Wholemeal Bread with Oatmeal

    

I love bread. Sometimes I miss freshly-baked bread. Have you ever passed in front of a bakery very early in the morning?  Oh, what a lovely smell! Actually I prefer bread rather than cakes. Really! (if the bread is good, bien sûr!) I definitely acquired a taste for bread when I was small.

In France, bread is not only an accompaniment to meals and served at breakfast with croissants and jam but also (was?) a good treat as kids’ afternoon snack /le goûter. My Mum used to give my siblings and I a slice of bread with a chocolate or crystallized fruit bar to eat during school breaks. I bet most of the kids now have more elaborate snacks?!

Bread is indispensable for people living in the country or doing manual jobs. My grand-father was a postman and would set off very early on his rounds and cycle no less than 40kms per day to deliver the mails to the 3 surrounding villages. At 9am he would take a break and eat some food. I remember seeing him preparing his morning snack /casse-croûte, which consisted of bread and cold smoked pork belly. He was one of these men who would never leave home without his French beret on his head and his pocket-knife on him! However, he never carried a baguette under his arm but in the side pannier of his motorized bike!

As it is difficult to keep baguettes with the humidity in Hong Kong I bake my own bread and I store it in a plastic box in the fridge. It stays fresh for at least one week.  Each morning I enjoy a slice of toast with my cup of coffee.

Here is my recipe:

Wholemeal Bread with Oatmeal

Ingredients:

• 375 g wholemeal flour
• 50 g oatmeal
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 300 ml low-fat milk

Steps:

1.      Preheat oven at gas mark no.6 / 230 ºC.

2.      In a bowl combine the flour, oatmeal, soda and salt.

3.      Make a well in the centre and slowly work in the milk to form a ball.

4.      Place the dough on a floured board and knead it for 5 minutes.

5.      Shape the dough into a flat round loaf and place on a greased baking sheet. Draw a cross with a sharp knife on top of the bread.

6.      Bake 15 minutes at 230 ºC. Reduce the heat to gas no.5 / 200ºC and bake 30 minutes longer or until golden.

7.      Wrap the bread in a cloth towel and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Note: I sometimes put pumpkin seeds and/or Goji berries in and also 1 tbsp of ground flax seeds.

Bon appétit!

Mouse Melon Stir-Fry

I found this cute-looking gourd at my usual stall in Mongkok. The middled-age man and the old lady (I guess Mum & Son) are always very kind to me. I know that it must be annoying to answer all the foreigner's (gwái-pòh!) questions. Not only do I ask the name of their produces, how to cook them, but also how to write the name in Chinese! They are so patient. And I am so lucky and thankful.

This fruit plant is called "mouse 老鼠 lóuh-syú"  melon (gwâ 瓜) due to its shape and colour which looks like the small rodent. The surface of the melon is covered by a greyish fur-like velvet.

Ingredients:

• 2 mouse melon 老鼠瓜
• 2 square pcs of dried bean curd (dauh-fuh-gôn - 豆腐亁）
• 1 medium size wheat gluten / gluten meat (mihn-gân 麵根)
• 100gr fresh oyster mushrooms
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 shallots
• 1 tbsp of vegetable oil

Seasoning:

• 1 tbsp Hoisin sauce (seafood sauce)
• 1 tsps light soya sauce
• 1 tsps sugar
• black pepper & salt, to taste

Note: I also added 1/2 zucchini (left-over) 

Steps:

1. Wash clean the mouse melons.
2. Peel and cut lenghtwise. Using a spoon scrap to remove the seeds and fibrous flesh.
3. Cut again lengthwise and slice into 1 cm thick pieces.
4. Wash and cut into large pieces dried bean curd and gluten meat. Pat dry with paper towel.
5. Wash the mushrooms. Pat dry with paper towel.
6. Heat oil in frying pan. Stir-fry bean curd and gluten until lightly brown. Set aside.
7. In the same pan stir-fry garlic and shallot until translucent.
8. Add mushrooms. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes.
9. Add melon, beancurd, gluten meat and seasoning in. Mix all ingredients well (if necessary add a little bit of water)
10. Reduce heat to low and cook until mouse melon is tender.

