Lucky Cat S11 E05 - Gareth Rees 'Written in the Dust'

Here's yesterday's show in which I chat to Gareth Rees, director of the contemporary silent film Written in the Dust.  An enjoyable show, great guest!

Lucky Cat  - 24th October 2015 by Resonance Fm on Mixcloud

The Dim Sum Lunchbox: Vietnamese style pork patties (makes 18)

Melt 2 tablespoons of muscovado sugar in a heavy bottomed pan with 2 tablespoons of fish sauce.  This makes a very pungent caramelised syrup (i.e. you might want to open a window)!  Let it cool before mixing it into your pattie mix which you make by blending:

2 large cloves garlic
10 shallots 
1 stalk lemon grass (bash the bottom bit before blending and discard the thin top end - probably about half of the stalk)
3cm cube ginger
dash fish sauce
pinch of pepper

Use a little blender if possible as ingredients need to be finely chopped together then mix into the 900g minced pork (not too fatty) using your hands and also mix in the cooled syrup.  Cover and leave to rest for 2/3 hours.

Heat the grill and lightly brush your grill rack with oil so the patties don't stick. Shape the patties in your hands into balls then flatten so they are approx 3cm in diameter.  Grill until golden brown on both sides.  Serve with fresh mint leaves and fresh chilli and fish sauce dip.  

I served the patties with a Thai green papaya salad made with physallis as well as baby tomatoes and mixed nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds) instead of peanuts.

The other KFC

After visiting a local Korean chicken restaurant I decided to have a go at making the finger licking' good chicken myself.  I found this fantastic blog:

http://www.koreanbapsang.com

There are many different types of fried chicken; garlic, plain, shredded spring onion style and so on.  I decided to try out this sweet sticky chilli chicken as I love to dip fried chicken into sweet chilli sauce anyway - these wings come ready-smothered in a delicious spicy sauce, yum!

http://www.koreanbapsang.com/2015/02/yangnyeom-chicken-korean-fried-chicken.html

The recipe did not fail me - possibly the best fried chicken I have ever tasted.   A bit of a palaver what with the double frying but good things come to those who deep fry twice as they say!

Recommended.  Finger smackin' marvellous!

Yangnyeom Chicken

Lazy Prawn & Butternut Squash Curry

I couldn't be bothered to make a curry paste so I knocked up this lazy curry last night.  It was pretty good and I was impressed with the tamarind stock cubes which were a new find in my local Thai emporium.

Ingredients:

• 2 handfuls of king prawns
• Half a butternut squash, chopped into 1inch wedges/squares
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1.5 teaspoons of tumeric powder
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 dried chilli (I used facing heaven chilli)
• 1 teaspoon shrimp paste
• 1 tamarind stock cube dissolved in 400ml boiling water
• 1 can coconut milk
• Fish sauce to taste
• Black pepper to taste
• Top up with water if nec (i.e. sauce becoming too thick)
• Ground nut oil for frying
• Chopped spring onion for garnish

Method:

Heat the oil in a large wok, add the onions, turn down heat and let them soften.  Whilst softening sprinkle in turmeric powder and add chilli and cinnamon stick.  Then after some minutes stir in the shrimp paste and the garlic.  Careful, don't burn it!  Pour in coconut milk.  Keep the can so you can use it to top up with water later if needed.  Add in the tamarind stock.
Bring to the boil and add butternut squash.  Cook for 20 mins on a simmer.  Add fish sauce and some black pepper.
Chop a spring onion for the garnish while you are waiting.
Add prawns and cook for further 5mins (longer if raw).

Serve on rice or quinoa in a bowl and garnish with spring onion.  Extra chilli dip on side if you like.

Tibetan Dumplings

A while back I decided to try making Tibetan Momo dumplings from scratch!  I'd never made dumpling dough before and it turned out to be very difficult to work with.  The air was blue!  It was quite a hard and frustrating process as the consistency was tricky to get right - rolling out sticky dough and trying to clean the work top after was fun.  I swore I'd never make them again.   When it came to the eating though they really were quite marvellous and it was satisfying in the end. The taste was very authentic and the flavours were lovely.  I have to admit that I've since stocked up on frozen pre-made dumpling skins though!

This is the recipe I used:

http://www.yowangdu.com/tibetan-food/momos.html

After making 20 or so dumplings I got tired out and there was plenty of mixture left, which I friend up with rice the next day - yum.

I also made a cucumber salad on the side - the recipe was from the Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang book Exploring China (see the BBC TV series of the same name).  The coolness of the cucumber perfectly matched the fiery chilli and sesame oil dressing.

