Cantonese stir-fry crab

We are blessed in Manchester with numerous and very good Chinese restaurants. I go out a lot to these restaurants, and was intending to go with a friend last Friday, but she suggested we'd cook something together at home instead. I embraced the idea as I love cooking with other people and the food always end up being something that would not come out of a restaurant's kitchen somehow.
So we met up in Chinatown - 2 min from my home, so my usual food hunts place - not knowing what we were going to do yet. As we entered, the first thing we saw was the seafood, and in particular the lobsters and the crabs. We looked at each other and it was decided, crab it would be. My friend who is originally from Hong Kong and she immediately suggested a dish from back home. We only picked up a few other ingredients as my kitchen already contains all the usual Chinese basics suspects.

The crabs were of course alive so I had a little photo shoot with them before they'd die for the greater good of our stomachs. I must say I've always loved crabs, they are fascinating crustaceans.

To cook this dish (for 2 pers.)
- 2 medium crabs
- Fresh noodles for 2
- 2 clove garlic, chopped
- 1 thumb fresh ginger, chopped
- 1 red chili, chopped
- 6 preserved black bean, chopped
- 1 head broccoli divided in florets
- dark soy sauce
- light soy sauce
 -oyster sauce
- vegetable oil (I used rapeseed oil, healthier)
- 1 bunch spring onions, chopped in diagonals
- a handful of cornflour
- 2 tsp sugar

Crabs:

Prepare a big pan with boiling water, drop the crabs in it (the faster the least they suffer...) and put the lid on.
Take the crabs out when they are red/pink/orange(depends on the crabs used), it only takes a few minutes. Take the crabs out and set aside.

When they are cold, dismember them and break the claws, remove the non edible part of the body.

Chop together chili, garlic,ginger and black beans. reserve some for the broccoli (to be cooked and served separately

Heat oil in a wok, throw in the mix, stir-fry for a minute, throw in the spring onions,and cook some more, then add the crab, mix a bit, add a dash of soy sauce and oyster sauce then add the lid on the wok.

In a small bowl, mix cornflour and 1tsp sugar, add some cold water, stir well and add to the crabs, stir till thickened.

The dish is now ready.

Broccoli:
Blanch the broccoli.
Heat oil in a wok, throw in the mix, stir-fry for a minute,add florets, soy and oyster sauce, stir well, cook for a few more minutes.
In a small bowl, mix cornflour and 1tsp sugar, add some cold water, stir well and add in the wok, stir till thickened.and the dish is now ready

Noodles
Cook the fresh noodles in boiling water, drain in cold water and then pour boiling water (to keep them hot) on top in the colander. Dish o the plates. Add a filet of oyster sauce, a drizzle of light soy sauce, and finish with a filet of hot oil.

Serve the three items.

This dish is really easy to make and has this gorgeous taste of Hong-Kong Street food.
The crab brings a flavoursome sweetness, and the whole dish does not take much time at all.
The noodles cooked that way take a whole dimension, and don't even think a second of skipping the oil, that would be murder!

Source: My friend, this is a common Cantonese dish cooked in HongKong at home.
Photography: myself.

The make-do Phở (Vietnamese noodle soup)

I was talking to @lovingpho's and looking a his great website the other day, as was already thinking of the trip to Vietnam I am planning for the end of the year. I sent lovingpho's address to my friend Marjolaine (see previous posts there, there and there) who in turn sent me her recipe and encouraged me to make my first Phở. Impatient, and missing some of the ingredients, I decided to proceed nevertheless.

So my Phở is definitely not authentic, but was surely tasty. And it took no time to prepare.

Here are Marjolaine's instructions for a quick Phở soup:
Ingredients:
- rice noodles
- Beef slices
- stock (beef used if sliced beef used)
- nước mắm
- ginger
- star anise
- chinese 5 spice
- slices of red chillis
- lime
- ngò gai (culantro, or long coriander)
- Thai basil
- bean sprouts

Heat the beef stock with the spices, ginger, sliced onion and star anise.

In a bowl, place the chilli, herbes, beensprouts, lime, noodles and beef slices. Pour the stock on top and serve.

NOW. I ran out of nước mắm (but I still have some thai fish sauce. not quite the same though. they taste very different..) did not have beef slices, bean sprouts or thai basil, I had cilantro but not culantro, and I had rice flakes only as I also ran out of rice noodle.
BUT, it was lunchtime and I was hungry so decided to go ahead anyway. So here is my heretic alternative:

I used some chicken stock I had, in it I threw finely sliced shallot, 1 star anise, a pinch of chinese 5 spice and some rice flakes (they are flat square type noodles see in the next photos), and the ginger chopped .

In a bowl I prepared: the cilantro (coriander leaves), lime juice, diagonal slices of a bird'seye chilli

I used the vietnamese sausage I had in the fridge:

I cut slices in dice, but with hindsight I should have cut long thin strips.

Then I poured the stock mix on top of the ingredients...

