Chicken and Asparagus Dough Sliced Chow Mein (蘆筍雞炒刀削麵, Lou4 Seon2 Gai1 Caau2 Dou1 Soek3 Min6)

 

This recipe was updated on 25 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Here’s another variation, using chicken and asparagus, for making chow mein with dough sliced noodles. Unlike the dish at the local Chinese Muslim restaurant, this version uses spicy black bean chili sauce. Dough sliced noodles are aptly named since the noodles are sliced from a block of dough. The noodles are also called knife-cut noodles. The noodles have a chewy doughy texture, unlike normal chow mein noodles. I always wondered how to get or make these noodles. Now I don’t have to go to a restaurant to get this dish since I found the dough sliced noodles in the freezer section at my local Asian market.

 

The dough sliced noodle package contains 5 packs of noodles each weighing 200 grams (for a total of 1 kilogram). While the package says that you don’t have to thaw the noodles before cooking, I defrost my noodles overnight before use. You can always use the microwave to defrost the noodles if you forget to defrost them (1 minute on high works for me). Once I forgot to defrost the noodles, and I put the noodles in boiling water briefly to defrost them. The noodles definitely get defrosted, but the texture is not as chewy after being boiled. If you can’t find dough sliced noodles, you can substitute another flat noodle.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Cauliflower Yellow Curry

This is a very simple dish to make. The yellow curry is available as an already prepared paste (I used Mae Ploy brand). The amount of curry paste you use depends upon the level of spiciness that you desire – use more for more spicy and less for less spicy. You add coconut milk to the chicken, vegetables, and curry to complete the dish. The trick is to incorporate the cauliflower and potatoes into the dish towards the end of the cooking time. If you put them in at the beginning, you’ll get mushy cauliflower and potatoes.

Enjoy!

Winter Melon with Dried Shrimp (冬瓜蝦米, Dung1 Gwaa1 Haa1 Mai5)

 

This recipe was updated on 03 Nov 2015. Some instructions and ingredient measurements were changed.

Here’s another simple winter melon stir fry dish, this time using dried shrimp. Chinese winter melon is not a melon but a gourd with what looks like a white powder covering the outer surface. It’s usually available, eaten, and stored over the Fall and Winter months. It is typically used in soups, the classic being a soup with winter melon and dried oysters either with or without the winter melon’s outer skin.

Enjoy!

Grilled Chili Oil Turkey Thighs (燒烤油辣椒火雞髀, Siu1 Haau1 Jau4 Laat6 Ziu1 Fo2 Gai1 Bei2)

 

This recipe was updated on 29 Oct 2015. The Chinese name was added, some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Since I’m sure that you want to eat more turkey after Thanksgiving J, here’s a simple grilled turkey recipe based on soy sauce and Laoganma brand Chili In Oil that’s probably spicy than your usual Thanksgiving turkey. Laoganma brand Chili In Oil has chunks of chili in oil and is spicy more than hot. Chili garlic sauce can be substituted if you cannot find this item at your local Asian market. The fresh turkey thighs were purchased in packages of two at my local supermarket.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Chinese Oxtail Stew (燜牛尾, Man1 Ngau4 Mei5)

This recipe was updated on 12 Sep 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This is a great dish for a Fall or Winter meal. One of my favorite ingredients, oxtails, were on sale and it’s hard to resist buying a favorite ingredient on sale. Oxtails are mainly bone, but are full of gelatin and together with tapioca starch, serves to thicken the sauce. The oxtails can either be browned in a wok or Dutch oven the night before.

Star anise and cassia bark are the main spices used in this dish. Cassia bark has a cinnamon-like flavor, but does taste slightly different than “normal” cinnamon, and is sold as dried cinnamon sticks at Asian markets. You can substitute regular cinnamon for cassia bark if you cannot find it. All the soak-out cooker ingredients (except for the ginger and garlic) can be found in the preserved/dried section of your local Asian market.

Tapioca starch is used to thicken the liquid and holds up well in a slow cooker. I originally got this information from America’s Test Kitchen and they use Minute Tapioca made by Kraft. I’ve used both the Minute Tapioca and plain tapioca starch to thicken liquids in a slow cooker, and both work equally as well. You can find Minute Tapioca in any grocery store and tapioca starch at your local Asian supermarket. The tapioca starch is much more inexpensive than the Minute Tapioca. Corn starch and other thickeners will break down and not thicken during the long cooking times in a slow cooker.

Enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Pumpkin Cheesecake with Chocolate Cookie Crust

I don’t bake very often, but I was asked to bring a dessert to a Thanksgiving gathering. I like pumpkin pie, and since it was Thanksgiving, a pumpkin cheesecake sounded really good. I got inspiration from the Cranberry Orange Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust recipe at the For Two, Please website and the Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe by Ethan Howard, pastry chef at Cavallo Point, Sausalito that was published in the local newspaper. Well, the cheesecake turned out to be a hit!

The chocolate cookie crust uses chocolate cookies with a crème filling (the most famous brand in the USA being Oreo – but this is not an Oreo cookie recipe!). After separating the cookies from the crème filling, the filling is usually discarded (or eaten!). So I had the wild idea to use the filling in the crust to help bind the crushed cookie pieces together. Well, I tried it and it worked. Since the filling already has sugar in it, I didn’t add any sugar to the cookie crumbs. I did have to add some oil (or melted butter) since there wasn’t enough of the filling to bind all the crumbs together.

You need to make the cheesecake and the filling the night before you want to eat it, so plan ahead!

Enjoy!

Stir Fried Beef with Winter Melon (冬瓜炒牛肉, Dung1 Gwaa1 Caau2 Ngau4 Juk6)

 

This recipe was updated on 21 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Chinese winter melon is not a melon but a gourd with what looks like a white powder covering the outer surface. It’s usually available, eaten, and stored over the Fall and Winter months. It is typically used in soups, the classic being a soup with winter melon and dried oysters either with or without the winter melon’s outer skin. For this dish, the winter melon is stir fried with beef after the outer skin is removed and the flesh diced into large cubes. The trick is to quickly stir fry the winter melon so that it doesn’t become mushy.

Enjoy!

Beef Dough Sliced Chow Mein (牛肉炒刀削麵, Ngau4 Juk6 Caau2 Dou1 Soek3 Min6)

This recipe was changed on 21 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed. There is another variation of this recipe: Beef and Bell Pepper Dough Sliced Noodles (青椒牛肉刀削麵, Ceng¹ Ziu¹ Ngau⁴ Juk⁶ Dou¹ Soek³ Min⁶).

Here’s another recipe, using beef, for making chow mein with dough sliced noodles. Unlike the dish at the local Chinese Muslim restaurant, this version uses spicy black bean chili sauce. Dough sliced noodles are aptly named since the noodles are sliced from a block of dough. Another name for these noodles is “knife-cut noodles”. The noodles have a chewy doughy texture, unlike normal chow mein noodles. I always wondered how to get or make these noodles. Now I don’t have to go to a restaurant to get this dish since I found the dough sliced noodles in the freezer section at my local Asian market. The package contains 5 packs of noodles each weighing 200 grams (for a total of 1 kilogram). While the package says that you don’t have to thaw the noodles before cooking, I defrost my noodles overnight before use. Once I forgot to defrost the noodles, and I put the noodles in boiling water briefly to defrost them. The noodles definitely get defrosted, but the texture is not as chewy after being boiled. If you can’t find dough sliced noodles, you can substitute another flat noodle.

 

Enjoy!

Spicy Pork and Salted Fish with Long Beans (鹹魚豆角炒豬肉, Haam4 Jyu4 Dau6 Gok3 Caau2 Zyu1 Juk6)

This recipe was update on 24 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This is a variation on a spicy pork with long beans dish using salted fish. The salted fish adds pungency to the dish, so you only need one small piece. Long beans are a favorite vegetable of mine and differ from regular green beans in the most obvious way; they are really long in length. If you can’t find long beans at your favorite market, you can easily substitute regular green beans. A good amount of sauce is prepared with this dish, so the dish goes really well over steamed rice.

Enjoy!

