A Chinese Supper For Cook The Books

This month's choice for the Cook The Books Club is "The Last Chinese Chef" by Nicole Mones. "The Last Chinese Chef" introduces the reader to the intricacies of Chinese life and Chinese cuisine through the eyes of Maggie, the outsider journalist from the US, who is recovering from personal tragedy. Maggie arrives in China with two missions: to conduct an interview with chef Sam Liang and to resolve a paternity claim against her husband's estate. Her stay becomes an education (for the reader as well) as she follows Sam's preparations for a competition banquet held in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics. He shares with her thoughts on everything from achieving the right intensity of taste in a dish, to balancing the textures of a meal and even the importance of making allusions to history and literature (in particular poetry) with dishes. Sam's cooking is Chinese food at haute cuisine level - and, as he points out, it bears no resemblance to the western dishes like spring rolls, lemon chicken or sweet and sour pork that are the only Chinese dishes many people have tried.

I found myself completely swept away by this book, so much so that I somehow forgot that it was fiction on the way through. By the time I got to the end and read the author's notes, I was really sad to have these people (who had become so real to me) firmly sent back to the world of fiction. You see I wanted Maggie and Sam to fall in love, commit to each other and run the restaurant together. I wanted them to hire Gao Lan as a waitress and have Shuying as a permanent part of their lives. I wanted Sam to reach enormous professional heights and for his mother to come from the US and see all he had achieved, and for his father and he to discover a closeness as adults that they had never previously had. I even wanted to read the fictional reference materials, quoted in each chapter. Maybe even eat at their restaurant one day......

For me, the cultural reference points were particularly interesting. Some of my family are Chinese, although not from China, but there are clearly many similarities and connections (guanxi!). Certainly the Chinese concern with food and flavour and texture, rang true with me, as did the importance of restaurants in daily life. I felt that much of what Maggie learnt along the way, are also things that I have learnt. I also felt that the ongoing tension between western and eastern perspectives, as personified by Sam who straddles both, was very illustrative. I will certainly be handing this book on to family that I know will love it as much as I did.

So when it came to choosing a meal to cook inspired by this book, I had lots of thoughts on what I wanted to achieve:
- I wanted to illustrate "guanxi" or relationships and connectedness because I was cooking for my family.
- I decided to make the poached chicken that Sam makes for Maggie early in the book. When Sam made this chicken, he reached across the usual journalist / subject divide and paved the way for their friendship to develop, as well as setting her on the path to healing. Maggie says "It was as soft as velvet, chicken times three, shot through with ginger and the note of onion....I may never have tasted anything so good." I had to have a go at it!
- I wanted vegetable dishes to complement the chicken. I chose braised soya beans which were in Kylie Kwong's book "My China" as a Beijing dish, and are therefore hopefully true to the sort of thing that Sam would make. Soya beans are also symbolic of the continuance of society (more guanxi). The snowpea and garlic stir fry introduces the colour of jade to the table, while snowpeas are a Chinese symbol of unity, and garlic symbolizes luck and health.
- I wanted to make a reference to a Chinese fable, as many of the book's dinners referred metaphorically to literature as well, and so I chose the story of the Moon Lady, Chang Er. We ended the meal with ginger cookies in the shape of a moon with a little speck of candied ginger to represent Chang Er sitting on the moon.

While everything was good, I particularly enjoyed the chicken and will definitely use this technique to poach chicken in the future. It was so tender that I could have nearly carved with a chopstick, while the chilli, ginger and coriander dressing gave it a very powerful kick. The cookies were also good - not too gingery, just sweet and crisp with a slightly warm aftertaste. All in all, a great meal that capped off a wonderful story, and which was enjoyed by all of us. In the next few weeks, I will make another meal to take advantage of some of Nicole Mone's recipes - sadly I had already planned my dinner before I discovered that treasure trove.


White Cooked Chicken
from "Recipes and Stories" by Kylie Kwong

1.6 kg free range chicken
6 litres water
3 cups shao hsing wine
6 green shallots, trimmed
12 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped ginger
4 tbls sea salt

Place all ingredients except chicken in a large stock pot, bring to the boil then simmer for 15 mins to infuse flavours.

Rinse chicken and cut away any excess fat. Lower chicken, breast side down into simmering stock ensuring it is fully submerged. Poach gently for exactly 14 mins (reduce the temperature so that there is nothing more than the occassional ripple breaking the surface). Remove pot immediately from stove and allow chicken to steep in stock for 3 hours at room temperature.

