How to Make your own Dried Apples

Apples are currently in season here in Korea, which means we are able to buy them without the usual $10 a pop price tag that that comes with them at any other time of the year. The apples used in this blog post were bought from a little farm stall near Naejangsan National Park.  

These dried apples were made with a dehydrator we were given by Farmboy's school, (here is a link to buying them on Gmarket) but you can easily do the same thing using your oven. 

It takes a while for the apples to get really soft and chewy (anything from 12 - 24 hours) but it's definitely worth the wait, and using a dehydrator instead of an oven will make your life easier. If you want them to be crunchy instead of chewy, then leave them in for even longer.

So far we have dried apples, pears (these have been the best so far!) and persimmons (another fruit that is also currently in season) and I plan on trying to make doggy snacks out of chicken breasts for our pup #ShadowTheJindo. I am also going to try my hand at making Biltong (the South African equivalent of Beef Jerkey) so let me know in the comments below if you can recommend any great recipes for Biltong!

If you have a dehydrator, the process is very simple.

1. Peel your fruit.

2. Chop/Cut/Core your fruit into small pieces. If you want to make apple rings then you will need to get hold of an apple corer. I was only able to find an apple corer than also slices (the green thing pictured below).

3. Place your fruit pieces as close together as possible, without actually having any of the pieces touch each other.

4. Turn on and adjust the temperature if your dehydrator has a temperature control switch. Turn up your dehydrator the the highest temperature (the higher the temperature the faster the fruit will dry out).

5. Leave for 24 - 48 hours. The first batch of fruit (pictured in this post) was only dehydrated over nights (about 15 hours) and so the apples were still quite soft and squidgy. We made another batch using persimmons and left those over night and the following day and they came out crunchy and delicious. I definitely recommend leaving them as long as possible.

6. Place the dried fruit in airtight container. You can use an ordinary ziplock bag and a straw to suck out all the air. Store in a cool, dark place. Your fruit will keep for a good couple of months (although ours doesn't last longer than a few days as we eat it all!).

Thanks to a friends suggestion, we just finished a batch of dried apples covered in cinnamon. Out whole house smells like Christmas and those apple pieces were absolutely amazing! Experiment with different spices, you can't really go too wrong.

If you don't have a dehydrator you can theoretically use your oven, but I'm not sure whether you'd actually want to leave your oven on overnight while you're sleeping? It is possible with the oven, but using a dehydrator is much easier. You can buy a dehydrator like ours on Gmarket (click here) for about W30 000.

How To Make Garam Masala Spice for curries

Garam Masala is a blend of ground spices used to add flavor to Indian curries. I made a delicious butter curry recently, and the main ingredient was Garam Masala. Living here in South Korea means limited access to foreign food stores, so I had to make my own version of the spice using what I had on hand in my grocery cupboard. All I can say is the aromas given off from this mixture is heavenly and will make your home smell incredible. 

There are many varaiations of this spice, but this is my version using what I had on hand in my grocery cupboard.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole coriander seeds

1/4 cup whole cumin seeds

5 cloves

2 star anissed

4 bay leaves

8 green cardamom pods

2 sticks of cinnamon

2 dried red chiles (use more if you prefer more of a kick)

Method

1. Dry roast the larger seeds separately to the smaller ingredients to avoid burning.

2. Once cooled combine in grinder until a fine powder is formed.

3. Store in an airtight container (click here to see how to make this gold animal glass jars)

And now you have your very own Garam Masala to add to curries. I will be posting a delicious recipe for Butter Chicken Curry soon.

Happy cooking!

DIY How to make Fig Jam

Even though this jam is not banting friendly (if you haven't heard of the Banting diet make sure to read this post) but because it's fig season here in Korea, one has to improvise. Storm and I decided not to experiment with Xylitol just yet and made it with good old fashioned sugar. This recipe is incredibly easy to follow and will have your home smelling festive in no time at all. And of course, the jam itself tastes heavenly too.

