103. A special egg recipe: cooking egg with beef soup

Chinese egg and beef soup

Happy new year!!!


O, I am so sorry for not posting often recently, it seems I have been enjoying too much the paellas that my mother-in-law makes, and in my head it is all about the delicious Spanish food right now, I totally forgot about cooking Chinese. But if you have ever tried my suegra’s food, I am sure you will forgive me. :))) Ha… My mother-in-law said this is a perfect time for me to rest my mind, no need to think what to cook next, and what to buy… So I have been just eating and sleeping… and sunbathing in the sunny Spain. :))

Ok, coming back to cooking Chinese food -- with new year festival’s spirit. This dish is an egg recipe, in Chinese it is called ‘Shao jidan’. Shao is a method of cooking, like ‘Shao’ beef, --- slowly cooking, and ‘jidan’ means eggs. But this dish is quite special, as it is one of the landmark dishes of my ethnic group -- Hui. Talking about this dish, I guess I have to start with cooking beef first. :)

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102. Cooking homemade tofu (with crushed soya beans from making soya milk)

Ok, yesterday, after the whole process of making soya milk, and after drinking homemade soya milk and cleaning up, did you notice there is something left there? -- I call it ‘left over’ crushed soya beans. I hope you haven’t thrown it away yet, as it is still useful -- we are not wasting any of it. Ha…

Since making soya milk at home became so popular, people also came up with many ways of using these ‘left over’ crushed soya beans. For example, many people use it on the skin. --- Confused? :)) It is a secret -- I don’t know if there are any official books talking about it, but it has been practiced by many … ladies -- I learned it from my mum. :) These ‘left over’ crushed soya beans form a kind of paste, of course with some impurities. Just like milk is good for skin, and it can be used when taking a shower or washing your face, soya beans are also very good for making the skin smoother. Moreover, they can be used as a natural exfoliant.

Ok, coming back to their culinary uses... the most common way of using these crushed soya beans is to stir fry them. It sounds a bit crazy -- stir-frying a paste? Yes, and it is very tasty, and extremely nutritious. It is very easy to make, if you are interested, here you go.

Ingredients:

Crushed soya beans (from making soya milk)

Oil, spring onion, ground sichuan peppercorn (optional), salt, sesame oil (optional)

Preparation:

Allow the paste of crushed soya beans sit for a while.
Chop half of the spring onion into small pieces.

Cooking:

1) In a heated wok, add in around 2 -3 tablespoons of oil.

2) When oil is hot, add in 1/3 teaspoon of ground sichuan peppercorn (optional) and chopped spring onion.

3) Stir-fry the spring onion and ground sichuan peppercorn until you can smell the spring onion.

4) Add in the paste of crushed soya beans, stir-fry it with spring onion.

5) Add in around 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and keep on stir-fry the content for further around 3 minutes, until the paste is getting further drier, add in couple of drops of sesame oil if you like. ---

----- Done!!

The taste is very similar to tofu, actually, it probably tastes even more ‘purer’ than tofu, just without the smoothness of normal tofu, but gives a different texture. :)

I really hope you like it. :)) (Sorry I could not find the photos for this dish, I will have to put them on later once I fine them.)

Making soya milk at home

Soya milk and you tiao

These few days, we have been talking about calcium intake.  I am not a big fan of any dairy products, which is a great source of calcium; apart from seafood and green vegetables, my main source of calcium, I think it has got to be --- my favorite soy bean products. Apart from the soybean recipes I shared before, a few friends asked about homemade soya milk, so in these two post, let’s talk about making soya milk at home, and ideas about using ‘left over’ crushed soya beans after making soy milk. :)))

Personally I like, and only like homemade soya milk -- it tastes so much more ‘pure’ than the ones sold in the supermarkets here in UK, especially I don’t like the idea that it is mixed with apple juice. The ones bottled in China contain ingredients other than just pure soya, which probably makes it richer in vitamins, and the taste is not bad, but still, I prefer the homemade version --- :)) I am picky, but once you tried homemade ones, you will know what I mean. :))

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101. Healthy recipe: Chinese lamb and radish soup

Chinese lamb and radish soup

As I said yesterday, if you don’t want to make dumplings for winter solstice day, let’s make a healthy lamb soup. :)) It is another most popular dish for entering winter.

