Bristol Archives - Happy eats

Braised E-fu noodles (伊麵) from cookbook: 88 Dishes of George (王子的88道菜）

I will confess that cooking Chinese food is not my strong suit. I therefore have to usually rely on cook books if I wanted to make anything slightly authentic. At least to give me an idea and guide to what I’m doing.

I was very excited to finally get my hands on my very good friend George Wong’s (Instagram) cookbook during my recent, long overdue trip to Hong Kong.

As the name suggests, it has a staggering 88 recipes in this treasure trove of authentic Cantonese and Chiu chow dishes that have been perfected by George over the years. Ranging from Chinese soups (broths), main dishes such as salted egg prawns, sauces, to his signature dish – Hainese Chicken 🐔.

On this occasion, I was lucky enough to get my hands on some fresh E-fu noodles from Hong Kong. E-fu noodles (伊麵 – yee mein) is a flat Cantonese egg noodles made of wheat floor that are sold in rounds in a stack. They frequently feature as part of Chinese banquets as well as the accompaniment to lobster dishes as they soak up sauces quite well whilst still retaining their texture.

So I had some E-fu noodles and needed to make a quick dinner midweek after putting the 👶 to bed which took quite a while that particular evening. I decided to look through George’s cookbook which had a recipe for Braised E-fu noodles (乾燒伊麵) as I had never cooked with yee mein before and didn’t even know you had to parboil it to soften it and get rid of the oil that coats the dried rounds of yee mein. So that was a really useful tip.

I decided to also raid my store cupboard and found some dried Chinese mushrooms (東菇) and dried scallops (also know as Conpoy or 瑤柱). These had to be soaked beforehand to rehydrate them. I kept the soaking liquids from the mushrooms and scallops to use in the recipe instead of water and stock as suggested by the recipe.

And then it’s just a case of getting all the ingredients chopped and ready before starting to cook which is a must for any Chinese recipes involving frying as you need a hot wok which cooks everything very quickly. So if you’re having to chop your mushrooms up whilst other ingredients are sauteing, the other ingredients will burn.

As usual, I deviated from the recipe a bit but kept to the spirit of it using mushrooms. It was also helpful to have a guide on the quantities for the sauce consisting of oyster sauce, sugar and soy sauce. But as mentioned earlier, rather than using stock and water, I used the flavoured soaking water from the Chinese mushrooms and dried scallops which added the layer of umami taste to the noodles.

When using dried scallops in this way, always make sure you fry it off with a little oil with your starter ingredients such as onion and garlic. You’ll be able to smell it once the scallops heat up. Same with the Chinese mushrooms before you add any other fresh mushrooms you might be using in your recipe.

The whole process including parboiling the yee mein took 15-20 minutes (Chinese mushrooms and scallops were soaked beforehand). Perfect midweek dinner.

Can’t wait to try another recipe from this cook book soon!

Happy eating! 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

05/05/2223/04/23

Oxtail stew fit for a baby (and you!) – no wine, no salt

Oxtail stew fit for your baby! And you can have some too!

Oxtail stew with added veg for the little one

Oxtail is probably not the most obvious thing to feed your little one. It is meltingly tender when stewed and full of collagen. Typical oxtail stew recipes use wine and stock in the cooking liquid which is the way I have always been cooking it. But I had some oxtail the other day and really wanted to share it with the little 👶 so I modified how I usually cooked oxtail but still making sure that it remains rich and tasty for us! Because oxtail is mainly bones, it creates its own stock when cooked so there really isn’t any need to add a stock cube which is, of course, high in salt.

Whilst adding a good red wine to your stewing liquid gives the stew another dimension, to be honest, I’d be more than happy to go without it in the recipe in the future. Except for the glass or two to go with the stew of course!

This recipe does take a long time to cook and the longer you cook it, the more tender the meat gets. So if you are able to plan ahead and cook it the day before as suggested, I would highly recommend it. Otherwise, if you are cooking on the day, give oxtail more time to stew if you can before eating. The cooking time in the oven can be extended as you prefer, just keep an eye on the stewing liquid although it shouldn’t dry out too much if you are using a heavy bottomed pot with a lid.

Using the approach of the trio of ‘humble beginnings‘ (aka mirepoix, holy trinity, soffrito, battuto, etc – a really good article explaining what these are at seriouseats.com) of garlic, onions and celery, the ‘beginnings’ of the stew flavours were set without the need for any salt at all.

Browning the oxtails first caramelises the meat, again adding an extra layer of flavour to the stewing liquid.

Not to be too blasé about it, but the rest of the recipe is just about chucking all the rest of the ingredients into the cooking pot and let it stew. So it is actually quite an easy recipe. The vegetables you add to your stew can be any combination you like. A very versatile recipe.