Curry Tomato Beef Tripe (咖哩番茄牛柏葉, Gaa3 Lei1 Faan1 Ke4 Ngau4 Paak3 Jip6)

 

This recipe was updated on 25 Sep 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

For those of you unfamiliar with beef tripe, it’s cow stomach. Since a cow has multiple stomachs, there are various kinds of beef tripe, this one being the honeycomb. The tripe needs some preparation time, so you’ll need a minimum of 2 hours for prep. Baking soda serves to tenderize and clean the tripe – just be sure to wash it out before cooking. The tripe is boiled for 15-20 minutes and then cooled before cutting into strips. Since the tripe shrinks after being boiled, you don’t want to cut the strips beforehand. I made that mistake once and ended up with miniscule pieces of tripe. A tomato curry is one way to make a tripe dish. My other favorite is Black Bean Sauce Beef Tripe (豆豉牛柏葉, Dau⁶ Si⁶ Ngau⁴ Paak³ Jip⁶).

Enjoy!

Rock Cod with Salted Olives (Haam4 Gaam3 Laam5 Sek6 Baan1, 鹹橄欖石斑)

Any firm fleshed fish will work for this dish, and you can either buy fillets or fillet the fish yourself. In this case a rock cod (sek⁶ baan¹, 石斑) tail was available at the Asian market. Instead of using salted black beans (dau⁶ si⁶, 豆豉), I used salted olives (haam⁴ gaam³ laam⁵, 鹹橄欖), which gives the dish a different flavor. You need to chop and soak the salted olives before using them (but don’t soak for too long or you’ll lose the salted olive flavor).

Enjoy!

Rock Cod with Wood Ear Fungus (Muk6 Ji5 Sek6 Baan1, 木耳石斑)

This is actually a very fast dish to cook, but it does take a little over an hour of preparation time. Any firm fleshed fish will work for this dish, and you can either buy fillets or fillet the fish yourself. In this case a rock cod (sek⁶ baan¹, 石斑) tail was available at the Asian market and I filleted the fish myself. Add some wood ear fungus (muk⁶ ji⁵, 木耳) and you have your complete dish.

Enjoy!

Cashew Shrimp with Long Beans (腰果豆角蝦仁, Jiu1 Gwo2 Dau6 Gok3 Haa1 Jan4)

 

This recipe was updated on 03 Dec 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

I made this dish because I had some shrimp and I wanted a dish with long beans. I added cashew nuts to make a classic Chinese-American restaurant dish. Long beans are a favorite vegetable of mine and differ from regular green beans in the most obvious way; they are really long in length. Regular green string beans can be substituted if you can’t find long beans at your favorite Asian market. The dried red chili peppers are optional, and the quantity is a personal preference, so feel free to increase or decrease the amount.

Enjoy!

Spicy Pork with Okra (Cau1 Kwai4 Caau2 Zyu1 Juk6, 秋葵炒豬肉)

There are two ingredients that I’ve tried for the first time. The first is the pork and the second is the okra. Now I’ve used ground pork before in other recipes before, but this is the first time I used a large grind pork rather than the smaller grind that you normally find at the Asian market. Using a larger pork grind means the pork chunks are bigger, while this doesn’t change the taste any, visually you see the pork. Okra is something that I’ve never really used before.  I left them whole, rather than cutting them up and this works if you have younger okra. I got some older ones and you could tell that they were older because they’re stingy. Unfortunately you don’t find this out until you bite into the okra.

Enjoy!

Shrimp Dough Sliced Chow Mein (蝦炒刀削麵, Haa1 Caau2 Dou1 Soek3 Min6)

This recipe was updated on 01 Aug 2018. Instructions to make the shrimp crunchy, like that found in restaurant dishes, was added.

I first got introduced to this dish at the local Chinese Muslim restaurant. Ordering this dish and green onion bread makes for a great meal. Dough sliced noodles are aptly named since the noodles are sliced from a block of dough. The noodles have a chewy doughy texture, unlike normal chow mein noodles. I always wondered how to get or make these noodles. Now I don’t have to go to a restaurant to get this dish since I found the dough sliced noodles in the freezer section at my local Asian market.

A typical package contains 5 packs of noodles each weighing 200 grams (for a total of 1 kilogram). While the package says that you don’t have to thaw the noodles before cooking, I defrost my noodles overnight before use. Once I forgot to defrost the noodles and put the noodles in boiling water briefly to defrost them. The noodles definitely get defrosted, but the texture is not as chewy after being boiled. If you can’t find dough sliced noodles, you can substitute another flat noodle.

