Showing posts with label Chinese food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese food. Show all posts

Sesame Bottoms 芝麻底煎餃


Who doesn’t love Crispy Bottoms? I mean, you gotta love it! Making dumpling skirt/wings is always my favourite cooking way when having pan-fried dumplings but today I am showing you another tip to enjoy a golden crust...with sesame seeds.

 

I first saw this idea from Clerkenwellboy's post and I know I had to make it. These sesame seeds on bottoms actually looked so gorgeous, they’d taste good with beautiful nutty flavour and satisfying crunch, I absolutely loveed it and will be making them more often. Just SAVE this and give it a try later!

 

INGREDIENTS

-Gyoza or dumplings of your choice (I use frozen prawn gyoza)

-Plain flour and water to make a thin batter.⁠

-Sesame seeds.

-Spring onions and chillies (optional) to garnish.

 

METHOD

1. Dip the gyoza or dumpling bottom in batter, then coat with sesame seeds.

2. Heat sufficient oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat, add gyoza in a single layer and cook until bottom begins to brown.

3. Flip and add water to cover around 1/4 of gyozas’ height, cook with a lid until water has evaporated. (About few minutes.)

4. Sprinkle with spring onions and chillies, serve with a dipping sauce.

 


Watch my Reels to see the tutorial!


Black Pepper Beef Stir-Fry⁠⁠ 黑胡椒炒牛肉



If you want to eat like a local in Taiwan, you have to go to Taiwan’s unique ‘Re-Chao’ 熱炒(Hot Stir-fries) restaurant, a loud and fast-paced place where locals enjoy affordable foods, get relaxed and socialize with friends after work. There are many stir-fried dishes at menu to choose, and Black Pepper Beef Stir-Fry is defo one of the classics to order at Re-Chao restaurant. This cuisine is loaded with lots of black pepper, savoury and succulent with buttery beefy taste; goes perfectly with rice and beerstogether. To make this at home for a restaurant standard is not difficult as well, trust me, it’s easier and quicker than you thought. I am using chuck tail flap in this recipe but you can surely use any cut of beef. Just make sure you always marinate the beef to give it tender texture and flavour.⁠⁠
⁠⁠
INGREDIENTS⁠⁠
-1/2 onion, julienned.⁠⁠
-3 cloves of garlic, chopped.⁠⁠
-Bird’s eye chillies, sliced. (Remove the seeds to reduce the heat.)⁠⁠
-25g unsalted butter.⁠⁠
-Chopped chives to garnish.⁠⁠
⁠⁠
FOR THE MARINADE⁠⁠
-200g chuck tail flap. (Or beef strips.)⁠⁠
-1 tbsp oil.⁠⁠
-1 tsp white pepper.⁠⁠
-1 tsp salt.⁠⁠
-1 tbsp plain flour.⁠⁠
⁠⁠
FOR THE SAUCE⁠⁠
-2 tbsp oyster sauce.⁠⁠
-1 tbsp soy sauce.⁠⁠
-1 tbsp sun-dried tomato sauce. (Or ketchup)⁠⁠
-1 tbsp cooking wine.⁠⁠
-1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper.⁠⁠
⁠⁠
METHOD⁠⁠
1. Season the beef with above ingredients for the marinade, leave to rest for at least 10 minutes.⁠⁠
2. Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat, stir in garlic, onion and chillies until fragrant and translucent, then transfer to a separate plate.⁠⁠
3. Use the same pan to stir fry marinated beef over high heat until slightly browned.⁠⁠
4. Pour the sauce mixture and keep stirring for 15-25 seconds.⁠⁠
5. Put garlic, onion, and chillies back in, add butter and stir until melted in the sauce.⁠⁠
6. Garnish with chives and more black pepper, serve immediately.⁠⁠

⁠⁠



Drunken Chicken / Shaoxing Wine Marinated Chicken 醉雞


In Taiwanese culture, Chicken is a symbolic dish for Lunar New Year as it symbolises to bring the prosperity of family. This comes from the Taiwanese phrase ’Jia-Ke-Khi-Ke’’(呷雞起家) as the Taiwanese pronunciation of chicken -‘Ke’ - has the same sound as ‘’home’’. Usually the whole chicken is the most popular, but ‘’Drunken Chicken’’ 醉雞, a dish of chicken soaked in Shaoxing wine, is also common to be served during Lunar New Year. Even though I don’t really drink alcohol, I do love ‘Drunken Chicken’ as the flavour of alcohol with food is just sooooo tasteful.


