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Beijing Roast Duck

by | May 9, 2010

Beijing Roast Duck

Beijing Roast Duck

Due to the recession Chris and I had a really tough year in 2009. Chris was out of work for around nine months and I had three months off work sick following working part time for several months, so things were difficult.

Finally we both now have full time jobs and we’re earning fairly good money between us. So, I decided to cook one of our absolute favourite things, Beijing roast duck.

Duck has always been one of my favourite foods, especially Beijing roast duck. We went to a Chinese restaurant in Shanghai called “Duck King” before and they service this amazing Beijing roast duck. The roast duck there is incredibly juicy and tasty but not too rich.

I searched for many recipes for this roast duck and I changed it a little to make it easier to cook at home for both myself and you.

One of the most difficult parts of Beijing roast duck is the preperation of it. In China they block air between the skin and duck to make the skin really crispy. But there are no restaurants in the UK that do this and it’s certainly impossible for us to do this without a considerable investment.

This might sound a little crazy but I was thinking about buying a pump to help roast this duck.

A lot of the recipes I read however did say that for those who are unable to blow air between the skin and meat you can pour boiling

As I read a lot of recipes and they said people who don’t have the right tool to blow the air into duck can pour the boiling hot water onto the skin to make it crispy.

After making this dish I think the skin was pretty crispy but definitely not as crispy as the duck skin in China. However, my roast duck is still really tasty and both Chris and I love it. I hope you will enjoy my roast duck recipe and have fun cooking it.

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

Beijing roast duck wrap

 

beijijng roast duck
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Beijing Roast Duck

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 duck
  • 1 orange only use the juice

Seasonings

  • 1 leaf tangerine peel
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 2 slices dried liquourice
  • 1 star anise
  • 2 tbsp maltose
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp rice vinegar
  • 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine

Ingredients for Beijing Duck Wraps

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

Instructions

Procedures

  1. Wash the duck and use kitchen napkin to dry the duck and stuff a wine bottle into duck and make it can stand up.
  2. Pour the boiling water on the duck for a few times and leave it on aside.
  3. Use a small sauce pan to cook sugar (the way I prepare this duck preparation is a bit like prepare caramel for cream caramel) and when you cook the sugar use a wooden spoon to gently stir it to help the sugar melt quickly and then add maltose and all the spice into the sauce pan when the sugar turn into a nice caramel colour and start to add a little bit of orange juice, rice wine and vinegar each time (please stand a safe distance as the sugar will splash when you pour the liquid onto it and can be incredibly hot) Make sure the mixture of sugar looks a bit runny but still dense.
  4. Brush the sugar mixture we made in steps 3 on to duck and make sure you brush every inch of the duck skin. Leave it to dry for 1 hour and we brush again. Do this procedure for 3~4 times at least.
  5. Preheat your oven to 240℃ and roast the duck for 20~25 minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on your duck in case it burns. Turn the oven temperature down to 160℃ and roast for another 20~30 minutes (I put a rolling pin into the duck and hang the duck in the oven).
  6. Serve with some Beijing duck wraps (Dan Bings), hoisin sauce, cucumber or any kind of salad leafs you like. I used a bit of watercress as I like the taste of watercress. We also serve the roast duck with spring onion as well but we only use the white part of spring onion. I personally don’t like my duck wrap with spring onion in it because I can’t stand the taste of raw spring onion.

Procedures for Beijing Duck Wraps

  1. Place all the flour into a big mixing bowl and pour 1 cup of boiling water in the flour and use a pair of chopsticks or a spatula to mix them evenly.
  2. Add 1/3 cup of cold water into step 1 and knead the dough by your hands until the dough is smooth.
  3. Leave the step 1 for 15~20 minutes and cover by a wet kitchen napkins.
  4. Use a knife to separate the dough we made into small balls (Depends on what kind of size of pancake you like) and use a rolling pin to roll it to thin and flat.
  5. Heat a non-sticky frying pan with lower heat without oil to bake the pancake until the surface get bubbles and turn it over to bake again. This procedure will take 20~30 seconds for each side.

