The Best of Papaya Recipes

Papaya Punch

    Unripened papaya with light green color can be used as a meat tenderizer, it is usually tasteless, it needs other ingredients to enhance its texture and flavor, for the more mature unripened orange color papaya, it looks and tastes almost similar like a carrot.

Date: Sept 3rd, 2017 
Recipe: 01

Ingredients (2 portions):

300g Ripe papaya

100g Star fruit

100ml Coconut juice

5 Pitless dates

100 ml water

½ tbsp honey
4 Handful of ice

Method:
1. Boil the dates with water for 3 minutes, turn off heat, add 
    honey, let it cools down

2. In a Blendtec, mix everything together, add ice, blend.

Burmese Style Papaya Salad

    This papaya salad was developed from Burmese papaya salad taught 

to me by my great Burmese friend Cherie Thatun way before I attended

chef school. It was the best papaya salad I ever tasted among all type

of papaya salads found in the S.E. Asia.

Date: Sept 3rd, 2017

Recipe: 02

Ingredients (4 Portions):

150g Green papaya, fine long julienne (for good color, use matured unripened red papaya)

50g Potato, chunk, boil

1 handful Cooked mung bean vermicelli

TT Fish sauce

10g Baby coriander

2 tbsp Olive oil

1 Shallot/onion, julienne, deep fried until crispy

200ml extra virgin black sesame oil, for deep frying shallot

3 tbsp shallot flavored extra virgin black sesame oil

TT Lemon juice

½ tbsp Tamarind

1 tsp Palm sugar/Jaggery, chop finely then mix with lemon juice and tamarind

TT Burmese dried balachaung, sprinkling

30g Fried cashew nuts or peanuts, crush coarsely, sprinkling

TT Pepper

Method:

1.   Toss the julienned papaya with potato, smash the potato roughly, 

      add vermicelli, fried shallot, coriander, olive oil, sesame oil, palm 

      sugar, lemon juice, tamarind, fish sauce, pepper, mix well 

      and check seasoning.

2.   Sprinkle with crushed cashew nuts and dried balachaung.





Papaya Cheesecake


   This is the egg-less cheesecake, light, and flour-less. Perhaps due to my 
age, just barely sweetness alone couldn't fool my taste buds, I 
wanted something more than that, that's why I developed this cheesecake.


Date: Sept 3rd, 2017
Recipe: 03

Ingredients:

500g Philadelphia cream cheese, melt

250g Papaya, puree

150ml Cream, whisk

100ml Coconut milk, Ayam brand

2 drops Almond extract

100g Sugar

1/4 Tsp Cinamon powder

3.5 tbsp (British spoon) Gelatine powder, bloom in 100ml water, then heat 

in microwave oven for 30 seconds or until fully dissolved

Base Ingredients:

25g Ground Madacamia 

25g Coconut flakes

50g Ground Almond 

50g Pine nuts, chop roughly

100g Mixed fruits

80g Clarifying butter

Jelly topping:

200ml Papaya juice, 

4 tbsp Papaya, brunoise

1tbsp Cooked Sago or tapioca seeds

1 tbsp Sugar

2 tsp Gelatine powder, bloom with papaya juice

1 pinch, Nutmeg powder 

Method:

1.   In a pot,  toast the base ingredients with butter

2.   Press the base ingredients to a springform pan, cool in the fridge

3.   Whisk cream cheese until smooth with sugar, add the rest of 

      the ingredients and melted gelatine, whisk until light with bubble. 

      Pour into the mixed fruits and nuts base. Chill and let it sets 

     overnight.

4.  To prepare the jelly topping, heat up the bloomed gelatine 

     papaya juice, sugar, sago/tapioca seeds with sugar up to 

     75-degree Celsius or until the jelly is fully dissolved, let it 

     cools down to lukewarm, skim, add the brunoise papaya.

5.  Spoon the jelly into the top of cheesecake, skim off bubbles or
 any impurities, make sure it is set evenly. Chill

Papaya Golden Berries 

   This golden berries idea was developed from every youngsters' favorite 

Thai style water chestnut rubies dessert. A very refreshing dessert, I don't 

like the idea of using any artificial coloring during cooking, thus this 

papaya golden berries are produced using only the natural ingredients. Only 

the still harden, unripe but mature golden papaya is used to produce 

this dessert.

