Congee (Xi fan)
Congee, growing up meant traditionally a family breakfast meal or whenever someone fell ill. My mother always used to say it would cleanse our bodies and make us feel a lot better. To me, its a great winter warmer and so simple to make, I encourage every household to give it a go!
Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 2 cups of white rice
- 20 cups of water
- 1 tablet chicken stock
- ¼ ginger
Garnishes
- Pork floss (rou song)
- Chilli bamboo shoots
- Gluten
- Preserved cucumber
- Century egg (not for the faint hearted!)
- Fried egg
- Yo tiao (Chinese cruller)
Directions
1. Wash the rice until the water goes clear. Peel & slice ginger into small strips.
2. Using a cast-iron pot (I use le creuset pot which is a staple in my kitchen as it conducts heat evenly), add the water and bring to the boil on high heat.
3. Add the rice and bring again to the boil. Turn the heat down to low.
4. Add the ginger and chicken stock. Ensure stock is evenly dissolved.
5. Stir on a regular basis to avoid the rice sticking to the pot.
6. Serve hot with the garnishes separate on the table to allow everyone to choose and mix themselves.
Tip: For even softer congee, use day old steamed rice instead of cooking rice from scratch.
Read MoreTaiwanese sesame sandwich (Shao Bing)
Cooking time: 30 mins
Makes 6
Ingredients
For the dough:
2 cups of plain flour
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
Sesame seeds to sprinkle
1 chinese cruller (yo tiao)
For the roux:
½ cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of plain flour
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Start by making the roux, which basically helps create the layers to the pancake. Heat up a pan with the vegetable oil.
3. Add the 1 cup of plain flour and stir regularly until it reaches a light golden colour.
4. Just before it starts to burn, remove from heat and set aside to cool.
6. Once a smooth dough is achieved, set aside to rest for 30 minutes.
7. Take out the dough and using a lightly floured surface, start rolling the dough with a rolling pin into a square until it is roughly 0.5cm thick.
8. Sprinkle the roux evenly all over the dough.
9. Carefully roll the dough away from you, with the roux encompassed until it forms a long roll.
10. Take a sharp knife and cut roughly 4cm thick pieces. You will see a lovely spiral pattern inside.
11. On a lightly floured surface, using the rolling pin, roll out one piece of the cut dough flat.
12. Fold the dough into thirds and roll again to form a rectangular shape, roughly 0.5cm thick.
13. Repeat on all the pieces of the cut dough.
14. In a bowl, roughly beat an egg. Take a brush and brush along the top of a dough piece with egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds. This will help the seeds stick and give that lovely golden colour after baking.
15. Repeat on all the pieces of dough.
16. Place all the dough flat on a lightly oiled pan and place in the oven.
17. Bake for roughly 15 minutes, until golden brown.
18. Turn all the pieces over and bake the other side for 5 minutes.
19. Remove from the oven and carefully cut, from the bottom side each piece along the grain in half.
20. Take the chinese cruller, cut into 6 pieces and then again in half along the stick. Taking two cut halves of a cruller, insert into each shao bing and serve immediately.
Breakfast Rice Roll (Fan Tuan)
This is a common dish for breakfast in Taiwan, traditionally served with hot/cold soy bean milk and other dishes such as spring onion pancake, shao bing sandwich or dan bin. They’re great to take to a picnic or a lunch on the go as they’re very quick and easy to make.
Preparation time: 2.5 hours
Cooking time: 15 mins
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 3 cups sticky rice
- 300 gram pork or fish floss
- 50 gram dried chilli radish
- 1 chinese cruller (yo tiao)
Directions
1. Soak the rice for 2 hours (or overnight if possible)
2. Drain the rice and put into a steamer.
3. Once the rice is cooked (it should be almost clear), remove and set aside to cool.
4. Cut the chinese cruller into 6 pieces, one cut through the middle to separate the two joined sticks and then into thirds for each stick.
5. Cut a square piece of cling wrap (roughly 20cm by 20cm) and lay on top of a bamboo sushi roller.
6. Once the rice is cooled, using a rice spoon, flatten some rice in roughly 10cm x 10cm square shape on top of the cling wrap.
7. Place one cruller along the bottom third of the rice.
8. Sprinkle pork floss along one side of the cruller and some radish along the other side.
9. Slowly roll the rice and sheet away from you to completely cover the stick with the rice. Make sure to keep the cling wrap outside of the roll.
10. Slowly close both sides of the stick with the rice.
Taiwanese spring onion pancake
This is a great side dish that is traditionally served at breakfast in Taiwan. It is a savoury pancake and the mixed flavours & textures make it a delight to eat. It can also be used to wrap a chinese cruller (yo tiao) and eaten as a roll.
Preparation time: 1 ½ hours
Cooking time: 15 min
Ingredients:
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 6 sprigs spring onion
Directions
1. Pour the flour and salt into a bowl and combine. Make a well.
2. Pour water and slowly combine with your hands.
3. Knead the mixture well until a dough ball forms.
4. Set aside for 1 hour. Place a wet cloth over to stop it from drying.
5. Finely slice the spring onion into small pieces.
6. Lightly flour a flat surface and transfer the dough.
7. Using a rolling pin, start rolling the dough into a flat circle (roughly 2cm thick) and sprinkle half the spring onion.
8. Fold the dough over twice and form into a ball. Roll the dough once again and add the remainder spring onion.
9. Fold the dough over twice, form into a cylinder shape and break into 6 even sections. Shape each section into a ball. Roll each into a flat circle, roughly 1cm thick.
10. In a heated pan with a dash of oil, add the pancakes one by one.
11. Fry for 5 minutes until lightly brown on each side.
12. Serve with soy sauce for dipping.
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