I love Vietnamese pork rolls. No, let me say that again: I LOVE pork rolls. So when my husband came home raving about a pork roll he’d had for lunch I was naturally intrigued and made him promise to buy me one ASAP.
I was introduced to my very first pork roll by my good friend, Vi Tran, in the 90s when were both studying Chinese at university. One day she took me to a nondescript bakery on Hanson Road and ordered me a pork roll. Ka-bam!! I was immediately hooked. It was love at first bite.
Yesterday my daughter told me that she wanted to go to her Grandma’s house for a snack because “she cooks so much better than you.” When asked to explain, she said, “I only like Popo’s cooking. I don’t like anything that you cook, ever.”
Now that’s kids for you. There’s no harsher food critic than a precocious, headstrong four year old. Unless, of course, it’s an extremely particular 18 month old toddler who only eats more than a few bites if you distract him with toys. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve prepared a lovely meal only to have Ms Fussy and Mr Not Interested in Food turn up their noses and refuse to eat a bite. So I beg and plead and eventually give them wheatbix for dinner.
Brrrrr! I find this cold weather very tiresome.
Winter in Adelaide is nothing extreme but I’m a summer girl and I don’t cope well with it. All I want to do is huddle close to a heater, wrapped in layers, with a bowl of something warm in my hands.
Thankfully, this easy recipe of my dad’s is perfect for this. Hearty and warming, Beef & Carrot Noodle Soup is divine with a dash of sweet chilli sauce and garnished with crispy, fried onions (shallots). We are lucky enough to have a stash of fried onions made by my Popo (grandma) in our fridge but you can easily find them at Asian grocers.
INGREDIENTS
600 grams gravy beef, cut into cubes
1 large onion, roughly sliced
4 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced. You could also substitute Chinese white radish.
3 star anise
1 packet of rice vermicelli
Salt & pepper to taste
1 bag of bean sprouts, washed and drained
Fried shallots (onions)
3-4 spring onions
METHOD
Put star anise, gravy beef, onions and salt & pepper in a large pot with cold water to cover and bring to the boil. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.
Simmer until meat is tender (approximately 30 minutes but it could take longer), then add carrots and cook until carrots are sort (another 10 minutes).
Meanwhile, boil vermicelli in plenty of water for couple of minutes or until your preferred consistency. Add a couple of handful of beansprouts for the last minute. Drain and rinse in cold water.
To serve, place drained vermicelli in large soup bowl and ladle soup, meat and carrots on top. Arrange bean sprouts over the top. Add a bit of pepper to taste and garnish with fried shallots and/or spring onions.
Serves 4.
Good food doesn’t have to be complicated. This recipe is a case in point. Fried rice couldn’t be easier or quicker to make yet it tastes simply wonderful. And it makes you feel warm and loved in the way that only the best comfort food does.
I like serving fried rice with roasted soy sauce chicken and a plate of steamed Chinese greens but I’ve also cooked it solo for a quick after work supper. And it still hits the spot, especially as I serve it with Indian brinjal (eggplant chutney) on the side. This may sound odd but once you’ve tried it, you’ll never look back; my German husband is now addicted to the combination.
This recipe is my version of my mother’s dish. I cooked this once when my friend Adrian came over for dinner. He took one bite and said, “this is your mum’s fried rice.” He would have last eaten her rice at least 15 years so it must have made quite an impression on him. That’s how powerful a legacy the food we cook is.
INGREDIENTS
½ kg rice, cooked earlier and cooled. You can cook the rice the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight to make things simple.
1 large onion, diced
1/2 bunch spring onions, washed and diced
3 eggs, beaten, mixed with a dash of milk
6 rashers bacon, diced
½ large bag mixed diced vegetables (peas, carrots, corn) from the freezer
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
White pepper
METHOD
Heat a large fry pan or work and add oil. Slide in the beaten egg mixture and cook for a minute or two until partly set. Turn over carefully and cook the other side. Once it’s cooked through, remove from pan, slice into small squares and set aside.
Add a dash more vegetable oil in wok and fry onion over low heat until soft. Add bacon and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring. Once bacon is browning, turn heat up to high and add frozen vegetables. Cook, stirring occasionally for 3-4 minutes.
