Black Pepper Sauce Scallops (黑椒汁帶子, Hak1 Ziu1 Zap1 Daai3 Zi2)

This recipe was updated on 25 Jun 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Black pepper sauce goes well with seafood, in this case scallops. I used frozen 60/80 scallops (60 to 80 scallops per pound/500 g.), but you can use fresh and/or larger sized scallops to make this dish. Scallops this sized don’t take long to cook, so use a hot wok and quickly stir fry to keep them tender.

Enjoy!

Chili Black Bean Sauce Chicken Wings with Zucchini (黑豆辣椒意大利青瓜鷄翼, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Ji3 Daai6 Lei6 Ceng1 Gwaa1 Gai1 Jik6)

This recipe was updated on 26 Jun 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Cooking chicken wings in a wok requires the use of high heat to brown the wings uncovered and then a lower heat to simmer using a cover. The bean curd sticks used in this dish are also cooked in this manner, but not the zucchini. The zucchini is added at the end of cooking to prevent them from being overcooked. A Dutch oven can also be used in place of a wok.

Enjoy!

Three Pepper Beef (三椒牛肉, Saam1 Ziu1 Ngau4 Juk6)

This recipe was updated on 04 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This is a spicy combination of three peppers and beef, with one being whole red chili peppers. These chili peppers were dried from my garden and weren’t that hot. While the homegrown dried chili peppers weren’t that hot, they were still very tasty. If you use store bought dried red chilies, they are hot and the quantity used in this dish would likely make your head explode (unless you’re accustomed to that level of heat), so feel free to reduce the amount used.

Enjoy!

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!

Zucchini Beef (意大利青瓜牛肉, Ji3 Daai6 Lei6 Ceng1 Gwaa1 Ngau4 Juk6)

 

This recipe was updated on 19 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Zucchinis are in season, so here’s a dish using this now abundant squash. Beef, Shiitake mushrooms, and marinated bean curd are added together with the zucchini to complete the dish. A slightly spicy prepared bottled sauce is used: Fu Chi Foods brand Chili Paste with Fermented Soy Beans. If you are unable to purchase the sauce at your local Asian market, salted black beans and chili garlic sauce can be substituted.

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!

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!

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!

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!

Chicken and Marinated Bean Curd with Fuzzy Melon (腐乳五香豆腐節瓜雞, Fu6 Jyu5 Ng5 Hoeng1 Dau6 Fu6 Zit3 Gwaa1 Gai1)

 

This recipe was updated on 29 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This is an easy dish to prepare and fermented bean curd is the basis of the sauce. Each bean curd looks like a little soft rectangular pillow and is packed together in a bottle. I happen to use 7 of the fermented bean curds, but you’ll have to judge how much to use depending upon your taste. The sauce is light in color, so soy sauce is not used (but is used to marinate the chicken) since this would darken it. Marinated bean curd (or five spice bean curd) is the other ingredient used in this dish. Marinated bean curd is not fermented, but spiced and its texture is firm, so it doesn’t break up when stir fried. If you can’t find marinated bean curd at your local Asian market, use a firm pressed tofu as a substitute.

Enjoy!