Beef Ma Pao Dofu

Beef Ma Pao Dofu

I love the dish Ma Pao Dofu (Pock Marked Old Mother's Tofu) but have never attempted to cook it myself.  I've read many recipes over the years, including Fuschia Dunlop's great version.  However I wanted to try something from one of the many recipe books on my shelf at home that was a little different and perhaps more Western-based (i.e. emphasis not on authenticity of ingredients but on the ease cooking and more readily available ingredients).  I was given the Exploring China cookbook for a Christmas gift 2 years ago and thought I'd see if there was a recipe in there.  The book is written by Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang and accompanied the fantastic BBC TV series of the same name.  The recipe featured is a beef version (the dish is normally made with pork) with an addition of soya beans and is devised by Ching-He Huang.  As per usual all the work is in the mis-en-place and the freshness of ingredients make the dish sing out.  I had to improvise a couple of things but I was pleased to find we had facing heaven chillies in our store cupboard that gave a lovely warming and citrus flavour heat to the dish.

Here is my amended version of Ching-He Huang's recipe:

2 tablespoons ground nut / veg oil

2 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed and finely chopped

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

1 facing heaven chilli (dried), de-seeded and cut into strips

2 small chillies, de-seeded and chopped finely

(recipe called for 1 medium fresh red chilli, de-seeded and chopped)

2 teaspoons of toasted Sichuan pepper corns, ground up in a pestle and mortar

2 tablespoons Shaxing rice wine (recipe says 1 but I like it boozy!)

2 teaspoons of chilli oil with shrimp paste in (recipe says chilli bean paste but I had run out)

300g minced beef (I used steak mince)

300g fresh tofu (pref. firm - recipe said 400g but I thought that was too much), cut into 1" cubes

3-4 handfuls of fresh soya bean sprouts (recipe says 75g frozen edamame beans but I didn't have any)

250ml hot beef stock (recipe says 200ml)

1 tablespoon light soya sauce

1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons of cold water

Sea salt and white pepper

2 smallish leeks cut into quarters then cut diagonally, discard tougher outer bits.  (Recipe says Sian Miao - Chinese leeks - or spring onions but the leeks were on offer at my local shop)

1. Prepare all the ingredients (see mis-en-place picture)

2. Heat wok over high heat and add oil, then garlic, ginger and fresh chilli and fry for a few seconds

Add ground Sichuan pepper corns and minced beef and mix well

3. Add the Shaoxing then chilli oil

4. Add tofu and 3/4 of the soya bean sprouts (hold some back to toss in at the end for a crunchy texture) 

5. Pour in the hot beef stock (I used a very authentic Bisto!).  Stir but be careful not to damage the tofu cubes, they are delicate little things.

6. Bring to the boil then mix in the leeks (use judgement, leave some out if needed, you don't want them to overpower). 

7. Season with the soya sauce (taste it to make sure you have enough in there)

8. Stir in the cornflour mixture to thicken and season with salt and white pepper

9. Garnish with the remaining soya bean sprouts and serve (I chose to serve with fresh noodles and choi sum greens).

I would recommend the recipe book Exploring China by Ken Hom and Ching-He Huang as it is easy to follow and has beautiful photography.  This is the third recipe I've tried from the book (the others being quite simply, but very tasty, salads).

Pork Curry & Quick Pickled Veg Dinner

Rustled this up for dinner tonight.
Thai style pork curry
Step 1 make the curry paste by chopping then crushing in pestle and mortar:

• 4 cloves of garlic
• half small onion (finely chopped, chop the other half into thin slices and set aside for later)
• tablespoon ground coriander
• teaspoon ground ginger
• 3 small chillies incl. seeds
• 2 anchovy fillets (normally I use shrimp paste but I'm worried I may have developed a shell fish allergy)
• dash of cinnamon
• dash of red chilli powder
• tablespoon fish sauce
• big dribble of veg oil

Step 2 slice up a nice bit of pork loin then sear it in a hot wok with oil and add a few dashes of soya sauce as cooking. Remove from wok.
Step 3 add curry paste to hot wok (no oil necessary as oil is in the paste. Turn flame to medium. Cook for a couple of mins then add a tin of coconut milk and then fill the empty tin with water and add that too. Bring to the boil.
Step 4 Rinse a decent amount of Thai sweet basil (it will shrink down in cooking). Roughly chop but set aside a few whole leaves for decoration.
Step 5 add the seared pork slices to the wok and the sweet basil. Bring to boil then set flame to simmering heat. Remember the little onion? Put the remainder of that sliced up into the curry too. Simmer for at least 20-30mins stirring occasionally.
Step 6 peel and finely slice some cucumber, carrots and mooli. Mix some rice wine vinegar, white sugar and water in a small bowl - taste to check balance. Then add the chopped veg and let it have a quick pickling whilst you wait for curry to cook.
Step 7 check curry has enough fish sauce. Serve with jasmine rice or quinoa with sesame oil, slice of lime and fresh sweet basil garnish. Have the pickles on the side.
Step 8 Chow down!