiang)
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Seasoning option #2:
2 tbsp minced green onions, green and white part
1/2 tbsp curry powder
1 tablespoons finely minced lemongrass (At Asian stores, you can find minced frozen lemongrass ready to use)
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper



Methods:
1. You will need two bowl and fingers to mix. In bowl #1, combine beef with green onions, Chinese five spices, fish sauce, soy sauce, pepper and salt; mix well and set aside in fridge. In bowl #2, combine fish, green onions, curry powder, lemongrass, fish sauce salt and black pepper; mix well and set aside in the fridge while you are preparing the leaves.

2. Use scissors or tootpicks to detach the leaves from their center stems. Make sure to keep the leaf stem attached to the leaf. You�ll need it later for creating the rolls.

3. To make the rolls, put a leaf on your work surface, matted side up and glossy side facing down. Take a bit of meat (about 1 tbsp) and use your hand to shape it into a small sausage of sorts.

4. Roll up the meat in the leaf, make sure that the length of the meat doesn't exceed the width of the leaf and use the little stem to seal it up. The roll will keep its shape. Place the finished roll on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining leaves until all the beef is used. To view how to roll this little sausage, Andrea has given step by step pictures on her blog.

5. Grill them until done. There are multiple options to grill them; over small charcoal ovens, grill by using skewers or a grilling basket or broil in the oven for about 6-8 minutes, turning a few times to prevent the leaves from burning.

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