What's cooking? Post a picture of your most recent creation

[somethingfunny]

If you've made something tasty and would like to share it, go right ahead.  No need to give it the full abcdefg treatment, just some nice pictures and a comment or two.  But, be warned, there might be questions...

 

Today I made some 可乐鸡翅 for lunch:

 

And fried a bit of 包菜 to go with it:

[anonymoose]

I don’t do a lot of cooking, but these are my most recent creations.

 

红烧茄子

 

番茄炒蛋

 

拌三丁

[kanumo]

Here’s mine from today.. one before and one after (almost done eating) pic ? 3 kg of  pork with 1.5 kg of peppers and onions seasoned with all kinds of stuff, cooked for 3 hours in a Dutch oven with cole briquettes on top and above.. 很好吃?

[abcdefg]

Wow! These all look delicious. 

 

@anonymoose -- I'm especially interested in the 半三丁 since it's something I've enjoyed in restaurants, but have never tried making at home. Recipes I've seen on-line look straight forward. Does yours have cucumbers, spring onions, cilantro and peanuts? What kind of dressing? 

 

@kanumo -- What cut of pork did you use? I'm guessing pork shoulder. Did you cut it into pieces at the beginning or cook it whole? Did it get tender? Were you using a BBQ grill outdoors? Sure looks tasty. 

 

@somethingfunny -- The best tasting cola chicken wings in my kitchen seem to always be the ones that stick to the pan and fall apart some. How good they taste is inversely correlated with how nice they look. The ones that could grace a the glossy cover of a gourmet magazine are never half as good as a less photogenic batch. Lately I've been making wings in the rice cooker instead of on the stove. 

 

Yesterday I only had left overs for lunch and supper. Was cleaning out the fridge. Some beans, some soup, some eggs, some wilted spinach. But I did mix a killer mango-peach Daquiri before supper. Peaches and mangoes are both in high season now; ripe, sweet and inexpensive. One big peach, one big mango, one juicy lime, mixed with a tablespoon of simple syrup and a big jigger of white rum. Spun it up with cracked ice cubes in my 搅拌机 (mixer.) Poured into a tall glass (I don't have stemware.)

 

Didn't have the camera handy. But I plan to repeat it today, and I'll snap a photo at that time. 

[anonymoose]

33 minutes ago, abcdefg said:

Does yours have cucumbers, spring onions, cilantro and peanuts? What kind of dressing?

 

Yes. I don't always put coriander (cilantro?) in it - I just happened to have some spare at the time. As far as I recall, the stuff I had in China did not include that.

 

As for dressing, a pinch of salt (or no additional salt if I use salted peanuts), vinegar and sesame oil.

[somethingfunny]

5 hours ago, abcdefg said:

The best tasting cola chicken wings in my kitchen seem to always be the ones that stick to the pan and fall apart some.

 

I like them soft, but I still like to be able to bite the meat off the bone, so I try to avoid the meat-sticking-to-the-pan stage.  I usually judge a good set by whether or not I'm spooning the thick, sticky sauce on to my rice when I've finished all the meat.

[kanumo]

Was a mix of neck and shoulder.. the meat was sliced about 1.5 cm per slice.  It was very tender.. imagine the slices falling almost apart by picking them out the pot.

 

the Dutch oven doesn’t need a grill or something.. you just put the briquettes directly on and below it, just like this: 

 

[abcdefg]

7 hours ago, kanumo said:

the Dutch oven doesn’t need a grill or something.. you just put the briquettes directly on and below it, just like this: 

 

What a great idea. I've never done that. 

[DavyJonesLocker]

Haven't had pesto in I'd say 1.5 years . 20min prep, using up bits and bobs. Didn't want to spend much time. So just whack it in the oven. Overfried the tomatoes. 

Anyway salmon and jarred pesto is silly price here and most places only seem to sell the average bog standard jar of pesto at double the price. 

