Chinese Fermented Beancurd 腐乳

This is me at our local Hong Kong wet market, trying to talk to my grumpy old egg vendor.  "How much is that?" I ask, pointing to jars of chinese preserved beancurd half hidden behind hanging bits of this and that.  "What?" he grumps, not even bothering to look where I am pointing.  "Umm...that," I repeat, having inconveniently and momentarily forgotten what Chinese Preserved Beancurd is called in Chinese.

I wait.  And wait.  He finally looks and snorts in disgust.  "Oh, that."  he says.  "Is that a good brand of preserved beancurd?"  I ask, and immediately regret asking this question.  (I always forget and ask these type of stupid lecture inspiring questions at the wet market.)

I am then subjected to a long lecture on the lost art of food purchasing, our present generation's lack of food knowledge, the meaning of customer loyalty, etc., while the original object of my question, the lovely golden bottle of chinese preserved beancurd, remains cradled gently in the vendor's gnarly old hands.  

In the end it was worth it all, though, because not only did my grumpy egg vendor graciously give me some great tips on how to buy Chinese Preserved Beancurd, or 腐乳,  but also his recommended preserved beancurd was really, really good!

Clay Pot Wonton Chicken Soup 砂鍋雲吞雞

This really easy classic all-in-one Shanghai dish is a showstopper at the dinner table, bound to elicit oohs and ahhs of delight both for the awesome presentation and for the yummilicious flavor.  Tender melting chicken, flavorful wontons, delicious chickeny soup and broth cooked vegetables.  The real secret to this dish is how easy it is to make!  

You'll be pleasantly surprised just as I was the first time we made this, it just requires a few basics and then you kinda throw it all together and then, TA-DA!,  the beautiful, classy Clay Pot Wonton Chicken Soup 砂鍋雲吞雞 is sitting pretty at your dinner table.

Chinese Drunken Chicken 醉雞

Cooking with Chinese wine has become a fascinating cooking and taste experience, once I got past the memory of once being extremely naively drunk on Mao-tai wine (and up chucking my dinner up on my companion's nice suit jacket!  Oh, the follies of youth!)  But seriously, the use of wine in Chinese cooking is a real art.  It is used everyday for even the most ordinary cooking!  There are so many types of Chinese wines: distilled from rice, glutinous rice, wheat, sorghum, millet, ginger, tea, herbs, berries, bamboo and fruits.  

In our little kitchen we usually have around four different kinds of Chinese wines knocking about.  The important thing about Chinese wines to remember is that they have very high alcohol contents (20% to 40% proof) and therefore should be consumed with extreme care if drinking (yup, one lesson this girl has learned the hard way!)  

However, when one is cooking, that same intensity will give your food an extra kick of serious flavor layering that is hard to come by otherwise.  And thus we come to that perennial Shanghai superstar wine marinated chilled meat dish, the spectacular, the awesome, perfect for summer, Chinese Drunken Chicken, or 醉雞.

Grandma's Red Bean Paste 紅豆沙

Red Bean Paste 紅豆沙 is a real favorite Chinese sweet pastry and dumpling filling.  I love this stuff!  And my grandma's homemade red bean paste was soooo lusciously good!  (Chinese chocolate!) And it sure got me hooked on this stuff for the rest of my life.  

I sometimes will get urges (out of nowhere) to go out and find something with red bean paste in it so that I can stuff my face.  Nom, nom, nom!  But sometimes I get a bit sad and nostalgic here in Hong Kong cuz, to be honest, it's hard to find good red bean paste pastries and dumplings here.  I think the reason for that is that red bean paste is not a favorite in this southern region, lotus paste and black sesame paste being more preferred.  

(See our posts on Black Sesame Walnut Mooncakes Recipe 黑芝麻核桃月餅 and Homemade Lotus Seed Paste 白蓮蓉 for our yummy recipes for black sesame paste and lotus seed paste.)  

However, we solved that problem by making Grandma's red bean paste ourselves now.  It's not hard, just takes a bit of time and then you can enjoy the deliciousness of homemade red bean paste for filling all your buns, pastries, dumplings, or just for sneaking secret unctuous midnight spoonfuls. (OMG, my first Nigella reference!)

Red Bean Paste Zong Zi Rice Dumpling 紅豆沙粽子

It's almost that time of the year, the time for dramatic Duanwu Dragon Boat Festival races and yummilicious Zong Zi!  To be honest, I always get a bit melancholy as well around this time, because the thought of zong zi, or 粽子, always gets me to reminiscing about my dearest grandmother, or 奶奶, who pretty much brought me up and taught me most of what of know about real traditional Chinese cooking.  

