Curry Oyster Noodle Soup

Is this a laksa?  Probably not but similar.  I used crab shells to make a stock, simmered the result with curry paste, lemon grass, lime leaves and ginger for 20 minutes.  Season with salt, cane sugar and fish sauce, then added coconut milk and poached the oysters in it until done.  Put it together with rice noodles, bean sprouts, scallion and cilantro.

Crispy Garlicky Oysters

This is a very tasty way to eat oyster both alone or with rice.  The oysters are first parboiled for a couple minutes after washing with flour. Dusted with salt, pepper and flour, they are shallow fried until crisp, lots of slices of garlic and fresh chili pepper are added until golden; serve. 

'Crystal' Zong 水晶粽

This is certainly not traditional but kind of fun to make and eat.  It is made of sweeten and barely soaked small tapioca pearls (3 minutes) and red bean paste.  The bamboo leaves have to be oil lightly to prevent sticking.  Boil for 40 minutes after wrap.  Let cool and reheat to just soft (I zap it for 20 seconds) before eating.

Tomato and Egg 番茄蛋

I loved this when I was a kid and I still love it.  Simplest and, when in tomato season, cheapest dish. Just cook down lots of rip tomato a bit with some fresh ginger, add a few eggs (in between scrambled and omelette), scallion and cilantro, season with salt and sugar and that is it.  Make a lot of rice and just ladle this over, nothing say summer to me more.

Beef and Radish Noodle Soup 蘿蔔牛肉麵

I often use brisket for this but here I have shank meat, it is as good and a lot leans with plenty of nice tendon.  Same recipe as usual--caramelized some sugar in oil then add whole garlic cloves, big slices of ginger and hot bean sauce 辣豆瓣醬; cook a little then add meat.  When the meat is well coated, add water or beef stock and cook until the meat is tender.  Add big chunks of white radish 白蘿蔔 and cook till tender.  It is good to let the radish sit in the soup overnight to get the flavour through.  I like to add raw garlic, sliced scallion, soy sauce , sesame oil and dark aged Shanxi vinegar 山西老陳醋 for season in the soup with noodles. 

Sweet Belly 東坡肉

Chinese like pork, and traditionally the belly above all parts.  Now, well, people are scared by the fat.  Sometimes though, cook a well flavoured belly dish and a little goes a very long way.  This is perhaps the most famous way of preparing it, allegedly created and favoured by Su Dongpo 蘇東坡, the great Song Dynasty statesman, scholar, artist, poet and oversized gourmet.  Whole piece of belly, here about a pound, is first boiled in water for 15 minutes, cut into small pieces then lined skin side down into a pot on top of lots of scallion and ginger.  Pour in good Shaoxing wine 紹興酒 to half way up the meat, sprinkled on top dark soy sauce and sugar (it is a rather sweet dish) and simmer for an hour or so then turn to simmer the meat side  until it is tender.  Skim the fat then reduce the sauce until syrupy; lay the pieces into a jar, spoon the sauce over then steam cover for half an hour or so.  The result is creamy and sweet skin and fatty tissue, with much of the lard cooked out of it.  Small pieces of heaven indeed. 

Red Bean Paste 紅豆沙

Looks like a ugly mess, doesn't it?  This is in fact one of the all time favourite dessert fillings in all of East Asia.  I was going to buy some to fill some sweet zong but it is midnight and no store is open.  I had red beans so I made the paste myself.  The process is simple, cook the bean until opened then blend it smooth; brown some sugar in some oil then add the puree, cook out the water to form a paste, add more sugar and oil if needed.  How sweet it is.

Chinese Tamale 绿豆粽

Boat Festival 端午節 has become popular the world over as a sporting event--dragon boat racing.  The food for this festival, however remain a relative unknown to most.  Zong 粽 is like a tamale, wrapped in bamboo leaves mostly, rather than corn husk.  This is a very popular one with soaked sweet rice (which exists in almost all traditional zong), soaked shelled mung beans, salted egg yolk and five spice and soy sauce marinated pork belly.  These things, are wrapped in layers inside bamboo leaves, tie up and boil in water for a couple of hours.  I like to eat this unwrapped with dark soy sauce and a sprinkle of white pepper.






And this is what they look like.

Prawn, Papaya and Avocado Roll...or, Leftovers

I have a few steams spot prawn, a slice of papaya and half of a avocado in the fridge and thought "isn't that just the making of a good sushi roll?"  So, here it is, add a sheet of nori and a hand full of sushi rice, a very North American sushi roll. 

Butterflied Roast Chicken

I really don't know why people roast their chicken whole.  Butterflying it makes it cook faster and allows for higher heat.  What this does is, I think, to put the chicken under heat for a shorter period of time and crisp the skin much more evenly.  I also like to put garlic cloves, herbs, slice lemon and what-not under the chicken to flavour it.  Since the flavouring agents are heated from the beginning, the flavours penetrate the meat quickly. 

Chicken Rice with a little too much tomato

This is what happens with too much tomato in the rice--it is as if I put catchup into it.  I had about three quarter of a can of tomato and thought what is a tomato more or less... Well, the rice gets too sweet and gluey.  The deep red does set off the green of the peas well though. 

Polenta?

No, the yellow thing is not polenta but millet 小米.  Before rice became the main grain in China, millet was the thing.  Now, it is still very popular in Northern China.  The Chinese communist say they won the revolution with just millet and rifles.  Personally, I like it because it is refreshing and tasty.  Usually it is eaten as a porridge, a congee, but here I make it much thicker so it looks like polenta or couscous.  It eats a little like couscous too, like couscous with fibre.

One Pot Pork Blade Steak

Blade is cheap and tasty, just need a bit of cooking, made for the pressure cooker.  Here I salt-pepper-n-cumin the chop and then sear it right in the pot.  Add some garlic and onion, sauté till soft then add some big pieces of potato.  20 minutes under pressure and it is down.  I put some cauliflowers in once and the florets kept their shapes but turned into cream of cauliflower as soon as I touched them, rather cool.

Sand Worms 沙蟲

And yes, these are worms, tasty worms.  I grew up on these things.  They are raising them now, but these are wild from where they originates--Lower Dragon Pool Village, Beihai, Guangxi, China 北海龍潭下村--my mom's hometown and the hands of her friends and family.  They are turned inside out, cleaned and dried.  To eat as snacks, traditionally they are fried with just a touch of oil in a pan until they browns; I, however, am lazy and use the oven by tossing them with a drop of oil and a touch of salt before baking at 400℉ until brown.  They crisp up nicely when cooled.  How do they taste?  Well, sort of like dry scallop but even better.