Grab Your Chopsticks!

Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 6

Marbled Soy Eggs

Ingredients

6 eggs
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1 star anise
2 thin slices ginger
1 tablespoon black tea leaves

Method

1. Boil the eggs as normal, simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Refresh the water, and add the remaining ingredients.
3. Crack the eggs with a spoon and replace in the water and gently simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Cut into quarters and serve as a salad on top of rice.

Result

This is an extremely easy dish to prepare, however I was disappointed at the taste of the finished product. It tasted exactly like boiled egg. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I just thought that the ingredients would give it a different taste.

Unless I’m wrong, it seems that the marbled effect is actually only for effect.

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 4

Chicken & Ham Rolls

Ingredients

2 Chicken Breasts
4 – 6 slices Ham
1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp five spice powder
1 clove garlic
4 Spring Roll wrappers
flour
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
oil

Method

1. Remove any skin from the chicken breasts and pound until thin.
2. Spread with salt, pepper, five spice powder and crushed garlic.
3. Roll each slice of ham and place on top of the chicken, then roll the chicken breast.
4. Dip the rolls in flour and then in combined egg and milk, place chicken roll diagonally across the spring roll wrapper. Fold in the ends and seal with some of the egg mixture.
5. Deep fry the rolls in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot, cut into slices, with a sweet and sour sauce.

Result

Really very nice, one of the best starters we have cooked.

Preparation Time: 25 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 6

Gow Gees

Ingredients

250g wonton wrappers
250g minced pork
60g mushrooms
spring onions
1 teaspoons ginger
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons seseme oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
oil

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
1 tablespoon cornflour

Method

1. Put the sugar, 3/4 cup water, vinegar, tomato paste and tomato sauce in a pan and heat stirring until the sugar dissolves. Mix cornflour with 1/4 cup water and add to pan. Stir until sauce thickens and simmer for one minute.
2. Cut the wonton wrappers into circles 8cm in diameter.
3. Blend/Chop mushrooms, pork, spring onion, ginger, crushed garlic, seseme oil, soy sauce and sherry.
4. Place small amounts of the mixture in the center of the circles.
5. using water or egg, brush the edges of the wrappers to help them seal, pinch the edges together firmly.
6. drop gow gees into deep hot oil and fry until golden brown, drain and place on absorbant paper.

Result

Damn nice actually! The sauce was the best part though, I’d recommend that as the sweet and sour sauce of choice! We had some mixture left over, so I fried that up and made Gow Gee burgers!

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Difficulty: Medium
Serves: 6

Spring Rolls

Ingredients

500g minced pork / prawns / chicken (or a combination)
1 red pepper
8 spring onions
125g mushrooms
2.5cm piece ginger
250g water chestnuts or bamboo shoots
1/2 cabbage (preferably Chinese cabbage)
3 tablespoons dry sherry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil
500g packet spring roll wrappers
2 teaspoons cornflour
1/2 cup water
oil for frying

Method

1. Chop the pork/prawn/chicken into small pieces, chop pepper & onion, slice mushrooms and grate the ginger, chop the chestnuts or bamboo and shred the cabbage.
2. Put all the prepared ingredients into a bowl. Add sherry, soy sauce, sugar and salt, mix well, cook in pan for 3 to 4 minutes and let cool.
3. Mix the cornflour and water. Spoon tablespoonfuls of the mixture evenly across one corner of the wapper, roll up in an envelope shape making sure that the edges have been brushed with the cornflour mixture.
4. Put into hot oil and fry until golder brown.

Result

What a mess! The picture above does too much justice! The taste of the actual filling was very nice and authentic, but something went wrong during the frying process and most of them seemed to fall apart! Maybe you’ll have better luck…

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Difficulty: Easy
Serves: 3 – 4

Prawn Toast Uncooked

Prawn Toast Cooked

Ingredients

500g prawns
1 egg
2 tablespoons cornflour
salt
pepper
thick slices of bread
1 hard boiled egg yolk
sliced mushrooms
1 spring onion
oil for frying

Method

1. Shell and de-vein the prawns. Make a deep slit down the back of each prawn. Combine the lightly beaten egg with cornflour, salt and pepper, add prawns and mix well.
2. Remove the crusts from the bread and place one prawn coated in the cornflour mixture onto the bread.
3. Chop the egg yolk, mushrooms and onion and place a piece of each on each prawn.
4. With the remaining cornflour mixture coat the bread/prawns (this will help the prawn stick to the bread)
5. Fry the prawn toasts in hot oil. Cook until the bread is golden brown. Drain well.

Result

Excellent! I don’t really like fried bread, and yet again, I would have preferred the prawns on their own! But over all this was a good snack and it had a great taste!