My dear grandma handmade the best and yummiest zong zi for us every year!  So I am always missing her cooking and her grumpiness and her giggles whenever the Dragon Boats are dragged out from storage and the folks begin their arduous practice sessions in preparation for the big races.  

To get over my blues I usually make my grandma's delectable savoury pork Zong Zi, pottering about happily in my teensy, tiny kitchen, listening with half an ear for sounds that I will swear are my grandma amongst her pots and pans.  This year, I decided to also make my most favorite food ever that my grandma made for me, the awesome and incredible Red Bean Paste Zong Zi, or 豆沙粽子.  My. Favorite. Food. Ever!!!! (Psst!  We even made a video of the Zong Zi wrapping process!)

Steamed Garoupa Fish 蒸石斑

This Steamed Garoupa Fish, or 蒸石斑, originates from a story of lateness.  I have always been late in things and I'm not bragging about it.  A lot of times it has caused me no end of annoyance and I have always been of the opinion that being late a bit and a good worker balances out (even upends!) being on time and fairly useless in your work.  

But one thing that being late in has worked for me is being late in getting my a** to the wet market to buy fresh food.  So, oops, it's late, gotta go, grab my little girl, get her dressed and brushed, and off we go down the busy Hong Kong streets to the local wet market to see what the catch of the day is.  The thing about wet markets is that they close pretty early, around 7 pm-ish, or even earlier if they sell out their wares for the day (more likely of the fresh seafood vendors).  But let me tell you, being late to the wet market can have its advantages!

Spinach with Gold & Silver Eggs 金银蛋菠菜

Here is a delightfully tasty and easy eggy vegetable dish that you can make quick as a flash.  I guess that more properly this dish should be called Spinach with salted and preserved duck eggs.  But the direct translation from the Chinese name,  金银蛋菠菜, is so evocative with the Gold, or 金, being the bits of salted egg yolk of course and the Silver, or 银, being the bits of the preserved eggs.  

Though, rightly speaking, the preserved eggs are more of a black greenish color.  But the Chinese like to categorize their food into romantic, grand tangents which I find extremely delightful if rather inaccurate.  So we will go with the direct translation from Chinese :  Spinach with Gold & Silver Eggs it is!

Hong Kong View of the Day

Dear readers, we want to introduce our new blog called Hong Kong View of the Day, something new and fun that we are trying out.  Living and cooking in Hong Kong as we do, we thought that all our fanatical chinese food fans might like a bit of a look into this crazy, weird, chaotic yet fascinating Chinese city.  So we are sharing our views and thoughts of Hong Kong with a new photo a day.  We will always post the latest photo of the day in the lower sidebar of The Hong Kong Cookery blog so be sure to check it out!  Let us know what you think!

Chinese Chilled Crab with Vinegar Dip 凍花蟹

In the long hot months of the summer, there are few things more pleasurable to serve for dinner than a cold dish.  Actually I love Chinese cold dishes.  I have always found the taste of food chilled overnight to be especially tasty.  

Even when I was a little girl I would sneak midnight snacks from leftovers in the fridge: a cold soy sauce chicken wing, an icy wine flavored shrimp, a cool knob of fatty pork.  YUM!  Literally finger licking good!  My grandma used to always yell at me for this habit of eating straight out of the fridge.  'No, no, that's not the Chinese way!' she would say, exasperated and confused by my strange behavior.  

I guess what she meant was that Chinese food was meant to be eaten hot (and at a table!).  Which Chinese food is most of the time and properly so too.  Chinese cuisine is based on things like 'breath of the wok' after all.  But luckily there are many Chinese foods which are meant to be eaten cold, like this delicious and very easy to make Chinese Chilled Crab with Vinegar Dip, or 凍花蟹.  It's the perfect seafood dish to serve on a hot summer's night!

Abalone Steamed with Tangerine Peel 陳皮蒸鮑魚

Again we have to celebrate the glories of Hong Kong's access to fresh, fresh seafood!  Whenever we can we go to the Hong Kong local wet markets and are spoiled for choices and bargains amongst their amazing selections of fresh and live seafood.  It's always an interesting journey with the seafood varying day by day, depending on the fisher men's catch.  One day it may be a surplus of tenacled squid, the next a influx of deep sea shrimp and freshly shucked scallops.  

Today we found one of our favorite fish stalls awash in baskets of small fresh abalone and quickly grabbed a bagful for a great bargain.  It was time to cook Abalone Steamed with Tangerine Peel, or 果皮蒸鮑魚, an easy and delicious seafood treat!