Stir-fried cucumbers with peanuts and black bean sauce

 Now that I don't always have other people to cater for, my daily cooking often consists of a quick and simple vegetable dish served with noodles. I had never even thought of cooking cucumbers until I had them in a Chinese restaurant with chicken but it struck me that the European aversion to doing so is quite irrational - a low-level taboo even.

Ingredients

1 cucumber
2 tbsps black bean and garlic sauce
1 tbsp minced ginger
2 tbsps vegetable oil
50 g peanuts
1 tbsp soy sauce
6 spring onions

Method

1. Cut the cucumber into thick matchsticks.
2. In a wok or large frying pan, combine the  black bean sauce and the ginger with the vegetable oil, and fry gently.
3. After a minute or so, add the peanuts, fry for another 30 seconds or so, then add the cucumber.
4. Turn up the heat and fry for another 3 minutes, add the soy sauce and chopped spring onions, cook for a further 30 seconds and serve.

Steamed spicy sour aubergine

 It's the sign of a good dish when it evolves in your kitchen over the years. I first started making a version of this as 'yu hung aubergine' about 15 years ago but since then I have simplified it and also pushed it in a spicy sour direction.

Ingredients

1 aubergine
2 tbsps vegetable oil
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp chilli sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsps light soy sauce
4 spring onions

Method

1. Cut the aubergine crosswise into 3 pieces, then cut each piece lengthwise into 6 or 8 wedges. Steam the aubergine for 8 minutes, until cooked but still firm.
2. Combine the oil, ginger and chilli sauce in a frying pan and cook gently for a couple of minutes. (I avoid adding minced ginger to hot oil as it will spit.)
3. Add the aubergine, mix well to coat in the sauce, and fry for another minute or so.
4. Add the vinegar and soy sauce, stir well and simmer for another couple of minutes.
5. Finely chop the spring onions, add to the aubergine mixture and cook for another 30 seconds or so.

I've probably eaten some version of this about once a week for the last five years, usually served with noodles for a quick lunch or supper, but sometimes as a side dish or pimped up with the addition of some firm tofu. The simplest way to vary this dish is by using a different chilli sauce. The aubergines above were made with a tablespoon of Laoganma's Crispy Chilli in Oil. It's not too hot, and includes crunchy soy beans and is flavoured with Szechuan pepper.

Ma Po tofu

In my ongoing search for vegetarian dishes, I cooked this from Fuchsia Dunlop's brilliant book, Every Grain of Rice. Tofu itself is quite bland, so enjoying it is all about using it is a vehicle for other flavours, and appreciating the texture of the tofu itself.

Ingredients

500g plain tofu

4 tbsps of cooking oil

2 tbsps of chilli bean paste

1 tbsp of fermented black beans, rinsed and drained

1 tbsp of minced ginger

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

100 ml of vegetable stock

black pepper

2 tsps of potato flour, mixed with 2 tbsps of cold water

1/2 tsp of ground roasted Sichuan pepper

the green parts of 4 spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

Method

1. Cut the tofu into 2 cm cubes, cover in very hot, slightly salted water, and leave to steep. Prepare the other ingredients. (When I'm cooking Chinese food, I tend to arrange all my dry ingredients on a plate, in their order of use.)  Remove the tofu from the water with a slotted spoon, and put it on a plate.
2. Heat your wok until it is nice and hot, add the oil, reduce heat to minimum, and add the chilli bean paste. Stir fry for about 30 seconds, add the black beans, and stir fry for a few seconds more. Add the ginger and garlic, stir for a few seconds more.
3. Add the tofu, stir gently to coat with the sauce, and add the stock and a few grinds of black pepper.
4. Bring to a boil, simmer for a few minutes, then add the flour and water mixture, and continue to simmer until the sauce thickens.
5. Transfer the tofu and sauce to a serving bowl, sprinkle the Sichuan pepper and spring onion greens over it, and serve.

Pock-marked old woman's tofu

Apparently this is what the Chinese name of this dish means. One can only admire the honesty - it makes a refreshing change from all the adjective-laden titles of restaurant dishes in the UK.

Stir-fried cuttlefish with chorizo and potatoes

This is another Rick Stein recipe. Fresh chorizo is one of those ingredients which is very strongly associated with Spanish cooking in the UK, but which is not actually that widely used in Spain itself. I'd be curious to know by what process this happened. When I went shopping for this, I wasn't really in the mood for cleaning and preparing squid and anyway the squid in the market was quite expensive, so I went for cuttlefish instead (which comes ready cleaned and is much cheaper). Cuttlefish never seems to be eaten in the UK, although we do feed its 'bones' to budgerigars. I was a little worried that I would be in rubber band territory with my cuttlefish substitution, as it is sometimes a little tougher than squid, but I wasn't. It was very tender and tasty, and I allowed myself a smug "domestic scientist" moment.



