Fresh Yam Salad

 

Ingredients:

Japanese Fresh Yam - remove skin and cut into thick shreds (sensitive hand better put gloves on)

Lettuce - salad size

Cucumber - sliced

Cherry Tomatoes - halves

Okra - blanch 1 min, pour to ice water, then drain and dry, slanted slice into half

Shredded Seaweeds

Rice Crispy or roasted sesame

Sesame salad dressing of your choice

How to Make:

mix all together with the amount of sesame salad dressing you prefer, then sprinkle with shredded seaweeds, rice crispy or roasted sesame.

Love this crunchy and nutritious salad. Enjoy!

Edamame soup

 

Ingredients:

Edamame 70-100g (boiled and cooked, then remove skin. The removed skin can be discarded or add to veggies stir fry)

Potato 100g - remove skin, then thin slice and small cubes

Vegan Soup base 250ml (just soak 1 small pc of Konbu Kelp together with 2 dried mushrooms in 1L water overnight, chinese mushrooms must prior rinse with corn starch and water)

Soy Milk 150ml (i use Marusan無調整豆漿）

Seaweed Powder

How to Make:

1. Cook potato to the vegan soup base and cook until soft, then add soy milk and the edamame and cook for another 1-2 min. Don't boil it! medium fire will do.

2. Add above to blender and blend till creamy. Season with salt and black pepper to your liking.

3. Pour to serving bowl and sprinkle with seaweed powder.

* if you like the soup to be more creamy, the proportion of soy milk to Vegan Soup Base can adjust by having more soy milk and less vegan soup base.

* if you like more condensed taste of edamame, you can add more edamame and less potato too.

* edamame is high in protein and very nutritious but could cause gas and bloating. So beware.

Enjoy!

Burdock & Carrot Salad

 

* credits to @jeffreyveggielife, my vegan cuisine teacher

Ingredients:

Burdock 90g - rub clean and slice

Carrot 90 g - clean, remove skin and slice

Seasoned Monkey Mushroom 80g - pan fried and slice (I used the one which is frozen and purchased from Kowloon City 廣益行)

大葉 (looks like Shiso leaves, but bigger in size) - roll it up and slice

Japanese Mustard (水菜） rinse and spin cut into salad size

pickled plums - remove seeds and mash it

Sesame - 3tbsp - grinded

Salad Sauce:

Soy Sauce x 2tbsp （I used Kikoman 萬字牌 特選丸大豆減鹽)

Brown Sugar (or monk fruit sugar) x 1.5 tbsp

mirin x 2 tbsp

How to Make it:

1. Cook the sauce. Once boiled, turn to medium low heat and cook for 5 min. Then set aside to a bowl.

2. Heat up a pan, add sesame oil and stir fry the burdocks and carrots in medium fire, can add 1-2tbsp of water, until they are cooked - "crunchy soft".

3. Add the cooked burdock and carrots to the bowl with the salad sauce. Sprinkle with 2/3 of the grinded sesame on top. Cover with cling wrap and place to fridge.

4. Once cooled and ready to eat, take out the bowl from the fridge, add the mashed pickled plums, the sliced shiso leaves, the sliced Monkey Mushrooms and the Japanese Mustard and mix well.

5. Use hand to plate on serving dish or bowl, sprinkle the remaining grinded sesame on top.

Enjoy!

Salmon in spinach mushroom cream sauce

 

Ingredients:

Wild Salmon fillets

Spinach 

Cherry tomatoes - cut into halves

Mushrooms - cut into halves

Single Cream x 200ml

Chicken Stock x 100ml

Flour x 2 tbsp

Butter x 2 tbsp

How To Make:

1. Rinse the salmon and wipe dry. Marinate with salt and black pepper and coat with a drizzle of olive oil.

2. Heat up a flat pan, when hot enough, add olive oil, then salmon skin down. shake the pan a bit to avoid salmon sticking to pan. Once the salmon skin is crispy, flip and cook the meat side for 1-3 min depending on how thick the fillet is. Salmon best to cook medium instead of fully cooked. Then set aside salmon.

3.  Add some olive oil to the frying pan and stir fry the mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. (In case the pan becomes oily or black after pan frying the salmon, then use a new frying pan).

