January 2012
4 posts
5 tags
Chinese New Year Dumplings
新年快乐！I previously posted a recipe for breakfast jiaozi (dumplings). In time for the Year of the Water Dragon, here’s a more traditional jiaozi recipe.
Ingredients
For the dough:
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup water
For the filling:
250g ground pork
1 tbs soy sauce
3 tbs sesame oil
2 spring onions
200g chives
Notes: (1) Jiaozi dough should be very dry, if in doubt use...
4 tags
Mango Ice Cream
The first time I had mango ice cream was on a long-haul flight from China to the UK. At about 4am (time isn’t particularly fixed when you’re flying through 8 different time-zones) the cabin attendants brought ice cream to the few passengers who were still awake. It was a revelation, refreshing and fruity whilst still retaining the sweet luxuriousness of good ice cream.
...
11 tags
British Chinese Custard Tart
Following the mass of chocolate mousse I made for a previous recipe, I had 12 spare egg yolks sitting in the fridge. Rather than use these for scrambled eggs or something simple (mainly because I was in a cooking mood) I decided to make custard tart, a traditional British dessert which is also very popular in China and Hong Kong.
Ingredients
321 Pastry:
300g flour
200g butter/marge
100g...
4 tags
Luxurious Dark Chocolate Mousse
This was prepared as part of a three course meal for a dinner party, the complete menu for which I will cover in a later post. Light but indulgent, this delicious chilled dessert needs to be prepared several hours before serving (or the day before).
Ingredients
300g dark chocolate
12 egg-whites
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
80g caster sugar
Notes: (1) Chocolate should as dark as possible,...
December 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Apologies for lack of updates
As the title of this blog suggests, I am a student; I’m currently bogged down writing coursework (and, for unrelated reasons, in China) and so haven’t been cooking much or had the time to write.
As a consolation here’s a quick recipe I wrote a while back but had been intending to hold back until I’d finished a post about the wonders of rice-cookers (which I was introduced...
7 tags
Left-over Rice Pudding
No-one makes the correct amount of rice. Perhaps only spaghetti is more difficult to judge by eye; not once have I cooked rice and had the perfect amount, there’s always spare which often ends up in the bin. If you’re the same, don’t throw away your rice! Spare rice can easily be turned into a delicious dessert in the time it takes you to finish your main.
Ingredients
...
November 2011
7 posts
6 tags
Left-over Pastry Palmier
Calling this dish a palmier might offend a pastry chef, but that is the closest relative to this dish, which is essentially a Swiss roll made out of pastry; and as the most pretentious of us will know, there’s nothing like using a French name for a dish to impress the people you’re serving it to. I chose to make a savoury version of this dish, but there is no reason you...
7 tags
Pork and Apple Pie
Pork and apple are ingredients which beautifully complement one and other. Pork pies are delicious, apple pies are delicious, logically a pork and apple pie should bring the best of both worlds into a sweet and savoury pastry delight.
Ingredients
321 Pastry:
300g plain flour
200g margarine/butter/lard
100g water
Filling:
2-3 apples
2 pork steaks/chops
50g bacon
1 onion
...
10 tags
Perfect Pancakes
Note: the term ‘pancake’ does not refer to quite the same dish across the English-speaking world, this recipe is for British-style pancakes, though Americans might thing of these as closer to crêpes (as the smaller, thicker American variety uses a different recipe and has its own unique charms, to be discussed in a future post).
Pancakes are incredibly easy to make and to cook, and...
10 tags
Breakfast Hash Browns
Hash browns belong to that peculiar class of dish that one very rarely sees in the home and yet is prevalent in restaurants and cafés. Yet there is no reason not to make this delicious potato dish: the ingredients are already in every kitchen, the recipe is simple and quick and the end result is far more interesting than chips or fried potatoes.
Ingredients
1 potato
1/2 an onion
1 egg
...
6 tags
Worth It: 'Ratio' - Michael Ruhlman
In this column I’ll be highlighting various products valuable to the student cook such as utensils and cookbooks, and how to get them for bargain prices.
Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking - Michael Ruhlman
In the oft-repeated discussion on whether the internet is killing the printed word the much overlooked category of potential victims is that of the...
17 tags
8 Minute Microwave Cake
Warning: being able to make a cake from scratch in 8 minutes effectively means you can have cake in the time it takes light from the Sun to reach Earth, or, in other words, you can have cake whenever you feel like it. In the interests of staving off type-2 diabetes, please exercise self-control when it comes to this recipe.
Ingredients
1/2 cup of self-raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
...
12 tags
Chinese Dumplings (饺子 jiǎozi)
Cheap, tasty and almost instantaneous to cook, frozen dumplings are the staple of the Chinese student’s diet. Whilst the process of making them from scratch takes considerably longer, the end result is well worth the effort; and with Spring Festival occurring so early next year, prospective jiaozi cooks should get their practice in early for this key Chinese New Year dish.
As with most...