Chicken with Shiitake Mushroom

This is one dish I always love growning up. Here I cut up a small chicken, browned it a little with a little ginger and garlic, then stewed it for about half an hour with xiaoshing wine, dark and light soy sauce, and a little water, salt and sugar.










Sometime I leave it sauce but this time, when it is almost done I started to boil away most of the sauce to make a thick coating sauce. Because it is cooked in skin and with bones, the reduced sauce is very sticky already and need no extra thickening. Very simple to make and so very tasty.

Fun Snack

Poppadoms are cheap from Indian market and quick to crisp on the stove. It is great fun to watch it bubbles.

Pop-The-Losing-Rose-Over Pudding

Since my last attempt at Yorkshire pudding was not entirely successful, I am making this again, in a muffin pan this time. Exactly the same batter but I had no more beef fat so I used something healthier--grapeseed oil. Without the beef dripping, these are more popover than Yorkshire puddings, if you insist on making a distinction. In any case, they are crispy on the outside and creamy in the inside. Wonderful!











Put them together this way, it is just like they are being served in an old pub.

Yorkshire Pudding by Request

A friend of mine told me about her visit to the old GB and how she enjoyed Yorkshire pudding. She asked me to show her how the pudding is made here. So, here is my attempt.
First, of course, roast the beef. I brown the meat first after salt and peppering the rib cut. I got it to 145℉ in a 400℉ convected oven. This is not how people usually like to do it, the oven is a little too hot, they say. I like the crispy bits so I cook it this way.




After the roast is done, there is fat in the pan. And the brown things are great for the sauce. But the thing this time is the pudding so I used it all in the pudding.










I also got these wild chanterelles and they go well with the beef. I toss them with some of the beef fat and roasted them.










Back to the pudding, the batter, made of ¾ cup of flour, an egg, ½ cup of milk and ½ cup of water and a little salt. The steam from the liquid in the hot oven will puff it. I just poured the batter into the roasting pan and put it back into the 425℉ oven.








This is how it came out of the oven. I realized I didn't have enough batter to make it look proper but it still puffed. Unfortunately it collapsed into pancakes.










The beef cut up very nicely.














And the final ensemble. Really good eatin'! And the Yorkshire pancakes are really really good too.

Shanks and Tendons

This is one of the all time favorites with Cantonese: stewed beef tendons and beef shanks. This is the small shank meat and "double" tendons. It is cooked in a pressure cooker with dark and light soy sauce, rock sugar, Chinese cinnamon, star anise, sichuan pepper, ginger, rose cooking liquor, yellow wine, and water (okay, my spicing is not exactly classically Cantonese). Perfect for the pressure cooker, done in an hour. The tendons are creamy and the meat soft and smooth. Looks good in the clay pot too.

Repackaging

I know this dish had appeared before but this time in a pot and some crisply focused scallions on top, it is worth a posting, no? Well, I have been eating out the last couple of days so I have no more new dishes on the ScanDisk. This simple lunch will have to do...

Eel

One of my all time favorite dish is the stir fry eel from Shanghai area. I found these precut 'yellow' eel in frozen packages. I figured this would take the difficult part--prepping the eel--out of the recipe, so I decided to try to make it myself. The first attempt is not entirely successful. I turn the stove off accidentally when I need the heat the most and I should have used lard and dark soy sauce instead of peanut oil and light soy sauce. It is very eatable but not quite the way it should be. Need work.

Pork Chops

Lean pork chop is particularly suited for this grill because you don't have to worry about grease fire and smoke.

Serving

A big piece like the ham hock, it is better for it to rest in the sauce for a day or two before eating. Add some vegetable (here large mustard greens) and it is the most complete and comforting dish to eat with rice.

Stew Ham Hock

This is a favorite cut, particularly cooked this way. It is cooked in a pressure cooker with ginger, star anise, dark and light soy sauces, dark raw sugar, rock sugar and water. A lot of people think this is a very fatty dish, and it does taste that way. It is, however, not very fatty at all. The mouth feel is mostly due to the creamy connective tissues so abundant here. After cooking for a long time, it has the most decadent texture. I felt asleep and cooked this for too long. As you can see here, it is not dry at all but soft and creamy, just falling apart a little bit. Lovely as can be.

