I was shocked when I saw lotus roots for sale in a normal English supermarket…hesitated for one minute and bought one. I hesitated because on one side I haven’t cook with it for ages!… but on the other side I used to love them so much when I was living in China.

My home town Suzhou (about 60 miles away from Shanghai) is famous for its water features, rivers and ponds all around the city as Chinese call it the ‘oriental Venice’. When I was little,  every summer there were fields of fields of lotus blossoming in the ponds, like fairies floating on the water with koi swimming among the leafs …shame lots of the ponds are filled for buildings now!

You can always find lotus roots and seeds (sell as a whole like shower heads ) in the local markets. It is very common just to east them raw as summer snacks.  Fresh lotus roots taste a bit sweet, crunchy and juicy. Traditional Chinese medicine says it’s very good for calm your body down and help to clear the rubbish inside you. So Chinese have a long history to make them into various foods. How amazing they are available in high street supermarkets in the UK now, suppose the foodies here are combining more and more exotic ingredients in the cooking!

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Ingredients (serves 3-4):

Fresh lotus roots: 500g

Dried Goji berries: 10g

Honey: 1 tablespoon

Sugar: 20g

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1. When you buy a whole lotus root, it normally weights over 1kg with 3-4 big blocks. Remove the hard links between the blocks and choose the fat ones for salad as they are tender.

2. Peel the skin of the lotus roots by using a peeler.

3. Cut the roots into thin slices about 2-3mm each.

4. Stir in 1 tablespoon of honey and  20g of sugar, or just add the amount of sweetness you like. Not too sweet though, otherwise won’t be healthy!

5. Soak 10g of dried Goji berry with some hot/boiling water (shown as in Picture 5) for couple of minutes.

6. Pour the water with the Goji berries together into the lotus roots, mix well and preserve for at least 2 hours. Tastes even better if you leave them in fridge over night.

Goji berries are also very good for you, protecting the liver and eyes as traditional Chinese medicine book says!

In Shanghai area we are used to stir frying green beans with chopped garlic. It tastes good enough and  my mum has been cooking like this for years…until my Cantonese mother-in-law came to visit, I started to know a better way of cooking them. All thanks for the odd Cantonese preserves: Gan-lan-cai. In spite of its unpleasant looking, it is salty, nutty, appetising and gives the bland vegetable a much more fragrant taste. I was amazed about the combination and can’t cook green beans without this secret ingredient now, so as a result, I will allow the ugly bottle sitting in my cupboards for ever.

In this recipe I am showing my mother-in-law’s original version: green beans and mince pork stir fry. It also tastes great without mince pork if you are a vegetarian or just want to be even healthier,  but has to have the secret ingredient though.

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Ingredients (serves 2-3）

Green beans: 250g

Mince pork: 100g

Garlic: 2-3 cloves, finely chopped

Gan-lan-cai(橄榄菜, mustard leaves preserved with olives): 2 table spoons

Olive oil, salt for seasoning

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1. Get all the ingredients ready. Gan-lan-cai is a kind of Cantonese preserves, widely available in Chinese stores. It works bit like capers in western cooking, salty and enhancing the flavours of the dish.

2. Mix half of the Gan-lan-cai (a close looking shown in Picture 3) and garlic into the mince pork.

3. Set the wok on high heat, preheat some olive oil (1-2 table spoon) for about a minute and put in the green beans, stir fry for about a minute.

4. In go with the mixed mince pork, stir fry gradually into the green beans for couple of minutes.

5. Put the other half of the Gan-lan-cai and chopped garlic into the wok, carry on stirring for another couple of minutes until the skin of the green beans start to have a curly looking. During this time the ingredients in the wok could be a bit too dry, just pour some cold water (couple of tablespoons at each time) in to give moisture. Be aware not to put to much water as you want crunchy green beans with browned mince port bits.

6. Season the dish with some salt (not too much as the Gan-lan-cai is very salty already) and job done!

First of all I need to make clear that this recipe is nothing to do with Chinese cooking! But as it is so easy and quick to do, yet tastes delicious and looks beautiful, that’s exactly the type of food I adore.

