Repackaging

This looks good but just a reheating job. The ribs and bamboo are leftovers but put together like this, it is like new. Almost restaurant looking, doesn't it.

Quick Sandpot

I was making a soup with some pork shoulder but had to defrost too much so I cook the leftover in the sandpot. Most basic cooking, brown lightly, add a little ginger, some shaoxing liquor, sugar, salt, dark and light soy sauce, star anise and cloves cook cover until tender and pull from the bone. It is a lean cut but with some nice tendons so it works well.

Loots

Part of the loots from this year's Playhouse Wine Festival. What is frustrating about the festival every year is that the trade people get into the shop before everyone else and before anyone get a chance, many of the wines are gone. I like that restaurants have great wine lists but I would like some of that at home too! They should safe a few cases for the general public, on the first day at least. The upside is that with 180+ wineries present, they is always some good ones left. Of all these, I am particularly impressed by the Lumen from Illuminati, the wine making family not the all powerful secret society, at least that is what I think...

Ragù

I think the best cut for a ragù is oxtail. Here I browned the meaty half of the tail before adding celery, onion and carrot. A little thyme and hot chili were added when the soffritto had softened. A can of tomato was then added. Since I was doing it quickly, I locked the pressure cooker and waited 40 minutes. After it cooled I shredded the meat into the sauce, reduced it a little and there it is.






I was too lazy to make my own pasta so spaghetti would had to do. Bind it all together with Pecorino and it is a simple dinner

First taste of a Rack

Bought a full rack of ribs today. It is too much to eat in one go. I cut off the tender ends and make this classic--sugar and vinegar ribs. It is pretty easy to make. Sauté the ribs with a big piece of ginger until it lightly brown then add shaoxing liquor and cover for a minute for the ribs to absorb the flaour. Uncover and let the remaining liquor evapoate. Then add star anise, cane sugar, sweet vinegar, sharper vinegar (here I used sweetened vinegar 添丁甜醋 and Shangxi aged vinegar 山西老陳醋). Cook covered until the meat is tender then reduce the sauce as needed. I like it sweet but some like it less. The soft bone is the best part.

Stewed Bamboo Shoot 炆冬筍

I forgot and left two large winter bamboo shoots in the back of the fridge for a week. They are still good but have grown a little fiber. They are not good for quick soups or stir fries anymore. I figure if I cook them long then they would be more tender. Shanghai people stew bamboo shoot in the winter and it is a easy thing to do. I boiled the peeled and trimmed shoots for an hour before sautéing them briefly in hot oil. A little Shaoxing liquor is added and sugar, salt, dark and light soy sauce went in after a few second. Some shiitake mushrooms were also added. Water were added to cover and cooked for a couple of hours. The result is a great side dish. Here I have it at lunch with Cantonese roast pork. The soup is the liquid from boiling the bamboo with some sauce from the roast pork added.

Sand Pot Fish 豆豉龍躉煲

I bought a sand pot for $3 in Chinatown and have been having great fun with it. Here is an example. A nice thick piece of ling cod is seared in a frying pan. Because ling cod is such a bland fish, I decided to cook some flavour into it, and sand pot is just the thing to do it. The pot works like a tiny oven and contain flavours very well. I sautéed big pieces of ginger and scallion in the very hot pot before preserved black beans are added with a chili. The browned fish is added and a little Shaoxing liquor is poured. The lid is added for a couple of minutes before a little sugar and soy sauce go in. Keeping the lid on, I remove the whole thing from the heat for a couple three minutes until the fish is cooked. Very tasty indeed.

Punished Steak

I like cheaper cuts of steak, not only because they are cheap but also their flavour. They tends to be richer so there are good with richer sauces than a striploin or a ribeye. Here is a top sirloin steak. Because if is tougher than the prime cuts, I pounded it to half of its thicken first then marinated it with pepper and Worcestershire Sauce briefly before searing it quickly. Because it was thinned out and its structure loosen, a brief sear and a few minutes of rest made it perfectly medium and tender. The sauce is just pan juice made with a little water and mustard. Add a couple potatoes worth of home fries and a pretty classic meal is done.

Blackened Salmon

Still have a couple of pieces of Coho in the freezer so I figure it is time to eat them. This piece is coated with salt, pepper, chili pepper, cumin, thyme and coriander, seared quickly and then into the over for five minutes. The potatoes are roasted with salt, pepper, olive oil and thyme. The peas, well, are just steamed frozen ones, I do like frozen peas very well.

Frequent Flyer Pork Pot Roast

A friend came back from India and Hong Kong and brought me cloves, cardamom and 30-year old orange peels. I used them to make this pot roast of a pork leg roast. I browned the meat, sautéed onion, carrot and celery. The spices were added with some dry cranberries, thyme and very little cinnamon. Put everything into the pot, add some water and in the 300℉ over for a few hours. I pureed the sauce and here it goes.





