Beef Curry Hong Kong Noodles (咖哩牛肉炒雲吞麵, Gaa3 Lei1 Ngau4 Juk6 Caau2 Wan4 Tan1 Min6)

 

This recipe was updated on 19 Oct 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This dish uses Hong Kong style noodles together with Madras curry powder in a stir fry. Hong Kong noodles are thin egg noodles and the literal translation in Cantonese is wonton noodles. While there aren’t any wontons in this dish, these noodles are typically used together with wonton in a soup broth, hence their name, and that leads to no end of confusion if you use the literal translation. So you’ll find dishes named in English referring to thin egg noodles, Hong Kong style noodles, and even vermicelli (whose use isn’t quite correct). Needless to say, the noodles are just really thin and are really good in a stir fry.

Enjoy!

Roast Pork and Oyster Stir Fry (燒肉炒蠔, Sui1 Juk6 Caau2 Hou4)

This recipe was updated on 05 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This dish is usually prepared in a clay pot, but since I don’t have one, I adapted this dish to use stir frying. The clay pot version is one of my favorites to order at a restaurant, so I was looking forward to making a stir fried version at home. The dish contains some of my favorite ingredients – roast pork (especially the crispy skin) and oysters.

Unless you’re a master at roasting whole pigs, you’ll probably (like me) go to your local Asian delicatessen where you can buy just 1-2 pounds of roast pork. Have the butcher cut the roast pork into pieces and you’ll also get one small container of a soy based dipping sauce with your order. The dipping sauce is slightly sweet, so it goes well with the roast pork. Any leftover roast pork not used in the dish can be used for other dishes (assuming you don’t eat the rest of the roast pork all by itself). I was lucky enough to get the roast pork while it was still hot, right after roasting, at the delicatessen. It was still so hot, that the butcher burned his fingers when he cut the first roast pork piece from the pig for me!

Enjoy!

Grilled Chili Sauce Chicken Noodles (燒烤鮮辣椒鷄麵, Siu1 Haau1 Sin1 Laat6 Ziu1 Gai1 Min6)

 

This recipe was updated on 28 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

When you have leftover chicken from the Grilled Chili Sauce Chicken (燒烤鮮辣椒鷄, Siu¹ Haau¹ Sin¹ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Gai¹) recipe, you can add it to noodles and green onions to make a quick stir fry with oyster sauce. This is a great dish for lunch. If you’re feeling really lazy, you can buy pre-packaged ready-made (fresh) noodles at your local Asian market and then you won’t even have to boil water to make this dish!

Enjoy!

Grilled Chili Sauce Chicken (燒烤鮮辣椒鷄, Siu1 Haau1 Sin1 Laat6 Ziu1 Gai1)

 

This recipe was updated on 28 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This grilled chicken dish is marinated in a chili sauce made by Sichuan Gau Fu Ji Food Company. The chili sauce consists of fresh chopped chilies in oil and spices, and has a fresh chili taste together with a potent kick of heat. This brand is available at your local Asian market, but you can use another prepared chili sauce if you can’t find this brand. Surprisingly much (but certainly not all) of the heat from the chilies are gone after grilling the chicken, but the fresh chili taste remains.

A note on the Cantonese translation for this ingredient, you’ll notice that the translation for the chili sauce is: fresh hot peppers. The first two words are correct, but I wasn’t able to find the translation for the last character, so I substituted the character for peppers. I hope someone can tell me what the last character translates to.

Enjoy!

Lamb Shanks with Spiced Lentils

I had some already browned on the grill, but uncooked, lamb shanks in my freezer (newly rediscovered!) and decided it was time to cook them. This dish was adapted from Braised Lamb Shank with Coriander, Fennel, and Star Anise recipe at the epicurious.com website. I used a slow cooker instead of the oven to cook the dish and made some additions to the ingredients; the most significant being lentils. This makes a nice meal for a cool Fall or Winter evening.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Shiitake Mushrooms with Tomatoes (番茄冬菇鷄, Faan1 Ke4 Dung1 Gu1 Gai1)

 

This recipe was updated on 10 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

The last of my home grown tomatoes went into making this dish. It’s really just a recipe of chicken, mushrooms, and tomatoes with a mild sweet and sour sauce, and the dish, of course, goes well with steamed rice. The tomato wedges are added at the last minute with the sauce to keep their shape intact.

Enjoy!

Grilled Teriyaki Beef Rib Steak with Vegetables

Here’s a simple recipe for grilling and smoking a beef rib steak medium rare. The steak is first marinated using Kikkoman’s Teriyaki Marinade and Sauce together with sake (both ingredients can be found at your local supermarket), together with some crushed garlic. After being marinated, the marinade is discarded and then oil and ground pepper is rubbed into the steak. The beef is grilled first uncovered, producing the grill marks on the presentation side of the steak, and then covering the grill to smoke the steak. Grilled and smoked mushrooms and corn accompany the steak.

