Cauliflower fried rice

I am a big fan of the cauliflower, but up until recently I had generally only used it in traditional Indian dishes or in cauliflower cheese. Things like cauliflower purée, seemed unnecessarily complex and a bit odd. However, I have now fully recanted these previously held views and opinions. Cauliflowers are flipping amazing when puréed (making a handy alternative to mashed potatoes) and for all manner of other things. I have documented the cauliflower crust pizza and cottage pie here and here, and last weekend prompted by a post on the Domestic Sluttery blog, I made cauliflower fried 'rice'.

This basically involves grating the cauliflower into small grain-like pieces, which is a lot easier if you have a food processor with a grating blade. I'd say a  medium cauliflower for two people would be more than enough. Most recipes suggest you throw it straight into a wok with the rest of of your fried rice ingredients, but I decided to cook mine in boiling water first and then allowed it cool (this might be completely unnecessary but does mean you can prepare stuff in advance). So when it came to eat, it was just a matter of slicing up some red pepper, mushrooms, green beans, spring onions, and garlic, and stir frying for a few minutes until tender. And then adding the cooked cauliflower, seasoning with black pepper and soy sauce, and keeping the wok moving until everything was heated through. I also added some prawns, but this wasn't essential. The end result is a slightly lighter, vegetable-packed, fried rice that was thoroughly delicious as the cauliflower maintains its separate 'grains' and absorbs flavours in a similar way to white rice. I served this with some tofu and black beans, and extra vegetables, and was very full up shortly afterwards.

Hakka, Cambridge, UK

I was taken out for a surprise dinner the other weekend. I have to say that my heart didn't exactly soar when we ended up walking past the Cambridge City football ground and up to a small parade of betting shops, newsagents, and kebab emporiums. In amongst this row was the Chinese seafood restaurant, Hakka.
Hakka looked as nondescript as its neighbours, and inside it contained the generic interior design notes that you you can find in any average Chinese restaurant. However, what was truly distinctive was the food. We had some superb salt and chilli squid, that was hot out of the fryer and left my lips tingling with proper spicy heat.

This excellent start was followed by a steamed sea bass with garlic and spring onion, sizzling scallops in black bean sauce, sea spiced aubergine, stir fried green beans, and a seafood fried rice. Considering there were only two of us, this seems quite a lot now I write it down but let's gloss over that bit.

Everything we had tasted fresh and packed with flavour, with nothing floating in gloopy cornflour heavy sauces. I loved the simple but delicious crunchy beans, and the perfectly cooked sea bass. Even the fried rice was notable for it's fluffy egg, lightly cooked seafood, and non-clumpy rice. And all this delightful food, along with a couple of drinks, only came to around £60 (not including service)- a bargain!

So, as you might be able to tell, I really liked Hakka. It's in a pretty insalubrious location, has an interior a bit like a late 90's conference room, and plays easy listening versions of Tina Turner songs. But all of this somehow adds to its charm, and with its friendly service and lovely food, I think this might just be the nicest Chinese restaurant in Cambridge.

Hakka
24 Milton Road
Cambridge CB4 1JY

Salt and pepper squid

I pretty much like any form of fried squid whether it's calamari, or the more Asian salt and pepper squid. Actually, forget that, I pretty much like anything that's been fried.

Anyway, I can only remember making calamari once a few years ago. I'm not sure what I put in the batter but it all spat like crazy when it went into the hot oil, and I vaguely recall that most of the coating fell off during the cooking process anyway. After risking life and limb for my dinner, I wasn't keen to repeat the process again. But as salt and pepper squid is one of my favourite Chinese takeaway dishes, I thought I'd try cooking it as a side dish to go with the fish fragrant aubergine I was making too. I'm not sure why, but this time round I wasn't attacked by the squid and frying it was perfectly straight-forward. Perhaps the cornflour was just super effective in absorbing any moisture, but it does mean that this is a dish that I'd be happy to make again.
There isn't much of a recipe, but it's based on this one by Nigella Lawson. She uses baby squid, which is also what I would have done had I been able to buy any. But props to The Sea Tree for a perfectly nice big squid.

