Shanghai Style Sweet and Sour Pork

by Liv | Jul 6, 2016

It’s very likely at some point in your life you’ve eaten something sweet and sour. If you’ve eaten sweet and sour you’ve almost certainly eaten Cantonese style sweet and sour and it had either pork or chicken. But have you ever tried “Shanghai Style Sweet and Sour Pork”?

Shanghai style sweet and sour pork is one of my all time favourite dishes and is a dish my grandfather used to cook for me when I was a child. My grandfather was a great cook and this combined with all of his love made me madly fall in love with this dish.

To be very honest with you I’m not really a fan of sweet and sour pork that is made with ketchup (Cantonese style). I just think ketchup based sweet and sour pork is too strong for me but I love this Shanghai style sweet and sour pork.

This dish uses “black vinegar” instead of rice vinegar and you can use any kind of sugar you want for this dish. I personally prefer to use demerara sugar or rock sugar for this dish because these two types of sugar have much more flavour than caster sugar.

You can use pork ribs cut into small cubes if you want to (I cooked this dish with pork ribs for my upcoming cookbook “Home-Style Chinese Cooking”) or you can use pork belly (my favourite), pork loin or shoulder roast. If you don’t like pork at all you can substitute pork with diced chicken breast.

As of June 2016 I’m finally finished with studying at university and my life over the last five years has been absolutely manic. My illustration business is really busy at the moment and it looks like I’m going to be very busy until next Spring at least. This is making me immensely happy and with my four year old daughter at nursery four whole days a week I’m now making time to update this food blog again. A lot of my illustration work and a lot of my work in general is because of food and I love updating this blog when I can so I’m back.

I also have a third cookbook which I’m going to have published soon. The title of the book is “Home-Style Chinese Cooking” and I have to admit it’s been bloody hard work combining working part time, working and studying as an illustrator as well as raising a four year old energizer bunny but I’m proud of what I’ve created and can’t wait to see the book. Please stay tuned!

Shanghai Style Sweet and Sour Pork

Ingredients

800 g pork belly (skinless and cut into cubes)
1.25 litres water (for cooking the pork belly)
2 slices ginger
750 ml oil (for deep frying the pork)

Ingredients for marinading the pork belly

1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tsp salt

Ingredients for batter

1 egg
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp plain flour

Seasonings

3 tbsp water
3 tbsp demerara sugar (you can use caster or rock sugar instead)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp black vinegar

Marinade pork belly with marinade for couple hours.
Boil 1.25 litres water and 2 slices of ginger in a stock pot and add pork belly. Bring it to a boil first then simmer for 40 minutes. Drain the water.
Mix step 2 pork belly with all the ingredients for batter.
Heat up 750ml oil in a wok or deep saucepan. Deep fry the pork belly until it’s golden colour, take it out from the oil and drain the oil.
Heat up 3 tablespoon water and 3 tablespoon demerara sugar and cook until the water and sugar turn into thick syrup.
Turn the fire to medium temperature. Add pork belly in and keep stirring for a couple minutes until the syrup looks like it has coated the pork belly.
Add light soy sauce and keep stirring for 1-2 minutes.
Add black vinegar and keep stirring for 1 minutes. Ready to serve.

Deep Fried Prawn Balls with Almond Flakes

by Liv | Nov 1, 2014

Today’s recipe is Deep Fried Prawn Balls with Almond Flakes but before I get onto the recipe I’ve now been back in the UK from Taiwan for a month now and my life has been very busy but I’m really happy I’ve finally quit my job as a chef. Sometimes you just have to take a jump from one career to another and now I’ve quit working as a chef I’m suddenly got a lot of illustration enquiries so it’s perfect that I’m now working for myself.

I’ve also finally caught up with most of then projects I have been working on but I’m still struggling to find enough time to balance studying, commission projects and family. I have absolutely no idea how I managed to work in a kitchen and do all my other work as well.

With regards to my cookbook, I am always monitoring stock levels of my cookbook on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com so I can get an idea of how well the book is selling (it appears to be selling well). It also allows me to chase up my editor to make sure there is enough stock.

So back to today’s recipe for Deep Fried Prawn Balls with Almond Flakes, this is a dish really suitable for banquets and special events. I’ve always loved seafood, especially prawns, and the deep fried almond flakes are crispy and delicious. Prawns and almonds are a great combination both in terms of texture and flavour and if you put these Deep Fried Prawn Balls together properly they both look and taste great, making them perfect for banquets and special events. So maybe you can make this dish to treat your friends and family.