Enjoy!

Grilled Chilpotles Chili Chicken Green Chile Enchiladas

After making the Grilled Chilpotles Chili Chicken recipe (found here), I wanted to make enchiladas. This is actually a very easy dish to make and a great way to use leftover chicken. I usually use a red chile enchilada sauce, but I wanted to do something different, so I used a green chile sauce instead. The enchiladas are tasty no matter what color sauce you use, but it’s easier to find the red chile sauce at your local supermarket, while both the red and green chile versions can be found at Mexican supermarkets.

Enjoy!

Grilled Chilpotles Chili Chicken

Chilpotles peppers have a smoky and spicy flavor to them, and come canned in adobo sauce. I used the peppers and adobo sauce as the basis for a chicken marinade. I also added chilpotles pepper sauce to marinade to reinforce the flavor. The chicken was smoked with mesquite wood and then grilled.

Enjoy!

Grilled Mesquite-Smoked Garlic Rosemary Lamb

This recipe was updated on 3 Sep 2013. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added. There is another butterflied leg of lamb recipe using an Asian based marinade which can be found at Grilled Butterflied Lamb Leg.

I couldn’t resist buying a 2 lb. boneless leg of lamb on special at the supermarket (I already had something else planned for dinner). With the bone already removed, the lamb was already butterflied, and all I had to do was remove any excess fat and sinew (don’t remove any outside fat from the lamb). I seasoned the lamb with a rub of olive oil, garlic, and rosemary (from my garden). I grilled the lamb over direct heat to brown it first, and then smoked it with mesquite wood using indirect heat. I left the lamb on the grill a little too long (time has been reduced in the recipe), but it was still very delicious. Leftovers will be made into sandwiches!

Enjoy!

Cloud Ear Salmon Chow Mein (雲耳鮭魚炒麵, Wan4 Ji5 Gwai1 Jyu4 Caau2 Min6)

 

This recipe was updated on 06 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

I was in the mood for noodles and had some salmon in my refrigerator. I thought about the Cloud Ear Salmon (雲耳鮭魚, Wan⁴ Ji⁵ Gwai¹ Jyu⁴) recipe and decided that with some modifications, the ingredients would make a great chow mein dish. The major recipe changes are the use of green onions instead of fuzzy melon, and for the sauce, substituting oyster sauce for soy.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lb.	500 g.	Salmon (鮭魚, gwai1 jyu4), cut into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Corn starch (粟粉, suk1 fan2)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
1 tsp.	5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)
10	10	Whole dried black or cloud ear fungus (雲耳, wan4 ji5), rehydrated with stems removed
3 stalks	3 stalks	Green onions (葱, cung1), cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal
½ in.	15 mm.	Knob of ginger (薑, goeng1), crushed in a garlic press
2 cloves	2 cloves	Garlic (蒜, syun3), crushed in a garlic press
1 lb.	500 g.	One package chow mein noodles (炒麵, caau2 min6)
		Oil for cooking

 

Sauce Ingredients

2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Lee Kum Kee brand premium oyster sauce (蠔油, hou4 jau4) or equivalent
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Soy sauce (豉油, si6 jau4)
1 Tbs.	15 ml.	Hoisin sauce (海鮮醬, hoi2 sin1 zoeng3)
2 Tbs.	30 ml.	Shaoxing rice wine (紹興酒, siu6 hing1 zau2) or dry sherry
½ tsp.	2.5 ml.	Ground white pepper (白胡椒, baak6 wu4 ziu1)
½ Tbs.	7.5 ml.	Sesame oil (麻油, maa4 jau4)

 

Equipment

		Garlic press
14 in.	35.5 cm.	Wok or pan

 

Lee Kum Kee Brand
Premium Oyster Sauce
(蠔油, hou4 jau4)

Preparation Instructions

1. Take the salmon out of the refrigerator at least one hour before cooking. Prepare the salmon by removing any bones, and cut the meat into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces. Marinate for at least one hour with the ginger crushed in a garlic press, corn starch, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil.
2. Pour boiling water over the dried black or cloud ear fungus in a heat proof bowl and rehydrate the fungus for at least one hour. Remove the fungus from the rehydration liquid, discard the rehydration liquid, remove the stems from the fungus, and cut them into 2-inch (5 cm.) pieces if desired.
3. Crush the ginger and garlic in a garlic press and put into a small bowl.
4. Wash and cut the green onions into 1-inch (2.5 cm.) pieces on the diagonal.
5. Prepare and mix the sauce in a small bowl: add the Lee Kum Kee brand premium oyster sauce or equivalent, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, ground white pepper, and sesame oil.

