Every morning, I wake up in Greater Manchester – the most unconventionally beautiful, consmopolitan city with a population of 2.5million. On the table are green tea leaves, PG Tips, soy sauce, mango chutney, Heinz ketchup – resembling the mish mash of cultures that we’ve grown up with in Manchester. 

Recently and along with every city in the UK, the great in Greater Manchester has become faded – predominantly due to the credit crunch. Daily headline news concerns the next wave of redundancies that have affected Manchester’s people. I Twitter (@sweetmandarin) and the minute by minute updates tell me more stories of woe.   I can’t just sit there and watch. That’s why we’re hosting these Dine4Job events @ Sweet Mandarin.  As a restauranteur and cookery school owner, my sisters and I meet hundreds if not thousands of people – employers and employees.  Maybe, just maybe, we can try to match people with jobs.

About Dine4Jobs

Where? 

Dine4Jobs will be held in the relaxed environment @ Sweet Mandarin – where you can talk about your previous projects, experience and abilities with recruiters over a spot of delicious dim sum. In addition, if you can socialise, that skill in itself is a marketable asset.

What?

At the Dine4Job events career experts will give guidance on interview techniques, cv and cover letters, advice on changes in job direction and recruiters will be on hand to chat about job opportunities.

When? 

Wednesday evenings 6pm at Sweet Mandarin.  We will be hosting events on a sector by sector basis.

How? 

If you need a job and are interested, you will need to email me (dine4jobs@googlemail.com) with your cv and a cover email with the type of job you are looking for. We will invite you to the most appropriate evening based on your sector. 

Please also feel free to join Twitter (www.twitter.com) and follow me (@sweetmandarin) – where I can refer you to opportunities as and when they are sent to me via Twitter.

Recruiters are also welcome to email me and msg me on Twitter with opportunities (dine4jobs@googlemail.com).    

Friends – Its the year of the Ox and we need to be strong and focused. Manchester’s strength has always been its people – you have accepted us with open arms and allowed Sweet Mandarin to flourish. Its time for us to do our bit, tweet by tweet.

Best wishes and sweet dishes

Lisa, Helen and Janet Tse

Sweet Mandarin

19 Copperas Street, Manchester M4 1HS 

Email: dine4jobs@googlemail.com

Tel: 0161 832 8848

Twitter: @sweetmandarin

Download Press Release here sweet-mandarin-twitters-dine4jobs.doc

We hosted a competition on Twitter for a bit of fun. I asked what was your favourite beef dish and we waxed lyrical about the wonderful ways of beef – as well as pondering where did that phrase “I got beef with you” come from. I’m pleased to announce that the winner of this competition is @markkelly333 with his request for Beef and Green Peppers and Blackbean Sauce. It is a quick and easy recipe – and the beef is easily inter-changeable with chicken, pork, prawns or vegetables.

Best wishes and sweet dishes to you and your family

Lisax

STIR FRIED BEEF / CHICKEN / PORK WITH BLACKBEAN SAUCE
 
10 – 12oz beef steak / topside rump
1 small onion
1 small green pepper, cored and seeded
1-2 fresh red / green chillies cut into small circles
2 tablespoon of black bean sauce
½ teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
 
Marinade
½ teaspoon light soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon of water
1 teaspoon of potato starch
1 teaspoon of oil
 
1.    Cut the beef / pork / chicken into thin slices
2.    Marinate for about 20 minutes and leave in fridge.
3.    Cut the onion and green peppers into small triangular pieces.
4.    Heat the wok and add oil.
5.    Blanch the meat for about 1-2 minutes until the meat is cooked.
6.    Drain the meat.
7.    Heat the wok. Add a tablespoon of oil
8.    Add in the garlic for a few seconds
9.    Stir fry the chillies
10.  Stir fry in the peppers, onions for about 1 minute.
11.  Add in the meat
12.  Add in the blackbean sauce and soy sauce and blend well.
13. Season with salt / sugar / shaoshing wine.
14. Add in stock
15. Thicken with potato starch
16.  Serve.

I’ve received loads of emails about prawn toast. If you have tried to make prawn toast and it turns out a) burnt b) soggy c) too greasy this is my Sweet Mandarin Internet Cookery Lesson for you. Follow us on Twitter (@sweetmandarin)

At the Sweet Mandarin Cookery School, I teach you how to make the perfect prawn toast….and its as easy as ABC. They make great hor d’oeuvres and are wonderful party additions for any occasion.  If you know how to spread jam on bread, you’ll know how to make my wonderful sesame prawn toast.

Recipe for Sesame Prawn Toast

If vegetarian, one can use tofu or mushroom alternative. If you don’t like prawn – try chicken!