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Deep Fried Prawn Balls with Almond Flakes

Course Main Dish

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 13 balls

Ingredients

380 g prawns peeled
120 g fatty pork
75 g onion finely chopped
1 tbsp spring onions finely chopped
150 g almond flakes
1/2 tbsp potato starch or corn flour
1 egg white
600 ml oil for frying the prawn balls

Seasonings

1/2 tbsp potato starch or corn flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fish sauce
1/4 tsp ground white pepper

Instructions

Use a food processor to process the fatty pork first. Process the pork until it looks like fine mince.
Add the prawns to the mix and process for a further 1-2 minutes. Move everything into a big bowl once the prawns and mince are finely minced.
Add all the seasonings, onion and spring onion. Mix the the mixture clock wise for 3-5 minutes.
Roughly chop the almond flakes and spread onto a plate. This way the almond is smaller and easier to stick to the prawn balls.
Wet both hands with cold water and take a little bit of mixture and roll it into a ball. Repeat this procedures until all the mixture has been rolled into balls.
Coat the prawn balls with almond flakes.
Heat up the oil in a wok and fry the prawn balls at the lowest heat for 3-4 minutes. Moving the prawn balls around gently will help the prawn balls keep a nice round shape. After 3-4 minutes turn the stove to the highest temperature and try the balls until they turned to a nice golden colour.

General Tso Chicken Recipe

by Liv | Oct 2, 2014

General Tso chicken is a really popular Chinese dish all over the world. There are several stories behind this dish but my favourite is about General Tso‘s son who is a drug addict. During a period of time when the Chinese government tried to ban people from using opium, General Tso was really worried about his son so he lost all of his appetite. General Tso‘s chef was really worried about him so he made up this chicken dish and hoped the flavours from this dish would help General Tso to enjoy food again.

I honestly don’t know if this dish actually helped General Tso or not but this dish and the story has certainly helped my appetite after recent events that have happened.

On the 30th August my father passed away after suffering a heart attack. He needed open heart surgery but due to other underlying health issues which needed fixing first he wasn’t able to make it to surgery and suffered a heart attack at home from he sadly passed. So one week after he died I flew back to Taipei for three weeks to sort out his funeral and other family things.

The last time I spoke to him was just two days before he passed away and on that day he looked well so when I received the news on the 30th I completely broke down and I’m still in total shock one month on. Right now I’m suffering badly. I’m completely depressed, I have no will to illustrate and I can’t even think about going back to work right now. During the last conversation I had with my father on Skype the only positive I can give is that he saw Amelia playing and being really happy. A lot of my conversation was me complaining about my work situation. I won’t name where I work but suffice to say as a part time worker and a woman working conditions are pretty awful. We don’t get breaks and the more senior chefs bully the junior and part time chefs. I could honestly write a whole book about the disgusting things that have been said to myself and other colleagues but of course this conversation has left me riddled with guilt. Why couldn’t I have been more positive or even told him I loved him? Now I don’t have a chance to do so. Even the day before he passed away he told my mother that he was really worried about me and my mother.

After my father passed, all I have left from him is his diary and on every single page he wrote about how much he loved me and wished he could spend more time with me. He felt like he never did a good job in raising or looking after me but now he has passed I really understand that he was a great father and did the absolute best he could despite all the problems he faced. But still, even now I wish I could tell him once more how great he was, how much I loved him and tell him about all the great memories I have with him.

Right now, all I want to do is curl into a ball and hide inside my bedding. But unfortunately, life has to move on. I still have my family to look after, although my husband has been great with his support, and I still need to complete my University degree which my father always wanted me to achieve. I was expecting he and my step mum (I refer to her as my mum as she is 1000x times a better mother than my birth mother) would come to the UK to see my graduation. This won’t happen now.

So. Food has always been a big comfort for me and I feeling cooking (not for work) and eating is one of the best remedies when you feel sad. While I was back in Taipei my grandmother cooked a lot for me and her food always has a tremendous amount of love in it, so that was a huge comfort and really helped me. So I’ve decided to start cooking for my food blog again to try to help me find some peace. I love cooking for myself and my family and I’ve always loved sharing recipes and receiving wonderful feedback so here is my first dish for this blog in a really long time.