Add all ingredients into the pot ready to bring to the boil

I served it with cous cous this time but you can serve it with rice, bread etc. anything that can soak/mop up the rich sauce. With no wine, no salt and lots of vegetables, it’s a perfect recipe to diversify your little ones’ taste adventure. There were certainly no leftovers from either the boss 👶 or the other minion 👨!

Happy eating! 🤤🤤🤤🤤

See full recipe

16/04/2208/04/22

Nailsea Fish Bar

A very popular ‘chippy’ in Nailsea and it is easy to see why. They stick to the basics and certainly do them well. This isn’t a place where you might find a halloumi fry or faux sausage but good old fashion fish and chips. Light, crispy batter on the fish and the chips were not too greasy. As usual, the plaice is freshly fried on order.

Curry sauce was tasty and my dining companion reliably informed me that their pickled egg was top notch too!

A regular cod and chips was £7.30 and a plaice and chips was £7.70 – prices were comparable to other similar chippies (correct as at the time of writing).

Very friendly staff and not too long a wait. Highly recommended!

Happy eating! 🤤🤤🤤🤤

Nailsea Fish Bar, 128 High Street, Nailsea, BS48 1AH

23/03/2223/03/22

The Athenian – Greek Souvlaki and Gyros @ Wapping Wharf, Bristol

Wapping Wharf in Bristol is a trendy area which has been running for a few years. Using the concept of reused shipping containers like Box Parks in London, it houses a number of local retailers and eateries, both in a take away style and sit down restaurants.

The Athenian is a takeaway eatery occupying one shipping container on the first floor of one of the original sections of Wapping Wharf. It’s been there since Wapping Wharf first opened and I recently returned post Covid to continue to find the same, delicious gyros wraps.

Because of adjustments to Covid though, The Athenian has done away with the option of going up to the till to order and all orders have to made via your phone using their QR code. Although this set up makes sense during the height of Covid when visits to eateries were prohibited and not recommended, this set up was somewhat cumbersome and confusing now that in store purchases are available again. It meant there were a number of us just standing around outside the shop heads buried in their phones trying to navigate their online ordering system. The online system reflected their reduced menu but it took really long to set up an online account which, let’s face it, most people will forget passwords for once this transaction is done!

Despite the larger than normal posters on the outside of the shop where the menus are, I still managed to miss the notice saying ‘Scan this code to view menu and order‘ and embarrassingly had to ask a young lady who was waiting for their order whether they were in the queue only to be pointed to yet another larger than normal poster at the counter! Really showing my age there! Haha

Anyway, despite the slightly lengthy ordering process on my phone, once the order was made the food was ready swiftly. The Pork Souvlaki with added halloumi were worth the wait.

Well marinated, moist pork cubes were enveloped in the plant based, Athenian sauce. The crispy oregano fries work really well in the wrap without going soggy. The fries remained crispy enough for the duration of the wrap that a certain little person was able to have some too. The flavoured wrap was also sufficiently toasted on the outside giving some structure to the wrap without the sauce soaking through. Deliciousness in a roll!

They also have vegan friendly options. Highly recommended.

Happy eating! 🤤🤤🤤🤤

The Athenian, Unit 16, Cargo 2 First Floor, Gaol Ferry Steps, Bristol BS1 6WD

04/02/2225/02/22

Dawkins Ales, Bristol

There are a number of local breweries in Bristol. Some of them supply chains of local pubs as well. We first came across Dawkins Ales at The Hillgrove Porter Stores in Kingsdown, Bristol when trying out Kensai Kitchen, the resident restaurant serving delicious authentic Japanese food out of the pub (more on that another day!). We really liked the Dawkins Ales Bristol Best ale that was on tap at The Hillgrove Porter Stores and decided to go and track them down in person a few months before the Covid lockdown in 2020.

Tucked away in an industrial estate in Easton in Bristol, Dawkins Ales has a small tasting area on site where they brew their wares. We bought a mini keg of Bristol Best along with a selection of bottles and loaded them up into the back of our car.

During Covid, the brewery developed their online ordering and delivery service which we have continued to support over the last couple of years. I remember when their system started off as a Google spreadsheet link which tells you their stock levels at any one time and then you submit your order on an online form. Now they have a slick website with an online ordering system to rival any e-stores – https://dawkinsgeorgesltd.selz.com/

With a mini keg you can get around 8 tall glasses (not quite a pint). Otherwise, each bottle is 500ml.

Another one of favourites from Dawkins Ales is their East Bristol Session Porter, a dark, fruity and malty porter.

Definitely one to try if you like your ales!

Happy Drinking! 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

Dawkins Ales, Easton Brewery, Unit 2, Industrial Units, Lawnwood, Lawnwood Rd, Bristol BS5 0EF

http://dawkinsales.com/