liuzhou

Don't get too hung up on equipment. A couple of good knives, then concentrate on the ingredients instead.

Pork, chickpeas, onion, garlic, star anise, chilli, bay leaf, tomato. With spinach and rice.

This also seems to belong here. We need to talk about what 'foodies' are doing to hummus

Nigella Lawson explains bizarre 'microwave' pronunciation after clip goes viral

Well, I'm British and don't get it! That said the celebrity worshipping classes are unfathomable. Especially towards well-connected upper-class woman with large mammary glands! I'm not saying she is a bad cook. She isn't. But...

i'm fairly certain she was joking. Not very well, though. Never liked her.

Turmeric chicken (legs) with garlic, olives, capers, chilli, lemon, and coriander leaf (cilantro). Served with couscous.

Potato starch is also widely used in Sichuan rather then corn starch fo thicken sauces, coat meat etc.

Undoubtedly, laziji (辣子鸡） Fuchsia Dunlop recipe

The BBC has posted an interesting article on the history and cultural significance of meat pies in Australia.

I've been making this for years, but can't remember where the original recipe came from. I may also have adapted it slightly. Ingredients 150g soft brown sugar 150 ml white wine vinegar 1 star anise 1/2 a red onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 thumb of ginger, chopped 1 or 2 red chillies, chopped 3-4 mangoes, chopped 1 tsp black mustard seeds salt and pepper Dissolve sugar in vinegar and add everything. Simmer for 25-30 minutes. Cool and keep in fridge. It keeps for months. Eat with chicken, cheese, curries, scotch eggs - pretty much anything.

In solidarity with my British friends and family back home, I made some scotch eggs as what the government, after much debate, has now decided is a "substantial meal". First I made the sausage meat from some fatty pork and spiced and seasoned it. Boiled some quail eggs. Formed the scotch eggs then panko coated them twice. Fried and put in mouth. With home-made mango relish. I made ten altogether. Might have another in a minute.

Ah! I know it as vin cotto, an alternative name apparently.

Saba?

Thai red curry shrimp.

One word which drives me over the edge is iteration. Its misuse is not confined to culinary matters, but that is where I see it most often, alas even here. I read a sentence like The first time I made it, it came out too salty, but the second iteration was much better. This is nonsensical unless the dish was made three times, not the two the writer presumably meant. The first version is not an iteration, the second may be. Iteration means repetition. The third time the dish is made is the second iteration. Maybe. My second complaint about the usage is that iteration is used as a precise scientific and mathematical term for a repetition. So, if you change the process it is not an iteration either. Presumably, the writer of the salty dish sentence added less salt the second time, thereby altering the formula. What he or she made was a version. Iteration is not a more clever way of saying version - it is a dumb way to say it. Rant over - as you were.

They were two separate dishes. I certainly know of scorched rice in English and so does Wikipedia. There are many recipes on Google - search for "guo ba". That said, as the Wiki article notes, few people make it at home now. I can buy in any market or supermarket. I don't know if it is available in Asian markets where you are. I had never come across the soy braised sweet potatoes before, so can't help there. I did find one Chinese language recipe online, but it wasn't what I ate. Sorry.

Unfortunately, the hardest flavour to find is my favourite, potato flavour.

Perhaps. Though they don't really have an eating out culture. Subsistence farmers rarely do! But who else can the restaurants be for? The area sees very few tourists, either domestic or foreign. However, the younger generations have mainly moved away to the big cities to make your consumer goods and are sending money back. Things are changing slowly.

They were not to impress me or anyone else. Each meal was in local restaurants and everything we ate was a standard menu item. There were also locals eating.

Yes, their food is very similar to that of Hunan and Guizhou, both of which share borders with Guangxi not far from where I was and both of which also have substantial Miao populations. The dishes are as spicy as they look, or even more so.

Four and a half hours after that epic lunch, it was decided it was dinner time. This was a spicy soup based on a pork stock, but oddly tasted very much like the Thai tom yum soup. Utterly delicious. Kou Rou (扣肉 - kòu ròu). Steamed pork belly and taro slices. Chicken in Chillies Shrimp with "Japanese" Tofu Pork White Cut Chicken (poached organic chicken) Dip for chicken - made from the bird's blood and various herbs and spices. Turbot Steamed loofah with garlic and chilli Mixed Pickled Vegetables Water Spinach Pumpkin Cakes Safe to say I didn't go to bed hungry last night! More on the Miao people here.

Yesterday, I crept out my self-imposed exile from the world to make a special trip into the wilds of Guangxi to visit a somewhat strange site. The Chinese government has introduced a scheme to move some of the ethnic minority people out of their poverty-ridden villages in the mountains and relocate them in new villages in areas with a better infrastructure. They are also given training in marketable skills so that they can increase their income. Actually, for many, to get an income for the first time. They are mostly subsistence farmers. Anyway, it all sounds wonderful, but I'm not so sure. It smacks of "social engineering" to me. But I don't know. Anyway a small group of us were invited to visit one such new village which is a new home to a number of Miao ethnic minority families. And, of course, we got fed! Here is lunch. I can't remember what every dish was, but will make my best efforts. These were strange. Shrimp in a passion fruit jelly. The passion fruit was excellent, but totally overpowered the shrimp. Beef with Black Fungus Clam and Mustard Green Soup Pork Vermicelli Something Mixed Vegetables and Fungus Beef with Chillies Scorched Rice 鍋巴 - guō bā with a Spicy Pork Sauce. The best dish I ate. Green Beans with Chillies Pork with Chillies Meat with Taro - not sure what meat. I don't particularly like taro, so skipped this dish. Looked like leather or stained wood, but was soy braised sweet potato. Rather good. Rice Paddy Fish with peppers. One of my favourites. Food. Sorry, missed this one. I guess this is self explanatory. Bamboo Shoots dinner to come

The only way I've ever seen silkies used here is for soup. There may be other uses, but I've never encountered or heard of any. You certainly woudn't want to roast one. Apart from making good soup, the broth is considered to have medicinal benefits. Old layers (老母鸡 / 老母雞, lǎo mǔ jī, literally "old mother chicken") are highly prized so not particularly cheap in relative terms. Chicken's feet and heads are in all my chicken broths.

...and cauliflower isn't ever rice, either.