DUMPLINGS

Chinese dumpling, is commonly called "JiaoZi" in Mandarin and "Gao Zhi" in Cantonese, consists of minced meat and finely chopped vegetables wrapped into a round thin piece elastic dough skin which are then sealed and pleated by hands. As a carrier of culture, dumplings are typical of tradition Chinese cuisine cultural. It is totally different from any Western food. For example, a hamburger is sandwiched with beef or chicken. It can be seen clearly from the outside but dumplings are quite different. One cant know its stuffing from the outside but can only find out once it is eaten.  Dumplings are usually boiled or steamed. The meat fillings can be ground pork, beef, chicken and even fish. Filling mixtures vary and depend on personal interest and region too but whatever the fillings are, the wrapping skill needs to be exquisite to make dumplings look attractive. Dumplings are eaten all year round at any time of the day, breakfast, lunch or dinner. It can constitute as one course, starter or side dish or even as the main meal. 

Dumplings dated back many centuries from the originated place in Yellow River valley where wheat was grown. Chinese people already knew how to grind wheat into four, make wheaten type of food with stuffing back in the period about 2,500 years ago during the Spring and Autumn seasons. Dumplings are one of the most important foods in Chinese New Year. Since the shape of it is similar to ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots, symbolize wealth.  As the Spring Festival marks the start of a new year, Chinese people choose to eat dumplings to connote their wishes for good fortune in the new year. China has been perfecting the art of dumpling making since the Sung Dynasty.

There are also ways of serving dumplings from place to place. In general, dumplings are boiled in clear water and served dry with vinegar, soy sauce, chopped garlic or chilli oil. But in some parts in the Northern China, dumplings are boiled in broth together with vermicelli  and vegetables to make like soup noodles.

I had some friends coming over for a chill out night during the weekend and i was thinking, the best way to serve them is to make some nice lots and dumplings to let them dig in, rather then common dishes with rice and soup.

Ingredients:-

• 200 gram of pork mince meat

• 10 pieces of Chinese leaves

• handful of fresh corianders 

• 2 cloves garlic

• small pieces of ginger

• 3 tablespoon of salt

• 4 tablespoon of sugar

• 10 tablespoon of soy sauce

• 2 tablespoon of white vinegar

• 2 tablespoon of sesame oil

• 2 egg yolks

Preparations:-

• Blend the Chinese leaves in blender until bits. Squeeze the remaining water out from the leaves.

• Blend the garlics and gingers.

• Chopped the corianders.

• Mix everything together in the mince meat.

(I get the wrappers from Chinatown rather then to make the dough myself, which save up lots of the time)

• Wrapped the fillings on the dumpling wrapper as desire shape. But don't be too greedy on the fillings or else it will gonna break out while in the process of cooking, or else, undercooked from inside.

I made 3 types of dumplings that night - Steamed ("ZenJiao"), boiled ("ShuiJiao") and pan-fried ("JianJiao").Now there are 2 different types of pan-fried dumplings. If fried uncooked, for example without boiling or steaming them first, they are called "GuoTia" in Mandarin or "WorTip" in Cantonese (Chinese cuisine are indeed very complicated in words and ways of cooking!).

Cooking:-

• Steamed the dumplings like normal process of steaming for 10 minutes.

• Boiled the dumplings on a boiling pot. The water should rest down after the dumplings was put in. Pour in a glass of cold tap water when it starts to boil again. Wait for it to boil again. That means it is cooked. Take it out and set it aside to use for pan-fried. Repeat the steps again for the soup dumplings. Add some desire vegetables to sparks up the colour and presentation.

• Pan-fried the cooked dumplings on a heat-up pan until golden brown.

D' Threesome ~

STICKY PORK RIBS

Recently I had too much of vegetarian food and as I am a pure class-A carnivore, its time to have some animals meat now.

Pork ribs can be use for a lot of dishes.. deep fried, stir fry, oven baked, grilled, BBQ or even for soup stocks. Pork is also naturally low in salt and a rich source of good quality protein. It is also a good source of several vitamins and minerals needed for better health including iron, zinc and some group in vitamin B. Spare ribs are the traditional slab of ribs. It comes from the pig belly, right behind the shoulder. There is a covering of meat on top and between the bones.

