VIDEO RECIPE: The Best Beef and Broccoli

The Best Beef and Broccoli

The latest in our video recipe series in cooperation with CBC Newfoundland and Labrador has been a very popular dish on Rock Recipes. Our easy, delicious Beef and Broccoli has many rave reviews and many people have said it's better that most restaurant versions they've tried. Our family prefers it over Chinese noodles rather than rice for a quick and easy weekday meal when you have little time to spare.

For the full recipe click here.

For Mobile users, if the video doesn't load below, please try this link

The Best Beef and Broccoli

The latest in our video recipe series in cooperation with CBC Newfoundland and Labrador has been a very popular dish on Rock Recipes. Our easy, delicious Beef and Broccoli has many rave reviews and many people have said it's better that most restaurant versions they've tried. Our family prefers it over Chinese noodles rather than rice for a quick and easy weekday meal when you have little time to spare.

For the full recipe click here.

For Mobile users, if the video doesn't load below, please try this link

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Chilli Beef on Rice

Chilli Beef on Rice

So... "weather". Am I right guys? It suddenly got cold and rainy again this week, and I wanted something comforting and warming for dinner. I was also feeling a bit fluey and rundown, so certainly did not want to be going out to the supermarket after I got home from work. I had peas and minced beef in the freezer, and a whole lotta Chinese sauces in the pantry. And bang, dinner was born.

During the day, I had the idea of flavouring the minced beef with my beloved Sichuanese chilli bean sauce, (although I know Fuchsia Dunlop would say the Cantonese Lee Kum Kee brand is terribly inauthentic), but wasn't quite sure what proportions to use, or what other flavourings I'd need. Then I remembered that Nigella has a recipe for Korean keema in Kitchen - minced turkey, cooked with Korean gochujang chilli sauce and other flavourings, and I thought that would be a good place to start. (Incidentally, I've never tried gochujang but if it has, as Nigella says, "a liquorice intensity", I assume that I wouldn't like it, hehe.)

Chilli Bean Sauce, Shao Hsing rice wine, soy sauce, marinating minced beef

I used Nigella's proportions of sauce flavourings, replacing her gochujang with my Sichuanese chilli sauce and reducing the soy (undersalted food can be adjusted, oversalted food is a waste). I also (obviously) used minced beef instead of the minced turkey she suggests. I used a red onion instead of spring onions, as I didn't have any to hand, and at the end of cooking I added black vinegar to balance the flavours, and added potato flour to give the sauce a lovely glossy thickness.

Caramelising onions

I was so pleased with this dinner - the sauce had a gentle warm spiciness, with a nice touch of slightly crisp caramelization on the mince from the honey in the sauce. It's also a bonus, in terms of the comfort factor, if you can eat dinner with just a spoon. It also only took about half an hour, from start to finish, including cooking the rice. Comforting spicy deliciousness in record time. Win!

Chilli beef on rice

Chilli Beef on Rice
Recipe adapted from Nigella's Korean Keema, from Kitchen

Ingredients
2 tablespoons Sichuanese chilli bean sauce (Toban Djan)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons Chinese rice wine (Shao Hsing)
250 grams minced beef
125 grams frozen peas
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1/2 a red onion, finely sliced
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon potato flour
1/2 teaspoon Chinkiang black vinegar

Method
Whisk together the chilli bean sauce, soy sauce, honey and 1 tablespoon of the rice wine. Mix this sauce through the minced beef and allow to marinate while you continue with the recipe.
Place the frozen peas into a sieve, and pour hot water from the kettle over them to defrost.
Heat the oil in a wok or saucepan, then add the red onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden brown. Tip in the defrosted peas and stir to combine.
Add the minced beef and all the sauce to the pan, stirring to break up the meat. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the beef is cooked through.
Place the 4 tablespoons water, remaining 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine and potato flour into the bowl that was holding the beef. Whisk to combine and then pour into the pan. Stir through, and allow to cook for a further minute or so, until the sauce is thickened and glossy. Off the heat, stir in the black vinegar.
Serve with steamed rice.
Serves 2 -3

Chilli Beef on Rice

So... "weather". Am I right guys? It suddenly got cold and rainy again this week, and I wanted something comforting and warming for dinner. I was also feeling a bit fluey and rundown, so certainly did not want to be going out to the supermarket after I got home from work. I had peas and minced beef in the freezer, and a whole lotta Chinese sauces in the pantry. And bang, dinner was born.

During the day, I had the idea of flavouring the minced beef with my beloved Sichuanese chilli bean sauce, (although I know Fuchsia Dunlop would say the Cantonese Lee Kum Kee brand is terribly inauthentic), but wasn't quite sure what proportions to use, or what other flavourings I'd need. Then I remembered that Nigella has a recipe for Korean keema in Kitchen - minced turkey, cooked with Korean gochujang chilli sauce and other flavourings, and I thought that would be a good place to start. (Incidentally, I've never tried gochujang but if it has, as Nigella says, "a liquorice intensity", I assume that I wouldn't like it, hehe.)

Chilli Bean Sauce, Shao Hsing rice wine, soy sauce, marinating minced beef

I used Nigella's proportions of sauce flavourings, replacing her gochujang with my Sichuanese chilli sauce and reducing the soy (undersalted food can be adjusted, oversalted food is a waste). I also (obviously) used minced beef instead of the minced turkey she suggests. I used a red onion instead of spring onions, as I didn't have any to hand, and at the end of cooking I added black vinegar to balance the flavours, and added potato flour to give the sauce a lovely glossy thickness.

Caramelising onions

I was so pleased with this dinner - the sauce had a gentle warm spiciness, with a nice touch of slightly crisp caramelization on the mince from the honey in the sauce. It's also a bonus, in terms of the comfort factor, if you can eat dinner with just a spoon. It also only took about half an hour, from start to finish, including cooking the rice. Comforting spicy deliciousness in record time. Win!

