Paul's cooking .......

Siew yoke (siu yoke) - crispy roast pork belly

 

I have wanted to write about, and cook siew yoke for quite some time, and finally I've managed it! Now belly pork is one of nature's great treats, and what interests me most is the many ways around the world local people prepare it. Here in Britain, long slow cooking is considered to achieve the greatest results, however with this recipe it's a relatively short blast of extreme heat that produces the desired taste and textures.

I have to say that this is not necessarily the most authentic of siew yoke recipes as it omits the fermented red bean curd, but I don't think anyone will be disappointed with the end product.

It is perfect served hot as part of a Chinese meal, or indeed makes the most brilliant canapes when served cold with a spicy little dipping sauce!

Ingredients

1 fairly large piece of belly pork, skin on (say 1kg)

2 tablespoons of coarse sea salt

2 tablespoons of ground five spice (shop bought or home made- see below)

Let's start with the five spices which are surprisingly easy to prepare and delicious when made fresh!

Ingredients for five spices

1.5 table spoon ground  star anise

2.5 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon

0.5 teaspoon ground Szechwan pepper

0.5 teaspoon ground cloves

This will make more 5 spices than called for in the recipe, but will obviously keep, stored in an air-tight jar. Simply blend all of the above ground spices. If not available ground, grind in a spice grinder or even the coffee grinder!

The key to this dish is the crunchy, crispy delicious crackling. Now there are numerous theories and practices about getting good crackling, using boiling water, vinegar etc, but to me the most important factor is having the pork skin as dry as possible before cooking.  

Firstly bring your piece of pork belly up to room temperature by allowing it to stand out of the fridge for at least an hour, uncovered. This also helps the drying process. If not already scored, do so with a stanley knife, but be careful. We want to expose the fat under the skin, but not cut down into the meat itself. When at room temperature dry off the skin with kitchen towels ( it should be pretty dry by now anyway). 

Take the sea salt and the ground five spice and mix well together and then work the mixture into the scored surface of the belly pork. Work it in really well, effort here will reward you with amazing crackling! Ensure a very good coating across all the skin and leave aside for a further two hours minimum, longer if possible.

An hour and a half before serving (if serving hot) heat up the oven to  200 C. Place the pork on a rack in the middle of the oven, and a large  deep tray on the shelf below to catch all the juices and fat (which can be used another time - delicious!). Close the door and leave to cook at 200 C for 40 minutes

After 40 minutes change the oven settings to grill (or remove pork if using a separate grill) and grill at about 60% of maximum heat setting (you may have to modify settings depending on grill and oven size). Grill for a minimum of 20 minutes, but monitor the pork as although we want wonderful charred crackling, we don't want to cremate the pork. Don't be too concerned though if the salt/five spices mix turns black - it should do so, it will be scraped off as you will see.

After a minimum of 20 minutes carefully remove the pork and place on a chopping board to rest a little. ( I hope your kitchen will nor be too smokey, but that's a possibility - get those windows open!)

Allow the pork to rest for 10 minutes, then using a reasonably heavy chef's knife, scrape away the charred and burnt salt/five spices mixture. What you should have left is a beautifully golden, rough crackling. Now chop or slice (using a sharp serrated knife if not chopping) into those all too familiar chunks of golden crispy crackling, with delicious soft unctious pork and fat underneath. 

If serving immediately, pile into a large bowl and bring to the table with steamed rice and stir fried vegetables - I assure you it will taste fantastic, and be infinitely better than takeaway or shop bought!

This dish can also be served as a delightful cold canape, just ensure the chunks are bite sized, and a dipping sauce of soy, fresh ginger and fresh red chillies is offered alongside! Salty, spicy, crunchy and soft - all at the same time!

Sichuan-style squid

This is one of my favourite ways of preparing, and eating, squid. As with all simple recipes, particularly with seafood, it requires the freshest, best quality squid. Frozen stuff from the supermarket will not pass muster!

Although a simple dish I believe the preparation of ingredients is very important, please take the time to very finely dice, it really makes the difference!

