China Crumpet

1. This takes like a second. Or about 25 minutes actually. Plus boiling beans of course… but that really doesn’t need much attention and besides, you can always do that before hand. It serves 4 people.
2. Adapted from Food & Wine Magazine
3. 

   gorgeous, from Eric Ripert

4. 250 g dried black-eyed peas, soaked over night and rinsed
5. 1 dl dried shrimp
   (get these at your local asian grocers, or, if you’re in China too, at the local xiao mai bu even. Get the big, headless ones that are firm but not flaky)
6. 1 dl extra-virgin olive oil
7. 1/2 dl fresh lime juice
8. 1/2 dl chopped cilantro
9. 2 scallions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
10. 1 medium shallot, very finely chopped
11. 1 medium tomato—halved crosswise, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice
12. 1 small garlic clove, very finely chopped
13. 1 jalapeño, seeded and very finely chopped
14. Salt and freshly ground pepper
15. 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
16. Four medium mackerel fillets
17. In a medium saucepan, cover the black-eyed peas with 5 cm of water and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the peas are tender, about 45 minutes. Drain the peas.
18. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, cover the dried shrimp with hot water and let stand until softened, about 30 minutes. Drain and coarsely chop the shrimp.
19. In a large bowl, combine the olive oil with the lime juice, cilantro, scallions, shallot, tomato, garlic and jalapeño. Fold in the black-eyed peas and chopped dried shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Let the salad stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes, stirring once or twice.
20. In a skillet the vegetable oil until hot. Season the mackerel fillets with salt and pepper. In two batches of 2 filets each time, add them to the skillet and cook over high heat until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Turn the fillets and cook until just opaque throughout, about 2 minutes longer.
21. Scoop the black-eyed pea salad onto 4 plates and set the sautéed mackerel fillets on top. Drizzle any remaining dressing from the salad around the plates and serve.

Hello, my name is Ingela and I am a cooking show addict.

So, after watching the whole 5 seasons of (the British please!) Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey, I can now honestly say I absolutely never want to ever own a restaurant.

However, I have learnt that chefs often cook with cheap ingredients and use recipies that actually aren’t that complicated. Otherwise, they would not ever have time to serve their customers and they would loose money. That’s what Gordon says anyway.

Baring these new revelations in mind, I embarked on a culinary adventure into the minds of some real chefs and discovered recipes they have seen fit to trust us lowly home cooks with. And believe me when I say, Gordon was right. Nothing could have been more straight forward. All the recipes were found on Food and Wine magazine’s website and a couple have been slightly adapted due to China availability issues.

On Monday, we started with Ferran Adrià’s “toasted spaghetti with clams”, a huge success.

toasted spaghetti.. who knew THAT could be good??

We then moved on to what both hubby and I agreed were the best ribs we have ever had. Sticky and fall apart tender, “Mo’s sticky ribs recipe” by Fred Donnelly are definitely worth making AND (for all of you living in China who don’t have an oven) borrowing a neighbor or friends oven for!

finger lickin'...

Today, we made Eric Ripert’s “Sautéed Spanish Mackerel with Black-Eyed Pea Salad”. Again, we were not disappointed.

delicious, and healthy!

And now, to you, I now pass on the culinary wisdom I have learnt. Go ye and make home made glaze!