Autumn: mitten crab, chestnuts and the change in seasons

秋風詞 - 李白 

秋風清 秋月明 

落葉聚還散 寒鴉棲複驚 

相親相見知何日 此時此夜難為情 

入我相思門 知我相思苦 

長相思兮長相憶 短相思兮無窮極

 早知如此絆人心 何如當初莫相識

Autumn Breeze by Li Bai (click for English translation)

Cooked crabs

Chinese mitten crab (大閘蟹) is a traditional autumn delicacy, especially in Shanghainese cuisine and throughout Eastern China. The most famous crabs originally came from Yangcheng Lake, but today these crabs are raised in freshwater farms throughout China. They're also considered an invasive pest in North America and Europe, where they've been carried by ballast on ships. (Since they're not eaten in those parts of the world, one senses a great business opportunity to export these "pests" back to Asia, where they are sold as expensive delicacies. 

The best part of the crab is the roe, located in the central cavity of the body. It's yellow, rich and full of umami flavor. Delicious! There's not a lot of meat in the crab, so if you're at a particularly decadent meal, you'll see diners discard the claws and legs and only eat the roe. 

The male crabs are more valuable than female crabs due to the quality of the roe, and larger crabs can go for up to US$20, or perhaps more, each. 

The mitten crabs are traditionally eaten with Zhengjiang black vinegar and finely shredded young ginger, together with Shaoxing rice wine. Crabs are considered to be an extremely yin "cooling" food in Chinese traditional medicine, and thus must be served with yang "warming" ingredients (i.e. the ginger and rice wine). 

My favorite is whole crab, which the diner can pick apart at the table (be warned: it's very, very messy), but for modern palates and for fussier/lazier diners, many restaurants offer dishes which incorporate the crab roe and meat (already removed from their shell). The best-known of these are Shanghai xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) with crab roe -- super tasty!

Anyway, to round off a meal of mitten crabs, don't forget to drink some hot ginger tea to balance out your yin (cool) and yang (hot). 

I love how Chinese cuisine is still strongly rooted in seasonal dishes - pea shoots are only available certain times of the year, as are lychees, mitten crab, sweet potatoes, roast chestnut and many other yummy foods.

Fall brings cooler, crisper weather and the opportunity to sit down with family to enjoy a rare once-a-year treat together.

On the street below our apartment, a middle-aged couple have set up their rickety wooden cart. It has a giant wok filled with charcoal, powered by a gas burner underneath - traditional but a complete fire hazard! Usually they appear in late October and stay until March or so. In their charcoal wok, they roast hen and quail eggs, sweet potatoes and sweet chestnuts from Shandong province. They'll be there selling their wares until spring arrives. When the weather's cold, there's nothing better than a piping hot bag of roast chestnuts and purple sweet potato. It's the smell and taste of my childhood.

Ginger tea helps increase your yang (warmth)

Fresh fruit tart revisited

It's been a long time since I've made a fruit tart, because you have to plan ahead for the crust and for the pastry cream.  (Also, my fridge is small and once you put in an 8" tart, a bowl of pastry cream and the fruit for the topping, there's no room left!) The plus side of making a fruit tart is that there's virtually no work to do on the day of serving except assembly work: just scrape the cream into the tart and pile the fruit on top. It's the perfect make-ahead summer dessert. 

For a friend's birthday, I decided to revisit the fresh fruit tart that I made a couple of years ago. This time, I used different recipes than in my previous post. Jon brought back his copy of Jacques Pépin's Complete Techniques from the US, and I gave Pépin's pâté sucrée (tart dough) and crème pâtissière (pastry cream) recipes a whirl. 

Verdict: 

The crust was rich, sweet and crumbly, yet still was sturdy enough to hold both the filling and to travel (hand-delivered in a box) across town by train! I would make the pâté sucrée again but would reduce the amount of sugar, and perhaps play with the flour amount by adding some almond flour. 

The crème pâtissière was far too sweet for my liking. I would reduce the amount of sugar by half but otherwise, this recipe was a keeper. I threw in some Cointreau and lemon zest in, too. Despite its name, pastry cream is really just a thick custard - no cream involved (unless you substitute some of the milk for cream).

