Steamed Eel With Bean Curd

While last Sunday 12 June was father's day in Belgium (the country where I grew up - see my post of 12 June), today is father's day in most countries. Chinese restaurants are usually fully booked on this day and usually have a special father's day menu that consists of several dishes. Among these, the most common one is a steamed fish, which is healthy, light and delicious. Even me, being not a great fan of fish, I like to eat those steamed fishes. However, if I eat a steamed fish, I prefer to cook myself this dish as the restaurant usually only offers limited choices or they are not always able to "remove the stinky smell/flavor" of the fish. When I cook fish, I often use cod or swordfish as they do not taste nor smell too strongly. But, recently I have discovered a steamed fish recipe from a famous Chinese chef (Mr. Chow) using eel. Except sushi, I rarely eat eel as I usually find the taste and smell a bit too strong. To my surprise, I find this dish quite simple to cook and tasty.  Therefore, today, I would like to share with you this dish, called "Steamed Eel With Bean Curd In Black Bean Sauce".  I have adjusted the recipe of Chef Chow, in order to make the smell and flavor less "fishy" and the fish meat more tasty.
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 1 Soft Bean Curd
- 1/2 Eel

Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon Water
- 2 teaspoon Black Bean sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
- 1.5 teaspoon Chopped Ginger
- 2 teaspoon Spring Onion (chopped)
- 1 teaspoon Crushed Garlic
- 1 teaspoon Red Chili Shreds
- 1 teaspoon  Oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Oyster Sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon of Chinese Cooking Wine
- a pinch of Corn Starch
- 1 teaspoon of Sesame Oil
- a pinch of Pepper

Procedure:
1) Remove the bone of the eel. Parboil the eel with water and scale the slime with a knife.

2) Cut the bean curd into slices of 0.5 inch thick. Place the bean curd slices on a plate.

3) Make some pattern on the eel meat and cut into pieces. Place on top of the bean curd.

4) Mix the sauce well and pour it on top of the eel.

5) Steam over boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes.

Enjoy it !

Chicken Wings Stuffed Shrimp Paste

Today has been a quite busy Saturday for me. Since I did not want to spend too much time cooking and I still have some frozen chicken wings in my refrigerator, I decided to cook fried chicken wings. I use a chicken wing recipe from a famous Chinese Chef, Mr. Chow, called the Chicken Wings Stuffed Shrimp Paste.  However I have adjusted slightly his recipe to make it much more tasty as well as more simple.
So here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 4 Chicken Wings
- Some Shrimp Paste (shrimps that are minced until it becomes a paste. Add a bit of salt, peppers and a bit cornstarch flour. Make sure that you use enough shrimp in order to fill the 4 chicken wings. I usually use about 250 gram of shrimps).
- 2 Chinese Water Chestnuts

Seasonings:
- 5 tablespoon Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey

Procedure:
1) Peel the Chinese water chestnuts and chop. Mix it well with shrimp paste.

2) Remove the bone from the chicken wings and stuff with shrimp paste.

3) Coat the surface of the chicken wing with seasonings.

4) Heat wok at medium high temperature and deep fry the chicken wings to golden brown.

I usually find the chicken wings stuffed shrimp paste enough tasty so I savor those without any sauce.

Enjoy it.

Imperial Clam Chicken

The past few months have been quite challenging. However, through this difficult time and especially these past few days, I have seen how caring and genuine all my friends are.
Yesterday, some friends told me that they feel sorry that they could not give me birthday gifts while some other feel guilty for not being able to visit me more often before my trip. Even if I have said to them that my birthday is not a big deal, some of them still feel bad.
There is no doubt in my mind that they care a lot for me. Caring cannot be measured by the amount of gift or time or visit or conversation someone would give me. Caring is from the heart, even one tiny word or intention is enough. For example, I have friends that I haven't seen for a decade but no matter how busy we are, we always check on each other time to time and would not hesitate to help each other even from long distance.
Actually just some simple sentences like "hi, how are you?" or "still busy? don't overload yourself with work." are enough to show their care and good intention towards me. Unfortunately, nowadays, some people do not understand the true meaning of caring and just assess the caring of a person towards another person by the amount of gift or time or visit he/she would give to the other person.
So I want to say to all my friends that I know they care for me very much and would like to take this chance to thank all my friends, who have supported me, advised me, cared for me, helped me and stood by my side throughout all these years. Not all my friends live in the same city or country or even continent. But one thing they have in common is that I know that they will always be available for me at any time I need them. To show my appreciation to this true friendship, today I would like to show how to cook the "Chinese Imperial Clam Chicken", deriving its name very likely from the fact that this dish was served to the Chinese emperor. Only good and superior dishes were served to the emperor. In my heart, all my friends are like an emperor who deserve only the very best in their life. By now, my friends should understand how blessed I feel to have them in my life. So enough said, here is the recipe for the Imperial Clam Chicken.

