112. Chinese hot-pot (part III)

---- What can you cook and eat in the hot-pot?

It seems these posts about hot-pot are taking me quite a long time, just like actually eating it. :)) Here you go, another continued post, this time it is about what to ‘cook’ (or ‘rinse’/shuan) in the pot.

In general, most kinds of meat, seafood, and vegetables that do not require long cooking times  can be used for hot-pot. Normally, one can easily have eight or nine big plates on the table full of fresh ingredients  ready to  cook in the pot --- surprised? :)) Let’s see --- these include sliced meat, fish and seafood, tofu, green leaves, fensi, mushrooms --- but you have to remember that we can have different kinds of each of these, so we can end up having at least 2 or 3 plates per ingredient. Here you can have choices, for example, if you are vegetarian, you can leave out the meat and seafood.

Now, let’s talk about them one by one. (It is only what we normally have for hot-pot, not including Cantonese style hot-pot.)

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112.Chinese Hot-pot! (part II)

--- Making the soup base at home

So the first 5 days of the Chinese new year celebration have officially finished. Now, until the15th of January in Chinese calendar, people’s greetings are changing from ‘Happy new year’ to ‘how was your new year?’ Or for some people still haven’t wished the ‘happy new year’ yet, they would say ‘happy belated new year’. What I am saying is that the new year spirit is not fading away yet:)) 

But let's talk about food -- Chinese hot-pot from the previous post.

Chinese hot-pot is almost a signature dish in Chinese cuisine, it is especially suitable for friends or family gathering. In Chinese we always use ‘re nao’ to describe this kind of occasions, it literally means ‘hot and noisy’, so you can imagine the hot steam going up from the middle of the table, and everyone is chatting over the hot pot while busy ‘cooking’ their own food.

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112. Chinese hot-pot!! I

-- A culture note as well as a recipe

image source:http://www.tupian99.com/show-4-79-fd9e9e387fea0bb3.html

Happy (black) dragon year on the 4th day!!

The festival atmosphere seems calming down a bit already over here in Oxford, but back in China, it is still everywhere. My parents over there have been very busy with visiting relatives and friends, eating and cooking. :)) I still hear the fireworks every time I talk to them.

So let's keep on talking about festival food. :) I always think food represents culture, just like Chinese dumplings. Here is another dish -- one of the most representative of China ----- hot-pot. So these couple of posts are not only just about cooking, but also about Chinese culture.

I always thought hot-pot is the English translation for this particular Chinese dish, or say a way of eating, but after seeing some other recipes online, which are also called hot-pot, I start thinking ‘hot-pot’ is probably not a very accurate term to describe this kind of Chinese food .

The original name in Chinese for this dish is ‘Huo Guo’, as ‘fire wok’. To describe it simply: it is all about  eating while you are cooking.

In Chinese history, there is no clear record describing when this way of eating actually started, but it must have been more than 3000 years ago. When the emperors held the worship or memorial services, they used containers called ‘Ting’ to boil meat in. Some say that was the early ‘predecessor’ of ‘hot-pot’.

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111. Steamed dumplings with marrow, prawns, egg and Fensi filling

Happy new year!!

After three continuous ‘culture notes’ on Chinese new year, let’s come back to talk some ‘real’ stuff -- food! :)) As dumpling is the most popular ‘must-have’ food during the Chinese new year celebration, I would like to share more dumpling recipes. However, this recipe is slightly different to the previous ones, as these dumplings are steamed, and with a new filling -- marrow prawns, egg and Fensi. But the way of rolling the pastry sheet and wrap it up are still the same.

As you know, the ‘famous’ Chinese dumplings are normally boiled, but dumplings can also be lightly fried (like Japanese dumplings), and steamed -- with slightly different way of making the pastry sheet.