Date: Sept 4th, 2017

Recipe: 06

Ingredients (4 portions):

150g Mature unripe golden red papaya, Macedoine, golden berries

1 Tbsp Honey, golden berries

200ml Papaya juice, golden berries, mixed with honey, reduce to a deeper golden color, let it cools down.

30g tapioca flour, golden berries

1 liter Water, blanching, golden berries

125ml Coconut juice, syrup

100g Sugar, syrup

4 Tbsp cooked sago/tapioca seeds, syrup

125ml coconut milk, Ayam brand, syrup

Shaved coconut juice ice, syrup

1 Tbsp Vanilla extract, syrup

3 Pandan leaves, blend with 50ml water, reduce and sieve to extract, syrup

Method:

1. Prepare the coconut milk syrup by heating the sugar and coconut juice. 

    Let it cools down, combine coconut milk, vanilla extract, pandan extract, 

    and sago/tapioca seeds, chill overnight.
2. Macerate Macedoine papaya with papaya juice and honey

3. Drain the papaya cubes, dust them evenly with tapioca flour

4. While water is boiling, add the dusted papaya cubes cook until they float 

    and look translucent. Remove and refresh in icy water.

5. To serve, drain the golden papaya berries, add to the coconut milk 

    syrup, shave in coconut juice ice.

Papaya Jelly

    Ripe papaya is like coconut, it doesn't mix that well with any sour thing, but if 

you know how to mix it skilfully, it will taste great.

Date: Sept 5th,2017
Recipe: 11

 

Ingredients:

200g Philadelphia cream cheese, melt
2 tbsp Sugar, macerate
1/4 Tsp Fennel powder
300g Unripe mature papaya, Macedoine, macerate with sugar and fennel powder overnight.

250ml Soymilk
100g Pitless Jujube, blend with soy milk, boil and simmer for 15 minutes, sieve.

2 drops Almond extract

80g Sugar

4.5 tbsp (British spoon) Gelatine powder, bloom in 100ml water
200ml Papaya puree
200ml Coconut juice

 

Method:
1.  Simmer the macerated papaya with a little water until it gets soften,
     but not too soft.
2.  Whisk cream cheese with sugar until light
3.  Add 3.5 tbsp of gelatine to hot jujube soy milk, mix until it is melted.
4.  Add this jujube soy milk to cream cheese, whisk until well combine,
     finally fold in almond extract and papaya Macedoine, mix well.
5.  Transfer to a jelly mold, chill until set before you start to prepare the
     top layer papaya jelly
6.  Boil and simmer papaya puree and coconut juice, until it reduces to
     half, add 1 tbsp of gelatine, mix until melted. Let it cools down to
     warm
7.  Spoon on top of the opaque layer of papaya jelly, make sure it sets evenly.

Papaya Pavlova Cake

   First time I ate pavlova was in Edmond, Oklahoma in my host family's house, 

my deceased host mother was Mrs. Polly Schuler, the pavlova was so good 

that actually, she taught me how to make it three decades ago, then I left 

to Europe went on trying other western desserts. She passed away last year, 

I felt so bad that I could never make it visit her once more before she 

passed away.

   Life goes on, if we met right people, they could help us to flourish and teach 

us something valuable in life, but if we meet a wrong people, they could 

cripple our optimistic life goal, even lost a hard-earned career, and have to 

start our life all over again at midlife.

   I developed this recipe based on what I could remember of Mrs. 

Schuler's ultimate pavlova.

Recipe: 13

Date: Sept 6th,2017

Ingredients:

50g Digestive biscuit crumb, base

50g Ground Almond, base

50g Dried cranberries, base

50g Sultanate, base

80g Extra virgin coconut oil, base

2 tsp Vanilla extract, base

100g Pistachio nut crumb, filling, divide into two portions)

2 Tiers baked meringue (6 eggs, 1 pinch of salt, 200g caster sugar, 2 tsp

cornflour, 1 tsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp boiling water, a handful pistachio nuts)

Corn flour, dusting

100g Transparent papaya jelly (make from papaya juice), Macedoine

100g Papaya, Macedoine

1 Bananas, Macedoine

50g Cherries (Get rid of seed, cut into half 

300ml Heavy cream, whip with vanilla

extract

1 tsp Vanilla extract, cream

30g Macadamia nuts, crunch, garnishing

5 Round papaya fresh, using the melon baller to scoop the balls, garnishing

1 tsp Cocoa powder, dusting

1 Mint sprig, garnishing

Method:

1. To prepare baked meringue - 

* Whisk egg white with a pinch of salt until white, whisk with

   added sugar gradually, dust in corn flour, add lemon, whil

   whisking add boiling water to set.

* Fold in pistachio nuts and vanilla extract to the meringue, divide into

   two portions, bake in two springform pans lined up with the baking

   sheet at the base and side, dusted with cornstarch 

* Bake at preheated 180-degree Celsius oven, turn the heat down to

   130-degree Celsius after 5 minutes. Bake for an hour, then keep

   the oven door ajar

* Store the two tiers in the airtight container.

2. To ensemble the base -

* On a springform pan, line the base with baking sheet, and grease

   the side of pan with extra-virgin coconut oil.

* Over a pot, mix coconut oil with grounded cookies and almond,

   sultanate and cranberries, mix and toast lightly (make sure don'

   burn it)

* Press the mixture on the base of the springform pan

3. To ensemble the cake's layering-

* Mix a whisked cream with papaya cubes, papaya jelly, banana cube

* Separate into 3 portions, top the first layer on the base. press down

   some fresh cherries, then dust the first portion of pistachio nuts powder

* Top up with the first layer of baked meringu

* Repeat the process

* On the top of mixed fruits cream (no pistachio powder on this top

   layer), garnish with papaya balls, sprinkle with macadamia nuts crunch

   and a mint sprig

* Dust with cocoa powder

Papaya Cake

Matured unripe papaya is red like carrot, its texture is harder but its taste

is sweet, it can mistaken as a carrot if it is being shredded finely, it could even 

confuse someone like me who grew up with papaya.

Date: Sept 19th, 2017

Recipe: 32

Ingredients:

350g Mature unripe papaya, grated

4 Green olive, mash finely

250g Soft flour

350g Sugar

2 tbsp Vanilla extract

4 Eggs

350ml Vegetable oil

2 tsp Baking soda

50g Sultanate

100g Walnut, roughly chopped

1/2 tsp Nutmeg 

Method:

1. Add sugar to the eggs, whisk, then add the oil gradually.

2. Sieve in flour, then add papaya and the rest of the 

    ingredients

3. Fold the batter and ingredients evenly, but don't mix

    it too well.

4. Pour the mixture into a greased and floured round cake tin.

5. Bake at 170C for 40 minutes. 

Champagne Papaya Frangipane

   Papaya is always being treated as a cheap fruit in tropical countries, no local

is interested to taste it if you try to serve it in your 5-star hotel or fine-dining

restaurant. The only way is by modifying it, by adding Champagne to it, it

not just attracted the westerners but also the local. The Champagne works

in this case just like an ugly painting instantly turned into an attractive painting

due to its expensive frame or an ugly girl instantly turned into an attractive

girl due to a designer dress she wore.

Ingredients:

Tart

175g Soft flour

75g Unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

20g Sugar

1 Egg yolk

1 tbsp Water, mix with vinegar, salt and vanilla

½ tsp Vanilla extract

¼ tsp Vinegar

1 pinch salt

Egg wash

Filling

75g Almond powder

½ tsp Vanilla extract

57g Unsalted butter, keep in room temperature

60g Icing sugar

3 Eggs. Whisk

2 tbsp Roselle Jam

Topping

800g Unripen mature papaya, cut into slices

1 Pandan leaf, tie into a knot

1 sprig Rosemary

1 Star anise

Honey, macerating

Champagne, to cover

Instant coconut milk powder, dusting

Mint, garnishing

Method:

1. Use dry rub method for the tart pastry. Use fingertips

    To knead them into bread crumbs, then hold them

    together. Don’t overwork the pastry. Let it rests. Roll

    into a thin sheet, turn the tin upside down to the pastry,

    cut it, use a spatula to let the cut sheet falls into the tin

    when it turns back.

2. Press the pastry dough neatly to the tin, poke some holes

    On the base of the tart, chill in freezer before baking.

    Place beans on top, bake for 8 minutes, remove.

    Bake it again until light brown.

3. Make sure when the tart is ready, while it is still hot,

    Brush the base with egg wash. Remove the tart when

    It cools down and place it on a baking tray.

4. To make the filling, combine and whish everything in a food

    Processor until well combined.

