Technique: How to Quickly Rehydrate Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (冬菇, Dung1 Gu1)

For the last posting of the Lunar New Year, here’s a technique to quickly rehydrate dried Shiitake mushrooms. In my recipes using dried Shiitake mushrooms, the instructions usually call for soaking in water that has been boiled for at least one hour. This is usually not a problem if you’ve been planning to make a dish ahead of time, but is a problem when you decide at the last minute that you need rehydrated Shiitake mushrooms. That’s exactly what happened to me, I needed rehydrated Shiitake mushrooms at the last minute and had to figure out how to quickly do this. So the technique that I came up with is to boil the mushrooms in the microwave after pouring boiling water over them.

I found that it is important to not fill the bowl with the dried mushrooms completely with boiling water. Leave a space of about 1-inch (2.5 cm.) from the top because the water foams once it reboils in the microwave. So the timing (at least for my microwave) is to turn the microwave on high for 1 minute to reboil the liquid in the bowl, and then use 50% power for another 4 minutes to rehydrate the mushrooms. Once removed from the microwave, the bowl is refilled to the top with more water since the mushroom rehydration liquid is usually used later in the recipe needing the mushrooms. So for the time it takes to boil water plus 5 minutes (rather than one hour), the mushrooms are ready for use.

Enjoy!

Szechuan Peppercorn Lamb (花椒羊肉, Faa1 Ziu1 Joeng4 Juk6)

A dry rub was used to marinade the lamb for this recipe using Szechuan peppercorns, cumin, black pepper, and dried Japones (Japanese) chilies. Most, if not all, of my previous stir fry recipes used a wet marinade. The dry marinade gives the lamb a spicier result in the finished dish. The amount of the sauce was also reduced from the normal amount used in my stir fry dishes.

I used thinly sliced lamb loin chops to make this dish. More common (and cheaper) cuts of lamb can be substituted, such as lamb leg or shoulder. Lamb loin chops have two distinct pieces of meat separated by a bone as in a beef T-bone steak. The larger piece of meat is the loin and the smaller is the tenderloin. The two pieces of meat need to be removed from the bone, and then the loin and tenderloin pieces cut thinly using a very sharp knife. Meat from the lamb loin chop is very tender and even though there’s more work involved to prepare the meat for this dish, it’s worth the effort to make this dish if you can get the lamb loin chops for a decent price, otherwise use meat from the lamb leg or shoulder. You’ll need to purchase about 1½ lb. (750 g.) of lamb loin chops to get about ¾ lb. (375 g.) of meat after trimming.

Enjoy!

Basil Chicken Wing Beer Curry (咖哩紫蘇啤酒鷄翼, Gaa3 Lei1 Zi2 Sou1 Be1 Zau2 Gai1 Jik6)

Beer and curry seem to go together, so why not cook a stew with the two ingredients? The recipe could have just as easily used garam masala powder to make a spicier version of this dish. The amount of the curry powder can also be customized to suit your tastes, so feel free to increase or decrease the amount used in the recipe. Chicken wings (midjoint or drumette pieces) are ideal for this curry dish because they cook quickly. All the ingredients, except for the corn starch slurry and basil leaves, are added to a Dutch oven in the beginning to make this quick cooking one pot dish.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Garlic Sauce Snow Pea Lamb (蒜蓉豆豉醬荷蘭豆羊肉, Syun3 Jung4 Dau6 Si6 Zoeng3 Ho4 Laan4 Dau6 Joeng4 Juk6)

Here’s another lamb dish using lamb loin chop meat. I used this cut of meat in two previous recipes: Black Bean Chili Oil Lamb with Bean Curd Sticks (黑豆辣椒油腐竹羊肉, Hak¹ Dau⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Jau⁴ Fu⁶ Zuk¹ Joeng⁴ Juk⁶) and Black Bean Chili Oil Snow Pea Lamb Chow Mein (黑豆辣椒油荷蘭豆羊扒炒麵, Hak¹ Dau⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Jau⁴ Ho⁴ Laan⁴ Dau⁶ Joeng⁴ Paa⁴ Caau² Min⁶). More common (and cheaper) cuts of lamb can be substituted, such as lamb leg or shoulder. Lamb loin chops have two distinct pieces of meat separated by a bone as in a beef T-bone steak. The larger piece of meat is the loin and the smaller is the tenderloin. The two pieces of meat need to be removed from the bone, and then the loin and tenderloin pieces cut thinly using a very sharp knife. Meat from the lamb loin chop is very tender and even though there’s more work involved to prepare the meat for this dish, it’s worth the effort to make this dish if you can get the lamb loin chops for a decent price, otherwise use meat from the lamb leg or shoulder. You’ll need to purchase about 1½ lb. (750 g.) of lamb loin chops to get about ¾ lb. (375 g.) of meat after trimming.

Enjoy!

