Tonight's dinner included two dishes from Ching-He Huang's book Ching's Chinese Food in Minutes. I made pork with chinese leaf, and three-cup chicken. We also had some stir fried choi sum with garlic, and steamed rice.
The pork was nice, with good flavours, but I think I goofed a bit by turning the heat down towards the end and it suddenly went sludgy rather than remaining dry. I will try again to make this, as I think I could do better if I don't wimp out.
Oh, but let me tell you about the three cup chicken. This was glorious. I left out the (optional) shredded chilli from the main portion so that the kids would eat it, and made it available at the table for those who wanted it. It's such a simple recipe, but so, so good. There's a video from the original TV series that's exactly as per the book (a cup is 50ml in this context). I will be making this again - quite possibly in double quantities next time.
I'm ashamed to say I hadn't made anything from this book before - I think I'm going to try some more from here in the near future.
Pork with Chinese Leaf
300g/11oz pork fillet, cut into strips
1 tbsp yellow bean sauce
2 tbsp potato flour or cornflour (I used cornflour)
3 tbsp groundnut oil
1 tbsp shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (I used a very mild one)
150g/5oz chinese leaf, cut into chunks
1-2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Marinate pork in yellow bean sauce for at least 20 minutes. Just before cooking, coat the meat in the potato or corn starch.
Heat a wok, then add the oil and heat. Stir fry the meat for 1 minute. Add shaoxing wine and cook for another 2 minutes. Add garlic, chilli and chinese leaf. Stir well (and don't turn the heat down!).
Season with soy and sesame oil, and serve immediately.
Wednesday 4 January 2012
The Return of the Naked Chef
Dinner last night was tray baked pork chops with potatoes, parsnips and pears, from The Return of the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver.
The recipe first triggered a major bugbear, and subject for a rant another day, of mine; the wide spread dishonesty of food photography in recipe books. The dish shown to illustrate the recipe is obviously not cooked from the recipe given.
The dish itself was OKish, but has the potential to be a great meal if cooked with a bit more intelligence. As written, all of the ingredients are mixed together, then cooked together for the same length of time. This resulted in undercooked vegetables, and dry, overcooked pork chops. It also doesn't result in the chops being beautifully browned as in the illustration. The flavours, however, were great and really worked together,
So, what would I do differently? I would cut the potatoes into I would toss the veggies with the marinade drained from the pork and cook them for 45 minutes or so, or until browned and almost done. I'd then sear the chops to brown them, and add to the veggies for the final 15 minutes or so to finish cooking.
Tray Baked Pork Chops with Potatoes, Parsnips and Pears
8 pork chops, or 4 double pork chops
1 * rosemary, garlic and lemon marinade (see below)
3 parsnips
3 smooth skinned pears (I used Conference)
680g/1.5lb potatoes
salt and pepper
Rosemary, garlic and lemon marinade
2 good handfuls of fresh rosemary, pounded
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
10 lugs olive oil
3 lemons, halved, juiced and skin squashed
freshly ground black pepper
Rub the chops with the marinade, and leave for 1-6 hours (in the fridge in a ziplock bag, turning regularly).
Preheat the oven to 220C. Wash and quarter the parsnips and pears, removing the core from the pears. Slice the potatoes into 0.5cm slices (I'd cut the potatoes into chunks in future, and probably start cooking them before adding the parsnips and pears).
Put everything (the potatoes and marinade) into an appropriately sized (the largest I have) roasting tin, and toss together lightly to coat. Season, then roast for 45 minutes-1 hour (adding parsnips and pears after 20 minutes and cooking until veggies are almost done. Then sear the chops in a very hot pan and add them to the tray. Cook for a further 10-15 minutes) depending on the size of the chops,
The recipe first triggered a major bugbear, and subject for a rant another day, of mine; the wide spread dishonesty of food photography in recipe books. The dish shown to illustrate the recipe is obviously not cooked from the recipe given.
The dish itself was OKish, but has the potential to be a great meal if cooked with a bit more intelligence. As written, all of the ingredients are mixed together, then cooked together for the same length of time. This resulted in undercooked vegetables, and dry, overcooked pork chops. It also doesn't result in the chops being beautifully browned as in the illustration. The flavours, however, were great and really worked together,
So, what would I do differently? I would cut the potatoes into I would toss the veggies with the marinade drained from the pork and cook them for 45 minutes or so, or until browned and almost done. I'd then sear the chops to brown them, and add to the veggies for the final 15 minutes or so to finish cooking.
