Jasmine & Ginger

Green Tea Noodles with Cabbage Cucumber Coleslaw

2012-01-15T13:06:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year everyone!

I am feeling excited about this year. I have a few goals I've set for myself, a key one being to get myself fit and healthy again. I've managed to be a bit more mindful about what I put in my stomach lately. So in keeping with that, today's recipe is a lovely, light and satisfying Japanese-style dish, that only takes minutes. It's nutritious and delicious...

This is a cold noodle dish. Usually in Japan it is made with a dressing containing mirin, a sweet rice vinegar, but I didn't have any. I did have ponzu sauce, which is an excellent substitute, and can be sweetened with a teaspoon of sugar to make it more mirin-like. This would make an excellent starter or packed lunch.

1/3 of a small white cabbage, washed & shredded or sliced fine
1/2 cucumber, peeled, halved and sliced thin
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp of minced fresh ginger or galangal
3 tbsps of Japanese Ponzu sauce
3 tbsps of orange juice or calamansi juice
1 tbsp of light soya sauce
1 tbsp of roasted sesame oil
1 tsp of white sugar
2 spring onions chopped fine
2 bundles of buckwheat noodles - I used a green tea flavoured one from my local supermarket.

1. First make the dressing : mix the garlic, spring onion, soya, ponzu, sugar, juice and oil together and set aside for 10 minutes. Bring a pan of water to boil in the meantime. Then go back to the sauce and stir well so that the sugar is dissolved.

2. When the pan of water is boiling, unwrap the paper tie from the noodle bundles and drop the noodles in to cook. Boil on a low simmer for 3-5 minutes.

3. Add the shredded cabbage and cucumber to the dressing and toss well.

4. Drain the noodles and rinse with cold water. Drain again until completely dry. Add to the coleslaw and dressing and mix well. Serve.

Preserved Kumquats in Rosewater and Vanilla Syrup

2011-01-28T16:43:00.001+08:00

Chinese New Year is next week and we're off to Taiwan to check out the good food... As we're staying with my friend Esther's family, we (my dad, step-mum, Esther and her husband, and his parents, plus J) decided to make our own foodie gifts to take to our lovely hosts. We have heard amazing things about Esther's grandma, how great she is at cooking, and because we really want to learn how to cook Taiwanese food from the best, we made our gifts in the hope that she will be impressed enough to teach us her secrets!

So, what to make?? I was wandering around my local street market trying to find inspiration and noticed that the Chinese New Year paper lanterns and flowers were being put out on display, along with the candied fruit sweets, and strange looking pastries in anticipation of the coming year. Then I came across some beautiful, sweet-smelling kumquats.

For those not in the know, kumquats are originally from China, and look exactly like a tiny baby orange. They are usually very sour or bitter (at least, the ones I've tried) but I've had it on good authority that they can be sweet too. In Hong Kong, kumquats are preserved in salt, very much like Moroccan lemons, and then are used in hot drinks to cure all manner of winter ills.

I decided however, to make sweet preserved kumquats, in a nod to my English, marmalade-loving heritage. Looking for a recipe, I came across a fab website - Pham Fatale (great name) - written by Jackie who is Vietnamese, raised in France, and married to an Indian man, and cooks lovely dishes. I picked her recipe which seemed nice and simple and adapted it, swapping star anise for rosewater and vanilla, and used less sugar and more water, cooking for longer.

When making preserved fruit, the given rule is the same amount of sugar to fruit, but I felt this was too sweet for a Chinese palate, so used 3/4 sugar to the fruit. This was still too sweet in the end, so I would probably go for half the amount next time.

Preserved Kumquats in Rosewater and Vanilla Syrup

(fills 2 1/2 litre jars)

800 grams / 4 cups of kumquats
600 grams / 3 cups of white caster sugar (I used sugar infused with vanilla beans)
1 cup of water
2 tablespoons of rosewater
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

1. Wash and pick your kumquats over, making sure there are no stem remnants. Then halve or quarter (if very big) and carefully remove any seeds with a sharp knife.

2. Put the fruit, sugar, vanilla and water in a large heavy pan (non-aluminium so it doesn't react) and leave to macerate for 3 hours.

3. Bring the pan to the boil and leave on a medium heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is thick. Try not to break the fruit up too much as you want it to retain its shape in the jar. In Pham Fatale's recipe, she advocates a rolling boil for 10 minutes, but this was too short for mine, as my syrup used more water and needed a good 45 minutes. Skim any scum off the top.

4. Leave it to cool and infuse overnight if you can (6 hours minimum).

5. The next day bring to the boil again and while it is boiling, sterilise your jars in hot water and then dried off in an oven on about 120C for about 10 minutes. Remove the jars carefully, taking care not to touch the inside and leave to cool on a steel rack. When the preserve has boiled for 10 minutes, turn it on low and add the rosewater, carefully stirring it in to the syrup and turn off the heat.

6. Leave the mixture to cool for 20 minutes then ladle the fruit into jars and top up with syrup. Leave to cool and then seal.

I had a tablespoon or so of syrup left over, which I whipped into some cream cheese and butter, to make a lovely kumquat frosting for my afternoon lemon tea cake. Delicious!

Other ideas: use in tagines, heavy winter meat stews, Chinese soups, with some natural yogurt as a compote - topped with muesli, in puddings and cakes, frosting or in some hot water as a remedy for sore throats...

Guide to Chinese Market Vegetables - Snake Beans

2011-01-21T20:43:00.001+08:00

Snake Beans - The long, thin, dark green beans in the middle

This recipe is one of the very first Chinese dishes I learned when I was a young teenager. It is also one of my favourites. It is simplicity itself, and healthy - using very little meat. You can do a vegetarian option, just omitting the meat, but the beef really adds to the flavour and of course, the delicious sauce. Not only that, but it is ready in minutes. Rice takes longer to cook...

When I was growing up, my job in the kitchen was to help prepare vegetables. My mum would patiently show me how to wash and cut or pick vegetables over, and I kept a careful eye on what she did with garlic, ginger and soya sauce. In winter, I would grumble because the water out of the tap was icy cold and it took my fingers ages to warm up after washing and breaking the beans. When I got to university, this was the dish that converted my veggie-hating uni friends - of course, growing up on a diet of soggy, overcooked, yellow beige vegetables would kill any passion for the green...

Now I make this dish with so much love in my heart for my son, who gobbles it up as quickly as I did. We have a new addition to our household now, as part of my New Year's resolution to chill out more and she looks like she enjoys the smell of cooking as much as we all do. Tonight she sat next to me in the kitchen, alert and taking in the smell of frying beef. We got her on Sunday, and she's settled in well. 7 months old and well-trained, she sits, lies down, runs to you when called, shakes hands and heels when walking (more than my son can do). She is perfect...

Bailey at 4 weeks

Bailey now at 7 months

Snake Beans: I find this great link at Wikipedia. What a great name: vigna unguiculata... undulating vine. Who knew it'd have so many names? They are also a good source of protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and potassium, and a very good source for vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and manganese. In the market they are bought in bundles, similar to handfuls of dried spaghetti - one big handful (round the girth of the bundle) is plenty enough for 2 dishes. Wash them well, then top and tail, then break the beans into 2-3 inch lengths, snapping them down.

Snake Beans and Beef

(Serves 4)

One portion of beef (flank steak works well) roughly about the size of your palm
2 cloves of garlic
A large handful of snake beans - check your local Asian supermarket (though any type of green beans will work well: snow peas, sugar snaps, French).
3 tablespoons of light soya sauce for stirfrying + 3 tablespoons for marinating beef
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil for frying
1/2 cup of water for sauce

1. 20-30 minutes before cooking, finely julienne or slice the beef. Sprinkle with sugar and 3 tablespoons of soya and leave to marinate.

2. Wash and prep the snake beans, top and tail and snap them down to 3 inch lengths.

3. Finely chop the garlic and heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan on a high heat.

4. Add the garlic to the hot oil, stir fry quickly for a few seconds before adding the beef. As soon as the beef starts to brown and change colour, add the beans.

5. Quickly stir fry and add the remaining soya sauce and half a cup of water, then cover the pan with a lid.

6. Cook on high for no longer than 5-6 minutes. The beans should still be dark green, firm and with a slight bite to them, not limp and grey!

Serve with rice.

Corny Muffins

2011-01-14T09:39:00.006+08:00

It's a new year! Where did 2010 go? One of the hardest, most challenging years of my life and in the end it whizzed by like so many others. I'm glad 2010 is done and consigned to the dust heap that is Time. For the first time in a LONG time, I feel extremely excited and alive, humming with possibilities that a new year brings.

For the last few years I never made resolutions for the new year. Why? I was living in a place and situation where very little changed and no matter how much you wanted to make that change, there was never the opportunity. New Year's Eve would pass me by and I'd barely blink, thinking 'Same crap, different year'. How sad to feel so disinterested in the future...

Yes, the Year of the Tiger was a big struggle for many, the world over. I had Western, zodiac-loving friends who muttered darkly about 'Mars' and 'retrograde' and all sorts, talking about the difficulties the planets were giving us mere mortals. I felt like a salmon struggling upstream for most of the year.

Now the Year of the Rabbit is almost upon us and I can say that I woke up this year. Figuratively of course, I still have trouble actually waking up in the mornings (thank god for English teaching - rare is the day when you need to be up at the crack of dawn). But I feel alert and alive, lighter and refreshed. As if someone hit the Reboot button on me.

This morning I read Elizabeth Rohm's parenting blog. Most of what she said resonated with me, particularly this part:

'In this new year I am faced, as you are, with a desire to become a better version of myself and to absolutely become a better mother. As I throw out all the wrapping paper and break down boxes from the holiday gifts, I am inspired to keep clearing out. I am searching for what isn’t working anymore and what is outmoded. Out with the old and in with the new! What I really want are results and I find that I’m willing to do the heavy lifting to make some changes in my life.'

As much as I love the idea of being a better mother, I am very much aware I need to work on being a better version of myself first. All too often parents, particularly mothers, put aside their needs, struggling with day to day childcare and find themselves losing it, because their identity is so wrapped up in being a parent and/or a partner. Last year I came very close to breaking point, trying to resolve a lot of difficult feelings about being a single mother, the main breadwinner, working in an unsatisfactory job, so much so that I worried myself into being quite ill. I slept very badly, ate barely once a day, felt drained and achy and mentally exhausted all the time, with strange pains everywhere but mainly manifesting itself as terrible migraines and sharp stomach pains. I saw doctor after doctor and a specialist. Then the clincher came, my insurance wouldn't cover me for some basic tests and I felt myself snap. Somewhere I knew it was psychosomatic. I dragged myself out of my hole of worry and anxiety and took some time out of everyday life, tried to eat 3 meals a day, get out in fresh air and slept an awful lot.

It helped. But the main thing I learned was that I have to slow down. I have to stop trying to do everything. I have to give myself a break.

So I've been doing that. Giving myself time to be alone, doing little things I want to do, calms me right down and gives me that much-needed attention so when I'm with J, I focus on him and can be a positive, happier mum than the sleep-deprived grouch he's been seeing lately.

So my resolution this year is to be more selfish, put my needs first once in a while, indulge that afternoon nap, or massage, knowing that my boy is at school and well-looked after. The things I hope to be doing more of while I'm being selfish this year include:
- playing the piano more (it would help if I actually had one, but I'm getting there)
- more baking and kitchen time
- doing some cookery classes
- less time on the computer, doing nothing useful (Facebook)
- being a more thoughtful shopper, in turn managing to actually start saving money for a change.

And that's it. Happy New Year folks...
P.S. Had a craving for corn muffins so I used a recipe from The Baker's Apprentice column, a New York Times blogger, who in turn got it from Dorrie Greenspan. I tweaked it as I didn't have butter or buttermilk so I substituted another 3 tablespoons of oil for the butter, and made my own buttermilk (1 tablespoon of white vinegar in a cup of milk, left to stand for 15 minutes). I also added some lovely Swedish cheese for added piquancy. Be warned, although the recipe says it yields 12 muffins, I got double that. Usually my muffins are full to bursting, but I made nice level ones for J to take to school.

Corniest Corn Muffins

Yield 12 muffins

Time About 40 minutes

Adapted from "Baking From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton-Mifflin, 2006)

Summary

These muffins are flat, firm-topped and cheerfully yellow; with an old-fashioned texture — grainy with small holes running through the crumb — and a wholesome, straight-from the farm flavor — they’re tangy from the buttermilk and sweet from both the cornmeal (try to find stone-ground) and the corn kernels.

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground
6 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 tablespoons corn oil
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup corn kernels (add up to 1/3 cup more if you’d like) – fresh, frozen or canned (in which case, they should be drained and patted dry)

Method

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin tin or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg, if you’re using it. In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, egg and yolk together until well blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend. Don’t worry about being thorough — the batter will be lumpy and that’s just the way it should be. Stir in the corn kernels. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.
Serving: The muffins are great warm or at room temperature and particularly great split, toasted and slathered with butter or jam or both.
Storing: Like all muffins, these are best eaten the day they are made. If you want to keep them, wrap them airtight and pop them into the freezer, where they’ll keep for about 2 months. Re-warm in a 350-degree oven, if you’d like, or split them and toast them — do that and they’ll be that much more delicious with butter.

Variations

Corniest Corn and Herb Muffins: You can add a slightly savory touch to these sweet muffins by incorporating 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme or rosemary into the batter. Either stir in the herbs when you mix in the corn kernels or, for a fuller flavor, rub the herbs into the sugar with your fingertips until the sugar is really aromatic, then stir the sugar into the bowl with the rest of the dry ingredients.

Source: Adapted from "Baking From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton-Mifflin, 2006)

These tasted unbelievably good - a little sweet from the corn, a little tangy from the cheese. Crunchy on top, soft and spongy in the middle. Delicious... a definite keeper.

EddyRose - A Tea Shop Dream

2010-10-29T10:08:00.000+08:00

This week's post comes from one of my closest friends back in the UK :

http://eddyrose.blogspot.com/

Eddy and I were colleagues at school in B'town and for ages we didn't really know each other, until after getting so bored of not knowing anyone, I decided to ask her and another friend out for a night out on the town. And that was that! A few cocktails and we were firm friends. We discovered a shared love of books, silly films, and cooking, amongst other things. We've been through thick and thin together, as many close friends do - traumas of dating, relationships, having children, nightmares at work, depression and so on and even though we are now separated by a continent and a few oceans, we know that when we do see each other, it will be as if a few hours have passed and we will pick up the conversation without a beat.

She has very recently started a blog about her adventures in baking, having just signed up for a patisserie class. Back when we were in the same town we had the dream of opening our own teashop, but it wasn't to be. The recession hit and I left the UK and the dream lay dormant. Now Eddy is taking the reins back into her own hands, and has revived the dream with the first step. I'm so excited for her and so inspired by her decision to try something completely new that will open many doors.

This is her to-die-for recipe of baklava muffins from her blog. Words cannot describe how scrumptious this muffin is. Crunchy, sweet, soft... delicious. Rather like my lovely friend!

Baklava Muffins

Every time I mention these to people they look at me like I’m a crazy woman and automatically ask ‘what’s in a baklava muffin??’…well, you know the sticky, nutty, sweet deliciousness that you find in traditional Baklava? That’s what in them!

I discovered these in one of my many cookbooks (Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess) but adapted them slightly, the original recipe was made with walnuts but in all honesty and no disrespect to the humble walnut but I’m not a massive fan, so I swapped them to pecans and also increased the amount of them! You can never have enough filling!

So here goes….

For the Filling

150g chopped pecans (don’t chop them too small)

75g Demerara sugar

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

45g salted butter (melted)

For the Muffins

210g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

75g caster sugar

1 large egg (room temperature)

45g unsalted butter (melted)

250ml buttermilk

(Or if you can’t find buttermilk- 175g yoghurt & 75g semi skimmed milk)

12 bun muffin tray lined with 12 paper cases.

For the topping

125ml runny honey

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 °C
Mix all the filling ingredients together in a small bowl, put it to one side and then get started on the muffins…. (Try not to nibble at it like me…but honestly, it is delicious and very hard to resist!)
In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugar, then in a wide mouthed jug whisk the egg, melted butter and buttermilk (or yoghurt milk mix).
Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in the liquid and mix lightly and gently – do not over mix, keep the mixture bumpy rather than smooth (I know it’s against your instinct but trust me, any over mixing makes for heavy muffins…..
Fill the paper cases 1/3 full, add a tablespoon of the filling to them, and then cover with more muffin mixture until 2/3’s full.
Sprinkle and remaining filling on top of the muffins.
Bake for 15 minutes, they should be golden brown and ready….
Remove the muffins from the tin (still in their paper cases though), place them onto a cooling rack and drizzle them with the honey…. You might want to warm the honey a little first as it tends to be easier to pour.
Eat & Enjoy!!!

Note – these muffins are best eaten on the day that they are made or the day after (if they last that long!)

Roasted Chestnut and Garlic Soup

2010-10-20T07:36:00.000+08:00

Many moons ago, when I was still a fledgling cook, I saw a recipe for garlic soup. I have always ALWAYS loved garlic, but the recipe called for a BULB... yes, a BULB of garlic - which I reckoned, at the time, was a tad too many. Surely it would reek? I would reek? There would be a hell of a lot of reeking??

Little did I know.

I made the recipe anyway, as I had had a cold and heard it was a great way to cure it.
And what a revelation it was!

Subtle, comforting, distinct, flavorsome, and a delicate creamy white. It was one of my first real 'EUREKA' cooking moments.

No reeking...

Simmered so gently, the strong pungency of the garlic gave way to something infinitely more fragile and momentary. This was the cashmere of soups... it had transcended.

I have close friends who cannot abide soup - thinking it weird concoction - it's not liquid, it's not solid - WHAT IS IT?? But I can promise you, for those of us who have forged a bond with soup, it is a life-long relationship that never disappoints.

This soup is one of those beautiful, heart-stopping moments of cookery which will delight and impress fellow soup lovers, especially now that the nights are drawing in and seasonal colds are in the air. So get that soup pot out and start ladling!

ROASTED CHESTNUT AND GARLIC SOUP

1.5 litres of chicken stock
25-30 chestnuts, washed, (if still in their shell - their bottoms notched with a 'X' (to prevent explosions in oven!)
If you're feeling daring, 1 bulb of garlic - if not, 3/4 of a bulb - cloves peeled, but whole
Either 1 small old baguette, broken into pieces OR 1 small potato, peeled and chopped.
Cream to finish (anywhere from 1 tablespoon per bowl to a small cow, depending how much you like it - I aim for somewhere in between the two)
Salt and pepper to season

1. The chestnuts and the garlic need to be prepared first - garlic is easy - just peel and leave whole.
The chestnuts need more time and need to be notched on the bottoms if they are still in their shell. I used fresh ones from the market, but you could use frozen shelled ones already, there is no real difference in flavour and it would save you a LONG time in prepping.

2. Turn your oven on to 220C and place the chestnuts on a roasting tin. If they are already shelled, this part will be relatively straight forward and faster - just drizzle with oil and roast for about 30 mins. If they are in the shell, you will need to roast them for about 45 minutes, leave them to cool enough to handle them and then peel them. You can try parboiling them first for 10 minutes to soften the shell, but I'm not sure how the flavour would be affected.

3. Heat the stock up till it is simmering then add the garlic and chestnuts and simmer very gently with the lid on for 30 mins. If using potato, add the potato with the garlic and chestnuts. Taste and season.

4. If using baguette bread, remove the soup from the heat and break the baguette into the soup and leave for 15 mins to soak through.