4. Heat up a new pan, add butter and the flour and make a rouge. Then add single cream, stir and mix well. Add chicken stock little by little to ensure you get the thickness and consistency you like. Pour this cream sauce to the other frying pan with the mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. Add back the salmon to cook in the sauce a bit, then ready to serve.

Best to go with pasta or white rice. Enjoy together with a glass of white wine too!

Cordon Bleu

Ingredients:

Veal escalope x 2pc - trim neatly to a pair of rectangular shape

Parma ham x 2 thin slices, size of which similar to the veal escalope

Morzarella cheese or cheddar, sliced

Flour

Beated eggs

Breadcrumbs

How to Make:

1. Marinate veal escalope with salt and black pepper.

2. Line up as follows:

1 pc of veal escalope at bottom layer

then 1 slice of parma ham on top

then cheese on top

then 1 slice of parma ham on top

then the last piece of veal escalope

3. Press them well together like a sandwich. Heat up oil in a frying pan.

4. Coat the above sandwich first with flour generously, then shake off excess. Then coat with beaten eggs, then breadcrumbs. 

5. Deep fry until golden.

6. Drain oil. Cut into half and serve immediately!

Enjoy with your favourite champagne or white wine.

 

Spanish Red Prawn Hot Dog

 

Ingredients:

Spanish Red Prawns (frozen type)

Garlic 

Basil - thin shreds/slices

Mayonnaise of your choice

Hot Dog Bun

How to Make:

1. Rinse the prawns well. Separate head from body. 

2. For the head, cut away all sharp things. Keep aside.

3. For the body, remove the legs and shells (can keep shells to make sauce or soup). Pull out the intestine from connecting area between head and body with a toothpick but dont cut open the back.

4. Slice garlic thinly. Rinse under running water a few times or soak in water for a while, then change water, a few times. Drain water, wipe dry.

5. Heat up a frying pan with olive oil, medium fry pan fry the garlic slices until golden. Remove and drain oil.

6. Toast your hot dog buns. -Cut into half.

7. Pan fried the prawn heads with the garlic oil on both sides until shell looks crispy. Set aside. Continue to use the pan and the garlic oil to cook the prawn body until all cooked.

8. Place prawn body in the middle of the hot dog bun, back facing upwards. Place some crispy garlic around and basil shreds. Place on serving plate with the prawn head next to it. Squeeze mayo on top of hot dog bun and prawn.

Served immediately. Guest can squeeze juice from prawn head to the hotdog directly.

Enjoy!

Miso Soup with Pork

 

* though I am not a japanese, this soup is one of my comfort food, summer or winter alike.

Ingredients:

Dashi Soup base (can make from scratch using Konbu Kelp and Bonito Flakes or use Dashi Stock Powder teabags. If I do not have enough time, I use the Kayanoya brand, low sodium type. Can be purchased from City Super. ) x 800ml

White Miso x 3 tbsp

Dark Miso x 1 tbsp

Veggies of your choice - sliced daikon, carrot, mushrooms, tofu, spring onion or leeks)

Sliced Pork

How to Make:

1. Make the Dashi Soup base as per packet instructions. 

2. Once the soup is made, dash powder bags removed, add all vegetables until cooked. Switched off heat, add miso via a strainer/sieve and mix well. 

3. Check tasting and adjust accordingly. Bring soup to boil again, add sliced pork until almost cooked and switch off.

4. Put some of everything to soup bowl, top with some minced spring onion or leeks.

Enjoy!

中華冷麵 Cold Noodles

 

* Credits to @jeffreyveggielife, my J'shojin (vegan) cuisine teacher

Ingredients:

Marinated Monkey Mushroom (I used the one which is frozen and purchased from Kowloon City 廣益行) - sliced and pan fried in frying pan

Abura-age (油揚 - Deep fried Tofu Skin） (Can be purchased from Sogo or City Super tofu section in fridge)

Dried Seaweed - rehydrate in water and squeeze out water

Cucumber - shreds or slices

Tomato - thin slices

Noodle (choose a type good for this dish. Can be purchased from Sogo or City Super noodles section in fridge)

Eggs omelette (for vegetarian version, not vegan version) - slices

Sesame - grinded

Noodle Sauce:

Soy Sauce x 4 tbsp （I used Kikoman 萬字牌 特選丸大豆減鹽)