Ingredients

800 g small whole squid

50 g cornflour

groundnut oil for frying

2 tablespoons very finely sliced coriander stalks and leaves

3 tablespoons very finely sliced spring onions

1 1/2 tablespoons very finely diced fresh ginger

1 1/2 tablespoons very finely diced red chillies, de-seeded

1 1/2 tablespoon very finely diced garlic

a good pinch of sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoons sichuan pepper - freshly ground and mixed with 2 teaspoons sea salt

3 iceberg lettuce leaves, very finely sliced

1 lime

Ideally get your fishmonger to clean your squid for you, however if you have do it yourself, do as follows: Gently pull the head and tentacles away from the body and cut the tentacles from the head, just below the eyes. Discard the head. Pull out the quill from inside the body and discard the entrails. Remove the side wings and fine membrane from the body. Now rinse the body, tentacles and wings thoroughly and pat dry with a kitchen towel. Cut the squid down the centre so that it opens flat. Slice the body and wings into strips no more than 5mm wide. Set aside.

Prepare each of the remaining ingredients, ready for cooking and serving.

In a bowl, combine the squid including tentacles, with cornflour and toss to coat, shaking of any excess.

Pour sufficient oil into the wok for deep frying, and place on the heat until the oil seems to shimmer slightly (watch carefully). Add half of the floured squid and deep-fry for 1 minute, until just tender and starting to colour. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on kitchen paper. Repeat the process with the remaining squid.

Pour off the oil from the wok and refresh with 1 tablesppon of clean oil. Heat until almost smoking and add the coriander, spring onions, ginger, chilli and garlic. Stir-fry for 1 minute, until fragrant. 

Return the squid to the wok and season with a pinch of sea salt and the sea salt/sichuan pepper mix. Stir fry for another 30 seconds.

To serve, place the finely shredded lettuce in a bowl with a wedge of lime on the side. Sprinkle a little extra sea salt/sichuan pepper mix on top and serve immediately.

Delicious with an ice cold beer!

Steamed razor clams with pancetta and broad beans

The long razor clams are often ignored in the UK, yet in Spain and Portugal loved and used as extensively as palourdes and mussels. The key, as with most shellfish, is simplicity and freshness. Here's a simple but delicious recipe that combines very well the sweetness of the razor clam with broad beans, thyme and pancetta.

Try it, it's delicious and very interesting to serve to friends, a perfect starter - they won't be disappointed!

Ingredients 

1kg live razor clams 
1/2 glass of dry white wine 
A few sprigs of thyme 
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped 
A squeeze of lemon juice
1tbsp chopped parsley, reserving the stalks 
250g broad beans, shelled 
4tbsp olive oil 
150g cubed pancetta  
60g butter 
Freshly ground black pepper

Start with the razor clams. Rinse the razor clams well in cold, running water for a couple of minutes. Like all shellfish discard any that don't close when handled. Place in a pot with the wine, thyme, garlic, salt and parsley stalks. Cover and cook over a high heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until all the shells have opened. Drain in a colander and leave to cool.

Whilst cooking the clams, preheat the oven to 130C. Carefully remove the clams from the shells, keeping the shell intact. Cut away the central, dark, intestinal sac and discard. Chop each clam into 4 or 5 pieces, place back into the open shell and arrange the shells on a baking tray. Keep warm in the low oven.

Now cook the shelled broad beans in boiling salted water for 2 minutes, then drain in a colander. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a pan and cook the pancetta on a relatively high heat for 3-4 minutes until crisp. Add the cooked broad beans,a squeeze of lemon juice, butter and chopped parsley, toss and season with freshly ground pepper.

Now, place the clams in their shells on warmed serving plates and spoon the pancetta/broad beans mixture over, and serve immediately.

Enjoy with some nice warm crusty bread!

Rice noodle and prawn salad with a thai lemon grass vinaigrette

Even though autumn is upon us, these last few days of warm sunshine have inspired me to create a wonderful, fresh zingy salad !

Perfect lunch food whilst the weather remains good, or a really interesting and unusual starter for dinner perhaps!

Ingredients (for 4, or 6 as starter)

300g rice noodles

24 medium sized prawns

A handful of sesame seeds

A good handful of coriander

For the thai lemon grass vinaigrette

2 cm length lemon grass, very finely chopped

handful of coriander leaves, finely shredded

6 chives, finely snipped

2 tablespoons thai fish sauce

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

200 ml sunflower oil

50 ml rice wine vinegar

freshly ground black pepper

a squeeze of lime juice

Let's start with the vinaigrette. Mix the vinaigrette ingredients together in a bowl and season with the black pepper, Taste and when satisfied, cover and leave for 2 hours for the flavours to infuse.

Meanwhile cook the rice noodles as per packet instructions, generally soak at room temperature for an hour and then submerging them into just boiled water for 30 seconds. Take out of the hot water and straight back into ice cold water to stop the cooking. This should produce perfect noodles soft with a little bite to them.

Quickly stir fry the prawns for a couple of minutes and set aside, no need to add flavourings as this will come from the vinaigrette.