5. Then use a hand-blender and blend the soup, making sure it is as smooth and fine as possible. Add the cream last - you really don't need too much, maybe 100mls for the pot.

Serve with hot and crusty bread.

Chinese Market Vegetables - Roots

2010-10-16T17:00:00.003+08:00

Today is Chung Yeung, also known as the Double 9th, or the second Chinese Halloween, a day of visiting ancestral graves to pay respects to the family gone before. So it is BUSY today in Cheung Chau. Lots of action happening down in the village market.

The Char Siu shop is heaving, and they have great big displays of roast suckling pigs out for people to buy and take to the graves. While the tradition of leaving lots of tasty cooked food and fruit out for the ancestors may seem strange to Westerners, to the Chinese it is nothing more than giving our families in heaven a good banquet. Quite how they will enjoy it, I haven't figured out. I'm guessing by my mother's theory of metaphysics (which incidentally coincides with Sir Terry Pratchett's), that the smell of the cooked food wafts up to heaven where the ancestors will be able to feast on the fragrance...

So after checking out our new digs, which J and I will be moving to at the end of November, we headed down to the market to buy some vegetables. On the way, we stopped at a food stall selling egg roll pancakes and baked quail eggs (which I have been DYING for).

Tonight dinner is at my dad's, down the road, where we'll try to put the quail eggs into a nice salad. When I figure out what it is, it'll be posted!

But I ramble on. This post is about Chinese market vegetables. I thought it might be useful to anyone interested in Asian cooking. I still don't know how many or all the names of the vegetables that I see at my little market stall. Most of them you may not be able to find if you live abroad, but large Asian supermarkets will usually carry the most popular vegetables like Chinese cabbage, choi sum, kale and white radish (mooli).

I have put three at a time as I think any more, might be too long and uninteresting to read. Recipes using these vegetables will be added as I go, and you will be able to click on the recipe to go to the link (but please bear with me, I have a back log of recipes to write down and so little time!).

So, here goes.

A GUIDE TO CHINESE MARKET VEGETABLES PART 1

Lotus Root

used in stews, goes well with belly pork and slow cooked. Also great thinly sliced, as a pickle, with Chinese vinegar. Can be stir fried and gives added crunch. Must be washed and rinsed a few times as very muddy. Look for roots which are white and firm. Discard any that are soft and smell funny. Young, tender ones can be eaten raw in salads while mature and more starchy ones are good in soup.
This link tells you all about its medicinal properties, but suffice to say they are good for clearing phlegm and constipation.

Recipes: Red Belly Pork Stew

Lotus Root

Mooli / White Radish / Lo Baat / Daikon

Used in soups, stews, stir fries. Preparation is to peel like a carrot and slice. Look for firm and strong flesh, not soft or discoloured. Great to balance heavy, strong flavoured stews.

Recipes: Chinese Winter Pork Stew

Green carrot / Green Mooli

Used in the same way as white radish or carrots. Top and tail and peel. Stronger, more bitter flavour compared to white radish but great in soup.

Recipes: Chinese Green Carrot Soup

A little note here, if you want to know the vegetable families of these roots.

Sides: Creamy Garlic Potatoes

2010-10-12T08:36:00.000+08:00

For a few days last week, it actually felt like autumn. The temperature dropped enough to feel a little shiver now and again, and the sky had taken on a greyish hue, that reminded me of good British autumns, complete with clouds and rain! But it hasn't lasted long and we've got a few more days of summer left with more than enough humidity to curl your hair and make you sweat.

But it inspired me enough to want to cook a big hearty meal. My tiny kitchen is no place for such an undertaking, so I offered to cook my dad a meal while E was working one night. Dad and I conferred and agreed a roast chicken would fit right in with the weather. I got so excited at my first roast dinner in almost a year, that I decided to make a pot of soup AND dessert.

My eyes are always too big for my stomach...

So, roast chicken.

Well there are about a billion ways to do a nice roast chicken. In our family, we usually do fusion - East meets West. A bit of soya sauce marinade, with rosemary or honey or orange juice. Stuff chicken with apple or onion and roast. Ta-da!

BTW, that was my recipe for roast chicken...

What roast chicken is a real vehicle for, is the SIDES... I look forward to them more than the roast itself. Americans really know how to do side dishes. When I read books by Fannie Mae Flagg or Lorna Landvik, I get so worked up over their descriptions of fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, creamed corn, sweet potatoes... I don't even know what half of them are!

My fall-back recipe is always garlic potatoes, either done in lashings of olive oil, or with cream / milk and black pepper.

Now as much as I love to eat healthily, there are just times which call for butter, cream, heavy, gooey sauces, caramel bananas, starchy vegetables - Autumn is one of those times!

I decided to do it all.

Yes, the recipe for caramel bananas will follow shortly.

So here is my recipe for fool-proof potatoes.

CREAMY GARLIC POTATOES

(serves 4)

3 large potatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic
2 big tablespoons of butter or extra virgin olive oil
250 mls of heavy cream, thinned with 3-4 tablespoons of milk
salt and black pepper to season

Wash and peel your potatoes. I usually go for good ol' Russet (Idaho) potatoes as they keep their shape but get nice and fluffy when you bite into them.
Slice your potatoes so that they are roughly about 1cm thick and soak in cold water for 20 minutes.
Mince your garlic roughly.
Rinse and pat dry the potato slices on kitchen paper towels.
Layer the slices in a shallow square or rectangular oven-proof dish, if the dish is too deep, the potatoes will take longer to brown on top. Take care to sprinkle the garlic and seasoning in between the layers, and dot or drizzle the butter / oil.
Pour the cream milk mixture slowly over the top and finish with a little more seasoning. In my view, you can never have enough black pepper!
Other flavorful additions : You could also try adding a bay leaf under a potato slice or mixing a pinch of saffron with some of the milk to flavour the cream.
Bake in a hot oven (200-220C) for 30-40 minutes or until your potatoes are golden brown on top.

Living with Childhood Eczema

2010-10-09T11:58:00.000+08:00

This was supposed to be a post about Tomato and Potato Short Soup which I made the other day, as my mother told me it has properties to calm and soothe skin inflammations. But instead, I've rambled on about eczema instead. It is far more common today than in previous years, though the trigger is different in every person. This is a little bit about living with this condition...

A NOTE ABOUT CHILDHOOD ECZEMA

When J was 3 months old, it began to show itself in patches of red, itchy skin, which grew and, no matter how many trips I took to the GP, worsened over time. By the time he was 5 months old, I was at my wit's end. He was upset and frantic with itchiness, rubbed red raw and everything seemed to make it worse. The crisis hit peak point when I heard him crying in so much pain one night and went in to calm him. He had rubbed his face so raw with his mitts, that blood was oozing out and his baby-gro was covered in blood. That was the worst night ever. I thought I would not stop crying or find anything to help him. I felt completely crippled with worry and anguish to see him in so much pain.

J at 4 months old with typical symptoms: red, itchy, inflammed skin and flaky patches

I researched religiously and tried everything from seaweed baths to oatmeal masks to stronger, different kinds of steroids. We were back and forth at the GP's, trying to see private specialists (none would take him if he was under 2!). No amount of steroid cream eased the symptoms, and I even tried cutting out different foods from my diet, thinking that he may have been allergic to something in my breast milk. After agonisingly short 8 weeks (though every minute was like an hour and every day like a week), J was finally referred to a specialist, and diagnosed with eczema. I can't tell you the relief I felt to finally have someone look after him who knew what was happening. I looked on in happy amazement when the creams I was finally given to use, together with a strong regime of moisturising, began to work within a few days. For the first time in months, J slept well and was eating without complaint, and his skin began to look more like a normal baby's, soft and peach-like.

At 5-6 months - getting better

At the time I was told that no-one knew what triggered it and that it was increasingly common amongst infants. I have my suspicions... One of it was definitely environmental. Anything that would dry or overheat his skin was a trigger. J was a winter baby, which meant we had central heating on most of the time, plus where we lived in the South of England, the water was extremely hard. Not to mention the cold winds, the chapping, the dry air outside. So once I knew he had to be moisturised, I did it religiously, 3-4 times a day without fail, twice a day with Eumovate (a form of corticosteroids) and with a petroleum-based jelly. At bath times, I used Oilatum and poured in capfuls. I insisted our GP put all these things on prescription as I knew they would be too expensive. Slowly his skin improved and he was his happy self.

8 months, and MUCH better

Moving out to the tropics has made a massive impact on his skin and to look at him, you'd think the eczema has completely gone. Now he only gets little patches if it's unbearably hot and sweaty or if it's winter and too dry. I've used his steroid cream a handful of times in 18 months, instead of twice a day. His diet has likely helped, as we eat far less processed food and dairy. It's hard to know what is in the food chain now, with animals that have hormones and antibiotics on a daily basis, and fruit and vegetables that are genetically-modified. Though various food agencies have said these things are safe, who knows what the cumulative effect has been or will be, since most of these practices have only been introduced in the last 20 years. Here we try to eat as organically as possible, with as little meat as we need to (but don't get me wrong, I love my steak as much as the next person).

One day last year my uncle brought out Aveeno, a colloidal oatmeal cream and bath range, for us to try. All I can say is that it has worked wonders. I cannot say enough good stuff about this range. It's so hard to find here in Hong Kong, but it works and I ask my uncle to send batches over. Now we only need to moisturise and bath with Aveeno Extra Moisturing and that's it! While it's not a miracle cure, everyone I've recommended it to, have said how much better their skin is and how it's helped with psoriasis and eczema. I like the fact that it's natural too, so it can't damage his skin at all. The last thing you want to put on your child's skin are things with long chemical names and have the propensity to thin and damage skin over time.

My little boy is a much happier chappy now and what I would say to any parents going through hell over their child's eczema is : don't wait - see a specialist and buy some Aveeno while you're at it.

Autumn Recipes

2010-10-09T11:08:00.004+08:00

Here's what I haven't posted for the last month...

Wonton Soup

Minced pork lettuce cups

Chinese Tomato and Potato Short Soup

Creamy garlic potatoes

Roasted Chestnut and Garlic Soup

Banana and Apple Caramel Crisp

Also coming soon... A Guide to Chinese Market Vegetables!

Bird Makes Nest

2010-10-03T20:09:00.000+08:00

Wow, I can't believe I'm coming up to my first year in Cheung Chau. I blinked and time flew by. And while I love where I live, I live under a strict rental contract that prevents me from doing much to the flat. That, and the tiniest kitchen ever.

So it is with GREAT excitement that I will be moving next month, when the lease expires, to a place further up the road, about ten minutes away. It is a peaceful location, with it's own private beach. Best of all, I have a close relationship with the landlord who is fantastic and doing a complete renovation on the flat, to my specifications! Yes, I asked for a new kitchen - one big enough to move in with ease, complete with an oven. And they are knocking the kitchen walls in tomorrow. I asked for an overhaul on a dated bathroom, and I'm getting it!

And perhaps best of all, I have my own rooftop with a fantastic view to the open sea. My dad and I went over the flat carefully last week, to make a note of what else needs to be done. Luckily the building contractors are close friends, so I have complete faith that the job will be done well and done quickly.

And yes, I've bought about 10 decorating magazines since then, browsed Ikea twice and made a shopping list of furniture I'm buying... you can take the girl out of the city, but... :))

Ask and ye shall receive...

The Moon Got Washed Away

2010-09-23T10:17:00.003+08:00

It's hard to believe that a year has already passed since I wrote about the Lantern Festival letdown of 2009. The commercialism and the terrible plastic monstrosities that pass as lanterns these days - inflatable helicopters and Thomas the Tank Engine ugliness, blaring out tinny music. I vowed that no child of mine was going to have one of them...

Traditional paper crafts shop, selling lanterns and hell money

And then?

The traditional peach lantern

And then...

my kid got old enough to have a wide vocabulary and to talk non-stop. It didn't help that every day we have to pass the toyshop to go to his kindergarten. The toyshop which has carried those awful lanterns for the last 3 weeks, and every time, EVERY TIME, we have to stop and he points out the one he likes. It's always the same. Harold the Helicopter... And he begs me so much, but I had a heart of stone and kept saying 'no'. But secretly my heart of stone was being quickly eroded by his determination and his big soulful eyes. And because he's been such a good little boy the last few weeks. Starting a new school with the minimum of fuss, and being so helpful around the house. Of course I succumbed.

The best lanterns

But I got a traditional peach lantern (not paper though) to make up for it. Oh how I long for the days where kids played with a naked flame! Where parents let their kids stay up all night to watch the moon and stuff themselves silly with sticky mooncakes, where our glowsticks lit up our bedrooms for four nights, and most of all, mum and dad indulged our pyromaniac tendencies without hovering... if we got burned, we learned! *sigh*

For Lantern Festival this year my uncle and aunt from Australia were in town, so we had our big family banquet last night.

Typhoon Fanapi had just paid a visit and gave us a good soaking for three days. There was a lot of noise in the local paper about cloudy skies and not being able to see the moon last night, but the weather was generally not too bad. Cooler than last year, with only a shower... J and I took the ferry over to Hong Kong and played with my new Olympus EPL-1.

We haven't seen my uncle and aunt for a long time. It was a happy night. My other uncle and aunt were there with my cousin. We ate. A LOT.

After stuffing ourselves with stewed crab, crispy noodles, fried rice, pan fried beef and garlic, stewed belly pork and yams, prawns and fried egg, roast soya chicken and mango pudding for dessert, we headed home on the ferry.

At home, it was finally cool enough to open the windows and balcony doors for the first time in months.

I gathered the candles and all the lanterns and we sat outside and watched the moon.

It was small and watery, but there...

P.S. Got a home-made lantern made from an orange from Grandad... much more like the real thing... And J got his first experience of his inner pyro.

My Mother's Spring Rolls

2010-07-18T22:01:00.001+08:00

Yum cha is one of my favourite pastimes. The words mean 'drink tea' but it means anything from breakfast-brunch-snack. My mother has a few favourite yum cha hang-outs where you have to get in before a certain time to enjoy good discounts on the meal. Yum cha is where dim sum is served. Dim sum is like Spanish tapas in the sense that food is shared with everyone. It arrives at the table in small bamboo steamers or plates for everyone to partake. The old yum cha restaurants have ladies wheeling metal trolleys that heat the dishes and each trolley has the names of the dishes on the front. You signal to the lady whose trolley has caught your eye, and they serve the dish at your table, then stamp your menu card. There are literally hundreds of dim sum dishes, steamed, fried, boiled, roasted, served cold, sweet, savoury and salty.

The most delicious one, for me, is the spring roll. So simple, but so delightful. And of course it's fried. Anything fried and crispy is a keeper. Fillings can be anything - I've tried dozens of different fillings, vegetarian, meat, noodle-filled, with yams, without shrimp, you name it. But it's very rarely made with a spicy filling or with fish or beef. Just a little garlic and soya as seasoning and that's it. My best memories of my mother's kitchen are making spring rolls with her when I was very young, and feeling like it was a real rite of passage. My mother would make a huge batch of filling and then we would spend an afternoon wrapping the rolls and freezing them. Whenever my brother and I came home from school hungry, we could help ourselves to a few and fry them for an afternoon treat.

A few weeks ago, some old family friends were visiting my dad, and their 14-year-old son asked to have spring rolls. So E and I got excited about making a few dozen and freezing a batch. We made one filling with two different wrappers - normal spring roll sheets, and beancurd sheets, which are available from most good Asian supermarkets. I enjoy both types of wrappers, but the beancurd sheet is definitely harder to work as it tears more easily and not as easy to find.

The bean curd sheet is the extra crinkly one.

As I mentioned earlier, almost anything can be used, but the most common fillings are:

pork / shrimp / Chinese shiitake mushrooms / carrots / green beans / onions / cellophane vermicelli noodles / bamboo shoots / water chestnuts / taro / yam / chicken

In my mother's recipe, we use minced pork with various vegetables. Leftover filling is usually used up as a stir fry with noodles or fried rice. It's time-consuming work, but easy and great to do with friends before a party.

MY MOTHER'S SPRING ROLLS

(makes between 20-30, depending how many sheets in your spring roll packet)

500 grams of minced pork
3-4 dried shiitake mushrooms soaked overnight
1 small carrot
Half a packet of green beans or roughly one handful
1 garlic clove
1 tin of bamboo shoots in water, (roughly one handful)
2-3 tablespoons of light soya sauce
Serving sauce: Worcestershire sauce or Thai Sweet Chilli
Egg wash for wrapping spring rolls

1. If using frozen spring roll sheets, take them out the freezer now. Then wash and finely shred the beans, carrot and bamboo shoots. Shred by using a mandolin or crosswise on the diagonal. All the vegetables should be like matchsticks. Time-consuming but necessary as the finer the cut, the more water will evaporate. The final mixture needs to be as dry as possible after being fried so the spring roll won't get soggy.

2. Mince the mushrooms and garlic.

3. Fry the garlic off first in a tiny bit of vegetable oil. Then add the pork. Fry on a medium heat until most of the water in the meat has evaporated and it is looking fairly dry and loose in texture. Remove from the pan and set aside in a dish.

4. Wipe the pan clean then add the vegetables and fry until they are cooked and crunchy, not wilted and soggy. Again, we are frying off the moisture in the vegetables so a higher heat is needed, not a low flame.

5. Taste your vegetables for the right amount of crunchiness, then add your meat back into the pan. Add the soya sauce and fry for 1-2 minutes more, mixing well.

6. Place a sieve or fine colander over a big bowl and drain your mixture through the sieve. Leave the filling for 20 mins to an hour to cool down and get as dry as possible.

7. Prepare your spring roll wrapping station. You will need a clean table top or flat board, and a small bowl of egg wash (1 egg whisked well with a fork). Make sure your hands are clean! Carefully separate your wrappers and have one platter ready for the wrapped rolls.

WRAPPING THE ROLLS - see here for clear pictures

Wrappers come in many forms, rice paper, round, square, made with flour, etc. I usually go for the generic square, flour ones.

1. Using one wrapper, place it in front of you with one point facing your belly so that it looks like a diamond / kite shape. Work from one corner.

2. Fill the wrapper with 1 spoonful of filling and roll to the opposite end, tucking in the corners on either side like an envelope.

3. Use one finger dipped in egg wash to baste on the opposite end and roll the wrapper up tight. And that's it! Takes a few to get into the rhythm and get them looking right, but you'll soon be getting through a dozen without any problems.

4. If cooking straight away, heat a wide flat pan and pour in enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan well but not so that the rolls are swimming in oil. Heat on a high heat, then turn the heat down. To know if the oil is hot enough, put in a tiny square of wrapper in. It should sizzle and brown quickly.

5. Put the rolls in but not too tightly so that you can turn them easily. Fry them for a few minutes on each side until they are golden brown. Lift them out and drain on paper towels. Serve with Worcestershire or Thai sweet chilli sauce or Chinese fruit vinegar (much sweeter than normal vinegar).

6. If not cooking straight away, put the uncooked rolls in a box and keep them for up to a couple of months in the freezer. This makes great party food or starters for a nice meal with friends.

HAPPY WRAPPING!!

Hot Summer Action...

2010-07-09T12:17:00.001+08:00

Just a few of the things that have kept me from blogging the last month: work / exams / sewing / work / swimming / work / sleep / work / swimming / work / work / work

It's the end of the academic year here and exam season is almost over. As a result, work has been phenomenally frantic. Us teachers seem to be living on adrenaline and coffee at the moment, hanging on with panda-eyes, barely able to string a sentence together, waiting for the end of the week. And next week? Summer school starts! *sigh* Some teachers have wisely taken their month's leave in July, while others (me) will take theirs in August. Which means a couple of hard weeks' labour over the hot summer monsoon season.