Ingredients:
- Half of a chicken
- Lettuce

Seasonings:
- 2 Tablespoon Clam Sauce
- 1 teaspoon Sugar
- 2 teaspoon Corn Starch
- 1 teaspoon Rice Wine
- 1 teaspoon Garlic
- Few slices of Ginger
- 1 Stalk of Spring Onion (chopped)

Procedure:
1) Mix all the ingredients under Seasonings.

2) Spread the mixture evenly onto the surface of the chicken as well as inside the belly of the chicken.

3) Steam the chicken for about 30 minutes until done.

4) Take the chicken out and cut into pieces. Then place on a plate.


5) Pour all the sauce and set aside.

6) Blanch the lettuce until done. Then place the lettuce on the plate with the chicken. The lettuce, which is a nice combination to eat with the chicken, gives an enjoyable presentation.

7) Boil the chicken sauce that you have set aside (in step #5) with a bit of corn starch solution. Then pour the sauce onto the chicken.

Enjoy it !

Prawns in Garlic Tomato sauce

Seafood is my all time favorite food. When I do not have much time and I still want to eat seafood, I would usually cook an easy seafood dish. One of the most easy seafood dish that my friends and I like to eat is my sauté of tempura prawns in garlic tomato sauce.

What I like about this recipe is the light crispiness of the tempura prawns combined with the garlic tomato sauce. The tomato and garlic, which enhance the sweet & salty flavor, particularly opens appetite. 

Ingredient:

- 250 gram prawns (about 7 prawns, depending on the size)

- 1 garlic clove finely minced

- Garlic Tomato Sauce: When I have time, I make the sauce from scratch by using sugar, soy sauce, garlic cloves finely minced, tomatoes, tomatoes paste, salted chili peppers, salt, cornstarch, water and honey. When I make this sauce, I usually make it in big quantity and divide the sauce between small containers to put in the freezer. So when I know that I will make this dish in evening, I usually take one small container out of the freezer in the morning. But when I am busy, I just buy the Garlic Tomato sauce from Lee Kum Kee. I would advise you to buy this sauce from Lee Kum Kee to save some time, at least for the first time you make this dish. If you really love this dish, then you may try to make the garlic tomato sauce from scratch.

You can usually buy this Garlic Tomato sauce at Chinese supermarkets:

- Batter to make tempura prawn: When I have time, I make the batter from scratch ( (1 egg, about 1.5 cup ice water, and just a bit more than 1.5 cup flour mixed together). To save your time, I would advise you to buy tempura flour. You can usually find tempura flour in Japanese and Chinese supermarkets. There are several brands depending on the country where you live. I usually use this tempura flour:

Procedure:

1) Clean the prawn and remove the shell of the prawn but leave the head. 

Then check to see if there is a black line running down the back of the prawn. This is the intestinal tract. Remove this black line by using a small, sharp knife: make a shallow cut along the length of the black line, then lift it out.  After having removed the black line for all the prawns, put the prawns under cold water to make sure everything is cleaned. Then pat them dry with a kitchen towel.

2) Prepare the tempura batter. Either make it from scratch or buy a bag of tempura flour. If you buy the tempura flour, just follow the direction mentioned on the bag to make the tempura batter.

3) Heat up vegetable oil (I usually use Olive oil) in a wok over medium high temperature.

4) When the oil is ready, dip the prawns in the batter. Then gently drop them into the oil. Lightly fry about 2 to 4 minutes per side (this really depends on the heat you are using).