The taste of mouse melon is a bit similar to zucchini squash. Mouse melon flesh is firmer and greener, and it better holds its shape than fuzzy melon (hairy gourd / jit gwâ 莭瓜).  It does not have the strong hearthy flavour of the angled gourd (silk gourd 絲瓜).

I will definitely buy again this gourd and highly recommend it to you!

Pork Ribs with Black-Eyed Beans Soup

Summer is here and with the high humidity level it is the time to drink soups with ingredients said to eliminate excess moisture from our body. Dried cowpeas (also called black-eyed beans) or 'eyebrow beans' in Cantonese are of such type. They are also rich in fibre, have a high level of potassium and a low level of sodium. All of these make it a healthy food.

Dried "eyebrow bean" / Meìh-dáu - 眉豆

Here is my pork ribs and black-eyed beans soup recipe. This is one of the most typical of Cantonese family-type soups. As for the majority of Chinese soups its preparation is very easy but you need to allow time for cooking it.

You can substitute ribs with lean pork (which I do quite often now).

Ingredients:

• 120gr black-eyed beans
• 300gr (1/2 catty) pork ribs
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 4 slices of ginger
• 1 tsp salt

Steps:

1. Wash the black-eyed beans clean.
2. Wash the pork ribs clean and scald them in boiling water.
3. In a large pan, bring water to a boil. Put spring onions and 2 slices of ginger in to boil over high heat. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove spring onions and ginger.
4. Add the black-eyed beans, pork ribs, and 2 more ginger slices in.
5. Bring back to a boil over high heat.
6. Reduce the fire to medium heat and boil for 1 ½ hours.
7. Add salt to taste.

Bon appétit!

 

Stir-fried fresh “eyebrow beans” with bacon

Two days ago I bought some attractive “flat beans” at the wet market in Mongkok.  They look like the haricot mange-tout we have in France which is flat and broad with tiny peas inside. One kind is light green and quite plump while the second is flat and has light purple edges.  

The seller told me that they were called meìh-dáu in Cantonese (meaning eyebrow bean - 眉豆). My Mandarin teacher calls them “knife bean” due to their shape (刀豆 dao1dou4) or 豇豆 (jiang1dou4). According to the Chinese/English dictionary the latter name means cowpeas or black-eyed beans. I am familiar with the black-eyed beans which are dried and used in Chinese soups [see photo below]. However, are the tiny peas in the fresh pods of the same kind or do the two species share the same name?

How did I cook my 'eyebrow beans'?

I braised the first batch (the purple ones) and stir-fried the second (greener ones). I was more satisfied with the stir-frying method. Here is my recipe:

Steps:

1. Remove any strings and bad places from beans and wash them clean.
2. In a large saucepan, bring water to the boil. Add beans and parboil.
3. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a colander and drain.
4. In a pan cook 100gr bacon (diced) over medium heat until crispy and has rendered all fat. Remove from pan.
5. Cook in same pan 1 thinly sliced shallot and 1 thinly sliced garlic clove until translucent. 
6. Transfer beans and bacon in pan. Stir well with garlic and shallots mix.
7. Cook for a few minutes stirring continuously.
8. Serve hot.

This method helps better retain the green colour of the vegetable and better pleases both sight and taste than if braised {beans cooked slowly with bacon, garlic and shallots with the lid on}.

Stir-fried 'eyebrow beans'

Braised 'eyebrow beans'

If you have time let me know which method you prefer or do you use? Thanks for reading my post!

Almond Jelly and Mix Fruit

Nothing is better than a chilled fruit salad after a heavy meal or as a snack on a very hot day. This is the first and only Chinese-style dessert I make at home. This is very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 14 g agar agar
• 8 cups water
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 cup low-fat milk
• 1 tsp almond essence
• 1 can of fruit cocktail
• 1 kiwi, diced
• 1 apple, diced

Steps:

1. Wash, soak and drain the agar agar.
2. In a saucepan add water, sugar and agar agar and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat until all the ingredients are dissolved. Remove the saucepan from the stove.
3. Stir in the milk and almond essence.
4. Filter the liquid through a sieve then leave to set.
5. Once the almond jelly has solidified, slice it into diamond shapes.
6. Place pieces into a bowl and pour the fruit cocktail on top.
7. 
   