And the weather?? 33C hot hot sunshine, though thankfully the humidity seems to have dried up. We had a bad few weeks of torrential rain, but for the last 2 weeks it's been beautiful clear blue skies... the first clear skies in a few years! In fact, the pollution cloud that permanently hangs over HK has disappeared. All this has meant very little cooking or time to myself. When I haven't been working, I've been at my little getaway - the beach. Waters have been green and clear and flat as a mirror. Perfect for teaching J how to swim. I've been trying to build his confidence up and we've made excellent progress from being afraid of waves, to jumping and running into the water chest deep, to hanging out in an inflatable ring, able to paddle to Mummy. I hope he'll be able to swim by himself soon so we can spend some time on Grandad's boat.

Anyhoo, with the weather so hot, appetites take a dive and I go back to an old staple - Honey Soya Chicken, that can be served with salad, BBQ'd or chopped up and fried with rice, or put into lovely crusty baguettes, or spiced up with a bit of ginger or chili for adults, or served over noodles. It's such an easy dish, but the key is leaving it to marinade for as long as possible, such as overnight in a ziplock bag.

HONEY SOYA CHICKEN (serves 1)

1 chicken breast
3 tablespoons of light soya
1 tablespoon of dark soya
1 tablespoon of honey
1 clove of garlic chopped fine
1 tsp of Thai fish sauce or lemon juice
1 tsp of toasted sesame oil

1. Mix all the ingredients and leave to marinade overnight or for a few hours.

2. Heat a grill pan or heavy frying pan over a high heat and use whatever oil / oil spray you like to coat the pan very lightly. When the pan is smoking, turn the heat down to medium low.

3. Place the chicken breast in, reserving the marinade. Fry each side for a few minutes until each side is well browned and the inside is cooked well. Remove and place on a plate

4. Add the marinade and cook on a higher heat. If you want to do it French-style, you can deglaze the pan with a pat of butter mixed in to bind the ingredients in the sauce. Simmer for a minute or two until the chicken juices are cooked and then pour onto the chicken and serve with your favourite sides.

I like to cool the chicken down and shred the chicken to put in lovely bread or tortillas for an easy summer lunch.

Summer Rice Salad

2010-06-09T10:10:00.002+08:00

Okay, so I promised in my last post that this recipe would be a vegetarian one - in homage to the Bun Festival. I'm not a big fan of rice as a salad - the ones I've tried have been cold, slimy, and devoid of flavour. But R, J's daddy, likes it - it seems to be popular in Spain and in the UK as a summer salad dish so I thought I would make some and see if I could change my own mind about it.

I used red rice, which I found in the local supermarket - it's organic Thai red rice, very nutritious and full of fibre. It has a chewy, slightly nutty texture which livens up any rice dish. But eating red rice on its own can be quite arduous. It's SO full of fibre, you feel like a cow chomping away. So I usually cook it mixed half and half with white rice. I use the ol' first knuckle rule of cooking rice.

1. Wash your rice, not once but TWICE, draining each time.

2. Then with your rice in your cooking pot, measure the rice with your third finger from the bottom of the pan. Wherever it comes to, that's how much water you put to come ON TOP of the rice. So if it comes to the first knuckle, then you put the same knuckle on top of the rice and measure the water so it goes to the same level.

3. Cook the rice on low heat with a close fitting lid for 20 mins and no peeking! (Unless you smell burning and you've put your rice on too high!). If you not using your rice immediately for any cooked dishes, but cooling for fried rice or salads, then remove it from the heat, leave uncovered till it's cool and then refrigerate immediately. If you don't, it can breed a bacteria that can make you very sick.

Okay, so enough about bacteria! On to summer... yes, it feels like summer has arrived - though the weather has been warm for a while. True summer heat and sunshine has come. I'm so lucky to work mainly in the evenings during the week, so I get to enjoy these lazy summer days at the beach with J. I'm trying to build up his open water confidence - he can happily jump and swim in a pool, but is taking some persuasion to venture into the sea. The beach nearby is great, secluded, quiet, clean and chockful of friendly lifeguards who keep and eye on J and I when we splash around. Last time he obviously so impressed them with his splashing skills, they rewarded him with 4 fresh pineapple sticks to eat on the way home!

I love island life... people are so much lovelier and kinder. Not to mention more creative. Everywhere I look on this island someone is reusing and upcycling something. Plastic bottles, that people usually throw away, are given new life by turning them upside down and chopping the bottoms off, filling with soil and plants and tied to railings to make a pretty and unusual display. There is even a street cleaner's trolley that has made use of all the old dolls and toys that kids chuck out, tying them to the trolley for a most stylish and cute cleaning truck! Even the lifeguards have a big garden, behind their watch tower, growing 7ft sunflowers and salad vegetables.

This salad turned out beautifully - yellow and sunny, and full of flavour, without being slimy! A robust salad for lunch or dinner...

SUMMER SUN RICE SALAD (serves 4)

4 cups of COLD white rice or half and half white with red / wild rice
1/4 white onion, chopped very fine
1 fresh corn on the cob
1 yellow pepper - chopped small
1 avocado - chopped into small chunks
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
Salt and pepper to taste or 2 tsp of light soya sauce

1. Use a sharp knife (CAREFULLY SO YOU DON'T SLICE YOUR FINGERS OFF!!) remove the corn kernels from the cob into a bowl.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl, except the rice. Mix well

3. Add the seasoning and taste.

4. Add the rice and stir carefully until everything is well covered and put into a small bowl to turn out onto a plate.

The Cheung Chau Bun Festival

2010-05-28T22:23:00.001+08:00

Please forgive the long absence but it has been a HECTIC month of work. I didn't get round to posting any of my backlog of recipes and before I knew it, J's dad was here for a visit, right smack bang in the middle of the Bun Festivities. It was great as it was our first year experiencing this very famous festival - we got to play tourists (okay, so technically he IS a tourist) and to experience it as a family was nice.

So what is this Bun Festival I hear you say? Is is a cheeky *wink wink* homage to the delectable human bottom? No.

Sadly.

(small pause while I gaze off into space thinking if only this were actually possible - what a sight that would be!)

BUT it is Cheung Chau's big day - a well-preserved annual tradition that doubles and triples the island's inhabitants for a day or two (bearing in mind we have 30,000 people in a very small area). Ever see pictures of Chinese festivals with small children dressed up and perched sitting on top of long poles paraded around? Yep, that's Cheung Chau. Massive paper deities burned on a bonfire? Cheung Chau again. A massive tower made of edible buns? Yep, Cheung Chau.

I feel kind of awful that I've lived most of my life in Hong Kong and never once made it over to Cheung Chau before I lived here. This little island is so rich in history - we got it all, plague, piracy, smuggling... and THE BUN FESTIVAL.

The Bun Festival is always held on the day of Lord Buddha's Birthday, which is a public holiday over here. The island also must go vegetarian for 3 days to purify and prepare for the festival. Nearly all the restaurants on the island go vegetarian, including McDonald's (which is the first sight to greet tourists off the ferry - awful!). The story on the island says that McDs had to sign a special contract to go veggie over the Bun Festival in order to get their site. Proof?

The sign says that it is only selling meat-free burgers during the Bun Festival - McVeggie Burger.

The origins of the Bun Festival go back to the 18th century, when the island was devastated by a plague and then plagued (sorry, couldn't think of a better verb!) by pirates. The islanders prayed to the deities, including Pak Tai, who came down and avenged the villagers and got rid of the plague. Ever since then, the villagers have had a strong connection to their gods, particularly Pak Tai and Tin Hau, Goddess of the Sea and Protector of Fishermen. She's my personal favourite... I love the sea and don't think it too far stretch to believe I was a mermaid in a former life... not because I'm beautiful, or sleek or graceful in any way, I just love swimming!

Anyway, as the Bun Festival fell on Friday and I had to work all day Saturday, I was bummed because I wouldn't be able to see the Bun Climbing (oh how exciting does that sound?!!) as it is usually held at midnight. So we decided to be smart. With a toddler in tow, it wouldn't have been pleasant to brave the hordes and noise and crowd so we went down the days before and checked out all the preparations. We figured with the amount of people coming over, we would have no chance of seeing said Bun Tower or the temple. Plus, it meant we could get up close and nosy with everything.

There were already Dragon dances being practiced on the streets along the temple, and the noise was incredible. There were eerie funeral pipes wailing and cymbals being clashed, not to mention the dragon leaping out, which only freaked J out. At point I let go of his hand to take a picture and the little guy ran off like a headless chicken, back and forth and around in circles, freaking out. Bad mother?? Hooo boy...

Luckily his dad was there to grab him and calm him down. Needless to say, we didn't stay long... did I mention it was hot? And steamy? We're talking 32C heat in 90% humidity... we were ready for icecream and air conditioning once I got my pictures.

A mini bun tree... Bun souvenirs were everywhere : cushions, key chains, dolls, hats, shirts, mini bun trees that lit up like Christmas, bun chopsticks, you name it...

The buns are made with different pastes - lotus seed is the most popular. When the Bun Climbing race begins, competitors try to race to the top of the tower and get as many as they can. In the past, the man who got it closest to the top, brought better luck for his family for the year.

No this ain't the Bun Tower... cute though, if you need an alternative to a Christmas tree.

This ain't it either...

This is just for the singles event - one man per tower.

Now THAT'S what I call a Bun Tower!!!

12 people climb it. Now they do it with proper mountaineering gear, after one year the tower collapsed and 100 people were injured.

Outside Pak Tai Temple.

The Temple itself.

The Deities. They get burned when the Bun Climbing is done.

A Temple worker... possibly musician.

Perhaps same temple worker??

Chinese Soup - Buddha Palm Squash

2010-04-30T11:01:00.002+08:00

Don't you just love the name?? So called for its resemblance to the hands of Buddha in meditation. For those in the US or UK, it's known as chayote - a weird looking vegetable, originally from Mexico. It looks like a shiny, smooth, bright green avocado, but with the texture of a firm pear inside. Like this:

The medicinal properties of Buddha Palm Squash are well-known in Chinese foodlore as being good for coughs and chest infections, as well as problems with the urinary tract. I found this which also mentioned:

"Although most people are familiar only with the fruit, which in culinary terms is a vegetable, the root, stem, seeds, and leaves are all edible. The fruit, which does not need to be peeled, can be added, raw, to salads, stuffed, mashed, baked, fried, boiled or pickled. Both the fruit and the seed are rich in amino acids and vitamin C.
The tuberous part of the root is starchy and is both eaten by humans and used as cattle fodder.
The leaves and fruit have diuretic, cardiovascular and anti-inflamatory properties, and a tea made from the leaves has been used in the treatment of arteriosclerosis and hypertension, and to disolve kidney stones."

Making Chinese soup is an art in itself. Restaurants are often recommended and graded on the quality of their soup. Over here in HK, soups are eaten mainly at dinner or lunch after a meal and are used as digestives. Soups are usually consomme-clear with a few vegetables in, to look aesthetically pleasing - no rough, creamy, chunky soups allowed! Bases are usually made with pork, fish, or chicken bones or with a small chunk of the meat too. If the meat is very bloody or watery, you need to blanch the meat with hot water first by bringing a small pan of water to the boil and putting the meat in for a few minutes. This removes the scum and impurities that might mar the clarity of the soup.

Buddha Palm Squash soup is one of my family favourites - I remember my mother making this often. And in our family my mother used to call it 'Cough Soup' - making it for us whenever we were ill. It also had the added effect of 'spring-cleaning' your digestive tract so is particularly good if you've indulged in too much junk food or cake! When I lived in the UK, one of the happiest days I had was going to the supermarket and one day finding a chayote in the exotic vegetable section! I bought it and rushed home to make soup immediately and when I drank it, I felt a deep, peaceful sense of connection to my family and HK. The flavour is mild, clean, with a tang that is almost fruity. A soft and gentle flavour that is good for little kids. J loves this soup and it's chock-full of vitamins.

Making Chinese soup is in two ways - long or short. Long soup takes a minimum of 3 hours of gentle simmering and uses mainly root vegetables. Short soup can be done in 30 minutes and is usually made in summer when fresh greens are in season and wouldn't stand up to the long boiling times. Buddha Palm Squash soup is a long soup, but the preparation is fast and once done, you can leave it while you get on with the housework.

BUDDHA PALM SQUASH SOUP

(makes a big pot, probably 8-10 servings)

3 chayotes
1 hand-sized piece of pork with bone attached (pork chop would do fine)
3 dried dates or 2 dried figs
Optional: handful of barley first rinsed well (adds to health benefits)
2-3 big pinches of rock / sea salt

1. Blanch the pork first in a pan of boiling water for a few minutes then rinse with more boiling water.

2. Place a big pot of cold water on the stove and put the pork and the dates / figs in. Bring to a boil.

3. Meanwhile, wash and quarter the chayote, and remove the pit inside. If you do this too soon, the flesh starts to ooze a sticky sliminess, which you'll only have to rinse off again.

4. When the water is boiling, add the chayote and turn the heat low down to a slow rolling boil. Cover and leave for 3 hours.

5. After 3 hours, add the salt but taste in between pinches till it suits you.

Thai Pork with Udon

2010-04-21T10:05:00.003+08:00

I'm still contemplating the switch to Wordpress, but have decided to wait till I get my new camera (which is not happening any time soon). I have my eye on the Nikon D90 which lots of friends tell me they love. I know Nikon have a new camera out in June, but to be honest, I'm not looking for a pro's camera (with matching price tag), just a decent one with interchangeable lenses and a good, affordable price. Sadly I've been very remiss in curbing my fashion habit, having splurged on a gorgeous blazer at French Connection yesterday. Yes, I needed it! It's a BLAZER, therefore it will be classic and suit everything in my wardrobe (so I tell myself). But this blazer is different from a normal work one, this makes the effortless switch from day to night, is sleek, sexy, soft and drapes and fits in all the right places. It's time I start making the glide from cheap and cheerful buys that fall apart after a few washes, to investing in having a grown-up classic wardrobe that I would be proud to pass down to future generations... which is just another way of saying I have an expensive clothes habit! *SIGH*

Anyway, thank GOD I know how to cook well on the cheap - at least that's one way to count the pennies. The meal I've posted today is an old family favourite that we traditionally serve with rice. When I was a kid and my mum asked me what I wanted for dinner, without fail I'd say 'Thai Pork'. My mum made this dish up and called it Thai Pork for the only reason that it had Thai fish sauce in! There was a month when we had Thai Pork 5-6 times (not counting leftovers) and my poor father put his foot down and said if he had to eat it one more time, he was going vegetarian. It is healthy, full of fresh vegetables and very more-ish. I made it last week with Japanese udon noodles for J, as he loves noodles.

THAI PORK

(serves 4)

Enough pork fillet for 4 people (say the size of your hand)
flour and seasoning for coating the pork
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion, chopped into small chunks
1 green pepper
1 cucumber
1 tin of tomatoes or 3-4 big fresh ones and a big tablespoon of tomato paste
1 tablespoon of Thai fish sauce / white vinegar
1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1. First slice the pork thinly (1-2mm thick) and coat well in flour. Shake off the excess flour.

2. Wash and chop the pepper and cucumber and set aside for later.

3. Fry the pork pieces in a pan with a little oil. Fry it fast on a high heat until the outsides are brown, then remove from the pan.

4. In the same pan, add the garlic and onion and fry until the onion is soft.

5. Put the pork back in the pan, and add the tin tomatoes and sugar.

6. Cover and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes.

7. Add the vegetables and the fish sauce or vinegar. Cover and simmer for another 10 minutes.

8. Taste and season with light soya sauce or salt if you wish.

9. Serve with rice or udon noodles.

Homemade Cantonese Fried Rice

2010-04-14T09:45:00.001+08:00

Hmmm... so lately I've been checking out a lot of lovely blogs that are on Wordpress and they all have one thing in common, they're clean and easy to navigate. Now I've got blog envy and want to see what the fuss is about. So I signed up for an account. I was seriously impressed with the dashboard and the stat counter but couldn't bring myself to start writing. Why?? I love my little blog - I have no idea how many people, if any are reading my blog, and all the trials and tribulations I've had over design / layout and posting - well it's all there! 63 posts so far. Can I bring myself to leave Blogger and start over?? Any words of advice from fellow Bloggers or Wordpress users out there?

Anyway, I've got behind on my blogging again and have a handful of lovely Asian recipes that I did over the Easter / Ching Ming holiday. So much so, that my waistband is feeling distinctly tight. But then that's what the holidays are for, stuffing your face and not doing exercise! The first recipe I want to post is a traditional home-cooked fried rice, which is different from the Yeung Chow Fried Rice - there are no shrimps or peas (I don't like to mix surf and turf, just feels wrong). This is a very simple dish, which is fast to whip up and very light, with lots of greens and little meat, so perfect for those of you watching your weight. The Cantonese flavour of the dish only really works if you can get hold of some choi sum (Chinese broccoli) or kale, and Char Siu, Chinese BBQ Pork from a Chinese restaurant or cooked meat shop, (we have the best coked meat shop which does lunchboxes for a song in Cheung Chau wet market). Any other meat or vegetable you substitute will just make this plain old fried rice.

HOME-MADE CANTONESE FRIED RICE

(serves 2)

2 cups of leftover cooked rice - chilled overnight in fridge
4oz (a palm-sized amount) of cooked Char Siu, chopped and diced
6-8 stalks of kale or choi sum, washed, dried and shredded, stalks and leaves
1 egg
1 clove of garlic
2 tablespoons of light soya sauce
1 teaspoon of toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil for frying

1. Heat up your wok or non-stick pan on a high heat till it starts smoking then lower the heat to medium. Add the oil and garlic at the same time.

2. Fry the garlic for a few seconds to cook off the raw smell, but add the meat before the garlic has a chance to brown.

3. Fry the meat for a minute or two, then add the rice and break it up with your hand as you put it in the pan, or with your cooking utensil of choice (I have a nice wide wooden spatula for a wok). Toss well to make sure the oil and the meat are well-distributed. Leave for a minute or so before tossing again.

4. Frying the rice will take about 4-5 minutes. The rice will stop making sizzling noises when the water in it has evaporated and this is when you should add the choi sum or kale. Fry for 2-3 minutes more.

5. Crack the egg into the rice and toss very well, until the egg has coated everything and is cooked. It doesn't take long for this part - maybe 30 seconds. Add your soya and sesame oil at the end. Garnish with scallions (spring onions) if you wish and serve.

Perfect for late night supper, parties or when you're too tired to do much.

A Curse As Dark As Gold

2010-04-06T19:00:00.002+08:00

It's been so long since I reviewed a new book, but I just had to write about this one:
A Curse Dark As Gold, by Elizabeth Bunce. I picked it up at Cheung Chau library of all places (not a library with a vast store of English books - about 2 shelves) and left it around the flat for a week before picking it up to read on the ferry. I was blown away by the story and richness of the characters. Using the tale of Rumpelstiltskin as the bare bones, it follows heroine Charlotte Miller as she stubbornly tries to keep her grip on her mill and the villagers that share in its fate. She is a wonderfully real, flawed character - only 17 when her father dies, leaving her and her sister Rosie orphaned. She is determined, stubborn, level-headed, courageous and fool-hardy in equal turns. The story of the mill and its curse is brought out slowly and carefully, the magic seeping in even as Charlotte tries to ignore it. The love story between her and Randall, and her insidious Uncle Wheeler and his nefarious, underhanded dealings only serve to heighten the tension. How much unhappiness can this poor family take? It is nail-bitingly tense and exciting. Though written for young adults, it is far better written than most general fiction available now. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be looking forward to Bunce's next efforts with relish... Bib-Laura-graphy has a far better, eloquent review if you want to know more.

