Fish with back bean sauce

cod with black beans by kattebelletje.

This dish is really nice if you want to eat fish the Chinese style. It is quick to prepare if using whitefish fillets, and a meal by itself or with more dishes for a larger Chinese dinner.
You will need:

400 grams of cod (or other white fish)
1 spring onion
1 cm of ginger
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, Shaoxing rice wine, corn flour,
dried black beans from a jar/pot. [I use the dried kind which keeps forever].

Cut the fish into chunks and marinate in a tablespoon of Shaoxing rice wine and a tablespoon of light soy sauce. Meanwhile, take a tablespoon of black beans and soak in cold water. Cut ginger into julienne strips, slice the garlic and shred the spring onions into very thin strips.

Dip the fish in cornstarch until completely coated and fry the pieces in hot oil until both sides are golden. Take out and put aside. Then, in the leftover oil, fry the ginger, garlic and drained black beans until fragant. Add about two tablespoons of Shaoxing rice wine, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of Chinese black vinegar and a pinch of sugar. Add a few tablespoons of water to make a sauce, then, gently, put back the fish and simmer briefly until done. You don't have to turn them over - of course you can if you want to, but they might fall apart if you do so. Anyway they will be delicious, especially if you spoon over some of the sauce when they simmer.

Take out the fish and arrange on a pretty plate. Pour over the sauce and scatter with spring onion julienne. Eat with rice. You could add some drops of sesame oil in the end, and add some chiles if you like the heat. The black beans give a salty tang to this dish, and the balance of soy, vinegar and sugar is really nice.

Crispy chicken with Serrano ham

crispy chicken by kattebelletje.

Of course I was nervous about interviewing Gino D'Acampo, the young and charming Italian chef of Ready Steady Cook. I had a meetup with him for his visit to the Netherlands, last Friday, when he was here to promote his new book Fantastico. He was a little late because he got stuck in a traffic jam, but all went fine and I published by interview on Zestz. Then I went to the large Italian lifestyle-fair where Gino was supposed to do some real life cooking, in a castle nearby.


Very funny to see all things Italian concentrated in one place: Tuscan holiday village people, pizza oven sellers, olive oil stands, Boretti oven guys and even some laptop sellers, although I didn't get what they had to do with Italy. There was an impersonator of Luciano Pavarotti walking around with his white shawl and there were some Illy coffee baristas showing their skills. I was lucky to be taught by them how to do a perfect cappuccino, which is so much harder than you think. It looks easy as he explains, but when you stand in front of the large espresso machine you completely forget the right order of things. Grinding beans? Milk temperature? Weight of pressing down coffee?


Again I waited for Gino, who was supposed to do his dish at 1.30. He was stuck in another traffic jam, arriving just before 2 o'clock. Most of his waiting fans had left for other places, so he was hesitant to cook - plus a little shocked by the small scale of the cooking demo site - and decided to postpone until much later that day. I really wanted to see him cook, but wasn't willing to wait another three hours for a demo that perhaps wouldn't even happen. So I decided to go home and cook his planned dish of that day myself: Crispy Chicken Breasts Topped with Taleggio and Serrano Ham [Pollo impanato alla noci con serrano e taleggio].


[For 4] You will need: 2 (to 4) chicken breasts, some Serrano ham, breadcrumbs (panko is best), 100 grams of mixed nuts, 50 grams of flour, Taleggio cheese (I couldn't find it, so used Emmenthal instead), 800 grams cherry tomatoes, 8 anchovies and 1 red onion. You can always read the instructions on his site if you don't get my explanation, but I flattened the chicken breasts between sheets of cling film with a large wooden mallet and halved them; made up a sauce of chopped onion, anchovies and cherry tomatoes (lovely, lovely flavours!) which I let simmer in a pan for half an hour.


Meanwhile, I chopped the mixed nuts and mixed with flour and breadcrumbs (I ran out of panko and forgot to add flour). Then I dipped the chicken into the egg mixture, then in the nutty-crust-mixture and put on a plate. Finally I fried the chicken in hot oil for a total of 4 minutes, turning once; I was careful not to let the nuts burn. Then I put the chicken on a large heatproof plate and put it under the hot grill with cheese on top for another minute or so. Finally I served the chicken on top of a spoonful of tomato sauce, with some Serrano ham on top. Everyone really liked this dish and begged me to cook from Gino's cookbook again...but my tastebuds thought although the tomato sauce and the nuts by themselves were really good to eat, the combination somehow was a mismatch, although I can't say why; perhaps it was the sesame flavour in the replacement breadcrumbs I used?