After yesterdays quick dip in aid of pancake day, I'm back with another Chinese recipe today! Were doing a bit of filming this week, so the blog is kind of on auto pilot, but I hope you haven't noticed. Just a quick reminder that the plans for the next twitter dinner are well underway so I would love to hear your suggestions for the menu- leave a comment below with your ideas! :)
Ginger and Garlic Braised Bok Choy I absolutely love Bok Choy, and although a completely foreign vegetable, it takes extremely well to growing in my vegetable garden! There are so many ways to make the best of this great vegetable, and for me, more often than not, it ends up as a regular ingredient to a quick and tasty stir fry, with lots of other fresh veggies. This braised Bok Choy recipe is a fantastic way to enjoy it, making it a perfect side dish to any main Chinese meal.
Serves 2 4 bok choy, sliced in quarters 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil 1 clove of garlic, sliced thinly A thumb sized piece of ginger, sliced thinly 1 teaspoon of sugar 1 teaspoons of sesame oil 1 teaspoon of soy sauce 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
Heat a wok over a high heat, add the oil to coat. Add the garlic and ginger and stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the bok choy and stir fry for 1 minute. Sprinkle over the sugar, and pour in 60ml of water, toss everything to combine. Bring the wok to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer covered for 3 minutes or until the bok choy is tender. Finally add the sesame oil and oyster sauce, stir it through until everything is coated and serve straight away.
When I was kid I was always in the kitchen cooking and once I'd worked through some of the basics I was introduced to Chinese cooking, after a visit to the Asian market in Dublin. With so many new and exciting ingredients to explore, I tried everything I could! If you want to try your hand at some Chinese dishes, it’s really important to make sure you pick up some store cupboard essentials. People laugh at me when I drag them around the Asian market pointing out all the exciting ingredients, but it is so much fun and a visit to your local market is well worth it. You can pick up ingredients for far cheaper, and in larger quanitities than in the regular supermarket. The one big purchase I have to suggest if you want to really experience true Chinese cooking at home, is a really good wok, there are so many out there, and it’s important to find one you are comfortable using, but carbon steel woks come well recommended.
Sticky Star Anise Honey Duck One thing I love about Chinese cooking is the fantastic spices that are used, I remember first coming across star anise and thinking it was one of the coolest spices I had ever seen and that was before I had even tasted it! If you haven’t used it before, don’t be put off, it’s really easy to use, just bash it in a pestle and mortar until you have a fine aromatic powder. The combination of ingredients in this recipe makes a wonderfully sticky and delicious dish.
Serves 2 1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce 3 tablespoons of honey 1 teaspoon of rice wine 3 garlic cloves, finely minced 1 teaspoon of ground star anise 2 large duck breasts.
In a bowl, mix together the soy sauce, honey, rice wine, garlic and star anise. Toss the duck breasts in the marinade until completely coated, cover and place in the fridge to marinade for at least 2 hours, or overnight if you have the time. Place the duck on an oven tray and cook for about 25 minutes at 200oC/Gas Mark 6 or until cooked all the way through. Make sure to baste the breasts with the juices during the cooking time. When the duck is cooked, place the tray under a hot grill to caramelise the duck skin for 1-2 minutes. Cut into thin slices and serve with a drizzle of the juices.
Chinese New Year falls on Valentines day this year, so it’s the perfect excuse to whip up some tasty Chinese dishes for your loved one to celebrate and I’m not talking about calling the local takeaway! But Chinese cuisine has so much more to offer than what’s on the local takeaway menu, it's packed with delicious sauces, aromatic spices, and unusual textures. If you haven’t tried cooking any Chinese dishes, I have put together some fairly easy ones which I'll be posting all week to celebrate Chinese New Year! They don’t take too much time and leave you with some incredibly tasty results.
Healthy Singapore Noodles Singapore noodles are a standard Chinese restaurant dish, but making them at home is so easy and it also means you can monitor what’s going in to them, adding whatever healthy vegetables you feel like. The addition of curry powder to this dish not only brings a new flavour to it, but it coats the noodles and gives a great texture to every bite. Serves 2 3 cloves of garlic, minced A thumb sized piece of ginger, grated 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce 2 tablespoons of soy sauce 2 chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips 100g of rice vermicelli noodles 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil 2 celery sticks, finely sliced 1 carrot, finely sliced 4 spring onions 1 tablespoon of Asian curry powder 1 teaspoon of sesame oil A good handful of bean sprouts
Marinate the chicken with the garlic, ginger, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and oyster sauce. Cover and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Soak the noodles in a bowl of boiling water for 6 minutes or until soft. Drain and set aside. Heat a wok over a high heat and add the oil to coat. Add the chicken and stir fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the celery, carrot and spring onion, and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the curry powder and toss through for another 2 minutes. Add the noodles and bean sprouts and a drop of sesame oil to taste. Toss everything together using kitchen tongs until it’s combined. Serve straight away.
