After helping out with mum's duties, we went out for lunch and had some really yummy Cantonese Roast Duck, and Roast Pork - and awesome fishballs (well, the 3 year old had them)...
So tonight, I can't do Cantonese any more...
Something I learned from mum, a very fiddley Shanghai Dish or is it Hangchow... Sometimes I get it mixed up... but that region, most dishes are super fiddley and time consuming, this is the cheat version of egg dumplings - dumpling skin made by egg only, which means you will have to stand beside the stove, with a steel scoop, a bit of whisked egg in the scoop and making dumpling skins one by one, before the egg is cooked, you need to put the mince in, and close the egg crepe when it's still runny... I don't have the scoop, so I decided to make egg rolls instead... I don't have a proper crepe pan either, but, the $5 Ikea 20cm frying pan will just do the trick...
But first of all, I have to get the mince ready... and my mince, is not all that authentic, this is why...
The Fish Sauce.... something exciting I found after having Vietnamese food....
Ok, this is my 3 year old helping out with the mince, it's just pork mince, with fresh ginger mince, finely chopping spring onion, and finely chopped mushrooms, marinated with salt, light soy sauce, chicken dripping (I just happen to have them, normally I'd just use some vegetable oil) sugar (what is Shanghai food with no sugar and soy) Shaoxin wine, 5 spice and fish sauce.... I can't be bothered to wash the food processor and also I'd like to have a bit of bite in the meat... and a bit of Tapioca flour to bind.
And then, I whisked 5 large eggs, a pinch of salt, and made some thin crepes... no flour, or corn flour, potato starsh, tapioca starsh is allowed! Nothing else, just eggs and a pinch of salt, bit like very thin omelette, not that hard really.And I spreaded the mince all over the crepe, and rolled them up, 5 of them and stacked neatly in the plate, into the steamer.
There usually will be some sauce after the plate being steamed, and it's time to cut them up and drizzle that sauce all around to let the mince soak it in again... well, this is not one serving, this is for all of the family... There's usually no individual plating for Chinese - it's a culture of communal eating.
Then, with the left over pork mince, I decided to do my favourite Mapo Tofu... well, I'm not SziChuang - so this is as authentic as I can get apart from one thing....The Chillies...
I've got too many red chillies in the garden, so I replaced the dry chillies with the fresh ones from the recipe I've got.
I think there was about 75-80g of mince left.
First of all, I sliced up some ginger, garlic and the red chillies - I know all too well how hot they are so I got rid of some of the seeds of one chilly, the other one, I used the whole lot.
Heat some vegetable oil in wok and in goes the ginger garlic and red chillies, and my generous 1big tbsp (maybe 1.5?) of Szichuang Peppercorn...
the Aroma...
Then I threw in the pork mince, Szichuang Chilly Bean Paste. Stir to coat, at this stage, the wok should be dry stri fry, no excess liquid.
Until the pork was almost cooked, I add in Soy and Shaoxin, and the sliced mushrooms (something that's optional) Cubed Tofu (not silky not firm, something in between) and some tapioca flour paste (tapioca flour with water, enough water for the sauce)
3-4 minutes later.... Finely chopped spring onions were the last to be added and this is my version of Mapo Tofu....
But today's big big project was Sfogliatella Riccia....I know, I have been watching too much Italian Food Safari and was tempted to do this amazing Italain treat...
I set the dough for half a day rather than the half an hour suggested by recipe, and rolled out in pasta maker and stretched with clarified butter.....
And I found that when making indivisual shells, put the dough into the freezer or fridge temporarily will give me better results, otherwise the layers stick, and you just can't open them up!
However I did half the filling recipe, and still got some left, I think the chef was making pastry shop quantity? However, this is what they look like before they got into the oven....
It does take longer than the recipe suggested, even though I put oven on 200C rather than 180C suggested by recipe, and this is what they look like after 30 minutes: 
Of course I dusted them with icing sugar after they came out!
I think hubby will order them again and again now.... it's so crispy, and the filling is light... you can hear the crunch, when you bite into these little parcels.... oh... all the work just is worth the trouble!
This is the link to the original Italian Food Safari recipe, if anyone is interested.....
Wish I could reach in and take one Ms PP, they look so delicious!
ReplyDeleteThey are quite nice...
ReplyDeleteI'm taking some to work to share.. Girl Friend watched the same Food Safari show. and I think she might want to make them as well... It's not as sweet, but really nice when just out of oven...