Chinese Meatballs

These are inspired by a dish I didn’t even like when living in China, Lion’s Head Meatballs, but I wanted to recreate anyway. The only thing I didn’t do was steaming them for an hour and a half and I didn’t serve them with the bokchoy that would represent the lion’s manes. I just panfried them and served them with boiled potatoes and vegetables. Surprise, surprise, they’re more suitable in a Dutch dish than a Chinese menu! At least, that’s what I think. ;-)

RECIPE

450g minced pork
1 egg-white
4 spring onions, chopped finely
1 T shaoxing ricewine
1 t grated ginger
1 T chinese light soy sauce (or kikoman)
2 t sugar
1 t sesame oil
1 t salt
¼ t white pepper

Mixing the eggwhite with the food processor will give the meat an extra velvetty structure. Just don’t overdo it. You could blend in the other ingredients at the same time, except for the spring onions. Add and mix those in by hand. Shape into meatballs, any size you like. Dust with some cornflour so they wont’ stick to the pan and slowly panfry them until they’re done. (That’s when the internal temperature is around 72-73° C)

I’m a little bit fussy about minced meat, so I like to grind my own. These meatballs shouldn’t be too lean, I used 80% of lean pork and 20% of fatty pork. Of course less fussy people just buy their minced from their butcher’s.

I really think they go best with boiled potatoes and something like common beans. (In this case cut into spaghetti-like strings, cooked in chickenstock, finished with some cream and a pinch of currypowder)

If you’re dutch, here’s some more information about the ingredients (in dutch): shaoxing ricewine, ginger, light soy sauce , sesame oil.

Rhubarb Lemonade Syrup

I don’t have many good memories of my grandmother’s cookery, but her rhubarb lemonade was something special. I’m sure I didn’t even like rhubarb in those days, but I loved this lemonade. Fruity, tangy, sweet and very refreshing on a hot summer day. Unfortunately it only keeps for a few days, so I decided to try and freeze it in some ice-cube-bags.  The syrup doesn’t really set solid though, it becomes like a thick, sticky paste. Geting a little bit messy when trying to squeeze out 2 cubes for a glass of lemonade, but I’m still happy it keeps longer now. Just use an extra bag.

RECIPE

500 gram rhubarb, cut into pieces
1 kg sugar
25 gram citric acid (citroenzuur in dutch)

Wash the rhubarb and cut into 3-cm pieces.
Softly boil without any extra water until the juices have come out.
Transfer the rhubarb to a fine sieve, hanging over a bowl.
Push and squeeze all the juice out of the rhubarb.
Add some water to make out 5 dl of juice.
Add the sugar and boil until sugar dissolves. Let it cool down. (preferably in a sink with cold water)
Let the citric acid dissolve in a little bit of hot water and let it cool down, then add it to the cold juice.
Pour in a clean bottle and keep in fridge for a couple of days.
Or pour in a plastic icecube-bag to keep in the freezer. 

Tip: just a little bit of this syrup in a glass of prosecco/cava/sekt will give it a nice twist. 

MaPo Tofu [麻婆豆腐]

This is one of my most favourite dishes. Not just most favourite Chinese dishes, no, most favourite dishes ever. The spicy chili bean sauce, the numbing sichuanpeppers, the tasty garlic, ginger and onion and the soft tofu. It’s just perfect. And when using the right kind of tofu (not the old, firm supermarket tofu) I can’t imagine anybody not liking it.

RECIPE

750g soft, fresh tofu
250g mince meat (beef, pork or a combination)
2 T chinese dark soy sauce
1,5 T shaoxing rice wine
½ t sesame oil
1 T oil for stir frying
2 spring onion, chopped (shallot is fine too)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 t finely chopped or grated ginger
1-2 T chili bean paste (or more!)
2,5 dl chicken-stock
1,5 t cornflour
1 spring onion for sprinkling
2 t sichuanpeppercorns

Preparations

• Mix the ground beef with
  2 t dark soy sauce
  2 t shaoxing rice wine
  ½ t sesame oil
  Put in refrigerator to marinate while you prepare the rest.
• Dry roast the sichuanpeppercorns until fragrant. Let them cool down, then grind as coarse or fine as you prefer.
• Drain the tofu, cut into 1×1 cm cubes. You can blanch those in boiling water for about 1 minute and then drain them to improve the taste but you can easily skip this if you think it’s too much trouble.
• Cut and set aside (together)
  2 spring onions (or 1 shallot) chopped
  2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  2 t finely chopped or grated ginger
• Slice the spring onion for decoration (julienne).
• Make a mixture of
  2.5 dl (instant) chicken-stock
  1.5 T dark soy sauce
  1 T shaoxing rice wine

Cooking

Stir-fry the mince meat until brown and loose/grainy.
Transfer to a sieve, hanging in a bowl and set aside.

In the same wok/pan let the juice evaporate or wipe it clean, then stir-fry the (spring)onion, garlic and ginger for about 30 seconds, add the 1 or 2 T chilibeanpaste, stir-fry for just 5 seconds, then add the chicken-stock mixture. Bring to the boil, add the tofu-cubes and add back the mince beef. Bring back to the boil, let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Be careful not to break the tofu while stirring occasionally.