Add cooked rice, breaking it up with wooden spoon as you go. Continue stirring for a few minutes until the rice starts to form a brown crust in places. Season with light soy sauce and a dash of dark soy sauce. Add a little soy sauce to start with and taste before you add more. Sprinkle with white pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly so rice is evenly coated and coloured.
Add reserved omelette pieces and chopped spring onion. Stir through and let warm through for one minute. Turn off heat then add a few shakes of sesame oil. Stir to combine.
Serve in deep, generous bowls.
When my husband and I first started dating, he made this for me one night.
It worked.
Enough said.
INGREDIENTS
1 jar of caviar, chilled
1 whole lemon, sliced into eights
Half a red onion, diced or 3-4 brown shallots, diced
1/2 – 1 tub sour cream or creme fraiche
2 boiled eggs, peeled, cooled and diced
The best baguette you can find, sliced into thin rounds
Champagne or sparkling wine, the best you can afford.
METHOD
I like to serve this in a crystal bowl filled with ice and a gorgeous Alessi serving plate we have that has four glass compartments. Serve it with your finest tableware, crystal and flatware. These little touches makes all the difference.
Fill the crystal bowl with ice and place the jar of caviar on top. Place the onions, lemon, egg and sour cream in each of the serving plate compartments. Arrange serving spoons around. Place the sliced baguette in a beautiful bowl.
To eat, take a slice of baguette and smear thickly with creme fraiche. Place a spoonful of caviar on top and then add onions, egg and a squeeze of lemon as desired.
Chew. Sigh. Try a sip of Champagne to see if it makes it even better. It does.
Repeat until finished. The end will come too soon. Vow to do it again soon.
You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?
Some food is just plain, well, sexy.
I’m talking about food that gets your blood pumping. That makes you sigh with pleasure.
So what is sexy food? In my (black) book, it’s food that is confident,sensual, special, tantalising, incredibly fresh, and seductive. But it can also be food that is charming, witty or clever – I’m thinking of some of our leadings chefs who devise meals to appeal to our senses of whimsy and humour as well as our tastebuds.
Adapted from a Gourmet Traveller recipe, these dumplings are perfect as a quick after work supper or as the first course for a dinner party. Moreover, if you’re feeling stressed out, making the dumplings is distinctly relaxing in its repetitiveness.
Better yet, any leftovers are wonderful pan-fried the next day for breakfast.
JIAOZI INGREDIENTS
1 pack dumplings wrappers
300 grams minced pork
1/2 cup finely chopped spring onions
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
1 teaspoon minced ginger
White pepper to taste
DIPPING SAUCE INGREDIENTS
Light soy sauce
Chiangking vinegar
Chilli oil or fresh birdseye chilli, chopped
Minced garlic
Minced ginger
Mix all dumpling ingredients together (bar the wrappers, natch).
Use a teaspoon to place a small amount of meat filling inside a wrapper.
Use water to help stick the edges together and seal tightly between your fingers, ensuring no air bubbles remain (this helps avoid the disintegrating jiaozi scenario).
Put a large pot of water on to boil. Meanwhile, add equal parts soy sauce and vinegar into a small dipping bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon each of ginger and garlic, then chilli oil or pieces to taste. Set aside.
Once water is boiling add dumplings in batches to cook being careful not to overcrowd the pot. Once water returns to the boil cook for around 8 minutes on medium heat or until all of the dumplings bob on the surface.
Drain, and serve with dipping sauce.
From 2003-2006, my husband and I lived in Shanghai, China. We moved there on his job with a Danish engineering firm, but I also found a great job there and we enjoyed three exciting years. Here’s a photo of me on the Bund when we had just arrived.
Besides friends, one of the things I miss most about China is the food. The variety of food there was simply phenomenal – all kinds of regional Chinese cuisines and an ever growing number of foreign foods were at our doorstep; we ate from dodgy looking, hole in the wall type neighbourhood joints to the newest 5 star restaurants on the Bund. My German husband developed an obsession with thousand year old eggs and fearlessly tried everything his customers ordered for him at their company dinners. And when we were pulling yet another late night at work, we’d regroup by ordering food delivered from one of our favourite restaurants. It was an amazing life.
I’m due for another trip to Shanghai soon. Next time I go, this is the food that I will be sure to eat:
