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.

Thai Chicken Galangal soup

This is one of my favorite thai soups.

I learnt to do it a long time ago, when I was taking Thai cooking classes. The recipe stayed with me and I cook it regularly. It's very delicate and quite easy to make, and very healthy.
I live close to Chinatown, so I am pretty spoilt, but I reckon many of you will find it difficult to find fresh galangal, and all the other ingredients I always have at home. I'd say you could replace it by either fresh ginger or pwdered galagal, however, it wopn't quite be the same. Thai food is best eaten with fresh ingredients. Other than that, the other ingredients should be easy enough to find in normal supermarkets, in Britain anyway.

You will need for 4 people (or two greedy ones):
- 200g chicken Fillet, sliced into mouth size pieces
- 5 slices of fresh galangal
- 2 cups of Coconut milk (a tin of Chaokoh coconut milk will be perfect)
- 1 cup chicken stock or water
- 2 sticks of fresh lemongrass sliced diagonally
- 3-4 Kaffir lime leaves, fresh if possible, dry is ok
- 2 tblsp thai fish sauce
- 1 to 2 tablspn Lime juice
- 5 bird eye chilis, (2 if you are a bit sensitive), sliced diagonally
- 2 sprigs of fresh coriander
- 200g fresh mushrooms, prepared and cut in half

Heat the coconut in a pan, dilute with either chicken stock or water , and once hot, throw in the galangal, mushroom, lemongrass, kafir lime and then the chicken.
Season with the lime juice and fish sauce, the chilis
Simmer for one minute only and then add the coriander to garnish.
Serve right away and enjoy.

This soup is great to warm you up in winter, and obviously can be apreciated in hot weather as well. It
feels very light and satisfying.

It is a typical soup you can find in Thailand, in restaurants or as street food. The photo at the top was taken at my favorite streetfood stall in Koh Samui: John's stall as I mentioned in an earlier post.

The soup can also be made with prawns or seabass instead of chicken.
Also, the same soup can be made without the coconut milk (only chicken soup), but it would then be a Tom Yam soup, very delicious as well.

The best coconut milk available in our shop is the chokaoh brand, as it is made of young coconut scrapped.

I have inserted below a few photos I took during a stay in Thailand, where I visited a coconut harvest at a plantation, near Chiang Mai:

Making coconut milk


Bunny Rabbit coconut grater

Source: My Thai cook teacher Chorchaba, photos: myself.

North African Tabouleh

Very common in France, but much more difficult to find in the UK, a tabouleh is a (cold) fresh and summery salad with a base of couscous. Very easy to make, it has very fresh minty notes and can be easily taken to a party or a picnic.
In the middle east, boulghour is used instead of couscous grain.


You will need for 4:
- 300g couscous
- The same volume of boiling water as that of couscous grain.
- 4 tomatoes cut in dice
- 1 diced white onion
- 1 bunch of parsley chopped finely
- 1 bunch of mint chopped finely
- the juice of a lemon
- 10cl oil
- salt, pepper.

Mix the couscous grain with the oil, salt, then add the boiling water, and set aside for 1/2h.
Then add the other ingredients, then leave in the fridge for a while.

Serve cool.

Easy no?
North African cuisine is completely integrated in French cuisine and kitchens, and you will find the dishes cooked in French homes as well as in restaurants everywhere. It is a very fragrant, fresh and full of flavours.

Enjoy the tabouleh whilst the good weather lasts!

Source: Photography, me , and recipe, the one I tend to make.

Sweet and sour cold summer soup & hot sweet grilled gammon on the side

You have never heard of this dish?
Me neither. I just invented it today, and it is definitely worth sharing. I had a very sudden burst of good inspiration. And once again, it is very quick to prepare and is very tasty, and the salad is very healthy.


Per person for the sweet gammon you will need:
- 1 slice of gammon
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- black pepper, coarsely ground.

Prepare the gammon first as it takes 18 minutes to cook.
Lay the slice of gammon on a flat over proof dish or plate, brush it with the maple syrup, sprinkle with the black pepper. Done.
Cook at 200 degrees (last 5 min with the grill on) in the oven for 18-20 min depending on your oven.