Before serving, add a mixture of cornflour with cold water to thicken the sauce. When ready, sprinkle with spring onion and sichuanpepper. (without the sichuanpepper the dish will not come alive, really, you cannot omit it!)

Serve with white rice and simply boiled or stirfried (long) green beans which go great with the sauce of the mapo tofu.
Enjoy!

Chinese Tea Eggs

I’m not a big fan of eating hard boiled eggs, but these Chinese marbled eggs look so beautiful that at least once a year I can’t resist making them. And what better time for that than Easter? I have to warn you though, they don’t taste as spectacular as they look. They mainly taste like… hard boiled eggs!  

Don’t use superfresh eggs, their membranes are so thick the marinade won’t penetrate easily, so the marble-effect can be very disappointing. I’ve tried quaileggs because of their nice snack-size. Great fingerfood, but it was hell peeling them.

RECIPE

Boil about 6 eggs for just 8 minutes or so. Rinse with cold water. Roll them on your worktop so the shell will crack. Or use a spoon and gently hit it all around. But don’t be too gentle. I’ve learned my lesson and also use my nails to lift some bits of shell here and there.

Boil water in a pan (enough to boil in the eggs later) and add:
1 or 2 bags of earl grey tea

I prefer removing the teabags after I think it has infused enough because I’m afraid the taste will get too strong/bitter. But I’m probably the only one in the world doing that.
Anyway, to this tea/liquid add:
7 T light soy sauce
4 T shaoxing rice wine
4 staranise
1 T sugar
1 stick cinnamon
3 slices of ginger
1 piece of mandarin peel
1 T sichuanpeppercorns

Bring to the boil, add back the crackled eggs and simmer for 1 - 2 hours. Take it off the heat. Let it cool down. Keep marinating in the liquid in your refrigerator overnight. Peel and serve as appetizer. Or, if like me, you actually don’t really like hard boiled eggs, mix the yolks with some mayonaise, add the cubed eggwhites back and serve on toast.

Ice Filtrated Consommé

As a kid I loved clear soups, especially consommé. Probably because I was a very picky eater, I used to get scared of too many “thingies” in my food. So the simpler, the better. And you can’t get much simpler than consommé! Unfortunately most people think it’s too simple, they prefer their soup stuffed with meat, vegetables, mushroom or at least thickened with cream and flour. If you are one of those people, please don’t read any further.

Making consommé used to be a tricky and time consuming affair. Skimming the broth, clarifying it with egg whites. But then there was Heston Blumenthal and he gave us: ice filtration! Easy as hell! Anybody can do this, without any effort. All you need is time.

RECIPE

Step 1. Making stock/bouillon/broth
This can be done any way you like, with the ingredients you prefer. Just like your grandmother, like the Chinese or like Heston Blumenthal made perfect duck consommé. You can first brown your meat for the Maillard reaction or just throw it in a pan with onion, carrot, celery and cover with water. If you have a pressure cooker, that’s brilliant. Use it! Cook the ingredients for about 30 minutes under high pressure.  (Herbs and spices are best to be added afterwards and just simmered for about 10 minutes). If you don’t have a pressure cooker simmer everything for a couple of hours in a normal pan. The only, but big difference with the “old way” is that you do not need to bother about skimming! Just cook it!

Step 2. Sieve, cool and freeze your stock
Sieve your stock through a colander in a bowl. Put the bowl in your kitchensink which you fill with cold water to cool it down as quickly as possible. Just for safety. Then transfer into a freezerbag or container and freeze it.

Step 3. Clarifying
Hang a colander in a bowl and line it with cheesecloth (muslin). Add the frozen stock  and place it in your refrigerator. Wait for a day or two and voila: perfectly clear stock which doesn’t only look brilliant but tastes brilliant too. Unlike the residue which looks disgusting.

 

Tips, tricks and notes

• Think/measure what sieve and what bowl you are going to use and see if it fits in your fridge.
• Try to freeze the stock in a thin layer so it won’t take 3 days to defrost.   
• I saw Francois Geurds from restaurant Ivy in Rotterdam using two bain marie trays of which one was perforated. That looked pretty convenient to me.
• One time my stock failed. I’m still not sure why, it seemed too gelatinous. Just jelly, no liquid. Probably should have waited longer.
• Adding salt or other seasoning after you’ve clarified your stock will make it less translucent again.
• I love some madeira in my oxtail consommé. Next time I’ll try adding it before the freezing stage.
• Read Harold McGee’s article The Essence of Nearly Anything, Drop by Limpid Drop (NY Times 5 sept 2007)

Chinese Steamed Fish (清蒸魚)

This is a truly classic Chinese recipe. I’ve seen it with carp, snapper, moonfish, I guess any white fish will do. But I like to prepare it with seabass (zeebaars) or seabream (dorade). Traditionally it’s done with the whole fish, like on the photo below, which of course is always the best way to prepare fish, but lately I’ve started using fillets. Just because it’s easier to share one fish between the two of us and easier to eat too. 
It’s probably my most favourite recipe for white fish, I really, really love it.  The “sauce” is great for dipping in spoonfulls of white rice. 