The meat is pull-apart tender and just perfect for rice, couscous or like here Orzo pasta.

Beef Noodle Soup 牛肉麵

Again the calf meat. This time I braised it northern Chinese style with cane sugar, star anise, Chinese cinnamon, cloves, Sichuan pepper, hot chili, dark and light soy sauce, rose liquor and water. The sauce also stands in for soup base, just add hot water and voilà soup.

New Year 'Cake' 年糕

The sticky New Year cake is quite easy to make but for some reason people would make the more difficult ones but buy this kind. Cane sugar is dissolved in hot water then poured onto a mixture of sweet rice starch and fine wheat starch. The dough is worked until firm to give it texture and then water is added to make a cake batter looking batter and steams in cake pan until set. Chewy, sticky, sweet and comforting, cold or pan fry with a little egg.

Water Chestnut 'Cake' 馬蹄糕

With all the heavy food in the Chinese New Year, there got to be something lighter. Water chestnut cake is just such thing. It is quite easy to make just chop up some fresh water chestnut, cook it briefly with rock sugar and water; dissolve some water chestnut starch in cold water and stir it into the hot liquid until it forms a light jello like mix; pour into a cake pan and steam until set firmly. Good to eat as is or pan fry till lightly brown.

Fresh Soup 筍尖香菇豆腐湯

Picked up some salted bamboo shoots from Mt. Tianmu 天目筍尖 so I made this soup with fine chicken stock, fresh shiitake, ham and tofu. Not only tasted good but felt good after eating it.

Chococookies

I made some thin almond egg white cookies and thought why not use up the Thomas Haas chocolate bits? Turned out really good.

Curry Goat

If you ask me what I think make the best curry, I would say goat. Seafood is good with some curry but not others. Beef is good with most but dry too easily. Chicken is just for the most boring of people. Lamb is sweet but does not stand up to the cooking too well. Pork, well, who make pork curry, really. The rich, sweet and creamy goat is just perfect. Goat does not have a lot of meat bu tthe meat is sweet. The bone though gives it the rich flavour. I think what makes it though are the tendons and skin--they are just creamy as can be after long cooking.
Here I marinated the goat meat with onion, garlic, ginger, fresh hot chili, thyme, salt and pepper for a few hours. A little sugar and curry powder are brown lightly in a little oil before the meat is added. After a little browning, carrots and lime leaves are added. A little water then went in with the potatoes. Cooked slowly until tender and voilà curry goat. A little freshness in winter to fight the snow outside.

Blueberry Muffins

I got this recipe from Allrecipe.com. They call it the "To die for Blueberry Muffins." I did not use the topping so I guess it is the "to live for blueberry muffins." Turns out pretty good. To have the topping would be an overkill. But then, muffins pretty much defines the excess of food now, people seems to thing too much of everything make a good muffin. Maybe I am just old fashion.

Roast Quail

I have a couple of quails I should eat so I decided to roast them. I boned the upper part of the birds, salt and peppered, and then rolled them up with slices of fresh shiitake mushrooms in them. To make it more tasty and moist, I wrapped the whole package with bacon. The bones and wings were browned and then a stock was made with some thyme and the stems of the mushrooms. The birds were roasted at convected 400℉. The pan is then deglazed with red wine and then the stock. After much reducing, I added a little balsamic vinegar, a couple twists of black pepper and a touch of butter to finish the sauce. As tasty as it looks!

Roast Beef

Since I feel like I am getting the hangs of slow roasting, I thought why no make my cold cut roast beef with some cheaper cuts than rib roast. I did a sirloin tip and it turns out well. I browned it on all sides first before roasting at 150℉ for hours and hours until the internal temperature reaches 140℉. The result is this very even medium rare roast. It is very tasty and tender for sandwiches but I will start it much earlier next time...

Baked Oyster 假禾虫

I love rice worms 禾虫 and carp guts 魚腸. Sounds gross, doesn't it? They can easily be made into something truly horrible, every sickening, literally. I do like them best, when made well, baked with egg. One way to bake in this manner is with oyster. Definitely more appetizing to most. Here I parboiled the oysters for a couple of minutes first. Chopped garlic, ginger and scallion are sautéed before aged dried orange peels, Chinese dry cured olives 欖豉 and the oysters. Mixed it all into an equal proportion egg and chicken stock mixture and into a clay pot and sliced chinese donuts 油條 is laid over the egg. The pot is then steamed covered until set. I passed it through the broiler until brown on top right before serving. So good.

Dropped Biscuit

They don't look so nice, do they. They taste good and the texture is fine, but moulding dough in the morning is not always a easy thing.