Now if I can only learn how to make the green onion bread…

Enjoy!

Grilled Garam Masala Chicken (燒烤胡荽雞, Siu1 Haau1 Wu4 Seoi1 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 17 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, the Chinese name was added, and hyperlinks fixed.

I used a basic soy sauce marinade and added garam masala powder to grill the whole chicken. Instead of cutting the chicken in half and removing the backbone before grilling, I kept the chicken whole and put it on a “beer can” stand to roast it upright in the barbeque. While I didn’t use a beer can to keep the chicken upright, I have an apparatus that has two rods attached to a pan that keep the chicken standing while being grilled.

The standing chicken is placed in the charcoal grate, without using the grill grate. The barbeque cover can’t be used if the standing chicken is placed on the grill grate in a 22.5 in. (57 cm.) grill, so that’s why the standing chicken is placed on the charcoal grate with the coals arranged around it in a circle. Adding a smoking wood to the grill, such as hickory, mesquite, pecan, or whatever your favorite wood is, further enhances the flavor.

You can look at the Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil (薑蔥油, Goeng¹ Cung¹ Jau⁴) recipe for instructions on cutting and arranging a chicken on a platter.

Enjoy!

Korean Barbequed Beef Short Ribs (Kalbi, 갈비)

This recipe was updated on 20 Mar 2016. Some instructions were changed and a link to the newer version of this recipe, using a homemade sauce instead of store bought, was added.

A newer version of this recipe using a homemade sauce, rather than store bought, can be found here: Los Angeles Style Korean Barbeque Beef Short Ribs - L.A. Galbi (L.A. 갈비). I would recommend using the newer recipe instead of this one.

Bottled Korean barbeque sauce is the basis for the beef marinade. Korean barbeque sauce uses pear juice as one of the ingredients and it gives the flanken cut beef short ribs a unique sweet flavor. You can now buy flanken cut beef short ribs at most supermarkets, otherwise you’ll have to get your butcher to cut the short ribs thinly for you. I use my outdoor barbeque to grill the ribs, but normally the ribs are cooked at the table in Korean restaurants.

Enjoy!

Steamed Pork Spareribs with Salted Black Beans (Dau6 Si6 Zing1 Paai4 Gwat1, 豆豉蒸排骨)

 

This recipe was updated on 04 Nov 2013. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

It seems like I’ve been making this dish forever, but I found a good addition to this dish – wet preserved plums (haam⁴ seoi² mui⁴, 鹹水梅) – after looking at the Steamed Pork Ribs with Black Bean Sauce recipe from The Waitakere Redneck’s Kitchen blog. The plums add an additional layer of flavor to the dish. You can easily leave the plums out of the recipe and it will still be tasty.

The pork spareribs needs some preparation time, so you’ll need a minimum of 2 hours for prep and marinating, but marinating overnight is preferable. The baking soda serves to make the finished cooked pork spareribs very tender – just be sure to wash it out before marinating. This step can be omitted, but try tenderizing your pork (or any other meat for that matter) this way and you’re likely to be a believer.

Enjoy!

Technique: Reheating a Chinese Glutinous Rice Tamale (粽, Zung3)

This posting was updated on 07 Feb 2016. The title and opening text were changed.

This is not a recipe, but a technique to reheat a Chinese glutinous rice tamale. I’ve also heard it referred to in English as a dumpling, but it’s too huge to be called a dumpling!

So what is a Chinese glutinous rice tamale? Unlike the tamale you’re probably familiar with consisting of corn husks wrapped around masa with a meat filling, the Cantonese version consists of bamboo leaves wrapped around glutinous (sticky) rice with pork belly meat, Cantonese pork sausage, and a salted duck egg yolk. In addition, you can also find mung beans, peanuts, chestnut, dried shrimp, Shiitake mushrooms, and other goodies in the tamale, depending upon the source (usually homemade). There are many other Chinese regional tamale variations, as well as sweet versions. Whether or not you’re lucky enough to know someone who makes the tamales themselves (homemade always being the best) or if you buy the tamales at an Asian market, you’ll need to reheat them. Here’s a (relatively) fast method to do so.

Enjoy!