RECIPE

2 fish fillets (seabass, seabream or what you like)
3 cm ginger, cut julienne

If your steamer can take more than 1 plate, use 1 plate per person.  Place the fish on the plate(s) and sprinkle with ginger. Place in steamer and steam for about 8 minutes until your fish is done. Then take the plates out of the steamer and wipe off most of the excess water using some kitchen paper.

Then sprinkle each fillet with
1  pinch of salt 
1 pinch of sugar

Then sprinkle each fillet with
1 handfull of spring onion, cut julienne

Then carefully drizzle each fillet with
1 T smoking hot oil
The idea is that the spring onion will sizzle and give extra flavour.

Then pour over each fillet
1 T chinese light or japanese soy sauce

Serve with white rice and warm bok choy salad.

 

Hot smoking

I’ve always loved barbecueing, the taste of roasted meat with the smokey flavour of the charcoal, I just love it. Unfortunately, living in the city for the past 20 years, means I hardly ever barbecue. Not even once a year. Poor me. But fortunately, thanks to two discoveries in the last years I don’t miss it anymore! First I discovered the griddle pan (grillpan in dutch) and then a few years later I discovered the stovetop smoker (rookoventje in dutch).

Smoker & smoking agents

First you need a seperate kitchen and a ventilation hood. If you don’t have those you need to do this outside on a portable stove because you will smell this for a day or so.
Then how does it work? It’s simple. You’ve got this container. You add 1 or 2 tablespoons of “smoking agent” (normally wood chips). On top of that you put this drip tray and a roasting rack. Put the oiled meat, fish or vegetable on the tray, close the lid, put on a stove with the gas just 2 mm higher than low. Don’t forget to on turn your ventilation hood! When you see smoke escaping from the edges turn the gas down to minimum. Normally you only need to smoke it for about 7 minutes, patdry and grill in a griddle pan. The trick is to just smoke it enough to get the right smokey flavour, without getting a bitter, burned taste or overcooking your the meat you want rare.

alder =>  Nutty & heavy. Use for: meat and tofu
apple => Light, fruity & nutty. Use for: white fish
cherry => Light & fruity. Use for: fish, chicken or vegetables
hickory => Light, not very smoky. Use for: wild poultry like pheasant
maple => Woody & tabacco-ish. Use for: shrimp and lobster
mesquite => Heavy. Use for:  spareribs
oak => Spicy. Use for:  salmon
pecan => Nutty, coco, coffee-ish. Use for long smoking.

rice, black tea, sugar mixture => use for: duckbreasts
earl grey tea => Use for: scallops 

Tip of the day: go to your fishing gear shop. They sell bags full of cheaper woodchips. And cheaper smokers too!

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Steak and other red meat

You can marinate your meat or just smoke it au naturel. You don’t even have to take it out of the fridge to get it to roomtemperature, the smoking will do that for you. Just make sure you pat dry and oil it. Without the oil it might dry out. Tip of the day: when the steaks you buy in your supermarket turn out to be ridiculously and unevenly shaped, sometimes it helps to put a string around them. Like the ones in the photo above, they were rubbish, but a string made them nice and even. But other times, even a string won’t help.
Anyway, smoke it for about 7 minutes, not much more, you don’t want it to be cooked. Take it out of the smoker or better yet, turn off the gas and leave it for another few minutes until you’re ready to grill it. Pat dry, oil it again, salt it and grill it for just 1 minute each side max. Let it rest a few minutes on a warm plate with tin foil before you serve/cut it.

I used to eat my steaks rarer than rare, but with smoking that’s in the past. Fortunately, it’s still succulent and moist, it tastes better than just panfrying it medium. Probably because it’s a bit like slowcooking at low temperature.

The best cuts for smoking are the ones with some fat, like entrecote/sirloin and of course duckbreast! I love smoking duckbreast.

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Smoking Fish

With fish you can go three ways.

1. Smoke it like meat just for the flavour and finish it in a (griddle) pan.
2. Smoke it for 20 minutes or more until cooked.
   (Like on photo above, recipe here : salmon in maple syrup
   or smoked trout used in this lovely potato salad)
3. First brine the fish, then smoke it until cooked.
   (Like on photo below, recipe here:  smoked mackerel pate)

 

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Smoking vegetables & other stuff
 

Officially vegetables need to be blanched first, but I don’t always bother.  With bell peppers I don’t think it’s necessary. I smoke them for 20 minutes before using them in regular recipes, like the soup on the photo above. (smoke 4 red bell peppers and 10 cloves of garlic, then whizz them with some vegetable stock and a boiled potato)
You can smoke peeled tomatoes for a smokey tomato-sauce. I’ve smoked paprika (the powder) once when I needed smoked Spanish paprika and didn’t have any, it was almost like the real thing! You can smoke cheese. I even saw a chef smoking a cup of milk that he later used for making mashed potatoes! I still need to try that trick. Anyway, the sky is the limit with smoking.

