Steamed Buns 韭菜肉包

These are not the prettiest buns but tasty and convenient to have around. I admit I am not very artistic when it comes to shaping dough. Since they are not for the market, so long as they taste good, they are fine. Pretty basic dough of flour, yeast, salt, sugar, and water. The fillings are ground pork, Chinese chives, bamboo shoots, soy sauce, sugar, salt, sesame oil and grated ginger.

Roast Chicken with everything else all in one pot

I am into lazy these days, so this is another lazy dish--everything all at once in one pot. Celery, carrot, lots of whole cloves of garlic0 sage, thyme, and rosemary are spread out on the bottom of a cast iron enamel pot preheated in the oven. A chicken, salt-and-peppered, sits on top of the vegetable surrounded by potatoes. Roast in a hot oven for 15 minutes uncovered and then cover for half and hour until the thighs reach 165℉.






The meat is moist and fully infused with all the flavours of the herbs and vegetables. The potatoes and carrot and garlic are just right. It all comes with a lovely sauce in the bottom of the pan. Minimal fuss, really.

Beef and Onion, Quick Mustard Green Soup

This is a simple quick dish to go with rice. The beef slices are marinated with salt, sugar, soy sauce, shaoxing wine, pepper, ginger, garlic and cornstarch. The onion is sautéed until starting to soften and the beef is added. Just when the beef is about to all lose its redness, hot bean paste is added and seasonings corrected. Sweet and spicy, very good with rice.






To go with the beef, a quick soup is just right. Giant mustard greens, salted duck eggs, water, and a slice of ginger is all that is. Cook the greens with ginger and water until it softens and add the yoke of the egg for a few minutes, add the white right before serving. Very refreshing.

Braised Beef Tendon 麻辣蘿蔔牛筋

This is a little different from my usual way of cooking tendon. The flavour is more Sichuan, with hot bean paste 郫縣豆瓣, sichuan pepper 花椒, star anise 八角, garlic, ginger and sugar. The tendon is cut up and parboiled for 10 minutes. The seasonings are cooked with a little oil until dryish. Tendon is added and then deglaze with rose liquor. Add water and cook under pressure for an hour. Correct seasonings and add white redish 白蘿蔔 to cook until the redish is tender. A very nice combination of flavours and texture.

Quick Omette

I am convinced that people eat so much eggs for breakfast because it is easy to make. Here I sautéed some onion before adding eggs and fontina cheese. How sweet it is.

Bread

I haven't posted any bread for a while, not because I haven't been making bread but because repetition is boring. Here is one I made yesterday. Very basic bread, just yeast, all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt and water. I am not big on complicated bread-the five grain, ten nuts, 20 seeds...breads. Nothing like a good simple bread.

Pork chops...yet again

Went grocery shopping until pretty late and hungry, what is easier than cooking pork chops? I seasoned the chops with salt, sugar and chili powder and sear it in medium high heat. After they are nicely browned, I lowered the heat and put the lid on for a few minutes until they cook through. Easy.

Eggplant in Fish Sauce 魚香茄子

Supposed the reason for the name is that the eggplant is cooked in the manner of fish, à la poisson, I suppose. The original recipe calls for pork but I had ground beef, so well, there it is. The beef is seasoned with salt, sugar, pepper and cornstarch before browning slightly in the pan. garlic, ginger and hot bean paste are the next in. Eggplants are cut, salted, squeezed and browned in a pan before going back to the pan at this point. Deglaze with shaoxing liquor and and vinegar (I use Baoling vinegar 保寧醋 from Sichuan here). Add a little water, correct seasons and cook for a few minute before finishing with a little sesame oil.

Oyster Rice 牡蠣ご飯

I remember my college house mate Joe missed oyster rice so much that he tried to make it with canned oyster (fresh oysters were not easily available in small college towns in the middle of Connecticut back then). I had a few left in the fridge today, so I made my own pot. It is simply: poach the oysters in water, soy sauce, sake and oyster sauce for 10 minutes, then use the liquid with a tablespoon or two of julienned ginger to make the rice; when the rice is done, warm up the oysters on top. I like to eat it with some strips of nori and parsley.

Classic Braised Goat 火靠羊肉

The interesting thing about this dish is that the Chinese term for the cooking method does not exist in any computer system. It is more or less braising, slow cooking in less liquid than stewing and allowing the liquid to reduce slowly during the cooking process. The recipe is here: http://eatthatblog.blogspot.com/2007/01/nature-of-master-piece.html.

Ginger and Scallion Oyster 姜葱生蚝

Oysters are blanched for 3 minutes, ginger and scallion are sautéed for a few second before adding the oyster, sprinkled on a little Shaoxing liquor, sauced with oyster sauce, soy sauce, pepper and sesame sauce. Well, I am a little short on the scallion front, but still good.

Meat and Potato

Steak is quick and easy. I lightly pounded a striploin, salt-and-peppered it and seared it in a very hot pan. Made the sauce by deglazing with sherry vinegar then water, salt, pepper, Dijon mustard and truffle paste (after staring at the fridge for a few minutes). Not bad.














Two yukon golds seasoned with salt, pepper, chili powder, paprika and olive oil baked in a hot oven.

