To Autumn - A Pear & Apple Gin Cocktail

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

  Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; 

Conspiring with him how to load and bless 

  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; 

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, 

  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 

    To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 

  With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, 

And still more, later flowers for the bees, 

Until they think warm days will never cease, 

  For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

– "To Autumn" by John Keats

I love autumn, and the poem excerpt above is one of the most beautiful odes to the season I have ever read. On the east coast in the States, you would be galavanting around orchards, picking apples and hopping on hay rides right about now. 

Alas, we are in Hong Kong. But autumn still means phenomenal (read: dry) weather and crisp air. I've always loved a fresh-squeezed apple and pear juice to cleanse my system. When adding a few drops of lemon to the mix, the drink suddenly called for gin. And so I answered. 

Now, I warn that this cocktail may not be one for the guests. Despite my adding copious amounts of lemon juice right after juicing, the colour still ultimately changes from a fresh-looking (albeit, halloween-ish) green to a murky, sick brown. So goes oxidation. If you can forgive the cosmetic issues, this is such a refreshing drink that masquerades as a lean green cleansing machine. You can find the recipe after the jump!

Bao Inspired: Fried Mantou with Green Tea Ice Cream & Condensed Milk

(I burnt it a tad :( )

After a lovely dinner at my neighbouring shop, Little Bao, I was excited to recreate their delicious dessert at home. Mantous were a childhood favourite snack of mine, and I was impressed with Little Bao's use of three simple ingredients to create something so refreshingly new. Here's all you need:

INGREDIENTS

• Green tea ice cream
• Mantou (you can get them in all shapes and sizes in supermarkets)
• Condensed milk (they come in convenient toothpaste-like tubes!)

DIRECTIONS

1. Steam the mantou- either in a steamer over a wok of boiling water, or covered with a wet paper towel for a minute in the microwave.
2. Cut it in half and deep-fry it by dropping it in a pan of hot oil. I didn't want to waste too much oil, so I just poured a thin layer in a saucepan and flipped the mantou around with tongs (keep an eye on it or you'll burn it like I did!)
3. Allow the mantou to cool a little before squeezing some condensed milk on the inside surfaces
4. 'Cut' a slice of ice cream from the pint and sandwich it between the mantou halves (for better-looking presentation, run hot water outside the pint, pop out the ice cream, slice them, then put it back into the freezer to solidify again before sandwiching)

That's it! An easy recreation of this oh-so-popular and all-over-Instagram dessert!

A Spin on Guacamole

Everyone has a favourite go-to guacamole recipe. I personally like mine to be chunky and more substantial, so threw in some corn and feta. Bingo. For even more flavour, I cooked my corn in bacon grease. Double bingo. 

Find the recipe and preparation tips right after the jump!

'Tis the Season... for Hairy Crab!

Both my parents are Shanghainese so traditions such as hairy crab feasts at home are rooted deep. In fact, I'll go as far to say that I have never eaten hairy crabs outside of a home environment! 

Autumn (October and November) is prime time to dig into these little critters- formally known as 'mitten crabs' or 'dai jap hai' in Cantonese and generally sourced from the Yangcheng (陽澄湖) and Taihu (太湖) Lakes. 

My mother is quite loyal to buying her crabs from Wah Kee Foods - 460 Lockhart Rd, Causeway Bay, Tel: 2836 6411. The crabs can come as cheap as $30 each and go up $300. For the full experience and decent size, I wouldn't recommend anything less than $130 per crab. 

The 3 key things to look for when buying your crabs are: 

1) Clear, black, and responsive eyes - yes, go ahead and give them a poke! 

2) A white, fat belly - here you will also determine the gender of your crab. Female crabs are in the prime early in their season and have abundant orange, chewier roe. Male crabs are the literal kings of the crops, with the runny sweet roe highly coveted.

3) Bubbling/frothing and giving you an angry glare is generally a good sign!

A good store will be able to guide you well in your selection. They will also provide you with all the condiments needed to cook and serve your crabs! This will include:

• Perilla leaf to place with the crabs while steaming - both are meant to neutralise the 'cooling' aka 'Yin' effect of the crabs 
• Black Zhejiang rice vinegar and brown sugar, to be mixed with finely minced ginger to use as dipping sauce. A general ratio is 1/4 cup vinegar to 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 teaspoon minced ginger.

Find instructions for steaming and eating the crabs after the jump!

An Oyster Afternoon

“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” 

― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

A week ago, I was treated to a little oyster gathering at Secret Ingredient under the guise of a photo shoot.  We learned to shuck and taste 6 varieties of oysters paired with a crisp white wine (Chenin Blanc, Champagne, and Chablis all make excellent pairings). We slurped them down with a squeeze of lemon or a dash of Hog Wash (a mignonette variation close to my heart as it devised by the folks at Hog Island Oyster in my home-state, California).

Below is my and Secret Ingredient owner, Max's, favourite- the Kumamoto. These small oysters are delicate, creamy and sweet. It took a lot of self-control not to finish all half dozen of them myself. 

For more tips on choosing oysters and a brief introduction to the different types, head on over to Secret Ingredients blog here! Below is the recipe to the Hog Wash mignonette I was raving about. A bit of tang, a bit of a kick, a lot of yum.

HOG WASH (for a dozen oysters) 

• 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar 
• 1/4 cup natural rice vinegar 
• 1 large shallot, peeled and finely diced 
• 1 large Jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced 
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped 
• Juice of 1 lime

Here's proof a good afternoon...

A World Away - Tai Long Wan

The most beautiful things can be right here in our backyard.

We're spoilt here in Hong Kong. A simple 2-4 hour plane ride can whisk us away to a myriad of cultural treasures and tropical paradises. Having work obligations don't allow this to be a regular thing, but I've been craving some peace and quiet lately. With the weather looking lovely last week, I just decided to take off for a day and half to reboot my mind and recalibrate my ear drums that have been so accustomed to the revving of car engines and hums of the crowds in our busy city.

Tai Long Wan should be no new news to most of you. My father knows it affectionally as "Little Hawaii" from his younger years, where boys would scramble unpaved trails to bring dates to these secluded beaches. Nowadays, the trails are well marked, well paved, and several stretches are even armed with night lamps.

Tai Long Wan consists of four beaches - Sai Wan, Ham Tin, Tai Wan and Tung Wan. While Sai Wan is perfectly beautiful for a day hike, with a bonus scramble upstream to a series of rock pools and waterfalls, it is going past Ham Tin (stocked with simple eats and camping gear for rent from the two tuck shops- contact Hoi Fung at 2328 2315 to reserve your gear. Do call if you are planning on going on a weekday. They may close with no notice!) which reveals the real treasures. These photos are taken while camping out in Tai Wan on a weekday.