Tray Baked Pork Chops with Potatoes, Parsnips and Pears
8 pork chops, or 4 double pork chops
1 * rosemary, garlic and lemon marinade (see below)
3 parsnips
3 smooth skinned pears (I used Conference)
680g/1.5lb potatoes
salt and pepper
Rosemary, garlic and lemon marinade
2 good handfuls of fresh rosemary, pounded
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
10 lugs olive oil
3 lemons, halved, juiced and skin squashed
freshly ground black pepper
Rub the chops with the marinade, and leave for 1-6 hours (in the fridge in a ziplock bag, turning regularly).
Preheat the oven to 220C. Wash and quarter the parsnips and pears, removing the core from the pears. Slice the potatoes into 0.5cm slices (I'd cut the potatoes into chunks in future, and probably start cooking them before adding the parsnips and pears).
Put everything (the potatoes and marinade) into an appropriately sized (the largest I have) roasting tin, and toss together lightly to coat. Season, then roast for 45 minutes-1 hour (adding parsnips and pears after 20 minutes and cooking until veggies are almost done. Then sear the chops in a very hot pan and add them to the tray. Cook for a further 10-15 minutes) depending on the size of the chops,
Tuesday 3 January 2012
India With Passion
The first was aloo baingan jhol - potatoes and aubergine in tomato sauce, as I had a couple of aubergines that I wanted to include in the meal. I started to have some doubts about this soon after beginning to cook it. The recipe calls for thickly sliced onion to be fried over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, which was just enough to take them to the "not raw any longer" stage. The tomato sauce is a bit of a misnomer as the dish contains only one medium tomato, and the addition of 400ml of boiling water close to the end of the cooking time made the dish far too liquid. Finally, the addition of the spices at the same time as all that water meant that their flavour was undeveloped. Overall, a bit disappointing.
That said, I would make this again with some significant tweaks - frying the onions for longer so that they brown, incorporating the spices during the frying stage and adding more tomato (potato, aubergine and tomato seems to be one of those universally tasty combinations) and much less water. I may also fry the potatoes and aubergine separately as a lot of the frying in the recipe was actually steaming.
Second was chholar dal - spiced bengal gram, with a recipe almost identical to the one on the author's website. I normally love dal in all its forms, as does my daughter, but this was way too bland. I think that it was the coconut cream that killed it.
Overall, I was disappointed as I have cooked from this book before (probably with some tweaks along the way) and enjoyed the outcome.
Aloo Baingan Jhol - Potatoes and Aubergine in Tomato Sauce (ingredients as written, instructions paraphrased and notated)
Serves 2-3
2 dried medum red chillies
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp brown or black mustard seeds
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 bay leaves (optional)
1 medium spanish onion, thickly sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric
310g (11 oz) red or white potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
310g (11 oz) aubergine, cut into 2.5cm cubes
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 medium tomato, finely chopped
1 tsp tamarind concentrate
1/2 tsp salt
Grind the chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Heat oil in a large pan and fry onion, bay and turmeric over medium heat for 2-3 minutes (I would have fried the onion for longer, adding bay and turmeric when it started to brown).
Add potatoes and fry for a minute. Cover and cook for 7 minutes until potatoes are tender, checking half way through that they aren't sticking (frying with semi-cooked onions doesn't do much for the potatoes here - I think in future I'd fry in a separate pan to brown the outsides, and then add to the dish for the covered cooking time).
Add aubergine and garlic, and fry for a minute. Add tomato and fry for a minute. Cover and cook for another 6 minutes (Again, I think I would fry the aubergine separately to brown. I'd also use either more tomatoes, or quite possibly a 200g tin of chair de tomate).
Add spices, tamarind and salt, and 400ml of boiling water. Cover and cook for 10 minutes (I'd add the spices much earlier - possibly at the same time as the bay and turmeric. Also, that's a LOT of water - the dish was swimming in it, which possibly contributed to the lack of flavour as so much had leached into the liquid. If I make this again, especially given the extra tomatoes, I'd probably not add any water at all).
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