Ingredients
•250g of raw de-shelled prawns blended into a paste
•1 tbsp shaoshing wine
•0.25 tbsp white pepper
•0.25 tbsp salt
•6 slices white bread (large medium thick), crusts removed and cut into quarters
•5-6 tbsp sesame seeds 

Method
•Prawn Paste : Place all the paste ingredients in a food processor and blend until you have a smooth paste. Place the prawn in a covered container for 15 minutes.
•Toast: Spread the prawn paste on one side of the bread with a palate knife or knife, so that the bread is evenly coated. Repeat this with all the slices of bread. [Now isn't this as easy as spreading jam on bread!]. Place the sesame seeds on a plate and lay the bread (paste side) on the sesame seeds gently pressing them in. Shake off any excess and this baby is ready for a hot bath! 

To Cook
• Preheat oil in a deep fryer or in a wok until hot. Turn down heat to moderate.  Deep fry the bread in batches prawn side down, for 2-3 minutes, until the slices are golden brown. Remove from the oil, drain them on kitchen paper and keep warm in a low oven while you prepare the remaining slices. 

Hot Oil Tester

How hot is hot? The heat is radiating from the wok but is it hot enough? If you see smoke – its too hot.  If the oil is not hot enough, the prawn toast will not cook well and the bread will soak in the oil making it greasy and soggy. If the oil is too hot, it will burn the bread. 

Try this simple but effective test – get a pair of unpainted bamboo chopsticks (that are dry not wet) and stick the end into the oil.  If the oil bubbles rapidly, the oil is ready for cooking. [Note to cooks - don't use painted or coloured chopsticks as the hot oil will burn off the colour.]   

To Serve
•Slice the toast in small squares or triangles with small bowls of sweet and sour sauce or sweet chilli sauce.

 The Secrets to Perfect Prawn Toast

1)  ensure that the filling (whether prawn or chicken paste) is spread to the very edges of the toast (this avoids the bread from getting burnt);

2) ensure that the layer of raw meat is evenly spread and is not too thickly applied.  A thick layer of raw meat on the bread leaves the meat not being thoroughly cooked or if you leave the prawn toast in the deep fat fryer until cooked, the bread ends up being greasy and soggy; and

3) ensure you cook the prawn toast in hot oil (see hot oil tester above)

Hope that helps. Let me know how it goes. If you want the recipe or have any other questions, drop me an email at sweetmandarin@gmail.com For more information about Sweet Mandarin Cookery School : www.sweetmandarin.com

Best wishes and Sweet dishes to you and your family

Lisa

(L to R: Helen, Janet, Mum (Mabel) and me around the family table – check out the floral table cloth and Sugar Puffs!)

My earliest memories was hearing the click-click of my mother’s heels on the tiled floor, the white clouds of steam billowing out as the wok lid was lifted and the incredible aromas that made my stomach growl. We grew up in a family firm that was built on decades of graft and hard-earned experience, and we were expected to give up our weekends and evenings to help in the family takeaway. Schoolwork, a thousand little frustrations and missed Friday night parties evaporated as we sat down to eat.

(L to R: Mother, Janet, Me, Helen, seated Grandmother, Lily Kwok)

My mother has that knack of melting away problems with a smile despite the fact that she has been through a lot (racist attacks, the isolation of being an immigrant family) but it is a tribute to my mother’s extraordinary character and toughness that she didn’t let these experiences get to the core of her.  She has a forgiving heart and has learnt not to be bitter. If the world were run by mothers, the world would be a peaceful place.  My mother is my heroine and my inspiration in returing to the catering trade.

For all mothers and your endless love, I dedicate the Mother’s Day menu and our book, Sweet Mandarin to you.  Here are three ways to make your mother smile all year around.

Press Release – Download here press-release-mothers-day.doc

1. Treat your mother to a lovely dinner at Sweet Mandarin.

Click here to see the special mother’s day menus starting at 17.50 pounds sweet-mandarin-mothers-day-menu.pdf

2. Buy you and your mother a fun cookery class experience at Sweet Mandarin and bond over good, delicious food (75 pounds per person)

3. Buy your mother a copy of our inspirational memoir, Sweet Mandarin (which is about grandmother-mother-daughter relationships)

Best wishes and sweet dishes

Lisa

Web: http://www.sweetmandarin.com

Twitter (@sweetmandarin)

Address: 19 Copperas Street, Manchester M4 1HS

Email: sweetmandarin@gmail.com

Tel: 0161 832 8848

America and Japan has their own Iron Chef who battle it out in a TV Kitchen Stadium creating dishes from one secret ingredient that is revealed by the Chairman. Is Lisa Tse the UK’s Iron Chef?