One of my best used cookbooks ever is this little book with recipes for your smoker. Unfortunately for all the english readers, it’s dutch/belgium: Gerookte lekkernijen van Cecile Thijssen. But I can really recommend this book. Everything you need to know about hot smoking is in there with loads of simple recipes.

Dutch Mooncakes (gevulde speculaas)

I have these old molds for Chinese mooncakes and yesterday I finally took up on my brilliant idea to use them to make “dutch mooncakes”. Okay, the only thing Chinese would have been the molds, but still, from the outside Chinese mooncakes always reminded me of our “gevulde speculaas”, brown spice cake-like cookie filled with almond paste. 

But apparently there is a big difference in the consistency of the dough. That’s where my brilliant idea turn out to be not so brilliant, hihi. My beautifully shaped dutch mooncakes with  lovely patterns on top turned into not so nicely shaped blobs.  Still delicious though! So here’s the recipe. In the Netherlands we can buy ready-made almond paste and speculaas-spices, so it doesn’t have to be a project. But even when you make it from scratch, it’s not that difficult or time consuming as it looks.

RECIPE

1. Make almond paste a week in advance (or buy it ready-made)
2. Mix & grind the spices (or buy it already blended)
3. Make dough a day in advance (or at least half hour in advance)
4. Fill the baking tray, bake in oven.

It’s a great treat during our cold & dark winters.

1. PREPARING ALMOND PASTE (amandelspijs)

 

100g blanched & peeled almonds (or ground almond)
100g sugar
2 T Amaretto (almond liqueur)
2 T fresh lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon

Grind everything together in your kitchen blender to the right constancy. What that is is difficult to explain. Smooth, but still a little bit gritty, if it’s too fine it’s called marzipan.

2. BLENDING SPECULAAS-SPICES (speculaaskruiden)

15 gr cinnamon
2 gr cloves
2 gr nutmeg
1 gr white peppercorn
1 gr ginger powder
½ gr cardamom seeds (from the green pods)
 
Grind in old coffee grinder or mortar. This will be enough for about twice the amount of dough in the recipe below.
 
3. MAKING SPECULAAS DOUGH

200 gr flour
125 gr muscovado sugar (dark brown sugar)
2 T speculaas spices
150 gr cold butter, diced
2 T milk
1 t baking powder
pinch of salt

Mix everything together into a nice, soft dough. Make a ball, cover with cling foil and let it rest for at least half an hour in the refrigerator, but preferably 24 hours. The dough will absorb more of the lovely spices.

4. ASSEMBLING & BAKING

Preheat oven at 175°C
Divide the dough in two. Roll out the first piece of dough into a shape that will cover your baking tray, about 5-10 mm thick. Grease your baking tray and dust with some flour and/or cover with baking paper. Take the rolled out dough and cover the bottom and sides of baking tray. You can also clay it into the baking tray if it’s too tough to roll. Take the almond paste and roll & mold it in your hands, it will get a little bit softer and easier to handle, fill the baking tray with a layer of almond paste. Add the second rolled out piece of dough on top. Try to close the edges a little bit if you can. Brush with egg wash. Decorate with almond halves and bake in about 30 minutes in the 175°C oven.
Update: when using a tin or baking tray, it probably needs about 10 minutes longer.

5. UPDATE

Had some leftover almond paste, so I decided to try using a baking tin, as I suggested here above. In this case a little springform cake tin. I think it looked very cute, but maybe because it’s in a tin it should be in the oven for a longer time? Maybe 40 minutes instead of 30? It all depends on the thickness of your cake too.

Stewed Pears (stoofpeertjes)

  

This is one of those typically dutch recipes that will never die out. Eaten for dessert but more often as part of a wintery meal. They match beautifully with braised red cabbage or Brussels sprouts and lots of mashed potato. More authentic and pretty when you leave the pears whole, but so much easier to eat when you cut them in quarters first and take out the core. I usually make a big pot (Kilner jar) which will keep for months in the refrigerator.

In the Netherlands we have special cultivars of pears just for cooking: Gieser Wildeman, St. Remy and Brederode. I’m not sure what’s available in the rest of the world, but you should look for a kind that’s firm so it won’t fall apart after hours of stewing. Quince, Warden Hard? And be aware that the amount of sugar in the recipe is depending on the cultivar you use.  

Then the trick is to stew them long and slow. I use my crockpot and get the best result stewing them on “Low” for 12 hours. But most people just gently stew them for about 2,5 hours on the stove. Then finally, I think it’s best to wait at least a day or two before you eat them, so the lovely flavour and colour of the gluhwein-like syrup penetrates into the pears. (see photo of cross section above)
 

 RECIPES

Traditionally Inspired
 
1.5 kg pears, peeled
100 gr sugar
5 dl light red wine (e.g. Beaujolais)
1 dl red liqueur (e.g. port, black currant liqueur)
6 thin slices of fresh ginger
2 lemongrass, crushed
3 star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
2 cardamom pods

Transfer all ingredients to a pan, add water if necessary, the pears should be covered in liquid. To be sure they won’t dry out, you can put a piece of baking paper on top. If you have a crockpot, stew them 12 hours on low, otherwise 2,5 hours on low heat. Take out the pears to cool down, transfer the liquid to a little pan to reduce into a thick and sticky syrup.

