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!