I did this for lunch yesterday and was really happy with the result: crunchy toast with creamy avocado and silky salmon, very balanced flavour and sexy colour! When I was munching them I couldn’t help moaning to my husband:” It can be a quick lunch, an evening snack or great party food…with a bit salad it also can be served as a ‘professional looking’ starter when inviting guests to dinner…” “Can you post your multi-functional dish to your blog in case you forget in couple of weeks time?” he said with his mouth full.

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Ingredients (Serves 2-3)

Half a loaf of good white bread, unsliced

1 large avocado

6 slices of smoked salmon

Olive oil, salt and pepper

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1. Choose good bread as it is crucial for good toasts, I am using an organic white loaf in this recipe. Cut the bread into 3 thick slices (about 2cm each) and then cut each slice diagonally into 2.

2. Choose good quality smoked salmon. I know it is expensive, but since it has such a strong and salty flavour, you won’t eat too much of it!

3. Put the sliced bread under a grill or in a toaster, watch the time ticking!

4. Meanwhile roughly smash the avocado by using a spoon, it’s OK to have bits in the mash as they will give more texture.

5. When the toasts are done, spread the avocado mash on each piece and top on one slice of smoked salmon. Drizzle some olive oil over them as well as some salt and pepper. Bite in!

The weather man on tele just said this Easter is the coldest ever in record ! As I looked at my garden, it is still covered by snow from last weekend! OK, I should accept the fact and do something to cheer myself up…obviously not gardening…so what can I do? Ah, cooking!

In China we don’t celebrate Easter , but since I came to living in the UK I have realised why chocolates are made into egg shapes So I decided to bring in some Chinese elements and this is it: classic Chinese egg recipe with a special decoration to celebrate the Easter!

China is famous of its tea culture and there are absolutely loads of tea varieties. We have also been cooking with tea for hundreds of years. Every year when the winter comes, a special warm and spicy smell will start to spread in the back streets. If you can find where it is from, you often see a old lady sitting by a giant casserole selling boiled eggs, in the special red tea flavoured sauce. Most of the Chinese love this snack and lot of them can’t help to stop and buy one!

Recently this ancient recipe had a big modernisation. It soon spreads out on the Chinese internet: using herb leafs to decorate the eggs! As soon as I saw the method I knew that I have to try it out! And today is a good day, one day before Easter in a cold spring, do a little adventure in my kitchen and cheer up by the warm smells!

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Ingredients:

Egg: as many as you want, recommend 4-6 for this recipe

Red tea bag: 1

Rock sugar (or white sugar): 10g

Dark soy sauce: 15ml or 2 table spoons

Star anise: 2

Salt: 3g

Herb leafs: 1 for each egg, I used parsley in this recipe

Unwanted CLEAN stockings: 1-2, also can use muslin instead

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1.  Prepare all the spices (tea bag, sugar, star anise, dark soy sauce  and salt), put them in a pot and and add about 500ml water (the amount of water is not strict, just make sure all the eggs will be covered later).

2. Choose some fresh herbs as you like, soak the leafs in hot water until they are soft. I used parleys because their leafs have nice curly edges, and also the size of the leafs matches the size of the eggs very well. Others like coriander and mint can be also good choices.

3. Boil some eggs (5 minutes in boiling water) and peel the shells off. I did three because they were all I could find in my kitchen! Gently stick the herbs on each egg. I did this in a bowl of water as I found it’s easier to spread the leaf to make a nice shape on the egg.

4. Now the fun bit. Cut the stockings into proper sizes for holding an egg, about 15cm.  Place one egg in each piece and make a knot on each side to lock the egg in (shown as in Picture 4).

5. Put all the eggy parcels in the spice pot and boil for ten minutes. The air will be full of the smell of tea and star anises! Switch the fire off and leave the eggs to soak for another 2-3 hours (don’t leave it too long as the leafs will get too weak to keep a sharp edge of their print). Open the parcel and enjoy your artwork!

It is the first time I tried the herb decoration. Traditionally we cook the eggs with shells on, crack them by a spoon and soak for several hours. Peel the shells and the eggs will have marble patterns on them. It’s good to serve with salads either cold or warm.

