Thus far I have cooked 2 dishes. – Salted fish steamed with pork belly

Salted fish braised with toufo.

Fry toufo after coating with a mixture of rice and corn flours before frying garlic and shallots. Add the carrots and a whole head of Chinese leaf cabbage. Including the soaked mushrooms and the soaking liquid. Seasoned with a touch of oyster sauce, salt and pepper and light soy sauce. Hubby loves it.

Slicing, frying and packing.

Signed Sealed Delivered – All mine

Zeepers – Keepers

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The second dish I wanted to make with the chayote fruit is Jiu Hu Char. I grew up in Kuching, Sarawak. My mother will cook this traditional dish – Jiu Hu Char with jicama (bangkwang) every Chinese New Year. It is one of my more favoured dish. We sauced it with baked beans. Even then, it must be the certain brand that begins with the alphabet ‘H’. We were indeed quite spoiled.

Today I used the chayote fruit but I did not ‘cook’ it. I washed and soaked the cuttlefish strands (Jiu Hu, in Hokkien dialect) and drained. In hot oil I fry till the wonderful aroma emerges. Then I added in beaten eggs. Actually would be better if I make omelette and sliced thinly but I am a tad lazy today. All day it has been wet and cold and deary in Hertfordshire. Then I hand sliced the chayote fruit and added in after heat off from my wok. Together with spring onions and one red chili. I do prefer colourful dish. Seasoning was salt and freshly ground pepper, pinch of sugar and I harvested my calamansi lime and added the juice. Served on iceberg lettuce with dash of chili sauce. Heaven is a filled lettuce leaf?

Most enjoyable time was eating these wraps – kekekekekek I love cuttlefish any which way period. Grilled, processed with chili and sugar, dried and fluffed etc. Today’s cook affirm to me that I do prefer to eat my chayote more towards the raw side.

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When I am gifted something, I like to make the best use of it. I like to think ummm……’out of the box’ sort to speak and I enjoy tremendously the drafting period.

I was given some chayote fruits and I wanted to cook something different with them. I have 2 ideas and today I used one fruit to make ngoh hiang. My only criticism is that next time I would not use my nakiri knife. I would avoid julienning them so finely because I missed the ‘bite’. Hence next time I shall slice thicker if I use them like so.

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This is an update post to my old post HERE with TIPs I have learned with age. I like to think with age come wisdom? I much preferred to make it this way nowadays. It is easier and for me a lot more convenient. My recipe remains the same but cooking method differ. I do not do everything in a day.

One day to wash, portion my chicken and marinate. Another day to cook and lastly to assemble and steam. I usually make quite a few to gift to friends and feed my freezer.

I don’t like my rice mushy but al dante. I actually give my chicken a spa treatment, chopped and marinate them beforehand, 2 days ago. I stored them in vacuum sealed containers. I also cooked the chicken and mushrooms yesterday and soaked my rice last night. Today it is only a matter of slicing the Chinese sausages, assembling and steaming them. I made 2kg of glutinous rice and a whole big fat chicken it takes two rounds of steaming. Tasting and packing takes time.

TIP – Save some of the chicken oil to oil your stainless steel tin ramekins.

TIP – I have discovered it is better to use water chestnut flour. Corn starch turns your stock watery but water chestnut flour would not.

TIP – When you fill your stainless steel ramekins, tap it on a chopping board but do NOT press hard. If you press hard you will have uncooked rice in the middle! Tapping is done at a slight angle so your rice don’t jump out.

TIP – Arrange your filled ramekins on your steamer. Then add the soaking rice water to just barely noticeable on top. That would be enough if you have soaked overnight.

TIP – I prefer a 40 minutes steaming on medium heat after water boiled. If you plan to freeze and steam again before eating adjust your time accordingly.

With all my love – enjoy making. They freeze extremely well. To eat just defrost in fridge overnight and them steam for like 10 minutes. Double the time if steam from frozen but common sense prevails – aka depending on the size of you LMK

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I cooked a simple one pot braised dish tonight but thought I will blog it for my son. He bought his own place and moved out for a few years now and he has picked up some cooking skills along the years. In fact in the last year he has been cooking his own food a lot and so his skills is much improved, The wonderful thing is he is actually enjoying it. He said cooking his own food saves him a lot of monies. I attribute that to his frugal mum and her Chinese teaching! On the other hand my gal is not that interested in cooking except learning the few dishes she loves! Alamak!

