Trying out Chinese cuisine

The first proper Chinese dish I tried to make here in Beijing was this sweet chilly pork stir fry (not very authentic to go and look for recipes from European sites, but as they say, old habits never die).

Not bad, considering it was my first try of deep-frying meat coated in batter. I’ll be making it again, but would add some salt the next time: although the chilly gives the dish a pretty spicy kick, I do think that the overall taste would only benefit from a tiny bit of salt.

Also, I got the feeling that there should have been more sauce (or at least a separate sauce accompanying the dish). What I would try next time is to deep-fry the meat a bit longer (so that the batter will not become ’soaked’ when transferred into a sauce) and double the sauce ingredients, also adding some water and corn-flour. Will let you know what comes out of it.

• 500ml vegetable oil, for deep frying
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 free-range egg, lightly whisked
• 250g pork tenderloin, cut into bite-sized slices
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 2 spring onions, sliced
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp honey
• a pinch of salt (recommended)
• Rice or noodles to serve

# Heat the vegetable oil in a deep saucepan, until very hot (if a breadcrumb sizzles in it, it is the right temperature).

# Make a batter by whisking the sesame oil, cornstarch and egg together (also add salt if you wish). Dip the pork in the batter to coat, then place into the hot oil to deep fry for about four minutes or until crisp and cooked through.

# Remove and drain on kitchen towels.

# Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a wok. Add the pepper, onions and chilli flakes and stir-fry for three minutes. Then add the soy sauce, honey and pork, and cook for one minute to warm through.

# Serve with some rice or noodles.I also prepared a vegetable dish from cauliflower and broccoli, stir-frying them in a hot wok-pan with some vegetable oil, and adding some water, corn starch, oyster sauce and sesame oil to taste.

The next day I tried another dish from Chinese kitchen, that of sticky lemon chicken. I really loved the look of this dish and I did enjoy its lemony flavor, but J thought it to be the worst dish ever, with way ‘too much lemon juice’.

Now, the lemons here in China must be with stronger taste or something, because on the BBC Goodfood web-site where the recipe is taken, most of the commentators complain about the ‘lack of lemony flavor’ and say that ‘next time I’ll add lots of more lemon juice’ or ‘I added extra lemon juice for some more zing’ etc…So I don’t know…Maybe J is just not into lemons. I remember him not enjoying the broccoli pasta with peppermint that had a lemony hint to it.

But I really liked it, I think it had a nice clean taste, it was healthy and it looked delicious. What more do you want from a supper??

Zucchini boats

There are probably thousand different ways on how to do filled zucchinis or courgettes – with cheese, mushrooms, meat, etc. I had a zucchini, a bit of Gorgonzola and some corn, so those recipes weren’t good enough for me. Luckily I did find something with those ingredients in one of the Estonian sites. Pretty interesting and definitely something for people who like blue cheese. Serves two.

1 zucchini (about 20 cm long)

some lemon pepper

0.5 tbsp butter

1 small onion, chopped

125 g frozen or canned corn

1 garlic glove, crushed

0.5 tsp pepper

150 g blue cheese

3 tbsp chopped parsley

 

# Place zucchini into boiling water for about 3-5 minutes. Drain. Peel, if you think it is necessary – I didn’t because the zucchini was young enough for me. Cut in half.

# Using a small spoon, scoop out the zucchini flesh and cut into cubes. Sprinkle lemon pepper into the zucchini shells.

# Heat butter in a saucepan. Add onion, corn, garlic and zucchini cubes. Simmer until softened (but don’t burn!). Season with pepper.

# Transfer crumbled blue cheese into the saucepan, also add the parsley. Stir thoroughly and simmer until the cheese has melted.

# Flip the filling over the zucchini shells. Bake at 200 degrees C until the filling is set (for about 15 min).

Serve without any side dish or with some meat. The best side dish would probably be a steak or some grilled sausages. I only had pork cubes at hand, so I prepared a sauce. As the blue cheese gives pretty strong flavour to the zucchini boats, I tried to make a milder sauce. For that, I fried the pork cubes with chopped onion until not pink anymore. Seasoned with salt and pepper and poured over with some light cream. Added some mustard as well.

I would call it a success. In terms of taste anyway.

Ground meat patties

Years back Estonians used to call those meat patties “meat cakes” and served them only during holidays and special occasions because meat was something you couldn’t eat every day (people were poor and saved meat for special occasions). Today this simple dish is very common. So I decided to try it. Never done them before, but my mum prepared them often (still does), so I tried to remember, how did she prepare them. Finally I got some instructions from an  Estonian Cuisine cookbook.

