Black Bean Chili Sauce Bitter Melon Shiitake Mushroom Chicken (黑豆辣椒冬菇苦瓜雞, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Dung1 Gu1 Fu2 Gwaa1 Gai1)

 

This recipe is similar to the Black Bean Chili Sauce Chicken with Bitter Melon (黑豆辣椒苦瓜雞, Hak¹ Dau⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Fu² Gwaa¹ Gai¹) recipe that was posted previously. For this recipe, Shiitake mushrooms were used in place of fried tofu. Chicken and bitter melon with a black bean sauce (in this case a spicy black bean sauce) is a classic combination. The classic recipe can be found here: Black Bean Sauce Bitter Melon Chicken (蒜蓉豆豉苦瓜雞, Syun³ Jung⁴ Dau⁶ Si⁶ Fu² Gwaa¹ Gai¹). As usual, the bitterness of the bitter melon is controlled by adding salt for 5 minutes and washing it off the bitter melon. The degree of bitterness is a personal preference, so if you like a more bitter taste, don’t salt or reduce the time of salting, and if you like less bitterness, increase the salting time (after 10 minutes, most of the bitterness will be removed).

Enjoy!

Creamy Tomato Dungeness Crab Pasta

This recipe was adapted from the Creamy Tomato Crab Pasta recipe at jeanetteshealthyliving.com. The key technique that I learned from the recipe was mixing an egg with the Greek yogurt (yes, this recipe uses yogurt) to prevent breaking when cooked. It actually works! The yogurt provides the creaminess for this dish. The other neat aspect of the recipe was the use of a garlic breadcrumb topping, which really helps to make this dish tasty. I used cooked Dungeness crab to make this dish rather than canned crab meat, but you can use whatever’s available. As is usual for my pasta recipes, I use a wok to stir fry the pasta before adding the sauce. Making a pasta dish is no different to me than making chow mein – the techniques are the same, I’m just using a different sauce to make the noodles.

Enjoy!

Carne Adovada (Red Chile Pork Stew)

This recipe was adapted from the Carne Adovada recipe at What’s Cooking America. I used the basic chili based marinade for the pork, which uses 24 rehydrated chilies. I am fortunate to live in an area where dried chilies are readily available in bulk at local Mexican markets, but dried chilies can be obtained from your local supermarket in packages. I used dried Guajillo and California chilies, since those were available, toasted them, and added canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for a little heat. The chilies are used for flavor and are not hot themselves, so don’t be alarmed at the number of dried chilies used in this dish. The chipotle peppers in adobo sauce used in this dish are together hotter than all the dried chilies. The chilies and all the other spices are used to marinade the pork for 24- or up to 48-hours (the longer the better). What I like about this recipe, is that the marinade is also the sauce and that all the work is done before the dish is cooked in a slow cooker.

 

Enjoy!

Basil Black Bean Chili Sauce Fuzzy Melon Shrimp (紫蘇黑豆辣椒節瓜蝦, Zi2 Sou1 Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Zit3 Gwaa1 Haa1)

Here’s a shrimp dish that has some spice to it, along with the taste of fresh basil leaves. The spice comes from Laoganma brand black bean chili sauce. You can, of course, make the sauce from scratch yourself, or use an equivalent brand, but this brand is readily available where I live. The sauce is spicy and not hot, so if you want hot, add dried red chili peppers to the recipe.

Enjoy!

Grilled Xinjiang-Style Chicken Wing (新疆燒烤鷄翼, San1 Goeng1 Siu1 Haau1 Gai1 Jik6)

This recipe was adapted from that published in Saveur Magazine, June/July 2013 issue in the article, “Fire in the Belly”. The original recipe was for lamb skewers and the Grilled Xinjiang-Style Lamb Rib Chops (新疆燒烤羊扒, San¹ Goeng¹ Siu¹ Haau¹ Joeng⁴ Paa⁴) recipe was the first adaptation. The spice paste, consisting of red chili flakes, cumin, Sichuan peppercorns, and oyster sauce would go well with any meat. I left out the skewers and the lamb, and substituted chicken wings for this recipe variation. The article makes the point that a very hot fire is used for cooking, so I piled the charcoal into one-half of the grill to place the coals as close to the grill surface as possible. You may have to increase or decrease the cooking time depending upon the heat of your grill.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Garlic Sauce Vegetable Chicken (蒜蓉豆豉雜菜雞, Syun3 Jung4 Dau6 Si6 Zaap6 Coi3 Gai1)

As the name of the recipe implies, this is just mixed vegetables with chicken in a black bean garlic sauce. No particular vegetables are required, just use whatever’s handy, but the vegetables were picked for their visual appeal. I also used Lee Kum Kee brand black bean garlic sauce to reduce the preparation time.

Enjoy!

Masaman Curry Basil Chicken

Here’s another easy to make coconut-curry chicken dish. As I stated in the Panang Curry Chicken Wing Stew recipe, I began using Maeseri brand (Masaman) curry in my curry dishes because they come in single use cans and in a variety of flavors. The chicken is marinated, but that step can easily be omitted if you’re in a hurry. The carrots are cut relatively thin so that they can cook quickly with the chicken. The broccoli florets are added at the end of cooking and are just cooked long enough so that there’s still some crunch to them (i.e. broccoli florets get mushy if cooked too long).

Enjoy!

Salmon and Long Beans with Salted Radish (菜脯豆角鮭魚, Coi3 Pou2 Dau6 Gok3 Gwai1 Jyu4)

Salmon can be stir fried in a dish if you’re careful. The color, aroma, and taste of salmon makes any dish appealing. The long beans and salted radish used in this recipe provides a nice crunchy contrast to the salmon’s firm flesh. Depending upon the brand of salted radish used, it will provide either a salty, or salty and sweet flavor to the dish. The brand used to make this recipe is salty and sweet.

Enjoy!

Grilled Miso Garlic Chicken (燒烤蒜蓉味噌雞, Siu1 Haau1 Syun3 Jung4 Mei6 Cang1 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 12 Aug 2015. The Chinese name was changed to use the correct characters for “miso” rather than “miso paste”.

This recipe is a variation of the Grilled Miso Garlic T-Bone Steak dish. While the marinade for the beef was more of a paste, the chicken is marinated in a miso-garlic soy sauce solution. Unlike chicken breasts, thighs need to be cleaned first to remove the excess fat. Of course, chicken breasts may be used in place of thighs. The thighs are first smoked (pecan wood is a good choice) skin side up on the side of the grill without the coals and then moved skin side down over the coals to produce grill marks.

Enjoy!

Dungeness Crab and Quail Egg Shallot Sauce Noodles (紅蔥鵪鶉蛋北美大肉蟹麵, Hung4 Cung1 Am1 Ceon1 Daan6 Bak1 Mei5 Daai6 Juk6 Haai5 Min6)

This recipe was updated on 30 Aug 2016. The Cantonese for Dungeness crab was added to the title.

Crab and eggs is a tasty combination in any dish. In this case quail eggs, rather than chicken, are used. Quail eggs are small enough to be placed entirely into your mouth with the other ingredients when eating (try that with a chicken egg!). Fresh quail eggs can be purchased at your local Asian market, but then you have to hard boil and then peel them before use, or you can buy a canned quail eggs and just open the can. Unpeeled straw mushrooms (they also come in a can) are used because they match the shape and size of the quail eggs. Peeled straw mushrooms can be substituted if the unpeeled version is not handy.

Enjoy!