Potstickers - Guo Tie (with the Happy Call Pan)

Teh:

This is an amazingly simple recipe for the Potstickers (Guo Tie) skin. The result is quite similar to those sold outside! It's totally worth the effort. For the ingredients, you can put anything you like inside. Bear in mind for vegetables, they need to be cooked first before wrapping. For meat, you can use raw ones since the steaming process when you cook the potstickers will also cook the meat. Most importantly, the ingredients need to be dry. Best if there is no seeping liquid.

Ingredients (to make 15 pot stickers):
150g of Hong Kong Flour
100ml of warm water
A pinch of salt and sugar

Method:
Mix all ingredients into a soft dough. It is ok if the dough sticks to your hand. Let it rest for 15 - 30 minutes before kneading it on the table (remember to dust the table with flour first!). Divide the dough into portions and roll it out as thin as you can manage. Cut the dough with a round cutter. Or in my case, i just used a small bowl to cut the shape.

I suggest rolling out the dough and wrapping it concurrently for best results. If you wait until you cut out all the skin, they may end up sticking together despite being dusted with flour. It'll be great if you can rope in a helper! One to roll the dough and one to wrap. Teamwork!

Once you put the ingredients onto the skin, close it up by pinching the sides. Pan fry them with some oil in the Happy Call Pan. When they are a little brown at the bottom, add water to the pan (to cover about 1/4 height of the pan) and cover it. This will steam the skin and cook the meat (if any). When all the water has evaporated and the skin of the potstickers is soft, continue to pan fry them until the bottom is of golden brown in colour. That's when they are done! Dip them into vinegar with ginger strips. Viola! Yummy potstickers.

Potstickers - Guo Tie

Happy Call Pan - Okonomiyaki Noodles

Teh:

I decided to try cook this Jap street food because my little sister brought me to eat the one at Takashimaya basement 2. Apparently she is a fan of it. After standing there and watching the chef stir fry the noodles, crack the egg, sprinkle the cheese and do all the necessary flipping, i decided i can do that too! Armed with the Happy Call Pan that is perfect for this flipping job (no oil!), all i needed to do was get the Okonomiyaki sauce and the necessary ingredients. Without further ado, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
- Yellow noodles (as much as you want to eat) (I know the right noodles to use is the yakisoba but yellow noodles works fine too!)
- Cabbage (same rule as above, as much as you want to eat)
- Meat (Any type of meat you want for your noodles. You can even put mock meat. Whatever pleases you!)
- Okomomiyaki Sauce (I got mine from Isetan Supermarket. $5.90 for 300g. I'm sure it is easily available at any Jap mart.)
- Japanese Mayonnaise
- Egg (optional)
- Mozarella Cheese (optional)
- Plain flour 1 tbsp (for the base batter)
- Water

Okonomiyaki Sauce (Left), Jap Mayo (Right)

This is the sauce i was talking about. I'm quite sure this is the authentic taste! The jap mayo really gave this dish a boost in flavour. These two definitely go together.

Noodles with Cabbage and Meat

First, pan fry any meat you are using in the happy call pan until it is cooked. Next, throw in the cabbage to stir fry and soak up any of the meat juice left. I added some Okonomiyaki sauce to the cabbage to enhance its flavour. If you like the taste to be stronger, add more sauce. Cook the cabbage until soft. Take note to have minimum liquid in the pan when you add the noodles next. Having too much liquid in the pan will cause the noodles to soften too much. Throw in the meat to stir fry everything together. Add Okonomiyaki sauce for flavour.

Base batter

The ratio i used is 1 part flour to 4 parts water. So with 1 tbsp of flour, add 4 tbsp of water. Stir well to eliminate any lumps. When you are ready to cook, pour part of the batter onto the hot pan.

Batter, noodles, eggs and morzarella cheese

When the batter is set, add noodles onto it. If you want egg, make a small well in the middle of the noodles and crack an egg in. Break it and let it ooze through the noodles. If you want cheese, spread the shredded morzarella cheese on top.

Okomomiya Noodles after flipping

Next comes the tricky part if you are not using the Happy Call Pan. You need to flip the noodles over so that the cheese can melt! I suggest you try to do that with 2 frying spatula like the chefs do at Taka basement. If you aren't confident, start with a smaller mass of noodles. If all else fails, do it like the carrot cake man. Flip portion by portion. If you are using the Happy Call Pan, close the pan and flip it over. It takes about 2 minutes or less for the cheese to melt and brown. Turn off the fire.

