Turkey and Eggs with Bitter Melon (苦瓜火雞炒蛋, Fu2 Gwaa1 Fo2 Gai1 Caau2 Daan6)

This recipe was updated on 25 Sep 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

I had some marinated ground turkey and bitter melon in my refrigerator and was trying to figure out what to do with these ingredients to make dinner. I thought about making a dish with a spicy black bean sauce, which sounded yummy in my mind, but I decided that recipe could wait until a later date. I then thought about the Eggs with Bitter Melon (Scrambled Style) (苦瓜炒蛋, Fu² Gwaa¹ Caau² Daan⁶) and Eggs with Bitter Melon (Pancake Style) (苦瓜炒蛋, Fu² Gwaa¹ Caau² Daan⁶) recipes, and decided that I could modify the scrambled style dish to incorporate ground turkey. So this recipe is the result, and you could just as easily use ground pork or beef to make this dish.

I usually buy and marinate a 2-3 lb. (1-1.5 kg.) package of ground turkey. Only ½ lb. (250 g.) of the turkey is used for this recipe, so the rest can be used to make turkey burgers or to make other dishes: Asparagus Turkey, Spaghetti with Basil Turkey Meatballs, Turkey Basil Cheeseburger with Tzatziki Sauce, and Turkey Basil Mushroom Egg Cheeseburger. The recipe specifies marinade for ½ lb. (250 g.) of ground turkey.

Enjoy!

Soy Sauce Beef Tripe with Sour Mustard (酸菜豉油牛柏葉, Syun1 Coi3 Si6 Jau4 Ngau4 Paak3 Jip6)

 

This recipe was updated on 15 Jul 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

I have to admit that this dish is more involved to make than some of my other recipes. It’s really a two-step process to make this dish. First you have to poach the beef tripe in a soy sauce mixture, and then you can cook the dish. For those not familiar with honeycomb tripe, it’s (one of the) cow’s stomach, so called because of the tripe’s honeycomb pattern. The salty and slightly sweet poaching liquid also forms the basis of the sauce, which contrasts nicely with the sour mustard.

The tripe can be prepared and refrigerated the day before you make this dish. Baking soda is required to clean and remove any unwanted smells from the tripe, unlike the other recipes where the baking soda is optionally used to tenderize the meat. Poaching will shrink the tripe, so poach the whole tripe and don’t cut it up into pieces beforehand; otherwise you’ll end up with itsy-bitsy tiny pieces of tripe (I made that mistake once before!).

Enjoy!

Grilled Cumin Lamb Arm Steaks with Vegetables

Lamb arm steaks have been available at my local market recently. The steaks are great when grilled when marinated with cumin. Grill with some vegetables; in this case bell pepper and mushrooms, and you have dinner.

Enjoy!

Squid In Salty Shrimp Sauce (蝦醬鮮魷, Haa1 Zoeng3 Sin1 Jau4)

 

This recipe was updated on 11 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Calamari is usually used when naming or titling a dish with squid in it. It seems rather odd that people are more likely to eat a dish with calamari in the title than squid, given that they’re the same ingredient. So why does this dish title have squid in the name? The main reasons are that the name of this classic dish is the literal translation from Chinese and that’s the name this dish is known by.

This is not the traditional preparation for this dish, which usually consists just of squid stir fried in shrimp sauce, since I’ve added some vegetables to the recipe. Carved squid pieces and squid tentacles are available in the frozen section of your local Asian supermarket. You can of course use fresh squid if it’s available. I happen to like eating squid tentacles, so I include them in dishes when I can, but some are not fans, so feel free to not use them in the dish.

My local farmer’s market had purple long beans, which are usually green in color. I’ve never eaten before this type of long beans before, so I couldn’t resist buying and using the purple long beans in this dish. If you can’t get long beans (whatever the color), substitute regular green beans.

The most important ingredient in this dish is the shrimp sauce, which is an odd purple color. Shrimp sauce is, to say the least, a pungent mixture of ground fermented shrimp and salt, and for some, pungent is just a nice way to say it smells. No matter what someone thinks about the smell of this sauce, you can’t make this dish without it. Shrimp sauce and squid just naturally taste good together.

Enjoy!

Spicy Tomato Beef Curry (咖哩粉番茄牛肉, Gaa3 Lei1 Fan2 Faan1 Ke4 Ngau4 Juk6)

 

This recipe was updated on 31 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

Tomato Beef Curry is a classic Chinese-American dish that you can get at any Cantonese restaurant. The dish is a mixture of beef, tomatoes, and other vegetables in a sweet and sour curry sauce (not that thick red gloppy stuff). Depending upon on your preference, the dish can be sourer than sweet or sweeter than sour. Madras curry or garam masala powder is the typical ingredient for the curry part of the dish (and turmeric if you want the dish to be yellow colored). I also used tomatoes and Jalapeño peppers from my garden. The peppers make this dish spicy and can be omitted if desired. You can think of this dish as a version of the Tomato Beef Chow Mein (番茄牛肉炒麵, Faan¹ Ke⁴ Ngau⁴ Juk⁶ Caau² Min⁶) recipe without the noodles.

Enjoy!

Greek Yogurt Cantaloupe Pasta Salad

This is a nice dish for those hot days when you want something cool to eat. You get the sweetness from the cantaloupe and a nice sour tang from the dressing. This recipe is very similar to the Greek Yogurt Soy Sauce Chicken Pasta Salad dish (whose recipe can be found here). The main difference in this recipe is the use of cantaloupe instead or chicken, making this dish vegetarian.

Enjoy!

Pork Baby Back Ribs with Black Bean and Garlic (蒜蓉豆豉排骨, Syun3 Jung4 Dau6 Si6 Paai4 Gwat1)

 

This recipe was updated on 08 Nov 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed, and metric measurements added.

This recipe is a classic Cantonese-style steamed pork dish using pork ribs and black beans, with a notable twist to the recipe – using the whole pork baby back rib instead of using cut 1- (2.5 cm.) to 2-inch (5 cm.) rib pieces. Marinating the ribs is also not usually done in the classic recipe, so feel free to omit this step if you’re in a hurry to make and eat this dish!

The number of pork ribs used in this recipe is governed by the size of the plate than can be placed into the steamer. You want to have one layer of individual ribs in the plate with the topping. The baby back rib is the right size to fit into the steamer plate for cooking and for eating. You can of course use cut ribs (just pile them in the plate!) in this recipe instead of whole baby back ribs, but normal pork ribs are not recommended since they would be too big to fit into the steaming plate and to eat.

For this recipe, ½ of the baby back pork rib rack was used, about 7 ribs. The whole rack was cut into individual ribs, marinated, and then used in two recipes. The first being this recipe and the other is Pork Baby Back Ribs with Fermented Bean Curd (腐乳排骨, Fu⁶ Jyu⁵ Paai⁴ Gwat¹). Both recipes are classic Cantonese steamed dishes except for the use of the whole baby back rib.

Enjoy!