White Pears

1 kg peeled pears
100 gr sugar (use more or less depending on the cultivar you use)
5 dl cider
75 cl Armagnac
4 thin slices of fresh ginger
2 lemongrass
3 star anise
3 cinnamon sticks

Heat the sugar in a non-stick frying pan. Don’t stir, wait for it to melt an caramelize. When it has that nice golden colour pour in the cider. Be careful it will spit and spat. Add all other ingredients, add water if necessary, the pears should be covered in liquid. To be sure they won’t dry out, you can put a piece of baking paper on top. If you have a crockpot, stew them 12 hours on low, otherwise 2,5 hours on low heat. Take out the pears to cool down, transfer the liquid to a little pan to reduce into a thick and sticky syrup. 
 

Maple quinces

3 big quinces (960gr after peeling and cutting)
150 ml maple syrup
500 ml white wine (dry & fruity)
75 ml Armagnac
1 bay leave (or daun salaam)
2 cinnamon sticks
1 lemon, juice & zest

Transfer all ingredients to a pan, add water if necessary, the pears should be covered in liquid. To be sure they won’t dry out, you can put a piece of baking paper on top. If you have a crockpot, stew them 12 hours on low, otherwise 2,5 hours on low heat. Take out the pears to cool down, transfer the liquid to a little pan to reduce into a thick and sticky syrup.
I only made this version with quinces once and I don’t think it works well as a side dish. Probably best to serve with icecream and cream.  

Caramelized Walnuts & Pecan nuts

I’m very fond of nuts, pecan nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashew nuts, you name it. Caramelizing them will give them yet another dimension. Less bitter and a lot crunchier, almost unrecognizable as a  nut. They are perfect for upgrading simple desserts and cakes. I love them in combination with Ben & Jerry’s Caramel Chew Chew Icecream or on top of a banoffee pie. Well, that’s only when I manage not to eat them all before dinnertime.  

RECIPE

225 gr walnuts or pecan nuts (pealed)
100 gr sugar
4,5 dl peanut oil for deepfrying
3 T roasted sesameseeds (optional)

Bring a big pan of water to the boil. Add nuts, gently simmer (=blanche) for 10 minutes. Pass through sieve, shake and pat dry with kitchen towel. Transfer to a bowl, add the sugar and stir or swirl around untill all the sugar is sticking on the nuts. Then spread the nuts over a rack and leave in a cool and drafty place to dry for at least 2 hours but preferably overnight. (I don’t have such a place in my house so I use my Peking Duck Fan)

Heat peanutoil until 190°C. Add the nuts (in batches) and fry for about 2 minutes until brown. Be careful not to burn them! Take them out and transfer them to a rack to dry. Sprinkle immediately with sesame seeds if you like. Normally I do, but with these pecan nuts I didn’t fancy the sesameseeds.

When they have cooled down, you can keep them crisp in a jar for about 2 weeks.

Tempeh Kering

I used to order this side dish every time I went for take-away at my indonesian toko in Rijswijk (Toko Pasar Makan). Until they changed the recipe! So then I had to recreate it myself and I think with the recipe below I’m getting close. You can serve it hot or cold, as part of your dinner or as a snack. With a nice cold beer, beats a bag of crisps anytime.

RECIPE

400g tempeh
5 red chilipeppers (lombok)
5 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
1 piece of fresh galanga (about 3 cm)
½ t tamarindepulp
2 T gula Jawa (or brown sugar)
1 t caster sugar
salt (or chickenstockpowder)

Slice the tempeh in small stripes. Deepfry in portions at 170°C for about 4 minutes until golden brown and crisp. They should really be crisp and golden al the way through. So it’s best to test one before you take them all out.

Make a nice currypaste (boemboe) from the chopped sjalots, garlic and galanga. (I use a blender)
Fry the currypaste in 2 T oil until fragrant. (about 3 minutes)
Add the chopped chillies after about a minute.
Add the tamarind, gula jawa, sugar and salt and stirfy for another 3 minutes.
Be carefull not to burn the sugar.
Add the tempe and stirfry for another 2 minutes.

The tempeh should be coated with this dry but sticky, sweet, sour and spicy paste.

Steamed Scallops with Light Soy-dressing

Simple yet perfect way to prepare scallops. I love the way the salty, sweet, sour soy-dressing cuts through the fatty scallops. Match made in heaven. The first time I made this it was because  I was scared the fish I was serving for our main course wasn’t going to be enough. But it’s getting a habit now of also buying 2 or 3 scallops every time we have steamed fish.
 

RECIPE

6 scallops
1 spring onion, thinly sliced
2 T oil
12 Chinese spoons

For the dressing:
1 T light soy sauce
½ T clear rice vinegar
1 T shaoxin rice wine
1 t sugar

Rinse the scallops and cut them in half, so you have twelve.
Place them on the Chinese spoons. 
Steam them in 1 or 2 minutes until only just cooked.
Sprinkle some spring onion on top of each scallop.
Drizzle with the soy-dressing that you heated in a little pan.
Heat the 2T oil until sizzling hot and carefully drizzle half a teaspoon of hot oil on each scallop. The spring onion should sizzle.