I found that majority of the English loves to BBQ ribs with the taste of sweetness and thickness in sauce. And since it is summer now lots of supermarkets are selling pre-made ribs with sauces for BBQ. To be frank, it is a very easy dish where everyone can prepare it. Hence, it will be much more cheaper to DIY from scratch then to get it prepared from supermarkets. Chinese supermarkets always have this bags of raw spare rib more then a kgs' selling only less then 5 quid, compare to some non-Chinese supermarkets selling for 3 quid for only less then 500 gram.

Ingredients:-

• Spare ribs (800 gram or more)

•  Soy sauce, around 250 ml

• 5 tablespoon of Hoisin sauce

• 3 tablespoon of five spice powder

• 4 tablespoon of golden syrup / maple syrup

• half squeeze lime juice

• 1 clove of chopped garlic

• grated gingers

Preparations:-

• Add all the ingredients together (besides the spare ribs), whisk to mix. The sauce might be a lot for the ribs but it will still be using at the end of the cooking. 

• Marinade with the spare ribs. The sauce will gonna penetrate the ribs, helps tenderise and adds flavour to it. Mix well. Keep it over night in the fridge.

• Pre-heat oven to 170 / 180 degree. Spread the marinade spare ribs on the roasting tray. Left the remaining sauce aside. Bake for 45 minutes. 

• Now, most after this step, there are two ways to finishing the touch. It can either be grilled on the griller to make it dry and crispy or, I choose the more Chinese way, shallow fried and added the remaining of the marinade sauce to make it more sticker with  the sauce. I prefer it juicer then dry.

•  Heat up the wok. Add in oil until smoky hot. Add in all the spare ribs and stir fry it for a minute or two. Add in the remaining sauce. Boiled for a few minutes or until it is almost caramelized. 

• Served on plate and garnish as desire, with or without white boiled rice. 

My buddies basically sucked on the bones like a cigar. It is truly amazing for summer dish.

CHINESE DRY ASSORTED VEGETABLES WITH STIR FRY VERMICELLI

My English-ex liked Chinese food, because of me perhaps. She rather had noodles or even egg fried rice then white boiled rice, because of the taste(she claimed white rice taste nothing). I know she preferred noodles so I tried to make her the dish as much as I could. Thus, she is a pescetarian and loves seafood a lot.

I used to cook her vegetarian vermicelli. She loved it a lot as far as I can tell. Few days ago, I was cleaning up my kitchen and found a pack of Chinese assorted vegetable packet, which I had bought long time ago just for her.Well, it has been a while and I was thinking there is no point of me to keeping it any more now. I don't want to throw it away as it is a real delicacy where it seldom be found in any Chinese supermarket. The taste is very authentic as that was what my mum used to cook for me when I was young during some certain occasions. I think that was why I bought this pack, hopefully to share with my ex, but there will be no longer the chance to do so now.

The memorial packs

Ingredients:-

• Dried Assorted Vegetables Pack - Black Moss, Dried Lily Flowers, Dried Bean Curd, Chinese Mushroom, Dried Black Fungus, Dried White Nuts and Red Dates.

• Add a personal touch of slice baby corns and mange touts

• half of clove of chopped garlic

• slices of gingers

• Vermicelli, half the pack

• 5 tablespoon of dark soy sauce

• 4 tablespoon of light soy sauce

• 2 tablespoon vinegar

• 2 teaspoon of sugar

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil

• dash of black pepper

• dash of cornstarch

• slice of tomatoes to garnish

Soak everything together until soften

After.

Preparations:-

• Soaked the dry vegetables (besides the black moss, as it will break off and separate like dust) for an hour until it is soften. Drain the water. Slice the dry bean curb, mushroom and black fungus.

• Break off the shell of dried white but, slice into half and dig out the bits in the middle of the fresh.

• Boiled a kettle water, poured in on the vermicelli, until soft (estimate around 10 minutes maximum). Drain the water and set loosing it on a large bowl or plate for it to cold down.

Stir fry vermicelli

Add in the dry assorted vegetables

Directions:-

• Heat up the wok, drizzle olive oil and when it's smoky hot, add garlic and stir fry until fragrance. Add in vermicelli. Stir it. Add in dark soy sauce, dash of soy sauce, salt, sesame oil and vinegar. Stir fry the vermicelli until the colours are even. Add in some water to prevent the bottom of the wok to burn.