What you need

Saucepan

Figs (we had about 8 figs)

1/4 cup brown sugar (adjust for the amount of figs...more sugar for more figs)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

a small piece of ginger, finely chopped

Directions

Quarter your figs. Add the figs to a pan and simmer on low heat while adding the sugar and ginger. Keep stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved. You can use a hand held blender to puree your jam, but it's not really necessary. 

When the sugar has completely dissolved add the cinnamon. Keep stirring on a low heat, making sure not to let the mixture burn.

Once everything has dissolved remove from the heat and allow to cool. 

Place in sterilised glass jars. There is an actual method to sterilizing glass jars properly, but we were on a tight schedule and so just soaked the jars in boiling water before use.

Best kept in the fridge and served with cheese!

You can store your jam in these cute gold animal glass jars (DIY coming to the blog soon) or in any glass jar you may have at home.

Roasted Chickpeas {recipe}

A friend introduced me to this hearty & healthy snack a few weeks ago, and since then I have been trying to perfect my own version. Chickpeas, also called Garbanzo beans, are high in protein as well as being low GI, as a snack they keep you feeling fuller for longer, helping to keep hunger pangs at bay. They are also said to lower cholesterol, so all in all a very good addition to your diet. As with most legumes they are higher in carbs, so don't eat a whole bowl by yourself, sharing is caring!

I have only ever used chickpeas to make hummus, and even then I would cheat by using the can variety, which saves the hours of soaking that goes into the dry ones. Here in Korea it can be rather difficult getting your hands on anything that is not a staple of the Korean diet, and as far as I can tell, my Korean co workers have never heard of chickpeas. I did however find a 1kg bag of them at the Asia Mart, opposite the Jeonju Bus Terminal for W6 000. 

You need to preferably soak chickpeas overnight to soften. If you don't have time to leave them overnight, they can be boiled on the stove too. Boiling on the stove will still take about 2 hours to soften. Click here for more ways to cook them without soaking overnight. 

After soaking, discard the water (you will notice it has a brownish tinge to it) and place the beans in a large bowl. Now you add your choice of seasoning. 

To roast the chickpeas you need oil and your choice of seasoning spices. I used Grapeseed oil as we didn't have any olive oil. I then used salt & blackpepper, Ina Paarmans Chicken spice (we stocked up on Ina Paarmans and other seasonings when we came over from South Africa), Robertsons Salt & Vinegar and celery salt. Combine the oil and spices with the chickpeas, rolling them around until coated.

Then pop them on a roasting pan, and roast on a high heat for about 30 minutes. Make sure to keep checking on the oven so they don't burn. I used a sheet of tin foil to cover my baking tray to avoid the clean up that usually follows roasting.

Remove from the oven and enjoy. They are best enjoyed straight out of the oven while still warm.

Blueberry Chocolate Banana Bread {recipe}

After the success of my last cranberry chocolate chip banana bread recipe (and the fact that I had 5 bananas that were so black and nasty, they were about the walk themselves outside) I adapted the recipe to include some blueberries. It's blueberry season here in Korea, and boy oh boy did those blueberries not jus make this my best banana bread yet! 

I love that this recipe is so versatile. You can change up the flour (I substituted some buck wheat flour in this mixture to reduce the carb count...hubby is still not sure about me trying to make sweet treats healthy so I am going about it slowly so hopefully he doesn't notice). You can also use any other fruit you would prefer instead of the blueberries. Cranberries have worked well, apple would be good too. And you can add in any extras that yo fancy too, like almonds, walnuts or cinnamon.

PREP: 5 MINS COOKING TIME: 30MINS - 1 HOUR 

-it again took a VERY long time for my bread to cook, but that is because I have a little oven that gets hot very quickly and tends to burn things on the top without cooking through. I would put the timer on for 20 minutes and then check your bread every 5 minutes after that. You will be able to see whats going on in your oven, and you also know if you have a decent 'will-cook-through-without-burning' oven. You want the bread to be moist, but cooked. Dry banana bread is horrid. So keep testing with a sharp knife. If it pulls away clean, your bread is ready. If it comes away with even a little gooey dough on the knife, leave it in for a few more minutes.

