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.

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!

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

cauliflower stir-fry

simple stir-fry by kattebelletje.

Cooking can be an elaborate affair, but sometimes it is quick and easy. Like last night. I didn't quite know what to cook so I looked in my fridge to see what I would find there. Half a cauliflower (well, why not?). This is a challenge to some - see Mr. WateetOns' la semaine des choux fleurs - but it doesn't have to be. It can be really easy.

Cut the cauliflower into small florets. Open freezer to find frozen peas. Take about a cup. Cut some cooked frozen shrimp (also from freezer, I used about 4) into pieces.

Stir-fry the cauliflower florets in a wok with hot oil. Keep stirring, don't burn. Add frozen peas. Add a little bit of water, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a pinch of sugar, a bit of salt and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add shrimp and simmer a little bit more until cauliflower and shrimp are done. Now that's an easy Chinese style dish isn't it?

We had it with a second stir-fry of potato slivers, which I made again to check if FotoosVanRobin's complaint about my long cooking times for that dish were OK or not. Turned out it much depends on the kind of potato you use (but 10 minutes might be a bit much), so the only thing I can say is: check while you cook, don't only go for the egg timer!

eggplant fritters with huajiao-dip

eggplant fritters with huajiao-dip

Chinese snack time: eggplant fritters with huajiao-dip. Huajiao ??, usually called " Sichuan pepper" or "Szechuan pepper", are the fragrant, almost hallucinating husks and berries of the huajiao shrub, which grows in the hills of Sichuan province of China.

Although you can buy several brands here in Europe, I got a bag of the stuff, imported from China by a friend, and they turned out to be very aromatic indeed! I think their intense flavor spoiled all the things in her suitcase, impregnating it with its strong smell. To use Sichuan pepper, roast two tablespoons of huajiao in a dry pan, when they start to give off their flavor, take off the heat and let cool. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and grind them into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. Set aside.


Cut a small eggplant into slices and make a batter of 1 egg and some tablespoons of corn flour. Mix until you have a smooth paste, in the beginning it looks very lumpy, but this will smooth out. Dip the slices of eggplant into the batter and shake off excess batter, then slip into hot oil (a wok is fine). Fry in not so hot oil until brown; drain on kitchen paper. Serve with the Sichuan-pepper-dip, it will be sharp, tingling and numb-making , but oh so good!!!