Steamed dumplings are probably not very common in many Chinese restaurants, but you might be familiar with all the steamed ‘dim sim’. Steamed dumpling is very similar to steamed ‘dim sim’ in that respect, but in much bigger size --- that is why we always say northeast people are generous in food -- serve more and eat more. Ha…

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Culture Note: The first 5 days of Chinese new year celebration

Image source:http://sc.chinaz.com/tupian/1640505870.htm

When the bell rang midnight 12 o’clock on Chinese new year eve, the celebrations formally started.

The traditional celebration normally lasts for 15 days, until the lantern festival on 15th January, Chinese calendar. However, in modern days, the celebration mostly concentrates on the first 5 days, and then finishes with the lantern festival on the 15th day (well, more like 18th, when all the lanterns are packed away).

The whole celebration can be generally summarised as follows:  ‘visiting friends and families, to say happy new year’, ‘eating and eating’, and ‘setting off the fireworks’. But, there are different customs associated to each day.

For example, for married couples, on the first day, you need to celebrate the new year with the husband’s family; the second day is called ‘Hui Niang Jia’, which literally means to go back to wife’s family; on the third day, normally you can have a quiet day at home, just have dinner with your closest relatives; there is also nothing special on the forth day, so it is normally the best time to meet friends; the fifth day is called ‘Po Wu’, which means to ‘break five’, any ‘not-to-dos’ in the past four days, now you can break it, for example, clean the house, and throw away the rubbish. (Normally you are not supposed to clean the dusts away -- it is kind of metaphor for keeping  "wealth at home").:))

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Culture note: Chinese new year eve celebration --- ‘the Spring festival’ II

Where should I start? --- Food!! The night for Chinese new year is called ‘Tuan Yuan Ye‘, means ‘an evening for everyone to gather together’. The dinner for Chinese new year eve is called ‘tuan yuan fan’, which means that everyone in the family would all gather around the table and eat together. --- So, you can imagine how much I miss home being with my parents and how much they miss us. :((

Dumplings are the most common food on the table. My friends from southern China used to tell me  that they do not normally make dumplings at home, the only day they would make them is on new year's eve. It is a tradition in China in most places. However, as I mentioned before, my mom always prefers to make ‘He Zi’, as she likes its shape and similar pronunciation to ‘unity’ -- she wishes the whole family to be together at all times. So she always makes ‘He Zi’ instead of dumplings. Then we would have dumplings on New year day.

Another significant event in China is CCTV’s celebration TV program (central Chinese TV channel), which starts at 8pm, normally last 5 hours or even a bit longer. It is a synthesized entertainment program, and almost every household would sit in front of the TV to watch. It has become a tradition in China since 1979.

Don’t underestimate the program, it is not only important for Chinese people, make people feel like celebrating the new year with a ‘big family’, but also anyone who performs in the program could have an instant career ‘push’, become well-known. :))) The theme of this year’s program is ‘going home for the new year’, so there are lots of performances are just like ‘tear gas’, made me cry --- my homesick became worse. :(

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Culture note: Chinese new year: ‘the Spring festival’ I

Image source:http://www.nipic.com/show/4/110/4378639k6baf27cf.html

:))) Since Chinese New Year is around the corner now, and it is this blog’s first Chinese new year, let’s talk about this important Chinese festival, its traditions and customs.

According to Chinese history, the celebration of Chinese new year started during the Xia dynasty, over 4000 years ago.

The main celebration is on the first day of the new year in Chinese calendar, which is different every year according to Western calendar. In any case, it is always sometime in January or February.

The Chinese New Year festival is called ‘Chun Jie’ in Chinese, which means ‘Spring festival’. It is the most important festival in China. It formally lasts 5 days; however, the whole first month of the year in the Chinese calendar is quite important, and there are many traditions and customs.

Although Chinese new year is celebrated in many countries in far east Asia, different cultures have slightly different customs, even within China, different regions and different ethnic groups have different celebrations. So here I am mainly talking about the celebration in Northeast China, where I am originally from.

