Lime Restaurant

Lime is my favourite Japanese restaurant in Vancouver of late.  It is about half way between my home and downtown, considerably cheaper than the best downtown and better than 90% of Japanese restaurants there.  The chef used to work at Sakae, one of my, and many other's, old time downtown favourites.  I had their lobster 4 course, daily special snapper rolled with homemade soba, toro stack (photo), fresh oysters, stuffed crab legs, beer and tea, at C$100 for two it is not bad at all.  And the food, well, all quite excellent, fresh and high grade materials and very good touch on cooking and seasoning. 

Poule au Vin

There are these small stewing hens on the market at about $2 each.  I like to keep a couple of them around for stock.  At just about 1½ lb. they are good serving size for one or two, I thought.  I made this stew as an experiment.  It turned out to be very tasty, richer and deeper than young chicken.  The texture of the meat though is interesting.  After an hour in the pressure cooker, it felt more like game birds or rabbit, tender but still well held together.  The comparison is definitely more rabbit than chicken.  I really enjoyed it. 

Beef and Radish Soup 蘿蔔牛肉湯

Beef and radish, may it be the Chinese luobo or Japanese daikon, is a favourite combination in East Asia.  The seasonings are a little different but the Cantonese and Korean soup versions are very similar.  Typically, a soup base of beef bones is made before cooking the meat and radish.  Here, I make a simple and quicker one by cooking cubes of meat with water, ginger, cloves and star anise in a pressure cooker for half and hour before adding salt and cubed radish to cook for another half an hour without pressure.  Scallion is the finishing touch. Using fattier cuts like brisket make it rich but lean ones, as I used here, make a clean fresh soup.

Cutlet

Once upon a time, late 70s early 80s, cutlet is the thing on menus.  I remember the talk was on whose veal cutlet is best, who had the most authentic scaloppini.  Lately though, besides the occasional schnitzel, cutlets has fallen out of favourite in restaurants.  At home though, they are easy to make and cheap.  Here I use some thin cuts of pork sirloin, flour-egg-crumb them (my own stale bread, oregano, paprika, lemon zest, salt and pepper) then sautéed in olive oil and butter.  Quick, tasty, and a little meat goes a long way. 

'Olive-Vegetable' Fried Rice 欖菜炒飯

'Olive-vegetable' 欖菜 is a typical side dish on the Chaozhou table.  It is giant mustard greens salted and shredded then  cooked slowly with black Chinese olives 烏欖 and its oil.  We not only love it as an accompaniment to congee and rice, we cook with it often too.  Here is a simple fried rice.  Day old rice is stir-fried with egg, 'olive vegetable' and scallion; very simple and unexpectedly tasty.

Chocolate Soufflé

Chris said I should make more soufflé, so here is another one.  As simple as the last one: melted chocolate mixed into egg yolk already beaten with sugar then fold into sweeten stiff beaten egg white then bake for 12 minutes.  Simple and basic.  Ah, Chris, where is your house?

Chicken and Oyster Paella (sort of)

I suppose you can call any rice dish cooked in a shallow pan a paella.  Here I have chicken and oyster, unusually, I admit.  Brown chicken, sautéed onion,garlic and carrot, canned tomato, oregano, thyme,chicken stock, fresh oyster are the ingredients.  Not bad for a one-pan reasonably quick meal.  

Oyster and Tofu Pot 姜蔥生蠔豆腐煲

The main thing about his dish is bring out the fragrance of ginger, garlic and scallion.  A big hand full of them is fried in a very hot pot until just starting to take on colour.  Add parboiled oysters and cook for a minute then sprinkle on some Shaoxing wine 紹興酒 and cover for half a minute or so.  Add tofu, stir a little then add sauce--oyster sauce, soy sauce, white pepper, sugar and salt.  A minute of two with the lid on and it is done. 

Baked Oyster Custard v.2.0

This dish is usually made by steaming the custard until set before broiling it to crisp the top.  In the old days, and in many Chinese kitchens today, oven was a rather rare kitchen appliance, so the two step method is good.  Now, though, with an oven at home, wouldn't it be easier to one step it in the oven, I thought?  I baked this in a hot water bath at 400℉ for 20 minute until the custard set and the top crisp.  The result is great, as good as and perhaps better than the other method.  If you want the old recipe, look here:

Baked Oyster Custard

Lemonade

I experimented with roasting a beef outside round and didn't work out so good. What to do?  Cut it up and make a tomato-chili-bean stew.  The base is onion, carrot, garlic, tomato, cumin, paprika, chili powder, hot chili powder and oregano.  Chickpeas and white beans are first cooked in the pressure cooker for half and hour before adding into the liquid with the beef and its pan juice.  Another half and hour under pressure and  I have a stew to eat for days and days and days...