I’m really sorry this is not a happy blog post but no matter, I really wanted to share this really simple but really delicious recipe with you. I’ve got a whole load of new recipes in the pipeline so I promise there won’t be anymore five month gaps between posts in the future.

As a final note, for General Tso chicken you can adjust the usage of sugar if you would like this to be a little sweeter.

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General Tso Chicken Recipe

Course Main Dish

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 3 people

Ingredients

500 g chicken thigh fillets
2 chilis remove the seeds and slice 3cm lengthways
2 spring onions slice 2-3cm lengthways
1 ltr oil to fry the chicken. Use sunflower or vegetable oil

Seasonings for chicken thigh fillet marinade

1 tsp rice wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 egg beaten
2 tsp potato starch or corn flour
1 tsp oil sunflower or olive oil

Seasonings

1.5 tbsp ketchup
1.5 tsp sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine
1 tsp water
1/2 tsp rice vinegar

Instructions

Cut chicken thigh fillets into big dices and marinade with seasonings for 10 minutes.
Heat up 1 liter of oil in a wok and add one chicken dice at a time into the wok. Fry until the chicken turns golden brown in colour. Drain any liquid/oil from the chicken and leave aside.
Mix all the seasonings in a bowl. Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok and stir fry the chilli for 20 seconds until the fragrance comes out of the wok.
Add the chicken into the wok and stir fry for 10 seconds. Pour the seasonings form the bowl into the wok and stir fry until the sauce has reduced down. Add spring onion and stir fry it for 10 seconds. Sprinkle a few drops of sesame oil and add a little bit of ground pepper. The dish is ready to serve.

Chili Bean Paste Fish and Tofu Chinese new year dish

by Liv | Jan 14, 2011

Chili Bean Paste Fish and Tofu Chinese new year dish

Chili bean paste fish and tofu is the name of this Chinese fish dish. This dish is also my first recipe for this Chinese new year. A lot of people probably don’t know when Chinese New Year is this year but it’s actually the 2nd of February. People from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan will usually celebrate from this day and celebrations will go on for about a week. In

In Chinese language we call Chinese new year eve “除夕” (Chu xi). All of our families will gather together, wear new shoes and wear new clothes. We usually wear red and then we’ll have a large new year dinner together. We call this new year dinner “年夜飯” (Nian ye fan).

Fish is one of the dishes that we must have for new year dinner. Fish in Chinese is called “yu” and it sounds similar to the word “餘” which means “more than enough, spare”. We usually call the fish dish in New year supper “Nian nian you yu 年年有餘”, The whole phrase means “every year have some good things happen and/or money left. Or every year have more than enough money or luck”.

Different families have different traditions for this fish dish for New Year dinner. In my family, we can’t finish this fish in one go. We must leave some fish on the plate, we can’t eat all of it. This is because we believe leaving some fish will bring us luck and money, which also means more than enough money or luck. My grandfather told me, in his navy friend’s home, they can’t turn over the fish because the method for turning over fish looks like a ship or boat capsizing, which of course no-one and especially a navy officer doesn’t want to see.

There is no strict rule of how to cook “Nian Nian you yu” (this dish) for Chinese New Year. You can use any kind of fish you want so long as it’s a whole fish that includes it’s head and tail. I know you’re probably wondering why it has to be a whole fish but using a whole fish represents you doing everything from start to finish and not just doing something halfway.

For this dish I decided to cook Dou Ban Yu. Dou Ban Yu is a really tasty Sichuan style fish dish that can be as spicy as you like but has a really strong taste typical of Sichuan cooking. The most important thing is the red colour from the chilli bean paste (sauce). As mentioned before red is a very good colour for Chinese New Year.

The English translation for Dou Ban Yu is “Chili Bean Paste Fish” and here is my recipe for this dish. I hope you enjoyed reading about this dish and maybe you could give it a go this Chinese New Year.

