Hard Apple Cider Soy Sauce Chicken (蘋果酒豉油鷄, Ping4 Gwo2 Zau2 Si6 Jau4 Gai1)

If this recipe and the above picture look familiar, then you’ve looked at the Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油鷄, Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹) recipe. This recipe differs by the use of hard apple cider instead of Shaoxing Rice Wine in the poaching liquid. The chicken takes on a slightly sweeter flavor when hard apple cider is used. The poached chicken’s dark color comes from the use of thick soy sauce, which has molasses in it. Usually soy sauce chicken recipes call for the use of dark soy sauce, which you can use, but I prefer using thick soy sauce because it produces a better overall dark color in the chicken. Poaching chicken is an easy and fast way to cook a chicken. The Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil (薑蔥油, Goeng¹ Cung¹ Jau⁴) recipe has instructions on how to cut and present the chicken. Just be sure you have a good sharp Chinese cleaver and a wood cutting board, and with a little practice, you’ll be able to cut chickens as if you worked in a Chinese delicatessen. The chicken can be served immediately while warm or at room temperature after overnight refrigeration.

Enjoy!

Beef Shank and Tendon Stew (燜牛筋牛腱, Man1 Ngau4 Gan1 Ngau4 Gin3)

Beef shank and beef tendon go together to make a classic Chinese stew. This dish is very similar to the Beef Flank and Tendon Stew (燜牛筋牛腩, Man¹ Ngau⁴ Gan¹ Ngau⁴ Naam⁵) recipe. Chee Hou sauce is an important ingredient to making this dish. Chee Hou sauce is a prepared sauce and is similar in taste to hoisin sauce (which can be substituted if you can’t find it at your local Asian market) and has a slightly spicier taste to it.

Boneless beef shank is usually prepared and served as a cold dish appetizer at Chinese banquets, in a very similar preparation as for this stew dish. This cut of meat is usually not available at your local market, but can be found in Asian markets. If you can’t find beef shank, beef outside flank makes a good substitute. Beef tendon is another part of the cow available at Asian markets either whole or already cut into pieces. It’s a texture ingredient that produces a great mouth feel when eaten. Uncooked, it’s tough and hard to cut, cooked long and slow, and it becomes soft. There’s really no substitute for this ingredient, so if you can’t find it, it can be omitted, but the stew won’t be the same.

Enjoy!

Gochujang (Korean Hot Pepper Paste) Fish Ball and Kurobuta Pork (苦椒醬魚蛋豬肉, Fu2 Jiao1 Zoeng3 Jyu4 Daan6 Zyu1 Juk6)

My local Japanese market had thinly sliced Kurobuta pork loin on sale and, as usual, bought it before knowing what dish I was going to make. Kurobuta pork, or Berkshire pork, is a heritage pig, meaning that it’s not the mass farmed pig that’s raised in the USA whose meat is widely available in grocery stores. The only way I can describe the taste compared to regular is that Kurobuta pork is more “porky” tasting. If Kurobuta pork is not available at your local Asian market, then regular pork may be substituted. I added fish balls to make the classic seafood and meat combination found in Chinese dishes, and then decided to use Korean hot pepper paste and powder to give the dish an added Asian twist.

Enjoy!

Pixian Doubanjiang Cashew Fuzzy Melon Shrimp (郫縣豆瓣酱腰果節瓜蝦, Pei4 Jyun6 Dau6 Faan6 Zoeng3 Jiu1 Gwo2 Zit3 Gwaa1 Haa1)

Pixian Doubanjiang (Pixian Spicy Fermented Broad Bean Paste) is a spicy fermented paste made from broad beans in Sichuan Province in China. The paste should not be confused with spicy sauces made from soy beans, which have a totally different taste. Doubanjiang can be purchased in the sauce section of your local Asian market. There are many manufacturers of Doubanjiang, so you might want to try out the different brands before settling in on one. I choose one of the brands that’s fermented in Sichuan Province.

The Doubanjiang is first stir fried by itself before adding the other ingredients, and the dishes are typically made with little liquid, with the sauce being “dry”, rather than “wet” with more liquid. I decided to make this dish with more sauce, so this is an atypical Doubanjiang recipe that tastes pretty good over rice or noodles. The spiciness of the Doubanjiang is nicely contrasted with the slight sweetness of the salted radish (I used a brand from China rather than Thailand to get this taste). The cashew nuts add a nice texture contrast with the other ingredients.

Enjoy!

Chili Black Bean Salted Radish Long Bean Chicken (辣椒豆豉菜脯豆角鷄, Laat6 Ziu1 Dau6 Si6 Coi3 Pou2 Dau6 Gok3 Gai1)

Salted radish is added to the dish to give a crunchy and slightly sweet addition to a standard chicken stir fry with long beans. Depending upon where the salted radish is packaged (usually China or Thailand) and the manufacturer, the salted radish saltiness ranges from minimal to very salty. I used a brand from China that has minimal saltiness and has a slight sweet flavor to it. I used a prepared black bean sauce with chili, but a less spicy brand can be substituted or you can make the sauce from scratch.

Enjoy!

Japanese Chili Cashew Long Bean Shrimp (日本指天椒腰果豆角蝦仁, Jat6 Bun2 Zi2 Tin1 Ziu1 Jiu1 Gwo2 Dau6 Gok3 Haa1 Jan4)

This dish is similar to the previously published Cashew Shrimp with Long Beans (腰果豆角蝦仁, Jiu¹ Gwo² Dau⁶ Gok³ Haa¹ Jan⁴) recipe. This dish is spicier than the previous recipe with the addition of dried Japanese chilies. Japanese chilies are available at your local Mexican market and provide more flavor than heat to a dish. You can substitute dried red chilies from your local Asian market, but they provide more heat than flavor. The flavor of the chilies is balanced by using oyster sauce, which provides a slight sweetness to the dish.

Enjoy!

This dish is not in the Recipe Index due to a blog problem.

Chicken Crab Chow Mein (蟹鷄炒麵, Haai5 Gai1 Caau2 Min6)

Noodles with meat and seafood are a tasty combination. For this recipe, chicken and crab are combined in this dish. If you’re fortunate enough to live in an area where fresh Dungeness crab is seasonally available, by all means take the effort to extract the meat from the cooked crabs to make this dish. If you’re not so fortunate, canned or frozen crab can be substituted. I think I’ve commented on this before, but noodle dishes seem so simple to make, but require many steps to make, and are always worth the effort.

Enjoy!

This dish is not in the Recipe Index due to blog problem.