Penne with Zucchnin and Garlic

It's a really quick recipe for the hungry vegetarians.  The secret to Italian cooking is good extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan cheese.  It makes all the difference!

For 2 servings


Ingredients:

400g Penne pasta
2 medium zucchini
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper 
6-8 pieces Fresh Basil, chopped
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Olive Oil

1)  Boil water and cook penne for about 10 minutes, or until soften. We prefer it stays chewy.
2)  Cut the top and bottom part of the zucchini.  Wash, peel and sliced.  Set aside.
3)  While cooking the penne, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large skillet pan. Fry chopped garlic until slightly brown but not burnt.
4)  Add the zucchini, salt, pepper.  Saute for 10 minutes until zucchini is tender but not too soft.
5)  Add the drained penne to the zucchini.  Mixed well.  Stir in the Parmesan cheese.  Mix in basil last and leave some as garnish.
6)  Drizzle with additional olive oil when serve.

Chinese Vegetarian Fried Rice

A real typical Cantonese dish and it's a good way to get rid of leftover rice.

For 2-3 servings

Ingredients:
Steamed Rice (2 bowls)
2 Eggs
1 Onion
1 tablespoon of ginger (optional)
Mixed Vegetables, chopped (Lettuces, carrot, peas or any other vegetables)
a pinch of Salt
1 tablespoon of Vegetable Oil
Soy sauce (optional)


1) Prepare the steamed rice (refer to 'Chinese style white rice')
2) Cut lettuces in thin slices, carrot and onion in small cubes (size of peas), prepare the peas and wash, set aside.
3) Add oil to heated pan, turn to medium heat, stir-fry the onion until tender.
4) Add ginger, all vegetables and salt to the onion, keep stir-frying.
5) Add rice and keep stir-frying to keep every pieces of rice separate as far as possible
6) Add beaten egg and mix well
7) Add some soy sauce and stir-fry well.
8) Serve while it's hot!


Extra Tips:
1) It's better to use rice that kept for overnight, so it's more dry for stir-frying and gives a better texture.
2) The fried rice could be mixed with anything, like shrimp, beef slice, chicken slice etc. Add after the onion and vegetables.
3) When adding meat, marinate with a pinch of salt, soy sauce, oil, corn flour 30 minutes ahead (if ingredients not available, only salt and oil is possible)

Chinese Steamed White Rice

You could actually find rice in most part of the world.

In South America, local cook rice with a lot of water and need a sieve to discard those hot water at the end, which seems really complicated and wasting all the nutrients. In Turkey, for example, to become a decent bride-to-be, a girl need to learn their particular way of rice-making, with oil, spices and salt.

Many Chinese nowadays only learn making rice with a rice cooker.  It's simple enough, but how about without one?

For Cantonese, we only make rice with water and the water portion should be just right.  My dad taught me the simple way to make rice in my childhood, where he believed cooking rice with a claypot taste best.

A very simple Chinese way of making steamed rice that you could do in any kitchen!

Ingredients:
Rice
Water

1) Put rice in a pot, wash a few time to discard the dirts and sand, until the water turns clear.

2) Add drinking water. Use your finger to measure the water level, for instance, 1 inch from base of pot to surface of rice, then another inch from top of rice to top of water surface.  Meaning, about 1 portion of rice: 2 portion of water

3) Turn to high heat to get the water boiling with the pot covered.  When boiling, switch to low heat.

4) When the water are all gone, leaving the rice surface still humid and bubbling with water, it's time to turn off the heat but keep the pot covered.

5) Keep the pot covered with the remaining heat for about ten minutes.  The remaining water will be absorbed by the rice to make it well done.

6) Ready to serve.


Extra tips:
1) Of course, claypot is believed to be the best for steamed rice, but any kind of pot is fine.
2) The rice washing water should not be discarded, it is good for cleaning vegetables and washing face to take away grease in a natural way and gives you softer skin.
3) Half cup of rice makes approximately one bowl of rice.
4) Rice from different countries have different texture and taste.  Some people prefer Japanese pearl rice, being more chewy, with better outlook and color; some prefer Thai jasmine rice with more fragrance; others look for more fiber in black or brown rice.  We just loved the local Vietnam rice with exquisite fragrance.
5) If you are preparing black or brown rice, you should soak them in water for at least 30 minutes before following the above process.  And you could mix white rice with the colored ones.
6) If you are in a hurry, you could start making the rice with hot water.
7) In case you find the rice too dry, after water already boiled away, you could still add some hot water to make it even softer.
8) Depends on the softness of the rice you prefer, you may adjust the amount of water.

Spicy Eggplant

That's one of our friend's favorite dish.  A tribute to Darius of Romania.

The basic ingredients include red pepper, egg plant and soy sauce. The original recipe include minced pork, but if you don't eat pork or a total vegetarian, you could omit the pork and it tastes as good.

Ingredient:
Egg plant 500g
Minced pork 180g
Ginger (minced) 1/2 tablespoon
Shallot 1 piece (skinned and minced)
Garlic 1 clove (skinned and minced)
Dried Chili 1 tablespoon
Water

Seasoning for Marinating Pork: (never mind this if you are vegetarian!)

Soysauce 1 1/2 teaspoon

Sugar 1/2 teaspoon

Corn Starch 1/2 teaspoon

Vegetable Oil 2 teaspoon

Water 2 teaspoon

Pepper to taste

Seasoning:

Soy sauce 2 teaspoon

Salt 1/2 teaspoon

Sugar 1/2 teaspoon

Water 2 teaspoon

Vegetable Oil and Pepper

1) Wash the eggplant.  Cut the top and bottom stem part.  Shred to thick slices.  Soak in salt for 10mins and squeeze out the liquid.

2) Marinate the minced meat with seasonings.  For at least 15 minutes.

3) Put 2 tablespoon oil vegetable oil in pot, fry half of the minced garlic, shallot and ginger.

4) Add eggplant. Slowly add water to soften the eggplant.  Add half tablespoon of dried chili.

5) Put oil, the other half of minced garlic, shallot and ginger to fry, then add minced pork and dried chili.

6) When the eggplant soften, add in cooked minced pork and all seasoning.  Mix well and cook with medium heat for 15 minutes.

7) Serve hot.