Even musicians have to eat. Well, I never ate much when I was a lawyer
and never ate much either when I was running 48th Street. But now thing
things have settled down and living a much more simple life, I can indulge
in one of the things I love in life : cooking good food. I would like
to share my own recipe of cooking good food. It is not exactly the Yan-Can-Cook
kind of thing. It is a little more complicated but much more tasty than
your Yan-Can-Cook dish. The dishes I introduce are all manageable in
a normal home kitchen. The dishes are relatively simple but the most
important thing is that they taste good. For starters, here are few
dishes which I would like to introduce
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Stewed Scallops, Mushroom
and Chinese cucumber
Ingredients |
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Chinese cucumber, two. Peel
the skin in stripes and cut them into blocks. |
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Dried mushrooms and scallops.
I don't know the science behind dried food. But one thing, the
drying process trapped all the flavour and the flavour releases
upon cooking. The drying process enhances the flavour of the item
when cooked. |
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Vermicelli. You can get it anywhere. |
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Chicken broth. Any brand would do. |
Cooking steps
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Soak the dried
mushroom and dried scallops in water at least two hours. It is
best to soak the mushrooms and scallop overnight. The dried scallop
is really a tough nut to crack. The thing is really hard as rock
and takes time to absorb water to soften up. |
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Soak the vermicelli in water for at least 20 minutes. |
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Steam the mushroom and scallops
in a wok for 15 to 20 minutes. This is absolutely essential for
softening up the scallops. |
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Put the cucumber and scallop
into a pot, preferable a Chinese ceramic pot as the pot retains
heat and really brings out the flavour of the good. Pour in some
chicken broth and start cooking it with a medium fire. The chicken
broth should be inch high in the pot. |
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If you are in a hurry, put
the lid on. Steam the mushroom and scallop in a wok for 15 minutes.
But if you do that, the green skin on the Chinese cucumber will
lose some of its colour. Doesn't affect the taste thought. |
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When the Chinese cucumber
becomes soft, add in the vermicelli and the dried mushroom and
simmer for about 20 minutes. Add Chinese Spring Unions if you
like. If you want to thicken the soup, add cornflower powder.
Mix the cornflower in cold water in a cup before pouring it in. |
The final product

There you have it. The taste is not very strong
but very subtle. There is an aroma in the food. Delicious.
With Abalone


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Sea Water Crab Served Cold
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First thing to
do is to get some live sea water crabs. These crabs come in different
sizes. The bigger the more expensive. But they taste the same.
Size makes no difference. |
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It is necessary to kill the
crab before cooking. If the crab is still alive, it will struggle
during the cooking process and the legs and clamps will come off
after cooking. You can pierce the breathing organs of the crab
by sticking a chop stick through the gills of the crab. If this
is too gruesome for you, skip this step and go to the next step. |
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Immerse them in tap water.
The crabs will drown in tap water in half an hour's time. If you
pierce the breathing organs of the crab, it will drown in 10 minutes. |
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Put the crabs in a wok and
steam with hot water. Put the lid on. Generally speaking 20 minutes
is good enough. After steaming, put them in the refrigerator to
chill. Two hours will be good enough. The sauce to go with it
would be vinegar or say sauce. If you got for soy sauce, add raw
garlic and spring onion and a drop of sesame oil. |
The final product

After the crabs are chilled, chop them
up and serve.
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Prawns Cooked With Chinese
Wine
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Fresh prawns from the market. Try and
keep them alive before going to the next step. |
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A bottle of Chinese wine "Fa Due" is
required. |
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Pour in the Chinese wine so that the prawns are
completely immersed in the wine. |
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Put a lid on. The prawns will
jump and lip wine all over the place. So this is essential. Otherwise
instead of cooking in your kitchen you will end up cleaning your
kitchen. |
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After soaking in wine for
30 minutes. Put them in a wok with hot water and cook for about
5 to 6 minutes. |
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When you see the prawns turn red they are ready. |
The Final Product

