My new diet is to put on weight!

We had a desert feast today, including:

• Niamh's Rhubarb stew with cream
• Simone's Brizilian kids' food – chocolate truffle. (See picture: they are real, taken freshly from our kitchen… copyrights belongs to Miss Asako Murako, lol)
  
• And my caramel Lotus Root with dates. (See picture, copyrights belong to Ms P Zou, lol)
  
  

Before that we had a three course dinner with spiced rice, the courses are:

• Stir fried sliced boiled eggs with green chilli, leek, garlic and black bean paste
• Roasted vegetables flavored with lemon
• Vegetable salad in olive oil and balsamic vinegar

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Recipes of my dishes:(the student flat version)

Caramel lotus root

Ingredients:

Lotus root
sticky rice
Chinese dry dates
loads of sugar
cornflour (or anything that would make the caramel sticky without being too sweet)
wooden tooth picks (lol, important!!!)
sour dried Chinese plums

Preparation:
Soak the sticky rice for a while (if you have a high-pressure steamer you don't have to do so), and then drain it and let it dry off a little bit
Peel the lotus root, cut one side of the top off.
Stuff the sticky-rice inside those lotus holes, until full
Use the tooth pick to reunion the lotus cap and the stuffed lotus root
soak the sour Chinese plums in a tiny bowl of water

CooK
Put the lotus root in a microwavable container (I used a microwave steamer, but I guess other containers would do to… better if there is a hole to let some of the steam off, or use a steamer…), cover it with water (the water should be covering over the lotus root), put a good handful of the dry dates in, and a one fiveth of a small pack of white cane sugar (other sugars can be used as well, the amount should be referred to this one), cover the container, and put the microwave on full power, give it a good 40 minutes or 50 minutes (if your microwave is not a strong character).

When it is ready, drain the lotus root out, uncap it, and slice it into elegant pieces, and let it cool of a bit

prepare a pan, full heat on the cooker, pour about one eighths of the sugary water with all the dates in the pan and the sour plum water in, let it cook for a while, if it doesnt sticken, pour more sugar in, and pour some of that flour in, stir stir stir, bring it to a sticky caramel, and now the lotus root should be properly cooled, and you can top it with this nice caramel
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Stir fried sliced boiled eggs with green chilli, leek, garlic and black

(This is one of the good and exotic way to deal with your left-over easter eggs – not the creme eggs….. I probably mean the East European orthodoxy boilded ones with beautiful paints on the shell, like the one you see on the picture below, again copyrights belongs to Ms. P Zou. It takes literally 5 minutes to make, and it goes very well with rice, tastes a bit chilly)

Ingredients:
Boiled eggs X 6 (this is for about 3 to 5 people, depends on their appetite)
Leek X 1
Garlic 3 cloves, 4 cloves for the tesco value ones
Green chillis X 3 to 5 (NB, this is the amount for the slender Chinese chillies you get in Chinese supermarket, it depends on how much you like hot stuff, but it does not refer to the Thai ones, if determined to use the Thai ones, put no more than three)
Some black bean chilli sauce if you have some, otherwise thick soy sauce
salt

Preparation:
Peel the eggs, slice them in good-looking slices, best result look like the yolk is still with the whites, although it doesnt normally end up like that

wash the leeks carefully, and sort of chop them

cut the chillies in sort of triangle shape (it doesnt really matter, dont make it too small tho)

Slice the garlic

now you can cook

CooK:

put some vegetable oil in a wok, heat it a bit
put the garlic, chillies and garlic in, cook for a while till you can smell the deliciousness
put the eggs in
stir stir stir stir, don't break the shape!!!!
put some soy sauce, salt and chilli black bean sauce in stir till it gets evenly distributed
before put it in the plate, you can consider to but a tiny bit of vegetable or chicken stock in… just a weeny bit…..

and that's it… the most delicious egg dish ever!!!

: 24 Apr 2006 01:22 |  Tags: Zp Vii Getting On A Diet |  Comments (1) |  Report a problem