Steamed Pork with Salted Duck Egg (鹹鴨蛋蒸豬肉, Haam4 Aap3 Daan6 Zing1 Zyu1 Juk6)

Steamed pork is a dish I grew up eating and all Chinese Moms have a recipe for this dish. Steamed pork is usually never the only ingredient used in making this dish and there are innumerable recipe variations for additions. There is another recipe for Steamed Pork with Salted Fish (鹹魚蒸豬肉, Haam⁴ Jyu⁴ Zing¹ Zyu¹ Juk⁶) .

This version uses cooked salted duck egg, whose saltiness goes well with the savory pork flavor. You can buy cooked salted duck eggs at your local Asian market. If you can get uncooked salted duck eggs, which are getting hard to find in my area, you can crack the egg over the top of the ground pork. Don’t confuse salted duck eggs with preserved duck eggs (皮蛋, pei⁴ daan⁶,), also known as thousand year eggs, which are black/green in color and definitely an acquired taste!

On the surface, this seems like an easy dish to make. If this dish is prepared correctly, the steamed ground pork has a tender mouth feel when eaten. I have found, through many attempts, that if you add 1 Tbs. (15 ml.) corn starch per ½ lb. (250 g.) ground pork, together with the other marinade ingredients, you get the desired result. Previously attempts that didn’t work used ground pork with more and less fat content, ground pork with small and large grind, and other binders (tapioca and rice starch).

Enjoy!

Chicken and Fish Balls with Black Bean Chili Sauce (魚蛋黑豆辣椒油鷄, Jyu4 Daan6 Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Jau4 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 06 May 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

I was actually going to make another dish until I saw the one pound (454 g.) package of frozen fish balls at my local Asian market. Fish balls are made like other meatballs, ground meat (in this case fish) mixed together and formed into balls. Fish balls are most commonly used in soups and are also served deep fried. I guess you could make fish ball spaghetti with them too! Fish isn’t the only flavor available, you can also get prawn and cuttlefish balls at your local Asian market. So I decided to combine the fish balls with chicken and green string beans and used Laoganma brand black bean chili sauce to finish the dish. It turns out that chicken and fish balls makes a tasty combination.

Enjoy!

Beijing-Style Chicken Wings (北京鷄翼, Bak1 Ging1 Gai1 Jik6)

This recipe was updated on 04 May 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

This recipe was adapted from the Mi Zhi Ji Chi Chuan (Beijing Chicken Wings) recipe at saveur.com. The original recipe used skewers since that’s how the wings are cooked on the streets. I omitted the skewers, but didn’t change the method the wings are cooked – quickly over hot coals until charred. I also used chili garlic sauce in the spice paste, where the original uses a chili oil after cooking, to produce the spicy hot taste of the wings. The spicing of this recipe is similar to that used in the Grilled Xinjiang-Style Chicken Wing (新疆燒烤鷄翼, San¹ Goeng¹ Siu¹ Haau¹ Gai¹ Jik⁶) recipe.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Zucchini with Spicy Bean Paste (意大利青瓜春辣酱雞, Ji3 Daai6 Lei6 Ceng1 Gwaa1 Ceon1 Laat6 Zoeng3 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 04 Jul 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Zucchini is in season now, so I added some chicken and spicy bean paste to make this dish for dinner. The Laoganma brand spicy bean paste includes a spicy oil that adds flavor to this dish. If you can’t find Laoganma brand spicy bean paste at your local Asian grocery store, you can substitute black bean sauce and hot chili oil.

Enjoy!

Grilled Xinjiang-Style Lamb Rib Chops (新疆燒烤羊扒, San1 Goeng1 Siu1 Haau1 Joeng4 Paa4)

This recipe was updated on 11 Apr 2015. Some ingredient quantities and instructions were updated.

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. The spice paste, consisting of red chili flakes, cumin, Sichuan peppercorns, and oyster sauce would go well with any meat. I happen to have two racks of lamb in my freezer, so it made sense to use them instead of making skewers with lamb shoulder as called for in the original recipe. 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 decrease the cooking time depending upon the heat of your grill. Cooking time is fast for medium-rare rib chops, so be careful not to overcook the lamb.

 

Enjoy!

Grilled Miso Garlic T-Bone Steak

This dish was adapted from a Saveur Magazine website (saveur.com) recipe, Garlic and Red Miso Porterhouse. While I didn’t use red miso paste because I had the brown version in my refrigerator, I used more garlic than I normally use in a marinade. I also added sake to the marinade, which was not in the original recipe. This was a tasty and easy way to grill a steak, and the marinade would work with other meats.

Enjoy!

Beef Heart with Bell Peppers (青椒牛心, Ceng1 Ziu1 Ngau4 Sam1)

This recipe was updated on 12 Jul 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Not only was this an opportunity to use the first bell peppers from my garden, it was also the first time I’ve ever used beef hearts in a dish. It was one of those irresistible urges once I saw beef heart slices available for the first time in my local supermarket. Not knowing what they taste like, I used a basic marinade to prepare and then to sauce the dish. Since the heart is a huge muscle, it does not taste like organ meat, but has an understated (in my opinion) beef taste. I liken the texture to chicken gizzards, but with a little more crunch in the mouth. I have to say that I like eating beef hearts and would gladly prepare another dish using it (I’m thinking that a noodle dish is in order).

Enjoy!