 Ingredients

- 4 deboned skin-on chicken thighs

Use knife to pound the thicker part of the meat so it’s evenly thick, season with salt, white pepper, and sesame oil on both sides to briefly marinate for 10 minutes.

 

To prepare the broth
- 400ml Shaoxing wine
- 300ml chicken stock or water.

- 5-8 slices of ginger.
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt

- A handful goji berries.
Cook above ingredients (except goji berries) in a large pot and bring it to a boil, turn off the heat, add goji berries, then wait until cooling down.

 

Method

1. Roll the chicken thigh and wrap tightly into a log with aluminum foil.

2. Steam these foil-wrapped chicken rolls for 15-18 minutes over high heat, then turn off the heat and leave it for a further 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

3. Transfer these chicken rolls in ice cold water until completely cool, this step is to improve chicken’s texture.

4. Unwrap the chickens, soak them into the cooled broth, keep in the fridge for 1-2 days. (I also place a piece of parchment paper on top as a cover lid to help chickens soaked and marinated evenly. )

5. Slice the chicken, decorate with goji berries and spring onion curls before serving.





I have actually made this dish a couple of times before but this time I also tried to transfer the cooking process into a 15-sec-Reels-video. Please check it out, hope it's easy to understand!

 

Steamed Garlic Prawns with Glass Noodles 蒜蓉蒸蝦粉絲


Have no idea what to cook for Lunar New Year? How about trying this steamed garlic prawns recipe which is super simple but looks sophisticated on the table?  This is a great LNY celebration cuisine with beautiful taste of shell-on prawns and to impress your family as they would feel you cook like a restaurant chef! It only took 5 minutes to steam, however the most time-consuming and tricky part for me is to remove the digestive vein from each prawn, totally worthy to clean it one by one as this step just makes the prawns more appetizing for sure.

 

Ingredients

-6-8 tiger prawns, shells on.

-1 pack of glass noodles. (you can also use vermicelli or even silken tofu.)

-Spring onion or coriander to garnish.

 

To Prepare Prawns

-Use kitchen scissors to cut through the back of prawns. (keep the head and tail.)

-Remove the digestive vein with a toothpick or knife (do not peel off the shell), vein is the black string that runs down the back of a prawn which is filled with nasty grit. Make sure you discard it thoroughly.

-Flat the prawns on.

 

To Make Sauce Mixture

-Finely chopped garlics, A LOT!

-2 tbsp finely chopped spring onion whites.

-2 tbsp light soy sauce.

-1 tbsp oyster sauce.

-1 tbsp rice cooking wine.

-1 tbsp sesame oil.

-1 tbsp water.

-1 tsp fish sauce.

-1 tsp sugar.

-1/4 tsp white pepper.

-A pinch of Salt.

 

Method

-Soak glass noodles in hot water, once soften, place it on a plate.

-Place flat-on prawns on the top of glass noodles, pour sauce mixture on the prawns.

-Steam for 5 minutes, once time is up, garnish spring onions or coriander on top.

-Heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a pan over medium high heat until it smokes, pour hot oil over the prawns to sizzle.

-Enjoy!

 

So why people eat prawns to celebrate Lunar New Year? 

In Taiwanese culture, red is regarded as the luckiest colour particularly for Lunar New Year celebration, we believe eating reddish prawns during LNY will bring us good luck and happiness.



Shi Zi Tou / Lion's Head Soy Balls 素獅子頭 (冷凍素丸子版本)


‘Lion’s Head’ meatballs (we called it ‘Shi Zi Tou’ 獅子頭 in Mandarin) is a classic dish in my Taiwan’s family particularly to be served as celebration meal for Lunar New Year. Basically they are large-sized pork meatballs stewed with Chinese leaves, the meatballs taste super tender and succulent with flavourful broth. To be honestly it’s not difficult to make it from scratch with pork mince, but this time I decided to go on a shortcut by using Waitrose soya balls because I need to stay vegetarian on Lunar New Year’s Day, I want to test the recipe ahead to see if soya meatballs also work.