P.S. In a follow up to this post, I emailed Elizabeth Bunce to tell her how much I enjoyed her book, and thrillingly she wrote back, to say I'd made her day :) She also mentioned me in her blog here! I always get a little frisson of joy when authors write back to fan mail. Once, I wrote to Laurie Graham (writer of one of my favourite books 'Gone with the Windsors) and she wrote a lovely email back. My joy knew no bounds. Then after I watched 'Lost and Found' and collected all Oliver Jeffers' lovely children's books to read to J, I wrote to him (rather gushingly) and got a very sweet reply back. J's scrapbook has got that particular email pasted into it :).

Easter Cooking Adventures

2010-04-05T19:03:00.001+08:00

Happy Easter everyone! We have a double whammy of holidays, Easter and Ching Ming (which is the first Chinese Halloween) and a 5 day bank of public holidays. This is rare in HK, being so commercially-driven as it is, employers like to work their little drudges for every ounce of flesh and blood. Annual leave in most work contracts is only 11 days a year, so this bank of holidays is a nice little gift for most of us. I check my academic calendar months in advance so to get myself excited. So I was happily surprised to see we get Buddha's Birthday (May) and Dragon Boat Festival (June) and National Day (July) too - hurrah!

I wanted to make the most out of relaxing this time round, instead of driving myself crazy by getting stressed by the holiday bug, so J and I stayed here in CC and caught up with friends and family. But mostly, with the weather being so overcast, we stayed in and watched movies and had sofa days. I experimented with cooking - successfully and otherwise and now have a backlog of recipes to add. But also a serious case of cabin fever. 5 days of bad weather and a toddler inside? Bring on work tomorrow I say!

So, my adventures in cooking - I bought a traditional claypot to try Cantonese Claypot Rice - would have been a success, if the pot hadn't cracked when I cooked it on the stove the first time. I did everything my homeware shop guy told me, rinsed with hot water, put cold water in and brought it to the boil, twice. Then cooked my rice on a low heat. And it still cracked. But the guy told me today that the real traditional ones aren't made the way they used to be made, and I need to upgrade... ho hum. Could've told me that first time round!

I also had a load of fresh green vegetables that were on the turn and turned a delicious pot of Spring Soup yumminess. My highlight was the crispy 5 Spice Chicken Bites, which I served with Chinese Colcannon. Then yesterday, we waved adieu to old family friends who were staying with my dad, with an Orange Drizzle Cake. A perfect, old-fashioned, British tea-time treat.

Cantonese Claypot Rice (Lo Mai Gai)

2010-04-05T19:02:00.002+08:00

Putting the meat in - rice bubble stage

So though the claypot cracked, the recipe itself was sound and we did eat the rice. Thankfully the crack was a hairline crack and not a big fracture, so there were no shards of pottery in our meal.

Claypot rice is a simple recipe which is a staple in most dim sum restaurants. There are not many ingredients but the trick, like with most things, is to do it very well, to raise it from a simple peasant dish into something sublime. The best claypot rice is, not surprisingly, my mother's. She doesn't add any seasoning or sauce but the flavours of the lap cheong (Chinese air-dried sausage), the chicken and pork marinated in a little soya before-hand, infuse the rice. Cooking it on a low heat, very gently, is key, so that the bottom develops a light golden crust that is the highlight of the meal - my brother never liked it, but I loved it! I still haven't mastered it...

On a slightly different note, you can do this dish in a rice-cooker, if you're not bothered about having a crust on the bottom. It tastes almost exactly the same. And on yet another note, did you know that rice cookers all over the world are developed for the regional tastes? So rice cooker models in Iran actually make a crust on the bottom (oh to have a Persian rice cooker!) while Japanese rice cookers have so many functions to make stews, curries, soup, pretty much everything you could wish *sigh*

A note about lap cheong - I LOVE Chinese sausages, which come in many varieties, from liver, duck, and pork. Go for the best money can buy, it makes a difference. My favourite is the pork one, which comes in a deep magenta, speckled with fat. It looks like a very skinny small salami. When I was at university, my mother actually sent me some regularly. Every time I opened the packaged I would well up with tears of homesickness at the smell of them. My housemates took great delight in being disparaging about them, calling them 'spicy dog d***s'! Yes, we were a charming lot at uni.

True Lo Mai Gai uses chicken, but I didn't have any left so I used mince pork, which works just as well. Claypots are cheap and can be bought at any Chinese / Asian supermarket. They need to be treated first. Wash with hot water first. Then put plain cold water in and bring to the boil. Throw the water away and do it again. Then leave to dry. It's now ready to use.

CLAYPOT RICE

(serves 3-4)

Enough white rice for however many people are eating (usually a cup per person)
1-2 lap cheong
3-4 dried Chinese shiitake mushrooms, soaked in water for a few hours.
1 chicken breast or equivalent weight of pork mince
4-5 strands of choi sum (Chinese Broccoli) or baby kale
2 tablespoons of light soya sauce and Sweet Soya (kecap manis works well here)
1 pinch of sugar
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 spring onion chopped, for garnishing
Water

1. First soak the mushrooms overnight or for a few hours in the morning and remove stems. You could also marinate your meat now, so it will be extra tasty. Chop or mince the meat very fine and then marinate with 2 tablespoons of light soya and 1 tablespoon of sweet soya, the sugar and the sesame oil.

2. Prepare your rice - wash it twice and drain it. Put it in the claypot, with slightly less than double the amount of water to rice. I say this as the meat and vegetables will have water in them and you don't want your rice to be soggy, instead it should be moist but with separate grains. So if you have 4 cups of rice, put in 7 cups of water. 3 cups rice = 5 1/2 cups of water.

3. Put your lap cheong and dried mushrooms in the pot too, and put it on a very low flame. Cooking rice this way takes about 10-15 minutes longer than normal.

4. After about 20 minutes, check your rice. When it is at the rice bubble stage, put your meat and vegetables on top and cover. Be neat, don't mix it through into the rice. The beauty is that the meat, and vegetables will just be sitting on the top, soaking its goodness through to the bottom, but still looking pretty. The rice bubble stage is when the water has boiled away, but leaves pock marks in the rice and the rice is still wet and you can see bubbles and blisters forming on the rice. Cover and do not peek for ten minutes! Very important, as the meat must cook through.

5. The meal is ready when the meat is cooked. Add an extra spoonful of sweet soya if you like, for extra depth and colour. Garnish with spring onions and serve!

Spring Vegetable Soup

2010-04-05T18:29:00.001+08:00

My son J is now starting to go through food phases. He's generally pretty good and eats everything, but occasionally he gets a hump on about one particular vegetable (never the same) and refuses to eat it. Mealtimes are a battle: lines are drawn, chins set in determination and threats of the dinner monster are alternated with bribes of chocolate fingers. If he's distracted, I slip it in and he's fine. But he's not, it's enough to make a mother cry and tear her hair out! And he's not even a fussy eater. I have friends with children who have the strangest eating habits - only white foods, etc. Somehow I foresee a long stretch ahead of blended sauces and pureed soups!

So to make sure he had his five-a-day portion, I made this lovely soup. While not the best in colour (you can thank the carrots for muddying the clear emeralds of the soup), the taste is phenomenal, especially with the added dollop of goat's cheese to top it off.

Perfect for kick-starting a physical spring cleaning...

SPRING VEGETABLE SOUP

(serves 4-6)

1 head of broccoli
2 carrots
1 onion
1 small bag of frozen peas
4-5 big handfuls or bunches of watercress
2 potatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic -whole
3 pints of chicken stock
2 pints of water
Goat's cheese to serve
seasoning

1. Roughly chop the vegetables into chunks.

2. Fry the onions in a little oil in a soup pan and when soft, add the root vegetables with the stock and water and bring to the boil.

3. Add the garlic. Don't worry - boiling the garlic renders the strong pungency mild and creamy and it loses its kick. Let it boil on a soft rolling boil for 15-20 minutes.

4. Add the rest of the vegetables, the greens. Bring the heat down and let it simmer for another 20 minutes.

5. Turn the heat off, taste and season. Whip out your hand blender, and blend it to your liking. Finish with a big dollop of goat's cheese in each bowl.

Chinese Colcannon

2010-04-05T18:04:00.001+08:00

Yes, another bad picture. I haven't made it down to the camera shop yet!

Colcannon is a dish our family does well. I guess it's the very distant connection to Ireland we have...(Maloney, anyone?) My brother is the master of colcannon and makes various incarnations of it. The key is LOTS of butter and cream to make your mash smooth.

It's so simple to do and is a great comfort meal in itself.

And the reason why it's Chinese? Instead of using cabbage, I used tender kale which is a beloved vegetable here in Hong Kong.

CHINESE COLCANNON (serves 3-4)

3-4 good sized potatoes, peeled
a small bundle of tender kale, washed and shredded, stalks and all
2-3 spring onions (scallions)
3 rashers of bacon
Half a cup of good full fat milk / cream if you're feeling decadent
150gms of butter
seasoning

1. Slice the peeled potatoes into 1.5 cm thick rounds and put in a pan with cold water. Bring to the boil for about 5-8 minutes. Check to see if they're done, by sliding a knife into the centre.

2. Meanwhile, shred your kale and spring onions finely and fry the bacon till it's crispy. When you have fried the bacon, keep the fat and add the kale and fry gently for one to two minutes until it's wilted.

3. When the potatoes are done, add the butter and milk / cream. Mash well or put through a ricer and mix the cream and butter through until the mash is smooth.

4. Crumble the bacon and add it to the mash with the kale (bacon fat and all) and spring onions. Mix well. Taste and season to your liking.

This goes well with traditional dishes like bangers (sausages) or roast beef and gravy, as well as other meat dishes - I tried this with the Five Spice Chicken and it was yummy...

5 Spice Crispy Chicken Bites

2010-04-05T17:44:00.002+08:00

I apologise for the quality of the pic. It's becoming painfully obvious that a point and shoot can no longer do the trick and I will have to invest in a better DSLR camera. More shopping? Oh yes.

Anyway, for this dish I was inspired by a Puerto Rican crispy pork dish I saw on Tasty Kitchen, and decided to try a Chinese version. It was all so easy, why didn't I do this earlier? It makes a great addition to salads and eating al fresco for summer, or served with mashed potatoes (which I did) for those grey days, of which we have a lot of at the moment.

5 Spice Crispy Chicken Bites

2 large chicken breasts with skin on
Light soya sauce
Chinese Oyster sauce or Indonesian kecap manis (like very thick, dark, sweet soya)
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 tablespoon of Five Spice powder
1/2 cup of plain flour
oil for frying

1. Chop the chicken into small bite-size chunks with the skin on.

2. Marinate the chicken with the garlic, in a couple tablespoons of soya sauce and 2 teaspoons of oyster or kecap manis sauce for an hour.

3. Mix the five spice powder in the flour, then dredge the chicken pieces in the flour, so that they're well-covered. Meanwhile start heating your frying pan with a couple tablespoons of oil.

4.When the pan is smoking, turn the heat down and then add the chicken bites. Don't add the whole lot as it will take a long time to cook and not turn out crispy. Depending on the size of your pan, put in the pieces and make sure they have plenty of space around them. Fry well and then turn when you see the edges getting golden and crispy. It doesn't take long as they are bite-sized pieces, so about 5 minutes per side.

Giant Jellyfish and Cheesy Spring Onion Oat Cakes

2010-03-25T12:21:00.003+08:00

I thought I'd share today's 'gross - eww - fascinating' pic of the day.

Last week I took J to play with my friend and her daughter at Playtown. At the ferry pier in Central the kids were looking at the sea, when we spotted a giant jellyfish in the water below. I was astounded to see it that size, it was probably about 2-3 feet wide and about 3 feet deep. It's amazing to think it could survive in HK harbour's notoriously polluted waters... When it rose to the surface we could see spots on its back and rather vicious-looking tentacles.

After having a good ogle and 'ooohing' and 'ahhing' and 'ewwing' it disappeared beneath the waves, no doubt in search of some good HK food... or before it caught the eye of an enterprising fisherman, looking for dinner. Yes, we do eat jelly fish in HK and yes, it does taste good - especially with lots of sesame sauce! Think cold, slightly chewy, nutty noodles...

Today we are experiencing a rare event - a winter tropical storm. That sounds so incongruous - 'winter' and 'tropical' in the same sentence. Especially because on Sunday, I was at the beach all day in a bikini, baking in the sun and feeling my skin getting as brown as a chicken in the oven... yes, I know it's not safe. I just can't help it!

An hour after I got in last night, the wind picked up and it started raining heavily. I woke up throughout the night listening to the gale outside. The temperature had dropped 10 degrees overnight and the wind was in full force. Is there anything better than being snuggled up in your duvet, listening to a storm outside?

This morning all the fog and clouds that usually surround Lantau Peak, the mountain on the big island, had disappeared and the we could finally see the hills across the channel for the first time in months. The thought of going out to get food didn't seem particularly appealing but once J and I bundled up and took the shopping trolley, it was exciting - the wind was gusting everywhere, blowing the leaves around and the creaking of the big pines outside our flat sounded ominous. I can't imagine what this island will be like in a no. 8 typhoon... this summer will be interesting to say the least!

So I felt the urge for something comforting for breakfast, pancakes. Only I didn't have much flour..a couple of tablespoons at most. So I used oats instead. Feeling inspired, I threw in some old cheese - goats and peppercorn brie and some spring onions. I left the oatcake mix to sit for a couple of hours (can never eat first thing in the morning!) and when they were ready, it was a nice little surprise to bite into the crispy outside, and hot fluffy center to feel pockets of hot cheese oozing out. Perfect for brunch with a hot cup of tea... storm optional.

CHEESE AND SPRING ONION OAT CAKES

(makes about 6 small ones)

1 cup of oats (I used 2 minute oats, but I don't think it matters if it's instant or not as it has time to rest for so long)
2 big tablespoons of white flour
1 egg
1/2 - 1 cup of milk
1 pinch of baking powder
1 teaspoon each of sugar & salt
4 spring onions
small hunk of cheese of your choice, cut into small cubes

1. Add the flour, sugar and salt, baking powder, oats, egg and milk together and mix well. There should be enough milk to make the mixture liquid but not too thin.

2. Leave it to stand for a few hours - I know my gran loves to prepare this the night before and leave her pancake mix overnight.

3. Add the cheese and spring onions to the mixture which should be quite thick now.

4. Heat your frying pan and add a little butter and oil, wait till the pan is very hot before you lower the heat to medium-low. Add dollops of the oatcake mixture to the pan - mine were about 2-3 tablespoons big and would have been better a little smaller. 1 tablespoon dollops are probably enough, and don't crowd your pan!

5. When the edges have crisped and turned brown, check to make sure the rest of the bottom is golden before you turn and flip. It only takes a few minutes on each side.

6. Drain the oatcakes of excess oil on a paper towel. Voila!

Canja de Galinha... via a trip to Macau

2010-03-14T20:28:00.001+08:00

Another unintentional break, but lordy... so much has happened, my head's still spinning! Two and a half weeks ago, R called and said he was arriving a day or so later. The family restaurant was quiet for the time being and could do without him for a while, so he was coming out to see us. Talk about unexpected... and bad timing - my 3 weeks of Chinese New Year leave was about to end, but at least I had childcare sorted for the first week or so! He arrived early Monday evening and it was so lovely to see the look on J's face as he waited at the train gate and saw his dad coming off the train. A more lovely welcome, I can't imagine. R and I hugged and it felt really good for the first time in a long time and I felt all my anger slip away.

His first night here, I decided we had to get everything off our chest and told him my gripes. I cried, but felt that for the first time in a long time, things were finally being said and I was being true to myself. It can't have been easy for him to hear, but he took it quietly and with much understanding. Every day he was here was a gift and I finally felt like we were a family. We didn't talk much about the future, perhaps knowing how fragile it is, with everything that's happened. For the first time in a long time, i felt like I didn't need to know the future, didn't need to control every minute of the day. It felt... good. Warm, like your favourite pyjamas.

Thankfully my timetable was light enough, working mainly in the evenings, so we had lots of time together, eating in nice restaurants and walking around the island. We decided to spend a couple of days in Macau, a place I hadn't visited in 15 years. The last time I was there, a lot of construction had started, with mainland investments popping up in big square boxes, garishly coloured. But I wanted to show R the old part, with Portuguese architecture, which I knew he'd like. The trip started badly when the ferry over was delayed by an hour in fog, as we sat outside Macau Harbour, waiting for the inside ferries to be given the all clear to leave. Ferries queued up alongside us, as people's tempers frayed. One man gave in and started shouting at the poor ferry staff, while the rest of us muttered under our breaths.

By the time we arrived at our hotel, it was late afternoon and we were hungry and tired. But the hotel was the saving grace - we got a fantastically cheap deal for this 5 star hotel, 10 minutes walk from the old town. So we headed out with J and made our way to the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral.

The sightseeing part was great... in the old part.

(Vince, if you're reading this - this Bak Kwa picture is for you...and yes, I ate my bodyweight in it.)

The view from the top of the church... the golden flame eyesore is pretty typical of the new hotels and casinos that have sprung up. And yes, they all look that bad...

The temple next to the ruins... the little tour was guided by a nun.

The crypts at the back of the ruins.

We found the best little park in Asia (the council had provided free exercise equipment for the public, and the space was decorated with some amazing graffiti on the back of old buildings)...

met up with my brother and his girlfriend for early dinner but sadly the food at Solmar's (so highly recommended) was such a let down - overpriced and over-rated in every respect, with the service leaving much to be desired.

By the time we got back to the hotel, we were very weary and foot-sore. I was crying with relief that I could finally have a bath in a tub big enough for two, after months of showers.

The new Macau is only good for gambling and the nightlife, which if you have small children, makes it a HUGE letdown. The hordes of mainland tourists, chattering like monkeys at the top of their lungs, and casinos looking like cheap Christmas baubles, it was some wonder that we found those little pockets of old Macau and they seem to be disappearing quickly.

We left early the next day, catching the first ferry out, in dire need of some good HK street food.

Anyway, in a nod to the Portuguese cuisine which I love, here is tonight's dinner. A quick, tasty chicken soup, flavoured with lemon and mint, studded with new potatoes (from my father's garden, freshly picked this afternoon) and rice. A meal in itself... to warm the cockles of your heart.

CANJA de GALINHA

2 big chicken breasts
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup of rice
A good handful of very small new potatoes (6-7)
the zest and juice of one lemon
5 sprigs of mint
4 cups of chicken stock
2 cups of water

1. Finely slice the onion and fry gently in some olive oil, with the lid on.

2. After 5 minutes, add the lemon zest, garlic cloves and the chicken stock and water and bring to the boil.

3. Add the chicken breasts and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the breasts and slice the meat.

4. Add the rice and new potatoes and cook gently in the soup.

5. Add the mint sprigs, and the sliced chicken and simmer for another few minutes then serve with hot, crusty bread and a dollop of olive oil. I used a dollop of butter as I love that creaminess...

My Island

2010-03-04T09:38:00.001+08:00

A couple of weeks ago over Chinese New Year, when the temperature dropped suddenly, I went for my first proper 'exploratory' walk of Cheung Chau. It was my first time actually staying on the island for more than a night. J and I had already spent 2 days in the flat, frozen to the sofa, wrapped in layers and duvet covers, trying to keep warm and we were starting to get cabin fever. So I bundled him up and we went for a long walk. Rather than talk about all the places, I thought pictures would say far more.

The squatters' village 5 mins from our flat... One had an assortment of artwork outside, made from bits of wood, concrete and anything that could be found.