There is a hint of Chinese wine in the flavour
of the prawns. Real nice.
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Steamed Tofu with Chinese Ham
This is one the most
simple dishes here, but this is one of the best. The taste of
Tofu is mild. The taste of Chinese ham is stronger. When you
mix the two together, they taste so good it is hard to imagine.
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There are two
kinds of tofu; one has a softer texture and the other a harder
texture. I prefer the ones with harder texture. For the softer
ones, they don't hold up too well after cooking and often disintergrate
to hundreds of pieces when you try to pick them up. This makes
eating together with the ham difficult. |
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You need a can of Chinese
ham. You can get them in supermarkets or Shanghainese retails
stores. |
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Put an appropriate amount of ham around the tofu
on a plate. |
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Put the dish in a wok and steam with the lid on.
Steam for about 15 minutes. |
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After steaming, bring the
dish out and tip away any water accumulated on the dish. Add Chinese
spring onion and soy sauce. Now the next step is important. Use
a saucepan to boil some cooking oil. Make sure the oil is red
hot. Pour the oil over the tofu and ham and spring onion. |
The Final Product

The best way to eat it is to each
the tofu together with the ham. Their contrast in flavour will
come out. Just heavenly. |
Chinese Cabbage, Mushroom and Ham
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Chinese Long Cabbage. Availiable anywhere. |
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Chop up the cabbage and rinse under tap water. |
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Next up you need Chinese mushrooms. Wash them under
tab water and cut them into halves. |
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Put the mushrooms and cabbage
into a saucepan and pour in chicken broth so that the broth comes
up to an inch high in the saucepan. |
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Use medium fire to low fire
to cook. Put the lid on and cook until the cabbage becomes soft.
The mushrooms is easily cooked. By the time the cabbage is ready,
the mushrooms will be ready. |
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Add in Chinese ham and cook
with low fire for 5 minutes. |
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Pour corns starch into a bowl
and add in cold water. Mix. the corn starch will thicken up the
soup and turn it into sauce. Be careful not to put too much in.
You can always put more, but if you put too much in, the sauce
may become too thick. |
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Pour in the corn starch and
mix. Cook with low fire and stir the contents of the suacepan.
When the corn starch is heated up, it will turn the soup into
sauce. |
The Final Product

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Steamed Scallops With Soya Beans
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Scallops from the market. Get the big ones if you are rich or
get the small ones if you are poor like me. |
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Wash the scallops thoroughly with water. |
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Soya beans will add to the flavour. |
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Oysters With Spring Onion And
Ginger |
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One of the main
problems with cooking oysters, at least in Hong Kong, is how to
really wash and clean them. You really need to clean and wash
them well before cooking. This is how you do it. Rinse them thoroughly
in tap water. |
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Have corn starch at hand.
The corn starch will help clean up the oysters. |
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Add ample corn starch to the
oysters and mix the oysters in the corn starch. Add water to the
brim of the bowl, add water. Stir and mix everything well. |
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Put the oysters under running
tab water to wash away all the corn starch. The corn starch will
carry away al lot of muck on the oysters. Repeat this process
for 4 or 5 times. |
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Boil water in a saucepan.
When the water is boiled, put the oysters in the saucepan. |
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When the water starts turning
opaque and blue, you can take out the oysters. As to how long
you cook it depends how much confidence in the oysters you bought.
Eating oysters, fresh or cooked carries a certain amount of risk.
The longer you cook it the less risky it will be. The the longer
you cook it, the less tasty it becomes and pro-longed cooking
can affect the texture of the oyster. |
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Remove the oysters from the
saucepan to dry. Twenty minutes should be fine. The drier the
oysters the easier it will be cooking them at the next stage. |
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Next up, you need Chinese Spring Onion, some chopped chili, chopped
garlic and ginger slices. |
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More to come |
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