cod fish recipes: August 2008

Shanghai Bean Paste Pancake

Chinese: 豆沙鍋餅 (do sa war bin)This stuffed bean paste pancake is typical of Shanghainese snack or dim sum. Very easy to make and nice to go with a cup of tea.Recipe - Serve about 4For the pancake:1 egg110g flour (about 1 cup)1 cup of water1 tbsp of oil1 tsp of oil for greasing the panabout 250g of red bean paste 豆沙 (homemade as recipe or in a tin from supermarket) 2 tbsp of flour paste (mix

Red Braised Pork

Chinese: 紅燒肉 (Hong Shao Rou)Nearly every Chinese family in China and all over the world has their own method and secret recipe for Hong Shao Rou. Vietnamese and Thai also have very similar method of cooking pork. This stewed pork is the ultimate comfort food. Hong Shao Rou should always use belly pork with skin which is stewed till very soft and tender.For my version, see recipe below:Recipe -

Chinese Roast Belly (Siu Yuk)

Some of you may have seen this recipe which I posted on the BBC food board ages ago.I bought a big piece of belly from Morrisons (ask the butcher), so it is time I make some of this fattening but very yummy and crispy belly pork.Thin belly slices will not work with this recipe. You need a whole piece of belly pork at least 2 lb (l kg) in weight up to 2 kg. To get the thick and crispy crackling

Chilli Crab

One thing I really miss living in the UK is live crabs. In UK we get boiled crabs but live crabs are so difficult to find and can be very expensive. I have tried frozen cooked crabs from Lidl they were full of water and hardly any meat at all. Today I saw some frozen raw crabs from the Chinese supermarket. I have to give this a try. Chilli crab is something I have in mind that I have not had for

Fish Fragrant Aubergine

Lidl's aubergines were less than 30p ea last weekend. I got to buy some. Aubergine is probably one of my favourite vegetable, if you cook it right it’s sweet, soft and scrumptiously good but if it is not cooked through it’s like eating paper pulp, strange vegetable. Moussaka and Fish Fragrant aubergine are probably my favourites. I am no expert in Greek cooking so I will just post a

Wontons

In Chinese various names depending on region:餛飩(Mandarin, mainly from northern or north east china, pronounced as 'hun tun')雲吞(Cantonese, pronouced as 'won ton' as we all know),抄手(only in Sichuan, pronouced as 'chau shou')Wontons are quick and easy snack for a lot of Chinese. I haven't met anyone who doesn't like wontons.I like them deep fried or boiled as dumplings with a spicy sauce Szechuan

Nutella cake

Sunday baking as usual.I found this nutella cake recipe from Good food mag . Was inspired by it but like to use more Nutella than just 4 tbsp in a large cake and don't like the cinnamon in chocolate cake . So I made up my own mix with less butter, sugar and a lot more nutella. The mixture filled about 1/2 the tin, it grew and grew in the oven to more like a little mountain. I was really pleased

Stuffed cucumber

If you like stuffed bitter melon but don't like the bitterness you will like stuffed cucumber. The sauce for stuffed bitter melon is normally quite strong to cover the bitter taste while the sauce for stuffed melon is normally very mild not to interfere with the delicate taste of cucumber. Chinese winter melon or courgette can also be used for this recipe. If using courgette do not

Braised Fish with tofu

This is a common type of every day home cooking without a classic name. Nothing exotic just yummy good food.For the recipe: (serve 2 -3)Ingredients: (all ingredients are approx., use more or less to your taste)1 whole fish (like trout, sea bass or sea bream. You can also use fish fillet or fish steaks, allow for 2 - 3 servings)2 - 3 large squares of Chinese tofu* (about 300 - 400g)cooking oil1

Laksa Lemak or Nyonya Laksa

Some of you may have seen this recipe before. Nothing new just thought of adding this to the blog together with last post Penang Laksa. Picture a bit dark I will replace it when I make it again.Laksa Lemak is sometime called Nyonya laksa – this is a coconut curry soup base noodles. Sambal belacan and lime (or local lime called limau kasturi) is commonly serves with this laksa, which you can stir

