12 best kong cookbooks

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Black Bean Chilli Clams

1. Heat a large frying pan over high heat until it is really hot. Add the clams and wine, then cover with a lid and cook for 1 minute. Take out the clams as they start to open, then strain and reserve the clam juice. Discard any clams that don’t open.

2. Taste the clam juice: if it is quite salty only use about 2 tablespoons in the next step, otherwise you can use more to suit your taste.

3. Heat the oil in a large clean frying pan over high heat, add the garlic and salted black bean and saute for 30 seconds. Add the chilli and saute for another 30 seconds, then add the clams and stir well. Pour in the oyster sauce, chicken stock and reserved clam juice and bring to simmer. Gradually stir in enough of the cornflour slurry until to thicken the sauce to your preferred consistency (you may not need it all).

4. Serve immediately, topped with spring onion.

Daan Taat - Egg Tart

Gu Lo Yuk – Sweet and Sour Pork

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My Chicken Bao

This recipe is inspired by an incredible dish I enjoyed at Little Bao, an edgy diner conceived by chef May Chow, and one of the hottest places to dine in Hong Kong. May is a friend and one helluva talented chef. She was named Asia’s Best Female Chef 2017 by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants, an offshoot of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. May presents her bao like a hamburger. My version is shaped like a gua bao, a Chinese sandwich-style steamed bun. I’ve given the recipe for these buns below, or they can be found in the freezer section of Asian grocers.

Cantonese Twice-Cooked Prawns with Soy Sauce

Offered in most Cantonese restaurants in Hong Kong, this simple but sophisticated dish will test your wok skills. It looks deceptively easy and straightforward, but there are a couple of pointers to bear in mind. It’s best to deep-fry the prawns until they are partially cooked. By doing this, the prawn shells take on a distinctive fragrance. The other point to remember is that timing is everything here – have all the ingredients ready or mixed so the prawns aren’t overcooked and will remain succulent. Should you decide not to deep-fry the prawns, you can omit this step and stir-fry them instead.

Lotus Root ‘Meatballs’ with Roast Tomato Sauce

Lotus root is much loved in Chinese cooking. It’s crunchy with a faint nutty sweet flavour, high in dietary fibre and minerals, and available fresh year round, though also sold frozen. This recipe comes in two parts – the lotus root ‘meatballs’ and the tomato sauce. The meatballs can be made ahead. This recipe comes from Peggy Chan of Grassroots Pantry, a chef with heart.

Vietnamese Yellow Curry

If there is one restaurant in Hong Kong that believes in sustainability and wellness and still cooks delicious food, Grassroots Pantry is it. Owner-chef Peggy Chan is setting an excellent standard with her plant-based menu. While she is an eco-warrior with years of fine cooking under her belt, she doesn’t brandish her beliefs like a zealot. Instead, she lets her outstanding food do the talking. This delicious curry calls for hedgehog mushrooms, but as these are hard to find in Australia I’m using portobello mushrooms instead.

Fish-Fragrant Eggplant

Probably as famous as ma po doufu, fish-fragrant eggplant from Sichuan is another classic. There’s no fish in this dish – the name refers to the hot, sweet, sour and spicy flavours that are used in Sichuan-style seafood dishes. The eggplant is typically served buttery soft, although recently some Sichuan restaurants have been coating it with a light dusting of cornflour before deepfrying and serving it crisp and crunchy.

Wontons with Red Chilli Oil

I adore Cantonese wontons in soups, but every once in a while I get a craving for Sichuan’s spicy wontons. Called hong you chao shou in Mandarin, these delicious dumplings are pretty common in Sichuan province but less so in Hong Kong. They’re a cinch to make and the accompanying hot sauce with toasty chilli takes these morsels to another level.

Steamed Glutinous Rice Parcels in Lotus Leaves

A yum cha favourite called loh mai gai, these classic Cantonese parcels of glutinous rice, diced chicken, lap cheong sausage and shiitake mushrooms wrapped in lotus leaf are also great for snacks and light lunches. The method looks long, but this recipe is easy to make.

Basil Dragon Pearls, Panna Cotta and Ginger Ice Cream

I fell in love with this dessert when I first dined at Yan Toh Heen, an elegant two Michelin-starred Cantonese restaurant in the InterContinental Hotel. Executive chef Lau Yiu Fai contributed this impressive recipe.

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Soy Sauce Chicken

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves: 4

Air-dry the chicken in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Rub the dark soy sauce all over the chicken and air-dry for another hour.

Heat the oil in a wok or large saucepan to 300°F/150°C, or until a cube of bread browns in 1½ minutes. Carefully add the chicken and use a slotted spoon to gently roll it in the hot oil for 3–4 minutes until the skin is golden. Carefully remove the chicken from the oil and drain in a colander.

Pour out most of the oil, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the wok. Add the light soy sauce, rock sugar, star anise, ginger, and 3 cups (25 fl oz/750 ml) water. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to low heat, and simmer. Put the chicken, side down, into the wok and cook for 18 minutes, basting with the sauce as it cooks. Turn the chicken over, cook for another 18 minutes, and baste occasionally. Turn chicken again with the breast facing down and cook for another 5 minutes, or until cooked through.

Carefully transfer the chicken to a colander to drain and set aside to cool. Cut into pieces.

Heat the sauce in the wok over high heat and boil for 3–4 minutes until reduced to ½ cup (4 fl oz/120 ml). Pour the sauce over the chicken, then serve with rice.

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