Over the last two days we have turned our backs to Chinese cuisine and enjoyed the taste, texture and flavors (and calories) of European food, namely pasta. The best part of the dinner: a glass of French red wine (!). We visited Beijing’s expat supermarket, called Jenny Lou, that sells a lot of European delights, and went crazy, buying different pastas, cheeses, salami, Earl Gray tea, Cote’d'Ivore chocolate, coffee, dark rye bread and a bunch of other things…I could have bought the whole shop if only it would not have been that expensive! One of the Finnish girls in our language class had a birthday, so we decided to make her day and got her a bottle of Finlandia as well.

About the pasta – we did not use any specific recipe, just tried to improvise a dish from the ingredients that we had at hand. Nevertheless, both dishes came out wonderful (or maybe it was just that we hadn’t had pasta like forever).

The first dish, bacon-mushroom penne, was made by J. A plateful of simple, creamy goodness that was. And easy! Next time would maybe add some asparagus for texture and colour…or frozen peas? Could also use turkey bacon for less fatty option, but I don’t think I’ll find it here in China…And to be honest, I don’t think turkey bacon would give as much flavor as the smoked pork bacon did.

• ca 200 g penne pasta
• 100 g smoked bacon, cut into stripes
• 100 ml cream (up to you how heavy you use)
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1-2 gloves of garlic, crushed (depending on how into garlics you are)
• 4-5 button mushrooms, sliced
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• butter

# Heat butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan (a wok-pan would do as well), add bacon and fry until browned and crispy. Remove from pan and pat dry with household paper.

# Remove excess fat from the pan (not all of it), add garlic and onion to the pan, stirring and scrapping the brown pieces from the pan. Fry until golden, add mushroom to the pan and fry for an additional couple of minutes. Tip: if too dry, try adding some water, to not to burn the onions/mushrooms.

# Pour cream to the pan, season with salt and pepper and heat through, to thicken the sauce. Finally add the bacon to the sauce.

# In the mean time boil penne pasta until al dente, drain, pour over with some olive oil and stir. Add to the sauce, give everything a good toss and serve immediately.

The second pasta dish was my own creation, nothing special, but also very tasty. Hearty, flavorfur, yet not an overpowering tomato base – a perfect match with the wine we got.

• ca 200 g spaghetti
• 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 100 g smoked bacon, cut into stripes
• 3-4 button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 gloves of garlic, crushed
• some dried (or fresh) basil
• half a cube of pork bullion
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• butter
• some red wine (optional)

# Start the same way as the previous dish: heat butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan (a wok-pan would do as well), add bacon and fry until browned and crispy. Remove from pan and pat dry with household paper.

# Remove excess fat from the pan (not all of it), add garlic and onion to the pan, stirring and scrapping the brown pieces from the pan. Fry until golden, add mushroom to the pan and fry for an additional couple of minutes.

# Add diced tomatoes to the pan, season with salt, pepper, basil and the crumbled bullion cube. Turn the heat down and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring meanwhile (and crushing the tomatoes at the same time). Tip: If I had a blender here, I would have even pureed the whole lot, to get a nice thick pasta sauce.

# Finally add the bacon and some wine, heat through and serve over spaghetti. Oh, and of course you’ll need to cook the spaghetti in the mean time, don’t forget that!

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??

We usually have oatmeal porridge here for breakfast, but today I had to be a little bit creative since somehow, we seemed to lack just about everything (no drinking water, no teeth-brushing water, no Internet for the first morning hours, and of course, not enough oatmeal to have porridge for two). A lonely banana had been lying in the fridge forever and I hoped I could somehow combine it with the oatmeal and…this is how today’s breakfast came about. Pancakes instead of porridge – not bad at all. Now, I don’t have any measuring cups here in China, so can only give the estimates of the quantities that I used. But I guess pancakes are all about experimenting anyway.

• 3/4 cup oatmeal
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1.5 cup lukewarm milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tbs sugar
• 1 ripe banana
• pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp oil

# Mix oatmeal, salt and flour with lukewarm milk and leave at room temperature for 15-20 min.

# In the mean time, mash the banana and in a separate bowl, whisk the egg with sugar.

# Stir all the components together, also add oil. And then…fry some pancakes! I managed to get around two dozens of small cakes out of these quantities, more than enough to have breakfast for two and still have leftovers to enjoy after dinner. Yum!

Those moist pancakes are definitely mouthwatering treats, even without any jam or cream or the like. I tried squeezing our last drops of honey for the ‘kodak moment’ but did not quite get the look I was aiming for… Oh well. Worth a try anyway.