Chilli beef on rice

Chilli Beef on Rice
Recipe adapted from Nigella's Korean Keema, from Kitchen

Ingredients
2 tablespoons Sichuanese chilli bean sauce (Toban Djan)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons Chinese rice wine (Shao Hsing)
250 grams minced beef
125 grams frozen peas
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1/2 a red onion, finely sliced
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon potato flour
1/2 teaspoon Chinkiang black vinegar

Method
Whisk together the chilli bean sauce, soy sauce, honey and 1 tablespoon of the rice wine. Mix this sauce through the minced beef and allow to marinate while you continue with the recipe.
Place the frozen peas into a sieve, and pour hot water from the kettle over them to defrost.
Heat the oil in a wok or saucepan, then add the red onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden brown. Tip in the defrosted peas and stir to combine.
Add the minced beef and all the sauce to the pan, stirring to break up the meat. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the beef is cooked through.
Place the 4 tablespoons water, remaining 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine and potato flour into the bowl that was holding the beef. Whisk to combine and then pour into the pan. Stir through, and allow to cook for a further minute or so, until the sauce is thickened and glossy. Off the heat, stir in the black vinegar.
Serve with steamed rice.
Serves 2 -3

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Sichuan House Seafood

Sichuan House Seafood
395 Victoria St
Abbotsford, VIC 3067
Ph: (03) 9913-6235

Although it hasn't been a conscious decision, I recently realised that I haven't been attending many blogger events or accepting invitations lately. In fact, the last time I blogged about an event was back in March (Captain Melville). I haven't changed my personal stance of happily accepting invitations that I'm genuinely interested in and want to write about, but having been so busy with travel, work, exercise and friends/family, an invitation really has to appeal to my interests directly if it's going to drag me out of my routine! (Grandma alert!)

So imagine my delight when I received an invitation from Peter, the owner of Sichuan House Seafood, asking if I'd like to try out his Chengdu-style Sichuan cuisine, (which is different from the more commonly known Chongqing-style), and if he could arrange a dinner for me and five friends? Um... YES! Did we just become best friends? (See my previous post: "My Love Affair with Sichuan Food" for further evidence of my enthusiasm for this cuisine!)

I easily rounded up five fellow chilli-fiends, and we made our way to Victoria street on a Friday night. Peter welcomed us to the restaurant, and had a chat to us about the food. Interesting fact: did you know that Sichuan food is actually hotter in Melbourne than it is in Sichuan? Peter says that customers here judge the authenticity of Sichuan food based on the heat levels, and expect it to be so hot that restaurants have increased chilli levels to meet customer expectations, so much so that Melbourne Sichuan food has now become hotter than the food in Sichuan! Mind blown.

We started with a couple of cold dishes. Normally I don't order cold dishes, preferring to save stomach space, however these came highly recommended. I'm glad we tried them - they were excellent!

Salted cucumber in sesame - $12.80

My friends, who, interestingly enough, also avoid ordering cold starters, really liked the salted cucumber in sesame. They thought that the cucumbers might have been pickled, but on reflection I think it's more likely they were cooked using the qiang method, using a brief blast of heat in the wok to drive the flavours of the spices into the cucumber. Either way, very delicious.

Mung bean curd noodles in spicy sauce - $7.50

Now, whilst the cucumber was good, I preferred the mung bean curd noodles in spicy sauce. It was like a more refined version of the chilli sesame noodles I knock up for myself for a quick dinner. I'd love the recipe for these, but I think it's a trade secret, hehe.

Front: Dumplings in spicy sauce - $7.50 for 6 pieces
Back: Wantons in chicken soup - $6.50 for 6 pieces

I thought the wantons and dumplings (both meat-filled) were great, and I liked the fact that they were both served in different sauces. The wantons in chicken soup were a new taste for me (I'm used to Canto-style prawn wantons), and I really enjoyed them.

Zhangcha duck - fresh duck smoked in tea leaves and seasoned in herb sauce - $25.80

The Zhangcha duck was a bit of a surprise - it looked like normal Chinese roast duck, but had a rich smoky flavour. Duck bacon! The skin was crisp, and the meat was rich and tender. It was one of the favourites of the night.

Shuizhuyu - marinated fish slices, vegetables in spicy soup stock - $28.00

The shuishuyu (literally: "water cooked fish"), looked very intimidating, but wasn't quite as blindingly fiery as it looked. Well, my tolerance for spice is quite high, and you don't actually drink the soup. A waiter removed the excess dried chilli and peppercorns...

Mmm... chilli and peppercorns

...and then we were able to fish out (hehe) the fish pieces and beanshoots. The fish pieces had a nice warm heat to them, as well as a mild numbing effect from the Sichuan peppercorn. Lovely. (Although I said it wasn't as hot as it looked, it was still very spicy, and we definitely appreciated having soy milk on hand to cool our mouths!)

Fish slices and beanshoots

Yuxiang eggplant - deep fried eggplant strips in yuxiang sauce - $18.80

The yuxiang (or "fish fragrant") eggplant is one of their most popular dishes, and I can see why! Thick batons of eggplant were deep fried until lusciously creamy on the inside and lightly crispy on the outside, and then tossed through a sweet, sticky, spicy sauce. It was such a great mixture of textures and flavours! You may remember that when I wrote about Dainty Sichuan, I mentioned that I didn't like their fish fragrant eggplant as it was too firm. Here, however, it was just perfect! We were advised to eat this quickly, as it's best when it's fresh out of the kitchen, but I thought it was still good after it had cooled down quite a bit. (And just quietly, even microwaved leftovers were a total treat).

Gongbaojiding - Gong Bao / Kung Pao chicken - $21.80

Gong Bao chicken! This is one of my "must order" dishes at Sichuan restaurants, and I thought they did a good rendition of it. Surprisingly though, it was one of the least popular dishes among my friends - there was nothing wrong with it, it was just that all the other dishes were so good that this was just okay in comparison.

