Overall, this is a SUPER easy recipe for classic banana bread. The batter takes about 10 minutes to throw together, the bread stays moist for days, and nothing beats the smell of fresh banana bread in the oven!

Makes 1 loaf,

• ½ stick or 60g salted or unsalted butter, melted in the microwave and cool it off
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 3 large-size or 4 medium-size overripe bananas熟透的香蕉
• 2 cups        all-purpose or plain flour中筋面粉
• 1 teaspoon baking soda小苏打
• 3/4 cup    brown sugar. Adjust the volume of sugar to your taste). You can use caster sugar but the smoky flavor of the brown sugar balances well with the fragrance of the banana.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F or 175℃. Melt the butter in the microwave. Cool it off.
2. Lightly grease the loaf pan with a brush and a bit of melted butter.
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda and brown sugar together in a large bowl.
   

   
4. Combine melted butter and beaten eggs. Add into peeled banana. Mash the banana.
   

   
5. Combine above dry ingredients (Step 3) and wet ingredients (Step 4). Fold well. Make sure no dry flour seen in the batter.Pour the batter into the loaf pan. Once done, let the loaf pan sit a 1-2 minutes before moving to the oven.
   

   

   
6. Place the loaf pan into the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 60-65 minutes. You can insert a toothpick into the center of the bread. The bread is done if the toothpick comes out clean. Remove the loaf pan from oven and allow to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes. Then enjoy.

The dish can be quickly put together by using the ingredients possibly already existed in your pantry. And you will hardly have the chance to fail! The thin sheets of soy skin (tofu sheets) absorb the smokiness of the bacon and sweet and savouries of the cooking wine and soy sauce, making it a perfect comfort meal to go with a bowl of rice. The tofu sheets, pliable yet soft, contrasts beautifully with the crunchiness of the peppers and garlic sprout.

 Serve 2-4

• 100g     2-3 Big sheets Tofu sheets (soy skin), cut into pieces in a dimension of 12cm. 豆腐皮剪成方块状 (make sure you get the plain one not the salty one. The plain one needs to be stored in the fridge or freezer.)
• 1 tablespoon  cooking oil
• 3 strips      bacon, cut into bite size
• 3 cloves, garlic, smashed and peeled
• 1 big  green chili pepper, cut into bite size
• 2 small  red chili pepper, cut into bite size
• 1/2 tablespoon   light soy sauce生抽
• ½ tablespoon     dark soy sauce老抽
• 1.5 tablespoon    good quality Chinese cooking wine (click here for homemade Chinese cooking wine)
• 1 garlic sprout, you can substitute it with spring onion or simply skip it if you do not have it in your kitchen, separate white and green parts青蒜苗, cut into bite size
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Place the cut tofu sheets in a colander. Wash under the running water. Or quickly wash them in the bowl. The sheets will turn soft immediately. Drain.
   

   

   
2. Place cooking oil in a clay pot (or any frying pan) over medium heat. Add into sliced bacon and cook till fragrant and bacon starts shrink. Add garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Add green and red chili pepper and fry for 2 minutes. Add white part of the garlic sprout and fry for another 1 minute.
   

   
3. Add soy sheets in the pot. Mix light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine in a small bowl and pour into the pot. Mix well. Cook for 2-3 minutes till the sauce is almost absorbed by the soy sheets.
   

   

   
4. Serve hot with a bowl of rice.

Curing and preserving meat is actually less daunting than you would think of. In this Chinese air-dry chicken recipe, all you need is inexpensive cuts of meat, salt, seasonings and fresh air. The result? A completely changed texture and flavor of the meat and delicious food that surprises and pleases you.

As it dries naturally it the open air, there is only certain time of the year which is ideally for sausage-making. In China, people start the preparations of air-drying meat or other charcuterie-making after the winter solstice when the highest temperature won’t reach 10C°.

A very important food safety note – this air-dried chicken needs to be cooked before consumption. To cook it, you can easily steam them over high heat for 25 – 30 minutes. Once they are cool off, then cut them into thin slices.

To store the sausages, place them in the fridge for up to 10 days and freezer for 3 months.

Yield about 2kg

• 5kg bone-in chicken thigh鸡腿
• 5 bay leaves香叶
• 5g Star anise八角
• 20g Sichuan peppercorns花椒
• 75g Sea salt (3% of the total amount of chicken)粗海盐
• 25ml Chinese liquor高度白酒

 Method

1. Wash the chicken thigh under running water. Pat dry with kitchen towel.
2. Place a frying pan over low or low-medium heat. Fry all the dry seasoning ingredients of bay leaves, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns and salt. Stir from time to time to cook evenly. Fry about 10 minutes until aromatic and salt turns pale yellow. Turn off the heat. Move the pan aside and let it completely cool off.
   

