Daikon, dry mushroom and dry scallop

Bought good quality dry mushrooms and dry scallops from wholesale shop in Sai Ying Pun (Hong Kong). There is so much flavor in dry mushroom and dry scallop that there is no need to add any seasoning in the dish. 

Daikon, dry mushroom and dry scallop

1. Soak dry mushroom for 2 hours.

2. Sweat onion until golden, add in daikon cut into bite size pieces, cook in the water used to soak mushroom, add a few pieces of dry scallop.

3. Simmer for half an hour until dry scallop soften, stir to separate scallop into finer strands. Add soaked mushrooms (remove stalks) and simmer for another 10 minutes, season with salt and white pepper, cool down in the pot.

4. Reheat before serving.

Fennel jackfruit preserved lemon salad

Fennel jackfruit preserved lemon salad

I like the flavor of fennel, especially when sliced thin and eaten raw. Mixed with jackfruit, fruit of the season, for the sweetness, and preserved lemon for mild saltiness and a lemony sparkle. 

Season with olive oil, salt and pepper if necessary.  

Turmeric coconut honey spread

Found this good way to enjoy turmeric regularly, for it health benefits, on top of using it in cooking once in a while. Turmeric has a strong flavor, not the most pleasant to eat on its own. 

Turmeric coconut honey spread

I found that it blends very well with coconut paste with the flavor sort of masked. Butter does not work as well.

Spread coconut paste (sold as such, blended whole coconut) on bread, sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, drizzle honey on top.

Wild food

Nam Chung 南涌

Nam Chung 南涌

Joined a course organised by Nam Chung farm 活耕建 association, where this Taiwanese lady showed us wild plants that we could eat or to use in cooking.

亞黙

龍葵 black nightshade

Black nightshade is a very common wild plant, the tender leaves could be boiled like any green leafy vegetables. After checking on the web, only the unripe fruit of this plant should be avoided (can irritate the stomach badly).

碎米齊 cardamine/ bittercress

Cardamine has a spicy taste half way between rocket and wasabi, great addition to salad. 

酢醬草花 oxalis

Oxalis

The pretty pink flower of Oxalis has a pleasant sour taste, another good addition to salad. 

扛板歸 fleeceflower/knotweed

Knotweed has fine hooks at the back of the leaves, with a juicy sourish flavor. 

月桃 Alpinia

Alpinia grows near river, it is in the ginger family. The leaves are traditionally used to wrap cake/rice to impart a nice fragrance. 

假吐金菊 soliva

Soliva look a bit like carrot top, during rainy season when the leaves are tender, it could be harvested and cooked like green leafy vegetables.

Majorca preserved lemon salad

With the thick skin and low bitterness, I turn some of these lemons into preserves. Very handy to use them in salad to add a unique flavor.

 

Majorca preserved lemon salad

1. Cut lemon into quarters, cut each quarter into thin slices.

2. Mix with 1.2% the weight of lemon each of salt and sugar, rest for an hour to soften. 

Majorca preserved lemon

3. Press down well and place in freezer for a day. Defrost, stir to mix well then press down and freeze a second time, defrost again. 

Majorca preserved lemon

4. Drain the juice that came out, then mix with olive oil, put into preserve jars and press well to remove air pockets. Freeze for the last time. This repeated freeze and defrost action help to soften lemon peel in a short time.

5. Defrost and mix salad leaves, e.g. rocket and salicorne.

Lemon marmalade sticky cake

Using the newly made Majorca lemon marmalade to make this dessert. Winter is when you can easily find sticky rice flour, to make Chinese new year cakes. I like to use it to make western cakes, just for a change, for a different texture.

 

Majorca lemon marmalade cake

Line the bottom of a baking tin with grease proof paper

butter 150gm

eggs 3

sugar 60

pinch of salt

sticky rice flour 100

baking powder 1 teaspoon

1. Cream soft butter with eggs, sugar and salt until pale.

2. Gently fold in sticky rice flour and baking powder, it should be a thick pouring consistency, if too thick, add water or liqueur.

