wrap it with your hands

During the winter in HK, it's considerably less humid and cold compared to the summer season. Taking advantage of the drier weather, we like to work with dough and make things that are warm and comforting. Here's a relatively simple (and soothing if you like working methodically with your hands) recipe for our favourite homemade dumplings.

Pork and Vegetable Dumplings

makes about 10 dozen

INGREDIENTS:

2 catty fresh round dumpling wrappers (about 120 pieces)

1 lbs minced pork

1 cup minced organic baby bok choy

1/2 cup minced Shitake mushrooms (re-hydrate the dried variety)

Marinade:

1 tbsp canola oil

4 tsp corn starch

4 tsp sugar

4 tbsp low sodium soya sauce

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp shao xing rice wine

Dipping Sauce:

1 tbsp red or black vinegar

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 minced thai chili or 1/2 tsp chili paste

METHOD:

1. In a large bowl, make the dumpling filling by combining the pork, vegetables and marinade. Use a large fork and mix well until you have a smooth paste. You can make this up to 4 hours before using, just cover with plastic wrap and keep chilled in the fridge.

2. Have a small bowl of water ready on the side. Lay out your wrappers on a clean surface and put a heaping teaspoon of filling in the centre of each one.

3. Fold each wrapper into a half circle and use a couple of dabs of water to seal it. With the flat side of the half-moon dumpling facing upwards, take another dab of water and pinch the 2 corners together so that your dumplings look like this (kind of like a large tortellini):

I find the fresh wrappers purchased from the local wet markets in HK less prone to drying out and are much more pliable than the commercial store bought ones. However if you find the wrappers or dumplings starting to dry out, just cover with a clean moist cloth until you're ready to cook or store them.

4. Bring a pot of water to a roiling boil and cook the dumplings for 4-5 minutes. Meanwhile, make the dipping sauce. When the dumplings are done, scoop them into a shallow bowl and top with  a bit of chopped green onion or cilantro (optional). Serve with the dipping sauce.

You can store the uncooked dumplings in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 days or freeze up to 1 month. Just remember to lay them flat in a single layer so that they won't stick together. Frozen dumplings don't need to be defrosted before cooking. Just drop them frozen into a pot of boiling water for 8-10 minutes.

2014 and the year of the horse

It's a new year and also the year of the horse! We're back with some seasonal fruit from down under:

Australian lychees - sweet, juicy, and a smaller pit than their grown in China counterparts.

 Tasmanian cherries.

 Big, ripe and sweet Australian mangoes.

Is there anything better than waking up to the smell of freshly baked bread? We love love love our new breadmaker! And we love experimenting with different flours and ingredients...

...of course sometimes those experiments don't turn out so well. This was suppose to be pumpkin coconut bread.

Attempt number 2 yielded much better results.

This Honey Oat and Cranberry one is fast becoming a favourite in our household. The recipe makes a 1 lbs loaf. Set your breadmaker to the regular setting with a light crust. Ingredients must be added in the following order:
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp water
1 1/4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup whole meal bread flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oatmeal
3 tbsp honey
1 tbsp dry milk
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup cranberries
1/2 cup pecan pieces

US Barron Point oysters are at the peak of their season now. Have these giant oysters raw or lightly steamed and topped with minced garlic, green onions, cilantro, sizzling vegetable oil and light sodium soya sauce.

Our langoustines were featured in the January 23rd issue of SCMP's 48 hours magazine.

New comer on the restaurant scene Fish & Meat, serves them grilled and lightly dressed to bring out their natural sweetness and flavour.

holiday food

Lots of celebrations this month and we start off with The Peninsula Hotel's 85th Anniversary. An all night party with fabulous food, drink and edible displays.

Black garlic has been making some headlines promoting many health benefits.

We get our hands on some and enjoy the rich balsamic-like flavour it adds to our dishes. Using grass-fed French butter, cream and a mix of fresh shitake and oyster mushrooms, we add the black garlic to our pasta.

For Christmas dinner we get a case of fresh parsnips from the US. We serve them Nigella Lawson's glazed with maple syrup.

Also on the menu is a ginger and apricot glazed ham and New York Magazine's Cauliflower and Gruyere Macaroni Gratin.

Christmas wouldn't be the glutinous holiday it is without all the baked treats. Check out this very moist and delicious recipe for Guiness Gingerbread Cake. And using US sourced dried cranberries, almonds and pecans we make...lots of holiday cookies!

What to do when you get a 11 pound box of cherries?

 The answer is Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Cherry Trifle!

autumn holidays

This holiday time of year in HK showcases some uniquely American autumn produce on supermarket shelves like these Halloween-themed black grapes.

Sugar or baking pumpkins.

Great for making pumpkin pie of course.

Also soups and stews.

And nothing is wasted with the seeds being roasted with a little olive oil and coarse salt.

This year for Thanksgiving, we were very fortunate to try 2 new types of turkey. This one's from Framani and it comes pre-brined and seasoned:

It's oven ready so there's nothing to prepare. Just unwrap and roast.

 This is a Mary's Heritage Turkey:

 Brussel sprouts sauteed with Oscar Mayer bacon:

Corn bread and oyster stuffing:

 

Baked garnet yams. Recipe courtesy of nigella.com:

And another pumpkin pie to end the meal.

quinoa and mussels

We've been experimenting with more quinoa recipes. A black quinoa salad made with red onion, pineapple, cucumbers and an olive oil and white vinegar dressing.

Makes a fruity and crunchy accompaniment to grilled salmon, baby Chinese kale and mixed short grain steamed rice.

This is a mix of black and white quinoa with fennel, mint and lemon vinaigrette.

As we head into the cooler months, US black mussels come into season. These are from the Pacific Northwest.

Steamed mussels in a white wine sauce, recipe adapted from SimplyRecipes.com.

 And this version is made with a champagne cream sauce.

adelaide

We were in Adelaide, Australia this month visiting Ferguson Australia, a premium seafood processor, supplier and retailer.

Their specialty is Australian Rock Lobster and the season has just started.

We also visited the K1 Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills wine region of Mclaren Vale. Below are tastings of their Chardonnay 2012 and Rose 2013.

At the Central Market, we perused the stalls to see what was in season. There were beautiful bunches of butter, red and coral lettuce.

Really vibrant rainbow carrots.

And these not so fresh looking, thick skinned, but actually alright tasting Muscat-like grapes. They must have been leftover or rejects from a wine, table grape or raisin vineyard given how low they were priced.

To round off our trip, we had a lovely lunch experience at Celsius which was opened by a chef who once worked at the famed Noma in Copenhagen. The chef sources local ingredients, uses produce grown on the restaurant's own farm and serves it all with a modern twist. Our starter was a really fresh and pretty salad of Raki cured Kingfish, apple, cucumber and whey. We especially loved the edible floral additions.

For our mains, we decided to try kangaroo (when in Rome...) which was served slightly rare (as it is a very lean meat) and tasted very venison and caribou-like. The kangaroo was paired with turnips (served 3 ways; pickled, ribbon-ed and pureed) and onions (served 2 ways; red wine reduction and powdered form). It was all a delicious melody of complimentary and satisfying flavours.