Here's the separate parts of the tart, all ready for assembly: pastry cream, chocolate tart and fruit. 

I melted some chocolate the day before, spread it over the tart, and let it cool. The chocolate layer helps prevent the fruit and cream from turning the crust soggy. If you don't like chocolate (!) you can brush the tart with a thick layer of eggwash during the last 10 minutes of baking instead - that will also waterproof your tart crust.

Fresh fruit waiting to be assembled. 

This is the fun part. I'm not very artistic, so I just arranged the fruit in a roughly circular pattern. 

The finished product. Chill until ready to be served. It only lasts about 1 day before the crust gets too soggy (even with the chocolate barrier), so eat this tart right away!

Wheatgerm and rye bread with poppy seeds

Soft, fluffy bread rolls made without a bread machine. The secret is tangzhong (water roux), a method I seem to be using more often these days as it gives you soft fluffy bread texture easily at home without any commercial chemicals or flour improvers that you find in store-bought bread. 

Tangzhong is simple: you heat a small batch of flour with liquid (water/milk, or even beer) in a saucepan, stir until the mixture  has the consistency of hair paste (or you could be scientific and measure the temperature, which should be 65 Celcius).  Heating the flour with liquid helps develop the gluten strands in the flour, which is what gives bread its lovely texture and crumb. Add to your usual bread recipe, adjusting for the amount of flour and liquid used. 

Here, I used tangzhong to make bread rolls with some mix-ins and toppings that I had on hand. You can use the same recipe with raisins, multigrains, etc. 

Tangzhong (water roux)  湯種

• 45g (1/3 cup) bread flour
• 125ml (1/2 cup) water or other liquid (I used milk. You can use beer to get a more rustic and yeasty dough, but the bread will be darker in color.)

1. Add in both flour and water in a saucepan. 
2. Cook over low-medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture has consistency of hair paste/glue paste and becomes slightly translucent (or measure temperature, which should be 65 degrees Celcius). 
3. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. 

Wheatgerm and rye bread with poppy seeds

• 1 batch tangzhong (as above)
• 125ml (1/2 cup) milk
• 45g (3 tablespoons) butter
• 130g (1 cup) bread flour
• 130g (1 cup) cake/all-purpose flour
• 50g (1/2 cup) wheatgerm*
• 50g (1/2 cup) rye flour*
• 50g (1/4 cup) sugar
• 2 teaspoons yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon milk powder (optional: enhances the aroma of the bread)
• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds (optional)
• Milk or beaten egg, for glazing (optional)

* You can replace the wheatgerm and rye flour with 1 cup of other types of flour, such as spelt or just plain flour. Corn flour and other low-gluten or low-protein flours will change the texture of the bread (it will be more grainy, like quickbreads).

1. Heat the butter and milk until melted, about 30 seconds in the microwave.
2. Pour the butter-milk mixture into a mixing bowl. 
3. Add 1 cup of the flour, along with the sugar, salt, and yeast. Mix until combined.
4. Add the remaining flour and wheatgerm, and mix until the flour is absorbed, and dough becomes sticky. Continue to mix until dough begins to form a ball and pulls away from the side of the bowl.
5. Turn dough onto a scrupulously clean, lightly-floured surface, and knead for 15 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. You can do this by hand or with a bread hook on a mixer. For best results, use the windowpane test (stretch a small piece of dough in a rectangle as far as it will go without breaking. If the light shines through it like a windowpane, this means that the gluten in the flour has developed sufficiently.)
6. Place the ball of dough in an oiled bowl. Turn to coat the dough in a thin layer of oil. Cover the bowl and leave in a warm dry place for two hours, until the dough has doubled in size.
7. Punch down the dough and turn out onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. 
8. Shape the dough as you want: either one large loaf, or smaller rolls. I divided my dough into three round balls, then rolled them out into ovals. I then folded the top and bottom thirds of the oval inwards, to make a rectangle strip, then flipped the dough over so the seam side faces down. Finally, I rolled up the rectangle of dough into a spiral bread roll. 
9. After shaping the dough, place it on a baking sheet, or in a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 40 minutes to one hour. 
10. Brush your glaze (milk or eggwash), if using, and add toppings. I used poppy seeds here. 
11. Bake in a 180 Celcius (350F) oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. 
12. Remove from oven and pan, transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. If stored in an airtight container in a cool place, it will last 2-3 days depending on the climate and humidity.

