Autocooking

I am tired today after watching three films back to back to back. Good thing I have a little ground beef and tofu. Fell back to the familiar and made Mapo Tofu and steamed some gailan. Appetizing.

Best Deal in Town

There are few better deal in town than BBQ meats in Chinatown--a pound of perfectly roasted port or half a duck is only $6. I will never understand the big deal French restaurants make over roasting a duck. Hundreds of ducks and goose are roasted in Chinatowns all over the world and sold for little more than the price of a raw duck.

A word of caution. When you are sauteing gailan and adding the traditionally recommended sugar, don't get distracted by neighbours. My neighbour's son call over to show me his new toy car. I talked to him for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile the sugar on the gailan completely 'caramalized'. Good thing there is very little sugar and the gailan remain good. If I were serving it to people, I would tell them how great gailan is on the grill. Well, I can't lie to myself; well, not very effectively anyway...

Chicken and then Rice

I was going to make chicken and rice again but decided I want them separate. I sautéed the salt and peppered chicken until crispy and cooked then added garlic, chilii pepper and parsley and cooked until the garlic browned a bit.








The rice is made with very ripe yellow tomato, ancho and onion with some chicken stock. I like it.

Not-Pizza

I have tomato sauce; I have basil; I have bread dough; and I have cheap cheese. The result looks like a pizza but not really a pizza, not in my book. To me, the reference point is Pizza Como in Pennsburg, PA., where they delivered a large pepperoni with extra cheese every night to my dorm for my roommate and I after study hall in the early 80's. Ah, that beautiful grease running down to my elbow soon after I folded a piece of pie in half and put it in my mouth. This is just flavoured bread. Very flavourful though.

Tomato Sauce

Another good way to save surplus tomatoes is to make sauce...












and again just a little left...
but it is almost too sweet.

Curry

Again the shank cut of beef, this time made into a dry curry. Diced into very small cubes and it is soft but with good texture. Simple and good with rice.

Incredible Shrinking Tomatoes

Drying tomato is not a very rewarding thing. A whole tray full of tomatoes resulted in ...












...just a hand full! Oh, well, certainly saved a lot of storage space.

Szechuan Dry Orange Peel Beef

The same cut as yesterday, equally thinly cut. This time though it is made dry--air dried and then fried crispy. I then stirfried it with chilli, dry orange peel, ginger, garlic, star anise, szechuan peppercorns, sugar, rice liquor and salt. I love this dish.










It has to be thin though, otherwise it will be really tough.

Unusual Cut

This beef and tomato is made with the meat from the shank--a rather unusual cut in North America. Chinese, particularly Cantonese love this cut. It is tough and full of tendons but if you slice it very thin, not only can you cook it quickly but it offer wonderful texture. A more tender cut cannot hold up when cut very very thin. As it is in this picture, the beef is creamy.

Me Fan, You Fan

Fried rice noodle is like fried rice--almost anything dry-ish will work. Here is yet more of that leftover curry dice balls cutted up, with a little egg, a little onion, a poblano pepper and scallion.

Fried(?) Rice

Still have some of that curry dace ball left so I made a fried rice with it. Tomatoes, scallions and egg were added too. To give it a kick, I added some newly made chilli oil. Because of the tomato, the rice is a little softer than usual, more SE Asian than Chinese. Colourful, ain't it?

Roast Duck

The glaze was a little heavy, so it got rather dark; but it isn't burnt at all. The meat is just perfect, just a slight hint of pink, like butter, I am telling ya!

Curry Dace Meat Balls

I wanted curry but only have some dace paste at hand so I made this. I formed the dace paste to croquettes and fried them first and then made them into curry with ginger, madras curry powder, curry paste from Koon Yick, two overripe yellow tomatoes and some water. Turned out just as I wanted, street food-like.

Fried Tofu

For some reason I keep thinking about going to Shatin with my late grandma when I was little. She went for the temple and I for the fried tofu. It was when Shatin was country and still had natural springs and great tofu. Well, it is a huge high rise suburb of Hong Kong now. No more great tofu. These are for grandma.

Black Bean Squid

They have these frozen large squids for sale at T&T supermarket so I give it a try. It is tasty but not crunchy like the smaller ones. Maybe stir-fry isn't the best way to do this. Try grilling next time.

Mix, Shake 'n' Bake

I don't know if this is nostalgia, made shake and bake from scratch. Way back to freshman year...

Tomato Harvest

Today's pick













The quickest way to eat up a lot of tomatoes is to make tomato and egg, this time I have some wild vegetable from China and put in some hot pepper. The taste of summer.

Lettuce ready

The new lettuce is ready for the picking so I have green things with my tomatoes.

Wild Things

Bison pot roast with some egg pasta. The pot roast is very simple with bison tip roast, onion, carrot, tomatoes, garlic, bay leaves, chicken stock and green pepper. Since I have been having imported pasta, I made these myself. Satisfying.

Spagetti with Red Clam Sauce

Since I have lots of tomatoes, this is a red sauce. Still going for the fresh flavour though. Just some garlic, olive oil and chilli pepper.

Crispy Smoked Salmon Spagetti

I fried the fish crispy this time and added some chilli pepper to go with the garlic, tomato paste, olive oil, parsley and oregano. Great late night snacks!

Purple Soup

If you use purple yam, I guess you get purple soup. Just ginger, purple yam and Chinese hard dark sugar boiled. A lovely Cantonese dessert. Rejuvenating.

Bison

This tip steak is sweet and silky when cook rare. The sauce is onion, thyme, red wine, cherry vinegar and brown sugar. Goes very well with couscous.

Harvest Salad

My first yellow tomato this year and to honour it I let its neighbours to join in on the fun.

Bunk Roast

Bunk bed in the over, does it count as an one pot meal?













They way they all come out.

Tomato Salad

With tomatoes like these, what do I need lettuces for?

Smoked Salmon on Crispy Potato Pancake

Now, that is the way to break the fast!

Corn Fritters

I made these corn fritters with fresh yellow corn and ham, with egg, flour and baking powder and salt. Dark dark maple syrup is the dip. Rather enjoyed it. What isn't good with dark maple syrup?

Tomato Season

Late spring is tomato season and this is one of my favourite from my childhood--tomato and eggs. Easy to make, just ginger, tomato, eggs and salt. Reason to grow tomatoes.

Pho

Haven't made pho with the leg cut for a while, rathe like it. The marrow really gives the stock great richness.