Chinese leaf with dried scallop

We are very lucky being able to buy various Chinese greens in local supermarkets. Ok, Pok Choi here is not exactly Pok Choi (we call it 'Siu Tong Choi' in Hong Kong), and it costs £2 for 3 bulbs. But Chinese Leaf, what we call 'Siu Choi' in Chinese, is very affordable and is actually grown here in the UK. This is our favourite way of eating it...

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1. 1 Chinese Leaf
2. 300g dried scallops
3. 2 pieces of ginger
4. 1 teaspoon sugar
5. 2 cloves garlic
6. 3 tablespoon oyster sauce
7. 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Method:

• In a bowl, soak dried scallops in about 200ml cold water for an hour. Add ginger and sugar into the bowl and put the whole bowl to steam for an hour. Take it out to cool slightly. Reserve the water and finely shred the dried scallops.
• In a pot, boil washed Chinese Leaf for about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain.
• In a shallow pan, use a little oil to fry the garlic until fragrant, then add the dried scallop shreds and scallop water to the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes and then add the oyster sauce. Finally, dissolve cornstarch in 3 tablespoons of cold water and add it to the scallop sauce to thicken. Pour the scallop sauce on the Chinese Leaf. Serve immediately.
  

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.

Insalata Caprese - tomato, basil and mozzarella salad

Recently, I have fallen in love with Italian food (thanks to my favourite chef Gorgio Locatelli) and have almost cooked more Italian food than Chinese food! This salad, in my humble opinion, symbolises Italian food - simple ingredients simply prepared/cooked to let the quality of the ingredients shine through the dish. When you come to think of it, the colours of this salad actually resemble colours of the Italian flag!

Since the greatness of this dish depends on how good the ingredients you can get, I would suggest you buy the best possible ingredients you can source. For extra virgin olive oil, I used a Liguria DOP extra virgin olive oil. For balsamic vinegar, I heeded Locatelli's suggestion and looked up the description and list of ingredients on all the vinegar bottles to search for words 'must of grape' and 'aged in wooden barrels' and avoid words like 'caramel' or 'flavourings'. In the end, I bought one which also happened to be the most expensive one in the local Tesco (about £10). A vinegar that costed £10 is admittedly costly, but a little goes a long way. For tomatoes, I bought British Vittoria cherry tomatoes (on the vine) which has an intensely sweet flavour. I took them out of the fridge for 1 hour to get the chill off them and even put them under the sun for half an hour, which according to Nigella Lawson the Domestic Goddess, makes the tomatoes taste more tomatoey.

Serves 1 greedy person or 2 not-so-greedy ppl with substantial main course to follow

Ingredients:

1. About 12 cherry tomatoes
2. 1/2 ball of mozzarella (about 60g)
3. About 15 young basil leaves
4. Extra virgin olive oil
5. Balsamic vinegar
6. Salt
7. Black pepper

Method:

• Cut the cherry tomatoes into halves and tear the mozzarella into smallish pieces.
• Arrange basil leaves, mozzarella and tomatoes on a plate and drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and season with salt and freshly grinded black pepper. Serve immediately.
  

Mushroom and lemon pasta

Ok, this may not be authentic Italian but this is so refreshingly good, which makes it ideal for a summer alfresco lunch in the garden. Sunny British summer days are short-lived, but eating this, whatever the weather, brings sunshine to me. As a matter of fact, I have been eating this for 2 consecutive lunches and I think I can go on eating this for the rest of the week...

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1. 200g penne (or any dried pasta)
2. 40g (about 2 heaped tablespoons) grated Grana Padano cheese/Parmigiano Reggiano/Parmesan cheese
3. 1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
4. 1 teaspoon lemon zest
5. 30g butter
6. 100g mushrooms (I used chestnut mushrooms, but any variety would be fine)

Method:

• Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to packet instructions.
• Meanwhile, slice the mushrooms; grate zest; juice the lemon and grate the cheese.
• In a small shallow pan, melt 2/3 of the butter on medium heat and saute the mushrooms. When the mushroom is cooked, add salt and pepper to taste.
• Add in the remaining butter together with lemon juice and lemon zest and cook for 1 minute.
• When the pasta is cooked, drain the pasta. Reserve about 2 tablespoons of pasta water.
• Add the pasta to the mushrooms. Then, put in half of the grated cheese and stir through. If the pasta looks dry, add in the pasta water.
• Serve the pasta sprinkled with the remaining half of the grated cheese.

Presto Pesto Pasta

How can something be so simple but good? I had, even for a moment, forgotten this is a vegetarian dish!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1. A large bunch of basil leaves (about 50 leaves)
2. 3 tablespoon of pine nuts
3. 1 garlic clove
4. 4 tablespoons of parmasean cheese, chopped coarsely
5. olive oil
6. 200g dried pasta (I used my all-time favourite linguine)

Method:

• Toast the pine nuts briefly in the oven. Take out to cool.
• Cook the pasta according to packet instructions. Drain.
• Put basil leaves, toasted pine nuts, paramsean cheese and some olive oil in a food processor to whizz. You may want to whizz for longer if you want a smoother texture.
• Stir the pesto sauce with pasta. Serve. Or, pour the pesto sauce into a glass jar and cover with a layer of olive oil. Seal and keep in the fridge for up to a week.