Hong Kong Rice Hot Pot with Chinese Preserved Meats

I have been trying to make Hong Kong Rice Hot Pot ('Po Chai Fan') for so long. Y and I are fond lovers of Po Chai Fan: crispy rice crust at the bottom, sweet soy sauce, rice doused with the fragrant oil of preserved meat... Perfect for a substantial warming meal in winter. After doing some extensive online research, I realised the best utensil to make Po Chai Fan is in fact a cast iron pot. It makes sense to me because cast iron distributes heat fast and evenly, which is conducive to the forming of crispy rice crust at the bottom. So I took out my small Le Creuset 18cm casserole to make Po Chai Fan and the rest is history...

Oh...and from now on, I will have to ask Y 'what's your fourth favourite food?'...

Serves 3

Ingredients:

For the rice

1. 300g Jasmine rice
2. 2 Chinese sausages ('lap cheong')
3. 1 Chinese preserved meat ('lap yuk')
4. A few drops of oil

For the soy sauce

1. 2 garlic cloves
2. 2 tablespoons oil
3. 100ml water
4. 60ml light soy sauce
5. 30ml dark soy sauce
6. 20g rock sugar

Method:

• Put the Chinese sausage and preserved meat into a pan of cold water and bring it to the boil. Drain the water and wash the Chinese sausage and preserved meat under cold water tap. Cut each Chinese sausage into 4 pieces and slice the preserved meat.
• Rinse the rice and put the rice and water into the casserole. The rice and water ratio should be about 1: 1 1/4 (use your normal rice to water ratio, as different rice has different absorption rate). Turn on medium heat, close the lid and let the water comes to a boil. Lift the lid to check in about 3-4 minutes' time. Once it comes to a boil, lower the heat immediately and cook for a further 2 minutes.
• Lift the lid, you shall see the 'holes' in the rice, and the rice should now be level with the water. Add Chinese sausage and preserved meat, taking care to insert the Chinese sausage pieces into the rice vertically, so that any juices oozing from the sausage can infuse the rice.
• Close the lid and turn up to medium heat and cook for 3 minutes. Open the lid and use a spoon to add a few drops of oil to the rims of the pot, which helps to create the crispy crust. Turn down the heat to the lowest setting immediately, close the lid and cook for a further 20-5 minutes.
• In the meantime, make the sweet soy sauce by finely chopping the garlic and frying the garlic in the oil until golden, then take out the garlic while reserving the oil in the pan. On low heat, add to the pan light soy, dark soy, water and rock sugar until the rock sugar is fully dissolved.
• When the rice is ready, turn off the heat, pour 2 tablespoons of the prepared soy sauce into the rice, close the lid and let it rest for 2 minutes. Serve with more soy sauce if you like.

Gold n Silver Eggs with Spinach

To Y

Once in a month, I will initiate a conversation like this:

I: Hey Y, out of the many dishes that I have cooked, which ones do you like most?

(As you can see, with Y being my only 'customer', it seems only natural to gauge his view regularly to ensure customer satisfaction)

Y (trying to look sincere): I like all of them.

(The safest answer but also the dullest answer.)

I: Ok... but if you can only choose one dish, what would you choose?

Y (thinking seriously): um... (pausing 5 seconds)... Golden prawns (i.e. prawns with salted egg yolks)

I: If you can choose a second dish, what would you choose?

Y (very quickly this time): Gold and silver eggs with spinach...

So there you go, no matter how many new things that you have cooked, and no matter how successful you thought you were in the new ventures, his most favourite dishes remain Golden Prawns and Gold n Silver Eggs with Spinach...

Next time, I think I would ask: 'What's your third favourite dish?'

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1. 250g spinach
2. 2 cloves of garlic
3. 100ml chicken stock/vegetable stock
4. 2 tablespoons groundnut oil
5. 2 salted eggs
6. 1 preserved egg (i.e. Thousand year egg)

Method:

• In a pot with some water, put in the salted eggs and boil for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave them for a further 10 minutes. Drain and shell the eggs.
• Shell the preserved egg. Cut both the salted eggs and the preserved eggs into dices.
• Wash the spinach thoroughly and drain to dry.
• Use a wok and turn on high heat. When it is hot, add the groundnut oil and put in the garlic. Turn the garlic cloves around until they are golden colour. Take the garlic cloves out for a moment.
• There should still some oil in the wok. Add the spinach. Stir fry them quickly until they have almost wilted.
• Add in stock, diced egg yolks and the golden garlic cloves. Taste to season: you may want to add some salt and sugar.
• When it comes to the boil, cook for a further 2 minutes. If you want a thicker sauce, add in a teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons of cold water, and the sauce will thicken as it boils. Serve.