Many a times I get a text or a call, “mum how do I cook this or that” or even “mum, I remember that sauce you cooked for…., how do I cook it?” I have to admit, it gladdens my heart. One gained a bit of knowledge here and there and a lot of peoples’ post a recipe for others to follow but I noticed they never give out the “important” tips! I like to think I am not like that at all. I share everything I know because to me there is actually no point in keeping the knowledge I have gained as secrets, for each individual cook will ultimately turn out to be different. No one can replicate another cook exactly even if the recipe is followed to the letter.

Tip – Rinse the bought fried toufo with hot water and drain before using. This will remove the “factory oil” taste.

Sauce – Water from the soaked mushrooms, sieved to remove impurities. Oyster sauce (1 tbsp), salt & Pepper, pinch of sugar and I used water chestnut flour instead of cornflour to thicken. It might be an age thing but I have moved away from using a lot of soy sauces or cooking anything with thick, sweet, sticky sauces. Not sure why but I have gone off those for the moment. I have been using water-chestnut flour more instead of corn-starch for sauces. It is lower in carbohydrates too. It cannot be a substitute for all food but for sauces it is fine.

TIP – It is important to freeze your beef beforehand to harden it a bit and use a very sharp knife to slice to 1mm thickness or in the case thinness! Actually if you learn to handle beef well, there is no such thing as tough beef, well not in my book anyway!

TIP – Just before you add your beef to your pot, you can marinate with anything you like, salt & pepper, soy sauce, cornflour if you want velveting but I did nothing today. I tend to stay away from using ‘tenderiser’ powder like bicarbonate soda etc. If you slice thinly you just do not need it. However the most important thing to remember is to add a couple tablespoon of oil and mix well just before adding to your pot as this will separate them nicely and they won’t clump together. I used shallots and garlic oil. Of course you may use sesame oil.

All my TIPs are based on my experiences of cooking almost daily for nearly 3 decades. Enjoy.

Topped with some forages from my garden. Wash and soak in cold water with a touch of vinegar before using.

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Salted chicken is so easy to make at home. This is the simplest no fuss recipe. You buy the chicken and unlike the British people, we Chinese like to clean our chicken with salt and rinse before eating. In the winter this is a good dish and easy to prepare and steam on lazy days when you are a bit cold and lazy. My chicken was marinated for 3 days. Adjust your salt to suit. If marinate longer, less salt and so forth. Not actually rocket science but cooking experiences is useful.

You can actually vacuum sealed your chicken and cook it in a Sousvide machine if you like. A simple way as I don’t like to use a lot of other ‘brown’ sauces. I like the clean look, not muddy brown look so no soy sauce, oyster sauce etc. A nice chicken won’t need all those. Eat clean and simple better. Of course you can add ginseng, mushrooms, red dates etc but today I am just lazy and I just want to show off the near perfect cornfed chicken skin.

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I wanted to cook crab meat fried rice for awhile now. Luckily on my trip back to Devon a fortnight ago I managed to get some live crabs. Some were cooked chilly crabs immediately and eat with Man-tao bun and some I steamed and picked the meat and freeze.

It is extremely satisfying for me to do everything from scratch as I know I am eating real crab meat and not mixed with the fake ‘crabsticks’. Devon crabs are wonderful.

A guide to how I fry my butter crabby rice with TIPs.

Firstly gets everything ready. Use as much crab meat as you like. Don’t forget the brown meat as that’s where the taste is! I used 3 eggs, 2 chillies, a bulb of garlic, same size ginger as garlic bulb, 2 banana shallots, half bowl of green peas, 2 stalks of spring onions and a lot of love thrown in. Seasoning was only salt and pepper freshly ground. No condiments and no sauces, just crabs.

TIP – First add in half the eggs and let them set a bit before adding rice and the rest of the beaten eggs. This ensures that your fried rice get some nice bits of set eggs and some colour to the rice.

TIP – Only add the red chillies and spring onions at the last minute before serving as cooking them will make them soft, soggy and lose the fresh taste. (in my opinion)

TIP – I boiled my rice last night and let dry in the fridge and I make sure I separate each grains before using.

TIP – The seasoning I used was only salt and pepper as I wanted to taste the crab. There is a hint of ginger at the back; is what I like with my seafood. Although I would prefer a whiter rice, my Devon eggs yolks were extremely red! Next cometh the most difficult part. Plating.

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My husband do not like eating fresh tomatoes and as I always challenged myself to make him eat his words, literally so – hahahaha I am thus am quite happy that he not only licked his lunch plate cleaned but asked if there is any leftover for dinner. I think I have won!

