I believe that you will enjoy lamb stew in the winter time, but most of the time may cook Chinese style lamb stew, sometimes you can change to western style, although the flavour not as strong as Chinese style one but it’s more sweetie and more strong taste of lamb, no matter Chinese or western style, both are very warm dishes.
材料 (Ingredients) :
羊腩 (Lamb chunk) – 1磅 (1 lb) –> 如果讀者在肉檔買，請店員為你切成大舊 (if you buy from butcher, ask them help you cut into big chunk)
In this post, I also wanna talk a bit about WHO’s just announced that processed meats caused cancer, however, don’t panic about this, WHO’s actually meant processed meats made in factory, as I mentioned in earlier post, factories make processed meats with sodium nitrites, nitrates and artificial flavouring, since when the cured meat occured, the meats will absorb and transform those chemicals with its protein and this is what caused cancer afterwards. On the other hand, our homemade processed meats without these chemicals, once you are careful while process the meat in temperature, humidity, hygiene and acidity, you should safety to enjoy it. Since we are just using salt and sugar to help the meat to get rid of water to prevent growth of bacteria and herbs just add natural flavouring for meats. For the smoking meats, generally will use grill stove or outdoor smoker and process smoking with coal and wood to get the flavour, but barbecue with coal, it will be caused the risk of cancer itself no matter added wood or not. Actually, the stove-top smoker that I’m used that without process with coal, just heat up the wood and get its smell, and, the cooking temperature is low compared with general direct cooking, so it’s safety as well.
The most popular curing pork are bacon and sausages. Of course, you can make ham as well, but I can’t find boneless pork leg, on the other hand, you have to buy beef casing in order to make ham.
Well, we talk about bacon and pancetta (Italian bacon), both are using pork belly, it’s easy to find in supermarkets or butchers, and they are the most easiest way to enter homemade curing world. Bacon and pancetta curing method are the same, but after curing, bacon have to be smoked and pancetta have to be air-dried for a month.
First you need a large pork belly in square or rectangle shape, but if you wanna just try first, you can also buy a small one, but the curing time are the same.
煙肉的做法 (Bacon) ：
1. 先清洗一下，用紙印乾，然後把豬皮慢慢地用刀分開，豬皮可以留作其他用途的，不要棄掉；
Wash it and dry it using paper towel or cloth, cut out the lard using sharp knife carefully, keep the lard for other usage
2. 用小刀小心地去除腩肉底部的膜 (如有)
Cut out the sheet underneath of the belly of the pork (if necessary)
3. 先量度腩肉的重量，而鹽的分量是腩肉的2.5%
Measure the weight of the pork belly and prepare the salt around 2.5% of meat weight
4. 準備一個密封的袋或可用真空機幫助，把腩肉放入，然後加入鹽、黑胡椒、蔗糖、月桂葉、蜜糖或楓糖 (用於煙肉），以及乾杜松果(可以不加，視乎個人喜好)，把醃料平均地塗滿整舊腩肉，密封好袋口，一定要封好，不然醃料的汁液會留出的。
Prepare a vacuum bag or ziplock bag, put the pork belly in and add salt, black pepper, brown sugar, bay leaves, honey or maple syrup (bacon only) and jupiter berries (personal preference), mix all the seasonings well and cover the whole pork belly, vacuum it or zip it well (make sure no water can be escaped)
5. 然後放入雪櫃7天，但每天也是翻一次，最好按摩一下腩肉。
Put it into Refrigerator for 7 days and flip it over every day, better massage it too.
6. 醃肉7天後在雪櫃取出後，先在水喉下沖先及用手把醃料沖走，然後準備一個大碗，加入水及冰，把沖洗好的腩肉放入並浸水3小時。
Take it out after 7 days curing, wash it and get rid out all the seasonings under tape water, then prepare a large bowl, add water and ice and put the pork belly in for 3 hours
7. 浸好後可以取出並印乾水份，最後可以進行煙燻了。 熱燻100°C，1小時，請不要離開，要一直保持這個溫度才可。
After 3 hours, take out and dry it using paper towel or cloth, and you can start smoking at 100°C for 1 hour, please keep in eye and maintain in constant temperature.
8. 煙燻好放涼後就可以切片存放
After Smoking, just cool down and you can cut into slice and keep it in refrigerator.
