118. Chinese snack: dried beef (Chinese style beef jerky)

Rarely stay in London late, and this time, we stayed in a quite central area, so we had chance to experience the late night London. Oh, gosh, how long I haven’t felt this -- noise, crowd, flashing colourful lights…

After dinner, we decided to go for a walk -- well, you cannot resist it anyway, as the streets are still so much alive, still many people around, but not busy walking like during the day, rather having a relaxing stroll, or chatting at the corner; many shops either open, or left the bright colourful lights on, giving the night London more colour; and many restaurants are filled with people -- along with food smell. The lights and noise from everywhere is keeping night London from falling into sleep.

In our hotel room, there is a noisy fan as if just located outside the window, but we could not figure it out from which restaurant it was. We asked receptionist, she showed understanding, and said, themselves already got used to all this noise, are ‘numb’, so could not feel the disturbance any more. She did sincerely apologise. -- But she is right, when we stepped out of the door, we totally understand what she meant. Where is that ‘me’ long time ago living in China? I was very much used to this noise then… :)

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Food, now… :)

I have not been in a mood for meat lately, actually, not at all. But suddenly one day, I began to long for this Chinese snack - dried beef.

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117. A rice recipe: Chinese Tofu fried rice (Vegan)

Sorry for not posting lately. Saying I have been a bit busy and lazy is a good excuse? Ha… well, apparently, there is a problem with google, where this blog is hosted, so I got a bit discouraged. Sorry… And now we are trying to come up with our solution to sort out the problem -- fingers crossed, let’s see.

Before anything, I really want to say ‘thank you’ to Elizabeth and Adele for giving me so many nice feedbacks! I feel so encouraged, and inspired. :))

Ok, coming to today’s recipe, Tofu fried rice -- sounds strange? Ha… It is one of my own recipes.

Years ago, when I was helping a friend working in a takeaway, one day, a customer wanted to make a special order -- fried rice without eggs. The chef paused for a while -- as he never had a request like that before. He moaned, 'how can I make that?' Just stir-fry rice with oil sounds very strange, and a bit difficult to make, as the rice can get sticky on the wok easily, and I am not sure it will taste well either.

So as I mentioned before, in northeast China, stir-fried rice with chopped spring onion is an alternative -- instead of eggs -- yes, just a little bit chopped spring onion can make the trick. The taste and smell of the spring onion can really bring some freshness to the rice, and make the difference. But this recipe -- tofu fried rice is even better, I think, especially for somebody like me, crazy about tofu. … :))

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116. Chinese stir fried bok choy with (vegetarian) sausage (V)

Chinese stir fried bok choy

Sorry, this recipe should have been posted yesterday, but yesterday I … :)) Yesterday, the weather was surprisingly good in Oxford. In the afternoon, the sun was shining. I could feel the mild wind blowing in my face, and when I passed by a building with a nice beautiful front garden, the smell of jasmine melted my heart. At that moment, I really wanted to get rid of my thick jacket, scarf and heavy boots, just run around the garden. --- But I had to carry on walking not to miss my appointment; when I finally arrived, I was almost soaked in sweat -- spring is here now!!!

This recipe might seem surprising. As you know, sausages are not a Chinese ‘thing’. Well, I need to explain this a little further. I don’t remember eating sausages when I was little, but probably in the past twenty years, the use of sausages gradually became popular in Chinese cooking. I guess it is because of the influence of Western food, although the sausages I am talking about are totally different to those in the West.

Chinese ‘sausage’ is called ‘Chang’ (2) in Mandarin. It has a pinkish colour with very smooth texture. In a way, it is more like a ‘hot dog’, but it tastes a bit similar to salami. (-- saying that, I am not an expert on salami, as most of them are made with pork meat.)

Chinese sausages do not need to be grilled or boiled like most  ‘hot dogs’. They are ready to eat. In Chinese cuisine, they can be eaten alone, or mixed in salad, or cooked in soup, or even stir-fried. (Again, since I don’t eat pork, I never really tried sausages other than vegetarian ones.)

But probably you never heard of stir-fried sausage -- it can probably be seen as a unique adaptation of western food to Chinese cuisine? :) In fact, the famous ‘Yang zhou fried rice’, which I tried both in northeast China and in Beijing, was made with this kind of Chinese sausage.

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115 Overlapped egg pancakes

Chinese egg pancakes

Yesterday, when I was browsing online, by a chance, I came across an article about Chinese food in the ‘Independent’, which, to be honest, was rather disappointing.

Well, I mean, Chinese cuisine is very difficult to describe in a few words, or even in a short article. There are huge regional and ethnic differences, not to mention that there are different kinds of food that are used for health and  medical purposes; there are also plenty of common/everyday recipes as well as rare ones, traditional ways of cooking and modern ways. Not all the dishes I would like to have myself, and sometimes I even find some of them can be too strange to eat, but to judge Chinese cuisine fairly, I think you have to look at the whole picture.