Got me thinking, why not just make it! Basil, garlic, pine nuts, lemon , olive oil etc all not to expensive here. Parmesan cheese the costly part. Still you could make it at a fraction of the price . I presume you can freeze it. Dunno really.

 

I love pesto and spaghetti . Simple to make and nice change from Chinese food!

[abcdefg]

That looks very nice ! Thanks for posting. I love pesto on pasta too. In the summer with cherry tomatoes just like your picture shows!

 

I've never found fresh basil here. Did you manage to locate some in Beijing. Same question with pine nuts. I rarely see them here. Sometimes a few in the fall (even though I've read that most of the world's pine nuts are grown in China.) And I can find the pre-grated Kraft Parmesan cheese in the green shaker box readily enough, but I've never seen a wedge of aged Parmesan to buy and grate at home. I would gladly pay more for that. 

 

Sounds like you must have a better supermarket than the ones in my part of Kunming, at least one with a better selection of imported goods. In all fairness, there are some more modern parts of Kunming that probably have a better selection of international foods, but I seldom go there to shop. And in the University district there are a couple of imported food shops.

 

My part of Kunming is old and not affluent. That colors my living experience. 

 

But -- I can buy fresh egg pasta in the market, made only hours ago right on premises. Several sizes and styles. They sell it as 面条，but what the heck. Same as Italian pasta for all that I can see. 

 

------------------------------------------ 

 

Also: Are the small fish sardines or anchovies or something else? 

 

Your salmon reminds me that I need to eat more fish. I like fish a lot, but we only have fresh water fish here except for what is flown in. Just got out of the habit of eating fish here. Need to go back to having fish at least once a week. Makes a great change of pace, plus it's quick to cook.

 

(I lived part of two years on the Guangdong coast and got spoiled about having an abundance of top notch seafood.) 

 

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[abcdefg]

Today's fruit finds：Plums 梅子 and dragon fruit 红龙果。

 

Plums were 20 Yuan per kilo. Sweet and not too soft. Locally grown (Chenggong, south of KM city proper. 呈贡)

 

Dragon fruit were 3 for 10 Yuan. Brought in from Vietnam. They have a white center. Ones with a red center cost a little more. 

 

[somethingfunny]

Last night I made some fish.  Fried some garlic, ginger and peppers with some 橄榄菜, then added some water and then the sliced fish pieces which boil/poach.

 

 

Comes out quite salty, so it's delicious with plain rice.

 

I need to work on my camera skills.

[abcdefg]

27 minutes ago, somethingfunny said:

Fried some garlic, ginger and peppers with some 橄榄菜, then added some water and then the sliced fish pieces which boil/poach.

 

Yum, 橄榄菜。I keep forgetting what a good ingredient that is. Need to buy some soon. In Yunnan we often use 泡菜 instead. Salty and spicy, but not the same.   

 

 

Quote

I need to work on my camera skills.

 

Some things just taste better than they look. No way around it. 

[DavyJonesLocker]

 

 

On 6/26/2019 at 8:11 AM, abcdefg said:

I've never found fresh basil here. Did you manage to locate some in Beijing. Same question with pine nuts. I rarely see them here. Sometimes a few in the fall (even though I've read that most of the world's pine nuts are grown in China.) And I can find the pre-grated Kraft Parmesan cheese in the green shaker box readily enough, but I've never seen a wedge of aged Parmesan to buy and grate at home. I would gladly pay more for that. 

 

 

Pine Nuts are easy enough to come by but many seem to be roasted, salted, sweetened for snacking . On Taobao its around 50kuai for 250g for raw nuts so not bad

Basil (罗勒) is available in two supermarkets near me. About 20kuai for a half decent size bunch (200g at a wild guess)  

Parmesan is only available in the import supermarkets like Jenny Lou, Carrefore (I think) and an American Co op called Sams , again pricey (49 for 200g) so i use sparingly. However there is a world of difference between the block and that cheap grated variety

 

On 6/26/2019 at 8:11 AM, abcdefg said:

Also: Are the small fish sardines or anchovies or something else? 

