Baked okra with tomato and ginger

Brian's colleague will do some charity work, so he will sleep outside just like a homeless person with a whole group of people. Actually I barely see homeless people outside here, I guess the UK's social welfare is really good, better than the U.S. even though they still have some homeless people here. I really admire him and people like that, though I can't follow in his footsteps. I hope he can survive the night outside and I will support him in spirit. If there are some charities that need volunteer to cook for homeless people, I'll be happy to do that. 

I hope Brian's colleague has a warm supper before going out in the cold. Baked okra with tomato and ginger from the Ottolenghi Cookbook will be good.  Ginger can help resist the cold; we used to drink ginger tea which was boiled with crystal sugar in winter.

                                                                                    Here is the recipe:

Super Salmon,Tomato and Basil Stack with home-made Bearnaise Suace

My cousin just became a father one week ago, and the baby is a boy!  My cousin is on my father's side, so he has the same last name with me, and his son can carry on our family line. If my grandpa were still alive, he would be very happy to see his great-grandson. Actually I don't care about much our family line can continue or not: the last name “Zhou” belongs to 34% of Chinese population. 

My uncle's family will become very busy from now on.  They have to do all the house work and help take care of the baby all the time. That's really common in China: the whole family will take care of a baby, usually at least 4 people.  That led me to think of one couple, our friends, who had twins a few months ago.  They get the babies up by themselves, and when I saw them I was really surprised at how calm they are!  If I were them, I must be panicked.  But when I saw these friends, one who needs go to work and the other who is completing his PhD - they have a dog too!- I really admire them.   Especially when I saw her feed the two babies at the same time with two milk bottle and made it look easy, I'm kind of touched.  Another remarkable woman worked until she was eight months pregnant, chasing terrorists with a stick.  And one month after her delivery, Clare Danes appeared at the Golden Globe awards, looking like she was never pregnant!  Compared with them, Chinese young people are too spoiled and dependent.   

I found this great brunch from New Great Dishes of the World by Robert Carrier.

This elegant dish is actually more easy to make than it looks.

Here is the recipe:

 

 

Béarnaise Sauce: 

By Brian Turner From Ready Steady Cook

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp water
• ½ shallot, finely chopped
• 3 black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon leaves
• 1 large egg yolk
• 75g butter, melted
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Direction

1. Place the vinegar, water, shallot, peppercorns and tarragon stalks into a small saucepan over a medium heat and simmer, until you have half a tablespoon of liquid remaining. Strain the liquid into a bowl and set aside.
   
2. Place the egg yolk and tarragon vinegar reduction into a food processor and blend together until light and frothy.
   
3. With the food processor still running on its slowest speed, add the melted butter, 1 tbsp at a time, until the sauce is thick and smooth. Be careful not to over beat the mixture as it may separate.
   
4. Stir in the chopped tarragon and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

My first Ratatouille

Brian can't believe I never have eaten Ratatouille before although I enjoyed the movie "Ratatouille" very much. Tonite I just tried a recipe from the the book by Skye Gyngell.  She said she always love Ratatouille, it tastes like sunshine, and since October is already cold as hell in Notts, so I decided try this dish.

I followed the recipe exactly but honestly the dish didn't surprise me very much.
Maybe because I didn't eat this dish growing up, so I don't have memories to compare it to.  Sometimes food is not just food, but some of us are left out.

Ratatouille 
Adapted by How I cook Skye Gyngell
serves 6

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil
2 red onions
small bunch of thyme
3 bay leaves
sea salt and ground pepper
1 eggplant
2 red peppers
1kg tomatoes
3 garlic
5 zucchini
bunch of basil

Direction:

warm olive oil in the saucepan over a medium heat.add the onion,thyme and bay leave with a pinch of salt and sweat gently for 10minutes,stirring every now and then to prevent the onions from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

prepare the other vegetables.halve the eggplant lengthways, then cut each piece into half-moon slices,2cm thick.Halve the red pepper cut into 2.5cm squares.Chop the tomatoes into chunks.

Add the eggplant and red pepper to the onions in the pan along with the garlic and stir to combine. add the tomatoes to the pan and turn the heat down as low as possible.Put the lid on and cook for 40 minutes.

Cut the zucchini into chunky and add them the pan, Put the lid on and cook another 30 minutes. Discard the bay leaves and thyme

Before serving, adjust the seasoning, tear in the basil leaves and drizzle over a little olive oil.