Seafood Winter Melon Soup (海鮮冬瓜羹, Hoi2 Sin1 Dung1 Gwaa1 Gang1)

I made this tasty soup for my family’s 2015 Christmas dinner. The soup is loaded with lots of seafood and is a special occasion type dish. The other main ingredient is winter melon. Winter melon is really a gourd used mainly in soups, but I’ve also used it in these stir fry recipes: Chicken and Rock Shrimp with Winter Melon (冬瓜蝦仁雞, Dung¹ Gwaa¹ Haa¹ Jan⁴ Gai¹), Winter Melon with Dried Shrimp (冬瓜蝦米, Dung¹ Gwaa¹ Haa¹ Mai⁵), and Stir Fried Beef with Winter Melon (冬瓜炒牛肉, Dung¹ Gwaa¹ Caau² Ngau⁴ Juk⁶). So winter melon can be quite versatile, but cooks quickly and becomes mushy if overcooked.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to use fresh local crabs due to a deadly neurotoxin contamination, so I used imported (from another state) freshly cooked crab from my local grocery store. I used the meat from two cooked Dungeness crabs and that produced about 1 lb. (500 g.) of meat. If you’re not fortunate enough to have freshly cooked crabs available, canned or frozen crab can be used. Crab is not the only seafood that can be used, and abalone or sea cucumber can be used as substitutes.

The soup stock was made using the Bone Soup (湯, Tong¹) recipe. You can used a prepared soup stock, but the taste of the soup is heavily dependent upon the quality of the ingredients. So if you’re going to all the trouble and expense to make this soup, you should make your own soup stock. The last Chinese character in the recipe’s name, 羹 (gang¹), signifies that this is a thick soup. A thick soup means that a corn starch solution is added to thicken the soup. The amount of thickener added to the soup depends upon personal preference, but the soup should be thicker than a normal soup and not thicker than a very thick gravy.

Enjoy!

Shredded Tofu Jellyfish Salad (白豆腐絲海蜇沙律, Baak6 Dau6 Fu6 Si1 Hoi2 Zit3 Saa1 Leot6)

Happy New Year! For the first recipe of 2016, here’s a tasty salad I made for my family’s 2015 Christmas dinner. It’s actually quite simple to make, consisting mainly of opening packages and cutting the fresh ingredients. The two notable ingredients are instant jellyfish and shredded tofu.

I’ve used instant jellyfish previously, Cucumber and Jellyfish Salad (Ceng¹ Gwaa¹ Hoi² Zit³ Saa¹ Leot⁶, 青瓜海蜇沙律), while the recipes are similar, the main ingredient for this dish is shredded tofu. Instant jellyfish comes in a package ready to use (hence the “instant” name). If I translated the Chinese correctly, it’s “jellyfish noodles”. The traditional method to prepare jellyfish is to soak dried salted jellyfish to rehydrate it before cutting into strips (at least a two day effort with a couple of water changes to remove the salt). So you see why packaged instant jellyfish is preferable. The jellyfish and cucumber give this dish a nice crunchy texture.

Shredded tofu is also packaged and looks like noodles. I’ve also used shredded tofu in another (cooked) recipe, Baby Bok Choy Sprouts with Shredded Tofu (白菜苗豆腐絲, Baak⁶ Coi³ Miu⁴ Dau⁶ Fu⁶ Si¹). The tofu needs to be parboiled before using (follow the instructions on the package), but other than that, there’s no other cooking needed before assembling the salad. The rest of the fresh salad ingredients are either cut or come already cut into small strips. Shredded tofu also comes marinated (five-spice), but the “noodles” are larger and could be substituted for the non-marinated version to give the salad another added taste.

Enjoy!

Amaretto Fudge Cheesecake with Kahlua Chocolate Cookie Crust and Ganache

This will be my last post for 2015. So my last recipe is a dessert, which I rarely make, made for my family’s 2015 Christmas dinner. So we’ll end the year on a sweet note and as we enter 2016, best wishes to you and your family for the coming New Year. I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s recipes and I’ll see you next year with more recipe postings.

The origin of this recipe was the Amaretto Fudge Cheesecake recipe from cooking.com, whose site no longer exists. I made this dessert once before (a few Christmas’ ago) more or less as in the original recipe. My 2015 recipe version definitely came out delicious after making changes to the original, which included drastically reducing the amount of sugar in the filling. I’m not a fan of overly sweet desserts, so I add the minimal amount of sugar, but everyone has different tastes, so feel free to add more. When making the cookie crust, I’ve found that it’s sufficient to use the entire sandwich cookie (including the filling, which many recipes have you remove) with added flavoring (in this case Kahlúa) rather than adding any additional sugar or butter. I’ve also found that it’s not necessary to bake the crust before adding the cheesecake filling, which saves a step in making this dessert. Finally I added a visual and tasty flourish to the cheesecake by topping it with a flavored ganache (Kahlúa again and it hides any filling surface defects after baking).

Enjoy!