About my menus

The quantity of ingredients used in my recipes is usually for 3-4 persons.

Each dinner-menu consists of 3 courses: 1 soup  + 1 main dish + 1 vegetable

For health reason (my husband's cholesterol level is marginally high) I avoid dairy products and eggs and only use olive oil.

I never use artificial broth. If a recipe needs broth (chicken or beef) and I have no time to make my own, I replace it with water.

I try to use as much as possible fresh vegetables instead of tin/can ones. However, sometimes for practical reasons (to gain time) I would buy pulses (kidney beans, butter beans, garbanzo, etc) in can.

Soups:

Amount of water required: 6 rice bowls (see photo below) which makes about 4-5 serving bowls.

I recommend scalding meat in boiled water for a few minutes (to remove grease) before preparing the soup.

Rice bowl (250 ml)

Main dishes:

We have a vegeterain main dish at least twice a week and a vegetarian meal once a week.

Vegetables:

I order organic vegetables from Hong Chi Homestead (a Social Enterprise which is run by Hong Chi Association) and I also buy from wet markets and supermarkets. I prefer to buy seasonal vegetables rather than those which are not in season. Our vegetables are either parboiled and pan-fried or stir-fried (in a wok - Chinese style) with ginger and garlic.

Steamed-Rice:

I alternate brown rice and white rice. I add 1 whole clove of garlic in the rice cooker to give flavour.

Fruit / Desserts: It is said and I believe it that fruit are best eaten between meals (or at least 1 hour before).   We usually don't have cakes/dessert in the evening (unless special occasion).

  

Bread:

I make my own bread. Clik here for recipe.

Beetroot Soup



I recently made a salad with grated raw-beetroot: it was delicious!




Beetroot or redbeet leaves

 
Beetroots (root and leaves) are said to be full of vitamins A and betaine (good for cardiovascular health -wikipedia source).

My Mum usually makes salad with redbeet (with the root and discard the leaves).
Quick recipe: Wash the root and cook it in boiling water* until tender; let it cool down, peel and slice it into big chunks. In a salad bowl prepare dressing**, and toss the root cut into pieces in; mix well.  

* The water used for boiling the beetroot in can be later used as a dye to colour clothes in pink.

* My Mum's vinaigrette - salad dressing: Mix one by one the following ingredients in this order:
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard (whole grain or ground seeds), - 1 pinch salt, - freshly ground black pepper (to taste), - 1 tbsp red wine vinegar, - 3 tbsp olive oil. If you like a strong pungent flavour add 1 clove of crushed garlic in.  Mix well.

Here in Hong Kong I learnt to use both the leaves and the root of this vegetable and make a delicious soup together with pork and ginger. 

Below is the adapted recipe given to me by Hong Chi Homestead (a social enterprise from whom I order organic vegetables each week).

Ingredients:

• 2 slices of ginger, gèung
• ½ catty (300g) of lean pork, sau-jyù-yuhk
• 1 beet root (root and leaves), hùhng-choi-tàuh or tìhm-choi-tàuh (which in Chinese literally mean red-vegetable-head and sweet-vegetable-head respectively)
• 6 bowls of water

Steps:

1. Peel, wash, and cut into large chunks the red beet root.
2. Wash and cut the leaves into 10cm pieces.
3. Wash and scald pork.
4. Bring 6 bowls of water to a boil. Put in pork, root and ginger and bring to the boil again.
5. Cook over high-flame for 15 minutes. Then reduce heat.
6. Cook over low-flame for another 45 minutes.
7. Add the red beet leaves in.
8. Cook for another 15 minutes (until the leaves are tender)
9. Bon appétit!

Dried foods 3 (menu 2)

Fermented bean paste, dauh-báan-jeung

Solid bean curd / Ngaahng dauh-fuh

Phuket - Raw Foods

 

About Raw Foods / Living Cuisine: 

This dish was part of a 6 course-Raw Foods menu. Raw Foods preparation, also known as "Living Cuisine".  The maximum cooking temperature is 42 degrees Centigrade which is said to preserve enzymes and vitamins, as well as a higher contents of nutrients and minerals. 

It was relly great to taste and try to guess what vegetables were used in the preparation of those 6 dishes. 

Some sauces were made of mango, passion fruit, sweet basil, lemon grass, yellow bell pepper sauce, etc.  Unfortunately I took only 2 photos (and they are not great!). 

Really need to go another time!

 

I did not write down the menu (I should have) and although today I cannot remember the exact names of the 6 dishes I will try to list down what I recall:

1. Vegetable & Fruit Bread / Pudding (cooked at 42 degrees C for about 8 hours) 
2. Canelloni (thin slice of cucumber rolled up with feta cheese, black olives and fruit sauces)
3. Mixed Greens Salad (with yellow bell pepper salad dressing) - 1st photo of this post
4. Vegetables with passion fruit sauce - 2nd photo of this post
5. Coconut Flavoured Ravioli
6. Mango Ice-Cream (on a pesto flavoured pastry).  