Rice Vinegar x 3 tbsp

Maple or Agave Syrup x 3 tbsp

Sesame Oil x 1 tbsp

Vegan Mushroom Powder (I used Vigor & Health 素高倍鮮G粉）

Vegan Soup base 200ml (just soak 1 small pc of Konbu Kelp together with 2 dried mushrooms in 1L water overnight, chinese mushrooms rinse with corn starch and water)

How to Make:

1. Cook the noodle sauce in pot until all mixed. Then cool down and place in fridge.

2. Noodles cooked as per packet instruction, then rinse in ice water.

3.  Mix the noodles in the chilled noodle sauce.

4. Place noodles nicely on noodle bowl, top with the above ingredients, then add a few more spoons of the chilled noodle sauce.

5. Garnish with sesame or grinded sesame.

For non-vegetarian version, can add sliced ham or chicken.

Enjoy this dish in this melting summer! 

Crispy Amadai with clam and seaweed soup

 Ingredients:

Amadai (a kind of fish the scales of which are edible)

Clams - 20pc approx

Dried Seaweed - rehydrate with drinking water.

Baby Carrots - blanched in salted water

Minced garlic/ white wine/ butter/ olive oil

How to Make:

1. Clean and fillet the fish, so that each fillet piece is in a nice squarish or rectangular shape. Keep the scale intact. Wipe dry and marinate with salt and black pepper.

2. Clams after rubbing out dirt and rinse, soak in water for a while (best with a metal knife inside). Then remove and drain the water.

3. Heat up a pan which can hold up all clams, add some butter, then minced garlic, then add the clams, 1/3 glass of white wine, stirred fry the clams a bit, then add 1/2 cup of water. Cook the steam until the clams are all opened. Remove the clams, cool them down and take the meat out, For the soup, pass through a sieve. Add the soften dried seaweed. Check the taste and adjust accordingly with salt and pepper.

4. Heat up a frying pan, add some butter+olive oil, place fish to pan, scale down until the scale become crispy and golden. Then flip and cook the meat side until it's cooked. Remove from pan.

5. Pour soup to a shallow soup bowl.  Put some clam meats to soup. Place carrots to the bowl followed by the pan fried fish on top of bowl. 

Serve immediately and enjoy together with a glass of white wine!

Uni & Caviar Quiche

 

Ingredients:

Hokkaido Uni

Caviar 

Short Crust Pastry (make your own pastry dough or buy ready made ones, both one. But make sure blind bake first)

Eggs x 4 

300ml single cream

100ml milk

50g cheddar cheese - grated

Edible Flowers (to decorate and garnish)

How to Make:

Blind bake pastry:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Clean a surface top, sprinkle lightly with flour, roll the dough with rolling pin to a size which can fit your baking tin (could be round or rectangular or square) with extra hanging from the sides of the tin. Lift up the dough and draped over the rolling pin and lay it across your baking tin. Press the dough into the corners of the tin using your fingers. Trim the excess with a small knife but leaving some portion outside the sides of the tin (as during baking, the dough will shrink).

3. Put a baking paper on top of your dough. Pour red beans or any other beans on top of baking paper - aim is to have even weight on top of the dough.

4. Put to oven for 15 mins. Then take out, carefully and gently remove the baking paper with the beans on top and discard them. Put the pastry back to oven for another 5 min. Then take out to cool down.

Baking the egg tart:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Beat eggs in a large jug, then mix together with cheddar cheese, milk and cream. Season lightly with salt and black pepper.

3. Put the blind baked pastry shell (still in the baking tin) onto a baking tray first. Pour egg mixture to the pastry shell and place to oven and bake for 30 min until the filling is set and golden.

4. Take out from oven and cool down in room temperature.

5. Once you can feel the egg tart on quiche is not hot, you can gently spoon uni on top, then caviar on top and garnish with edible flowers.

Enjoy with a glass of champagne or sake!

Uni Pasta

 

Ingredients:

Fresh Uni x 1 typical wooden box (prefer those from Japan)

Garlic x 2 cloves - mashed

Shallots x 2 cloves - minced

white wine or sake x 1-2tbsp

Crushed red pepper or peperoncino 

Double Cream

Pasta 

shredded seaweed

How to Make:

1. Cook pasta as per package instructions less 30 seconds.

2. In a frying pan big enough to hold the pasta, cooked the mashed garlic and shallots with olive oil until fragrant, then add the crushed red pepper or peperoncinom, then the white wine or sake, then the double cream. Mix well.