Gently remove chicken from stock, being careful not to tear breast skin (I lifted it out with y hands). Place chicken on a tray to drain and cool. Cut the chicken chinese style (bone in with a cleaver). Serve drizzled with soy chilli and coriander dressing below.

Soy Chilli Dressing
1/4 cup mushroom soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 finely julienned large red chilli
1 tbl ginger julienne
1/2 tsp white sugar
2 1/2 tsps peanut oil
1/3 cup corander sprigs
Pinch of szechuan pepper

In a bowl, combine soy sauce, sesame oil, chilli, ginger and sugar. Drizzle over chicken. In a small pot heat peanut oil to smoking point then pour over the chicken. Garnish with coriander and pepper.

Red Braised Soy Beans with Star Anise and Vinegar
from "My China" by Kylie Kwong

1 cup dried soy beans
1/2 cup shao hsing wine
5 cm pice of ginger peeled and finely sliced
1 spring onion trimmed and cut into 5 cm lengths
3 star anise
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup water
2 tbls brown rice vinegar

Soak beans overnight in cold water, then rinse and tip into a heavy based saucepan. Cover generously with cold water, bring to the boil then simmer, adding more water as necessary, for 1-1 1/2 hours or until tender. Drain and set aside.

Sauce: Place shao hsing wine, ginger, star anise and spring onion in a wok. bring to the boil and simmer for 2 mins. Add suagr, soy sauce and sesame oil and simmer for a further minute. Add chickpeas and water and simmer briskly for 10 mins. Stir in vinegar and serve.

Stirfried Snow Peas With Garlic
from "Recipes and Stories" by Kylie Kwong

2 tbl vegetable oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
250g snow peas
2 garlic cloves crushed
1 garlic clove finely diced
1/4 tsp white sugar
1/2 cup chicken stock (I used the stock from poaching the chicken)
1/4 tsp sesame oil

Heat vegetable oil in a hot wok until it shimmers. Add salt and snow peas and stir fry for two minutes. Add garlic and stir fry for 1 min. Add sugar and stir fry for 10 secs. Pour in stock and sim mer for 2 mins or until snow peas are tender. Lastly add sesame oil and serve immediately.

Ginger Moons
from "China Moon Cookbook" by Barbara Tropp

125g cold unsalted butter chopped
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tbl minced fresh ginger
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tbl plain flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup finely diced crystallized ginger

Cream butter and sugar for about 3 mins until smooth. Add both gingers, vanilla, flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until the dough just comes together. Turn out the dough, gather into a ball and flatten slightly.

Dust some parchment paper on a tray with some flour. Place the dough in the centre and roll out to an even thickness of about 2-3 mm. Cover and refrigerate the dough until firm (abt 1 hour). Preheat the oven to 175C, and line baking sheets with parchment. Using a cookie cutter, cut crescent moons, and place 1 cm apart on baking sheets. Press a pie of ginger near the tapered end of each biscuit. Bake until the biscuits are golden, 10-12 mins. Cool on wire racks.

Strawberry Sponge Kisses for Cook The Books

"Humanity can be roughly divided into three sorts of people - those who find comfort in literature, those who find comfort in personal adornment and those who find comfort in food." Or so declares this month's choice for the Cook the Books club on its first page. "The Little White Horse" by Elizabeth Goudge was a childhood favourite of an earlier generation, and a charming choice for us to read. The story follows many of the conventions of children's fiction including dead parents, odd uncles, wicked strangers, a search and a mystery, thrown together with a menagerie of highly intuitive animals, fairy-like people and the inevitable triumph of good over evil. The book was delightful to read and such a change of speed from the sort of novels that I generally find myself engrossed in.

While reading the book, I contemplated what to cook for this challenge. It had to be something that was very traditional "English" food, in keeping with the book. Sausages were a definite possibility because they kept turning up in the descriptions of breakfast, but after a less than successful attempt at Toad in the Hole, I decided to focus on the climax of the book - afternoon tea. The cook, Marmaduke Scarlet, created a high tea banquet with plum cake, saffron cake, cherry cake, iced fairy cakes, eclairs, gingerbread, meringues, syllabub, and more. I decided, if I were Marmaduke Scarlet, I would make for Maria and Robin something light and dainty as the kiss of Loveday Minette, and serve it with strawberry tea. So here are some strawberry sponge kisses, also called powder puffs, that are soft and sugary and perfectly delicious.

