Chinese-ish: Home cooking, not quite authentic, 100% delicious

Product Information

Continue to cook the rice over medium-high heat until the grains fluff up again from the steam. The key is to control the heat – don't let the grains burn or colour in any way. Be patient. It’s hardly typical for someone with no formal training running a kitchen the size of a cupboard, but “hardly typical” is Lin’s calling card. Her food is half Malay, half Scottish, bold flavours inspired by her mum’s home cooking combined with the fry-ups, stews and chips she grew up with in Glasgow. “Our prawn toast with kewpie mayo is a nod to Chinese takeaways. Our Taiwanese beef curry reflects my Scottish heritage, too.” To make the spice mix, place all of the ingredients in a small frying pan and toast over low heat until very fragrant, taking care not to burn the chilli flakes. If the ingredients become too dark, start again. Set aside to cool, then blitz into a fine powder using a food processor. Char kway teow, the smoky, slippery, rich and delicious hawker-style noodles from Chinese-ish. Armelle Habib

A cookbook celebrating the blending of cultures and identity through food, with a bounty of Chinese-influenced dishes from all over South-East Asia Hu was born in the Hunan province in China before moving to Australia as a child, and Kaul identifies as Australian-Singaporean-Chinese-Kashmiri-Peranakan-Filipino. The recipes and stories span their lives – from their mothers’ favourites to a less traditional, Sichuan-inspired cheese fondue. The perspectives Hu shares throughout – particularly in essay form – tug on Kaul’s heartstrings “because of how real and poignant they are”. “She writes of her experience moving to Australia as part of a traditional Chinese family unit, on expressing affection, on language,” Kaul says. “Her stories [tell] of the experience that many immigrant kids share growing up in a Western country. Something that has always bothered me is the sheer number of ethnic cookbooks written by white authors with this fixation of always making it ‘easy’. ‘Japanese made easy.’ ‘Noodles made easy.’ And so on. Cookbooks written by people of colour have a heart and soul to them, a story to tell, whether their recipes are traditional or adapted with realities of time and place. The intention of the first [cookbook] was to teach basic Chinese cooking techniques using pantry ingredients, with a couple of recipes that featured a Chinese soul but more Australian expression. People responded well to those cheeky Australian-Chinese recipes, and so this second book became a glorious mishmash featuring more unusual but traditional Chinese recipes.” Heat the lard or oil in a wok or frying pan over high heat until smoking. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant, 10-15 seconds, then add the rice noodles and egg noodles. Stir-fry over high heat for around 30 seconds, then add the Chinese sausage, fish cake and prawns. Continue to stir-fry over high heat until the sausage fat begins to render and the noodles are lightly charred, 2-3 minutes.

Try this recipe from the book

Pour the oil into a large saucepan that can hold double its volume (as the oil will bubble up) and place over medium heat. Add the spring onion and ginger and fry until golden, then remove from the oil and discard. Chef Kaul springs from mixed Asian ancestry and has a passion for all sorts of Chinese-influenced dishes passed down from previous generations ... the result is this lively collection of personal cooking that home cooks can appreciate ... Along with the book's photographs, bright, light-hearted illustrations from Joanna Hu perfectly match the recipes. Booklist Push the noodles to the side of the pan and add the beaten egg, bean sprouts and garlic chives. Fry for 30-40 seconds over high heat, until the chives begin to wilt. The unique flora and fauna that has nourished First Nations people for more than 100,000 years gets a mention in historical colonial documents and early cookbooks (fern syrup and native currant jam feature in an 1843 recipe collection printed in Australia) and yet remain a culinary mystery for many of us. Why?

Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add enough vegetable oil to evenly coat the base of the pan. Cook the sausages until they are a deep, golden brown, rolling them around continuously for about 10 minutes Whisk the eggs, salt, white pepper and cornflour slurry together thoroughly. Ensure there are no strands of egg white remaining and that the mixture is well combined. Add the white spring onion, cooked meat and seafood, and the julienned vegetables, then stir to combine with the egg mixture. Set aside. Place the mango, evaporated milk and 1/3 cup (80 ml) water in a food processor and blitz into a puree. At this point, taste for sweetness. If the mango is lovely and sweet, don’t add any additional sugar. Otherwise, add the caster sugar and blitz once more in the food processor, until the sugar hascompletely dissolved. Chinese-ish is filled with intricate drawings of ingredients and dishes, and rich Chinoiserie-style section breaks: lavish floral wallpaper dotted with Australian and Chinese flora and fauna. If you look closely enough, you can spot a little monkey and dragon, which represent Kaul and Hu respectively. Remove the omelette from the wok and drain on paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Serve with sliced green spring onion and steamed rice.Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan until smoking and pour the egg mixture in. It will puff up as soon as it hits the hot oil. Spaghetti at Zucco, the Italian restaurant that’s a “catalyst” of Meanwood’s food scene. Courtesy of Zucco, Leeds As a refugee, it doesn’t matter how long you live in this country, maybe you don’t have the same opportunities,” says Marco Munoz, who came to Britain from Ecuador in 1999. Today, Noilly Prat makes four distinctive vermouths principally from local picpoul and clairette grapes. They are aged outside beneath the Mediterranean sun for a year in old whisky and cognac barrels, before being blended with mistelle and matured for a year in vats. Then the magic happens. In this month’s issue of Food Monthly we celebrate 30 of the most exciting things happening in food right now, from scholarships in baking for refugees and fine-dining supper clubs championing West Indian food to an extraordinary marriage of Malay and Scottish cooking in Glasgow. We take a peek at the growing interest in blurring the lines between white, red and rosé wines, and hear about an initiative for prison cooking that is improving the way inmates eat. We salute a fine shortbread handmade in small batches, praise the potato pavé and get to know the UK’s first ever food museum.