Thin Pancake 薄饼

This is perhaps the most delicate of pancakes, often served with roast duck. It is not easy to evenly roll dough into very thin pieces. The trick is to double it up by bushing two pieces of dough each on one surface and then roll them together one on top of the other with the oiled surfaces facing each other. This dough is made with flour, salt and then hot water is mixed in. After it cooled a bit cold water is added. Kneed to form a good dough. The portion is about half-half hot to cold water.






Cook the double pancake in a dry medium hot pan until it lightly brown on one side and the flip it to finish the other side. Because they are oiled, the pancake are easily pulled apart. Here is put in some smoked chicken and scallion and fold to eat. Tasty.

Rice in Pot 北菇滑鸡煲仔饭

This is perhaps one of Hong Kong's most loved dish in winter. Chicken dices are seasoned with ginger, salt, sugar, Shaoxing liquor, soy sauce, cornstarch, reconstituted shiitake mushroom, preserved radish 冲菜 and rice dice. When the water is cooked to below the rice, the chicken is added on top. 15 minutes or so later on medium heat, the rice is cooked and so is the chicken. Because it is a gentle and moist heat, the chicken is exceptionally tender and silky. Some add Chinese sausages and/or other things, all good.

Pork Chop III

This is the the last of the pork loin. I marinated the pounded pieces with garlic, salt, pepper, rose liquor, cornstarch, soy sauce and sugar. Sautéed in medium hot pan until done. I added some of the mushroom+scallop soaking liquid at the end to make the sauce. Good alone, with rice or, with bread (I ate the last piece as the meat in a sandwich).

Tofu

I have these liquids from reconstituting shiitake mushroom and dry scallop. It is such a shame to let them go down the drain. Tofu is just the perfect thing to soak up the flavour in these liquids. Here poached soft tofu in the warmed combined liquid for 10 minutes or so, just till the tofu is slightly hot and removed. Baby bak choy was added to the liquid and was brougth to a full boil. When the bak choy was ready, it is removed. Continue the reduce the liquid until the flavour is good and full, add some cornstarch mixed with cold water to make the sauce. Put everything back into the sauce for a minute or so an the dish is done.

Smoked Egg 熏蛋

Smoked egg is a famous side dish in Eastern China. It is not difficult to make if you have the 'master sauce' 卤水 handy (I do because I have a lot leftover from making the smoke chicken; this time I am going to maintain this sauce as the older it gets, the more you cooked in it, the better it gets. ). The trick is to poach the egg first until just barely soft boiled before peeling and putting it into the warm sauce. Let the sauce cool with the egg for half and hour to an hour depending on the strength of the sauce. The egg is very good just like that. If cooled eggs are lightly smoked with jasmine tea and sugar then you have smoked eggs. If you get the temperature right throughout, you will get a very tasty egg with tender white and creamy yoke. I think I did a decent job.

Sichuan Beef Soup 四川牛肉汤

This is one of my favourite noodle soup. The secret is caramelizing some sugar with oil before adding hot bean paste 豆瓣酱, Sichuan peppercorns 花椒, star anise 八角, garlic and ginger. The whole spice mixture is then added to the boil pot with parboiled brisket. Cook for a couple of hours and you have a rich and spicy soup. While it is typically used with noodles, it is as good with bread, steamed or baked. Here I have a few slices of fresh bread I just made.

Pork Chop II

I thought why not fry it simply. Pounded loin chops are salt-and-peppered and then dipped in milk then a mixture of flour and corn meal. It is shallow fried until brown and crisp. A little under seasoned but still enjoyable because it is moist and tender, plus, I haven't had a fried pork chop for a long time.

Pork chop I

I have this pork loin in the fridge but I don't feel like roasting it, so I cut it up into chops and enjoy it that way. Here I pounded it and then seasoned it with coriander seeds, cumin, oregano, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil all mashed together in a mortar. After browning it, I added a whole sliced onion, cooked until the onion takes on some colour then in went two yukon golds and water. Covered and cooked until the potatoes are done and I have a one pot hearty meal

Tea Smoked Chicken 茶香鷄

This is really just a chicken poached in "master" sauce. The sauce is made up of dark and light soy sauce 生抽 老抽, rock sugar 冰糖, ginger 姜, sha jiang 沙姜, star anise 八角, sichuan peppercorns 花椒, cloves 丁香, cassia's bark 桂皮, Amomum tsaoko 草果, rose liquor 玫瑰露 and water. Let that cook for an hour or so, let sit over night, and then poach the chicken in it until just cooked. Wait for it to cool before smoking it for 10 minutes over jasmine tea and brown sugar.

Ribs and Winter Squash Stew

A very good rustic winter dish. The ribs are browned slightly and then ginger, garlic and black beans are added. Shaoxing wine is used to deglaze and then water is added. After the ribs are tender, squash are added to cook for 10-15 minutes.

Blueberry Bread Pudding

Same bread pudding with frozen blueberry. More interesting and better looking.

Baked Pasta

Bored of same old pasta sauce? Bake the whole thing then. I made a quick pasta sauce with onion, ground beef, garlic, basil, oregano, crushed tomato and olive oil; tossed with spaghetti, put some mozzarella and parmigiano Reggiano on top and bake until brown. Surprisingly different taste and texture then without baking. Like it.