5) Remove the tempura prawns from the wok and put them on a paper towel to remove as much oil as possible from them.

6) When you have finished to fry all the prawns, take another wok. Heat medium-high this wok. When the wok is warm, add just a bit of oil (about 1 teaspoon). When the oil is also warm, drop 1 clove of garlic that is finely minced and the tempura prawns. Stir for just a few seconds then add the "garlic tomato sauce" (either from Lee Kum Kee or from the one you have made from scratch). Stir for about 1 minute (medium heat). Then it is ready to serve.

The tempura prawns in the garlic tomato sauce is so tasteful that I would advise you to cook a big quantity of Chinese white rice to accompany and balance of its flavor.

Enjoy it !

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab

One of my very favorite appetizer is the deep fried soft shell crab. Outside China, this dish can be found in some Chinese/Shanghai restaurants in New York, Toronto and Vancouver. I love so much this appetizer that when I am not in those cities, I even sometimes dream about the crispiness of the shells of the crabs combined with the creamy & soft meat that just melt in my mouth.
Recently I have had the occasion to visit some Chinese restaurants that offer this dish. However I have been quite disappointed with the outcome: it was either too oily or oversauced. It was not anymore like the one I tasted the very first time. At some restaurants, there was a clear disporportion between the batter and the soft shell crab: I could not even see any piece of soft shell crabs !
So I guess that if I want to eat a good crispy soft shell crab, I would need to cook myself. After researching and doing some experiments by combining a few recipes that I have found for this dish, here is the best recipe for deep fried soft shell crabs, crispy from outside and melting in the mouth from inside ! The soft shell crab in itself tastes so good that I find it really pity to cover this wonderful flavor with some heavy sauces.
What I like about this recipe is the simplicity of the ingredients & spices that just help to lift up & balance the flavor of the deep fried soft shell crabs, without covering its true taste ! So there is no need for any sauce to savor this appetizer !

Ingredients:
 - 4 Soft shell crabs
- Half onion cut in small cubic pieces
- 1/4 of Green Peper cut in small cubic pieces
- 1/4 of Red Peper cut in small cubic pieces
- 1 small red chili cut in pieces
- 1.5 teaspoon Pepper Salt powder (more if you like more salty)
- Oil

To make the batter

-  2/3 cup rice flour

- 1/3 cup cornstarch

- 1 teaspoon salt (a bit less if you don't want less salty)

- 1.5 teaspoons baking soda

Procedure:

1) Clean the four soft shell crabs. In case you don't know how to clean it, you can find the steps on this site: link to teach how to clean soft shell crabs

2) Pat them dry with a kitchen towel.

3) This step #3 depends on your taste. Cut each crab in 2 pieces or 4 pieces or leave it as a whole. Sometimes I do not even cut the crab in pieces and I just deep fry the whole soft shell crab. In the picture, the crabs are cut in 4 pieces. (If you have more guests, cut them in pieces, then you don't need to buy so many soft shell crabs).

4)  Prepare the batter: Mix all the ingredients (as stated in green color above) together then whisk in just enough water to make the batter. The texture of the batter should be like a stirred sour cream.

5) Heat up veggetavle oil (I usually use Olive oil) in a wok over medium high temperature. The oil is about 5 centimeter in depth.

6) When the oil is ready, dip the crabs in the batter. Make sure that all the parts of the crabs are covered. Then gently drop them into the oil. Deep fry about 2 to 4 minutes per side (this really depends on the heat you are using).

7) Remove the crabs from the wok and put them on a paper towel to remove as much oil as possible from the deep fried soft shell crabs.

8) When you have finished to deep fry every pieces of the soft shell crabs, take another wok. Heat medium-high this wok. When the wok is warm, add just a bit of oil. When the oil is also warm, drop the onion, green peper, red peper, and red chili into the wok. Stir fry until you see that the pieces of onion start to be brown, then put the deep fried soft shell crabs into this wok. Stir fry everything then add about 1.5 teaspoon of "Pepper Salt Powder". Sometimes I add more than 1 teaspoon as I like to eat it salty. Stir all well for 1 to 2 minutes then it is ready to serve. It is very important to add this "Pepper Salt Powder", otherwise it would not taste much.