After a long break, I’m back again We moved to Beijing about a month ago and it took me a while to figure out how access blogoshpere from here…I only needed a helpful Finnish friend who told me the secret, and here I am again. Life in China has been interesting, funny, sometimes a bit scary and exhausting, but I think I have settled in nicely. I can already speak a little bit of this difficult language and have learned the right bargaining techniques to use in the markets. 

As for the food…rice and noodles and dumplings are on the menu quite often. I try to be more innovative from time to time, but so far have not cooked anything so special that I could present here. Now that I have the access to my blog again, I am more up for trying new things, so…I better get to the kitchen now. Any suggestions on different Chinese dishes that I should try to cook are very welcome!

If you love blue cheese, this is the salad to for you. And who doesn’t like bacon? Add some crunchy pears and spinach and you’ll have a fabulous salad. Recipe is from the BBC site where you’ll see a better quality (and much more appetizing) picture as well.

You’ll need:

• 4 smoked bacon rashers
• 3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced
• 140 g blue cheese (Stilton), crumbled
• 100 g washed baby spinach

For the sauce (I used larger amounts than in the original recipe because one never has enough sauce, right?)

• 2 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tl wholegrain mustard
• 3 spl olive oil

# Use a sharp knife to snip the bacon crossways into fat matchsticks. Heat a small, dry frying pan on a medium heat and add the bacon. Cook for about 10 mins, until the fat has run and the bacon is crisp.

# To make the dressing, reduce the heat in the pan to low and stir in 1 tbsp water, then the vinegar, honey and mustard. Stir well, scraping up any residue on the base of the pan. Stir in the oil, taste and season.

# Meanwhile, heat a ridged griddle pan or grill and cook the pears for about 5 mins on each side, until browned. Place in a bowl and mix with the cubes of cheese (this melts the cheese a little, making it nice and squidgy). Tip the spinach into a serving bowl, and scatter the cheese and pear mixture over. Top with the warm bacon dressing and serve immediately.

# Be sure not to add too much cheese, since it may kill all the other flavors. A bit is enough. And besides, you can always add more.

If you fancy a light supper, then prepare some nice snacks. Home-made focaccia really is worth trying and will definitely impress the guest(s). Below you’ll find the recipe for focaccia that I made and also some of the other snacks I’ve tried over time and which have been favorites in the house. 

Focaccia

I combined these two recipes. Was quite pleased with the end result… but if you have any further tips to keep in mind when making focaccia, do let me know. 

350 g flour
200 ml warm water
50 ml extra virgin olive oil
7 g dry yeast
0.5 tsp salt

In case the yeast needs to be activated, stir together  lukewarm water and yeast in bowl and let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. (otherwise mix yeast with other dry ingredients and then add all the wet ingredients). 

Add activated yeast to flour, oil, and salt and mix with your hands until a dough forms. Knead dough until soft, smooth, and sticky, 3 to 4 minutes.

Then transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and turn it to coat with oil. Let rise, covered, at warm room temperature, until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I was in a rush and placed the bowl to the oven (50 C), to speed up the rising. I doubt it is the proper way, but…worked well. 

When the dough has doubled, press it evenly into a generously oiled baking pan. Let it rise again, covered with a kitchen towel, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Then cover focaccia with some seasoning. I chose sea salt, black olives, fresh rosemary leaves and of course olive oil. Before drizzling the dough with olive oil, press the olives into the dough, making shallow indentation. Oil will then pool in indentations. Sprinkle sea salt evenly over focaccia and bake in middle of 200 degrees C oven until golden, about 30 minutes.

Serve warm!

Tomato-bruschettas

fresh baguette or ciabatta
a couple of tomatoes
chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper
olive oil
crushed garlic

Place tomatoes into hot water for a couple of minutes. Remove from water, peel the tomatoes and clean from the seeds. Chop the flesh. 

Mix tomatoes with basil, salt, pepper and garlic. If there are some garlic non-lovers among the guests, you might want to divide the mixture in two and add garlic to just one part of the mixture. But it’s better with garlic, that’s for sure. 

Slice the bread and brush each slice with olive oil. If you are a garlic lover, brush the slices with garlic as well. Then place the bread into oven (200 degrees C) for a couple of minutes, to achieve some crispness. Don’t over-bake though, you don’t want your bruschettas to be hard to bite. 

When the slices are out from the oven, cover them with  the tomato-basil mix and serve. 

Rice croquettes 

I first wanted to make Gorgonzola Bamboloni which I have already made once (see the picture here). But as I had some leftover rice in the fridge, I decided to look for a recipe where I could use it up. Gourmet site offered a recipe for rice croquettes which I liked, so I went for it (btw, you can find thousands of other delicious recipes there). 

