Satay evening

chicken pork beef skewers

Serving satay is a good way to enjoy a casual gathering with family or friends. They are easy to prepare and to cook on barbeque, there are variations in the meats used and seasonings to give surprises.

 

chicken satay

Chicken satay

Cut chicken drumstick with skin on into bit size pieces, season with crushed garlic, salt, white pepper and olive oil for an hour. Serve with ginger and spring onion sauce

Ginger and spring onion sauce

Blend an inch of ginger with extra virgin olive oil into a fine paste, stir in very thinly sliced spring onion, season with salt.

Pork satay

Cut shoulder pork into bit size pieces, season with fermented bean paste, soya sauce, brown sugar, rose wine and ginger juice for an hour.

Beef satay

Cut sirloin into bit size pieces, season with black pepper, salt, brandy and olive oil for an hour.

Lamb satay

Cut lamb leg into bit size pieces, season with cumin, salt, chili powder, brandy and olive oil for an hour.

The pork, beef and lamb satay could be eaten as such or served with Satay sauce.

 

satay sauce

Satay sauce

1. Blend an inch of ginger with 3 cloves of garlic, half an onion and some water into a pulp.

2. At medium heat, cook this mixture in 2 tbsp oil with a tbsp of coriander powder, 1tsp cumin powder, 1tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp chili powder, some white pepper (or simply a 2 tbsp of a curry powder that you like), stir regularly until water evaporated and oil oozes out, at least 20 minutes.

3. Dilute with water to a paste, add 3 tbsp of pounded roasted peanut (or simply crunchy peanut butter), season with soya sauce, tamarind juice (or lemon juice) and brown sugar to achieve a sweet sour chili nutty taste. Serve warm.

Jackfruit salad 大樹菠蘿

Jackfruit matures in winter in Hong Kong, it has a mild sweet sour flavor and a pleasant crunchy texture, great to use in salad.

 

jackfruit salad

Cut jackfruit and red onion into strips, add a handful of any herb on hand for flavor and colour, like spring onion, basil, mint or parsley. Season with a big pinch of salt and half a lemon juice.

Black sesame cup cake

Easy to make cakes using sticky rice flour (or rice flour), particularly suitable for people allergic to gluten in normal flour.

 

black sesame cake

sticky rice flour             70gm

black sesame powder   70gm

brown sugar                  50gm

baking powder              half teaspoon

4 eggs + pinch of salt

1. Mix together dry ingredients, whisk eggs with pinch of salt until light and fluffy, add to dry ingredients and fold to form a paste.

2. Pour into cup cake moulds, bake at 200˚C for 30 minutes.

Can replace black sesame with other nut powder, or simply a plain cupcake.

Sticky rice flour desserts

Traditionally winter is the season to eat sticky rice flour desserts. My favorites are those made with black sesame seeds.

Usually the filling is made with toasted then finely grounded black sesame, lard and sugar. Sometime I simply mix toasted black sesame powder with honey, and form into balls one cm in diameter.

As dumpling:

1. Mix sticky rice flour with around 85% by weight of water to form dough. 

black sesame dumpling

2. Take 8-10 gm per pieces, roll to round ball by circling in the palms. Flatten and put a sesame seed ball on top, close up tightly and shape into round balls again until the joint lines could not be seen. Place on cotton towel to prevent sticking.

black sesame dumplings

3. To cook, bring a pot of water to boil, put dumpling in gently, lift if they stick to the bottom of pan, they are ready when rise to the surface.

black sesame dumplings

4. Serve in syrup made with ginger, brown sugar and dry osmanthus flower (optional).

As cake:

black sesame cake

1. Flatten dumpling in between palms, cover both sides with black sesame seeds. 

black sesame cake

2. Shallow fry in olive oil until golden, they will puff up a little.

X O sauce with avocado

A quick sack or a starter, it is simple to make but unique.

Mesh avocado into lumpy puree, season with a little lemon juice to keep it stay green, generous amount of XO Sauce and salt.