Recipe Notes

We call the Beijing Duck Wraps Dan Bings in Chinese. They're like a cross between a pancake and a crepe but for simplicity I've just called them Beijing Duck Wraps for this recipe

 

Chicken Chow Mein Recipe

by | May 5, 2010

Chicken Chow Mein Recipe

chicken chow mein

My friends and family are always fascinated to know what kind of food Chris and I eat at home. Most people think we eat really posh Chinese food, like we have a large feast with peking duck, dumplings and so forth, but actually most of the time we eat fairly simple food and often a lot of junk.

While we both love eating Taiwanese and Chinese food, especially Chris, usually once a week we eat an amazing 14” pizza from Asda but the rest of the time we eat things like chow mein.

Listening to people while I’ve been living in the UK, a lot of people are really fascinated about chow mein and think it’s a really complicated dish, but for me it’s a simple, tasty and quite importantly, a cheap meal.

Chow mein in my country is like chicken and mushroom pie here. It’s just normal food. So, for my loyal readers, this is what we eat on a very regular basis. If it’s not this, it will be something equally simple like fried rice or Korean fast noodle. Sadly Taiwanese fast noodles, which are simply awesome, are very difficult (if not impossible) to buy here.

 

chicken chow mein
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Chicken Chow Mein

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 medium Carrot
  • 1 chicken breast
  • 2 cloves garlic chop finely
  • 1/2 Chili chop really finely
  • 2 Spring Onions chop finely
  • 1 thin slice ginger chop finely
  • 1 pepper any colour, I used green
  • 50 g Chinese white chive cut 2cm lengthways
  • 150 g Chinese dried noodles available in any Chinese supermarket

Seasonings

  • 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • Couple pinches Black Pepper

Marinade for the chicken

  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp Sugar
  • 1/4 tsp Salt
  • 1 pinch Black Pepper
  • 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine

Instructions

  1. Cut the chicken breast into fine stripes and marinade for 30 minutes at least.
  2. Julienne the carrot and green pepper.
  3. Cook the Chinese dried noodle in a pot of boiling water until al dente and rinse under cold running water and drain again. Drizzle with a dash of sesame oil and toss through to prevent the noodles from sticking to each other.
  4. Heat a frying pan with some oil with full strength gas power to fry the chicken breast until the meat turned white colour and turn off the stove and leave it on a side. (At the time of writing this article I haven't found a good wok in the UK. I tried a Ken Hom wok but every time I try to stir fry of food with a bit of potato starch in it it always sticks to the wok really badly, effectively ruining the wok). These woks are completely useless.
  5. Heat a wok with 1 tablespoon of oil and stir fry chilli, spring onion, ginger and garlic first then add all the vegetable. Stir fry all the vegetables until it’s soften.
  6. Add noodle and chicken into wok and keep stir fry for a couple minutes then add all the seasonings for chow mein and give it a good stir fry for another couple minutes.
  7. Place it into a plate and serve.

 

Stewed Egg Salad (Lu Dan)

by | May 2, 2010

Stewed Egg Salad (Lu Dan)

Stewed Egg Lu Dan Salad

Stewed Egg is a very common dish in Taiwan and we call it “Lu Dan”. I loved to order a stewed egg with my lunchbox when I live in Taiwan or I will order stewed egg with my mince rice or mince noodle. Stewed egg is just simply the best friend with a lunchbox.

I always remember the first time my husband tried this stewed egg at home his face looked like he had been struck by lightning. After the first time he tried this stewed egg he fell in love with it. He always asks me to cook this stewed egg if he knows I’m going to cook stewed pork or chicken.

This stewed egg needs to cook in soy sauce and spices for a while and soak in the sauce for few hours to make sure eggs has all the fragrances from the sauce. So, you can imagine this egg has a lot of flavour in it.

