Prawncrackers

One of the most satisfying prep jobs is scraping ginger with the edge of the cleaver, slicing into fat discs then smashing them to a pulp with the leading edge. You have to catch them just right otherwise it ricochets around the kitchen! Microplaning is good too though if you don't want lumps of ginger everywhere. I echo the sentiments of some of the earlier posts, it's really frowned upon by older Chinese to waste ginger by peeling it coarsely. You must scrape carefully so as little as possible is wasted. Maybe it's a superstition thing too.

Thanks Ben i think i'll try a little Fu Yu myself next time. I have some in the fridge as i was intending to make some Kau Yuk last winter, it's been in there for most of year it should be okay though huh?

Aloha Aloha Steve, the cut of meat i like to use is from the top of the shoulder. Americans call it the shoulder butt, in the UK we call it the neck fillet. You want to have strips that you can skewer all the way through so they cook quickly. From what i remember the marinade last time was roughly five parts hoisin, one of honey, some soy and minced garlic. Just make enough to coat all your meat! One thing i do that is slightly different is I like to lightly Jaccard my meat so the marinade really permeates overnight. Oh and reduce the marinade a little whilst the pork is cooking so you can glaze it.

Thanks guys, glad to have presented these dishes for your delectation!I'm proud of last night's meal as apart from the slice of bread for the Fritto Misto everything was made from scratch. It was one of the most challenging and satisfying I've ever cooked. I have to fess up to couple of mistakes though: The garlic dressing actually started off as an aioli that split badly (first time for everything). I couldn't rescue it so decided to just thin it out with oil and lemon. In the end it worked really well as alight (albeit slightly split) garlicky dressing rather than a rasping hot aioli. The other was I forgot to add a little cream to the reduced lobster bisque. This would have made the sauce a little looser to coat the pasta. It was no big deal because there was just enough sauce anyway but it would have been nice. I suppose it made up for it by not diluting the intense lobster flavour. I think I got side-tracked because I was showing our guest how the horrible looking swamp-coloured roe turned a beautiful red when heated!

It's been a rather fishy week this week, started with simple fried snapper and salad: Then today to celebrate a friends birthday I really went to town and made a Fritto Misto Di Mare.... or assorted deep fried fish if you like! This one included prawns, squid, monkfish, little nuggets of lobster knuckles and goats cheese. There was some rocket & radish, a thin crouton and garlic dressing: The rest of the lobster was poached in vanilla scented butter. I made some tagliatelle with duck eggs and saffron. It was coated in a sauce made from a lobster bisque reduction, thickened right at the end with the tomalley and roe. A very intense luxurious tasting dish. My friend was very happy indeed!

Wow Bryan thanks so much for writing up your eating adventures in such detail. The tempura meal that you had reminds me very much of the one we had in Ginza Ten Ichi last year. I know exactly what you mean when you say a tempura meal is a whole other experience. $120 dollars though!! And I thought the 8300Yen we paid for our meal was steep. We planning another trip this year to Tokyo so all this is invaluable reconnaissance.

I always use neck fillets (or strips of butt in the US), so they are medium fatty somewhere between belly and loin. As for temp, i roast at 210C for about 45 mins. I'm afraid if i go hotter my oven will break!

Alas Infernooo, my recipe for char siu changes everytime i make it! I haven't settled on one version yet. This last time i mixed hoi sin, honey, light soy and garlic. The most important thing is the cooking method: hot, fast & skewered.

Has anyone been here recently and had a high tea set? My wife and I went a couple of weeks ago with another couple. We've always loved Yauatcha because we consider Dim-Sum and Patisserie as two of the major food groups, and two that aren't combined often enough. So we ordered the usual selection of dim-sum and two of the oriental high-tea sets for dessert to share between us. The waitress tried her best to persuade us to have one set each, which for £25 per set is bit much for dessert. She'd obviously been told to do this because she was adamant that the tea-sets were not now for sharing. She explained that the sets had shrunk from a size 10 to an 8, but knowing that the old size was enough for three people we stuck to our guns and ordered two between the four of us. What was she going to do huh? Slap the macaron from our lips if we split it? Well I'm happy to report that the Venison puffs are still up to standard but the tea-sets themselves have shrunk from a size 10 to more of a size 6 I reckon. Now I'm wondering if we hadn't have made the fuss about sharing would the waitress have told us of the shrinkage? The menu was still the same so no indication there and certainly the price hadn't seen a similar fiscal contraction. Overall we still had an enjoyable meal, but I can't help thinking if we'd come just for the high-tea then we'd have felt seriously ripped-off.

Here are some very different chicken dinners from the past week. First off was some smoked chicken on the Weber kettle. There was a standard pepper/paprika rub on it, just had it with some sweetcorn and coleslaw. Never tried cooking chicken this way before, it was so delicious we wolfed it down! Next i got my hands on a lovely French Label Rouge chicken so did the classic Chicken with 30 Cloves of garlic fricassee, served it with peas and over some freshly made tagliatelle: Tonight was some Gong Bo Chicken:

Yup checked out the menu.pdf, it's that dish alright. Though it's strange how you've all gravitated to the non-standard lamb version of it and not beef. I'd never heard of lamb being used before. Saying that I normally order the beef without checking the menu as it's such a favourite. Next time I'll see if my local here does lamb too. But you all must try the beef to compare. The menu looks really good, is there anymore news on whether they'll open one up in Brum? The Beijing/Sichaun resto we have here called BBQ village is a little more studenty, slightly cheaper than Red Chilli it seems and more focused on Hotpot. But the main draw is, as it's name suggests, the multitudinous bbq skewers. I'm seriously addicted to chargrilled spicy chicken hearts and gizzards at the moment. But I'm willing to sacrifice those for some sea-cucumber dishes, hmmm slimy and chewy. Surprised that there isn't my other favourite Sichuan dish on the Red Chilli menu, 口 水 雞, literal translation is Saliva Chicken but I suppose Mouth-watering chicken is more apt. It's a cold chicken dish that encapsulates all the flavours of Sichuan. Worth asking for, maybe as the Urban myth goes, there's another menu… the "Chinese" menu where the delights of Hotpot lie….

