Oyster Sauce Cashew Broccoli Chicken (蠔油腰果西蘭花雞, Hou4 Jau4 Jiu1 Gwo2 Sai1 Laan4 Faa1 Gai1)



Oyster sauce goes well with chicken and broccoli, and is one of my favorite dishes to make. Just that combination of ingredients makes a good recipe, but by adding cashew nuts, the dish gets the added texture and flavor of the nuts. The cashews are toasted and then added after cooking the dish. If you add the cashews while cooking the dish, the cashews will lose some crunchiness as they cook in the sauce.

Enjoy!

Grilled Garlic Chili Oil Turkey and Turkey Bacon Fried Rice

This recipe uses leftover Grilled Garlic Chili Oil Turkey Thighs. I used to use regular (pork) bacon when I made fried rice. Bacon adds a nice smoky flavor to any dish, but now that I more conscience about adding saturated fat to dishes, I use turkey bacon in its place. The taste is not quite the same as the pork bacon, but turkey bacon is healthier for you while providing similar flavor (I just use more). If you’ve looked at any of my other fried rice recipes, you’ll find a common theme– they are recipes to use leftovers. So when I go out to eat at restaurants, I rarely order fried rice!

Enjoy!

Chili Paste with Fermented Soy Bean Shrimp and Salmon (湖南豆豉辣椒鮭魚蝦, Wu4 Naam4 Dau6 Si6 Laat6 Ziu1 Gwai1 Jyu4 Haa1)

This is a nice and spicy recipe using shrimp and salmon. The hardest thing about making this dish is being gentle when stir frying the salmon so that it doesn’t break up into little pieces.

Enjoy!

Grilled Hickory Smoked Rib Eye Pork Chops

This is probably the most basic method to wood smoke (hickory, in this case) pork rib eye chops on a grill. There’s no marinating involved – just take the pork rib eye chops out of the refrigerator one hour before grilling, coat with oil, salt or Lawry’s seasoned salt, and pepper, and then grill. The flavor is also at its most basic – just pork and wood smoke (in this case hickory).

Enjoy!

Sea Cucumber, Shrimp, and Chicken with Abalone Sauce (鮑魚醬海參蝦雞, Baau1 Jyu4 Zoeng3 Hoi2 Sam1 Haa1 Gai1)

Happy Lunar New Year! Sea cucumber is an ocean sea slug treasured for its texture and (supposed) medicinal properties, and is a special occasion ingredient. White sea cucumber is prized over the black sea cucumber, and I used it in this first recipe for Lunar New Year’s. Sea cucumber (either color) is itself tasteless, so the taste of the dish comes from the other ingredients. It is available either dried or frozen at your local Asian herb store (dried version) or Asian market (frozen). So there is some preparation work that must be done before sea cucumber can be used in a dish. I prefer the frozen version since all you have to do is thaw it the day before using it.

There are really two cooking techniques needed to make this dish: stir frying and braising. The chicken, shrimp, and snow peas need to be stir fried before the coin mushrooms and sea cucumber are braised in the sauce and mushroom rehydration liquid to generate the flavor for the dish. This dish is made with a lot of sauce, which is provided by the mushroom rehydration liquid, adding the necessary volume for this dish. Since this is a festive dish, abalone sauce and brandy is used to make the sauce, but you can use oyster sauce and Shaoxing wine (which I normally use to make sauces).

Meat and seafood is a classic combination in Chinese dishes. Usually the meat part of the combination is pork and you’ll find may recipes using various parts of the pig with sea cucumber (I want to try making pig’s feet and sea cucumber!). Chicken as the meat with sea cucumber is unusual, but it certainly is tasty.

Enjoy!

Panang Curry Chicken Wing Stew

Coconut curry dishes are surprisingly easy and fast to make when prepared curry paste is used. The sequence for cooking these curry dishes is to stir fry the prepared curry paste, add coconut milk (and some water), boil, add the meat, cook, add the vegetables, cook, and serve. I’ve started to use Maesri brand curry paste rather than the Mae Ploy brand. While both of these prepared curry pastes come in a multitude of flavors, are tasty, and available at your local Asian market, the Maesri brand curry paste comes in 4 oz. (114 g.) cans, while the Mae Ploy brand comes in 14 oz. (400 g.) plastic tubs. What would happen is that I would use a small portion of the Mae Ploy curry paste in a dish and then the plastic tub would sit in my refrigerator for a long time until I made the next curry dish. The Maesri brand can is one use, so there’s no need to save the excess in the refrigerator and its “fresh” out of the can. So unless you make curry dishes often or in huge quantities, using the small cans for one dish is the way to go.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Shiitake Mushroom Curry Hong Kong Noodles (咖哩冬菇雞雲吞麵, Gaa3 Lei1 Dung1 Gu1 Gai4 Wan4 Tan1 Min6)

Curry powder is a tasty common flavoring added to Hong Kong noodles. Adding the red chili peppers is another common enhancement to curried noodle dishes. Not only do the red chili peppers add a little heat to the dish, but also makes for a good visual presentation. The amount of red chili peppers to add, if any, is entirely a personal preference. The curried version of Hong Kong noodles that’s found at Chinese restaurants is usually a deep yellow color. My guess is that additional turmeric is added to the dish to give it that electric yellow color. I didn’t add any turmeric to this recipe, so the color looks more like a normal fried noodle dish, but feel free to add some if you make this dish.

Enjoy!