Pork Belly Wraps ｜ 豬腩肉夾

This recipe is the pork belly version of Peking duck (barbecue duck) and I came up with it after dreaming about Peking duck the night before.

When I was a child, I would be so excited whenever my family was invited to a wedding.  Other than being able to play with my cousins, I was able to eat Peking duck, my favourite Chinese cuisine.

A server would push a cart in front of the table of guests.  On the cart, there were two ducks, a stack of bamboo steamers with many wrappers insiders, finely sliced scallion and leeks, chillies, and hoi sin sauce.  The staff then skillfully skinned around the duck, removed any extra fat that was attached to the skin while arranging the slices of skin on a plate piece by piece.  Finally, the staff will place the plate in the centre of the big table and put the rest of the condiments down for the guests to serve.  Usually each adult will share two servings and each child has one serving.  It is considered unthoughtful if you eat more than this portion.  So, you can see why I crave for Peking duck, right?

I know very well about the difference between duck and pork.  However, if you don't want to marinate and roast your own duck, pork belly is a very convenient ingredient to serve the purpose and I found fatty pork pairs with hoi sin sauce very well.

To wrap the meat, I chose wonton wrappers and perilla leaves.  One brings you substantial feeling and the other brings the fresh herby flavour.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you like this recipe.

Pork Belly Wraps ｜ 豬腩肉夾

Ingredients:

1 lbs Pork Belly, skin on

10-15 pcs Perilla Leaves (can be found in Korean supermarket)

10-15 pcs Wonton Wrappers

1 Leek, white part only

1/2 Cucumber

1-2 Red Chill

1 bowl of Cooked Rice (optional)

1/3 cup Hoi Sin Sauce

White Pepper

How to make it:

1. Place the wonton wrappers on a dry pan.  Heat both sides on low heat until slightly brown.  Cover them and set them aside.

2. Rinse of the leek.  Cut the white part into slices and soak them in the water for about 5 minutes; drain well.

3. Cut the cucumber in half and remove the seeds.  Cut the cucumber into sticks.

4. Slice the red chilli; deseed it if desired.

5. Slice the pork belly into about 1/2 cm pieces.

6.  Bring a small pot of water to a boil over high heat.  Add the pork and white pepper.  Let it come to a boil again and cook for another 5 minutes.  Scoop out the foam on the top.  Drain the pork.

7. To serve, dip the pork belly in the hoi sin sauce and place it in the centre of the wonton wrap, followed with leeks and red chilli.

8. Or, you can add some rice with a perilla leaf.

Hickory Nuts Cookies (wild edible) ｜ 山胡桃曲奇

Late October is a good time for foraging nuts.  Not only for squirrels and chipmunk, but for us too.  We've picked acorns to make cookies, but our favourite nut is hickory.  Hickory nuts contain a high amount of "good fat" and their taste resembles something between a pecan and a walnut.  When it is freshly cracked and baked into cookies, it is an enjoyable moment to just sit and savour the flavour.  You will be amazed how nutty it actually tastes.  I would say it is even better than peanut.

You can buy hickory nuts at the store, but they usually lose the profound flavour and some of the good fat content after the prolonged period of storage.

Picking hickory nuts in the wood and sensing the small animals watching me.

Hickory Nut has two layers of hard shell to protect the delicious flesh.  The outer layer is green, but later it will turn into a deep brown colour, and then it will crack open to expose the second layer of the shell.

The second shell has a much lighter brown colour and it is the layer we need to work on if you want to get to the flesh.

  

In the woods, most of the hickory nuts I found were already out of the outer shell so all I needed to do was just to pick them up and put them in the backpack.

Hickory nuts in their shells.

Hickory Nuts Cookies

山胡桃曲奇

Ingredients:

1/3 cup Hickory Nuts

1/2 cup Butter, softened

1/2 cup Sugar

1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

a pinch of Sea Salt

How to make it:

1. Rinse the hickory nuts a few times to remove the dirt that sticks to the shells.

2. With a nut cracker, crack open the hickory nuts.

3. Use a sharp tool to take out the flesh.

Or you can use any method that works best for you.  A hammer, perhaps?

It was the result after I worked for three hours.  Eating wild edibles is not always easy, but the fresh nuts was a wonderful trade off.