3. Then add around 1/4 box of the uni and mix them well with the cream sauce, ensure uni all broken down like a paste in the sauce instead of lumps. Dont cook too long or else the uni too cooked and cream evaporated too much. check tasting.

4. Add pasta to this pan and ensure pasta evenly coated with this uni sauce.

4. Plate uni pasta to dish. Spoon extra uni on top of pasta and garnish with shredded seaweed on side.

Taste delicious together with a glass of sake! enjoy~

Carbonara pasta

 

Ingredients:

Fresh eggs x 4 (preferrably Japanese eggs or Itallian eggs with more yellow yolks)

Panetta cubes

Grated Parmessan cheese x 1-2 bowl

black pepper

pasta

Method:

1. Pan fried the pancetta in a frying pan with little olive oil until fragrant and cooked. Then turn off heat and take the chance to cool down the pan a bit.

2. Cook your desired pasta as per Box's instructions.

3. Beat eggs in a big bowl then mix well with grated parmesan cheese until the mixture is not too light but not too thick.  Then add grated black pepper.

4. Once pasta is cooked, put them to the frying pan with fried pancetta, mix well. Then add the egg & cheese mixture and mix well.

5. Use a tongs to plate to serving dish and add some black pepper and grated parmesan cheese. Can discard extra egg sauce when plating unless guest preferred more sauce.

Enjoy!

Avocado and Crabmeat Salad with Caviar

 Ingredients:

Avocado

Crabmeat, cooked and drained of water

Lemon juice

Caviar

Crispy bread

Edible flowers

Green salad

Method:

1. Half the avocado. Scoop out avocado and retain the shell of the avocado nicely.

2. Mash the avocado and add a dash of lemon juice. Then add cooked crabmeat. Mix well and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

3. Fill the avocado shell with this avocado and crabmeat mixture and level on top. Place in fridge for a while.

4. When ready to serve, arrange salad (mixed with extra virgin oil or salad dressing of your choice) on bottom of serving plate. Place stuffed avocado on top. Then spoon caviar on top of avocado. Decorate with edible flowers and crispy bread on top of avocado. Can prepare some sour cream on the side too.

Enjoy!

Summer Mango and Crab Salad

 

Ingredients:

Crabmeat using crab of your choice

Mango (prefer Philippines mango)

Avocado

Cucumber

Lemon juice

Sesame dressing

Kewpi Mayonnaise

Basil or minced chives

Salt & pepper

Method:

1. Cooked crab and take out crab meat. Mindful of the soft shells be all removed. put in a sieve to drain out excess water.

2. Cut mango into dices and put to sieve in a while to drain out excess juice.

3. Avocado cut in dices and squeeze some lemon juice to prevent it from getting black.

3. Cucumber clean and rinse clean. Add some salt and put aside for a while so as to remove excess water. Then thinly slice it.

4. Mix the diced avocado with some sesame dressing.

5. Mix the crabmeat with a dash of lemon juice, some salt and pepper and a little bit of mayo. These are to add some flavour but main goal is to retain fresh taste of the crab meat.

Plating:

1. Lightly oil the inside of a plating ring with olive oil. Cover the bottom and side with a cling wrap.

2. Place sliced cucumber on top of the cling wrap -as bottom layer inside the ring.

3. Then spoon diced mango on top of cucumber slices.

4. Then spoon diced avocado on top of mango. Gently push down.

5. Then spoon crabmeat on top of avocado and gently push down.

6. Keep in fridge for a while.

7. When ready to serve, hold plating ring with the cling wrap and place it on top of a serving plate. Gently slide away the cling wrap, then take up the plating ring.

8. If using king crab, you can put a long size of crab meat on top and garnish with basil or minced chives.

Enjoy with a glass of white wine or champagne!

Hasselback Potato with Garlic

 

Ingredients:

Potato (select those good for baking)

Duck Fat

Garlic, a few whole pieces, pressed

Salt & Black Pepper

Parsley - minced

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Rinse and clean the potato. Wipe dry.

