Chapter 3: Daily Home Cooking

While enjoying great coastal scenery, Torquay is some distance away from the main urban areas. This meant that the nearest Chinese grocery store was in Plymouth (one hour drive away). However, these days, I hear that there are at least 4 Asian grocery stores in Exeter which makes things easier. To supplement our Asian diets, my mother would order some ingredients from the “beansprouts man” – vendors set up to deliver beansprouts, mushrooms and other necessities to a Chinese takeaway business. She could order various green vegetables such as choi sum, blocks of tofu and wonton wrappers. 

At other times, my mother would get hold of some special ingredients via friends and family that have come back from visiting Hong Kong. These were usually food stuffs such as dried shittake mushrooms, dried scallops for soups and even expensive ingredients such as bird’s nest and other obscure delicacies. I remember being given a double-steamed sweet soup “tong shui” on the night before an important exam. There were translucent jelly-like pearls in the soup. Mum did not explain what they were. It tasted fine so I drank it with no suspicions. In my early 20's, I had the same sweet soup in Hong Kong with friends. They were more than happy to tell me that the jelly-like pearls were frog ovaries. Full of estrogen and great for the skin! I never had it again. 

Family dinner was at 5pm sharp every evening and it was nearly always Chinese home-cooked dishes. The food was very different from what we sold in the takeaway. Aside from steamed or pan-fried fish or shellfish, boiled vegetables, my mother's repertoire also included dishes with plenty of sauce - a favourite for my siblings and I. Home-style pork & tofu is the first dish whereby I asked Mum for the recipe. Here it is: 

Home-style Pork & Tofu

Home-style Pork & Tofu (top right)

Ingredients

Small piece of steak or pork loin

Marinated pickled vegetable "ja choi" (0.5 packet)

1 block of soft tofu, cut into cubes

2 dried scallops

2 garlic gloves, finely diced

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

cornflour, soy sauce, cooking wine, salt and oil for the marinade

1 spring onion, finely diced

Steps

1. Soak dried scallops in boiling hot water for 1 hour. When shredded, chop finely

2. Finely dice the steak or pork loin, marinade in salt, cooking wine, soy sauce, cornflour and oil

3. Finely dice the pickled vegetable "ja choi" and mix in with the marinaded meat

4. Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in  wok, cook the meat first. Add dried scallops and garlic

5. When meat is cooked through, add 0.25 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and some water

6. Add the cubes of tofu and 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce and let simmer for 1 minute, with the lid on

7. Stir 0.5 teaspoon of cornflour with cold water and add to the dish to thicken the sauce

8. Turn off the heat and stir in the finely chopped spring onions just before serving. 

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Steamed pork ribs

This simple homely dish relies on the quality of the pork. Feel free to use more garlic or white pepper depending on your taste preference. 

Ingredients

Chopped pork ribs, raw

Diced garlic

Sugar

Salt

Soy sauce

White pepper

Cornstarch

Steps

1. Marinade the chopped ribs with all the ingredients in a shallow dish for a few hours. 
2. Steam the dish for approximately 30 minutes. Bring the water to a boil, and then turn the heat to a low setting so there is constant steam. You can steam for longer e.g. 1 hour on a simmer if you prefer the pork to be more tender.