 Lisa Tse, head chef and CEO of the award winning Sweet Mandarin restaurant and cookery school headlined at the GMEX Exhibition Centre for a cook-off in Manchester’s very own kitchen stadium. Battling against the clock and hundreds of hungry spectators, Lisa served the nation, and cooked her way through oodles and oodles of noodles, stir fries, dim sum, fruit origami and firecracker. Her secret ingredient for the day was soy sauce (her great grand-father Leung created a soy sauce brand in Guangzhou, China). Lisa has a natural knack of making cooking fun. She teaches members of the public how to make the most ordinary of ingredients into extraordinary dishes, although now and again, Lisa likes to throw in an exotic mix of tofu, udon and bok choy. Even the most experienced cook needs a little inspiration from time to time, and during this cookery demonstration Lisa shared her trade secrets with the audience as well as explaining that dim sum originated from the silk road of China and when translated means ‘from the heart’. Lisa also advises how to pair Chinese food dishes with wines that compliment and bring out the flavours of your favourite recipes.   If you want to learn more, join the Sweet Mandarin Cookery School held every Saturday at the Sweet Mandarin restaurant. There are beginner and advance courses and costs £75 per person (which includes a hands on 3 hour course, lunch and recipe sheets). Lisa is also available for demonstrations for special events.      TO BOOK Please send a cheque made payable to Lisa Tse to Sweet Mandarin 19 Copperas Street, Northern Quarter, Manchester, M4 1HS.  Web: www.sweetmandarin.com  Email: sweetmandarin at gmail dot com.Lisa also Twitters. Follow her @sweetmandarinTo download the press release click here: Is Lisa Tse the UK’s Iron Chef – Press Release

Have you ever wondered who is that person you’ve been tweeting to morning, noon and night? Well pop in tonight (starting from 6pm) and you’re gonna meet your tweeters at Sweet Mandarin.  I have a confession to make. I aka (@sweetmandarin) am a ”certified twitterholic” and I cook n tweet, serve n tweet and can’t wait to meet you in person. I’ve already got butterflies as I’m preparing the dim sum extravaganza for tonight.  It is customary for the Chinese to offer small gifts, so please enjoy our complimentary dim sum (literally translated means from the heart). My dream is to meet all the tweeters in the Manchester area.

Twitter is such an amazing discovery. Not only is it fun, but its a way to help our fellow Mancunians. Through tweets with fellow tweeters, I know Manchester folk are suffering with the downturn. Everyone can do their bit and we’re going to hold events to match people with jobs.  To my Manchester friends - its the Year of the Ox -  Be strong. Turning up is half the battle and I know that networking helps boost the spirits, if not create an opportunity. Follow us @sweetmandarin.

(me cooking @debbas’ chicken n cashewnut)

I met a really great guy – what you’d call the glue that connects people. He’s @debbas and he has helped me via Twitter even though he doesn’t even know me! So I thought he would deserve his favourite dish Chicken and Cashewnuts. If you want to know more about @debbas, check out his sites are www.wearelogos.com , www.weareprinting.com and www.baramenities.com – he’s friendly, willing to help and a good Twitterer to follow.  

Chicken and Cashewnuts Recipe for @debbas

250g Skinless Chicken breast (boneless) cut into cubes

Method:

1. Choose skinless chicken breast meat. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
2. Marinade chicken pieces with oyster sauce, sugar, soy sauce and potato starch (potato starch stops chicken getting rubbery and gives it a lovely silky texture).
3. Heat a wok until hot and pour a tbsp of vegetable oil
4. Cut onion into cubes. Cut garlic into slices. Fry onion & garlic until fragrant.
5. Add in chicken & vegetables. Add tbsp of sesame oil. Stir-fry until chicken is cooked.
6. Add potato starch mix. Stir until the sauce thickens.
7. Remove from heat and pour in cashewnuts. Serve with steaming hot jasmine rice.

Calories for 350g of chicken and cashewnut 311kcal. Above recipe serves 2-3.

Follow us on Twitter (@sweetmandarin) – my tweets about cashewnuts

• One cashew tree produces between 200 – 300 cashew nuts a year (not a lot eh!)

•  The cashew is a tree. Its fruit is shaped like a boxing glove. Its seeds r my delicious cashewnuts

• One cashew tree mades 10-15 chicken cashewnuts….interesting eh.

• Time to make a cashewnut chicken…..blazing the the wok…drop of sesame oil…hhmm smells wonderfully nutty.

Introduction to this Blog Entry

We’d just finished the First Cookery School via Twitter event which was great fun.

I met a lovely lady called Ellen Britt (@ellenbritt) on Twitter. She told me that her daughter (a little 10 year old girl from Fuzhou) was not well but loved noodles. Ellen, this recipe – Chicken Chow Mein can be made a thousand and one ways. I’ve always loved a great chow mein (or lo mein) and this is one of my mother’s recipes that we serve at Sweet Mandarin. I believe there are many things in this world that divide us but food is that one thing that unites us. Wishing your daughter gets better soon, and looking forward to seeing you in Manchester one day. In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy our book, Sweet Mandarin – our journey of a thousand miles from China to the UK and our one lifeline – food.

