Easy Hong Kong Cooking at Home

by: May-yin May Lewis

Denver CO: Outskirts Press, Inc. 2008, $19.95, Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4327-1971-5

Reviewed by: Jacqueline M. Newman
Fall Volume: 2012 Issue: 19(3) page(s): 23 and 27

This book has forty-five recipes written in standard style, amounts following their ingredient names, and in Chicken; Pork and Beef; Seafood; Vegetables and Tofu; Rice and Noodle chapters. All are simple, each with a partial-page color photograph of its completed dish. They are easy to make. After them, a four-page glossary discusses thirty-six food items. The bookfs rear cover has a picture of and paragraph about the author. Need or want very easy Chinese cooking, use this volume. It helps understand and practice authentic dishes made with ingredients easy to locate. However, be sure to pay close attention to the instructions because ingredients are not in order of use and one does need to compare the picture with them. This one says flax seeds and shows those of sesame.

Potato Cakes with Chinese Sausage and Dried Shrimp
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons dried shrimps
1 large potato
1 Chinese sausage
1 scallion
1/4 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds (author calls them flax, picture looks more like sesame seeds)
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Preparation:
1. Soak dried shrimp in warm water for half an hour. Then drain and mince.
2. Boil one cup water and blanch Chinese sausage for two to three minutes, then mince.
3. Chop scallion into tiny pieces.
4. Peel and wash the potato, boil in two cups water, covered, for ten minutes, then remove and mash with shrimp, sausage, scallion, and chicken powder.
5. Shape this mixture into round flat pieces and sprinkle seeds on top.
6. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F, then brush oil on a baking sheet, put the potato cakes on the pan and bake for fifteen minutes or until golden brown.

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