Black Bean Garlic Sauce Snow Pea Lamb (蒜蓉豆豉醬荷蘭豆羊肉, Syun3 Jung4 Dau6 Si6 Zoeng3 Ho4 Laan4 Dau6 Joeng4 Juk6)

Here’s another lamb dish using lamb loin chop meat. I used this cut of meat in two previous recipes: Black Bean Chili Oil Lamb with Bean Curd Sticks (黑豆辣椒油腐竹羊肉, Hak¹ Dau⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Jau⁴ Fu⁶ Zuk¹ Joeng⁴ Juk⁶) and Black Bean Chili Oil Snow Pea Lamb Chow Mein (黑豆辣椒油荷蘭豆羊扒炒麵, Hak¹ Dau⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Jau⁴ Ho⁴ Laan⁴ Dau⁶ Joeng⁴ Paa⁴ Caau² Min⁶). More common (and cheaper) cuts of lamb can be substituted, such as lamb leg or shoulder. Lamb loin chops have two distinct pieces of meat separated by a bone as in a beef T-bone steak. The larger piece of meat is the loin and the smaller is the tenderloin. The two pieces of meat need to be removed from the bone, and then the loin and tenderloin pieces cut thinly using a very sharp knife. Meat from the lamb loin chop is very tender and even though there’s more work involved to prepare the meat for this dish, it’s worth the effort to make this dish if you can get the lamb loin chops for a decent price, otherwise use meat from the lamb leg or shoulder. You’ll need to purchase about 1½ lb. (750 g.) of lamb loin chops to get about ¾ lb. (375 g.) of meat after trimming.

Enjoy!

Seafood Winter Melon Soup (海鮮冬瓜羹, Hoi2 Sin1 Dung1 Gwaa1 Gang1)

I made this tasty soup for my family’s 2015 Christmas dinner. The soup is loaded with lots of seafood and is a special occasion type dish. The other main ingredient is winter melon. Winter melon is really a gourd used mainly in soups, but I’ve also used it in these stir fry recipes: Chicken and Rock Shrimp with Winter Melon (冬瓜蝦仁雞, Dung¹ Gwaa¹ Haa¹ Jan⁴ Gai¹), Winter Melon with Dried Shrimp (冬瓜蝦米, Dung¹ Gwaa¹ Haa¹ Mai⁵), and Stir Fried Beef with Winter Melon (冬瓜炒牛肉, Dung¹ Gwaa¹ Caau² Ngau⁴ Juk⁶). So winter melon can be quite versatile, but cooks quickly and becomes mushy if overcooked.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to use fresh local crabs due to a deadly neurotoxin contamination, so I used imported (from another state) freshly cooked crab from my local grocery store. I used the meat from two cooked Dungeness crabs and that produced about 1 lb. (500 g.) of meat. If you’re not fortunate enough to have freshly cooked crabs available, canned or frozen crab can be used. Crab is not the only seafood that can be used, and abalone or sea cucumber can be used as substitutes.

The soup stock was made using the Bone Soup (湯, Tong¹) recipe. You can used a prepared soup stock, but the taste of the soup is heavily dependent upon the quality of the ingredients. So if you’re going to all the trouble and expense to make this soup, you should make your own soup stock. The last Chinese character in the recipe’s name, 羹 (gang¹), signifies that this is a thick soup. A thick soup means that a corn starch solution is added to thicken the soup. The amount of thickener added to the soup depends upon personal preference, but the soup should be thicker than a normal soup and not thicker than a very thick gravy.

Enjoy!

Shredded Tofu Jellyfish Salad (白豆腐絲海蜇沙律, Baak6 Dau6 Fu6 Si1 Hoi2 Zit3 Saa1 Leot6)

Happy New Year! For the first recipe of 2016, here’s a tasty salad I made for my family’s 2015 Christmas dinner. It’s actually quite simple to make, consisting mainly of opening packages and cutting the fresh ingredients. The two notable ingredients are instant jellyfish and shredded tofu.

I’ve used instant jellyfish previously, Cucumber and Jellyfish Salad (Ceng¹ Gwaa¹ Hoi² Zit³ Saa¹ Leot⁶, 青瓜海蜇沙律), while the recipes are similar, the main ingredient for this dish is shredded tofu. Instant jellyfish comes in a package ready to use (hence the “instant” name). If I translated the Chinese correctly, it’s “jellyfish noodles”. The traditional method to prepare jellyfish is to soak dried salted jellyfish to rehydrate it before cutting into strips (at least a two day effort with a couple of water changes to remove the salt). So you see why packaged instant jellyfish is preferable. The jellyfish and cucumber give this dish a nice crunchy texture.

Shredded tofu is also packaged and looks like noodles. I’ve also used shredded tofu in another (cooked) recipe, Baby Bok Choy Sprouts with Shredded Tofu (白菜苗豆腐絲, Baak⁶ Coi³ Miu⁴ Dau⁶ Fu⁶ Si¹). The tofu needs to be parboiled before using (follow the instructions on the package), but other than that, there’s no other cooking needed before assembling the salad. The rest of the fresh salad ingredients are either cut or come already cut into small strips. Shredded tofu also comes marinated (five-spice), but the “noodles” are larger and could be substituted for the non-marinated version to give the salad another added taste.

Enjoy!