由於醃好的肉比較硬身，小編建議使用切肉機幫助，切成薄片。 小編找了很久才找到這個非一般輕巧的小型切肉機，除了切肉外，也可切硬的鄉村包，真的很方便，當您時常也做自己不同的醃肉時，這真是個好幫手，這部切肉機比中國製造的還要便宜很多了 ：
Since after cured, bacon is quite hard, better use meat slicer to assist for cutting into thin slices. Since most of the meat slicer is bulky and require much space, finally, I found one that very compact and light, and the most important is cheaper alot than made in China one, you can also use it to slice for sourdough as well :
2. 準備好紮肉的綿線，把腩肉卷好，依以下方法紮好
prepare a butcher string, roll it well and follow the below step to tie the knot well
3. 準備好綿袋或魚湯袋(小編用2個袋以防止蚊蟲在肉上產卵)，把袋掛在沒有陽光及比較潮濕的地方，例如 ： 星盆附近，等待風乾一個月，切成粒就可以用來煮食了。 最重要是注意風乾的時間，如果在香港，最好在深秋至初冬時候進行，因為溫度必須保持在10-18°C及濕度在60-80%進行，否則必須買來特製專用來做風乾熟成的雪櫃來控制其溫度及濕度，或者買來一般的酒櫃加以改裝可控制濕度來進行，不然就不可進行風乾，特別是在炎熱的天氣，這樣會容易滋生奪命細菌，請大家不要掉以輕心，食物安全是很重要的。
Prepare a cotton bag or soup bag (I’m using double soup bag to prevent any eggs from bugs and mosquitos), hang the bag in a place that moisture but out of sunlight. After a month, you can take it out, cut it in chunk and cook it. But it is very important about to proceed this in a right temperature and humidity, in Hong Kong, you can do it during late Autumn and early Winter, keep the temperature around 10-18℃ and humidity around 60-80%, if you can’t kepp it, I would strongly advice you to buy a dry aged chiller to control temperature and humidity or buy a wine chiller which modify it to control humidity to proceed the air dry process, otherwise, I don’t suggest you to make it, especially on hot weather, it is really easy to grow harmful bacterias that really kill youself, so please please take it seriously, food safety is really important.
If you love baby octopus, you will love this pasta, it’s another special taste of octopus. It’s also easy to cook and good for summer time, let’s try to cook it.
材料 (INGREDIENTS)：
小八爪魚 (Baby Octopus) – 10隻 (10 pcs)
青橄欖 (Green Olives) – 8粒 (8 pcs)
西班牙酸豆 (Capers) – 1湯匙 (1 tablespoon)
油浸鯷魚 (Anchovies) – 4條 (4 fillets)
車厘茄 (Cherry Tomatos) – 12粒 (12 pcs)
蒜頭 (Garlic) – 2個 (2 gloves)
鹽 (Sea salt) – 小量 (A pinch)
紅辣椒 (Red chilli) – 1條 (1 pc)
橄欖油 (Olive Oil) – 4湯匙 (4 tablespoons)
意大利芫茜 (Parsley)
做法 (METHOD)：
1. 蒜頭切小粒、辣椒切碎、鯷魚切小份、車厘茄切半
Chop garlic, slice chilli and anchovies, cherry tomato cut in half.
2. 準備一個平底鍋，加入橄欖油，放入八爪魚，中火煎一會，待八爪魚開始變硬後，加入蒜頭、辣椒、鯷魚、橄欖、酸豆、車厘茄及一小紮蕃茜，略炒勻
Prepare a saucepan, put olive oil in, add baby octopus, medium heat for cooking until turn a bit hard, then put garlic, chilli, anchovies, olives, capers, cherry tomato and a small punch of whole flat leaf parsley, mix it a little bit
3. 轉細火後，蓋上，煮大約35分鐘
change to small heat and lid on, cook for around 35 minutes
小編相信很多讀者也煮過這道菜吧，現在有了壓力煲，煮它真的容易很多吧。
I think many people cooked this dish before, if you are using pressure cooker, it really save a lot of time.
材料 (INGREDIENTS)：
牛尾 (Oxtail) – 1kg (小編在超市買2包急凍牛尾)
紅蘿蔔 (Carrots) – 2條 (2 pcs)
西芹 (Celery) – 2條 (2 sticks)
大蔥 (Leek) – 1條 (1 stick)
迷迭香 (Rosemary) – 2條 (2 sprigs)
麝香草 (Thyme) – 幾條 (few sprigs)
月桂葉 (Bay Leaves) – 4片 (4 pcs)
丁香 (Cloves) – 4粒 (4粒)
罐頭番茄 (Plum Tomato Tin) – 1罐 (1 tin)
紅酒 (Red Wine) – 275ml
牛肉湯[牛肉精粒+水] (Beef Stock)
喼汁 (Worcestershire sauce)
麵粉 (Flour)
鹽 (salt)
黑胡椒 (black pepper)
做法 (METHOD)：
1. 預熱焗爐220度，把牛尾、橄欖油、鹽及黑胡椒撈勻，把牛尾放入焗爐焗20分鐘
Preheat oven to 220 degree, mix the oxtails with olive oil, salt and black pepper, then put to oven roasting it for 20 minutes
2. 把紅蘿蔔、西芹及大蔥切件
Trim celery and leek into pieces and cut the carrot in chunks
3. 準備壓力煲，加入油，開中細火，把以前切好的紅蘿蔔、西芹及大蔥炒香
Prepare pressure cooker, add oil, medium-low heat, stir fry all the vegetables
4. 加入迷迭香、麝香草及月桂葉再炒至香草出味，加入鹽、黑胡椒調味
Add rosemary, thyme and bay leaves and stir fry until smell good, then seasoning it.
