Hoisin-tahini pork noodles: Chop, cook and chow down

Today was a day for a quick, make it up on the go, sort of recipe. I had some minced pork and cabbage to eat- but no real clue what to put it with until I started cooking. Starving from a run, this was a quick off the cuff meal which is perfect to make with the things lurking in your fridge. 

Noodles seem to be engrained into my weekly staple repertoire - at least twice a week I need to fulfil my noodle crazy craving (much to my boyfriend's dismay).  One of my earliest memories of food is with my brother, secretly sitting under the kitchen table stuffing our mouths with as many noodles as possible. Ultimately, our giggles and mouths jammed packed with noodles led to a mess on the floor...but it did mean my relationship with noodles started off pretty positive afrom what I can remember. 

 

When my friend Jen told me she's working in a noodle/ramen cafe out in LA I COULDNT CONTAIN MYSELF. Jealousy swept over, an unlimited presence of noodles four times a week? Heaven. And although this recipe most probably isn't on any level of noodle greatness..it's an easy one to chop, cook and chow down. Hoisin and tahini is a great sweet and nutty combination, with a nice crunch of cabbage and edamame (I managed to dig out from the freezer). It barely takes ten minutes to cook, so you just got to try this one! 

Apple of my porkie eye! Sweet apple and soy pork ribs

Apple and soy pork ribs

From one extreme to another. Last week a vegetarian's delight was a carnivore's nightmare. So this week I hop to the other end of the scale and make some of those veggie-lovers a bit agitated. Well, a lot. Ribs ribs ribs, London is full of great spots to eat, Pitt Cue in my opinion leading the charge with their mega-saurus 'Flintstones' style ribs - enough to scare away any animal lover away. Sweet, American style ribs aren't the only thing on my mind. Asians love ribs - it's a common dim sum treat, in small bite size wonders, as well as the original cut for sweet and sour (or at least Grandma Lo's style). Pork rib, beef rib, short ribs my my. I actually had some ribs from my visit to the butcher in attempt to make a brulee pork belly confit from one of my favourite blogs 'Lady and Pups' which I highly recommend. A true Asian at heart, I couldn't let the ribs go to waste so looked in my cupboard and fridge to see what I could rustle up for a blog post.

My boyfriend got a slow cooker for Christmas from his parents, which deep down he knows is more of an extra present for me given I take over everything in the kitchen. Craving for Pitt Cue without the queue, we've made some awesome pulled pork burgers - but now its time for these ribs. Apple sweet with chilli sauce draped over melt in your mouth ribs is perfect with simple jasmine rice. I love the simplicity of the slow cooker- chuck it in, switch it on and leave it for a few hours. Coming home to the smell of this is insanely welcoming - and the thought of the meat falling off the bone with a simple nudge of a spoon is slightly...erotic? (Worrying?) 

It has the make ahead ease factor if you're planning a dinner party after work, pop this on the cooker before you leave work and you're good to go. 

Oats-so crispy chilli "KFC" tofu nuggets

Salt and Sichaun pepper tofu bites with a crunchy, chilli-oat crust.

I recently learnt that the Japanese, and pretty much most of Asia, are enamoured with KFC. It's one of the few fast food places in Hong Kong where you can dangerously order delivery (as if popping down to your nearest one would be an absolute waste of calories - save those puppies for the deep fried grease and wonder of that special fried chicken). It's even been engrained into Japanese tradition on Christmas day to queue up for some finger lickin' goodness. For my family, what I find even more bizarre, is Mama Lo's sense of urgency to get some KFC when she comes to London...I quickly refused to treat her to a bargain bucket and pointed her to the direction of Wishbone in Brixton for an assortment of sublime wings and fries.
For the past week, all I had been craving were those zinger tower devil burgers and popcorn chicken. Those damn feel good and 'witty' (even as I write that I know it's not true) ads seemed to have seeped into my brain to give in. And I would not give in.
What it did give me was a bit of inspiration for my own chicken nuggets. I could have given you Panko breadcrumbs and succulent and juicy chicken thighs, but my mind was somehow on another planet. I love salt and pepper squid, but given it was Sunday, I couldn't break into my fishmongers. And out of the larder shone a little box of tofu - and DING! It was time to convert those tofu haters with this recipe. A take on salt and pepper, with a crunchy and spicy coating with a silky smooth, but firm interior. It's a simple recipe, easy to snack on with some sriracha or sweet chilli (and almost so easy you can pop these in your mouth as quick as a packet of crisps).

