CRAB RANGOON

I am not a food snob. I am as much a fan of American Chinese cuisine as I am of authentic Chinese cuisine. I bear no shame in liking the numerous sweet and sour like concoctions, love the just sweet and a bit savoury dishes and most of all the various wonton crisps all sorts. Hands down, my favourite is crab Rangoon. I love dumplings but this dumpling is one I'm very fond of. 

EXTRA CRISPY POPCORN CHICKEN

I thought I had graduated from the school dinner menu. After a long stint of cooking crumbed food for dinner, I have moved on to a more mature menu (all seen on my blog posts) when my children grew up.

KIKIAM (FIVE SPICE PORK ROLLS)

Five spice powder is a mixture of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds. The aroma and flavour is quite heady and can taste medicinal if too much is used. In tempered amounts, though, it gives an interesting exotic edge to any dish that it is added to.

KOREAN STYLE HONEY CITRUS WINGS

It was love at first bite when I first had Bon Chon fried chicken. The thin crisp crust intrigued me so much. The glaze was delicious but I found that the hot and spicy flavourered wings burn and the soy garlic lacks excitement. The new honey citrus (this is not available in all Bon Chon outlets) is the one for me. The tangy and sweet glaze works perfectly with the crusty fried chicken.

HONEY GARLIC PORK MEATBALLS

The love of pork makes me translate a lot of dishes into pork dishes. While meatballs would almost always equate to beef balls, I chose pork this time. The reason for this is that I want to flavour the meatballs with Asian seasonings and there is no better base for that than pork. The flavour of beef would not let the seasonings stand out as much. Having said that, any meat could be used for this dish and it would also work.

HONEY WALNUT SHRIMPS

Chinese food differs from country to country. The Chinese food on one's plate may differ greatly from another one's on the other side of the globe. In fact, the food that we know as Chinese food is different from the traditional food in China.

CHICKEN MOJITO

It's happy hour. Cheers. Roll out the barrel. All these words ring hollow to me.

I can't join in the merrymaking. I can't enjoy a tipple. Instead of getting drunk, I itch. I am one of those who can't even drink on a social level. I fancy the hip cocktails with twirly picks or minute parasols and wish I could nurse one and feel in with the crowd. But I am not one of those. I am not hip, not fancy, am old and can't take alcoholic beverages. I'm a total geek.

EASY GARLIC PAPRIKA PRAWNS

Prawns are for suckers. Although the creamy flesh is very tasty, most of the rich flavour has to be sucked out of the head and shell. This recipe makes the most out of the best part of the prawns.

Prawns have a lot of God given taste. You don't have to do much to make it delicious. The worst thing that can be done is to do too much to it. Although I like them simply boiled or steamed, I am quite partial to fried prawns.

SWEDISH MEATBALLS

Our house is a mere 15-20 minutes drive from Ikea. We go there quite often, just to have coffee, a meal or just to meander around crockery, candles and flat pack furniture. The last stop is always the food shop where I get my stash of gravy mix, lingonberry jam, crab paste and the occasional pack of frozen meatballs. Yummy stuff those. I have heard that people smuggle them on the plane to bring to Ikea-less countries.

LEMON AND HERB CRAB CAKES

I am happy to see tubs of good quality crab meat at the supermarkets. In the pre-convenience food days, crabmeat came from actual crabs which had to be cooked first before painstakingly picking the meat from the crevices of the crab. It was a whole lot of work and the yield is not that much. I think it is cheaper to buy crab meat than fresh crabs.

OVEN FRIED CHICHARON

Who doesn't like chicharon (pork scratchings)? I know that east and west unite in their want to eat these babies. 

These munchables are a cross between chicharon (pork scratchings) and lechon (roast pork) crackling.

GYOZA

Gyoza, jiaozi, giaozi all refer to pot stickers, a crescent shaped Chinese dumpling. Pan fried, boiled or steamed, it always makes you want more and more of it.

SQUID PUFFS

The smell of seafood is the aroma of umami. It is a bit off putting for some but an allure for others. Growing up in Asia, the smell is very familiar, interesting and appetizing.

It is the smell of home that I miss as I can't cook fried seafood as often as I like. Yet, on special days I allow myself to enjoy a fry up.

ASIAN SCOTCH EGGS

Eggs are synonymous to Easter. The mere mention of Easter would bring to mind eggs, chocolate eggs in particular. Easter bunnies and eggs are surely the product of a commercial ploy, much like Christmas and Valentine's Day. I must admit that it won't be fun without them.

For the Christians, Easter has a deeper and more somber meaning. Eggs still play a part but it symbolizes rebirth or resurrection. 

For foodies, Easter means feasting and eggs in many forms, among other things, are usually present.