 

Your salmon reminds me that I need to eat more fish. I like fish a lot, but we only have fresh water fish here except for what is flown in. Just got out of the habit of eating fish here. Need to go back to having fish at least once a week. Makes a great change of pace, plus it's quick to cook.

  

(I lived part of two years on the Guangdong coast and got spoiled about having an abundance of top notch seafood.) 

 

 

The picture is canadian Caplin 多春鱼 and surprisingly cheap 45kuai for 1kg (50 or so). Not the tastiest of fish but good as a filler.

Beijing now has a surprisingly large variety of sea fish and saltwater shellfish,  both live and frozen at a very good price,  Razor clams live 500g 20kuai, 800g box of live oysters 29kuai. 

Salmon is still very expensive . 5 of those little cuts in the picture was 90kuai. Not really worth it

 

I eat a lot of shell fish but mind you I am not too keen of the chinese style of sauces like jiangyou, vinegar etc I just prefer butter, lemon or maybe a tad of parsley mixed into melted butter

 

As for making pesto.I think its definitely doable. I bought two more jars at a cheaper price but the taste is bland at best! You really need decent virgin olive oil.  I was thinking of mixing up a batch, putting it in small freezer bags and when defrosted , transfer it to the empty pesto jars

 

Yesterday I again had pesto , spaghetti, Ikea meatballs and  home made garlic bread (french stick) Quite nice actually and a 30min job start to finish easily !

 

One thing I can't source is sun dried tomatoes Roasted Cherry tomatoes are  good but I like the extra kick with sundried tomatoes

 

 

[abcdefg]

Thanks for your reply. Sounds like you have some excellent resources there in Beijing. Makes me feel like a hick, out here in the boonies. (In all fairness, Kunming does have some more upscale sections than the one in which I live.)  

[abcdefg]

Thanks for your reply. Sounds like you have some excellent resources there in Beijing. Makes me feel like a hick, out here in the boonies. (In all fairness, Kunming does have some more upscale sections than the one in which I live.)  

[DavyJonesLocker]

1 hour ago, abcdefg said:

Sounds like you have some excellent resources there in Beijing. Makes me feel like a hick, out here in the boonies.

 

Big trade off though! In later years I want to downscale to a much smaller place. Beijing is very convenient but has a lot of downsides to it. I'm less and less interested in big cities having lived in London (mainly) new York, Paris Amsterdam, all my life  

[DavyJonesLocker]

1. Sea bass (海鲈鱼) , 29块， ∼700g

(Olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and lemon)

2. oysters (生蚝), 45块 ~1.6kg  30块 box but today was 第2件5折 I guess about 16 oysters 

3. Roast Mediterranean veggies (packet spices I brought from UK)

 

 

Again easy down. Whack in oven. Turn fish and veggies once. Job done.

 

Photos not great but you get the idea. 

 

Also to get the guy behind the counter to descale fish , remove guts etc 收拾一下。 I kept saying 能准备一下吗 to which I was getting blank looks

I think I'll buy one of those oval glass oven dishes as mine is too small. 

 

 

[ChTTay]

@abcdefg you can buy basil from a Taobao seller based in Kunming (I just looked). There’s that option... and they might have a store somewhere too. 

 

You can definitely buy the seeds online for basil basil and others. Recommend you get growing! 

 

Doesn't Kunming have some SE Asian influenced dishes that use fresh herbs like mint, basil etc? 

[mungouk]

On 6/25/2019 at 6:40 PM, DavyJonesLocker said:

Anyway salmon and jarred pesto is silly price here

 

I nearly died when I saw the price of butter! ?

 

And yes, imported salmon is even more expensive than in Singapore, which is saying something.  Tariffs much?