Chinese Unchopped: An Introduction to Chinese Cooking

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Chop 10 large red chillies, 2 red onions, 2 lemongrass stalks, 1 thumb-size piece galangal or ginger, 6 garlic cloves, 6 macadamia nuts (optional), 1-2 tsp belacan or toasted shrimp paste (vegetarians can use 2 tsp ready-made crispy fried onions), then whizz with the soaked chillies to a smooth paste in a food processor. Soak the dried red chillies in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain. Mix the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.

Finely chop the pak choi, kale, garlic, ginger, spring onion (scallion) and coriander (cilantro) and place in a large mixing bowl, then add the minced pork and the marinade ingredients and mix well. To make the fat cat fold, place one dumpling pastry flat on a clean surface. Place roughly one teaspoon of the marinated mix in the centre of the pastry. The vastness of what British Chinese food is, and can be, in the UK is rapidly expanding. Jason Li, an ex-restaurant manager who currently runs a London-based Shanghainese supper club called Dreams of Shanghai, arrived in the UK in 1993 and has seen an evolution in the type of Chinese cuisine on offer over the past few decades. "It used to be 99% Cantonese food, and then 10 years ago, we saw a rise in Sichuan food," he said. "Now, there are a lot different cuisines, catering to new Chinese migrants such as students." Additionally, a wide range of people come to his supper club, often with some connection to China and wide knowledge of the cuisine. Soak 10 dried red chillies in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain and chop. Mix 1 tbsp tomato purée, 3 tbsp tamarind concentrate, 3 tbsp light soy sauce, 90ml kecap manis and 1 tsp salt in a bowl with 120ml water. Following the success of his mobile kitchen, School of Wok opened its first permanent professional kitchen in May 2012 in Covent Garden, near London’s Chinatown. Since then, the School has gone from strength to strength, winning The British Cookery School Awards in 2014, and teaching over 60,000 students the secrets of Asian cuisines.

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Turn wok onto high heat and add ½ tbsp vegetable oil. Add marinated pork and sear until cooked, then remove. Add another ½ tbsp vegetable oil into wok. Stir-fry vegetables, then add pork, followed by noodles and sauce mix. Stir for 1-2 minutes and serve on a plate. Jeremy comes from three generations of Chinese chefs. Being surrounded by food connoisseurs Jeremy developed his passion for food and cooking at an early age. There is a reason why this [British] Chinese food is still one of the most popular foods in the UK. The flavour profile is what people look for in comfort food," he said.

Place the steak in a mixing bowl and massage the marinade ingredients into the meat, saving the cornflour until last. Mix the sauce ingredients together in a separate bowl. Place the salmon skin side down in the cornflour tray and press down. Place skin side down again into milk, then the sesame seed tray. You are now ready to make your curry sauce. Pour the vegetable oil into a medium saucepan and bring to a medium heat. Fry the onion for roughly five–six minutes, stirring occasionally, until well softened and starting to brown. Add the garlic, red chilli and curry leaves and continue to fry for another 2–3 minutes. After about 30 seconds, you should start to smell the distinct aroma of the curry leaves. Do not allow the leaves to burn, but once they are starting to brown a little, add the curry paste and stir well. It should start to boil within about 30 seconds or so. Heat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in your wok over a high heat until smoking hot. Swirl the oil around the wok a little and then add the marinated beef and sear for 1 minute on each side. Next add the sliced red onion to the wok and start to fold through. Add the spring onion and garlic and continue to stir-fry for 1-2 minutes, giving the wok a good shake every 20-30 seconds.For the majority of British people, Chinese food from their local takeaway comes with a sense of nostalgia. But with this nostalgia comes the danger of "museum-ifying" it, explained Jenny Lau, a writer who founded the platform Celestial Peach that investigates East and South East Asian identity and community, primarily through food. By this, she means that without fully appreciating the evolution of the food and how each generation tweaks recipes, it can be seen as static, like an artefact within British culture. It can also limit our understanding of what it means to be Chinese in Britain, relegating the identity of Chinese people to the foods of takeaways.