From: Wokken met Ming by Peh-Fo Pak.

Chicken Kung Pao

This is one of China’s most famous dishes. Even in our Dutch Chinese restaurants you can order Chicken Kung Pao. Not always recognizable, but hey, it’s on the menu! And maybe the same can even be said about the Chicken Kung Pao served in Beijing? Originally, it’s a sichuanese dish, so it should be hot, hot, hot (and probably even numbing). But in my recollection it wasn’t that hot, it was even a little bit sweet. With lots of peanuts and big chunks of almost leek-like spring onion and just a little bit of chopped dried chiles. With so many versions of this dish, I’m not ashamed to share mine.

RECIPE

400 gr chickenbreast
cut into cubes and marinate in mixture of:
1 T eggwhite, beaten
4 t light soy
4 t shaoxing ricewine
1,5 t cornstarch
0,5 t salt

Heat the wok and stirfry in some oil for a few seconds:
4 smal dried chillies

Then add:
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 cm ginger, chopped

and stirfry untill fragrant, then add the chicken and stirfry for a minute or 2 until browning a little. Then pour :
1 T shaoxin ricewine

from the side of the wok. When it stops sizzling add the sauce, made of:
1 T light soysauce
2 T tomato ketchup
1 T chili sauce
1,5 T clear rice vinegar
3 cm chinese brown sugar
1 T cornstarch
6 T water/chickenbroth

Heat through and add :
80 gr unsalted, roasted cashew nuts
4 spring onions, cut into 1 cm-pieces

Serve with white rice. And my favourite vegetable with this dish is simply cooked green beans. There is so much flavour in the chickendish, you don’t need to do anything fancy with the beans. At least, that’s my philosophy.

The variations I’ve seen: 
* chilisauce, chilibeansauce, no chilisauce
* sichuanpepper, no sichuanpepper
* peanut or cashew
* clear rice vinegar, dark rice vinegar, no vinegar
* light soysauce, dark soysauce or both
* ginger, no ginger
* chickenbreast, chicken thigh

Red Curry Paste

I’m a big fan of the fresh taste of a Thai green curry. But the more warmthy flavour of a red curry is nice too. Like my green curry paste, I like to make my own. It’s not that much work, you can do it in advance, double the amounts and freeze it in badges. But the best reason is, you decide yourself what’s in it. I love galangal and corianderroots, so I use a little bit more than the recipe requires for.

RECIPE

10-12 dried red chilies (the long cayenne variety)
5 garlic cloves, chopped
150 grams red onion or shallots, chopped
1 T fresh lemongrass, thinly sliced
6 slices galangal
zest of 1 lime
6-8 coriander root, washed well and chopped
fresh ground white pepper
¼ t shrimp paste or 2 anchovy (from a can)
½ t ground cumin
½ t ground coriander
2 T bright red paprika powder

Soak the chillies in 5T hot water for 1-2 hours.
Put the chillies together with their soaking liquid, into a blender, along with all the remaining ingredients in the order listed. Blend.

Now Madhur Jaffrey suggest you keep pushing everything down with a spatula until you have a smooth paste. But my way is to vigorously shake the blender. I know it wasn’t designed to do that, but it works perfectly for me. Just shake it like a madman and as long as you hear there’s something blending and moving at the bottom it’s fine. If you hear there’s nothing blending, that it’s really stuck or idle, okay, then use the spatula and maybe a little additional water.

This recipe is for about 2-4 servings.

Recipe from: Curry Bible by Madhur Jaffrey.
Recipe for green curry paste: here

Asian Mushroom Risotto

With this great vegetarian recipe you can enjoy all those lovely mushrooms available in the shops these days. Just use whatever you can find, dried shii-take, dried porcini, oyster mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, enoki, japanese shimeji, chestnut mushrooms or even your plain button mushrooms. Although I don’t often make a dinner without any meat, with this dish I really can do without. Serve with a simple green salad.

PREPARING THE STOCK

1 shii-take stockcube
1 liter of water
3 T sake
soaking liquid from the dried shii-take and porcini

Dissolve 1 stockcube into 1 liter of boiling water. Add sake and some of the soaking liquid from the dried shii-take. Just enough to make the stock rich and nice (be careful, there can be sand in this liquid). Keep tasting it until you like it.

PREPARING THE MUSHROOMS

4 dried shii-take
2 T dried porcini
150g fresh oyster mushroom
200g fresh king oyster mushroom
200g fresh enoki mushroom
oil and butter

Soak the dried shii-take and porcini for half an hour (or longer) in some boiling hot water. Don’t throw away the liquid, but use some to intensify the stock you’ll need for the risotto.
Cut the shii-take and porcini in little chunks. (disregard the stems of the shii-take)
Tear the oyster mushrooms in strips.
Cut the king oyster mushroom in bite-size chunks.
Chop the root end of the enoki mushrooms, gently separate the stems.

