Tag: cooking

Beer Braised Duck
Recipes

Beer braised duck recipe (pi jiu ya)

Legend has it that beer braised duck (also known as beer duck stew) was invented by the Qing dynasty emperor Kangxi. The story goes that he accidentally knocked his sorghum wine into a duck stew, and found that it improved the taste of the dish. Nowadays, the recipe usually uses Tsingtao beer, but most beers work, so you can test it out with your favourite.

In this version, I’m using Lowland Glen from the Harviestoun Brewery because the description mentioned a fruity finish with malty undertones. In the past, I’ve also used Guinness, which gave the duck a heavier taste.

The following recipe will give you quite a spicy version of the dish, so if you prefer a more lightly spiced version, I’d strongly suggest halving the chilli, peppercorns and fennel.

The cooking time is 50 mins (although prep time is super short), and this recipe serves 2. It’s really easy to make – as you can see, there are fewer steps than usual. Ideally, use a wok when you cook this.

Beer Braised Duck

Ingredients
2 duck legs or 1/4 duck
2 star anise
1/2 tsp of fennel seeds
1/2 tsp of Sichuan peppercorns
5-6 dried chilli
1 tbsp of soya sauce
1 bottle of beer (around 330ml)
1 baby spring onion

Oil for frying, and salt to taste. Continue reading “Beer braised duck recipe (pi jiu ya)”

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tea_flavoured_eggs
Recipes

Tea flavoured eggs recipe (cha ye dan) – a snack from China

Happy 2016! Let’s kick off the new year with a recipe for tea flavoured eggs: a common snack in China, lightly salted and fragranced with black tea. You can either use black tea leaves or tea bags such as these Twining black tea varieties. Assam works quite well and gives the eggs a nice flavour. Please don’t use green tea, as the flavours won’t feel balanced.

I’m using tea bags in this recipe, as I needed to use decaf tea. Otherwise, this is a quite strongly flavoured version of the recipe, as I prefer a stronger taste for the eggs.

Despite the long cooking time for this recipe (around 1 hour then soaking overnight), it’s actually very simple to prepare. The eggs will keep for 3 days if refrigerated, so you can cook a larger batch if you prefer.

tea_flavoured_eggs

Ingredients
4 eggs
3 tea bags
3 star anise
6-7 cloves
2 sprigs of cinnamon (I’m using the Chinese version here)
1 heaped tablespoon of five spices powder
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
Salt to taste Continue reading “Tea flavoured eggs recipe (cha ye dan) – a snack from China”

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Shredded pork and coriander
Recipes

Shredded pork and coriander recipe (xiang cai chao rou si)

This simple and quick pork and coriander stir-fry dish comes from Northern China, just south of Beijing – from Shandong – and is part of the Lu cuisine (which is why it’s not a stew this time!)

Sometimes it has been modified to a spicier dish (by adding chilli), but the original version only uses salt, soya sauce, cooking alcohol, ginger and spring onion for flavouring. My family never made it with chilli peppers, so this is what you’ll find here.

The best cut of pork for this stir-fry is the fillet (aka the tenderloins). The cheapest pork I found during my shopping trip was already cubed, so that’s what I’m using. To make up for the cut, I’m cutting these into smaller pieces here. The aim is for it to cook very rapidly, so the prep time is roughly 10 minutes, but it should only cook for around 5-6 minutes.

This version of the recipe serves 2.

Shredded pork and coriander

Ingredients
200g of pork
1 egg
1 tbsp of plain flour
4-5 spring onions (small)
2 slices of ginger
1 tbsp of soya sauce
1 tbsp of Shaoxing rice wine
200g of coriander
Salt to taste
2-3 drops of sesame oil

Yes, that’s not a typo, you really do need 200g of coriander! Continue reading “Shredded pork and coriander recipe (xiang cai chao rou si)”

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Meatloaf
Recipes

Hearty winter meatloaf with tomato sauce recipe

Now that the weather is getting colder, a good serving of meatloaf can warm you right up. That, and I had some bread to use up. I’ve adapted this recipe over time from the BBC Good Foods hot or cold meatloaf recipe, as I prefer my meatloaves a bit nuttier and slightly herbier, but with less onions. The tomato sauce compliments the meatloaf really well, so I’ve included it here.

This will serves 4 people. Prep time is roughly 15 minutes, and it will need 1 hour in the oven.