The recipe for these sponge kisses comes from The Cook's Companion by Stephanie Alexander, which seems to have every recipe that you could ever want to find, but did not know where to start. The direction to line your trays with baking paper is important - otherwise removing your cakes from the oven trays will damage them. I also think I didn't get my egg whites stiff enough before adding the sugar. The hardest part of the recipe is allowing them to sit for three hours to soften after they are filled with the cream. I'm sure there will be no complaints if I need to try again to perfect this recipe.....

Strawberry Sponge Kisses
from "The Cook's Companion" by Stephanie Alexander

75g plain flour
75g cornflour
¾ tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 eggs, separated
¾ cup castor sugar
stiffly whipped cream
strawberries, sliced
icing sugar


Preheat oven to 210C (if using a fan-forced convection oven, 200C may be better) and line four baking trays with baking paper. Sift dry ingredients, except sugar, three times. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites to soft peaks, then gradually beat in sugar until mixture forms a glossy, stiff meringue. Add yolks one at a time. Sift dry ingredients over mixture, then fold in very gently and thoroughly. Do not stir mixture after this point. It should be firm and when spooned onto trays should not settle or run. Quickly spoon heaped teaspoons of mixture onto prepared trays, well apart to allow for spreading. Cook for 5-7 minutes until sponge-coloured.

Allow cakes to rest on trays for one minute, then, using a spatula, slip them onto a wire rack. When cakes are completely cold, store in pairs in an airtight tin for at least three hours, then fill each pair with a strawberries and whipped cream three hours before serving. They will take about 30 minutes to soften. Dust surface with icing sugar before serving.

A Bowl of Mussels for Anthony Bourdain

This month's Cook The Books choice is "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain. The tale of a chef on the restaurant frontlines in NY, this book made an enormous splash when it was first published. Bourdain brings us alarming tales of poor hygiene and drugged up chefs, as well as allegations of supplier racketeering and managerial incompetence, all against an ultra macho kitchen background. It's a place where a posse of guys treat each other in the same way that I imagine soldiers or pro-footballers or any other male only gang would - simultaneously taking each other apart, while watching each others backs. Readers who are prudish about language, drugs and sex are probably best advised to read something else - but they are also probably people who have never been near this kind of professional kitchen.



This is the second time I have read Kitchen Confidential - the first time I was completely swept along by the anarchy. This time my favourite parts of the book are the tiny details of the restaurant world eg who would have imagined that reach-ins have no light so chefs need to find everything by touch. Or that the lousy pieces of meat are saved for people who ask for it well-done (glad I don't). Or that patissiers are the obsessive compulsives of the kitchen world (well maybe we all could have guessed that one..) I was also amused by Bourdain's tips on what to avoid in restaurants. Among them:
- bargain sushi
- fish on a monday
- brunch
- swordfish
- and of course mussels.


Bourdain opines that "I don't eat mussels in restaurants unless I know the chef, or have seen, with my own eyes, how they store and hold their mussels for service. I love mussels. But, in my experience, most cooks are less than scrupulous in their handling of them. It takes only a single bad mussel, one treacherous little guy hidden among an otherwise impeccable group... If I'm hungry for mussels, I'll pick the good-looking ones out of your order."



So in honour of Anthony Bourdain, I have made mussels. Mussels are now being lauded as an environmentally friendly choice, they are cheap and they are about the fastest thing you will ever cook. The liquid at the bottom of the pot is also delicious - make sure you have some good bread on hand to sop it all up.

Moules Marinieres
(my version adapted from Stephanie Alexander in "The Cook's Companion")
1 onion or 2 shallots, chopped finely
1 hot chilli, deseeded and chopped finely
1 large tomato chopped finely
1 bay leaf
Five peppercorns
500ml dry white wine
2 kg mussels, cleaned and debearded

Tip mussles into a large wok with onion, peppercorns and herbs. Pour in wine, cover tightly and turn the heat up to high. In 4-5 minutes, open the lid, remove all mussels that have sprung open. Allow unopened mussels to cook for a minute longer, then remove those that have opened. Any that are still unopened should be thrown away. Strain pot juices over mussels and serve.