Hot cross buns with boozy raisins

Although I'm not Christian, seven years of living in the UK and going to an Anglican church has left me with a fondness of some of the cultural traditions celebrated there (mostly food related!): Shrove Tuesday (better known as Pancake Day), Christmas (with its lovely roast chicken and bread sauce), and of course, Easter. Easter's not just about chocolate bunnies and Cadbury Creme eggs. It's also about hot cross buns: a lightly spiced, sweet bun with a sticky sugar glaze.

It's not yet Easter (technically it's still Lent so I really shouldn't be indulging with such rich food as butter and spices, but oh well), but I decided to make hot cross buns today.

One of my favorite British recipe websites is Really Nice Recipes, a wonderful and carefully curated selection of recipes. The site design is very user-friendly, and all the recipes that I've tried thus far from this site have worked. Not one dud so far!



I used the hot cross bun recipe from this site, but added in a few tweaks of my own:

1. Instead of 190g strong/bread flour, I used 140g bread flour + 30g rye flour + 20g sourdough starter. 
2. I soaked the raisins overnight in a mixture of dark rum, Cointreau and a splash of Rogue Hazelnut Nectar brown ale before proceeding with the recipe. Very naughty! :)

Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

I walked around a bit today during my lunch hour in Sheung Wan. It's an old neighborhood on Hong Kong island with a lot of character.

Grand Millenium Plaza

I passed a lion dance troupe on the way to work. They're practicing for a performance. Today (February 19) is the 10th day of the new year. There are 12 animals in the Chinese  zodiac, which are paired with one of five classical Chinese/Buddhist elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). 2013 is the year of the water snake. 

Lion dance troup at Grand Millenium Plaza

At lunch, I walked to Shun Tak Centre on the harbourfront. From Shun Tak Centre, you can take high-speed ferries (or helicopter!) to Macau and other cities in the Pearl River Delta. This is the view of West Kowloon district across the harbour, taken from the footbridge by Shun Tak Centre.

Hong Kong Harbour

Chinese New Year

This year, Chinese New Year fell on February 10. We had a family lunch at 東方小祇園齋菜 (Tung Fong Siu Kee Yuen) in Wanchai, a well-known old vegetarian restaurant that's been around since 1905. "China was still in the Qing Dynasty when this restaurant started", my dad mentioned as we sat down to our first meal of the new year. This restaurant has seem the fall of Chinese emperors, the rise of Communism, the Japanese WWII occupation, the Tiananmen 6/4 protests, the retreat of the British empire, and the rise of the Chinese 21st century. Through it all, I'd wager that the food at Siu Kee Yuen hasn't changed very much at all.  Food for thought...

A Hong Kong institution since 1905

Veggie feast

As it was new year's, there were no a la carte dishes available; only various set menus on offer. The food was pretty good, if slightly heavy with corn-starch-thickened sauce. Highlights included peppery stir-fried rice noodles, mushroom braised soy e-fu noodles, fried taro puffs and fried honeydew melon fritters, mock duck (tofu skin), wheat gluten mix, etc. Chinese Buddhist vegetarian can be heavy on the fried foods and gloopy sauces, so I normally avoid it. I prefer the Shanghainese vegetarian cuisine which tend to include more steamed and fresh vegetables, rather than tofu/gluten dressed up as mock "meat". 

After the meal, Jon and I decided to walk off the feast. We ended up walking from Wanchai to North Point! In actual terms, it's only about two miles or three km, but it seems much further due to the incredible urban density of Hong Kong island. Wanchai District houses more than 150,000 people in less than four square miles, while Eastern District (which includes North Point) squeezes around 600,000 people in 7.3 square miles. I've always thought that there's as much life in one Hong Kong block as there is in three New York blocks. 