"Ants climbing trees" - $16.80

I'd read about Ants Climbing Trees, the traditional Sichuan dish of minced meat and vermicelli noodles, in my Fuchsia Dunlop books, but had never tried it myself before this meal. This dish reminded my friends and I (mostly Chinese, from Malaysia / Brunei) of char bee hoon, and we totally loved it!

I got one of my friends to lift up the noodles so that I could get a picture of the "ants climbing a tree" effect. (The pieces of minced meat are the "ants", and the noodles are the "tree". Geddit?) Thanks for hand-modelling, Val!

Ants climbing the tree...

Fried braised lamb shank tossed in cumin and spicy salt - $28.80

One of my favourite flavour combos is lamb with chilli and cumin, so I was really keen to try the fried braised lamb shank tossed in cumin and spicy salt. Although, I must say I always feel naughty ordering lamb with chilli and cumin, especially when it's deep-fried! My mum would say this is a very "heaty" dish and would give me pimples and a sore throat. Oops!

The little chunks of lamb had a crisp coating and were nice and tender. They were also quite fatty, with some of the pieces being pure fat. (This can be a good or a bad thing, depending on what you're after!) The spicy salt on top was very spicy, but so addictive. I couldn't stop eating it!

And finally, a little sweet treat to finish off the night.

Mochi ice-cream and red bean pancakes

I loved red bean pancakes in general, and these were very good, so I was surprised to realise that I liked the mochi ice-cream balls even more. These little balls of vanilla ice-cream were filled with chocolate and covered in a thin mochi skin. I imagine that they were bought in, so if anyone knows where to buy them or can recommend a good brand, let me know!

And that was the meal at Sichuan House Seafood! If you can't tell, we all loved it! We left with full bellies and big smiles on our faces, making plans for future visits. A big thank-you to Peter for the invitation, and for giving us an insight into Sichuan cuisine.

Sarah and friends dined as guests of Sichuan House Seafood, with thanks to Peter.

Sichuan House Seafood
395 Victoria St
Abbotsford, VIC 3067
Ph: (03) 9913-6235

Although it hasn't been a conscious decision, I recently realised that I haven't been attending many blogger events or accepting invitations lately. In fact, the last time I blogged about an event was back in March (Captain Melville). I haven't changed my personal stance of happily accepting invitations that I'm genuinely interested in and want to write about, but having been so busy with travel, work, exercise and friends/family, an invitation really has to appeal to my interests directly if it's going to drag me out of my routine! (Grandma alert!)

So imagine my delight when I received an invitation from Peter, the owner of Sichuan House Seafood, asking if I'd like to try out his Chengdu-style Sichuan cuisine, (which is different from the more commonly known Chongqing-style), and if he could arrange a dinner for me and five friends? Um... YES! Did we just become best friends? (See my previous post: "My Love Affair with Sichuan Food" for further evidence of my enthusiasm for this cuisine!)

I easily rounded up five fellow chilli-fiends, and we made our way to Victoria street on a Friday night. Peter welcomed us to the restaurant, and had a chat to us about the food. Interesting fact: did you know that Sichuan food is actually hotter in Melbourne than it is in Sichuan? Peter says that customers here judge the authenticity of Sichuan food based on the heat levels, and expect it to be so hot that restaurants have increased chilli levels to meet customer expectations, so much so that Melbourne Sichuan food has now become hotter than the food in Sichuan! Mind blown.

We started with a couple of cold dishes. Normally I don't order cold dishes, preferring to save stomach space, however these came highly recommended. I'm glad we tried them - they were excellent!

Salted cucumber in sesame - $12.80

My friends, who, interestingly enough, also avoid ordering cold starters, really liked the salted cucumber in sesame. They thought that the cucumbers might have been pickled, but on reflection I think it's more likely they were cooked using the qiang method, using a brief blast of heat in the wok to drive the flavours of the spices into the cucumber. Either way, very delicious.

Mung bean curd noodles in spicy sauce - $7.50

Now, whilst the cucumber was good, I preferred the mung bean curd noodles in spicy sauce. It was like a more refined version of the chilli sesame noodles I knock up for myself for a quick dinner. I'd love the recipe for these, but I think it's a trade secret, hehe.

Front: Dumplings in spicy sauce - $7.50 for 6 pieces
Back: Wantons in chicken soup - $6.50 for 6 pieces

I thought the wantons and dumplings (both meat-filled) were great, and I liked the fact that they were both served in different sauces. The wantons in chicken soup were a new taste for me (I'm used to Canto-style prawn wantons), and I really enjoyed them.

Zhangcha duck - fresh duck smoked in tea leaves and seasoned in herb sauce - $25.80

The Zhangcha duck was a bit of a surprise - it looked like normal Chinese roast duck, but had a rich smoky flavour. Duck bacon! The skin was crisp, and the meat was rich and tender. It was one of the favourites of the night.

Shuizhuyu - marinated fish slices, vegetables in spicy soup stock - $28.00

The shuishuyu (literally: "water cooked fish"), looked very intimidating, but wasn't quite as blindingly fiery as it looked. Well, my tolerance for spice is quite high, and you don't actually drink the soup. A waiter removed the excess dried chilli and peppercorns...

Mmm... chilli and peppercorns

...and then we were able to fish out (hehe) the fish pieces and beanshoots. The fish pieces had a nice warm heat to them, as well as a mild numbing effect from the Sichuan peppercorn. Lovely. (Although I said it wasn't as hot as it looked, it was still very spicy, and we definitely appreciated having soy milk on hand to cool our mouths!)

Fish slices and beanshoots

Yuxiang eggplant - deep fried eggplant strips in yuxiang sauce - $18.80

The yuxiang (or "fish fragrant") eggplant is one of their most popular dishes, and I can see why! Thick batons of eggplant were deep fried until lusciously creamy on the inside and lightly crispy on the outside, and then tossed through a sweet, sticky, spicy sauce. It was such a great mixture of textures and flavours! You may remember that when I wrote about Dainty Sichuan, I mentioned that I didn't like their fish fragrant eggplant as it was too firm. Here, however, it was just perfect! We were advised to eat this quickly, as it's best when it's fresh out of the kitchen, but I thought it was still good after it had cooled down quite a bit. (And just quietly, even microwaved leftovers were a total treat).