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110. Simple recipe: stir fried garlic bolt with tofu and carrot

Chinese stir fried garlic bolt with tofu

A ‘late night’ recipe. :))) Well, at least, it is late over here in England. And I only just started writing today’s post. What have I been doing the whole day? I blame time passes too fast. A bit reading, a bit housework, a bit writing, a bit watching the sun and doing nothing, oh and eating, and cooking dinner, then that is a day. Feel a bit weird of just thinking of cooking at this late night. :))

Ok, as I said in yesterday’s post, today I will talk about a recipe with garlic bolt, simply stir fried with tofu and carrot. It is really really simple, can be cooked within 5 mins. And the method -- is a real typical stir-fry.

As I said in the previous post, I think if you cannot find garlic bolt, Spanish ‘ajos tiernos’ is a good replacement. As for the tofu, it is different to the normal fresh tofu I normally use. This one is called ‘tofu gan’ in Chinese, as in ‘dried tofu‘. Sometimes, it is also called  ‘pressed tofu‘. It normally comes in two flavors: plain and five spices flavor. I would like to use plain ones, but I only found the spiced ones in the supermarket; they also do a great job. But what I wanted to say is that you don’t have to particularly look for this ‘dried beancurd’ if you want to try this recipe; most of the tofu you can buy in regular supermarkets is also good, as such tofu is normally very very very firm, or just braised.

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Commom ingredient: Garlic bolt

Chinese garlic bolt

Image source: http://www.hometownseeds.com/herb-seeds-c-3?zenid=f80c01c47632e02eaacc3043380cf391

Garlic bolt is a very common ingredients in Chinese cuisine. But because it is mostly suitable for simple stir-fried dishes, it is not usually served in big or fancy restaurants. It is also not easy to find here in UK supermarkets. In most Chinese supermarkets, however, you can get them at reasonable price, and they are normally imported from China.

My husband has suggested that I should only share some recipes with common ingredients which can be easily found in normal supermarkets, so I have held the recipes with garlic bolt for a long while. (But it is one of my favorite vegetables, I could not wait to share!) This time I got encouraged by a Spanish friend. When we were in Spain for Xmas holiday, we decided to invite some friends over for a homemade Chinese meal. I wanted it to be very ‘Chinese’, so we went down to the Chinese supermarkets in Valencia. I was so excited to find garlic bolt, so needless to say, immediately grabbed a bunch. Guess what, although I cooked several ‘more sophisticated’ dishes, the simple stir-fried garlic bolt dish was the favorite of our friends.

Garlic bolt in Chinese is called ‘Suan tai’ or ‘Suan hao’ in some of the Northeast regions. It is said that it part of the stem of garlic flower. It does taste ‘garlic..ish’, but not strong, rather fresh and pleasant. It is very nutritious: rich in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin B2, vitamin C, calcium, etc. In Chinese medicine, it is said that garlic bolt has properties for controlling lipids, preventing coronary heart disease, and it is also good for sterilizing, relieving hemorrhoids…

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109.Chinese soup: Meat balls and Chinese leaves soup

Chinese soup with meat balls and leaves

Normally I would leave this kind of dish for the weekend, but since we are in Chinese new year time, every dish is a ‘weekend’ dish, no? Ha… Just spoil ourselves. And don’t worry about putting on weight, next month, I am thinking of sharing some of my Chinese ‘detox’ recipes. :))

The original version of this dish comes with meat balls and ‘little bok choy’, a type of northeast green leaves (see  Chinese leaves). It is called ‘Xiao bai cai chuan wan zi’, literal translation is little bok choy with meat balls ‘inserted’ in them. But since here in UK, I cannot find this particular type of leaves, (and the bok choy usually sold in the supermarkets is not suitable for this dish), I will use Chinese leaves instead.

The original dish with ‘little bok choy’ is normally prepared in spring or summer, because it is when this particular type of vegetables is on season. My version with Chinese leaves becomes a perfect winter recipe --- warming up your stomach, as well as taking in plenty of essential nutrients. Oh, saying that, I lately read an article discussing whether ‘we should eat more for winter’ --- the thing is I don’t think we particularly need to eat much more in winter, but we do need to have more ‘heavy’ and warm food to help us fight the cold, no? At least, I do, that is why my friends always say that I become a balloon in winter --- quickly ‘blown up’, even I did not eat that much. Ha…

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Chinese Culture note: today is ‘Xiao Nian’ (little new year) !

