Back to basics - dried mandarin or tangerine peel 陳皮

Chan pei 陳皮 directly translated as 'ancient old skin', it is basically dried mandarin or tangerine peel. The reason why it is called ancient old skin is because it is not freshly dried peel it must be aged for at least a year before used.

Towards the end the year to spring, many people will eat a lot mandarins, tangerines or satsuma. Have you ever thought of using the peel instead of chucking

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Back to basics - Homemade five spice powder 自製五香粉

Chinese five spice is a classic flavouring in many Chinese cooking. I have bought and used many different brands of five spice powder. I noticed they all smell different and some didn't have much aroma at all.

Though it is called five spice, it is not a concrete rule to use only five type of spices. Five spice powder can contain 5 or more spices in any proportions. Common spices used can be

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The basic - How to peel and core a pineapple S E Asian way

I love fresh pineapple and get them quite often when it is on offer. Fresh pineapple I get from the supermarket is not usually ripe enough to eat right away. I normally keep it for few days till the skin has turned yellowish or orangey brown. Do keep an eye on the stem, if you see any mould make sure you wipe it off with a damp cloth or wipe with some breach just on the cut end. If the mould gets

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The basic - how to make crispy fried shallot

I use a lot of crispy shallot both in Chinese and S E Asian cooking.These are some of the dishes I add fried shallots:- sprinkling on any Chinese.Thai/Vietnamese noodle soups or Malay noodle soups like laksa or ayam soto etc..- Chinese mix and stir noodles (kon low mein 干撈麵)- cooked Chinese green (yaw choi 油菜) like choi sum or pak choi with oyster sauce and sprinkling of fried shallot and fried

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