Cinnamon and Vanilla Crème Brûlée

Creme brulee is the ultimate dessert to many, but alas until I had made this did I realise this wasn't the case for Y. I had always thought that Y loves custard in any form, but it turned out that baked custard is the exception. So despite me very pleased with my first attempt at making Creme Brulee (it was meltingly smooth and rich), this dessert will be fondly documented and remembered here and it will be sometime I make this again... *doh*

Serves 2

Ingredients

1. 250ml double cream
2. 75ml full fat milk
3. Seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
4. 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5. 3 egg yolks
6. 30g caster sugar, plus extra for making the caramel crust

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180c.
• Slice the vanilla pod and scape the seeds out. In a pan, add the vanilla seeds with the double cream and milk. Turn on a medium heat and stir gently. When you see bubbles appear around the edges, take the pan off the heat. Add in the ground cinnamon and stir.
• In the meantime, use a hand whisk to whisk 30g of caster sugar with the egg yolks for 2 minutes until pale and a bit thicker in texture.
• Pour the hot cream into the yolks, and stir gently with a whisk. Spoon off any foam on top.
• Use a beaked jug to pour the mixture over a fine sieve into two 200ml ramekins. Carefully place the two ramekins in a large baking tray and fill the baking tray with a few cups of hot water to form a water bath.
• Cover the top of the ramekins with foil.
• Bake for 30 minutes, and remove the foil carefully to check if they are softly set. They should wobble a bit in the middle. Let cool completely and place in the fridge for two hours to set.
• When ready to serve, sprinkle caster sugar (if you want extra vanilla scent, you can use vanilla sugar) on each ramekin and swirl gently so that the sugar coats the surface evenly. Use a fine water spritzer to spray some water on the sugar and then use a blow torch to caramelise it. Wait for 1 or 2 minutes and use a teaspoon to tap to see if the sugar has hardened. If you feel like a thicker crust, do a second layer of sugar and caramelise it again.

Steamed Minced Prawns and Tofu

Tofu is my favourite fridge standby ingredients. In Britain, the best tofu we could get is this silk tofu which can be found at the chilled cabinet in Asian supermarkets. Because of its silky soft texture, steaming is the best way to retain its shape. Y's father has a killer recipe for steamed tofu, using garlic, dried prawns and dried scallops. He had taught me how to make it, but mine never turned out to be as good as his. I guess it takes lots of 'trial and error' and I will persist. But until I have cracked it, it would not do him justice to post it here. =p So in the interim, here is a simple steamed tofu, with different ingredients, which I hope you will enjoy...

Ingredients

1. 300g silk tofu/silken tofu/soft tofu (I got it from See Woo, 'Unicurd' brand silken tofu)
2. 100g raw prawns
3. 1/4 teaspoon salt
4. 1/2 teaspoon cornflour, plus extra as glue for the minced prawn
5. a pinch of white pepper
6. 2 tablespoons oil
7. 2 tabelspoons soy sauce
8. a few sprigs of coriander (or spring onion), as garnish

Method

• Shell and devein the raw prawns. Take out a large knife (a Chinese cleaver is ideal), use the sides of the blade to mash the prawns on the chopping board. If the prawns are large, cut it to pieces first.
• Now you have the prawn pieces all mushed up. Gather the mushed prawn pieces together and use the knife to chop the mushed prawns for about 1 minute.
• Then, put the minced prawns into a large bowl and add white pepper, cornflour and salt and use a pair of chopsticks to stir thoroughly. It is important to stir in only one direction. As you stir, you will notice the mince is becoming sticky.
• Then comes the fun part. Use one of your hands to hold the bowl while the other hand grab all the mince away from the bowl. Then release your fingers to throw the mince back to the bowl. Grab and throw for 15 times. This helps to bring out the elasticity of the mince. But don't 'grab and throw' for too many times, otherwise the mince will become too elastic, making it rubbery.
• Put the minced prawns into the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour.
• Depending on how you want to serve the tofu, you may want to cut up the tofu into thick slices. But silken tofu is very fragile and you are very likely to end up with broken tofu pieces, so I just serve it whole.
• Sprinkle some cornflour on the tofu and gently put the prawn mince on top. Cornflour will glue the minced prawns to the tofu. Use a spoon to level the mince so that it cooks evenly.
• Steam for 8-12 minutes (depending on the thickness of your prawn mince). In the meantime, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a small pan until smoking.
• When the tofu is ready, pour the smoking hot oil on the tofu. Add soy sauce and garnish with coriander/spring onion. Serve.