Heat a frying pan until really hot. Add some oil and pan-fry the king oyster mushrooms on really high heat for about 2 minutes, until golden brown. Add the shii-takes and porcini chunks and pan-fry some more. Then add the oyster mushrooms and quickly after that a big lump of butter. I like to add the enoki mushrooms now too, but maybe it’s better to add them later, directly into the risotto. Anyway, set aside this pan with mushrooms to prepare the risotto. If you’re a pro in timing you can pan-fry the mushrooms just before finishing the risotto. I don’t like timing problems, so I do it before I start stirring in the risotto.

MAKING THE RISOTTO

150g arborio rice (75-100g per person)
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
2 T sake
olive oil
handful grated Parmesan
2 handfuls coriander or parsley

Saute shallots and garlic in oil until translucent. Add rice and stir, to coat with oil. Add sake, 1/2 ladle hot shii-take stock and stir well. Cook, stirring constantly, until all liquid is absorbed. Continue to add stock in 1 ladle increments and stir until each successive batch has been absorbed, stirring constantly until rice mixture is creamy and “”al dente”". (±15-20 minutes, but really, you should taste it)
Remove from the heat, stir in a big handful of grated Parmesan. Then add back the reheated mushrooms. Add the coriander or parsley. Serve immediately.

Japanese Egg Tofu

Another favourite dish while living in Beijing was what we called “Japanese tofu”. Golden coins of egg tofu (a tofu-variety made of soybeanmilk and eggs) deepfried and served with a big pile of crispy crumbs of “thingies”. I’m not sure what it was. Panko, garlic, spring onion, things like that. Today I would be much better at recognizing the ingredients, but back in those days I wasn’t that much into cooking, just into eating. The wonderful pudding-like, warm, savoury tofu with the crispy, salty crumbs were a match made in heaven.

Unfortunately I’ve never managed to recreate this dish. And I’m sure I won’t be able to find it at any restaurant here in Holland. But maybe some memories should stay memories. So I’ve tried to do something else with it. Serving the coins with a simple gingersauce.  

 

RECIPE

egg tofu tubes (à 100g)
some cornstarch for coating
oil for shallowfrying
spring onion, chopped

2 t ginger, finely chopped
2 t oil
6 T chickenstock
1.5 T shaoxing ricewine
2 t cornstarch in cold water

In a small pan, gently sautee the ginger in a little bit of oil. Then add the ricewine and stock. Thicken with some cornstarch mixed with cold water. That’s it. You can do this in advance and reheat later.

Cut the tube with egg tofu in half and while you gently squeeze out the tofu, slice it in 2 cm coins and carefully drop them on a plate covered with cornstarch. Dust with some more cornstarch and quickly transfer them to a frying pan with 1 cm of hot oil. Shallow fry them for about 1 minute each side until golden, but not too brown.

Carefully arrange on a plate (sizzling plate for extra effect) or chinese spoons (for an amuse bouche). Sprinkle some spring onion on top. Add the sauce, but not too much, you don’t want it all to go soggy. Serve immediately. 

Cinnamon Beef Noodles (soup)

This recipe for cinnamon beef is slowfood and fastfood at the same time. It’s slowfood because it will take a few hours of stewing to tenderize the meat. But in China it’s considered to be fastfood, there are numerous noodle bars serving great noodle(soup) 24/7. McDonald’s is for the children, noodle bars for the adults!

I’ve adjusted this recipe a little bit by adding a jar of “game stock” from the shops because I love a deep, rich stock.

RECIPE

10 spring onions (or just 1 big red onion)
10 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
6 slices of ginger, crushed
1½ t chili bean sauce (Toban Jiang)
2 sticks of cinnamon
2 staranise
125 ml light soy sauce
1 kg lean beef for stewing, cubed
400 ml game stock

Noodles
Spinache
Spring onion

Stirfry the onion, garlic, ginger, chilipaste, cinnamon and staranise with some oil in a very hot wok untill fragrant for about 1 minute. Then add the light soysauce, 1 pot of game stock and 2 of those pots with water.
Bring to the boil. Add the meat, bring back to the boil again. Reduce heat and simmer for about 4 hours or until tender. (I used my crockpot : 1 hour on high and 9 hours on low)
Taste the soup, reduce if too watery, add water if too salty.

To prepare a bowl of soup:
Cook the noodles, drain, rinse and divide them over bowls.
Boil, steam of stirfry some spinach. Also divide over bowls, on top of the noodles.
Bring soup to the boil and add to the bowls, on top of the noodles and spinach.
Sprinkle with spring onion.

About the noodles
Traditionally this recipe is done with rice noodles, but somehow I haven’t found any that I like. Well, I’m not a big pasta-fan, so maybe it’s just me, but next time I will try this recipe with chinese wheat noodles (gan mien) or cantonese lo mein noodles or japanese udong noodles or maybe even glass-noodles.

As this is my contribution to the “chinese-weeks” at a fellow dutch blog koken.blog.nl , I’ve added this recipe in dutch, after the break.

