off to China

selling Peking duck
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

I perhaps won't be blogging for some weeks. I am going to China! Now, on the last day, I have to prepare and to pack, and tackle the busiest day on the national airport today. Sure it is going to be fun, and there is always lots of good food, to which I am looking forward a great deal. Of course I will have at least one dinner of Peking duck, of that I am sure. And jiaozi (dumplings) too. And perhaps a load of new dishes I don't know about.

Hopefully I can get around the 'Great Firewall of China' and upload photos to Flickr, and write something on this blog. If not..you have to be patient for two weeks' time! Zaijian!

steaming fresh salmon

steaming fresh salmon by kattebelletje.

Yes, I've got my new steamer. It is huge, and on top of that, it even has two layers! Now I had to think of something to steam. You can steam anything really, but the first dish I steamed was this salmon dish in Chinese style.

Take one slab of salmon a person (here it is only the two of us) and put on a heatproof plate. Top each piece of salmon with a teaspoon black beans (Yangjiang brand is nice, look here for review), half a teaspoon of grated ginger, half a teaspoon of finely chopped garlic, a few chopped salted chiles and pour over some soy and rice wine.

Bring water to the boil. When it steams happily in your steamer, put in the plate with fish and cover with lid. Check after 5 minutes and take out before completely done, after 7 minutes or so, depending on the size - the fish keeps on cooking somehow.

You can add chopped spring onions and cilantro now, and pour over 2 tablespoons of heated oil so the herbs will sizzle. I, unfortunately, ran out of spring onions and cilantro and had to do without. But it was very delicious nevertheless.

Great party food, too: I mean how easy can it be, steaming plates and plates of salmon for a roomful of people? Just buy a big enough steamer! The steamers come from Thailand and are on sale in Asian stores. Because they are made from aluminium, they come quite cheaply. The cheapest go for about 20 euros.

coconut macaroons

coconut macaroons by kattebelletje.

I didn't think making these coconut macaroons would be this easy. I love things with coconut flavour, and sometimes in the shops I buy these ready made. But these macaroons are so extremely quick and easy to do at home, that next time I'll just stock up on the ingredients.

Start by heating your oven at 200C. Take 125 grams of soft white sugar and two egg whites. Beat with a whisk to combine. You don't need to stiffen the egg whites, just whisk it together until creamy looking. Mix in 125 grams of dry grated coconut (from a package) and blend well. For some extra flavour, you can add grated lime zest or a drop of vanilla extract at this stage.

Use a small spoon to make about 12 to 20 drops of the mixture on a baking sheet. Try to space them regularly, and don't go too close to the edge, because the macaroons will flatten while baking. Bake in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes until golden, then take out to cool.

I'm a coco girl. I just love the macaroons' chewiness with the sweet coconut flavour and the hint of lime. I don't know if these keep well, there are 4 left now and they sure won't last until Monday!

update: salted chiles

chopped salted chiles by kattebelletje.

Just a short update on the chiles. I preserved them in salt more than 3 weeks ago and kept them out of the fridge all the time. To be honest they were in the fridge in the beginning and I peeked after 3 days ( I guess I shouldn't have). But then I made the firm decision I should let the chiles undergo their fermenting process or curing process, so I put them out in the kitchen again and kept the glass jar closed for the rest of the time.

This is what you get: the water has drawn out of the chiles, and they kept their absolute red brightness. The taste has mellowed somewhat : you can eat the chiles raw. Which I did. They look more fierce now than they actually are. And they are great to use in any dish that needs a bit of heat. I should now ponder which dish that is going to be, and then I'll keep you posted.

new vegetable: jiaobai

jiaobaiby kattebelletje.

Yesterday I was, again, funshopping in the Asian store, choosing a different one then the large supermarket I usually go to. There are 4 Chinese supermarkets in the center of The Hague, and I visit them in turns, although I seem to skip the one in the Wagenstraat (Cheung Kong) because it is further off from the tram stop.

