Quick soup

With some fish left over, I sautéed the bones and used them to make the soup base with a little ginger. The soup then is brought to a boil and sliced fish and cilantro are added quickly to make this very refreshing soup.

Hot Pot

Everybody knows too few people having hot pot is not a good thing and here is an example. A big pot of water but just a plate of red snapper, beef, tofu, mushroom and chrysanthemum greens. Not bad but can be so much better. The beef though is good, one of them is directly from Kobe and cost an arm and an leg (only if my arm and leg worth that much...).

Quick Meal

A little quail marinated with ginger, sugar, pepper, soy sauce and garlic was pan fried. The lingcod was dusted with cornstarch, curry powder, salt and pepper and then panfried slowly. The eggplant is even simpler--steamed plain and then 'Chinese BBQ Sauce' 柱候醬 and sesame oil was mixed in. Easy as can be.

Pork loin

This is a just done pork loin, cooked to 165℉. After salt and peppering it, I smeared on dijon mustard, garlic, thyme and rosemary. Put into a 350℉ for until it browns a little and then turn it down to 300℉ until done. Just a hint on pink, very juicy.

Lingcod

I bought some frozen lingcod from Fresh Off The Boat in the winter market. Turns out they are not bad at all, not as good as the very fresh but better than almost all frozen ones I have had. Here I simply salt and pepper and sautéed it and added a little browned butter. Quite nice.

Sunchoke

Sunchoke is one crazy looking thing. It is good eating though. The winter farmer's market yield some wonderful pieces.












Mash is good and I like to cut it up with skin on, boil it until the smaller pieces are soft but there is still a little crunch with the bigger and pieces with skin. It is blended with a little milk and butter. The result looks like a nice mash potato but there are invisible slight crunchy sweet bits mixed in. It goes so well with this braised pork.

Braised Pork Shoulder

I figure that it is good with chops, it is probably good with larger cuts. The shoulder roast is cut into serving pieces, salt and pepper then browned. Onion is sautéed till brown, carrots, pine nuts, cloves, thyme, oregano, frozen cranberries, garlic and ginger are added. It is then deglazed with red wine vinegar. The pork is added, some water, season and bring to a boil. It is finished in a warm oven till fork tender.

Fine Snack

The Oyama Sausage Company must be one of the finest sausage maker in the world. There maybe better maker of this or that sausage or ham here and there, but to make thousands different kinds so excellently is just ridiculous but true. Here is have their Serrano style and Jambon des Ardennes. The cheese is a very ripe St. Alban. My own bread. Local Gala apple.

Wild Winter Mushrooms

Louis said he picked these winter oyster mushrooms out of the snow. They looked wet but turned out to be firm and nice. What a surprise.












Here I chopped them up and sautéed them with ginger, scallion and garlic before adding some xo sauce. Tofu went in with some chicken stock, oyster sauce and salt. A couple of minutes later, a warming and tasty dish is done.

Oysters

One of the great things about Vancouver in the winter is oysters. The water is cold and the oysters are sweet and crisp. I don't eat raw oysters in the summer because the taste tends to be murky and the texture chalky then. But now, they are all sweetness and freshness and crispness.

Seefood Pasta

I have so much stuffs in my ice box that I need to use them. A little frozen shrimps and a little frozen scallops are the main ingredients. A little garlic, chili, oregano, thyme and a few leftover canned tomatoes made the sauce. I also realized I still had quite a few of my own dried tomatoes, so I added that too. A hand full of parsley finish the thing. The sauce was so sweet because of the dried tomatoes, reminded me of the summer before last. I should start planning my garden now.

Sugar and Vinegar Pork

Usually this is made with spareribs. I have a large shoulder chop instead. Why not, I though. I browned the cut up chops light before adding ginger and garlic. When the garlic takes on some colour, I added sweat vinegar (baby vinegar), raw sugar, star anise, Shaoxing liquor, salt and dark soy sauce. The whole thing cooked for half an hour or so. It is very tasty indeed, the meat though is a little on the dry side because it is so lean. There is reason for things but sometime the alternative isn't as good but not too bad either.

Goating

I defrosted some goat meat and realized that it is more bones and tandons than meat so I decide to reverse the plan and use the meat as the flavour for tofu skins and bamboo shoots instead. Pretty much the classic recipe I posted here before but proportionally less meat and more other things. I didn't have sugar cane and water chestnuts either. Still, it comes out quite good. Because there is more skin, bone and tendon, the sauce is a little creamier, not a bad thing. Sort of a poor man's stew, if it were the old days, but now the vegetables are more expansive than the meat, so this may very well be the rich man's stew instead.