Hunan_A Lifetime of Secrets From Mr.peng's Chinese Kitchen

8/17/2019 Hunan_A Lifetime of Secrets From Mr.peng's Chinese Kitchen

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Contents

List of Recipes

itle Page

A few words with Mr PengMichael Peng: A few words aboutmy father

A few thoughts on…

Store cupboard

All about oil

Poultry



Chicken in spicy sauce

Spicy chicken wings

Dry-fried chickenSichuan-style stir-fry chicken

Stuffed chicken wings

Chicken with baby olivesChicken in pineapple and bittermelon sauce

Miso chicken

Lotus root stuffed with chicken

Chicken and water chestnutparcels

Whole stuffed aubergine

Duck and spinach parcels

Chicken-wrapped asparagus



Chicken with red fermented beancurd

Chicken and spinach fritters

Guinea fowl and ginseng soup

Steamed duck with lotus root anddong gua sauce

Duck and lotus root parcels

Pork

Pork with chilli sauceSalted pork

Noodles stir-fried with pork and

bean sproutsSlow cooked pork with Mei Cai

Little Lion’s Head with tofu

Pork mince and aubergine stir-fry



Bamboo cup soup

Egg-wrapped soup

Stuffed pig’s trotters with pak choi

Lamb

Lamb with hot spicy sauceLamb and celery stir-fry

Red roast lamb stew

Lamb with garlic stem and woodear mushrooms

Angelica root lamb stew

Beef

Beef with Chinese water spinach

Beef and orange peel stir-fry



Beef with sweet basil

Red oil beef

Beef and mushroom stir-fryBeef fried rice

Offal

Tripe in spicy sauceOx tongue with marmalade

Pig’s blood and intestines

Red intestines with spinachTongue and ear salad

Frog’s legs with garlic chives

Seafood

Abalone with mushroom and pak

choi



Crab noodle soup

Cuttlefish with lamb’s kidney insuan cai sauce

Octopus salad

Prawns with ginkgo nuts

Steamed prawn and spinach roll

Prawn toast with sweet and soursauce

Prawn nests

Dry-fried prawns

Scallops in spicy sauce

Scallop with asparagus and dong

cai sauceSteamed scallops with cucumberand prawns

Stuffed baby squid



Fish

Rainbow monkfish

Fish roe with Suan CaiSea bass with tofu roll

Steamed sea bass with gingerand spring onion

Deep-fried sea bass with chillisauce

Steamed salmon, cod and chicke

parcelsSkate wings with spinach andbaby olives

Salmon and prawn rolls on woodear mushrooms

Vegetables



Chilli stir-fried cabbage

French chips

Pumpkin ballsCrispy tofu sticks

Tofu and bean sprout salad

Tofu spinach rollMustard greens and tofu

Sauces

Red chilli sauceSichuan chilli sauce

AcknowledgementsIndex

Index of recipes

Index of ingredients



Copyright



List of Recipes


Abalone with mushroom and pak

choiBamboo cup soup

Beef with Chinese water spinach



Beef and mushroom stir-fry



Beef fried rice

Chicken in spicy sauce

Chicken with baby olives

Chicken in pineapple and bittermelon sauce

Chicken and water chestnut parcels


Chicken with red fermented beancurd

Chicken and spinach fritters

Crab noodle soupCuttlefish with lamb’s kidney insuan cai sauce

Chilli stir-fried cabbage



Crispy tofu sticks

Dry-fried chicken



Dry-fried prawnsDeep-fried sea bass with chillisauce

Egg-wrapped soup


Fish roe with Suan CaiFrench chips






Lamb with hot spicy sauceLamb and celery stir-fry

Lamb with garlic stem and wood

ear mushrooms

Miso chicken

Mustard greens and tofu

Noodles stir-fried with pork andbean sprouts

Ox tongue with marmalade

Octopus salad



Pork with chilli sauce

Pork mince and aubergine stir-fry

Pig’s blood and intestinesPrawns with ginkgo nuts

Prawn toast with sweet and sour

saucePrawn nests

Pumpkin balls

Red roast lamb stew

Red oil beef

Red intestines with spinach

Rainbow monkfish

Red chilli sauce



Spicy chicken wings

Sichuan-style stir-fry chicken

Stuffed chicken wingsSteamed duck with lotus root anddong gua sauce

Salted pork Slow cooked pork with Mei Cai


Steamed prawn and spinach roll


Scallop with asparagus and dongcai sauce

Steamed scallops with cucumber

and prawns



Stuffed baby squid

Sea bass with tofu roll

Steamed sea bass with ginger andspring onion

Steamed salmon, cod and chicken

parcelsSkate wings with spinach and babyolives

Salmon and prawn rolls on woodear mushrooms

Sichuan chilli sauce

ripe in spicy sauce

ongue and ear salad

ofu and bean sprout salad



ofu spinach roll












A few words

with Mr Peng

CHEFS OFTEN TALK about wherethey’ve come from, where they’vebeen, what kitchens they’ve workedn and who they’ve worked with. Iyou asked me what inspired me to

start cooking, I honestly don’know. From when I was fourteenyears old, I knew that I wanted towork in a kitchen and that was it.



I’ve always kept my story close tomy heart. As far as I’m concernedall you need to know is that food i

my life.

You might think it’s strange to have

no provenance when food thesedays is all about having roots but I show you my hands, you wiunderstand. Wrinkled and bronzed

with age, they tell of more than haa century’s worth of kitchen storieshe fingers don’t quite fully extend

because they’ve become so familiawith the unyielding handles of thecleaver and the wok. Bleachedwhite lines illustrate cuts that are

so deep they’ve become



permanently tattooed on the skinHardened pads, built up over manyears, are as much a necessity as a

by-product.

When I opened my restauran

Hunan in 1982, it was a sevendays-a-week operation. Today weare open for six. This is probablthe only thing that has changed i

the past thirty years.

Life hasn’t slowed down at all. Evethough I am close to seventy, I’mstill in the kitchen and in therestaurant every day doing prepworking the wok and talking to

guests, many of whom have bee



regulars for years.







My statues of Buddha are high unear the ceiling of the restauranalong with some of the antique

I’ve collected over the years, andmy favourite brush paintings linethe walls. The hand-written order

are still sent down to the kitchen ba chute and the food still travels un the dumb waiter. The restauranhas had a lick of paint here and

there but fundamentally, it is stilthe same.

What makes Hunan unique is ouapproach to dining. I want everyoneto try everything, and to trdifferent things every time, so ther

s no menu. Instead, each guest i



served a selection of small dishesoften more than 15 in one sittingEach plate is a photograph for the

palate, capturing memories oaiwan, Sichuan, Guangdong and

beyond.

he food is simple but the flavourare infinite. It is about teasing outhe best of the ingredients. Subtle

blends of chilli and Sichuapeppercorns push enormous pearlscallops to the edge while keeping

them fresh and sweet, and thegentle salty miso cuts through thetenderest slivers of corn-fed chicketo make the most wonderfu

savoury dish.



With three vinegars, four chilsauces, sprinklings of sugar, pincheof salt, dashes of Shaoxing wine

and slivers of ginger, spring onionand garlic, I create hundreds otried and tested dishes. I alway

use the freshest ingredients of thehighest quality. And that will nevechange.

So you see, there’s no celebrity tosell here. Just experience fromsome fifty years of kitchen life.





Michael Peng: A

few wordsabout my

father

WHEN I WAS asked to write a few

words about my father I wasn’t tookeen on doing it. For starters, don’t really write. More worrying ithe fact that my father is a bit of a



enigma. After all these yeargrowing up and now working in therestaurant with him, I’m still trying

to figure him out. The only thing I’msure of is that he is a gifted coowith an unflinching belief i

traditional Chinese values.

I suppose this is reflected in hicooking style; it is steeped i

tradition but you can’compartmentalise it. If I had todescribe him in three words i

would be: focuseduncompromising, traditionalist. Hes very much a staunch believer iChinese culture, and a man of few

words. He talks only about food an



the restaurant. He lives andbreathes food and when he doeexpress himself, he expresses

himself the only way he knows howthrough cooking. I don’t think wehave ever sat down and had a

personal conversation, it is just non his character. He’s coy about thepast and rarely expresses hifeelings, but this is a common trai

among his generation. Everything know about him centres on cookingand the restaurant.

If anything, becoming a dad mysehas brought my father and mecloser together. It’s surreal to see

my children playing in the



restaurant now, like I did all thoseyears ago, and it not only illustratehow quickly time has passed bu

how proud I am of what he haachieved.

It was clear to me from a youngage that he is a creative, tireleschef who never stops and is nevesatisfied. His is the stereotypica

mmigrant story about a couple whcame to the UK with nothing buthe desire to better their lives.

My father often tells me, ‘talk icheap and nothing substitutes hardwork and a strong work ethic’. Back

when he first started he didn’t have



a day off for over ten years. Even anearly seventy years old, he inever idle and will still put in a shif

and a half; when the rest of thechefs are taking a break, hecontinues with the prep. It keep

him young and he will only stowhen he is physically unable to dot any more.

His values have been instilled intome and my sisters over the yearsWe were all expected to pull ou

weight as youngsters and wealways had to make a contributiotowards the business. As much awe resented working throug

weekends and holidays, greeting



and serving customers or washingthe wok in the basement, it madeus realise how difficult it was bac

then for our parents, which is not abad thing.

Customers often ask me why therestaurant is called Hunan. Thesay, ‘Your father’s cooking is notHunanese?’ That’s true. It’s anothe

quirk in his personality. When therestaurant first opened he serveddishes mainly from the Huna

province, such as double-cookedpork, and some of these originadishes are still being offered tocustomers today. But over the year

my father has adapted and



ncorporated the other styles ocooking he had learnt before heopened Hunan. His cooking style i

a mixture of Hunanese, TaiwaneseCantonese, Sichuan and NortherChinese (dong bei). The restauran

was named in honour of his firsmentor who taught him Hunanesecooking and he will never changethe name.

My father doesn’t do change. Hetells me all the time that change i

bad and made me promise not toalter the kooky layout of therestaurant so to this day the interioand décor of the restaurant remain

the same. My grandfather laid ou



the plans for the restauranaccording to feng shui which plays abig part in our lives. There are lot

of idioms and behaviours that weadhere to. When sweeping the floowe always sweep inwards, no

outwards towards the direction othe front door. If you do this, imeans you are sweeping goodfortune away and out of the

restaurant.

he way our chefs work ha

changed very little over the yearshow we operate day to day is thesame. We tried to bring in acomputer system but it just didn’

work because we don’t have a



menu. As a result, we still have towrite the orders by hand. It’s timeconsuming and sometime

frustrating but that’s how my fatheikes it. The biggest change to havehappened to the restaurant in thirt

years is that we are now open sinstead of seven days a week.





Despite having countlesopportunities to expand, my fathehas never wanted to. He’s very

hands on in the restaurant andwants to be there every daymeeting, greeting and cooking. He

used to work the front of house in asuit and would then rusdownstairs, whip on an apronmake a dish and then whizz back u

again, plate in hand. It warelentless.

When the restaurant first opened i1982 the intention was never tohave ‘a no menu policy’. There wasa short à la carte menu with abou

forty dishes on it and a ‘leave it to



us menu’. My father sometimesused to ‘force’ different dishes on tocustomers which didn’t go down too

well. A customer would order sweeand sour pork and dad would servethem a completely different dish

He would try and explain that theyshould try something different, hewanted to educate them.

Back in the Eighties most Chineserestaurants in the UK wereCantonese and he wanted to le

people know there was more toChinese cuisine. However, thereality was that many customerwere horrified that the chef had the

audacity to give them something



they hadn’t ordered. Fortunately wealso had some customers who werebowled over by the differen

cuisine, and these customers havebeen coming back ever since.

My most vivid recollections of therestaurant as a child were of lots ocustomers walking out and lots oshouting on Pimlico Road. My fathe

s not the type to hold back. At thatime he had more sceptics thafans so business was tough and we

almost folded. But in typicafashion, he stuck to his guns. Aword spread and customers startedto put more trust in him, evening

would go by where no one ordered



from the menu and eventually, dueto the lack of demand, he decidedto just stop doing it. It was down to

his sheer persistence, belief that heknew best and the fact that hewanted to share his knowledge wit

the customers that the menu-lesset up remained.

here is no question that afte

thirty-one years he is still a bigpersonality in the restaurant. Hehas been described as arrogant and

bolshy, which is true to an extenbut one thing is for sure, he won’change a single thing.

You could say this book is a



culmination of his life’s work. Hehas been wanting to do this for aong time. I recall our first meeting

to talk about the book. My fathesaid ‘I don’t care about the moneywhich is probably not the wises

thing to say. But in that split secondhe had already made up his mindand knew what he wanted to dohis is an insight into my father.





A few thoughts

on...

Flavour

he vast array of flavours iChinese cuisine is not easy toachieve, even if you have all of the

ngredients. Although we do a lot othings by eye in the kitchen, theright balance comes from years oexperience and, of course, tasting

everything.



hat said, it’s important toremember that these recipes areevery bit as much yours as they are

mine when you get to the kitchenWith that in mind, the quantitiegiven should only be used as a

guide and you can use thequantities that you feel comfortablewith – not everything needs to beas salty or spicy as I like it.

he easiest way to achieve youpreferred combination is by mixing

all of the ingredients for saucesdressings and marinades in a bowbefore applying to the rest of thengredients. Here, before you star

the cooking, you will have a



opportunity to taste it and decide the flavours are right for youpalate.

At the restaurant, we wouldtypically serve between 16-18

courses for a meal, each one amorsel of deliciousness, ripe for thepalate. This is perfect for usbecause it means that our guest

can have so many different flavouexperiences in one sitting.

In China we have always eatenose-to-tail and believe in makingthe most of the entire animal. Offasn’t to everyone’s liking but a

Hunan we transform the forgotte



bits of the animal into deliciousaromatic dishes that even the mossqueamish diners enjoy. Try the

recipes for tongue and ear salad op.160 and ox tongue witmarmalade on p.150 and I’m sure

you will change your mind!

Be mindful of three things.

Firstly that the main ingredientthemselves will add flavour to thefinished dish and also take flavouaway, so make sure the flavouringscomplement the natural saltinesssweetness, acidity and bitterness othe main ingredient. For example, a

fermented ingredient like preserved



vegetables will need less salt thasomething like chicken, and arelatively flavourless addition like

noodles will need more flavour tobe imparted from the sauces andmarinades.

he second consideration is howyou will eat the dish. At Hunan, wedon’t serve rice or noodles until the

end of the meal so the dishes arerelatively less salty than you mighotherwise find them. Depending o

whether you serve the dish with owithout rice, you may need toadjust the flavours accordingly.

And finally, remember that any



iquids used in the cooking wireduce during the cooking processespecially in the hot and fas

cooking of stir-fries where wateevaporates quickly. It’s advisabletherefore to add a little water o

stock to a sauce before cooking toaccount for the evaporation duringcooking.

Temperature

here are three cookingtemperatures, each used fodifferent types of cooking.



Wei huohe lowest of the three is called

wei huo. This is best for slowcooking dishes such as stews andfor more delicate ingredients likefresh tofu. Ideally, use a casserole

dish for slow-cooking to allow evedistribution of heat.

Zhong huoMedium heat, or zhong huo, isuitable for some meats, seafoodand noodles. This is when thengredients take slightly longer tocook, so you need a lowe

temperature to prevent burning.



Da huoDa huo is the highest of the three

temperatures and commonly usedfor stir-frying anything that needfast cooking, or that must be eatestraight after leaving the pan, fo

best results. It’s only achievablewith a steel wok. However, there’sa certain fragrant freshness tha

comes from stir-frying in a reallhot wok that can’t be replicated bany other method of cooking. That’what the Chinese often refer to a

gou wei , or ’taste of the wok’.

When cooking at high temperature

at home, make sure the oil in the



pan is almost smoking beforeadding salt and then the rest oyour ingredients. Like with deep

frying, make sure your ingredientare completely dry, otherwise youmay be surprised by the amount o

scalding oil that will splash back.

The wok

he most commonly used piece oequipment in the Chinese kitchen ithe steel wok. Its shape keeps the

food in the pan during stir-fryingand helps the food to cook quicklyt’s easy to clean between dishesand the highest cooking



temperatures are only achievablewith a steel wok. Its large surfacearea means that ingredients ca

cook in moments on an even heat.

The steamerAlways use a bamboo steamer, as iallows the steam to circulate duringcooking. With metal and plastisteamers, you get too muccondensation forming at the top.

o use your bamboo steamer, set apan of water to simmer on the hoband take a steamer which will sit otop of the pan where the lid would



otherwise be. We usually steam thedish in whatever plate it will beserved on, so make sure your plate

are steam-proof before using themn the steamer.

inegar

When cooking on a high heat, asmall amount of vinegar addedright at the end of cooking, jusbefore the stir-fry leaves the wokhelps to lift a dish. It’s a last-minute

addition as prolonged cooking wialter the flavour of the vinegar andtherefore the dish.



he vinegar will also help to softeany vegetables in the stir-fry as ireplaces the water that ha

evaporated during cooking. Thiway, the vegetables in a stir-frystay tender, crunchy and aromatic.



Store cupboard

Chinese cuisine is all about thebalance of flavours and ingredientsIt’s never as simple as adding salor butter to a dish. Instead, it’much more about blending thenuances in the flavours of differenngredients until you find the poin

where everything works in harmonand the best part of each ingredienshines through.



In the Hunan kitchen, we have avariety of store-cupboardngredients – fresh, fermented, we

and dried – to help us achieve thepoint of perfection in our cookinghey lend us limitless possibilities

Some ingredients, like salt andsugar, go into almost every dishothers, like miso paste and Chinesefive spice, in just a few. But each

one is important for the layer oflavour that it brings to the dishand each is the best quality we ca

get.

For the home kitchen, you reallydon’t need to stock up on a huge

number of ingredients and you ca



make substitutions to achieve theflavours you’re looking for. But tomake authentic, unique dishes

always have the following stapleat your fingertips:





Fresh

Ginger

Ginger is used in Chinese culture for it

medicinal properties as well as its flavourt’s almost always fresh but you can freezt if you have too much. The spicy perfums especially important in seafood dishe

but its earthy flavour also works well fomeat. For these recipes the ginger can bsliced, minced, shredded or simply crushedepending on the length of time of cooking

For dressings, it’s always used wit



vinegar.

Spring onions

Spring onions are used during cooking a

well as as a raw garnish. They can be cunto medallions (or ’coins’), on thdiagonal, shredded or just in lengths.

he stalk of the spring onion has stronge

lavours and is perfect for soups as maintains clarity, but the green of the planadds great colour for contrast in stir-friesSpring onion also has the wonderfu

property of being able to remove thsometimes unsavoury smell of offal anseafood.