Somehow Amazing Oriental (Dongfang in Chinese) in the basement of the large new Pathe cinema at the Spui, has a more international section then Wah Nam (Huanan, meaning 'South China') in the backstreet behind the Bijenkorf. While AO has Thai fish cakes and frozen octopus and lots of Indonesian, Vietnamese and South Chinese snacks and bottles, WN features more Chinese vegetables and homecooking ingredients. So there I found the vegetable jiaobai, light green in color and resembling bamboo shoots; it is also called water bamboo.

After searching the web, but with guests breathing down the wok so to speak, I made a simple stir-fry. First take off the husks of the jiaobai (which I wrongly called wosun in this post earlier on - this is the update) and cut into small chunks. Fry in a little oil and add salt, a pinch of sugar and a half cup of water. Simmer until almost all water has dissappeared, stir the vegetables now and then. The jiaobai will still have some crunch and tastes, surprisingly, like a cross between asparagus and firm cucumber with a hint of jasmine flavour!
A nice side dish in a Chinese dinner. Will try it again soon. Have a look at more pictures here at Flickr

pastilla no! we will not let you go!

pastilla by kattebelletje.

Last Monday I was lucky to be treated to my first taste of an Algerian pastilla, made by some fellow foodies (thanks again, guys! it was great!). A pastilla is a pie of filo (phyllo) dough, filled with chicken, eggs and almonds and with very subtle flavorings, with traces of coriander, cinnamon and other spices. I was intrigued and couldn't get the flavor out of my head.

The next day, I hunted for some ingredients and started searching the web. There were many recipes saying one should start a pastilla preferably the day before, and that is not my favorite time to start a recipe. I want to cook NOW, I don't want to read I should have started cooking chickens or soaking beans 14 hours before, or things like that. So I put together a pastilla with the recipe of Algerian chef Zaid, who had an easy looking pan-fried pastilla recipe.

You will need: 4 chicken legs (or 2 chicken thighs and 2 drumsticks); 5 eggs; 200 grams of almond flakes (although I only put in half the amount because I didn't want to go to the store AGAIN); 1 onion, 1/2 lemon; 1 clove of garlic, butter, filo pastry (some large sheets are best); rosewater (go to the Moroccan-Turkish store for this) some sprigs of fresh coriander (cilantro); turmeric, saffron, sugar, salt.

Start by putting the chicken in 2 cups of water in a saucepan with the coriander, chopped onion, chopped garlic, a pinch of saffron, half a tablespoon of turmeric and one teaspoon of salt. Bring to the boil and cook on low heat for 1 hour. It will smell delicious! Then take the meat off the bone and reduce the liquid to about 1 cup.

Roast the almond flakes in a dry saucepan and roast until nut brown. Cool, then mix with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of rosewater. Set aside.

Put about 100 grams butter in a small saucepan and heat until it has melted. Put aside. Thaw your filo pastry, take care not to dry it out. Cover with a damp cloth if necessary.

Whisk 5 eggs in a bowl and add half a lemon. Then add the mixture to the reduced chicken liquid. Turn the heat up and keep stirring. The eggs will curdle and set; then turn off the heat. Put over a sieve to get rid of the superfluous juices (to prevent the pastilla of becoming soggy later on).

Now take a smallish size flat frying pan and brush with butter. Take your filo pastry and put 2 round sheets in the center of the pan, brush with butter. Put 4 square sheets of filo pastry on top, so they can make up the sides (and top) of the pastilla. They will hang over the edge of your pan.

Start to assemble the pastilla: put a layer of almonds as the first layer. Then a layer of eggs, then a layer of chicken. Repeat with almonds, eggs and chicken, then repeat again. Fold over the filo sheets over the top, cover tightly, and brush generously with butter. Then turn on the heat and fry gently.

My filo pastry could hardly be called sheets and flaked terribly, because it had been sitting in the freezer far too long. The beautiful layers of filo pastry as described didn't happen at all. But still, even tough it looked like it might disintegrate, the pastilla didn't turn out bad at all. After frying gently I flipped it over, using a plate (see picture), and baked it on the other side until crispy and delicious. Will definitely be making this again, but then with fresh filo sheets!

