Coral and Jade Prawns

This was one of the first Chines recipes we found in a cookbook (Kare Jup Ha Kow) and prepared as we started to travel around Asia and missing the Asian taste once back at home.

With the time we adapted the recipe to our taste but we kept the to the combination of prawns, broccoli and baby ginger; the last one the big hit in this dish!

This need a bit of time for the preparation of the broccoli florets and assembling with the prawn, but it looks so pretty that we never skipped this step.

• Servings: 2-3 persons if served alone with rice
• Time: 30 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

• 400-500 g prawns
• 1 broccoli head
• 2 tablespoons vegetal oil
• 2 tablespoon finely diced ginger
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• ½ cup of water
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce, to taste
• 1 tablespoons sliced preserved pink baby ginger

Preparation

1. Shell and devein the shrimp letting the last part of the tail as it is.
2. Wash the broccoli and with a knife prepare as many florets as the prawns. Make a point at the end of the green stalk.
3. Make an incision on the tail of the prawn and pass the end of the broccoli stem though this hole.
4. In a small bowl combine water with cornstarch.  Set aside.
5. Heat the oil in a wide non-stick frying skillet. Add garlic, and ginger and stir fry until fragrant.
6. Add the prawn with the broccoli to the skillet and fry for about 2 minutes. Turn gently and cook for one more minute,
7. Add soya and rice wine, reduce the heat to minimum.
8. Add the mixture of water and cornstarch cover, shake gently the skillet, and cook for two minutes or until broccoli begins to turn a bit soft. Add more water or soya sauce to taste if needed.
9. Just before serving top with the baby ginger.
10. Serve immediately with rice.

Autor: https://artandkitchen.wordpress.com/  

Shrimps and Broccoli Stir Fry

A quick and delicious Chinese dish to serve in combination of other Asian dishes.

No leftovers for sure!

You need

• 4 cups small broccoli florets
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic, or to taste
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 400 g peeled and peeled and deveined shrimp (tail on if you like)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons dry sherry
• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• Few drops roasted sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar

Procedure

1. For this dish you need a lot of finely chopped garlic
2. Broccoli divided into rosettes and cut into bite size pieces.
3. Defrost shrimps and absorb water with paper towel.
4. Coat shrimps with flour, chili powder, pepper and salt.
5. Boil broccoli in salted water for a few minutes, don’t overcook them!
6. Heat oil and butter in a skillet.
7. Fry garlic and ginger for 2 minutes and add shrimps before garlic begin to turn brown. Turn shrimps after to fry on the other side.
8. Add dry sherry, soy sauce and a few drops sesame oil.
9. Add brown sugar.
10. Add broccoli when liquid is evaporated and stir gently to coat.
11. Transfer to a plate and serve.

Salmon and Broccoli Quiche

“A simply simple delicious quiche that can be prepared in 15 minutes (+ cooking time). If necessary frozen vegetables can be used instead.”

You need:

• 1 pastry dough, disk ( I used light puff pastry of about 8 ounces)
• 10 ounces broccoli florets, blanched ( I keep the stem as well)
• 1/2 onions, chopped (optional)
• 150 smoked salmon, sliced
• 3 eggs
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon herbs ( I used herbes de Provence spices, variant 1 tablespooon fresh dill)
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 tablespoons brandy
• 1 cup milk

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C.
2. Line pie mold with puff pastry.
3. Distribute onion and broccoli over puff pastry.
4. Place salmon between broccoli.
5. In a bowl stir together eggs, salt and pepper, and flour.
6. Add brandy and stir until incorporate.
7. Repeat with milk and herbs.
8. Pour the mixture over broccoli and salmon.
9. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until border are browned.
10. You can serve this immediately hot, or lukewarm or cold in small pieces as appetizer.4

Weekly Photo Challenge: Surprise (math and veggies)

Vegetables have a very important place in my kitchen and sometimes I cannot resist buying some of these beauties.

Last week I saw a Romanesco broccoli, also called Roman cauliflower, and I bought this in the purpose not only to cook it, but also to take photos of it.

I placed it on white dish and I realized that this vegetable has really a surprising architecture. What a surprise!

The spiral shape of the whole florescence is a spiral where the florets are assembled. Each floret is a spiral of other spiral florets.

Searching in the intent I found surprising and interesting facts about this:

• It’s been cultivated in Italy since the 16th century
• It’s an example of logarithmic spirals
• it’s fractal geometric shape

What is a fractal?

From Wikipedia: A fractal is a mathematical set that has a fractal dimension that usually exceeds its topological dimension and may fall between the integers.Fractals are typically self-similar patterns, where self-similar means they are “the same from near as from far”. Fractals may be exactly the same at every scale or they may be nearly the same at different scales. The definition of fractal goes beyond self-similarity per se to exclude trivial self-similarity and include the idea of a detailed pattern repeating itself.

Here more about fractal food

Posted for weekly photo challenge: surprise