Five minutes before serving, drain noodles carefully, add the prawns, sesame seeds and chopped coriander and mix well. Spoon over the delicious vinaigrette, give a quick squeeze of lime juice and enjoy a fabulous noodle salad packed with many of the flavours of the far east!

Enjoy!

Marinated figs with balsamic vinegar

As Summer starts to slip away and the nights draw in, the second crop of figs are ready for eating, and what a delight they are, sweeter and heavier than the first crops of June!

Ingredients

(for 4)

12 fresh, ripe purple figs

A good bunch of fresh thyme, leaves and flowers

A good bunch of marjoram leaves

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

juice from 1 lemon

60 ml high quality virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons high quality balsamic vinegar

Take your ripe figs which if truly fresh will appear surprisingly heavy for their size. Cut off the top stem and base of each fig, and slice carefully with a sharp knife, horizontally into 1 cm thick slices. Now place in a bowl.

Finely chop about 3/4's of thyme and marjoram and scatter liberally over the arranged fig slices. Season with the sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. In a bowl, mix the olive oil and the lemon juice and drizzle over the figs.

Arrange the figs carefully on a single serving plate ensuring all the juices and olive oil are used. Carefully spoon the balsamic vinegar over the figs and finally scatter a few whole herb leaves and the thyme flowers over the top.

Allow to sit in a cool place (not the fridge) for an hour before serving.

A delicious starter course or light lunch!

Fish baked in salt

In southern Italy and particularly Sicily, baking whole fish in salt has been practiced for many years. The salt is used not to flavour the fish but to provide a medium through which the fish cooks beautifully but retains a moist interior and amazing sweetness to its' flesh.

In this recipe I'm suggesting cooking 3 different fish, however this is not absolutely necessary, the dish will work with 1 choice of fish.

Ingredients:

3 whole fish weighing approximately 900 g each - ideally sea bass, sea bream and red mullet

Several sprigs of fresh fennel and dill, handful of parsley

juice of 2 lemons

a minimum of 1.5 kg sea salt

350 g butter

flavoured butter as a garnish, parsley or lemon butter perhaps

Start by preheating your oven to 220 C.

Take each fish, and if not already gutted and scaled by your fishmonger, cleanse and scale the fish thoroughly. Once gutted, scaled and dried, stuff the cavities of the fish with the sprigs of fennel and dill plus the parsley. Squeeze a good amount of lemon juice into the cavities also.

Now take a large ovenproof baking dish and cover the base with half of the sea salt. Carefully place the fish on top of the salt and cover completely with the remainder, ensuring that the salt is well packed around the fish, and that the fish are covered completely.

Place the baking tray in the top of the oven and bake for 25 minutes. The salt crust will have started to colour at this stage. The fish are now cooked.

Whilst the fish are cooking, prepare the flavoured butter by mixing butter with lemon zest or finely chopped parsley and then placing in the freezer.

In addition, make a quick lemon butter sauce by heating some lemon juice in a saucepan and whisk in small knobs of butter until the desired consistency is created.

When ready to serve, crack the salt crust and remove each fish onto a serving plate, pour over a little of the lemon butter sauce. Serve with the flavoured butters, and perhaps some new potatoes or simply steamed greens.

This method of cooking fish creates the most marvelous contrast between the crispy exterior and the meltingly moist, fully flavoured flesh within! In addition the use of 3 different fish add additional flavour and contrast.

Enjoy, especially with something chilled and white!

Tom yaam goong (hot and sour prawn soup)

This delicious soup is popular worldwide and quite deservedly. However most home cooks don't realise how simple it is to make, and how much more tasty the home made version can be! The ingredients can be sourced quite readily.

Try it, you'll be surprised!

Ingredients

500 g medium sized fresh prawns

3 stalks lemon grass

2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander root

5 peppercorns

1/2 thumb sized piece of galangal (or ginger)

3 small fresh red chillies, finely sliced

4 small fresh green chillies

5 kaffir lime leaves

75 ml vegetable oil

3 tablespoons fish sauce

3 tablespoons lime juice

freshly shredded coriander leaves

160 g straw mushrooms

1.25 litres fresh chicken stock

a handful of basil leaves

Firstly shell and de-vein the fresh prawns, leaving the tails intact. Retain the heads and the shells.

Take the lemon grass and beat a couple of times to start releasing the flavours and then chop into 3  cm lengths. Place the garlic, the coriander root and peppercorns into a mortar and pound into a smooth paste. Now very finely slice the galangal, the chillies and the lime leaves separately and set to one side.

