Ching’s Fast Food: 110 Quick and Healthy Chinese Favourites. Ching-He Huang

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      Her family were so welcoming. It was a treat to watch her mother make houmous from scratch, her tete (grandmother) make the flatbread and tabouleh, and her father orchestrate the cooking of shish taouk and lamb shawarmas on their gigantic home-built barbecue. Everything smelt wonderful. We all sat around a large table and feasted together. Her father, a proud, eccentric man, made sure I had plenty to eat and my plate stayed full. I was enjoying everything until he winked at me to try a dish of what looked like very small sausages … so I did. The whole room exploded in laughter; her brother patted me on my back and declared, ‘How were the sheep’s testicles, Ching?!’ Wide-eyed, I turned to look at him and nearly spat the piece of ‘sausage’ in his face. So Lina and I were quits, and neither episode was ever mentioned again.

      Lina and I continued to have many more culinary adventures together as our friendship developed. I once tried making her and some other schoolfriends chicken and sweetcorn soup, which was far too watery because it was the first large-batch cooking I had ever attempted. When we reached sixth form, sometimes we had no classes after lunch, so we would hitch the 240 bus from Mill Hill to Golders Green in search of satisfying our cravings for wonton soup or beef and black bean soup with ho fun noodles. Our destination was the Water Margin in Golders Green, where we would gossip about school or pour our hearts out over boys we fancied while sipping from a bowl of crabmeat and sweetcorn soup or hot and sour soup, dishes that comforted us and seemed to echo the sour-sweet times as teenagers living in London and trying to fit in. We fought to fit in at school, struggling with our cultural differences and desperate to find our identity, but food connected us.

      My mother’s herbal eel soup may have tested my friendship with Lina, but it will always remind me of who I am and where I come from. I believe the strongest relationships are built on such experiences. I once overheard my mother on the phone to her friend; they were talking about a lady within the Chinese community whose English husband was apparently filing for divorce because he had caught her eating fish-head soup! The lesson I learned was that if those close to you accept your food choices, no matter how weird, they are true friends. In case you want to test this out yourself, I have included Mum’s Herbal Eel Soup (see Soups) for you to try.

      One thing is for sure, when I’m feeling under the weather, when there are dramas going on or I’m plagued by worry, I always make a comforting bowl of soup and I get my perspective back again. I have included some of my takeaway favourites here and given some a makeover.

      Tomato and egg flower soup

      Classic egg flower or egg drop soup (dan hua tang) – ‘egg flower’ describing the web-like pattern made by the egg when dropped into the hot liquid – is easy to make and very nutritious. You can add other ingredients to this soup, such as cubes of fresh dofu, baby prawns or dried seaweed (nori), or, for a more substantial dish, cooked egg noodles for a quick, light supper.

       PREP TIME: 5 minutes COOK IN: 10 minutes SERVES: 2

      1 tbsp of vegetable bouillon powder or stock powder

      3 ripe tomatoes, sliced (see the tip below)

      2 eggs, lightly beaten

      1 tbsp of light soy sauce

      Dash of toasted sesame oil

      Pinch of sea salt

      Pinch of ground white pepper

      1 tbsp of cornflour mixed with 2 tbsps of water

      Large handful of baby spinach (optional)

      2 spring onions, finely sliced, to garnish

      1. Pour 500ml (18fl oz) of water into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the bouillon or stock powder and stir to dissolve. Reduce the heat to a simmer, then add the tomatoes and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes or until the tomatoes have softened.

      2. Pour the beaten eggs into the broth, stirring gently. Add the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, salt, pepper and cornflour paste and mix well until slightly thickened. Add the spinach (if using) and let it wilt, then garnish with the spring onions and serve immediately.

      CHING’S TIP

      I don’t bother skinning tomatoes – most of the nutrients are just beneath the skin after all – but if you want to skin them before slicing first cut a small cross at the base of each tomato. Plunge them into a wok or saucepan of boiling water for less than 1 minute, then drain. The skin will peel off easily.

      Traditional hot and sour soup

      This is one of my all-time favourite soup recipes. It transforms store-cupboard staples into an amazing dish. There may seem to be a long list of ingredients, but the end result is worth it because they all help to create layers of flavour and texture in this wonderfully warming winter dish.

       PREP TIME: 20 minutes COOK IN: 20 minutes SERVES: 4

      1 tbsp of vegetable bouillon powder or stock powder

      1 tbsp of peeled and grated root ginger

      2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

      300g (11oz) cooked chicken breast, shredded

      1 tsp of Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry

      2 tbsps of dark soy sauce

      1 x 220g tin of bamboo shoots, drained

      10g (¹/₃ oz) dried Chinese wood ear mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes, drained and finely СКАЧАТЬ