Best wishes and sweet dishes

Lisa

What is a Noodle?

A noodle is food made from unleavened dough that is cooked in a boiling liquid. Depending upon the type, noodles may be dried or refrigerated before cooking. The word noodle derives from the German nudel (noodle) and may be related to the Latin word nodus (knot). In English, noodle is a generic term for unleavened dough made from many different types of ingredients. Noodles exist in an abundance of shapes. The first written account of noodles is from the East Han Dynasty between AD 25 and 220. In October 2005, the oldest noodles yet discovered were found at the Lajia site (Qijia culture) along the Yellow River in Qinghai, China. The 4,000-year-old noodles appear to have been made from foxtail millet and broomcorn millet.

Measuring Noodles Most dried noodles doubles in volume when cooked. For accuracy, measure noodles by weight rather than by cup. The general rule is one pound of dry noodles will serve six as an appetizer or four as a main course.  Remember – shapes may vary in size according to the manufacturer, so use these measurements as generalizations.  The easiest way to measure noodles is to use your digital scale.  4 ounces of uncooked noodles = a 1-inch diameter bunch of dry noodles = 2 cups cooked noodles.How To Cook Noodles ProperlyImportant Rule:  Noodles should be prepared just before serving it.    

1. Use a Large Pot (A too-small pot and too little water cause the noodles to clump and stick together, thus cooking unevenly).
2.  Use only COLD Water – fill that big pot 3/4 full of COLD water and cover the pot of cold water with a lid to help bring the water to a boil faster.
3. Add Salt to the boiling water about 2 tablespoons of kosher salt per pound of noodles.
4. Add the dried noodles to BOILING HOT water.
5. Cook the noodles uncovered and gently stir the noodles during the first 1 to 2 minutes of cooking.
6. Cook for 8 – 12 minutes until the noodles are soft and chewy when bitten into.
7. Turn off heat and add 1 cup of cold water – this will lower the temperature and stop the noodles from over cooking.
8. Drain the noodles immediately in a large colander standing in the sink and then pick up the colander with its contents and shake well to remove excess water. (Do not rinse – the starch from the noodles could make the noodles stick together).

Tip about when to add the noodles : Noodles added to cold or warm water end up getting mushy and stuck together as the noodles quickly begins to break down in tepid water as the starch dissolves. Only add the noodles once the water is boiling – as this boiling temperature “sets” the outside of the noodles, which prevents the noodles from sticking together. 

Should I add oil? No. Oil will coat the noodles and prevent the sauce from adhering. CHICKEN CHOW MEIN 

This recipe for chicken chow mein is one that my mother, Mabel taught me at the age of 10 years old and we serve this at Sweet Mandarin to this day.

 INGREDIENTS:1 lb (500 g) boneless chicken breast, cut in thin strips 1 tablespoon (15 mL) soy sauce      1/4 (1 mL) salt

1 tablespoon (15 mL) cornstarch

1 lb (500 g) Chinese-style steamed noodles or cooked thin egg noodles 

1 1/2 cups (375 mL) Chicken Stock

 ¼ cup (62.5mL) Half an onion thinly sliced onions

 1/2 cup (125mL) Chinese cabbage

1/8 cup (31mL) One small carrot thinly sliced

3 large dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked and thinly sliced or from a can or button mushrooms are good too

2 spring onions, cut into 1-inch pieces 

2 teaspoons (10 mL) sesame oil 

3 cups (750 mL) bean sprouts, tightly packed  PREPARATION:1.Combine chicken and marinade ingredients (soy sauce, salt and cornstarch), mix well and set aside.2. Blanch noodles in large amount of boiling water with salt for 3 minute or as per package instructions. 3. Drain well and cool slightly. Plate up. 

4. Meanwhile, heat wok over high heat, add stock and bring to boil.

5. Add ginger, onions, carrots, Chinese cabbage and mushrooms and cook for 1 minute.

6. Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes. Stock should thicken slightly.

7. Add flowering chives or green onions and sesame oil; stir to mix for 1 minute.

8. Pour chicken and vegetables over the noodles and serve.

Serves 4. Each serving includes:Calories 358, 43 g Carbohydrates, 33 g Protein, 6 g Fat, 1 g Saturated Fat, 100 mg Cholesterol, 5 g Fibre, 466 mg Sodium, 555 mg Potassium. An excellent source of vitamin D, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6, folacin, and iron. A good source of fibre, vitamin C, vitamin B-12 and zinc.