Meatball (Ikea style)

My kids simply adores meatballs from Ikea and every visit is a MUST have for them.  Each can easily polish up 20 meatballs at one go.  I have tried out the sauce and found that it is relatively close to what they ate and they all gaves a thumbs up for this.

So here I am preparing this Meatball (Ikea style) for my princess who no longer has time to go for them these days.

Findings: I was a little too heavy handed on my flour measurement resulting in a too thick sauce, so make sure you stick to it.

What you need:
Meatballs

250gm minced beef
250gm minced pork
40g A1 sauce
1 egg
20g breadcrumbs
1 med onion, dicely finely
butter, margarine or oil
Salt and pepper

Method:

Brown onion with butter.

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly.

Shape the mixture into round balls or to your prefered size.

Fry them slowly with butter till it is brown.

Set aside.


Source: Ikea friends

What you need:
Cream sauce:

50ml cream
150ml beef stock
1 tsp Chinese soya sauce
2 tbsp white flour
2 tbsp butter
Salt, white pepper to taste

Method:

Warm beef stock in a pan.

Add cream and thicken with white flour if preferred.

Season well with salt and pepper.

Serve the meatballs with the sauce, freshly boiled potatoes,
lingonberry jam and salad.

Eggless Matcha Ice Cream

Finally, my cough went away and I am really happy.  That means I don't have to abstain from alot of food that considered bad for the cough.

My ice cream machine had been on a long holiday and it is time to move those gears again.  

With this crazy humid weather, I was craving for Matcha Ice Cream and Eggless Matcha Ice Cream sounds perfect after all, I needed those eggs for a bake.  On hand, I was also given a bottle of Korean Matcha from a friend.  Well, I usually used Japanese Matcha but I am too lazy to make a trip down to the Japanese supermarket.  I wish they will set up one here together departmental store. haiz.

Well, I can have the whole tub by myself as my family does not appreciate this flavour.

What you need:

100ml fresh milk

50g castor sugar

7g corn starch

8g matcha powder

100ml heavy cream

Method:

Mix sugar with matcha powder.

In a saucepan, combine all ingredients and cook until it has a thick consistency.  Remove from heat and let it cool.

Whisk heavy cream until stiff.

Fold in the cooled mixture.

Pour into the ice cream maker and following manufacture instruction.


Enjoy!

Warabimochi わらび餅

Warabimochi わらび餅 is a jelly-like confection made from bracken starch and covered or dipped in kinako.

Bracken starch is hard to come by and many has substitute it with either potato starch, corn starch or Kuzu powder aka arrowroot powder.

For me, since I have kuzu powder on hand, which I wanted to make another dessert for it but my phone crashed and I lost that recipe and many contacts as well.

Years ago, my friend Rei actually made some and we really like it and making this now, reminds me of her.  I wonder how is she coping now.

Rei if you are reading this, please contact me.  

Findings: I can't really recall how was the texture that R made.  For this one, it is really refreshing to eat it cold.   The kinako powder gives this dessert a nice aroma and the black sugar syrup matches perfectly.

On its own, it is rather bland though.

What you need: 

100g kuzu powder

400ml water

60g fine sugar

Method:

Mix kuzu powder with sugar.

Add in water and stir until lumpfree.  Sieve.

Cook in a pot, keep stiring until the mixture turned to transparent.

Remove and pour into a small plate.

Submerge the plate into cold water and let it stand until cool.

Remove from water and drain a little.

Cut into cubes.

Serve with black sugar and kinako powder.

Perfect for a hot day!

Enjoy.