notimeforporridge

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Maybe you can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear

In Restaurants on December 4, 2010 at 5:31 am

Gourmet Dumpling Restaurant, 71 Glenferrie Rd.  MALVERN

We approached the restaurant with anticipation.

Ignore its unprepossessing looks and drop in to this little Malvern restaurant.  The faded green laminate tables and 1980’s suburban kitchen style chairs are quickly forgotten when you taste the food.

We ordered the Ma Po Tofu (11.50) on this visit.  Like the restaurant, it isn’t pretty but no-one cares.  Soft cubes of silken tofu, strips of pork, assorted mushrooms ( including shitake and the delicious wood ear) float in and rich sauce with a hit of chili somewhere in the background.  We also had the Steamed Shanghai Pork Mini Buns (6.00), these are like xiao long bao, giving that little spurt of stock as you bite through the skin.  They are good but not quite as good as the ones at Hu Tong Dumpling Bar in Market Lane in the city.  I’ll have to try making my own.

Other dishes we have tried on this and previous visits are the Fried Chicken and Prawn Dumpling (9.00), a tasty filling but don’t eat too many and Stir Fried Minced Pork with French Bean, this was richly flavoured and saucy, topped with an interesting garnish of shrimp floss.  Their Shanghai Fried Noodle (8.50) is there with the best, the reappearance of the wonderful wood ear mushroom only adding to the experience.  One of my favourites is Dan-Dan with Spicy Pork Sause [sic] (8.50), the fiery sauce, served on a bed of flat rice noodles and garnished with cucumber to counteract the heat, is approaching nirvana for those who like their food spicy.  I would recommend the Gourmet Dumpling Restaurant as a good and reliable suburban alternative if you don’t want to go into the city.

Ma Po Tofu

 

‘No oil painting’ but tasty
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Congee love

In Recipes on December 3, 2010 at 3:51 am

Around the world there are many variations on plain old porridge.  I immediately thought of the Chinese version, rice congee.  It takes an hour and a quarter to cook so I suspect ‘no time for congee’ is a common refrain in most Chinese households as they rush off to start their day.  Perhaps they make it the night before (or use a rice cooker).  Here’s how I made mine.

Rice Congee

Ingredients

1 cup rice (washed and drained, a Chinese friend advises short grain rice for a more ‘porridgey’ result but I used long grain and it worked fine)

9 cups water (plus extra water for boiling the chicken legs at the start)

3 free range chicken legs

1 free range chicken breast

1 slice fresh ginger

1 garlic clove (halved)

1 spring onion (halved)

To garnish:

1 long  red chili

1 spring onion (finely sliced)

shredded fresh ginger

coriander

Method

Place  chicken legs in a pot  and add enough cold water to just cover, bring to the boil and boil furiously for 3 minutes.  Remove chicken legs, discard water and rinse pot.  Replace chicken legs along with rice, water and aromatics.  Bring to the boil and then reduce to a very low simmer, stirring occasionally.  Cook for 40 mins.  Remove chicken legs and add chicken breast.  Simmer for a further 25 minutes.  Remove chicken breast and simmer for a further fifteen minutes.

To serve:

Ladle congee into deep bowls, swirl through soy sauce to taste.  Top with slices of chicken breast and leg meat along with some shredded ginger, spring onion, chili and coriander.

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So let’s start with porridge…

In Recipes on December 3, 2010 at 2:57 am

The only secret  to making good porridge is to use whole rolled oats.  Buy these and, if in doubt, follow the directions on the back of the packet.  Top with honey, brown sugar or maple syrup and any fresh fruit you may have (I like banana and milk poured around to form my own ‘island’).

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