 

stewed-egg-lu-dan-recipe
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Stewed Egg Salad (Lu Dan)

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 4 hours
Total Time 4 hours
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 6 eggs
  • 1 thin slice ginger
  • 1 spring onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 chili

Seasonings

  • 1.5 tbsp sugar
  • 1 cup soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp rice wine
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 star anise
  • 3 cm cinnamon stick
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1/4 tsp Sichuan pepper use a Chinese spice bag if you have one

Instructions

  1. Use a little bit of oil to sauté ginger, spring onion, garlic and chilli.
  2. Place all the seasonings into a sauce pan and boil it by full strength gas power.
  3. After sauce boiling we turn the gas power to the lowest and simmer for 2 hours.
  4. Take out the eggs from fridge and leave it aside for while to make sure it’s reach room temperature.
  5. Cook the eggs from cold water and keep moving them when you cooking. (This way can make sure the egg yolk will stay in the middle.)
  6. After the water is boiling we turn the gas power to medium and cook for another 5 minutes.
  7. After 5 minutes we take the eggs out of the hot water and soak it in cold water. Peel the eggs when they have cooled down.
  8. Place the eggs into the sauce we made and cook them for 40 minutes.
  9. After 40 minutes just soak them in the sauce for a couple hours. You will see the eggs turning a light brown colour and it’s ready to eat. My grandma always cook the egg a day before and soak them over night.

 

Dumplings shui jiao

by | Apr 30, 2010

Dumplings shui jiao

Chinese dumplings shui jiao

Dumplings, or shui jiao, are one of my favourite foods. They are really tasty but also the perfect food for a working couple like Chris and I, for whom both of us work shift patterns.

Living in the UK is so different to living in Taiwan. Taiwan has many 7-11 shops which are open 24 hours, night market which are open until midnight and a lot of 24 hours restaurants such as Swensens, N.Y. Bagel and Citystar 24 hours Dim sum restaurant.

Whenever I make dumplings I always make at least 100 to 150. Compared to dumplings that you can buy in restaurants here, which normally cost about £1 each, we can make 100 hundred at home for approximately £10. This works out at around 10p each.

When I’ve made the dumplings I put them in the freezer in case we run out food or feel hungry in the night or just come back home from work.

This recipe is just one of the methods of making dumplings that I have used for a very long time. It’s a very common but also basic flavour in Taiwan. Of course there are so many different kind of filling that you can put it into your dumplings such as shitake mushroom, scallops, cabbage, cucumber, chinese white chive, carrots, prawns and so on.

Maybe you can try different filling at home and you could easily create your own special kind of dumplings!

By the way, some Chinese provinces have a new year’s tradition which is when the people will eat dumplings for New Year’s Eve and sometime they will put a coin inside the dumpling. The person who has the dumpling with that coin will be the luckiest one in the coming year.

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

 

chinese-dumplings-shui-jiao
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Dumplings Shui Jiao

Course Main Dish
Prep Time 3 hours
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 3 hours 10 minutes
Servings 150 dumplings

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 150 dumpling pastry sheets 1 pack usually has around 50 sheets
  • 600 g pork mince you can also use beef mince
  • 400 g pork fat or pork belly without skin fat or fatty meat will improve the texture and taste
  • 2 spring onions
  • 1 handful dried shrimp soak in warm water for 15-20 minutes to soften then chop finely
  • 300 g Chinese chive chop finely
  • 30 g ginger chop finely

Seasonings

  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • Couple pinches white pepper

Instructions

  1. Mix all the ingredients and seasonings evenly and leave it on aside for 30 minutes.
  2. Make dumplings as the procedures photo shows. You can use a little bit of water to help the edge of dumpling pastry to stick together.
    how to make Chinese dumplings
  3. Place the dumplings onto a plate with some flour on the plate to prevent dumplings stick on the plate.
  4. Boil a big pot of water and cook dumplings in the boiling water.
  5. When the dumplings float on the top of water they are cooked and ready to be served.

Recipe Notes

The amount of time to prepare these depends on how many you make. I'm pretty quick at making dumplings and I'll make anywhere between 80-150 each time. Typically I'll spend 2-3 hours making dumplings.

 

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!