5. To prepare the topping, you need to do it at least a day ahead.

    Macerated the papaya by covered papaya slices with a layer

    Of honey, repeat the process. Set it aside for 4 hours. Then

    Boil and reduce the champagne with the herbs and spice,

    add the macerated papaya. Turn off fire immediately, let it

    simmers with the residue heat. When it cools down. Chill in

     the fridge for at least a day.

6. On top of the filling, brush quickly with a layer of clarifying butter,

    Decorated the drained papaya slices on top.

7. Bake the tart until the filling is cooked, about 45 minutes.

8. Garnish with a mint sprig, dust with instant coconut milk powder.

TUNA SOUFFLE WITH MORINGA SAUCE & PICKLED PALM HEART

Healthy tropical dish in fine dining style

By Chef Si

   One of my cousins is a Chinese doctor graduated from the Chinese medical school in Hong Kong back in the 70s, she is at her mid-70s now but she looks merely like 40 years old, when I first moved to the cat city in Sarawak, when I first visited her, she chopped a moringa branch for me and asked me to use the cutting to propagate this "Indian milk tree."

   I probably got more than 5 herbs from her, including a wild ginseng. At those days, my garden got more than 50 different kinds of herbs and spices besides flowers and fruit trees, I could call myself as a collector for rare plants. When friends who got knowledge about rare plants stepped in my garden, they were so happy, as the time they left, their whole car trunk would be full of fruits, herbs, spices and cuttings. And my friends ranged from Blogspot fans to even 80+-year-old lovely couple, who missed me the most when I decided to return NZ as we shared the same hobby.

   Why I decided to write a recipe based on moringa today was I just saw my friend posted her moringa on FB asked what should she do with it, I pulled her leg suggested her to use it as one of the ingredients for the famous thunder tea. As the regular local vegetable, sayur manis that Chinese Malaysian used for their Rey Chai is actualy not a healthy choice, but if they use moringa leaves which look almost similar to sayur manis, this will be definitely a better choice.

    Although this is an entree dish, if you use a larger portion of this dish, it can instantly turn into a main dish.

Date: Oct 7th, 2017

Recipe:60 From the 99 Tropical Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs and Spices.

Ingredients:

Pickled Palm Heart

5 tbsp Coconut oil

150g Coconut palm heart

1/2 Stalk lemongrass

1/2 Shallot

1 Chili

1 Turmeric root

2 tbsp Chopped palm sugar

50ml White vinegar

1 tsp Lime juice

3 Cloves Garlic

TT Salt, pepper, fish sauce

1 tsp White sesame seed, toasted

1 tsp Toasted peanut, coarsely grounded

Fish

2 Tuna fillets of your choice (about 100g each), season with salt and pepper

50ml Oyster stock 

50ml White wine

Ginger torch bud, shredded finely, garnish

Baby cilantro, garnish

Oyster stock or mussel (if you have no oyster)

1 tbsp Coconut oil

200g Oysters

1 tsp White miso

3 slices Ginger

1 Shallot, macedoine

50g Daikon

Bouquet garni (5 smashed peppercorn, 2 daun salam/bay leaves, 3 smashed coriander stalk, 1/2 smashed lemongrass stalk)

1 slice kaffir lime

50g Leek

50g Celery

1 liter Fish stock

Mousse

100g Spanish Mackerel/Ikan Tengiri

2 Egg yolks

100ml Coconut cream

1/2 tsp Curry powder

1/4 Safrron powder 

TT Salt and pepper

2 Egg white, whipped until firm peak

1/4 tsp Cream of tartar or 1/2 tsp lemon + a pinch of salt

100ml Full cream, whipped

Sauce

100g Moringa leaves only

10g Curry leaves

10g Ginger torch bud

3 tbsp Coconut cream

100ml Reduced oyster stock

10g Coriander

2 tsp Ginger puree

1/2 Shallot, brunoise

1/2 tsp Tamarind

1/2 tsp Lemon juice

1 tbsp Olive oil

25g Cold butter, cubes, monte

TT Salt and pepper

Method:

1. To prepare pickled palm heart, blisk all the herbs

    in a food processor, cut the palm heart of your 

    preferred shape. In a wok/pa. Sweat coconut oil 

    with the rest of the herb until caramelized, then add 

    the rest of the ingredients, check the seasoning. Add 

    the palm heart at last, have a quick boil, turn off the heat

     to let the residue heat simmer it. Sprinkle with sesame 

     seed and peanuts.

