I made this Carbonara dish a while ago and I decided to call it Isle Carbonara because the two main ingredients I used come from the two big Italian islands. My Sicilian friend Martina brought me a Ricotta Salata, and in the fridge I had a piece of Mustela, a cured pork loin typical of Sardinia, which is used as an additional ingredient to basic soffritto for regional dishes. Continue reading “Carbonara delle isole”
Chicken with chillies is a recipe from Sichuan’s Chongqing, which means it’s very spicy and mouth-numbing. The idea is that when you have the finished dish, it will look like a plate of chillies, and you can then have fun searching for the smaller pieces of chicken among the chillies.
The main spices are dried red chillies (of course) and Sichuan peppercorns, and if you want to know how much to add? The answer is lots, as long as you can bear it! The traditional chilli to peppercorn ratio by weight is 4:1. Continue reading “Stir Fried Spicy Chilli Chicken (La zi ji ding)”
Mapo tofu is one of the most well-known dishes from the Sichuan cuisine, and as with most Chinese recipes, there are many variations to the recipe. It is also extremely easy to make, and the main ingredient is soft tofu (medium can also be used if necessary, but is not ideal, but stay away from silken and firm – here’s a guide to tofu types!)
This version uses more minced pork than usual, and doesn’t have as much sauce as some of the other versions. If you decide to use less pork, then you can reduce it to 100g without affecting the flavours. You can also add a tbsp of chicken stock powder to it instead.
Continue reading “Mapo tofu (mapo doufu) recipe – spicy tofu with minced pork”
Chinese cooking can often be at odds with a vegetarian diet (of course, there are exceptions), and that’s partly because in Asia, umami, aka the fifth taste, is just as important as your sweet and your sour. This is what made MSG such a core ingredient. This is also the taste that Clearspring‘s organic Japanese umami paste offers to provide in a form that’s much healthier and still suitable for vegans. As a fan of Clearspring’s miso, I was keen to try out their umami paste when Clearspring offered samples.
The paste comes in two flavours, ginger and chilli, and in a tube form that’s easy to squeeze and easy to store. This recipe uses the ginger version, as it’s a traditionally non-spicy dish.
Continue reading “Chinese mixed vegetables (Su Shi Jin) with Clearspring Umami Paste”
Happy Bastille Day everyone! Sadly I didn’t have a blue bowl to serve this in, but this pork and fermented tofu recipe traditionally adds a dash of red to your table, and is best served with some white rice. It is also traditionally made with pork belly, as you need a fattier cut to make this tender, but this way of cooking it combines frying and steaming, and results in nice and juicy meat with pork cheeks – and is not as slow to cook as other recipes using pork cheeks.
The fermented tofu can also be replaced with soy sauce and normal tofu if you really can’t get hold of it, although of course the taste won’t be the same, but the pork cheeks will still be tender with the fry then steam method! This recipe works with the red version of fermented tofu, which is what gives the meat that lovely red colour at the end. It takes around 2 minutes to prep, followed by 5 minutes of active cooking time, then 45 minutes in the steamer. Continue reading “Rose coloured pork with fermented tofu (Meigui Furu Rou) – a healthier recipe”
It might be a good year or just the wonderful local Turkish shop where I buy my fruit, but this year I had the best strawberries in a while. From mid May till now, I always
have a box in the fridge ready to dig into! Then, when a special co-worker was leaving, she said she likes Victoria sponges, cheese cake and cupcakes. So I decided to bake her a batch of these wonderful cupcakes made with strawberries and ricotta. Strawberries and cream cupcakes are the perfect summer recipe I found in the book Eat Me! By Cookie Girl, a great source of inspiration when I feel like baking something special and getting creative with the decoration! This time I knew I had to decorate the cakes last minute in the office – which is why I did as little preparation as possible and decided to go for a messy look, like in the photos! This will make 12 cupcakes.
Cooking with cola is not that unusual – Nigella, for example, offers a ham in Coca-Cola recipe. The popular drink has also made its way into Chinese home cooking, and instead of using the oven, the ribs are all cooked in a pan. Coca-Cola’s flavourings include vanilla and coriander, which are both enhanced in this recipe.
The prep time is around 5 minutes, but you do have to leave the meat marinading for some time, ideally overnight, so it’s a dish you can prepare in advance. We’ll need to let the ribs simmer on the hob for around 45 minutes as well.
Ingredients
1 rack of ribs
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tbsp of Chinese Shaoxing rice wine
1 tbsp of corn flour
A pinch of ground vanilla (optional)
250ml of Coca-Cola
A handful of coriander
Continue reading “Cola ribs the Chinese way – a simple recipe”
This honey and butter bread is quite commonly found in Korean and some other Asian cafes, and doesn’t require any actual bread baking (although it does require a few minutes in the oven). The core ingredients are – yes – honey and butter. The ideal bread to use is milk bread, but you can make it with ordinary sliced bread as well. I’m using half brown and white bread here for an easy and healthier option.
The prep work only takes about 2 minutes, and then it’s a quick 10 minutes in the oven before it’s ready to serve as a dessert or a sweet pick-me-up.
Ingredients
2-3 thick slices of bread
2 tbsps of clear honey
A few slices of unsalted butter
Dash of cinamon
Whipped cream
Chocolate sauce
Continue reading “Asian honey and butter bread recipe – a simple dessert”
As the queen of pasta sauces, Tomato sauce is well known worldwide. Yet, it is a classic Italian recipe we cannot skip, especially after our blog post about fresh, home made pasta. Also, there are so many variations of it, that you can obviously find your own way around it depending on your gusto. For example, you can still make it even if you don’t have carrots and celery in the fridge, by just frying onion and garlic. You can also use a bottled tomato passata if you don’t want to go through the steps of tomato preparation, and if you do, I recommend this one. But, as said before regarding fresh tomatos vs ready passata or peeled tomatoes, it won’t taste as good even though it does save you some cooking time, especially now that the tomato season is starting. So take your time, get your hands a bit dirty and enjoy!
Continue reading “Classic Tomato Sauce (Salsa di pomodoro fresco)”
When you think of Chinese food, rice usually comes to mind, but actually flour-based recipes are just as common in the north. This dough drop soup is a home-cooked staple from the north of China as it looks more filling than it is, and it’s really easy to make, so became popular in the Sixties, when food was scarce. You don’t have to worry about making the dough drops even or pretty, because the whole point is that they are supposed to look lumpy and uneven – part of the handmade charm. Continue reading “Dough Drop Knot Egg and Tomato Soup – Chinese Gnocchi”
Blender & Basil 