Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #53: Spaghetti Bolognese

Ooh i know this one! This is like one of the most standard things to cook in the UK. I suspect this one will be quite different from what i'd make though... I wonder if mama will actually use garlic for once...

Boil some pasta!

PRO TIP i actually did this at the end when everything else was stewing, not at the start of the recipe, that's how you get cold pasta. 

Remove the pasta!

Thats a lotta spaghetti because i wanna use up this whole carton of passata while im doing it.

Slice an onion!

So there's a disturbing lack of vegetables here, there's just mince, onion and garlic.

Slice!

Can't wait to finish having to photograph an onion 3 times as i chop it

Chop up!

Cops going through my phone: "we got another onion weirdo"

Chop up!

Mama said to chop 1 garlic clove, so naturally I did 3. Yeah, I'm tough. I'm a tough guy. I eat some garlic like its not even a big deal to me.

Saute!

Normally I'd use beef, or beef&pork but the recipe is 100% pork mince, we're frying that and the onions and garlic till they get slightly browned.

Stew!

OK so, I don't know what i expected... red wine i guess? oregano? olive? beef stock? Nope, our sauce is just tomato puree, oyster sauce and a bay leaf.

Finish!

****

You know what, its pretty good. Do i think I can make a better one? yea probably. But as someone who normally make bolognese with beef mince and tons of leftover vegetables, the simple tomatoey pork and onion sauce was kind of a nice novelty. Not nearly as bland as I expected.

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #52: Japanese Hamburg Steak

NIHON NO HANBAGU

the japanese don't have handbags

Slice an onion!

the onion thing AGAIN

Slice!

im going to chop it as fine as i can

Chop up!

this seems like too much onion honestly, lets not make one of the mistakes we made last handborg, ill just use half of whats here and store the rest for later

Melt the butter!

bravely trying to snap a photo before it all melts

Saute!

errr i didnt take a photo here so heres another representation of what half the onion looks like but its raw here pretend its not. I decided to fry up all the onions though and split them after. I can sprinkle the rest on some noodles or something mm

Add the ingredients!

So here we are mixing.. half a pack of beef mince (about 350g), egg, breadcrumbs, the fried onions, and a seemingly generous helping of some DARK MISO. I managed to get a jar of red miso. Is that close enough? Its probably close enough.

Knead!

BEEF HANDS PHONE NO BEEF HANDS ON THE PHONE, KEITAI O BAGA SHINAIDE KUDASAI

Make shape!

Last time i undercooked these so im gonna cook them for AGES and not crowd the pan, so in an effort to still be kinda lazy im gonna make 2 giant fuckoff burgers

Pan fry!

fryin

Stew!

So uhh this bits interesting, we gotta make our own japanese style gravy. I'm just going to reuse the pan with all the burger juice. The game doesnt say but apparantly we use dashi stock to start with (with extra hot water) and then we add in sugar, soy sauce, mirin and potato starch(i use cornflour). In my haste i kinda made the cornflour lumpy so I ran it through a sieve at the end and into a pouring jug.

Grate!

We can skip this step because we still have.. SPICY DAIKON PASTE (though not much)

Arrange the plate!

I was GOING to do broccoli as a side but I took too long to make this and it started getting mouldy :#( So instead I still have that cabbage to finish up, I made a simple slaw with cabbage, carrot, coriander, lime juice, sesame and pinakurat (spicy coconut vinegar) and also some sweetcorn.

Finish!

*****

Wow! This one seemed like it was going a bit all over the place, plus my kitchen looked like a bomb hit it. But I cooked it through and i really like the sauce. That is one good hammbourgeoisie.

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #51: Shrimp Gyoza

 These are steamed dumplings, all dim sum style.

Peel the shrimp!

I'm like done peeling shrimp. Retired from that game. These are peeled and cooked.

Chop up!

chopping these up smaller feels like a crime when you can just buy smaller prawns for cheaper, but i already had these as leftovers

Slice up!

Sure ill slice.. slice open this big huge can of pre-chopped bamboo shoots

Slice!

Now they are smaller

Chop up!

instead of more bamboo slicing heres the bullshit im up to today! Im fresh outta gyoza skins but i finally found proper spring roll wrappers, so im folding them into quarters and cutting them into little circles because im a gennnniouesse

Grate!

add some grated ginger

Add the ingredients!

We're mixing unspecified amounts of minced prawns, bamboo shoots, grated ginger, egg white, soy sauce and corn flour. 

Knead!

Hmm even with a fair bit of corn flour, is it supposed to be this... wet? probably not but this recipe doesn't involve pre-frying so we're working with what we got.

Fold the dumplings!

Hmm these wraps are sorta oiled up and not ideal for sealing into a gyoza but im making it work. this mix is just getting waterier and waterier though.

Steam!

Yeah they look alright in there dont they.

Finish!

* 

OH SHIT OH FUCK I AM NOT A "gennnniouesse" I FUCKED UP, MAMA IS COMING THIS WAY AND SHE LOOKS ANGRY

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #50: Fried Gyoza

 GUESS WHAT SUCKAS I actually froze half the gyozas i made back in recipe #6 since they were the same fillings. Get ready for some RECYCLED FOOTAGE so as to keep in with my format I guess.

Slice!

deja vu

Chop up!

only 90s kids will remember chopping garlic

Add the ingredients!

What was it again...? beef mince, cabbage, garlic, sesame oil, salt and pepper.

Knead!

Ah man remember when I made all those flipping gyoza wrappers by hand, my bones have only just recovered.

Fold the dumplings!

TIME SKIP!!! here they are defrosted out the freezer.

Deep fry!

Lookin' crispy as

Finish!

****

They get kind of a hard crunchy shell, especially since my homemade pastry was thick but idk i really liked it. The filling tastes really nice and goes great with a soy sauce + vinegar dip.

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #49: Pork and Vegetable Soup

Doing this recipe ahead of schedule (but you wont know cause I publish them in order hehhehh) because I managed to source black konnyaku and daikon radish. Get in!!

Chop up!

overpreparedness strikes again! Also spring onions were 5p a bundle at tesco so i cashed in

Chop up!

I have to resist my weird urge to chop my vegs really small. 

Chop up!

They're listed as "mooli" in my local tesco because there's more of an indian influence around here. Same vegetable though!

Cut!

Check this out! its so rubbery and weird. The game didn't show what type of pork or how to prepare it, but I've chopped some pork loin into strips as well.

Saute!

This smells really good.

Stew!

Added water, the last of my white miso paste and soy sauce.

Finish

***

This one was fun to do, simple but it's got ingredients ive never used before! TBH considering how hard it is to find whole konjac/konnyaku like this i don't really think you are missing that much, its kind of a firm flavourless jelly. Similar to korean rice cakes, but a little more like a mouthful of pork fat. OK i made that sound bad but I think its pleasant and inoffensive. My favourite part of the dish was the mooli/daikon radish actually, it absorbed a lot of the pork broth and adds a little crunchy tartness.