3. Use a sharp knife and slice the potato very thinly like a fan, say leaving 0.5cm until bottom of potato, i.e don't cut it up. Need to slice it thinly but retain the whole potato. Suggest to use a pair of chopstick to hold the potato bottom and in this way you wont cut to bottom of potato too. The thinner you slice the potato, the faster the will crisp.

3. Heat the duck fat, garlic and salt until melted. Feel free to adjust the amount of garlic and salt to your liking.

4. Place potato to an oven tray, then drizzle duck fat oil over the potato, making sure to get it between all the slices.

5. Bake for 60 min until golden. Drizzle more duck fat onto potato every 20 mins.

6. Remove from oven and let cool for a few min. Sprinkle with minced parsley.

Can serve with sour cream.

Enjoy this alone or with steaks!

Japanese Potato Salad

Ingredients:

Potato (May Queen Potato my first choice) -2 to 3pc

Hard Boiled Eggs - 2pc - cut into dices.

Pickled Cucumber or plain cucumber - 1pc-cut into dices

Corn - 1/2 bowl

Kewpi Mayonnaise or Kraft Mayonnaise

Method:

1. Wash and rinse clean potato. Peel skin.

2. Boil a pot of water and add a pinch of salt. Cook potato for 20-30 min until skewer can stick inside potato.

3. Remove water from the pot and cook the potato for another 3-5 min (to dry up water inside potato).

4. Place cooked potato in a big bowl and gently mash it - no need to be total mash so some keep some small bite size in the salad.

5. If using fresh cucumber, after rinsing it, add some salt and let it settle for a while. Then you can see some water coming out. Remove water and cut into dices or bite size good for salad. If using pickled cucumber, just cut them into bite sizes.

6. Mix mash potato with cucumber, eggs, corn with mayoannise and a dash of lemon juice. Adjust tasting to your liking.

Serve in a bowl or scoop it out like ice-cream. 

Enjoy!

Japanese Sesame Spinach

 

Ingredients:

1 bunch of Spinach (approx 220g)

3 tbsp White Roasted Sesame

1 tbsp Sugar (or Stevia or Monk Sugar)

1.5 tbsp Soy Sauce (choose a less salty type)

1/2 tsp Mirin

1/2 tsp Sake

Method:

Sesame Sauce:

1. Use a wooden grinder and grind the sesame in a grinder bowl until sesame all broken down. You can smell the nice aroma during grinding too.

2. Add the sugar, soy sauce, mirin and sake and mix well. and put aside.

Spinach:

1. Clean and rinse well the spinach.

2. Boil a pot of pot with a pinch of salt. Then put all spinach in the pot and cook for 45 seconds, then remove to a big bowl filled with ice water.

3. Once spinach are cool enough to handle, squeeze out all water using your hands.

4. Then cut up the spinach to say 2 inches long.

5. Mix with the sesame paste. Put in fridge for a while before serving.

Enjoy!

Cold Tomato in Dried Plum Sauce 冰鎮話梅車裡茄

 

* ideal summer appertizer!

Ingredients:

Cherry Tomatoes or Detterino Tomatoes

Dried Plums 

Rock Sugar

Lemon Slices (optional)

Method:

1. Clean and rinse tomatoes.

2. Gently cut a cross on the skin of tomatoes.

3. Boil a pot of water. Once boiled, put in all tomatoes and cook for 30-60 seconds. Then remove all to pot of ice water. Gently remove all skins.

4. In another pot, put 1 bowl of dried plums, 1 tbsp of rock sugar and 2 glasses of water, bring to a boil and adjust tasting yourself. It's very personal how sweet or sour you want this base sauce for the tomatoes. Cooked for 10 mins. Then cool it down and sieve out the plums.

5. Put all de-skin tomatoes in this plum soup in an air tight box and put to fridge overnight. You can also add 1-2 slices of lemon in this plum soup too.

6. Upon serving, just place tomatoes on a plate without the plum soup.

Enjoy!

Herbal Drink - 太子參川貝雪梨茶

 

*  潤肺生津，止咳化痰

Ingredients:

太子參5錢

川貝3錢（打碎）

南杏3錢

北杏2錢

陳皮1-2角 （soak in warm water and use back of knife to scrape off the inside of skin)

無花果乾1-2粒

麥冬5錢

雪梨1個

Method:

1. clean pear, remove core, cut pear into pieces with skin.

