Longevity Noodles

Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

For the past few years, if we're able to celebrate, I cook food that's perfect for the Chinese New Year aka Lunar New Year and this year I decided to make us some longevity noodles. This recipe is also known as long life noodles and symbolize longevity. They're used for celebrations such as weddings, birthdays, lunar new year as well as a new baby.

I came across this recipe when looking for a new recipe to try.

Let's get cooking!

Ingredients:

3 quarts water

340g dry Yi Mein noodles

1/8 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp hot water

2 tsp regular soy sauce

2 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp sesame oil

Freshly ground white pepper

3-4 tbsp vegetable oil

5 shitake mushrooms

225g Chinese chives

Start off boiling the 3 quarts water in a large wok or pot to pre-cook your noodles for 3-4 minutes. I wasn't able to get to an Asian supermarket to get the proper noodles so I used medium egg noodles. You want the noodles to be al dente, so once ready drain and set aside.

Next dissolve the sugar and salt in the 1 tbsp of hot water, then add the regular soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and white pepper.

Then stir until combined.

Next heat a wok until just smoking and spread 2 tbsp's of oil around.

Add the mushrooms and the chives and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Sadly I couldn't get my hands on any Chinese chives so I used normal dried chives. If the mushrooms look dry then add more oil.

Add the noodles and stir-fry for 20 seconds, if the noodles have gone cold, cook a little longer to heat them back up.

Next spread the prepared sauce mixture evenly over the noodles and stir-fry everything together for 1 minute, or until the mixture is evenly distributed.

Remember to mix gently.

Add the remaining chives.

Now you're ready to serve.

I'd happily cook us this again, we both enjoyed it, next time though I'd love to make sure that I had all the proper ingredients needed to make it more authentic.

It's really is an quick to cook too, which is perfect for anyone that's a novice when it comes to cooking.

If you would like to follow the original recipe, then head over to The Woks of Life Longevity Noodles recipe page. There you will see more in depth steps of the recipe as more on the dish itself.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye

Crisp Chinese Pork Belly

Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

I love pork belly and back in 2021, I cooked Char Siu to celebrate the Lunar New Year and this year, I decided on cooking pork belly again to celebrate the Lunar New Year. This time I cooked the Crisp Chinese Pork Belly from the BBC Good Food website.

Let's get cooking!

Ingredients

500g pork belly slices

2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder.

Dipping Sauce

4 tbsp soy sauce

Small knob fresh root ginger, grated

1 tbsp Thai sweet chilli

1 spring onion, finely chopped

1 Pak Choi, quartered

160g basmati rice

Rub the pork belly slices with the five-spice powder and 1 tsp fine sea salt, then uncovered for about 2 hours.

Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas Mark 6.

Place the pork belly strips in the oven and cook for around 45 minutes.

While the pork belly cooks, you can make your dipping sauce.

In a bowl, mix together the soy sauce, ginger, Thai sweet chilli sauce and spring onion with 2 tbsp of water.

Also while your pork belly is cooking, you can boil some rice, which I boil for 15 minutes on a low heat, as well as frying Pak Choi in butter for about 5-7 minutes, 2-3 minutes on each flat side and 1 minute on the back.

Once everything is cooked, you're ready to serve and enjoy.

I loved this dish, it was really nice and full of flavour, even Skye seemed to be a fan.

It was really easy to cook, so perfect for any novice cook, there isn't too much time to prepare and cook everything as most items can be placed to cook on their own like the rice and pork belly, meaning you're not standing over a hot pan for ages.

Even the dipping sauce is quick and easy to make.

If you would like to follow the original recipe I took this dish from, then head over to the BBC's Good Food Crisp Chinese Pork recipe page. There you will see the changes I made.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye

Char Siu aka BBQ Pork

Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

Back in February it was Lunar New Year aka Chinese New Year and I wanted to do something for me and Skye to celebrate it too, so I hunted online for Chinese recipe's and decided on making Char Siu.

Let's get cooking!

Ingredients:

700g rindless pork belly

For The Marinade:

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Thumb-sized piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped

4 tbsp tomato ketchup

4 tbsp hoisin sauce

4 tbsp golden caster sugar

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp sunflower oil

Mix together all your ingredients for the marinade and leave to one side.

Next put your pork belly into a roasting tin and then pour over the marinade.

Cover and chill them overnight, I didn't chill mine overnight as I didn't look at the recipe properly until I was ready to cook, I chilled them for 30-60 minutes.

Heat your oven to 160C/Fan 140C/Gas Mark 3 and cover the tin with foil and cook for 3 1/2 hours, basing every hour.

Increase the temperature to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas Mark 4, remove the foil, baste the pork and continue to cook for a further 45 minutes until it's beginning to caramelise around the edges.

Remove the pork from the tin and set aside to rest for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, spoon away any fat from the tin and transfer the sauce to a small pan.

Slice the pork, and pop back into the tin.

Warm the sauce in the pan, then pour over the meat and toss everything together.

Serve however you like.

This was the first time I've had pork belly and I really enjoyed it, as you can see, I served ours with rice and it worked really well together.

I'd happily cook this again, it was really tasty and it practically melted in the mouth, I'd definitely make more of the marinade next time round as for me it seemed to cook away before I could make any sauce out of it.

It was really easy and simple to cook and I think it would be easy for any novice cook.

If you want to give the recipe I followed a once over, then head over to the BBC's Good Food Char Siu (BBQ Pork) recipe page.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye

Toffee Banana Spring Rolls

Hello

안녕하세요

(Annyeonghaseyo)

こんにちは

(Konnichiwa)

你好

(Ni Hao)

Back in February I went on the hunt to find recipes to celebrate the Lunar New Year aka Chinese New Year and I came across these sweet spring rolls for our dessert.

Let's get baking?

Ingredients:

100ml sunflower oil, for frying

3 sheets of Filo pastry

60g dulce de leche

3 bananas, halved widthways

Chinese five-spice powder, for sprinkling

Warm the sunflower in a saucepan, or heat your deep-fat fryer to 180C.

Meanwhile, cut each sheet of filo pastry in half vertically.

Next spread 2 tsp of dulce de leche over a halved banana.

Sprinkle over some five-spice, then put the banana at the bottom of the halved filo sheet.

Roll the filo sheet up and around the banana, folding in the sides with each roll so that they look like spring rolls. Brush some water across the seam of the spring roll to seal.

Repeat this process with the remaining banana halves.

Deep-fry 3 rolls at a time, until crispy and golden, then place on kitchen roll to drain.

Slice in half and serve, the original recipe suggests serving them with coconut ice cream and scattered with toasted black sesame seeds.

I just served them on their own.

I thought this recipe was a lot easier to pull off than I thought it was going to be, while a little messy and time consuming, it was a easy recipe to follow.

I loved the flavours and would definitely make them again to try with coconut ice cream.

Skye wasn't too fussed but she can be a bit picky when it comes to stuff like this.

If you would like to check out and follow the original recipe, then head to BBC's Good Food Toffee Banana Spring Rolls recipe page.

See you soon!

안녕

(Annyeong)

さようなら

(Sayonara)

再见

(ZaiJian)

Bye