Anti-tofu goers can't say no to these bad boys.

The coating was a bit of a mouthful to put into the post title. It's made from toasted oats, chilli and Sichuan peppercorns with a sea salt sprinkling. In nugget, popcorn bites. Mouthful. But I did fall in love with this - the toasted oats gives more texture contrast to the tofu, and the Sichuan peppercorns releases a punchy lemon aroma which ties the salt finish together in quite triumphantly.

Go Go Lo-Lo Bak Go: Prosperous turnip cake

Lo Bak Go a.k.a turnip cake a.k.a mooli cake

Huzzah – the Chinese New Year is officially upon us. Double happiness, prosperous lives, with healthy family and friends is all we can look to for 2014. If you’ve been hiding your head in a hole for the past week or so this year is all about the year of the horse. Don’t worry, I’m not going to go all 2013 horse scandal Ikea and Iceland meatballs and burgers on you (the thought did cross my mind albeit extremely briefly… which I was later disgusted at myself for) but I’m going to keep things very traditional here. Both Mama Lo and Papa Lo text me separately saying I should make ‘Lo Bak Go’, a steamed Chinese turnip cake, for prosperity (and deliciousness). I think they had both just eaten Grandma’s cake and been compelled to tell me to immediately this needs to be on the blog. I’ve been saving making this for the new year, however it is eaten all year round for dim sum. It’s one of those dishes I order with my ‘gwai lo’ English friends all the time, as its translation doesn’t really inspire a mouth-watering dish that you would think about trying. But, next time you are having dim sum, do try it – it is something so different but really to quickly fall in love with (and will make you seem like a real dim sum connoisseur – proper foodie kudos). 

Happy Chinese new year! Year of the horse and I'll eat like one thanks.

White turnips (known as mooli/daikon known as well) are the real star of the show here and super easy to work with. Technically, it’s very simple recipe – it just takes a bit of time. You can double the recipe and keep some in the freezer for a rainy day. These little turnips score top marks for health bunnies too – super low in calories and a great source of calcium and iron, as well as improving circulation. If you’re still kidding yourself  on that super January diet cleanse, good for you – you can ignore the last step of frying it at the end, as well as swapping the meat for some spring onions or, dare I say it, quorn mince. But, I highly advise to keep it traditional yeah? 

Chinese savoury pancakes and shakshuka

Pancakes with Chinese sausage, prawns and carrots...and oozy poached egg

Enough with the healthy stuff. It’s time to get back to a more carby reality . Well, it didn’t take long to break my health kick, which, I had forewarned you would be shattered (I’m still drinking the healthy tea… that totally counts). And what better way to shatter it with a weekend to the country for what can only be described as the ‘weekend of gout and gorge’. Tartiflette, slow cooked ox cheeks, dauphinoise, cheeseboards, bacon and pancakes…and it was the last bugger which got me thinking. Butter, carbs, sugar and meat. How to combine them all into one rebellious ‘up yours, health January’ recipe? Pancakes.

I’m an avid believer of brunch, even though the Chinese haven’t quite hooked on to it. Early dim sum doesn’t quite fit brunch requirements, however on scouring through Mama Lo’s old and weathered Chinese cook books I saw a savoury Chinese pancake recipe. A little dated and too afraid of some of the preserved ingredients in there, I’ve taken inspiration from a few places to create a rich, Asian pancake. The only ingredient you may not have come across is Lap Cheong. It is a pork sausage which is marinated and preserved – a near relative to chorizo. It’s sweet and salty, in the same way many of us have taken to dousing bacon in maple syrup for pancakes. Now that’s a sweet meat.

