Grilled Butterflied Lamb Leg

Here’s another butterflied leg of lamb recipe. The previous version, Grilled Mesquite-Smoked Garlic Rosemary Lamb, used different spices and two grilling methods to prepare the dish. This version uses an Asian based marinade and direct heat to grill the dish. The amount of chili garlic sauce can be varied according to taste – use more if you like spicy, less if you don’t. If done correctly, the outer layer of the lamb will be crusty and the inner meat medium-rare.

Enjoy!

Mussels and Ground Pork with Snow Peas (荷蘭豆貽貝豬肉, Ho4 Laan4 Dau6 Ji4 Bui3 Zyu1 Juk6)

This recipe was updated on 28 Jun 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Ground pork with mung bean vermicelli (also called bean threads) is a classic combination, just those ingredients together make a dish. Adding snow peas and mussels is my customization to the recipe. You can eat the dish all by itself or serve it over rice.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Chinese Broccoli Noodles (芥蘭鷄乾撈麵, Gaai3 Laan4 Gai1 Gon1 Lou1 Min6)

This recipe was updated on 29 Jun 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Here’s another variation of Noodles in Sauce (乾撈麵, Gon¹ Lou¹ Min⁶) and is very easy to make. The combination of chicken, Chinese broccoli, and oyster sauce is very tasty. If you’re really in a hurry to eat, you can just use oyster sauce alone to make the sauce, but the other ingredients add more flavor, so take the time to prepare the complete sauce.

Enjoy!

Curry Tomato Beef Heart Chow Mein (咖哩番茄牛心炒麵, Gaa3 Lei1 Faan1 Ke4 Ngau4 Sam1 Caau2 Min6)

This recipe was updated on 02 Jul 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Here’s a variation on Tomato Beef Chow Mein (番茄牛肉炒麵, Faan¹ Ke⁴ Ngau⁴ Juk⁶ Caau² Min⁶) recipe using beef hearts instead of the usual beef flank. Also instead of using fresh beef hearts, I used Grilled Spicy Beef Hearts (燒烤辣牛心, Siu¹ Haau¹ Laat⁶ Ngau⁴ Sam¹). The beef hearts give an added crunch to the dish. The tomatoes came from my garden and this batch didn’t hold up to stir frying very well, so I got tomato skins in the finished dish rather than tomato wedges!

Enjoy!

Grilled Curry Pork Chops (燒烤咖哩豬排, Siu1 Haau1 Gaa3 Lei1 Zyu1 Paai4)

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

This recipe uses thin pork chops with the skin on. The pork chops usually bought in a supermarket have the skin removed, but pork chops with skin can be purchased at Asian markets. If pork chops with skin cannot be obtained, then use the pork chops without skin from the supermarket. To prevent the pork chops from cupping, the skin is cut in two places before marinating and cooking. Thin pork chops, ½-inch (15 mm.) wide, are required since the cooking method uses a hot coals to quickly grill and brown the pork chops, with the curry powder adding a nice flavor to the finished dish.

Enjoy!

Grilled Spicy Beef Hearts (燒烤辣牛心, Siu1 Haau1 Laat6 Ngau4 Sam1)

This recipe was updated on 30 Jun 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

Here’s another dish using beef hearts, this time grilled in a spicy chili sauce. I bought the beef hearts already sliced at my local Asian market and they slice the beef hearts thicker than my neighborhood supermarket. The beef hearts are also always available at the Asian market, unlike the supermarket. I didn’t (and couldn’t) eat all the grilled beef hearts, so the leftovers were used for another dish.

Enjoy!

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!