 

Except these soya meatballs are not lion’s head size, they are actually quite good for recreating this new year’s celebration dish. Furthermore, they are totally vegan. One thing I should have noticed is I should put a head of Chinese leaf rather than just peeling 5-6 pieces leaves to stew as it turned out so little vegetable to be served on the plate in the end.

 

Ingredients

-Waitrose vegan soya balls.

-Chinese leaf, quartered lengthways.

-3 cloves of garlic, chopped.

-Salt and soy sauce to taste.

-Chopped spring onions and fried onions to garnish.

-Sesame oil to season.

 

Method

-Oven cook soya balls from frozen. (follow the cooking instruction on the package.)

-Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, add garlic and stir fry until fragrant.

-Add Chinese leaf and stir fry until soften and watery.

-Add salt and soy sauce, simmer over low heat for 10-15 minutes.

-Place soya balls in, cook for a further 5 minutes.

-Garnish with spring onions and fried onions, season with sesame oil.

 



沒想到這周就要迎接農曆新年了,從上周就已經開始在構思新年要煮甚麼好(也算是超前佈署?),因為初一要吃素所以打算先來「試菜」,想到冷凍庫還有上次超市買的素肉丸,於是就拿來做成獅子頭看看搭不搭;素肉丸我還是有先烤好最後再跟滷好的白菜一起燉煮5分鐘,雖然是有點偷吃步的作法,但意外的還是很成功呢。

Mapo Tofu 麻婆豆腐 (無肉版本)


Mapo tofu is a classic Sichuan style dish with spicy, salty, a little bit numbing and aromatic flavour, this is also one of my favourite Sichuanese dishes that I would cook once in a while at home to enjoy with rice. Authentic mapo tofu usually comes with pork mince, but I find pork mince here always has strong porky smell (do you feel the same?) so I usually cook meatless version by using chopped king oyster mushrooms or soya protein mince to replace pork and it’s still flavourful.


Also do you prefer soft tofu or firm tofu when having mapo tofu? I like both as I think they all go well with appetizing mapo sauce. Love the smooth of soft tofu that can melt in the mouth, I also enjoy a bit chewy and rougher texture from firm tofu. I know it’s hard to choose between two, however today’s mapo dish is using firm tofu as it’s easy to get from most supermarkets. (Original recipe by Soac)


Ingredients
-1
block of @cauldronfoods tofu, cut into small cubes.

-75g stewed minced soya protein.素嚕 (Optional.)
-Sichuan pepper. (This can be bought at the UK’s supermarkets. Adjust the amount to suit your preferred spiciness.)

-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.

-1 tbsp minced ginger.

-2 tbsp Dou Ban Jiang (豆瓣醬) / Soybean paste.
-1 tbsp soy sauce.
-1 tsp sugar.

-1 cup of water.

-1 tbsp flour slurry.

-A handful chopped spring onions.

-chillies and chilli flakes to garnish.

Method
-Put tofu cubes in salted boiling water and cook for 1 minute, then drain and set aside. (this process is to make tofu less breakable.)

-Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat, add Sichuan pepper and stir until dark brown (make sure Sichuan peppers don’t burn), remove pepper and leave chilli oil.

-Sizzle garlic, ginger, and soybean paste in chilli oil over medium heat until fragrant.

-Add soy sauce and sugar.

-Gently place tofu cubes in and mix well, pour water and simmer for 10 minutes.

-Add stewed minced soy protein and flour slurry, leave to boil when sauce gets thicken.

-Sprinkle with spring onions, chilli flakes, and chillies (optional) on top.

-Serve immediately with rice.





煮麻婆豆腐通常需要豬絞肉,但我覺得英國的豬絞肉味道特別重(豬五花反而比較好),所以每次自己在家煮麻婆豆腐都是無肉版本,反正只要有豆腐跟豆瓣醬就萬事足(知道英國哪家的豬絞肉比較沒味道的也歡迎推薦給我)。另外麻婆豆腐有人偏好嫩豆腐,有人則喜歡板豆腐,我是覺得兩種豆腐吃起來都各有風味,你喜歡哪一種呢?