INGREDIENTS

-3/4 ripe bananas, smashed (my banana were black black black, had been frozen and then thawed and worked absolutely perfectly! No need to freeze yours, mine were just sitting in the freezer until I could find a use for them).

-1/3 cup coconut oil (you can use butter if you don't have coconut oil)

-1/2 cup brown sugar sugar 

-1 egg, beaten

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-pinch of salt

-1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I used 1 cup of regular cake flour and half a cup of buckwheat flour to make it a tiny bit less full of carbs)

-handful of blueberries

-handful (and a half!) of chocolate chips/any chocolate

METHOD

No need for a mixer, a bowl and wooden spoon are more than adequate. 

Preheat your oven to 180C. 

With a wooden spoon, mix your coconut oil into the mashed banana. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, and sprinkle in the chocolate chips and cranberries (and anything else you feel like adding...flaked almonds & cinnamon are good extras). 

Pour the mixture into a buttered (I used coconut oil again) loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour, placing on a rack to cool.

Let me know if you try this at home, you can tag me on Instagram (@roxypearce) or on Facebook :)

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Cookies {recipe}

This  yummy cookie recipe is simple to prepare and all the ingredients can be found here in South Korea. I ordered my cranberries off Gmarket (click here) and the white chocolate was given to me by a friend (she also got it here in South Korea, I think at one of the foreign food markets in Itaewon) you could use any chocolate, but it's baking chocolate that gives these cookies their creamy chocolatey taste.

Ingredients

1 cup butter softened to room temperature

1/2 cup coconut oil (used in place of shortening)

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons corn starch (also called corn powder in Korea)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate (chips or a bar chopped up)

1 teaspoon salt

{These ingredients made a lot of dough. Enough for me to make about 25 cookies, fill a large dish for a cheesecake base and still have enough dough frozen for about another 15 cookies. The great thing is you can freeze any left over dough for up to 3 months.}

Method

1. Mix butter, coconut oil and sugars until light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.

3. Combine flour, corn starch, baking soda and salt and mix together.

4. Mix dry ingredients slowly into wet ingredients and blend well.

5. Dough should not be sticky (mine was because of the coconut oil and the humidity here in Korea) so I added a little more flour. If your dough is crumbly add in 1 teaspoon of water until it just holds together.

6. Add in chocolate until evenly distributed.

7. Roll into a log ( I had to to put my into the fridge to harden slightly as my dough was very sticky, simply place it into the fridge for 30 mins to make it easier to handle). Wrap in cling wrap, place in the freezer for 2 hours (it can be kept for up to 3 months).

8. When ready to bake, heat up your oven to 180C and slice your dough log into small round disks and place onto wax paper. Bake for 15 minutes.

Allow to cool and serve.

*please excuse this blurry photo

I also used this dough as a base for the cheescake I made for Farmboys birthday. It worked like a charm! I will be posting the recipe for it soon, but here is what the dough looked like when rolled out and placed in a dish, baked in the oven for 15 minutes and waiting for it its cheesecake layer:

Happy baking!

Tuna & Broccoli Quinoa Burgers {recipe}

I don't do very much cooking at home, I much prefer baking. But on the odd occasion when I do whip out the frying pan, I'm not scared to try new recipes. Especially at 10 o'clock at night. This meal was one of them and this time I got it right. So right in fact that Farmboy ate 9 of the 12 patties.