The middle piece is an owl... I think.

When I asked E, my dad's wife, about the existence of the village, (as I knew the goverment zealously got rid of most of them in the 80s) she said that they were given rights by the government, in exchange for paying a nominal ground rent and so people who wanted to have the freedom to make their own home, chose to live here. She told me about a friend of theirs who lived like this but had turned his squat into a palace. From the outside his place looked ramshackle and non-descript, but the inside was palatial, complete with tiling, hot water, electricity, flat screen TVs, and designer furniture. By paying a much lower rent than others, he'd saved enough to buy a few flats on HK island and was now a millionaire... !!!!

He might be on to something...

Further on, along the island's south side, I followed the path through the public cemetery towards Cheung Po Tsai's pirate cave (more of that another time). The only inkling I had that a cemetery was coming up, was the sight of a few hidden family graves in the undergrowth...

Oh, and the fact that I walked into a funeral procession!

To be fair, it was the day before CNY, and I saw a big group of people walking ahead of me, dressed in their best and my first thought was 'oh, how lovely, they're all dressed up for CNY'. But then as I got closer I realised that the women at the back were weeping and that in front of them, was a big black coffin, which was slowly being pulled up the hill.

Needless to say, I felt uncomfortable for intruding, so I hung back a little and followed them slowly. The trail to the cave cuts right through the cemetery, which is very beautiful and serene, and in parts is like a Roman amphitheatre.

Yep, when I die, I'd like to be buried here! The feng shui on Cheung Chau is supposed to be the best for burials, as it has all the lucky elements of a Chinese feng shui burial.

A Dragon Boat

The more time I spend here on this island, the more it surprises me

It feels like home...

Homemade Cleaning Recipes

2010-02-21T10:32:00.001+08:00

I have the world's tiniest kitchen - to give you some idea, this is my pantry:

I have two shelves to store food, next to my fridge, the rest is crockery, cutlery, glasses, mugs and bits and pieces. This is in my very large hallway.

THIS is my kitchen (before we moved in):

Yes, it's the one on the left.

Now it has a two ring gas burner, the bottom is filled with pans and the corner with oils and sauces. My kettle sits on the floor closest to the door as that's where the only socket is. So there is definitely no room for an oven. I did think about buying a small toaster oven to sit underneath but I'm still waiting for that big paycheck to come in - my wishlist is a trip to Fortress for a dehumidifier, a radiator, a dust buster (for my rags) and that oven. There is no hot water in this kitchen, so I have to fill a bucket from the bathroom to rinse all my washing up.

Living on an island, I forget how 'old skool' it is. Because of the ceramic tile flooring, vacuum cleaners aren't so good here, so we sweep and mop instead. It's back-breaking work that takes a good hour or two. And you have to be meticulous about cleaning, otherwise mold gets a foothold and that's it... you're done for! I last cleaned a couple of days before Chinese New Year as it's bad luck to clean or sweep over the 3 days, as you might sweep out the good luck. Unfortunately it was VERY humid on the day I cleaned, so the floor took hours to dry and my laundry took almost a week, I had to wash everything again to get rid o the damp smell!

With J so little, I don't want to use lots of chemical cleaners, so I've been relying on old wives tips of baking soda, lemon juice, vinegar, washing up liquid, rubbing alcohol, rock salt and good old bleach for the tough stuff. At the moment I have a spray filled with 1/4 bleach and water, that I keep handy for fighting the mold. I spray it on and leave it a few minutes then wipe. It works brilliantly for mold on walls and bathroom / kitchen tiles and seals.

Some recipes:

FLOOR CLEANER for MOPPING:

1 bucket of HOT water
3 cups of bleach
1 big squirt of washing up liquid

WINDOW CLEANER

1. First dust the windows with a clean rag.
2. Wash with a little washing up liquid on a sponge, and rinse down OR squirt with rubbing alcohol.
3. Use newspaper scrunched up and dry the windows - this really makes them sparkle streak-free.

DESCALING KETTLES

First empty your kettle and squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon. Then put the lemon halves into the kettle and fill to halfway. Boil the kettle and leave for as long as you can - best day if you plan a day out, put the kettle on and then go shopping. Empty the kettle on your return and fill with water, boil and empty again.

CLEANING OVENS (not that I have one, but I did back in the UK!)

Spread baking soda over the floor of your oven, and sprinkle with water. Leave for 20 minutes, then using a sponge scourer, clean the oven and rinse using a cloth dampened with hot water. This should remove most of the stains. I've yet to find a home made recipe that can get rid of the 'really hard to shift', fossilised remains of burnt dinners.

CLEANSER FOR WOOD FURNITURE

1 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of lemon juice

Shake this 'dressing' and pour a little onto a soft cleaning cloth and rub into your wood furniture. It cleans and lift the dirt very gently without ruining it, and gives it a new lustre.

If any of you have some good home-made tips, please send them in!

The Burnt-Out Tart - Tarte Tatin - Take 1

2010-02-17T13:59:00.002+08:00

Okay, so this was my first attempt and I didn't pay attention to the good advice I was given... never turn your back! It literally went from being a beautiful caramel to singed in seconds! But it turned out on to the plate well later and was still edible - in fact, it tasted of very 'brulee' toffee - crunchy bits and all! Quite delicious my father and his friends said... (how kind of them). Everything else went well, included the dreading 'turning out' of the tart from the pan... oh well, I can only improve from this point on, right?

Lots of small, hard apples - dry ones, not watery ones - Gala apples are good. We used about 8, but it depends on the size. We kept adding them to the pan as they became smaller.
2/3 cup of brown sugar - we only had Chinese brown sugar which comes in hard blocks and red sugar but they gave a beautiful colour.
125 grams of salted butter
a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg (if you dare go against the Tarte Tatin purists)
a small pack of Puff pastry (traditionally a pate brisee or sucre is used, but any pastry works well here

1. First preheat your oven to 375F / 250C and clean, peel, core and halve your apples. Some can later be made into quarters to fill the spaces in your pan.

2. Put the butter into a heavy bottom 10 inch wide, 2-3 inch deep skillet that you can transfer to the oven. Heat on medium until melted then add the sugar and stir well, until it's on the way to being melted.

3. Add the apples, round side down and pack it tight. Keep on a low medium heat. DO NOT TURN the apples. Watch the pan like a hawk, A HAWK I TELL YOU. It will take about 20 minutes to release the apple juices and turn into proper caramel. It might seem initially that there's too much caramel - don't worry, it's enough.

4. When the apples and caramel sauce are ready, then roll out your pastry to cover the top of the apples (not the top of the pan. Pierce the pastry all over to let the steam escape, then place in oven.

5. Bake until the pastry is golden brown - roughly 25-35 minutes. Then remove from the oven and LET IT SIT for 10 minutes or so (this is the key to turning it out perfectly). Place a plate on top of the pan and turn it over carefully. With luck and some gentle tapping on the base of the pan, the tart should slide out easily.

Delicious with fresh whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream...

Serendipity Flatbread

2010-02-17T13:06:00.003+08:00

Is it a naan? Is a roti?? All I know is that it's DAMN good. I got this recipe from AllRecipes.com when I was looking for a tasty flat bread - it was the name! Too pretty to resist. It starts off in the bread-maker on 'Dough setting' and then you cook it on a griddle pan or cast iron pan on a high heat, Indian-style, brushed with olive oil and garlic.

1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon cream or 2 tablespoons milk powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 1/3 cups bread flour - I used 50/50 normal white and brown
1/2 packet of active dry yeast
Olive oil and minced fresh garlic for brushing

1. Put the wet ingredients into the bread-maker first, followed by the dry, with yeast last.
Put it on the 'Dough setting' and leave it.

2. When the dough is ready, flour your kitchen table surface and a rolling pin. Take the dough out and knead for another 2-3 mins. Then divide the dough into roughly 10-12 small buns. With each one, flour the top and then roll out until 1 cm thick. Brush with oil on one side.

3. Heat your pan on a high heat. When it starts to smoke, put the bread in oil side down, and brush the top with more oil. Leave for 2 minutes - you will see the dough begin to cook through - similar to a pancake, as it doesn't take long. Check the bottom so you don't burn it! Flip when it looks golden brown.

Makes about 10 -12 good sized breads. Perfect for wraps, curries, Arabic food and dips.

One of a Kind - Jasmine and Ginger Sorbet

2010-02-17T12:55:00.006+08:00

Perfect as a palate cleanser, served in shot glasses with a sprig of mint, or to round off an spicy Asian meal. And so simple!

2/3 cup of white sugar
2 cups of water
Juice of 2 lemons
2 inches of fresh root ginger, peeled and sliced thin
3 tablespoons of loose leaf jasmine tea with flowers

1. First add the sugar to the water in a pan and bring to the boil. Stir until the sugar is melted.

2. Add the tea and ginger, leave to simmer for another 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave to cool. The tea and ginger will steep.

3. When the liquid has cooled, strain it, discard the tea and ginger and pour the liquid into your ice-cream maker, and leave to churn until frozen. If you don't have an ice-cream maker, place in a plastic container and put in your freezer. Leave it for 2-2 1/2 hours and then remove, scrape down and mix the ice crystals that have formed, using a fork and then put it back in the freezer. You will need to do this every hour or so, until the sorbet has a smooth, crunchy consistency that you can scoop out.

Enjoy!

Welcoming the Tiger Food Fest

2010-02-15T21:44:00.003+08:00

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI TO ALL YOU LOVELY PEOPLE!

Food heaven today. Dad's 'Cheung Chau Chinese New Year Welcome The Tiger Food Fest' started at 12, only just stopped ...now 9pm! Have waddled home through a gale to bring you this, but now so full,can't write... will let pictures speak for themselves.

Our melange of food began with oysters and champagne, (sorry no picture)

then avocado and crab salad, (complete with Inky, J's black rat)

Northern Chinese potato salad,

stir-fried King Prawns in sticky sauce,

Whelks in Butter and Garlic, (no picture, was too busy stuffing my mouth with prawns)

Jasmine and Ginger Sorbet to cleanse palate,

pan-fried lamb loin with Salsa Verde and Serendipity Flatbread,

Chinese Tea and Rose Petal Smoked Soya Chicken, (doesn't look pretty, but tasted OUT OF THIS WORLD!)

Wonton Soup, (no pic, was too busy with chicken)

Chinese White Cabbage with Yunnan Ham,

Tarte Tatin (aka The Burnt-Out Tart) (story to follow later, but lesson learned: never turn your back on caramel, not even for a minute!) (also, it looks really bad, but it didn't taste burnt at all, though definitely on the hard, crunchy side - 'brulee' as my friend Anj put delicately!)

I contributed the Serendipity Flatbread, Ginger and Jasmine Sorbet, the Salsa Verde and the Burnt-Out Tart so those recipes will be following shortly...

...when I've recovered.
Which may be some time...

Lemon Drizzle Cake

2010-02-11T23:30:00.006+08:00

Once again I have fallen behind in blogging but I haven't felt much like writing. January was absolutely horrible for me... Being stuck in atrocious, freezing cold weather in the UK for Christmas and New Year, trying to come to terms with living in limbo with my... I don't even know what to call him as 'partner' is not what he is any longer, nor is 'ex' so I'll settle for R. Things are not resolved, though we have got some things off our chest, if only because they came out in a tumble of heightened emotion and insensibility (yes, a fight).

Coming back to HK with a sense that nothing had been achieved only dragged my spirits lower. Things came to an angry boiling point when I walked in the door of my flat in Cheung Chau to find mold and mildew growing everywhere from the humidity and flatmates whose standard of cleanliness didn't match my own. I was emotionally fraught and had to go straight into work hours later with the bare minimum of sleep, thanks to jet-lag. It felt like hell. After days of unpleasant tension growing, where I dreaded going back home every evening, I took the decision to reclaim my space and my life and try to make positive changes for myself. After all, the Year of the Tiger means being bold, ferocious in what you want... (yeh, that's how I'm spinning it...).

It was hard... I hated telling my flat-mates that I wanted my flat back, I felt like the bad guy. But it was too hard living with another family who had their own routine and their own way of life. They were exceedingly gracious and understood and moved out a couple of weeks later to another part of the island. That was last week. It coincided with a long break from teaching for the Chinese New Year holidays and since then I have been a woman possessed. Cleaning, disinfecting, fighting the mold, nesting, rearranging furniture, changing rooms around... I'm armed with an IKEA catalogue, bleach spray and a pair of Marigolds - watch yourself!

Now J has a whole new, big room to himself, which we decorated this week and is perfect for him. He spends hours in there, enjoying his little space. It's the first time he's had his own room and I had my first night of unbroken sleep. Complete bliss...

Not surprisingly, I have done very little cooking. This week saw the first few days that I actually spent the whole day on the island, mooching around at home - SINCE I MOVED IN!! That was December.

The upside to all the upheaval is rediscovering my relationship with my father, which was on the rocks for a few years after my parents' divorce. He remarried a lovely lady and we have been taking our time, getting to know each other. Now I live only minutes away and they have been fantastic in watching J when I've had to run errands or teach. Dinner for the last few nights has been at their place... tagines, noodles, Ma-Po tofu (my fave), stir-fries... you name it. They are a couple who live to cook and entertain. All thoughts at the moment are centred on Dad's Chinese New Year All-Day, All You Can Eat, Merry Go Round of Food. We ran through the menu tonight and there are about 10-15 courses / dishes - a mix of East and West. I trialled a Lemon Drizzle Cake in my new silicon flower cake mould, and it was delicious - light, lemony, with a hint of orange, not overly sweet. Dad loved it so much, he added it to the menu.

Coming up for Chinese New Year: Ma-Po Tofu, Roasted Tomato Granita, Tarte Tatin, Rabbit Ragu, Seared Lamb Loin with Flat Bread, and many more...

Please ignore the time stamp - I still haven't worked out how to change the date!

A word of advice... If you live in a hot, humid country like Hong Kong, it's very likely your syrup will stay syrupy and just soak into the sponge. If you live in the UK, cool and dry, your syrup will probably turn hard and look like icing and look very pretty.

LEMON DRIZZLE CAKE

makes one cake and maybe some muffins too, depending how big your cake tin is

250 grams of butter (unsalted)
250 grams of caster sugar
4 eggs
250 grams of self-raising flour
zest of two lemons and you can also add zest of one orange if you want it a little citrus-y
Icing: juice of 2 lemons and 85grams of caster sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180C.

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

2. Add the eggs, one by one, and mix well.

3. Add the zest.

4. Add the flour one big spoonful at a time. Stir well in between. The right consistency is when it plops thickly down and makes big floppy peaks. THAT'S IT!

oh wait... no, I lied... I haven't put it in the oven or done the icing yet.

So:

5. Pour the batter into a cake tin. If you have too much, use the excess in little muffin cases.

6. Bake for 1 hour. In the mean-time, make the icing : squeeze the juice from the lemons and strain of pips and pulp. Add the caster sugar and leave it somewhere warm, near the oven.

7. Stir occasionally.

8. Remove the cake from the oven when an hour's up and leave to cool a few minutes, then remove from the tin. I used a silicon mould as they're so much easier to turn out. Then using a skewer, poke lots of little holes deep into the cake and drizzle the lemon syrup over it. It will soak up most of the syrup.

Brandy Buttered Brussel Sprouts

2009-12-28T18:50:00.002+08:00

A traditional Christmas with the in-laws does not see turkey gracing the tables... we all agreed one year that turkey was too bland and dry for a proper knees up, so my Spanish-Polish in-laws opted for much heartier fare. Usually we have beef tenderloin in peppercorn sauce and pan fried duck fillet with wild mushroom sauce, a million side dishes and then at 11pm, more food is served!

This year was no different, though the menu had change slightly. It was a smaller, quieter Christmas and there was pan-fried breaded haddock steaks, pork loin fried in a Roquefort creamy sauce, a risotto, light, airy, mashed potatoes, oven-roasted parsnips and carrots, a sofrito sauce (Spanish tomato, onion and bell pepper sauce) and bramble crumble. Delicious, heavy, rich, - all what you desire at Christmas.

So our turkey dinner had to wait. I went to Marks and Spencers which have the most delicious Christmas food on the day their sales started and picked up a bunch of goodies for a song - 64p Christmas washing liquid! 99p brandy butter! marinated turkey breast for £4.00 and the best of all, pork and chestnut stuffing for a couple of quid! I broke with the usual family tradition of not serving turkey and decided to get it for little J... how can one NOT at least try some turkey at Christmas??

And of course, the eponymous brussels... you either love them or hate them... in my own family we've always loved them, in R's family too. But they are very rarely cooked well for other people to enjoy their deliciousness. What are they after all, but mini, delightful cabbages?? My mother likes to shred them with a chopper (very labour-intensive) and stir-fry them with garlic, ginger and soya sauce. I love them this way, but I had run out of soya and had no ginger. So while I mused on how to bring out their sweetness, my eye wandered over to my newly-purchased Brandy Butter. Brandy Butter is very sweet with a lovely dash of brandy in, traditionally served over Christmas pudding. I had planned to eat it on toast. However, I thought it would do the trick.

It was a complete revelation... never before have Brussels tasted so good! Gone was that bitter, astringent taste, it was vegetable heaven - tender, moist, juicy, sweet and succulent. It was the moment I realised that I am a cooking genius... albeit of the accidental, 'oops, crap, wasn't supposed to happen' variety. So you can all enjoy your brussels now, there is no excuse!

BRANDY BUTTERED BRUSSEL SPROUTS

Enough brussel sprouts for each person (I average a good handful - we like them in our home, so we go for much bigger portions), washed and quartered
1 large clove of chopped garlic per 4 portions of sprouts
1 big tablespoon of Brandy Butter per 4 portions
Salt to taste
Oil to fry (1 tablespoon)
Water to sprinkle (A couple of tablespoons)

1. Fry your garlic in a tablespoon of oil on a medium heat. When the raw smell has gone, add the sprouts and leave on a high heat for a minute or two. You are aiming for nice brown fry 'patches' on the sprouts from stir-frying.

2. Toss the sprouts and add the water. Cover with a lid and leave to steam for 4-5 minutes.

3. Remove the lid and add the butter. Toss well and ensure the sprouts are all covered with the sauce. Taste and season with salt to your liking. Voila!

This is great with heavy roasts and rich meat dishes as it cuts through the grease with a refreshing sharpness, hinting of summer greenery...

Winter Soups: Potato Bean Soup

2009-12-24T16:48:00.003+08:00

After my bread success yesterday I was on a total roll and decided to make soup. The weather was ATROCIOUS - rain lashing down hard and very cold - perfect soup weather. With a couple of days before Christmas, I ventured outside briefly when there was a lull to see if I could find a party frock, but the recession has bitten so deeply here that there was NOTHING in the shops. I went into 10 different department stores and shops only to be confronted by drabness and ugly space age type dresses. My already conflicted mood worsened and I could feel whatver little Christmas spirit remained in me, ebb away slowly. There was absolutely no 'sparkle' as T put it. After an hour looking around the shops and disappointment growing, I trudged home just as the sky started rumbling again.

I decided the only way to cheer myself up was to make some hearty winter soup. It's the first time in months that I've had any desire to cook and suddenly I found myself caught up in all the preparation of chopping, slicing, peeling, grating... It was very soothing to not think and fret like I have done for so many weeks, and just let my mind go blank with tasks.

First I made a light lunch of rocket, sweet baby tomatoes and 3 cheese salad with a platter of mini Cheese and Onion pork Pies (Tesco's have the best), slices of fresh Wiltshire mustard crumbed ham, my cheese bread and a pot of coarse pork and mushroom pate. I took great pleasure in tearing a big ball of mozzarella apart with my fingers, channelling my anger and frustration into food voodoo. Soon potatoes and carrots for soup were hacked away with little care for evenness, onions were viciously chopped and I could feel tears leaking out, though I couldn't tell whether it was the onion or something else.

