Cooking bonanza!

 My boyfriend is a chef, Well not the professional type as of yet but a chef in training... He works as a common chef in a restaurant, Nancy Murphy s in a nice little quaint countryside village, Enniskerry,

Anyway during the summer my Grandma moved house and she had a heap of recipe books she was planing to throw in the skip, But as my boyfriend is a chef in training I thought it would be a great idea if he took some of the books and learned some of the cooking terminology. It started off great first of all we made a raspberry cheesecake which he sent up to my mom as a birthday present..... We made several other things and then found out that following recipe books is rather expensive.... So we got lazy and the cooking terminology studying ceased. ...

But on Sunday we got inspired again... and made

Cauliflower and Blue cheese soup

Ingredients

1 small cauliflower, divided into small florets

2 small leeks, diced

1 small potato, peeled and chopped

900ml vegetable stock, made with stock cubes

125g Gorgonzola cheese, roughly chopped

Preparation Method

1.		Put the cauliflower, leeks and potato into a pan and add the stock and seasoning. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat. Cover and simmer gently for about 14 minutes or until tender.
2.		Transfer half the soup to a food processor or blender and purée until smooth. Return to the pan. (Alternatively, use a hand-held blender straight in the pan to process the soup lightly, leaving a chunky appearance.)
3.		Heat the soup gently until boiling, then remove from the heat. Add the cheese and stir lightly. Ladle into bowls and serve immediately.

Honey and mustard salmon with crushed butter beans and spinach

 Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp clear honey

2 tsp wholegrain mustard

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

4 skinless salmon fillets, about 115g each

2 x 400g cans butter beans, drained and rinsed

1 large garlic clove, crushed

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

pinch of crushed chilli flakes

180g fresh baby leaf spinach, rinsed

12 vine-ripened cherry tomatoes

Preparation Method

		Make the marinade: In a shallow dish, mix together the vegetable oil, soy sauce, honey, mustard and 1 tbsp of the lemon juice. Add the salmon and coat with the marinade. Set aside.
2.		Combine the beans and flavourings: Put the butter beans and garlic in a pan with the olive oil, remaining lemon juice, the zest and crushed chilli flakes. Set aside.
3.		Wilt the spinach and heat the beans: Heat a ridged griddle or frying pan until hot. Meanwhile, tip the spinach into a dry pan with only the water that clings to its leaves and stir over a low heat for 2 minutes or until wilted. Drain and set aside. Gently heat the beans.
4.		Griddle the salmon: Cook the salmon in the heated ridged griddle or frying pan for 2-3 minutes on each side or until just firm and pink. Add the tomatoes for the last 1-2 minutes of the cooking time.
5.		Crush the beans: Roughly crush the beans with a vegetable masher or fork. Stir in the spinach and seasoning. Divide the beans and spinach among four serving plates. Arrange a salmon fillet on top of each and scatter the tomatoes around the side. Serve at once.

Hui Guo Ruo.. Success

Sounds like gobbled gook right? Haha this was my first excursion with the chinese language for about a 2 years? Well since I went to Nanjing with my first boyfriend. Which wasn’t very successful, not because my Chinese was so hopeless though… Just the shop was busy =.=;; I still remember what I had to say si lian, 4 portions lol!

Anyway last night me and my boyfriend were feeling quite peckish and didn’t want to cook. So he sent me out to the local Chinese take away, literally across the road. I knew what he wanted but neither of us could remember what the dish was called.  It consisted of Pork belly and chilli sauce. In fact I had ordered it by accident when I was ordering for my family.

So before venturing out my boyfriend trained me to say Hui Guo Rou… So off i went and explained to the Chinese man at the counter that I wanted something that I only knew how to say in Chinese. I think he must of thought I was mental @.@ so I had a try and said it and he understood ! Mission accomplished! He praised me on my Chinese and had a laugh. Then kindly told me the English name “Re-fried Pork”  (回鍋肉 Hui Guo Rou)

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Update:

It suddenly occured to me looking back at this post that I should of given a recipe for how to make Hui Guo Ruo

Recipe:

Serves 4 as part of multi-course meal

1 pound pork belly or unsmoked bacon (if using sliced bacon skip first step)
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
1 tablespoon fermented black beans
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon chili bean sauce
2 teaspoons sweet chili paste
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 teaspoons peanut oil
2 leeks, white parts thinly sliced

1. Place pork belly in a medium pot of salted water and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer, skimming the water as necessary, until pork is fully cooked through, about 45 to 60 minutes. Drain and let cool. When cool enough to handle, pat dry and slice into 1/4-cm thick pieces.

2. In a small bowl, mix together black beans, rice wine, soy sauce, chili bean sauce, sweet chili paste, and sesame oil. 

3. In a wok, heat peanut oil until just beginning to smoke. Working in small batches, cook until golden brown on each side. Transfer pork to a separate plate and continue with the next batch. (Drain oil/pork fat after each batch, leaving just 1 tablespoon in the wok.)

4. Stir-fry ginger until just fragrant, about 30 seconds, then add sauce. Add leeks and stir-fry until cooked through, about 1 minute. Return pork to the wok and stir to coat with sauce and cooked leeks. Transfer to plate and serve.