BAKED SESAME PRAWNS ON TOAST

Do you ever wonder what's in the prawns on toasts in restaurants? It is not a case of 'duh'. There must be something there that made the sesame seeds stick to the bread but I'm not quite sure that it's prawns. One time my son actually asked the waiter, "What's in this?" to which the perfunctory reply was "Chicken". With the way the conversation went, I should have ended both sentences with exclamation marks. So if there was chicken where the prawns should have been, what's in the chicken?

HONEY MUSTARD WINGS

If I eat any more chicken wings I will probably take off in flight. My children love them so much that I do not know how to wean them from it. Some people, a few, do not like wings but I know that a LOT do. Some of the most popular posts on this blog are chicken wings.

There was a time when chicken wings were so cheap because nobody wanted to eat them as they were fussy to eat. When the restaurants introduced them as a finger food, capitalizing on the fussiness of eating them as the plus factor, they became prized commodities.

HAM AND CHEESE TOAST CUPS

Every year I go through a vicious cycle of being relaxed for the first three quarters of the year and go for a mad rush at the last quarter. I have never learned my lesson from the Christmas pasts. It doesn't get any easier no matter how many times I've done it. 

MINI TOAD-IN-A-HOLE WITH CRANBERRY AND ONION CHUTNEY

A Christmas table is not complete without ham, cheese and sausages. Here in England, small sausages called chipolatas are served with the Christmas turkey. They are also served with drinks and on canapés.

Toad-in-a-hole is a snack or appetizer which consists of sausages baked in yorkshire pudding batter. It usually comes with a caramelized onion gravy. What could be better? 

This is one of those kind of food that is for ordinary days as well as special occasions. It is easy to make and can be made ahead and re-heated before serving. 

FRIED TAKOYAKI BALLS

My taste buds are honed to love eastern food. I usually cook Asian food at home so my children are accustomed to that taste, too. 

One of the cuisines that has remained unexplored is Japanese cuisine. We love Japanese food but we usually have to eat it in restaurants. The only reason for that is Japanese ingredients are not readily available in our area. Sadly, there is only a small selection in our Oriental supermarket so I can only make a few basic recipes. I also have to forego of ingredients that I cannot use again or those that are too expensive.

CAMARON RELLENADO (STUFFED PRAWNS)

As in the west, our celebrations on our side of the globe command cooking of stuffed dishes. Having a lot of ingredients make dishes special. 

Camaron rellenado simply means stuffed prawns. It is actually a Chinese dish but has a Spanish name because, in the olden days, restaurant menus in the Philippines were written in Spanish. 

There are a lot of stuffed dishes like these in Chinese cuisine. It is basically the same mixture used in dumplings but wrapped around or used as filling. There is one ingredient that make it tasty and have a firm texture. It is an ingredient that I don't use because, sorry to say, it is bad for your health. That ingredient is chopped pork fat. You can add that to this dish if you wish but I skipped that part.

This dish is simple and only has a few ingredients. Although headless prawns are usually used, I have kept the heads intact. I think it looks better and I also happen to like prawn heads, especially when fried. If you like crab roe, then the inside of the prawn's head could also be a treat for you. What comes after is the best part. The creamy prawn flesh is encased in a seasoned pork mixture that brings on a distinct flavour of celebrations. I don't think anyone will walk away unhappy after eating this.

Ingredients:

250 gms. of minced pork
2 dried Chinese mushrooms, softened in boiling water and chopped
1 tbsp. sherry
2 tbsps. light soy sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 egg, separated
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 tbsps. chopped spring onions
2/3 c. corn flour (corn starch)
6 large shell-on prawns

Method:

Put the minced pork and chopped mushrooms in a mixing bowl. Add in the sherry, soy sauce, salt, sugar, egg yolk, sesame oil, garlic, spring onions, and 1 tbsp. of corn flour. Mix very well and divide into 6 portions. Set aside.

Cut off the antenna and legs of the prawn. There is also a very sharp, saw-like part on top of the prawn's head that you'll need to cut off.

Peel the body of the prawns but leave the head and tail intact.

Cut 3-4 slits in the inner curve of the prawns. This will keep them from curling as they cook.

Dredge the prawns lightly in corn flour.

Wrap the prawns body in a portion of the meat mixture.

Dust again with corn flour and dip in the egg white. Give them a final dusting of the corn flour.

Heat up a pan with enough cooking oil for shallow frying.

Fry the prawns on medium heat, two at a time until crisp and cooked through (about 5 minutes). Drain on kitchen paper. Serve hot with sweet chilli sauce or sweet and sour sauce (recipe here).

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You might also like 

Camaron Rebosado

Pork and Prawn Siomai

Stuffed Roast Chicken (Rellenong Manok)

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