   Add fresh kiwi and apple pieces. Stir well and serve chilled.

You can replace apple and kiwi with any seasonal fruit. Try it in in July with lychees and pineapple! It makes a delicious sweet combo.

For a tastier summer dessert try lychees and orange with a dash of cointreau (orange-flavoured liqueur) and a freshly squeezed lime juice. Yummy!

Quiche Lorraine

Christine’s Quiche Lorraine

At this time of the year I like a light and cold lunch. This savoury pie, named after the Lorraine region (north-east of France), is excellent eaten cold and served with a green salad. The main ingredients are smoked bacon (des lardoons fumés), eggs (des œufs) and cream (de la crème fraîche). The traditional quiche Lorraine did not include cheese but today some recipes have Swiss cheese (du gruyère) in. To make it lighter my Mum usually replaces the cream with milk. I also like to add ham and shallot in my quiche.

Here is what you will need to make 1 quiche:

A baking dish of 24 cm diameter

For the short crust pastry (pâte brisée)

• 150gr plain floor, all-purpose
• 75gr unsalted butter, diced (taken out from the fridge in advance so it is soft)
• 1 pinch of salt

For the filling:

• 3 eggs
• 225ml milk (whole or low fat)
• 1 pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch of salt
• Ground black pepper
• 170gr bacon (diced or if stripes cut into 2cm pieces)  
• 200gr ham (diced)
• 1 shallot, sliced

Steps:

1. Crust: Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add salt and mix well.  Make a well in the centre. Add butter in.  With your fingertips, work the butter with the flour until coarse crumbs form a ball of dough. Add water as needed. If the dough is sticky, work in a little more flour. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it tightly in cling film, and chill until firm about 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven at mark no.4-5 (180-190 º C) for 15mn. 
3. Filling: In a skillet cook bacon over medium heat until almost crisp. Add shallot in and cook until translucent. Remove from heat. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs together with milk. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper.
4. Roll pastry and line the dish.
5. Spread the ham on bottom. Transfer the bacon and shallot mixture in. Pour over the egg & milk batter.
6. Cook for about 40mn or until top becomes golden.
7. Let the quiche sit for a while before cutting into wedges. Serve with a green salad.

Bon appétit!

Note:

For a lighter version vegetable oil (1/2 cup canola or grape seed oil) can replace butter in the crust. You can also omit the egg yolks and add one more egg white. 

The dough can be prepared in advance and put in the fridge for a few days (wrapped tightly in cling film).

I love making short crust pastry.  As a general rule the quantity of fat is half the quantity of flour. I particularly like to work the flour and the butter together with my fingers until obtaining sand-like grains. It is quite relaxing and similar to shaping clay and making pottery items.



About Twitter & My Blog

Use and challenge of writing a blog: 

I started writing my blog at the end of February (of this year). My first post was written on 25 February.

There are so many good food blogs and I just don’t see the point of repeating them. I would like to write something different. As I have been living in Hong Kong for the past 25 years I should not waste anymore time and put in writing my experience with local food (recipes and cultural aspects). The virtual world, via a blog, is the best option for sharing my stories and recipes with a lot of people. It is also an eco-friendly, fast & efficient and inexpensive way.

When my son came back to Hong Kong last April for Easter holiday I announced proudly that I had a blog. He replied: “that’s good Mum but how many people read it?” True! He advised me to use Tweeter. He said: “It will give your blog more exposure”. Of course Twitter is being used by more than 34.5 billion people!

@Colombe36

Within these 2 months I learnt some Twitter terms such as RT (Re-Tweet); LOL (Laugh Out Loud); #FF (Follow Friday), and even WW (Wacky Wednesday).

Today, 17 June or a little bit more than 2 months after becoming part of the Tweeter family, I count 50 Tweep or Twitter followers. I am known as @ Colombe36 and my profile picture is a plate with mandarin, grapes, and dragon fruit and I am following 118 Tweeple or Twitter users. So I guess some people are looking at my blog.

Each time I post a new entry on my blog I tweet the link to inform my followers. I assume that, out of my present 50 Tweeps, 1/3 might not have noticed me, another 1/3 might have read it quickly, and the remaining 1/3 might actually have read my post. How many of the latter group have actually read the whole post? Nobody has ever sent me a comment or became my [blog’s] follower. However my son was right in some way. I know that these 50 persons might have already had (or will have) a look at my blog.

