Over the last year, after much ‘encouragements’ from friends I researched and finally bought 2 Air-Fryers; fundamentally one for my son who has moved away and one for me to learn so I can teach him easy recipes to feed himself. However I have since fallen in love with it!

I use it as a glorified oven really. After a year of experimenting and such, there are some food I will never use it for, especially those that only taste good with frying. Air-frying might be ‘healthier’ but for food that needs frying in oil, it is not nicer in taste. However I would never use my big oven for certain food now, like Cantonese Crispy Roast pork – Siu Yuk, 脆皮烧肉 which I think I have perfected in my air-fryer to my satisfaction. For full recipe please refer to this link – https://www.julieolive.co.uk/2019/09/06/traditional-cantonese-crispy-roast-pork-belly-siu-yuk-%e8%84%86%e7%9a%ae%e7%83%a7%e8%82%89/

My recipe uses red nam yue, fermented bean curd. To me this is a MUST. If you do not please do NOT refer to yours as ‘authentic’ or ‘traditional’ It kinda pisses me off. This is the way traditional Cantonese roast pork Siu Yuk, 脆皮烧肉 used to taste like when I was young. After roasting the pork itself will have a shade of light pink hue due to the nam yue and it taste so much better for it. Below are pics and TIPs of roasting it in an air-fryer. Enjoy and please feel free to ask me any questions pertaining to this cook.

A good dish we all enjoy but I do not often make. This is because i only like this dish made with Cantonese Crispy Roast Pork Belly. The skin just have that taste non other cooking style of pork can replace!

Coating the yam and frying don’t take that long and neither is it difficult to cook the sauce. Longest time spent was mincing the garlic and shallots. I prefer a lot of garlic.

After you got everything ready it is just a matter of arranging onto your dish, here I am using mason pie dishes as I normally cook a few and vacuum seal them to freeze and gift to friends.

The husband love it a lot and always ask if I am giving any and how many away. kekekekekeke I think I have to make this more often. He will pick the thin pork to eat and leave the skin to daughter’s delight. However she has to fight with him for the yam.

Please adjust the seasoning to suits your taste. I love rose wine but some people might not or finds it hard to get. I don’t add salt as the nam yue I buy is salty enough to warrant me adding some sugar even. Adjust and make it to your liking. It’s not that hard to cook as long as you get your roast pork all ready. Have fun!

I simply love yam. It is hard to get nice Chinese yam with the purple specks in UK. When there are some, I will always buy a couple of kg bag and store in my freezer. There is not much point buying fresh yam in UK as the few times I tried half were rotten or browned in colour. I much rather buy frozen ones. However frozen with purple flecks is hard to find. Different batches and supplier I suppose.

The ones with the purple flecks are most ‘powdery’ When you slice into them, milky liquid flows out. Those are the best yam. YUM

When I first got it into my head to make this, I could not find a recipe on the net. I have to try a few time of trial and error, too much liquid it’s too soft to fry and won’t hold it’s shape. Too little liquid then you get Yam cake so hard that can ‘hit die dog’ I have come to the conclusion I like mine just soft enough to hold it’s shape.

I was wondering why Chinese Loh Bak Go (Turnip cake) can make and fry like this but no one make yam ones. So a new idea was born. Anyway the hubby always complains that the Loh Bak Go at Yam Cha never have enough ‘liew’. This recipe satisfies our love for yam and the ‘liew’

I deviate this recipe from the normal Steamed Yam Cake with toppings – http://www.julieolive.co adjusting this and that until they can be lightly, very lightly pan fried though hubby preferred his fried a lot more! I find this is also easier to make and you can actually freeze this for a breakfast another day to go with any other Dim sum dishes you might want to make. As for me, as per usual after slicing, frying some to eat the day itself and the next day plus giving some to friends I have nothing left to freeze. maybe I will make double the amount next time.

Note : The amount of dried shrimps, Chinese sausage and any other ingredients you wish to add are all optional and depending on you.

Note : Because I used chicken powder and lots of dried shrimps I did not add any salt. it is entirely optional.

p/s Please leave a message if you have any questions. Enjoy.

TIP – Cuts easier after cooled in the fridge. Wipe your knife with oil after each slice and make sure you knife is sharp.

TIP – If it’s too sticky dust very lightly with some flour before frying.

TIP – Be generous with your yam, dried shrimps, lap cheong etc. Every slice must have lots as we eat with our eyes first then the gob.