According to the news,  these days, because of the winter solstice day in China, lamb has become a most popular food and the price of lamb has rapidly increased. --- So, it seems many people are celebrating with lamb this year.

This lamb and radish soup is popular not only because of its taste, it is also famous for its health benefits. Probably you are familiar with the reputation of ‘healthy soups’ in China, most of them are from Cantonese cuisine with many herbs, but the recipes of ‘healthy soup’ in Northern China are a totally different story. This is probably why you rarely come across this kind of dish in any Chinese restaurants outside China, as most of them serve Cantonese or southern Chinese cuisine.

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Culture note: Winter solstice in China and the food for the celebration

Happy winter solstice!

How good -- days are getting longer, but it also means that winter is coming. So I am a bit happy and sad at the same time. However, just like poet Shelley said ‘if winter comes, can spring be far behind?’ --- Probably I should enjoy the winter snow, while waiting for the warm spring. :) Oops, I am sorry, I am actually in the sunny Spain being spoiled by my in-laws, and here is nowhere near snowing. :)

Winter solstice celebrations started during the Han dynasty in China, around 2000 years ago. The celebration became more popular later on during the Tang and Song dynasties, and the customs continue til today. It is normally celebrated on the 15th November of the Chinese calendar. In the past, people thought winter solstice was the natural transition between Yin and Yang, so this day was considered as a blessing from ‘above’.

During Han dynasty, winter solstice day was set as a public holiday for family and friends gathering and celebrating together. During the Tang and Song dynasties, it was a day to ‘worship heaven’ (or ‘offer a sacrifice to Heaven) and the ancestors, and hoping to get a blessing. The ceremony was quite serious, if you have been to the Temple of Heaven  in Beijing, where this kind of ceremonies took place, you probably can imagine. :)

Food -- how could there be a celebration in China without food? Ha.. In China, different regions have different food customs on this day. In Beijing area, for example, it is customary to have ‘wonton soup’ on winter solstice day, and noodles on summer solstice day. In many other regions, including northern China, it is more common to have dumplings on winter solstice day.

It is said that in winter is too cold, ears are easily frozen, and the shape of dumplings is just like ear’s, so it is kind of symbolizing ‘taking good care of ear’. Of course, there are many other legends on why Chinese have dumplings on this day.

One of the stories is that having dumplings are for the memory of the famous doctor Zhang Zhongjing. He used to be an official in Changsha, but later he decided to use his medical knowledge to help people. On the way back to his hometown, it was winter solstice day, he saw so many people were frozen in the cold winter without enough nutrients. He then asked his followers to set up fire, in a big wok, he put lamb, chilli and some other Chinese herbal medicine for helping with cold in the wok, and made bread into the shape of ears, boiled it in the soup, then distributed for people to take. After having it, people felt the whole body warming up, the frozen ears were cured. Since then, people would have dumpling on winter solstice day for memorizing Zhang.

There is another traditional food - lamb dish for celebrating winter solstice day, which is particular common in Northern China. It is said that since winter is really coming, people need to prepare and take care their body for against the coldness, lamb is one of the popular food for helping warming up the body, and building up enough energy for winter.

I have some dumpling recipes here already, so my next recipe is a winter healthy recipe lamb and radish soup. Keep tuned. :))

100. A typical Northeast Chinese dish --- “mess stew” with beef, tomato, aubergine and potato

As I was writing this post,  I realized that this my 100th recipe. :) I remember when I started writing, I was very worried if I was going to run out of recipes very shortly, but, hey, this is the number 100 now. :)) So thanks for my friends’ and family’s encouragement, and hope you enjoyed these recipes. :)

Ok, today’s recipe, a stewed dish. As I mentioned before, not everything in northeast Chinese cuisine is about stir-frying; the most representative dishes are actually stews. So here is one of the most common one -- “mess stew”.

-- Ha.. “Mess stew” is a direct translation from its original name in Chinese, “Luan dun”, which literally means "to put everything together to stew", without any particular "rules".
Different people, however, cook it differently. For example, if you look a bit around in the internet, you will find recipes that mix potato, pork, aubergine, green beans, cabbage, and many more things together. I have to admit that I have never tried this kind of mix before, in restaurants, it is almost impossible to find this dish, as it is so ‘homey’, so it is really difficult to say which ingredients are more ‘standard’.

