chinese sweet potato dessert (蕃薯糖水)

When I was trying to make the Western desserts, I seem to have almost forgotten my hometown desserts. Well, I have to say my family do not eat desserts very much, my mom does not have sweet teeth at all and so is my dad. The sweet potato dessert is one of the few that my mom makes occasionally, it is extremely easy to make and a very typical dessert you can find in Hong Kong. It can be eaten all year round but particularly suitable during winter, as ginger will warm you up. You may ask why brown sugar, it gives a distinct taste, more natural and a nice brownish color to the dessert. Chinese brown sugar is also said to have a detoxification function. Overall, this is a very healthy dessert.

Tell you a little something, when I was little, during Winter, from time to time, we would take a hot bath with a bar of Chinese brown sugar dissolved in the water, this is to make our skin less dry, a simple and cost effective spa, isn’t it? In the past, there were not so many skincare products and even if there were, a lot of people would not be willing to spend on these luxurious products.  I still occasionally do this in Switzerland. I am not sure if it really helps but there is no harm to do it, reminds me my childhood : )

 

Serves 2

• 1 big sweet potato or about 400g, cut into cubes
• 1 bar of chinese brown sugar (see picture below)
• 2 slices of ginger
• 300ml water

Directions:

1. Put the ginger, sweet potato cubes, brown sugar into a medium pan and add in the water.
2. Bring to boil and then turn to medium heat, simmer for about 30 mins or until the sweet potatoes are soft enough and the brown sugar water has slightly immersed into the sweet potatoes.
3. Discard the ginger and serve while it is hot.

Chinese Brown Sugar

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Immune boost drink: Ginger, Lemon & Honey (GLH) tea

Thanks to Carmen’s advice, my best buddy in Basel. It is so good to have someone who have the same mother tongue and with similar cultural background. I told her about my headache and she said her mom had always made her Ginger, Lemon and Honey Tea. I have not thought of it. I had honey with lemon (sore throat) or lemon with hot coke or hot ginger coke (for common cold)  but the the three ingredients she described. Luckily I have all these three ingredients at home, so I made one right away.

It is very tasty, much better than plain water, I never like drinking plain water as it is tasteless. I went on and drank 2 cups within a short interval. It is really easy to make:

Serves 1

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp honey

Directions:

1. Grate the ginger.
2. Boil water, put the grated ginger in a small sieve and place on top of a cup.
3. Pour boiling water over the ginger.
4. Squeeze in the lemon juice and lastly add the honey.
5. Stir and drink while it is hot.

Note:  

• The ginger can be reused for one more cup.
• If you prefer, you can also boil the ginger with water for 10-15 mins instead of the above method, either way it works.
• Chinese believes that Ginger is good for removing wind in the head.

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seared scallop sashimi

Found some very fresh big scallop this afternoon and thought of sliced them up and make a scallop sashimi. Then I thought can I do something different, here I came up something really good as appetizer. I had something very similar to this in a high-end Japanese restaurant once and it is not in their menu. I was taken by surprise when they offer me a mega big scallop. If you are love Japanese food and loves scallop, you will love this. So good and easy to make that I have to blog this right away.

 

 

Makes 4

Ingredients:

 

• 4 very fresh scallops (Sashimi quality)
• 2 tbsp Tonkatsu sauce (you can buy this from Japanese Groceries store or make it yourself, thanks Tess for your recipe)
• 3 tbsp Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• Nori, cut into square pieces, big enough to wrap the scallops

 

Method:

 

1. Heat up a skillet in high heat
2. Brush some olive oil on both sides of the scallops, and then sear the scallops, 30 secs on each side.
3. Then brush some Tonkashu sauce on the scallop, does not need too much, just want to have a hint of the sauce.
4. Sear further for one minute on both sides until lightly brown, grind a little sea salt and black pepper as seasoning.
5. Take out the scallops and dry on a kitchen towel to absorb the liquid, since they are not fully cooked, there may be some liquid coming out after remove from heat.
6. Wrap the scallop with a piece of nori and serve immediately.
7. If you have sake that will be nice to go with otherwise a glass of white wine or a hot green tea will be great too.

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chinese home cooking: panfried pork chop with fresh garden tomatoes

Tomatoes always make me thinking of Italian or Spanish cuisines as they use a lot tomatoes in their cooking. But actually this is an universal vegetable and my mom has prepared the tomatoes in a chinese way very so often especially when I was small, as the sourness of the tomatoes are thought to increase my appetite. I was not so fond of eating at that time and feeding me was quite a pain.

This summer, we have a very good harvest of tomatoes, they came out so nicely. Thanks to Philly’s small tomato plants, it made it much easier for us than growning directly from the seeds.

as seen in #21400-TasteSpotting/10.09.08

Ingredients:

• 800g fresh tomatoes (any type is fine, I use cherry ones this time as they are bigger than the normal ones and I have plenty of them from our garden)
• 1 big onion slices in pieces
• 2-3 thin slices of ginger
• a few cloves garlic, cut in thin slices (I came across a real fresh garlic here which the stalk and the flesh of the cloves are still a bit green, see picture below)
• 500g pork chop or pork loin, cut into thin, small pieces of bite size

Marinade for pork:

• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• pinches of white pepper 
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

1. Tenderize the pieces of pork on both sides using a wooden meat tenderizer or by chopping lightly, horizontally and vertically with a chopping knife.
2. Place the pork in a bowl and marinate with the above ingredients for at least 30 minutes.
3. Boil some hot water and pour to a deep pan, place the tomatoes in the pan and leave for 10 mins. You can then remove the tomato skins easily. Cut them in halves or quarters (depends on size of tomatoes you have) and keep aside.
4. Heat some oil in a wok or large flat pan, fry the pork in the pan until they turn golden brown. When this is done, turn the pork to a plate lined with kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil and keep aside.
5. You can use another pan or wash and dry the current pan. Heat some oil in the pan, and add in the garlic and ginger, fry for half a min, then add in the onion and keep stir frying. When the onion is almost cooked, you can add the chopped tomatoes into the pan, turn to medium high heat when it starts boiling, gently squash them and simmer for 5 mins. When the sauce gets thicker, you can add a tablespoon of sugar to it.
6. Lastly you can add the panfried pork back to the pan and mix into the sauce. I have modified a little from my mom’s version by adding a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce to give some spice to it but this is optional, you can also leave it out which is comepletely fine. Let it boil and simmer for another 10 mins and it’s ready to serve.
7. I would personally serve with rice as it’s my mom’s way and reminds me my childhood.

 

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