Shredded Tofu Jellyfish Salad (白豆腐絲海蜇沙律, Baak6 Dau6 Fu6 Si1 Hoi2 Zit3 Saa1 Leot6)

Happy New Year! For the first recipe of 2016, here’s a tasty salad I made for my family’s 2015 Christmas dinner. It’s actually quite simple to make, consisting mainly of opening packages and cutting the fresh ingredients. The two notable ingredients are instant jellyfish and shredded tofu.

I’ve used instant jellyfish previously, Cucumber and Jellyfish Salad (Ceng¹ Gwaa¹ Hoi² Zit³ Saa¹ Leot⁶, 青瓜海蜇沙律), while the recipes are similar, the main ingredient for this dish is shredded tofu. Instant jellyfish comes in a package ready to use (hence the “instant” name). If I translated the Chinese correctly, it’s “jellyfish noodles”. The traditional method to prepare jellyfish is to soak dried salted jellyfish to rehydrate it before cutting into strips (at least a two day effort with a couple of water changes to remove the salt). So you see why packaged instant jellyfish is preferable. The jellyfish and cucumber give this dish a nice crunchy texture.

Shredded tofu is also packaged and looks like noodles. I’ve also used shredded tofu in another (cooked) recipe, Baby Bok Choy Sprouts with Shredded Tofu (白菜苗豆腐絲, Baak⁶ Coi³ Miu⁴ Dau⁶ Fu⁶ Si¹). The tofu needs to be parboiled before using (follow the instructions on the package), but other than that, there’s no other cooking needed before assembling the salad. The rest of the fresh salad ingredients are either cut or come already cut into small strips. Shredded tofu also comes marinated (five-spice), but the “noodles” are larger and could be substituted for the non-marinated version to give the salad another added taste.

Enjoy!

Amaretto Fudge Cheesecake with Kahlua Chocolate Cookie Crust and Ganache

This will be my last post for 2015. So my last recipe is a dessert, which I rarely make, made for my family’s 2015 Christmas dinner. So we’ll end the year on a sweet note and as we enter 2016, best wishes to you and your family for the coming New Year. I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s recipes and I’ll see you next year with more recipe postings.

The origin of this recipe was the Amaretto Fudge Cheesecake recipe from cooking.com, whose site no longer exists. I made this dessert once before (a few Christmas’ ago) more or less as in the original recipe. My 2015 recipe version definitely came out delicious after making changes to the original, which included drastically reducing the amount of sugar in the filling. I’m not a fan of overly sweet desserts, so I add the minimal amount of sugar, but everyone has different tastes, so feel free to add more. When making the cookie crust, I’ve found that it’s sufficient to use the entire sandwich cookie (including the filling, which many recipes have you remove) with added flavoring (in this case Kahlúa) rather than adding any additional sugar or butter. I’ve also found that it’s not necessary to bake the crust before adding the cheesecake filling, which saves a step in making this dessert. Finally I added a visual and tasty flourish to the cheesecake by topping it with a flavored ganache (Kahlúa again and it hides any filling surface defects after baking).

Enjoy!

Grilled Capsicum Wine Chicken Thighs (燒烤紅油辣椒酒鷄髀, Siu1 Haau1 Hung4 Jau4 Laat6 Ziu1 Zau2 Gai1 Bei2)

Ming Teh Food’s brand Capsicum in Red Oil provides a spicy addition to this grilled wine based chicken recipe. Capsicum is finely ground red chili and is sold bottled in oil. The spiciness of the dish depends upon the amount added to the marinade and is a personal preference, so feel free to increase or decrease the amount used. The spiciness of the chili with the red wine go well together in a soy based marinade. The dish is very easy to make and cooking time is fast if chicken thighs are used.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili Oil Snow Pea Lamb Chow Mein (黑豆辣椒油荷蘭豆羊扒炒麵, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Jau4 Ho4 Laan4 Dau6 Joeng4 Paa4 Caau2 Min6)

Here’s another lamb loin chop meat recipe, this time using noodles. The dish is slightly spicy through the use of Laoganma brand’s Black Bean Chili Oil. As in the previous lamb loin chop meat recipe, Black Bean Chili Oil Lamb with Bean Curd Sticks (黑豆辣椒油腐竹羊肉, Hak¹ Dau⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Jau⁴ Fu⁶ Zuk¹ Joeng⁴ Juk⁶), more common (and cheaper) cuts of lamb can be substituted, such as lamb leg or shoulder cut into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces. Lamb loin chops have two distinct pieces of meat separated by a bone as in a beef T-bone steak. The larger piece of meat is the loin and the smaller is the tenderloin. The two pieces of meat need to be removed from the bone, and then the loin and tenderloin pieces cut thinly using a very sharp knife.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili Oil Lamb with Bean Curd Sticks (黑豆辣椒油腐竹羊肉, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Jau4 Fu6 Zuk1 Joeng4 Juk6)

Lamb loin chop meat was used to make this tasty dish. More common (and cheaper) cuts of lamb can be substituted, such as lamb leg or shoulder. Lamb loin chops have two distinct pieces of meat separated by a bone as in a beef T-bone steak. The larger piece of meat is the loin and the smaller is the tenderloin. The two pieces of meat need to be removed from the bone, and then the loin and tenderloin pieces cut thinly using a very sharp knife. Meat from the lamb loin chop is very tender and even though there’s more work involved to prepare the meat for this dish, it’s worth the effort to make this dish if you can get the lamb loin chops for a decent price, otherwise use meat from the lamb leg or shoulder. You’ll need to purchase about 1½ lb. (750 g.) of lamb loin chops to get about ¾ lb. (375 g.) of meat after trimming.

 

Enjoy!

Braised Pork Short Ribs with Bitter Melon (燴苦瓜豬排骨, Wui6 Fu2 Gwaa1 Zyu1 Paai4 Gwat1)

Pork short ribs are the spare rib or baby back rib tips, cut into a single 2-inch (5 cm.) wide piece with the intercostal meat (the meat between the ribs) and meat above the bones still attached. I found this cheftalk.com page with the information on what pork short ribs are. There’s a picture of the pork short ribs in the recipe section of this post. I’ve only found this cut of pork at two Asian markets in my area (and not always consistently available), so it’s relatively hard to find. Pork spareribs or baby back ribs cut into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces can be substituted if you can’t find pork short ribs and there will not be any meat “above” the bone.

Other than the use of pork short ribs, the ingredients are readily available. Fresh bamboo shoots are available at my local Asian market and I use them when I can, but canned can be substituted. The dish is easy to cook since all you have to do is put all the ingredients (minus the bitter melon and green onions) into a Dutch oven to cook with Lee Kum Kee’s brand Black Bean Garlic Sauce. The bitter melon and green onion are added at the end of cooking to keep them from getting overcooked. All you then have to do is eat the finished dish over rice.

Enjoy!

Grilled Barbeque Sauce Pork Rib Eye Chops (燒烤醬豬排, Siu1 Haau1 Zoeng3 Zyu1 Paai4)

This is an easy to make grilled pork chop recipe using Koon Chun brand’s Barbeque Sauce. Hoisin sauce can be substituted if Koon Chun’s Barbeque Sauce is not available. Marinade the pork chops overnight, grill them, and then smoke using your favorite wood in a barbeque grill.

Enjoy!