liuzhou

Been there; done that. Regularly. Actually, it is a feature of Chinese cuisine which I particularly like. No one dreams of serving just one dish. To calculate the minimum number of dishes (N) to prepare for a meal, most home cooks count the number of diners (D) then add one. N=D+1 More adventurous cooks go for N=D+∞

Which one? Your link just goes to the company's home page.

Dinner tonight was bits and pieces cooked at various times over the last two days. Heat avoidance. I started out making Scotch quail eggs this morning at 6 am. There was also a couple of chicken legs braised with turmeric, garlic and white chillies. these were done the day before and refrigerated overnight. Then, at the last minute, stir fried fresh ramen noodles with pork, garlic, ginger, Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, shiitake mushrooms, white chillies, coriander leaf, and scallions. There was a salad, too, which failed to take advantage of its photo-op.

(Possibly) the last interview.

Huh! I once stayed a night in a hotel in Blackburn, Lancashire (cue Sgt Pepper's and A Day in the Life) and I'm sure the toast they served me at breakfast was way older than that. The egg wasn't too fresh, either.

You read correctly, I think. a) I don't always cook Chinese, as I'm sure you have noticed. b) Contrary to popular opinion, not all food in China is is cooked in seconds over blistering hot woks. My small slow cooker, which I use most, was a gift from a Chinese friend. Later I bought the second to deal with occasional larger requirements . Many Chinese dishes are slow cooked or can be adapted for slow cooking. Hong shao (red-cooked) dishes are often slow braised for extended periods, for example. Every store selling domestic cooking appliances has slow cookers. Soups, stocks, braised anything*, tomato and other sauces, can all be prepared without turning the kitchen into a furnace by using the slow cooker. Tonight I am slow cooking a couple of chicken legs and will use the meat with a ... well, I'm not sure yet. See the dinner thread tomorrow! All that said, yes I do cook most things in one of my woks. *Slow cookers are ideal for pig ears, oxtails and other tougher cuts which are then finished in the wok.

Like most people, I do not have AC at home. Nor do I want it. Apart from the environmental considerations, when I have used AC, in hotels and the like, I wake with appallingly painful sore throats. I just use fans, which are dotted around the house. The biggest one lives at the end of my bed and blows on me all night. I can't imagine using AC or a fan in the kitchen (apart from extractor fans). One thing I omitted to mention is that I use a slow cooker a lot in summer, too. Well, I use a slow cooker a lot year-round. It doesn't get particularly hot and they can be used for light dinners as well as hefty winter stews, etc. I have two: a largish one for when I have guests (seldom) and a small one with just enough capacity for dinner for one.

Of course, though it isn't my method. That particular lot were double fried. I do usually triple cook them à la Heston, but it was late and I was in more of a hurry to eat. I chip the spud(s), then soak in ice cold water for a while (up to an hour - these had about half an hour) then carefully dry them. Heat oil to 120ºC/248ºF, maintain that temperature as best as possible and fry chips until just beginning to colour. Drain and let cool. I then do the fish or whatever is to accompany the chips and let it rest. Reheat oil to 180ºC/356ºF and reintroduce the chips. Fry until suitably golden. It doesn't take long. Drain then eat. Thank you! The fish was more than good enough.

Wow, you are too kind.

I don't know what I had for dinner. I mean, I know it is fish and chips, but not what kind of fish. I know the Chinese name, 白花鱼 (bái huā yú, literally 'white flower fish' ) but attempts to Google it just send me to other species and no English names. It is about the same size as a sea bass and with similar white flesh, but firmer in texture. Anyway they make for a fine F+C fish, after cleaning and filleting. I vaguely thought of doing some mushy peas to perfect the dish, but they don't have the requisite marrowfat peas here. Then I thought of using edamame, but sense prevailed and I ate the edamame as a starter.

My apologies. When you said "they knew" I missed that you were talking about a specific family. I thought you just meant people in general. Funnily enough, the first time I heard about the brining technique was back in the 1970s when I found a description in a Latin document from the late Roman Empire. I wish I could find it again, but any notes I made at the time are on the other side of the planet in my sister's attic. I'm told it was used in China even longer ago, but seems to have disappeared in modern cuisine. Some friends were horrified when they saw me throw what they thought of life-threatening salt into a brine one day. I've has similar reactions when just salting water for pasta. But then, I did have to wrestle three people to the ground to prevent them calling an emergency ambulance when they totally freaked because I ate a raw button mushroom. They were convinced I wouldn't last ten minutes. They love their food but, like people everywhere, know very little about it.