 

Little jewels of Lap Cheong and prawns

The mix of little diced sausage, spring onion, carrot and prawns makes a rich pancake that yearns for a wingman. I just picked up Ottolenghi’s great book ‘Plenty’ (I know I’m late to the game on this one) and a great shakshuka recipe stood out to me. Could it complement my jam packed uber Asian pancakes? Fantasising about this all week, it was put to the test. Sunday mornings is one of the most precious times you can ask for. Snoozy Sunday cuddles in bed, reaching out for the cold side of the pillow for another snooze and then plod down to the kitchen for fresh juice and a relaxing recipe to gear you up for the day. Sorted.

Sockeye salmon poached in Chinese tea and glass noodles with cucumber chilli dressing

Salmon poached in Lapsang Souchong tea with glass noodles and cucumber chilli dressing

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry for the mouthful of a post title, I couldn’t really find a way to sex it up (well, shorten it at least). Maybe it’s my two week Christmas break and the fact that I have gravy and meat practically running in my veins that has led to an inept ability to stir up any sort of a witty sentence? Anyway, I’ve been itching to get back to Lolo’s Little Kitchen as I’ve been up in Leeds with my family. Mama and Papa Lo arrived from the motherland, and we’ve had a gout inducing couple of weeks eating. It doesn’t help when your brother has a metabolism of a racehorse and your parents want to eat ‘traditional’ Western food like fish and chips, scotch eggs and full English breakfasts every day. That blueberry and pomegranate muesli will have to wait.

In a rather depressing come down of fatty Christmas food and sweets last week I was determined to try a few tricks for a bit of a cleanse to my system. In traditional Chinese medicine, there isn’t anything that you can take to ‘detox’, as it is too much of a shock to your body, but a more gentle and long standing ‘cleanse’ is recommended. An easy place to start would be to swap my copious cups of Yorkshire teas with Chinese tea. Oolong tea is great for January, as it is full of antioxidants to help fight high blood pressure, diabetes and liver damage. But more exciting than that, it promotes weight loss by increasing your metabolism if you drink it regularly. 

Sockeye Alaskan salmon complemented by a smoky Chinese tea

In this recipe, all the ingredients have great health benefits - salmon for its Omega-3 and vermicelli/glass noodles are made from the starch of mung beans and are a healthier, lighter and gluten free alternative to wheat noodles. Eating chilli helps lower cholesterol, improve circulation and lowers blood sugar levels, and gives the vermicelli a punchy ‘POW’ in flavour with the ginger and cucumber. I’ve tried this recipe with Oolong, and it works with green tea also, however recently good old Heston did a Lapsang Souchong infused smoked salmon over the holidays for Waitrose. It has a very distinctive smoky strong flavour (as well as many benefits of black tea) as pine wood is used to smoke the leaves, and so has just enough of a festive aroma to remind you of Xmas. I thought it was almost too smoky for an already smoked salmon, but poaching a salmon fillet in tea works wonderfully. This recipe barely needs any real cooking, it’s really simple (despite the overworked title description).

Cantonese Beef and Tomato

Ok, let’s start easy. The title doesn’t sound too exotic or punchy, especially for a first post. In fact if you just looked at the ingredients, it sounds like I’ve made a quasi bolognese of sorts, but I promise this a Hong Kong classic. What’s great about a lot of HK food is that, due to its history, it has a lot of British and Portuguese influence, and so many recipes and favourites lend itself brilliantly to a European palette, much as the produce itself.  It’s often served at Western style cafes in Hong Kong, and so really represents a beautiful balance of East and West. Beef, tomatoes, onion and rice? Simplicity works – I’m not here to overcomplicate a great thing. The universal love for these ingredients means a quick win recipe wise for anyone’s bellies.

My first memory of this was whenever I went back to my Grandma’s flat in North Point, Hong Kong. If there was ever an original Lolo’s Little Kitchen, this would be it without a doubt. In this pokey little galley, where it was only big enough to fit one person in there without it being a sardine tin squash, Grandma would make us our favourite dishes. Food was the vehicle which she showed her love, and we reciprocated with open arms (and very open mouths). Given my brother and I never grew up in Hong Kong, language is sometimes a frustrating barrier, but we know that Grandma’s thought, love and care was always there, as this was the dish she'd want to prepare for our return. It’s the first dish I think my brother and I knew how to say in Cantonese, as we loved it that much. It’s a dish that immediately sends me back to a time and a place. Those are the best, as they are rooted in your memories and thoughts of those around you.