Smoked Salmon Recipe
Given Sid’s interest in
fish and Chinese food, here is a hybrid recipe for salmon that is not Chinese
but uses a wok. He would find it especially amusing that it uses sugar, rice
and tea as smoking agents.
Line a wok with aluminum
foil, and place the following ingredients in a pile at the bottom center:
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon white rice
Tea emptied from one tea
bag
Put the salmon on a metal
steamer or rack that fits inside the wok, and cover the wok with a lid that
fits snugly. We have found it useful to grease the steamer to make it easier to
clean later.
Cook (technically smoke
with dry heat) with a high fire for 10 minutes, low fire another 10 minutes,
then switch off for 10 minutes, all the while keeping it covered, then it is
done. It is good to have a fan and hood over the burner, and to close the
kitchen door, because of the smoke. The salmon comes out perfectly cooked and
moist every time, almost like magic.
Red Bean Soup 紅豆湯
Red beans are a popular for
making desserts in Asia. The township of Wandan in Pingtung County, Taiwan, has
become famous for its tasty red beans. This recipe comes thanks to Liu Min-chu,
my host in my fieldsite. They are said to taste better, and look better (larger
and more shiny) than beans from elsewhere. Red beans are better if they are
fresh; the longer they are stored, the harder it is to cook them.
1) Rinse the red beans. Add
red beans and three times as much water into a pot. Bring to a boil, and then
turn down the flame and continue boiling for 5 minutes and then put out the
fire and let it sit warm for 30 minutes..
2) Once again start the
fire and bring to a boil, lower the flame to boil 5-10 minutes, until the red
beans are thoroughly cooked (soft and mushy).
3) Then add sugar, same
volume as the beans (though can adjust to taste). This makes an almost
paste-like base (mihongdou) that you use to make desserts.
To eat, you can add water
to make red bean soup, or add milk to make red bean milk, or add tangyuan (glutinous
rice flour balls) to make red bean tangyuan. The red bean paste can be
frozen, and after it is thawed its taste is the same as before.
Note: Red beans must be
thoroughly cooked before you add sugar or the red beans will not become soft
and mushy.
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Photo of Sid on a visit to Hong Kong in 2007.
Left to right, Tracey Lu Lie-dan, Jackie, Gordon Mathews, Tan Chee Beng, Sid,
Joseph Bosco, Arif Dirlik, Sidney Cheung, Keping Wu, Danning Wang.
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