Ingredients
500g prepared cuttlefish, cut into strips (or squid, cleaned and cut into rings)
plenty of good olive oil
1 fresh red pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
2 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli
750g new potatoes
1 fresh tomato, chopped into chunks
salt and pepper

Method

1. Steam or boil the potatoes whole, in their skins. Once they have cooled a little, peel and slice them.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan, add the cuttlefish and fry for a couple of minutes.
3. Remove the cuttlefish to a bowl, add the red pepper, garlic, chilli and chorizo to the frying pan and fry for a couple more minutes.
4. Add the tomato to the pan, and cook for another minute or so.
5. Return the cuttlefish to the pan, and cook for another minute.
6. Add the peeled, sliced potatoes and cook until heated through, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Pak choi with oyster sauce

Until I had my neither cooked nor raw insight, I was never quite sure what to do with pak choi. This is really simple, but effective. The key to it is that the green parts of the leaves should be slightly singed, while the white stems should still be crunchy and fresh, creating a nice contrast of textures and flavours. If you don't like oyster sauce, or it's against your principles, then you could use some light soy sauce and a little sesame oil instead.




Ingredients
4 small heads of pak choi
4 tablespoons of oyster sauce
vegetable oil

Method

1. Remove any tired-looking outer leaves from the pak choi, and cut any larger leaves in half lengthwise.
2. In a wok or large frying pan, heat a little vegetable oil until it starts to smoke. (As for most stir-fries, the oil is not really a cooking medium as such, just a way of stopping the ingredients from sticking.)
3. Add the pak choi and cook over a high flame for a couple of minutes.
4. Drizzle the oyster sauce over the pak choi and serve.

Chicken with cucumber in a garlic and vinegar sauce

My love affair with cooked cucumber continues. This is a really simple dish, with just a few, clear flavours. The idea of using vinegar was inspired by pickled cucumbers.



Ingredients
500g of chicken breast
4 cloves of garlic
1-inch piece of ginger
6 spring onions
1 cucumber
4 tablespoons of white wine
2 tablespoons of rice vinegar
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
vegetable oil

Method

1. Peel and chop the garlic and ginger. Top and tail the spring onions (removing only the very ends) and cut into 1cm sections. Cut the ends off the cucumber, and cut the cucumber into 3 or 4 segments crosswise. Cut each segment lengthwise into slices - neither wafer-thin nor too thick - discarding the outside slice on each side to reduce the amount of cucumber skin. Then cut the pile of slices in half, lengthwise to give you narrow rectangles. Trim any fat off the chicken breasts, then cut into thinnish slices.
2. Heat the wine in a small saucepan to boil off the alcohol, then remove from the heat and add the vinegar and soy sauce.
3. Heat a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok until it is smoking hot, then add the chicken and stir-fry until it is just done. (It should be cooked but still juicy - not dry.) Remove the chicken to a bowl.
4. Pour away any oil left in the wok, wipe clean then add a little fresh vegetable oil (a couple of teaspoons), and heat until smoking hot. Add the garlic and ginger, fry for a few seconds, then add the sliced cucumber and spring onions and stir-fry until the cucumber pieces are hot. (Take care not to overcook them. The cucumber should still taste crunchy and fresh.)
5. Return the chicken to the wok, together with any juices which have collected in the bowl, add the sauce ingredients and cook over a high flame for a few seconds until the sauce has heated through. Serve with noodles or rice.

Stir-fried mangetout and peppers with noodles

This is now my second cooking session with my sister Annie. Last week we made a coffee cake, and this week Annie decided to do a vegetable stir fry, which fitted in quite well with my current obsession with perfecting some of my basic Chinese techniques. Annie wanted a stir-fry with a sauce, so I made the sauce separately to stop turning the vegetables soggy, and added it at the last moment.



Ingredients
2 peppers
100g mange tout
3 cloves of garlic
1-inch piece of ginger
vegetable oil
8 tablespoons (2 fl oz) white wine
8 tablespoons (2 fl oz) vegetable stock
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 teaspoons of cornflour mixed with 4 teaspoons of cold water
400g fresh noodles

Method

1. Cut the peppers into strips (not too thin) and remove any seeds and white flesh.
2. Peel and chop the garlic and ginger.
3. Mix the wine, stock and soy sauce in a small pan, bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes until the alcohol has evaporated.
4. Add the diluted cornflour and stir well until the sauce has thickened.
5. Heat a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in a wok until it starts to smoke, add the garlic and ginger, fry for a few seconds, then add the peppers and mange tout.
6. Stir-fry for another couple of minutes, making sure that the vegetablese are still crunchy.
7. Add the fresh noodles to the wok and continue stir-frying until the noodles are hot.
8. Pour the sauce over the vegetable and noodle mixture, and serve.