Gongbaojiding - Gong Bao / Kung Pao chicken - $21.80

Gong Bao chicken! This is one of my "must order" dishes at Sichuan restaurants, and I thought they did a good rendition of it. Surprisingly though, it was one of the least popular dishes among my friends - there was nothing wrong with it, it was just that all the other dishes were so good that this was just okay in comparison.

"Ants climbing trees" - $16.80

I'd read about Ants Climbing Trees, the traditional Sichuan dish of minced meat and vermicelli noodles, in my Fuchsia Dunlop books, but had never tried it myself before this meal. This dish reminded my friends and I (mostly Chinese, from Malaysia / Brunei) of char bee hoon, and we totally loved it!

I got one of my friends to lift up the noodles so that I could get a picture of the "ants climbing a tree" effect. (The pieces of minced meat are the "ants", and the noodles are the "tree". Geddit?) Thanks for hand-modelling, Val!

Ants climbing the tree...

Fried braised lamb shank tossed in cumin and spicy salt - $28.80

One of my favourite flavour combos is lamb with chilli and cumin, so I was really keen to try the fried braised lamb shank tossed in cumin and spicy salt. Although, I must say I always feel naughty ordering lamb with chilli and cumin, especially when it's deep-fried! My mum would say this is a very "heaty" dish and would give me pimples and a sore throat. Oops!

The little chunks of lamb had a crisp coating and were nice and tender. They were also quite fatty, with some of the pieces being pure fat. (This can be a good or a bad thing, depending on what you're after!) The spicy salt on top was very spicy, but so addictive. I couldn't stop eating it!

And finally, a little sweet treat to finish off the night.

Mochi ice-cream and red bean pancakes

I loved red bean pancakes in general, and these were very good, so I was surprised to realise that I liked the mochi ice-cream balls even more. These little balls of vanilla ice-cream were filled with chocolate and covered in a thin mochi skin. I imagine that they were bought in, so if anyone knows where to buy them or can recommend a good brand, let me know!

And that was the meal at Sichuan House Seafood! If you can't tell, we all loved it! We left with full bellies and big smiles on our faces, making plans for future visits. A big thank-you to Peter for the invitation, and for giving us an insight into Sichuan cuisine.

Sarah and friends dined as guests of Sichuan House Seafood, with thanks to Peter.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Duck and Bean Shoot Stir Fry with Duck Crackling

Duck and Bean Shoot Stir Fry

Quick break from the Europe posts! Last weekend, we had a lot of roast duck leftover, and I got the idea in my head that it would be much nicer stir-fried with beanshoots, rather than being simply reheated in the microwave. And right I was too, heh! I made this recipe up myself, which is unusual for me and Chinese recipes - normally I follow Fuchsia Dunlop's recipes to the letter - but I think that after having cooked Chinese food so often recently, I'm starting to get a lot more confident with it, understanding which flavour combinations go well together.

Essentially I just picked the bones out of the leftover roast duck, making sure I got a bit of duck fat for stir-frying, and pieces of skin to make crisp bits for garnish. (I reasoned that if chicken fat is good for stir-frying, duck fat must be even tastier!) Often when you buy roast duck, you'll have a few pieces that are disappointingly un-meaty, just skin, fat and bone - those are perfect here! I've specified 100-200 grams of duck meat in the recipe below, but obviously this will depend on how much you actually have leftover! No need to be too precise about it.

Duck, beanshoots, spring onions, red capsicum, garlic

The above picture looks reasonably neat, but picking apart the duck is a messy, greasy, process. I would suggest using food gloves, if you have them. It's not a good idea to try and slice the duck pieces if your hands are still greasy - danger, danger! I tried to slice everything into strips that were roughly the same size as the beanshoots, just like in those three-strip noodles you can get at Cantonese restaurants. Below we have the duck, the bean shoots, spring onions and red capsicum.

Food all prepped

Mmm... duck fat frying smells so good! It adds a great richness to the dish, and the crunchy bits make such a fab garnish. If you're concerned about too much saturated fat, you can obviously omit the duck crackling, and use ordinary vegetable oil. (But then, if you're concerned about fat, is duck really the meat you want to be eating?)

Duck-fat frying

The prep took a little bit of time, with all the slicing, but the actual cooking was very quick - less than ten minutes all up. A bowl of white rice, and it was complete.

Dinner

I loved it! It's a great way of using leftover roast duck - stir frying it, rather than microwaving it, keeps it luscious and prevents it from going dry. The roast duck already has a lot of flavour in it, so I only added small amounts of garlic, soy sauce, black vinegar and sesame oil. I loved the refreshing crunch of the bean shoots and capsicum, which offset the rich duck. Easy easy and super tasty - hop to it!

Duck and Bean Shoot Stir-Fry
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
100 - 200 grams leftover Chinese roast duck
Peanut oil, for frying
1 dried chilli
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 red capsicum, sliced into fine strips
2 spring onions, sliced into fine strips (save some of the green parts for garnish)
100 grams bean shoots
A pinch ground and roasted Sichuan pepper
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon black chinkiang vinegar
A few drops sesame oil

Method
Slice the roast duck into thin strips, and pick off any excess fatty bits for stir-frying. Pick off a few pieces of the tasty skin and slice into thin slices. (This is to make duck crackling!)
Heat a small splash of peanut oil in a wok, and add the excess fatty bits and reserved, sliced duck skin. Stir fry over a medium-high heat until the fat has rendered off and the slices of duck skin are crispy. Remove the crisp bits and set aside.
Scissor the dried chilli into thin pieces and add to the wok, along with the garlic. Stir fry for a minute or two. Add the red capsicum and spring onions, stir frying for a minute, or until they start to lose their rawness. Toss in the bean shoots and duck slices, stir-frying for 2-3 minutes until piping hot.
Off the heat, stir in the soy sauce, black vinegar and sesame oil.
Garnish with spring onion greens and duck crackling, and serve with steamed rice.
Serves 2

Duck and Bean Shoot Stir Fry

Quick break from the Europe posts! Last weekend, we had a lot of roast duck leftover, and I got the idea in my head that it would be much nicer stir-fried with beanshoots, rather than being simply reheated in the microwave. And right I was too, heh! I made this recipe up myself, which is unusual for me and Chinese recipes - normally I follow Fuchsia Dunlop's recipes to the letter - but I think that after having cooked Chinese food so often recently, I'm starting to get a lot more confident with it, understanding which flavour combinations go well together.

