Magic Potato

When people mention the UK to Chinese, what do they think about? POTATO! Exactly. In Chinese's eyes, potato is one of the symbols to represent the UK. Fish and Chips has been nominated as national food of the UK in most people's eyes.  Moreover, in most foreigners' mind, potatoes=chip is a unchangeable mind set.

Mind set is very common. Although I always tell myself, never define sth before you really understand, I also experienced a mind set. In last September, I did my first couchsurfing in Edinburgh. My host is very kind to pick us up in the midnight. However, the first sign I saw them, I almost chickened out. My host and her flatmate are huges fan of punk. They worn a very strong punk make up which remind me of Edward Scissorhands. Also I've my host has few scars on her arm and I thought she probably has been hurting herself for a long time.

I calmed myself down and keep talking to them to try to know more about my host. I found they are actually very very warm-hearted and easy going. They told us where to visit in the city, some places worth to have a meal inside. I stayed with them two days and this experience becomes one of my good memories.

Never judge sth, like potato, before you tried them. I found potato is so magic since I start to follow Terry's Recipe to make a Lancashire hotpot, I changed my mind.

On the top of the hotpot, the potato is half dried, they tastes like crisps. The potato in the bottom are so creamy(I didn't put any cream at all). It is completely amazing. I don't really like carrots in the past as well but the Lancashire hot pot make the carrots melted in between with onions and lamb. I can't say more about this hotpot. I have been stealing my hotpot yesterday when it is done and finished a quarter before I went to bed. YumYumYum!!!

TODAY'S DISH: Lancashire Hotpot

Preparation:
1. 100g salted butter
2. 900g lamb mince(easy to go~plus I did not put kidney because I don't like eating organ)
3. 4 pretty and cute carrots. Sliced.
4. 25g plain flour
5. 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce(suppose to have this but I don't have it. So I use honey, soya sauce and vinegar to  replace it)
6. 500ml chicken stock(I bought a chicken soup powder to make it easy, otherwise it might takes 2h to make a stock)
7. 900g potato, peeled and sliced(nacked potato xxx)
8. 2 bay leaves
9. 1 tbsp dried thyme
10. 1 tbsp dried rosemary
11. 1 onion, cut in small pieces

Steps:
1. Melt the salted butter in the pan and cook lamb mince until it turns brown. move it in a plate
2. use the rest of oil to fry the onion pieces for 2-3 mins.
3. Put 25g plain flower into the plan and mix them with onions.
4.turn off the heat and put 1 tbsp dried thyme, 1tbsp dried rosemary and 2 bayleaves. Mix them together. Add tiny salt and pepper(depends on if you want it be salty or less salty)
5. Put the slice potato in the bottom first, them cover the potato with lamb mince. Above the lamb mince, we removed the onions and ingredients on the top. Cover the onions with sliced carrots. Put sliced potato on the top.
6. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
7. Bake the Lancashire Hotpot for 1h15min, get it out and brush the top with melted butter.
8. Put back to the oven and bake for 30 mins until the potato topping is golden-brown.

Enjoyyyyy!

Feed Yourself with Love

(The Miracles of the Namiya General store)

Yesterday I finished a book called The Miracles of the Namiya General store.  It is not only a general store for selling normal goods, but also a place to answer people's confusion from their life. Some people posts them letter to ask shall she continue training for Olymics or take care of her boy friend who got cancer. Some one writes letter to ask shall he continue his dream to become a musician or help family business to sell fish. There are five chapters in the book with five stories. You will find these people in different chapters have some magic connection even they have their own independent stories.

(Midnight Diner)

The Miracles of the Namiya General store reminds me of a Japanese TV Series called Shinya Shokudō. Some people call it Midnight Diner.  This Diner only open from 12 a.m.-7a.m. In each episode, The Midnight Diner will tell a story happened in one of the customers and introduce a tailor-made dish. With the warm food, these customer gradually start to tell their own stories. These stories can be sweet, salty, sour or bitter, exactly like the dishes.

Yesterday I came back from a busy weekends and feel lack of power. It was nearly 10 p.m. I feel struggling to eat food in this time but I still made one noodle soup. Warm food always remind me of good time:)

L.O.V.E Noodle Soup

You need prepare: 

Noodle(depends on how much u want to eat)

Dried Chilli 

Pea

Sausage

egg

Steps:

1. boil the water and put noodles inside

2. When the water boil again, knock a egg inside of the pan

3. In the mean time, prepare another pen, put a teaspoon olive oil inside. 

4. Wait for olive oil becomes warm, put dried chilli inside and fry for 15 seconds

5. Put sausage inside and wait the sausage oil comes out

6. Put pea inside of the pan, stir them and put a teaspoon salt, a teaspoon soya sauce

7. Get the noodle out of the pan into a bowl and put the topping on the noodle.

Enjoy your noodle!

Bon appetit !

This is an idea exists in my mind for a long time.


It started few years ago when I watched a movie called Julie & Julia. The movie talks about in 2002, a young writer Julie Powell has an unpleasant job in call centre to listen complains from victims of Sep for rebuilding the world trade centre. To do something she enjoys, she decides to kook every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. She starts to write a blog to motivate herself and document her progress.11 attacks. During writing blogs, Julie's life changes a lot and she finally find the most positive way to face her life. Eventually, Julie's blog is featured in a story published in the New York Time.






There is a part in the movie I love the most. She and her husband just newly moved, life is unstable. One day she went back home and saw a lot of boxes at home with their stuff inside. She started cooking and saying


"I cooked artichokes with hollandaise sauce which is melted butter that's been whipped into a frenzy with egg yolks until it's died and gone to heaven, and let me say this: is there anything better than butter? Think it over: every time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say, "What is in this?", the answer is always going to be, Butter. The day there's a meteorite heading toward the earth and we have thirty days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter. Here's my final words on the subject, you can never have too much, butter."


I got idea from this movie and started my blog few years ago in Chinese. My bf Danny motivated me to start writing blog again by finishing everything I made and giving me a big smile. He is a super muscle man with a cute belly.(well, I spelt as mussel just now. Always confused about these word. ex: desert & dessert) Danny can eat 5 bowls cereals in one day and keep going.Cooking starts to become one of my hobbies because I have such an amazing bf to finish dishes I made and never let me down.




TODAY'S DISH: SMILING PAK CHOI RICE

My hometown is in the south east of China, rice is the main food there. I just found out this vegetable is called Pak Choi, I guess the pronunciation is from Cantonese. In mandarin it is called 白菜（bai cai). This is a very simple dish takes around 10 -15mins to finish.


Here is the picture of process:





Steps:


1. Prepare Chinese sausage(or any meat you can find in your fridge) x 1
                 Mushroom x 2
                 Cashew Nuts x (Whatever you want)
                 Pak Choi x 1
                 Wash them and cute the Pak Choi & Mushroom(I will recommend separate Pak Choi's stem and leaves )


2. Warm the pan first. Then pull a TEA SPOON olive oil. wait for the oil becomes warm.
Put sausage into the pan and wait until the sausage is sweating(haha~not fat anymore)
Put Cashew nuts into the cook for around 30 seconds
Put mushrooms and Pak Choi steam. Pull a tiny water (around 10 ml)
Stir things in the pan wait untiling water comes out from Pak Choi stem.
Put Pak Choi leaves and put a TEA SPOON soya sauce and a TEA SPOON salt.


3. Wait until the leaves become soft and it's done!






Thank you for reading. Bon appetit!