Garlic

We use garlic in many ways at Hunan bu

ts flavour can be overpowering, so walways use it sparingly.

Whole garlic cloves, with skin on or off, are

used in marinades and soups. Sliced garlis added to stir-fries to provide flavour ansometimes for aesthetic purposes, anminced garlic is used to flavour dressing

and sauces.n some dishes, we use garlic juice instea

of garlic cloves. It’s made simply bsoaking minced garlic in water, before

straining. The concentrated allium notes ohe garlic juice often work better tha

garlic cloves in marinades.



Fresh red chillies

Fresh red chillies appear most often as

garnish because of their striking colour. Incertain dishes, they are added as they hava more subtle spicy flavour than the chilsauces and don’t have the smokiness o

he dried red chillies.

Chillies are available in all sorts of colourand you can always use the variety tha

you’re comfortable with. For a little lesspice, simply remove the seeds.



Fermented

Fermented bean curd

here are lots of different kinds oermented bean curds but the two mai

ones are the red fermented bean curd anhe white fermented bean curd.

Red fermented bean curd (hong fu ru,

s made by fermenting bean curd (tofuwith red yeast rice, which gives the beacurd its distinctive colour but also a morconcentrated flavour than white fermente

bean curd. It adds umami flavours t



marinades and sauces but also imparts antastic red colour to the finished dish.

White fermented bean curd (dou fu ru,

is normally used for vegetables and dipsRed fermented bean curd is used ioasting and grilling and for cookin

sauces. Both are ready to eat and argreat with Chinese mantou or congeChinese rice porridge).



Wet

Soy sauce – dark andight

Many of you will already know there arwo different types of soy sauce – dark (la

chou, ) and light (sheng chou, ). Wha

you might not know however, is how they

differ and when to use them. As a guidedark soy sauce is darker in colour than lighsoy sauce. Light soy sauce is used tlavour food while dark soy sauce is use

more to impart colour.



Stock

One of the most widely used ingredients i

he kitchen is stock. It goes in soupsnoodles, stir-fries and sauces. Just aboueverything really.

Chicken stock is often used as it gives great depth of flavour but isn’t tooverpowering for lighter dishes. In moscases, if you don’t have stock to hand, yo

can always use water. Sometimes, inhings like soups, it’s very important t

have a good stock for the base. You casubstitute chicken stock for vegetabl

stock if you are feeding vegetarians.

Sesame oil



Sesame oil is nutty and aromatic. It caoverpower food if it is used in the cookinprocess but it’s perfect for adding interes

o a dish at the end of cooking.As it’s quite dense in both aroma anexture, it’s important to taste the othengredients of a dish before you add th

sesame oil to ensure that you have thight balance of flavours.

Shaoxing wine

Shaoxing wine is an aromatic alcohol mad

rom fermented rice and is used throughouChinese cooking. It has an inherensweetness so sometimes sherry can maka good substitute but it’s indispensable fo

adding complexity to light and fresh dishe



such as steamed fish.

Deep-fried shallots andshallot oil

here’s a word in Chinese called xiang t embodies fragrance and aroma, a sort oumami for the nose. Deep fried shallotand shallot oil are both added to dishes fo

he xiang that they bring to the table. Deeried shallots add a softly crunchy texturwhile the shallot oil, a by-product omaking the deep fried shallots, is perfec

or drizzling over finished dishes and focooking when its heady perfume is needed



Dried

Sichuan peppercorns

Sichuan peppercorns are now a familiangredient in Western cuisine. The

produce a delicately hot, but distinctivelnumbing sensation on your tongue. Thesmell and taste is quite different from thaof other peppercorns and they featur

prominently in many cuisines, not jusSichuan.

he peppercorns can be used either whol

or ground. Uncooked whole Sichua



peppercorns are naturally fragrant bubecome even more so when heated durincooking. They add just a hint o

pepperiness to dishes but you can leavhem out if you want to avoid the numbin

sensation on your tongue.

Ground Sichuan peppercorns are made b

irst toasting the peppercorns in a dry pauntil they begin to release their fragrancebefore crushing them. The result is smalecks of pepper, rather than a finely milled

powder, that can be easily added todressings.

Add some salt to toasted, crushed Sichua

peppercorns and you will have jiao yanthe basic flavouring in dishes such as dryried prawns.



Dried chillies

We have used two forms of dried chillies i

hese recipes – whole dried red chillies anchilli flakes.

Whole dried red chillies are added to stir

ries to provide colour contrast and a hinof heat. Chilli flakes are used to flavoudishes and also to make chilli sauces anoils.

Ground pepper

n Chinese cuisine, ground white pepper iused more frequently than ground blacpepper. While both offer subtle pepperynotes, ground white pepper is the mor

delicate of the two and works better i



ish, seafood and chicken dishes. Blacpepper is more robust and works well witstronger-tasting meats such as lamb an

beef.

Chinese five spice

Chinese five spice is a very finely grounmixture of star anise, cloves, cinnamonSichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds. It’

great for bringing fried foods to life and focertain sauces when you just want a hinof spice.

Star anise andcinnamon



Star anise and cinnamon are almost alwayused together in Chinese cuisine becaushey work well together and are quit

harmonious for most dishes. It’s becausof this that as a spice category, they arecalled da liao or big flavours.

here’s no set occasion for when they arused in Chinese cookery. Normally they areused for meats as they can be tooverpowering for vegetables, althougsome people like the taste they bring to dish.

CornflourCornflour is so versatile in the kitchen. It’used to dust ingredients before frying s

hat they are extra crispy. Slaked cornflou



roughly three parts water to one parcornflour) helps to thicken sauces. It’used to coat meats to help them sta

ender by sealing in the moisture. And ocourse, cornflour is great for helping fillingo bind together.

Salt and sugar

Salt and sugar really need no introductio

as ingredients – they are used to adlavour and balance. Sugar, especially, isused to address the acidity from vinegarand from the natural acidity of th

ngredients.

he salt used in this book is plain cookinsalt while the sugar is granulated whit

sugar or, where specified, palm sugar.





In addition to the keyngredients, there are a few

others that are worthhaving in your storecupboard, or at leasknowing about. If you can’find them in your usua

supermarket, you canobtain them from Chinesestores, supermarkets o

online stockists.

Miso paste



Miso paste is often regarded as a Japanesngredient but is actually very similar to thermented tofu used in Chinese cuisine

While fermented tofu is made with soybeans and tends to be saltier, with a sofcurd texture, miso paste, when made witice, is drier and sweeter. Adding Shaoxing

wine and fresh ginger will help bring it tife and inject a wonderful aroma whilvinegar will balance its natural sweetness.

Tian mian jiang

ian mian jiang, or sweet flour paste, i

made from fermented flour and soybeans. It’s similar to Hoisin sauce but idarker, sweeter and has greater complexitn flavour. If you can’t find it, you can

always substitute it with Hoisin sauce.



Sesame seeds

Sesame seeds, while aromatic whe

oasted, are mostly used as a garnish. Isome dishes, like the spinach parcels, thealso add texture.

Red yeast rice

Red yeast rice is created as a result of ricbeing combined with a special kind oyeast. The earthy flavours are subtle but does add a vibrant red colour to dishes s

t’s often used as a natural colouring.

Jiu qu



iu qu, sometimes translated to wine rices an alcoholic rice product where the ricused in the fermentation process is left i

he alcohol. It doesn’t have a stronalcohol content but it’s very aromatic anhas a hint of sweetness and acidity.

Red chilli oil

Clear red chilli oil is used both as a garnish

ts vibrant red colour offering contrast, analso to impart fiery heat. Ready-madvarieties are widely available but chilli oil ialso simple enough to make. Just add ho

oil to chilli flakes, and allow to cool beforstraining.



Chilli sauce

Chilli aficionados will knowthere are lots of differenchilli sauces. Aside from theobvious differences in heatthere are also differen

evels of acidity, sweetnesssaltiness and sometimessavouriness which in turn

match different dishes. Fo



example, the sweeter oneswork better for Cantonese

style dishes and the spicieones work better in stirfries.

here are two main chillsauces used at Hunanboth made in-house. Focertain dishes, we also use

ready-made chilli saucesike sweet chilli sauce ochilli bean sauce which

adds additional flavours



and textures.

Red chilli sauce

he vibrantly red chilli sauce is the les

spicy of the two house chilli sauces and itlavours are more rounded. The tomatpurée in the sauce gives it stunninstructure which helps to carry the chil

lavours through. See here.


he Sichuan chilli sauce is almost too daro be recognisable, until you taste it. Thoasted chilli flakes creates a dense smok

base for the fiery chilli oil. To top it off





inegar

Vinegar is used to addacidity to almost every stirfry dish right at the endust before the wok leavesthe heat. The punchy

freshness it adds helps toift the flavour and aromaof the dish.



here are several differentypes of vinegars, creating

different flavour profilesIt’s certainly not just thestandard Chinese blackvinegar – though of coursethat’s used too.

White wine vinegar

White wine vinegar is the most widelused. It works in dishes with seafoodchicken, duck and vegetables and in mansoups. It has a light profile so adds aciditwithout adding other flavours.



Red wine vinegar

Red wine vinegar works best in dishe

eaturing beef, lamb and gamey meats. Ihas a more rounded acidity which lendweight to a dish. So while white winvinegar might be overpowered by re

meats, red wine vinegar will sit quitcomfortably and add freshness to the dish

Chinese black vinegar

Chinese black vinegar is so distinctive tha

t’s rarely used. Its intensity and complexitof flavours is great in marinades but can boverpowering in stir-fries.



All about oil

What kind of oil?At Hunan I cook with vegetable oand never with animal fats whethe

I am stir-frying, pan-frying or deepfrying. It’s much healthier and alsogives the dish a fresh, clean flavour

I do sometimes use otheflavourless oils such as rapeseed oas long as they can withstand the

heat of the wok or deep-fat fryer



Sesame oil should only be used as aflavouring and never for cooking.





How to deep-fry safely?

here are many safety concern

around deep-frying. As anyone whohas deep-fried anything will knowunless your ingredients and utensilare completely dry, hot oil wilsplash out of the pan. Dab anremaining liquids off ingredientwith a paper towel and shake of

any excess batter.

he best way to achieve the rightemperature when deep-frying is to

et the oil heat up from cold. It wibegin to come to temperature whethe oil starts to move around in the

pan unaided and this is when yo



should test for temperature. Youcan do this by using a temperatureprobe. If you don’t have one, use a

tester piece. Place a small testepiece of your ingredients into the ocarefully. It should bubble and floa

easily on its own but not turn browwithin 10 seconds. If it does, the os too hot and you should allow it tocool by taking it off the heat.

When you put the item to be deepfried into the oil, make sure you use

a dry spatula or slotted spoonGently slide the ingredient into theoil and away from you. You shouldcover your arms to give yourse

maximum protection from burning.



When taking things out of the hooil, turn the heat off from under thepan and use a dry slotted spoon to

remove your items to a plate.













Recipe ListChicken in spicy sauce

Spicy chicken wings

Dry-fried chicken

Sichuan-style stir-fry chickenStuffed chicken wings

Chicken with baby olives

Chicken in pineapple and bitter melonsauce

Miso chicken


Chicken and water chestnut parcels






Chicken with red fermented bean curdChicken and spinach fritters


Steamed duck with lotus root and dong gua sauce






Chicken in

spicy sauce

his dish works brilliantly

as a snack because it’ssimple and straightforward.Perfect, in fact, as a nibbleto accompany a glass of beer.



Makes 4 portions

1 chicken breast, thinly sliced

2 tbsp cornflour, to coat

1 egg, beaten, to coat

vegetable or rapeseed oil, for deep-frying

For the sauce:1 tbsp Sichuan chilli sauce (see recipe onhere)

2 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp shallot oil

1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced

1 spring onion, finely sliced½ tsp tian mian jiang

2 tsp water

salt and sugar, to taste



Heat a good glug of oil in a wok,until it’s nearly smoking.

Coat the chicken slices with thecornflour and then the beaten egg.

Deep-fry the chicken slices in the

hot oil for a minute or so. Whenthey begin to turn golden, removefrom the oil and set aside. Discard

the oil.Mix all the ingredients for the saucen a bowl and adjust for seasoning.

When you are happy with theflavour, pour the sauce into the woand heat through.

Return the chicken to the wok to



warm through.

Season with salt and sugar to taste

before serving.





Spicy chicken

wings

his salty and aromatic

dish is another greatcompanion to beer.Marinating the chicken fora short time beforehandhelps the flavours seep

through while keeping the



meat delicate enough so itdoesn’t fight with the spicy

dressing.

Makes 4 portions

4 chicken wings, skin on

For the marinade:

4 tbsp Shaoxing wine

2 tbsp garlic juice

2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns

1 tsp salt

For the dressing:

2 tsp chilli oil

½ fresh red chilli, finely sliced



1 spring onion, finely sliced

o garnish:

sesame seeds

Mix all the ingredients for themarinade together in a bowl, addthe chicken and leave to marinatefor 5 minutes.

Heat a griddle or griddle pan, andslowly cook the wings on a mediumheat without adding any oil. Youwant the skin to crisp up evenly but

the meat to be cooked through.his should take around 20

minutes.



Meanwhile, mix all the dressingngredients together in a bowl.Adjust the seasoning.

When the wings are ready, spoonthe dressing over them and sprinklewith sesame seeds before serving.





Dry-fried

chicken

Chicken cooked this way is

very crispy and fragrantwithout being too dry. It’sanother great nibble toenjoy with an ice-cold beer

Makes 4 portions



1 chicken breast, cut into thin strips


2 tsp oil

3 fresh red chillies, sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

vegetable oil for deep-frying

3 spring onions, thinly sliced

salt and crushed Sichuan peppercorns, toseason

Coat the chicken strips withcornflour.

Heat a good glug of oil in a wok until it’s nearly smoking.

Deep-fry the coated chicken breast

on a high heat until golden-brown.



In a clean wok, dry-fry the chillies,garlic and spring onions until theybecome fragrant. Add the chicken

to the pan, season with the salt andcrushed Sichuan peppercorns, thenstir through to warm before serving





Sichuan-style

stir-fry chicken

Deep-fried chicken is really

dry so when you add asauce to it, it will soak upall of the juices andflavours immediately. Thatmeans you will need to

work quickly once you’ve



added the chicken to thesauce to make sure that

the chicken is still crispybut full of flavour when itreaches the table. This is adish that will not wait!

Makes 4 portions

1 chicken breast, cut into thin strips

cornflour, to coat


For the sauce:

1 tbsp Sichuan chilli sauce (see recipe onhere)



1 tsp crushed Sichuan peppercorns

1 garlic clove, minced

½ tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp cooking oil

1 tsp sugar

pinch of salt

o serve:

1 spring onion, roughly chopped

Coat the strips of chicken first withcornflour and then with beaten egg

to create a light batter coatingaround the meat.

Heat a generous amount of oil in a

wok and deep-fry the meat on a



high heat for 5 minutes or so untilthe chicken turns golden. Removeto kitchen paper to drain, and set

aside.

Meanwhile, mix all the saucengredients together in a bowl, andadjust the seasoning. Add to aclean wok or pan and heat through

When the sauce is ready, add thechicken strips and quickly stirthrough. Remove to serving plates,add the chopped spring onion and

serve straight away.





Stuffed chicken

wings

he juxtaposition of the

crispy outside and yieldingnside makes these wingspositively moreish, andthey are great as a snack with drinks before dinner.



Makes 6 portions

6 chicken wings, upper lengths only

cornflour to coat

For the filling:

40g dried shrimps

4 dried shiitake mushrooms2 lengths Chinese sausage

200g cooked sticky rice

2 tbsp light soy sauce

o serve:

Sichuan chilli sauce, deep-fried shallots anshredded lettuce

Cook the sticky rice according to thnstructions on the pack, and set

aside.



Soak the dried shrimps and shiitakemushrooms in some stock torehydrate them. Once they have

softened, drain and finely chopalong with the Chinese sausage.

In a wok, heat a little oil and stir frythe shrimp, mushroom, sausageand rice with the soy sauce untilwell combined.

Make the wings into drummers bystripping back the flesh along thebones, ensuring that one end of the

wing is still attached to the bone.Make sure you keep the wing meatwhole so you can stuff it. Dust

nside and outside with a little



cornflour.

Stuff the wings with the filling and

wrap tightly in cling film.

Set your bamboo steamer on top ofa pan of simmering water and

steam the parcels on a plate for 5minutes until the meat is cookedthrough.

Mix a little of the cornflour withsome water to make a light batter.Unwrap the steamed chicken wings

carefully and lightly coat with thebatter.

Deep-fry the stuffed wings until

golden.



Once the wings are ready, sliceopen diagonally and serve on top oa bed of shredded lettuce and dress

with Sichuan chilli pepper sauce anddeep-fried shallots.





Chicken with

baby olives

Baby olives are preserved

with their stones intact soyou have to be carefulwhen eating this dish asthe seeds are inedible. If you remove the seeds

before cooking, the baby



olives will disintegrate.hey are essential to the

flavour of this dish becausethey give a dry sweetnessand add a savoury note notfound in other olives. If youcan’t get hold of baby

olives, ordinary olives willbe fine, just make sure thayou remove the stones and

cut them into quarters.

Makes 4 portions

1 chicken breast, finely sliced



1 beaten egg to coat

cornflour to coat

1 tbsp stock

2 tbsp baby olives

2½ cm ginger, finely sliced

2 red chillies, finely sliced

2 tsp Shaoxing wine


2 tsp sesame oil

salt and sugar to taste

Coat the chicken breast withcornflour and beaten egg beforeshallow frying in a wok of hot oil foabout 1 minute. As the colour of themeat begins to change, remove

from the oil and set aside.







Chicken in

pineapple andbitter melon

sauce

he unique combination of pineapple and bitter melon,two seemingly opposite

flavours, is a perfect



example of yin and yangharmonising. The yin and

yang refers to the effects ofood on the body –pineapple falls into theyang category while thebitter melon is the yin. The

balance is a delicate oneand requires slow andcareful cooking. If you cook

the pineapple for too long,ts sugars will begin toburn, and the longer you



cook the bitter melon, themore bitter it will become.

Makes 4 portions

200g chicken mince, from thighs

½ spring onion, finely chopped2 water chestnuts, minced

2 tsp cornflour, to bind, plus more fordusting

pinch of salt


1 tsp water

vegetable or rapeseed oil, for frying

For the sauce:

25g pineapple, finely diced



25g bitter melon, finely diced

100ml chicken stock

1 cm piece fresh ginger, thinly sliced

1 spring onion stalk, thinly sliced

¼ red chilli, thinly sliced

1 tsp sugar


1 tsp slaked cornflour

salt, to taste

First, make the sauce by heatingthe pineapple and bitter melon withthe stock, and simmer gently forabout 20 minutes. The sauce isready when you can break downthe pineapple and melon pieces

with the back of a spoon.



Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix thechicken mince with the springonion, water chestnuts and the 2

teaspoons of cornflour. Season witha pinch of salt.

Form the mixture into walnut-sizedballs and place on a tray lined withcornflour. Once you have made allthe balls, shake the tray to dust all

the balls with cornflour.

Mix the beaten egg with theteaspoon of water, and blend. Dip

the chicken balls in the eggmixture, then shake to remove theexcess egg.



Heat a little oil in a wok, andshallow-fry the chicken balls. Whenthe edges begin to take on colour,

turn the balls over to cook the otheside.

When both sides are golden,remove the chicken balls to aseparate, dry pan and cook bothsides to crisp up the edges.

When the pineapple and bittermelon from the sauce havesoftened, remove from the heat an

add the ginger, spring onion, chilli,sugar, vinegar and a little salt.aste for seasoning before adding

the slaked cornflour, return to the



heat and cook to thicken.

When the chicken balls are ready,

cut in half and put on a servingplate. Pour the sauce on top, andserve.





Miso chicken

o balance the drysweetness of the miso

paste, add Shaoxing wineand ginger for aroma andvinegar for acidity. Chicken

breast is a must for thisdish because the grain of the meat helps to carry



through the subtleties inthe flavours.

Makes 6 portions

1 chicken breast

pinch of saltpinch of sugar

½ tbsp cornflour

1 egg, beaten300ml chicken stock



1 tsp sesame oil

vegetable oil, for frying

For the sauce:



½ tbsp miso paste


1½ tbsp chicken stock

1 tsp light soy sauce


pinch of sugar and ground white pepper

1 cm piece fresh ginger, minced

½ spring onion, finely chopped

o serve:

1 Chinese cabbage leaf blanched andefreshed

o garnish:

Chopped red chillies

Make the sauce first by mixing the

miso paste, Shaoxing wine, chicken



stock, soy sauce, cornflour, sugarand ground white pepper togethern a bowl. Adjust for taste, adding

salt and sugar as necessary, thenadd the ginger and spring onions,and set aside.

Cut the chicken breast diagonally toget wide thin slices. You can getabout six slices from one chicken

breast. Tenderise it by lightlypiercing with a knife. Season thechicken with a little salt beforedusting with the cornflour.

Add some oil to the wok and heatuntil just beginning to smoke. Coat

the chicken with the beaten egg



and add straight to the hot wok.When the chicken is just beginningto brown, flip it over and cook the

other side.

When the chicken is brown on bothsides, remove from the wok and seaside.

In the same wok, add the mixed

sauce and cook through. Add theremaining chicken stock and slakedcornflour and warm through.

Return the chicken to the wok tocook with the sauce briefly. Add thevinegar and sesame oil just beforeserving.



Plate up either in individual portionor as one large plate. Arrange theChinese cabbage on the plate or

plates, place the chicken on top anddrizzle with the sauce. Garnish withchopped chillies before serving.









‘The lotus root becomesvery crunchy when cooked

and the red fermentedbean curd gives it an extra

aroma’



Lotus root

stuffed withchicken

he lotus root becomesvery crunchy when cooked

and the red fermentedbean curd gives it an extraaroma. The jiu qu wine rice



adds a unique sweet andsour flavour with just a hint

of alcohol. If you can’t findt, use Shaoxing wine as asubstitute.

Makes 4 portions

2 lotus roots

cornflour, to coat


sesame seeds, to coat

oil, for deep-frying

For the filling:

4 tbsp chicken mince



4 tsp red fermented bean curd


2 tsp cornflour


For the sauce:

2 tbsp red fermented bean curd2 tsp jiu qu rice wine


1 tsp Chinese five spice

pinch of sugar

2 tbsp chicken stock

o serve:shredded lettuce

o garnish:

chopped chilli, spring onion and fresh



ginger

Peel the lotus roots and cut into

5mm thick medallions. You needabout four slices for the amount of filling here, two slices per portion.

his will vary depending on the sizeof your lotus root.

Make the filling by mixing all the

ngredients together in a bowl.

Sandwich a portion of fillingbetween each lotus root slice to 1

cm thick. Make sure the filling goesright to the edge of the parcel butwithout it spilling out.

Coat the whole of each parcel with



cornflour.

Coat the sides of the parcels, where

the filling is exposed, with thebeaten egg and cover with sesameseeds.

Heat a good amount of oil in a wokand deep-fry the parcels on a highheat until golden all over. This will

take around 5 minutes.Meanwhile, make the sauce bymixing all the ingredients together

n a bowl. Adjust the seasoningbefore gently warming through in apan.

When the parcels are cooked, slice



them diagonally.

Serve on top of a bed of shredded

ettuce and drizzle the warmedsauce on top. Garnish with chilli,spring onion and ginger.





Chicken and

water chestnutparcels

his dish is really crunchybut also slightly sweet

because the maincomponent is the waterchestnut. The sauce is put



on the parcel at the lastminute or served on the

side to maintain themouthfeel of this dish.

Makes 4 portions

2 water chestnuts

cornflour to coat

1 beaten egg to coat

sesame seeds to coat

For the filling:

3 spring onions, roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp cornflour



salt and black pepper

100g minced chicken

o finish:1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce


½ tsp red wine vinegar½ tsp sesame oil

1 cm ginger, finely sliced

o serve:ettuce leaf

o garnish:

coriander leaves

Make the filling by mixing all of the

filling ingredients except the



chicken mince together in a bowl.Adjust to taste before adding thechicken mince.

Slice the water chestnut into fineslices. You need about 4 from eachchestnut.

Sandwich a little of the the fillingbetween 2 slices of water chestnut,

about a centimetre in height.Dust each of the parcels withcornflour. Dab with a little water if

not sticking together.Roll the filling side of the parcel inegg and cover with sesame seeds.



Heat a generous amount of oil in awok until almost smoking.

Deep-fry the parcels at a high heatuntil golden.

Meanwhile, make a sauce by

warming all of the finishing saucengredients in a very small pan.When the parcels are ready, serve

each one on top of a lettuce leaf.Dress with the warmed sauce andgarnish with a coriander leaf.





Whole stuffed

aubergine

A whole stuffed aubergine

s really versatile. It lendstself to red-hot chilli sauceor a miso sauce with gingerand shallot. We always useChinese aubergines at

Hunan, they are longer and



have a lower water contentthan standard aubergines.

Here I’ve used a fermentedbean sauce to play on thenatural colour of thecooked aubergine.

Makes 8 portions

1 whole aubergine, about 300g

cornflour to coat

For the filling:100g minced chicken

3 sprigs spring onion, roughly chopped

1 tsp minced garlic



1 tsp cornflour

salt and pepper to season

For the sauce:1 tbsp tian mian jiang

1 tbsp fermented bean paste

1 tbsp Sichuan chilli saucegarlic clove, minced

1 roughly chopped spring onion

50ml stock

Slice an aubergine, at an angle,most of the way down so that it

remains whole but opens up like afan.

Make the filling by mixing together

all of the ingredients for the filling



n a bowl. Cook a little off to tastefor seasoning.

Stuff the gaps in the aubergine withthe filling, like a sandwich, and coathe whole aubergine with cornflour

Heat a good glug of oil in a wok until it’s almost smoking. Deep-frythe whole aubergine for about 10

minutes until it’s golden.Meanwhile, make the sauce bymixing all of the ingredients for the

sauce in a small pan and heatingthrough. Add more stock to thesauce if necessary to reach a thick but runny mixture.



When the aubergine is ready,drizzle the sauce over the top andserve.





Duck and

spinach parcels

his dish is stunning to

ook at and great to taste.After all, apart from salad,how many other dishes doyou see this vibrant green?o keep it vibrant, make

sure you warm the spinach



uice very gently.

Makes 6 portions1 tsp salt

1 large duck breast, skin on

100g spinach

For the filling:

50g chicken mince

1 cm piece of fresh minced ginger

2 water chestnuts, minced

cornflour, to coat


For the sauce:

1 tsp cooking oil




½ tsp slaked cornflour

¼ tsp white wine vinegar

o garnish:shredded chilli

Bring a large pan of water to theboil with a teaspoon of salt. Add thduck and turn the heat down to asimmer. Cook the duck for about 20

minutes before removing from thepan and cooling.

When the duck is cold, cut into 1

cm-thick slices. You should haveabout 6 slices. For each slice, cuttwo-thirds of the way down the

slice so you have a pocket to stuff



the filling into.

Poach the spinach in hot water for

about 1 minute until the leaveshave softened.

Drain the spinach and blend in a

blender or food processor untilsmooth.

Pass the mixture through a fine

sieve placed over a bowl toseparate the juice and the pulp. Seaside.

In a bowl, mix the spinach pulp witthe chicken mince, ginger andwater chestnuts.



Stuff the duck breast pockets withthe filling to form parcels.

Add a little oil to a wok and warmuntil nearly smoking.

Coat the entire duck parcel with

cornflour and then with beaten eggbefore shallow-frying in the oil on ahigh heat until golden.

Meanwhile, make the sauce byheating the spinach juice with theteaspoon of cooking oil and salt and

sugar to taste. As it warms throughadd the slaked cornflour. Cook untilthe sauce has thickened. Justbefore serving, add the vinegar and



stir through.

When the duck is ready pour the

sauce over the parcels. Garnish witshredded chilli.







Chicken-

wrappedasparagus

Use chicken breast insteadof chicken thigh to wrap

the asparagus because youneed to be able to cut themeat into very thin slices.



his is easier when you areusing a very sharp knife,

but be careful! This dish isthe perfect accompanimentfor noodles.

Makes 4 portions

4 asparagus spears

12 paper-thin slices of chicken breast

cornflour to dust

2 eggs, beaten

4 tbsp water

For the sauce:

4 tsp oyster sauce




4 tbsp water

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp Shaoxing wine

5 cm ginger, finely shredded

2 spring onions, finely shredded

2 chillies, finely shredded


Peel the asparagus before cuttingthem into 2 cm lengths. Bring a panof water to the boil and drop theasparagus in for about 30 seconds.

Remove from the boiling water andrefresh straight away.

Lay out the chicken slices. Dab a



ittle cornflour on to each of thepieces to help the asparagusadhere to the chicken.

Place one length of asparagus on toone end of the chicken breast androll it up, making sure there’s onlyone layer of the chicken. Trim off any excess. Repeat the process forall 12 pieces of chicken.

Coat the wrapped parcels withcornflour and press it in with thepalm of your hand.

Combine the eggs with 4 tbsp waten a bowl.

Coat the asparagus in the egg



mixture, remove the excess anddeep-fry at high heat until golden.his should take 3 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, mix all of the saucengredients except for the whitewine vinegar together in a bowl andadjust the seasoning.

Heat the sauce in a pan before

adding the chicken-wrappedasparagus and cooking for 2minutes on medium heat.

Remove the sauce from the heatand add the white wine vinegar.Make sure it’s stirred through thesauce thoroughly, and serve.





Chicken with

red fermentedbean curd

You can serve any greenswith this dish, not just pak

choi. The flavours of thered fermented bean curdcan be overpowering, so



the greens will help to tonet down.

Makes 4 portions

1 chicken breast, cut into wide thin slices

cornflour, to coatoil, for frying

For the marinade:

2 water chestnuts, crushed

1 tbsp preserved red bean curd paste

4 tbsp garlic juice


o serve:

2 tsp Shaoxing wine



pak choi leaves, blanched and refreshed

o garnish:

deep-fried shallots

Mix the marinade ingredientstogether in a bowl. Taste andadjust the seasoning.

Add the chicken slices and leave to

marinate for about 20 minutes.Remove the chicken from themarinade (reserve the marinade)

and coat with cornflour.Heat a little oil in a wok untilalmost smoking.



Add the chicken to the wok andshallow-fry on a medium heat untilthe chicken begins to brown. This

will take about 5 minutes. Removethe oil from the pan by tipping itnto another pan or bowl for

discarding later, and continuecooking both sides of the chickenuntil crispy.

Make a sauce with the reservedmarinade by gently heating throughn a small separate pan andreducing by a third. Once the saucehas reduced, add the Shaoxing winust before serving.

o serve, arrange the pak choi on



serving plates. Place the chicken ontop of the pak choi. Drizzle thesauce over the chicken and garnish

with deep-fried shallots.





Chicken and

spinach fritters

You can use meat from the

chicken breast or chickenthighs but the dish worksbest if you use a mix of thetwo. The fritters are cookedseparately first before being

finished off in the sauce so



that they have a chance toset before taking on the

flavours of the cookingsauce.

Makes 4 portions

100g spinach leaves

200g chicken mince

1 tbsp cooked cashew nuts, finely chopped

3 water chestnuts, finely chopped

1 tbsp cornflour

½ tsp salt½ tsp sugar

cornflour to coat

beaten egg to coat



For the sauce:

1 cm ginger, shredded

½ fresh red chilli, shredded

½ spring onion, shredded

1½ tbsp water

½ tsp salt


1tsp Shaoxing wine


½ tsp white wine vinegar1 tsp slaked cornflour

Blanch the spinach leaves in a panof boiling water before refreshingand chopping finely.

Mix the minced chicken with the



spinach, cashew nuts, waterchestnuts, cornflour, salt and sugarn a bowl before forming into

flattened balls.

Coat the chicken and spinachparcels with cornflour, then egg,before cooking.

Heat a little oil in a pan. Shallow-fry

the chicken and spinach fritters.When the edges begin to take oncolour, turn the parcels over to coothe other side.

Meanwhile, make a sauce byheating up all the sauce ingredientsexcept for the white wine vinegar



and the cornflour in a small pan.aste and adjust the seasoning.

When the chicken and spinachfritters are ready, cook them in thesauce for about three minutes.

Add the vinegar and slakedcornflour. Cook to thicken beforeserving.







Guinea fowl

and ginsengsoup

Guinea fowl or chickenworks best in this soup.

he ginseng adds anntense aroma and impartsts restorative properties to



the soup as it’s said thatginseng can boost the

mmune system. But avoidgamey meats as they willclash with the ginseng.

Makes 8 portions

1 whole guinea fowl skin on, split into 8

pieces (ask your butcher to do this for you

50g goji berries

100g whole ginseng roots

5 cm piece fresh ginger, sliced2 spring onion stalks

1 tsp salt



Bring a pan of water to the boil andadd the guinea fowl pieces. Whenthe impurities rise to the surface,

remove the guinea fowl with aslotted spoon and rinse in coolwater.

Place the guinea fowl and the restof the ingredients in a flameproof casserole and cover with water. Put

the lid on the casserole dish. Eitherslow-cook on the hob on a low heatfor 2 hours or in a preheated ovenat 150°C/gas mark 3 for 2 hours.







Steamed duck

with lotus rootand dong gua

sauce

his dish is filled withtraditional Taiwaneseflavours. The dong gua

sauce for example, is salted



winter gourd that’s beenpreserved with liquorice

and sour plums to give itsunique flavour. It’s verypopular as an ingredient inaiwan but can be quite

hard to find here. If you

can’t find dong gua, look for dong cai, saltedgreengage or salted prune.

Makes 4 portions

1 duck breast, skin on

1 length lotus root, peeled and thinly sliced



2½ cm ginger, sliced

For the dressing:

1 tbsp stock 1 tsp Shaoxing wine

½ tsp white wine vinegar


o serve:

1 tsp dong gua sauce

o garnish:

chilli, spring onion and ginger

Bring a small pan of water to theboil with a teaspoon of salt and theginger. Add the duck and reduce

the heat down to a simmer. Cook



the duck for about 20 minutesbefore removing and cooling.

When the duck is cold, cut into thinslices.

Set your steamer on top of a pan of

boiling water. On a plate, arrangethe finely sliced lotus root at thebottom and the sliced duck breast

on top. The amount of each you wineed depends on the size of yourplate but should be around threeslices of each per portion. Steam fo

5 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the dressing bywarming all the ingredients in a



small pan until heated through.

When the duck is ready, drizzle the

dressing over the top. Top with thedong gua sauce and garnish withginger, chilli and spring onions.





Duck and lotus

root parcels

he lotus root adds a lovely

crunch to this dish whichmakes a great contrast intexture from the duck breast. You can also servethe sauce on the side as a

dip.



Makes 6 portions

1 lotus root, peeled and sliced

1 duck breast, skin on, cut into thin slices

cornflour to coat

beaten egg to coat

For the filling:250g chicken mince

6 tbsp red preserved bean curd

6 water chestnuts, smashed

3 spring onions, cut into medallions

For the sauce:

6 tsp red preserved bean curd6 tsp garlic juice

½ tsp ground black pepper

15 sweet basil leaves, finely chopped





Bring a good amount of oil to nearlysmoking in a wok.

Coat the exposed filling withcornflour. If you’re having troublemaking the flour stick, use a littlewater. Coat the whole parcel with aittle beaten egg before frying untilgolden.

When the parcels turn golden, heata frying pan on the hob without anyoil in it and crisp up the sides of theparcels in the pan.

Make the sauce by heating throughthe red preserved bean curd, garlicuice, black pepper, basil leaves an



stock in a separate pan.

As the sauce reduces, add the

slaked cornflour to thicken thesauce and then add the shallot oil.Season to taste.

When the duck parcels are ready,cut in half and drizzle with sauce toserve.







Recipe ListPork with chilli sauce

Salted pork

Noodles stir-fried with pork and bean

sprouts

Slow cooked pork with Mei Cai


Pork mince and aubergine stir-fryBamboo cup soup

Egg-wrapped soup






Pork with chilli

sauce

Marinating the meat before

cooking tenderises it andallows it to absorb flavoursmore easily. Remember todress the meat at the lastminute so that it’s still

crispy when you eat it.



Makes 4 portions

1 pork chop

50ml garlic juice (See here)

1 tsp Shaoxing wine


½ tsp Chinese five spice


1 red chilli, finely sliced


1 spring onion, cut into medallionssalt and crushed Sichuan peppercorns, toaste

o serve:½ tbsp Sichuan chilli sauce (see recipe onhere)



Cut the pork into strips and place ina bowl. Pour the garlic juice,Shaoxing wine, white wine vinegar

and Chinese five spice over the porand leave to marinate for about 10minutes.

Remove the pork pieces from themarinade and coat them withcornflour.

Heat a generous amount of oil in awok, and deep-fry the pork until it’sgolden.

When the pork is cooked, remove itfrom the wok and discard most of the oil. Stir-fry the chilli, minced



garlic and spring onion in the wok for a minute or so. Add the pork back to the wok and season with

salt and Sichuan peppercorns.