Braised Pork Spareribs with Fermented Bean Curd (腐乳排骨, Fu6 Jyu5 Paai4 Gwat1)

This recipe was updated on 07 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

This is another favorite pork sparerib recipe using fermented bean curd. Since I like the taste of fermented bean curd, I use a lot. Unless you’re familiar with the taste of this ingredient, you might want to use less until you’re comfortable with the taste.

Black or wood ear fungus are available either fresh or dried, and either whole or sliced. The dried version needs to be rehydrated with hot water and the volume expands greatly, so don’t be deceived by the seemingly small amount of the dried version. The fresh version needs to be washed. The hard inedible stems should be removed from both versions. Whole or sliced cloud or wood ear fungus works well in this dish. If you can’t find cloud or wood ear fungus at your local Asian market, there’s really no substitute for this ingredient.

Enjoy!

Steamed Fish (蒸魚, Zing1 Jyu6)

 

This recipe was updated on 18 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

When I was a small child, I didn’t like fish. Now that I’m and adult, it’s one of my favorites. Whenever my family gets together at a Chinese restaurant, a steamed whole fish is almost always on the menu. Whenever I prepare fish at home, a whole fish is usually too much (food), so I get a fish tail, in this case a black bass. The advantage to getting a whole fish is that you get the freshest fish (since you pick the fish from the tank to be dispatched) and you get to eat the fish cheeks (the most delectable part), while with the fish tail, the fish has already been dispatched and prepared some time before. While the best tasting fish is “freshly dead” (for you Young Frankenstein fans), almost “freshly dead” isn’t too bad. Regardless if the fish is whole or not, the cooking technique is the same.

 

I’ve always steamed the fish and just left it in its juices, but after looking at the Steamed Fish Recipe at Rasa Malaysia, removing the fish from cooking juice before serving is a better method. This also makes for a better presentation, since you can steam the fish in one plate and then place it on a platter with freshly cooked vegetables if you choose to do so. The recipe’s steaming time is for 8 minutes, which seems like a short amount of time since I’ve always steamed fish for 15 minutes, but 8 minutes works great. Now I steam fish for 8 minutes.

The fish is always finished with heated oil and a soy sauce mixture. You can use a small pot or a wok to heat the mixtures, but I’ve been using the microwave to heat the soy sauce mixture. As always, you need to be very careful when you pour heated oil and liquids on the fish, as the hot oil and liquid will pop and splatter off the fish. Finally, the fish was placed on a bed of baby bok choy. This is optional and while it does make for a good presentation, you need to precook the baby bok choy before putting the steamed fish on it. Again, I use the microwave to zap the baby bok choy on the presentation plate.

Enjoy!

Grilled Saffron Chicken Breasts

My sister gave me some saffron from Indonesia and I’ve been wondering how to use it since it’s not a familiar ingredient to me. The local newspaper published a recipe for Persian Grilled Quail that uses saffron, lime juice, and olive oil as a marinade before grilling, which can also be used for chicken. I adapted the recipe to also use saffron as the brining spice before marinating and grilling the chicken. Cook’s Illustrated has a good guide for brining, where I used the high-heat grilling instructions for the quantity of water, kosher salt, and sugar. I used enough brine to fill a glass bowl with the chicken breasts.

Enjoy!

Mexican Pulled Pork Enchiladas

 

This recipe was updated on 28 Oct 2013. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This pork for the enchiladas is from the Mexican Pulled Pork (Carnitas) recipe. Since the pork preparation takes time, I always make more than is needed in order to make other dishes. Homemade salsa is used as part of the filling for the enchiladas, and the pickled vegetables (in this case carrots and onions) and chopped cabbage are the accompaniments to this dish. The enchiladas themselves don’t take very long to make, but if the Mexican pulled pork and/or the homemade salsa is not available, substitute another available ingredient.

Enjoy!

Mexican Pulled Pork (Carnitas)

This recipe was updated on 13 Aug 2013. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This recipe was adapted from the Mexican Pulled Pork recipe at America’s Test Kitchen. Their original premise was to develop a recipe that did involve lard or deep frying to produce the carnitas’ crispy outside. Their solution, after oven-braising the pork in a Dutch oven, was to use the broiler after coating the pork with a reduction of the remaining liquid and fat. The method works great and I’ve modified their technique to use the barbeque grill instead of the broiler to get a smokier flavor incorporated into the pork. I also use beer and tequila, instead of water, and adjusted the spices to braise the pork. Any leftovers can be used to make Mexican Pulled Pork Enchiladas.

