Spicy jackfruit & pomelo salad

A spicy salad with the fragrance of kaffir lime leaf to invigorate the appetite, based on Lao/Thai's seasoning.

1. Grill 4 shallots and a hot chili on the stove until the outside are burnt, remove burnt skin and place in mortar.

2. Remove outside tough skin of 4 sticks of lemon grass, use only the lower parts and cut into pieces, add to mortar. Add a big pinch of salt and pounded into a pulp. 

3. Remove the central ribs from 5 pieces of kaffir lime, stack them together and cut into very fine threads.

3. Cut around 10 pieces of jackfruit segments into slices, remove flesh from half of a pomelo, mix with chili pulp, kaffir lime threads, juice of 1 lime, season to taste with salt and black pepper.  

4. Roughly cut roasted peanuts into pieces and sprinkle on top before serving.

Lotus stem with beef shank

Somehow, the cross section of lotus stem reminded me of the pattern of tendons in a slice beef shank. So I cut lotus stem into 1/2cm slices, separate each slice by a slice of pre-cooked beef shank, pour in the sauce that the shank was cooked in, steam for 15 minutes until lotus stem is ready.

Oxtail stew

Slow cooked to get all the collagen and mineral dissolving out of oxtail, it is a dish that I will make a big pot and enjoy over a few meals.

In a big pot, add oxtail and cover with water, season with:

3 tbsp of fermented bean paste/miso

brown sugar to taste

salt to taste if the bean paste is not salty

an onion cut into slices

5-10 star anise

2-4 cloves

a few cloves of garlic

2 pieces of licorice 甘䓍

an inch of ginger cut into thick slices

a hot chili

preserved Chinese mandarin skin 陳皮

1/2 cup of brandy/Chinese liquor

Bring to simmer for 20 minutes, then put into vacuum pot overnight, repeat twice until tender, boil to reduce sauce if necessary before serving. Or keep simmering until soft, around 5 hours.

Chocolate dumpling 湯丸

This is my trick with Chinese dumplings, fill with chocolate so that people burst into a big smile when they eat them.

chocolate dumpling

1. Mix sticky rice flour with water, around 80% by weight, into a dough.

2. Melt dark chocolate over warm water and add in same quantity of warm cream, sweeten with sugar, add in some toasted pine nut for texture (optional).

3. When chocolate mixture cools and firms up, shape into 1cm diameter balls and keep in fridge to harden.

4. Make dumplings using the hardened chocolate filling.

5. Add dumplings into a pot of simmering water, when the dumplings float to the surface and swell up, they are cooked.

Slow cooked tongue and beef shank

beef shank

I like the texture of tongue and beef shank (with lots of tendon), both are unique and very healthy to eat, full of collagen.

Since both of them take a while to slow cook to soften, I will buy a few pieces to fill the bottom of a big cooking pot to make it worth my time.

1. Boil tongue in a pot of water for 15 minutes, then peel/scrape off the white skin.

2. Place tongue and beef shank in a big pot, cover with water, add:

1/2 cup of fennel seed

1/2 cup of Sichuan pepper

5 -10 pieces of star anise

3 sticks of cinnamon

3 pieces of licorice 甘草

3 big pieces of preserved mandarin peel 陳皮

an inch of ginger in slices

2 pieces of 草果

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup brandy/Chinese liquor

This is Chiu Chow style seasoning (滷水).

tongue

3. Bring to boil and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Then with the lid on, switch off flame and let the meat cool down in the liquid.

4. When cool (or the next day), boil the liquid for 5 minutes and let it cool down again, repeat a few times until the meat is tender, around 4 times.

5. Cut tongue into 3 mm slices and beef shank into 1 mm slices, serve with a little of the warm liquid.

6. The liquid could be filtered and keep in fridge for future use (need to re-boil every week).

Bacon and cherry tomato

An excellent barbeque / finger food idea, a skewer of bacon wrapped round cherry tomato, savory, sour and sweet flavor all in one mouthful.

I made the bacon by marinating thinly sliced belly pork (for use in steam pot 火鍋) with a big pinch of fine salt, brown sugar, white pepper and liquor for minimum a day.