2. To prepare oyster stock, sweat shallot, ginger and herbs

    with coconut oil, add vegetable, deglaze with fish stock.

    Add bouquet garni. Boil and simmer for 20 minutes.

    Get rid of bouquet garni, sieve, In a blender, combine

    the stock and oyster, blend, then sieve once more.

    Save a portion for baking souffle, another portion is 

    reduced for sauce.

3. To prepare the mousse, place mackerel to a food 

    processor, season with salt, pepper, saffron, and curry.

    Blisk, then add egg yolk gradually, then coconut cream

4. Chill.

5. Fold in whipped egg white and cream to the mousse. 

    Cover the mousse on the tuna fillets. 

6. Place the tuna souffle in a baking tray, add fish stock

    and wine, bake for 8 minutes at 200C preheated oven.

7. To prepare moringa sauce, sautee shallot and ginger 

    puree with coconut oil until aroma releases, add curry 

    leaves, moringa, and other herbs, sautee quickly until 

    withered, add stock and the rest of the ingredients.

    Blend with a thermomix, have a quick boil, check

    seasoning, monte.

8. To serve, add moringa sauce, place palm heart on, then

    place fish souffle on top or at a side. Garnish with 

    shredded ginger torch bud and baby cilantro.

    

CHEFS! WHAT HAS GONE WRONG WITH YOUR PIES???

First of all, orient your taste buds to the basic five tastes!

Venison and Portobello Pie 
Red Cabbage relish, crumble, scented oil and apple crisps

This was the venison pie I made during my NZ L5 Cookery Diploma, it happened that I was the only student remained without an acting student-supervisor, I thought I wouldn't have a "boss" so I could do what I wanted, then my chef tutor announced that he would be my "supervisor" and he challenged me not to make any "grandma" or "grandpa" pie, after that he left me alone, I thought I could hear his devilish chuckling echoes when he left the kitchen. After I prepared the pie dough,  I went to look for him for the pie molds for everyone in the kitchen, he told me, "Tell them to make a pie without a mold!" I thought I could hear him laughing devilishly, "I love it! I love it!" When the "grandson" pie finally presented to him, he did love my deconstructional pie and even asked me to bring it to show the head chef tutor. The pie crust was filled with portobello mushroom with minced venison and also venison steak. I always remember I baked this pie on the valentine day, I made two roses on the lip, but when I took the lip out of the oven, it slipped off, luckily the lip didn't drop to the floor but one of the roses ran off, and I thought it wanted to run off to Hawaii! 

By Chef Si

   Pies would be the best choice for those who only left five dollars or who only got five dollars budget in their pockets, but obviously, most of the time we would find the reality of the cheaper the pies we paid the poorer the quality the pies were. Most chefs, especially Asian male chefs hardly read, if they read a lot,  they are probably the award-winning chefs, great chefs or celebrity chefs, surely this article is not for them

   From my knowledge, most Asian male chefs would only use vinegar when they cook the sweet and sour sauce. Unfortunately, vinegar or acidic taste was often avoided by them as one of the most basic ingredients applied to balance the five basic tastes in their cooking. Also, amongst some Asian male chefs, only Korean, Thai, Indian and Japanese are nurtured with daily acidic taste since young through their kimji, tom yang, yogurt, and sushi, whereas most other Asian countries' male chefs simply can't tolerance much acidic taste, but Asian female chefs are exempted, they all like something a little sourly unless they have bad teeth. 

   Most pies in New Zealand now are produced by Asian male chefs in their small cafes, and among these Asian male pie chefs, Cambodian male pie chefs at the moment are actually reigning the New Zealand pies scene. 

   Let me not to mention the expensive pies that used the finest ingredients with European-style flavorful butter that already included subtle umami and acidic tastes in the crust during production, and the flavorful Wagyu beef or NZ purely grass-fed Angus beef used for the filling. The pie quality that I mentioned here were mainly technical problems caused by unskilled chefs or chefs without trained under a great chef to produce the both great crust and the fillings with great flavor. 

   I have tried some cheap and inferior pies here in Auckland done by some Asian-run chain cafes, often, their pie crusts were thick, inferior meats were used, and the filling was tasteless and gluey. In certain eateries, the pie crusts were thin and good but the filling was gluey with imbalanced tastes. 

