Welcome to Part 2 of testing out British Chef Jeremy Pang’s cookbook. This has been a great insight and learning opportunity for cooking some classic Chinese dishes at home. The recipes in Pang’s book are very people friendly in that they’re easy to reproduce. Chinese cuisine is often very complex, both in flavour profile and in difficulty level. The dishes here are meant to encourage the home cook to try this style of food and build greater appreciation. The most challenging thing you’ll find here are deciphering some of the ingredients;
-Shaoxing Rice Wine (salty and similar to dry Sherry)
-Chiu Chow Chili Oil – AKA chili oil
-Yellow Bean Sauce – a less sweet and I find citrusy alternative to Hoisin
-Chili Bean Sauce or Paste
-Fermented Red Tofu – the key ingredient in Chinese BBQ Pork to give it the red colouring on the exterior
-Chinkiang Black Rice Vinegar (I love this stuff)
If you’re reading this and you live in a major metropolis, these ingredients should be readily available if you have an Asian supermarket or store. If you live on the Sunshine Coast, you can find these items at Fong’s Market. They’re too specialized for our local supermarkets to carry. Hoisin, Five Spice, soy sauce and such on the other hand can be found with ease.
I’ll just mention I pulled all the info from his “School of Wok” (his cooking school in London) in case you’d like to do more research. It offers several styles of Asian cuisine besides Chinese.
GREEN BEANS WITH CHILI HOISIN
Prep 10 minutes
Cook 10 minutes
Serves 2
Level: Easy
INGREDIENTS
- 250g fine green beans
- ½ onion a small knob of ginger
- 1 fresh birdseye chili
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon Chiu Chow chili oil
- 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
- a dash of dark soy sauce
METHOD
PREPARATION
- Top and tail the beans and drop them into a pan of boiling water. Blanch them for 2 minutes, then drain and cool under cold running water.
- Finely slice the onion and ginger. Dice the bird’s-eye chilli. Using the flat side of a knife or cleaver, smash the garlic cloves to release their flavour and remove the skin.
- Mix the chilli hoisin ingredients together in a small bowl or ramekin.
COOKING
- Heat the vegetable oil in a wok until smoking-hot. Add the onion and stir-fry for 30 seconds until slightly softened, then add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry for a further 30 seconds.
- Keeping the heat as high a heat as possible, add the blanched green beans and stir-fry for 1–2 minutes, until the beans have ‘blistered’ around the edges. Add the chilli and chilli hoisin, bring to a vigorous boil and continue to cook, stirring, for a further 1–2 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and is just coating the beans.
- Remove from the heat and spoon into a large bowl. Serve.
SZECHUAN-STYLE EGGPLANT
Prep 30 minutes
Serves 2
East to moderate
INGREDIENTS
- 2 Chinese eggplants (I used 1 as it was about 30cm long. Plenty for 2 people)
- 2–3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 fresh birdseye chili
- a small handful of cilantro
The Sauce
- 1 tablespoon hoisin or yellow bean sauce (I used yellow bean sauce)
- ½ teaspoon chili bean paste
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 100ml water
- a dash of dark soy sauce
METHOD
PREPARATION
1. Leaving the skin on, cut the aubergines in half lengthways, then slice into 2cm thick long batons or 5cm chunks. Place them in a mixing bowl and immediately pour over 1–2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Mix together well.
2. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the aubergine pieces and fry, turning, until golden brown and charred (but not burnt) on both sides. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3. Finely chop the garlic, chilli and coriander. Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl.
COOKING
4. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok over a medium heat. Add the garlic and aubergine to the wok, then add the chilli and immediately pour over the sauce mixture. Bring to a vigorous boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 12–15 minutes over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has caramelised and thickened slightly.
5. Spoon onto a serving plate, and scatter over the coriander to finish. Serve!
CHILI AND PLUM SAUCE WINGS
Serves 4
Prep 10 minutes
Cooking 40 minutes
Easy to moderate
*Note: This recipe worked fairly well with the exception that I used a skillet whereas a saucepan was called for. I added too much water to cover the wings with the result being the skin was too soft and the sauce didn’t thicken and caramelize the way it should’ve.
INGREDIENTS
a thumb-size piece ginger
1 garlic clove, finely diced
1-3 birdseye chilis, finely diced (as hot as you want them to be)
300g chicken wings
1/4 teaspoon Chinese five-spice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
300ml water
a small handful cilantro sprigs, to garnish
THE SAUCE
4 tablespoons plum sauce
1 teaspoon chili bean sauce
a dash dark soy sauce
METHOD
- Slice the ginger into fine matchsticks. Finely dice the garlic and chili.
