restaurant 'Korea-Haus' (Korea House) in Duesseldorf

The Saturday before last a colleague visited Duesseldorf, so we met for a little shopping in the afternoon. For dinner we had reserved a table at a Korean restaurant I wanted to try out. We both love Korean food so that was the perfect chance!

The restaurant is named ‘Korea-Haus’ (Korea House) and situated in the Bismarckstraße near Duesseldorf Main Station. The street looks kind of shabby and we passed two other Korean restaurants as well, so I was really curious what it would be like. The outer appearance was okay though the restaurant is opposite to a game hall and a sex shop^^;

restaurants' window

But we were friendly welcomed at once and brought to our table. The interior looked very nice. All tables are fitted with a modern Korean BBQ grill inside on side of the tabletop.

interior 1

interior 2

The menu was also quite impressive. They had the typical salads like spinach salad and Kimchi, starters like Korean pancakes and mandu (fried buns filled with chicken and vegetables), dishes for the grill, main dishes (pan fried meals), hot pods and Korean meals served on hot iron plates. It was really to decide for something^^;

My colleague loves Mandu, so she ordered one plate. We get it along with typical Korean side dishes served with every main dish. I liked the choice, especially the fried potatoes and the marinated tofu^^

As main dish we ordered Bulgogi (marinated beef with some vegetables for the grill) served with salad leaves and a spicy tofu hot pod (it’s called tofu hot pod but it also contained pork meat^^;). Of course you get a metal bowl of rice along with it.

Everything was soooo delicious, I was really overwhelmed. We made a good choice with the restaurant and the food!

starters & bulgogi in the grill

hot pod

The staff was also very kind and the restaurant was visited by many people of every age. I can really recommend it and I am sure that I will visit again^__^

Afterwards we stopped by the Chinese Asia Market to buy some stuff. My colleague recommended Ginger Beer to me. I didn’t like the idea because I don’t like beer but she said though it’s called beer it is a lemonade (non-alcoholic). So I give it a try and took two cans for us. At home I put it in the ice box for some time for having a cold taste. I was really curious and positively surprised! If you like ginger, this lemonade tastes awesome and is really refreshing! So I think I will enjoy it again^__^

can of ginger beer^^

Lamb Curry with cardamom

This time I tried a Indian style lamb curry. The mixture of the spices had a surprising good taste, I was very impressed. The meat became very soft and aromatic. I think this recipe would also work with beef or veal.

Lamb Curry with cardamom

Ingredients (4 portions)

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tsp ginger

3 onions, minced

800 g lamb meat, sliced in pieces

8 green cardamom pods

6 tbs peanut oil

1 cinnamon stick

2 bayleaves

2 tsp caraway

2 tsp coriander

½ tsp red pepper

1 tbs paprika powder

2 tbs tomatopaste – salt

300 ml water

preparation

Mix garlic and ginger. Pound the cardamom pods.

Heat oil in a pot and brown cardamom, cinnamon and bayleaves. Add the meat in portions and fry it on high heat from every side. Put it aside.

Add the onions and the ginger-garlic-mixture and stir-fry it. Stir in caraway, coriander, red pepper and paprika, add the tomato paste and stir-fry it as well.

Put meat back in to the pot and taste with salt. Add 300 ml water and let the curry cook on low heat for about one hour till the meat is done/soft. Serve with basmati rice.

curry with basmati rice

cookbook challenge: fish curries with egg noodles

Salmon-Coconut-Curry with egg noodles

Ingredients (4 portions)

400 g salmon filets, sliced in dices

1 leeks, sliced in rings

1 onion, sliced in small dices

1 red chili pod, sliced in rings
2 stems lemon grass, sliced in rings

20 g ginger

2 tbp oil

2 tsp yellow curry paste

400 ml coconut milk

salt and sugar

1-2 tbs oyster sauce

200 g Chinese egg noodles

preparation

Heat oil in a pan and cook onion, chili and ginger. Add Lauch and lemon grass, stir in the curry paste and add coconut milk. Taste with salt and let everything cook for 3-4 minutes. Add salmon, taste curry with sugar and oyster sauce and let it cook for another 3 minutes.

Cook the noodles and divide them into two bowls. Arrange the curry over it.