Per person for the cold soup you will need:
- 4 little tomatoes cut in quarters or 8/10 cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 1 mango, diced (use the juice too)
-1/4 lime juice
- fish sauce - same amount as the lime juice
- 1 small clove of garlic (optional)
- 1 slice of fresh ginger finely chopped
- a small handful of roasted peanuts
- 1 lemongrass stalk, sliced
- 1 kaffir lime leaf, fresh if possible
- 1/2 a chili pepper (less if you use the Birdeye type)

Mix all the ingredients. Done, how's that for easy!?

Serve the sweet gammon and the soup at the same time, and enjoy. It is very refreshing, very tasty in flavour, rich and satisfying. And there you are, you have your five a day...

The dish looks beautiful and colourful, so if you have guests to impressed and want to spare some efforts, that's the one.

On a funny note, I'd probably describe this dish as Thailando-Canadian!

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have!

Recipe and photo: me.

A light salad for the summer

When it's hot and sunny, I always crave for fresh ingredients, and a cooling and refreshing dish . Nothing better than a salad, like I've eaten all my youth, when I was living in France. Over there, people decline salad to infinite. today I would like to share a salad with you, my favorite in fact...:

For 2 people:
- 1 can sweetcorn
- 4 medium tomatoes
- Optional: rice, 100g
- 100g hard cheese (emmenthal, gruyere) diced
- 200g cooked (shallow fried or grilled) chicken breast in strips (OR diced surimi sticks OR a vegetarian alternative but you have been warned, chicken works best ...)
- optional: Cervelas (Swiss sausage) diced (Or cooked frankfurters sliced thickly but really not as good as cervelas)

For the vinaigrette sauce:
- 1 tblsp of honey vinegar or Xeres vinegar
- 2 tblsp of rapeseed oil or light tasting olive oil
- 1 tblsp of water
- 1 tblsp honey

Mix all the ingredients together,
Mix the vinaigrette
Pour the vinaigrette on top of the mix, and leave for 10-20 minutes to marinate, then serve.

This salad is rather sweet and sour, and is easy to take to work for lunch. It is balanced, tasty and light, colourful and takes minutes. what else could I say to convince you!?....

Bon Apetit!

Chinese style steamed seabass

You must know it by now, my favorite fish is seabass, and yes, steamed with greens. Very healty, easy and no fuss. Extremely tasty.

So here's another recipe, chinese this time.
You won't need much:
- 1 fresh seabass, filleted
- 1 broccoli
- a handful of runner beans cut in strips

for the sauce (adjust vinegar and Soya to taste)
- 5 tblspn Soya sauce
- 2 tblspn white wine vinegar or chinese vinegar
- 1 tspn sesame oil
- 2tblspn water
- 1 bird eye chilly, sliced
- 1/2 thumb fresh ginger chopped finely
- 1 tblsp golden syrup

Cook the fish and the vegetables in the steamer in separate baskets for 12 minutes
Prepare the sauce by mixing the ingredients and adjusting.
Dish the fish and vegetables, pour the sauce on top (or serve the sauce separately if you prefer)

Enjoy!

Did I say it was quick and easy? Ah! I wasn't lying!...
This one definitely beats the take away.. (well, I don't do take aways anyway..)

Source: my own experimentation with various tastes

Hong Kong Style egg tarts

Egg tart, originally uploaded by Christ tell.

When I go for dim sum, I usually get the egg tarts at the end of the meal, and they come still warm, with this crazy smooth gooey consistency and these gorgeous texture, smell and flavour, brittle puff pastry , aaaaaaah.. They are not too sweet either..I know, I am raving, but hey, they ARE gorgeous.
So I wanted to try them at home. No idea how they are made. Ah. Let's google it. humm, the ones I want to make are those that people take pictures of at the bakeries and restaurants hence no recipe.
On the wiki I could find a recipe for Portuguese egg tarts, but no, not what I want..

You know me, I would nott have stopped at that, so yes I improvised!
And guess what? the result was rather close, I'm very proud of myself.Yes it must be said.