I'm confused about this Lamb dish everyone is banging on about, do you know what the Chinese name for this is? One of my favourite Sichuan dishes is 水 煮 牛 肉 (translates to Water Boiled Beef), is this the lamb version of this? If it is then no wonder you are all smitten, it's like heroin.

I would go for the simple dry rub of five spice and salt. A good alternative would be hoi-sin. If you experiment too much with the flavourings then you are losing the essence of this dish - roast pork! It'll be difficult to beat the pros especially if you've never cooked this dish before. It may seem simple but it will take a few attempts to get it just right. I think your best chance is to start with some really high-quality pork. That is going to be your biggest and maybe only advantage over your local.

Has everyone stopped cooking Chinese food at home? If i go too long without it i'm unhappy. Here's a couple of freezer clearing meals this week to tie you all over till you get round to cooking Chinese food again yourselves Some steamed Salmon Head with Black Bean, Steamed Spare ribs in plum sauce and fresh Tong Ho Choy from my mum's garden: and tonight some Char siu and fried rice (tell me this doesn't make you happy!):

Another week, another big steak on the grill! This one was a single wing rib from a Welsh Black hung for 6 weeks. A little more medium than i consider ideal (in deference to guests) but amazing flavour and tenderness all the same. Had it with a stilton and shallot sauce, potato salad, coleslaw and sweetcorn:

That sounds like the China Court restaurant above the strip joint (Legs 11)! Did it look like this? I've not been for a few years because the dim sum wasn't very good back then. News is that it hasn't improved either. Pity you stumbled onto that bakery because the Golden Pond is just opposite the main road. Next time you are in the area you may want to check out the Peach Garden café in the alleyway next to China Court. Excellent roast meats at bargain prices.

That's a shame but are you sure it was off Broad St? I know not of any Chinese bakery near there let alone a restaurant above it. Ah well you know for next time.

If it's not too late for a suggestion, my regular is The Golden Pond in the Arcadian Centre in the middle of town. Second would be Wing Wah next to Wing Yip Supermarket but that's a little out of town. The chicken feet at The Golden Pond is better than in Hong Kong!

**** BALTI NEWSFLASH **** **** "BALTI" BID FOR DPO RECOGNITION! **** http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/fo...word-Balti.html You can imagine in the dark corridors of the Brummie council, "Er Barry, i've got a bostin idea...". Genius.

The fish market here has always had live eels. Only thing is they won't kill/clean/gut them for you! I've eaten plenty of eel but have never prepared them from live myself ever since i saw my mum do one when i was a kid. I remember her chopping a small one into round pieces, and the pieces were wriggling like crazy. She'd put black bean and garlic on them and the pieces were still pulsating vigorously right up until she put them into the steamer. Delicious and disturbing. If you want an extreme experience Peter then it's in the preparation.

Thanks percy, it tasted good too! My rendang recipe is the one from Cradle of Flavour but with the addition of curry leaves and toasted coconut. I haven't found a reason to mess with the original recipe more than that. Though i do tend to experiment with the cut of meat, this one was made using a blade of beef and was very suitable for rendanging.

Here are a few dinners from the past week or so, i've just realised there's been some cow overload! First off was some Oso Bucco with Saffron Risotto Beef Rendang, there was ome fish fragrant aubergines in the background too: And today i char-grilled a lovely piece of Dexter t-bone. Though not as marbled as some i've had recently it had been aged for 6 weeks so was beautifully flavoursome and tender.

I used Hickory though i do have some Oak too. I'll use that next time but everything else will stay the same. Actually saying that, the next time i hope to use better quality pork. My butcher couldn't get his hands on any of the rare breed stuff that i usually love to cook so had to make do with some very ordinary pork. I think with a big hunk of Old Spot it should be a great improvement.

Okay some more details. The butt went onto the heat at 8am and i topped up the coals every 2 hrs or so. I kept the temp at the grate hovering between 125-150C, the meat stalled at 70C at about 2pm. My guests arrived about 5pm and i pulled he meat off just as it was rising to 80C at 5:30pm. I was worried that i might not have left it for long enough but when i put the gloves on to pull the meat apart after resting it broke apart very nicely, phew. As the star of the show was resting i grilled 30 Assam prawns (big ones 8-12 size head-on beauties) and a dozen or so small masala mackerel. Had those with a simple cucumber and tomato salad and minty yoghurt. The prawns were particularly good, there is something about the smell of charred prawn shells. We had the pork in some shop-bought soft batch rolls. To accompany there was home-made coleslaw and potato salad. Sweetcorn, and three different sauces; Carolina red from the VWB website, shop-bought Jack Daniels stuff (surprisingly good) and some insanely hot Jamaican style hot-sauce. It was everyone's first taste of real bbq and certainly it won't be our last! Great stuff.

I awoke yesterday at 7:30 with the sky leaden with the constant threat of downpour - perfect British BBQ weather!! Here are some photos of my Brummie Butt: Two hours in: After resting (looking very unpromising): Hallelujah moment! In the end i butchered a 6.5lb piece of meat and cooked it for 9 hours. It was pretty amazing and everyone was truly enamoured of it. Special thanks to Snowangel for helping me out and i'm looking forward to my next cook out already.