Rabbit in a Spicy Bean Sauce

Jessie Levene made this spicy rabbit dish for the Dim Sum Lunch Box (Series 5 Ep9). Jessie lived in Chengdu, China for 3 years, where she developed a love of Sichuan cuisine. For mouthwatering photos and foodie travellers' tales check out her blog:Jessie and The Giant Plate.

This recipe is adapted from ‘Sichuan Cookery’ by Fuchsia Dunlop. Shaoxing wine, chilli bean sauce, black beans and Sichuan pepper can be purchased at most Chinese supermarkets.

About ½ a rabbit, with bones still intact
3 spring onions
1 small chunk of ginger (about half the size of your thumb), unpeeled
½ tablespoon Shaoxing wine
1 tablespoon fermented soybeans (aka black beans)
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
1-2 tablespoons (1 sachet) chilli bean paste (doubanjiang)
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
¼ teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon chilli oil (optional)
1 teaspoon white sesame seeds
1 teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper


1. If your rabbit is a bit bloody, bring a pot of water to the boil and blanch the meat for about 30 seconds.
2. Bring a pot of fresh water to the boil, and add the Shaoxing wine, 1 of the spring onions cut in half and slightly crushed, along with the unpeeled piece of ginger, also slightly crushed.
3. Add the rabbit pieces and boil covered for about 15 minutes, or until the rabbit is cooked through. Remove the rabbit to a plate and set aside.
4. Now make the sauce. Rinse the black beans in a little hot water, drain and then mash to a rough paste with a fork. Finely chop the spring onions.
5. Heat the cooking oil in a small frying pan, and when hot add the chilli bean paste. Turn the heat to low-medium and stir-fry for about 30 seconds, then add the black bean paste and stir-fry for another 30 seconds.
6. Once the oil in the pan is a nice red colour, remove from the heat and pour the contents of the pan into a small bowl. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and chilli oil, and salt to taste.
7. Strip the cooled rabbit meat from the bone, cut into strips and place in a serving bowl. Pour over the spicy bean sauce and mix the meat and sauce well together.
8. Spinkle the meat with the ground Sichuan pepper, sesame seeds and finely chopped spring onions and serve.

Podcast & Playlist Lucky Cat Series 5 Ep9 (12th March 2011)

Here's last week's show, which includes tracks from 2 of my all time favourite LPs (Aretha Franklin and Poon Sow Keng). I also review Ip Man 2 - worth seeing for the Donnie vs Sammo fight! Congratulations to competition winner Tom Elliot.

Cine Asia are having a mega sale - loads of martial arts and East Asian films for a Lady Godiva (fiver)! Check out: www.cine-asia.com

There has been a change to broadcasting at Resonance - this coming Saturday 26th March will feature live coverage from the anti-government cuts march in London. Lucky Cat Episode 10 will be broadcast on 2nd April and the last episode of Series 5 will now air on Saturday 23rd April.


Playlist:

• Thank You For the Many Things You've Done - Cassandra (from the Babylon soundtrack LP)
  
• Uptown Top Ranking - Dub Colossus (from the EP Rockers Meet Addis Uptown)
  
• Crazy He Calls Me - Aretha Franklin (Soul 69 LP)
  
• Where Have All The Flowers Gone - Poon Sow Keng(It's Spring in Autumn LP)
  
• La Vie En Rose - Clara Rockmore (Theremin music)
  
• Media Control - Cha Cha (on the Jahtari label)
  
• Chilli Was Hot - Ruth Wallis (Party Favourites EP on Wallis Recordings, Ruth's own label, not bad for a woman in the 1950's to have her own record label eh?)
  
• Grant Avenue - from the Flower Drum Song soundtrack LP
  
• Welcome to My Heart - The Bouquets (Girls, Girls Girls CD compilation)

Japan - Ways To Help

The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan has been a tragedy of epic proportions, too heartbreaking for words. Japan needs our help, there are lots of ways we can donate, here are a few:


1)Special screening of Beyond Anime: CALF Animation for Play for Japan

In collaboration with the Play for Japan project, Zipangu will be doing a special London re-screening of the awesome CALF Animation programme.

This selection of innovative and uplifting shorts from the minds of young award-winning animators Atsushi Wada, Mirai Mizue, Kei Oyama and TOCHKA (Takeshi Nagata and Kazue Monno) will challenge your conceptions of Japanese animation in popular culture.
Head down to the Roxy Bar and Screen on Borough High Street, London SE1 on Sunday 3rd April @ 6pm.

All admissions proceeds will go to the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund.


Still from Handsoap by Kei Oyama, 2008.

2) Play For Japan - Full listings of other charitable gigs, screenings and events at:
www.playforjapan.com/

3) Donate a Shelter Box via Justgiving.com (nearly at their target £30K - come on!)