I learnt that catchy tweets are the key for Tweeple to click on links. I discovered that re-sending old posts or messages tweeted before was a way to attract potential followers. And I also realised that:

- It was difficult at time to keep tracks of all the messages,

- It was very difficult to get French Tweeps. {I might have to consider amending my bio and replacing my profile picture with my real face}, and

- Tweeter has made me discovered many recipes and articles that I would otherwise not have had a chance to read. I find most of the posts really inspiring. It gives me ideas while sipping coffee on my sofa.

But I also realised that it was a challenging task to write an attractive blog and I needed to work harder, improve my writing and take nicer pictures.

Despite all of the above I am happy to tell you that 2 nice ladies have advised their Tweeps to follow me. A big thank you to Sandy Hu of www.specialfork.com and Ruby Beets!

加油！（Means add-oil）

The 17 Tweep I like best with some figures:

Key: Figures are as of today 17 June, 2011

{a = number of Tweeple @ is following; b = number of Tweep/followers}

Ω = My Tweep (= my followers)

Living in USA:

1. @Specialforksndy by Sandy Hu - San Francisco {a/536; b/631} http://www.specialfork.com/. Ω

2. @ChefFelisha by Felisha Wild - Milwaukee, Wisconsin http://www.ourdailysalt.com/ {a/4,072; b/4,592} Writes about food, restaurants & book reviews, recipes, teaching, etc. Ω

3. @Drwinnie by Winnie Abramson – New-York http://www.healthygreenkitchen.com/ {a/3,346; b/ 3,042}. A lady full of energy. Sends pictures of her chicks, home-grown radishes, etc. Ω

4. @Simplyrecipes by Elise Bauer - Carmichael, California http://www.simplyrecipes.com/ {a/1,427; b/77,925}. Amazing lady! I recommend you read her biography. Ω

5. @MoreThymeBlog by Roberta - Columbus, Ohio {a/1,683; b/1,990} http://www.morethymethandough.com/  Gives not only recipe (ingredients and illustrated steps) but also the cost. A short story precedes the instructions.

6. @CookUnderwriter Mrs. Mix It - Los Angeles, CA {A/1,691; b/ 1,594} http://www.cookingunderwriter.com/  Ω

7. @CannelleVanille by Aran Goyoaga a Basque lady living in Florida. http://www.cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/ {a/271; b/ 10,798} She is a remarkable photographer. Write on food, life and photography. Her romantic pictures are really amazing!

Living in Europe:

8. @Davidlebovitz American living in Paris {A/457; b/75,679}. Writes about food, and a lot about French food.

9. @Clothildenet by Clothilde Dusoulier - Paris {a/195; b/53,927} http://www.chocolateandzucchini.com/  Parisian food writer.

10. @Lucyvanel by Lucy Vanel, Lyon www.kitchen-notebook.blogspot.com {A/340; b/592}

11. @PreteMoiParis by an American in Paris http://www.pretemoiparis.com/ {A/338; b/ 1,589} writes on restaurants, boutiques, Paris, and food (of course!)

12. @BonjourParis.com written by Paris insiders. {a/687; b/ 3,114} Provides news and events in Paris.

13. @RecipeDepot from London, UK. No blog or website {a/2,410; b/2,713} similar to @CuliBlogs – sends links with catchy tweets. Could be recipes from famous chefs or not so famous bloggers.

14. @Cookitaly Carmelita Caruana – Bologna, Italy http://www.cookitaly.com/  {A/4,200; b/5,700} Ω

Living in different countries:

15. @Doriegreenspan Dorie Greenspan lives in NY, Paris and Connecticut {A/1,013; b/66,078} http://www.doriegreenspan.com/ author of cookbooks.

16. @EatingAsia by Robyn Eckardt http://www.eatingasia.typepad.com/ lives in Penang most of the time {a/373; b/3,880}

Does not say where he lives:

17. @CuliBlogs by Marcel Kaptein {a/ 3,663; b/ 3,360} similar to @RecipeDepot – sends links with catchy tweets. Could be recipes from famous chefs or not so famous. Ω