Chaozhou Soy Sauce Braised Hotpot 滷水火鍋

Previously, in a Wandering Eats post, we raved about the famously delicious traditional beef hotpot 牛肉火鍋 we had while in Chaoshan 潮汕.  Omgosh, so good...

More recently, whilst again on a wander, we got to try another type of traditional and unique hotpot from Chaoshan 潮汕 and boy-o-boy is it every so scrummy!  What the heck, so much yumminess, amirite?  This Soy Sauce Braised Hotpot 滷水火鍋, instead of using the typical clear or spicy soup base, uses a soy sauce based braise broth infused with spices like star anise, cinnamon, ginger, chilli peppers and garlic.  This is the same braise that is used for Chinese  method of 'red cooking' or 'hong shao' 红烧!

This Soy Sauce Braised Hotpot is served with many small dishes of fresh raw ingredients that you then cook by immersing in the aromatic braise broth.  The spice infused soy sauce braise infuses the raw ingredients with the braise flavor as it cooks.  We'd never tried hotpot this way and we were delighted with the experience!

Rosemary Focaccia Bread

I like making bread.  No, wait, I love making bread!  It's so meditative- the mixing, kneading, proofing and baking are just soothing to the soul.  And, of course, eating fresh fragrant home baked bread is such a rewarding experience; there's no better bread than fresh from the oven!

I wanted to share my new favorite bread recipe, Big Bubbly Focaccia, from that most fabulous of bread sites, King Arthur Baking.  I initially tried making this focacia because 1) we looove focaccia and 2) it was King Arthur's 2025 Recipe of the Year (which is a total thing!).  After making it the first time I was flabbergasted by the amazing and easy to achieve results.  This focaccia bread is absolutely fabulous- so airy, tall and light with a most tender and flavorful crumb and a wonderfully golden crispy crust.

We are so in love with this Rosemary Focaccia Bread and have been making it over and over ever since!

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

Have you ever heard of ricotta cheese?  Ricotta is a fresh soft Italian cheese with a creamy texture that is amazingly used in so many delicious sweet and savory dishes!  Simply top on to fruit with a drizzle of honey or smear on toast with a sprinkle sea salt/pepper.  For savory dishes use to make lasagna, stuff ravioli and to top pizza.  For sweet treats use to make lusciously light cheesecakes, pies, cakes and that extra special Italian dessert cannoli.  What a powerhouse of a cheese, amirite?!

Ricotta actually means 'recooked' in Italian, as it is traditionally made by 'recooking' the leftover whey from making rennet based cheeses like parmesan or provolone.  However, there are other simple ways to make this cheese.  For us, as a consequence of making homemade yogurt and failing sometimes, we discovered, to our delight, that ricotta cheese is very easily made at home with just a few simple, always on hand ingredients!  Wow, oh, wow!  What a discovery indeed, yummilicious ricotta cheese, with its mild, creamy, slightly sweet and nutty flavor, moist and soft texture, made fresh and easy peasy at home.  It was my first homemade cheese and it was perfect!

Chinese Peony Pastry 牡丹形酥餅

Dear readers, I have recently discovered a most fabulous book of dim sum!  Dim sum 點心 is a traditional Cantonese style of dining on small bite sized tidbits, both sweet and savory, all exquisitely presented, while drinking fragrant Chinese tea.  Ooooo..we love us some dim sum, how about y'all?

The dim sum book of which I speak is 正統中式點心全書: 師承香港傳奇料理大師 by 吉岡勝美 which translates into The Complete Book of Authentic Chinese Dim Sum by Katsumi Yoshioka.  The Japanese author of this book apprenticed with the legendary culinary master Chef Liang Jing 梁敬, at the 敬賓酒家, a famous Cantonese restaurant in the 80's.

This is our first try at a recipe from this book and boy-o-boy are we pleased!  Around a delicious heart of creamy lotus seed paste, this Chinese Peony Pastry 牡丹形酥餅 opens out in the most delicate flaky pastry petal layers, looking just like real peony blossoms.  Super duper uber gorgeous amirite?!  And the perfect special treat to celebrate the Chinese New Year!