Heat the oil in a wok and stir fry the prawn heads and shells for 3 to 4 minutes. Immediately add the chicken stock and bring up to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. pass the stock through a fine sieve and set to one side.

Now fry the prepared paste with the lemon grass, the sliced galangal and lime leaves in the wok for perhaps 90 seconds and pour the strained stock back into the wok.  Place in the prawns and straw mushrooms and cook for a maximum of 3 minutes, finally adding the lime juice, the freshly sliced red  chillies and the coriander leaves.

Garnish with 1 or 2 basil leaves and serve immediately to your eager guests!

A great starter or can form part of a thai banquet!

Salmon with a crisp chilli salad

Here's an interesting summer dish for salmon. The warmth and heat from the ginger and chilli and the sour flavour of the lime complement the salmon perfectly - healthy, simple and delicious!

Ingredients

4 x 200 g salmon fillet, skinned

2 tablespoon lime juice

for the salad

2-3 tablespoons peanut oil

6 medium sized red chillies,de-seeded and finely shredded

6 medium sized green chillies, de-seeded and finely shredded

3 tablespoons of fresh ginger, shredded

good hand-full of basil (thai if possible)

equal quantities of fresh mint and fresh coriander

2 kaffir lime leaves, very finely shredded

Firstly, we make the salad. In a large frying pan heat the peanut oil over a relatively high flame and add the shredded green chillies, red chillies and ginger. Cook for 5 - 7 minutes, stirring from time to time until the ingredients are crisp (but not burnt!) Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Set aside.

Take the salmon fillet, reduce the heat under the pan a little and cook in the ginger and chilli flavoured oil for at least 2 minutes either side, or until your liking.

To serve, toss the the crisp chillies and ginger with the basil, mint, coriander  and shredded lime leaves. Place the salmon on individual serving plates, top with the chilli salad and drizzle over a little lime juice.

Serve immediately this delicious, vibrant and fresh summer dish!

Enjoy!

Lemon and szechuan pepper sardines

 With sardines plentiful, here's an interesting dish that makes the most delightful starter. It is delicious served with parsnip chips ! It's also a great barbecue dish!

Ingredients:

12 fresh sardines, butterflied (ask you fishmonger to do this for you!)

2 parsnips peeled

oil for deep frying (sunflower or peanut oil ideally)

sea salt 

for the marinade:

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons szechuan peppercorns, dry roasted and crushed

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons thai basil - shredded

Start by washing the sardines, and pat them carefully until dry. To make the marinade, dry roast the peppercorns for 2 minutes and crush. Now add the lemon juice, olive oil and the thai basil leaves.

Marinate for at least 20 minutes.

Cut the peeled parsnips into thin strips, using a mandoline if one is available. In a saucepan, heat the oil for deep frying to 170 C and cook the parsnip strips a few at a time until gold and crisp. Drain them on absorbent paper and keep warm.

To cook the sardines, preheat the grill or barbecue. Cook the sardines for upto 2 minutes on each side, until they are tender. For smaller fish 90 seconds will suffice.

Serve the sardines with the parsnip chips and a sprinkling of sea salt.

Delicious, particularly with a cold beer!

The most simple octopus recipe

This hardly constitutes a recipe at all, as there is literally only one ingredient, the octopus. It is however, the classic greek method of preparing octopus.

The small bite sized chunks, served warm, make the most delicious hors d'ouvre, perhaps with a wedge of lemon, but even that is not strictly necessary!

Ingredients

1-1.5 kg octopus, cleaned (as your fishmonger to do this for you)

With the sharpest possible chefs' knife cut the octopus into 2-3cm pieces, slightly laborious but this is genuinely the only work you need to do!

Place in a large pan on the lowest possible heat (a diffuser would be a good idea if you have one), put a tight fitting lid on and leave to cook gently. Note there are no additions in terms of seasoning nor water.

Have a quick peek after just a few minutes and you'll be surprised to see the octopus simmering gently in its' own red/purple juices. Cover again and leave alone. After perhaps 20 minutes, give a good stir, and repeat the stirring every 10 minutes thereafter.

Very gradually the octopus juices will reduce and become quite syrupy.

When the juices are well reduced, try a piece of octopus. If it's still a little tough add a small splash of water and continue the slow cooking until the sauce has reduced. Repeat the tasting and continue cooking until satisfied with the texture.

This simple dish is fabulous, the colour of the cooked octopus warm and rich - a delightful starter or hors d'oeuvre