500 g mixed ground meat (mix of ground pork and ground beef)

1 onion, minced

1 tsp salt

0.75 tsp pepper

1 egg

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

0.5 tsp chili powder

oil or butter

 

# Mince onion and mix with minced meat.

# Add slightly beaten egg, salt, pepper, chili powder and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well to combine.

# Take palm sized portions of the mixture and shape them into flat, round or oblong patties.

# Cook in hot oil on frying pan until brown on both sides.

# Place patties in roasting pan lined with waxed paper. Bake at 175 degrees C for 10-15 minutes.

As a result, you’ll get nice meat patties, crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. And hand-made!

You should serve them with boiled vegetables or warm salad (such as warm potato salad) and some sauce (I used bechamell). Leftovers can be stored in the fridge (covered) for a few days. They’ll reheat well, but you can also eat them cold with a slice of bread.

Cheese-rösti

Rösti is a Swiss potato dish, originally a common breakfast eaten by farmers. Many Swiss people consider rösti their national dish as well. Today it is more commonly served to accompany other dishes, rather than for breakfast. Although the basic rösti consists of nothing but potato, a number of additional ingredients are sometimes added. I tried it for lunch, with some cheese and bacon. It was a good way to use up the boiled potatoes from the day before.

5-6 boiled potatoes, chilled

150 g smoked ham or bacon

1 tsp salt

pepper

2 garlic gloves

100 g grated cheese

 

# Shred the potato on a large-holed grater and season with salt, pepper and crushed garlic.

# Fry chopped bacon or ham for a few minutes and pour grated potatoes on the frying pan. 

# Mix and fry on low for a minute, then add most of the cheese, mix and form into cake. Let cook for about five minutes.

# When crust forms, turn carefully (using a plate). Serve with the remaining grated cheese and some cherry tomatoes.

Nice and simple dish, either for lunch or dinner cause in the morning it would be a bit too heavy for me. The next time I would add some chopped bell pepper and onions to spice it up a bit. I guess it makes a good side dish as well.

Sweet and sour pork

If you have some extra time and a lot of saucepans at your disposal, then prepare this sweet and sour pork for dinner. It is pretty time consuming – for a second I already though why on earth I just didn’t buy the sauce mix from the supermarket – but at the end I was pretty satisfied, cause it turned out very well. You can find many different recipes in the Internet, I used this one as a basis and highly recommend it, as the dish comes out just as you were in a Chinese restaurant. You’ll get three portions from the following ingredients:

400 g boneless pork loins

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 egg white

olive oil

2 tbsp cornstarch

 

# Place cubed pork in a medium bowl. 

# Mix salt, sugar, soy sauce and lightly beaten egg white and pour over pork. Cover, and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

# Heat oil in a large saucepan. Coat the pork with cornstarch (to coat evenly, it might be easier to stick the cornstarch in a bag and add the pork, close the top and shake it around) and fry about 10 minutes, until evenly browned. Drain on paper towels.  

olive oil

1 celery stalk, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

1 carrot, julienned

sugar and salt 

 

# Heat oil in a wok or a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the celery, bell pepper, and onion, season with salt and sugar.

# Cook until tender. Remove from heat, and set aside.

150 ml water

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp sugar

50 ml cider vinegar

2 tbsp ketchup

1 tbsp soy sauce

125 g pineapple chunks (canned, undrained)

1 tbsp cornstarch

 

# Mix six first ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to boil.

# Add corntstarch and continue simmering until sauce thickens. 

# Stir in pineapple chunks with juice, simmer for another few minutes and finally add cooked pork and vegetables.

# Serve immediately (in case you prepare it too early, you’ll probably end up eating it alone in the kitchen before the dinner, because it smells so good) with rice.

You can substitute pork with chicken fillet – should turn out just as good. Leftovers (in case you’ll have any) reheat fine too.

17.04.08: Today I prepared the same dish and followed the recipe as it stands and I must say the dish came out a bit salty. I was pretty disappointed….but I guess it depends on what kind of soy sauce you are using – the first time I had a bottle of “light soy sauce” which probably wasn’t that salty as the one I used today (and I should have noticed it myself, when the sign in the bottle said something like “supreme dark” sauce…). So, I have made a correction in the recipe and deleted the salt in the marinade - after all, it is always easier to add it later on than to take it back…