Chinese Black Bean Sauce 蒜蓉豆豉醬

Do you know what these rather plain looking beans are?  These humble little beans are the Chinese fermented black soybeans, known also as Douchi, or 豆豉.  These black beans are used for the making of that ubiquitous Chinese sauce that is used in all kinds of Chinese dishes, be it pork, beef, or seafood, the Chinese Black Bean Sauce, or 蒜蓉豆豉醬.  

As I was saying in our previous post about Chinese Steamed Fish with Black Bean Sauce, I didn't used to be a fan of this sauce, finding it rather overpowering and creating a 'sameness' in each dish in which it was used.  

Until, of course, the day that my 老公 decided to start making his own Chinese Black Bean Sauce, that is.  It turns out that homemade Chinese Black Bean Sauce is soooooo much better than canned or what you get in restaurants, a delightfully unique, multi-layered, intriguingly flavored sauce that will complement whatever dish you decide to pair it with!

Chinese Black Bean Sauce Steamed Fish 豉汁蒸魚

In our many experiments cooking the lovely Antarctic Queen fish this last week, we found that our favorite way of cooking up this tender, sweet and mild fish was pairing it with the classic traditional Chinese Black Bean Sauce, or 蒜蓉豆豉醬.  

You must have tried Chinese black bean sauce before, it is a common sauce for many a Chinese dish and is popular at restaurants as an easy, flavorful way to prepare a dish with a minimum of fuss.  For myself black bean sauce was never a favorite, I found it too overpowering.  Never, that is, until we started making it at home.  

WOW!  Homemade black bean sauce is a different creature altogether, rich yet subtle, many layered, just delicious and completely different from the out of the can black bean sauce that is almost always used in restaurants.  Try our Chinese Steamed Fish with Black Bean Sauce 豉汁蒸魚 recipe yourself and see if you don't find it yummilicious as well!

Antarctic Queen Southern Hake Fish 澳洲無須鱈

Dear readers, guess what landed on our doorstep last week?  If you're thinking something long, cold and sea-fresh, you're on the right track!  We were invited to try out a new seafood import coming into the Hong Kong market, the Southern Hake 澳洲無須鱈, also know as the Antarctic Queen and Merluza Austral, a deep sea fish caught off the coast of Chile, an amazingly beautiful and curious country with contrary landscapes ranging from oceans to mountains, volcanoes to deserts.  (I kinda want to visit Chile now.)

Red Braised Fish Tail with Roast Pork 紅燒斑尾

Okay, I have to say right off the bat that just thinking about this dish makes me sooo hungry.  This traditional Cantonese fish dish maybe does not sound super exciting when you describe it in words but once I had tasted it, it just burned into my food memories as one of the most delicious, comforting, unforgettable kind of Chinese dishes that I've ever had.  That's a tall order, I think, and I confess that now that I have written that sentence I'm nervous that people will make this dish and think, what the hey is she talking about?  

But then I backtrack in my mind to the last time I had this spectacular dish, cooked up by my Cantonese cuisine extraordinaire 老公, and all I can remember is joy and muffled sounds of eating and the soft slurping sounds of delight and happiness.  You know what I mean.  All those funny body movements and facial expressions people have when their food makes them really, really happy.  

So I present you with the Red Braised Fish Tail with Roast Pork, or 紅燒斑尾, a truly yummilicious fish dish braised to perfection with heapings of succulent roasted pork and tender chewy bean curd skins, all smothered in a thick, glossy, delectable sauce, the one fish dish besides the glorious Steamed Garoupa Fish, that I think is truly fit for a Chinese festival table.

Sesame Ball Jian Dui 煎堆 / 煎䭔

This little ball of golden goodness took a few tries to get right.  I wanted to make these light as air sweet treats for the Chinese New Year as they are a lucky symbol, being golden and perfectly round (golden coins, anyone?) and fortuitously expanding to several times their original size (yeah, your little venture is going to go through the roof!)  

