Chinese Pancakes (Peking Doilies) with Char Siu Pork

Everybody loves Peking Duck with pancakes, cucumber, spring onion & duck sauce. Yum, what could be better?

Char Siu Pork, of course. This is equally delicious rolled in the pancakes as a nice change from peking duck. Go on give it a try.

Of course, you don't have to be daft like me and make the pancakes, especially as they are so readily available in most supermarkets these days. But, when you live in Spain, not everything is readily available. However, my good friends Debbie & Andy, who run an amazing little shop in our village, called Sugar & Spice, do stock them and thankfully loads of other asian goodies too, alongside our brit bits; but I didn't have any in the freezer and, being Sunday, they were shut, grrrrrr.

Peking Doilies (makes approx 25):-
310ml water
500ml all-purpose flour, sifted
Sesame oil

Put water into a pan and bring to a boil. Add flour and stir very quickly with a wooden spoon to combine. Remove from pan and knead mixture on a floured board, for about 10 minutes, until smooth. Cover with a damp tea towel and let stand for 10 minutes.

Form the dough into a long roll, 3cm diameter. Then cut into 1cm slices. Flatten to 1/2cm thickness and brush one side only of half of the rounds. Place the un oiled ones on top of the oiled ones to form pairs. Dust each pair with a little flour and roll out to an extremely think pancake about 10-12cm in diameter.

Heat a non stick griddle or frying pan to medium heat. Bake the pancake pairs, one at a time, for about 1 minute each side or until lightly coloured.

Separate the two halves, transfer to a plate and keep covered with a damp tea towel until all are cooked.

Can be made in advance and kept in the fridge until required. To reheat, simply steam for 8-10 minutes.

Char Siu recipe shown here. Reserve the left over marinade mixture (add more hoisin and a little sugar if more required) and bring to a boil in a small pan before serving, with sliced cucumber and spring onions.

Serve and compile the pancakes exactly as you would with peking duck.

Ready to roll?



Ready to eat?

Update 7.7.2010 (see new post for improved sauce) shown here

Thai Volcano Chicken -v- Beer Can Chicken

OK, this is a first for me. Posting a kitchen disaster. Well, not entirely a disaster, which is why I've decided to share it with you.

Usually if a recipe goes wrong, the photos are deleted and it won't get posted until I get it right, but this time it was only a minor detail that failed me!!

Volcano chicken is a dish I had the very first time at The Royal Elephant Restaurant in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, many years ago (too many to remember) and it's something that I've wanted to try again; especially as I can't get it in Spain anywhere (well, I've not come across a restaurant that serves it yet).

Having done the usual and googled it, I settled on a recipe which sounded good shown here and set about preparations.

I should probably mention at this stage that my experience of this dish at the Royal Elephant was quite different to all those that come up on google. It appears this dish is cooked with a whole chicken. However, at the Royal Elephant you are actually served a portion in a foil wrap, shaped as a volcano with the flames flowing out of the top. Quiet a spectacular looking dish I have to say. So to discover how it should be done was quite a shock. Nonetheless, that's what I did, well tried to anyway LOL.

I found there was actually far too much marinade and it turned out to be way too hot, even for me. Adaptions will be made next attempt.

One change I did make however, was the use of a beer can, half filled with beer instead of the recommend can half filled with stock or water. Did this make a difference, I've no idea but at least it worked.

Looking at my marinated bird with a beer can shoved up it's backside was quite funny and I did wonder if it would actually remain upright. At least that bit worked, phew.

I did find the need to put a foil tent over it at some stage, which was not easy due to the height, but I got there and managed to negotiate it back into the oven without disasters.

OK, so now my bird is cooked and we are ready to ignite it. To be on the safe side, we decided it best to take it outside to the terrace table and light it there.

This is where it all goes wrong. Poured over the whisky, ignited it. NOTHING, except a small little flame in the bottom of the roasting pan. Tried again, NOTHING except we now have a few pesky wasps appearing.

Time to take indoors and carve I think.

I should however mention at this stage. The chicken is beautifully cooked and nicely browned all over. If it were just beer can chicken, I would have been pleasantly surprised and totally happy with the result. However, we are all now hungry and eager to tuck into Volcano Chicken........

The taste test:-

Having boiled up the reserved marinade and carved the chicken, we all tucked in and served it with a simple thai salad.