Stir-fry for a further minute beforeremoving from the heat. Transferthe pork to serving plates and servewith a drizzle of Sichuan chillisauce.





Salted pork

Salted pork is a Hakka-styledish that originated from

the tradition of praying tospirits. For each spiritprayed to, a new piece of

meat had to be offered inappeasement. As a result,families ended up with



more meat than they couldeat. Curing the meat with

salt meant it could bestored and eaten in thecoming months. The curingof the meat is a long andslow process and this

recipe requires the pork tobe marinated overnight.

Makes 4 portions200g belly pork

For the rub:

¼ tbsp crushed Sichuan peppercorns



½ tbsp salt

1 garlic clove, crushed

¼ tsp sesame oil

For the dressing:

1 garlic clove, finely sliced

½ tbsp white wine vinegarpinch of sugar

o serve:

shredded lettuce

Cut the pork belly into 5 cm-wideengths.

For the rub, mix the peppercorns,salt and garlic together in a bowl,

then add the sesame oil and mix



well. Rub the mixture into the pork so that the pork is coated all over.Allow the meat to rest in the rub

overnight.

he next day, heat a griddle panand cook the sides of the pork only(not the skin or the meat) on amedium heat without adding oil.

When the sides are crispy, the porkshould be cooked through.

Mix all the ingredients for the

dressing together in a bowl andadjust seasoning to taste.

When the meat is ready, cut the

pork into thin slices. Allow 2 or 3



slices per portion and serve on topof a bed of shredded lettuce anddrizzle with the dressing.





Noodles stir-

fried with pork and bean

sprouts

his versatile noodle stir-fryalso works with chicken,beef, lamb and seafood.

Use the fresh noodles you



find in the chiller cabinet inthe supermarket as these

give a bit more bite withoutdrying out during thecooking process.

Makes 4 portions

100g pork fillet, finely sliced

2 × 300g pack fresh cooked noodles

100g bean sprouts

handful yellow Chinese garlic chives


For the sauce:

2 spring onions, thinly sliced on the

diagonal



100ml chicken stock

5 cm piece fresh ginger

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp ground white pepper

1 tsp salt

In a bowl, mix all of the ingredientsfor the sauce and adjust theseasoning.

Heat a little oil in a wok untilsmoking and stir-fry the pork untilthe meat begins to brown.

Add the sauce and 2 tablespoons ofcooking oil to the wok and stirthrough.



When the sauce has reduced aittle, add the cooked noodles andbean sprouts to warm through.

Add the Chinese chives at the lastminute before serving.





Slow cooked

pork with MeiCai

his is a traditional Hakka-style dish. Mei cai is a

variety of pickled mustardgreens from theGuangdong province in



China and in this recipe weuse the dried version,

which usually comes in aar or earthenware pot. Themeat must be cooked tothe point of falling apart toreally achieve the right

texture. The fat from thebelly will keep the leanmeat moist. Deep-fry the

pork belly first so the skincrisps up. This will help themeat cook and really soak



n the flavours from the mecai sauce.

Makes 6 portions

250g pork belly

dark soy sauce for the rub200g mei cai


1 garlic clove, minced½ spring onion, cut into medallions

½ tbsp light soy sauce

For the mei cai sauce:15g palm sugar

½ tbsp dark soy sauce

1 orange peel, chopped



1 cm ginger, sliced

1 whole garlic clove, skin on

½ spring onion, cut into three

1 tsp Shaoxing wine

½ fresh red chilli, finely chopped

o garnish:1 spring onion, cut into medallions

Depending on the size of your pork

belly, you will need to cut it intoportions about 5 cm in width.

Bring a pan of water to the boil,make sure it’s enough to cover thepork belly.

Cook the pork belly in boiling water



briefly until the meat changescolour, approximately 2 minutes.his removes the blood and any

mpurities.

Remove the meat from the pan andplace into a bowl and rub dark soysauce into it.

Heat a good glug of oil in a wok

and deep-fry the meat on mediumheat. You must put the skin side infirst. When it’s ready, it will begolden and crispy on the outside. It

will take about 4-5 minutes.

Meanwhile, soak the mei cai inwarm water to allow it to open.



Wash it before using to remove thesand.

Finely chop the mei cai before stir-frying it in a separate wok withginger, garlic, spring onion and soysauce. Cook for about 2 minutesuntil the vegetables becomearomatic.

In a bowl, mix together thengredients for the mei cai saucetogether with the cooked mei cai.Adjust the seasoning.

Set your bamboo steamer over apan of simmering water. Cut thepork belly into slices ½ cm thick.



Line the slices up on a tray, skinside down. Pour the mei cai sauceevenly over the top and steam for

two hours.

After the meat is cooked through,garnish with spring onions beforeserving. Allow three slices perportion.







Little Lion’s

Head with tofu

his is an alternative to the

original Little Lion’s Head,using an oyster saucerather than a light dressinghe method is a bit

different too. The addition

of the oyster sauce will also



make this dish a lot moresavoury.

Makes 4 portions

150g pork belly, minced

2 water chestnuts, minced2 dried Chinese mushrooms, reconstitutedand finely chopped

2 tsp cornflour

ofu as required

For the meatball seasoning:

1 tsp salt1 tsp sugar

1½ tsp white pepper




2 tsp dried shrimp

2 tsp chopped spring onion

For the sauce:2 tsp oyster sauce


1 tsp soy sauce1 tsp Shaoxing wine

½ tsp salt

1 tsp sugar



o serve:poached mustard greens


½ fresh red chilli, finely chopped



Mix the seasoning for the meatballstogether first and adjust to tastebefore adding to the minced pork,

water chestnuts and reconstitutedmushrooms.

Form the mince mixture into ballsand lightly coat with cornflour.

Deep-fry until golden before

removing from the heat and setaside.

Make the sauce by mixing all of the

sauce ingredients except for thewhite wine vinegar together in abowl and adjusting the seasoning.Add to the pan with the tofu and



gently heat through.

When the tofu is heated through,

about 2 minutes, remove from thesauce.

Add the slaked cornflour to the

sauce and cook through to thickent. Stir through the white winevinegar at the last minute.

Serve with the poached mustardgreens at the bottom, then the tofusquares and finally the meatballs

with a drizzle of the sauce on top.Sprinkle over a little chopped springonion and chilli, and serve.







Pork mince and

aubergine stir-fry

he key to this dish is inthe cooking of the

aubergine. Make sure theaubergine has softenedbefore adding the sauce. If



you need to increase thecooking time, add more

water to the wok.

Makes 4 portions

1 tbsp pork mince

1 aubergine, cut into 5 cm batons

about 10 tbsp water

1 tsp slaked cornflour1 tsp white wine vinegar

½ tsp sesame oil

oil, for frying

For the sauce:


1 tsp miso paste



2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

¼ fresh red chilli, cut into fine slivers

10 coriander stalks, finely chopped


Mix all the sauce ingredients

together in a bowl and adjustseasoning to taste.

Heat a little oil in a wok until

almost smoking. Add the pork mince and cook until it changescolour.

Add the aubergine with about 10tbsp water and cook for about 3–4minutes until the aubergine has

softened.



Add the sauce to the pan and stirthrough before adding the slakedcornflour, white wine vinegar and

sesame oil. When the sauce hasthickened, it’s ready to serve.









Bamboo cup

soup

his deliciously aromatic

soup is steamed and servedn a bamboo cup. It wasoriginally made with pigeonbut using pork means thatyou can make it year

round. Chicken is a good



alternative. The bamboocup adds to the flavours of

the soup, making it fresherighter and moreherbaceous. If you can’tget hold of bamboo cups,you can also use normal

cups, as long as they’resuitable for steaming.

Makes 4 portions160g minced pork

10 dried Chinese mushrooms




stock to cover the mushrooms

For the broth:

400 ml chicken stock 2 tbsp Shaoxing wine

2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar1 tsp ground white pepper

2 tbsp shallot oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

o garnish:

chopped spring onion, shredded ginger anddeep-fried shallots

Poach the Chinese mushrooms inhot stock for 10 minutes, until

reconstituted. Remove from the



stock and finely chop. Set aside andallow to cool.

Meanwhile, mix all of thengredients in a bowl for the brothand taste to adjust seasoning.

Mix the pork mince, mushrooms,water chestnuts and broth togetheruntil combined. You need quite a

runny but thick mixture. Add morestock if needed.

Allow the mixture to rest for an

hour.Stir the soup mixture again beforeadding it to the bamboo cups.



Steam the soup for 30 minutes.After steaming, top with springonion, ginger and deep-fried

shallots and serve.





Egg-wrapped

soup

his dish is beautiful to

ook at; the way the crêpeopens up is like a flower,especially when you addthe stock and the leavesfloat up like the petals in a

water lily. It’s really quite



stunning and serene.

Makes 8 portions2 eggs, beaten

6 quail’s eggs, hard boiled and halved

400g minced pork 3 water chestnuts, finely chopped

80g shredded meat from ham hock

6 dried Chinese mushrooms, reconstitutedand finely chopped

12 mooli balls, made with melon baller

2 tbsp minced crab meat

1 slice ginger

1 spring onion stalk

pinch of salt

stock to cover



For the seasoning:


1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp Shaoxing wine

pinch salt

½ tbsp cornflour

o serve:

½ cherry tomato

Start by making a thin crêpe withust the eggs. Put a little oil into afrying pan and heat until nearly

smoking. Put a thin layer of thebeaten egg into the bottom of yourfrying pan and fry until set.

Mix all of the seasoning together in



a bowl and adjust for flavour.

In a bowl, mix the finely chopped

mushroom with the ham hock.

Put the minced pork in the bowlwith the seasoning.

Line a large bowl, around 20 cm indiameter, with the crêpe. Place thecrab meat in the centre at the

bottom of the bowl on the crepe.

Arrange the quail’s eggs in a circlearound the crab meat, white sidedown.

Arrange the ham hock mix to the

outer edges of the quail’s eggs,



without covering the eggs.

Put the seasoned minced pork on

top of the crab meat, quail’s eggsand ham hock in one uniform layer.

In the centre, you should have a

void. Put the mooli balls into thecentre and press down so that it’seven.

If there’s excess crêpe left, foldover the middle.

In the middle, add a pinch of salt,the ginger and spring onion.

Cover loosely with cling film and

steam for 20 minutes.







Stuffed pig’s

trotters withpak choi

his recipe is quite time-consuming, but believe me,

the dish is simply delicious.It’s well worth the effortdespite the time it takes to



cook. Cooking the trottersn boiling water briefly

before stewing helps toremove the blood andmpurities in them andtherefore improves thetaste. The trotters can be

eaten hot or cold but becareful to adjust thecooking time accordingly to

ensure the stuffing iscooked through.



Makes 8 portions

o stew the pig’s trotters:

4 pig’s trotters, cut into four equal portionsyour butcher will be able to do this for

you)

For the stewing liquid:2 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

2 cm ginger, sliced

2 whole garlic cloves, skin on

1 orange peel

1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns

1 spring onion, cut into three

1 tbsp dark soy sauce


½ tbsp Chinese black vinegar





For the dressing:

8 tsp soy sauce

8 tsp black vinegar

8 tsp shallot oil

ed chilli to garnish

Bring a large pan of water to theboil.

Before cooking the pig’s trotters,

scrape off any hairs with a knife.For any fine hairs, you can singethem off. Rinse the trotters in cold

water.Add the trotters to the boiling wateand cook for about 2-3 minutes

until the flesh changes colour.



Remove to a plate and set aside.Discard the water from the pan.

Again boil enough water to coverthe trotters and add all of thengredients for the stewing liquor tothe pan. Try the mixture beforeadding the trotters to make sureyou have the right balance of saltiness and sweetness.

Simmer the pig’s trotters on a lowheat for 30 minutes with the lid on.

After half an hour, remove thetrotters and lay them down on atray separately. Set aside andreserve the cooking liquor.



When the trotters are cool enoughto handle, remove the bones. Youshould have 16 roughly equal

portions.

Mix all of the ingredients for thefilling together in a bowl.

Dust the trotter portions withcornflour on the inside before

adding the filling. You need about ateaspoon of filling for each portion,depending on the size of the trotterIt will be easier to stuff the trotter i

you form the filling into quenelles.he cornflour will help it stick.

Wrap the trotter parcels tightly in



cling film.

Reboil the cooking liquor, turn off

the heat and add the trotterparcels. Allow the trotters to cook ithe residual heat with the lid onuntil the liquor is cool.

When the cooking liquor is cold (3-4hours) the trotters are ready for the

final dish.

Put your steamer over a pan of boiling water.

Carefully remove the cling film from

the trotter parcel and steam on a



plate for about 5 minutes untilwarmed through.

Meanwhile, blanch and refresh thepak choi.

Mix all of the ingredients for the

dressing in a bowl and adjust theseasoning.

When the trotter parcel has been

warmed through, place each parcelon top of a leaf of the pak choi anddrizzle with a teaspoon of the

dressing. Allow 2 leaves and parcelper portion, garnish with finelyshredded red chilli and serve.









Recipe ListLamb with hot spicy sauce

Lamb and celery stir-fry

Red roast lamb stew

Lamb with garlic stem and wood ear mushrooms






Lamb with hot

spicy sauce

Stewing the lamb first helps

to keep the meat moistwhen you deep-fry it. Allthe flavours of the lamb arealso absorbed into themeat during the cooking

process. Without the



stewing, the meat would bemuch drier.

Makes 4 portions

100g lamb ribs

cornflour to coat

For the stewing liquor:

3 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

8 slices of dried liquorice

1½ tsp Chinese five spice

5 cm ginger, sliced3 whole garlic cloves

2 spring onions, cut into three




pinch of sugar

water to cover

For the dressing:1 tsp minced garlic

1 spring onion, cut into medallions

2 tbsp Sichuan chilli saucesalt and Sichuan peppercorn to taste

½ tsp sugar


1 tbsp water

½ tsp sesame oil

o garnish:spring onion, chopped fresh red chilli,shredded

Put all of the ingredients for the



stewing liquor in a pan. Taste andadjust seasoning.

Bring the liquid to the boil beforeadding the ribs. Once the ribs havebeen added, turn the heat down toa simmer and slow cook them for30 minutes or until the sauce isreduced. The meat should be justabout to fall off the bone.

urn the heat off the pan and letthe ribs cool in the cooking liquor.

Once the lamb has cooled, cut theribs into bite-size portions and coatwith cornflour. Be sure to press thecornflour in with your hand.



Heat a generous amount of oil in awok until almost smoking and deepfry the lamb on high heat until the

edges crisp up and begin to turngolden.

Meanwhile, make the dressing bymixing all of the sauce ingredientsn a bowl and adjust for seasoning.

When the lamb is ready, take it outof the wok and put it on a plate.Drizzle over the dressing andgarnish with the spring onion and

chilli.





Lamb and

celery stir-fry

For the accompanying

vegetables in this dish, youcan use spring onion,mangetout and othercrunchy greens. Celery isbest because it balances

the heat from the lamb.



Makes 4 portions

100g lamb leg steak, thinly sliced

cornflour, to coat

2 celery sticks, cut into 2½ cm lengths

oil, for frying

For the sauce:10 sweet basil leaves, whole

2½ cm piece fresh ginger, thinly sliced

4 dried chillies

2 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp shallot oil


o serve:

1 tsp red wine vinegar

2 tsp sesame oil



Mix all the sauce ingredientstogether in a bowl and adjustseasoning to taste. Set aside.

Heat a little oil in a wok until nearlysmoking. Coat the lamb in cornflourand stir-fry in the hot oil. Once theamb is coated in oil, add thecelery.

When the meat changes colour, addthe sauce and stir-fry for a furtherminute.

Just before removing from the heatadd the red wine vinegar and thesesame oil. Warm through andserve.





Red roast lamb

stew

his is a classic Chinese

dish which you can makewith lamb, pork or beef.You can use stock or waterhere but stock givesgreater flavour. For the

garlic, I leave the clove



whole and the skin on soyou can remove it at a late

stage, if you wish. If youtake the skin off, the garlicwill disintegrate during thecooking process.

Makes 4 portions

500g lamb belly

50g dried tofu stick

For the sauce:50ml soy sauce

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise



2 lengths dried orange peel

1 fresh red chilli

2 tbsp Chinese black vinegar

1 tbsp Shaoxin wine

½ tbsp palm sugar

2½ cm ginger, sliced



stock or water to coat


Cut the lamb belly into large bite-size chunks.

Cook the lamb in boiling water forabout five minutes until the meat

changes colour and remove from



the water.

In a pan, add all the sauce

ngredients except the lamb and thtofu stick and bring to the boil.aste and adjust for seasoning

before adding the lamb.

urn the heat down to a gentlesimmer and cook with the lid on.

After about an hour’s cooking time,add the tofu stick and cook for afurther 30 minutes.

Once the meat and tofu stick haveboth softened, pass the cookinguices through a colander.



In a pan, reduce the sauce andthicken with slaked cornflour.Season to taste.

When serving, drizzle the thickenedsauce over a mix of the meat andtofu stick.





Lamb with

garlic stem andwood ear

mushrooms

Even though there’snothing crispy in this dish,t’s best eaten as soon as

t’s cooked. The meat will



harden as it cools, andreheating it would result in

overcooked meat.

Makes 4 portions

100g lamb leg steak, cut into strips


30g garlic stem, cut into 2½ cm lengths

10g wood ear mushroom, thinly sliced2½ cm piece fresh ginger, thinly sliced

½ spring onion, thinly sliced

a few coriander leaves½ fresh red chilli, finely sliced

For the marinade:

½ tsp salt



1 tsp soy sauce

½ tsp ground white pepper

For the sauce:1 tsp Shaoxing wine

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp sugar1 tsp white wine vinegar



½ tsp sesame oil

1 tsp soy sauce

o garnish:sliced red chillies

Mix all of the ingredients for the



marinade together in a bowl andadjust for seasoning. Add the lambto the bowl and leave to marinate

for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix all of thengredients for the sauce togethern a separate bowl, and adjust theseasoning.

Remove the marinated lamb fromthe marinade and dust withcornflour.

Heat a little oil in a wok, untilnearly smoking.

Shallow-fry the meat briefly in the

wok until it changes colour, then



remove to a plate.

Add the sauce, the garlic stem,

mushroom, ginger, spring onion,coriander leaves and red chilli tothe wok and stir through brieflyuntil it becomes aromatic.

Return the lamb to the wok and stirthrough before serving. Garnish

with slices of red chilli.





Angelica root

lamb stew

he delicate broth of this

angelica root lamb stew issurprisingly warming. It’sperfect for a cold winter’sday as a healthy, heartystew. For a more filling

dish, add some super-thin



noodles towards the end.

