Jamie's Chinese Feast Part 2

Part two of Jamie's Chinese feast plus dessert, it will make you very hungry indeed.

Char- Siu Pork,叉燒

Char Siu Pork

Char Siu meaning barbeque meat is another popular dish among the Chinese community. This dish originates from Hong Kong but you can practically find them in most Chinese restaurants. In Bristol, there is a top notch Cantonese restaurant called Mayflower that serves very good Saam Siu meaning three roasts in Cantonese. This dish includes: Char Siu, Siu Yuk (roast pork belly) and Roast duck. This is my all-time favourite dish.

Ingredients:

• 500g of Pork Belly/ Pork Loin (Cut them in long strips,1 inch thick)
• 1/4 bottle of Char Siu sauce (Make:Lee Kum Kee)
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of rice wine
• 1/2 teaspoon of five spice powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
• Few drops of red colouring

1. Marinate the pork with all the ingredients overnight or 3-4 before cooking for best results.
2. If you are using belly pork, make sure to score the skin so the crackling comes out nice and crunchy.
3. Pre-heat the oven at 190C.
4. Bake it in oven 190C for 15mins until half-nearly cooked.
5. Then put the grill on for 10mins-15mins so the meat gets slightly charred and crispy.
6. Brush some extra Char Siu sauce on while the meat is on grill.
7. Turn grill off when the meats are slightly charred and crispy on the top. Serve.

Char Siu 

Char Siu Pork Belly

You can get the Char Siu sauce (Lee Kum Kee) from a local Chinese supermarket. This is what you are looking out for. Lee Kum Kee has a selection of great sauces, so if you are a big fan of Chinese food, make sure you try the black bean sauce and spicy bean sauce which is perfect for a stir fry beef/chicken or even tofu if you like them!

Fried Salt and Pepper Squid

Salt and Pepper Squid

Here is another 'must-order' dish whenever I go to a Chinese restaurant or ANY restaurant that serves fried calamari. It is very similar to fried calamari apart from the extra ingredients we use in this recipe. The peppers, spring onion, garlic and chillies definitely bring an extra crunch and flavour to this dish!
Squid itself has not much flavour apart from its fishy smell and chewy texture, so it usually needs a sauce or marinates to bring out the flavour. In this case, marinate the squid for few hours before cooking.

Ingredients:

• 500g of squid (cut them 1inch x 1 inch then cross/score them on one side)
• 1/2 a red pepper (chopped in little cubes)
• A few stalk of spring onion (chopped an inch long)
• 3 gloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 2 chillis (chopped)
• 1/2 cup of corn flour
• 1 tablespoon of Thai fish Sauce
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of white pepper

1. Marinate the squid with Thai fish Sauce, soy Sauce, salt and pepper for few fours for best results.
2. Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, fry garlic for a minute then add red pepper and fry it for 5 minutes. Finally, add spring onion and chilli and fry it for another 2 minutes.
3. Add a pinch of salt for flavouring. Dish the vegetables mixture and leave it aside.
4. Place corn flour on another plate and dap the sliced squid with corn flour until it is evenly coated.
5. In another pan, put enough oil for deep frying. 4-5cm oil should be enough to cover the squid. Heat the oil on high heat.
6. Deep fry the squid on until golden brown. Lower the heat if the oil is getting too hot.
7. When all the squid are fried, the final step is to mix the squid with the vegetables mixture. Put them in a pan and stir fry them very quickly on high heat.
8. Serve.  A dipping sauce like Thai Sweet Chilli sauce will go perfectly with the squid.

Salt and Pepper Squid

If you are not a squid person, the same recipe can be used for prawns and chicken! 

The Thai sweet chilli sauce is very mild and if you are up for something slightly more spicier than there is a chilli sauce I would like to recommend here. 

I grew up eating this sauce in Malaysia and it is a perfect dipping for EVERYTHING! You can get them in every Chinese supermarket or even in Tesco and Asda. Enjoy!

Elisa and I were stuffed after such a delicious meal thanks to Jamie's skills, but we still had room for pudding, banana splits. I have not had such a satisfying dessert in a long while, definitely indulge in one when you are feeling in an ice cream mood.

Jamie's Chinese Feast Part 1

Last week it was our turn to go to Jamie's for dinner. I had previously cooked my giant meat fest Jambalaya and Elisa had made a fabulous fish pie. We wandered down to Old Market to find Jamie's flat with dessert in hand, unknowingly some of the nicest Chinese food I've had in a long while, awaited us. Here are the delicious  crackers she made that awaited us.

Prawn Crackers with Sweet Chilli Dip

Jamie made us, coconut rice, three cups chicken, salt and pepper squid and char siu pork. Jamie has written up the four recipes in a blog post and I will be posting them in two blogs complete with photos. So without further ado here is Jamie.

Coconut rice (Nasi Lemak)

I have made this rice once for Abby to try and she totally loved it, so I decided to make it again to make her happy, HA! I would usually go for jasmine rice as it has a very subtle, fragrant taste and compliments different flavoured dishes better; we don't want to over complicate the taste buds too much.  So, I decided to make the coconut rice quite light, so it did not overpower the flavour of other dishes. 