We ended up at North Point, where there is an outdoor market every day, and an informal flea market every Sunday that caters both to the local ethnic Chinese, but also to the larger Southeast Asian and South Asian diaspora. This is the place to go if you're a bargain hunter who loves to unearth hidden treasures...or just like digging through random crap. 

Oranges and other citrus are commonly gifted during their new year, as their round shape and golden color signify wealth and prosperity in the year ahead. 

Jon found a Sega Megadrive (16-bit), mint in the box! 

I found a box of tools (note the French packaging).

Here's the Doctor Who Dalek toy that I picked up for US$2 at the same market during the Chinese New Year holiday in 2010. (Cat not included.)

Dark craft beer chocolate cupcakes with stout

Dark chocolate cupcakes with stout

Aren't these cute? 

I made these mini cupcakes using exactly half the ingredients of the recipe for dark chocolate birthday cake with stout. The instructions are the same, and you should end up with 36 mini cupcakes. (I used three pans similar to the Wilton 12-cup mini muffin pan.) It should also be enough to make 18 normal-sized cupcakes (three 6-muffin pans).

The dark chocolate ganache was quite rich, so I might try using cream cheese frosting next time.

In other news, I will be at the Island East farmers/craft market on March 3, selling all sorts of craft beer from Hop Leaf. I am planning to test-drive some of my baked goods there, too (this means free samples of food!). If you're in Hong Kong, please come and say hi. :)

Barm bread (sourdough)

Poppy seed barm bread during the second rise

I've been busy baking and using my homemade sourdough starter recently. After trying the popular Taiwanese 65C tangzhong/water roux method, I came across a traditional British baking method called "barm" that is very similar, except you use ale instead of water to make the roux. Barm bread usually has a more flavor due to the use of beer, and has a lighter, fluffier crumb (texture) due to the gelatinous roux which allows the gluten in the flour absorb more moisture. The secret to making great bread is to have the dough as wet as possible. 

Making barm bread is a process that can be separated into two distinct parts: first you need to make the barm, then you use the barm to make the bread. 

Barm:

• 250ml (8.5 oz) ale -- while any bottle-conditioned beer works, I used Baird Brewing's Single-Take Session ale as I thought it would give a light, rustic flavor. A stout or porter will give you a darker, maltier barm.
• 50g (1/2 cup) bread flour (sifted)
• 4 tsp white leaven/sourdough starter, or 1 tsp active dry yeast

Baird beer from Numazu, Japan

1. Heat the ale in a saucepan on medium heat until 65C (if you don't have a thermometer, don't worry, you can eyeball it. Wait until you see some bubbles form but don't let the ale boil over!)
2. Remove from heat and whisk in the flour, stirring rapidly to avoid lumps forming. Don't worry if you get lumps, if needed you can strain them out with a sieve later after cooling. It should have a slightly translucent brown (exact darkness will depend on the type of beer you used) and have the consistency of hair gel/pomade.
3. Put the ale-flour mixture into a small bowl and let cool to 20C (room temperature), then stir in the leaven or active dry yeast.
4.  Cover with plastic wrap or a clean cloth, and let the barm sit overnight for up to 48 hours until nice and bubbly.  If it doesn't bubble, your yeast/starter is dead and you'll have to start again.
5. The barm is now ready to use in making bread! It can replace your sourdough starter in most bread recipes.

