Glutinous sesame crisp

This is an easy way to enjoy crispy and chewy texture of glutinous rice flour, with sesame outside for the fragrance.

 

Glutinous sesame crisp

Glutinous sesame crisp, before baking

70gm boiling water

10gm sugar

50gm glutinous rice flour

 

40gm glutinous rice flour

30gm coconut oil

 

sesame

 

1. Mix boiling water with sugar and first lot of flour, when cool down, add remaining flour and oil, knead well.

2. Take small portions and flatten, cover both sides with sesame, bake at 220˚C for 20 minutes, turning over half way.

Grilled asparagus with bacon and parsnip mash

Grilled asparagus with bacon and parsnip mash

Came home after a week away and found some asparagus popped up waiting for my return. I served them with parsnip mash and bacon (the Naked brand found in Ireland, organic and no nitrate), to make a good tasty simple lunch.

 asparagus with bacon before grilling

1. Trim the tough skin at the bottom of asparagus, place on baking dish, lay bacon on top, turbo grill at 200˚C until bacon start to crisp, around 12 minutes.

2. Peel parsnip and cut into pieces, a few cloves of garlic, cover with 2/3 water, season with salt and pepper. Simmer until tender, around 15 minutes, blend into puree.

Spider crab

Spider crab

Went to Biarritz market to buy ingredients for another seafood feast. Saw a couple of this big spider crabs, first time in France. Asking for only Euro 19/kg, relatively cheap for this size species, probably locals find it too much work to eat.

The meat is sweet and crab fat tasty, a great affordable treat.

Spider crab

Spring flowers

almond flowers

A very mild winter means fruit tree flowers a month earlier, almond, apricot and wild plum have responded to the warmth. 

apricot flowers

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Indeed lovely to see these delicate flowers but worry that there may not be enough pollinators around and a late season cold snap could easily damage the young fruit formed.  

nacissus

hellebore

Spring flowers in full bloom too, smashing colours.

camellia

Shellfish feast

Wonderful to be in France in winter months if you love seafood, always better, more varieties and sweeter in colder months, price affordable.

Purchased these in Biarritz market, best choice in this part of France. 

Gillardeau oyster

sea urchin

scallop, baked at 200˚C for 8 minutes

crab, steamed for 15 minutes

cockle, pour boiling water on them until just open

Savory sweet sour Kamquat

Savory sweet sour Kamquat

Bought some kamquat at the market to make a quick pickle to serve with crispy duck, super easy to make and very tasty.

Cut kamquat into quarter, remove seeds, season with 0.5% its weight of salt and a tbsp of honey, mix well, keep for a day before serving.

Turbo Grill duck

Turbo Grill duck

After test using the latest kitchen gadget Air fryer at a friend's home, I appreciate the cooking effect of heat with a strong fan. This make me realise the Turbo Grill function of my oven, very similar to that of Air fryer, just bigger, and gives a faster browning result compare with baking or grill at the same temperature. 

I tested cooking a rack of lamb with Turbo grill, which is ready with a brown top in 15 minutes. Then decided to cook crispy duck, amazingly good result, very crispy skin, fat all rendered out and meat tender.

 

Turbo Grill duck before grilling

1. Rub duck with rose wine all over, season with a mixture of salt, 5 spices powder and white powder for a day.

2. Place duck on a rack, pour into the body a mixture of 2tbsp water, 1/2tbsp soy sauce, brown sugar, 5 spices powder, rose wine, and slices of ginger. The liquid help to keep the meat juicy and tender.

3. Cut root vegetables like carrot, potato and radish into big pieces, place under rack.

4. Turbo grill at 200˚C for 35 minutes (this is a medium size duck), rest for another 15 minutes.

Early spring asparagus

Early spring asparagus

Normally asparagus push out of ground in April, but with global warming meaning a mild winter, there are asparagus to harvest in early Feb this year, great to have come back early.

I bake them under a rack of lamb for 10 minutes at 180˚C, these white asparagus being grown under cover are surprisingly sweet.

Stir-fry squid

During squid season, I always include a dish of squid in dinner gatherings, love the taste, easy to please and very affordable. They are nice to be grilled on barbecue, but when preparing indoor, nice to have them pre-cooked, then just quickly stir-fry and ready to serve. 

Stir-fry squid

1. Score criss cross lines on the surface of squid, cut into bit size pieces.

2. Blanch in boiling water until just curl up, a few seconds.

3. Cut onion and spring onion into strips, sweat slowly in oil until soft and fragrant.

4. Just before serving, reheat vegetable, season with soy sauce, on high heat add squid, stir-fry to mix well.

Seared scallop with grapefruit salad

Seared scallop with grapefruit salad

Thought of another way to present mild flavored scallop, on a small pile of grapefruit salad, simple, refreshing and not dominating.

1. Dry scallop, sear in butter, a few at a time in a medium hot pan, until edges brown, rest to cool down.

2. Make a salad with grapefruit, toasted cashew nut, fresh coriander, season with salt and pepper.

Pond Kai Lan 荷塘芥蘭

Pond Kai Lan 荷塘芥蘭

Local young farmers at Soil Hong Kong is harvesting these extra fat stem Pond Kailan, guess were being grown next to lily ponds in the old days hence the name. They started by using seeds handed down by an old farmer nearby, now they have succeeded in keeping seeds from their own farm.

The stem is fat, juicy and tender, and can be eaten with the outer skin that actually has a lot of Kailan's flavor. 

Pond Kai Lan 荷塘芥蘭

I like to remove the dark green leaves to use in simple noodle dish. The stem is cut into bit side pieces, simply stir-fry at medium heat with some carrot for colour and ginger strips, until soft, then season with salt and a little rice wine just before serving.