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99. Chinese Steamed dumplings with egg pastry

Chinese egg dumplings

Here, in Italy, everywhere is showing Christmas atmosphere -- the Christmas lights, shops, people, Christmas markets… I am really enjoying seeing people crowed in the streets, preparing Christmas stocks, and enjoying the festival atmosphere -- while searching for my favorite Italian Christmas food for dinner. :))

Are you preparing Christmas gifts and dinner as well? I guess everyone is super busy now. Anyway, if you want to cook something else apart from the traditional Christmas dinner, here is a super presentable Chinese dish.

Well, actually, I don’t know anywhere else you could get this dish in China apart from my dad’s kitchen. It is not one of his inventions, but I have never been able to find it outside home. I guess that one of the reasons is that it is a kind of time-consuming dish, many people could not be bothered.

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98. A contemporary Chinese broccoli recipe: steamed broccoli (V)

Chinese broccoli recipe

My love towards broccoli actually only started in very recent years.  Well, broccoli was only introduced in northern Chinese cuisine less than twenty years ago anyway.

But if I tell you this, you are going to laugh. It all started the time -- you know, the time you begin to think if you will be getting old one day, and if there is anything that could help slowing down aging. :)) So I just happened to read this article about vegetables with anti-aging properties, and broccoli came up on the top of the list; in contrast, potato was described as a vegetable that speeds up the aging process. So, what happened next --- needless to say, for a very long time, I cut of potato from my diet, and had lots of broccoli and avocado. -- Did it help with aging really? Ha… probably. But age is a thing that nobody can revert, and we just treasure this round we could come to experience life in this world. Oh, I did come back to potato as I really couldn’t resist it.

You know that for getting the most out of broccoli, you should either steam it, briefly boil it or stir-fry it. I learned this recipe when I went back home with my parents, my dad made it, he said this was a new recipe super popular in the restaurant nowadays.

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97. Stewed Chinese style sauerkraut pickled Chinese leaves with frozen tofu (V)

Stewed Chinese leaves with tofu

Yesterday, at the German Christmas market in Verona, the smell of sauerkraut was everywhere. I swear my mouth was watering :)), and I really wished I could squeeze through the queuing crowd to grab a portion --- o, o, if only they serve without pork sausage.

Chinese "sauerkraut"

My love towards sauerkraut is all because of its similar taste to pickled Chinese leaves, which makes many northern Chinese ‘emotionally’ attached to. As I said in a previous post, when I found out that I could actually use sauerkraut as pickled Chinese leaves to cook those typical northeast Chinese winter dishes, I was over the moon, especially, you can get sauerkraut in the supermarkets anytime in the year, not like northern pickled Chinese leaves --- you have to wait until winter comes. :)

I used to eat sauerkraut with my dear friend Zhenya in Manchester, she is also a big fan, and she can tell even the slightest differences between sauerkraut made in different countries. She introduced it to me as kind of pickled salad thing, I remember she used to take a big portion of it from its jar for each of us, sometimes it was too sour, we had to almost wink our eyes, but it was really nice --- and it was a really nice time.

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96. Chinese lamb recipe: Dry cooked crispy lamb -- Shao yangrou

Chinese shao yang rou

Hey! Say something cheerful -- I had my first ever Christmas turkey last night! I never had Christmas turkey before, as I said that when my friend Zhenya used to cook me Christmas dinner, she knew that I was never a fan of turkey, or any kinds of meat, she always cooked alternatives for me. But last time, our neighbours invited us for Christmas dinner, (we normally do it as neighbours’ celebration before we all go away for holidays), and my friend decided to make traditional English Christmas dinner, so he cooked turkey along with all of the other traditional roasted vegetables. I didn’t want to say no -- he had been passionately cooking for hours, and proudly presenting his national food, so I finished the piece of turkey in my plate, guess what -- it turned out really good!