After the soup was bubbling away, the frenzy was still upon me and I felt the need to make something more. I knew there would be too much food (considering there was still half a lasagne in the fridge from the night before) but I just wanted to cook and stuff my face until I passed into oblivion. I decided on Chili con Carne without the Chili, which just left me Rice and Meat. But I had a whole load of bolognaise sauce that needed using up and a bunch of beans that I hadn't used all up in the soup. By 6 o'clock, everything was done - I had had my culinary workout and exorcised a few (small) demons... and passed out in bed at 9, with a small measure of contentment.

POTATO BEAN SOUP

4 medium potatoes - roughly chopped into 1 inch pieces

5 medium carrots - chopped same as potatoes

1 onion - chopped small

2 garlic cloves - chopped small or crushed

5 dried shiitake mushrooms (bought from any Asian supermarket) or substitute wild porcini mushrooms, soaked for 1 hour (reserve water)

200 gms of mixed dried beans - mine were in a pre-mix bag and needed to be soaked for min. 8 hours. I couldn't for the life of me tell what the beans were but I could take a stab: haricot / kidney / adzuki / anasazi or borlotti (the lovely pink and white mottled ones) / black beans / cannellini (flageolet) see pic below.

1 tbsp olive oil

Stock - I used Knorr reduced stock jelly cubes - 1 vegetable and 1 beef

2 fl. oz of double cream

1. First heat up your soup pot with the olive oil and fry your onions.

2. When the raw smell has gone, add the potatoes and carrots. Fry for a few minutes with the lid on, at a medium heat.

3. Add the beans and cover the pan with 4 pints of water, or enough water to cover the vegetables by a couple of inches. Bring to a boil. Skim off any scum from the beans - there was very little with mine.

4. Add the stock cubes and leave on a slow rolling simmer for 30 minutes.

5. Chop the mushrooms, first removing the tough stalk. Add to the soup and add most of the soaking liquid apart from the end as it will be mostly sediment from the mushrooms. Simmer on a low heat for an hour.

6. Taste the soup and season as you like. With a handblender, blend the soup until it is smooth and creamy. I like mine a little bit rough so I can see the bits in.

7. Stir in the cream and serve. Delicious with cheese bread...

"Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for - I don't know what exactly, but it's something that you don't mind so much not having at other times." ~Kate L. Bosher

Savoury Cheese Loaf

2009-12-23T18:12:00.004+08:00

So here I am, back in B'town, which is FREEZING... I was lucky enough to get upgraded with J to First Class, courtesy of my pilot friend so we arrived, more or less, well-rested. Boy, First Class is a totally amazing experience... great food (think Wild Porcini Soup, Beef Tenderloin with Truffle Mashed Potatoes, Orange and Chocolate Pannacotta), loads of magazines and best of all, a seat reclining into a bed with a duvet and choice of pyjamas!! I felt sorry (briefly) for the all the other people stuck in Cattle... sorry, Economy... but I slept like a fat, contented baby and made the most of it.

Down on the ground, R met us at the airport very early. Little J was so happy to see his dad, and we made the drive back. Luckily I arrived first thing in the morning before it was light, because later that day, the south of England got hit again with heavy snowfall with thousands of people stranded in London (Eurostar) or on motorways outside. A woman gave birth in an Emergency snow mobile as ambulances couldn't get to her! (I love stories with happy endings - imagine the story going the rounds every Christmas and not losing its excitement!).

So I am back in my old pad, which BTW has changed mightily. R decided to get stuck into the rest of the DIY that had been languishing away for years and has transformed the flat. There was a big (real) Christmas tree waiting for us, our first real one in the flat ever... (R having decided before that he didn't care much for Christmas). I feel bittersweet... everything between us is polite, restrained, every silence heavily laden with things we want to say but can't, or won't. He is trying, though I know it is more for J, than for me. But I like being back in my old kitchen, everything in its place and space. I woke up early before 7 this morning and after taking care of J's porridge, and wrapping presents, I decided to break out the old breadmaker and concocted some recipe after reading some of my recipe books. I mixed two recipes together, one which used a milk,egg and cream liquid base (for light, airy cake-like texture) with cheese, mustard powder and paprika to give a nice savoury taste. The big surprise was cracking open the egg and finding two yolks in it... Auspicious, or not? Anyway, the bread is still baking in the oven so I will have to reserve comment on flavour till much later...

SAVOURY CHEESE LOAF (for bread-machines)

2 eggs
7 fl. oz of full fat milk
2 fl. oz of double cream
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of Boursin cream cheese (or strong creamy garlic cheese)

225gms of strong white bread flour
70gms of wholemeal bread flour
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of sugar
1 sachet of fast action yeast (bread machine yeast is also available)
1/2 teaspoon of mustard powder
1/2 teaspoon of sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
50-100gms of strong cheese like Red Leicester or Cheddar

1. First place the wet ingredients in the machine, then the dry.

2. Put the yeast in last.

3. Set the machine to the Dough Setting.

4. When the dough is ready, take it out and knead it for 5 mins (do not skimp on this as the dough will need it - no pun intended!). Give yourself a good workout and then leave it to rise in a warm place covered with a tea towel. I did mine on a very low setting in the oven and waited till it rose to twice its size. I first cut the dough into 3 buns and put them in a silicon loaf pan so it would look a little more rustic.

5. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle more grated cheese on top.

6. Bake at 190C / 375F till the top is golden and crusty brown... Mine's still in there, so I would think roughly about 40-50 minutes. Tip out onto a cooling rack and tap the base. If it sounds hollow, it's done.

P.S. This turned out beautifully - light and very moist, with cake-like tendencies. The colour was a pale golden yellow. I'm so pleased with it. The flavour wasn't strongly cheesy though you could change this by adding more cheese or a stronger variety. It also toasted well this morning with a little butter on top.

New leaves...

2009-12-02T00:14:00.001+08:00

Sorry, people! I didn't mean to go away for so long. So much has happened, good and bad that has left my head spinning. Been going through deep, wrenching personal stuff (BAD) and moving house to Cheung Chau (good) and settling in (good) and working working working (BAD BAD BAD) (but good for my bank balance). I also have no camera, very reluctantly relinquishing my mother's and now I'm on the lookout for a good DSLR (any recommendations on this would be very welcome).

I'm so tired. Deep down bone tired. The last 3 weeks have been a constant run around - work, sleep, commute on ferry, work, clean, work, pack, commute, work, clean, work, unpack, *sigh* and rinse and repeat. Emotionally I'm not in the best shape, have seen much better days but my little guy keeps me going and reminds me why I moved back to HK in the first place. Sadly I have done no cooking. I've felt neither the inclination, nor the desire to eat. Which for me is very out of character, because I always love to eat. There is never a wrong time of day to eat. But at the moment everything is tasteless, like sawdust. The smell of food just turns my stomach. I'm lucky to live with some great house mates who take care of my son when I work, so it is one big worry I don't have to struggle with.

So the place I live? Here's just a taster...

The pier

The Harbour

The local bakeries do mean egg & coconut tarts.

That's good. We need pigs to be raised co-operatively...

Fish getting ready to be dried and sold in market.

And because this cracked me up... it was 7:30am and the square was starting to fill up. And there he was in all his finery, looking dapper and slightly sinister. They don't make them like that any more...

And my beach...

Yep, I think I'm gonna like living here...

Ship Street, Wanchai - The Haunted House of Nam Koo Terrace

2009-11-07T18:31:00.002+08:00

The old Wanchai temple on Queen's Road East

Okay I'm behind, but to be fair I've had a very hectic week. I've been reunited with my other half (brilliant), but had to find a flat to move into (Boooo) and finally found one (yay) in Cheung Chau, my favourite small island (WOOHOOO!). The past couple of days have been a blur of organising, looking at furniture catalogues, checking statements, signing contracts, trawling appliance and furnishings shops... I'm about ready for a holiday I reckon!

Anyway, on the day we went over to CC, we woke up at the crack of dawn. R was up at 3am, J and I at 5 (why??), so we decided to start our day early and were out the door by 7, and wandering round the back alleys of Wanchai. I had always wanted to go and see where the haunted house of Wanchai was, so I took R up to Ship Street and we climbed the old steps to as high as we could go.

The old Nam Koo house is still there and surrounded by corrugated iron sheeting to stop people getting in. I took some good photos through the cracks of the sheeting and R climbed up the concrete slope behind it to see if there was a way in. There was, over a thin, old plank of wood, which neither of us chanced! But I climbed up after R came down, and saw the old metal pagoda on top of the house. It looked like a giant bird cage. At that time of the morning the house looked very serene and peaceful but I could imagine only an hour or two before, in the dark it must have seemed a very different place. The front of the house has giant pillared porticos. It still looks beautiful, but so forlorn. The history of Nam Koo I found on Wikipedia and Gwulo.com . The piece below is from Wikipedia:

"The two-storey red brick building was built in c.1915-1921 and owned by a wealthy Shanghai merchant family by the name of To (杜). Prominent Hong Kong businessman To Chun-man (杜仲文) first leased the land lot where the building now stands in 1915. At this stage To Chun-man held the position of Chief Chinese Silks Salesman (專理紗羅綢緞員) for Wing On Company Limited (永安有限公司), although he was later promoted to Assistant Manager (副司理). He also held several posts in various community committees including that of Secretary (司理) for the Commercial Chamber of The Heung Shan District (香邑僑商會所), and was a member of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce (華商總會). However, To Chun-man was forced to evacuate the mansion at the onset of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, and he died soon after his return.

It is said that during the occupation, Nam Koo Terrace was used as a military brothel or "comfort house (慰安所)" for the Japanese soldiers from 1941 to 1945. Many other properties within the Wan Chai area were also used as brothels by the Japanese military during this period, including St. Luke’s College and neighbouring Tung Chi College (同濟中學).Nam Koo Terrace continued to remain under the ownership of the To family until 1988, when the property was sold to YUBA Co. Ltd.

Hopewell Holdings took over ownership of the building in 1993, which was initially acquired to be demolished in order to make way for their Mega Tower hotel project (Hopewell Centre II).However, the site has stood vacant since then; despite the fact that the company's development proposal gained Government approval in 1994. While Hopewell Holdings remains the current proprietor of Nam Koo Terrace; recent public announcements indicate that their intentions have now shifted to the preservation, rather than the demolition, of this historical site...

Colloquially referred to as a 'Haunted House', the mansion has been attached with a certain conjectural element of mystery and esoteric connotation. The 'ghosts' of women, who are said to have died in the time Nam Koo Terrace allegedly served as a Japanese military brothel; are claimed to have been witnessed at several different points in the building. Accounts of hearing cries and screams from these said comfort women, have long been circulated by the supernatural rumour mill and have subsequently furthered Nam Koo Terrace's reputation for being a place of paranormal interest.

People have also reported seeing "ghostly flames" in the house. However, as Nam Koo Terrace was frequented often by Hong Kong's squatting community, these apparitions were most likely the result of actual fires lit by local vagrants using the site for shelter.^[13]On the 30th of November 2003, Oriental Daily, as well as many other local Hong Kong newspapers; covered a story about a group of eight middle school students who attempted to stay overnight on the Nam Koo Terrace property. It was said the students wanted to catch a glimpse of the supernatural 'ghosts' that have long been rumoured to reside in the historical building. According to the report, three of the female students were seen to have become emotionally unstable, claiming to have been assailed by a ghostly visitant. Later, police sent the three girls to hospital to receive psychiatric treatment. In the days following, local people in Hong Kong thronged to Nam Koo Terrace en masse and the house continued to dominate the headlines of daily newspapers for some time."

Further up and down the steps was evidence of developers buying up land and tearing up the old places there. I also found the ground floor level of the other abandoned, haunted house of Kennedy Road (number 15 I think). I remember seeing that house right up until about 12 years ago when it was finally demolished after sitting empty for so long.

This is what I found on Gwulo.com:
"It was the residence of WOO Hay Tong (胡禧堂), the father of the late WOO Pak Chuen (胡百全, lawyer, ExCo and LegCo member). After the Woo family moved out, the house was the location of an art exhibition in 1987, and was the set of some films in the late 1980s. WOO Hay Tong was murdered by his nephew in 1932, and the content of his will is found in the Dec. 1, 1932 issue of the Hongkong Telegraph. It is interesting to note that he wanted his estate to be invested until 21 years after the death of his last surviving children and grandchildren who were born before his death."

This must have been a back or underground entrance. The ground floor level - you can still see the verandah rail where the tree has grown over and through. There were beautiful old Victorian tiles scattered around where the entrance way must have sat.

In the last image, you can see the tree roots grasping the stone, as if gripping tightly, to hold onto it.

I feel sad when I think there's so much rich history here, considering how relatively 'young' Hong Kong is. And yet people really don't care or seem interested in preserving it. Just the trees do...

Wanchai Delights

2009-11-04T06:44:00.000+08:00

J and I moved into a serviced apartment on Sunday. It's right at the edge of Wanchai Market. R arrived early yesterday morning and for an hour I showed him around to get his bearings. We are living in the smallest 2-bedroom place ever, but there is one consolation. The roof of the building has an amazing viewing deck where you get a great view of the buildings and hills.

For many tourists, Wanchai is synonymous with Suzie Wong, the tender-hearted bar girl from the 60s movie, and its red-light district is still pretty seedy and notorious, north of Hennessey Road. There are lots of bars and strip joints and there are many Thai, Philippino and Chinese prostitutes and bar girls hanging out at street corners. It's a colourful place to say the least. I spent a LOT of time in my teens and early twenties frequenting the bars in this area of HK... most of the bars didn't ask for ID back then.

But the other side of Southorn Playground is a different place altogether. It's been my stomping ground for the last 6 months. This is where you'll find Wanchai Market, fancy Johnston Road eateries, Hopewell Centre and its revolving restaurant, Queen's Road East with its tiny boutiques. In short it's a hodge-podge of life and life-forms, from the uber-chic well-heeled, to the very distinctly, less well-shod and groomed. Here is where you are in the thick of things, where you can see East colliding head on with West, full of new skyscrapers and old low-rise buildings.

This is the place where to my surprise, I found a tiny oasis of a church kindergarten for J, tucked away from the hustle and bustle, hidden in the depths behind Hopewell Centre. This is where there is an old old (150 years or more) Chinese building, abandoned and reputedly haunted for over 50 years. When the Japanese invaded in WWII, this building was turned into a 'comfort house' (brothel) for soldiers. People don't talk about what happened in those days, but it's easy to tell from the discomfort that probably the very worst happened there.

I love this place. I know it so well, the outlet shops, the Chinese cafes, the food stalls, the market (wet and dry), the noodle shops, the bookshops, the trams, the dance studios, the boutiques. It's so vibrant here. Even at night, this place never shuts down.

Chung Yeung and Cheung Chau

2009-10-27T16:33:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was Chung Yeung Festival (also known as Double Yang) which is one of the All Hallows festivals in Hong Kong. It's definitely NOT Halloween - no costumes, no dressing up or ghoulish commercialisation here. When I asked my mother the night before what the difference was between Chung Yeung and Ching Ming (the big AH festival) she replied "Ching Ming you HAVE to go to the ancestors graves and sweep them, this one you don't". But then I heard on the news about the traffic chaos around HK, with people making their way to cemeteries to sweep them, I thought it was actually just my mother being lazy and not wanting to go... and then making some lame excuse about it (like the neck brace incident).

Later on in the evening, a moth flew in. I went to go and shoo it out the balcony when Mum said 'Don't! It might be your Por-Por or your Grandad coming to say hello. Maybe they want to go and see what J looks like now." ??? She then said that Chinese believe moths are the spirits of our ancestors who come and visit every now and again. I thought that was lovely- it certainly made me look at that drab little wannabe butterfly in a different light.

Anyway, apparently on Chung Yeung Festival you have to go and be somewhere 'high and far' (Mum's words) so the 'evil spirits can't find you'. I looked this up on Wikipedia and found out this part was true. There's also lots of drinking of Chrysanthemum tea to cleanse you, which I didn't get round to.

It was been a busy weekend and stuff has come up that has made me reconsider my options. I went to visit my dad on Chung Yeung Festival. He lives on Cheung Chau, a tiny island about 40 mins away from HK island.

To get to Cheung Chau you have to take a ferry, either the slow one which is 50 mins long or the fast one, 30 mins long.

J and I took the slow one out and sat on the bottom deck to look at the water...

which was a HUGE mistake as it was next to the engine room and totally deafening. We also had the misfortune to sit in front of a Chinese woman who I can only say looked 'rough' - she looked like with a mainlander (from China) or from Cheung Chau itself. Now I can only say that I don't care about looks at all, but her manner was so awful - hence 'rough'. She was with her son (about 8) and father and for the whole 50 minutes, she alternated between berating him at full volume for not doing his schoolwork, or ignored him... Her harsh, grating voice could actually be heard over the engine room. The kid's grandfather looked so embarressed by her, that I think he actually pretended he was deaf.

Cheung Chau is one of HK's oldest inhabited places, going right back to the 18th century.

Once there, Dad met us by the pier and we walked through the main square, past the shops selling dried cuttlefish and salted fish, down the back streets to the long breezy path up to his house. Once we were away from the busy, sea-front promenade, I could feel the tension drain through my shoulders, down my fingertips, and out.

My dad lives in a really nice, big, 3-storey house that has a garden with a pagoda and a frangipani tree at the bottom. It's on top of one of the island's two hills and five minutes away from a gorgeous deserted beach.

He told me of the building opposite which had two big, empty, 3-bedroom flats for a very low rent, which really got me thinking. The idea of living on a tiny island, which has no cars, commuting to work by ferry is so appealing. Imagine running down to the beach in 5 minutes... Or just walking around the island before breakfast... Or picking up food from a wet market, 2 mins away...

It seems like a no-brainer...

J smelling the frangipani

Once at the house, we had a play with Bobby, Dad's very smelly shar-pei. Bobby looks mean and ugly but is a big, lazy softie. I didn't get a picture of him this time as he kept running away from me. Dad made a pizza from scratch, all done in about 30 mins, including dough! It was fresh tomato, anchovy, onion, basil and rocket. Fresh and delicious. Then we walked to the beach he usually swims at.

We went past the old temple which has HK's only cherry blossom trees (Japanese sakura). They were planted there during the Second World War by the invading Japanese.

A soldier thought the island reminded him of home and planted them. The temple also houses the backbone of a baby whale that fishermen found washed up on the beach one day, many years ago.

The beach itself was completely hidden from view. We walked down the shady path, and here and there were tantalising glimpses of the sea and sand.

When we finally came down the hill, past another little, old temple,

there it was - empty, peaceful and serene...

The lifeguards on duty there had built themselves a little garden out of the hillside - presumably because they were too bored with the view of the sea and sand and needed something to occupy their time!

A quick dip in the water to cool us down, and then we refreshed ourselves with cold Cokes at the windsurfing club. Then it was back home on the ferry with the returning hordes. But the tranquility of the island stayed with me for the evening and J and I had an early night, tuckered out by all the fresh sea air.

Chinese Pan-Fried Cod - A Step by Step Approach to a 7 Minute Meal

2009-10-24T21:46:00.004+08:00

This dish happened in the space of about 7 minutes.