Crispy Mushroom Risotto Balls

I have a very bad habit: I very seldom eat leftovers. Especially leftovers that are simply reheated on the microwave and served straightaway to the dining table. It is a bad habit of a spoilt child, you would say, and I can't argue with that.

In defence, I do eat leftovers and in fact love some form of leftovers: I love leftover boiled or glazed gammon/ham; I adore leftover cold chicken breast (I feel reheating leftover chicken gives it a funny, inferior taste); I crave for leftover Chinese braised beef brisket (and stew generally), because I find the 'leftover process' has actually made them taste even better... ... In short, I eat leftovers when the taste of the dish does not suffer. Right, afterall, this is still a spoilt child trait, namely, a picky eater.

I have been mindful of my bad habit and have meant to 'correct' it (or rather, to prevent the situation from arising) by:

(a) intentionally direct my chopsticks to the leftover dish at least a few times during mealtime;

(b) cooking the right quantities so that I don't get leftovers in the first place; and

(c) re-invent the leftovers so that it becomes a better tasting dish, like this one, Crispy Mushroom Risotto Balls.

The mushroom risotto recipe below serves 2 people, intending that there will be enough leftovers to make the crispy risotto balls for 2 people. As a general guide, allow 100g of risotto rice per person.

Serves 2 as mushroom risotto and 2 as crispy risotto balls

Mushroom risotto

Ingredients

1. 400g risotto rice
2. A small handful of dried porcini
3. 100g fresh mushrooms
4. 20g +20g + 30 g butter
5. 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
6. 1 onion, finely chopped
7. 50ml white wine
8. 1.25 litres of good vegetable stock (I use Marigold vegetable stock powder)
9. Salt and Pepper
10. 50g grated Parmesan cheese

Method

• Soak dried porcini in some hot water for 30 minutes. Take out the porcini and squeeze out the water. Finely chop the soaked porcini.
• Slice the fresh mushrooms.
• In a pan, heat 20g of butter on a low heat to gently cook the garlic until soft. Add the fresh mushrooms and stir around until they are cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat and put on a lid to retain the heat.
• In a pot, bring your stock to a boil and turn it down to a simmer while you make the risotto.
• In a heavy-based pan, add in 20g of butter and add the chopped onion. Cook gently until softened. Add dried porcini and then the rice. Stir so that they are coated in butter. When you feel the grains are warm, add in the white wine.
• When the white wine starts to bubble away, add in a ladleful of stock each time, stirring constantly. Carry on cooking for about 15 minutes until the risotto is al dente.
• When the rice is cooked, add in the sauteed fresh mushroom and let the risotto rest for a minute.
• Use a wooden spoon to stir in 30g of cold butter (cubed) and beat vigorously. Add in parmesan and beat again. Serve right away.

Crispy risotto balls

Ingredients

1. About 250g leftover risotto
2. 40 g flour
3. 40g breadcrumbs
4. 300ml of oil, for frying
5. Any leftover meat, for the filling (optional) (I stuffed leftover stir-fried chicken cubes. Can also use leftover ragu)
6. Parmesan cheese, to grate over

Method

• Fill a pan/deep fryer with oil and turn on the heat.
• Wet your hands first. Take about 1-2 tablespoonfuls of leftover risotto rice with your hand and pat it down with your palms. Add your leftover meat filling, if you have any, in the middle. (It would help if you cut your leftover meat into cubes.) Shape the risotto into a ball. Then coat with flour and pat with breadcrumbs.
• Deep fry the risotto balls for about 4-5 minutes (don't crowd the pan, fry them in batches), until the risotto balls turn into golden colour. Carefully use a slotted spoon to take out the risotto balls and drain on kitchen towl/blotting paper.
• Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.