4. Place the nuts on a foiled tray, roast it in the pre-heated oven at 360 F for about 10 minutes, or until they are nicely browned and fragrant.  Be careful not to burn it.  They burn fast because of the high fat content.

5. In a mixing bowl, combine butter, sugar, and vanilla extract.

6. With a fork, mix the ingredients until well combined.

7. Add flour.  Combine and roll it into a dough by hand.  If the dough is too dry, add a few drops of water.

8. Add hickory nuts.  Continuously knead the dough until it is well combined.

9. Place the dough between two pieces of parchment paper.  Roll it out into a 1 cm sheet.

10. Cut out the shape with a cookie cutter and transfer it onto a lined baking tray.

11. If you're not up for shaping the dough, just simply roll the dough into many small balls and press them down with a fork.  (my favourite way to make cookies)

12. Bake the cookies in the pre-heated oven at 360 F for 12-15 minutes and they are ready.

  

Basic Roasted Sunchoke ｜ 香焗菊芋

Sunchoke is a special root vegetable you will find in farmer's markets around October.  It is the tuber of a plant that belongs to the sunflower family.  Its look resembles a knobby ginger root and its taste somewhat reminds me of ginseng.

Sunchoke has increasingly earned its popularity in many upscale restaurants.  You can easily find sunchoke in salad, roasted side dishes, soup, or even chips on the menus.

Cooking sunchoke is no more complicated than cooking potato.  Basically, you can treat both in the same ways.

Basic Roasted Sunchoke

香焗菊芋

Ingredients:

4 Sunchokes

Olive Oil

Sea Salt

Black Pepper, freshly ground

How to make it:

1. Brush off the dirt and sand on the sunchokes under running water.

Sunchoke has thin skin and it is totally edible. It brings extra flavour after roasting.  So it is not necessary to peel off the skin.

2. Slice the sunchokes into about 1.5cm pieces.

3. In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients together; mix it well.

4. Roast it in the oven at 400 F for about 25 minutes, or until the skin starts to shrivel and become crisp.

5. Remove it from the oven and serve it as a side dish.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy the recipe.

Perilla Leaf Kimchi ｜紫蘇葉泡菜

If you have ever visited a Korean supermarket, you probably have seen perilla leaves.  They are usually sold in bundles or in packages.  Perilla leaf is a common vegetable that belongs to the mint family, with a mild herby flavour somewhat similar to anise and basil; it is widely used in Korean cuisine as vegetable, kimchi, flavouring, or wrap.

Perilla leaf isn't usually found in Hong Kong cuisine, so I learnt this wonderful leaf late after I moved to downtown Toronto, where Korean cuisine is broadly embraced. 

Funny is that my first experience of perilla leaf wasn't a nice one.  I always noticed the herby note of these vivid green leaves, but I'd never realized how strong it could taste when putting the whole piece of leaf in the mouth, along with the hot rice or spicy marinade.  I remember I swallowed it down hard, followed by a full glass of water and a few bites of other side dishes.

After that, I tried to stay away from perilla leaves, but I still bought them whenever I go to the Korean supermarket, just because I was attracted to their beautiful look.  Once I have them, I have to cook them, right?  Through time, I learned to enjoy its distinct flavour and perilla leaf kimchi has become the Korean recipe I make most often and enjoy most by far.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy this recipe.

You can buy perilla leaves at Korean supermarkets.

Perilla leaves are available all year around, but their have much better leaves in summer.

Perilla Leaf Kimchi 

紫蘇葉泡菜

Kimchi

Ingredients:

15-20 pcs Perilla Leaves

2 tablespoons Glutinous Flour

1/2 cup Water

4 tablespoons Fish Sauce

2 tablespoons Red Chile Flakes

1 tablespoon Garlic, peeled and minced

1 tablespoon Ginger, peeled and minced

How to make it:

1. Rinse the perilla leaves under cold running water.  Drain and set them aside.

2. In a glass bowl, combine the glutinous rice with 1/2 cup of water.  Mix it well.  Microwave the mixture for about 30 seconds; stir well.  Then return it back to the microwave to heat it for another 25-30 seconds, or until the mixture become gluey.

Don't over heat it, otherwise the mixture will turn lumpy or harden and it will have to start over again.

3. Combine the rest of the ingredients except the perilla leaves into the glutinous mixture.  Stir it until it becomes chilli paste.