   Most Asian chefs learned how to make their pies from industry experience, as there is no chef school would concentrate teaching only how to make pies for the whole semester. Usually, if these Asian chefs are artistic enough, they could produce a good crust, I noticed all of them did watch out for the color of the filling sauce, unfortunately, their taste buds have not developed to detect the subtle acidic and umami tastes required to bring out the balanced flavor of a good pie. 

   The standard beef pie required wine vinegar and Dijon mustard for acidic taste and Worcestershire sauce for umami taste, Asian chefs would neglect using them if they don't understand the points of why they have to use these sourly and pungent western ingredients, but to apply these ingredients, they have to orient their taste buds to apply them subtly and confidently. Also, I notice the consistency of sauce in the pie was too gluey as well. When the pie was baked, the sauce that a chef prepared was perfect in his eyes could turn slightly gluey after the pie was baked. Honestly, I wondered if I was eating the Chinese version of wheat flour shepherd pie! (Just like my Chinese classmate who preferred gnocchi with overwhelming wheat flour taste). I also noticed that there was no western herb applied on their pies filling, except the salt and pepper, these two ingredients are always written in the recipe as TT (to taste)! Lastly, application of western herbs required good tastebuds. In western cooking, a good chef is the one who can make great sauces, it denotes such chef knows how to play magic with the five tastes or even something more than that. For such a good chef, the application of ingredients to a sauce is instinctively concocted through his knowledge, experience, eyes, nose and taste buds.

   Creating a barrier between the pie crust and wet filling is also another secret tip to create good pie as well. In short, an awesomely good pie is not easy to make as well although a foreigner working as a pie chef now can't earn his PR in NZ, however, I think if he can win as the best pie chef in NZ, that's the different story again.

A Simple Secret Tip to Make Good Gnocchi

Once I watched an Australian MasterChef TV show, one of their judges said a contestant's gnocchi bounced like a ball!

   Everyone can make gnocchi by following the Youtube or even from a chef tutor's demo, but most of the time, the gnocchi ended up could bounce like a ball due to excess flour being added to the dough during kneading to overcome stickiness and softness, so how to solve this problem?

  Actually, I learned how to make homestyle simple gnocchi from an Italian cellist back in Texas 17 years ago. When I attended chef school, I  began to learn how to make other types of gnocchi, I remember I got so frustrated when I refused to add in more flour, I couldn't roll my soft and sticky potato gnocchi dough down the fork successfully, my guts could tell that the problem was not caused by the inaccurate recipe but mainly instructional and technical handicaps. I saw those classmates who worked in the industry before could roll their gnocchi down their forks very well but their gnocchi could bounce very well as well, their gnocchi smelt and tasted floury. I brought my unsatisfaction back home, I couldn't sleep for the whole night as my head was trying to figure out a way to solve general population's gnocchi making's inconsistency and imperfection. 

   The next day it happened that I had to cook for a catered dinner, I bravely decided to make gnocchi after I thought of a solution in my head during the overnight time. What I needed was more practice to roll the gnocchi through the fork as I didn't have gnocchi board nor the chef school got it. True enough, after rolling more than 200 gnocchi down my fork, since then I never wanted to eat gnocchi anymore if I got a better choice! 

   One interesting episode happened in the chef school, during the gnocchi's assessment my chef tutor was so proud of my gnocchi that he tried to let other chef tutors tasting my gnocchi. I remember Chinese classmate got curious, he ate a piece of my gnocchi then he said he still preferred his own gnocchi with heavy floury taste and smell!!! I told him it's ok as in the future, he could make his Chinese's wheat flour gnocchi for his Chinese customers but I have to make my Italian potato gnocchi to please my European connoisseur's friends. That's why from these Mainland China's Chinese mentality, I already could foresee why as an Asian/overseas born Chinese, it's very hard for me to find a fair chef job in NZ fine dining scene not according to my race!

   The secret of not continuously adding wheat flour to the gnocchi dough to overcome soft and sticky is by greasing your hand to taper the dough,  greasing your cutter to cut the dough, and greasing your fork to roll the dumpling. Anyway, you need to add oil and salt to your boiling water to cook pasta, so what's the problem if your gnocchi is greasy? The minute you dumped the gnocchi to the boiling water to cook, just don't add any oil but only the salt.

   You must rest and chill your dough in the fridge as well for some time, this also could harden your dough. Try not to use egg white as it will be very sticky.

