cat versus pig

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Sometimes even the best laid plans can go awry… What to do when you’ve planned to make lasagne and then found your pasta machine is broken? And I thought I was so organised! I had made fresh dough that morning, prepared my sauce in advance, and was all ready to go to make lasagne for dinner that evening, but then…

I tried to roll the dough through the machine and found that the machine was just plain broke. Damn :(

So how do you go from little round dough cakes to something edible? I did try old-school, believe me I did, but I just didn’t have the skills (or muscles) that our ancestors did. Every time the rolling pin left it, the damn thing would spring back into a little round cake!

What to do? With a little prodding from a hungry little Piggy, I improvised instead…

Enter… Italian meehoonkueh! So this is basically meehoonkueh, boiled in water instead of stock and then served with pasta sauce.



Prepare your sauce as usual.
Cook the meehoonkueh in salted boiling water, then drain well.
Gently stir the meehoonkueh through the sauce and then dish to serve!

This ended up working really well! The texture of the pulled dough ranges from velvety thin to pleasantly chewy, making it a little heartier than spaghetti, but lighter than lasagne. The rough texture also allows the sauce to stick really well to the dough.

Disaster averted!




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Nothing goes to waste! The last course is a soup made from the bones of the duck. This is super simple to make and its slightly sour taste cleanses the palate from the oily pancakes and the rich sang choy bao.

Ingredients
- Duck Bones, chopped in large pieces
- Pickled mustard greens
- 3-4 tomatoes
- Fresh tofu
- Dash of white pepper
- 1-1½ litres of water

The duck bones should be hacked up into roughly eight sections. Heat up a large pot and fry the bones in a little bit of oil for about a minute, and then add the water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes with the lid on.



While the stock is simmering away, rinse the mustard greens to remove any possible dirt between the leaves. Roughly chop the greens into bite sized pieces and set aside. Cut each tomato into about eight wedges and set aside.



Slice the tofu into small cubes, roughly half an inch, and set that aside as well.

Once the duck bones have simmered for roughly 15 mins, you can remove the bones from the stock if you wish. However, you may wnat to leave the bones in as they are likely to have some meat left on them and will continue to add flavour to the soup while in the pot.

Add the mustard greens and simmer for another five minutes. Then add the tomatoes and cook for another five minutes. Add in a dash of white pepper, then taste and add in salt and sugar if necessary (this may not be required as the duck, mustard greens and tomatoes have plenty of flavour).

Finish the soup off by placing in the tofu cubes and stirring them through gently so as to keep them intact. Simmer for one last minute and it is ready to serve.

A great way to finish off three courses. The duck bones make a great tasting stock; the tofu is silky smooth; and the slight sourness from the mustard greens and tomatoes cleanses the palate and brings back your appetite.



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This next course is juicy and full of flavour on the inside, and fresh and light on the outside. They can be a little messy to eat but are a very popular dish because they taste so delicious!

Ingredients
- Roast duck meat
- 1 iceberg lettuce
- 2 brown onions (or 1 large one)
- 3-4 stalks of celery
- 2 carrots
- 2 tsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp sugar
- Dash of white pepper
- Dash of dark soy
- 1-2 tsp corn flour (in some water)

Let’s tackle the lettuce first. At the shops, make sure you pick a fairly solid iceberg lettuce. When you hold the lettuce, the leaves should be fairly firm and should not compress like a sponge. However, it also should not be too solid either; no bounce in the leaves means it is heavy and tightly packed, making it difficult to separate.

Flip the lettuce upside-down and remove the base with a small knife (be brutal here and really cut into the core of it). The base part of the leaves (the whiter end) are firmer, so work from there when separating. Discard the outer-most leaves as they are likely to be wilted.

Under a running tap (with cold water directed into the core of the lettuce), remove each leaf carefully. You will find the inner-most leaves very difficult to take apart as they are small and brittle. I usually don’t bother separating them and use them for something else like a salad. Gently shake off as much excess water as you can and stack them on a plate.

Tip: Soak the separated lettuce leaves in water for a few minutes to rehydrate and make them super-duper crispy. Having fresh, cold running water is best. You can also use scissors to trim the leaves (from the white end) to give them a neat and tidy appearance.

Remove the meat off the duck. Most of us would have done this before with roast chicken for sandwiches. You can chop up the duck in sections; it may help with removing the meat. Roughly chop the duck meat and set aside. Reserve the bones as they are required for the final course!

Finely dice the onion, celery and carrots. The carrot and celery should be in fairly small pieces as they can take longer cook.



In a wok or large pan, heat up a little oil on high heat. Add the onion to stir-fry for a little while, then immediately add in the celery and carrot. Stir-fry for another minute or two before adding the duck meat.

Mix in the oyster sauce, salt, sugar and pepper to season. The dark soy is optional, but a dash or two does give it a nice caramel colour. Add the diluted corn flour into the mixture and stir thoroughly and quickly to prevent lumps. This will thicken the mixture, making it easier to wrap up and eat. The filling is complete, so remove from the heat and dish it up.



To eat, place in a couple of tablespoons of the filling into a lettuce leaf and wrap up. You can add in some Hoisin sauce, or other things like nuts and fried noodles to give it some texture. I think they are nice without any additions, savoury and fresh.

Tip: It is easier to eat if you fold the softer, greener ends up and together to form a pouch and start eating from the crunchy white end.



You can make this whenever you want as a stand-alone dish, rather than as part of a Peking Duck course. Chicken works well as a substitute meat.



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Peking Duck in China traditionally uses a freshly roasted duck and served with the meat and skin on plain pancakes. Generally, outside of China it is eaten differently, with only the skin eaten with pancakes and the rest of the duck served over another course or two. Here is my easy way to get a decent tasting three course meal from a roast duck. Continue reading for the first course!

Ingredients
- 1 whole roast duck
- 2 cups of oil
- 1 packet of Peking Duck pancakes
- 1 cucumber
- Hoisin sauce

The first thing to do is buy a nicely roasted duck from a Chinese BBQ restaurant. Remember to tell them you want it whole, not chopped up.

Prepare the cucumber by cutting it into little finger sized pieces. This will be wrapped up in your pancakes. You can put whatever you like, but I recommend you stick with refreshing ingredients so as to balance out the richness of the duck skin. Popular fillings include spring onion (the white part) and chilli.

Fan out the pancakes into a bamboo steamer and steam for a few minutes to warm. While the pancakes are steaming, heat up the oil in a wok. This will take a couple of minutes but a quick test is to stick a wooden chopstick into the oil; if it bubbles away the oil is ready.





Place the duck firmly on a bamboo frying ladle (or dangle on a meat hook) and hold over the wok. Then pour the hot oil over the skin of the duck, making sure to cover all areas a couple of times. This will puff up the skin and make it crispy. Turn the duck over and repeat.



Place the duck onto a chopping board. At this stage, you can also remove the pancakes from the steam if they have been warmed through (they can be left in the steamer though). Using a sharp knife, slice the skin off the duck according to how many pancakes there are (usually 10-12) and place on a plate.

To eat: grab a pancake, smear some Hoisin sauce along the middle of it, add filling ingredients and duck skin and wrap it up!



The next course is a crowd pleaser, promise.



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Sorry for the recent lack of updates. Piggy and I have both been a little bit under the weather lately. But other than Spring sickness (which will only go away in about 2 months time), we're back to full strength now and ready to post again!

Sorry for the wait...


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