I adapted the original recipe from here to my kitchen and ingredients here in South Korea. The two pictures I have of them don't do them any justice so you'll have to take my word for it when I say these little patties are tasty beyond measure and so easy to make.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 cup diced broccoli
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 1 cup drained & flaked tuna or salmon (I used a big tin of tuna)
• 1/2 cup rolled oats, mixed in a blender to create a fine powder (the original recipe calls for almond flower or gluten free bread crumbs)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Sea salt & fresh ground black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1-3 tablespoons coconut oil for frying

Method

1. Cook your quinoa (I boiled it as per this great recipe) and leave to cool.

2. In a medium sized skillet, sauté the broccoli and onions in 1-2 teaspoons of coconut oil over medium heat until they are begin to turn soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the quinoa, broccoli and onions, tuna, oats and garlic. Season with lots of sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

4. Stir in the eggs.

5. Warm a tablespoon of coconut oil in a skillet.

6. Measure out a 1/4 cup of the mixture and press into a patty shape. Gently ease onto the skillet. 

7. Reduce temperature to medium low, and fry the patties for 3-5 minutes on each side, or until they are golden brown. Keep adding more coconut oil to the pan as needed. Serve warm or at room temperature with slices of lemon and sweet chile sauce.

How to make your own cottage cheese {recipe}

This is one of the easiest things I have ever made, and I was able to do it right here in South Korea with only 2 ingredients! It's super easy to do and so yummy, we won't ever be buying store bought cottage cheese again.

Ingredients

2 liters of milk (I used whatever milk I could find in the stores here as I can't understand the Korean labels, but you could try it with full cream, half fat and fat free milk)

1/3 cup vinegar (you can use either white vinegar or apple cider vinegar. I've made it with both and haven't noticed a difference).

Directions

Heat up the milk to 120F or 45C in a large pot or pan. I didn't have a thermometer and so heated up the milk until it was a hot, shower temperature. You can add salt/pepper/rosemary/herbs to the milk to flavour your cheese. You should be able to touch the milk without scalding yourself. Turn off the heat and add the vinegar, stirring slowly so as not to break the curds. It will start to curdle right away.

Cover and leave to sit for about half and hour.

Drain the curds and whey using a muslin cloth, or any other piece of cotton fabric. Drain completely. What will be left is your cottage cheese. Store in an air tight container. If it's a little on the dry side, you can add cream or more milk to your mixture. You will also need to add salt as the taste will be a little bland. It should keep for about 10 days, but ours has never lasted more than a day, it's just so good!

Serve with sweet chile sauce and fresh coriander for maximum yumminess. 

Peanut Butter, Banana, Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip cookies {recipe}

Oh my these cookies are yummy (freshly baked as well as eaten just out of the mixing bowl). I found the original recipe on one of my favourite food blog's Sally's Baking Addiction when looking for a use for my brown bananas and oats (or oatmeal). These cookies are wholesome (they are in fact gluten free as they contain no flour) and are super easy to whip together. They contain no flour, sugar, milk or eggs.

I had them for breakfast (only one morning as I had eaten just about all of them the night before!) and they gave me so much energy, and kept me feeling full for the morning, thus stopping me from reaching for all the snacks in my staff room. Plus, they are filled with only good & healthy ingredients so you can absolutely justify eating cookies for breakfast.

An important thing to note is you need instant oats for this, not rolled oats (but you can whizz your whole, rolled oats in a blender on high for a few minutes to get instant oats). 

Happy baking!

x

Ingredients

• 2 and 1/3 cups (190g) quick oats* (not whole oats)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (250g) peanut butter (or almond butter as the original recipe called for)
• 1/4 cup (82g) pure maple syrup (or honey)
• 2 large ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup)
• 1/3 cup (60g) dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup (33g) sliced almonds (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C degrees. Oil a large cookie sheet (I use coconut oil and set aside.

Combine all of the ingredients into a large bowl. Using a large rubber spatula or wooden spoon, mix until all of the ingredients are thoroughly combined. The dough will be sticky and thick.

Roll into balls using a teaspoon to help shape your cookies.  Drop this amount onto a cookie tray and slightly flatten the tops into desired thickness. They won't spread in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes until the edges are very slightly brown. Don't bake any longer or the cookies will taste dry. I took my cookies out right before they started going brown, as I like these cookies chewy. After removing from the oven, allow to cool completely (if you can stop yourself from tucking in!).

These cookies will stay fresh at room temperature for 1 week and can be frozen up to 3 months.

*adapted from the original recipe over on Sally's Baking Addiction