Mountain Yam, Shio Kombu, and Ground Chicken Patties 山藥塩昆布雞肉餅

Instagram gives me a lot of inspirations especially when it comes to cooking. One time I was scrolling through other people's cooking videos, and one caught my attention. The person used ground chicken mixed with corn and corn starch, perhaps other ingredients and sear into patties.  

I was like that could work! So I started imagining what would go well with ground chicken patties. Since ground chicken can be on the soft side, I figured adding mountain yam cubes should bring a slight crunch to the patties. Then I turned that idea into reality, and it has been tested and proven that this recipe works. Not only served as a side dish, also great as an otsumami, something that goes well with drinks (don't drink and drive).

Mountain yam, shio kombu, and ground chicken patties 山藥塩昆布雞肉餅 - 

Ingredients (about 8 medium patties)?

• 310 grams ground chicken
• 3/4 loosely packed cup peeled and cubed mountain yam
• 3/4 loosely packed cup shio kombu
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Some dried seaweed flakes

How?

Peel and cube the mountain yam. Transfer that to a larger mixing bowl.

Also add to the bowl, shio kombu, ground chicken, and corn starch. Mix till evenly blended. Note that the mixture is really sticky, so perhaps wear gloves or use spoons to do the job.

Take out a pan and drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Switch to medium heat and wait till the oil gets warm. Use a spoon and scoop the chicken mixture to the pan. The shape doesn't have to be perfect. In fact, it might look like a small mound instead.

Do not move the chicken in the beginning. Just let them sear till the bottom turns golden. Then it'll be ok to flip them or change sides and continue to sear till golden brown. 

Some mountain yam cubes will fall out of the patties, which is totally fine. Simply let the cubes sear on the side. Pick them out earlier to prevent burning and serve along the patties later on.

When ready, scoop out the chicken patties and transfer to serving plate. Dust with dried seaweed flakes before serving.

If you don't like it too oily, you can let the chicken patties rest on top of the paper towel lined on the plate first to absorb excess oil.

One very important thing, handling mountain yam might cause itchy hands for some people. That's the case for me too. You can wear a glove when peeling and cutting the mountain yam. I was too lazy and worked barehanded, just have to endure that itchy feeling for the next 10 minutes or so.

Other recipes using shio kombu 塩昆布:

• Sashimi grade tuna otsumami served with nori sheet
• Pan-fried chicken with shio kombu 香煎塩昆布雞腿肉
• Canned tuna cold dish with bean sprouts and shio kombu

Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream, Drizzled with Chocolate Sauce All Over

I've got this wonderful recipe from RecipeTin Eats. Link over if you would like to see the original post. I basically followed exactly what she instructed on the website, and I think it's nice to see how the original recipe turned out from a regular housewife's hands.

Hot chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce all over - 

Ingredients (about one 8-inch/20-centimeter round pan)? 

Dry:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet:

• 1 large egg (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup whole milk (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup drinkable hot water (boiling ok)
• 75 grams unsalted butter (melted but not too hot)
• 1 tablespoon avocado oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate sauce:

• 125ml heavy whipping cream
• 100 grams semi-sweet chocolate chips (dark chocolate ok)

Other:

• Some vanilla ice cream (green tea sounds good too)

How?

Try to find something close to 8-inch/20-centimeter round baking pan. I used a bit larger sized pan and later on had to fix up another smaller pan, otherwise I'll end up with a thin layer of cake, too thin to enjoy.

Line the bottom of the baking pan with parchment paper. You can fold the paper and give it a rough measure. 

I also line up the side too, just in case the cake won't unmold nicely after all that hard word. Better safe than sorry.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit. Melt the butter first. Also remove one egg and 1/2 cup of milk from the fridge, so both of them can come close to room temperature when needed.

Whisk all the ingredients listed under the "dry" section to a big container. 

Add in all the ingredients listed under the "wet" section except the hot water.

Mix till evenly blended. I used a plastic spatula for that purpose. Lastly, pour in hot water and mix till incorporated again.

Pour the batter to the round pan. 

Into the oven for 40 minutes. Once ready, turn-off the heat and let the cake sit in the oven for another 10 minutes. After that, remove the baking pan from heat, let it rest in room temperate for 10 minutes before unmolding.

While the cake is still baking, it's a good time to start making the chocolate sauce. Pour the heavy whipping cream to a medium pot and slowly heating it up using low heat. Wait till the cream is hot and just about to bubble, turn-off the heat immediately.

Add in the chocolate chips and let it sit untouched for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, start folding the chocolate into the cream. Keep folding till all the chocolate has been melted and blended together with the cream. 

Put the chocolate sauce aside. Only need to fold again when about to drizzle onto the cake.

So when the cake is finally ready, slice and serve with some ice cream. I'd say vanilla works the best, but green tea brings in a fun twist too. Drizzle the chocolate sauce all over then hurry and dig in.

The cake was wonderful, though not as moist as I would hoped, but still very delicious. Since it's just me and Mister, we can't finish all the cake at once, and it's hard to keep the chocolate sauce under room temperature for extended period of time.

So I simply poured all the chocolate sauce to the sliced cake and stored in the fridge. The sauce will harden just a wee bit, but overall still velvety. 

Other dessert recipes:

• Manuka honey cookies 
• Foolproof rustic lemon cookies
• Caramel popcorn with pecans