This rice originates from Malaysia and it is called Nasi Lemak which means fatty rice in Malay. Why fatty? Coconut does produce quite a lot of fat while cooking, but fatty in this context simply means rich and creamy.Traditionally, this dish come as a platter of food wrapped in banana leaves, served with fried anchovies, roasted peanuts, hard-boiled egg, and hot spicy sauce (sambal). And believe it or not, we usually have it for breakfast. Chilli for breakfast definitely wakes you right up! It is a must-try if you ever go to Malaysia/Singapore. This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 normal sized mugs/cups of Thai jasmine rice (you can also use Basmati)
• 1 300ml can of coconut milk (I use Chaokoh coconut milk from Thailand)
• 1 1/2 cups of water
• 1/2 tsp saffron (optional)
• 3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 5 2inch slices of peeled ginger(pound before it goes into the rice)
• 1 tsp salt
• Pandan leaves (if you can find them in a local Chinese supermarket

1. Place rice in a non-stick pot and rinse with tap water until the water is clear, then drain the water
2. Mix in the coconut milk, chopped garlic, Pandan leaves and saffron
3. Pour the water and salt into the mixture and stir well
4. Place lid on the pot and cook it on medium for 8 mins, then put it on a very low heat and cook it for another 12-15mins
5. Stir the rice and remove ginger before serving

I use a rice cooker myself so it usually takes 30mins to steam the rice. Cooking using gas/fire is usually quicker 20-25mins. So please check your rice within the first 20mins. If it is soft and fluffy, turn gas off. Most of the ingredients used can be found in your local Chinese supermarket.

Three-cups-chicken (三杯鸡)

Three Cups Chicken

Three cups chicken is a classic Taiwanese dish, it is very similar to the Chicken in Ginger & Spring Onion you can get from the local Chinese takeaway in the UK. But instead of spring onion, Thai basil leaves are traditionally used. It brings an aromatic and flavoursome taste to the dish. This dish is very popular among the Chinese community as it is easy to cook and the ingredients are very common to many other Chinese dishes, so you can usually find these ingredients in a Chinese household. This dish goes perfectly with a bowl of warm, fragrance jasmine rice, just the perfect way to blend in the meat sauces. The 3-cups in this dish mean a 'Chinese tea cup' of Soy Sauce- Rice Wine- Sesame oil. The cup measurement in this recipe has been improvised; the cup measurement is a normal tea/coffee mug.

Ingredients:

• 600g of chicken breast/thighs (diced)
• 4 slices of peeled ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 1.5/4 a cup of Shaoxing wine or Chinese rice wine
• 1/4 cup of light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of sesame oil 
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• A small bunch of Thai basil leaves
• 1/2 tablespoon of corn flour (optional, if you like a thicker sauce)

1. Heat the pan on medium heat and put in the sesame oil. When the pan is hot, put in the garlic and ginger and fry it until they are slightly brown.
2. Now add the sugar to the pan, leave the sugar to brown for a minute then add your diced chicken. The sugar is used to caramalise the meat.
3. Fry the chicken on a high heat for a few minutes, lower the heat then add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and wine. Stir well.
4. Now put the heat very low, put a lid on the pan and let it slow cook for 10 minutes. If the meat gets too dry, add some water.
5. If  you prefer a thick sauce, use corn flour mix at this point. Put the corn flour in a cup and mix it well with 4 tablespoons of water. Pour into the pan with the chicken and increase the heat, stirring evenly for a minute.
6. Finally put in the Thai basil leaves and let it cook with the chicken for 1 minute before dishing it up.

My plate of coconut rice, salt and pepper squid and chicken

This was truly delicious I am definitely going to make the chicken myself soon as it was too good. Tomorrow I shall post the second half of Jamie's feast  where she will divulge her recipe for salt and pepper squid and char siu pork. For any of your Asian cooking needs check out large supermarket Wai Yee Hong in Eastville or if you are more central based fairly newly open Wah Yan Hong on Denmark Street or Kin Yip Hon down by Dynasty.

Mini Blog on Thai Green Curry

So last night I made chicken Thai green curry. First and foremost do not get your curry pastes from a supermarket, I have previously made this rookie mistake myself. The supermarket pastes are just not strong or hot enough for the corresponding curry, I found them pretty synthetic to be honest. Luckily my closest Chinese supermarket is on Denmark Street, Wah Yan Hong. It is next to Wongs and on my route home so perfect for impromptu dinner plans. Chinese supermarkets really excite me I love finding new things to try it is like the Aladdin's cave of food shopping. Having visited a few times with Jamie she has pointed out all the best brands and deals for your money and for that I am very thankful to have such knowledge at my fingertips.

For roughly 0.65p of your Earth money you can buy sachets of many different curry and soup pastes. I have tried making red, yellow and now green Thai curry so far, and their are a couple of others next on the list.

Thai Green Curry Paste I use

There are very easy instructions on the back which you can follow directly or go a bit off piste as I did.

Recipe on the Back

I used about two thirds of the paste as I know how hot green curry can be so wanted to test the water before adding more. This turned out to be pretty much perfect for us as it was pretty spicy but not burningly hot. I also used chicken thighs, I always use thighs in dishes like this because the flavour is much better than chicken breast and it doesn't dry out at all with cooking. Once I had added the chicken to the coconut milk and paste I also popped in some chopped potato. The recipe does suggest adding aubergine but seeing as I am not it's biggest fan I decided against it.

I did however add some green beans right at the end along with the kaffir lime leaves, a few drops of fish sauce and a dash of lime. I left the extra chillis this time.

Completed Chicken Thai Green Curry

Chicken Thai Green Curry

Thai Green Curry

So there you have it super satisfying curry to warm you on a cold evening, yes I am aware that it is June and it should not be cold now.