I harvested my tomatoes that are red and racked my brains as to how to make him eat by cooking something he likes. I have cod cheeks in my freezer as after coming back from Devon I have stocked up lots of seafood and I also made some onsen style eggs with my Sousvide machine. So this dish is born.

I would not be giving an exact measurements of recipe as I used 2 large onions and double the amount of tomatoes. I used a whole bulb of garlic and the ginger was same size as a bulb of garlic and no, I did not weight it! Recipe like this don’t need a hard and fast rules. It’s not baking a cake. Just cook, taste and taste and season to your liking.

Sometimes we just have to use what is on hand. For example, I would have preferred to use green chillies for the contrasting colours but I only had red. (I forgot I have green chillies still growing in my little kitchen garden! Alamak!

I have also added some king prawns because my daughter loves prawns but the hubby called them scavenger of the sea. The recipe is a guide to making a basic masala onion base.

I have saved half for another day because I have aubergines incoming from my garden soon. It is a good TIP to remember when you make paste from scratch, always make a tad more to keep.

Have fun and enjoy cooking.

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Tomatoes onions masala cod cheeks with added onsen eggs

Ingredients

A basic Tomato Masala

• Tomatoes
• Onions
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Chilli
• Oil
• Masala powder
• Chilli powder
• Turmeric
• Salt
• Sugar

I used ghee then blend my onions to fry, adding the ginger, garlic and chilli. Washed and even peeled my tomatoes, as so fresh and firm very easy to peel before blending and adding in.

While the tomato masala is cooking down let’s prepare the cod cheeks. Remove the sinew from the cod cheeks then seasoned and floured. I used salt, turmeric powder and freshly ground black pepper. Lastly dusted with rice flour. Shallow fry in oil for a few minutes then add to your prepared tomato and onions masala paste.

I then cracked in 3 onsen styled eggs cooked in my Sousvide. Braved the drizzle outside and harvested some laksa leaves to add in because I have and because I love the taste.

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I have been neglecting my blog lately but I have been away to France and then back to my UK hometown Devon. Deepest apologies. However I have a big haul of foodstuff and my fridge freezer is stuffed to the brink. So watch this space.

Today I am very happy to share this very simple one dish recipe. I bought some smoked Haddock and I have been thinking hard on how do I wish to cook it and eat it. I have decided that I am not going to cook them the British way like my in-laws. I wanted to cook them the Asian way and serve with rice for the family. After days of pondering this dish is born and I actually quite enjoyed eating it. What’s makes me most happy is that the hubby approves! I normally do not praise my own cooking. I always go by the maxim “self-praise is of no recommendation” It is only when others tasted and tell you that they like it, then the opinion is of value.

Below are pics of the steps by steps but it’s relatively easy.

The post Smoked Haddock with beancurd (腐竹) in yellow bean sauce – Signatory mine appeared first on Just Julie.

I have been hankering for something Asam quite awhile now. I know today is going to be HOT and it might end up being the hottest day of the year 2024 in UK but I have bought these skate wings on Saturday and they must be eaten by today. I do not want to freeze them. The chap selling did tell me I could freeze them but I prefer them inside my tummy.

So it’s kinda a, if needs must cook/eat time. I woke up early to water my plants and then started in the kitchen. I wanted to finish cooking before the midday sun. Today I have decided to part with half of my precious frozen torch ginger. No point in saving it for a rainy day. Just eat. kekekekeke

I did not have any fresh tomatoes as the ones left in my little kitchen garden are still green So for the different level of sourness, I decided it’s time to rinse out that bottle of tomato sauce that I have been saving too. I am happy to report that it works!

During the summer in UK when the weather is like now I am usually blessed with an abundance of laksa leaves or Vietnamese mint. I know people freezes them and I do too but when there is a plenty I like to use them fresh. Today I cooked with my own laksa leaves and chillies. Them chillies has a bit of a kick.

I repeat again, my recipe is a guide so please make it your own. I made extras kuah today because hubby said he wants some tomorrow. So tomorrow I will add in a tin of sardines and maybe more red onions and he would be a very happy man. Weird kwai loh that he is!

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Ingredients

My Asam Paste

• Ginger
• Galangal
• Onions (shallots)
• Garlic
• Dry chilli + fresh chillies + Kashmiri chilli powder
• Lemon grass
• Torch ginger flower

Seasonings

• Asam Jawa – tamarind juice
• Salt & Pepper
• Sugar
• Asam keping
• Tamarind juice

Extras

• Laksa leaves
• Red chilli slices
• Okras aka ladies' fingers or Aubergines
• Fresh tomatoes
• Tapioca flour
• Turmeric flour

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