pickled cucumber

pickled cucumber ??? by kattebelletje.

These cucumber strips might look too plain and simple to blog about. But in this miniseries on Chinese starters, you really can't miss out on this one. It is actually the starter I order immediately with no second thoughts when see it on the menu - and in China that is almost always the case.

There are of course some varieties, not only in taste but the way the cucumber is cut. You have the banquet-style strips which you can pile several stories high, woodlog cabin-shape. Then you have the home-style cucumber slices or chunks, which shape is really up to you. And you have the cucumber peels which I had last time in China, challenging your chopstick skills by their curly nature, but very refreshing nevertheless. These are on the photo.

The cucumber is usually flavored with sugar and white vinegar, and some salt, sesame oil or ginger for extra flavour. In Sichuan they fry some dry chiles in hot oil and put in the cucumber chunks in the wok for only some seconds, enough to get flavors from the spiced oil.

For this recipe you need:
2 small cucumbers
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons white vinegar (I use Japanese mizkan brand)
salt / grated ginger / sesame oil
optional: dry hot chiles

Cut the cucumber. Don't peel, every version has peel for extra flavor and crunch. Style 1, restaurant style: take off both ends, cut cucumber into 3 or 4 chunks, cut them lengthwise, scoop out seeds, flatten them and cut into long, even strips.
Style 2: home-style. Slice in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds (spoon works fine), then cut into batons (half moon shape) or strips (but not as pretty as restaurant style.)
Style 3: skin-peels style. Cut the top off the cucumber, then hold it upright and slice off a 5cm wide piece of peel with flesh on. Cut all the way round as if peeling a long apple skin. Continue with next layer of peel and cucumber. They will curl up, this is half the fun!

Whatever style you use: add 2 teaspoons of salt, mix the cucumber, and let sit for about 20 minutes. Pour off drained juices and marinate the cucumber pieces in a mixture of sugar and vinegar, a little bit of grated ginger (half a teaspoon) and half a teaspoon of sesame oil. Mix well and put in fridge to cool.

When you would like the cucumbers to be more spicy: fry chilli pepper carefully in a couple of tablespoons of oil, then add the slices of cucumber to the wok, fry for 15 seconds, then put on a plate. Or just fry the spices and pour over the hot oil, then mix.

Enjoy this crunchy starter with other starters or just a glass of cold Qingdao or Yanjing beer.

1000-year old eggs with ginger

century eggs by kattebelletje.

This Chinese starter scores high on the scary-looking exotic foods list. Although your guests can tell these blackish things probably won't be monkey brains, they will not easily pick up their chopsticks to take a bite, until you tell them these are a must-try.

These duck eggs, with their black translucent outside and gooey greenish-grey from the inside, look definitely off. They have been packed in a mixture of mud, salt and lime with special ingredients, and left to cure for about 2 months. This makes the mixture permeate the shells so the eggs are cured on the inside. In Chinese they are called pidan, 'skin eggs', or songhua dan, here known with their poetic name 'century eggs' or '1000-year old eggs'.

These century eggs were originally sold out of giant Chinese ceramic jars, each packed in clay with straw and rice husks clinging to it and wrapped in a thin plastic bag. Because of a food scare they were not sold in Europe for many years, but have now found their way back into the stores, but in a different packaging. They now come from the UK in a normal looking egg-packet of six, and cost around 1 euro for each egg.

ingredients:
packet of 6 century eggs
Chinese black vinegar
fresh ginger
optional: red chiles and/or green spring onions

For a starter, shell 3 to 4 eggs carefully and wipe clean under running water. Slice them with a knife, each egg into 8ths, and arrange in a circle on a plate. The yolk might be runny and sticky when you cut the eggs, so - messy it will get. Pour over 2 to 3 tablespoons of black Chinese vinegar and sprinkle over at least 2 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger. For extra decoration, you can add tiny slivers of spring onions or some preserved red chiles from the jar. Enjoy!

Note: when you have them the first time, they might smell really stinky; but believe me, with vinegar and ginger they really have a special addictive taste - you even might stock up on them as I do, so you can always have this side dish to a Chinese meal!

smashin' radishes

smashed radish salad by kattebelletje.