~*~

Fish Curry with Shiitake

Ingredients (4 portions)

400 g fish filets (I used Lake Victoria perch), sliced in dices

150 g Chinese egg noodles

120 g Shiitake

1 red chili pepper, sliced in rings

1 tbs oil

2 tbs red curry paste

½ l fish fond

400 ml coconut milk

1 tsp raising flour

salt – 2 tbs fish sauce

juice of 1 lemon

preparation

Heat oil in a pan and fry the Shiitake shortly. Add curry paste, fish fond and coconut milk and let it cook. Add fish and let everything cook for 2-3 minutes on middle heat.

Stir in raising flour, Thicken the curry with it. Taste with salt, fish sauce and lemon juice. Add the cooked noodles and heat them up. Dredge curry with the chili rings and coriander if you like.

These curries were surprisingly good. The sauces tasted fresh and spicy.

I made both recipes with Lake Victoria perch and soba noodles but it was also a great combination. I think you can try it with other fish as well. And normally I prefer rice to curry but here I must confess that noodles match better!^^

cookbook challenge: pork curry with potatoes and nuts

Pork Curry with potatoes and nuts

Ingredients (4 portions)

500 g pork meat, sliced in dices

5 tbp fish sauce

100 g peanuts, half choppedand half milled

2 tbp oil

400 ml coconut milk

50 g tamarind paste

2 onions, sliced in dices

500 g potatoes, sliced in dices

2 tbp yellow curry paste

Salt and sugar

preparation

Marinate meat with the fish sauce for 10 minutes.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the pork in portions. Put the creamy half of the coconut milk in a pot, the rest add to the meat. Add the peanuts and let everything cook for about 20 minutes.

Mix tamarind paste with water. Let the rest of the coconut milk cook, stir in curry paste. Add the onions and let it cook shortly. Fill the meat and sauce in the pot and add the potato pieces. Press the tamarind paste through a sieve and add the liquid to the curry. Let it cook for another 15 minutes. Taste with salt and sugar.

creamy curry^^

The combination of spices and sauces is really interesting and tasted surprisingly great! But I replaced pork with turkey, so I had less cooking time but it worked out quite well^^

cookbook challenge: chicken curries

This time i tried out some curries with chicken. The dshes are very light and easy to cook^^
The Chicken Masala is also good to prepare and useful as a party snack. I like both recipes!

Red Chicken Curry with tomatoes

Incrediants (4 portions)

500 g chicken filet, sliced in stripes

2 garlic cloves, minced

10 g ginger, minced

2 tbs sesame oil

300 ml coconut milk

1 tbs tomato paste

2 tsp red curry paste

100 ml vegetable broth

500 g tomatoes, skinned & deseeded

3 stalks Thai Basil

3 stalks coriander

salt, pepper

juice of ½ lemon

preparation

Heat oil in a pan and fry garlic and ginger under stirring for 1 minute. Add the chicken stripes and fry it from every side. Stir in coconut milk, tomato paste, curry paste and broth and let it cook for about 10 minutes.

Add the tomatoes and heat them up shortly. Stir in basil and coriander. Taste curry with salt, pepper and lemon juice and serve it with basmati rice.

a fruity curry^^

~*~

Chicken Masala with fenugreek

Incrediants (4 portions)

15 g ginger

2 garlic cloves

½ bunch of mint

½ bunch of coriander

4 tsp fenugreek seeds

4 tbs vinegar

2 tbs oil

salt

2 tsp curcuma

1 tsp cloves, powder

1 tsp cardamom

4 chicken breast fillets

6 stalks of curry leaves

4 tbs cashew nuts

preparation

Mix ginger, garlic, mint, coriander, fenugreek seeds, vinegar, oil, salt, curcuma, cloves and cardamom to a paste.

Grease a gratin dish. Baste the chicken with spice paste, cut it into pieces and put it into the dish. Mix in the sliced curry leaves. Marinate the chicken over night.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Put the chicken on the middle bar for about 35 minutes. Then start the oven grill and let it fry for a few more minutes. Rost the cashew nuts till gold brown. Put the chicken masala into bowls and add the cashew nuts.

Serve with basmati rice or Chapati (bread).

[sorry, I forgot to take a picture >.<]

cookbook challenge: fish curry with courgettes

This time I wanted to try something with fish. I chose Lake Victoria perch for this dish because it has a good taste. It was really easy and fast to make because the fish has not much cooking time and the spices suited very well. It was quite a fresh dish but I like it^^

Fish Curry with courgettes

Incrediants (4 portions)

800 g fish filet, sliced in pieces

salt

juice of 1 lemon

2 tbs light soy sauce

½ bunch of spring onions, sliced in rings

3 stalks Thai basil

3 kaffir lime leaves, sliced in stripes

2 courgettes, cut in slices

400 ml coconut milk

3 tbs oil

2-3 tsp green curry paste

preparation

Marinate the fish with salt, lemon juice and soy sauce for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a deep pan. Take the fish out of the marinade and fry it for 4 minutes in the oil. Add coconut milk, curry paste and the fish marinade and let it cook. Then add spring onions, basil, lime leaves and courgettes and let it cook another 4 minutes. Taste with salt.