Would perhaps have been better served with jasmine rice. Will do that next time. The chicken itself was moist and delicous. There was however, no evidence of the marinade flavours penetrating the chicken beyond the skin, so just as well we had a separate bowl to drizzle over the meat. The marinade was too hot although nice flavours but nothing like the dish I had at the Royal Elephant.

Conclusion:-

As a chicken cooked on a beer can. Fabulous and will definitely do this again, even if the bird does look as though it's about to run away LOL.

Was it Volcano Chicken. No, it tasted nothing like my past experences. However, with adaptions to the marinade I will endeavour to recreate this dish again. But, I will also recreate it served in foil shaped as a volcano just like the restaurant served it.

All in all, not a complete disaster, but a learning curve.

Goan Coconut Chicken Curry

Another Kris Dhillon recipe

Quite similar to a korma curry but spicier and surprisingly moorish. I have made a couple of adaptions to the original recipe. I felt there was too much salt, so added only 1/2 tsp instead of 1 tsp; I would also only add 1 tsp of tamarind instead of 2 next time.

Spice mix:-
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 green cardamoms
4 cloves
1" piece of cinnamon

Other ingredients:-
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp turmeric
325ml curry sauce shown here
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp paprika
300ml coconut cream
450g chicken fillets, pre-cooked as shown here
1 tsp tamarind paste dissolved in 1 tbsp warm water.

Grind spices for spice mix to a fine powder.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy based, pan and add the spice mix. Fry on medium heat for about a minute until aromatic.

Stir in the turmeric, curry sauce, salt, chilli powder and paprika. Bring to the boil and cook on high heat for about 3 minutes until thickened slightly. Turn down the heat.

Add the coconut cream and bring slowly to a simmer. Add the chicken to the sauce and mix well. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the tamarind and serve.

Serve with pilau rice, click here to see recipe

Quick & Easy Pilau Rice (pretty too)

Quite a while back we had friends coming over for a curry night and I decided to have a go at making the rice more interesting. One of those experiments that actually worked really well and became a talking point at the table. Chatting to one of those guests the other week, reminded me that I had not shared it on the blog yet.

No recipe to follow as such, just kind of threw it together:-

1 quantity of basmati rice (I use 50g per person)
vegetable stock for cooking rice
1/2 - 1 teaspoon turmeric
red food colouring

Put washed & drained rice into a saucepan with turmeric and stock, bring to boil, cover and simmer until cooked.

your cooked rice has now taken on the lovely yellow tones from the turmeric. Drain well and place approximately one third in a separate bowl.

Fluff up with a fork and add a drop or two of red food colouring to the smaller portion. Mix well to ensure all grains are evenely coated.

Leave both portions to cool slightly then fluff up with a fork. Mix the two portions together and fluff up again.

Voila, you now have the most amazing coloured rice.

Jungle Curry of Guinea Fowl (Is it a curry or a soup?)

A traditional wild food country curry from the north-central region of Thailand, this dish can be made using any game, fish or chicken. Guinea fowl is not typical of Thai cuisine, but is a popular and widely available game bird in the west.

This recipe was adapted from Thai, the essence of asian cooking, cookbook. A christmas present from my amazing mother in law, about 3 years ago.

I served this dish with thai jasmine rice. To be honest it was a very soup like consistency and therefore I question whether it is a curry or a soup. Nonetheless, it has a very good flavour and I would make it again, but I think it would be best served with noodles and eaten more like a soup.

(Serves 4)

1 guinea fowl (or similar game bird)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp green curry paste
1 tbsp thai fish sauce (nam pla)
1" piece fresh galangal, peeled & finely chopped (or ginger)
1 tbsp fresh green peppercorns (or bottled)
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 tbsp mekhong whiskey
300ml chicken stock
50g snake beans or yard-long beans (cut into 2.5cm lengths)
225g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp dried chilli flakes to garnish

Cut up the guinea fowl, remove and discard the skin, then take all the meat off the bones. Chop the meat into bitesize pieces and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok and add the curry paste. Stir fry over a medium heat for 30 seconds, until the paste gives off it aroma.

Add the fish sauce and the guinea fowl meat and stir fry until the meat is browned all over. Add the galangal, peppercorns, lime leaves and whisky, then pour in the stock.

Bring to the boil. Add the vegetables, return to a simmer and cook gently for 2-3 minutes or until they are just cooked. Spoon into a dish and sprinke with chilli flakes. Serve immediately.