Remember when I was little, though the government started to ‘reform’ the economy, normal people’s life were still largely in a ‘planned economy’ style. Choices in the shop were so little and basic that people always had to ‘process’ the goods they bought to fit the different needs. When the Chinese New Year approaching, it could take a whole week for my mum and grandma to prepare the new year eve’s meal. Like the dessert ‘rice ball’, it has a nice meaning of ‘celebrating the family gathering together ‘ and is one of the ‘must have’ festival food. My mum and grandma used to make them from sticky rice powder and different fillings with red beans, black sesame or peanut, etc. When entering 1990s, a lot of food could be bought pre-made which had saved  mums’ loads of time. But as time moves on, people have becoming so keen to ‘make money ‘ and ‘enjoy’ themselves, those busy and happy days preparing towards the new year has gradually disappeared. Instead are those endless ‘entertaining’ meals in the restaurants, with clients, bosses, colleagues, ‘important’ friends……Many people say: “It’s more tiring in the new year’s holiday than working days!”

Thanks for the peaceful life I can enjoy now, I made some sticky rice ball with sweat sesame pastry in the just passed Chinese New Year. The fresh ‘homemade’ ones were silky smooth and very fragrant, miles better than those commercial ones! And most importantly, I found the warm childhood feeling back which I haven’t got close to for years…

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Ingredients:

For rice balls (makes about 40 rice balls):

Sticky rice powder: 400g

Water: 320ml (warm)

Sweet black sesame paste: 200g (click here for the recipe)

For syrup soup (per person):

Water: 200ml

Soft dark brown sugar: 10g

Ginger: 1cm piece

Crushed roast peanuts for dressing

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1.  Measure 400g of sticky rice powder in a mixing bowl. You can get this in every Chinese stores (I mean ‘every’ because it is one of the most important ingredients for making Chinese desserts) but make sure you have the ‘sticky’ type of rice powder.

2.  Turn the cattle on and warm up 320g of tap water (rice powder : water: 5:4). You need warm water (half way to boil) to mix the powder with, cold water makes the pastry crack while boiling water makes it too sticky to work with. Gently pour the water into the mixing bowl and use a folk to stir the water into the rice powder ( as shown in Picture 2).

3. Use hands to combine the crumbles into a dough and it should only take couple of minutes to form. The texture of the dough is quite different from a flour dough, ‘squashy’ is the word I would say, like sand mixed with water, makes a sharp crack when you brake it, but still soft and a bit sticky!

4. Roll the dough into long shape on a clean working surface, cut it into small even pieces by hand or knife, about 3x3cm per lump. Meanwhile, make the sweet black sesame paste into small balls about 1.5×1.5cm. See as in Picture 4.

5. Pick up one lump of the rice pastry, roll it into a ball and flatten it into a round sheet (between 0.5-1cm thick, not too thin). Place the sesame paste ball in the middle. See as in Picture 5.

6. Fold the edge of the rice pastry onto the sesame paste until it is well covered. See as in Picture 6.

7. Gently roll the rice ball with two hands until the surface is smooth.

8. You can store the rice balls in the freezer, just lightly dust a container and put the rice balls in. Make sure there are gaps between each rice ball so that they don’t stick to each other. It’s not a good idea to store them in a fridge or leave them in the open air as the pastry is very easy to dry out and crack.

9. Now all the hard work has done! They are super easy to cook. Put some boiling water in a pot and cook the rices balls (normally 4 -5 balls per person) until they float onto the surface. If you cook from frozen ones, leave them one more minute to make sure the inside is done.

10. They can be served with the water boiled with. Also I have a ‘posh’ version here to go with: the syrup soup. Put 10g of soft dark brown sugar and a piece of fresh ginger in a pot, in go with 200ml of water and bring to boil. Serve with the cooked rice balls. Last thing to add icing on the cake, sprinkle some crushed roast peanut on the top!

The pastry is silky smooth and chewy with the sweet and fragrant sesame paste when you bite into it, and just like the squid ink is in fashion, isn’t it cool to eat something black

Heavily coloured by soy sauce, this dish might not look that pretty in many peoples’ eyes, but to those who lives in Shanghai region, the darker colour the more delicious! Because we love to cook with soy sauce, in pork dish, fish dish, poultry dishes and many vegetable dishes. We even give the soy-sauced dishes a name called “Red Cooked”.  In many mums’ brains, there are only two cooking methods –” Red cooked” or “White cooked” (as with or without soy sauce)! Coming back from the market, they will often ask their family members: “How do you like the chicken I bought today? Red or white?” Oh, Dear! How about “Yellow” as I some how fancy curry today!

