119.(simple) Healthy recipe --- stir fry red onion with broccoli (V)

It is a recipe from my dad -- he has been very supportive, since I started writing this blog. Here, he just introduced a new recipe to me -- a beautiful and healthy dish, simply stir fry red onion with broccoli.

My dad has always been very conscious with ‘healthy food’, ha… probably you already heard me talking about this a few times. He gets more serious and strict with healthy ‘concept’ when he steps into his late 50s and now 60s. Now, this recipe he made is not only for the taste, but also, as his intention -- it is a super healthy recipe, which can give you lots of healthy benefits.

Red onion was only introduced to China in recent years, but it nutritious properties became popular almost immediately. For example, of which my dad always mentions (when persuading me to eat) are lowering cholesterol, relaxing the vascular and coronary artery, and helping the excretion of the salt in the body. With combination of broccoli --- you can imagine how healthy it can be. But just like any other ‘healthy recipes’, it needs to be taken regularly in order to have the ‘healthy result’.

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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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Cooking Note: Making ground Sichuan peppercorn

                              image source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper      image source:http://www.zgghmh.com/product/317929.html





You probably have noticed that in many recipes I shared here, I use ground Sichuan peppercorn, instead of the whole Sichuan peppercorn, especially in stir-fried dishes. But I have had quite a few friends asking me about ground Sichuan peppercorn, which is not easy to find in Chinese supermarkets.

I have noticed this long time ago, so whenever I go back home, I would bring some packs back. But, for example, at the moment, I have run out of it -- a few packs cannot last for very long, especially for somebody like me, who uses it almost every day for cooking.

Most Chinese supermarkets (in UK) sell mostly Cantonese products, and in Cantonese food ground Sichuan peppercorn is rarely used. Last time when we were in Spain, I did see it on the shelves of  some Chinese supermarkets --- the sellers of those supermarkets are commonly from mainland China, near Shanghai. ---Don’t laugh at me, yes, I bought some back. :)) Although I am still using it, the taste is not the same -- almost too ‘mild’.

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