Darina Allen: Try something new with these super-easy Chinese dishes

Ireland has had a long love affair with Chinese food, sweet and sour, stir-fry, chow mein, spring rolls…

Have you got stuck in a bit of a rut with your cooking? Same old, same old, week in, week out. Let’s face it, everyone’s super busy, so it’s easy to get stuck on ‘repeat’. So, how about being a little adventurous? This week, I am sharing super-easy recipes from Suzie Lee’s new book ‘Simply Speedy Chinese.’

Ireland has had a long love affair with Chinese food, sweet and sour, stir-fry, chow mein, spring rolls…

The first Irish- Chinese restaurant was opened in Belfast in the 1960s, but there’s so much more. I have only been to China twice, once to Chengdu in 2017 for a Slow Food International Congress and to Beijing and Yanti in 2018 for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

Every type of food was memorable — definitely one of the great cuisines of the world and enormously diverse, most of the Chinese food we have in Ireland is heavily influenced by Cantonese cuisine, but change is happening rapidly as the number of Chinese students, in particular, increases.

Recent celebrations to welcome in the Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse, were bigger, better, and more artistic, colourful, and musical than ever before, with an increasing number of Irish joining in the fabulous celebrations of Chinese culture.

Chinese people love offal and know how to cook the less expensive cuts of meat to melting tenderness.

Suzie Lee’s new book concentrates on yummy meals in 30 minutes or less.

Sweet chilli prawns skewers, stir-fried choi sum and chilli crisp green leaves can all be on the table in less than 10 minutes; Smashed cucumber salad, hot peanut butter noodles, Suzie’s chicken and pomelo salad in less than 15. Duck with ginger and spring onions, XO mussels, quick dumplings two ways... 30 minutes or less.

Suzie is happy to use stock cubes and granules, but I would use homemade stock if you have it to hand.

All the ingredients for the recipes are readily available in many local supermarkets across the country and in Asian shops.

Simply Speedy Chinese, Meals in 30 Minutes or Less

• Simply Speedy Chinese, Meals in 30 Minutes or Less by Suzie Lee, published by Quadrille, is available now

Quick Dumplings

recipe by:Darina Allen

My children are addicted to dumplings in all their forms, and this is the quickest way I know to make them. Using a food processor speeds things up. You can make either gyozas or wontons, and boiling them is much quicker than frying or deep-frying.

Preparation Time

 10 mins

Cooking Time

 15 mins

Total Time

 25 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 150g chicken breast (about 1 breast)

• 50g mushrooms (white, chestnut/cremini or shiitake)

• 1 spring onion (scallion), roughly chopped

• 1 heaped tsp cornflour (cornstarch),

• plus extra for dusting if you are

• frying the dumplings

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• ½ tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp dark soy sauce

• ¼ tsp fine sea salt

• good pinch of ground white pepper

• 16-20 gyoza or wonton wrappers

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil (optional, if frying)

• dipping sauce of your choice

Method

1. To serve (optional)

2. Put all the ingredients except the wrappers, vegetable oil and dipping sauce, in a food processor and blend for about 1 minute until a rough paste forms.

3. To make the dumplings

4. Spoon about a teaspoon of filling into the middle of each wrapper, then dab water around the edge.

5. Fold the wrapper around the filling in whatever shape you would like (just make sure the filling is sealed well).

6. I gather all the edges and pinch them together in the middle to make an easy wonton.

7. To fry gyozas,

8. Dust the bottom of each one with cornflour.

9. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the dumplings on one side for 2-3 minutes until lightly golden on the bottom.

10. Add 100 ml water, cover and steam-cook for 8-10 minutes until the water evaporates and the gyozas are cooked through.

11. To boil gyozas or wontons

12. Half-fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Drop in the gyozas or wontons and boil for 3-5 minutes until cooked through.

13. To deep-fry wontons

14. Pour vegetable oil into a small, heavy-duty saucepan over a high heat to a depth of 5 cm.

15. Test if the oil is ready by lowering the handle of a wooden spoon into it. If bubbles fizz around the handle, you are ready to deep-fry.

16. Carefully lower 5-6 wontons into the pan at a time.

17. Once they float to the top and are golden, they are ready. Take the wontons out of the pan and drain on some paper towels.

18. Eat the dumplings as they are or with a dipping sauce of your choice, such as soy sauce, black vinegar or chilli crisp oil.

Chinese Pulled Chicken

recipe by:Darina Allen

We love pulled pork and pulled beef in my house, but I wanted a change and had chicken in the refrigerator, so I thought I could try a really quick version with that instead.

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 25 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• 1 tbsp finely chopped or grated garlic

• 1 tbsp finely chopped or grated fresh ginger root

• 1 onion, finely diced

• 1 celery stalk, finely diced

• 1 carrot, peeled and finely diced handful of mushrooms of your choice, finely diced

• 300g frozen soy mince (TVP) or minced (ground) meat (chicken, beef, pork or turkey)

• 2 tbsp light soy sauce

• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce

• 1 tbsp vegetarian oyster

• sauce (or regular oyster sauce)

• 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• fine sea salt and

• ground white pepper

Method

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a small saucepan over a high heat and fry the garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes until fragrant.

2. Add the soy sauce, chicken stock powder and white pepper, then add the chicken breasts and flip them around to coat thoroughly in the seasonings.

3. Add the water, cover and reduce the heat to medium.

4. Simmer for 10 minutes, then flip the breasts and cook for a further 10 minutes before removing from the heat.

5. Once cooked, remove the chicken from the pan and use two forks to shred the meat.

6. Add the cornflour paste to the cooking liquid in the pan and stir it through, then bring to the boil and cook until the sauce thickens. Toss the chicken through the sauce until it is well coated, then drizzle in the sesame oil. Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds, spring onions and chillies.

Seasonal Journal

Apple Blossom Walk

Don’t miss the Apple Blossom Walk at Cappoquin Fruit Farm (P51 E9W9) on Saturday, April 25, with guided walks at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm – tickets can be purchased via Eventbrite or at the gate. All money raised will go to St. Carthage’s Cathedral Restoration Fund and Waterford Hospice.

• For more information, see stcarthagescathedral.ie

Waterford Food Festival (April 24-26)

One of Ireland’s largest and longest-running community food festivals. The main hub for this three-day event is the scenic harbour town of Dungarvan, Co. Waterford with events also taking place in nearby Lismore, Ardmore, Villierstown, Ballyduff, Cappoquin and Kilmeaden.

Highlights from the diverse range of events on this year’s programme include guided taste tours, kitchen table talks with influential people from Ireland’s food scene and beyond. There will also be foraging walks, food waste talks and the festival’s famous market in Dungarvan’s market square on the final day.

• Read Weekend’s in-depth feature on page 14. waterfordfestivaloffood.com