It’s very simple and foolproof recipe, and you can play around with it any way you want: in addition to cheese and ham, you might want to add some chopped vegetables or your favorite seasoning (e.g. curry powder) to the rice. I had some mushrooms at hand, so I decided to chop them in the mix as well, together with the cheese and ham. You’ll get about 10 croquettes from the amounts showed below (depending on how big you’ll make them). 

250 g boiled rice
100 g chopped ham and the same amount grated cheese, also add a couple of chopped mushrooms
2 tablespoon grated Parmesan
2 eggs

oil and breadcrumbs 

Mix the rice with ham, cheeses (and mushrooms or other vegetables, if you are using them). Season with salt and pepper in case the rice was not seasoned before (feel free to add some other seasoning as well). Add one lightly beaten egg and mix.

Put remaining egg (lightly beaten) and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls.

Heat 3-4 cm oil in a skillet over high heat.

Dampen your hands and form croquettes from the rice mixture. Lightly coat with egg, then with breadcrumbs. Prepare all the croquettes before you’ll start frying them.

Fry croquettes in hot oil about 3-4 minutes, turning occasionally. When golden, place them on kitchen paper towel and pat dry. Best when warm (not hot!). 

Asparagus with bacon

I guess this recipe need little introduction. Just wrap the bacon slices around asparagus and broil in the oven at 200 degrees C until the bacon is cooked. Don’t over-bake it though – the asparagus should remain crispy, then it is easier to eat the snack. 

Instead of bacon, you might want to try wrapping prosciutto or smoked salmon around asparagus – the end-result should be just as tasty! 

I was wrong to think that I have time to spare after the exams, when I ‘only’ have the dissertation to write. Well..but no more excuses. Here comes a recipe of delicious carrot soup topped with salmon. Yum!

Seves two:
5 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 red onion, chopped
1 glove of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper
50 ml white wine
125 ml single cream
100 ml vegetable stock

125 g salmon
seasoning: lemon pepper, dill, salt and pepper, lemon juice and the like

# Heat the butter in a saucepan, add garlic and onion. Fry until golden (don’t burn).

# Add white wine and boil until reduced in half.

# Add carrots and stock to the saucepan, bring to boil and simmer about 20 minutes (or until carrots are tender).

# Puree the carrots-onion-garlic mixture in a blender, then add the cream and bring the soup to boil again. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

# In the mean time, prepare the salmon. Season it to your liking and fry it on a pan.

# Serve the soup in bowls, topped with salmon pieces. Offer bread as an aside.

So. The year of studying is almost over – now I ‘only’ need to write the dissertation…It was a very interesting year. I did not learn much about cooking (to be honest, this was not my aim here in London), but I obtained a lot of useful knowledge about other stuff.

For example, I know everything there is to know about BBC and public service broadcasting. I also know all about EU telecommunications rules. And by the end of August, when my dissertation is due, I will know all about radio spectrum regulation. But that is not what I wanted to write about. Instead, I wanted to let you know that at last, I will have time to cook proper dishes again. No more take away pizza!

And what lovely weather we have here in London – time for bbq! That’s what we did. I’m not sure that our neighbors appreciate us generating bbq odorous in our back yard, but…I haven’t heard or seen anybody complaining yet, but I am more than happy to offer the neighbors some sausages in case they give us a grumpy look from the window. 

So, back to bbq techniques. In order to get some really tasty potatoes, do the following: wrap some potatoes in foil and stick them within the burning coal, and then add some sausages on the grill. In about 20 min, take the potatoes out, unwrap them and make a cut on top of the potatoes.

Then squeeze the potatoes a bit and add some butter or cream cheese on top, sprinkle over with some parmesan. Place the potatoes back on the grill for a couple of minutes (just until the parmesan starts to melt) and then enjoy them with grilled sausages. Yum!

I only wish I had some strawberries to finish the meal. Those sweet and juicy strawberries I picked at my mum’s garden last week while I was in Estonia. Don’t they look gorgeous? 

The April 2009 Daring Bakers challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I made little cheesecakes instead, around Easter time, so that I could give them to my friends rather than having to eat the whole cake by myself. Those yellow things on top of the cheesecakes are peaches – not marzipan – and I think they gave the cakes a nice Eastery look. In case you go for small cakes instead of a large one, remember that the baking time shortens quite remarkably…I forgot about it when the first batch was in the oven…

No more cooking for the next 2 months since all I must to do is write a couple of essays and study for the exams. And there’s the dissertation as well. So, apart from the Daring Baker’s challenges, I’m afraid I won’t be adding much posts to this site in the course of next two months. Cooking will start again in July.