Delicious Kake Food

Roasted duck legs. Seasoned, skin pricked with a needle, 25 minutes at Gas Mark 8 (230ºC/450ºF), 35 minutes (this was possibly a little too long) at Gas Mark 3 (160ºC/325ºF), 25 minutes resting under foil.

Braised taro with dried shrimp. I used the whites of spring onions instead of shallots, saving the green parts to add at the end. I also cooked the taro in more water and for much longer than suggested (about 20 minutes) before taking the lid off, as I was worried about undercooking it. I liked the way it turned out, with some of the pieces disintegrating into a sauce (reminded me a bit of yam pottage).

Jasmine rice. Done in the rice cooker.

Roasted jerk-marinaded chicken legs. Bought pre-marinaded from the supermarket.

Savoury rice. Wash basmati rice, put in rice cooker with an appropriate amount of water. Add Maggi cubes along with chopped leek, carrot, and red pepper. Cook as normal and stir before serving.

Mushroom stroganoff. I made it exactly as stated in the recipe, except I added some squeezy garlic with the mushrooms, and I used sour cream instead of yoghurt.

Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker (without the suggested addition of cloves).

Fish soup with pickled greens. Made with coley and home-made chicken stock.

Stirfried eggs with tomatoes.

Shredded kelp. From a packet. This was a replacement for dry-fried green beans, since I turned out not to have green beans in the house after all.

Jasmine rice. Done in the rice cooker.

Black bean stew with courgettes and peppers. Simmer a chopped yellow courgette and a chopped red pepper with a can of chopped tomatoes, a couple of Maggi cubes, a finely-chopped scotch bonnet pepper and a bit of water, until the vegetables are soft and most of the liquid has gone. Add some smoky chilli sauce (I used Mad Ass Double Smoky) to taste. Stir in a drained can of soft black beans and simmer for a couple more minutes.

(The beans I bought were really very soft, so I didn’t want to cook them in the stew too long or they’d have disintegrated.)

Vermicelli rice. Made with olive oil instead of butter.

Flageolet bean salad. Cook lots and lots of chopped garlic very slowly in plenty of olive oil along with chopped capers and sliced red peppers, until the garlic flavour has mellowed and the peppers are softened to your liking. There should be enough oil to make a dressing in the next step. Mix all this with some (canned, rinsed, drained) flageolet beans, some (canned) artichoke hearts cut into 4 or 6 pieces each, a splash of red wine vinegar, and salt to taste. Leave it for a bit to let the flavours meld.

Vermicelli rice. Made with olive oil instead of butter.

Dinuguan. I decided to make this Filipino pork belly and blood stew after noticing that my local Filipino supermarket sells frozen pig blood.

This recipe worked OK, but I’ll probably try a different one next time. I’m not sure about putting the garlic and ginger in before the pork, since they were on the verge of burning well before the pork was “starting to brown at the edges”. Also, 30-45 minutes isn’t really enough time to get pork belly “very tender”. Also also, I get the impression this dish is meant to be at least a little bit sour-tasting, and this version wasn’t.

Served with rice done in the rice cooker.

Photo © Bob Walker (who ate the half I didn’t), used under cc-by-sa.

Chicken and summer vegetable stew.

Sauté finely-chopped onion, celery, and carrot in olive oil until soft. Push to the edge of the pan, add a little more oil to the revealed space, then add chicken meat (I used thighs, deboned, skinned, and cut into bite-sized chunks) and let it brown.

Add a splash of white wine, some finely-chopped capers, a splash of liquid from the caper jar, a good squeeze of tomato purée, and some vegetable stock (I used diluted Touch of Taste brand veg stock concentrate). Mix well, then add cubed radishes and courgettes.

Bring to a simmer, then cook for about 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked and the liquid is mostly gone.

Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.

Tomato and mung bean sheet casserole (蕃茄粉皮煲).

Smacked cucumber salad (拍黃瓜).

Served with jasmine rice done in the rice cooker.

Fish and red pepper curry. Filleted and cubed red bream; sliced red peppers; finely-chopped onion; thickly-sliced garlic; hot curry paste; shrimp paste; tamarind paste; fish sauce; palm sugar.

Served with basmati rice.