Homemade Yogurt

This delectable something!  Oh, I am pleased as punch that I finally figured out how to make this at home!  Yogurt, delectable thick, smooth and creamy yogurt, homemade without a machine.  Omgosh this makes me so happy!

Previously, I gotta admit, we were kinda so-so on yogurt.  Sometimes good, sometimes okay, sometimes too sweet or a wee bit too sour, fruit kinda goopy, etc.  That and the kinda pricey price point and we never really got into yogurt.  But one fine day I read that making yogurt at home was pretty straight forward and, as I had recently discovered a really great milk, we plunged into our great homemade yogurt experiment.

Chaozhou Oyster Congee 潮州蠔仔粥

This beauty is a classic Chaozhou dish, simple to prepare and oh so delicious and heartwarming to consume.  For the easeful time and effort put into preparing this dish, the tastiness output is off the charts!  This Chaozhou Oyster Congee 潮州蠔仔粥 consists of a smooth rice congee base to which are added snips of flavorful preserved vegetables, marinated minced meat and, most importantly, plump and luscious baby oysters.  A sprinkle of umami packed dried flounder power and fresh green cilantro finish off the congee to perfection. 

Shenzhen Charcoal Grilled Eel 深圳炭烤鰻魚

Our latest Wandering Eats post!  This time we were up north in Shenzhen 深圳, the city just across the Hong Kong border.  It's only a very quick train trip nowadays and a location that's fast becoming a favorite day trip destination for Hong Kongers, packed as it is with an enormous variety of great sight seeing, shopping and eats!

What a fun day!  First we had a wonderful afternoon of walking, gaping, shopping, snacking and playing the claw machines (my little girl clawed herself a strawberry scented Lotso!)  There is so much energy here, this giant city just hums with restless activity.  To end the day we had a fabulous dinner at a wonderful restaurant that served charcoal grilled fresh eel 炭烤鰻魚, grilled right at our own table!  What a fantastic trip!

Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding

This easy elegant pudding is our favorite for a mid morning treat!  Usually we'll make it on a relaxed kinda day when we can all sleep in a bit (a weekend day!)  Once we get up it's the quickest and easiest thing to mix up and slip this pudding into the the oven for a midmorning scrummy and most comforting sweet treat.  This Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding is golden crispy on the top, soft and creamy on the inside, dotted with plump rummy raisins, and touched with just a hint of sweet and licoricey star anise.  So yummilicious...

Beautiful Baklava

Picture this, dear readers.  Nutty aromatic roasted nuts soaked in sweet scented syrup enveloped in devastatingly crispy thin as a whisper pastry layers.  Sound enticing?   This is Baklava!

This baked treat has a history going all the way back to ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia in 8th century BC, around 2800 years ago!  From then and there the idea of the baklava has spread, appearing in different permutations as a dessert in many cultures throughout in Asia and Europe.  

Delicately crisp layers of phyllo dough packed with roasty chopped nuts, all clung together through the application of a thick sweet scented syrup, a tray of golden baked Baklava is a beauteous thing to bring to a party, sure to get a lot of wows and yummies!  I’ve wanted to make this for a while now but hesitated, thinking that it looked kinda complicated.  Well it’s true, it does look complicated and fancy but it’s actually quite easy to make!  And ever so impressive to show off and munch on after!

Pistachio Almond Biscotti

Tis the season...for cookies!  One of my absolute favorites is this elegant Italian Pistachio Almond Biscotti cookie studded with nuggets of almonds and pistachio making for a subtly sweet, nutty, and oh so satisfying flavor.  The Italian word 'biscotti' means 'twice cooked', a baking method that creates dense, crunchy textured cookies that are perfect for slow yummy nibbling or for dunking into a hot coffee.  These biscotti are not only super yummilicious but also gorgeous to look at with their flecks of pistachio green.  Just the thing to add to a cookie box!