As usual, some of the leftovers of my family’s Christmas turkey ended up in a Sichuanese dressing on Boxing Day (as mentioned in Time Out): tamari soy sauce, Chinkiang vinegar, sugar, ground roasted Sichuan pepper, home-made chilli oil and a little turkey stock. A scattering of toasted sesame seeds would have been a nice garnish, but I forgot to bring them with me to my parents’ house. We served it alongside ham, potato salad, green salad, Chinese kohlrabi salad, carrot salad, chicory with pear, walnut and blue cheese and other delicious leftovers. And then for pud, apple crumble, leftover Chinese mince pies (little mince pies made in 
the shape of jiaozi dumplings – a stop-gap invented one Christmas in Chengdu when there were no mince pie trays to hand, and used ever since), meringues and plum compote made with plums from the garden. Oh – and these marzipan and walnut balls, made in memory of my wonderful grandmother, who used to make them every year.
Christmas
The Financial Times this weekend has published one of my articles, about how most of my Christmas recipes have been infiltrated by Chinese ingredients and cooking techniques. Even that archetypal English staple, mince pies – for years now, I have made them in the shape of Chinese jiaozi dumplings. If you follow this link to the FT website, you will be able to see some lovely colour photographs of a salad made with leftover turkey and some jiaozi mince pies. Otherwise, here are the basic recipes: Continue reading…