Hopefully, if I am not lazy and can be persistent enough on this blog, I will gather enough information on Chinese regional, and ethnic dishes, as well as more different kinds of cuisines within China. :))

Talking about modern Chinese dishes, there are lots of changes, or say new ‘inventions’ these days. Most of these ‘new’ dishes, I have never even seen or heard of before, until my friends and family introduced them to me when I went back to China on holidays.

These modern ways of cooking  normally involve using new ingredients ( new vegetables, herbs, or even Western ingredients) into the dishes, or ‘playing around’ with the usual ingredients, by using different combinations to create a new taste or a new way of eating, or just simply bringing the recipes from almost hundreds years ago, and adapt them to modern taste.

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114. Hot and sour soup -- Northeast Chinese style (V)

Chinese hot and sour soup

… Eventually the long Chinese new year celebration is finished. I bet everyone in China is taking a break from all the cooking, eating, visiting, shopping… And the ashes from fireworks are being cleaned up -- I always find it bit sad when I see this, just like I don’t really like gatherings, because I don’t like to see when it’s finishing, families and friends are leaving. In Chinese, there is a saying ‘all the feasts will have to come to an end’. :(( However, the good thing is that we still have a year to look forward, and the spring is coming…

Anyway, we still need to talk about eating. :) Probably after a long feast, we should go for something simple. :) This recipe is hot and sour soup -- with clear soup base. I guess that you are not unfamiliar with the hot and sour soup served in Chinese take-aways and restaurants (outside China). Most of them are Cantonese style. For some time, I really liked it, but eventually I got really bad homesick and I started making  hot and sour soup northeast style. :)

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Culture Note: Spring Day in China and spring flatbread recipe

立春 和 春饼的做法

Spring Day is one of the twenty-four "solar terms" in Chinese tradition. It is called ‘Li Chun’, ‘Li’ （4） in traditional Chinese terms means ‘begin’, ‘Chun’ here refers to Spring. It means from this day onwards, the spring is beginning. It is normally on the 4th February each year. Sorry, this post is supposed to be posted yesterday, but I didn't get the time. :)

Yesterday, I wrote on my FB page saying that ‘spring is coming eventually’. However, a friend replied, ‘well, spring is still so far away’, since over here, it is really cold, and snow covers most parts of England. But in Chinese culture, even it is called ‘Spring day’, (or the beginning of the spring’), it does not really mean that we can have the ‘spring weather’ already. It simply means that we can feel the signs of that spring breeze, and see the spring greenish is starting to come.

In the next 15 days, there will be dramatic change in nature. In ancient China, these 15 days are divided into three parts, each five days as one part. The first five days means that wind is originated from the east now, the frozen ground is gradually defrosting; the second 5 days means that hibernating worms and animals are waking up from their caves; the third 5 days means that the ice in the river is starting melting, fish begin to float up to swim towards the surface. This is why Chinese people celebrate the ‘Spring Day’. Thus, ‘Chun’ / ‘Spring becomes a very ‘happy’ or ‘blessed’ word.

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113. Stir-fried shredded potato (V)

Chinese stir-fried shredded potato

As I said yesterday, tomorrow will be Spring Day in Chinese calendar --- it means that spring is coming eventually, and hope that this coldness is so over! -- How good! :))

As a celebration for the upcoming spring, in China, we normally have special food ---- spring pancake. It is just a very very thin ‘bing’/pancake, and rolling up with fillings. Tomorrow I will talk a bit more about this day and its food. For this post, I like to share this stir-fried shredded potato recipe, which, by itself, is a very traditional simple dish, and it is also a very common filling for the spring pancake.

Stir-fried shredded potato sounds very simple, but don’t underestimate its taste, and how tricky it is to get it right. Years ago, when we were still in Manchester, I went to a Chinese restaurant with a few friends. The restaurant claimed to serve authentic Sichuan and Beijing food. A friend decided to try their ‘shredded potato’ dish. I was hesitating to stop him, because firstly, normally, you wouldn’t order simple stir-fried shredded potato in this kind of restaurant, second, I doubted if they were going to make a very 'authentic' one, as it is a tricky dish to cook. Also as we all know that potato is not very easy to be preserved well after peeling and chopping, it goes a bit ‘rusty’ look, and the restaurants normally prepare things in advance, so you can imagine... Sorry, cut the story short, the result was not very satisfactory. My friend was a bit disappointed. Well, I hope he did not give up the desire for stir-fried shredded potato, because it can be really tasty after all.

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112.Chinese hot-pot! (part IV)

:)) Promise this is going to be the last Chinese hot-pot post. But you see, we really eat a lot!! Ha… Here you go, it continues from yesterday.

Vegetables:

Well, vegetables here really just refers to those green leaves, because other vegetables might take longer time to cook, and simply boiling them probably cannot give it the best taste. Here are some common green leaves cooked in hot-pot.


Lettuce:

All sorts of lettuce are good, just need to wash the lettuce, and ‘separate’ the leaves, no need to chop into small pieces.


Chinese leaves:

However, for Chinese leaves, the best part for using in hot-pot is the heart. So you can peel off the outer layers, leave them for stir-fry next time, and use the heart part for hot-pot. Again, no need to chop, just wash and separate the leaves.

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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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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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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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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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