Penang Laksa or Assam Laksa

This laksa is very popular in Penang, Malaysia. It is a tangy, spicy fish noodles soup, not to be confused with the creamy coconut laksa normally called laksa lemak or Nyonya laksa.Traditional laksa does not use fish sauce or fresh coriander, but you can add some if you like. It is quite difficult to replicate the exact flavour of Penang laksa due to some of the ingredients not easily

Donkey Roly Poly

Chinese: 驢打滾 (Re da Kun) When you read the title you probably think what the hell am I talking about? Ever seen a donkey doing a roly poly on dusty yellow sand? That is how the name of this sweet cake came from. I think the name is really cute and sweet. Basically this is a sweet rice roll with aduki bean paste filling and rolled in toasted soya flour. A

Red Bean Paste

Chinese: 紅豆沙 (hong dao sa)Red bean paste is a very common sweet filling for many chinese buns and cakes.Easy to make but take a bit of time and patient.Ingredients:1lb or 450g Aduki bean or red bean (in chinese)about 2 litres water1 cup of sugar or more if you like it sweeter1 cup of cooking oil (don't skimp on the oil or the bean paste will taste sandy and look crumbly, for traditional recipe

Red bean Ice lollies

I made a batch of red bean paste yesterday. I cooked extra beans to make some lollies and red bean sweet drink.Red bean lolly is popular in the far east but never seen any in the west. I wonder why, it's tasty and full of goodness than artificial colouring and flavouring in most lollies these days.So how do you make it? Very very easy. Boil some aduki beans till really soft. Water to beans volume

Mapo Tofu

Chinese called this Mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐, loosely translated in English as 'pockmarked woman tofu'. Several legends all slightly different telling the story how this dish was developed. The story I read said at the end of Ching Dynasty, in Chengdu (Sichuan) by the Wan Fu bridge, a pockmarked woman took over her husband restaurant after he died. There were few street traders who frequently ate in that

Shanghainese Noodle Pancake

Chinese: 兩面黃 (liang mein huang)This a Shanghai street food, in translation this is called 'two yellow faces' (or two sides brown). This noodle dish makes excellent lunch. Cook like a stuffed pancake. Outside crispy inside soft and filled with a meat and vegetable filling.Very easy to make. Best noodles to use are those fresh thin noodles available from Chinese supermarket.recipe enough for 1 or

A New Look

Just downloaded a three coloumns layout which I have been looking for sometime, so I can squeeze in more information.Bear with me for a while there will be few changes here and there.Let me know if you like this format.

Fried chicken buns

I find fried buns much easier to make and cook then the steam type. Here I am again making another batch fried buns, this time with chicken. Can also make this as flat buns, same as the beef buns posted earlier. For the bread dough:200g white bread flour100g plain flour2 tbsp sugar¾ tsp of salt¾ tsp of quick acting yeast2 tbsp of cooking oil160 – 175 ml of water

Chicken, mixed vegetables and tofu with gravy

This tofu dish is a common cantonese home cooking. Simple, colourful and quite delicious. Once you have done all the prep and cutting, it only takes 5 - 8 minutes to cook.Ingredients:Chicken and marinate1 large chicken leg or chicken breast, remove skin, deboned and cut into 1 cm cubes1 tbsp of light soypinch of ground pepperdash of sesame oil1 heap tsp of cornflourOther ingredients2 cloves of

Spicy fish (Ikan Panggang)

Had a small bbq yesterday with some spicy mackerals. They are very easy to make and tasty. To bbq best use a bbq fish holder to prevent the fish breaking into pieces. If you don't fancy a bbq, the fish can be grilled.To make a rempah or spice paste:3 - 4 shallots (about 100g), peeled2 fat clove of garlic, peeled1 small piece of galangal, peeled1 stalk of lemongrass, use only the middle less woody