Makes 4 portions300g lamb leg steak, cut into bite-sizechunks

5 slices dried angelica root

1 tbsp goji berries

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

2 tbsp rice wine

5 cm piece fresh ginger, smashed


1 litre chicken stock, plus more if needed

o serve:

a few drops of rose liqueur



Preheat the oven to 150°C/gasmark 2.

Bring a pan of water to the boil andcook the lamb briefly until the meatchanges colour.

Remove the lamb to a casseroledish and add the rest of thengredients.

Cook the casserole in the oven foraround 2 hours. You may need totop it up with more stock.

When the lamb is tender andcooked, stir in a few drops of roseiqueur before serving.







Recipe ListBeef with Chinese water spinach



Red oil beef Beef and mushroom stir-fry

Beef fried rice





Beef with

Chinese waterspinach

he fermented bean curdsauce has a tendency to

burn so even though this isa stir-fry dish, you need tocook it on medium heat.



hat’s why the beef andthe Chinese water spinach

are cooked separately first,before the sauce is added.

Makes 4 portions

100g beef rib-eye, cut into slices

1 egg, beaten

cornflour to coat

50g Chinese water spinach

For the sauce:

2½ cm shredded ginger

2 tsp fermented bean curd

1 tsp malt vinegar



2 tbsp stock

2 tsp Shaoxing wine

arge pinch crushed Sichuan peppercorns

sugar to taste

4 tbsp water

½ tsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp sesame oil

Coat the beef ribeye with the

cornflour and beaten egg beforeshallow-frying in a wok. Once themeat changes colour, remove fromthe heat and set aside.

Mix all of the ingredients for thesauce together in a bowl and mixnto a paste. Add the water to the



paste to dilute it into a sauce,adding more if necessary. Adjustseasoning.

In a wok, stir-fry the water spinachbriefly before returning the beef tothe heat.

As the water spinach begins to wilt,add all the ingredients for the sauce

except the sesame oil and red winevinegar and warm through.

Add the red wine vinegar and

sesame oil just before removingfrom the heat. Adjust for seasoningand serve.





Beef and

orange peelstir-fry

You must use dried orangepeel to impart the best

flavour to the meat in thisdish. Fresh orange peeldoesn’t taste as good and



doesn’t have the same sortof savoury notes. You can

also add sweet basil andcoriander just beforeserving for a slight variationn the flavour.

Makes 4 portions

2 dried orange peels

50ml stock

2½ cm finely sliced ginger



100g beef rib-eye, cut into fine slivers

cornflour to coat



o garnish:

5 spring onion stalks, finely sliced

Soak the orange peel in a bowl of hot water until it softens. Scrapeaway any remaining pith so it’s only

the peel left before finely slicingnto strands.

Poach the orange peel in stock for

about 5 minutes. Remove theorange peel from the stock and setboth aside.

Mix the stock in a bowl with theginger, salt, sugar, and vinegar totaste.



Meanwhile, coat the slivers of beef with the cornflour.

Heat a small amount of oil in a wokuntil nearly smoking and quicklystir-fry the beef.

When the beef changes colour, addthe orange peel and the seasonedstock.

Cook for a minute longer and addthe red wine vinegar right at theast minute before removing from

the pan. Garnish with finely slicedspring onion.





Beef with

sweet basil

he meat in this dish needs

to cook through veryquickly in order to staytender, though the herbswill wilt during cooking. Forthe best flavours, you

should eat it straight away.



Makes 4 portions

200g beef rib-eye, cut into strips

1 egg, beaten

1 tbsp cornflour

2½ cm piece fresh ginger, cut into slices


1 red chilli, sliced

10 sweet basil leaves

oil, for frying

For the sauce:


1 tsp Shaoxing wine

½ tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp stock

½ tsp red wine vinegar





Mix all of the sauce ingredients

together in a bowl. Taste andadjust seasoning.

Heat a little oil in a wok untilalmost smoking. Coat the beef withthe cornflour and then the beatenegg and stir-fry briefly in the oil

until it changes colour.

Add the sauce and continue to cookquickly for about 1 minute before

adding the ginger, spring onions,chilli and basil leaves to the pan.Stir through before serving.







Red oil beef

he beef in this dish isserved medium rare so

make sure your meat isgood quality. The meatneeds to be cut very thinly

so that the heat from thehot oil is enough to cook it.



Makes 4 portions

150g rib-eye beef, cut into thin strips abou1 cm in width

For the sauce:

1 tbsp red chilli sauce

2½ cm piece fresh ginger, finely shredded

1 tsp tian mian jiang




2 tbsp water

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp chilli oilsalt and sugar, to taste

o garnish:



inely shredded ginger

coriander leaves

In a bowl, mix all of the saucengredients together. Adjustseasoning. You need a sauce that’s

hot and numbing.Heat the sauce in a wok on amedium heat for about 1 minute

until it becomes hot and fragrant.

Add the beef and quickly stirthrough before removing from the

heat. Ideally, the beef should bemedium rare but you can cook it foonger if desired.



Garnish with ginger and coriander,and serve straight away.





Beef and

mushroom stir-fry

he beef in this dish staystender because it’s cooked

very quickly. You can serveother greens with this butcelery is by far the best as



ts crunchy bite offers acontrast to the texture of

the meat.

Makes 6 portions

2 dried shiitake mushrooms

100ml stock, for soaking the mushrooms

100g rib-eye beef, tenderised and cut into

slivers1 egg, beaten

cornflour

oil, for frying

For the sauce:

1 tsp red and green chillies, thinly sliced

1 spring onion, thinly sliced



2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tbsp tian mian jiang

½ tsp Sichuan chilli sauce


1 tsp Shaoxing wine

½ tsp golden syrup

½ tbsp water

¼ tsp red wine vinegar

¼ tsp sesame oil


o serve:

1 celery stick, cut into 2½ cm chunks

o garnish:

shredded chilli and spring onion



Poach the shiitake mushrooms inhot stock until they plump up againRemove from the stock and cut the

mushrooms into thin slices.

Bring a pan of water to the boil andpoach the celery until just tenderusually about 3 minutes.

Mix all the sauce ingredients

together in a bowl and adjustseasoning.

Coat the beef in the cornflour and

then a little beaten egg.Heat a little oil in a wok until nearlysmoking, then add the beef and

stir-fry briefly, until the beef



changes colour.

Add the sauce and the mushrooms

to the wok and stir-fry for anotherminute to warm through beforeserving.

Arrange the poached celery onserving plates and place the cookedbeef and mushrooms on top. Drizzle

the sauce over them, then servegarnished with shredded chilli andspring onion.





Use fresh lotus root so thait retains its crunch’



Beef fried rice

Prawn or chicken wouldmake good alternatives to

beef in this dish but theymust be cooked throughbefore they are added to

the rice. Fresh lotus root isbest for this recipe becauset retains its crunch.



Makes 6 portions

1 tbsp oil, for frying


½ egg, beaten

500g cooked rice

1 tbsp tomato ketchup


1 tbsp chopped lotus root

pinch of salt

pinch of ground white pepper20g rib-eye beef, thinly sliced

Heat the oil in a wok over a lowheat. Add the garlic and stir-fry forabout 1 minute until it becomesslightly softer.



Remove the pan from the heat,then add the beaten egg and stirthrough until it’s scrambled.

Return the pan to the heat andcook the egg until it begins tobrown and you can begin to smellthe garlic.

Stir in the cooked rice and when it

starts to crisp and pop, add the restof the ingredients except for thebeef.

When the rice starts to changecolour, add the beef and stirthrough.

When the beef has browned



slightly, it’s ready to serve.







Recipe ListTripe in spicy sauce

Ox tongue with marmalade

Pig’s blood and intestines

Red intestines with spinachTongue and ear salad






Tripe in spicy

sauce

he carrot and the mooli in

the stewing mix add adepth of flavour to thetripe, but you can leave outeither if you want. Thetripe dries out easily so be

sure to work as quickly as



possible. For this reason,t’s just not possible to

make a smaller quantity of this dish. Adding theSichuan peppercorns at theast minute will help tokeep the fragrant peppery

notes fresh.

Makes 10 portions

500g cleaned tripe

For the cooking liquor:

3 star anise

1 cinnamon stick



peel from 1 orange

2½ cm ginger

2 garlic cloves

1 spring onion

1 fresh red chilli

1 tsp cumin


1 tsp dark soy sauce


30g palm sugar1 litre water

1 carrot, cut into big chunks

1 mooli, cut into big chunks

For the dressing:

100ml cooking liquor (see left)

7.5 cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped




10 tsp Sichuan chilli sauce


10 tsp chilli oil

10 tsp shallot oil

5 tsp sugar


o serve:

shredded lettuce

o garnish:

coriander, to garnish

First, add all the ingredients for thecooking liquor to a large pan andbring to the boil. When the water is

boiling, taste and adjust for



seasoning.

Add the tripe and gently simmer for

1 hour with the lid on. Make surethe tripe is covered with thecooking liquor at all times, and addmore water if necessary.

After 1 hour, remove the tripe andallow to cool but do not let it dry

out. Reserve the cooking liquor.When the tripe is cold, cut into bitesize slices about 5 cm wide. To do

this, cut diagonally through thetripe to achieve a slice that’s thickeat one end and thinner at the otherYou’ll need around three or four



slices per serving.

Meanwhile, make the dressing by

mixing all of the ingredients, excepthe Sichuan peppercorns, togethern a bowl. Taste and adjustseasoning.

Mix the tripe with the dressing, theadd the Sichuan peppercorns and

mix thoroughly.Divide the tripe into separateportions.

Place each portion of tripe on top oshredded lettuce and drizzle withany remaining dressing. Garnish

with coriander and serve.





Ox tongue with

marmalade

Da ji da li is the

Chinese name for this dish.he name is very

auspicious as ji li meansuck in Chinese while dameans big. But the

character for ji also sounds



ike orange while thecharacter for li sounds like

tongue. So naturally a dishof orange and tongue isvery lucky but it alsosounds great.

Makes 8 portions

1 ox tongue


½ tbsp red wine vinegar1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns

3 star anise




5 cm ginger, sliced

2 spring onion stalks

1 fresh red chilli

2 whole garlic cloves


1 cinnamon stick

½ tbsp salt

water to cover

20g palm sugar

For the sauce:

1 tbsp marmalade

zest from half an orange


½ tsp sesame oil

½ tsp water



o garnish:

shredded fresh ginger and deep-friedshallots

o serve:

5 mangetout

Place the ox tongue in a pan of simmering water for about 3-4minutes, until a white film forms on

the outside. When the film forms,remove the tongue from the waterand scrape the film off.

Meanwhile, in a pan, add all of thengredients for the stewing liquorand bring to the boil. Taste andadjust seasoning.



After the ox tongue is cleaned,simmer in the stewing liquid for 90minutes.

Blanche the mangetout in stock forabout 1 minute and refresh in coldwater.

When you’re ready to serve, finelyslice the ox tongue. You need abou

4-5 slices per portion.Make the sauce by mixing all of thengredients together. Taste and

adjust seasoning.Serve the ox tongue on top of themangetout and dress with the

sauce. Garnish with ginger and



deep-fried shallots and serve.





Pig’s blood and

intestines

Wu geng chang wang

s the name of this dish inChinese. Chang wangstands for intestines whileWu geng is an indication oftime, 5am to be precise, in

old Chinese. The name



originated from thetradition of farmers

slaughtering their pigs atdawn before selling theirwares at market. Left tothe farmer for consumptions the offal, or blood and

ntestines in this case.While this dish usesngredients you may not be

used to, I urge you to try it– the yielding texture of theoffal combined with the



spicy Sichuan chili sauce isabsolutely delicious.

Makes 4 portions

8 × 5 cm length pig’s intestines

120g set pig’s blood, cubed3 spring onions, finely chopped


2 tsp shallot oil

For the sauce:

4 tbsp Sichuan chilli sauce

2 tsp tian mian jiang1 tsp minced garlic





4 tsp Shaoxing wine

1 tsp sugar

1½ tsp light soy sauce


12 sweet basil leaves

Prepare the intestines by washingthem inside out. Poach in boilingwater until the colour changesbefore removing and allowing tocool.

Gently pan-fry the pig’s blood until

t gets a coating on the outside,being careful not to break it.

Mix all of the sauce ingredients in a

bowl. Taste and adjust seasoning.



Heat the sauce gently in a wok. Asthe sauce begins to bubble, add thepig’s blood, intestines, ginger and

spring onions. Cook for about 3minutes.

When the blood and intestines areheated through, add the shallot oil,stir through and serve.





Red intestines

with spinach

his dish has a real kick

from the spices in thecooking sauce. It requirestwo stages of cooking, buts well worth the effort. Theflavour of yeast rice will

take away some of the offa





1 spring onion, cut into three


For the final dish:4 × 2½ cm lengths of cooked red intestine

cornflour to coat

10 spinach leaves

For the finishing sauce:

2½ tbsp tian mian jiang

5 tsp sweet chilli sauce2½ tsp white wine vinegar

5 tsp Shaoxing wine

5 tbsp watersalt to taste

o garnish:

ginger to garnish



o make the pig’s intestines:

Wash the intestines thoroughly and

turn inside out.

Mix all of the ingredients for thecooking sauce in a bowl. Taste and

adjust for seasoning.

Bring a medium-sized pot of waterto the boil and add the sauce and

the intestines. You need enoughwater to cover the intestines.

Once the intestines are in the pot,turn down the heat to a gentlesimmer and slow cook for an hour.

When the intestines are cooked,



hang them up and allow them tocool and dry. The intestines can’t betoo dry as they will go black and if

they are too wet, they won’t crispup.

o make the final dish:

Coat the intestines with cornflour

nside and out and remove theexcess.

Add a good glug of oil to a wok andheat until almost smoking. Deep-frythe intestines on a medium to highheat until crispy.



Meanwhile, blanch and refresh thespinach.

Mix all of the finishing saucengredients in a bowl and adjust theseasoning before heating throughthe sauce in a pan. Cook the sauceon a low heat.

When the intestine is crispy, place

the spinach at the bottom of theplate in a hollow ring. Dollop thesauce into the middle and place thentestine on top. Garnish with

ginger and serve.









Tongue and ear

salad

Cold offal is perfect for the

summer. The pig’s ear addsan unexpected texture andthe sauce contains plentyof spice and acidity to keepthis dish vibrant and

nteresting. The preserved



vegetables offer a goodcrunch for a variety of

textures within the dish.

Makes 6 portions

For the tongue and ear roll:

1 pig’s ear

2 pig’s tongues

cabage leaves1 tbsp Shaoxing wine


30g palm sugar2 tsp rose liqueur

2 tsp sesame




1 tbsp soy sauce

2 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

1 spring onion, cut into 3

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp Chinese five spice

1 tsp cumin


For the dressing:

6 tsp chilli sauce

6 tsp chilli oil

3 tsp sesame oil

3 tsp Chinese black vinegar

1½ tsp crushed Sichuan peppercorns




o serve:

inely chopped preserved vegetables

shredded lettuce

o garnish:

sesame seeds

o make the tongue and ear roll:

Cut the pig’s ear in half from the

hole of the ear. Char each half on agas fire until the ear turns insideout. Scrape off any charred bits of the ear.

Cook the tongues briefly in boilingwater until the surface of themchanges colour – about 10 minutes



Remove the tongues from the heatand scrape off the white outerayers. They should peel away like

skin.

Bring a medium-large pan of waterto the boil – you need enough tocover the tongues and ear.

Add all of the ingredients for the

stewing liquor to the water andadjust the seasoning.

urn down the heat to a simmer

and add the tongues and ear to thepan. Gently cook over a low heat inthe simmering stewing liquor for anhour.



Remove the tongues and ear fromthe cooking liquor and allow to coocompletely. Keep them separate as

they will stick together. Reserve thecooking liquor.

Once cooled, place the tongues inthe natural cup of the ears andwrap with string into a ballotine.

Line the bottom of the pan withcabbage to stop the ballotines fromsticking to the pan. Add the pig earand tongue ballotines to the pan on

top of the cabbage leaves andcover with the reserved cookingiquor. Add the Shaoxing wine,

Chinese black vinegar and palm



sugar to the pan. Turn the heatdown even lower so only theoccasional bubble will break the

surface of the cooking liquor. Cook the ballotines for a further 30minutes.

After cooking, allow the ballotine tocool in the cooking liquor.

When the ballotines are coolenough to touch, remove them fromthe cooking liquor and add ateaspoon each of rose liqueur and

sesame oil. Wrap each ballotine incling film

Allow the ballotines to cool



completely before removing thecling film and cutting them into fineslices.


Mix all of the dressing ingredients ina bowl and adjust the seasoning totaste.

Place the pig’s ears on top of theshredded lettuce and drizzle withthe dressing.

Garnish with the preservedvegetables and sesame seeds

before serving.







Frog’s legs with

garlic chives

Practice makes perfect with

this dish. It’s not theeasiest dish to make butt’s seriously impressive topull off. It takes a lot of time, effort and practice so

don’t worry if you don’t get



t the first time. But whenyou get it right, it will taste

amazing, and it looksspectacular too!

Makes 6 portions

6 frog’s legs

cornflour, to coat

1 egg, beaten

120g garlic chives, cut to 2½ cm lengths

2 tbsp water

For the sauce:

6 tbsp red chilli sauce






6 tsp water



o garnish:chopped spring onions to garnish

Cut each frog’s leg in half, at the

knee joint.

Scrape the meat off the bone of thesmaller section. Lightly dust themeat with cornflour and set aside.On the other section of leg, scrapeback the meat from the bones so

that the meat is still attached to the



bone at one end.

Lightly dust the inside of the leg

meat with cornflour. Stuff the meatfrom the smaller section inside thehollowed inverse of the biggersection to create a convenienthandle on your frog’s leg.

Coat the entire frog’s leg in a

dusting of cornflour before dippingn a mix of three-parts egg to one-part water. Remove the excessiquid before deep-frying in a wok o

hot oil till lightly golden.

Mix all the ingredients for the saucetogether in a bowl and adjust the



seasoning.

In a wok, heat through the sauce to

thicken slightly before adding thefrog’s legs and cooking for 1minute.

Just before the frog’s legs are readyto come out, add the garlic chivesto the pan and stir through until

they just begin to wilt.Serve with a garnish of springonions.











Recipe ListAbalone with mushroom and pak choi

Crab noodle soup

Cuttlefish with lamb’s kidney in suan

cai sauce

Octopus salad

Prawns with ginkgo nuts

Steamed prawn and spinach rollPrawn toast with sweet and sour sauce

Prawn nests

Dry-fried prawns


Scallop with asparagus and dong cai



sauce

Steamed scallops with cucumber and

prawns

Stuffed baby squid





Abalone with

mushroom andpak choi

Abalone is probably not anngredient you use every

day. They can sometimesbe a bit tricky to track down, but a good



fishmonger or onlineretailer will be able to

source them for you. Onlythe white stalk of thespring onion is used herebecause the stalk gives aclean and clear broth.