Stir-fried cucumber

Sometimes you eat something which makes you rethink really basic food categories. I've always known that the Chinese cooked cucumber, but it was only when I had some pork with cucumber and black mushrooms at the Wing Sing Inn that I realized that the description is not quite accurate. This, together with the potato salad I had, finally enabled me to understand every Chinese cookery writer's sneering comments about overcooked European vegetables. There is a whole way of cooking vegetables in Chinese cuisine which, in European terms, is really halfway between 'raw' and 'cooked'. I decided to apply my newfound insight to a cucumber, and was pretty pleased with the result.



Ingredients
1 large cucumber
6 small spring onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
vegetable oil

Method

1. Cut the ends off the cucumber, and cut the cucumber into 3 or 4 segments crosswise.
2. Cut each segment lengthwise into slices - neither wafer-thin nor too thick - discarding the outside slice on each side to reduce the amount of cucumber skin. Then cut the pile of slices in half, lengthwise to give you narrow rectangles.
3. Peel the garlic cloves, squash with the side of a large knife,then chop.
4. Cut the spring onions into 1cm lengths, using all but the very leafiest end.
5. In a wok, heat a little vegetable oil until it is smoking, add the garlic and spring onion and fry for a few seconds before addding the cucumber slices.
6. Stir-fry until the cucumber pieces are all hot, but taking care not to overcook them. The cucumber should still taste crunchy and fresh.

Stir-fried ruby chard with black-eyed beans and noodles

Having left our big SLR behind in Spain, I've finally got my hands on a camera and can resume blogging. (For those interested, it's a Panasonic TZ7, which is a little too automatic for my liking but there you go.)

The ruby chard used in this recipe was grown at Tiphereth, a small community just outside Edinburgh. (This is one of two places where my sister, Annie, works during the week. The other is Garvald.)



The black-eyed beans came from a Tesco's tin. However, they reminded me of The Ballad of Billy Joe, by Bobbie Gentry. (If you spotify, you can click here to hear it.)



For anyone who doesn't know it, this is one of those beautiful storytelling Country & Western songs which tells the tale of the suicide of Billy Joe, in which the 'narrator' is involved in some way. One thing which makes the song so intriguing is that the nature of her involvement is left unclear. Another aspect of the lyrics which I love is the intermingling of the tragic and the everyday:

And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge"
"Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge"
'n' Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
"Well Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please"

Ingredients
1 bunch of ruby chard
2 cloves of garlic
1 large handful of cashew nuts
1 tin of black-eyed beans
2 tomatoes
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of chilli sauce
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
fresh noodles

Method

1. Chop the chard stalks into small pieces; cut the leaves more roughly and keep separate. Finely chop the garlic. Chop the tomatoes into smallish chunks.
2. If using dried noodles, prepare them as per the instructions (soaking or cooking, depending on the type).
3. Fry the chard stalks, garlic and cashew nuts in the vegetable oil for 30 seconds or so, add the tomatoes, chard leaves and black-eyed beans, together with the soy and chilli sauce and stir-fry for another 30 seconds.
4. Add the noodles to the mix, stir to mix and heat through the noodles, dress with sesame oil and serve.

Wilted chard
And still on my C&W theme, is Kenny Rogers the only mainstream artist to have written and performed not one but two songs in which impotency plays a key role? (Lucille and Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town.)

Spicy cabbage with black beans and fish sauce

I have had a cabbage lurking in the bottom of my fridge for a couple of weeks now, looking accusingly at me out of the salad tray from time to time. Fortunately it was plastic-wrapped and was able to remain fresh while I got round to deciding what to do with it.



Cabbage on its own can be a bit boring (or even composty), so I think it benefits from strong flavours. I guess this is the thinking behind sauerkraut, and this is a sort of oriental version. It's quite salty and hot, and the black beans give it a slightly smoky flavour.

Ingredients
vegetable oil
1 green cabbage
3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of black beans
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of chilli sauce

Method

1. Remove the core and cut the cabbage into fine strips. Chop the garlic. Rinse the black beans in water to remove some of the salt, and chop.
2. Fry the garlic in some vegetable oil for 30 seconds or so, add the black bean sauce and fry for a few seconds more, then add the cabbage, fish sauce and chilli sauce, stir well, cover and cook gently until the cabbage is cooked but still has a little bite. (Around 10 minutes).

Small is beautiful
Here is my kitchen, complete with laptop on the left and empty beer bottle on the right.