Anyway, this slow cooked pork shank dish is one of my childhood’s favourites, the pork is cooked very tender with a warm spicy sauce, a particular comfy winter dish. And tell you a secret, the eggs taste even better as they have absorbed all the flavours!

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Ingredients (Serves 6-8):

Pork shank: 1-2 (about 800-1000g)

Egg: 6 (or count as one person each)

Dark soy sauce: 3 tablespoon (approx 45ml)

Light soy sauce: 4 tablespoon (approx 60ml)

Shaoxing rice wine(or dry sherry: 2 tablespoon (approx 30ml)

Spices: ginger 1 piece about 3cm long; spring onion 2; star anise 3; Asian cinnamon stick 1 about 7-8cm long; Rock candy 30-40g (you can also use normal white/light brown sugar but rock candy will give the dish a shiny looking and sticky taste)

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1) Get out the pork shank, use a sharp knife to score the skin roughly and poach it in cold water until boiling. This step calls “Fei-Shui” in Chinese cooking, a very common way to wash off the unpleasant smell of meat. I normally put extra ginger and spring onion in the water to enhance the effect.

2) While the pork “Fei-Shui”-ing, measure the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and Shaoxing wine, prepare all the spices and put them in a casserole dish.

3) Switch off the heat, wash off the ‘dirts’ on the pork under a running tap, then put it in the prepared casserole dish and back on the heat again. Pour some water (hot or cold doesn’t matter) in the dish just until the pork shank is covered,  bring it to boil on high heat and leave it to simmer with lid on for at least one hour on low heat. Try to poke the pork shank by using a chopstick or fork, if it easily goes into the meat, this means it is ready to eat.

4) Boil some eggs and remove the shells, evenly make four scores around the eggs (shown as in the last picture) and add them into the casserole. Boil the dish on medium-high heat without lid for another 15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced to thicken.

You can also cook belly pork with this recipe, the collagen in pork skin is very good for making your skin look younger as well

Chinese desserts may be shadowed by the fancy looks of cakes and tarts in the western world, but their tastes are ever as good and special. Very different from the butter/chocolate/jam you are familiar with, Chinese dessert often use another set of ingredients to bring out the sweet flavours. Sesame paste is one of the ‘must have’ to make Chinese desserts. It has a special sandy texture and of course, its overwhelming fragrance. Not convinced? just open a bottle of sesame oil and smell!

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Ingredients (for about half a pound of the paste):

Black sesame seeds: 100g;

Caster sugar: 80g;

Butter: 40g;

Lard: 30g

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This is so easy to make, you need no more than 10 minutes!

1) Toast the sesame seeds in a pan for about 3-4 minutes or until you can slightly smell the sesame fragrance. Watch by the fire as they are quite easy to get burnt!

2) Pour the toasted seeds into a food processor (mine is 1000w power) and mill about 20 seconds until they turn into a rough powder texture (bit wet as the oil in the seeds leaking out). If you don’t have a food processor, you can also do this with a mortar and pestle.

3) Get a mixing bowl, measure 100g of white caster sugar, 40g of butter and 30g of lard, in go with the sesame powder and mix them well until all the ingredients combine together. Traditionally the ratio of sesame/sugar/fat should be 1:1:1, but I have reduced the amount of sugar and fat simply because it’s healthier. Also in old times Chinese didn’t have butter, so full amount of lard is used as the ‘fat’ element, I certainly don’t want to do that!

That’s it! You can use this paste as a sweet filling to many Chinese desserts and pastries. The featured image and last picture show a very famous Chinese dessert called ‘rice ball’. Though I have altered the traditional receipt of black sesame paste, it can only be more healthy and delicious!

As the big feast season is approaching, have you switched on your taste buds? When I was searching for pork ribs in the super market earlier, I saw loads of rolled up pork for roasting instead. Ah yes, the sunny BBQ season has gone, why am I still cooking the ribs for? Let’s forget about the weight watching and store some fat for the cold winter!

So, as a result, I bought a good piece of belly pork because I have a fantastic Cantonese recipe of roasting pork. It has to be belly pork, the more layers between the meat the better, and my version gives it extra crackling because this is all the roast pork about.