4. Spread 1-2 teaspoons of the chilli paste on a perilla leaf.  Then, place another perilla leaf on top, and spread the chilli paste on it again.  Repeat this process until you finish all the perilla leaves.

5. Store the perilla leaves in an air-tight container.  Leave it at room temperature for two days before serving it.  Transfer the rest to the fridge and it can keep up to 4 days.

6. To serve, wrap a small bite of rice with a perilla leaf, and then put the whole thing in the mouth.

Red Clover Syrup (The summer syrup) ｜自製紅花苜蓿糖漿

Early summer is about mulberries and red clovers.  We were about to look for a big batch of red clovers to make syrup.  As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I spotted a mulberry tree that was full of mulberries.

My son and I were so excited running under the tree and starting to pick the berries on the ground.  It was an easy forage.  Mulberries were laying everywhere.  As the wind kept blowing the tree, it shook off more ripened mulberries around us.  My husband got "hit" by the mulberries a few times, and a big mulberry even dropped right into my paper bag.

Very soon, we filled the small bag and left the rest to the wildlife.  My son often said the birds are watching us while we foraged  because they would be upset if we took too many.  He has a great point.

Mulberry is a common wild edible can be found in many places in the cities and parks.  When foraging them, you will only want the black ones.  The unripe white or red mulberries can cause mild to severe upset stomach or even hallucinations.  If you are picking mulberries with children, make sure they don't put the red ones in their mouths.  Though, the mulberries that have dropped from the tree are mostly ripened.

Left: picking mulberry beside a parking lot; top right: ripen mulberries in soaking water; bottom right: red clovers

We also got lucky with the red clovers.  There were patches of them growing along the walking path.  To make syrup, I always forage only the pink clovers.  They are much sweeter, more floral, and have higher medicinal properties to prevent coughing.

The leaves and the flowers of the clover are edible, but the leaves are somewhat bitter, and we don't really enjoy them as much as the flower top.

This is the clover has the mix of pink and white.  It's edible, but I usually leaf it out of my foraging  since it is not as sweet as the pink clovers.

Hiking in summer, you can also easily find wood sorrel.  They usually grow close to the ground under the bushes or under the trees.  Each wood sorrel is composed of three heart shaped leaves.  The leaves, stems, and the yellow flowers are edible and taste lemony.  My son loves it.  He kept asking me to pick more for him so that he could snack on the hike.  We had a great time that day.

My son was snacking wood sorrel. 

Red Clover Syrup

自製紅花苜蓿糖漿

Ingredients:

2 cups Red Clovers, flower head only

2 cups Mulberries

1 cup Sugar

4 cups Water

How to make it:

1. Soak the mulberries in cold water for 5 minutes.  Drain.

2. Soak the red clovers in cold water for five minutes.  Make sure to remove any sand or small bugs.  Remove and discard the leaves.

3. In a deep pot, mash the mulberries.  Add clover, sugar, and water.  Bring it to a boil over high heat, and then boil it for another 15 minutes.  Strain away the clovers and mulberry seeds.

4. Reduce the heat to medium and continuously boil it until the liquid reduces to 1/3; stirring occasionally.

5. Turn off the heat.  Keep it in an air-tight jar and use it on ice cream, drinks, or goat cheese.

Deep fried Eggplant with Paprika and Sea Salt ｜ 香炸矮瓜

If you don't mind to deep fry at home, this recipe will be an easy, delicious, and fit-for-budget option for your lunch and dinner.  Try to use a wide but deep frying pan to do the "shallow-pan" frying method.  It can fry many eggplant slices at one time without using so much oil.

Whenever I make this dish, I ensure I make a large enough portion to last for two days.  Overnight, the eggplant will become softer and the taste more integrated.  Eating it with a bowl of piping hot rice is happiness.

Other than paprika, you can serve it with scallion, fried shallot, five spice powder, or a dollop of yogurt.

Deep fried Eggplant with Paprika and Sea Salt

Ingredients:

2 Chinese Eggplants

Oil (for deep frying)

Paprika

Sea Salt

How to make it:

1. Rinse the eggplant.  Cut the eggplant into 2cm slices, diagonally.

2. Heat the oil over high heat.  Add eggplant and do not over crowd them.  Fry them until slightly brown on both sides.  Transfer them to paper towel.

3. Sprinkle with paprika and sea salt.  Serve hot or cold.