For more pastilla assembly pictures, look here.

Olympic menu

Chicken cartilage
Originally uploaded by Box of Badgers.

There have been very hilarious moments when I discovered the bulk of photos tagged Chinglish in Flickr. The Chinese, as well as the Japanese, have the most wonderful translations when it comes to English. Menus are notorious for their strange translations. And it hits the customers hardest when they sit down nervously in a non-English-speaking environment, and are handed out a piece of smudgy paper inside a plastic sheet, with (relief!) a Roman alphabet instead of these Chinese scribbles.

Until you start reading. It doesn't make sense at all! And perhaps you haven't even stopped laughing after ordering the first round of beers! Just have a look here for some fine examples.

The Chinese have become aware of the bad impression their linguistically challenged countrymen are making on tourists. Or, even worse, the impression their poorly translated menus might make on future tourists, who are all traveling to Beijing for the Olympics.

So, the City of Beijing decided to make a list of standard menu items, plus an official translation into English. This list covers the translations of 2753 dishes and drinks, and is supposed to be issued to all restaurants in Beijing before August. It was all in the news last January, which made me search the web extensively, but while I found many appearances of the fact that there existed such a list, the real list didn't show up that quickly.

Finally, I found it last weekend in a (final?) draft from the Beijing Tourism Bureau (click here for zip file). All dishes are neatly numbered, like in a Chinese restaurant. They sure had a lot of work on this menu, and, it must be said, it looks quite OK. Translating menus is surely no easy job, and it is funny even to screen the list for what is served in restaurants. I mean, would you expect Pan-Fried Chicken Wings in Coca-Cola Sauce [449] ?

Some accepted translations have dissappeared: the century eggs (1000-year old eggs) are called preserved eggs, and chaxiu (charsiu) buns are now just BBQ pork buns on the menu [1706]. Other Chinese spellings are introduced on the menu, because they are intranslatable, like jiaozi (Chinese dumplings); shaomai (small dimsums filled with pork), and guotie (fried Chinese dumplings, gyoza in Japanese). There are many snacks , starting from number 1686.

No one escapes the Chinese snack translation trap, because bun is used to either mean a filled or non-filled dough-like food, and the word dumpling coveres a great variety of snacks. I found one typo in the list (Red-Cooked Chicken with Tea Falvor [527]) , but that is nothing compared to the old menus!
Ordering "shredded pork sauteed with spicy garlic sauce" sounds much more mouth-watering than "fragrant shredded meat in fish" or "fuck the fragrant chicken cartilage" don't you think?

Still, I will miss those menus badly. They make eating out a delight, and then we haven't talked about the food yet ! We can always escape and go somewhere outside Beijing, where I am sure there will be Chinglish menus for many years to come.

chopped salted chiles

peppers by kattebelletje.

Being in a Chinese cooking mood, I decided to try out this staple of the Hunan kitchen: salted chiles (duo lajiao). These chiles are supposed to go on steamed fish dishes, or accompany noodles and other treats. But buying them from a jar in the Chinese store might not get you the right stuff (buying Hunanese produce might prove challenging); on the other hand, it might turn out these chopped salted chiles are just like store-bought, only I have to wait now for (Fuchsia says) ' a couple of weeks'.

It has been one week now since I went to the market and bought 300 grams of fresh red chiles and cut them up, trying not to rub them so as to avoid eye sore later on. For 300 grams of chiles, you need 1/8 cup of salt. Fuchsia Dunlop makes 500 grams, but I think I might be the only one in the house eating them anyway.
After cutting them up coarsely, mix them with half of the salt and put them in a glass jar. Then cover with the remaining salt, shut the lid tightly, put in the fridge, and wait.

And wait some more. I dreamt about tasting these chile peppers, which is strange, because I hardly dream about food (I am mostly traveling). But anyway, I tried them and they were very mellow-tasting, and I remember expressing surprise about this fact in my dream. When I woke up I smiled, knowing this is very probably not going to happen! I anticipate them to be fiercely hot.

But who knows... I have to wait 2 more weeks at least before I can tell you how they turned out.