I mentioned to my 媽媽, who is in town at the moment visiting, that I was going to make the wonderfully crispy yet chewy Sesame Balls also known as Jian Dui (煎䭔 or煎堆) or Matuan 麻糰.  She said to me, 'Oh, those are easy, just like how you make tong yuan except you fry it!'   

Well, sorry to say, dearest 媽媽, you were a wee bit wrong.  It wasn't really that easy at first to make these; however, once you get the trick of it, it's easy enough and you can make gorgeous, hollow, perfectly round and yummilicious Sesame Balls!

How to Wrap Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumplings 炸油角包法

We just finished posting on how to make those delightful Chinese New Year's sweet treats, the Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumpling, or 炸油角.  This little dumpling is really easy to make and easy to wrap as well if you use a dumpling press of some sort.  But...if you want to go all traditional and hard core and wrap by hand, the wrapping is a bit more tricky, so we decided to do a quick post on How to Wrap Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumplings 炸油角 by hand.

Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumpling 炸油角 / 炸角仔

This post is inspired by the stories that have come in from our dear readers that spoke of their fond memories of the making and eating of the traditional Chinese New Year Treat, Jau Gok Peanut Puff Dumpling, 油角 or 角仔, also known as Tim Gok or Gok Jai.  This sweet treat is especially made by grandmas and grandpas, mothers and fathers for the Chinese New Year festivities as snacks to munch on and to share with the many Chinese New Year guests expected.  

Another good reason to make and serve these crunchy munchies is that the distinctive shape of the Jau Gok is evocative of the gold ingots that the Chinese used for centuries as money.  So you could make and eat piles of golden ingots, what better way to start off the Year of the Monkey!?  

Chinese Smiling Sesame Cookie Balls 笑口棗

It's almost time for the Chinese New Year 中國新年 and happy, plentiful thoughts of food, food, and even more delicious food are on my mind!  As anyone with proximity to Chinese culture will know, all things Chinese revolve around the copious consumption of all kinds of yummilicious foods.  Nom, nom, nom!!  

We are going to celebrate the snack aspect of traditional Chinese New Year foods this time around and we start with the easy to make, delightfully addictive Chinese New Year favorite, Chinese Smiling Sesame Cookie Balls, or 笑口棗 or 開口笑.  I'm sure you've seen these before, these little crisp sesame infused cookies can be bought everywhere during the Chinese New Year to munch on or to serve your CNY guests.  But I'll bet you've never had them homemade and fresh and I think you'll find they are waaaaay more delicious made at home than bought from any store.

Pan Fried Cheung Fun (Rice Rolls) with Egg 香煎腸粉炒蛋

Recently we were really excited when a new little food shop opened on our street and we saw that they sold all kinds of chinese noodles (like Cantonese egg noodles), and most exciting of all, at least for me, was that they sold really fresh Cheung Fun 腸粉, also known as Rice Rolls or Rice Noodle Rolls.  

Cheung Fun is used for all kinds of dishes, both savory and sweet, but for myself the favorite preparation is the classic Hong Kong snack food Pan Fried Cheung Fun with Egg.  Chewy fragrant rice, just fried egg clinging to the rolls, splashes of sweet soy sauce and oh, the tasty deliciousness of hoisin sauce!  YUMM...comfort food alert!!

Seriously Amazing Chocolate Tart

I wanted to share this chocolate tart recipe because it really is seriously amazing.  Not due to any special skills of mine or anything, let me assure you, this tart is amazing all by itself! 

I had to bring a dessert to a New Year's Eve barbecue that we were invited to and naturally wanted to impress and thus stumbled on this recipe for chocolate tart that seemed easy yet delicious.  But I was wrong...it was super easy and amazingly delicious!  Not just my opinion, this tart got rave stand up reviews from the folks at the barbecue, many of whom are chefs themselves.  

So if you're a super chocolate fan (like we are!) and need to produce an impressive but easy to make dessert, do try this Seriously Amazing Chocolate Tart.  You won't be disappointed, I promise!