Another option, which admittedly wouldn't suit everyone and their schedules, is to move the main meal of the day to lunch time, and have a lighter meal in the evening. I tend to do this in the hottest months.

Brining has been known for centuries.

I wish my kitchen was that cool! It is 10 am here now and my kitchen is 93ºF. It will get hotter as the day goes on. This will go on until October. I tend to make a lot of salads and eat cold cuts and pickles. Cold noodles are good, too. I use the microwave more in summer, too. It doesn't turn the kitchen into a furnace, as does the regular stove and oven. Mostly I just eat out and let someone else sweat.

They are! I've know their mother, so very fresh.

I have run out of regular bread to accompany breakfast, but luckily I had one large mantou steamed bread bun. Sliced it laterally to resemble a slice of bread and put my medium boiled duck egg on it. Applied a second slice as a lid. Ate.

Pork marinated in olive oil with salt ground black pepper. Dry stir-fried until beginning to caramelise then the marinade added. Cooked till done. Shiitake, shallots and white peppers drizzled with olive oil and sea salt, then microwave baked together for 3 minutes on high. Served with coriander leaf laced couscous. Those white peppers are hot! But tasty.

I see it's 6 years since I started this topic and in the interval, lotus pod season has come round time after time. Today I was on my way to a very boring meeting and passed by this lovely entrepreneur plying her wares at the entrance to a busy underground shopping mall. Of course, I bought a couple.

Another carb-free because too hot dinner. Duck breast salad. I found some radishes. These are rare round these parts, although daikon radish is easily available year round. SO, I made another simple salad with lettuce, scallions, coriander leaf and the radishes. Separately, I did a tomato and basil salad (again). The duck was pinker than it appears in the images and the juices mixed in with the salad dressing. This is not a bad thing.

I have come to the reluctant conclusion, after decades of failure, that it is simply not possible to photograph mushroom soup without it looking like a festering mud pond devoid of desirable life. And no amount of Photoshop rescues it. However, it is in no need of Tasteshop or Umamishop, so I continue to make and enjoy it. Today, I dug various bags of dried mushroom soaking water from the freezer and amalgamated them into a base stock for my soup. Added chopped shallots and sliced king oyster mushrooms (eryngii) and rehydrated shiitake. Stewed them for a while until soft. Blitzed in food processor and returned to the pan. Added regular oyster mushrooms and cordycep militaris mushrooms along with lashings of freshly ground white pepper. Whatever you think is simply too much white pepper is only almost enough. Cooked for a couple of minutes and ate with steamed bread (馒头 mán tóu) for dunking. Chinese has two words for soup: 汤 (tāng) is the most common and is used for predominantly liquid soups. 羹 (gēng) is used for thick soups, such as this one - 蘑 菇 羹 (mó gū gēng) thick mushroom soup. Still ugly though. But tasty.

and that is precisely why they are prized in Chinese cuisine. They like crunchy contrasts round here. That is why shark fin is still popular (although that is waning). It tastes of nothing, but has that crunchy texture.

I've had a couple of those stew craving moments recently, but resisted. Perhaps I should just let go. Steak and kidney at 40ºC? Yeah, why not!

Very early breakfast. 5.30 am. Pork and shiitake wontons* with black pepper and sriracha sauce. Bad lighting, but no natural light available until around 6 am. Off to catch a train. * I always keep a supply in the freezer for emergencies. They cook from frozen in just 2 minutes, so really useful when you are in a hurry (or too damn lazy to do anything else).

I picked these up from a local supermarket last night for dinner. The were only labelled "chilled fresh fish' and the woman womanning the fish counter had no idea what they were. The look like mackerel; they smell like mackerel; and they taste like mackerel, so I'm calling them mackerel. I only hesitate because they are very small - about 6 - 7 inches long. Baby mackerel. Anyway, whatever they were, they are long gone. I gutted and decapitated them, generously salted and peppered and pan fried them. Served with a simple green salad and and tomatoes and basil, dressed with a lemon/olive oil vinaigrette. Dinner! The eagle-eyed will have noticed a lack of carbs in this meal. Fret not, I've not adopted some weird diet. It was just extremely hot and I wanted something light. I will be restored to pure stodge consumption shortly!

I'm with you!