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Ingredients(serves 3- 4)

Belly pork: 600g

Ginger: 20g

Spring onion: 2

Star anise: 2

Cinnamon stick: 1 (use the Asian version if you can)

Chinese five spice: 1 teaspoon

Salt: 2 teaspoon

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1) Traditionally the belly pork is roasted as a whole piece, but in this dish I cut it into 4x4cm pieces as I want the ‘extra’ cracklings on the sideways. Put them in a big wok/pot, add in plenty water to cover the meat.

2) Add in the fresh and dry spices: ginger, spring onion, star anise and cinnamon stick into the wok/pot.

3) Poach the pork for 1 hour with lid on. This will shorten the roasting time so that while the outside is crispy, the inside is still succulent.

4) Drain the water, then use a toothpick to make loads of holes on the pork skin. You will see the skin immediately start to sweat as the melted fat releasing from the holes you made. Rest the pork for at least 10 minutes (meanwhile you can set the oven on 230c) and wipe them dry with kitchen towels. Add in one teaspoon each of the Chinese five spice powder and salt, mix them well so that the pork chucks are evenly coated.

5) Lay the pork chucks with the skin upwards in a roasting pan. Sprinkle another teaspoon of salt on the top of the skin, this will really help to make a tasty crispy crackling. Roast the pork for 30 minutes until they are golden brown.

Serve with English mustard.

It was those good lazy uni days in Shanghai when I tasted this dish for the first time. There were always so many little restaurants and takeaways around the campus, same as everywhere in the world. At that time six of us lived in the same dormitory, yes, I mean dormitory, 6 girls living in one room under 15 square metres, the typical Chinese way of herding young adults as we were not allowed to choose where to live while in university.

Of course there was no place to cook in the dormitory. So when we were bored of the canteen food, we would go to the little restaurants for a treat. The sticky lemon chicken fillet was one of the comfy kiddy food always popular on the menu. I guess it is a Cantonese dish as it’s quite westernised. So, when one of the girls from Canton region recommended it, the rest of us all fell love with it immediately. After that, it became the must-order-dish every time we went for a treat.

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Ingredients (serves 4)

Chicken breast: 500g or 2-3 pieces

Corn flour: 3 tablespoon (2 for batter, 1 for sauce)

Lemon: 2 (1 for marinate, 1 for sauce)

Sugar: 2 tablespoon

Shaoxing wine ( or dry sherry): 2 tablespoon (about 10-15ml)

Cooking oil, salt and black pepper

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1) Prepare the chicken breast into thin pieces (just under 1cm thick). I like to use a sharp knife and ‘open up’ the thickest part of the chicken breast (score the centre, cut horizontally from the centre to left and right, just like open a double-door wardrobe) as shown in picture 2. The benefit of doing so is that the breast still keeps in a whole piece (easy for pan fry) and easy to absorb the flavoured batter . You can also use a tenderiser to beat it to the required thickness.

2) Squeeze one lemon juice in a small bowl, season to your taste with salt and black pepper.

3) Pour the lemon juice made in step 2 and 2 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine into the chicken fillet. The wine will make the meat really tender while it is cooked. Marinate for 5 minutes.

4) Stir 2 tablespoon of corn flour into the chicken fillets so that it creates a light batter on the meat. If you want extra crunchy texture, add one egg in the batter, stir them well and dip the chicken fillets into some bread crumbs before pan fry. I find it too ‘commercial’ because a lot of Chinese takeaways do this to make the piece ‘bigger’. As the chicken breast is quite dry, my ‘honest’ version is crispy enough and use less oil.

5) Heat the pan with 2-3 tablespoon of cooking oil, fry the chicken fillet for both sides until golden brown. It takes about 2-3 minutes for each side on a medium heat (high heat will burn the batter). Add in some oil while frying so the fillets won’t burnt. Sorry I forgot to take the picture!

6) For the sticky lemon sauce: squeeze one lemon juice in a small pan, put it on low heat and stir in 2-3 tablespoon of sugar until it’s melt. Slightly season with salt and pepper (be careful don’t over power the sweet and sour taste of the lemon syrup)and bring it to boil. Mix 1 tablespoon of corn flour and some cold water, gently pour it into the lemon juice and stir until the sauce thickened, turn the heat off. See picture 6 & 7.

Serve the dish as you like. I always cut the whole fillet into long strips and pour the sticky lemon sauce over the dish-shiny glaze!