Essentially I just picked the bones out of the leftover roast duck, making sure I got a bit of duck fat for stir-frying, and pieces of skin to make crisp bits for garnish. (I reasoned that if chicken fat is good for stir-frying, duck fat must be even tastier!) Often when you buy roast duck, you'll have a few pieces that are disappointingly un-meaty, just skin, fat and bone - those are perfect here! I've specified 100-200 grams of duck meat in the recipe below, but obviously this will depend on how much you actually have leftover! No need to be too precise about it.

Duck, beanshoots, spring onions, red capsicum, garlic

The above picture looks reasonably neat, but picking apart the duck is a messy, greasy, process. I would suggest using food gloves, if you have them. It's not a good idea to try and slice the duck pieces if your hands are still greasy - danger, danger! I tried to slice everything into strips that were roughly the same size as the beanshoots, just like in those three-strip noodles you can get at Cantonese restaurants. Below we have the duck, the bean shoots, spring onions and red capsicum.

Food all prepped

Mmm... duck fat frying smells so good! It adds a great richness to the dish, and the crunchy bits make such a fab garnish. If you're concerned about too much saturated fat, you can obviously omit the duck crackling, and use ordinary vegetable oil. (But then, if you're concerned about fat, is duck really the meat you want to be eating?)

Duck-fat frying

The prep took a little bit of time, with all the slicing, but the actual cooking was very quick - less than ten minutes all up. A bowl of white rice, and it was complete.

Dinner

I loved it! It's a great way of using leftover roast duck - stir frying it, rather than microwaving it, keeps it luscious and prevents it from going dry. The roast duck already has a lot of flavour in it, so I only added small amounts of garlic, soy sauce, black vinegar and sesame oil. I loved the refreshing crunch of the bean shoots and capsicum, which offset the rich duck. Easy easy and super tasty - hop to it!

Duck and Bean Shoot Stir-Fry
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
100 - 200 grams leftover Chinese roast duck
Peanut oil, for frying
1 dried chilli
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 red capsicum, sliced into fine strips
2 spring onions, sliced into fine strips (save some of the green parts for garnish)
100 grams bean shoots
A pinch ground and roasted Sichuan pepper
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon black chinkiang vinegar
A few drops sesame oil

Method
Slice the roast duck into thin strips, and pick off any excess fatty bits for stir-frying. Pick off a few pieces of the tasty skin and slice into thin slices. (This is to make duck crackling!)
Heat a small splash of peanut oil in a wok, and add the excess fatty bits and reserved, sliced duck skin. Stir fry over a medium-high heat until the fat has rendered off and the slices of duck skin are crispy. Remove the crisp bits and set aside.
Scissor the dried chilli into thin pieces and add to the wok, along with the garlic. Stir fry for a minute or two. Add the red capsicum and spring onions, stir frying for a minute, or until they start to lose their rawness. Toss in the bean shoots and duck slices, stir-frying for 2-3 minutes until piping hot.
Off the heat, stir in the soy sauce, black vinegar and sesame oil.
Garnish with spring onion greens and duck crackling, and serve with steamed rice.
Serves 2

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Taiwanese Meat Sauce on Rice

Taiwanese Meat Sauce on Rice with rice-cooked eggplant, gai laan and soy egg

I don't know about you, but I'm always on the lookout for easy meals to add to my weeknight repertoire, and I found a new dish to try on a lunch break last week. I'd ducked into Taiwan Cafe on Swanston street for a quick lunch on a very cold day, and I ordered a bowl of that Taiwanese classic, meat sauce on rice (with a soy egg, of course!), and a hot cup of Hong Kong milk tea.  

Taiwanese meat sauce on rice with soy egg and Hong Kong milk tea, at Taiwan Cafe on Swanston Street

It was my first time trying it - normally I go for braised beef soup at Taiwanese places - and I really loved it! It was incredibly comforting, and very tasty. Looking at the dish, it didn't seem like it would be that hard to cook at home, so I googled it, found out that it was actually very easy, and made it for dinner that weekend!

Being a classic recipe, there are as many versions as there are people who cook it, but a common theme is that minced meat is slowly simmered in a mixture of soy sauce and other aromatics, and that it starts with a base of crisp fried shallots. (Most recipes I've seen say to cook the shallots yourself, although I have seen others that suggest starting with a packet of those crisp fried shallots that you can get at Asian grocers).

Ingredients

Pork is classic, but I used beef mince on this occasion, because I happened to have it on hand. Same deal with the red onion - I used that instead of shallots because I always seem to have a few knocking about.

Here are the onions, browning away. Make sure you cook them until really good and brown, as you can really taste it in the finished product. 

Browning onions

There is a high ratio of liquid to meat, and the sauce takes about the same amount of time to cook as it does to cook soy eggs, so it makes sense to chuck it all in together. (I love soy eggs, but it always seems wasteful to use so much soy sauce just to simmer a couple of eggs - it felt much less extravagant cooking the eggs and meat together in the sauce!) I only did two eggs as there were two of us eating that night, but the recipe makes enough meat sauce to serve four people, so in my recipe below I've suggested doing four eggs.

