New Year 2009 is a wonderful occasion to try a change of ideas and update 2008’s resolutions.
The Chinese cooking methods have been winners for thousands of years from steaming to stirfry or deep fry, their food is delicious fast easy and cheap as well as increasing in popularity every year as other fads fade away.
Buy a tower of bamboo steamers, consider the sizes you may prefer, they are really worth the investment and each little basket looks good enough to take food straight to the table from the stove when serving to cocktail for 2, large crowds or starving singles in front of TV…
Always buy at least two baskets and a lid, this gives you the range of multilevel cooking so when cooking the fish in today’s recipe for example, just add another basket full of treats for an entrée or nibbles into another steaming basket just before the mains are cooked.. Produce a basket of steamed dim sims or little dumplings, make them yourself with little pastry circles from the Asian shop or buy them in big packs from supermarkets frozen sections.

All you need to dress them up is a collection of good saucy bottles, preferably with Asian labels. Into small dishes to accompany your Chinese feast, switch different tastes such as a choice of sweet chilli sauce a soy or oyster sauce. Its really worth a visit to China Town at this time of the year.

Recipe. Steamed crispy skin fish with ginger. Chinese style.

Buy platesized whole cleaned fish 300- 500g, scaled and gutted. Make sure they have bright eyes, firm flesh and are very fresh.
( Snapper bream whiting or baby salmon.)
One thumb sized piece of juicy fresh ginger, peeled and grated or chopped into matchsticks.
bunch of coriander or parsley chopped
5 tbspns peanut oil.
3 chopped spring onions.
1 tbspn caster sugar.
2 tbspns Chinese wine or sherry or apple juice.
1 tbspn sesame oil.
4 tbspns soy sauce.
A few cabbage or tough lettuce leaves for lining the steamer .basket. Shredded small chilli without seeds- optional
Method.
Wash and dry the fish and with a sharp knife slash the skin across a few times on both sides in the thickest parts of the fish.
Fill the bottom of the steamer or saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Line the basket with leaves and put the fish on top of them. Mix together the soy sesame oil rice wine and sugar then pour this over the fish.
Add the ginger and half the shallots and chilli.
Steam for 10 minutes with the lid on.
Give the fish a skewer test and then steam it for another five minutes if it needs that extra time to come away from the bone when pierced with the sharp knife.
To get a crispy skin effect: heat the oil to smoky, take fish out of steamer and pour the very hot oil over fish, add the oil to cooking juices. This produces exquisite smells hearty crackles and sizzles. Scatter fish with any leftover herbs and shallots and serve with favourite rice or salad..

Carving fish. Carve up your fish carefully by running a sharp thin bladed knife along backbone to lift flesh from head to tail with an egg lifter. Cut into 3 sections down to the bone then turn fish over and repeat. Pour hot sauces over the fish before eating it hot

Serves 6-8.

Ingredients
225g soft brown sugar and 100g butter for base.
4 ripe pears peeled cored and quartered.
225g plain flour.
1 tspn bi carbonate of soda
pinch salt.pinch of ground cloves pinch of nutmeg
4 tspns cinnamon 2 teaspoons ground ginger
175g black treacle 250mls milk 225g melted butter 2 eggs beaten.

Method.
Preheat oven to 180c.
Find a 250cm oven proof dish.
To make the base mixture place the sugar and butter in a saucepan over a low heat and melt together then turn up the heat and get it to bubble.

Pour into the oven dish and arrange the pears in it round side down on the bottom of the dish.

Mix everything else together and pour over the pears and bake for one hour in the lower half of the oven.

Test with a skewer and if the pudding is cooked it will come out dry, if wet mixture clings to the skewer then cook it for another 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and leave to cool before turning it out upside down onto a pretty plate, treacle is the magic ingredient here! Serve up with thick cream or best vanilla icecream.

Gather:
Nice piece of lamb rump or 500g lamb straps.
Salt and pepper. A lemon. Oil. Thyme and rosemary. Balsamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese
Potatoes pumpkin beetroot onions turnips sweet potatoes, fennel etc. one per person of any root vegetables of your choice.
Also
Baby Broccoli with fresh ginger & slivered almonds. Pinenuts butter and red onions.