We had a such good time, and laughed too much. :)

However, the sad thing is, soon, probably in a few months time, all of our neighbour friends will be moving away, and this might be the last Christmas dinner we celebrated together. :( … I know, you are going to say this is life, but I really don’t like this sad moment, since I came to UK, I made friends, and had to say good-bye to friends too many times…


Anyway, today I hope you enjoy the weekend, and this ‘weekend’ dish. :))

Again, this is a ‘weekend’ dish because it takes longer time to cook --- with three different steps. It is very presentable for if you have guests.

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Winter ingredient: Northeast pickled Chinese leaves ( Chinese style sauerkraut)

Image source:http://dongbeicai.abang.com/od/dbss/ig/suancai.-0RM/suancai.htm

I have got to face the fact that we are in winter now. I have been using ‘late autumn’ to refer to this time of the year, but it is winter now -- and I haven’t finished my autumn recipes yet! And now, I got to start my winter recipes, no matter how reluctant I am. The good thing is there are many tasty winter Chinese recipes. I am saying these dishes are for winter, one is because they are good to warm up your body, and give you enough energy to against the coldness, another reason is that some of the ingredients can only be found in winter -- well, probably not totally true, as nowadays you can get everything at anytime of the year. But I still feel it only right if have it in winter.

Anyway, to start with, I want to talk about one the most distinctive winter food --- pickled Chinese leaves (Napa cabbage). Its Chinese name is “Suan Cai”, means sour vegetable. I mentioned before, it tastes quite similar to sauerkraut, so when I could not get the real pickled Chinese leaves, I would use sauerkraut instead. In other regions in China, especially in Cantonese region, there is a pickled cabbage called “Suai Cai”, but the taste is still different. However, the actual thing, and the way of making it are totally different.

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95. Healthy recipe: bitter gourd omelette (V)

Chinese bitter gourd omelette

We are really starting tasting winter now -- it is getting cold. My parents told me that back in my hometown, they are getting heavy snow, the first heavy snow for this winter. On the way back from city centre this afternoon, I even wished if I had a pair of gloves on, but you know, I never really liked gloves, even in the deep cold winter, my fingers got too frozen to move -- I could bear with that, but never liked to put the gloves on.

Do you know in Chinese there is a funny saying of that if you have cold hands it means that there are not enough people caring for you? :)) My grandma did not like that, she always prepared some good thick winter gloves for me, and used a ‘string’ to make the two gloves attach together, then I could just ‘hang’ the gloves over my neck, so I couldn’t lose them. She always made sure that I was cared for… I began to miss northeast Chinese winter.

When I say how much I miss the winter in northeast China, everyone, who knows how cold it could get, think that I am crazy. But it is not the coldness I really miss, it is the beautiful white snow -- under the moon light, the whole world turns to pinkish / orangish, I could just watch outside through the window forever; under the sun light, the whole world then becomes shining white.

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Culture note: Not all about stir-frying

A few days ago, when I was randomly browsing the internet, (this is how I normally waste my time, really bad:((, I know), saw a few questions such as “why do Chinese people always stir-fry?”. I could not help nodding - yes, stir-frying is one of the distinguishing features of Chinese food.

Stir-frying is a good healthy way of cooking and eating. For example, stir-frying requires strong fire, not much oil (although different people might opt for different amounts), can quickly get food done, and keep the nutrients well at the same time. In this case, it is certainly better than the boiling or stewing, because long cooking times could make the vegetables lose their vitamins -- well, of course, it depends on what ingredients you are cooking, some foods are good for cooking longer times, so the vitamins can actually be released and easily absorbed by the body. And some other foods, for example, those ‘healthy’ soups, need to be cooked for long time.

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94. The famous Chinese Tofu Dish- Mapo Tofu (V)

Chinese Mapo Tofu

I have never been an early bird, so I always miss the morning freshness, and at this time of the year, the morning chilliness as well. This morning, I had to get up relatively early, I could almost feel the winter just there -- outside the window. Our bathroom windows are made with those ‘frosted glass’. With the bright morning day light, and with the little cold draught through the gaps of the window frames, it looks like the window glass in China at home in winter. --- In the deep winter days in my hometown, the temperature drops dramatically, after a cold night, windows are all covered by heavy frost next day morning, you could not see outside until it would melt close to noon. But if it has snowed during the night, then the sun would break out next morning, the bright reflection of the sunlight on the white snow would shinning on the windows as well.