Serve it with basmati rice.

cookbook challenge: curries with aubergines

Next recipes are curries with aubergines. One aubergine is so big that I can use it to make two different curries^^

So here I go:

Green Tofu Curry

Incrediants (4 portions)

600 g Tofu, sliced in dices

4 tbs peanut oil

200 g brokkoli

2 small thai-aubergines, sliced in dices

salt

200g sugar sprouts

10 g ginger

2 onions, sliced in stripes

1 garlic clove

2 tbs green curry paste

150 ml vegetable stock

400 ml coconut milk

Pepper

1-2 tbs lime juice

2 tbs light soy sauce

preparation

Heat 2 tbs oil in a pan or wok, fry tofu on middle heat then take it out and keep it warm.

Heat the rest of the oil in the pan or wok and fry ginger and onions on middle heat while stiring. Press garlic in to the pan/wok, stir in curry paste and shortly fry it. Add the aubergines. stock and coconut milk and let it cook about 5 minutes.

Fold Brokkoli in to the pan, shortly cook it, then taste with salt, pepper, lime juice and soy sauce. Add sugar sprouts and tofu and heat it up in the curry.

Separate the curry into bowls and serve it with basmati rice.

This curry was really delicious. I love green curry in general but the combination of the spices and vegetables is good, I totally enjoyed it^^

~*~

Beef curry with thai-aubergines

Incrediants (4 portions)

450 g beef, sliced in pieces

4 kaffir lime leaves

150 g thai aubergines, cutted in halfs

1 tbs oil

3 tbs green curry paste

400 ml coconut milk

1-2 tbs fish sauce

1 tsp sugar

salt

preparation

Heat oil in a pan and rost the curry paste in it for 1-2 minutes till it starts smelling. Add half of the coconut milk and let it cook for 5 minutes, stir sometimes till the surface becomes oily.

Add beef, lime leaves, fish sauce, sugar and aubergines and let it cook for 3 minutes. Add the rest of the coconut milk and let it cook till the meat and the aubergines are done.

Taste the beef curry with salt and serve with basmati rice.

The beef came up very good, I was really surprised. There are not much incrediants but the taste is very good nevertheless. I didn't miss anything. The taste was intense but not to much of anything. The combination of curry paste, fish sauce and coconut milk is also pretty well, I will remember that for other recipes^^

cookbook challenge: potato & pumpkin curry

3 weeks ago I started with my cookbook challenge, so here are the first recipes I tried out^^

I started with two vegetarian curries because I still had a pumpkin at home and pumpkin is one of the best ingredients for curry I think^.^
I like both dishes quite much! Though in the second I would have prefered normal tomatoes to the cocktail ones. They don't taste very good when they are heated up.
(I just have to get better in making delicious looking food and photos^^;)


Potato curry with pumpkin and peanuts

Ingredients (4 portions)

600 g pumpkin in pieces

1 onion, peeled, sliced in stripes

800 g small potatoes, divided into eights (I used violett potatoes)

2 tbs oil

2 tsp ginger, gerieben

½ tsp chili powder

400 ml coconut milk

150 ml water

1 red chili, chopped in rings

1 tsp Garam Masala

2 tbs peanuts

2 tbs coriander, minced

preparation

Heat oil in a high pan, fry onions with ginger. Add chili powder and fry it shortly, then add the potatoes. Ablöschen with coconut milk and 150 ml water and cook it covered on middle heat about 10 minutes. Add pumpkin and let it cook covered another 10 minutes. Stir sometimes.

Add Garam Masala, chili rings and peanuts to the curry and let it boil open. Serve curry with coriander.

Pumpkin curry with tomatoes

Ingredients (4 portions)

250 g basmati rice

10 cocktail tomatoes

3 kaffir lime leaves

600 g pumpkin in pieces

2 tbs oil

1 tbs red curry paste

400 ml coconut milk

½ bunch of coriander

preparation

Cook rice.

Heat oil in a high pan and stir in the curry paste. Add 5 EL coconut milk and stir it with the curry paste. Cook it for one minute.

