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Xian Lamb Kebab authentic Chinese kebab recipe

by | Jul 12, 2010

Xian Lamb Kebab authentic Chinese kebab recipe

xian lamb kebab

Four years ago I travelled to Xian, China with my husband. One of favourite places was Xi’an. Not only was the weather more manageable in July than the other parts of China we went to (think 40C+ dry heat instead of 40+C humid heat) but it also had some really great surprises. We will always remember the first time we went to muslim street in Xian city centre and there were so many kebab restaurants. Throughout the whole of muslim street all we could smell was the spiced beef and lamb. Vegetarian street this was not but if you like meet this could be considered heaven.

Xian Muslim Street BBQ

It was a great experience to drink ice cold beers and eating many kebabs at the same time. I love to have good food in my holiday. Food doesn’t necessarily have to be Michelin star or five-star dining. Many holes-the-wall or walk-in restaurants like these sell the best food.

Also, to give you an idea of what we paid. Between Chris and I we had maybe 35-40 skewers of lamb meat and lamb kidney. We also had a big soup, naan bread type thing and 6 or 7 beers. Total cost was about £8. How awesome is that?!

After four years, I still can’t forget the taste of this Xian lamb kebab. We also saw the terracotta army, which was incredible, but the food will always be as memorable to us at the army. Xian has stunning food, nice people and the architecture (it has the oldest mosque in China) is quite stunning. If you ever go to China, make sure you go to Xi’an, you won’t regret it.

Chris Radley Photography and Liv Wan in China

 

Xian Lamb Kebab
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Xian Lamb Kebab authentic Chinese kebab recipe

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 400 g lamb leg cut into 2cm sized dices
  • 1/2 onion
  • 2 thin slices ginger chop finely

Seasonings

  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper powder
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

  1. Marinade lamb with all seasonings for at least 1 hour.
  2. Skewer the lamb and preheat oven to 200C.
  3. Roast the lamb for 5 minutes then turn the oven to grill and grill the lamb kebab for another 5 minutes. It’s then ready to serve.

 

Glutinous Rice Shumai

by | May 17, 2010

Glutinous Rice Shumai

glutinous rice shumai

I’ve caught the flu recently that’s the reason I haven’t replied to all of your comments recently, really sorry about that but I hope you can understand a person like me who has to work 48 hours in 3 days with flu basically doesn’t have any extra energy to do other thing else.

I know a lot of people love Dim Sum so I decide to make this Glutinous Rice Shumai. It has a different filling compared to normal yellow pastry shumai that people usually order in a Cantonese restaurant.

I have completely forgotten the first time when I tried to make this shumai but the flavour of it is very unique. When Chris tried it for the first time he wasn’t too sure about the taste but after trying one, he tried another and then before you know it they were all gone.

Shumai is a dish that grows on you. It’s really cheap to make, very tasty and very filling. A perfect snack.

I searched for the history of this dish and shumai was created in Yuan Dynasty. For those who aren’t sure, the ruler of the Yuan Dynasty was from Mongol, of which the most famous ruler was Genghis Khan. I always thought Shumai was created by Cantonese or Chinese people but amazingly I found out it was actually created by the Mongolian people. This is another benefit for writing a blog. I have learnt another lesson from history by researching the ingredients for my blog.

Credit: These photos were taken by Chris at Chris Radley Photography

 

glutinous rice shumai
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Glutinous Rice Shumai

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 3 people

Ingredients

Ingredients for Shumai pastry

  • 1.5 cups bread flour
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 1/3 cup cold water

Ingredients for Shumai

  • 1.5 cups glutinous rice
  • 2 dried shiitake mushroms soak in hot water for 10-15 minutes to soften then chop finely
  • 1 tbsp dried shrimps also soak in hot water for 10-15 minutes then chop finely
  • 150 g pork belly remove the skin an cut into 2.5cm dices. We will use this pork belly to make a stewed pork for shumai filling

Seasonings for Shumai filling

  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • Couple pinches black pepper