Adding the green part of the spring onion will makethe broth sticky. To make

sure the abalones don’t dryout, cook at least six at atime.



Makes 6 portions

6 abalones

6 pak choi leaves

6 dried shiitake mushrooms




12 slices of ginger

12 spring onion stalks


6 tsp salt

3 tsp palm sugar

ettuce leaves

stock to cover

Remove the abalones from their





finely.

Cook the shiitake mushrooms in a

pan of hot water until they soften,about 10 minutes. Remove the staland cut it to the same thickness asthe abalone.

Poach the pak choi in hot wateruntil softened.

On a plate, put the pak choi at thebottom and place the slicedmushrooms on top. Arrange the

sliced abalone on top of themushroom.

Use the stewing liquor to make a

sauce by heating it with the slaked



cornflour until thickened. Add thewhite wine vinegar just beforetaking the sauce off the heat.

Drizzle over the abalone and serve.





Crab noodle

soup

Using a whole crab with its

shell is essential to theflavour of this soup. Thick noodles are best, as theyreally absorb the crabflavours.



Makes 6 portions

1 whole crab

cornflour, for dusting

oil, for frying

2 spring onions, cut into 2½ cm lengths

5 cm piece fresh ginger, sliced

1 tbsp sesame oil, plus 1 tbsp for serving


1 tsp salt

½ tsp sugar2 tsp light soy sauce

5 litres vegetable stock, for topping up thesoup

1 suan cai leaf, finely chopped


300g fresh cooked noodles



1 tsp shallot oil

Prepare the crab by removing the

underbelly, the long, white deadman’s fingers and the ’feet’ (thepointy segments of the legs. Divide

the crab into large pieces – cut themain body in half, separate thendividual claws and allow two legsper portion. Rinse if required but be

careful to retain the brown meat.

Dust all of the crab piecesgenerously with cornflour.

Heat plenty of oil in a wok, anddeep-fry the crab until golden. Thisshould take about 5-6 minutes.



Remove and set aside.

In a separate wok, stir-fry the

spring onions and ginger with thesesame oil. As they begin to takeon colour, return the crab to thepan. Add the Shaoxing wine, salt,sugar, soy sauce and enough stock to cover the crab. The soup shouldbe bubbling.

Cook for about a minute or sobefore adding the suan cai and thewhite wine vinegar. Cook for a

further 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, add the cookednoodles, shallot oil and the



remaining tablespoon of sesame oiStir through before serving,ensuring the soup is piping hot.





Cuttlefish with

lamb’s kidneyin suan cai

sauce

Cuttlefish marries well withthe kidney in this dish andsuan cai brings great

acidity. Suan cai is the



same vegetable as mei caiused earlier in the book,

but this version ispreserved in brine ratherthan dried. Make sure youremove the network of veins inside the kidney

otherwise when you cook t, the kidney will tightenand become chewy and

nedible. Removing thisnetwork of sinews alsotakes away some of the



kidney smells. Try squid,too, as an alternative to

the cuttlefish.

Makes 4 portions

4 bite-size portions cuttlefish

2 suan cai leaf, finely chopped

1 spring onion, finely chopped

12 sweet basil leaves5 cm piece fresh ginger, minced

1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped

2 lamb’s kidneys, cleaned and cut into bitesize slices


For the sauce:



4 tbsp water

½ tsp sugar


arge pinch of ground white pepper

arge pinch of salt


o garnish:

deep-fried shallots

Score the cuttlefish by cutting itssurface with a knife but be carefulnot to cut completely through. In a

small-medium pan, bring somewater to a simmer and poach thecuttlefish for 2 minutes. Removethem from the water and set aside.



Warm a little oil to a wok, and stir-fry the suan cai with the springonion, sweet basil, ginger and chilli

When the mixture becomesaromatic, add the sauce ingredientsand stir through.

Once the sauce thickens, add thekidney and the cuttlefish and stirthrough.

Cook for a further minute beforegarnishing with deep-fried shallots.he kidneys should be slightly pink

n the middle, but firm to the touchCook for a little longer if you prefer







Octopus salad

May to September is thebest time to eat octopus.

As the flavours in thedressing are quite strong,something simple like

shredded lettuce makes agood match. You canalways use other



vegetables as the base,ust be sure to adjust the

seasoning in the dressingaccordingly. One octopusyields a lot of portions of this dish, which means youcan’t really scale down this

recipe.

Makes 10 portions

1 octopus, about 150g, cleaned

For the dressing:

5 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

10 tsp Worcestershire sauce




10 tsp prune sauce – mei zi jiang

1 tsp salt

5 spring onion stalks, finely chopped

5 tsp minced garlic

10 cm ginger

3 fresh red chillies, finely chopped

a few leaves of coriander or lettuce

10 tsp sesame oil

30 leaves sweet basil, finely chopped

o serve:

hinly sliced preserved (pickled) vegetables

or shredded lettuce

o garnish:

sesame seeds, chilli flakes and finely

chopped spring onion



Put the whole octopus in a pan of cold salted water and bring to theboil. When the water begins to boil

bring down to a gentle simmer andcook the octopus for about 10minutes.

After cooking, refresh immediatelyn cold water to stop the cookingprocess. Chill the octopus in the

freezer.

Meanwhile, make the dressing bymixing together all of the

ngredients in a bowl and adjust theseasoning.

When the octopus is completely



cold and begins to set but is notfrozen (roughly 30 minutes),remove from the freezer.

Cut the octopus into thin bite-sizeslices. You need about five slicesper portion.

Serve the octopus on top of a bedof the vegetables and lettuce and

drizzle over the dressing.Garnish with a sprinkling of sesameseeds, chilli flakes and finely

chopped spring onion to serve.





Prawns with

ginkgo nuts

Prawns and ginkgo nuts is

a healthy combination andhas a very delicate flavour.he ginkgo nuts in this dish

are available in tins fromChinese shops and

supermarkets. If you can’t



find ginkgo nuts, you canuse tinned beans such as

haricot or cannellini – justmake sure they’re cookedthrough first.

Makes 4 portions

8 fresh prawns, shelled and de-veined

50g ginkgo nuts, already cooked

1 tsp shallot oil

For the sauce:1 fresh red chilli, roughly chopped


1 tbsp soy sauce



1 garlic clove, finely minced


1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp Shaoxing wine


1 tbsp water


Poach the prawns and ginkgo nuts

n a pan of hot water until theprawns have turned a pink colour,drain them and set aside.

Make the sauce by heating all of the ingredients together in a smallpan on a gentle heat untilthickened. Adjust the seasoning.



Once the sauce has thickened, addthe prawns and ginkgo nuts. Addthe shallot oil, and stir through

before serving.





Steamed prawn

and spinach roll

his dish tastes so simple

and delicious it can be a bitof surprise to find out it canbe quite fiddly to make.he hardest part is

butterflying the prawns but

once you have mastered



that, the rest is easy. Mincefrom chicken breast cooks

more easily than mincefrom a different part of thechicken so you will need toadjust the cooking time if using the latter.

Makes 8 portions

8 large prawns, shelled

For the filling:50g spinach

4 tsp chicken mince, from breast

4 tsp minced water chestnuts



½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

2 tsp Shaoxing wine


1 tsp cornflour, to coat and bind

For the sauce:½ tsp slaked cornflour

100ml stock

1½ tsp egg white

salt, to taste

o serve:

½ tsp Shaoxing wine

o garnish:

shredded red chilli and spring onion



o butterfly the prawns and openthem up, cut along the back of eachprawn, de-veining as you go. Press

down to flatten them.

Blanch the spinach in a pan of boiling water, then drain in acolander and refresh under coldrunning water. Squeeze out theexcess water and finely chop the

spinach.

Make the filling. In a bowl, mix thechicken mince with the water

chestnuts, ½ tsp of salt, ½ tsp of sugar, the Shaoxing wine and theground white pepper. Add the

chopped spinach, then stir in a little



of the cornflour to help the fillingbind.

Bring a pan of water to a simmerand set your bamboo steamer ontop.

Using a prawn as a wrapper, makea roll. To do this, put some of thefilling on the feet end of the prawn

and roll from the head to the tail.Press down gently to secure into aroll. Repeat with the rest of theprawns and the filling.

Coat the whole of each roll lightlywith cornflour and put them on theplate you will be serving them on a



you will be steaming them in thesame dish,

Steam the rolls for about 5 minutesWhen the prawns change colour,they are ready.

Meanwhile, make the sauce byheating the slaked cornflour withthe stock in a pan. As the mixture

begins to thicken, add the eggwhite and stir through to disperse ithe sauce. Season with salt totaste.

When the prawns are ready, spoonthe sauce over them and drizzle theShaoxing wine over the top. Garnis



with shredded chilli and springonion, and serve straight away.





Prawn toast

with sweet andsour sauce

I’ve taken the prawn toastand flipped it on its side.

Well, ‘outside in’ anyway.And spinach makes theperfect green



accompaniment to thissweet and sour dish.

Makes 4 portions

4 slices thin-cut white bread

2 tbsp minced prawns (see recipe forSteamed scallops with cucumber andprawns)

arge pinch of salt

1 egg, beaten

2 tsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp shop-bought sweet and sour sauce

vegetable oil, for frying30g spinach

o garnish:



sesame seeds

rim the bread to remove the

crusts.

Mix the minced prawns with a littlesalt in a bowl and place on one endof the bread. Roll up the bread,encasing the prawn mince, and seathe edges with the beaten egg.

Dip the ends of the roll in the eggbefore dipping in the sesame seedsSet the rolls aside on a plate.

Meanwhile, blanch the spinach in apan of boiling water, then drain in acolander and refresh under cold

running water.



Heat a good glug of cooking oil in awok until nearly smoking. Makesure that the oil is really hot before

cooking the prawn toast, otherwiset can end up very oily.

Deep-fry the prawn toast in the hotoil for about 1 minute until golden.Once golden, carefully remove fromthe wok with a slotted spoon and

allow to drain on kitchen paperbefore cutting in half diagonally.

Spoon the sweet and sour sauce on

to a serving dish, put the prawntoast wedges on top, cut side up,and arrange the poached spinach

between the two wedges. Sprinkle



with sesame seeds and serve.





Prawn nests

Another name for this dishs ‘dragon’s whiskers’

because the spirals arereminiscent of, well,dragon’s whiskers. The bes

sauce for this is sweet andsour sauce, which makes ita great appetiser. Or, if you



don’t like sweet and soursauce, a blend of salt and

crushed Sichuanpeppercorns is a goodalternative.

Makes 4 portions

2 sheets spring roll pastry

For the filling:

12 minced prawns

1 water chestnut, minced1 cm piece fresh ginger, minced

1 spring onion, thinly sliced

pinch of ground white pepper



1 tsp cornflour

salt, to taste

o serve:4 tbsp sweet and sour sauce

o garnish:

shredded red chilli

Make the filling by mixing all the

ngredients together in a bowl.Roll the spring roll pastry into atube and cut into slices so you end

up with fine noodles of pastry abou5mm wide. Make sure the noodlesare separated from each other.

Roll the prawn filling into balls



about 2 cm in diameter. Press thepastry noodles around the filling tomake a nest, encapsulating the

filling. The nests are not meant toook neat.

Heat a good glug of oil in a wok until almost smoking.

Put the nests into the oil, one by

one, making sure that they don’ttouch each other. Gently deep-fryon a medium heat until just goldenhe nests burn easily, so be careful

not to let this happen.

Meanwhile, warm the sweet andsour sauce in a pan with 2



teaspoons of water to serve withthe prawn nests.

When the prawn nests are ready,serve on top of a spoonful of thewarmed sweet and sour sauce anddress with shredded chilli.





Dry-fried

prawns

Dry-fried prawns are highly

addictive – these are hot,spicy, aromatic and crispy.he shell has all the flavou

and adds a delicious crunchto this dish, so make sure

you eat the prawns with



the shells on!

Makes 4 portions8 large fresh prawns, in shells

cornflour, to coat

1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

5 dried red chillies

2 spring onion stalks, cut into medallions

oil, for frying

salt, to taste

De-vein the prawns and removetheir heads and feet but keep theshells on.



Dust the prawns in cornflour. Dabon a little water to help thecornflour stick to the prawns if

necessary.

Add a good glug of oil to a wok andheat until nearly smoking.

Deep-fry the prawns on a medium-high heat until they are golden.

Meanwhile, heat the Sichuanpeppercorns, garlic and driedchillies in a separate pan with 1

tablespoon of oil and stir-fry for 1minute until the mixture becomesfragrant.

When the prawns are ready, add



them to the pan along with thespring onions and stir through. Addsalt to taste and serve.





‘Drizzle the shallot oil on just before serving as

cooking with it will destroythe aromas’



Scallops in

spicy sauce

he most important thing

to remember with this dishs not to add the shallot oiluntil the end of cooking.Drizzle the shallot oil onust before serving as

cooking with it will destroy



the aromas. You can alsogarnish with spring onion

but never use ginger andmake sure you don’t addthe garnish to the scallopsduring cooking as this willchange the flavours of the

dish.

Makes 4 portions

4 scallops, without shell or roe2 tsp shallot oil

For the spicy sauce:

4 tsp Sichuan chilli sauce





2 tsp Shaoxing wine

2 tsp deep-fried shallot


pinch of salt

o garnish:

sesame seeds

coriander

Make the sauce first by mixing allthe ingredients together in a bowl.

aste and adjust the seasoning.Don’t add too much salt as this willtake away the flavour of thescallops.



he scallops are served in thedishes they are steamed, so makesure the dishes are heatproof and

relatively sturdy. Place a scallop inthe middle of each dish and dollopthe spicy sauce on top.

Put the dishes in a bamboo steameand steam for 5 minutes.

When the scallops are ready, drizzlethe shallot oil on top. Sprinkle withsesame seeds and choppedcoriander before serving.





Scallop with

asparagus anddong cai sauce

Dong cai is the preservedeaves of cabbages and is

usually found in a jar orearthenware pot. It’s saltyand dry. The best dong cai



comes from Tianjin inChina, and is available at

Chinese supermarkets oronline. Dong cai is the keyngredient in this dish, as itgives the dish its uniqueflavour.

Makes 4 portions

4 asparagus spears, thinly sliced

4 scallops

For the sauce:

4 dong cai leaves

4 cloves garlic, minced



200ml fish stock

pinch of ground white pepper




2 tsp sesame oil

Bring a pan of water to a simmerand place a bamboo steamer on

top.For each portion, arrange theasparagus slices on the plate you

will be serving this on and place thescallop on top. Steam the wholedish for 5 minutes.

Rinse the dong cai leaves to



remove the excess salt and anysand, and finely chop.

o make the sauce, combine thegarlic, stock, white pepper, and saltand sugar to taste in a small panover a gentle heat. Add the dongcai and cook for 1 minute.

Add the slaked cornflour to the

sauce and cook to thicken. Justbefore serving, add the white winevinegar and sesame oil.

Remove the plate with theasparagus and scallop, drizzle thesauce on top, and serve.





Steamed

scallops withcucumber and

prawns

his scallop dish requires aittle extra effort, but ittastes all the better for it.

Make sure you use fresh



scallops for this recipe asthey not only taste better

but are also generally muchbigger than frozen scallops.he best way of making

minced prawns is to smashthe prawns with a knife as

f you were smashing aclove of garlic. It gives abetter texture.

Makes 6 portions

3 scallops, without shell or roe, cut in half

diagonally



6 × 2 cm discs of cucumber, peeled

For the minced prawns:

6 prawns, each no more than the length ofyour index finger

5mm piece fresh ginger, minced

1 cm spring onion stalk, very finely choppe

pinch of white pepper

½ tsp Shaoxing wine

pinch of sugar

pinch of salt

½ tsp cornflour

For the sauce:


100ml fish stock

1½ tsp egg white



1½ tsp white wine vinegar

1½ tsp sesame oil

salt, to taste

o serve:

chilli oil

deep-fried shallots, to garnish

First make the minced prawns bymixing all of the ingredients

together in a bowl. You need onlyabout 1 teaspoon of mince for eachchunk of cucumber.

Bring a pan of water to a simmerand set your bamboo steamer ontop.



Hollow out the cucumber pieces toform small cups. Blanch thecucumber briefly in a pan of boiling

water. The cucumber should be jussoft. Drain the cucumber in acolander and refresh under cold

running water. Leave to coolcompletely.

Fill each cucumber cup with 1

teaspoon of minced prawns andplace a scallop half on top, pressingt down gently. Make sure thecucumber is cold when you do this.Put the filled cucumber cups on theplate you will be serving them on ayou will be steaming the scallops in

the same dish.



Steam for around 5 minutes untilthe scallops are cooked through.

Meanwhile, make the sauce byheating the slaked cornflour withthe stock until thickened. Check forseasoning. Just before you removethe sauce from the heat, add theegg white and stir through todisperse the egg. Then add the

vinegar and sesame oil and removefrom the heat.

When the scallops are ready, spoon

the sauce over the top, followed bya drizzle of the chilli oil. Garnishwith deep-fried shallots, and serve.







Stuffed baby

squid

Both chicken and prawn

mince work well as astuffing for the squid here,though chicken offers agreater contrast in textureafter cooking. Try the squid

with other sauces too, like



sweet and sour sauce orsweet chilli sauce etc.

Makes 4 portions

4 whole baby squid, cleaned and ready to

use (ask your fishmonger to do this)cornflour, to dust


oil, for frying

For the stuffing:

10g coriander leaves, finely chopped

½ cm piece fresh ginger, minced½ spring onion, minced

1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped

30g chicken mince



pinch of salt

o serve:


Blanch the baby squid in a pan of hot water briefly for about 1minute, then transfer to a bowl of ce-cold water. The squid shouldshrink a little from the cooking.

o make the stuffing, mix all of thengredients, except the chicken,together in a bowl. Adjust the

seasoning if necessary, then mix inthe chicken mince.

Drain the squid, then dust with



cornflour and stuff each squid tubewith the stuffing, taking care not tooverfill them. The squid should only

be slit open on one side.

Cover the opening, where thestuffing is exposed, with sesameseeds.

Heat a glug of oil in a wok until

nearly smoking and shallow-fry thesquid, sesame side down, on a highheat until golden. The oil shouldcover half of the squid. Be careful

as this will splash a lot. Once thesesame seeds are golden, turn thesquid over and cook the other side.

It should take no more than 6



minutes altogether.

When the squid is ready, remove to

a plate, dress with the Sichuan chillsauce and serve.









