gongbao jiding

gongbao jiding
Originally uploaded by mdziedzic.

I was looking around on Flickr, which is the greatest site, and found so many pictures of great dishes. This is one of my favorites: gongbao jiding, or "Gongbao Chicken". This picture is so great because it shows this famous dish at its best: a great amount of dried peppers, fried and fiery hot; spring onions, cut into inch-size chunks; really a lot of crispy peanuts; and very succulent chicken pieces with a gleam of a slightly thickened sauce with arrow-root. ALso, the whole dish is made with a LOT of oil, which has couloured into a beautiful red because of the peppers. A great mouth-watering picture, thank you mdziedzic! So, how can we attempt to recreate this dish?
Cut chicken pieces in small chunks and marinate those in egg-white and cornstarch, plus some soy sauce and rice wine. Then fry peanuts in hot oil, take them out and drain on kitchen paper. Then fry some dried red peppers with huajiao [small Chinese pepper-like dried thingies which make your mouth go numb] in the same oil, add the chicken pieces, stir-fry until almost done, then add chopped garlic and ginger, spring onions (in small chunks) and flavour with soy, sugar, rice wine and a tiny hint of chinese vinegar... It is almost impossible to get the same intense flavour here as in Sichuan.. but we keep on dreaming.

vegetable meli-melo

vegetable meli-melo
uploaded by kattebelletje.

A mix of fresh vegetables can be very comforting to eat, I try not to eat too much meat lately, but changing your cooking style can be hard!
Chop up some potatoes in small chunks and fry these in a saute pan until browned and done. This might take 15 minutes, just take your time. Then, in a second pan, fry some mince meat (I used sausage meat), chopped red onion, garlic, eggplant cubes, zucchini, red pepper, carrot, and throw in some frozen peas in the end. I also added some raisins. Stir-fry gently until done, then top with feta cheese. Serve with mayo-yoghurt dip and a cherry tomato & mozzarella salad.

gourgere

gourgere
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

Gourgere, use :water: 2,5 dl; butter: 100 grams; flour: 200 grams; 5 eggs; Gruyere cheese: 150 grams (grated or in extremly small dice).
Put the water in a small saucepan and add the butter, bring to a boil. Add flour, then stir, add the eggs one by one and keep stirring! It will be very hard work, though. Add most of the cheese. Put the dough on a baking sheet, shape it into a doughnut (a hole in the center), glaze with egg yolk, and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Put in a hot oven 220 degrees for 30 mins. Serve on a large dish with salad in the center and eat as a starter. Serves 6.

October meal

IMG_7731.JPG
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

It was a warm October this year, but there was pumpkin on the market. I made a potato and pumpkin in the oven with garlic and oil; I fried pork chops, let them cool a little and sliced them diagonally into nice-looking strips, then sauteed them again with mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms. A nice salad, all in very small dice: cucumber, tomato, cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, feta cheese, black olives, lentils (de Puy), brown bulghur and red onion, with a sauce of lemon, olive oil and garlic. Great!