Easy Vegan Zha Jiang Mian / Stir-fried soybean paste noodles 簡易素食版炸醬麵


I’ve ever introduced Taiwanese Zha Jiang Mian (炸醬麵) before, it’s a very common street food in Taiwan consisting of noodles topped with stir-fried pork mince and soybean paste. I do love the meaty taste of Zha Jiang Mian, but this classic noodles dish can be transformed to veggie version and it also tastes divine. This time I used Cauldron Foods marinated tofu pieces, they are already cooked with flavour so I don’t even need to add on too many sauces, and they are really convenient for making sauce mixture of Zha Jiang Mian particularly for this meatless Veganuary option.

Ingredients
-80g
Cauldron Foods marinated tofu pieces.

-1 tbsp Dou Ban Jiang (豆瓣醬)/ Soybean paste.

(I used Taiwanese one as it contains completed beans inside. Alternatively, you can find Lee Kum Kee soybean paste at oriental shops.)
-2 cloves of garlic, chopped.
-1 tbsp soy sauce.
-1 tsp sugar.

-1/2 cup of water to taste.

-Chopped spring onions and basil to garnish.


Method
-Heat vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat, add garlic and stir fry until fragrance.
-Add Dou Ban Jiang/soybean paste, stir fry over low heat until aromatic.
-Add soy sauce, sugar, tofu pieces and toss everything together.

-Add water to taste, let it simmer for 10 minutes over the lowest heat.
-Pour above tofu mixture over cooked noodles,
garnish with spring onions and basil leaves.

 



其實我是米飯擁護者,但近日的貼文都是以麵食居多,實在是因為煮麵要比煮飯來得快速許多啊!這次則用了Cauldron的豆腐干做了素版的炸醬麵,因為這款豆腐本身就已經有調理過了,所以豆瓣醬等醬料都可以斟酌減半,不用燉煮太久,稍微收汁就可以拌在乾麵上,算是簡單又快速的一道麵攤小品。(今天沒有特別弄溏心蛋,不然每次一擺都喧賓奪主;然後麵條我有特別「梳」過,終於擺起來比較整齊了,只是這梳的功力還要多練習,我自己是覺得沒有想像中好梳哈。)


Beef Stir-Fry Noodles 牛肉炒麵

 

Beef Ho Fun used to be one of my favourite takeaway dishes from Cantonese restaurant. During the lockdown every time when I wanted to make it at home, I realised I didn't stock up Ho Fun at all. And one day I was really craving for it, therefore I just worked it out with noodles and it was actually amazingly delicious. I’ve followed 小高姐’s tips to marinate beef this time and the result came out really good, the meat was smoothly tender. I can say this is my best beef stir-fry noodles so far and could become my all time favourite.


Ingredients

-100g brown rice udon noodles from Clearspring

(don’t know why this product is called ‘’udon’’ as for me it is apparently noodles, not udon noodles. However this is delicious with lovely texture, and thick enough in terms of noodles.)

-100g beef rib, slice into 2-3mm thickness.

-1/2 onion, cut into strips.

-1/2 bunch spring onions, cut into lengths.

-Chilli oil to taste.

 

To make sauce mixture

-2 tbsp soy sauce

-1 tsp dark soy sauce.

-2 tbsp oyster sauce.

 

To marinate beef

-Soak beef in salted water (500g water + 8g salt) for 15 minutes.

-Wash blood off and rinse thoroughly until water runs clear, squeeze beef to drain all the water.

-Combine 1g baking soda, 1g white pepper, and 5g soy sauce together, mix well to marinate beef.

-Add a bit of flour slurry and oil to coat the beef thoroughly before cooking. (this step will give the meat a velvety texture.)

 

You can check 小高姐’s tips to tenderise beef for stir-fry here. It’s in Chinese but easy to understand by simply watching it. (Or there’s an option at Youtube to select English subtitles.)


Method

-Follow the instruction of package to cook noodles in boiling water but reduce 2 minutes at cooking time (If it said simmer for 9 minutes then just cook for 7 minutes.), then set noodles aside.

-Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat, stir fry beef for about 2-3 minutes until medium rare, remove the beef and set aside for later.

-Clean out the pan and heat oil again over medium high heat, stir fry onions until browned and soften.

-Add noodles and sauce mixture, toss until noodles are evenly coated.

-Add beef and part of spring onions, stir fry everything together.

-Add remaining spring onions and keep tossing for a further 30 seconds.

-Drizzle some chilli oil to taste (optional), serve hot.

 


本來想要做乾炒河粉,但家裡沒有河粉,只好換成陽春麵,自己覺得多了些台灣快炒店的味道,然後以前對於炒牛肉感到略為苦手的我,這次參照了小高姐的撇步,牛肉在事前用鹽水泡、以及加入少量蘇打粉增加肉質的嫩滑度,果然炒出來的牛肉超級軟嫩、不老不柴,完全可以媲美餐廳的等級。還有這個在英國超市買的玄米麵條煮起來也超好吃,不知道它為什麼標榜自己是烏龍麵(包裝上寫Udon Noodles),總之煮完的麵條就如同家常麵般些微厚實且帶有勁道的,我覺得比我平日在亞洲超市買的陽春麵還好吃,滿值得購入的。

Congee Breakfast for New Year's Day


‘𝐘𝐮𝐚𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐧’ 元旦 is the phrase in Mandarin Chinese to call the first day of New Year. Considering the first day of the year, I always like to have myself a proper breakfast or brunch to greet the start of New Year. And ‘𝐗𝐢 𝐅𝐚𝐧’ 稀飯, or Congee in English, is a comfy food to have when sickness but also could be served for breakfast, particularly when you need handover cure the morning after New Year’s eve celebration.

 

In Taiwan, we usually have plain congee with a couple of side dishes. The ratio of rice and liquid could be altered depending on your desired consistency. Here is how I made my congee breakfast:

 

𝐈𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: (Serving 2-3)

-Short grain rice 150g.

-Water 900g.

My ratio of rice and water is 1:6, congee becomes neither too watery nor too thick. You can also adjust the amount of water to suit your preference.

 

𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝:

-Rinse rice 2-3 times and drain, then add 900g water at once and cook in a large pot over medium high heat. (no need to soak rice before cooking, also stir occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.)

-Bring to a nearly boil and reduce the heat to a low simmer, cook for 20 minutes.

-Turn off the heat and leave it for a further 10 minutes.

-Serve in a smaller ceramic pot or a bowl, enjoy with side dishes and toppings.

 

𝐌𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬:

-Soft boiled egg (egg from Clarence Court)

-‘You Tiao’油條/ Fried dough sticks.

-Taiwanese pickled bamboo shoots.

-Pollock floss.

-Takana / Pickled mustard leaves from Yutaka.

-Chopped spring onions and fried onions to garnish.

-Soy sauce and sesame oil to season.

 




Hong Zhao/Red Yeast Paste Fried Rice 紅糟炒飯

 


Fried rice is my usual clean-out-the-fridge meal particularly on the day before my grocery delivery. My ingredients are simple, but this time I added Hong Zhao(紅糟醬)/Red Yeast Paste to stir fry, and the fragrance of red glutinous rice wine just perfectly enhanced the aroma of fried rice. Also I feel the colour of this red yeast paste fried just looked so Christmasy, don’t you think ?

 

𝐈𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 :

-Hong Zhao/Red Yeast Paste.

-Short grain rice, cooked.

-Eggs, beaten.

-Sweetcorn.

-Frozen edamame beans.

-Salt to taste.

-Chopped spring onions and crispy fried onions to garnish.

-Sesame oil for finishing.

 

𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 :

-Heat oil in a large pan over medium high heat, once it’s hot, add beaten eggs and stir well to scramble, then transfer to a plate.

-Use the same pan to stir fry red yeast paste over medium high heat for about 30 seconds, add cooked rice and stir well until rice is coated reddish colour evenly.

-Add sweetcorn, edamame beans, and fried eggs back to the pan, keep stirring fry everything together.

-Add salt to taste, sprinkle chopped spring onions and crispy fried onions, finish with a drizzle of sesame oil.

 


之前用過的紅糟醬還剩下一點份量一直冷藏在冰箱,因為只剩兩大匙也不夠拿來醃豬五花,今天便決定拿它來做紅糟炒飯。不得不說紅糟的酒香真是特殊且迷人,而且這盤明明是清冰箱料理,但意外地炒出來有種聖誕節的感覺啊。(靈機一動:如果把紅糟炒飯做成一球一球的飯糰,然後疊成聖誕樹的樣子如何?)