With this second post, I am on my first steps in getting together a series of Chinese cold starters for hot days. Making a Chinese meal is difficult enough with all the prep work you have to do. It can be tough: cutting and shredding ingredients for hours on end, not even able to finish one dish; so making a cold starter can be very satisfying. You do the assembly work, put it on a plate, plonk it on the table, and that's one dish less to worry about!

This starter I found at YouTube, where I found a real nice range of Chinese cooking videos by yeqiang, who is explaining enthousiastically how to make this radish salad, she sure made me want to try! She uses a large cleaver to smash radishes one by one for the full 5 minutes of the video, giggling happily all the time. This is how it goes: take 2 (to 3) small bunches of radishes and smash with the blade of a Chinese cleaver. Don't worry if they almost fall apart: they are supposed to be that way. A nice kitchen chore to get rid of any stress!

Put them in a large bowl and mix in 1 to 2 tablespoons of salt. Let sit for about 20 minutes, then throw away the water drawn from the radishes. Add 2 tablespoons of dark Chinese vinegar (or a mild white vinegar if you don't like the Chinese vinegar flavor so much), 2 tablespoons of sugar and a half a teaspoon of sesame oil. Mix to combine, put in a nice serving bowl and garnish with some beautiful radish leaves. The bitter flavour of the radish has disappeared, giving you a clean and crispy bite. Very nice. Thank you Yeqiang!

salad with tofu shreds

tofu strip salad by kattebelletje.

On my last trip to China I saw this salad everywhere on the menu: a cold salad with finely shredded strips of tofu, almost resembling noodles, seasoned with sesame oil, garlic and cilantro. This is the kind of thing you order first to have with cold beers on a warm summer night, and you practice your chopstick skills on it while waiting for more substantial dishes.

It is a perfect summer food: a small vegetarian starter, full of flavor. I made it the other day to have at home. Once you find your pressed tofu sheets in the Chinese supermarket, this dish is easy to prepare, it only involves cutting, no cooking. (Note to self: these tofu shreds might improve, texture-wise, by soaking for a short while in hot water).

Shred a package of dried tofu sheets into very fine noodle-like strips. You may have to peel the strips apart. Then cut half a clove of garlic into minute dice; mix it with 3 tablespoons of sesame oil, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 or more tablespoons of (homemade) chili oil to your liking. I think hotter is better!

Mix the sauce carefully with the tofu shreds and taste for seasonings - you might need some more oil, it shouldn't be dry. Adding more sesame oil might be too nutty, try adding vegetable oil. Add three tablespoons of chopped cilantro - or leave them whole, so it is strips all over - and sprinkle over some sesame seeds if you like.

Serve with ice cold beer on hot nights and wait for the next dishes to materialize on the table!

beetroot and walnut spread

beetroot and walnut spread by kattebelletje.

This spread (or dip) is from a book on Georgian cooking, for which I wrote a review (at foodblog Zestz, in Dutch). With Georgia, I mean the country of Georgia, situated near the Black Sea, bordering with Russia, Turkey and Armenia, not the USA state of Georgia!
There were quite a lot of interesting recipes in the book, with strange and unfamiliar flavour combinations, often with fresh herbs like dill, cilantro and parsley. Sometimes they felt like the Turkish kitchen, and sometimes they reminded me of Iranian cooking, chicken with pomegranate seeds and dishes like that. Can you picture a beetroot dip with chopped fresh cilantro, walnuts, garlic, flavoured with fenugreek and coriander seeds? I couldn't.

So I decided to make it! Take one cooked beetroot, 150 grams of walnuts, 1 onion, half a bunch of fresh cilantro, and put all in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Add one clove of mashed garlic, salt and pepper, and add ground fenugreek and ground coriander powder. Add two tablespoons of red wine vinegar and a dash of red pepper. Mash with fork to combine, put in a nice bowl and make some pretty patterns with a fork. (I tried, but the result isn't very spectacular). Serve with a Turkish kind of flatbread or crusty other bread to your liking. I liked the flavour! The beetroot taste had somewhat disappeared; the walnut gave a nice background touch, the cilantro put the flavours together and the garlic, onion and fenugreek-coriander seeds gave a nice kick. Really nice, and simple to make. I think I will try more Georgian dishes in the future!