Note – It is important to have a good garlic and shallots oil foundation for a tasty Yam cake.

Double Note – Once you get your consistency the way you like, makes notes so you do not forget it and write out your own tips for yourself aka which tray to use, you like your Yam cake to have height etc…..

Hmmmmmm…….I shall stop ‘advising’ or I sound like an old cow moooooing ……kekekekekeke

I started making Bak Kwa on my second year in UK. I was so desperate to eat. I remembered making it in the middle of winter. There was no sun to be seen. What to do? Needs must. ? I rolled and used the oven to bake them. Once I actually lighted the BBQ in the snow  as I was too fussy. To me baked in oven just do not taste the same! I wanted that slightly burnt taste that only  BBQ from charcoal can give. Thinking back I could only laugh at my greediness. Then there was a year where I taught all my Facebook friends to make bak kwa and my Facebook news page were dotted with bak kwa pics from all over UK, France and even across the pond from the US. All my friends were making bak kwa. To read more about Bak Kwa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakkwa

Fast forward some 20 years and now making it is a lot easier because I have a nice back garden space that I can use. Also practice makes perfect. Having outside water pipe to wash helps too. Nowadays I make them only in the summer. I have sorta developed the easiest way for me to do it too. I now vacuumed sealed them and freeze for those times when I feels like eating with home made bao buns.

I have made four batches of 3 kg mince each in total for this summer thus far. I have send some to friends who have not been fortunate enough to balik kampung for awhile as a treat. This is my recipe that I have developed over the years. Please use it as a guide and adjust to your taste. I find that my taste have changed from the time when I used to make with a relative every Chinese New Year to sell in Ipoh, Malaysia. Those were the days. It’s like another lifetime ago ……..

This post is more about the TIPs and way of making rather than the perfect recipe. I will give you my preferential recipe of course. Please refer to each pic for explanations and TIPs. Enjoy.

p/s I prefer mine to be tougher, fatter and chewy but the hubby prefer his softer and easier to eat but no fat – What’s your preference?

JULY 5, 2018 BY ADMIN

One of hubby’s favourite chicken dish is the Cantonese roast chicken. In fact he is most happy if he can have Cantonese roast chicken with Hainanese chicken rice. He does not like the white poached chicken. He prefers ‘poached’ chicken if it is done in the Sous Vide. For someone who can’t cook he sure knows what he likes and doesn’t like!

Every time I buy a chicken he will ask hopefully if I am making Cantonese roast chicken. I always say no, that’s boring as it does not need any ‘intricate’ cooking.  So this is indeed an easy dish. Just marinate the chicken, stick it in the fridge for a minimum of 48 hours, turning it one or twice to make sure the marinate permeate the entire chicken. On the day of cooking remove it from the fridge and let it drain and dry for a few hours. Drying under the sun is the ultimate way and the skin looks like leathery after a few hours.  Bake this leathery skinned chicken in the oven and you will be amazed. Failing to have the co-operation of the sun you can plug in a hair dryer.

I bought 2 corn fed chickens on Saturday and they have been giving me sleepless nights, wondering what to do with them. Hubby requested for Cantonese roast chicken so I marinated one for Friday. 

However I felt like frying today so I woke up at the crack of dawn. Washed the chicken with salt, rinsed and cut one chicken to form into “pipa” shape, or butterfly shape, and seasoned with marinate quickly because I wanted to marinate for a good 6 hours before cooking.  This is to ensure that the taste permeates the chicken.

Szechuan style Sweet & Sour sauce with crispy pork slices.

Sweet & sour sauce can be said to be one of the top 3 favourite sauces among the British population with sweet sour chicken being one of the most ordered food from Chinese take away shops.

The Cantonese or Hong Kong sweet and sour chicken, whereby boiled pieces of chicken breasts are coated with batter, deep fried and served with a pot of sickly sweet sour sauce is most popular in UK. Some shop menus have it as ‘sweet sour chicken balls’. Whilst on holiday my boy has bought this a couple of times to snack on at night and more often than not we throw away the sauce and just eat the chicken with tomato sauce instead. The take away shops often put red food colouring into the ‘sauce’ with a lot of cornstarch slurry to thicken it. Tastes awfully foul. 

This Szechuan sweet sour sauce has been perfected over the years and it is one of my go to sauces for all protein sweet and sour. The only difference is that I use much more ginger for seafood. It takes a bit of patience and time to make this sauce but you can make a big batch and store it for a couple of weeks to a month in the fridge, or you can portion and freeze.