Importance of the Noodles

I have made this a hundred times, just some mao gua, some dry shrimp, a slice of ginger, some stock and a couple pieces of meng bean noodles. This time, unfortunately, didn't turn out very well. The problem is the a new brand of noodles and it is not good, starchy; and it just about kill the dish, still eatable but not too enjoyable. Why did I take the 50 cents sale?!!!!!!!!!

Wired Grill

This grill is a lot less smokey and bake the cook top less but water is needed underneath the heating element to prevent flair up.







The result looks like what you get from a Korean cafeteria.

Cast Iron Grill

The good cast iron grill works very well too, but does generate a lot of smoke. But then, it is grilling after all...

Cleanup Meal

There are little of this and that in the fridge so I put this together to get rid of them. Giant mustard green, Jinhua ham, shiitake, tofu soup and reheating some Chinese roast pork. Very old fashion but good.

One Pot

Some hot Italian sausages, an small onion, a yellow pepper, a tomato, some rice and water and that is it, quick and simple.

Lamb Shoulder

Most people like roast lamb. Racks are great and my dad likes to say mine is better than anyone else's, well he is just use to eating mine. Leg are comforting, it is the holiday cut, family and friends. Shoulder though is my favorite. All that flavour, not lean like racks and legs so you can cook it pretty much to medium. I pounded some parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage, garlic and salt in a mortar and pestle then spread the paste on to the boned shoulder, rolled it up, tied it, brown it on a pan and then roasted it in 450 until it reads 150F. With fluffy pita just out of the over and tomato from my own garden, this is a happy meal. Looks Eastern Mediterranean, does it?

Bread Balloon

I like to make bread dough and then leave it in the fridge until I want it. When I want it, I shape and bake how ever much I like and then put the rest back in the frideg. This way, I always have fresh bread. When I am making pita, it is very quick indeed. This time though, I think there is almost too much dough for the bag.






The final products are pretty good

Almost Instant

Beside taste, the reason I like rice vermicelli is that it cooks so quickly. In fact, you shouldn't cook it but soak in hot water. Add some chicken stock, a few bean sprout, and some roast pork and you have it as good as a noodle store. Takes 10 minutes, almost instant, but so much better.

Rib Steak

This stove top grill thing works well enough with this steak, not as good as grilling with real wood charcoal but it isn't bad for a quick steak.

Sausage and Rice

Hot Italian sausages and rice with tomato, carrot and mushroom. Didn't have much time today so this is simple and brainless.

Stove Top Grill

I got this stove top grill thing from a Japanese store for a couple of bucks, so I was testing it out with some garlic, salt, pepper, chili, lemon juice and olive oil marinated squid. It actually work reasonably well, not as well as the cast iron grill but a lot less smoky.









It work perfectly with pepper. I am hoping that the weather stay warm and dry for a while yet so all my pepper will ripen.











Put them over a pot of rice made with onion, carrot and tomato. Looks pretty good in the pot, don't you think?

Pepperoni with Extra Cheese

I think this looks pretty good even though I didn't get the dough to the thinness I like best. The pan though is good to hold the pizza when it comes out of the oven but it is worse than nothing if the pizza is baked on it. Nothing is better than a stone.

Sandwich

When you have cream cheese, everybody asks if you have bagel. I think it is as good on my own bread.

Smoked Salmon Spread

I am going to the Film Festival on a matinee pass and there is not going to be much time for lunch. To pack lunch I decided to make some sandwiches. One of the easiest one is with this spread. I cut up some of that smoked coho, half an onion, a hand full of parsley, some capers and a small ancho chili to mix in with some Island Farm Spreadable Victoria Style Cream Cheese and the juice of a lemon. This is a very mild cream cheese. I found Philly too heavy and needed cream to thin it and Winnipeg a bit too rich. This cheaper and otherwise undistinguished one fit the job perfectly.


And it fit back into the container too!

"Baked" Rice

I have some pizza fixing left but no more dough. I was just too hungry to wait for new dough so I made what you may called Pizza Rice. I sauteed some onion, pepperoni, mushroom then added tomato sauce. I topped the rice with this and then mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses before passing it all under the broiler. This is a popular cooking method in Hong Kong's "western" style (some call it soy sauce continental) restaurants. They usually use some sauce--tomato, Bolognese, Bechamel, curry, for example--and some meat and vegetables, cheesed or not, then browned in the oven right before serving. A pretty nice way to eat and I found a good way to use leftovers.