Meatloaf

Ingredients
500g of minced pork
4 tbsps of powdered parmesan
1 tbsp of dried oregano
2 slices of granary bread with nuts
1/2 an onion
30g of fresh parsley
8 slices of prosciutto
1 egg

For the sauce:
2 vine tomatoes
3 tbsps of tomato sauce

Continue reading “Hearty winter meatloaf with tomato sauce recipe”

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Omurice
Recipes

Omurice – omelette with fried rice

Omurice is basically fried rice wrapped in an omelette – two delicious foods in one! It’s a western-inspired Japanese recipe, and you can generally find it in all sorts of cafés. It can look like a piece of edible art (as you can see from this rilakkuma-inspired omurice). Whatever form it may take, at the heart of the dish is always fried rice, omelette and the all-important tomato ketchup.

This recipe serves 2 (makes 2 omurices), and takes 40 mins to cook. I have pre-prepared the chicken here, as this version is more meat-heavy than what you’d normally find, and I didn’t want the chicken to feel dry. It’s been marinaded in buttermilk overnight.

Also, I prefer using buttermilk for omelettes, as they make the omelettes much fluffier than using milk or just using eggs without either.

omurice

Ingredients
200g of chicken breast
100ml of buttermilk
3/4 cup of rice
1 block of chicken stock cube
3 eggs
1 tbsp of powdered parmesan (optional)
A pinch of black pepper
150g peas
1/2 onion

Tomato ketchup

You’ll also need salt to taste.

Continue reading “Omurice – omelette with fried rice”

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bottarga_fennel_sardinianfood
Recipes

Bottarga: the Sardinian Gold

Bottarga (also called bottargo or bottariga…) is a delicacy widely used in the south of the Mediterranean: several cuisines have this fish roe amongst their ingredients, but it is commonly associated with Sardinian cuisine. Hence, it is an indispensable element of my cooking.
bottarga_sardinian
The preparation of this magical ingredient is rather simple: the fish roe is usually taken from grey mullet or tuna, and it is left to dry in salt after being pressed into an oblong shape. This is then coated in beeswax for preservation purposes. It has a very strong fishy flavour, which is a real speciality to be used for antipasti like in this marvellous cabbage and pine nuts dish (photo below) or as an addition to fish based pasta (like a parmigiano of the sea).

Continue reading “Bottarga: the Sardinian Gold”

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Imitated_crab_Sai_Pang_Xie
Recipes

Imitated crab (sai pang xie) – an imperial recipe from Beijing

There’s a story behind this imitated crab (sai pang xie) recipe, and it starts with the Empress Dowager Cixi craving crabs. Unfortunately, being based in Beijing means a lack of fresh crabs, so the imperial chefs found a clever way to cook eggs to make them taste as good as crab meat. I love this recipe because you can make a huge quantity of the “crab” without breaking the bank – and the bonus is that there’s no need to get fiddly with crab shells!

There are many variations of the recipe, starting with the poor-man’s version with just eggs. Others use white fish and a touch of prawns to achieve a texture closest to crab meat. I’ve used only prawns here, as I prefer that more seafood-y taste.

I’ve also used a salted egg, as this adds a little extra punch to the recipe, but you can use normal eggs. If you’re using normal eggs, then make sure you add more salt in the egg white and egg yolk mixes.

Lastly, this version separates the egg white and egg yolk to create two parts with different textures. The egg white is the crab meat, and the egg yolk is the crab yolk. The most basic form of this recipe doesn’t bother with separating the two, but I really think that this step makes a huge difference to how good it tastes, so it’s not worth skimping on that.

The version below serves 2, and takes roughly 30 minutes to cook. Most of it is time spent chopping the prawns though!

Ingredients
4 eggs (optional: 1 of the eggs can be a salted egg)
2 thick slices of ginger (roughly 3mm and 5mm thick each)
90g of prawns (alternatively, use 70g of white fish and 5-6 prawns)
2 tbsps of Chinese rice vinegar (you need the dark coloured vinegar)
Optional: 1 tbsp of Chinese shaoxing cooking wine

You’ll also need salt to sprinkle into the egg mixes and olive oil for the pan.

Imitated_crab_Sai_Pang_Xie Continue reading “Imitated crab (sai pang xie) – an imperial recipe from Beijing”

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Candied_sweet_potato
Recipes

Bonfire night recipe: candied sweet potato

It’s time for fireworks and toffee apples. Yes, it’s time for Bonfire Night. For something a bit different from apples, you can also coat sweet potatoes in sugar. Here’s a very simple recipe for doing just that. It’s a flexible recipe: you can use any type of frying oil you like, and you can cut your sweet potatoes into cubes or strips. I like doing them into smaller slices simply because I like more sugar than sweet potato. Hey, it’s not a healthy recipe by any means (you’re doing some serious frying and coating things in sugar), and we’re not going to eat this every day, so anything goes!

