Your cookbook, Modern Chinese, starts almost as a memoir; was this cathartic to write?
Absolutely. I guess for many people, especially in arts or art-adjacent career endeavours, it’s tricky to formulate what has shaped your work, whether it be influences from people you’ve come across during your lifetime, nurture vs nature or even internal struggles. By writing down some of the many significant key food moments, I was able to articulate a more specific building block of how they shaped the way I think about food. This is something I’m working on basically with every meal I make, every food conversation I have, which is very exciting but also quite a restless task. Coffee helps. After writing the book, I have been saying to my closest friends that this has, in a way, been therapy for me, and I truly believe that statement.
You’ve included powerful poetry from queer Asian writers. Why was it important for you to include this in your book?
The title of the book itself says a lot – that I am a modern Chinese, trying to discover and own what it means to be a Chinese person in a modern setting. Throughout my time of self-discovery, I was grateful to find other modern Chinese people in New Zealand doing something similar – telling stories and ideas about what it means to be Chinese in a diaspora – within their own art form or crafts. This made me feel like I was part of a community. I felt seen.
What’s your go-to comfort cook?
Growing up in a Cantonese (southern Chinese) household rice was the major food staple in our home, served alongside broth. This was the foundation of what comfort food means to me, which is why I stress the importance of this on a Chinese dining table. Congee would be the perfect answer because, essentially, it’s both of those things in one: a savoury rice porridge that is fully customisable to suit all tastebuds, from adding ginger marinated chicken to having it vegan with preserved vegetables.
What’s your earliest cooking memory?
The first thing I ever cooked was Maggi chicken-flavoured noodles around age 6. That flavour still has a really significant nostalgic reaction for me – a good one, I think. I grew up around food, so it’s hard to pinpoint the earliest cooking memory, but I do remember the first time I made food at intermediate school. We had a term doing catering classes, and they really brought me joy. The most significant thing was bringing the food I made, such as scones and shortbread, back to my parents. I felt in a way I was able to return to them their language of love for the first time.
Which chef inspires you the most?
Very early in my teens, I learnt a lot from Gordon Ramsay’s cookbooks and TV shows, especially to do with Western flavours and cooking techniques. Fuchsia Dunlop is also a great chef and Chinese gastronomist who documents in memoirs and cookbooks what Chinese food is. I love her commitment to this and highlighting the brilliance of Chinese gastronomy to the world.
Creamy Peanut Butter Noodles
This easy flavour-packed creamy noodle dish is one of my guilty-pleasure dishes for when I’m craving a carb-loaded, high-fat meal. It’s one of those dishes that is often overlooked because of how easy it is to prepare. The flavour combination of soy and nut butters or sesame paste is a common mix known as “strange flavour” in Chinese cooking.
Serves 1
- 200g fresh wheat noodles (or a single serve of your favourite noodle without the seasoning packet)
- 60g peanut butter or your favourite nut butter
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1½ tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tsp rice vinegar or white vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, minced
Garnish
- ½ spring onion green, sliced diagonally
- 1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted (optional)
- Chilli oil (optional)
Start by boiling a pot of water for your noodles. Follow packet instructions for the ideal chewy, al dente texture. Fresh wheat noodles should take about 3-4 minutes to cook, so make sure to not overcook them. Reserve about ½ cup of the cooking liquid for the sauce.
Mix together the remaining ingredients. Add the reserved cooking water into the seasoning mix and whisk until a creamy sauce is formed. Taste and adjust if need be.
Strain the cooked noodles and mix into the sauce. Serve in a bowl topped with the garnishes. Chilli oil will give it an extra flavour explosion.
Twice-cooked pork with cumin
The precooking of the pork belly here means the second cook of the pork is purely to caramelise and render the fat, which seasons the vegetables that are tossed with spices.
Serves 2-4 as a protein side with rice.
Pork preparation
- 300g boneless skin-on pork belly (ideally 20-30% fat)
- 1 litre water
- 30g fresh ginger, sliced
- 2 tbsp salt
Second cook
- 2 tbsp oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp fermented black beans (optional but highly recommended)
- 100g leek or ½ a small leek, cut into 3cm slices
- ½ capsicum, deseeded and cut into 2cm slices
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 small red fresh chilli, chopped (optional)
In a medium-sized pot large enough to fit the whole pork belly and water, add in all the ingredients for the pork preparation and bring to a simmer. Allow the pork to simmer on medium-low for 25 minutes, or until cooked and slightly tender. Turn off the heat and discard the water. Cool the pork belly completely in the fridge, for 1 hour minimum or ideally overnight.
Once the pork belly is completely cooled, cut into slices about 4-5mm thick.
Heat the oil in a large pan/wok and fry the pork belly slices over a high heat until the pork is developing some colour and rendering the fat out, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, dark soy sauce, cumin seeds, chilli flakes and black beans, if using. Fry until aromatic, about 3 minutes.
Add the leek, capsicum, salt, sugar and ground cumin and continue to stir-fry for 3-4 minutes until the leek is cooked and translucent.
Turn off the heat, stir through the chopped fresh chilli, if using, and taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
Gooey Chocolate and Mochi Brownie
Chocolate brownies: gooey, fudgy and delicious. Why not amp up the gooey factor even more by adding a layer of mochi in the middle? This layer of chewy glutinous rice-flour dough means extra textural pleasure.
Serves 10-12
Mochi
- 100g glutinous rice flour (cannot be substituted with rice flour)
- 180ml water
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp cornflour for dusting
Brownie batter
- 200g dark chocolate, buttons or chopped (I like at least 60% cocoa solids)
- 200g unsalted butter
- 150g caster or brown sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 4 eggs
- 60g flour
- 80g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a slightly deep baking tray or cake tin (approx 20cm) with baking paper.
For the mochi, mix the ingredients, except the cornflour, in a microwave-safe bowl until well incorporated. Loosely cover the bowl and microwave for 90 seconds. Then, using chopsticks, mix the cooked mochi mixture clockwise in the bowl for about 3-4 minutes – working the dough like this creates the chewy texture.
Dust cornflour on a clean surface or chopping board, place the mochi dough on it and dust the cornflour over the dough as well. While the dough is still warm, press it flat with your fingers until it reaches the size of your baking dish (it will be placed in between the brownie batter layers). Set aside.
For the brownie, place the chocolate, butter, sugar and salt in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and heat the mixture, stirring, until the chocolate and butter have melted. Transfer the mixture into a mixing bowl and whisk in the eggs until well mixed. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and fold the mixture together until well incorporated.
Pour half the brownie batter into your lined baking tray and spread it to the edges. Lay the flattened mochi dough on top of the batter and pour over the remaining brownie batter, again spreading it to the edges.
Bake for 22-25 minutes. The middle should be wobbly and seem a little underdone; the residual heat will slowly cook the middle and leave it gooey and fudgy. Allow to cool to room temperature before slicing.
An edited extract from Modern Chinese: 70+ easy, everyday recipes from the winner of MasterChef NZ, by Sam Low (Allen & Unwin NZ, RRP$49.99 hb).
