Category: Chinese Cooking

  • The Art and History of Pies

    The Art and History of Pies

    This video interview is a fascinating discussion with Calum Franklin, “The King of Pies” and author of the book, “The Pie Room.” What fascinated me was his exploration into British Culinary Traditions and Pie Making Technique in response to the realisation that everyone in his Kitchen Gang had no idea about how to use an…

  • Announcement!

    Announcement!

    We at Villa Tempest are proud to announce that, the Australian, “Pie Minister” is now in residence at Villa Tempest. We’d like to wish the Pie Minister all the very best as he strives to establish new, global polices for all of Villa Tempest’s foreign operations and international interests. Although this is a daunting task…

  • That Infamous Black Substance in KFC Original Recipe

    One of the more intriguing contentions within the KFC O.R. test & research community as championed at The Colonel’s Kitchen Forum (last posts 2015), its mirror (currently having Server problems) in the UK, Lumpy’s Larder (now defunct), and more recently at Reddit & the KFC11 Forum is the accepted wisdom that Tahitian Vanilla is an integral component and the suggested recommendation for Vial C, shown above. Tahitian…

  • Free E-Book: Chángshā Kǒuwèixiā 长沙口味虾

    I wrote a little booklet back in 2012 about this wonderful Chinese dish. Today, I just updated it, making a few corrections and changing the recipe a little to reflect an improved understanding of the process of making this dish. Couple of things to add though, if you have access to Louisiana Crawfish, then feel…

  • Pancake Parlour’s Tabriz Crepes (Revisited)

    Previously I wrote down my recipe for a Pancake Parlour-style Pancake Tabriz, and I must say I was very happy with it. But this update is even better! But after extensive searching I felt that I needed to revisit this recipe and analyse it just a little more. So instead of a traditional recipe this is going…

  • Gemüserolle auf vegetarische Art – Vegetarian-style mixed vegetable roll.

    In recent times I’ve had pretty good success with my “Piebase” [a shortcrust style pastry typically used in Australian-style handheld savoury pies) so much so that making it is no longer a chore – I enjoy the process and the results. Now, I’m experimenting with grinding my own flour. This means my piebase is morphing…