Mum, J and I were out to dinner at Dan Ryan's tonight (I finished work late, nobody felt like cooking) but when we got home, Mum suddenly remembers a piece of cod she bought fresh from the market the day before. So she decides to cook it for tomorrow night. Me, being bored, thought I would crib her recipe for my blog. I never cook fish myself (I have an aversion to it, ever since Mum force-fed me fried white bait omelette when I was a kid. I couldn't get over the little eyes staring at me...) but the smell of this always makes me eat a bite. It could almost convert me. Almost.

But then I remember the eyes...

Strangely enough for many Chinese, my mother included, the fish head is considered the best part of the fish, full of delicacies such as eyeballs, and cheeks. Satisfaction is the sound of 100 Chinese people snacking and slurping away on fish heads! I kid you not, if there was ever a family banquet where a large steamed fish was served, a lot of my relatives would be fighting over that head. Or the tail... whichever is bonier. You had to be careful... you could lose an eye from a wrongly placed chopstick.

Then would come the slurping and crunching and spitting out of little little bones...
*eeeep*

N.B. I just asked my mum how much cod did she have, she said two 'catties' - a measure that is not used outside Asia. I had to look it up - it means roughly 500gms!

7 MINUTE CHINESE PAN-FRIED SCALLION COD

(serves 2-3)

2 catties / 500gms of cod, or any other oily, firm-fleshed fish - salmon, halibut, etc - preferably without bone. Chopped into 2-3 inch chunks.
8 scallions / spring onions - N.B. Chinese cooking uses much more of the spring onion that Western cooking. My mum used about 8-9 inches worth, bulb and leaf. Chop into 3 inch lengths.
2 cloves of garlic.
1 handful of Chinese flat-leaf parsley / fresh coriander, with one inch of stalk. Chop roughly.
3-4 teaspoons of fish sauce- Asian supermarkets should sell good Thai / Indonesian ones.
2 ' hand-sprinklings' of water (approx. 1 tablespoon of water in total)
1 teaspoon of corn starch

1. First get your wok SMOKING hot... literally. High heat. While you're doing this, pat the cod pieces dry with a paper towel and sprinkle and rub the corn starch over the pieces. This is to make sure the meat gets a nice brown crust colour instead of falling apart.

2. Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and add the garlic and the bulbs of the scallions / spring onions. Fry for 20 seconds.

3. Add the fish and leave it where it falls to fry for a minute. This is so it gets a good colour. Then begin to stir fry it. Toss it well to coat the garlic and scallions around it.

4. Add the next part of the scallions, but NOT the coriander / Chinese parsley leaves.

5. Toss well for 2 minutes and then add 1 teaspoon of fish sauce and 1 handsprinkling of water (this means soaking your hands under the tap and shaking them over the wok). Yes, you will hear lots of sizzling.

6. Add the Chinese parsley / coriander, 1 teaspoon of fish sauce and another sprinkling of water. Toss well and cook for 2 minutes.

7. It should look like this after about 6-7 minutes of cooking (in total from beginning). Taste and if needed, add 1 more teaspoon of fish sauce. DISH UP! Serve with fluffy hot rice, or even toss in some cooked rice noodles. Great for Asian-themed dinner parties!

My Guest Blog with Malt-O-Meal

2009-10-23T07:37:00.004+08:00

Check it out! I'm live - here.

EEP! Please let me know what you think!

Things to Do with Leftover...Chicken - Sesame Chook

2009-10-22T10:32:00.004+08:00

We're still munching our way through the roast chicken I bought a few days back and I'm still not 'chickened' out. I actually felt like eating it for breakfast. I very rarely feel like eating breakfast, but when I do, boy it feels like I've been left starving on a deserted island for months. I crave BIG breakfasts...a full English fry-up, or a stack of pancakes or a sausage in a bun. Today I tried something I've never made before. I'm still trying to decide whether to call it Sesame Chook or Pain au Poulet. It makes a great lunch or light dinner too. I couldn't give any to J (my official food taster) because he still hasn't had his allergy test yet.

I also managed to finish J's cousin's crayon roll and almost finished one for J. I found the tutorials at Skip to My Lou and Chocolate on My Cranium really helpful. Since it was my first time, the cheapo sewing machine did ok - it can only just about manage straight lines, so thank God the crayon roll was within its powers!

You can see the hand-stitching in pink to divide the crayons is wonky in places. My needle wasn't sharp enough and my stitching is still at 'novice' level! :D

SESAME CHOOK / PAIN AU POULET (makes 2)

2 slices of thick cut bread
1 cup of cold roast chicken
6-7 fresh shiitake / chestnut / baby portobello mushrooms
3-4 tablespoons of Japanese Sesame Dressing

1. Chop the cold chicken into small chunks. Slice mushrooms thinly.

2. Heat up a small frying pan with a tablespoon of olive oil and fry the mushrooms and chicken until they are all a lovely golden colour. Add the sesame dressing and coat everything well. Fry for a couple of minutes more while you get the bread ready.

3. Lightly toast the bread and place one on a plate.

4. Spoon the mixture onto the slice of toast. Voila!

Things To Do with Leftover...Chicken - Kari Ayam

2009-10-20T15:58:00.004+08:00

I was at Page One this morning and saw a new recipe book just about dim-sum that I know Vince, over at Cooking Ventures would love! It's not out yet on Amazon but it was HK$85 (about US$10) and had a lovely picture of chopsticks holding one of Vince's beloved Xiao Long Bao (steamed Shanghai soup dumplings).

Since mother doesn't 'do' dim sum, I thought this might give me some competitive advantage. She is the ultimate Chinese cook, and if I took over home-cooking duties, she'd only stand there, breathing down my neck,watching me with eagle eyes until I made a mistake, then pounce - 'A-ha, you see?! You did not pay attention all those years helping me in the kitchen. You are no good! Ai ya, you will disgrace me! What will R think? What kind of Chinese cook are you???'! So to save myself some grief, I only ever cook the family Chinese dishes if I'm not living under her roof! That's not to say I won't do Chinese dishes she never makes... which pretty much leaves dim-sum... (Vince, I am mulling over what to make for you!)

Anyway, while I was making J's chicken sandwich (again) for lunch today, I thought it would be good to get back into my Asian flavours... One of the things about living in a vibrant Asian city is that street food and eating out is SOOO D*** GOOOOD and I live with the world's best Cantonese chef that I rarely do this here in HK. But autumn has swept in on another Super Typhoon (this time - Lupit) and brought very cool wind gusts and rain showers. What a difference to 2 weeks ago... today I felt the need to actually cover up with a wrap. How will I ever get used to being back in England at Christmas? It's going to feel SOOOOO cold! I feel the weather calls for a nice curry to warm me up.

Chicken curry is pretty much a staple of many households using up leftover roast chicken, if not in the US, then definitely in UK. My version uses a Malaysian yellow curry paste, in coconut milk, infused with fresh lemongrass, lime leaves, limes, galangal (which looks like white ginger) and shallots, served on hot fluffy rice, and baked under a hot grill for a few minutes to brown on top. It is delicious home-style Malaysian and I ate my body weight in this when I went to Singapore a few years back for a business trip.

It's very easy to get great ready-made curry pastes here in Asia. The one I used is by Mae Ploy - tasty and quite hot!

It's more time-consuming to make your own, and with so many companies making great quality pastes, it's really not worth the time and effort of all that cutting and grinding. But should you wish to go ahead and make your own, I found a great recipe here. For more great Malaysian dishes, check out Rasa Malaysia - one of my favourite food blogs.

I also wanted lots of fresh veggies in my curry. Traditional Malaysian Kari Ayam (Chicken Curry) is generally made with just potato and chicken, but I like curries with lots of texture. So I added carrots (to bring out some sweetness), French beans (for crunch), straw and shiitake mushrooms (for depth and texture) and baby sweet corn (for more added crunch and colour).

The result? Oh baby... if there was an Asian aphrodisiac, this would be it! The spices and the sweetness heats up your blood in the right way - but not too much that you have to spend the night in the bathroom! :D Even making it is delightful, so many aromas. I LOVE using ginger or galangal, and with fresh lemongrass and lime leaves crushed in my hands, I just had to stand there with my eyes closed, hands cupped around my nose and just inhaling for a few minutes. Nothing like it to bring real calm to you...

A great meal for an Asian-themed dinner party or a quiet date night at home... Serve with hot rice, with a couple of nice appetisers, like lettuce rolls (more later), spring rolls or Coconut Pork Dip and Rice Chips (more of that later!). Finish with a gorgeous Mango Pudding!

BAKED MALAYSIAN COCONUT CHICKEN CURRY
- KARI AYAM

Leftover roast chicken, stripped from bone, in chunks or strips
1 tsp-1 tbsp of yellow curry paste (Malaysian, not Indian), depending on how hot you like your curry
1 inch of root galangal, minced or grated
2 shallots, sliced fine
5-6 lime leaves, crushed with your hands
3 tablespoons of grated, dessicated coconut
1 large tin of coconut milk (400 ml or 14oz)
1 large potato, peeled and chopped into small chunks
Fish sauce or lime juice and brown sugar to season at the end
Optional extras - in truth any vegetable goes well into curry but the ones I usually go for are: chopped mushrooms (go for shiitake or straw), French beans, carrots, baby sweetcorn, baby green Thai eggplant (which are round not oblong)

Straw mushrooms on left - shiitake on right

1. First use a good-sized saucepan or non stick flat-bottomed wok. Heat up some vegetable oil in it, till the pan is good and hot then lower the heat. Put the galangal, shallots, lime leaves in first and fry for a minute or so to release the oils and flavours.

2. Add the curry paste - best to start with a teaspoon if you're a curry novice, and work your way up to the right heat for you. It's far easy to add spicy heat than it is to remove it! If it's too hot, you can temper it with a spoonful of brown sugar. Fry the paste for another minute.

3. Add the chicken pieces and coat the chicken in the paste well.

4. Put the tin of coconut milk in and stir it well, until the curry begins to change colour - white to yellow.

5. Add the potatoes and leave to simmer with the lid on at a low heat for 25-30 minutes.

6. Add any other fast-cooking vegetables now, stir and let them cook for 5 minutes. If you want to bake the curry to finish it off, do not cook the vegetables in the curry. Turn off the heat and then add the vegetables.

7. Taste the curry now and if you want more flavour, add any fish sauce or lime juice now. 1 small lime is plenty, or about 1 tbsp of fish sauce will be enough as it's extremely salty. Stir in the shredded coconut.

8. Put hot rice in an oven-proof casserole dish and spoon the curry on top. Brown under a hot grill or bake for 5 minutes or bake for 10-15 minutes at 200C before serving.

NEXT UP: BORSCHT...

Things To Do with Leftover...Chicken - Roast Chicken Sandwiches

2009-10-20T14:47:00.003+08:00

On my way home yesterday afternoon I stopped in Oliver's, one of HK's oldest delicatessens, and saw in their rotisserie that roast chickens were half off. Half off!!! Which made it HK$50 - about the same as a raw one in a normal supermarket. What a bargain - and I wouldn't have to slave away in a hot kitchen, trying to shove the bird into a tiny oven!

In the taxi back home I mused over my repertoire of what to do with leftover roast chicken and found it sadly lacking. The tradition in our family was to use any leftover meat for sandwiches, and the carcass to make stock for soups. I felt it was a good challenge for this blog to come up with some more exciting ways to use a leftover roast.

But by the time I got home I was so pooped, all my good intentions were out the window. It was back to trusty chicken sandwiches for J and me. You may wonder why I bother posting about making a sandwich. I mean, after all, it's easiest thing for people to make... even complete food novices can do it, right? Well I think there is a lot of joy in the humble chicken sandwich which can far surpass any fancy meal in an expensive restaurant, if done well. Why shouldn't there be a post about the simplicity and delight of a sandwich?

Now trust me on this when I say 20 years experience of making chicken sandwiches has made me an expert sandwich maker. No horrible supermarket sliced white bread and soggy lettuce sandwiches for me! NO WAY! We make 'em gooood in our family... In fact one of my earliest memories of flying on an aeroplane to visit my grandparents in Malta, was my mother making a roast chicken the night before the flight, and stripping the meat to make sandwich rolls to take on the plane. We all had an aversion to plane food back then - nothing could make the bile rise in our throats quicker than the smell of plane food being wheeled out. It was so bland, and smelt faintly of plastic. Halfway through the flight, my mother would pull out her coolbag of food and we would fall on the crusty rolls with obvious delight, while people seated near us looked on longingly in complete misery.

Chicken sandwiches are a doddle to make, but really good chicken sandwiches depend on ingredients. Have you ever eaten one of those garage (US: gas station) offerings? Exactly. How could you compare those mushy,slimy, pitiful excuses to a decent home-made sandwich from the best ingredients?? There is no simpler meal, nor one that could produce such an amount of satisfaction for so little effort! So for the diet-conscious, stop reading now. You could substitute all the full-fat versions for less tasty, but more healthy options, but it wouldn't be the real thing.

REAL ROAST CHICKEN SANDWICHES (makes enough for one big one!)

Two slices of crusty sourdough, sliced medium thick,or any fresh crusty bread of your choice, baguettes, rye, etc.
Leftover roast chicken meat, stripped from bone and shredded with fingers
Real butter
French mustard (optional)
Full-fat mayonnaise
Seasoning
Optional extras : baby butter lettuce (2-3 leaves, shredded nicely) / Sliced Cheddar or Red Leicester cheese / crispy bacon strips (real crispy, almost charred!) / sliced avocado - I have been known to use all of these in one sandwich. It did make it hard to squash down and fit in my mouth, but I managed it anyway.

1. Spread your bread with butter, mayonnaise and mustard.

2. Add your chicken pieces and add a sprinkling of seasoning.

3. Layer with any extras. Close the sandwich (using a toothpick if necessary).

Eat with relish! (as in joyous abandon... not pickle relish... though you can of course add that too!)

Next up: Baked Malaysian Coconut Chicken...(in the pot as I type!)

Pea and Cheese Pastizzi

2009-10-15T15:50:00.001+08:00

I've had very little internet access this week - turned out the router was shot, so we finally got broadband back and running yesterday.

In the meantime I was kept busy with work and sorting out J's immunisation records last week. We went in for a 15 minute appointment to change over all the records from UK to HK and suddenly it turned into a 2 hour wait. It was a government mother and child clinic and within 5 minutes, the waiting room went from 1- 30 other babies and kids crying and running around. It was like a warzone! The doc told me that he needed 2 extra shots which they don't do in the UK - I don't know who cried more, me or J.

All the shots he has had so far were all done by the same nurse in England, and she was brilliant. She would distract him with a toy and when he wasn't looking, whip out the needle, her hands moving so fast in a blur, and by the time he'd realised what happened, the needle was gone and she was writing up her notes. He barely cried, as if he couldn't quite believe what had happened and dreamed it all. You could tell she was a pro, so no-nonsense and efficient.

This time however, things were different. The Chinese nurse took one look at him and called out for another nurse to help her hold him down. She said he was bigger and stronger than the other kids she usually did (them being newborns or under a year). I tried to explain to her that it wasn't necessary, that I would hold him tight so he couldn't wriggle and I would face him away from the needle so he couldn't see it, but she said it was 'normal' procedure. As soon as the second nurse came in and held J's legs down and he saw the first looming over him with some 10 inch needle, he freaked out and was wriggling, squirming and crying all over the place. She then had to hold one needle in for a while longer so the pain must have been excruciating! Poor kid... if they'd just done it my way, we would have been in and out with the minimum of fuss and tears. What a trooper.

Later that day I went into work. In my pigeon-hole waiting for me was a coupon to get a free flu shot...*sigh*.

But I have added another square to the quilt so I've only got 3 to go! WOO! I think I'm going with plain cream cotton for the middles and edges as the squares are so dark. I'm so pleased with the way it's turning out. Just need to get my head down and finish it now.

So to cheer myself up and celebrate the first few days of autumn, I made some pea and cheese pastries. I have made these many times in different variations, using different cheeses or a mixture of pea and spinach. They are fast and easy and oh so yummy! One is definitely NOT ENOUGH! They are inspired by Maltese pastizzi, which I adore. Pastizzi usually come as either sheep's cheese and ricotta with black pepper, or peas. But I decided to combine the two to make it a nice lighter taste. My best friend Claire makes the most awesomely delicious ones, but these are a pretty close second. Great for picnics and little hands...

The first batch I made turned out messy - I used only one circle of pastry and they burst open in the oven. The second batch was better...

PEA AND CHEESE PASTRIES

1 packet of puff pastry - works equally well with short crust pastry too.
1 small tub of cottage cheese - Around 250 gms
1 slab of feta cheese - mine was about half an A5 size. Crumble or break the cheese into small bite size pieces.
5-6 heaped tablespoons of frozen petit pois or peas
1 teaspoon of French mustard
1 clove of garlic, minced
Black pepper, to taste

1. Roll out your pastry so that it's about 1/4 of an inch thick and stamp out rounds. I used a good sized (8oz) highball glass to make my circles. My packet of puff pastry made about 28 in total, which became 14 pastries (2 per pastry).

2. Mix the cheeses together with the frozen peas and mustard. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary, but be careful as mustard is quite salty already.

3. Put a teaspoonful of the mixture into the middle of one round and wet the edges with a little milk or beaten egg. Use a second round and place it on top. Seal the edges with fingers, a knife tip or fork tines. Brush the top with more milk or beaten egg to give it a nice glazed look.

4. Put on a well-greased baking sheet and bake for 20-25 mins at 180C.

Delicious cold too!

Pumpkin Carrot and Ginger Winter Warmer

2009-10-07T22:09:00.002+08:00

EEEEP! I'm so excited! I've been asked to guest blog for Malt-O-Meal's MOM blog... Someone important saw my Lantern Festival post and liked it so much they asked me to write something about being a mum in HK. All day long my thoughts have been racing about what I'm going to write. How to say things succintly, eloquently, with verve and style... heh! I kinda know what it'll be about, but I won't say anything about it... when it happens, you'll know! I'm just hoping it's going to be as funny as it sounds in my head :D (in my head, I'm also a stand-up comedian that gets rave reviews...) At least that's something that'll distract me from starting work tomorrow...

Anyway, the soup recipe is one that comes back again and again in my little household in B'town in the cold season where the winters are typically English - rainy, cold, dark at 4pm, and no sunshine for months. The colour and flavour of the soup, with the faint aroma and flavour of spices, is so lovely and cheery that it always makes me feel like I'm wrapped up in a warm duvet of a cuddle, no matter what the weather is outside. I've taken this soup out when R and I would go off to archery (more of that here) in all kinds of weather. I can tell you now that this soup is like some kind of miracle balm... I'm not kidding - it's made the difference between feeling so miserable and bedraggled, like dying would be a nice thing to not have to face the cold again, and having an exciting winter picnic adventure. A hot cup of soup DOES work wonders...

Here in HK, it's still 30C and sunny - a little too warm to enjoy this winter warmer but I made it a few days ago when we had a roaring typhoon that made it feel like autumn was on its way. It definitely feels like winter is coming later and later on this side of the world. I don't remember it ever being so warm so late. Have I become too acclimatised to British weather, or am I just getting old?? My third option is too bleak to consider, I just know I'll go to bed with morbid thoughts again... ('We've managed to mess up Mother Nature's body clock so much, we'll never get it right again').

Oh I'd give anything for a porch and a rocking chair where I can grumble and grouse as much as the next OAP... I just know I'm going to be a natural at that!

PUMPKIN, CARROT AND GINGER

WINTER WARMER

1 whole small pumpkin or butternut squash
5 whole carrots
1 clove garlic
2 Tablespoons olive oil
10 slices of fresh ginger
2 pints of chicken or vegetable stock
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch of nutmeg
4 tablespoons cream

1. First, wash and chop the pumpkin or squash and carrots. Chop into small bite-sized chunks. You can place them in a baking tin with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and roast them for 20 minutes if you have time (to bring out the flavor), but they do just fine without the roasting.

