Epiphyllum – Midnight Bloom For Soup

Epiphyllum – Midnight Bloom

For our family, this is the most exciting time – when the Epiphyllum blooms. We will all rush out from our house around 10 pm and witness it’s arrival, my dad will be walking in and out of the house every hour to peep at the process. My mum, oh well, she is too sad to see the spectacular bloom and how it’s life will be gone in the next couple of hours. I will wait with my father and put him to sleep after he has had enough of time with his flowers, for now that is. I will have my shears ready by the next morning and cut them down for our soup of the night. 

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Recipe for Midnight Bloom Soup

Ingredients:

• 400 grams of lean pork
• 4-5 stalks of midnight blooms
• Chinese herbal herbs: Bei Qi 北芪, Dangshen 黨參, Huai Shan 淮山 , Yu Zhu 玉竹
  , Gou Qi Zi 枸杞子, Nan Xing 南杏 and Bei Xing北杏. ( If you are near a Chinese Medical Hall or Chinese Herbal Shop, just ask them for these herbs to be mixed for 4 servings)
• 1 piece of Dried cuttlefish
• 3 red dates

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Deep Fried Pork Belly With Fermented Bean Curd- The Hakka Style

Deep Fried Pork Belly With
Fermented Bean Curd - Hakka Style

This is a dish that my whole family loves, it’s not my family’s recipe as it’s a traditional Hakka dish. My ancestral roots are from Foo-Chow, China. My mother’s family from Canton, I have learnt most of my cooking methods from my grandmother and our family’s old cook. But today I would like to share this recipe that was given to me from my partner’s father, he was a chef once, (I don’t know what he is doing now in the world yonder, maybe a chef too, who knows?)

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My First Wok

My brand new steel wok

Needed a new wok, as my  old Teflon wok has worn out.  Off I went to my neighborhood supplies store. This time I wanted to get a 14 inch traditional Chinese steel wok. Picked one with the right weight and made sure I had a good "feel" towards it. ( Just my way of looking for a good wok) not necessarily based on any logic, just my feel.

The guy that runs the place looked at me and asked if I run a food business, I said no; he then refused to sell me the wok. He said if you are not in the food business I can't sell you this wok.

Oh well, I thought, maybe he had his reasons, but I was still a little curious as why he refused to sell me the wok. He then came over to me and asked me nicely,

"Do you know how to use this wok?";

"Yes"

" Ok, tell me, how?"

"with care and love"  I grinned, " of course I know how to handle it" and in Chinese I told him "open (cure)  the wok first before I start using it lah"

"how, tell me how" ; he started his test...

ok this is how to cure a wok. I told him not in such details here but rather animated when trying to explain to him.

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