Meat sauce and eggs

I wanted to sneak in some extra vegetables, so cooked a baby eggplant with the rice in my rice cooker, fan wu cai style. I also, separately, boiled a few stems of Chinese broccoli to go with! (Both are totally optional though!)

Eggplant and rice in rice cooker

And that was it! It's a delicious, low-effort dinner. From start to finish it takes about an hour, but you're only actually working for less than half that time - for most of it the meat sauce is simmering away and the rice is cooking without your intervention. Definitely a contender for weeknight meals!

Here's an alternative idea for presentation, which I did with the leftovers for lunch the next day - mixing the meat sauce through the rice and piling it up on a plate. (I've only ever seen the meat sauce served on rice in restaurants here, but got the idea from Tiny Urban Kitchen).

Alternative presentation

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do!

Taiwanese Meat Sauce on Rice with Soy Eggs
Sarah's version of a classic recipe, adapted mainly from Tiny Urban Kitchen

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
250 grams minced beef or pork
2 cups water
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
Optional: 1 baby or Lebanese eggplant, 4 stems of Chinese broccoli
2 spring onions, finely chopped, to garnish

Method
Hardboil the eggs, then peel and set aside.
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and add the finely chopped red onion. Cook over a medium high heat until well browned.
Add the minced meat, stirring well to break it up. Cook until the meat has lost most of its pink colour. Pour in the water, soy sauce, sugar, five-spice and rice wine and stir to combine. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer. Place the hardboiled eggs into the sauce and allow everything to cook, with the pot partially covered, for 45 minutes. Stir every now and then to make sure the eggs turn around evenly in the sauce.
Cook the rice while the meat sauce is simmering. If you'd like to have eggplant, slice the eggplant in half lengthwise and layer it on top of the rice and water before cooking it as usual.
If you'd like to have Chinese broccoli, then cook it just before the rice and meat are ready. Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. Add a teaspoon of vegetable oil and a teaspoon of salt, then cook the broccoli for 2-3 minutes before draining.
To serve, scoop the rice into four serving bowls and use a slotted spoon or small sieve to scoop out the meat and spoon it over the rice. (There will be a lot of liquid, but that can remain in the saucepan). Arrange the eggs, eggplant and Chinese broccoli over each bowl. Garnish generously with spring onions to serve.
Serves 4

Taiwanese Meat Sauce on Rice with rice-cooked eggplant, gai laan and soy egg

I don't know about you, but I'm always on the lookout for easy meals to add to my weeknight repertoire, and I found a new dish to try on a lunch break last week. I'd ducked into Taiwan Cafe on Swanston street for a quick lunch on a very cold day, and I ordered a bowl of that Taiwanese classic, meat sauce on rice (with a soy egg, of course!), and a hot cup of Hong Kong milk tea.  

Taiwanese meat sauce on rice with soy egg and Hong Kong milk tea, at Taiwan Cafe on Swanston Street

It was my first time trying it - normally I go for braised beef soup at Taiwanese places - and I really loved it! It was incredibly comforting, and very tasty. Looking at the dish, it didn't seem like it would be that hard to cook at home, so I googled it, found out that it was actually very easy, and made it for dinner that weekend!

Being a classic recipe, there are as many versions as there are people who cook it, but a common theme is that minced meat is slowly simmered in a mixture of soy sauce and other aromatics, and that it starts with a base of crisp fried shallots. (Most recipes I've seen say to cook the shallots yourself, although I have seen others that suggest starting with a packet of those crisp fried shallots that you can get at Asian grocers).

Ingredients

Pork is classic, but I used beef mince on this occasion, because I happened to have it on hand. Same deal with the red onion - I used that instead of shallots because I always seem to have a few knocking about.

Here are the onions, browning away. Make sure you cook them until really good and brown, as you can really taste it in the finished product. 

Browning onions

There is a high ratio of liquid to meat, and the sauce takes about the same amount of time to cook as it does to cook soy eggs, so it makes sense to chuck it all in together. (I love soy eggs, but it always seems wasteful to use so much soy sauce just to simmer a couple of eggs - it felt much less extravagant cooking the eggs and meat together in the sauce!) I only did two eggs as there were two of us eating that night, but the recipe makes enough meat sauce to serve four people, so in my recipe below I've suggested doing four eggs.

Meat sauce and eggs

I wanted to sneak in some extra vegetables, so cooked a baby eggplant with the rice in my rice cooker, fan wu cai style. I also, separately, boiled a few stems of Chinese broccoli to go with! (Both are totally optional though!)

Eggplant and rice in rice cooker

And that was it! It's a delicious, low-effort dinner. From start to finish it takes about an hour, but you're only actually working for less than half that time - for most of it the meat sauce is simmering away and the rice is cooking without your intervention. Definitely a contender for weeknight meals!

Here's an alternative idea for presentation, which I did with the leftovers for lunch the next day - mixing the meat sauce through the rice and piling it up on a plate. (I've only ever seen the meat sauce served on rice in restaurants here, but got the idea from Tiny Urban Kitchen).

Alternative presentation

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do!

Taiwanese Meat Sauce on Rice with Soy Eggs
Sarah's version of a classic recipe, adapted mainly from Tiny Urban Kitchen

Ingredients
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
250 grams minced beef or pork
2 cups water
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
Optional: 1 baby or Lebanese eggplant, 4 stems of Chinese broccoli
2 spring onions, finely chopped, to garnish

Method
Hardboil the eggs, then peel and set aside.
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and add the finely chopped red onion. Cook over a medium high heat until well browned.
Add the minced meat, stirring well to break it up. Cook until the meat has lost most of its pink colour. Pour in the water, soy sauce, sugar, five-spice and rice wine and stir to combine. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer. Place the hardboiled eggs into the sauce and allow everything to cook, with the pot partially covered, for 45 minutes. Stir every now and then to make sure the eggs turn around evenly in the sauce.
Cook the rice while the meat sauce is simmering. If you'd like to have eggplant, slice the eggplant in half lengthwise and layer it on top of the rice and water before cooking it as usual.
If you'd like to have Chinese broccoli, then cook it just before the rice and meat are ready. Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil. Add a teaspoon of vegetable oil and a teaspoon of salt, then cook the broccoli for 2-3 minutes before draining.
To serve, scoop the rice into four serving bowls and use a slotted spoon or small sieve to scoop out the meat and spoon it over the rice. (There will be a lot of liquid, but that can remain in the saucepan). Arrange the eggs, eggplant and Chinese broccoli over each bowl. Garnish generously with spring onions to serve.
Serves 4