Sourdough barm bread with poppy seeds:

• 150g barm, from above (I used all of the barm made from the above recipe without measuring it, which turned out fine)
• 250ml (8.5 oz) water
• 500g bread (high-gluten) flour; or 400g bread flour and 100 g wholemeal/rye flour
• 10g (2 tsp) salt
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds (optional)

1. Mix the barm and water together until the barm is completely dissolved. 
2. Add the flour and salt, then mix until you get a wet, shaggy dough. It will be a sticky mess!
3. Put in a bowl, cover and leave at room temperature for 12-18 hours. 
• If your room is warmer than 20C, you might want to put the covered bowl in the fridge to keep the dough temperature down and allow time for the flavors to develop during the long fermentation. 
• You can also split the rise time over two days: I made the dough after dinner one night, then put it in the fridge overnight. I took it out the next morning and left it on the countertop all day. When I came home from work 12 hours later, the dough had finished the first rise. 
4. After the first rise has been completed (dough will be double in size), punch down the dough and scrape it out onto a floured surface.
5. Shape the dough into whatever form you like. I made four oval rolls.
6. If using poppy seeds, sprinkly on top now. 
7. Place the shaped dough onto your baking sheet (I use Silpat to avoid the bread sticking to the metal pan, or you can use baking paper), and let rise in a quiet, dry area until doubled (1-2 hours).
8. Bake in a preheated 220C/425F oven for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
9. As with all bread, resist the temptation to eat or slice the bread as soon as you take it out of the oven! Let cool to room temperature before serving.

Golden-brown poppyseed barm rolls 

Joy Hing Roasted Meat 再興燒臘飯店

Jon and I went to a famous Chinese BBQ place last night called Joy Hing, which came strongly recommended by Chowhound and Anthony Bourdain, among others. It was OK. Jon had the charsiu rice, which was good. I ordered the roast duck and roast pork on rice. The duck did not have much meat while the roast pork was too salty (the meat was juicy and the skin was crispy though, which was good). There is a jug of sauce (soy sauce and roasted meat juices) at each table and you can season the rice to your liking.

I got the feeling that the restaurant is coasting on its reputation a bit. There's also much better roasted meat across the harbor and in less tourist-friendly neighborhoods, but I suppose most HK Islanders are hesitant to cross the harbour to "the dark side" (i.e. Kowloon).

新強記 on Shanghai Street in Jordan will always be one of my favorites as we bought takeout charsiu there when I was young.

Anyway, it's an excuse for some food porn (ahem):

Bacon cheese bread loaf (no-knead)

Lovely crackly crust

Jim Lahey's no-knead pancetta bread has become one of my tried-and-tested standbys for brunches, parties, and snacking. I usually make it as small bite-size crusty rolls (which I've written about before), but I also like making this recipe in larger loaves. 

While Jim Lahey's original recipe calls for baking it in a Dutch oven, I've found that if you split the dough into two medium-size loaves, you can do away with the Dutch oven, requiring less anxiety and less to clean up! It's a nice compromise between the smaller rolls and full-sized bread loaf, and you still get a beautifully-risen loaf with crackly crust and light crumb.

One of two loaves that I made yesterday

The loaf this time reminded me of the fat koi fish in my dad's pond. Perhaps it's because of the (cheese) moustache on the loaf? 

Loaves of bread and fish?

I made this bacon bread to go with the fromage fort I made with some leftover cheese from a holiday party. I don't have a food processor so I roughly mashed the cheese with chives, herbs, mashed garlic, heavy cream, and a generous splash of brandy. It ended up being like a very rustic Boursin :). Together, the bread and cheese went well with a beer tasting of Mikkeller craft beers that we recently got in from Denmark.

Dark chocolate craft beer cake with dark chocolate frosting

Birthday cake

An easy way to make sure that your cake is tender and not too dense - whip the egg whites separately to the egg yolks and fold them in at the end. While the extra step is a bit of a pain, the end results are TOTALLY WORTH IT (and worthy of the capitalized letters!). 

Being a shareholder in a start-up beer distributor means that we have a lot of great craft beer around. While I love to drink beer, I can only drink a glass before getting full. My preference is to cook with it. I find that using beer in cooking imparts a certain fullness of flavor to the food but is still subtle enough not to overpower it. I've made Irish beef stew with Tokyo black porter, salted caramel ice cream with Rogue Hazelnut Nectar brown ale. However, one of the recent standouts has been this decadent, rich dark chocolate cake made with Tokyo black porter, but would likely also work well with any other stout, porter or good dark beer. I plan to make it with Rogue Mocha Porter soon. 