If you don't know who Ken Hom is, where have you been hiding! When I was growing up he was the king pin when it came to Chinese cooking, he was the guy you turned to when you needed advice on which wok to buy and how to create that very first stir fry. I was introduced to him via his first cookbook "Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery" which one of my aunts had bought back in 1984, being an avid fan of Chinese cookery I tried so many recipes from this book and have been a fan ever since.
Now although, there have been many Chinese chefs since Ken introduced the cuisine to our TV screens, I still think he is the best and he is regularly regarded as the world's leading authority in Chinese cookery. He was in Dublin launching a new range of Chinese ready meals he has developed with Tesco which includes Crispy Aromatic Duck, Spare Ribs, Duck Spring Rolls, Crispy Chilli Beef, and Chicken Chow Mein all quite reasonably priced. Although people can be cynical about chefs selling out and doing these sort of things, Ken had loads to say on the whole process of recipe development and taking what he described as really bad ready meals to ones which had far more authentic flavours and interesting back notes. I was convinced!
During the demonstration, he spoke about the idea of Chinese cooking and how the aim is too build layers of flavours and textures. He really emphasised the importance of cooking with a really hot wok to seal the in the flavours and how it was so important to marinate any meat you cook with, but generally no more than 20 minutes. I loved the fact that throughout the demonstration, Ken tasted absolutely everything he put in to the wok before it went in, and was really particular in the amounts he used. He also introduced us to a brand new ingredient he had started using called Chee Hou sauce which is made from fermented soy beans with garlic and has a sweet and salt taste, I will be keeping an eye out for it. If you've tried it let me know!
Beef and Black Bean Stir Fry This is the recipe we were given along with the press release and Ken actually demonstrated the dish for us. I can tell you it is absolutely delicious and you should definitely give it a go. It follows through from what he mentioned about using different ingredients to build layers of flavours and many different notes.
Serves 2 200g of beef, sliced in strips 25ml of rapeseed oil 2 teaspoons of ginger, finely chopped 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped Zest of one orange 1 teaspoon of birds eye chillies, chopped 25g of black beans 75g of spring onions, chopped in 1 inch shanks 50g diced onion 75g diced red peppers 75g diced green peppers 45ml oyster sauce 40g of Chee Hou sauce 2 teaspoons of sugar 200ml water 20ml sesame oil 1 teaspoon of cornflour
Heat the wok over a high heat and add oil to coat. Quickly stir fry the meat and when it is cooked through, remove from the pan and set aside. Heat the oil in the wok and add the ginger and garlic. Stir fry over a high heat until it becomes golden and toasted. Add the orange zest and fry until it releases fragrant citrus notes. Then fry the chilli, black beans and chopped onions for 20 seconds. Add the spring onions and peppers and fry lightly until tender. Add the the Chee Hou sauce, oyster sauce, water and sugar and stir through. Then add the meat and toss until it is coated with all the sauce and vegetables. Finish with the sesame oil and thicken with the cornflour. Serve with noodles or rice.
This isn't exactly the most amazingly intricate Chinese dish I have made but I chose to write about it because, if you have all the ingredients it is a very simple, tasty, balanced and healthy meal.
The first time I was introduced to real Chinese cuisine (I'm not talking about the deep fried slop from the local take-away which uncontrollably I am partial to now and again) was during a visit to my Aunt's house where a Chinese friend was giving a cooking demonstration to a group of her friends. I was encouraged to try beef, ginger and scallion, a simple dish which seemed to capture the simplicity of this extensive cuisine.
A short while after this encounter I was taken on a trip to the Asian market in Dublin city, it was then and there I fell in love! The bottles full of strange and foreign ingredients, the cling wrapped chicken paws poking out the sides of freezers, the huge bags of various assortments of rice and noodles were all enough to create great excitement at such a young age.
Now having tried hundreds of recipe's and still exploring new ones, Chinese cuisine has become a staple part of my diet.
Chili Chicken Broccoli Asparagus Noodles
2 Large Chicken Breasts
1 Red Chili chopped finely
1 inch of fresh ginger chopped finely
2 Garlic Cloves chopped finely
2 Tablespoons of Oyster Sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
8 Asparagus Sprigs cut in to bite size pieces
1 Broccoli head cut in to bite size pieces
1 Red Onion cut in half moon pieces
A handful of Ho Fan Noodles
First of all you will find with most Chinese recipe's the hard work is all in the preparation before the cooking starts. Boil some water for the noodles and begin by chopping all your ingredients.
Chop the chicken breasts into thin strips and place in a bowl with the chili, oyster sauce, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil and half the garlic and ginger. Combine the ingredients and place in the fridge to marinate.
Drizzle the prepared broccoli, asparagus and onion with a little oyster sauce and sesame oil. Fry the garlic and ginger in some oil until brown then add the onions and follow with the rest of the veg. When this is cooked through remove from the pan and place on a plate.
Now add the noodles to the boiling water and stir, they should only take about five minutes, keep checking them and make sure not to overcook. Now fry off the chicken, when it's cooked add the veg and by this time your noodles should be cooked. Drain them and mix with the chicken and veg. Serve immediately!