So here, with the frosted windows, it really looks like ...No, it is what I feel like -- I was standing in front of the windows back home while outside was super cold, and snowing, but super brightly beautiful. Every time, mornings like this, windows like this, feel like this, it takes me a few minutes to be back to reality. Did I really use to hate the cold winter in Northeast China before? -- Now, all I want is to be there, to see the snow and feel the coldness…

Mapo tofu is probably one of the most famous Chinese tofu dishes ever. I bet if you like Chinese food, you must have already ordered this one a few times when dining in the Chinese restaurant. It is famous for its spicy but super delicious taste. But you have to like spicy food to appreciate this tofu dish. This spiciness is different to the others, it marks the feature of sichuan food.

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93.Chinese flat bread recipe: layered flat bread northeast style (V)

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--- Homemade 'Jin Bing"

筋饼

If you have been reading my posts,  you probably already know that I am kind of ‘crazy’ about Chinese flour based food, mainly, Chinese bread, and particularly Chinese flat bread. I find Chinese steamed bread without fillings a little ‘plain’ for me; I have to have it with soup, pickles for other dishes. In contrast, Chinese flat bread normally has more flavors, I could just have it as snack -- non-stop. If I ever put on too much weight, it is often because my intake of flat bread gets out of control.

This layered flat bread is a homemade version of ‘Jin Bing’,  a famous kind of flat bread  that is eaten in combination with  ‘Tofu Nao’ in northeast China. The difference between homemade ones to the ones sold in the markets is the thickness. This homemade version is thiner and simpler.

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92. Chinese snack: Five spices monkey nuts

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Chinese monkey nuts

Wow, everywhere is Christmas atmosphere already -- actually a month ago, Christmas already stretched its first step. In the shops, even gym, Christmas songs are already calling people’s festival spirit; the big windows are already decorated with snow flakes, and the shops have started selling Christmas goods -- Christmas pudding, Christmas pie, Christmas turkey and other meat, Christmas nuts and chocolate…

This is a secret -- every time when I am in the middle of Christmas ‘space’, I feel very uneasy, but I cannot tell you why. This feeling and this experience with real Christmas started from my first Christmas in England.

In China, we do not really celebrate Christmas, as Chinese new year is our biggest celebration. But in recent years, Christmas Eve has become a very popular thing, especially among young people, and the shops would certainly take any excuse to boost their sells.

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Heathy ingredient: Bitter gourd

Bitter gourd

Couple of weeks ago, when we were shopping in the market where we normally go, I saw bitter gourds. Since they are difficult to find, I decided to buy some, and make a few healthy dishes with them. Before sharing the recipes here, I thought it would be good to talk about the benefits of bitter gourds; then, we can probably try to persuade ourselves to bear with their bitterness. :))

When I told my parents that I was going to prepare a bitter gourd dish, they were so happy - they have been pushing me to have them for years, and always trying to cook them for me whenever I am back to China, but I was put down by their bitter taste each and every time. --- My parents were quite disappointed, but they did try to give me some time to get used to the bitterness.

And now, I am trying to have them again -- you know what, I think it is because of the nostalgia, rather than a change in my heart. --- Well, probably, not totally true, I do want to benefit from their rare properties.

Bitter gourd comes in different varieties regionally, the function and taste is all the same though. For example,

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91. Chinese stir fried beef with cucumber

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Stir fried cucumber and beef

黄瓜炒肉片

Stir frying cucumber--- :)) I guess you might be frowning. Well, it is true, this dish does have stir-fried cucumber. And it is not any particular kind of cucumber, it is just the normal cucumbers that you would use in a salad. :)

I think this is probably one of those vegetables, such as salad leaves, which Chinese people use both for salad and for stir frying. which make it very different to western food. In Chinese cuisine, (or northern Chinese cuisine, to be more precise), cucumber can be made into salad (liangcai), or stir-fried, or even in soup (the famous hot-sour soup  uses cucumber as one of its main ingredients).

But cucumbers in China are so different from the ones here in UK. Firstly, the package. Before coming here, I had never seen any cucumbers wrapped and sold individually. In China, it is very important to see the actual skin of the cucumber before buying it, because the skin can tell if the cucumber is fresh or not.

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