- Mix the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl or ramekin.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat. Add the chicken wings and cook, turning, for 2–3 minutes until browned on all sides.
- Add the five-spice, ginger, garlic and chilli and cook, stirring, for a further minute, then pour over the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Cook for 3–5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the sauce has reduced and is coating the chicken wings. Add enough hot water just to cover the chicken pieces, bring to a simmer and leave to cook, covered, for 15–20 minutes over a low heat until the chicken is cooked through but the skin is still intact. Transfer the wings onto a roasting tray using a slotted spoon, reserving the sauce for basting.
- Finish the wings off on a hot barbecue or put under a hot grill for 3–5 minutes, basting with the excess sauce every minute or so, until they are lightly charred and caramelized. Serve garnished with a few cilantro sprigs.
BRAISED PORK BELLY IN RED FERMENTED TOFU
Prep 30 minutes
Cooking 135 minutes
Easy
Serves 4
*Note: this dish called for hard boiled eggs (see photo) as a side. I chose to omit them as they’re not to my taste.
INGREDIENTS
- 4 eggs
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 x 600g pork belly piece
- approximately 450ml hot water
The Sauce
- 1 cube of fermented red tofu, plus 1 tablespoon of fermented tofu liquid
- 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Chinkiang black rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
The Garnish (optional)
- handful of cilantro leaves
METHOD
Preparation
1. For the sauce, put the cube of red fermented tofu and tablespoon of fermented tofu liquid into a small bowl or ramekin and crush it with the base of a teaspoon to form a paste. Mix this paste together with the dark soy sauce, Chinkiang black rice vinegar, sugar and sesame oil, and set the bowl aside for later.
2.Finely chop the garlic and set it aside.
Cooking
3. Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan over a high heat. Add the garlic to the pot and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds until lightly browned. Add the sauce and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.
4. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the pork belly piece to the pan and sear on all sides, ensuring the skin is well-sealed and golden brown.
5. Once seared, add the pork to the saucepan skin-side down and baste well with the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil and cook, continuing to baste as you do so, for 5–6 minutes. The sauce should caramelize, reduce and cling to the pork during this process.
6. Once the sauce is thick and coating the meat well, turn the pork skin-side up and pour over enough hot water to cover it completely. Stir everything together well, cover with a lid and leave to simmer over a low heat for 1 1⁄2 hours, turning the pork occasionally, until it is soft, succulent and full of colour.
CRISPY PORK BELLY
Prep 15 minutes
Cook 3 hours
Easy
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
- 1 x 500g pork belly piece
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1–2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice
METHOD
Preparation
If your pork belly piece has bone in: either ask your butcher to remove it for you, or take a large knife and angle it into the flesh under the bone, using long sawing motions to gently remove the bone from the rest of the belly piece.
Next, blanch your pork belly. Place the pork belly piece skin-side down in a large saucepan and cover with boiling water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes before removing the meat from the pan. (Some scum may form on the top of the water; it is just some of the impurities and excess fat the pork holds within its skin and will be discarded once the pork is blanched.)
Remove the meat from the pan and run under cold water to cool. Once cool, pat the skin dry with kitchen paper and score gently using the tip of a sharp knife in diagonal ‘criss-cross’ cuts along the top of the skin, trying to only open up the top layer of fat and not cut into the meat itself.
Dry the skin with kitchen paper once more and rub the salt into it. Turn your pork belly over; rub the five-spice onto the sides and bottom of the meat only, not the skin.
Cooking
Preheat the oven to 265°F
Place the pork on a wire rack above a roasting tin skin-side up and roast in the oven for 1-1½ hours.
Now turn the oven up to 450°F and roast for a further 30–45 minutes, or until the skin is golden brown and crispy all the way through. To judge whether the pork skin is crispy enough, give it a flick with your finger; if the sound is hollow like that from the bottom of a well-baked loaf of bread, then the pork is definitely crispy enough.
Remove the pork from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Turn the pork skin-side down on a chopping board and slice through the meat with a sharp large knife or cleaver, pressing down on the top of the blade to slice through the crackling. Serve.
Braised Pork Belly vs Crispy Pork Belly
I very much expected to prefer the former as I’m not as big a fan of pork cracklings as my peers. That said, I found I couldn’t decide which of these dishes I preferred. Both were delicious and I wouldn’t hesitate to make them again.