Seasonings and ingredients for stewed pork for Shumai

  • 2 spring onions
  • 1 thin slice ginger
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp rice wine
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 pinch cinnamon
  • 1/2 star anise
  • 1 clove garlic
  • Some water to cover the pork

Instructions

Procedures for Shumai pastry

  1. Mix flour together and pour the boiling water in the flour, mix with a pair of chopsticks and add 1/3 cup of cold water.
  2. Use your hands to knead the dough until it’s smooth and cover by wet kitchen napkin of tea towel. Leave it on aside for 20 minutes and separate to small portions (depends on what kind of size you like).
  3. Use a rolling pin to flatten the small dough from step 2 and use your finger tips to make the pastry have some wrinkle bits (looks a bit like flower petals).

Procedures for stewed pork for shumai

  1. Heat a wok with 1 table spoon of oil. Stir fry the ginger, spring onion and garlic first for 30 seconds. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar into wok and wait for it melt. Add the pork into the wok and stir fry it until the pork get a little bit colour.
  2. Add all the seasonings and spices into the wok and stir fry it for another 2 minutes. Place everything into a small soup pot or small sauce pan with lit and cover the pork by water.
  3. Use full gas power to boiling the pork first then turn to lowest power to simmer the pork until it is soft.
  4. After the pork cooked, place it into a bowl or plate and cool it down. After it cool down, chop it and use for shumai filling.

Procedures for Shumai fillings

  1. Cook glutinous rice by rice cooker. 1 ½  cup rice : 1 ½ water. Because it’s glutinous rice so I will put another 2 tablespoons water to cook it.
  2. Mix Shitake mushroom, dried shrimps, chopped pork, soy soy sauce, black pepper with hot glutinous rice together and make sure it mix evenly.
  3. Take one pastry we made earlier and put 1 teaspoon of filling in the middle.
  4. Use your hand to close the “waist” part and the shumai should look like a “vase” shape. Put a little bit more filling on top of it.
  5. Use bamboo steamer to steam for 10~15 minutes and ready to serve.

 

Vegetarian Spring Rolls Recipe

by | Apr 19, 2010

Vegetarian Spring Rolls Recipe

vegetarian spring rolls

I started my new job this week and finally got some time to update my blog after finishing three crazy days of 14 hour shifts.

I decided to make spring rolls this time and it’s a vegetarian style spring roll. It’s very difficult for my husband and I to eat vegetable everyday when both of us have to work full time so I think vegetarian spring roll can last us for a while and It’s very tasty, easy to cook, convenient and full of different kinds of vegetables.

I hope this vegetarian spring roll recipe will help people who work shifts and also need daily vegetable like me.

Credit: These photos were taken by Chris at Chris Radley Photography

 

vegetarian spring rolls
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Vegetarian Spring Rolls Recipe

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 120 mini spring rolls

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 spring onion
  • 2 bunches green bean noodles
  • 2 thin slices ginger
  • 1 small carrot
  • 3 slices dried bean curd
  • 6 dried shiitake mushrooms
  • 120 g Chinese white chive you can use bak choy or Chinese chive if you can't find white chive
  • 1 bag spring roll pastry cut into quarters

Seasonings

  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1/4 tsp white pepper powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Soften green bean noodles and dried shitake mushrooms by soaking it into hot water for 10~15 minutes. Chop green bean noodles and shitake mushrooms after soften.
  2. Chop spring onion, ginger really finely and grate carrot.
  3. Chop Chinese white chive and dried tofu curds.
  4. Beaten 3 medium size eggs and use a little bit oil to fry the egg like crepes thin. After the egg is cook just julienne it.
  5. Heat up 1 tablespoon oil in a wok and stir-fry every thing together and mix them nice and evenly. After it has mixed evenly add all the seasonings and keep stir-fry for another 20 seconds. Put it into a bowl or onto a plate to wait for it cool down a bit.
  6. Use spring roll pastry to wrap the filling we made as seen in the procedures photos. Use egg wash to stick the edges.
  7. Heat up 2 cups of oil and deep fry the spring rolls until it turned golden colour. Then, It’s ready to serve!