2. Mince the garlic and fry gently in some olive oil in a soup pot. Then add the root vegetables and stir-fry them gently for 5 minutes. Add the ginger slices and put a lid on the pot and leave them to cook gently on medium heat for 15 minutes.

3. Add the cinnamon and stock, cover and leave to simmer on low for 35 minutes.

4. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Blend using a stick or hand blender until the soup is smooth and creamy. If you don’t have time, then just skip to the blending, but watch out for those hot splashes!

5. Taste and add salt as necessary. Serve up with a pinch of nutmeg and a tablespoon of cream drizzled in each bowl.

N.B. This soup can easily be made with leftovers if you have an overabundance of root vegetables from last night’s turkey or beef roast. If that is the case, skip step #1.

Serve with a warm crusty baguette and enjoy!

Instructions for Life

2009-10-06T22:29:00.001+08:00

I found this little pic of the Insomnia Fairy (yes I believe she really exists!) here on Autumn Things which is a great, if slightly creepy site selling freaky dolls.   Here is what the site said:

Be warned, if this Fairy comes to live with you, your pillows will get lumpy, the bedroom will be too hot or too cold, and all manner of other things to stop you sleeping will begin to happen, and no amount of Dr. Caligari's Tonic for Ordered Slumber will have any effect.

It cracked me up and gave me the impetus I needed to get me going today. Been feeling emotionally and physically sluggish since the weekend. I suffer from terrible insomnia and have a tendency to get worked up and find myself staring at the ceiling when I'm supposed to be asleep, pondering silly things like counting down the number of hours I actually have left to sleep, or wondering how many emails I will have to look forward to when I next go into the office.

A lot of unsilly things come into it too, like how much money I should be setting aside for my future, my son's future, my mother's future, how my mother will cope after we leave, how I will cope after we leave. I can feel the muscles in my neck and shoulders tighten up as I lay there and by the time I shout at myself in my head to stop being so ridiculous, I'm pretty much curled into a miserable angry ball and fall into a restless, fitful sleep, waking more exhausted than ever. It's weird, because those thoughts just automatically switch themselves off by day as I get on with life.   Anybody else ever feel like this?

So I need a new set of instructions, mantras if you will, to stop those awful, midnight express, trains of thought. I found this on A Silver Lining, but I don't know how much was written by the Dalai Lama (especially #19!) but secretly hope he did.   (I have a vision of him wearing a chef's hat and singing opera with abandon as he cooks!).

Instructions for Life
written by Dalai Lama

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs:
Respect for self
Respect for others and
Responsibility for all your actions.

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realise you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Lantern Festival... Mid-Autumn, Stories and Mooncakes

2009-10-04T18:29:00.005+08:00

I originally titled this 'The Letdown that was Lantern Festival' but that wouldn't have been right. The whole night was great until Victoria Park. Last night was the peak of Mid-Autumn Festival, which celebrates the Full Moon harvest. It's also called Lantern or Moon Festival as traditionally families would come out in the evening with beautiful paper lanterns to watch the moon and stars, and mooncakes.

Mooncakes are traditionally made with a sweet paste of lotus seeds and salted egg yolks, which I love. They are extremely sweet and fattening. Nowadays though, there are every kind of flavour, from green tea, sesame seed, ice cream and ones in the shape of Thomas the Tank Engine!

My mother used to tell me the story of the Moon Goddess... the Romeo and Juliet star-crossed love story of the Chinese ages. It goes like this:

HOW THE MOON GODDESS CAME TO BE

Once upon a time, the earth had ten suns which burned the crops. The people suffered from the earth's infertility. Houyi was an archer and sympatheised with the people. He shot down 9 of the sun's to stop the suffering. He lived with his beautiful wife Chang'e, and they lived happily together.

Houyi had a many apprentices; they followed him to learn hunting. One day, on one of Houyi’s trips, as he was returning home, the emperor of the immortals gave Houyi two pills. Each pill granted eternal life. This was Houyi's reward for shooting down the suns. One was for Houyi, and the other for his wife. He warned Houyi, “Make no haste to swallow the pill.” Houyi was to wait until New Years Day, on which he and Chang'e were supposed to eat the pills together. Chang’e put the pill in her jewelry box for safekeeping. But Peng, one of Houyi’s apprentices, discovered their secret and decided to steal the pill.

One day, when Houyi and other apprentices went to the mountain, Peng pretended to be sick so that he could stay home. After everyone had gone to the mountain, Peng sneaked into Chang’e’s room and forced her to give him the pill. Chang’e knew she couldn't fight Peng, so she ate the pill herself. However, after eating it alone, she began to float. Unable to come back to earth, she took flight and flew far, far away. She did not want to leave her husband, so she stopped at the moon, which is the body closest to Earth. After Houyi found out what happened, he was very angry and heartbroken. He looked up into the night and called Chang’e’s name. He discovered that inside the moon there was a lady’s shadow that look like Chang’e, so he ran and ran and tried to reach the moon but failed. But the Emperor of the immortals took pity on Houyi, and each year a bridge of stars appeared in the sky so that he could cross over to the moon to see his beautiful wife.

I loved this story as a child. It was so sad. I always felt for the poor moon goddess watching down on the humans, wondering where her husband was. And Houyi looking up at the moon, wondering why his wife betrayed him. The story never mentioned what happened to Peng, but I hope he came to a nasty end! Even today I still love listening to stories, especially ones to do with the land's creation, or ones based on landscape and local folklore. What a lovely way to explain the Milky Way!

When I was a kid, we used to go to a tiny little park on Bowen Road near our flat and take our lanterns and lots of little candles, find a tree to sit around, then proceed to release our inner pyromaniacs... we would melt the bottom of the little red candles and set them in a circle around the tree base, and inside our paper lanterns (See here for some lovely pics of traditional lanterns!).

The best fun was just lighting the candles and relighting them when they blew out, or making patterns in the candle wax. It was also the age of the neon lantern lights which, back then, were mini light sabers that we broke in half to release the glow and would last days. It was always exciting to go to bed with one as they lit up the room with an eerie glow. Nowadays the neon lights have been made into every conceivable shape and form. Last night there were lots of bracelets and necklaces around, along with plastic inflatable Hello Kitty lanterns that blared out terrible tunes.

I took J over to my best friend Tasha's flat for dinner. She got married before the summer, and I was one of her bridesmaids. Her flat overlooks Victoria Park, one of the main areas of lantern festivities. Her mum was in town because her brother just had a little baby boy and they were bringing the new baby along. I was so excited by the thought of having a nice meal with friends and then going down to the park with our lanterns that I baked up a big batch of banana chocolate chip and walnut muffins to bring (click here for recipe). Some friends had given J a paper aeroplane lantern, and a plastic Thomas the Tank Engine lantern (no kidding - it's the ugliest lantern I've seen!). They have all kinds of lanterns these days. Including one which got J really excited...

Can you guess?

I'd been down at Wanchai market earlier to pick up a couple of extra lanterns that were more traditional - a star fruit and a goldfish lantern, made with sheer fabric.

When I was a kid, the lanterns were absolutely ENORMOUS, but the ones I picked were pretty tiny... good for little ones to hold. I also found out that you aren't allowed to use candles in your lanterns in public places any more so all the lanterns came with their own battery light - safer, yes. As much fun, debatable! Probably better if you have kids around, but then how would they ever learn about the dangers of fire if they don't get a few candlewax burns here and there? :D

Our meal was lovely. Tasha and her husband James made 2 fondues, a cheese one and an oil one for meat, with different dipping sauces. All topped up with a lovely big salad. I was so hungry and dazzled by the food I forgot to take pictures... :(
It is such a lovely way to eat... hotpot, Korean BBQ, sukiyaki, fondue, you name it, wherever you get to cook and dip your own food it's all good! By the time we finished and loaded up the dishwasher it was getting on for 10pm, so we made our way down to the park with the rest of the crowds. But I can honestly say it was a HUGE let down.

There were crowd control police out, making a mess of the natural flow of the crowds. Victoria Park was one huge, gaudy, commercial joke, with a stage with entertainment acts on, and a prize draw. It all felt so cheap and tacky. Even the pictures I took were terrible. I felt so sad. Gone were the days of quietly sitting with friends and family around a little tree, chatting by candle light or sharing stories. Or playing with other children and making new friends, showing off our lanterns. My childhood and my present never felt so far apart.

J showing off a star fruit lantern

With our goldfish and aeroplane lanterns

Oh well. I have bigger and better plans for next year... a nice park or beach, some friends and an evening picnic. Next time there WILL be lanterns, candles and moon-watching...and stories.
The view from our balcony...

National Day on Cat Street

2009-10-01T19:28:00.003+08:00

The PRC are celebrating 60 years of Communism and today we all get a public holiday. Coupled with Mid-Autumn Festival in a couple of days time, people are feeling decidedly festive.

The morning did not start well. I woke up and in my rush to get J on the toilet, I stubbed my toe so badly I broke it. It didn't actually start to hurt until a couple of hours later and suddenly went black and purple. I taped it to another toe and I guess I just have to wait for it to heal on its own. (Note to self: Remember to open eyes when you wake up...)

We spent a lazy morning at home, thinking what to do as the weather cleared up and looked brighter for the first time in the last few days. My brother Jon made a few noises about going over to Kowloon City for a food crawl and some photography, but with all the protest marches and fireworks crowd control being set up, we knew it was going to be tough to travel around.

Central market

Mum finally suggested Sheung Wan and we ended up in a little Japanese bistro, Wagyu Kitchen. The menu was small and mainly concentrating on Japanese hamburgers with teriyaki sauce. But it came with a tasty salad and spinach soup, similar to caldo verde. All delicious.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Hollywood Road and Cat Street, looking at the market stalls and boutique clothes shops that were so tiny, only fitting one customer in at a time! The area is a lovely mix of a very traditional Chinese market, antique stalls and a temple, with modern bistros and trendy shops tucked here and there. I picked up some gorgeous letter sets and envelopes from the St. James' Settlement Charity Shop for peanuts... I'm planning to send long love letters to R while we're apart :D

Gage and Gough Streets

This shop sells old vintage photos and movie posters

plus some odd antique stuff, with old cameras. Jon was busy bargaining inside.

J helps Jon to bargain by using his natural charm and winning smile...

Cat Street

As we were wandering, the humidity suddenly zoomed up a notch, and the sky turned an ominous shade of purple grey so we headed home. I managed to finish another patch of J's quilt too. All in all a nice day out...

So Babs, I hope you liked the pics!

Gimme-changas... Mother Hubbard's Chimichangas!

2009-09-30T14:30:00.002+08:00

Day two of potty training and J's got up to 9 stickers and only one accident. Not bad considering it's 2 in the afternoon. We're now up from yesterday's of 4 accidents before 10am!

Anyway, I've been reading blogs for the past two day as the rain has been non-stop, and Vince at Cooking Ventures made some chimichangas blancas last week which had me dreaming about them for about 2 days. Luckily I had tortillas in my cupboard since I didn't feel like venturing out in the rain again, so I had a nosy around the fridge, which my mother keeps extremely well-packed with dry goods, to stop them getting mouldy in the HK humidity. I didn't have exactly what Vince uses, but I did have chicken breasts and the tortillas... so I made the rest up. I have entitled it 'Gimme-changas a.k.a. Mother Hubbard's Chimichangas' as my cupboard was pretty bare, and I used whatever was left. But it tasted pretty amazing regardless... so thank you Vince for inspiration!

GIMME-CHANGAS a.k.a. MOTHER HUBBARD'S CHIMCHANGAS

1-2 chicken breasts
1/2 an onion chopped fine
1-2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 sweet potato chopped small
6 fresh shiitake mushrooms sliced thin
Cheddar cheese grated
Blue cheese crumbled
1/2 cup of sour cream
2-3 chopped scallions / spring onions
2-3 tablespoons of light soya sauce
1 pinch of sugar
1 packet of flour tortillas - I used a pack of 10 small ones and it was perfect

1. Marinate the chicken in the soya sauce and sugar for about 30 mins.

2. Fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil and add the chicken breasts. I fried mine whole and then removed and chopped them after they were cooked, but you can chop the breasts before they're cooked - as you wish.

3. When the chicken is almost done, (approx. 5 minutes on high), add the sweet potatoes and mushrooms and cook for about 10 mins on a medium heat with the lid on. Taste first and then season. Turn off the heat and let cool.

4. Add the sour cream, as much cheddar and blue cheese that you like, and spring onions. Mix well and set aside.

5. To prepare the tortillas, you can microwave them on a medium heat for about 20 seconds so they are soft and pliable. We don't use a microwave so I made do with a very hot (clean) teatowel, that I placed in a big bowl and covered with boiling water and wrung out (wearing gloves of course). Place the tortillas inside the hot teatowel and let steam for a few minutes while you sit down with a cuppa and rest your weary legs.

6. To make the chimichangas, place a tortilla on a chopping board or plate, place a large tablespoon of the filling in the middle and fold the sides in to make an envelope. Place in a baking dish and work on the rest of the chimichangas. When they are nestled in the baking dish, brush with more olive oil and bake in a hot oven for 30 minutes.

These are the perfect rainy day food... good to eat while watching movies in the afternoon!

Shanghai Fried Noodles

2009-09-29T08:28:00.003+08:00

It's been raining heavily all day and it feels a lot cooler... Has Ketsana brought autumn in her wake? Could summer finally be leaving us?? Oh to leave behind the sweltering heat and unrelenting stickiness...

We've been told to expect a week of rain and I plan to stay in and potty-train J, and if there's time, get some more quilting done. I have 2 weeks off work and to be honest, I can't think of anything nicer than staying in and pottering around. Apart from maybe browsing Ikea's fabric section...

In homage to autumnal weather, I made one of my favourite comfort foods - Shanghai Fried Noodles. I could never find Shanghainese food in B'town, so since I've been back in HK, I've been stuffing myself silly with dumplings, onion cakes, noodles, you name it. Yesterday I got the urge for something carb-laden to reflect the cooler weather ... ok ok, so it was like 2 degrees less, (now 30C) but still...

These noodles are so delicious, hot and cold, and are perfect for entertaining friends. It's quick-ish, and easy. While they are normally fried, you can also heat up some chicken stock (or broth) with some ginger and put any leftovers in for Shanghai Soup Noodles for a different meal the next day.

This recipe uses black wood ear fungus, which I appreciate is hard for people to find if they don't live near an Asian food store. It's the Chinese equivalent of dried porcini, and you can definitely use dried Shiitake in a pinch if you can't get fresh ones. They don't really have a flavour, and are more used for texture, which adds a nice chewy crunch to dishes.

A word also about dark soya sauce. Soya comes in light and dark versions, dark soya is only added for colour and to give sauces a little bit of depth, and it's not wise to go heavy-handed with dark soya as the flavour is really not pleasant in large doses.... so be gentle! Light soya is the more well-known, widely used in restaurants version, and is used to add saltiness.

SHANGHAI FRIED NOODLES (serves 4)

One head of small cabbage, chopped into bite-sized chunks (white or Savoy, not Chinese long cabbage, as they usually don't have much flavour and are very watery)
1 palm-sized piece of pork fillet, thinly sliced and julienned
3-4 pieces of dried black wood ear fungus, washed, rinsed and left to soak in cool boiled water for 10 mins, then finely sliced OR 6-7 fresh Shiitake mushrooms sliced thin
1 tablespoon each of fresh, minced garlic and ginger
1.5 lb of fresh Shanghai noodles, or any kind of thick oiled rice noodles like udon- Amoy does a good version. If using fresh noodles, they need to be boiled first like any dried pasta, for about 15-20 mins.
Light and dark soya sauce (or oyster sauce if no dark soya)
1 tablespoon of sherry, or Xiao Shing Rice Wine
Pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil (optional)
1 tablespoon of veg oil
Water

1. Marinate your thinly sliced pork in 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce, pinch of sugar, and the sherry or rice wine. Leave it to marinate for a min. of 30 mins.

2. Once your rice noodles have been cooked in boiling water, leave them to drain in a colander and start the stir fry.

3. Heat up your wok on a high heat.

4. Fry the garlic and ginger in the veg oil and add the pork straight away. It doesn't take long at all for the pork to cook, about a minute, so add the cabbage when the pork is still a little pink.

6. Add 4-5 tablespoons of water, stir the cabbage and pork so they are well mixed and put the lid on to cook the cabbage. Turn the heat to medium and leave it for 10 minutes, until the cabbage is cooked to your liking.

7. Add the mushrooms or fungus, a couple of tablespoons of the light soya sauce, and a DASH of dark soya and stir it all together.

8. Add the noodles, and fry for a few minutes more until the noodles are hot again and everything is well coated. Add the sesame oil at the end, and turn the heat off. Serve with chopsticks!

Cheat's Hainan Chicken Rice

2009-09-24T09:15:00.003+08:00

This is the recipe I made before Bliss in a Glass. I LOVE Hainan Chicken Rice - not the chicken part itself, but the rice. It's sublime, exquisite, light, fragrant and I could eat bowls of this on its own. Believe me there is no other rice in comparison...

It's a time-consuming process to make this rice because a whole chicken needs to be poached for a few hours, and then any fat that has been removed from the chicken prior to poaching is then added to the stock with a few secret ingredients (Okay, garlic, ginger, scallions / spring onions and something else - I just haven't figured out what!). In Chinese restaurants that serve any kind of soup or soup-based meal, they use master stocks, which are basically a stock pot that is constantly added to and kept simmering, never emptied. So the stocks are chock-full of flavour and delicious goodness. These serve the basis of any kind of sauce or soup that is on the menu.

Well I didn't have that kind of time or inclination to stand over a hot stove in 33C heat (yes it's still THAT hot here). I decided to try my hand at a shorter, cheaper version. I have tried packet versions before that taste pretty close to the original but sadly they have tons of MSG, which is a no-no. It makes me go crazy so I can't imagine what it'd do to my kid!

So the cheat's version turned out very well and I was pleased with the taste. It's much less oilier than the original and much healthier too, the taste feels cleaner. An all round winner!

CHEAT'S HAINAN CHICKEN TASTY RICE (serves 2)

2 portions of uncooked long grain rice
2 heaped tablespoons of fresh minced garlic
1 heaped tablespoon of fresh minced ginger
Double amount of chicken stock to rice ratio
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil - not butter or olive oil as the flavour is too strong.
1 tsp of salt

1. First wash and rinse your rice twice. This removes the starch and makes the grains nice and fluffy and separated when it's cooked.

2. Now add double the amount of stock to rice. In HK we use rice-cookers and most have the volume of liquid needed written on the side. We also use the 'One-Knuckle' rule, which is to pour enough water or stock to cover up to the first knuckle after your fingernail (on your middle finger ) when your finger is resting on the TOP of the rice. This makes for perfect rice EVERY time. I'm serious...

3. Now put your ginger, garlic, salt and oil in the mix too and cover with a close-fitting lid with a steam hole. If you're not using a rice-cooker, use a saucepan big enough to take the rice rising to double volume. If your lid isn't a close-fitting one, use a clean tea-towel or dish-cloth wrapped under the lid. Simmer your rice on a low heat. Cook for 20-25 mins.

4. When the rice is done, fork it over to mix the garlic and ginger through. Serve with poached chicken as the tradition dictates or with any side dish that takes your fancy. I had mine with stir-fried green beans in garlic and oyster sauce and some left-over Japanese eggplant and pork that Mum made.

(apologies for the bad lighting in the pic - I don't have any good photo-editing software on my lap top!)