So I prepared a french pastry, and also used puff pastry I bought (never done puff pastry, somehow it clashes with the title of my blog..).

for 6 egg tarts:

French pastry (for the equivalent of one big tart = twelve little tarts):
- 30 to 40g soften butter (no British butter allowed there, please use the French one, they taste very different!)
- 250g flour (Coeliacs use soya flour)
- 1tblsp sugar
- hot water (about an espresso cup worth)

crumble the butter into flour and sugar, when homogeneous, add the water, and work into a smooth ball, but do not knead and work as least as possible: the more you work it the hardest it will come out once cooked.
Cut and place in moulds.

The egg tart filling:
- 1 egg
- soya milk (ahem, no I did not measure, sorry... but think in proportion more than you would use in a quiche)
- vanilla essence, a few drops

Mix and pour in the pastry

Place in oven at 200 degrees for 15 minutes, then watch for the next 5 minutes, I figured from the look of the egg tarts I get at the restaurants that the filling should not cook too much, and the tart should look glazed.

Eat whilst it's hot please!
These egg tarts are still different from the ones I had in the restaurants, despite being close, and after making them I kept looking on the internet.
I fould this recipe(by Easy Recipe) and that one (by My Kitchen Snippet)and the Portuguese ones (by Leite's culinaria) that seemed closest. I will try it another time to see how they compare.
In any case, getting the puff/flaky pastry like I like it is possibly mission impossible...
At first glance it seems a bit more complicated/long. Anyway, if you have a recipe for it, please pretty please tell me!

Verdict: I will make these again, because they were so simple and tasty, and yes, the consistency was great...

Baked fragrant tofu

When I was in Singapore, I tasted a dish called fragrant tofu: a slab of hot silken tofu covered with a meat and herbs topping. I absolutely loved it, it was like a savoury creme brulee!

So recently I have bought some silken tofu, and it stayed in my fridge until I was reminded of my intent by an article about baked tofu I read on the internet. So my intents gave birth to a cross between fragrant and baked, hence the title!
And today, I wanted to eat something healthy and tasty, easy, and most of all satisfying.
Hence I knocked my own version of fragrant tofu with what I had in my fridge and baking it because I fancied it caramelised:

- 1 slab silken tofu
- 1 big slice of ham chopped in small squares
- 1/2 big green chilli chopped
- 1 spring onion chopped
- 1 teaspoon full of chopoped ginger
- 1 dash oyster sauce
- 2 tblspn sesame oil

Place the tofu on a small oven dish, mix all the other ingredients together and cover the tofu with it.
Place in the oven for 1/2h at 200 degC
I did not have time, but marinating the tofu in the mix first could have worked really well too, if you have the time. For vegetarian or vegans, skip the ham and replace by vegges.

Also, the same dish could be steamed, and I reckon it would be pretty tasty too!...


Source: my own food meanderings

Express Asparagus starter

Here's a very simple yet gorgeous starter. It could not be easier.

You need for 2 people:
- fresh Asparagus tips
- 1 heaped tblspoon dijon mustard
- 1 spoon liquid honey
- 2 or 3 tblspoons of vegetable oil (I like to use grapeseed oil)
- 2 tblspoons of white wine vinegar
- salt and pepper

Steam the asparagus tips for 15 minutes

For the sauce: in a small bowl, mix well the mustard and honey, add the salt and pepper, then add the oil beating with a fork to form an emulsion, add the vinegar and beat with the fork to 'fix' what is an eggless mayonnaise in a permanent emulsion..

Serve on plate and pour the sauce over it.
Another quick starter: walnut endive salad for 2 people.
You need:
- 1 big endive
- 1 spoon honey vinegar (balsamic will do)
- 2 tblsp grapeseed oil
- a palmfull of fresh walnut
- salt and cracked black pepper

Wash the endive, cut in slices, pour the rest of the ingredients on top, mix well and it's ready.

I find that these starters add a fresh and green touch to the winter dishes that come as a main. They are no hassle to make and are very quick too when you have guests.

Hope you like it, bon apetit!

Healthy Winter Warmer

This winter is particularly cold in Britain, and the reflex is to go for stodgy foods, and hibernation.

Photo credit: Bradlee Mauer - Fotolia.com

But it is worth making some lighter albeit satisfying food. This recipe is nor time consuming nor difficult, and is well worth it. It is light, but filling without gluten type ingredients.