Participating in Souper Sundays with Kahakai Kitchen

Creamy Leek & Potato Soup (serves 6)

OK, I know it's 35 degrees outside, but I really fancied soup. Anyway, I've heard it be said that, just like a fiery curry, it actually cools you down. Can't be entirely sure that's correct, but I did enjoy it nonetheless.

50g butter
450g potatoes, peeled & diced
450g leeks, washed and roughly chopped
1 small onion, roughly chopped
850ml hot vegetable stock
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
salt to taste
100ml cream

for the garnish:-
1 small leek, washed and finely sliced
freshly snipped chives
extra butter for frying

Melt the butter in a large pan. Add potatoes, leeks & onion, stirring to coat in melted butter. Turn heat to low and cook for approx 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add salt & pepper. Stir in the stock, bring to a boil, cover & simmer for 10 minutes. Using a stick blender, blend the soup to a rustic consistency. Spoon through to check for any large lumps of potato and blend again until lump free.

Add the cream, taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary. Simmer whilst preparing the garnish.

Heat a little butter in saute pan. Add the leeks & chives and stir fry for 1-2 mins.

Place soup in serving bowls. Add the garnish and serve immediately.

Participating in Souper Sundays shown here

Thai Chicken Red Curry

It's been a while since we had a thai curry and my husband requested a red chicken curry with thai jasmine rice. Those who know me are aware that I generally make my own curry pastes, but this Mae Ploy red curry paste is so good, reasonably priced and goes a long way, so it's really not worth the effort of making your own. I also have the green and yellow versions, although I am not really that keen on a green curry.

I usually add an aubergine to this curry, but did not have one and was too lazy to pop out and buy one.

Serves 2

1 skinless chicken breast (sliced or cubed)
1 small aubergine (cut into chunks)
200ml coconut milk
1 tbs red curry paste
2 tbs nam pla (fish sauce)
1 tbs palm sugar or caster sugar
juice of 1 lime (approx 1 tbs)
2-3 kaffir lime leaves

Pour 100ml of the coconut milk into a wok and stir in the red curry paste, bring to a boil and boil rapidly for a few minutes or until the sauce is reduced by half.

Add the chicken to the wok and bring back to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the chicken for 5 minutes, stirring now and again.

Stir in the fish sauce, sugar and aubergine and bring back to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the remaining cocount milk, lime juice and kaffir lime leaves. Heat through for another 1-2 minutes. Serve immediately with thai jasmine rice.

Watch this space!!!!!

Just a very brief post to keep you all on tenderhooks LOL.

Been chatting with a fellow food blogger and I asked if I could interview her and post it on my blog. She was so thrilled she agreed immediately. However, she is off on holiday for a short while, which will give me time to put together the questions I want to ask. The interview will be published middle/end of September.

I'm not going to let on who it is, you'll have to watch this space to find out more....................

Chocolate Ice Cream

I don't think I know anybody that doesn't like ice cream, especially chocolate. I have made this before and both my husband & father in law couldn't get enough of it. I promised my father in law I would make some for him to have at home. Well I did make it and that particular day he came to ours, unfortunately it wasn't ready as I needed to mash it again to break down the ice crystals and re-freeze, which meant he could not take it home with him. Subsequently it got eaten and he still hasn't had his supply yet LOL. I am a bad bad daughter in law (hee hee).

4 egg yolks
125g caster sugar
125g chocolate, broken into small pieces (at least 70%)
300ml milk (I use skimmed so as not to feel so guilty)
300ml double cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put egg yolks & sugar into a bowl and whisk together until light in colour.

Heat the milk & chocolate in a pan, DO NOT BOIL. Once chocolate has completely melted add a little to the egg yolk mixture and stir to blend well, then pour in the remainder and stir well.

Pour back into saucepan and heat gently, stirring, until the froth disappears and mixture coats the back of a spoon. Again, DO NOT BOIL.

Leave to cool then stir in the cream & vanilla extract.

Pour into a container and freeze for 3 hours. Tip into a bowl and mash to break down ice crystals. Return to container and freeze another 2 hours. Mash again & freeze a minimum of 2 hours again before eating.

BMT Pizza (Basil, Mozzarella & Tomato)

Another recipe for the BMT (Basil, Mozzarella & Tomato). I have tried various pizza dough recipes and have not been entirely impressed. This one was good and I'd definitely use it again, it's from All about pizza, additionally I used their recipe too for tomato sauce topping, although I have adapted it slightly.

