Yvonne’s Stuff

Well, I’m not (usually) one to whinge, but I’ve finally had a reason to write to OFCOM and complain.

We were having dinner yesterday, when we came across this ancient film from the 70’s on BBC2, called “One of our dinosaurs is missing“, shown between 3:35 pm and 5:05 pm. Basically, we were mostly gobsmacked at the open and outright racist stereotyping displayed in this film. I mean, it has a whole bunch of caucasian men dressed up as Chinese men, who are, of course mostly bad guys. Of course, you have their eyes slantified, and you have the whispy beards, and naturally they have the funny accents that are so hirarious.

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Disclaimer

1. Since this is my Gran’s recipe, it may differ from other people’s grans recipe.
2. Since this is my Gran’s recipe, there is no such thing as exact measurements of volume, weight or time… only the terms, “enough”, a “bit”, “until it’s ready”…

Gran’s Chinese Bean Tea Cake - 茶粿 - Chaa4 Gwo2 Recipe

The Ingredients

• Some black eye beans (Looks like 1 pound)
• Vegetable oil for frying
• Glutinous Rice Flour 1 pound
• Hot water
• Bamboo Leaves

Filling Ingredients

• Five Spice Powder to taste
• Spring Onions to taste
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Chopped Dried Shrimps to taste
• Chopped Peanuts to taste

Cooking Instructions

1. Soak your beans - Take some black-eye beans, the amount will depend on how much you want to make. Cover in cold water and soak overnight. The next day, take some time out and use your fingers to rub and remove all the skins. The skin won’t make it inedible or anything… however, it will look more attractive without the skin.

2. Boil Your Beans - Take your beans and cover in water, and simmer until soft.

3. Mash your beans - Once soft, you can drain the water, and mash up the beans. This can be done using a potato masher, blender or some other mashing utensil. My gran uses a chinese soup spoon.

4. Fry the beans and make the filling - Dry-fry the mashed beans in a non-stick pan. Make sure that the pan is bone dry and no oil is used. This is to dehydrate the beans so that you’re not left with a mushy wet slop that would be difficult to handle and not taste so good. After about 10 minutes or so, you and add other filling ingredients to enhance the flavour and continue frying with added oil.

5. Make your dough - This recipe calls for glutinous rice flour. We used the whole packet, but kept a little to the side to keep the fingers dry and non-sticky when it comes to making the separate doughy balls. So, for the moment, put around 4/5 of the packet into a big bowl. Gradually add hot (not boiling) water to the flour, mixing and kneading as you go until the flour becomes a soft doughy mixture. Not too dry, not too wet. Sorry, no measurements here.

6. Making the 茶粿 - filling your pastry with the filling. Cover your hands in flour, tear out a walnut sized piece of dough. Knead and roll in your hands until the dough becomes a smooth ball shape. Dip the ball in the flour to give a light coating of flour. Push a finder into the dough, making a hole, take a pinch of flour and place inside the hole. Stick the thumb of your right hand inside the hole. Using the other fingers, turn and squeeze the dough, stretching it up and out. Your left hand should be used for support. You should end up with a fairly large cup, ensure that you fix any holes. This is the point where you find out whether you got your dough consistency correct. Too little water and the dough won’t be pliable, too much water and it will be sloppy and sticky, and you’ll have holes all over the place. Fill the cup with your filling about 1 tablespoon full. Take the mouth of the cup and turn whilst you squeeze and pleat, making the mouth smaller and smaller until you can twist the edges together. Tear off the little nub that’s left at the end. Pat and Smooth the dough all over

   Skip to the end to see a nice video clip of my gran doing this step.

7. Soak your Bamboo Leaves - Bamboo leaves are used as the lining for your caa4 gwo2 to sit on. Once steamed, the dough becomes incredibly sticky and gooey. Without the bamboo leaves, you simply wouldn’t be able to remove the 茶粿 from the plate. These can be soaked whilst you were making your 茶粿… so this should probably be step No 6.

8. Cut your bamboo leaves into squares
   Make sure they’re large enough to fit your 茶粿 with a bit of extra space for the 茶粿 to spread.

9. Plop your 茶粿 on top of the leaves

10. Steam your 茶粿 - Place the 茶粿 on a plate or a wire rack and place inside a steamer. We used a wok full of boiling water with a high domed lid. In the water, we have a metal stand so that the dish with the caa gwo are high above the water. They don’t need to be steamed for long, about 10 minutes should do. Gran says that you shouldn’t overcook them or they become sloppy, likewise, you shouldn’t undercook them or they’re not pliable and squishy enough.

11. Grease up your 茶粿 - Once your 茶粿 are done, take them out of the steamer, and start spreading cold vegetable/sunflower oil over the surface of the caa gwo. This is to give them a lovely sheen, and to stop them from sticking to eachother.

12. Eat your lovely 茶粿 - Best eaten practically straight out of the steamer. Be careful not to burn yourself. It’s wonderful when warm, squishy and pliable. Once cooled, it hardens and becomes horrible and chewy. If you have to keep them for a day or so, wrap them up in plastic to prevent dehydration. Upon eating, they can be revitalised by sprinkling some water on them and microwaving for a bit.

You can also see this recipe on my Open Source Food account here.

You can see the second and third videos on youtube too.

A while ago, I posted a recipe for my “Ancient Chinese Cold Remedy“… some people thought me crazy, some people thought they’d point out the fact that coke isn’t ancient.

Anyway, I just read a nice article from Time magazine’s China Blog detailing their first experiences of this “Beverage of Champions“… I especially like the imagery of a childhood deprived of soda which was only kept in the hardware cupboard.

It put a smile on my face.

I’m feeling like poo. Blocked nose, bad headache, stiff, aching bones and other typical cold/flu-like symptoms are taking their toll on me. Coupled with a strange rash (that doesn’t disappear when pressed with a glass) and a nosebleed that feels like someone’s just turned on a tap in my nose really isn’t helping my near-hypochondriac tendencies.

Anyway, whilst I was being wimpy and lying in bed instead of working, I remembered this recipe for colds that my parents used to make when I was little. My aunt in Sheffield even sells it in her restaurant, although it’s not on the menu.

I say remedy… but it’s probably as much of a remedy as chicken soup, or honey and lemon in hot water. That is to say hot, comforting, and just makes you warm and cuddly.

Anyway, here we go:
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