The resulting carnitas are soft on the inside and a crispy brown on the outside, with that distinctive smoked flavor from the grill. Homemade salsa and pickled vegetables (in this case carrots and onions), and chopped cabbage are the accompaniments to this dish. This is an all-afternoon type recipe, but the results are worth it.

Enjoy!

Salsa

This recipe was updated on 20 Jan 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Homemade salsa tastes best with homegrown tomatoes and hot peppers, but store-bought tomatoes and peppers work well too. The heat of the salsa will depend upon how hot the peppers used in the recipe are, which means that you can never tell until a batch of the salsa is made and tasted. The recipe below is for a “normal” batch of salsa to be used with the Mexican Pulled Pork (Carnitas) recipe. I actually made a huge batch of salsa because I intended to also use the salsa as a part of the filling for the Mexican Pulled Pork Enchiladas recipe. You actually can’t make too much salsa since it goes well with tortilla chips.

Enjoy!

Pickled Vegetables

Homemade pickled vegetables are very easy to make. All you need are the vegetables – in this case sliced carrots and diced onions – vinegar, salt, and some sugar. Just be sure to refrigerate the pickled vegetables and the flavor will develop over time. This recipe also works well for hot peppers. Eat the pickled vegetables with MexicanPulled Pork (Carnitas) and Mexican Pulled Pork Enchiladas.

Enjoy!

Shrimp and Scrambled Eggs (蝦仁炒蛋, Haa1 Jan4 Caau2 Daan6)

This recipe was updated on 11 Aug 2016. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This is a real easy dish to make. All you need are eggs, shrimp, green onions, and red peppers (mainly for color contrast). You can choose to make this dish more “eggy” by using more eggs, or more “shrimpy” with fewer eggs, so the amount of eggs to use is a personal preference. For this recipe I used fewer eggs to highlight the shrimp in the dish.

Enjoy!

Seafood Pasta Salad

 

This recipe was updated on 11 July 2013. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

I was thinking about making a pasta salad with seafood, and low and behold, shrimp came on sale. So my timing was good since you can really use any available seafood to make this salad. I decided to add two “fake” seafood ingredients, imitation crab flakes and imitation shark’s fin. Most people are familiar with imitation crab flakes, but probably not with imitation shark’s fin. I’ve always used imitation shark’s fin in soup, so this is the first time I’ve used it in a salad.

Imitation shark’s fin is a gelatin-based product that is made to resemble the real shark’s fin long transparent cartilage strands. Both the real and imitation shark’s fin have no taste, but it’s the texture that makes it an interesting ingredient. The imitation version comes packaged frozen and when defrosted, look like transparent brown noodles. I prefer to use the imitation given how the real version is obtained.

Another interesting ingredient is fresh seaweed. You can get fresh seaweed (and the imitation shark’s fin) at your local Asian market and it comes as long strips or tied into bow-ties. I used the bow-tie version in this dish and it gives an added crunch to the dish, as well as a distinct flavor.

Enjoy!

Grilled Chilpotles Salsa Turkey Thighs

This dish mixes both Chinese and Mexican ingredients using turkey thighs, bottled salsa, canned chipotle peppers, and chilpotles sauce. Salsa makes a surprisingly good marinade for meats and the chilpotles peppers, which are dried smoked jalapeño peppers, adds a smoky spiciness. Add soy sauce and other Chinese ingredients, and you get a tasty meal.

Enjoy!

Stir Fried Beef with Chinese Okra (勝瓜炒牛肉, Sing3 Gwaa1 Caau2 Ngau4 Juk6)

 

This recipe was updated on 18 July 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Chinese okra is an odd looking vegetable and is nothing like normal okra; it’s much larger and doesn’t have the thickening ability of okra (i.e. no sticky goop). It also has hard skin and inedible spines that must be removed before eating. When my brother-in-law first cooked this vegetable, he unfortunately didn’t know this (and I guess my sister forgot to tell him) and they ended up picking out hard skin and spine pieces from the finished dish. So don’t forget to remove the outer skin and spines when using this vegetable. You can combine Chinese okra with any ingredients, in this case its beef and red peppers (from my garden) in a simple brown bean sauce.

