plate 6: china

Being with AJ, who’s half Chinese, has opened me up to the culinary marvels of the enormous country that is China. This week I felt like I cheated a little because the two dishes I cooked I’ve made before. But I chose them because, not only do I like the taste of them, they remind me of fun times with AJ and his family.

Friday night was spent creating “jook”. Jook is the Cantonese way to say “zhou” which is the Mandarin way of saying “congee”, which is apparently derived from the Tamil word kanji, meaning "boilings". However you say it, it’s hearty, tasty and has many uses, as I discovered.

To me, jook symbolises breakfast at AJ’s parents' place over the Christmas holidays. But as I found out, it can be eaten for breakfast or a late supper, feed many in a famine, tame a troubled tummy or be used as baby food when a child is starting solids.

Most Asian countries have their own version, but essentially it’s a dish of rice cooked with water and some form of meat. It’s amazingly simple to make, especially when you use a slow cooker. Just pop the meat (I used a ham hock), chopped potatoes, rice and water in the slow cooker, set it to high for about 30 minutes then switch it to low to cook overnight. Almost as good as waking up to delicious smells wafting from the kitchen is the fact that you really don’t have to lift a finger and the meal is done. All you have to do is chop up some shallots to garnish. While you can use any meat – ham, chicken, turkey or beef – ham gives a lovely flavour so you don’t have to add much else to it.

Feeling energised from a big bowl of jook, we set to work on the next dish – wontons. Making wontons is a family affair at AJ’s parents' place – we call it the “wonton workshop”. We all gather round the island bench in the kitchen to make the filling and, using the mincer, watch the meat magically appear minced from the machine. We’re pros at this now – the first time we used the mincer we had huge troubles getting the meat to mince, only to realise we hadn’t actually put the blade in! The best part of making wontons is that we all stand around with our wonton wrappers, filling them and shaping them, all while talking about anything and everything. Great bonding time.

 

  

 

I highly recommend making a weekend of Chinese cooking at home – here are the recipes so you can have your own family cooking workshop. x

jook
Place 1 ham hock, 3 potatoes (peeled, chopped), 1 cup uncooked rice and 8 cups boiling water in a slow cooker. Pop the slow cooker lid on. Switch to high for 30 minutes or until the water is bubbling. Switch to low and cook for 8 hours. Top with chopped shallots and serve with toast.

wontons
Place 500g pork mince; a handful of dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked, finely chopped; 4 shallots, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon sesame oil; 2 teaspoons salt; and 3 teaspoons light soy sauce. Stir to combine.
Place a small amount of mixture onto a wonton wrapper and fold it up. (You’ll find the wonton wrappers in the chilled section of most supermarkets.) Here’s a quick youtube link to folding them – please excuse the music! Make your own chicken stock broth. Cook wontons in a saucepan of boiling water until they float to the top. Place in serving bowls and pour over the chicken broth.