2. Herbal ingredients - rinse clean.

3. Put everything to pot with 5 cups of water. Once boiled, turn to medium low fire and cook for 45 min.

Basque Burnt Cheesecake (& Matcha version)

 

Ingredients:

1 box Philadelphia Cream Cheese (at room temperature)

1/2 cup caster sugar

3 large eggs

2 tbsp cake flour (or all purpose flour)

2 tsp cornstarch

1 cup heavy (whipping) cream (at room temperature)

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp sea salt

How to Make:

1. Preheat Oven - choose convection (with fan) to 230'C and use middle rack.

2. Line your baking paper with baking paper.

3. Mix cream cheese with sugar until fluffy and smooth with no lumps.

4. Whisky eggs in a separate bowl until smooth with no lumps.

5. Egg whisked eggs to cheese mixture until smooth and all blend well.

6. Add lemon juice to the mixture.

7. Add sieved flour and salt to the mixture little by little until all is smooth with no lumps with a spatula.

8. Add cream and mix well.

9. Pour mixture to cake tray in one go to avoid air-pockets. Tap the tray to counter top a few times.

10. Place to oven and cook for approx 25-30 min for a more creamy and fluffy texture. Approx 30-35 min for a firmer/dense texture. But keep your watch. We want to make the top a "burnt" effect. But how burnt is good for you, you need to keep your watch!

* when you take out cake, you can feel it wobble a bit. It's totally fine and just let it rest and cool down in room temperature around 2-3 hrs then serve. OR chill in fridge after cooling down directly.

** for Matcha version:

1 tbsp green tea powder (must use freshly bought one)

1/2 to 1 cup batter

Sift the green tea powder little by little as you stir and blend with the batter (from step 6 above). Then add to the big batter little by little until all mix well together. Then continue with the flour and salt steps.

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Orange Duck Breast

 

* adapted from Thomas Keller Masterclass lesson. 

Ingredients:

French Duck Breast

Endives

Orange Juice - around 30ml to soak endives. around 100ml to cook sauce

Orange Zest

Honey - around 60-80ml

Veal/Beef Gravy - around 60-80ml

How to Make:

3 days before cooking:

1. Clean the duck breast and use tweezer to remove all hair from skin carefully.

2. Gently remove the silver skin underneath the meat.

3. Wipe dry and put to fridge (uncovered) for 2-3 nights before cooking to allow the skin to dry up.

On the day of cooking:

1. Clean endives, halve it lengthwise and soak in orange juice. 

2. Take out duck breast from fridge 1-2 hours before cooking.

3. Wipe dry and use a knife to gently trim the skin edge. Use a skewer to poke poles on skin gently.

4. Gently use your knife to score the skin in a crosshatch diamond pattern.

5. Season lightly with salt and black pepper.

6. Heat up a flat frying pan in medium high fire. Add a few drops of olive or canola oil. Then put in duck breast, skin side down. As you need to brown and crisp the skin and then have the meat cooked (say around 8-10 mins), be careful of the heat. Should not go too high to avoid the skin burning. Try press down the skin as much as possible to achieve crispy skin. Always use your hands or a palette knife to do this and to move the duck breast around the pan to avoid it sticking to the pan. Don't use tongs to avoid tearing the skin or the meat.

7. When the duck breast is around 80% done, baste it with the oil in the pan. Add the endives to the side of the pan, cutting side facing down. 

8. When it is around 90% done (or internal temperature reaches around 123'F, flip the meat side down to the pan for a short while. Then transfer duck breast to a wire rack or a plate lined with kitchen towel, skin side down and rest for 5 mins before carving.

9. Check if endives brown enough and if so, remove from pan too.

** you can use the oil in the pan to cook veggies and potatoes.

Orange Sauce (you can make this in advance)

1. Add orange juice and honey to a pot and heat it up. Once you see small bubbles on the side, turn to medium to medium high heat until you see big bubbles.

2. Add gravy of your choice to the orange honey sauce and adjust tasting to your liking and cook until it reaches a consistency you like. 

3. Lastly, grate some orange zest inside the sauce.

Enjoy!