This chocolate cake is extremely rich and dense, with a thick chocolate ganache frosting. A small slice would go very well with coffee (or ice cream). Top with your favorite fruit or candy - or leave plain. While you can splurge and use the best dark chocolate to make this cake, I find that the 100g bars of chocolate such as Lindt works fine. (I like to use the cheaper dark chocolate sold in Ikea food mart - it's half the price of Lindt and has a very good texture and taste. I've also used Green & Black chocolate too for special occasions.) I suppose you could also use baking/unsweetened chocolate too, though I can't guarantee the results. Chocolate is the star of this cake, so you want to use the top quality chocolate you're willing to pay for. 

The full amount for this recipe below makes one round 9-inch layer cake (using two 9-inch round pans), or you can halve the ingredients to make a 9-inch square cake. 

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients

Cake: 

• 3 oz (85g) dark chocolate (preferably min. 60% cacao)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour + 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (200 g flour + 50g cocoa powder)*
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 200g (1 3/4 sticks) butter (room temperature)
• 200g (1 cup) + 3 tablespoons caster/granulated white sugar
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup stout, porter or dark beer such as Rogue Mocha porter or Tokyo Black porter
• 1/2 cup espresso or strong coffee (cooled)

* Cocoa powder is optional. If you don't have it, just make up the difference with the flour. 

 Frosting: 

• 450g (1 lb) dark chocolate (50-60% cacao)
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream (I used UHT whipping cream because it's hard to find fresh cream in Hong Kong)

Method:

Cake:  

1. Preheat oven to 350F or 180C. 
2. Butter and use baking paper line your two round 9-inch cake pans (or one pan if using a half-recipe). Set aside. 
3. Melt the chocolate for the cake in a bain-marie (put a metal bowl on top of a saucepan of barely simmering water), or microwave it. See here for a quick guide to melting chocolate. Set aside. 
4. Whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt). Set aside. 
5. Using a mixer, beat the egg whites and 3 tablespoons sugar until stiff but not dry. In layman's terms, this means that the egg whites look like meringue and stay in the bowl (they don't slosh about or fall when you tip the bowl sideways or upside down). Here's a good Chowhound thread about beating egg whites. Set aside.
6. Wipe clean your beaters and use another bowl for the butter and sugar. Using a mixer, cream (beat together) the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale yellow. Add egg yolks 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in melted chocolate, then the beer and coffee. Add in flour in 2 additions until incorporated. (If you overmix the batter, your cake crumb may be coarse and tough.)
7. Gently fold in your egg whites in 2 to 3 additions to the batter. Don't overmix the batter to avoid dissolving the egg whites - the air in the beaten egg whites helps to lighten the texture of the cake!
8. Scrape the batter into pan, then bake in oven until cake tester comes out dry (about 30 minutes). 
9. Remove from oven and transfer to cooling racks. 

The cake can be made ahead 1 day before frosting and assembly. (Cover and store and room temperature. Or, if you're really busy, make it ahead up to 1 week in advance and freeze the cake layers individually. Defrost it before adding frosting.)

Frosting: 

1. Placed chopped chocolate in a metal bowl.   
2. Heat cream in a saucepan until simmering. 
3. Pour hot cream over the chocolate. 
4. Wait one minute, then whisk together until mixture is smooth.
5. Chill in fridge until thickened and spreadable (2 hours in fridge or 30 minutes in freezer). 

The frosting can also be made ahead separately and stored in the fridge up to 3 days before assembling your cake. 

Assembly:

1. Frost your cake, then top with your favorite toppings (white or other colorful toppings are a good contrast for the dark chocolate). For this winter birthday cake, I used white chocolate bark, white chocolate Maltesers, fresh pomegranate seeds, and diced fresh red pear.
2. For layer cake, you may need to use a serrated knife to level off the top of the cake in order to get flat even layers. 
3. For single-layer sheet cakes, you can stick the entire cake (wrapped/covered in plastic wrap) in the freezer for up to two weeks. I highly doubt it would last that long, though!

The last slice...