In case you do not know what is the "Pepper Salt Powder", here is a picture of the one I use:

Enjoy it !

Roasted Suckling Pig

Although it is not summer yet, the weather in most Western European countries as well as in many cities of North America has been incredibly warm, leading people to eat on their "terrace" or lawn and even to find ways to cook a whole meal on their lawn. But what I have witnessed most is the smell of barbecue in the late afternoon.
When proncouncing this word "barbecue", it reminds me about my mother who is a big fan of barbecue and roasted suckling pig. Mother loves roasted suckling pig so much that she would order it from Chinese restaurants in Belgium at important events like new year, birthday or marriage.
For Chinese New Year, my dad usually asked me to buy one roasted suckling pig from Chinese restaurants in Rotterdam or The Hague, which have mastered the art of roasting suckling pig and charged much less than the ones in Belgium.
This below picture shows the roasted suckling pig I have purchased in a Chinese restaurants in The Hague:

As you can see, most roasted suckling pig purchased from a Chinese restaurants are "uncut" and comes into a box (not very fancy) but don't judge the book by the cover. My dad, who had tasted this dish times after times in several restaurants in many countries around the world, was a real connaisseur in roasted suckling pig. My dad has told me that the roasted suckling pig bought from Chinese restaurants in The Hague is one of the very best.
For people who do not know what is a roasted suckling pig, I will try to summarize it in few lines.
A suckling pig is a piglet fed on its mother's milk and is between the ages of two and six weeks.
This dish has been a famous dish in China for over 2000 years and is a "must have" at any Chinese wedding banquet. The suckling pig is considered to represent the bride's purity while the color of the red crackling symbolize good fortune.
I am sure that if you type on google "roast suckling pig", you will find an exhaustive list of recipe, from Chinese people as well as from Western people who love so much this dish that they have tried to reproduce it. I really respect and admire their tenacity to reproduce this amazing dish. While some people have adapted so much the recipe that it does not even taste the real Chinese Roasted Suckling Pig, some other have put some good alternatives. However no matter how good the alternative is, there will be still some gap with the authentic Chinese Roasted Suckling Pig. The below video shows how to make a roasted suckling pig in the old fashion and authentic way. The below video shows the authentic way to make a roasted suckling pig from a famous chef in Hong Kong. The show was for Chinese audience so it is unfortunately in Cantonese. However even if you do not understand Cantonese, it is really worth to see the authentic way to make this dish.

As you can see, the original recipe for this dish takes a lot of time and energy. I also doubt that most people have all the necessary materials at home to make this  recipe following accurately this video. Furthermore, unless you live in Asia, I think it is also difficult to buy a small suckling pig.
Therefore I have adjusted slightly the authentic recipe shown in this video by replacing the suckling pig by  the belly pork and using a conventional oven (with a grill rack) instead of the high temperature oven seen in this video. Beside those adjustments, I have tried to stick as much as possible to the recipe shown in this video. The below pictures show the result of my roasted suckling pig:



I put a carpet of jellyfish under the roasted suckling pig to make it look like those suckling pig dish that you would find at Chinese restaurants in The Netherlands. When you eat dim sum in Chinese restaurants in Netherlands, you can order a small portion of roasted suckling pig that is always accompanied with jellyfish. So far, I have not been able to find any restaurants in North America that serve roasted suckling pig accompanied with jellyfish as dim sum. It is really pity as the jellyfish makes the taste of the roasted suckling pig less oily and brings in harmony the overall taste.

You can either make those jelly fish from scratch or buy it pre-pack. I usually buy them in a small package as shown the below picture. Those packages come with a bag of powder to add into the jelly fish. However I usually find those powder not enough tasteful so I usually add some extra seasoning.

If you have a chance to visit The Hague or Rotterdam, I would recommend you to go to Kee Lun restaurant in The Hague or Tai Wu restaurant in The Hague to try their dim sum, including their small portion of roasted suckling pig.

If you cannot find any roasted suckling pig near your area or if you suddenly have a big craving for this dish, I would advise you to try to cook this dish !