Method:

Roast or par boil prepared veggies cut into bite size pieces until firm but cooked enough. When ready to serve the carved lamb, pile the vegetables on a plate and then add the lamb pieces and douse with a spray of vinegar then parmesan shavings and salt and pepper.

Lamb can be baked or cooked on a BBQ after a good oiling then dusting with a good pinch of sea salt and cracked pepper and overlying herbs.

Large onion rings can be sliced dipped in milk and the flour then fried or put them in a bowl of made up packet batter and deep fry until crisp according to packet instructions.

Here is a very special iced Spanish contribution to our summer menus. Originating in Andalusia it is a much loved and most refreshing liquid snack made from lots of different seasonal cool vegetables so it serves dieters and purists, the time starved, blender lovers or fine taste fiends equally as well as the usual fridge pickers, the healthy and hungry Guacamole is another matter. Not to be confused with Gazpacho, Guacamole is a much simpler thicker modern Mexican version, an avocado dip made from ripe mashed avocadoes with a drop or two of best olive oil seasoned with onion and chili, lime or lemons, great served with crackers nachos chips or warm toast.

It can also become a great soup with a flash of white wine or chicken stock into the blending process. Both Gazpacho and Guacamole are delicious international classics, seasonally economical and universally enjoyed.

Both can be made up in the food processor or blender and left to sit covered in the fridge in a large jug or bowl until desired. The contents of Gazpacho can be tomatoes, olive oil, fresh garlic, cucumbers, black olives, soft avocados, green capsicums and/or red onions. It can be thickened by adding soft bread crumbs seasoned with aromatic fresh herbs. Try making a lovely entrée for this time of the year, best made up in the early morning before the heat becomes a turn off from most kitchens. Try it for a cold lunch a meal with breads an entrée or anywhere in between . So when shopping in markets or supermarkets or green grocers look for the best ripest vegetables in season right now because they are generously available peaking at their very ripest flavoursome best and cheapest plenty.

Gazpacho.
3 boiled eggs chopped. Four slices of any kind of soft bread, corn bread or sour dough is fine. If you love yoghurt add some at the end then scatter the above as garnish over your soup.
500gms ripe tomatoes. 1 big cucumber 2 cloves chopped garlic bunch of spring onions or 2 red onions 1 green capsicum 3 tbspns good olive oil 1 tbspn good vinegar sea salt black pepper and dash of cayenne pepper to taste. ½ cup of any fresh herbs, take your pick from chopped fresh basil mint parsley coriander or thyme sage or chives.

In the food processor make the bread crumbs and remove.
Chop the garlic in the processor then add the tomatoes and puree them. Now add the chopped cucumbers onions seeded olives green capsicum olive oil vinegar and herbs and blend well enough but not to a mulch . Put into the fridge to chill. Just before serving add the crumbs and chopped boiled eggs on the surface of each serving or place in a small bowl so people can help themselves as a garnish. You can hand this out in coffee mugs glasses or deep pasta bowls and if it gets too thick just add iced water or some ice blocks

Cooked in a cake tin or large pie dish. Serves 8 slices.

Ingredients.
4 large fresh eggs break into a bowl and beat them with a fork.
3 large brown onions peeled and roughly sliced.
500g sweet potato or pumpkin. Peeled and chopped
100g fetta cheese crumbled
1 large sheet of frozen puff pastry thawed to soft for pie topping .
Tablespoon of olive oil and herbs to decorate- parsley or rosemary thyme or sage.
Sesame seeds for topping the pastry.

Method.
Preheat oven to 180-200C.
Heat oil in frying pan and cook onions for about 15 minutes until gold and smelling good. Add garlic if you like it
Cook sweet pot or pumpkin boil steam or microwave.
Combine the vegetables fetta and eggs add chopped herbs and fill up pie dish.
Place puff pastry sheet over top of pie dish and allow a bit to hang over. Paint it with a little milk or egg yolk and shake the sesame seeds over sheet then bake for 45 minutes.