Oriental inspired beef and vegetable stew

There are many ways to make a bowl of comfort beef stew. This non authentic recipe is one of my favourite and good way to clear up the vegetable drawer in the fridge. The stew looks ordinary like any tomatoey beef stew but with few oriental ingredients this will taste quite different. Gochujang gives a lovely chilli flavour without being too spicy hot. Star anise is great added to any beef stew

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Sichuan liang fen ???? (Starch jelly noodles)

Liang fen ?? is a jelly noodles made with starch and water. Starch and water is cooked to a thick custard, set and chilled. It is then cut into whatever shape and size you like then dressed in a Sichaun spicy sauce with some spring onion, coriander and few sesame seeds etc...





If you like rice noodles you will love liang fen. This jelly noodles is much springier and better texture than rice

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Sichuan sugar and spice infused soy sauce ????

Fu zh� jiang you ???? loosely translated as replicated soy sauce. Another common name you may come across is red soy sauce ??? for tian sui mian ???. This is an aromatic sugar and spice infused/reduced soy sauce for many Sichuanese dishes especially for snack xiaochi ?? and salad ?? including noodles.



1 cup light soy ??
2 tbsp dark soy ??
1 piece rock sugar/ plain sugar (about 2 tbsp) ??/ ??
4

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Toyomansi and Bistek

Toyomansi is my latest favourite sauce. It's a Filipino soy sauce with calamansi lime juice, a sourish soy with a citrus fragrance. I like it but having had fresh calamansi before, I have a suspicion some flavouring other than real calamansi is added but on the label flavouring is not listed. Toyomansi is available from most oriental supermarkets, quite cheap under �2 for a large bottle of 750ml.

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Crystal zhongzi ????

????
?? shui jing = water crystal
?? zhongzi = leaf wrapped dumpling

Here is another unusual zhongzi. The recipe is based on Thai tapioca dumplings, Sawku Sai Muu. The pastry dough is made with tapioca pearls. They are called crystal zhongzi because the pastry is translucent. The pastry is very soft, bouncy, rubbery and chewy. I really like the texture. The filling is delicious and spicy

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Hakka mochi zhongzi ????

Ker ja bun zong ????

Zhongzi can be written as ?? or ??

Today is Duan Wu Festival ??? or Dragon Boat Festival. The origin and story behind this festival see Wiki. Zhongzi or leaf wrapped dumplings are a must to be eaten during this festival.

There are few ways to wrap zhongzi. Most people use bamboo leaves, available dried in most countries and fresh is available in some S E Asian countries.

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