Stir Fried Bean Sprouts with Minced Pork 大豆芽菜耸

 

* my mom's home maid 凤姐 (who is now in another world) taught me how to make this traditional home dish. It's one of my fav! easy to cook but difficult to cook it well. Also preparation takes long time. So be patient!

Ingredients:

Minced Pork - marinate it in the usual way (light soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, wine, corn flour)

Bean Sprouts 大豆芽菜

Garlic x 2 tbsp - minced

Shallots x 1 big bowl - minced

Ginger juice （best to peel away skin of a bunch of ginger, pressed it and squeeze out juice from the palm)

Chinese Wine

Lettuce - prepare them in leaf shape and use as wrapper

Hoi Sin Sauce

How to Make:

1. Wash and drain the bean sprouts. [remove as much water as possible]

2. Pull out the head from the steam of bean sprouts and keep them in separate bowls.

3. Minced them separately. Size of mince - small enough but can feel the crunch!

4. Heat up a frying pan, [no need to add oil]. Once hot enough, add the minced heads of bean sprouts and keep stir fry until fragrant and dry. This part takes longer to cook.

5. Once you are happy with the above, add the minced stems. Mix well with the heads and give it a real good stir fry quickly. Drain them to another bowl.

6. In the same pan, wipe away all liquid remaining. Add oil, then minced garlic and shallot. Once fragrant, all the minced pork. Once all mixed well and pork cooked, add back the bean sprouts mix, add ginger juice and a dash of Chinese wine. Check taste and adjust with salt and pepper and sugar.

7. Put to serving plate. Serve with lettuce leaves on side and Hoi Sin Sauce.

Enjoy!

Baked Pork Chop Rice with Special Tomato Sauce

 

* This recipe is inspired by the former chef Au Kwok Keung at China Tang. My dad loves this dish but since Chef Au no longer working there and restaurant no longer serve this dish, I need to find out and experiment how to cook this. From an interview that Chef Au did with a newspaper years ago, I experimented. You can always replace the following tomatoes with those you like. Chef Au only said use a few types of fresh tomatoes and cooked for 2-3 hours...:)

Ingredients:

Italian San Marzano tomatoes x 1 kg

Italian Cherry tomatoes x 500g

Italian Datterino tomatoes x 500g

Onion x 1 - minced

Shallots x 1 bowl - minced

Tomato paste

Parmesan cheese - grated

How to Make:

1. Gently cut a cross on all tomatoes. Boil a pot of water. Drop all tomatoes inside the pot, switch off heat. After 2-3 minutes, when you see some skin peeling off from tomatoes, remove them at once and put them to a bowl of ice water.

2. Gently remove all skins from tomatoes. For the San Marzano or plum tomatoes, remove seeds from centre too. You can omit removing seeds part for cherry or detterino tomatoes.

3. Diced all tomatoes.

4. In a pot big enough to hold all tomatoes, heat it up, add some olive oil, cook the minced shallots and onion until fragrant and tender, then add all tomatoes. Mix well, add a round of tomato paste, then season all with salt and brown sugar. Once boiled, turn down the heat to medium/medium low and cook for at least 2 hours. You have to observe from time to time how the sauce is cooking. When you see no more "liquid" inside the pot and the tomatoes getting quite condensed, then you are almost done.

5. Preheat Grill to 230'C.

6. Cook your fried pork chop and fried rice your way. Put fried rice to a baking tray, all pork chop on top, then spread the tomato sauce on top of pork chop. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and grill in oven for 5-10 min until you see the grated cheese and top of tomato sauce a bit brown, then ready to serve.

enjoy!

Japanese Porridge (Zousui)

 

Ingredients:

Vegetable Soup

White Miso (optional) 

Cooked Rice

Mushrooms and vegetables of your choice - cut into thin slices

Spring Onion - minced

Egg - beaten in a bowl

Sesame to sprinkle

How to Make:

1. First you prepare a soup base you like, either cook yourself or use a simple version -> Kayatoya Vegetable Stock Powder (like tea bags, boil in water for a while will do) 

2. Heat up the soup base, add the mushrooms and vegetables until they are tender enough. If you opt to have white miso, then use a sieve and gently add 1-2tbsp.