This is from a Chinese recipe where you’d normally cut the sweet potatoes into cubes and also create “threads” with the sugar afterwards to make it look pretty. I generally do that if I’m having this as a standalone dish, but this time it was a small side with the main meal. When you make this with sweet potato cubes, make sure that you don’t brown it as much as I’ve done. I like a crispier taste when having it as a side.

The below serves 2 as a side. You can easily scale it up.

Candied_sweet_potato

Ingredients
1 sweet potato (roughly 300g)
100g cane sugar (ideally not brown sugar for this)
1 tablespoon sesame

You’ll also need oil for frying and half a cup of water. I used olive oil here.

Continue reading “Bonfire night recipe: candied sweet potato”

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Pork_belly_sauerkraut_stew
Recipes

Pork belly and sauerkraut stew – a modern take on a traditional Chinese recipe

The pork belly and Chinese sour cabbage stew is one of my favourite dishes from China’s Dongbei cuisine, but sadly it’s extremely difficult to get hold of Dongbei-style sour cabbage outside China (the type from Southern China tastes very different). In order to make your own through my grandmother’s traditional recipe, you need to make a really massive batch, and I don’t cook with it enough to make that a realistic option.

Luckily, sauerkraut tastes a lot like it, and although it’s not 100% to the traditional taste, you can get the same balance of the refreshing sour taste of the sour cabbage and the rich and juicy pork belly from this recipe.

Also, to note, I’ve used the method where you cook the uncut pork belly first. You can also slice the pork belly into strips when the pork is raw (if it’s too soft to cut easily, just put it in the freezer briefly until it’s easier to cut). However, directly cooking the sliced pork belly gives you a greasier dish in the end, so I prefer cooking it the longer way.

Traditionally, you’d use a vermicelli made from yam for the stew (it has to be the thicker variety), but here, as pork belly is quite a fatty food, I’ve swapped it out for Shirataki noodles. These are super low calorie and are made from konjac yam, so taste identical to the traditional ones in the stew. If you can’t get hold of these, then you can replace it with a thick noodle or even leave it out completely.

shirataki_noodles

The recipe below serves 2-3, and takes roughly 40 mins to cook. As you’ll see below, the ingredients are also a bit rough for this, because in Chinese stews, you can vary the amount of meat or noodles and it will still come out well.

Ingredients
1 strip pork belly/pork belly joint (roughly 400-500g – I used 430g)
1/2 stick cinnamon
2 bay leaves (ideally fresh)
2 star anise
3 slices ginger
200g sauerkraut
1 bag shirataki noodles (mine was 170g)

You’ll also need olive oil to release the flavour from the spices, and will need to add some salt and water along the way.

Pork_belly_sauerkraut_stew Continue reading “Pork belly and sauerkraut stew – a modern take on a traditional Chinese recipe”

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Apple_Plum_Jam_4
First Time Making, Recipe Review, Recipes

First time making: homemade apple and plum jam with cardamom

Now that my two jars of strawberry jam are nearly empty, it’s time to make a new batch – with apples and plums. I wanted to try something less runny this time, and as it’s the pectin that makes jam set, I decided to try a recipe with plums (a fruit that features on the high pectin list). Then I found this delicious-looking plum and apple jam, as well as this beautiful French apple jam recipe, so decided to combine the two and make an apple and plum jam with cardamom.

For the apple variety, I picked Gala, as it’s generally good for apple sauces: it’s sweet, got a good texture and isn’t too “watery”.

PLEASE NOTE: I thought it’d make 2 x 500ml jars of jam, but it turned out that there was only enough for 1 jar, so in the future, I won’t be scaling down the recipe in this way.

Ingredients
250g flavouring plums (4 plums)
250g Gala apples (2 apples)
1 cardamom pod
300g jam sugar
100g cane sugar
150ml water

You’ll also need: a potato masher and 1 jam jar (500ml).

Apple_Plum_Jam_1 I scaled down the sugar slightly, as the apple and plum varieties already seemed quite sweet to me. By the original recipe, you should use 450g sugar. Also, just because I’m paranoid (and there was still some left over), I’m using a mix of jam sugar, which contains pectin, and normal sugar. In theory, the plum will provide enough natural pectin, so you can use normal white sugar here. Continue reading “First time making: homemade apple and plum jam with cardamom”

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