5. 然後倒入罐頭番茄及紅酒
Pour tomato tin and red wine into the port and mix well
6. 加入牛尾連汁，跟著加入牛肉湯(牛肉精粒及水), 記住水量只需蓋過食物
Add the oxtail with juices and finally add beef stock or beef cube with water, just cover the food is enough
7. 煮好後及喼汁調味就完成了。如果讀者用壓力煲，可能水份比較多，那可加一些麵粉，然後攪拌至適合的濃度。隨個人喜愛是否去骨，小編沒有去骨，但剩餘的就去⻣，第二天配麵包吃也很美味啊
After finished, season it with Worcestershire sauce. If you are using pressure cooker, it may be not slimmer enough, then you can add some flour and mix well until thicken. You can take out the bone if you like, you can enjoy it with bread also tasty too.
{後加新做法 ： 作者嘗試了用低溫慢煮方法，效果及味道比較好，大家可以先依照上述方法，炒好所有材料及焗好牛尾，最後把所有材料放入真空袋，低溫慢煮為82°C, 24小時，完成後倒入鍋內，小心地取出骨頭，把肉分拆，炒勻就可以了。 New method used : I have tried sous vide method recently, it’s more tasty and easy to handle. You can still follow the above method, cooked oxtails and all the ingredients, then put it all in a vacuum bag and proceed in sous vide at 82°C for 24 hours. Pour all the cooked sauce with oxtail into a sauce pan, then take out the bones and tear off the meats, then stir well and serve.}
p.s. 用疇鐵鍋需要放在焗爐170度5小時，用壓力煲就需時1.5小時 If you are using cast iron pot, preheat your oven for 170 degrees and cook for 5 hours, but if you using pressure cooker, just cook it for 1.5 hours
This is very popular and famous traditional Italian stew, in the old century, hunters used those meager meats and vegetables on hand to cook the dish, then serve with sourdough bread. However, nowadays, people normally use chicken to cook this dish instead, and you can often seen on the menus in Italian restaurants. So you can create your own dishes with different vegetables and herbs as well.
今次小編所介紹的版本是沒有蔬菜的，主要也是用香草帶出味道來，讀者可以自創的。
This time, i’m using various herbs to cook the dish.
材料 (Ingredients) :
有骨雞肉 [可以用雞上脾及雞脾或全雞] (chicken [you can select of thighs and drumstick or even the whole chicken] – 切件, 如果用全雞 (cut into chunks if using whole chicken)
洋蔥 (onion) – 1個 (1 pc) –> 切薄片 (finely slices)
蒜頭 (garlic) – 全個 (1 whole) –>分開粒及輕壓 (crushed)
辣椒 (Red chilli) – 1條 (1 pc) –>切粒 (sliced)
迷迭香 (Rosemary) – 2條 (2 sprigs)
麝香草 (Thyme) – 2條 (2 sprigs)
番茜 (parsley)
月桂葉 (Bay leaves) – 2片 (2 pcs)
鼠尾草 (Sage) – 4片 (4 pcs)
白酒 – 125ml
番茄醬 「或濃縮番茄膏+水」(Tomato paste or puree+water) – 1.5 湯匙 (1.5 tablespoons)
車厘茄 (cherry tomato) – 175g –>切半 (cut halves)
黑胡椒粉 (ground black pepper)
橄欖油 (olive oil)
做法 (Method) :
1. 用鹽及黑胡椒醃雞塊
Marinated the chicken with salt and ground black pepper
2. 準備一個鍋，落油，把雞先煎至金黃色
Prepare a large pot, add oil, add chicken and seal well
3. 放入洋蔥、蒜頭、辣椒及所有香草，用中火炒幾分鐘至出味
Put onion, garlic, chilli and all herbs in, then turn to medium heat and cook it for few minutes until smell comes out
4. 倒入白酒，轉大火，待酒精揮發一會
pour white wine, increase the heat and let the wine evaporate a bit
5. 再加入番茄醬及車厘茄炒勻，轉細火，蓋上
Add tomato paste and cherry tomato, reduce to low heat and lid on
6. 慢煮90分鐘至雞塊離⻣就可以了。
slow cook it for 90 minutes until the flesh come away from the bone and finished.
溫馨小廚 