Recipe (enough for 4 as a side dish with other things):
I large squid tube, cleaned, scored and cut into small pieces (apart from the tentacles)
Around 1 heaped tsp Sichuan peppercorns
Around 2 heaped tsp regular black peppercorns
Around 2 heaped tsp rock salt
Around 5 tblsp cornflour
1 spring onion, finely chopped (optional)
Quite a lot of sunflower oil, enough for at least a depth of an inch in a deep pan or wok

Crush all the peppercorns and salt in a pestle and mortar, until they are well broken up but not finely ground. Put this seasoning and the cornflour into a plastic freezer or sandwich bag and mix well. Make sure the squid pieces are as dry as possible, and put a handful into the bag of cornflour so that they end up lightly coated. I usually use a wok for deep frying, and you'll need enough oil to ensure that the squid can float in it. Heat the oil until it's hot and shimmering (but not smoking), and gently lower in the first batch of squid. It should only take a minute or so before the squid is cooked and the coating is lightly browned. Carefully take the squid out and drain on some kitchen roll, to absorb any excess oil. Repeat with the rest of the squid. As it takes such a short time to cook, you shouldn't have any problems with the first batch getting cold before the rest are done. Once all the squid is done, sprinkle with the spring onion, and scoff while it's still hot and crispy.

Fish fragrant aubergine and a Chinese feast

As I'm sure I've said before I really know very little about Chinese food. Of course I can stir fry stuff or chomp on sesame toast, and I have experienced the Indo-Chinese cooking that's produced dishes such as gobi manchurian. However it's only recently that I've had my horizons broadened about the regional variation present in Chinese cooking (thanks internet!) and learnt about some new ingredients too.
I think I first read about fish fragrant aubergine on Lizzie HollowLeg's blog. This is a Sichuan dish, that doesn't actually contain any fish, but is aubergine cooked in style that fish is often prepared in (apparently). It can sometimes also contain minced pork, but as non-meat eater Lizzie's use of tofu seemed like an excellent alternative protein. As I wasn't sure I'd be able to get all the ingredients she used, I also found a slightly simpler recipe from the writer and Sichuan food expert Fuschia Dunlop. So here's my recipe, which takes elements from both and omits the things I couldn't find in the shop.

Recipe (enough for four as a side dish with other things):
1 large aubergine
Enough sunflower oil to fry the aubergine
Around 10 ready-fried tofu pieces
4 cloves of garlic (turned into a paste with the ginger)
Thumb-sized piece of ginger (in a paste)
2 tblsp chilli bean paste (Fuschia also gives excellent advice on which chilli bean paste to go for, and I chose the Chuan Lao Hui brand)
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tblsp Chinese black vinegar
1 tsp granulated sugar
A few tablespoons of water
1 tsp cornflour (if needed)
2 spring onions, sliced
1 tsp sesame oil

Firstly cut the aubergine into fishfinger-sized pieces, and cook them however you prefer. I shallow fried them in a frying pan in a couple of batches, but you could deep fry, or even brush with oil and bake them. They do need to be cooked through though. Once the aubergines are done, put a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok and stir-fry the chilli bean paste for a couple of minutes on quite a high heat before adding the ginger and garlic paste. If anything looks like it's sticking add a little water, and keep it moving. Then add in the tofu, aubergine, soy sauces, sugar and vinegar, stir well, and reduce the heat. Let it all simmer for a few minutes, and add the cornflower if there's lots of liquid (I didn't need to bother with this step). Cook out the cornflower, if you're using it, for a further few minutes and then stir in the spring onions and sesame oil, and take the wok off the heat.
And tah-dah, my first bit of Sichuan cooking was done!

I decided to cook the fish fragrant aubergine as part of a Chinese dinner with salt and pepper squid, Sichuan-style prawns (blog posts to follow), and some steamed green vegetables with sesame oil. But the aubergines would have been perfectly fine on their own with some rice. I really loved their spicy, succulent-ness with hints of sourness and sweetness.

It was also great to be able to cook with some unfamiliar ingredients like the chilli bean paste and black vinegar. I still don't know too much about it, but on the basis of this dish I think I might quite like Sichuan food.