Add lime leaves, pumpkin and the rest of the coconut milk and let it cook on low heat for about 8 minutes while stiring. Add cocktail tomatoes and let them cook shortly.

Serve curry with coriander and rice.

Korean dinner at home

Last weekend I invited my aunt and her family for an asian dinner at my place. In the end, she and her husband and my cousin and his girlfriend came - I'm not used to cooking for so many people @.@

But I decided to make a Korean dinner^^

I prepared cabbage and aubergine Kimchi the days before and I made Bulgogi (marinated beef meat with onions) for the main course. It was my first time making it 8>.<8

But everything came out fine and eveybody liked it. My uncle had some problems with the chop sticks and he missed the soy sauce for the rice (what he told me afterwards >.>) but apart from that everyone was delighted with the Korean food^-^

Here I go:

Kimchi, Bulgogi & aubergine Kimchi

I missed to take single pictures >.<

But my aunt also offered me a gift: I got a package full of Asian food from the supermarket *lol*

The week before there were 'Asian weeks' in our town supermarket, they sold kind of noodles, sauces, snacks and so on. I got sesame oil, Teriyaki and Soy sauce, coconut milk, prawn crackers, thai crackers, Japanese crackers, oyster mushrooms and chinese mie noodles.

my asian food package^^

I don't need everything and I'm not such a fan of the crackers but it's very kind of my family and I'm sure I find some friend to whom I can offer some snacks XD

selfmade Kimchi & Kimchi Cream Pasta

These days I really got the idea to make things out of cabbage (especially because it's quite cheap at the moment), so I decided to try an easy and fast recipe for kimchi. Normally it takes a couple of days till the kimchi is ready but in my korean cookbook is also a recipe for kimchi which is quite mild and should be served fresh after making it. The cabbage just need one hour in salt to be ready for further preparation.

While the cabbage is resting I prepared some apples. The apples are mixed with ginger, garlic, chili and soy sauce. The mixture give the kimchi a fresh and sweet-sour taste. When the cabbage is ready the apples will be added and mixed up and after the final taste it is already ready to be served.

kimchi

I made quite a lot for only one person so I thought about dishes in which I can use the kimchi as well. Finally I found a good and easy recipe on one of my favourite blog sites Bento Lunch Blog:
Kimchi Cream Pasta

You just need noodles, one onion, a bit garlic, cherry tomatoes, kimchi and 1/4 l milk and maybe some soy sauce, salt and pepper for the taste. The vegetables and spices are pan-fried, deglazed with milk and finally the cooked noodles are add into the pan for some minutes. Then a delicious meal is ready!

the vegetables in the cream sauce

meal is ready!

It was also good to fill a bento!
Besides this good recipe the Bento Lunch Blog celebrates its 4th birthday! So congratulations!

many many sweets ♥ ♥ ♥

It's about time to blog about some new things and what was happening during the last weeks.

Two weeks ago I took a trip to Duesseldorf. Usually always something I'm looking forward to, but this time I had an job interview! I was so nervous... >.<

I don't know the result yet, but afterwards I took my time in the Japanese quarter in Duesseldorf. I had Lunch in my favourite restaurant 'Don' and had a 'Niku-Don' (thin sliced beef with special sauce and red ginger on a bowl of rice). As good as always (^o^) [unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I couldn't take a picture of it *sigh*]

Before heading back to the train station I also visited both of the Japanese-Korean supermarkets on the Immermannstraße to look for maybe new interesting products.

I really found some interesting stuff in the refrigerated counter: Matcha Chiffon Cake and Sweet Potatoe Dessert. Unfortunately I was too sated from lunch that I didn't try one of them. But they looked very delcious and I will taste them the next time!

Then I was surprised by the many kinds of Mochis they have sold. Besides the ones I already know I found Mochis filled with pumpkin, Matcha-Mochis filled with Anko and Pandan-Coconut Mochis. I had to buy all of them XD

The pumpkin and Pandan Mochis I have already tried and especially the Pandan Mochis are so tasty X3

Besides I got a new brand of Instant Matcha Latte. It's also good but I miss the last one. I don't know why they don't sell it anymore.

Mochis & Matcha Latte

In the Asian Supermarket on the main street and I bought some usual stuff like rice and tofu to refill my supply but they had also some special offer for 'Moon cakes'. Moon cakes are a traditonal sweet for the harvest-moon-festival in Soth Korea and China. These festival was held the week before and so now they sold all the stuff for lower prices ^.^

I couldn't resist and bought some little cake with Anko-filling.

Chinese Moon Cake

So after the job interview the day was really nice, ha ha.