Lamb rice bowl with cumin mayo

An umami bomb: mayo, cumin, lamb… and everything burnt.

This dish was inspired by an episode of Netflix’s Chef Show, featuring Jon Favreau and Roy Choi, where they visited Roy’s Las Vegas restaurant. This is a distinctively LA creation – you would not find this in either Hong Kong, or Japan. Instead of using uni as in the show, we used a pack of hotpot lamb, which is thinly sliced and meant for shabu shabu.

Make sure all children in the household are warned of the flame. Though if they’re old enough, this could be a great family adventure as well.

Serves 2

Time: 🕰
Effort: 💪💪

Ingredients:

Rice for two people
2 tablespoon black vinegar
2 tablespoon Japanese soy sauce
2 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon ketchup
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
Dash of hot sauce
1/2 pack (around 300g) lamb slices for hotpot, available in many supermarkets
Cumin seeds
Spring onion
White pepper and salt to taste

Method:

1. Cook rice
2. Mix black vinegar, Japanese soy sauce, and mirin into the rice
3. Add sesame oil and light soy sauce to taste
4. Transfer rice into the ceramic bowls you will serve from (no plastic bowls due to the flaming)
5. Push rice tightly into the bowl
6. Separately, mix together mayonnaise, hot sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and a little white pepper
7. Spoon the mayo mixture evenly over rice, like spreading peanut butter
8. Torch the mayo layer until slightly burned
9. Add first layer of lamb
10. Sprinkle with salt and cumin
11. Torch until burned around the edges but still a little pink – around medium to medium-well
12. Repeat for at least two more layers
13. Torch more, in case some pieces are too pink
14. Top with finely chopped spring onion and serve

XO Fishcake

Serves 2

Time: 🕰
Effort: 💪

Ingredients:

魚片 made in local store, such as 波記 in Ap Lei Chau
XO Sauce
Anything green

Method:

1. Slice fishcake into desired thickness
2. Microwave at 800W for 20 seconds
3. Spoon XO sauce over, but w/o the oil because the fishcake is already quite oily
4. Garnish and serve

Sunday Fish Pie

Serves 2

Time: 🕰🕰
Effort: 💪💪

Ingredients:

1/2 carrot
1/2 stalk celery
1/4 onion
Any fish of choice (frozen, MSC certified preferred, as long as it’s boneless)
1 tablespoon flour
Equal amount butter
milk
Potatoes

Method:

1. Preheat oven to medium-high (~200C)
2. Search cupboard for ceramic ramekin or any ovenproof vessel
3. Chop carrot, celery, onion into equal sized chunks
4. Sautée in olive oil until slightly softened but not brown
5. Tip contents into bottom of baking vessel
6. Place defrosted fish on top of the vegetable and season with salt and pepper
7. Back in the pan (now empty), combine flour and butter under medium heat and stir until a paste is formed
8. Add milk gradually to the pan until thickens to a white sauce
9. Season with salt and pepper
10. Pour white sauce onto the veg and fish until fish is half covered
11. Turn the potatoes into mashed potatoes according to your liking
12. Seal the baking vessel’s contents with the mashed potatoes
13. Make ridges along the top (as pictured) and add a small knob of butter so that it will crisp up while cooking
14. Put vessel into the oven and bake until you can smell the fish (around 15-20 minutes)
15. Transfer vessel to top rack inside the oven to bake for a little more, so that the top will be crispy and brown