Recipe ListRainbow monkfish

Fish roe with Suan Cai

Sea bass with tofu roll

Steamed sea bass with ginger and springonion

Deep-fried sea bass with chilli sauce

Steamed salmon, cod and chicken parcels

Skate wings with spinach and baby

olivesSalmon and prawn rolls on wood ear

mushrooms







methods though, the headand tail is reserved for

presentation. You canalways ask your fishmongeto do it for you but if youwould like to try it yourself,here’s how to prepare the

fish for serving whole.













Rainbow

monkfish

he name of this dish

comes from how colourful its. Anything so pleasing toook at will certainly bewonderful to eat!

Makes 4 portions



100g fillet of monkfish, cut into bite-sizedpieces

4 mangetout, cut into 2½ cm slivers

1 suan cai leaf, stalk only, cut into 1 cmslivers

2½ cm piece carrot, cut into 1 cm slivers

1 spring onion, sliced diagonally into 1 cmslivers

½ fresh red chilli, cut into 1 cm slivers

2½ cm piece fresh ginger, cut into 1 cm

slivers

For the sauce:




1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp shallot oil




1 tbsp water


Poach the monkfish in a pan of gently simmering salted water for

about 3 minutes.

Add the mangetout, suan cai stalk and carrot and poach for 1 minute.

Meanwhile, combine all the saucengredients in a bowl, taste andadjust the seasoning.

After poaching the vegetables,drain the monkfish and vegetables,then return to the pan along with



the spring onion, chilli and ginger.Add the sauce and warm through.

When the sauce has thickened, thedish is ready to serve.





Fish roe with

Suan Cai

his recipe is made in two

stages – the cod roe rolland the final dish. Use anyfish, chicken or prawnmince. The one we usuallyuse is salmon.



Makes 8 portions

o make the cod roe roll:

1 length cod roe

For the wrap:

300g salmon

5 water chestnut, minced1 cm ginger, minced

5 leaves of Vietnamese basil (jiu cheng ta)inely diced

2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

½ tbsp Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp cornflour


1 wood ear mushroom



ed chilli to garnish

For the sauce:

½ leaf Chinese soured vegetable (suancai), finely chopped

1 tsp Shaoxing wine

1 tsp soy sauce

2 tbsp stock

1 tsp slaked corn flour

black pepper



o make the cod roe roll:

Steam the whole cod roe for aroundhalf an hour to cook through.



Mince the salmon using the side of your knife, as this gives the besttexture.

Make the mince wrap by mixing allof the ingredients together. If you’re unsure of the flavours, mixthe seasonings together first in abowl before adding to the minceand cornflour.

When the cod roe is done, allow tocool before cutting into eights,ength-wise so you have eight

portions of cod roe in the originalength.

On a piece of cling film, spread the



mince so it’s the length of your codroe. Put one of the eights of the codroe on one end and roll up into a

roll.

Freeze the rolls until firm with thecling film on before cutting intomedallions.


Soak the wood ear mushroom inhot water until it softens.

Remove the cling film from yourmedallions and steam them on topof the wood ear mushroom for 10minutes until they’re cooked

through.





Sea bass with

tofu roll

Sea bass and tofu may

sound like an unusualcombination but it gives agreat contrast in texture.he flexibility of this dish

means that it works with

any sort of tofu and any



sort of fish. Whatever thengredients though, you

need to make sure it’s inbite-size portions so youcan eat it in one go.

Makes 6 portions

1 tube of silken tofu (should be packs of

around 250g)

1 sheet nori seaweed

1 fillet of sea bass

For the sauce:

2 spring onions, finely chopped


4 tsp Shaoxing wine



2 tsp malt vinegar

2½ cm ginger, finely sliced


o garnish:

1 tsp shallot oil per portion

ed chillies and fried shallots

Make the sauce by mixing togetherall of the sauce ingredients togethe

n a bowl. Adjust the seasoning.

On a flat surface, roll the tofu in thenori, following its shape, to form atube. If the nori is too dry, dampent slightly. With a very sharp knife,cut the roll into 2 cm lengths and

put each portion on a separate



plate.

Divide the sea bass fillet equally

according to the number of cut rollsyou have. Each portion of fishshould be around 2 cm by 3 cm insize.

Put some water in a pan to simmerand set your bamboo steamer on

the top.Drape the portions of sea bass overthe top of the rolls, drizzle the

sauce on top and steam for aboutfive minutes until the rolls arecooked through.

When the rolls are ready, drizzle



with the shallot oil, garnish with redchillies and deep-fried shallots andserve.





Steamed sea

bass withginger and

spring onion

You have to use very freshfish for this dish as it’s thisfreshness that the sauce is

bringing to life. And eat as



soon as it’s ready; when it’scold, the freshness will

disappear.

Makes 6 portions

1 sea bass



Sauce:


½ tsp sesame oil



Prepare the fish by removing all the



bones according to the instructionsat the beginning of this section (Seehere) to keep the fillets intact with

the tail. The fillets should sit flatwith the skin side down.

Place a large bamboo steamer overa pan of simmering water. On a bigplate, steam the fish with theginger and spring onion for about

twenty minutes until cooked.

Meanwhile, make the sauce bymixing all of the ingredients in a

bowl. Taste and adjust theseasoning before heating the saucen a very small pan.



When the fish is cooked, drizzle thesauce over the top and serve.





Deep-fried sea

bass with chillisauce

In Chinese food culture,nose-to-tail eating is

nothing new. Fish, indishes like this, are alwaysserved whole, heads and



all, because it signifies starto finish. Of course at home

you don’t have to serve thehead. The flavours in thesauce are very strong sothere’s no need to marinatethe fish beforehand or add

additional seasoning to thecornflour. Make sure youdon’t ladle the sauce over

the fish until you’re readyto serve, so that the fishwill still be crispy at the



table.

Makes 6 portions1 whole sea bass

cornflour, to coat


For the sauce:

1 tbsp spicy douban paste or fermented

black bean sauce2 tsp red chilli sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped2 water chestnuts, smashed

1 tsp Shaoxing wine

2 tbsp water




2 tsp vegetable oil

1 tsp sugar


o garnish:

chopped spring onion

Prepare the fish so that the filletsremain attached to the tail (see

nstructions on here).

Slice the fillets in half diagonally,without slicing through the skin, toachieve a gilled effect with theflesh.

Heat a good glug of oil in a wok



until nearly smoking.

Dampen the fish slightly before

dusting with cornflour. To keep thetail standing up during cooking, pult under and over between the twofillets with the fish facing skin sidedown. Now hold on to the tail asyou put the fish into the hot oil (it’sadvisable to wear oven gloves) and

make sure the fillets are fixed inposition before dropping the tail inthe oil.

Deep-fry on a high heat until theoutside of the fish is golden. Thiswill take around 10 minutes

depending on the size of your fish.



Meanwhile, mix all the saucengredients, apart from the slakedcornflour, in a bowl. Taste and

adjust the seasoning if necessary.In a small pan, heat the saucengredients on a low heat to bring

out their aromas.When the sauce is warm, stir in theslaked cornflour and heat gently to

thicken. The sauce is ready once ithas thickened.

When the fish is cooked, remove it

to a serving plate, then ladle thesauce over the top and servegarnished with chopped spring

onion.







Steamed

salmon, codand chicken

parcels

You can use any delicatefish instead of cod in thisrecipe. White fish such as

haddock or hake works



particularly well but oily fishsuch as mackerel would

overwhelm the salmon.Mince the fish with a knifeto achieve the rightconsistency and texture.You can also substitute the

chicken with prawns.

Makes 8 portions

1 skinless salmon fillet

For the filling:

5g coriander stalks, finely chopped




½ cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

½ tbsp cornflour

small pinch white pepper

1½ tbsp deep-fried shallots

¼ cod fillet, minced

½ chicken breast, minced


For the dressing:

50ml chicken stock



½ egg white


¼ tsp sesame oil



o serve:

chilli oil

Mix all of the ingredients for thefilling together in a bowl.

Form the filling mixture into about16 balls about 2 cm in diameter.

Cut the salmon into about 16 very

thin square slices.Place each cod and chicken ball ona slice of salmon and fold in the

ends of the salmon to form parcels.Place the parcels into the bowlsthat you’re going to serve them in.

You should have a portion in each



bowl.

Bring a pan of water to a gentle

simmer and set your bamboosteamer on top.

Steam the parcels for 10 minutes in

the bowl until the filling is cookedthrough.

Meanwhile, make the dressing by

heating the stock, cornflour, andsalt and sugar to taste in a panuntil it begins to thicken. Add the

egg white and mix thoroughly sothat it is dispersed throughout thedressing. Add the vinegar andsesame oil and stir through just



before serving.

When the parcels are cooked,

remove from the steamer, pour thedressing over them and drizzle witha little chilli oil.





‘Baby olives really help to addsavoury notes to the dish’



Skate wings

with spinachand baby olives

his is a dish of simpleflavours. The skate wing is

a delicate fish and the babyolives really help to addsavoury notes to the dish.



But the Chinese sausagefor the garnish is probably

the most importantelement – it makes thewhole dish come to life withdelicious aromas.

Makes 6 portions

1 skate wing

5 leaves of spinach

1tbsp baby olives

1tsp slaked corn flour

1tsp chilli oil

stock, enough to cover

salt to taste



o garnish:

inely chopped Chinese sausage fresh redchillies

Cut the skate wing into 6 roughlyequal portions.

Bring a pot of stock to the boilbefore adding the skate wings andturning down the heat to a gentle

simmer. Poach the wings in thestock for about 5 minutes until thefish is cooked. Reserve the stock.

Meanwhile, blanch and refresh thespinach.

Once the skate wing is done,

remove and set aside. Keep it warm



with the spinach.

Make a sauce by heating the baby

olives in 3 tbsp of the stock. Addthe slaked cornflour to thicken andadjust seasoning.

Arrange the portions of skate wingaround the serving plate with thespinach in the middle.

Drizzle the sauce over the top alongwith a little chilli oil, a sprinkling of the Chinese sausage, the red

chillies and serve.





Salmon and

prawn rolls onwood ear

mushrooms

Use fresh salmon for thewrap as frozen fish willdisintegrate during cooking

he earthy wood ear



mushrooms at the basecomplement the freshness

of the seafood but you canalso use a milderaccompaniment such astofu or greens.

Makes 4 portions

40g wood ear mushrooms

2 × 50g salmon fillet, about 6 cm square

250g minced prawns (see recipe for

Steamed scallops with cucumber andprawns)





¼ tsp Shaoxing wine

For the dressing:

60ml chicken stock 1 tsp slaked cornflour


½ tsp light soy sauce½ tsp sesame oil

salt to taste

o garnish:sliced fresh red chillies and spring onions

In a bowl or jug, soften the woodear mushrooms in a little hot waterhis should take about 20 minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix the minced



prawns with the minced ginger.

Cut the salmon lengthways into thin

slices about 3 mm thick, so thatthey can be used as wraps.

Spoon the minced prawn mixture

nto the middle of each slice androll into tubes.

Plug the ends of the tubes with the

minced water chestnuts.

Bring a pan of water to a simmer,and set your bamboo steamer ontop.

Drain the mushrooms and transfer

to 2 small heatproof plates. Place



the stuffed salmon tubes on top of the mushrooms and drizzle theShaoxing wine over them.

Steam for around 5 minutes untilthe fish is cooked.

Meanwhile, make the dressing byheating all the ingredients togethern a small pan.

When the salmon and prawn rollsare ready, drizzle with the dressingand garnish with sliced red chillies

and spring onions before serving.









Recipe ListChilli stir-fried cabbage

French chips

Pumpkin balls

Crispy tofu sticksTofu and bean sprout salad

Tofu spinach roll

Mustard greens and tofu





Chilli stir-fried

cabbage

For this dish the wok must

be really hot in order tocook the vegetables quicklyso they maintain a slightcrunch. Sprinkle the oil withsalt before adding the

cabbage and make sure the



cabbage is dry beforeputting it into the pan. You

can use any type of cabbage you want, butmake sure you adjust thecooking time and amountof stock accordingly.

Makes 6 portions

½ head of cabbage, roughly chopped

3 dried red chillies, broken in two


1½ tsp red chilli oil

1 tbsp stock





Add a glug of oil to a hot wok andheat until it’s just beginning tosmoke.

Add a pinch of salt to the wok, thenadd the cabbage, chillies andSichuan peppercorns.

Stir-fry for about 2 minutes beforeadding the chilli oil, stock, sugarand salt to taste.

Continue to stir-fry until most of thestock has evaporated, then stirthrough the white wine vinegar.



Adjust for seasoning before serving





French chips

his dish is a real classic atHunan. It’s called French

chips because it’s madewith French beans buteveryone thinks it tastes

ike chips. Our secret? Weuse self-raising flour for thebatter.



Makes 6 portions

100g French beans, trimmed


For the batter:

50g self-raising flour

100ml water2 tsp white wine vinegar

small pinch of salt

o stir-fry:1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced


½ spring onion, finely slicedsalt and crushed Sichuan peppercorns, toaste

Make the batter first by mixing the



flour with the water, vinegar andsalt in a bowl. You need quite athick and gloopy batter that will

generously coat the French beans.Adjust the amount of water if necessary.

Let the batter rest until it begins tobubble before using. This shouldtake around 20 minutes.

Heat a good glug of oil in a wok until it’s almost smoking.

Coat the French beans with thebatter, let any excess run off andcarefully put them, one by one, intothe hot oil, making sure that they



don’t touch each other.

Deep-fry the French beans until

they start to turn golden. This willtake about 1 minute. Carefullyremove from the oil with a slottedspoon and drain on kitchen paper.

In a dry wok, stir–fry the chilli withthe spring onion and garlic on a

medium heat until they becomearomatic. Add the French beans andstir through the seasoning beforeserving.





Pumpkin balls

hese pumpkin balls aredelicious as a snack and

are perfect during theautumn months whenpumpkin is in season.

Ideally you need one leaf oettuce per pumpkin ball toserve. The natural curve of





1 tbsp water

1 cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped


2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp chilli oil


o serve:

ettuce

Peel the pumpkin and remove theseeds and discard. Cut the pumpkinnto small chunks and steam in a

bamboo steamer set over a pan of simmering water for 15 minutesuntil it softens.

When the pumpkin softens, remove



to a bowl and mix into a roughmash.

Add the pumpkin seeds, flour andsalt to the steamed pumpkin chunkand mix together quickly. If themixture is too mushy, chill it in thefridge until firmer.

Form the pumpkin mixture into 12

balls, about the size of a golf ball,and stud all over with the cubedbread.

Mix all of the ingredients for thedressing together in a bowl andadjust the seasoning.




wok until almost smoking.

Deep-fry the pumpkin balls on a

medium heat until golden. Removewith a slotted spoon and set asideon kitchen paper to drain.

Place 2 pumpkin balls on top of aettuce leaf and drizzle with a littleof the dressing to serve.





Crispy tofu

sticks

ofu sticks are already dry

and when you deep-frythem, they become veryaromatic. A light coating of dressing means that thetofu sticks will acquire the

much-needed acidity to



make them even moredelicious.

Makes 4 portions

100g dried tofu stick

For the dressing:

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp plum sauce


2 tsp sesame oil

2 tsp honey

2 cm ginger, minced½ tsp minced garlic

salt to taste



o serve:

shredded lettuce

o garnish:coriander and sesame seeds

Heat a large amount of oil in a wokand deep-fry the tofu sticks untilcrispy. Once crispy, take them outof the wok and leave them to drain

on some kitchen paper.

Mix the dressing in a bowl andseason to taste.

oss the fried tofu sticks throughthe dressing for a light coating.

Serve on top of shredded lettuce



and garnish with coriander leaf.





Tofu and bean

sprout salad

his salad may seem

simple, but the sauce reallyelevates it to more thanthe sum of its parts.Sesame paste reallyhighlights the mellow

aromas in the deep-fried



tofu while the vinegar andchilli sauce really add a kick

to the flavour. If you’reooking for extra crunch,sprinkle some choppedcashew nuts on top.

Makes 4 portions

100g tofu, cut into strips

50g bean sprouts


For the sauce:

½ tbsp sesame paste or tahini





1 tsp soy sauce


1 tsp red chilli sauce (see recipe on here)


½ tsp crushed Sichuan peppercorns

o garnish:

spring onion, finely chopped

resh ginger, finely chopped

Heat a good glug of oil in a wok until nearly smoking. Deep-fry the

tofu strips in the oil for about 2minutes, until golden and crispy.

Blanch the bean sprouts in a pan of

boiling water briefly, then drain in a



colander and refresh under coldrunning water – you want them tostill have a slight crunch.

Meanwhile, mix the ingredients forthe sauce together in a bowl. Tasteand adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Mix the tofu and bean sprouts

together in a serving dish and dresswith the sauce.

Garnish with spring onion and

ginger, and serve.







Tofu spinach

roll

Here’s a recipe that’s been

on the Hunan menu sincewe opened the restaurant.It’s a bit tricky to make butt’s worth it for the contrastof the tender spinach on

the inside and the crispy



tofu shell on the outside.

Makes 6 portions

For the filling:

500g spinach

2 dried Chinese mushrooms, reconstitutedand thinly sliced

2 water chestnuts, thinly sliced

50g shredded bamboo shootspinch of salt


½ tsp sesame oil

For the tofu roll:

3 tbsp self-raising flour

5 tbsp water



1 piece tofu skin, about 30cm square

2 tsp cornflour



For the sauce:

½ spring onion, finely chopped1 clove garlic, minced

1½ tbsp water

¼ tsp chilli powder

¼ fresh red chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp tomato ketchup

pinch of salt

¼ tsp cornflour

½ tsp sesame oil

Blanch the spinach in a pan of



boiling water, then drain well in acolander and refresh under coldrunning water. Using your hands,

squeeze out as much water fromthe spinach leaves as possible.

Blanch the mushrooms in boilingwater and refresh as above. Do thesame with the water chestnuts andthen the bamboo shoots.

Make the filling. In a bowl, mix thespinach with the mushrooms, waterchestnuts, bamboo shoots, salt,

ground white pepper and sesameoil.

For the tofu roll, mix the self-raising



flour and water in a separate bowlto make a runny paste. It needs tobe easily spreadable on the tofu

skin.

Place the tofu skin in front of youwith one corner pointing towardsyou.

Place the spinach filling about a

third of the way up from the cornernear to you, and 2½ cm in fromeach side.

Bring up the tofu skin to cover thefilling and roll up until you’rehalfway up the tofu skin, level withthe two corners on either side.



Apply the paste to the edges of theremaining tofu skin, then fold inboth corners and roll up.

Mix the 2 teaspoons of cornflourwith the leftover paste to thicken itIt should be quite viscous at thisstage.


wok until it’s almost smoking.Coat the entire spinach roll with athin layer of the paste and deep-fry

on a high heat until it sets. Removefrom the oil with a slotted spoonand drain on kitchen paper. Leaveto cool.



urn off the heat but keep the panon the hob as you’ll be using itagain later.