Dates Stuffed With Goat's Cheese - A Middle Eastern Hors D'Oeuvre

This post was meant to be a review of a book that I am looking forward to reading: "The Language of Baklava" by Diana Abu Jabar as a "Cook The Books" challenge. But a series of mishaps have intervened. I saw it when we were in the US but decided not to buy it until we got home because we were so close to being fined for overweight luggage. Then when I got home I found no local bookshops stock the book, although they were happy to order it for me from the publisher in the US. Eventually, I found a bookshop that promised delivery in 5-7 working days, so ordered it in the middle of January, and surprise, surprise, no book thus far....

So to get you in the mood for a review and a recipe which will be forthcoming when the stars align, here is a plate of Middle Eastern inspired nibblies. Very simple to assemble, this dish introduced me to much more sweet and floral flavours than I am used to in an hors d'oeuvre, particularly with the orange blossom water. I am looking forward to exploring more food from the book when it arrives.

Medjool Dates Stuffed With Goat's Cheese and Pinenuts

adapted from "Cuisine Magazine" January 2009

1/2 cup goats cheese whipped with a fork

3 tbls toasted pine nuts, plus extra for serving

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

2 tbls lemon juice

1/4 - 1/2 tsp orange blossom water (add more if you would like a stronger floral flavour)

12 dates sliced open lengthwise to remove the seed (make sure you keep them in one piece for the stuffing)

2 tsps ground sumac

2 tbls coriander leaves

2 tbls extra virgin olive oil

Combine the goats cheese with pine nuts, lemon zest and juice, orange blossom water, salt and pepper to taste, then mix well. Stuff the dates with the goats cheese mixture then sprinkle with sumac, the extra pine nuts, a drizzle of olive oil and the coriander leaves. Serve at rom temperature or slightly warmed.

Beef - Skewered and Stuffed for Cook The Books

In my dreams, I have always imagined running a bookshop cafe. After all, what could be better than combining a love of food and reading? There used to be a cafe like this near where I lived in my early 20s, and even walking past it made me happy. It was tiny with a very eclectic collection of books, mostly fiction and art books I think, and a charming cafe with great sandwiches and little cakes. It also had stern signs telling you to pay for the books before going to the cafe to read them - too many greasy fingers on expensive art books perhaps! Sadly the cafe disappeared more than 15 years ago, and now the closest we get is a Gloria Jeans outlet inside a Borders bookshop - not the concept in my imagination at all.

So you can understand that when I read about the new Cook The Books club starting, I had to join in. The first book chosen was "La Cucina" by Lily Prior. This is a very light romp of a book, full of unlikely plot twists, love, passion and most importantly, lingering descriptions of the food that Rosa, our hero makes, especially for her lover L'Inglese. I didn't love the book, but I must confess that I read it with one eye on what I would make for this challenge. Ultimately, I decided on braciolettine, the meal prepared at the emotional peak of the novel. Rosa goes to the house where her lover is staying (in my mind it is Cary Grant's grandmother's house in An Affair To Remember). She can't find him, so she goes into the kitchen and puts together a beautiful meal of beef thinly sliced, stuffed and baked. I don't want to spoil your fun, so to find out what happens next, you'll have to read the book!

I really loved this and would make it again, maybe as a starter for a dinner party. Definitely use the hot salami - it gives the stuffing a real lift. Scrumptious.

Instead of following a recipe, I decided to cook it as it is done in the book, so here is Rosa's recipe via Lily Prior and me...

Braciolettine

1 fillet of beef, very chilled (put in freezer for it to start to freeze)

1 onion, chopped

1/4 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup parmesan

2 tbl raisins, plumped up in a little hot water for 10 minutes, then drained

1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted

1 tomato, chopped

50g hot salami, sliced thinly

50g pecorino, cubed

Tomato passata, to serve

My fillet was quite long so I cut it in three. I then sliced it as thinly as I could horizontally. Very cold meat makes this easier, so either chill or slightly freeze our beef first. You want to finish up with thin slices of beef about 10cm x 15cm.

Gently fry onion in a little olive oil until it is translucent. Remove from the heat, stir in the bread crumbs, parmesan, raisins, pine nuts and tomato. Season to taste.

Take a slice of beef, lay a small slice of salami on top and then add a tablespoon of the onion mixture and a cube of pecorino. Roll up the beef, and secure it with two skewers. Keep adding more beef rolls to the same skewers until they are full (my skewers took about 6 rolls), then start more skewers if you need to.

Lay on an oven tray, brush with oil, and bake at 180C for 30 minutes. I served it with some tomato passata as a sauce.