Phuket

We just experienced an interesting holiday in a luxurious spa on Naka Yai island (Phuket-Thailand). We never thought we would have this kind of wet weather for 4 days! I must admit that I was very scared by the strong wind and heavy rain during the 1st night of our stay. When we woke up the following day the restaurant entrance was flooded and the spa reception was inundated by water as high as 1 meter. Water pumps run all day long and staff worked hard to clean up the mess. We later learnt that on some other islands tourists had to be evacuated and in the province of Krabi residents and tourists had been very badly affected by the flooding and landslides. We were quite fortunate that none of the villas had been flooded and nobody was hurt. What a scary night! The remaining of our stay was better but it was still rainy and the visibility was low. It was only on our 4th and last day that we have been able to see the island on the other side.




View from our villa (through the window pane)



Resort-grown vegetables

Menu 2

Chinese White Cabbage with Tofu Soup

Sautéed Eggplants

Vegetables of the Day 

1) Chinese White Cabbage with Tofu Soup

Ingredients:

• 1/2 catty (300 g) spareribs or lean pork
• 1 block of solid bean curd, ngaahng (hard) dauh-fuh*
• 300 g Chinese white cabbage, baahk-choi**
• 6 bowls of water
• 1 slice ginger
• ½ tsp salt

* photo on post 4/06/11
** photo on Vegetables Page

Steps:

1. Wash the bean curd clean.
2. Wash pork ribs clean, cut them into small pieces, scald them in boiling water and drain.
3. Wash Chinese white cabbage and cut into short lengths.
4. Bringing water to a boil, put spareribs and ginger slice in to boil over medium heat for ½ hour.
5. Put the bean curd in to boil for 15 minutes
6. Add the Chinese white cabbage in and boil for another 10-15 minutes.
7. Add salt to taste before serving.

2) Sautéed Eggplants

Ingredients:

• 500 g eggplants sliced thickly
• 2 tbsp rice wine (Shaoxing)
• 2 tbsp fermented bean paste, dauh-báan-jeung*
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp white wine
• 1 cup + 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 tsp ground white sesame seeds, roasted
• ½ tsp sesame oil

 * see photo on post 4/6/11

Steps:

1. Soak the eggplant in a bowl of water for a few minutes. Drain water and wipe thoroughly the eggplants with paper towels.
2. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. When oil is hot drop the eggplants into the pan. Fry for about 3 minutes on both sides or until the flesh is soft.
3. Transfer the eggplants onto a rack lined with paper towels (cut side down) to drain. Discard oil.
4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in the pan over medium-high heat and add the green bell pepper. Stir-fry for 20 minutes or until the pepper is bright green.
5. Add the eggplants, and the fermented bean paste combined with rice wine, white wine, and sugar. Gently toss the vegetables to coat with the sauce. Transfer to a serving dish. 
6. Roast the ground sesame seeds and garnish the dish.  Pour sesame oil on top.

 3) Shanghai white cabbage (siú-tòhng-choi) 

Ingredients:

• 1 catty of Shanghai white cabbage, siú-tòhng-choi
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp salt 

Steps:

1. Wash vegetables clean.
2. In a large saucepan, bring water with salt, garlic and vegetable oil to a boil. Add vegetables in and boil for a few minutes until tender but still bright green.
3. Drain and serve in a plate.

Steamed Fish

Steamed fish / Jîng-yùh (hùnhg-sâam-yú)

Ingredients:

• 1 grouper/garoupa (fresh), ask your fishmonger to remove the scales and entrails

One very affordable fish is the golden threadfin bream (hùhng-sâam-yú - which literally means red-shirt-fish). This fish is also commonly used in soups.

• 3 slices ginger, finely shredded
• Spring onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• Optional: coriander leaves (I don't like it too much so I leave it out)

Steps:

1. Wash and pat dry fish with paper towel.
2. Rub fish with salt and place on steaming dish; spread shredded ginger over it.
3. In a large saucepan (large enough to hold a rack to steam the fish) bring the water to a boil and place fish (in the steaming dish) on rack inside. Cover and steam until done. As a general rule we count 1 minute per tael (Chinese Ounce).
4. Remove dish from the saucepan. Spill out liquid in the dish and spread spring onions (and coriander) on fish; dribble light soy sauce over it.
5. Pour hot cooked oil over all. Serve immediately.

Weight conversion:
- 1 catty (gàn) = ~600g = 16 tael (leúng)
- 1 tael (leúng) = 37.5g

Option: You can also place slices of (solid)  bean curd (ngaahng) dauh-fuh around the fish in the steaming dish.

Note: There are many varieties of groupers (sehk-bâan) in Hong Kong. Some of them can be quite expensive and housewifes will generally buy the freshwater grouper called gwai-fâ which are cheaper.