             Image source:http://photo.xinzhou.org/2009/0118/picture_1161_5.html   Image source:http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1376530070



As I said yesterday, today all the Chinese new year celebrations are starting!!

In Chinese, today is called ‘Xiao Nian’, which literally means ‘little new year’. It should probably be called ‘pre-new year’ instead. Xiao Nian normally happens 7 days before Chinese new year day; however, different regions, and even different social classes in the past celebrated Xiao Nian on different days (for example, the emperors and royals would have it a day earlier than ordinary people). In northeast China, it is always on 23rd Dec in Chinese calendar. And our celebration may be a bit different to the other regions.

From this day onwards, traditionally people started preparing goods for the new year celebration -- although, nowadays, people normally start preparations much earlier. The preparation commonly includes stocking food, buying new clothes for new year, and home decoration, for example, hanging the couplets on both side of the door, sticking some festival paper cut figures on the door and windows, hanging the red lanterns in and outside the house.

However, the main point of the celebration on this day is still about food. :)) --- Yes, to have enough food and wealthy life for the coming new year.

It is said that in Xia dynasty times (over 4000 years ago), there was a fairy, called ‘Zao wang ye’, who was is in charge of the ‘cooker’ (at least, that is what we say) of every household -- more like ‘to make sure people have enough food to eat. And on this day, ‘Zao wang ye’ goes to the ‘above’, and reports to the Jade emperor how people behave, therefore what kind of fortune they should have for the new year.

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108. Crispy fried aubergine (V)

Simple homemade crispy aubergine

炸茄排

Cold, cold!! This morning, when I opened the blinds, the grass and the trees, even the walls in the garden were all covered by a layer of frost -- it reminded me of a winter back my home town just after snow, light snow. But the sun was out, bright but cold -- the typical winter sun. The surface of the whole garden was ‘shining’ in the sun. That brings me joy. :))

This month is a very important month in China -- the Chinese new year. The first celebration will actually start tomorrow! So… I am sorry that you are going to read all my posts about Chinese new year and ‘New Year food’. Yesterday, when we went to the shops, there were many red lanterns hanging, and Chinese food, packed in fancy red packages, was promoted everywhere. It was very nice to feel the festival atmosphere in a foreign country far far away from home. :))

But, for today, I am sharing a simple recipe before all the ‘heavy’ celebration cooking starts. :)) It is an aubergine dish, in Chinese it is called ‘qie pai’. I think the name and the actual cooking method originates from the western grilled ‘beef steak’. So there you go, not all of Chinese food is so ‘traditional’, this one is definitely ‘modern...ish’ (my grandma wouldn’t know how to make it), it does combine western cuisine’s elements. :))

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107.The simplest and most basic: egg fried rice

Chinese egg fried rice

Some friends have already asked me a few times about rice recipes. Some Chinese rice recipes simply combine rice with other grains, like mung beans; but most of the times, rice is stir-fried (an example is the famous Yangzhou fried rice). And all these fried rice dishes originate from the most basic of them all -- egg fried rice.

Talking about egg fried rice -- you really just opened my appetite and memory, as I always loved it!!! And even now, it is still my ‘quick fix’ meal of choice. :))

When I was little, as I said, I never liked meaty food, my parents and grandparents had to be creative in order for me to take all the protein I needed as a child -- so I started having lots of egg dishes. Egg fried rice was one of my favorites --- to a degree, that for my breakfast, my grandma had to make egg fried rice for me every morning, before I went to school.

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Hot and spicy pot (Ma La Tang) II

Chinese Ma La Tang

Continued from yesterday’s post…

When this dish got popular in China, its recipe spread to different regions. It seems, however, that different areas have adopted it differently, probably according to their own local taste. Just like outside China, all the Chinese cuisine has been adapted differently to the taste of each foreign country. :))

People in Northeast China say that the recipe for this hot and spicy pot is also slightly different to the original one. So, here is how I make it.