Pizza Dough:-
2 cups flour
1 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil
3/4 cup warm water

Put the yeast into the warmed water, stir and leave in a warm place for 5 minutes. Measure dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix thoroughtly.

Add wet ingredients and mix until you can no longer mix with a spoon.

Using a mixer with dough hooks, knead for 5 minutes until smooth & elastic. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, cover with oiled clingfilm and leave in a warm place for 90 minutes or until doubled in size.

Punch it down and knead by hand for a few minutes. Let it rest for another 45-90 minutes.
In the meantime made the tomato sauce topping:
200g tin of tomatoes
3 tbs tomato puree
2 tsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp pizza seasoning (mixed herbs)

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and let stand for at least 30 minutes.


Now we are ready shape the pizza.

Place dough onto a lightly floured surface shape into a round, flatten down and spread out with your fingers pushing & pulling as you go until you have achieved a round (or nearly, mine was not perfect but there you go).

For the topping:-

Handful of basil leaves, washed & dried
1 bag of grated mozzarella
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
tomato sauce topping.

When ready to top the pizza dough, add the basil leaves to the sauce mixture, mix well and spread all over the dough, leaving a small border around the edge.

Place the tomato slices on top and cover with mozarella cheese. Drizzle a little olive oil around the exposed part of dough and it's ready to bake. Pop onto a pizza stone and bake in the oven at 230C until browned on top.

Enjoy.

Sticky Toffee Pudding and it's matching wine! (a match made in heaven)

When I started this blog, I never actually envisaged I would do a wine review. Especially a spanish wine, which, if I'm honest, I'm not a big fan of.

However, last Christmas a couple of fab friends of ours, David & Douglas, came to dinner and bought with them a wonderful gift (thanks again boys). It was purchased in Tesco and consisted of a presentation box containing a half bottle of sticky pudding wine and a pudding too. As I had already prepared a dessert we saved our lovely gift for another time. I think it was nearly new year when we ate the pudding, but saved the wine. It ended up at the back of the drinks cupboard and was forgotten about.

Last week we sorted out the drinks cupboard to see what we needed to stock up on and came across the sticky pudding wine. My husband decided to try it and we discovered it was amazing. The strange thing though, we notice it was a Barbadillo wine from spain so I googled it and discovered it's available all over the UK, but we've not found it in Spain yet. Most odd.

It was so good, we decided we really needed to try it out with a sticky toffee pudding. That was last night and I'm still dribbling at the thought. Sadly, this wine has all gone though.

Sticky pudding wine by Barbadillo does exactly what it says on the 'tin'

Sticky Toffee Pudding:-

(serves 2)

For the toffee sauce:-

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 tbsp black treacle

25g unsalted butter (softened)

For the puddings:-

65g unsalted butter (softened)

40g self raising flour

65g caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

Place all ingredients for the sauce in a bowl and mix well. Divide sauce mixture between 2 x 150ml timbales.

Place butter and sugar into a bowl and whisk together.

Place beaten egg and flour into a separate bowl and whisk together. Add this to the butter & sugar mixture and whisk until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the 2 timbales on top of the sauce mixture.

Bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes until well risen & golden. Leave to rest 5 minutes and turn out onto serving plates.

Serve with a small glass of sticky pudding wine.

Heaven on a plate.

Challah Bread

I am fairly new to bread baking and It's taken sometime to feel comfortable with it. There have been many (too many to mention) disasters along the way, but I think I've finally cracked it. This recipe comes from Mary Berry's complete cookbook a great book which was a gift from my wonderful Auntie Pat on my 40th birthday (thank you again).

500g strong white flour
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 tsp salt
1 x 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
250ml lukewarm water
2 eggs, beaten
2 tbsp sunflower oil
beaten egg for glazing
poppyseeds for sprinkling

Put flour, sugar and salt into a bowl. Stir in the yeast. Make a well in the middle. Combine the water, eggs and oil and pour into the well. Mix to a soft dough.

Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until firm and elastic. Shape into a round and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with oiled clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

The dough did not double, but trebled, in size in 1 hour and nearly overflowed, yikes

Turn out the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knock back with your fists. Knead for 2-3 minutes until smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 2 pieces.

Lightly oil a baking tray. Divide each piece of dough into 3 even sized strands and shape into a plait. Place on the baking tray, cover loosely with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Brush the loaves with the beaten egg and sprinkle with poppyseeds.

Doubled in size and ready to go into the oven. Getting nervous now, in case it's another kitchen nightmare LOL.

