Luscious Lychee Ice Cream

I remind all our dear readers that this is the time of year for the Queen of Summer Fruits, the lovely Lychee!  We've been gorging ourselves on luscious, juicy lychees, desperate to gobble down as many as we can before they disappear until next year.  We got inspired by the abundance of lychee and the hot sweltering temperatures of the summer to make our favorite homemade summer treat, ICE CREAM!  

You've got to check out our Lychee Ice Cream, 荔枝雪糕, a soft luscious velvety ice cream packed through and through with delectable real lychee flavor and aroma.  We think it's the best ice cream we've ever made...voted our new family favorite ice cream flavor!

Sichuan Spicy Fish Stew 水煮魚

This gloriously easy and distinctive Sichuan 四川 dish has swept the world and leapt to fame in the past decade or so.  You cannot go anywhere in the world these days where Chinese food is served and not find some version of this addictive dish which features the 'mala' 麻辣 kind of spicy with fish or beef.  

'Mala' spiciness is a very unique flavor, featuring the heat of chilies married with the mouth numbing tingle of sichuan peppercorns.  Once you've tried 'mala' it's hard to forget, it's so unique.

My 老公 loves, loves, loves 'mala' spicy dishes but we seldom get to eat it as my little girl has still not gotten the hang of spicy food yet.  It's hilarious really, he gets the saddest look of longing on his face when he mentions this dish every once in a while.  

So to stop that sad face, I suggested that we make it at home as one dish of our three dish plus rice family style Chinese dinner.  Yay, finally, he can have his beloved Sichuan Spicy Fish Stew 水煮魚, a tender fish and veggies stew finished with a fiery and tongue numbing aromatic 'mala' spiced oil.  Oh. Wow. What a spectacular dish this is!!

Chinese Steamed Spareribs with Black Bean 蒜蓉豆豉蒸排骨

This Cantonese dish of Steamed Spareribs with Black Bean 蒜蓉豆豉蒸排骨 is pretty darn good.  A taste of home, a real classic.  It's a staple of the Chinese dim sum lunch and tea time, usually served in dainty bamboo steamers in small but utterly yummilicious portions of tender pork and delicious fat, all marinated through and through with the umami that is properly prepared fermented black bean sauce.  

When we have it for dinner at home we like to make it in a much larger portion, being the carnivores that we are, and we finish it all in one a whoosh or two.  It's hard to think of a dish that is easier to prepare and more rewarding in terms of effort vs results!

Moroccan Mint Tea

This is my latest obsession!  We always have a pot of tea (usually pu-erh tea 普洱茶) in the morning to wake up and get us going.  But recently, having some extra mint leaves after making the fabulously yummy Vietnamese Beef Vermicelli Noodle Salad,  I thought of making a pot of mint tea with it.  

Well, one thing led to another and I ended up making Moroccan Mint Tea, which turned out to be the most amazing pot of tea: golden, sweet, the subtle flavors of Chinese tea transformed by the uplifting aromatics of mint!  This is so good even a lazy girl like me will spend a bit of effort of effort to brew it up.  This fragrant tea truly makes my day!

Dragon Well Green Tea Shrimp Stir Fry 龍井炒蝦仁

Humm...besides making our lovely savory meat Zongzi and Grandma's red bean paste ZongZi for Dragon Boast Festival this year, I thought I would also make the traditional Dragon Well Green Tea Shrimp Stir Fry 龍井炒蝦仁 to celebrate both the rivers and the dragon boats that the festival centers around.

First of all, full confession, we didn't use Dragon Well tea 龍井茶 this time.  We meant to use this special tea but, rushing around at the last minute, found that our usual Chinese tea shop was closed for the day.  But we had all our shrimp already!  That's what happens when you decide things last minute...  But, in the end, things turned out okay, very okay as a matter of fact.  We had some tea at home and decided to just use what we had.  