Well, saying that, the easiest way of making it is actually to buy the ‘sauce’ base from the Chinese supermarkets. They normally come in a big ‘sachet’, you just need to ‘squeeze’ it out, then boil it with water, and add in whatever the ingredients you like. You need to ask for ‘Ma La Tang’ soup base. If you do use them, I suggest you use half of the portion each time, or gradually add in, because it can be very very spicy!

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106. Hot and spicy pot (Vegetarian Ma la tang) I

Chinese Ma La Tang

After weeks of my mother-in-law’s amazing Spanish food, I started cooking myself again. You know what, I found myself panicking a bit, also with a little bit memory loss -- I could not remember where the things are in our own kitchen. -- How much I have been spoiled in the past a few weeks!


Anyway, today, I am sharing this Hot and spicy pot recipe… not only the recipe, but also the stories associated to this famous dish. :))

Hot and spicy pot in Chinese is originally called ‘Ma La Tang’. Ma means ‘numb’, which is the signature of Sichuan cuisine -- your lip could get a bit numb because of its spiciness. "La" means hot and spicy. "Tang", here means a Chinese cooking method that I have not mentioned before -- ‘to quickly dip into the very hot soup, for example, to the food done or half done’. So, just according to its name, you probably already guessed that this dish is different to the others. :) It is kind of similar to the famous Chinese ‘hot-pot’.

Ma la tang / hot and spicy pot is probably is one of the most popular ‘ordinary’ dishes in Chinese cuisine. :)) And, sorry, I have lots to talk about it -- too much nostalgia, homesick, ‘foodsick’, you name it.

This hot & spicy hot originated in Sichuan province, which, as you probably already know, is famous for its spicy food.

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105. Chinese bakery recipe: ‘open mouth’ flat bread with fillings

Chinese flatbread

Having a very warm Christmas and new years seems unreal --- here is Valencia! In the morning, when I opened the curtains, the whole window was filled with blue colour, blue from the sky, not even a thread of cloud, and underneath, the buildings and streets are all brighting up in the sun. I always forgot how sunny Valencia could get even in winter, never remember to take my sunglasses with me. Now, I had to half close my eyes when I looked up. :)

‘Three kings’ celebration just happened here --- one of my favorite time in Spain. The celebration parade marched crossing the city, and I was squeezing myself in the crowd, totally forgot about age, manners or anything else, just standing on the side of streets, waiting for the arrival of the three kings, and screaming ‘aquí!! aquí!!!’ Then if we were lucky enough sometimes, we would receive some sweets that the ‘parade’ and the ‘kings’ throw to the crowds, and of course, when the parade ends, we would give all the sweets we had to those kids were still looking for sweets left on the ground.

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104. Fried fish ball with Chinese leaves salad

Fried fish balls with Chinese leaves

I still cannot believe that we are in the ‘new’ year already! A few years ago, then I was still struggling with my PhD, probably it was my first or second year, once I was talking to my supervisor, I could not remember why we started talking about time and years, he mentioned a book about the year 2012, the book was about what would happen to the world in 2012. I listened, and thought, ‘ok, it does not matter if I believe it or not, I still have a few years to think about it -- 2012 is still far.’ But, here we go, it has started!. Oh, in the end, I did not give a thought about it -- I forgot. :)

In China, over thirty years ago, there was a ‘plan’ for the country’s development, something like what people’s lives should be in a few years, and in 2000, what a ‘new’ world we were going to be in. I remember I used to talk to my cousin sister, who was exactly 12 years older than me, (as in Chinese 12 animal sign years, every 12 years is a cycle), she said, ‘by the year of 2000, I will be at age of thirty--… oh, my god, I will be getting old!’ And I was thinking, ‘then, I will not be a little girl anymore, but a young woman.’ It then came to my mind an image of a young women with a bit ‘curled’ hair, wearing high heels, and carrying a black working shoulder bag.

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