Multilevel Steaming

Cantonese love salted fish. While many European like their salted fish, they tend to reconstitute theirs before cooking. We like them salty and dry. In the drying/curing process, the fish's flavour changes and becomes a different thing. We don't reconstitute ham so why reconstitute fish? My parents would even buy salted cod to cook dry when good chinese kinds are not available. This is a piece of salted yellow croaker 黃花. Half of the meat is chopped up and mixed into the hand chopped (a little double cleaver action) pork with a little sugar, soy sauce and cornstarch. a little shredded ginger on top and it is steamed with the other half of the fish. It is the old home standby to go with the rice. Used to be a cheap dish but like in Europe, salted fish has really gotten expansive.

The great thing about steamers is you can just stack them up and cook many dishes all at once. Here is have some Japanese eggplants with garlic, salt and chili oil, steamed and then a little soy sauce is added. Easy as can be.

More Bitter Melon

I still have a bitter melon left so I have do a different dish with it. I blanched the melon pieces in boiling water briefly. Ground beef was very lightly browned then ginger, garlic, scallion and hot bean paste were added. When it started to smell good, I added the melon pieces, tossed it about a few times, seasoned with a little salt and a few drops of water and it is done.

Bitter Melon and Chicken 豆豉苦瓜炆雞

Almost everywhere I go, meal in a pot is always the favorite winter home cooking. Here I marinated some chicken thighs (cut into small pieces) with ginger, garlic, sugar, salt, soy sauce, cornstarch, sesame oil and shaoxing liquor. It is then very lightly browned in the clay pot before soak and rinsed cure black bean, garlic, ginger and hot chili peppers are added. After a few second, bitter melon is added, and then some water. Cooked over medium heat under the lid for a few minute and it is done. Rice just lives it.

Steamed Scallops 蒜蓉蒸帶子

These scallops are on sale so I bought a few. Simplest can be--open them, rip out the tough rings, guts and gills, leave the roe. Here is have some pressed garlic, a touch of salt and a little chili oil; steamed for 7 minutes or so and voilà. All I needed was a couple drops of best soy sauce I can find.

Wintery Noodle Soup 榨菜肉絲湯麵

I made a whole lot of pork with zhacai 榨菜 (a hot pickled kholrabi like vegetable). It is a easy thing to make. Lean pork is cut into strips just like the zhacai, marinates lightly with salt, sugar, cooking wine and cornstarch. It is cooked in a hot wok until white and then ginger, zhacai and shiitake are added. Toss it all about, add cooking wine, sugar, soy sauce and some water. Cook until the flavours come together, add some sesame oil and that is it. I like to over salt it a little; that way I can put it into some hot water and a very flavourful soup is made for noodles. With it in the fridge, a quite meal is never more then 10 minutes away.

Pot o' Rice 滑雞煲仔飯

In the winter, on the street of Hong Kong, stoves are set up outside of neighbourhood restaurants, burning gas or coal, to cook rice in clay pots. The rice is half cook and then raw ingredients are added to finish cooking under the lid. The rice cooked this way is widely agreed to be the best. Here I make do with my stove. The meat is chicken marinated briefly in ginger, salt, sugar, cooking wine, pepper and cornstarch. A few shiitake mushroom and half a Chinese sausage and that is it. Not as good as a coal fire cooked pot rice but close--lovely fragrant from the rice and creamy chicken. All in one pot.

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.

Something Old, Something New

Reheating the chicken and eat it with some sautéed potato and it feels like a new dish.

Bean Soup

I left the back of the chicken out of the chicken stew to make a soup. I browned the back pieces before adding water and bay leave to cook for a couple hours. Onion, celery, carrot and garlic are sautéed in the pressure cooker before tomato, the stock and soaked beans are added. It cooked under pressure for half an hour and voilá!

Chicken Stew

This is kind of a franco-italian stew I suppose. Carrot, onion, celery and garlic are sautéed before browned chicken is added. A few tomatoes, white wine, salt, mushrooms, potatoes, bay leaves, thyme and oregano go in and the whole things cooks for 20 or so minutes. There is a nice freshness to this dish and it makes me forget that it is gray and cold outside.

Shrimp and Bittle Melon

This is a recipe from the Hong Kong celebrity chef Chow Chong. The shrimp is dusted with a little cornstarch and oil blanched for couple of minutes; the bitter melon is blanched in water. Pre-soaked dry orange peels, garlic, cured black beans are fried lightly in a little oil before the bitter melon is added. Cooked for a minute or so and add the shrimp with oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, touch of sugar, a little water and cook covered for 3 minutes. Thicken with a little cornstarch in cold water.

Ugly Food

I have this thick big squid in the freezer and I don't know what to do with it. I decide to just go and make some pasta with it. Unfortunately I realized too late that I don't have any dry paste left and it is too late to make fresh ones. I thought, well, why not some rice noodles? I blanched the diced up squid quickly. Garlic and chili pepper are sautéed with anchovy paste, the squid are then added with yellow pepper. The result if good but nothing exciting. I think it would be a lot better by itself, without the noodle. It is, however, a decent enough quick meal.