As I still have not finished processing the pictures taken in Berlin and of the Bastille Day fireworks - also a bit of procrastination because I have a feeling the pictures did not turn out good as the damn remote shutter release died on us like just before the sun set &*@#$% - I looked up the archives and found a whole bunch of pictures of gosh, a cooking party.
Rewind to three months ago. I was sitting in the back of the stuffy classroom with my neighbour, Wang Li Min who is 20 years old, and comes from Shandong, China. The topic of our conversation was French food. Or in Li Min's case, the lack of it. He hates what he had tried so far and eats Chinese food every day. Yes. Every day.
I was startled by his revelation, and thought back to my student days. English food was not so bad, I remember eating very good bread, my first taste of Christmas pudding and also my granny's remark that drinking too much English tea can give one swollen ankles. The food wasn't that strange, if a bit plain. But to someone brought up on rice and Chinese food, it must have been a bigger culture shock. I wondered how he manages, and asked him if we can organise a cooking session. He readily agreed.
Which was how, one brilliant Saturday morning in April found husband, myself and Li Min meeting at the student lodgings of our other friend Liu Yang, somewhere in the 11th arrondissement.
This is Liu Yang. In class, he sits across the aisle from me. Age 24, from Nanyang, he is also acknowledged as the better cook. Liu Yang has been in France since January 2006 so he has had some time to adjust and hone his skills.
Umami: I heard you are a good cook. How did this happen?
Liu Yang: It is hard to find the types of foods I grew up eating- robust spicy dishes typical of the Xi Bei (northwestern) provinces. So I had to cook or I would have starved. I learnt how to cook after I arrived. At first I simply added sugar and oil, it didn't taste good, so I experimented with different seasonings. I found many useful recipes in the Internet.
Umami: Where do you shop for ingredients?
Liu Yang: Belleville is nearby, I go once a week for supplies. Sometimes I buy fresh fruits and vegetables in the market, and once a month I go to the 13th arrondissement.
Umami: What equipment do you use?
Liu Yang: I brought a rice cooker from home. The hot plate was bought second-hand from another student- it heats up hotter and faster than the regular electric stove that the hostel provides. I also bought a pressure cooker to make soups, as well as a microwave.
Umami: What do you cook for Chinese New Year?
Liu Yang: We make dumplings. A lot of dumplings.
During the interview he moved smoothly around the crowded room, cutting up meats, soaking potatoes, showing me ingredients. The stove is a simple affair set on the floor and shielded with cardboard and newspapers to catch the most of the flying grease.
The first dish was Shui Ju Niu Rou (Water Cooked Beef). Sliced beef is cooked in a very spicy broth of bean paste, dried chilli peppers and Szechuan peppercorn. We were curious, not having come across any of the fiery grape sized red chilli peppers in Paris, until he revealed that he uses the ones bundled in ready-to-cook packages (ding!). The szechuan peppercorns were unfortunately rather old, it is hard to get fresh ones here, so the dish was not as ma-la, or numbingly spicy, as we hoped for. Quantities are not given as he cooks by instincts and guestimations. Finished dish looks like a fiery soup with pieces of beef and vegetable floating on top.
Chopped garlic
Chopped ginger
Chopped onion
Soybean paste
Dried peppers
Szechuan peppercorn
Thinly sliced beef
Green vegetables or cabbage, as desired.
1. Marinate beef with salt, pepper and a little cornstarch.
2. Saute chopped garlic, ginger and onion till fragrant. Add soybean paste, then dried peppers and szechuan peppercorn. Stir until very smokey
3. Toss vegetables in the spice mixture until crisply cooked. Set aside the spices and vegetables.
4. In a separate saucepan, bring some water to the boil, add the beef slices. Followed by the spice-vegetable mixture. Simmer on low boil for 30-60 minutes. Adjust seasoning before serving.
The second dish was Hui Guo Rou, also known as twice-cooked pork. The pork is first boiled then tossed in a spicy bean paste sauce. The seasoning is similar to that used for the beef, so Liu Yang used a ready-cook paste. I would substitute a mix of bean paste, tinge of dark soy, pinch of sugar and dash of cooking wine.
Sliced Belly Pork- blanched
Sliced carrots, or any vegetables preferred
Bean Paste Seasoning (1 tbsp to 1 cup of pork)
Minced ginger
Minced garlic
1. Saute vegetables, and set aside
2. Toss ginger and garlic in wok until fragrant, add pork slices and then the bean paste. Stir until well mixed, adding a little water if necessary. Return vegetables to wok, mix, adjust seasoning and serve.
Actually the pork dish was cooked with the help of Yie Thi, another Chinese student who joined us later. She has been in Paris about 6 months, and is more of an expert on Hunan dishes. It wasn't that cold in the room, she was wearing the windbreaker as an apron of sorts so that the cooking fumes will not permeate her clothes.
The third dish was Yie Thi's specialty. Potatoes stirfried with vinegar and chilli peppers. It looked very easy when she was doing it but I've tried it at home twice without the same success. Wrong potatoes, wrong vinegar, not enough soaking, I'm not sure what the problem is, but it is not easy to get the correct balance of crunchy yet cooked potatoes, and the taste to be a warm spicy acidity instead of sharp acrid stinger. But for those who feel lucky, here is the basic recipe.
Potatoes
Black Chinese Vinegar, preferably Chinkiang
Dried peppers
Sugar
Salt
1. Slice potatoes and soak in cold water for at least 1.5 hours. Change water at least twice. To get rid of excess starch I suppose. Before cooking, drain potatoes of water.
2. Saute peppers in plenty of oil to fragrant (and sneezy) state.
3. Throw in the potatoes and toss. Splash vinegar liberally, calibrate with a little sugar and salt. Keep tasting and tossing. Remove when potatoes are cooked through yet still crunchy.
Finally, this is Li Min. He doesn't cook at all, but is good at washing up. His hometown is famous for "Lu" dishes of mostly meat-based stews cooked with plenty of spicy peppers and chilli oil. Give him a few more months, and he'll be cooking as well as his compatriots.
Lunch spread. The Tomato Egg Scramble is Li Min's favourite dish, as well as a favourite in many Chinese households I'm sure. There was debate about cooking the tomato separately or with the egg, or which to add first, and its various effects on the sourness of the tomato but Liu Yang and Yie Thi could not reconcile their opinions. The way Liu Yang made it though, was fast, simple - first cooking the seasoned egg in a lot of oil so it 'bloomed' beautifully in the pan, then adding the tomato quarters and smooshing it all together- and the end result light and delicious.
We sat down to lunch, with a bottle of wine and some strawberries for dessert. There was not enough rice, another pot had to be cooked to keep up with the boys' appetites, and in the interim period we watched dubbed American television series because the dialogues are sparer for easier listening. Learning and eating, the mainstay of student life!