Like for thai food, one of the big secret is the right balance between the fish sauce and the lime (adjust). The soup was great for a speed lunch, but I can't wait to make a proper one, as the flavour with the indicated ingredients will be more delicate of course. I already have quite a lot of the ingredients because I often cook Asian food, but I guess it demands some specialist fresh ingredients, and in the UK, even if it is easy to find them in chinatown (ahem, I live next door from it), in this recession time, some people might find it a bit costly to make.

I am looking forward to taste the original vertsion during my trip in Vietnam, can't wait!

Source: Marjolaine's recipe + my own heretic modifications

Chinese quick fix

Sometimes, I am hungry but I don't want to spend much time in the kitchen for it at all. This is one of these recipes you knock in a few minutes. I used a Szichuan sauce in a jar, but another day, I might just try to make it myself for personnal satisfaction.

I ended up with a satisfying dish, and fun to prepare.

Ingredients:
- about 6 cubes of fried tofu, each cut in 4 (you can use chicken goujons if you prefer)
- 1 plaque of easycook noodles
- a handful of dried shitake mushroom, soaked
- 1 spring onion, sliced (keep a few slices for decoration)
- 1 red chili, sliced
- 1 clove of garlic finely chopped
- 1/2 a thumb of garlic, finely cut
- 3 spoonfuls of sichuan sauce
- 1 dash soya sauce
- a few drops of sesame oil
- a pinch of fresh coriander, chopped
Cook the noodles (2 min in boiling water), rince with cold water, drain and reserve.

In a pan, heat the rest of the ingredients together less the tofu, mixing well and making sure that the mix is heated throughoutAdd the tofu, make sure the mix coats the cubes, and that the cubes are hot throughout.
Add in the noodles, and cook till hot and well coated.
Et voila, dish and eat!

Source: me

Beef Hor Fun

(Hor Fun means Flat Rice Noodles)

Ingredients (for 4):
- 200 g dried flat rice noodles (did not find fresh ones in Chinatown, I'll look better next time..)
- 300 g steak, sliced thinly
- 250 g kai lan (Chinese kale)

- 2 tablespoons peanut oil (vegetable oil)
- - 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
- 4 shallots, peeled and sliced thinly
- 1 thumb-length ginger, peeled and chopped

Marinade:
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce (coeliac use gluten free version)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon rice wine

Sauce:
2 espresso cups of stock (1/2 beef stock cube in hot water will do)
1 tablespoon light soy sauce (coeliac use gluten free version)
1 tablespoon soy sauce (coeliac use gluten free version)
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour (I tend to use rice flour, it works too)

Method:

Slice the steak thinly in slices and cut each slice again in half if you want small pieces. Marinate in light soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine for at least 15 minutes.

Soak the dried noodles in cold water until softened. Drain

Place the Chinese leaves with the noodles, and pour over it the boiled water from the kettle, repeat 2 or three times (drain in between the times, then leave it soaking in the water) (Omit this step if you are using fresh noodles)

Heat the oil in a wok large enough for the noodles. Make sure the wok is very hot and sauté the garlic, shallots and ginger until fragrant. Add the beef slices and stir-fry briskly for a few minutes. Do not worry if they are half cooked. Remove.

Mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl, stir well. Pour the sauce into the hot wok and allow it to thicken, stirring continuously.

Return the beef to the wok. Add the noodles and mix well in the wok so that the noodles are well coated with the sauce and beef .

(if you want that smoky taste, you can flambé the noodles...)

Serve immediately and enjoy!! (I certainly did!) Slurply good!

For vegetarians or even vegans, replace the marinated meat by caramelised tofu see my recipe there).

Last time I had this dish was in Singapore, in the little cafe in front of the Royal Peacock hotel, where I was staying. I had quite craving tonight and decided I'd make them..

Source: my memory of the dish, and a million of recipes on the net I made a synthesis of....

Hong Kong Style noodles

I invented this super easy recipe (take it as healthy fast food…:)

Preparation : 10 mn
Cooking time : 10 mn
For 2 people

Ingredients:
- 2 lots of ‘easycook’ noodles (they cook in 3 minutes)
- 1 big onion
- 5 tablespoons of dark soya sauce
- 4 tablespoons of soya sauce
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 birdeye chilli
- 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
- 200g of mangetout beans
- 300g of fried tofu pre-cooked (or use caramelised tofu)
- 3 spring onions

Making it:
Blanch the beans and drain (but keep the water). Put aside.
Cook the noodles as indicated on the packet. Rince them with cold water and drain. Put aside.
Cut the onion in thin slices, fry it in the oil until it is golden.
Add the thinly cut garlic and chilli. After a minute or two add the soya sauces, cook a few more minutes; do not hesitate to add some of the water you cooked the mangetouts in to deglaze and maintain the sauce in a sticky state.
Add the tofu cut in bite-size squares. If you use the fried tofu, make sure you coat it well with the sauce.
Add the mangetouts (which should be vivid green and crunchy by the way), and the noodles.
Mix well and cook for 1 min for the noodles to warm up.
Dish in bowls, sprinkle with the sliced spring onions, and serve with chopsticks.

Tips
Do not add salt as the soya sauces already contain salt.
If you don’t like tofu, you can replace it by slices of wok-fried chicken

Vegans, use replacement products for soy sauces

Now, enjoy!