Bake in a preheated oven at 230C for 10 minutes then reduce temperature to 200C for 20 minutes, or until the loaves are a rich brown colour. Tap the bases to see if the loaves are cooked (they should sound hollow). Cool on a wire rack.

Perfect looking loaves, cooling. Can't wait to try it.

Loaves cooled, husband just arrived home, it's lunchtime and we're hungry. What could be better than bread and cheese.

Success (at last)

BMT Salad (Basil, Mozzarella & Tomato)

It's not often my husband offers to make lunch, but yesterday was one such day. He loves this salad and I remembered I had not yet added it to the BMT section of the blog.





(serves 2):-
Handful of washed basil leaves
1 ball of mozzarella, sliced
2 tomato, sliced
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

Place slices of tomato and mozzarella onto serving plates, sprinkle over the basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil & balsamic vinegar. Grind on salt & pepper to taste.

Simples!

My ever faithful basil plant.

Penne Pasta with Homemade Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

This pesto recipe goes a long way, keep in a screw top jar in the fridge ready for a quick, filling & simple meal.

Pasta is one of my favourite fast meals when I'm hungry. I made a large portion of this for a party recently and everybody loved it, so I decided it really was worthy of a blog post.

For the pesto:-
1 garlic clove
2 tsp sea salt
50g drained sun dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
25g basil leaves
25g pine nuts
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese

Put all ingredients, except the parmesan into a blender and blitz until fairly smooth. Transfer to a screw top jar and stir in the parmesan.

Meanwhile cook a quantity of penna pasta until al dente, drain well. Heat a small pan with olive oil and add some pesto. Once warmed through, add pasta to the pesto and mix well. Serve immediately.

Delicious with garlic bread.

Focaccia BMT (basil, mozzarella, tomato)

As you already know, I am a fan of BMT, and also on a mission to try as many different ways as possible to eat this delightful combination. This is my 2nd version. Deliciousesness from the oven..........

450g strong plain white flour
2 tsp fast-action dried yeast
300ml warmed water
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Filling:-

1 ball mozzarella cheese
1 medium tomato
handful of washed basil leaves
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Sift flour into a bowl and stir in the dried yeast. Make well in centre and gradually work in the warmed water and oil to form a soft dough.

Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 1/2-2 hours or until doubled in size.

In the meantime slice the mozzarella & tomato, wash and dry the basil leaves. Oil a 10 inch loose bottomed cake tin.

Knock back the dough and divide in half. Roll out one half to a round a little larger than the tin. Place in the tin, pressing it onto the base and a little way up the side.

Place the mozzarella & tomato slices over the dough in the tin. Scatter over the basil leaves, leaving a 1cm border all round, season with the salt & pepper, then drizzle over the olive oil.

Roll out the remaining dough and dampen the border in the tin. Place 2nd dough ontop, pressing the edges together well. Using thumb, press indentations all over the surface. Brush the surface with olive oil.

Sprinkle with sea salt and spray with water. Back in preheated oven at 220 for 30-35 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch. Leave in tin for 10 minutes, then transer to wire rack to cool. Serve warm.

This recipe was adapted from a very old cookery book, Good Housekeeping Step-by-step Vegetarian Cookbook.

Chocolate Brownies

These chocolate brownies really are delicious. In fact they are quite famous on the BBC Food Forum. This recipe comes up time & time again and is talked about in length. The recipe comes from Suelle (SueL as she's known on the forum). Suelle has just started her own blog too. Welcome to blogging world Suelle. Here's a link to her blog.

200g unsalted butter
200g chocolate (70% or more)
600g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
250g plain flour
4 tbs cocoa

Preheat oven to 180. Line brownie pan (8" x 13") with parchment paper.

Melt butter and chocolate slowly in a bowl over simmering water, cool 10 minutes.

Stir in sugar and vanilla extract.

Add eggs, 1 at a time and stir in well each time.

Sift in flour & cocoa and beat for 1 minute until smooth and completely combined.

Pour into prepared brownie pan and bake 40-45 minutes.

Test with cocktail stick after 40 minutes.

Cool in tin, marking bars whilst warm

Remove from tin, cut out the marked bars. Switch off phone/s. Shut all doors. Put feet up and scoff the lot LOL

Alternatively if you're feeling really generous share with others as we did this week. I have made these many times, but this week my family were visiting and as my niece & nephew, oh and of course my sister in law too, are addicted to chocolate I made these as a treat for them.

Thanks Suelle