Simply Chinese: Recipes from a Chinese Home Kitchen

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A cookery book has been in the pipeline for a while but Suzie admits that it all came together in just seven weeks. Winning Best Home Cook opened many doors, but I always describe myself as a chartered accountant who cooks. Cooking is my relief. I haven't lost the fun of it yet and hope to continue both," adds the 38-year-old.

I was the youngest girl in my family and literally hung on to my mum's apron strings, watching her every move and seeing how she would transform simple ingredients into something really yummy. Mum not only cooked amazing Chinese food, but had a love of baking and pastry.” But the 38-year-old describes her win as life-changing, saying it has opened so many doors. “Pretty much when I won Best Home Cook I was, like, okay, I can cook. It’s okay to say I can cook, and I know what I’m doing in the cuisines I’m showcasing – because I’ve loved cooking from the age of 16. When my mum passed away I pretty much took on the role of mum, so I had to properly cook.” Simply Chinese is a sumptuous collection of classic and modern Chinese home-style recipes that can be made, with ease, in your own home kitchens. In a bowl mix all the pattie ingredients and season well; using your hands, bring it together and form into six balls and then flatten between two sheets of parchment paper to round discs.

Recipes

Cantonese food is another string to that whole Chinese story. It's mainly Hong Kong so right by the seaside and there's seafood and other very fresh food."

That meant it was something completely new in terms of challenging my brain and I'm really happy with the end result - it has exceeded all my expectations." Suzie first shot to fame after winning BBC national cookery competition, Best Home Cook (Image: BBC ) Under her mother’s guidance, the schoolgirl, who was preparing for a GCSE in Home Economics at the time, pulled off a super meal for her parents, as well as her three older sisters and little brother. Her mum worked 14 hour shifts so no wonder she didn’t want to slave over a hot stove for another day but Suzie asked her to show her how to do it. My recipes are not restrictive. I believe in using up ingredients you have to hand. This is especially important in this current climate where the cost of living is so crazy," adds Suzie, encouraging people to experiment. Some of the ingredients might seem somewhat unconventional for Hong Kong cuisine – such as spam, corned beef, HP sauce, ketchup, condensed milk and Linton tea bags.

Hong Kong-style chicken wings

Twenty years later, after having completed a degree in Economics and Management from Queen’s University Belfast and later completing her Chartered Accountancy exams, Suzie followed her passion for cooking in applying for and winning the BBC prime time show Best Home Cook. Cantonese food is actually quite different from takeaways because we grew up on fresh vegetables and ingredients. I'm trying to drive people to their local food producers suppliers because, especially here in Northern Ireland, we have so many wonderful foods available in terms of fruit, vegetables, meat, fish. It’s all about making use of all of those flavours – the sweet, the sharp, but also the fresh – and playing with those. I find there’s a much cleaner taste, compared to if you’re going to the north of China. Szechuan cooking is really obviously about spice, everything’s all very heavily spiced. That’s their culture, but with Hong Kong Cantonese cooking, because you were able to get fresh ingredients, they were making sure those ingredients sung on their own with a little bit of soy – if it’s fresh fish, some ginger, spring onion, and letting the dish do its thing.”

They absolutely love being in the kitchen with me. Our lives can be so busy, but cooking together is another way you can spend quality time with your children,” she says.

Her Hong Kong-born parents, Peter and Celia, moved to Northern Ireland in 1980 and food has always played a big part in family life. The couple opened a Chinese takeaway - the Man Lee in Lisburn - which is still going strong and where Suzie helped out through much of her youth.