3. Add the cooked rice to the soup and mix well.

4. Gently, using the chopsticks to glide the beaten egg to the soup, while gently mixing inside the soup.

5. Check taste and season accordingly. Sprinkle with minced spring onion.

6. Pour to serving bowls and sprinkle with golden sesame.

Enjoy this delicious comfy food. This can be modified to a non-vegetarian version by replacing veg soup base with chicken or beef soup base or using  Kayanoya Dashi Stock Powder teabags to make dashi soup base. then add diced chicken.

Roast Chicken

 

* Thanks to my friend trying this recipe from Thomas Keller and proving it works. Can't do my roast chicken any other way now!!

Ingredients:

For the roast chicken:

1 whole fresh chicken

Clarified Butter

Lemon

Honey

Salt Flakes

For the brine:

5 Lemons halved

6 bay leaves

1/2 bunch (4oz) parsley

1/2 bunch (1oz) thyme

1/4 cup clover honey

1 head garlic, pressed

1/8 cup black peppercorns

1/2 cup (5oz) kosher salt

1 gallon water

Brine & Prepare:

1. Combine all of the brine ingredients and bring to a boil. Once boiling, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Pour brine into a container large enough to hold both the brine and the chicken. Chill brine in the refrigerator.
2. While the brine is chilling, remove the chicken neck and innards from the cavity, if present. Using a paring knife, cut out the wishbone from the chicken—this will make it easier to carve the chicken. Submerge the chicken in the cold brine and chill in the refrigerator overnight (or for at least 8 to 12 hours).
3. When done brining, pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Discard the brine.
4. 
   

Truss the Chicken:

1. Cut a piece of kitchen twine about 3 feet long. Tuck the center of the string under the pope’s nose (the small bit of meat at the top of the chicken’s tail end), then wrap around and over the ends of the legs. Cross the twine and slide under each leg to create a figure 8. Pull across and back at the same time to plump the chicken breast and bring the twine all the way around the breasts. As you press into the breast meat with your thumbs at the neck, cross each side of the string under the cut neck bone. Tie a slipknot, then bring each end of the string around a wing to close them to the body. Tie off to finish. Place chicken in a baking sheet or dish and leave uncovered in the refrigerator for 2 days. Doing so dries out any excess moisture from the chicken skin, allowing it to crisp beautifully during roasting.
2. After 2 days, remove the chicken from the refrigerator and allow to temper to room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours before roasting.
3. 
   
4. Roasting:
5. 1. Preheat oven to 230-240'C (best setting will be convectional with fan). Brush chicken with clarified butter and season all sides with salt (gently does it!! as chicken under brine is already salted). Place chicken on top of a grid in baking tray so any chicken oil or juice can be dripped to baking tray underneath the chicken for later use.
6. 
   
7. 2. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes. Reduce the heat to 190-200°C, brush some more clarified butter to chicken skin and roast for an additional 20 to 25 minutes. Then brush honey all over chicken and roast for another 5-10 minutes, or until the temperature of the thickest part in the thigh area registers 71°C and the juices run clear. If necessary, return the chicken to the oven for more roasting; check it every 5 minutes.
8. 
   
9. 3. Transfer the chicken to a carving board and allow to rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
10. 
    

1. 4. Before carving the chicken, add a squeeze of lemon all over the chicken. Then carve the chicken into serving size, place them on top of chicken oiled rice (see below) or pasta.
2. 
   
3. Rice 
4. Make use of the fat collected from the chicken skin as well as the liver and kidney to make yummy rice as follows:
5. 
   
6. 1. fried the chicken fat in a pan until yellow oil comes out, add (uncooked but rinsed) rice to the pan and coat all over. Then put rice to rice cooker. Add 50:50 water and chicken stock to cook the rice and soak rice for 15 min first. 
7. 
   
8. 2. Use some more chicken fat to stir fry kidney (which are cut into small pieces) and add to the rice before cooking the rice.
9. 
   
10. 3. For the liver, pan fry whole piece in same frying pan until all browned. Then cut into bite pieces. Add and mix to cooked rice later.
11. 
    
12. 4. At the time you are in the step of brushing honey to the chicken, put the cooked rice at the cooking tray with chicken sitting on top, brush honey and roast for the last 10 mins. At this step, if the tray already filled with dripping butter and chicken oil, you can discard some or use all to mix with the rice. 
13. 
    
14. Enjoy with your fav white wine!