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Spice Temple, Again

Spice fried chicken wings with heaven facing chillies - $25

Spice Temple
Crown Complex
8 Whiteman Street
Southbank 3006
Ph: (03) 8679-1888
Website


I know, I know, you're probably all sick of me going on about Spice Temple, but it's just so good! We've been a good dozen times now, the most recent visit being for my birthday in April, where we enjoyed a fantastic meal. We often go there for dinner with friends, when we want something a bit special, with unusual and inventive food in a nice environment, that's not too expensive. We've pretty much always enjoyed it. The only exception to this (and I suppose it's a big exception), is their Yum Cha, which as I mentioned in a previous post, I found to be disappointing and extremely overpriced compared to their dinners. However, I'm (obviously) a big fan of their dinners and can heartily recommend them! Today's post is going to be a photo-heavy one, sharing the different dishes we've tried over our many visits. The photo you see at the top is one of my favourites: spice-fried chicken wings with heaven facing chillies. The chicken meat is so tender, and is covered in a lightly crisp zingy spice coating (which I'm sure has ground Sichuan peppercorns in it). So delicious.

N.B. the menu seems to change quite regularly, so some of these dishes may no longer be available.

DRINKS

I always like starting a meal here with a lovely cocktail. They have a sharp wine list (exactly 100 wines!), but I can never go past the cocktails. Let's have a look...

Sheep - blanco tequila, sesame, ginger, agave and cinnamon-sugared orange - $18

Left: Rabbit - London dry gin, green apple, jasmine tea soda and salted cucumber - $18
Right: Horse - Jamaican rum, fresh pomegranate, lavender and citrus - $18

Rooster - Aperol, limoncello and fresh passionfruit - $18

Dog - Rye whiskey, Grand Marnier, mint and orange - $18

Gentleman’s Espresso - Single barrel Tennesse whiskey, five spice syrup and fresh espresso - $18

They've sadly changed the Pig cocktail now - that fabulous mix of lychees, gin and sparkling wine served in a carafe is no longer available. I asked them about it once, and apparently one of the ingredients was super labour intensive, so they took it off the menu. Usually, though, they're happy to make up a lychee-based cocktail for us. (Having said that, on my most recent visit when we asked for a lychee-based cocktail, we were very curtly told by the waitress: "You can have the Pig, or you can have the Dragon" - neither of which had any lychee! Er, what?)

Lychee-based cocktail

Lychee cocktails

FOOD

Entrées

Cabbage and radish pickle - $8

Crispy pork belly slider - $9 (per piece)

Silken tofu and preserved egg salad with soy chilli dressing - $18

You may remember that I made a version of this tofu at home, after enjoying it so much at the restaurant!

Shredded lamb shoulder with salted chilli - $18

Bang bang white cut chicken - $19

I love the spicy oily sauce of the bang bang chicken (it used to be called "strange flavour chicken"; I wonder if they changed the name to help sales?) It seems like a waste not to finish the sauce, so last time we ordered some steamed bread pockets to go with.

Steamed bread pockets - $2 each

Lamb and cumin pancakes - $16

Caramelised pork spare ribs - $29

These pork ribs, like the chicken wings, are one of the heartier entrées. I totally love the sticky, sweet sauce! (They're quite similar to Fuchsia Dunlop's sweet and sour spare ribs).

Mains 

Handmade egg noodles, Hunan style with smoked bacon and chilli - $18

Crispy Chow Mein American Chinese style - $22

We ordered the crispy Chow Mein as my birthday noodles, and they were great! The noodles were really light and crispy, with parts going wonderfully soggy as they soaked up the savory, minced beef sauce.

Crab tofu - $35

Whole fried and steamed snapper with chilli and sichuan pepper - $39

Stir fried quail and peanuts with steamed egg custard spicy, crunchy, creamy - $38

The stir-fried quail is really, really impressive. The minced quail is strongly flavoured with a mixture of chilli, sour and numbing Sichuan pepper, spring onions and peanuts, and sits atop a very smooth steamed egg custard. For me it was quite an unusual dish, but very delicious and definitely worth ordering!

Crispy skin chicken with black vinegar sauce - $42

Hakka Pork Belly - $38

Hot, sweet, sour and numbing pork - chilli, sugar, black vinegar and Sichuan peppercorn - $38

Vegetables

Stir fried wild bamboo pith, snow peas and quail eggs with ginger and garlic - $19

Stir-fried corn with smoked pork and chives - $12

I have to be honest and say I ordered the stir-fried corn out of curiosity, and was surprised by just how good it was! It didn't feel particularly "Chinese" to me (although I think our perception of Chinese food in Australia is very different to Chinese food in China!), but the flavours worked together beautifully, and complimented the other dishes we'd ordered. Corn, bacon and chives: what more could you want?

Dessert

Chocolate and cherry candy bar - $6

A friend of ours ordered the chocolate and cherry bar one night - it was okay, but not particularly memorable. It was also really small, and didn't seem worth six dollars.

Much, much better is the caramel chocolate and peanut parfait. I can't come to Spice Temple without ordering this dessert! It's really rich though, definitely one to share. (On our most recent visit, we'd had a huge meal, and actually shared one between six of us - just a few bites each to finish the meal).

Caramel chocolate and peanut parfait - $18

They bring out these super light and crisp peanut cookies at the end of the meal, which I totally love too.