Ingredients for 3:
- 3 chicken breasts
- 3 leeks cut in thick slices
- 3 sweet potatoes cut in thick chips
- 6 parsnips cut in thick chips
- 1 tin chicken soup
(or for the ones bothered by using a tin:
- 2 shallots chopped,
- chicken stock,
- 3 tblspn cream,
- salt, pepper, nutmeg)

In an oven dish:
- place the leeks at the bottom,
- dispose on top the chicken breast cut in two in their width
- (then place above the ingredients for the chicken soup alternative), and,
- as a last layer place the parsnips and sweet potato chips.
Pour on top the chicken soup
Then place in the oven covered at 180degC for 30 min.
After 30 min, uncover the dish and cook for another 30 min.

The chips should be cooked to the core and crispy, and underneath, the chicken should be moist and tasty, in the juices.
Serve hot and have a glass of white wine!

Bon apetit!

Source: Bob

Valentine strawberries

Since strawberries are heart shaped, I thought it would be a good article for the St Valentine. In France, strawberries can be eaten as a dessert, and two traditional ways to serve them is:

- cut in half mixed with cream and sugar
- cut in half and with red wine and sugar

And the kids can have the wine version too!

I know the wine version seems strange, but try it before you knock it! It looks great presented in a wine glass by the way.
There is no need for proportions, just taste and use dashes!

Have all a great St Valentine all...

Fluffy sweet potato mash

Yesterday evening I had to prepare my lunch for today, and I wanted something warm, comforting, light, tasty and minimum effort... Looked in the cupboards.. Ah!!
So there you are, I ended up with the idea of mash, but not tatties because it's too heavy.
Here's how I made the mash, fluffy, ligt healthy and flavoursome (have I sold it yet? - yes you gather, I loved it!)

For 1 person:
- 2 big sweet potatoes, cut in small bits
- 1 big shallot chopped
- 1 heaped tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp tumeric
- 1tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp chili flakes
- a little bit of saffron
- salt to taste (sea salt is best!)

Cook the sweet potatoes and the shallots in a steamer for 20 minutes.

Use a hand masher and mash roughly to keep the fluffy texture, add the spices, sprinkle a bit of paprika for the deco.

The hardest is probably to cut the potato in bits, all in all I'd say 10 minutes of preparation if you are really really slow at peeling the potatoes and cutting them. The steamer will do the rest for you...
This mash is very happy to be reheated - not like potato or carrot mash whose texture is changing.
And you'll notice: not one ounce of fat: it's super healthy!

Bon apetit!

Source: I was hungry, it decuples the thinking power to create food!!

French Onion soup

In these times of arctic cold in Europe, I revert back to soup mode, warming, and satisfying. The good old French onion soup is working wonders. Easy, rapid, cheap (credit crunch!!), it's the perfect dish.

Ingredients:
- 2 large onions
- 1fingernail of butter + the equivalent in grapeseed oil (or vegetable oil)
- 1 pinch of flour (optional, it makes the soup thicker, but it is gluten...so coeliac avoid or use rice flour!)
- salt
- 1/2 glass dry white wine (cooking wine will do)
- croutons (finely sliced baguette or dices)
- grated gruyere or emmenthal (avoid cheddar: it releases oil and does not taste french!) - vegans avoid
- 1/2l stock (homemade, orready made, byut without MSG, maize starch etc: NATURAL!) - or if vegetarian, find an alternative
I found this one which is suitable:

Shallow fry the onions ?(with 1/2 butter 1/2 oil, just a little bit) so they become golden. Please make sure they don't burn as it gives a bitter taste to the soup.
Add the flour and mix well to coat the onions, cook for a minute or two.

Wet with the stock and top up with water if needed. Simmer gently for 10-15 minutes.
In the mean time prepare some croutons (in the pan if you are courageous, or just toast some thin slices of baguette if you are lazy and healthier!).
Add a little bit of salt (not much, since the gratted cheese is already salted.

There are two ways for serving it.
- you can place some croutons and cheese and gratiner the soupe in the oven under the grill
- or as I prefer, just serve the croutons and cheese on the table, and let the guests serve themselves...

Bon apetit!

Source: my own experience