   
3. Use a big bowl. Place one layer of chicken in the bowl. Then sprinkle some seasoning ingredients on the top. Drizzle it with a bit of Chinese liquor. Place another layer of chicken on the top of the first one. Sprinkle seasonings and drizzle with Chinese liquor. Repeat the process until chicken, seasoning ingredients and liquor are used up. Cover the bowl. Leave it in the fridge overnight or about 12 hours.
   

   
4. Hang the chicken in the open air. And let it dry up for about 4-5 days.

Dry-braising, literally translated from the term gan shao (干烧) in Mandarin, refers to a method in Chinese cooking that uses relatively less braising liquid at the start, and reduces most of the liquid towards the end of cooking.  The result? A perfectly braised fish imbued and draped with rich and concentrated sauce. This is a great way to cook any type of fish that has firm and mild-tasting flesh, such as fresh-water-fish tilapia used in this recipe. There are many sauce variations for the fish. But none of them beats this simple yet very satisfying sauce seasoned with Sichuan bean paste, doubanjiang, 豆瓣酱. By quickly stir-frying it in, doubanjiang’s beautiful red brown color and rich complex umami flavours are created and imparted to the golden and crispy Tilapia.

Serves 3-4,  

• Whole tilapia (or seabass and red snapper), about 850g, scale and gut (roughly 1kg before scale and gut)罗非鱼，红鲷鱼或者海鲈鱼任一种，去鱼鳞及内脏. If you use smaller fish, please reduce the seasoning sauce below  proportionally
• 1 tablespoon   Chinese cooking wine
• ½ teaspoon    salt
• 1 cup       canola oil or any vegetable oil
• 4 slices      ginger, thinly sliced生姜

For the seasoning sauce

• 2 tablespoons      Sichuan fermented bean paste豆瓣酱
• 2 spring onions, white parts only, cut into small pieces青葱
• 3 to 4 small dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated. This is optional. But the mushroom certainly helps enrich the umami flavor for the dish. 香菇
• 2 teaspoons                 caster sugar白砂糖
• ½ tablespoon    light soy sauce生抽
• ½ tablespoon    dark soy sauce老抽
• 2 cups          water
• 2 tablespoons    corn starch淀粉
• 1/4 cup   water
• Salt to taste

• 1 Red chili or 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced, for garnishing
• 1 sprig       fresh cilantro, 香菜, for garnishing

Method

1. Scale the fish, discard the guts and clean well (I found a chain Korean grocery store called H-mart in my area which sells live Tilapia from fish tank in the store with free service of scale and gut). Pat dry the fish with kitchen paper towel. Slice the ginger. Slash the fish on both sides of the back to allow your seasoning to penetrate  evenly later.
2. Place the fish in a big bowl. Sprinkle evenly the half teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon of cooking wine on both sides of the back of the fish. Use your hand rub the cooking wine and salt into fish.
3. In the meantime, heat up the 1 cup of cooking oil in a wok or frying pan over high heat. Remember your frying pan should be big enough to allow the entire fish touch the surface of the pan. This takes about 2-3 minutes. Place the ginger slices in the oil. You will see ginger sizzling when oil is hot enough. When the ginger becomes wrinkled, very carefully place the entire fish in the drying pan. Turn the heat to medium high. Cook one side for 6 to 7 minutes till skin golden and crispy. During this 6-minute cooking time, do not try to use spatula to move it too much. Otherwise you may break the fish skin. You may gently shake the pan handle to keep the fish from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Then use your spatula to gentle flip the fish. Fry over medium-high heat for another 6 to 7 minutes till golden and crispy.
   

   

   
4. Remove the fish from the pan and place in a big plate or just your serving plate. Line the plate with kitchen towel to help absorb the oil.
5. Now let’s make the sauce. Keep only about 2 tablespoons of the residual oil in the frying pan and get rid of the rest. Turn up the heat and place 2 tablespoons of Sichuan fermented bean paste. Fry over medium heat or about 2-3 minutes till fragrant. Add into sliced spring onions and cook for another 2 minutes. Add minced shiitake mushroom and cook for 1 minute. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar and ½ tablespoon of light soy sauce and ½ tablespoon of dark soy sauce, add into 2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil.
   

   

   
6. Return the fish into the frying pan and let the fish simmer over medium-low heat for about 10-12 minutes. Flip the fish half way through. In the meantime, mix corn starch and water to make water corn starch.
   

   
7. Remove the fish out of the pan again and place it in a serving plate – be very careful. The fish is now very soft and needs careful attention to avoid breaking.
8. Add the water starch into the frying pan to thicken the sauce. Taste the sauce. Add salt if needed. Pour the sauce on top of the fish. Garnish the fish with cilantro and red chili slices.
9. Serve hot with a bowl of rice!