Peanut cookies

Do you have a favourite restaurant that you visit over and over again? Do you have a favourite Spice Temple dish that I haven't tried yet?

You can read about my other visits to Spice Temple here:

Spice Temple, Sydney

Spice Temple, Melbourne

Spice Temple II

Spice Temple Yum Cha (within the March 2012 Unblogged Files post)

Spice fried chicken wings with heaven facing chillies - $25

Spice Temple
Crown Complex
8 Whiteman Street
Southbank 3006
Ph: (03) 8679-1888
Website


I know, I know, you're probably all sick of me going on about Spice Temple, but it's just so good! We've been a good dozen times now, the most recent visit being for my birthday in April, where we enjoyed a fantastic meal. We often go there for dinner with friends, when we want something a bit special, with unusual and inventive food in a nice environment, that's not too expensive. We've pretty much always enjoyed it. The only exception to this (and I suppose it's a big exception), is their Yum Cha, which as I mentioned in a previous post, I found to be disappointing and extremely overpriced compared to their dinners. However, I'm (obviously) a big fan of their dinners and can heartily recommend them! Today's post is going to be a photo-heavy one, sharing the different dishes we've tried over our many visits. The photo you see at the top is one of my favourites: spice-fried chicken wings with heaven facing chillies. The chicken meat is so tender, and is covered in a lightly crisp zingy spice coating (which I'm sure has ground Sichuan peppercorns in it). So delicious.

N.B. the menu seems to change quite regularly, so some of these dishes may no longer be available.

DRINKS

I always like starting a meal here with a lovely cocktail. They have a sharp wine list (exactly 100 wines!), but I can never go past the cocktails. Let's have a look...

Sheep - blanco tequila, sesame, ginger, agave and cinnamon-sugared orange - $18

Left: Rabbit - London dry gin, green apple, jasmine tea soda and salted cucumber - $18
Right: Horse - Jamaican rum, fresh pomegranate, lavender and citrus - $18

Rooster - Aperol, limoncello and fresh passionfruit - $18

Dog - Rye whiskey, Grand Marnier, mint and orange - $18

Gentleman’s Espresso - Single barrel Tennesse whiskey, five spice syrup and fresh espresso - $18

They've sadly changed the Pig cocktail now - that fabulous mix of lychees, gin and sparkling wine served in a carafe is no longer available. I asked them about it once, and apparently one of the ingredients was super labour intensive, so they took it off the menu. Usually, though, they're happy to make up a lychee-based cocktail for us. (Having said that, on my most recent visit when we asked for a lychee-based cocktail, we were very curtly told by the waitress: "You can have the Pig, or you can have the Dragon" - neither of which had any lychee! Er, what?)

Lychee-based cocktail

Lychee cocktails

FOOD

Entrées

Cabbage and radish pickle - $8

Crispy pork belly slider - $9 (per piece)

Silken tofu and preserved egg salad with soy chilli dressing - $18

You may remember that I made a version of this tofu at home, after enjoying it so much at the restaurant!

Shredded lamb shoulder with salted chilli - $18

Bang bang white cut chicken - $19

I love the spicy oily sauce of the bang bang chicken (it used to be called "strange flavour chicken"; I wonder if they changed the name to help sales?) It seems like a waste not to finish the sauce, so last time we ordered some steamed bread pockets to go with.

Steamed bread pockets - $2 each

Lamb and cumin pancakes - $16

Caramelised pork spare ribs - $29

These pork ribs, like the chicken wings, are one of the heartier entrées. I totally love the sticky, sweet sauce! (They're quite similar to Fuchsia Dunlop's sweet and sour spare ribs).

Mains 

Handmade egg noodles, Hunan style with smoked bacon and chilli - $18

Crispy Chow Mein American Chinese style - $22

We ordered the crispy Chow Mein as my birthday noodles, and they were great! The noodles were really light and crispy, with parts going wonderfully soggy as they soaked up the savory, minced beef sauce.

Crab tofu - $35

Whole fried and steamed snapper with chilli and sichuan pepper - $39

Stir fried quail and peanuts with steamed egg custard spicy, crunchy, creamy - $38

The stir-fried quail is really, really impressive. The minced quail is strongly flavoured with a mixture of chilli, sour and numbing Sichuan pepper, spring onions and peanuts, and sits atop a very smooth steamed egg custard. For me it was quite an unusual dish, but very delicious and definitely worth ordering!

Crispy skin chicken with black vinegar sauce - $42

Hakka Pork Belly - $38

Hot, sweet, sour and numbing pork - chilli, sugar, black vinegar and Sichuan peppercorn - $38

Vegetables

Stir fried wild bamboo pith, snow peas and quail eggs with ginger and garlic - $19

Stir-fried corn with smoked pork and chives - $12

I have to be honest and say I ordered the stir-fried corn out of curiosity, and was surprised by just how good it was! It didn't feel particularly "Chinese" to me (although I think our perception of Chinese food in Australia is very different to Chinese food in China!), but the flavours worked together beautifully, and complimented the other dishes we'd ordered. Corn, bacon and chives: what more could you want?

Dessert

Chocolate and cherry candy bar - $6

A friend of ours ordered the chocolate and cherry bar one night - it was okay, but not particularly memorable. It was also really small, and didn't seem worth six dollars.

Much, much better is the caramel chocolate and peanut parfait. I can't come to Spice Temple without ordering this dessert! It's really rich though, definitely one to share. (On our most recent visit, we'd had a huge meal, and actually shared one between six of us - just a few bites each to finish the meal).

Caramel chocolate and peanut parfait - $18

They bring out these super light and crisp peanut cookies at the end of the meal, which I totally love too.

Peanut cookies

Do you have a favourite restaurant that you visit over and over again? Do you have a favourite Spice Temple dish that I haven't tried yet?

You can read about my other visits to Spice Temple here:

Spice Temple, Sydney

Spice Temple, Melbourne

Spice Temple II

Spice Temple Yum Cha (within the March 2012 Unblogged Files post)

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