Our Dragon Well (sometimes) Green Tea Shrimp Stir Fry 龍井炒蝦仁 turned out just fine, juicy velvety sea sweet shrimp dotted with tea leaves, smothered with an aromatic, smooth, tea scented sauce.  We actually liked this version better than when we made it with Dragon Well tea.

Easy Homemade Raspberry Jam

I just had to share this because this is the best and easiest jam you can make!  I know we have written previously about making homemade strawberry jam, which is pretty easy to make, but making this yummilicious raspberry jam beats it by a mile.   It's super easy!  And so yummy!  

In only about 10 minutes or so you can magically transform fresh raspberry fruit into a jar of gleaming ruby red jam.  And let me say that this Homemade Raspberry Jam is our all time FAVORITE jam, held above all others, always requested by my little girl, better tasting than store bought jams by a long shot!

Note:  This recipe is for lazy folk (like us!) who don't have the time and patience for the mass sterilization of jam jars and all that fuss that generally goes with jamming.  This is for making only one jar of delicious sticky red jam that can made in a flash and kept in the fridge to be eaten within a week or two, if it lasts that long!

Chinese Stir Fry Eggs with Flaked Crab Meat 蟹肉炒蛋

This deceptively simple looking egg dish is a fancy dinner party dish in comforting disguise.  You start with a familiar Chinese comfort food, the tenderly folded stir fry egg (see our Tomato Egg Stir Fry 蕃茄炒蛋 recipe and Shrimp & Eggs Stir Fry 蝦仁炒蛋 recipe for more traditional takes on egg stir fry) and pair with something fabulously posh like crab meat and WHAMMO!  You've got yourself a dish you could serve an Empress!

This Chinese Stir Fry Eggs with Flaked Crab Meat 蟹肉炒蛋 is one of those food matches made in heaven: tender just set egg perfectly complemented by the delectable bits of sea sweet, soft crab meat tucked gently into the golden folds.   A royally yummilicious dish to treat family and friends to!

Steamed Baby Geoduck on Vermicelli 蒸象拔蚌

What luck for those of us in Hong Kong to live next the the sea!  The weather's been so nice lately that we have been making a point of making time to go the wet market more and searching out the fresh seafood specials that are just waiting to be discovered.  

Our latest find are these humble looking bivalves that, to be honest, we passed by many a time before discovering that they were a species of the fabulous geoduck or 象拔蚌, that weird and very expensive clam with the huge long protruding elephant trunk.  Have you ever tried the geoduck?  It's divinely yummilicious sliced thinly and served raw.

Crispy Batter Fried Oyster Burger 蠔漢堡包

If you love fresh succulent oysters as much as we do, then you're in for a treat!  This is our version of the fabulous oyster burger, a rare sight, I'll admit, but much loved by those who have met and been utterly charmed by this culinary delight.  

I had my first in Vancouver, at a greek restaurant of all things.  It was love at first bite, really, I just couldn't believe how tasty the oyster burger was, crispy on the outside, juicy and tender and oh so oyster-y on the inside.  Pure heaven!  SO...zip to the future and we have discovered the joys of first rate frozen oysters and naturally decided we had to try to recreate that long ago sea kissed delight.  

It took a few tries, cuz you've just got to get the batter just right, but we do believe that we have nailed it with our Crispy Batter Fried Oyster Burger, a crunchy yet succulent tartar sauce touched seafood burger, or the 'Sea Burger' as we call it around here.

Chinese Salt Baked Quail Egg 鹽焗鵪鶉蛋

Cheep, cheep!  Presenting our interpretation of a 'natural' Easter: this year we bring together the idea of Easter eggs and the idea of street food culture in Hong Kong.  Our Easter nest is full of tiny naturally speckled eggs!  

Namely the delicate Chinese Salt Baked Quail Eggs, or 鹽焗鵪鶉蛋, usually found at your local street hawker, these roasty, just salty wee eggs come still piping hot in a paper bag.  There's nothing quite like it to have in your pocket on a windy day to warm your fingers with!