   Most Italian pasta dough is not seasoned with salt, according to what I read is if you add salt to the bread/pasta, these salty bread/pasta will attract moisture and they can't keep for long. This was my experience, once I baked a baguette, accidentally that day I had completely forgotten to add the salt, and that loaf of baguette lasted the longest in my memory, I asked everyone (I baked in my office kitchen, my staff, my sister, and friends could come anytime they wanted) why they didn't rob it like a usual day, they kept quiet, I took a piece to taste only realized that I didn't add the salt and waves of laughter followed. There are many Chinese noodles without added salt, Northen Chinese are the ones who are experts in making noodles and dumplings as they don't eat rice as often. After my Beijing connoisseur friend ate the noodle that my tiger-sister bought from a Mainland Chinese, she told me the noodle could have been tasted better if there was salt being added to the dough.

   Life, you have your own option. Either you choose to take the best of each culture or you can keep your stubborn mind thought that your own culture is reigning everything, nobody will lose due to you, only you yourself losing something out of your own awareness!

You can get gnocchi recipe from this link: 

http://chefsarawak.blogspot.co.nz/2017/09/entree.html

Fuzhou-Chinese Birthday Drunken Chicken Noodle Soup

Recipe based on popular request


By Chef Si

Date: Oct 2nd, 2017

   I have been asked many times of how to cook Fuzhou drunken chicken noodle soup, whenever it came to my mind to drop down this recipe; when I turned a 90-degree angle, I have already forgotten about it.

   Today, I finally remember to drop down this recipe all because tomorrow will be my birthday and it will be the first day I go to work in an Auckland cafe as a kitchen hand, my luck to find a chef job in New Zealand is worst than any first semester chef school students since the day I tried to work as an apprentice, even when I graduated as the Student of the Year but I still ended up working as an apprentice, I always remember the humiliation when a hotel's executive chef would test me to see if I could tell the meat he portioned was venison. 

   Traditionally, this dish is specially served during a Fuzhou's birthday, sometimes it is served as a confinement meal, during Chinese New Year or when there is a special guest visiting your home.

   Now I remember I have a new batch of Fuzhou red yeast rice wine to harvest, I brewed it especially for my own birthday, but again like last year, I will more likely skip my birthday again, more likely my hands will be soaking in the water for the whole day tomorrow. If the person who tells me I should be happy, ask her to put in my shoe, let me see if she can preach everyone to be happy again!

   Birthday! Often in bad years, you might find it's your saddest and loneliest day as well!

Ingredients:

1 Free range chicken, Asian cut

50g Ginger, smashed

5 tbsp Extra virgin black sesame oil

10 Big size Shiitake mushroom, dehydrate in water

10 Big size Red jujube

10g Goji berries

300ml Red yeast rice wine

1 liter Boiling water

Fuzhou wheat vermicelli noodle

10 Eggs, boiled and deep fried

Method:

1. Heat the sesame oil, add a pinch of salt, sweat the ginger 

    until light brown, add the chicken pieces, stir-fry, deglaze

    with wine as long as it gets drier. Then add mushroom, 

    continue to stir-fry until the fragrance released fully.

2. Then add the rest of the wine and boiling water.

3. Boil for 5 minutes, then add goji berries and jujube.

    Note: At this stage, you can transfer the soup to a

    clay pot. 

4. Cover the pot with a lip, turn the heat to medium-low or

    low to simmer until the chicken is cooked (but not too soft),

    around 30 minutes. Or you can place a cartouche

    on the top and place into the oven, let it cooked for 

    45 minutes at 180-degree Celsius. Lastly, remember

    to add the deep fried eggs to the soup, check the 

    seasoning, just add the salt sparingly. 

5. Fill the drunken chicken soup in a bowl to halfway.

5. Cook the noodles in boiling water. This string-like

    noodle cooks extremely fast. Try to cook in batch

6. Add two chicken pieces on top, a mushroom and an

    egg. Top up the soup if necessary. Usually, the 

    noodle is salty enough, thus the soup must not be 

    too salty. 

7. Usually, just before eating, around 20ml of red wine

    is added again to the noodle.

8. Accompanied by soy sauce.

Note: To cook this dish successfully your fire must be high enough, your pot or

wok must be big enough for a whole chicken during stir-frying before you transfer it to a clay pot or pot. You have to deglaze at least three times. Only good quality red yeast rice wine is used, make sure don't add its sediment for the deglaze. You must not overcook the noodles, it should be served immediately.