Steamed Hairy Gourd (Hairy Melon) with Dried Scallop Sauce

This is a very simple and healthy dish passed on from my mum. It's something I've had since little and one of the easiest mum recipe dishes :)

Hairy Gourd has various names (see Victoria Agriculture site) and is widely used in Chinese cooking for soups and dishes (mainly steamed and stir fried). It's always a more 'saucy' dish, it is plain and simple, but has a subtle sweetness to it which makes it a perfect option when you're after something light..

To the recipe...

Ingredients

• Hairy Gourd
• Chinese Dried Scallop (soaked overnight)
  
• 2 tsp cornstarch mixed in 1/4 cup of water
  

Method

1. Soak the dried scallop overnight so they soften.
   
2. Slice melon into medium chunks, it depends how you like it. If you're running low on time, slice it thinly so its quicker to steam.
3. Steam the melon til its soft, you can check by poking a chopstick through it.
4. Heat up the wok, add the scallop and also the water it was soaking it.
5. Add some sugar to taste
6. Add the cornstarch water to thicken the sauce
7. Pour onto the melon and serve
   

Stir Fry Capsicum and Honey Pepper Beef

Chinese is our staple dinner almost every night. I had tired to learn my favourite mum recipes when I first moved out by myself a few years ago. Since then, I've been lucky enough to cook up a few of my own :) Nothing too extravagant, just nice and homely :)

Tonight's dinner was a combination of some left overs, chicken soup, stir fried bean sprouts and capsicum beef. Its usually what I can cook up from a few specials we find in the markets. The winner of the night turned out to be the capsicum beef stir fry with beef in honey pepper sauce.

Ingredients

• About 250g of beef
• 1 yellow capsicum
• 1 green capsicum
• 1/2 onion
  
• 2 tablespoons of Honey
• Cracked black pepper
  
• Salt

Marinade

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce (light)
• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of cracked black pepper
• 2 teaspoons of cornstarch

Method

1. Slice the capsicum into thin slices (1cm) and the onion into slightly thicker slices (1.5-2 cm).
2. Slice beef into thin slices about the same width as the capsicum
3. Marinate the beef for about 20-30 minutes.
4. Heat Wok, add 1 tablespoon of oil.
5. Cook onions first til slightly soft then add capsicums. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
6. Cook for about 3 minutes til the vegies are half done and take them out.
   
7. Clean the wok and heat it up again.
8. Add 1 tablespoon of oil, seal the beef. Keep tossing it to stop it from burning on the wok.
9. Once the beef are sealed (just on one side is enough), add the vegies and toss together.
10. If you find its too dry, add about 2 tablespoon of water and put the cover on.
11. Once beef is cooked, add honey and cracked black pepper to taste.
12. Dish up and serve :)
    

I had to slice up a nice piece of scotch fillet steak as I didn't have any beef fillet handy at home. It turned out just as nice, if not better :) The whole cooking process only takes a few minutes. I followed my mum's stir fry principle which is:

"cook the vegies; add some salt -> take it out ->
cook the meat -> add back the vegies -> serve it up"

The only problem was that by the time I had finished cooking, we were pretty famished and there was not really much time to take out the DSLR. Though our little canon point and shoot does an "ok" job, it feels like there is something lacking in the photo. I wonder how I can make a chinese dish look good on camera, especially if it's stir fry so all the bits and pieces are tossed together...