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Chili Bean Paste Fish and Tofu Chinese new year dish

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

1 whole fish I used sea bass
2 thin slices ginger chop finely
2 spring onions chop finely
3 cloves garlic chop finely
1/2 chili remove seeds and chop finely
50 g beef or pork mince
350 g tofu cut into the size as the photo shows, pan fry both sides

Seasonings

1.5 tbsp chili bean paste sauce
2 tbsp rice wine
1 ltr boiled water or vegetable stock
1/2 tsp ketchup
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp rice vinegar

Instructions

Remove all the dirty bits of fish as procedures photo. This procedure ensures the fish tastes better and removes any unpleasant fishy taste.
A teaspoon or similar can help to get rid of the bits you don't want
Cut the fish as the photo shows and use your finger to rub some chilli bean paste into those cuts and inside the fish belly. Leave it aside for 15 minutes after you have done that.
Use your finger to rub some chilli bean paste into those cuts
Use your finger to rub some of chili bean paste inside of fish belly.
Heat a wok with 1 tablespoon of oil and panfry both sides of the fish. Leave each side to fry for 2~3 minutes at least, don’t keep turning the fish or you will just make a mess of the fish. Place the fish on a plate after both sides are a golden brown colour.
Cut the tofu into the size as this photo shows
Pan fry the tofu on both sides
Using the wok from step 3, stir-fry the chilli bean paste first for a couple minutes then add the mince to fry it for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Add rice wine, chilli, ginger, garlic and just half of a spring onion into the wok and stir-fry it until all the fragrance comes out from the wok.
Put the fish back in the wok and add the boiled water or stock to cook.
Add tofu and simmer it to reduce down the sauce.

Sixi Scallop authentic Chinese seafood dish

by Liv | Jan 1, 2011

Sixi Scallop authentic Chinese seafood dish

Happy New Year everyone! Sixi scallops is my first post of 2011. I decided to make a quick, tasty and healthy dish for the first day of the year. Sixi in Chinese means “four happiness” or “four lucky, joy”, which also means a lot of happiness. So, I wish this dish can bring you a lot of luck and joy in 2011.

Recently as well as working none stop in my normal job as usual I’ve been preparing speeches for a Chinese New Year festival in Glasgow which is coming up in February and March. I think this dish is one of the healthiest dishes within Chinese cuisine. A lot of authentic dishes are actually really healthy and absolutely nothing like dishes one buys in the UK. Authentic Chinese dishes contain less meat and a lot more vegetable or soy bean products which are really good for our health.

So, here is the recipe for this Sixi Scallops. I wish all of you have a happy and healthy year and remember to keep visiting my blog during 2011.

Credit: All photos were taken by Chris at: http://www.chrisradleyphotography.com

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Sixi Scallop authentic Chinese seafood dish

Course Main Dish

Prep Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

400 g scallops
1 medium carrot washed and peeled. Cut into slightly thick slices
1 red pepper cut into 2cm diamond shapes
1 yellow pepper cut into 2cm diamond shapes
200 g mange tout
1 clove garlic chop finely
1 slice ginger chop finely
1/2 chili cut into thin slices
1/2 cup stock

Seasonings

2 tsp salt
2 tbsp potato starch 1 tbsp potato or corn flour starch mixed with 2 tbsp cold water, mixed evenly

Marinade for scallops

1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper powder
1 tbsp rice wine

Instructions

Marinade scallops with rice wine and a couple pinches salt and pepper powder.
Wash and peel the carrot and mange tout. Cut the carrot into thick slices
Heat a wok with 1 tablespoon oil and stir-fry yellow and red pepper first for 2 minutes.
Add carrot and keep stir-frying for another minute or two.
Add mange tout, garlic ,chilli and ginger. Stir-fry everything for another 2 minutes.
Add scallop, stock and cover the lid and cook for 2 minutes.
Stir in potato starch and water and bring it to boil again. It’s now ready to serve.

Shanghai Style Sweet and Sour Pork

Shanghai Style Sweet and Sour Pork

Ingredients

Ingredients for marinading the pork belly

Ingredients for batter

Seasonings

Deep Fried Prawn Balls with Almond Flakes

Deep Fried Prawn Balls with Almond Flakes

Ingredients

Ingredients

Seasonings

Instructions

General Tso Chicken Recipe

General Tso Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

Ingredients

Seasonings for chicken thigh fillet marinade

Seasonings

Instructions

Chili Bean Paste Fish and Tofu Chinese new year dish

Chili Bean Paste Fish and Tofu Chinese new year dish

Chili Bean Paste Fish and Tofu Chinese new year dish

Ingredients

Ingredients

Seasonings

Instructions

Sixi Scallop authentic Chinese seafood dish

Sixi Scallop authentic Chinese seafood dish

Sixi Scallop authentic Chinese seafood dish

Ingredients

Ingredients

Seasonings

Marinade for scallops

Instructions

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