3. Pour mixture into baking tin, bake at 170˚C until top light golden, depending on thickness, around 20-30 minutes, more golden more short. 

sticky rice flour cake

4. Remove cake from tin, when cool, spread lemon marmalade on top. The cake has a slightly chewy texture.

Wild sea fish Ma Yau

As the fish is too big to be finished in a meal, I cut it up into a number of pieces for use later, be careful to remove all the blood in the middle. 

Wild sea fish Ma Yau

Lightly salted with around 0.5 % of its weight of salt, place on the dish vertically, cover with cling film and keep in fridge. After a day, some water will ooze out, thus drying out the fish slightly.

Two cooking methods are practiced: sear until lightly golden both sides, and baked at 180˚C for 15 minutes.

seared wild sea fish Ma Yau

baked wild sea fish Ma Yau

The light salting makes the flesh even more tender. The result of searing is more pleasing to the eyes, but dry out the outside of the fish. The baked method leaves the fish juicy inside out.

Lemon marmalade with wine mulling spices

Majorca lemon and a happy man

Beautiful lemons freshly picked from a friend's holiday home in Majorca, the type with thick skin, zero bitterness and not a lot of juice. Which means they are perfect for making marmalade and preserved lemon. 

Majorca lemon

This is the first time I make lemon marmalade, I like to have a tart result without using huge amount of sugar to make it set. The best solution is to add low methoxyl pectin, a natural type of pectin extracted from citrus peel, that sets the jam, not by having a lot of sugar, but the presence of a little calcium.

lemon marmalade

I added wine mulling spices because I found the taste of pure lemon marmalade reminded me of liquid dish wash fragrance, the spices help to enrich the flavor. 

lemon marmalade with wine mulling spices

lemon marmalade with wine mulling spices

1. Cut lemons into quarters, remove seeds and central pith, slice thinly.

2. Add 50% its weight of brown sugar and a teaspoon of salt. I prefer brown sugar even though the resulting marmalade will be very brown, at least I have the benefit of minerals in the sugar. The salt brings out more flavor that helps to reduce the use of sugar. Mix well and rest for half an hour for the peels to soften.

3. Add enough water to produce the total amount of marmalade you wish to make. Soak overnight.

4. Bring to boil for a few minutes, add wine mulling spices in a bag, let it cool down slowly in the pan. If cut thin, lemon peels should be soft enough, if not repeat process.

5. Follow instruction for using methoxyl pectin, add calcium solution to the mixture, bring to boil.

6. Mix the required amount of methoxyl pectin with 100gm of brown sugar to disperse it, stir into boiling marmalade.

7. Season with sugar to your taste. 
8. Because of low level of sugar used, this marmalade have to be kept in the freezer for storage. Once opened to use, keep in the fridge and finish within a month. 

Wild sea fish 馬友 in Hong Kong

Wild sea fish 馬友

 Apparently in season, saw a good number of this fish in a stall in the wet market in Sai Kung, specialises in wild caught fish. According to the owner, only the wild version of this fish could be over 1kg, with a whitish lower fin. Majority sold in the market are farmed, maximum 1kg, and with yellow lower fin. 

 

Wild sea fish 馬友

I bought the smallest available, 2kg, plenty for 2 persons, so I cut it up into thick pieces, lightly salted them, then freeze some for eating later.

Wild sea fish 馬友

The first portion is steamed for 8 minutes, with a few goji berries for colour. Very delicate fine flesh with a good gelatinous feel.

Poached apple in mulled white wine with red date

Testing the same principle of mulled wine poached pear, but using white wine and apple instead, very good result with equally good flavor and softer texture.

 

Poached apple in mulled white wine with red date

1. Bring to simmer, for half an hour, 2/3 bottle of white wine with a couple bags of wine mulling spice, feel free to add extra spices like ginger, star anise and cinnamon, add juice of 2 oranges, season with honey or cane sugar.

2. Peel a few Bramley apples that fit well in the pan, keep in lemon juice while waiting for mulled white wine to be ready.

3. Place apples in mulled white wine, poach at low heat for half an hour, or to preferred degree of softness. Add pitted red dates while the pot cools down, for extra flavor and colour. Unlike pear, over cooked apple will disintegrate into mushy texture.