Banana Soufflé

People really should make more soufflés at home, it is not only impressive but easy, quick and cheap.  Half a banana, one egg yolk, a little sugar and a little lemon juice (per person) all blended smooth in the blender are folded into 1 stiff beaten egg white sweeten with sugar.  Put into a buttered and sugared ramekin, bake in 400℉ until tall and brown, about 12 minutes and it is done.  This one I forgot to clean the rim so it doesn't look so great, still good eatin' though.

Bread in a Pot

I would have never even consider baking bread in a covered pot had I not seen a very tall chef does it on TV with seemingly good result.  I tries and the result is surprisingly good.  Heat up the pot, put my usually dough in, and bake covered.  What comes out is a light and crispy bread, very lovely. 

Deep Fried Oysters

There is a saying in Cantonese "big eating girl make a thin batter."  I guess because the typical Cantonese batter is relatively thick, made with flour, cornstarch, oil, baking powder and water, it is easy to fall apart if just a little thin.  So, you are warned, don't be greedy with the water.

Chicken Dinner

Hong Kong people like to call a boneless chicken thigh a 'chicken steak' with good reason.  I like to cook it in a dry pan over medium high heat skin side down until all the fat has been rendered out and the skin brown and crisp before turning it over to brown and cook the meat side.  Here, when it is cooked, I drain off the fat, add minced garlic and half a lemon's juice.  Serve here with rice and red cabbage cooked with cloves, cane sugar and aged vinegar.  Very homemade, very tasty.

Wild Lunch

I try to stay away from the Granville Island Public Market as much as possible--it is too easy to spend every last penny buying great food.  Here is a sample: cured caribou 'prosciutto' and spice wild boar salami from the great Oyama Sausage Company and runny Munster and silky Morbier from Les Amis du Fromage,  Add a little green things and a large chunk of bread a wonderful lunch is made. 

Slow Roast Cross-rib in a Pot

Not everyone like meat rare the way I do, so sometimes I have to find ways to cook a pretty fully roast meat that is still tender enough to enjoy.  This is perhaps the best way.  The roast is salt-and-peppered then browned on the stove top.  Onion, garlic cloves, carrot, celery and herbs are then added.  The whole thing is then roasted in a low oven (250℉) covered for three-four hours.  You can of course do it for a few hours more until it is pulled apart soft, but I like to keep it slicable.

Because it is cooked at low temperature and with its own moisture trapped in the pot, the meat is tender and moist, even when fully cooked.  Make a sauce all by itself too.  This method is particularly good with the leaner cheaper cuts, like the cross-rib here.  Economic, tasty and make great sandwiches too. 

Guatemala Acatenenango Finca La Soledad

Guatemala Acatenenango Finca La Soledad

Balance is an usually a good thing but it can also mean uninspiring. Everything where it should be, nothing out weighting anything else, completely textbook, those praises that can as easily be the opposite. This is a very balanced coffee; sweetness, acidity, bitterness are all there but nothing dominates. It is full, flavourful and even complex, but there is no unique defining character, unless balance is it. Still, it is a very enjoyable cup, at Full City, just before 2nd crack, I find that it does some interesting thing going for it, it has a lovely roasted maltiness to it that reminds me of the sweetness of a good cigar. I don't like it like I like a fine Yirgacheffe or Sulawesi, but if I want warm and comfort this may very well be it.

Lamb Shoulder

This is probably a pot roast.  The whole shoulder is salted and then browned in an extra hot (500℉) oven.  Whole carrots, chunks of onion, ribs of celery, head of garlic are laid on the bottom of the heavy pot and rest the lamb on top.  Sprinkle on black pepper, oregano and cumin, covered and bake in a slow oven (275℉) for 4 hours.  Add mushrooms for the last half hour.  The carrots and mushrooms are just right as sides.  Skim off the fat, mash the garlic cloves and the sauce is ready.  I like to take the bones out by pulling lightly with my hand and put the meat back into the pot in big chunks.  Eat over rice.  True flavours. 

Roast Pork Hash

When I used to party until 4am, I looked for greasy diners with good corn beef hash.  Coffee, hash and egg seemed to be the best way to hold off alcohol and fatigue; it is the starch and grease, they say.  I don't party till 4 anymore but I still like dinner hash.  Here is a quick way to make hash.  Diced potatoes are zapped in a microwave oven for 4 minutes then add them to a hot pan with onion already softened.  Cook until the potato starts to brown then add some corn beef (here I used leftover roast pork instead).  Cook a minutes or two, salt and pepper, top with an egg, there, a classic.

Waste Not--Shiitake Stem 冬菇蒂

With the affordable price of dry shiitake mushroom these days, most people just throw away the woody stems and use only the tender caps.  I remember when I was little though, my grandmother would come up with many ways to eat the stems.  The trick is to soak them really well and cook for a good long time. This is probably the easiest way.  After soaking it for almost a day, the tough bits on the end of the stems are cut off and then the whole lot is cooked slowly with the soaking liquid, sugar and soy sauce for about and hour and a half.  The stems become very tender but with a good bit and the mushroom flavour is full, more so than the caps.  It is a wonderful cold side dish.