Black Bean & Chilli Prawns with Crisp Noodles This black bean & chilli prawns recipe is a riff on Chinese cuisine’s classic black bean and chilli combo often seen with clams, especially pipis. It’s a very versatile seasoning and great with any seafood, including simple piece of pan-fried fish. Sichuan chilli sauce is made from […]
Prawns with Strange-flavoured Dressing The odd name of this classic Sichuan sauce (also used in bang bang chicken) comes about because the combination of flavours is a strange one that shouldn’t work, yet does. Strange or not, the prawns with strange-flavoured dressing are in a salty, sweet, nutty, tangy, spicy, numbing sauce that definitely tastes […]
Stir-fried Squid with Cumin & Noodles This dish, inspired by the cuisine of Xinjiang in China’s northwest, is all about the noodles and the cumin. While it’s traditionally made with lamb, squid works well because of its firm texture and beef or chicken are also good alternatives. Stretching fresh noodles the traditional Chinese way is […]
Crispy Octopus with Prickly Ash The Chinese double cooking method of poaching or braising then frying is rarely used with seafood due to its delicate texture. The exception is octopus, which can be tough if not cooked correctly; large octopus tentacles benefit greatly from this technique, but it also works well with baby octopus. Prickly […]
Prickly Ash Sichuan peppercorns, those wonderfully numbing little nuggets that are essential to Sichuanese food, aren’t a true pepper but a similar-shaped dried fruit from the prickly ash tree (Zanthoxylum piperitum). This spice has a great aroma, which is amplified by roasting and grinding it. Salt is often considered the foundation of Sichuanese cooking as […]
Pipis with Lemongrass, Chilli & Garlic There’s nothing like a quick and easy stir-fry when you’re short on time. My stir-fried pipis with lemongrass is inspired by a recipe from Mark Jensen in Secrets of the Red Lantern. If I have leftover cooked rice in the fridge I often make a Red Rice Cake to […]
Guangxi-Style Smoked Trout Salad This Guangxi-style smoked trout salad is inspired by a versatile pork salad by Spice Temple chef Andy Evans. It’s more a concept than a recipe; Andy usually makes it with char siu (see video below) and it’s just as delicious with cooked prawns, barbecued squid or even sashimi salmon or tuna. […]
Smoked Eel San Choy Bau Use my smoked eel san choy bau recipe as inspiration for all sorts of san choy bau, wok-tossed chopped prawns or squid make great variations, as do chicken, quail or pork. To get neat lettuce cups remove outer lettuce leaves and reserve for another dish, cut out and discard the […]
Chinese Red-Cooked Chicken Salad Red-cooking is a classic Cantonese technique of braising food in dark soy sauce and Shaoxing wine to give it a burgundy hue. Inspired by a recipe of Cheong Liew’s, I use those ingredients to marinate chicken before baking it. Cheong served a deep-fried version of this dish as part of Neddy’s […]
Crisp Prawn-Topped Eggplant These crisp discs of prawn-topped eggplant are one of my favourite yum cha dishes and I’m grateful to my friend Cheong Liew for teaching me how to make them. When he cooks them, he adds pork mince (and back fat) to the prawn mixture, so feel free to experiment using either or […]
