San Choy Bau

Arizona's dish of the day. Tasty, and the mince was squishier than is usual, which helped it sit on the lettuce better. 

 

Satay Pork Patties and Udon Noodles

Make pork meatballs with satay sauce and diced fried onions. Next time I might put some panko in them as they were a bit too soft to handle easily. Fry, set aside.

Fry up some suitable veg for Chinese style, add the rest of the satay sauce, add prepped udon noodles, serve with meatballs on top.

This won several hoofs up, so next time I'll try to take a pic.

Pork san choy bau

Trim a pork loin (or two) and slice thinly across the grain. Marinate in a sauce, on this occasion made from:

• plenty of honey 
• five spice 
• cumin 
• coriander
• hoi sin sauce 
• salt, pepper 
• chili
• soy sauce 

Cut up a bunch of veg suitable for a quick fry. Cook the meat on high very briefly, remove. Cook the veg (also briefly), combine the two. Serve on lettuce leaves, with rice, topped with peanuts and fresh coriander.

Sticky chicken with Coconut Rice and Choi Sum

Well the title's pretty much the recipe but anyway. I did it with drumsticks but the kids (being lazy of eating off the bone, I suspect) requested the same but with chicken kebabs next time. Well there you go.

For the marinade: 

• Hoi sin sauce (fair amount for six people, about a third of a cup) 
• Sweet chili sauce (a fair dollop) 
• Dollop of honey 
• A splatter of Sambal Oelek or however hot you want it 
• Sprinkle of Five Spice 

Mixy-mixy the chicken (OK I'll do cut up thighs next time, and kebab them later). Cook when appropriate.

For the rice: cook it with a tin of coconut cream and make up the rest with water. I chucked in a few Kaffir Lime leaves, whole. it turned out really nicely.

Once the chicken an rice are both pretty much cooked: 
Cut the choi sum into 5cm lengths, toss with a glug of Chinese cooking wine, and arrange artistically in and around the chicken in a nice fresh serving dish. Cover with foil and pop back in the oven for a further 5 minutes just to heat/wilt the greens. Serve fragrantly.

Chinese New Year ideas

 

 

 

Chinese Pouffies (Steamed Dumplings)

Actually you can stuff these with anything - leftovers? Anything that can be made into a stuffing-ish consistency will do, including chicken and ricotta, ham and cheese, even roast pork and cabbage. It's all good. Haven't tried any sweet versions yet but I bet they'd work.

1. Make a starter with
1/2 cup each of water and flour, 2 tsp dried yeast, 1 tsb sugar. Cover with cling film and leave to rise for at least 30 minutes or until it's looking like something from a sci-fi movie.

2. Make the dough, by adding 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 tsp salt and 2 tblsp veg oil to the sci-fi starter. Have to admit I always end up fiddling around with the quantities so this might not be perfect first time.

3. Leave it to rise. It should be nice and soft and slightly sticky by the end.

4. Take off little chunks and pat them out, fill with whatever you're stuffing them with. pinch closed at the top. NOTE: I tried rolling them out first time but it didn't work out so well. You need realtively thicker dough in the centre, where you put the filling on, or it turns soggy and liable to break apart. So I pinch them thinner towards the edges, crimp the little dough-purse shut, and steam them upside down so the smooth side is upwards. Other people steam them smooth-side down.

5. Steam. Probably about 10-13 minutes - they'll be firm when they're done. They'll pouf out so leave space.

6. Serve hot and fresh, with some appropriate dipping sauce. Great after-school snack as well as a nice lunch.