Cooking Instructions

1. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the package and until the noodles are al dente. Drain the noodles and set aside. If using thawed, ready-made, or fresh noodles, “fluff” the noodles to separate them (i.e. you don’t want put a single mass of noodles into the wok).
2. Heat a wok or pan over high heat before adding oil and then the salmon. Stir fry the salmon until brown by placing the salmon skin side down in the wok and leaving the salmon alone for a while before flipping it over to brown the other side. You may have to stir fry the salmon in batches, so be sure to reheat the wok over high heat before adding more oil. Transfer the browned salmon to a bowl.
3. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding oil and then the black or cloud ear fungus. Stir fry the fungus to brown them. Add the bowl with the ginger and garlic mixture, and then some oil to the mixture. Quickly stir fry all the ingredients until the ginger and garlic mixture becomes fragrant. Transfer the contents of the wok to the bowl with the salmon.
4. Reheat the wok over high heat before adding more oil and then the noodles. The wok should be very hot before adding the oil and then the noodles. Noodles cooked in a restaurant wok (over much higher heat than that available in your kitchen) are served slightly burned, which gives the noodles an extra added flavor.  To try to emulate slightly burned noodles, try to put the noodles in one layer in the hot wok and add some liquid (water, stock, or Shaoxing wine; but not too much liquid otherwise you’ll steam the noodles) to facilitate the heat transfer from the wok to the noodles, and leave the noodles alone. You want the noodles to get burned before adding more oil to the noodles and turning them over, repeating the process.
5. Add the green onions and the contents of the bowl with the salmon back into the wok, and stir fry all the ingredients together. Add the sauce ingredients to the wok and mix the ingredients together. Put the cooked ingredients into a serving dish and serve immediately.

Grilled Chicken Wrap

This is an easy and tasty way to eat grilled chicken leftovers. The tzatziki sauce goes great with the chicken and counters some of the heat of the jalapeño peppers. The wrap can be eaten warm if you microwave it for 1-minute on high, just be sure to put some water on the wrap before microwaving to prevent the tortilla from drying out and cracking.

Enjoy!

Grilled Ginger Peach Chicken (燒烤薑桃子雞, Siu1 Haau1 Goeng1 Tou4 Zi2 Gai1)

 

This recipe was updated on 13 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

So what do you do with a peach that’s too ripe to eat? I always hate to throw out overripe peaches that you can’t eat. I thought about the Korean beef marinades that have pear juice in them and wondered how a peach would taste in a homemade chicken marinade. I also thought about needing another flavor in the marinade besides peach and my mind wandered to ginger. The ripe peach can be crushed by hand, after removing the peel and the pit, into the marinade. The resulting chicken tastes slightly sweet from the peach that goes well with the ginger flavor.

Enjoy!

Salmon in Black Bean Sauce (豆豉鮭魚, Dau6 Si6 Gwai1 Jyu4)

 

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

Salmon and black bean sauce make a great dish with Shiitake mushrooms and long beans. All my favorites in one dish! What more can I say?

Enjoy!

Stuffed Bitter Melon with Turkey and Shiitake Mushrooms (冬菇釀苦瓜, Dung1 Gu1 Joeng6 Fu2 Gwaa1)

 

This recipe was updated on 07 Jul 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added. A similar recipe was also added: Stuffed Bitter Melon with Pork and Chinese Sausage (臘腸豬肉苦瓜, Laap⁶ Coeng⁴ Zyu¹ Juk⁶ Fu² Gwaa¹).

This classic Cantonese dish is usually made with pork and without the addition of the whole Shiitake mushrooms. I had ground turkey, so I used that to stuff the bitter melon cylinders. Bitter melon lends itself to being stuffed, since the inedible pith and seeds in the middle leave so much space after being removed. I added dried shrimp to the tops of the stuffed bitter melon cylinders to add another flavor to the dish. The further addition of whole Shiitake mushrooms makes the dish even tastier.

Enjoy!

Zhenjiang-Style Pork Baby Back Ribs (镇江排骨, Zan3 Gong1 Paai4 Gwat1)

 

This recipe was updated on 02 Jul 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

I made this dish a couple of times before being satisfied with the results since this is not the traditional recipe. First of all, the dish is usually made with 1- to 2-inch rib pieces rather than using the whole rib, and secondly, the ribs are usually deep fried before being braised in the sauce. Rather than deep frying the ribs, I browned them in the wok. I found that if you brown the ribs for too long, the meat becomes hard and tough, so the ribs need to be quickly browned in small batches (i.e. don’t crowd the ribs into the wok). I also made the dish without browning the ribs first and the dish came out tasty, but the ribs didn’t have that deep dark color the browned version has. So it’s up to you to brown or not-brown the ribs.