Okonomiyaki Noodles

For the final touch, add mayo in top of the melted cheese (or egg). The mayo will be thick. Just smear it around with the back of the soup. Add a layer of Okonomiyaki Sauce on top. Serve immediately.

There are some other things you can serve with the leftover Okonomiyaki sauce and mayo. Like Panko Eggs or Potato Coquette. That'll be another recipe for another time!

Happy Call Pan - Salmon Head

Teh:

Yesterday i finally got around to buying a salmon head to try on the Happy Call Pan. I will give you my verdict now. You can decide if you want to look at the pictures below later. *Drum rollllllll* I prefer the salmon head that was grilled in the oven (http://comingsoonlah.blogspot.sg/2012/03/grilled-salmon-head-non-complicated.html). No doubt the cooking time is considerably shortened using the Happy Call Pan (it only takes about 5-7 minutes), somehow the crispiness of the salmon skin was not as satisfying when compared to it being baked in the oven. Imagine your mum's pan fried fish. Now imagine the real grilled salmon head at japanese restaurants. That's the difference. However, the meat was tender and melt in your mouth. 


Here's how i did it:
I mentioned in my previous Happy Call Pan (HCP) post (http://comingsoonlah.blogspot.sg/2012/04/happy-call-pan-grilled-mackerel-and.html) that oil will drip out of the hole (meant for the steam to come out) if you flip it to cook. So i did not attempt to flip the pan this time. I turned the fish head manually. After washing and drying the fish, i sprinkled some salt all over the skin and on the meat. I put the HCP on medium heat (and waited for it to heat up this time) with some oil before i put the salmon head in, skin down. I cooked the skin part longer than the meat part because i want the skin to be crispy and i was confident the heat trapped on the pan when it is shut will cook the meat. Flipping the head onto the meat side for it to cook was more for browning it. When you see that the skin is nice and browned, flip the head over manually and cook it for another 1 - 2minutes. Serve hot. You can squeeze some lemon juice on it if you want. 

Maybe we can save the salmon head for the oven. If it is for cooking salmon fillet, the HCP should be a pan that gets the job done in a jiffy.

Halved Salmon Head

HCP - Salmon Head

HCP - Salmon Head

Happy Call Pan - Grilled Mackerel and Popcorn

Teh:

My colleagues were nice enough to buy me a Happy Call Pan (HCP) for my birthday. My first attempt with the grilled salmon fillet was less than ideal because i felt "cheated" the oil drips out from the steam hole. It is not possible to flip the pan over and cook because the oil will drip out and land on the stove! Nevertheless, the crispy skin on the fillet made me want to try the pan out with various food.

While at Sheng Siong yesterday, i found frozen mackerel. They were cheap! 8 fishes (small to medium size) for $5 (800g). The idea of having grilled saba fish was a tempting! I decided to cook 4 pcs while they were still frozen. I didn't see the point of thawing them. Isn't this a good way to test how well the pan conducts heat and cook food at amazing speed? I proceeded to rub some salt all over the frozen fishes, drizzled some oil onto the pan (yes shame on me i didn't even bother to heat up the pan in the name to test its awesomeness), and placed the fishes in it. On medium heat, i cooked each side for 5 minutes. You can flip the fish (not the pan!) when one side is browned and crispy.

Happy Call Pan - Mackerel

Happy Call Pan - Mackerel (close up)

Verdict: Nice moist fish. 10 minutes in total for 4 frozen mackerel was enough. Although the skin was not as crispy as the salmon's, its understandable. There's a lot of fats in salmon but not as much in mackerel. Please note that even though there is no oil splatter, the oil fumes coming out from the steam-hole is still enough to make the kitchen feel oily. I guess its inevitable.


Just for fun, i made popcorn on the same day with HCP. I did not add any oil at all to the pan. The corn got popped in 5 minutes. I added some salt to the popcorn and gave it a shake in the closed pan. Relatively effortless. However this can be done in your normal average non-stick pan with a cover.

Happy Call Pan Popcorn

I will continue to experiment with the HCP!