• Transfer it to a plate cooling it down.

• On the other wok, heat it up again, add in the remaining of the garlic and ginger. Stir until fragrance. Add in lily flowers and mushroom. stir fry for a minute and add in bean curb, white nuts and black fungus. Step by step for the ingredients which is slow to cook first to easily done. Add in baby corns, mange tout and red dates. At last, in the black moss. Stir it vigorously, add in the soy sauce, salt, sugar, black pepper and a bit of water with the cornstarch to thicken the sauce.  

• Top up on the vermicelli and garnish with tomatoes.

PORK LIVER SOUP

I used to go for supper with my colleagues after work at 4 am and we would loved to order a big bowl of "Pork Liver Soup" and fight for the livers. It was really happy back then. I can have nothing but the soup and a bowl of rice only. Pork liver soup could taste quite gross if it doesn't prepare properly. I had cooked a few times of it in UK but it always taste, not right. At last I found out that it is the liver problem, not the way I cooked.

Fresh liver should buy in Chinatown instead of getting it from Asda or Morrison. Chinese supermarkets sell the nicest and fresh liver as we Asian will actually buy, cook and eat it ourselves compare to the white people where they only purchase it for doggy's meal. I remembered telling my English friend once that I love to eat pig livers and she looked at me as if she just "saw a ghost" expression. She said that liver is for dog's meal.Cultural crash again. Actually pig liver is really good in nourishing our liver.

Ingredients

• Pork livers of course. 
• Slice of gingers
• Chopped garlic
• Fresh corianders
• Oyster mushroom
• Pork balls around 150 gram from mince meat)
• 2 shots of Brandy (My dad told me to use Brandy instead of Chinese white wine)
• Dash of cornstarch
• 2 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 teaspoon of salt
• Dash of white pepper
• 4 bowls of water

Generous on the Brandy

Oyster Mushroom and Pork Balls

Preparations

• Wash the livers on running water until it is clear from blood. Slice but not too thin, around 2 inch.
• Marinade it with cornstarch and brandy. 
• Self-made pork balls - marinade for half an hour with soy sauce, sugar, salt, white pepper and sesame oil. Made it into the shape of balls.

Bring to boil.

Directions

• Heat up the wok, drizzle olive oil and when it's smoky hot, add in gingers and garlic and stir fry until  fragrance. Add in livers and stir vigorously until it is half cooked. 
• Add in the water and pork balls. 
• Bring the wok to boil then turn the heat to medium low for another 2 minutes.
• Add in oyster mushroom, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, sugar and white pepper. Stir it and boil for another 3 minutes.
• Garnish it with coriander.

The most important thing is, the pig liver must be fresh and free of vein. It must not be cook for too long, otherwise it will become old and hard. 

Superb !

CURRY MEE

"Curry Mee" or also known as "Curry Laksa" is one of the popular hawker's dish in Penang. If one is from the Southern part of Malaysia like Johor or Singaporean coming to Penang ordering a bowl of laksa, they will be surprised that the dish will be served in a thick flat noodles together with the hot and sour fish gravy paste. To make it clear, laksa in Penang means "Assam Laksa". Sometimes confusing, although similar in some ways, the primary difference is the stock between the two of them (Curry Laksa aka Curry Mee and Assam Laksa). Assam laksa is based on sour tamarind paste with fish stock. However, the Penang Curry Mee version is served almost white, the first glance of it one might think it is a noodle cooked in a hot soapy water. It sometimes looks dull or boring at first but once the chilli paste is added in, the white soup suddenly transform into a delicious curry gravy with top layer filled with red spicy oil. It works like magic when the both of them join together.

Penang Curry Mee is serve with cube of "too huik" (pig blood), cuttlefish, "see hum" (fresh cockles), prawns, egg, bean sprouts, tofu puff top-up with yellow noodles and sometimes "bee hoon" (vermicelli) too. With a handful of fresh mint leaves to finishing the touch, it makes the perfect blend of Penang very special one and only Curry Mee. What is so special about this authentic Currry Mee?, one may asked. Well, you have to be a Penangites to understand that.