Strange peanuts

A great snack from Sichuan, using chili powder and Sichuan pepper to give the unique 'ma' and spicy hot taste.

strange peanuts ingredients

150 gm dry roasted salty peanuts

50gm brown sugar

10gm fermented bean paste/miso

chili powder and Sichuan pepper powder to your taste 2-5gm

1. In a thick bottom wok, melt sugar with equal quantity of water, add fermented bean paste and boil at medium heat until thick and syrupy.

2. Add chili powder, Sichuan pepper powder and peanut, then turn off heat.

3. In the still hot wok, keep tuning over the mixture, the syrup will gradually dry up and glues the peanuts together. Continue stirring to break up peanuts and the mixture becomes a sandy coating outside each peanut.

4. Cool down on a large plate before serving, can keep in a airtight box for weeks. 

5. Boil water in the wok to clean the syrupy residue.  

Pork knuckle and liver pate

I prepared this dish in order to increase the intake of collagen from knuckle and nutrient from liver. Both are vital for our health especially for skin, blood vessels and joints. Pork knuckle and liver are eaten a lot in the old days but neglected in recent years for various uncertain modern health claims. It is easy to see that more people these days have trouble with knees and hips joints and need to have replacement operations to fix the problem.

1. Remove meat from pork knuckle and keep aside.

2. Add just enough water to cover pork knuckle, bring to boil with bay leaves, garlic, ginger, star anise 甘草, 陳皮 etc. as you like it. Keep simmering until soft, or place in vacuum pot over night. Repeat cooking the next morning and place in vacuum pot until soft.

3. When cool, take knuckle out and remove all bones.

4. Use blender to mince knuckle meat and 4 times quantities of liver, season generously with salt, 5 spices powder and white pepper.

5. Line a baking or steaming dish with grease proof paper at the bottom. Mix pork knuckle with minced meat and liver, pour into dish until 2/3 full, cover the top with grease proof paper and aluminum foil.

6. Steam, or bake in a hot water bath at 180˚C for 2 hours.

7. When cooked, add pork knuckle cooking liquid into the dish until full, it will fill the gaps in the pate and set as a jelly layer on top. The remaining liquid could be used as soup stock.

8. When set, remove pate from dish, cut into portions and keep in freezer. This way, you could cook a big pot and enjoy the pate in many meals.

Red onion daquoise with roasted tomato

Prepared this as starter for Christmas gathering in a friend's house. The criteria of creation is that it should look sophisticated, must be pre-cooked, easy to transport and as one of the participants is allergic to gluten - non flour based.

1. Standard daquoise is a biscuit made with equal quantity (by weight) of whisked to soft peak egg white, almond powder, melted butter and sugar, (a standard recipe is 80gm each or 3 egg whites) gently folded together and piped into disc, baked at 170˚C until golden and dry, around 20 minutes. It will stay crispy in a zip lock bag for a long time.

2. As the base of this starter, I cut down sugar by half, added half teaspoon salt and a lot of black pepper.

3. Cut red onion into thin strips, (a small one for each portion), cook at medium heat in half olive oil and half butter, turning regularly, until golden and caramelized, at least 30 minutes. Season with a little soya sauce and balsamic vinegar.

4. Cut cherry tomatoes into halves, laid on baking tray with cut side up, drizzle olive oil on top, bake at 200˚C until edges slightly burnt, around 30 minutes. Sprinkle salt on top.

5. Dry roast pine nut in a pan.

6. Wash rocket and made a dressing with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and sugar. Only mix together before serving.

Use potato peeler to make strips of parmesan cheese from a block.

7. To serve, put daquoise on plate, heap a big spoonful of warmed up onion in the centre, place a few roasted tomatoes on top, sprinkle a few pine nuts around, topped with a piece of parmesan and a rocket for flavor and decoration, a small side salad of rocket with dressing and a few roasted tomato.