When I first made the dish, I used a lot more soy sauce. The reduced sauce was too salty, so there is a small amount of soy sauce used in the recipe. Also at first, I thought that I used too much sugar, but it turns out to be the right amount because you don’t get the right syrupy consistency if there’s less sugar and the sugar balances the vinegar.

Enjoy!

Chinese Broccoli Lamb (芥蘭羊肉, Gaai3 Laan4 Joeng4 Juk6)

 

This recipe was updated on 10 Jul 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Lamb always goes well with a spicy sauce. In this case, Fu Chi brand Chili Paste with Fermented Soy Bean is the basis for the sauce. The actual Chinese translation is “Hunan Fermented Black Soybean Hot Pepper”, so it’s really a chili sauce with fermented black soy beans. Add Chinese broccoli and you have dinner.

Enjoy!

Grilled Mini Roast Beef and Mushrooms

Roast beef has always been my favorite and grilling the roast beef makes it even better. However, outside of special holidays where a large cut of rib eye will feed a family, what do you do when you want to serve a small number of people (like one!). Well here’s method to make roast beef on your grill using a thick rib eye steak. The preparation and even making the pan gravy is the same as when using a larger cut of meat.

The trick is to quickly roast the beef using indirect heat in your grill in a rack over a pan. What matters to the cooking time is the thickness of the beef and not the weight. You want a cut of beef at least 1-inch thick, and a 2-inch thick cut of beef doesn’t take much longer to cook medium-rare. If I were smart, I would use a meat thermometer to always produce medium-rare roasts, but I found that for a 1-inch roast, 12-15 minutes, and for a 2-inch roast, 17-20 minutes of indirect heat in my grill produces the desired results.

Enjoy!

Clam and Turkey Chow Mein (蛤蜊火雞炒麵, Gap3 Lei4 Fo2 Gai1 Caau2 Min6)

 

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

The combination of ground turkey and clams seems at first glance to be an odd combination, but it really does make a tasty dish. I used ground turkey because I had it, but ground pork would be a good substitute. I’ve eaten restaurant dishes where ground pork is cooked in combination with shellfish and sometimes vegetables, so that was probably the inspiration for this noodle dish using Bull Head brand shallot sauce.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Sauce Beef Tripe (豆豉牛柏葉, Dau6 Si6 Ngau4 Paak3 Jip6)

This recipe was updated on 16 Jul 2014. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, as well as the addition of metric measurements.

You can never eat too much tripe. For those unfamiliar with tripe, it’s (one of the) cow’s stomach. Here’s another recipe using poached honeycomb tripe, but the poaching liquid does not have any soy sauce. If you want a soy sauce poached tripe recipe, you can look at the Soy Sauce Beef Tripe with Sour Mustard (酸菜豉油牛柏葉, Syun¹ Coi³ Si⁶ Jau⁴ Ngau⁴ Paak³ Jip⁶) recipe. The tripe is poached so that it comes out white in color (close to the original uncooked color) and is then used in a classic black bean sauce stir fry recipe.

The non-classic addition to this recipe is sliced lotus root. Sliced lotus root is crunchy and has the distinctive holes that make this root so appealing. It actually is the root of the lotus flower that you find floating in ponds. You can buy lotus root fresh or pre-sliced in a package at your local Asian market. Fresh lotus root is crunchier than the pre-sliced packaged version, but if fresh lotus root is not available, the packaged version is a good substitute.

Enjoy!

Chinese-Style Barbecue Sauce Chicken Fried Rice (燒烤醬鷄炒飯, Siu1 Haau1 Zoeng3 Gai1 Caau2 Faan6)

This recipe was updated on 15 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Here’s another fried rice recipe this time using leftovers from the Chinese-Style Barbecue Sauce Chicken (燒烤醬鷄, Siu¹ Haau¹ Zoeng³ Gai¹) recipe. Fried rice is synonymous in my mind with leftovers. This is a great dish to make when you need something quick after surveying the contents of your refrigerator!

I use Lee Kum Kee brand Premium Oyster Flavored Sauce because it’s the brand I grew up with and has a good flavor. It’s a little more expensive than other brands, but it’s worth the price in my opinion. I once had a weak moment and bought an inexpensive brand of oyster sauce, and was disappointed in the flavor when compared to the Lee Kum Kee Premium brand. So get the good stuff!

Enjoy!