Ken Hom webchat Thursday 30 January 2-3pm

Happy Chinese New Year, lots of love, Ken

Gogogran

Do you celebrate all the customs of all the places you've lived? Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chinese NEw Year etc? Which is your favourite tradition and why?

Chinese New Year is my favourite as that's what I grew up with, but I take every opportunity to celebrate wherever I am.

KChristy

Kung hei fat choi! How are you celebrating Chinese New Year?

Having dinner with friends at A.Wong in Victoria.

threesugars

I have quite a sweet tooth. What is your favourite traditional Chinese dessert? Do you find traditional British desserts too heavy?

I've never had a sweet tooth, what I tend to do is to serve fresh fruit and the end of the meal. It's always what my mum did.

golfpro

I like to prepare my meals in advance - what would you recommend as a dish I can get ready during the day and then just put together in minutes once guests have arrived?

There are a number of braised dishes, like braised spare ribs which are delicious and easy to make. It reheats very well. You'll find quite a number of dishes like that in my complete Chinese cookbook.

hazelS

I watched a documentary the other week, which said if you’re planning on reheating rice, you need to cool it down as soon as it’s cooked by rinsing it under the cold tap - does this not just ruin the rice? How strict are you about reheating rice? My Chinese friends aren’t bothered and think it’s just scaremongering… they said you need to leave rice for a day before making decent fried rice.

Your Chinese friends are entirely right and I've never done that and I'm still alive to tell the tale.

twiggy

What do you think about using endangered animals in dishes - like shark fins? Is it wrong? I try to keep an open mind but I think it would put me off really.

I'm totally against it.

kaybh

Can i have another question? If so... What would you recommend as a good easy meal to cook with a 4 year old? Surprisingly she doesn’t mind a bit of spice…

Four year old I wouldn't do spice, I would just do a simple stir fry dish with her favourite vegetables and garlic.

kaybh

Who is the most famous person you’ve cooked for? Where you’re starstruck?

Tina Turner.

Aquamarina

is there ant kind of traditional Chinese drink you'd suggest for a dinner party? I'm making (or maybe attempting is a better word) your chinese pork belly this weekend!

I seriously suggest using just wines - red or white.

GillianSmith

Hi Ken
We are having a Chinese New Year party and whilst I can manage to make a couple of dishes I wondered if you could recommend some extra dishes from your Tesco range that would be best for Chinese New Year
many thanks
Gill

The crispy duck, some of the appetiser dishes perfect for parties. Actually our crispy beef is pretty good and the ribs.

marbles

Crispy shredded chilli beef is may absolute favourite - is it easy to make? And is it as unhealthy as I think?!

It's fairly easy to make and you're perfectly right about it not being healthy as it's been fried! I have a recipe in my complete Chinese cookbook.

ambertoby

Please could you let me know your favourite vegetarian dish? I haven't done much Chinese cooking before but Ive recently become a vegetarian and i'm hoping it will be a way tp explore different vegetables than i am used to - and more exotic ones I hope!

One of my favourite vegetarian dish is braised spicy tofu, you need to fry the tofu first, which gives it a nice spongy texture. And then you can make a spicy sauce with garlic, ginger, black beans, chilli bean sauce, rice wine and soy sauce.