4) Make an Online Donation Now via The Japan Society

5) Or via Save The Children

6) US Readers: LivingSocial will match your donations; for each $5 donation through this offer they will also donate $5 to the American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund. See http://livingsocial.com/redcross

Resonance FM Fundraiser this weekend - please help

It's that time of year again when I ask for your help:

Resonance FM is devoting the entire weekend to its annual on-air
Fund-Raising Marathon. Over 100 experiences, items, artworks, rarities and more than your heart’s desire – all donated by generous supporters and all up for grabs this weekend.
The reason?
The cuts have affected Resonance already and the future looks uncertain for all arts organisations. All prorgamme makers and engineers on the station work for FREE! There are no adverts on the station and all content is offered to you FREE throughout the year. If you have ever enjoyed listening to an episode of Lucky Cat please dig into your pockets and

OFFER A DONATION via the Resonance FM web site

OR

BID IN THE AUCTION:
Short details - http://resonancefm.com/auction
Images of what's on offer - http://tinyurl.com/resauction
Follow the bids - http://tinyurl.com/resauction2

You can also phone in on +44(0) 20 7407 1210 or +44(0) 207 089 2170 or +44(0) 207 089 2172 or
email: auction@resonancefm.com

Thank you so much for your support.

Today's Lucky Cat - Sat 12th March 2011

Some info about today's show but first I would like to say my thoughts are with the Japanese people at this time of great crisis. Hoping that all friends and listeners are OK.



It was International Women's Day this week and my show has an all female playlist today incl. tracks from 2 of my favourite LPs: Aretha Fanklin's Soul 69 and Poon Sow Keng's It's Springtime in Autumn. Also new music from Ethiopian Reggae outfit Dob Collossus (pictured) and a recent vinylfind from Queen of 1950s risque Ruth Wallis.

It's competition time - I'll be reviewing martial arts movie Ip Man 2 and I have 2 copies to give away so stay tuned for the question...

Guest contributer Jessie Levene gives us a tasty rabbit recipe in the Dim Sum Lunch Box.

I will not be broadcasting next week as Resonance are having a fund raising marathon. Please tune in to find out how you can participate, there will be lots of art works and collector's items up for auction. You can always donate to Resonance via the web site: www.resonancefm.com very easy to do, using PayPal.

After today's show there is only one more episode of Series 5 of Lucky Cat left!!! This will air on Sat 26th March and will feature a biog of writer Eileen Chang.

Tune in today at 3.30pm (UK) on 104.4FM in London or via www.resonancefm.com anywhere.

Thanks for listening.

Lucky Cat Podcast & Playlist Series 5 Ep 8 (5th March 2011)

Last Saturday's episode of Lucky Cat my interview with Clive Chin (see previous post for more info).

Playlist:

• The Big Beat - Fats Domino
  
• Don't Stay Out Late - Lord Creator
  
• You Can't Fool Me Again - Peter Tosh & The Wailers
  
• Sugar Sugar - Bob Marley & The Wailers
  
• Java - Augustus Pablo
  
• Harvest in the East - Tommy McCook
  
• One Day You'll Know - Cha Cha & Ranking Joe
  
• Woman of the Ghetto - Hortense Ellis
  

More Linkage:
Reggae Vibes Interview with Clive Chin
Places to Buy Represses of Randy's and Impact! label 7"s:
Dub Vendor
Sounds of the Universe (Soul Jazz)
Juno

Comments? Please email me: luckycatzoe at gmail.com

Manga Jiman - Kharis Brown

A few weeks back I mentioned on my show that I had been to the Japanese Embassy for the awards ceremony for their Manga Jiman (pride in Manga) competition.
I was particularly impressed with the work of teenager Kharis Brown, I took a photo of her work which I have been meaning to post - here it is. The manga is entitled Wave of Fate - the wave / 'nami' was the theme of the competition. Kharis has referenced the Hokusai wave and there is also a definite Ghibli influence (Ponyo?).

You can still see Kharis' work on display along with all the other mangas at the Japanese Embassy in London (exhibition closes 31st March).

Lucky Cat Podcast Series 5 Ep 7 (26th Feb 2011)

Steve Barker in the mix...


For details of playlist etc see my previous post.

More on Steve Barker here and here.

Clive Chin interview on this week's Lucky Cat Radio Show

This coming Saturday 5th March I will air my interview with the legendary Chinese Jamaican Reggae producer Mr Clive Chin.

Clive is the son of Vincent Chin (whose Chinese father moved from mainland China to the West Indies in the 1920s). Vincent Chin opened the the music store and then recording studio Randy's in Kingston Jamaica way back in 1957. Artists to record on the Randy's label included Alton Ellis, John Holt and Lord Creator.

Clive Chin began working at the store and studio aged 15 and in the1970s began to produce tracks of his own, starting up the Impact! record label. His first big record as a producer was 'Java', which he recorded with his school friend Horace Swaby (aka Augustus Pablo, the melodica playing dub legend!).

Clive took a break from music production when he left Jamaica in 1978. He moved to New York and had a Jamaican restaurant there for ten years or so. Now he is very much back in the music business and manages the
Randy's back catalogue along with Impact! and some other selected labels. And what a catalogue of music, in 2007 Randy's celebrated 50 years and brought out the box set 2 CD anthology with documentary DVD.

Recently Clive has been tracing his Chinese roots; touring China and collaborating with Chinese singers (see www.myspace.com/aboverockrecords).

In an interview recorded last year I talk with Clive about his Chinese Jamaican roots and the influence of Chinese music in Reggae and his life in the music business.

This will be broadcast on Saturday 5th March at 3.30pm (UK) on 104.4FM in London and online anywhere via www.resonancefm.com.