Weeks 4-7: pizza, kale, Ma Po tofu, mancakes and duck tongues

No proper posts (complaining about not being able to post doesn't count) for the last three weeks?  It must be term-time again!  However, since this blog is for talking about food, not complaining about the rest of my life, we will say no more about that and instead focus on what I have managed to do in the last three weeks, even if not post about.

Ham, pepperoni and pineapple - Lee's favourite

Week 4's New Culinary Adventure: making pizza!  This really deserves a post of its own as it was rather exciting and more successful than I expected it would be.  But for now, have a picture!

Kale seems to be the latest thing all the cool kids are eating, and recipes for kale caesar salad are popping up everywhere.  I'd never really tried kale and I'm still not sure whether I have -- this vegetable was labelled "British Spring Greens" at the supermarket.  The idea of a pile of hearty dark-green shredded leaves with a rich-but-not-too-oily dressing appealed, though, and I've been craving Parmesan lately, so these looked close enough to try.

I used a ready-made low-fat mayonnaise (the full-fat stuff is just too creamy for dolloping on salads, to my taste) and added worcestershire sauce, lemon and a little grated garlic, mixed the dressing through the greens and added a soft-boiled egg, some tuna and lots of grated parmesan.  The result was tasty, though the greens were a little on the tough side.  Leftover undressed greens were perfect stir-fried with a little soy, vinegar and chilli the next day; I think I will be eating them cooked in future.  Still, it counts as a new thing for Week 5!

Vegetarian Ma Po Tofu

I've been eating Ma Po Tofu for years, ever since the first time I tried it at one of the (at that time only two) local Chinese restaurants near Traralgon, the Dragon's Pearl.  I can barely remember what their version was like, but "Mapose Beancurd" was a firm favourite of ours.  I've since had versions of the dish at several other restaurants, some of the best of which have been packed with Sichuan peppercorns and chilli.  I don't recall ever trying to make it myself before, but it wasn't exactly difficult: ginger, garlic, onion; Quorn mince substituted for the usual beef (or sometimes pork); soy sauce, shaoxing wine, chinkiang vinegar and chilli bean paste, along with some extra chopped chilli, to season; cubes of firm silken tofu folded through at the end, and sprinkled with sliced spring onions and sesame seeds.  Slimy but satisfying, and a new recipe to add to my repertoire for Week 6.

Sweetcorn mashed-potato fritters

One of the very first recipes I posted on this blog was for sweetcorn fritters, so I really don't think this should count as new, though I did use a slightly different recipe.  We were invited to a friend's potluck birthday lunch and I offered to bring 'finger foods'.  I had a pizza base already stretched and risen, so a mushroom and olive pizza was a given, but I wanted to do something else too.

Needing to be used up in the fridge: some eggs and some mashed potatoes with which I had been intending to make cottage pie, except that I hadn't been at home to cook any day since.  Could they be put into sweetcorn fritters?  Common sense and Google both said yes.

We know already from previous Adventures in Sweetcorn-Fritter-Land that these tend to be forgiving recipes.  I used a can of sweetcorn kernels, what seemed like a proportionate amount of onion and cheese, a middling amount of flour, all the mashed potato that was left, and enough eggs to get the consistency right.  They turned out pretty good!  The mashed potato adds body, keeps the fritters tender and helps them hold together without making them doughy.  I might not bother mashing potatoes specially for the next time I want to make sweetcorn fritters, but the next time I make mashed potatoes I will certainly make extra, and if I have to use them up by making these... oh well!

Sweetcorn mancakes*
makes: lots!  (two platefuls, or probably about 36 cakes; obviously depends how big you make them though)

1 can (400g) sweetcorn kernels, drained
1 small red onion, finely chopped
about 1/4 cup spring onions, finely chopped
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 cup flour
4 eggs
handful (about 1/2-2/3 cup?) grated cheese
2-3 cups leftover mashed potato

1. Place sweetcorn and chopped onions in mixing bowl; season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne; sprinkle over flour and toss gently to mix.  
2. Crack 2 eggs into bowl, dump in potato, start mixing eggs into potato and then realise you've forgotten to add cheese; add cheese, continue to mix; realise mix is going to be too stiff; add another 2 eggs, mix everything together until well-combined.
   (Alternative step 2, for sensible non-forgetful people: add cheese and mix together in step 1; then add eggs and potato and mix everything together.  You might still not want to add the eggs all at once though -- the consistency of the mixture will depend partly on how much potato you have and how stiff it was to begin with, and you don't want it too runny: it should hold its shape rather than spread out in the pan.)
3. Heat frying pan over medium heat with a little oil.  Scoop dessertspoonfuls of the mix into the pan, flattening down slightly to make little cakes (I can fit 6-7 at a time in my pan).  Cook for a few minutes each side, until nicely browned and no longer squishy.
4. Repeat until all the mix is used up, marvelling at just how many fritters one can get out of a bowl of mix... isn't it gone yet??
5. Serve hot, warm or room temperature.  A tomato sauce with a bit of chilli goes nicely with these.  I imagine eating them hot with bacon would also be rather delicious, but it wasn't really appropriate for a finger food situation...

* Lee had these cold for lunch on Pancake Tuesday and dubbed them mancakes, which I've decided is short for mashed-potato pancakes, although I don't think he knew that was what was in them -- don't ask me why he thought 'mancakes' was a good name.  In any case, henceforth this is what they shall be called!

So, that leaves me short a new food experience for Week 7, except that today I met up with my long-time-no-see friend Richard for lunch at Lameizi, a Sichuan restaurant in the Chester Street strip that I have been interested to try for some time.  An encouraging review and its proximity to the MIB combined to influence our decision, which we agreed in retrospect was a good one!  I don't feel I can do a proper review as I was focused more on the social aspect of the occasion than the food and didn't take any pictures, but no doubt I shall return at some point soon, as it was rather good and worth a return visit.

To give a brief overview, however: the flavours were perhaps not quite as punchy as Middle Kingdom, which is still my favourite Sichuan, but the food was nonetheless very tasty (and possibly more user-friendly for those who have some trepidation about ma-la seasoning and its digestive effects).  The tripe salad, a dish for which I have developed an unusual fondness after being introduced to it by my friend Yo-Han on a trip to the aforesaid MK, was especially good, the chewy texture providing the perfect vehicle for the deep spicy flavours, with a fresh counterpoint from sliced chilli and cucumber and not overly drenched in oil.  A hot and spicy squid was also decent; the squid was tender but still had some bite, and the sauce was 'not too heavy, not too light' (though Richard found it a little on the hot side).

One of the nice things about dining with adventurous friends is that you get to expand your eating horizons without risking being stuck with an entire plate of food you don't like, and I was game for it when Richard suggested ordering duck tongues stir-fried with hot peppers.  I'd seen poultry tongues at the Chinese BBQ counter but never tried them before.  They were... unexpected!  I thought they would be meaty and chewy, perhaps a bit like beef tongue.  Instead they were slightly gelatinous with a soft chew, and most surprising of all, had a strip of hard cartilage, almost like a bone, in the middle!  I quickly adjusted to sucking the soft flesh from around the 'bone' and scraping it off with my teeth while pulling the bone out, sort of like eating artichokes, but was then impressed to notice that Richard was simply crunching his up cartilage and all!  (Then again, he admits to eating the bones from chickens' feet too...)  I'm not sure duck tongues are a cut I will go out of my way to eat again soon, but they definitely weren't bad, and the fresh sliced chilli peppers in the stir-fry were particularly tasty.

So, a new restaurant and a new food for Week 7!  Even the insanity of term-time can't hold me down completely...