 

Enjoy!

Tomato Beef Chow Mein (番茄牛肉炒麵, Faan1 Ke4 Ngau4 Juk6 Caau2 Min6)

This recipe was updated on 02 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Tomato beef chow mein is a classic Chinese-American dish that you can get at any Chinese restaurant. The dish is a mixture of beef, noodles, tomatoes, and other vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce (not that thick red gloppy stuff). Depending upon on your preference, the dish can be sourer than sweet or sweeter than sour. Curry powder can also be added and the amount again depends upon personal preference (this dish has some). You can think of this dish as the noodle version of the Spicy Tomato Beef Curry (咖哩粉番茄牛肉, Gaa³ Lei¹ Fan² Faan¹ Ke⁴ Ngau⁴ Juk⁶) recipe.

Tomatoes and beef are important components of this dish. I only make this dish when I have tomatoes available from my garden, and I use beef flank or flap meat sliced against the grain and marinated. Other than that, you can throw in any ingredient your heart desires. In this instance, I used bean sprouts, fried tofu puffs, baby bok choy, and from my garden: red bell pepper and green Thai chilies.

Enjoy!

Spicy Jellyfish with Bell Peppers and Eggs (Ceng1 Ziu1 Caau2 Daan6 Hoi2 Zit3,青椒炒蛋海蜇)

I had dinner with my sister not too long ago and we went to one of the local Chinese restaurants in the area and ordered Jellyfish in XO Sauce. The dish was very good and it’s a dish that I had never eaten before. Jellyfish (hoi² zit³, 海蜇) is normally not the main ingredient in a cooked dish, so this was rather unusual. Jellyfish is usually prepared as an appetizer or as part of a cold dish, such as the Cucumber and Jelly Fish Salad recipe that I posted earlier.

I was looking for a dish to make with the package of salted jellyfish that I had and while this recipe is not that dish, it was inspired by that meal. If you search for jellyfish recipes on the internet, you’ll find that many include chicken. Since I wanted to have jellyfish as the main ingredient, I figured that eggs would be a good addition while keeping the dish centered on jellyfish. You want to use the salted jellyfish rather than the instant variety because you want large pieces of jellyfish in the dish rather than the strips you get with the instant.

XO sauce is a combination of many ingredients, including, but not limited to dried shrimp, dried scallops, hot peppers, garlic, and shallots. I decided to make my own sauce (not XO) by including the previously mentioned ingredients, minus the dried scallops. I also used red bell peppers and green Thai chilies from my garden.

Enjoy!

Spicy Pork and Long Beans with Vermicelli (豆角粉絲炒豬肉, Dau6 Gok3 Fan2 Si1 Caau2 Zyu1 Juk6)

 

This recipe was update on 25 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

I made this dish because I wanted to use up some remaining long beans and I wanted a dish with mung bean vermicelli. Long beans are a favorite vegetable of mine and differ from regular green beans in the most obvious way; they are really long in length. If you can’t find long beans at your favorite market, you can easily substitute regular green beans.

Mung bean vermicelli is also called bean thread noodles. The “noodles” (made from mung beans) are very thin and brittle when dry, and become transparent and soft after soaking in hot water. The dry version can actually be fried quickly in a wok, where it will puff up and then usually serves as the crispy base for another dish (you see this in Chinese restaurant dishes). After soaking in water, the soft vermicelli is added to a dish, where it soaks up and takes on the flavor of the sauce (so you’ll need to add more water or stock to get a sauce or gravy).

The natural additions for this dish are ground pork and dried shrimp. In this case, I used dried shrimp that are very small and added it to the pork before marinating. You need to add a good amount of these very small dried shrimps to make them noticeable in the dish. The next time I make this dish, I might use the medium sized dried shrimp so that their presence is obvious.

After I made this dish and took my first bite, I immediately noticed that the texture of the dish wasn’t right. I should have added black, cloud ear, or wood ear fungus to give the dish a distinct crunch. These funguses sounds like an odd ingredient, but are themselves tasteless. Both are dark in color and come fresh or dried, and either whole or already cut into strips. Black and wood ear funguses are available at your local Asian supermarket. I’ve added that ingredient to the recipe even though I didn’t use it in this version.

Enjoy!