Once cooled, cut the roll into 2½cm sections. Tip some sesameseeds into a bowl.

aking one spinach parcel at atime, dip the cut ends into the

remaining flour paste and then intothe sesame seeds to coat them,then set aside. Make up more flourpaste if necessary.

o make the sauce, heat a little oiln a heavy-bottomed pan and stir-fry the spring onion and minced



garlic together until fragrant.

o a bowl, add the rest of the sauce

ngredients, apart from thecornflour and the sesame oil, mixwell and adjust the seasoning. Onceyou’re happy with the flavours, addthe cornflour and sesame oil.

Add the sauce to the spring onion

and garlic and heat through untilthe sauce thickens.

Meanwhile, reheat the oil in the

wok, then carefully add the spinachparcels and deep-fry on a high heatonce more until golden.

Once the spinach parcels are ready



remove to kitchen paper to drain.ransfer to serving plates, then

drizzle the sauce over the top and

serve.



‘The intensity of themustard greens can be

quite unforgiving and that’s



why you need the othervegetables to balance it

out’



Mustard greens

and tofu

Mustard greens can be

quite intense and that’swhy you need the othervegetables to balance themout. The mix of vegetableswill also bring a great

variety of textures to the



plate.

Makes 4 portions1 tsp minced garlic

1 spring onion stalk, roughly chopped

3 leaves mustard greens, roughly chopped2 slices lotus root, roughly chopped

1 piece five spice tofu, cubed

2½ cm carrot, cubed

1 dried Chinese mushroom, reconstitutedand roughly chopped

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp sugar

1 tsp Shaoxing wine


1 chilli, finely sliced



On a high heat, stir-fry the mincedgarlic and spring onion briefly in awok until they become aromatic.

Add the mustard greens and stirthrough until they just begin to wilt

Add the rest of the vegetables andthe tofu and stir through with saltand sugar for a further minute.

Add the Shaoxing wine, white winevinegar and chilli just beforeserving.







Recipe ListRed chilli sauce






Red chilli sauce

Slow cooking is the onlyway to extract the full

flavours from the chillies inthis spicy sauce. The chillipowder is very dry and will

soak up most of the liquidso take care to ensure itdoesn’t burn. We use this



n a variety of dishes suchas red oil beef, and it has a

more mellow rounded spicethan the Sichuan chillisauce.

Makes about 300ml

5 tbsp water


1 tbsp tomato purée


1 tbsp chilli powder

3 tbsp chilli flakes

½ tsp salt

½ tsp granulated sugar



2 tbsp oil, plus 1 tbsp

In a bowl, mix the water, stock,

tomato purée, tian mian jiang, chillflakes, chilli powder, salt and sugartogether and adjust for seasoning.

Heat the mixture in a wok with 2tablespoons of oil until it becomesfragrant.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oiand stir through.

Dilute with more stock if necessaryYou need a thick but runny saucewith the consistency of saladcream.





Sichuan chilli

sauce

his punchy sauce is

essential to Hunan’scooking, and the Sichuanpeppercorns lend theircharacteristic numbingspice to many of our

dishes. You need a lot of oi



to make this sauce as itcaptures the flavours of the

chilli and also helps topreserve it. When thesauce settles, you shouldhave a layer of oil on top. Iyou add too much, you can

always use the excess aschilli oil. This sauce is muchspicier than the red chilli

sauce.

Makes about 300ml

2 tbsp crushed Sichuan peppercorns



4 tbsp chilli flakes


2 tsp tomato purée

200ml cooking oil


6 tbsp chicken stock plus more if necessar

Add the chilli flakes to a hot wok with about a tablespoon of cooking

oil. Heat the chilli flakes until thepan begins to smoke, stirringconstantly to avoid burning. Becareful as it will spit a little and

there will be a lot of smoke.

As the chilli flakes absorb thecooking oil, add more oil one



tablespoon at a time until you havea paste. It should take around fiveminutes.

When the chilli flakes begin todarken, add the Sichuanpeppercorns off the heat with 3tbsp of stock. Stir through andreturn to the hob on a mediumheat.

Add the tian mian jiang, tomatopurée and the remaining stock withsalt and sugar.

Stir through all the ingredients,adding more stock and oil if necessary. You need a thick but



runny sauce.

Finally add the white wine vinegar

and stir through just before taking ioff the heat.





Acknowledgem

his cookbook has been a long timen the making; not just over themonths it took to write but also

during the many years in which ihas been a project on the horizon.

So it’s really with the sinceresgratitude that I’d like to thank thefollowing people:

First and foremost my thanks goe



to my family and friends for theisupport over the years. Withouthem I wouldn’t have been able to

achieve the things that I have.

he staff at Hunan, for thei

ceaseless hard work. That has beentegral to the restaurant’s success.

Our wonderful suppliers who kee

us stocked with fantastingredients. Especially AndyMatthew and Mel at SouthbanFish; Darragh and Michael aO’Shea’s; and Ronnie, James andAlbert from Cook’s Delight.

Dino Joannides, my friend and a



ong-time supporter of Hunan, fomaking the introductions that finallgot this project going.

revor Dolby and Katherine Murphyfor their hard work at Random

House in giving me an opportunitto make my vision a reality.

Paul Winch-Furness, who has been

meticulously capturing just the righmoments so that we could have somany stunning images for the book

Keira Yang and Felix von Bomhardat By Associates, for their creativitand flair in making the book so

beautiful.



And last but not least, Qin Xie, foher patience in the kitchen and athe table, scribbling down all m

thoughts and putting the words oto the pages.





Index of

recipes

he page references in this index

correspond to the printed editionfrom which this ebook was created.o find a specific word or phrase

from the index, please use thesearch feature of your ebook reader.



abalone with mushroom and pak choi 170, 171

angelica root lamb stew 128, 129

bamboo cup soup 110, 111

beef and mushroom stir-fry 142,143

beef and orange peel stir-fry 134,

135beef fried rice 144, 145

beef with Chinese water spinach

132, 133beef with sweet basil 136, 137



chicken and spinach fritters 78, 79

chicken and water chestnut parcels

66, 67chicken in pineapple and bittermelon sauce 58, 59

chicken in spicy sauce 46, 47chicken with baby olives 56, 57

chicken with red fermented bean

curd 76, 77chicken wrapped asparagus 74, 75

chilli stir-fried cabbage 232, 233

crab noodle soup 172, 173

crispy tofu sticks 238, 239

cuttlefish with lamb’s kidney in suan



cai sauce 174, 175

deep-fried sea bass with chilli sauce218, 219

dry-fried chicken 50, 51

dry-fried prawns 186, 187duck and lotus root parcels 88, 89

duck and spinach parcels 70, 71

egg wrapped soup 112, 113

fish roe with suan cai 212, 213

French chips 234, 235



frog’s legs with garlic chives 164,165

guinea fowl and ginseng soup 82,83

amb and celery stir-fry 122, 123

amb with garlic stem and wood ea

mushrooms 126, 127amb with hot spicy sauce 120, 121

Little Lion’s Head 102, 103

otus root stuffed with chicken64,65



miso chicken 60, 61

mustard greens and tofu 246, 247

noodles stir-fried with pork andbean sprouts 96, 97

octopus salad 178, 179

ox tongue with marmalade 150,

151

pig’s blood and intestines 152, 153

pork mince and aubergine stir-fry106, 107

pork with chilli sauce 92, 93



pork with mei cai 98, 99

prawn nests 186, 187

prawn toast with sweet and soursauce 182, 183

prawns with white beans 178, 179

pumpkin balls 236, 237

rainbow monkfish 210, 211

red chilli sauce 250, 251

red intestines with spinach 154, 155

red oil beef 140, 141red roast lamb stew 124, 125



salmon and prawn rolls on woodear mushrooms 226, 227

salted pork 94, 95scallop with asparagus and dong casauce 192, 193

scallops in spicy sauce 190, 191sea bass with tofu roll 214, 215

Sichuan chilli sauce 252, 253

Sichuan-style stir-fry chicken 52, 53

skate wings with spinach and babyolives 224, 225

spicy chicken wings 48, 49

steamed duck with lotus root anddong gua sauce 86, 87



steamed prawns and spinach 182,183

steamed salmon, cod and chickenparcels 222, 223

steamed scallops with cucumberand prawns 194, 195

steamed sea bass with ginger andspring onion 216, 217

stuffed baby squid 198, 199stuffed chicken wings 54, 55

stuffed pig’s trotters with pak choi

114, 115, 116, 117

tofu and bean sprout salad 240, 24



tofu spinach roll 244, 245

tongue and ear salad 160, 161,

162, 163tripe in spicy sauce 148, 149

whole stuffed aubergine 68, 69



Index of

ingredients

he page references in this index

correspond to the printed editionfrom which this ebook was created.o find a specific word or phrase

from the index, please use thesearch feature of your ebook reader.



abalone with mushroom and pak choi 170, 171

angelica root lamb stew 128, 129ASPARAGUS:

chicken wrapped asparagus 74, 75

scallop with asparagus and dong casauce 192, 193

AUBERGINE:




basil, beef with sweet 136, 137



BEAN CURD:

chicken with red fermented bean

curd 76, 77fermented bean curd 31

BEAN SPROUTS:



BEEF:


beef and orange peel stir-fry 134,135

beef fried rice 144, 145



beef with Chinese water spinach132, 133

beef with sweet basil 136, 137red oil beef 140, 141

blood and intestines, pig’s 152, 153

cabbage, chilli stir-fried 232, 233

celery and lamb stir-fry 122, 123

CHICKEN:


chicken and water chestnut parcels66, 67

chicken in pineapple and bitter

melon sauce 58, 59



chicken in spicy sauce 46, 47

chicken with baby olives 56, 57

chicken with red fermented beancurd 76, 77

chicken wrapped asparagus 74, 75

dry-fried chicken 50, 51otus root stuffed with chicken64,65

miso chicken 60, 61

Sichuan-style stir-fry chicken 52, 53

spicy chicken wings 48, 49


stuffed chicken wings 54, 55




CHILLI:

chilli sauce 36chilli stir-fried cabbage 232, 233

deep-fried sea bass with chilli sauce

218, 219dried chillies 33

fresh red chillies 30

pork with chilli sauce 92, 93

red chilli oil 35

red chilli sauce 36, 250, 251Sichuan chilli sauce 36, 252, 253

chips, French 234, 235



cinnamon 34

cod, salmon and chicken parcels,

steamed 222, 223cornflour 34


cucumber and prawns, steamedscallops with 194, 195

cuttlefish with lamb’s kidney in suan

cai sauce 174, 175

deep fry, how to safely 39

dong cai sauce, scallop withasparagus and 192, 193

dong gua sauce, steamed duck with



otus root and 86, 87

DUCK:

duck and lotus root parcels 88, 89duck and spinach parcels 70, 71

steamed duck with lotus root and

dong gua sauce 86, 87

ear and tongue salad 160, 161,

162, 163


FISH:

fish roe with suan cai 212, 213

five spice, Chinese 33



flavour 24–5

French chips 234, 235

fresh 30frog’s legs with garlic chives 164,165

garlic 30

ginger, steamed sea bass with

spring onion and 216, 217

guinea fowl and ginseng soup 82,83

INTESTINES:





Jiu qu 35

LAMB:

angelica root lamb stew 128, 129

cuttlefish with lamb’s kidney in suancai sauce 174, 175


amb with garlic stem and wood eamushrooms 126, 127

amb with hot spicy sauce 120, 121

red roast lamb stew 124, 125

LOTUS ROOT:



duck and lotus root parcels 88, 89

otus root stuffed with chicken 64,

65steamed duck with lotus root anddong gua sauce 86, 87

wine rice lotus root parcels 64, 65

marmalade, ox tongue with 150,

151mei cai, pork with 98, 99

melon sauce, chicken in pineapple

and bitter 58, 59MISO:

miso chicken 60, 61



miso paste 34

monkfish, rainbow 210, 211

MUSHROOMS:abalone with mushroom and pak choi 170, 171


amb with garlic stem and wood ea

mushrooms 126, 127salmon and prawn rolls on woodear mushrooms 226, 227

MUSTARD GREENS:fish roe with suan cai 212, 213

mustard greens and tofu 246, 247



NOODLES:

crab noodle soup 172, 173noodles stir-fried with pork andbean sprouts 96, 97


offal 146–67

OIL:

how to deep fry safely 39

red chilli oil 35red oil beef 140, 141

sesame oil 32



shallot oil 32

OLIVES:

chicken with baby olives 56, 57skate wings with spinach and babyolives 224, 225

orange peel and beef stir-fry 134,135

ox tongue with marmalade 150,

151oyster sauce, Little Lion’s Head with104, 105

PAK CHOI:

abalone with mushroom and pak



choi 170, 171

stuffed pig’s trotters with pak choi

114, 115, 116, 117pepper, ground 33

peppercorns, Sichuan 33

pineapple and bitter melon sauce,chicken in 58, 59

PORK:



Little Lion’s Head 102, 103






pork with chilli sauce 92, 93pork with mei cai 98, 99

salted pork 94, 95

stuffed pig’s trotters with pak choi114, 115, 116, 117

poultry 44–89 see also under

ndividual type of poultryPRAWN:

dry-fried prawns 186, 187

prawn nests 186, 187

prawn toast with sweet and soursauce 182, 183



prawns with white beans 178, 179

salmon and prawn rolls on wood

ear mushrooms 226, 227steamed prawns and spinach 182,183

steamed scallops with cucumberand prawns 194, 195

pumpkin balls 236, 237

RICE:

beef fried rice 144, 145

red yeast rice 35

wine rice lotus root parcels 64, 65



salad:


tofu and bean sprout salad 240, 24tongue and ear salad 160, 161,162, 163

salmon:salmon and prawn rolls on woodear mushrooms 226, 227


salt 34

SAUCES:

chilli sauce (pork with) 92, 93

chilli sauce (deep-fried sea bass



with) 218, 219

dong cai sauce 192, 193

dong gua sauce 86, 87hot spicy sauce 120, 121

oyster sauce 104, 105

pineapple and bitter melon sauce58, 59

preserved mustard greens sauce

212, 213

red chilli sauce 250, 251

Sichuan chilli sauce 36, 252, 253

soy sauce 32

spicy sauce (chicken in) 46, 47

spicy sauce (scallops in) 190, 191



spicy sauce (tripe in) 148, 149

suan cai sauce 174, 175

sweet and sour sauce 184, 185SCALLOPS:

scallop with asparagus and dong ca

sauce 192, 193scallops in spicy sauce 190, 191

steamed scallops with cucumber

and prawns 194, 195

SEA BASS:

deep-fried sea bass with chilli sauce218, 219

sea bass with tofu roll 214, 215

steamed sea bass with ginger and



spring onion 216, 217

seafood 168–201 see also under

ndividual type of seafoodseeds, sesame 35

SESAME:

sesame oil 32sesame seeds 35

SHALLOTS:

deep fried shallots 32

shallot oil 32

Shaoxing wine 32skate wings with spinach and babyolives 224, 225

SOUP:





egg wrapped soup 112, 113guinea fowl and ginseng soup 82,83

soy sauce 32SPINACH:

beef with Chinese water spinach

132, 133


duck and spinach parcels 70, 71


skate wings with spinach and baby

olives 224, 225



steamed prawns and spinach 182,183

tofu spinach roll 244, 245spring onion 30

steamed sea bass with ginger and

spring onion 216, 217squid, stuffed baby 198, 199

star anise 34

steamer, the 27

STIR-FRY:


beef and orange peel stir-fry 134,135



chilli stir-fried cabbage 232, 233



pork mince and aubergine stir-fry

106, 107Sichuan-style stir-fry chicken 52, 53

stock 32

store cupboard 28

sugar 34

sweet and sour sauce, prawn toastwith 182, 183

temperature 26



ian mian jiang 35

OFU:

crispy tofu sticks 238, 239mustard greens and tofu 246, 247

sea bass with tofu roll 214, 215


tofu spinach roll 244, 245

tripe in spicy sauce 148, 149trotters, stuffed pig’s with pak choi114, 115, 116, 117

vegetables 230–47 see also underndividual type of vegetable

vinegar 27, 37



Chinese black vinegar 37

red wine vinegar 37

white wine vinegar 37

water chestnut parcels, chicken and

66, 67white beans, prawns with 178, 179

white wine vinegar 37

WINE:

Shaoxing wine 32

wok, the 27





Qin Xie is a food, drink and traveournalist reporting frequently ochefs, restaurants, wines and

destinations. She has written widelfor publications including CNNYahoo, Financial Times and The

imes. Her reportage has coveredeverything from Georgian Qvevrwines and Belgian elixirs to cacaofrom the Dominican Republic and

Basmati rice from India.

Whilst working as a journalist, she

also received classical culinartraining at Leith’s School of Foodand Wine and subsequentlcompleted kitchen and pastr

stages at Michelin-starred



restaurants including The Fat DuckDinner by Heston Blumenthal, TheSquare and Lima.

Born in the UNESCO City oGastronomy, Chengdu, she has a

deep-rooted understanding andappreciation of Chinese food and in constant pursuit of authenticity –something she found at Hunan.

She keeps a blog of her gastroadventures at In Pursuit of Food(inpursuitoffood.com).

http://www.inpursuitoffood.com/





Paul Winch-Furness is a professionafood and restaurant photographer

He has many years of experienceshooting in studios and on locatioand his work has featured in a

variety of magazines and



newspapers. He is regularlcommissioned by the newesLondon restaurants to shoot thei

food, interiors and staff for use ivarious media and publicity.

He has embraced social mediancluding Instagram, Facebook andwitter as a means o

communicating directly with hi

audience and this has given woran added dimension since he ioften asked to Instagram his mea

by the restaurants he frequents.Paul has a BA in photography fromthen University of Westminster and

an MA in Photography from LCC and



has taught at both WestminsteUniversity and runs his owphotography workshops.



This ebook is copyright material and must not becopied, reproduced, transferred, distributed,

eased, licensed or publicly performed or used inany way except as specifically permitted in writinby the publishers, as allowed under the termsand conditions under which it was purchased oras strictly permitted by applicable copyright law.

Any unauthorized distribution or use of this textmay be a direct infringement of the author’s andpublisher’s rights and those responsible may beable in law accordingly.

Version 1.0

Epub ISBN 9781409052449

www.randomhouse.co.uk

Published by Preface 2014

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Copyright © Mr Y. S. Peng & Qin Xie 2014

Mr Y S Peng & Qin Xie have asserted their righ

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http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/

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Hunan_A Lifetime of Secrets From Mr.peng's Chinese Kitchen