Lemongrass & Ginger Liqueur

One of my most memorable restaurant experiences was in February 2004 at Oud Sluis. I remember my friend and I were a bit disappointed when reading the tasting-menu, it didn’t look that exciting. But wow, were we wrong!  Every single bite was as exciting and thrilling and mindblowing as the other. Cooking at this level truely is art. Not just “an art”, but really art! It was unbelievable, I had never experienced anything like it before. Of course we didn’t have that much experience at eating in michelin star restaurants then, but now we do, my memory of this dinner is still my dearest. And it all began with a Kir Royal made with a homemade lemongrass & ginger liqueur. Simply brilliant.

I’ve searched the shops and internet for a similar liqueur, but never found it. The restaurant didn’t (want to) tell me how they made it and the liqueur-hobby-club I wrote to ask if they would make it on commision never showed any interest. But then one day I was joining some friends on the internet in a project of making your own coffee liqueur. You take ½ liter of brandewijn/vodka. Add 60 coffeebeans, 250 grams of brown rocksugar and a vanillapod. Shake it daily for 6 weeks and then enjoy your Tiam Aria. This simple recipe inspired me to try and make my own lemongrass & ginger liqueur. But after 2 weeks, the lemongrass looked a bit “off”. I was totally disappointed, gave up on it, but was too lazy to clean out the bottle. So the bottle kept standing there and then, after 2,5 months when somebody asked me about it, we decided to taste it anyway and it was just lovely. I even enjoyed drinking it pure, on the rocks. But of course, the best way is still to pour about 1 or 2 tablespoons in a champagne glass and top it up with prosecco, cava or any other dry, bubbling wine. Brilliant way to start an asian oriented dinner for which it’s difficult to find accompagnying wines anyway. And in summer it’s a brilliant apéritif for any meal.

RECIPE

1 ltr vodka or brandewijn
150 gr fresh ginger (the youngest you can find)
4 stalks of lemongrass
500 gr light rock sugar

Peel and cut the ginger. Try to use perfect bits only. Peel the outer layer of the lemongrass and bruise or cut it to release the flavours. Combine everything together in a jar or bottle that’s big enough to keep it all. (1.5-2 ltr) Be patient for at least 2 months, but taste it now and then to see if it’s sweet enough. It is a liqueur, so it’s supposed to be quite sweet. I forgot how much I’ve put into mine, so you need to find out for yourself.

Spanish Potatoes

The deep and warm flavour of spanish smoked paprika can be overpowering in some dishes. This is one recipe in which I think it works beautifully. Together with the corianderseeds and saffron it really makes something special of a simple bowl of potatoes. You can use any kind of new potatoes, I like them small and in the skin (“krieltjes” in dutch) but still cut in half to absorb more flavour.
In winter I love them mixed with brussels sprouts, for summers I haven’t found the perfect vegetable match yet. But it goes well with just about any kind of grilled meat.

RECIPE

Strifry for about 2 minutes:
500 gram of small potatoes (cut in half/wedges)

Add and stirfry for another minute :
3 chopped cloves of garlic

Then add
1,5 T tomato purée
1 T corianderseeds (crush them a little to release flavour)
a few sprigs of saffron
1 t hot spanish smoked (hot) paprika
enough water/stock to cover the potatoes (about 5dl)

Cook on really high heat. The sauce should reduce until thick and sticky. The timing depends on the size of  your potatoes, but be aware that due to the acidity of the sauce, it can take a little longer than you’re accustomed to. 

If you want to add cooked brussels sprouts, like I do in winter, it’s better to keep it more liquid and thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch.

Recipe borrowed from : A passion for Vegetables by Paul Gayler.

Cold Pork in Hot and Garlicky Sauce (蒜泥白肉)

 

The pork in this sichuanese dish is traditionally a piece of pork butt, half fat and half lean, simply boiled in water with some fresh ginger and spring onion. But I’m not that much into fat meat and boiling it is something else I hesitate to do. Luckily you can use almost any piece of pork you like, as long as you can cut it into thin slices.

My first attempt was with a big piece of lean pork (fricandeau) placed in an ovenproof bag with some ginger, spring onion and shaoxing ricewine. Second attempt was with a simple panfried loin of pork, but I missed the ginger and spring onion flavour. So my last and best attempt was with a piece of rolled pork that I marinated for 24 hours in ginger, spring onion and shaoxing wine. Then quickly panfried it to get the outside browned, then roasted at low temperature in the oven until still a little bit pink in the middle. Just the way I like it, soft and tender.

But with this dish, you should just follow your own instinct on which cut you prefer and how to cook it. Most flavouring comes from the sauce anyway. And the sauce is just brilliant.
Long introduction, short recipe.

 
RECIPE

450 gr cooked cold pork, sliced as thinly and evenly as possible

Then drizzle with a sauce made of :
4 T sweet aromatic soy sauce
2-4 T chili oil (or even better Sichuan Chili Oil !!)
3 t chopped garlic
2 t sesame oil

Garnish with fresh coriander or spring onion.

You can serve it as a starter, like the chinese do. Bring it to a picnic. Serve it cold or lukewarm. Or with white rice and a (beansprout) salad for dinner. Every which way will just be great. Promise.