Chicken and Mushroom Noodles (蘑菇雞撈麵, Mo4 Gu1 Gai1 Lou1 Min6)

Whenever I have leftover chicken, I always find a way to use the chicken in a noodle dish with my favorite sauce to use with the noodles: oyster sauce. There’s just something I find particularly appealing about the combination of those ingredients. Here are some chicken recipes that can be used to supply the leftovers: Mom’s Grilled Soy Sauce Chicken (燒烤豉油雞, Siu¹ Haau¹ Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹), Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油鷄, Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹), Grilled Chili Sauce Chicken (燒烤鮮辣椒鷄, Siu¹ Haau¹ Sin¹ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Gai¹), Grilled Ginger Peach Chicken (燒烤薑桃子雞, Siu¹ Haau¹ Goeng¹ Tou⁴ Zi² Gai¹), Grilled Guinness Chicken, Grilled Garam Masala Chicken.

Enjoy!

Hot Fermented Bean Curd Beef with Bell Peppers (辣椒腐乳青椒牛肉, Laat6 Ziu1 Fu6 Jyu5 Ceng1 Ziu1 Ngau4 Juk6)

I previously posted a similar dish using regular fermented bean curd, Beef and Bell Peppers with Fermented Bean Curd (腐乳青椒牛肉, Fu⁶ Jyu⁵ Ceng¹ Ziu¹ Ngau⁴ Juk⁶). This version of the recipe uses fermented bean curd with chili as the basis for the sauce, so there’s a little more spice to the taste of the dish. Since fermented bean curd is an acquired taste, you can reduce or increase the amount depending upon your preference.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili Sauce Chicken with Bitter Melon (黑豆辣椒苦瓜雞, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Fu2 Gwaa1 Gai1)

Beef and black bean sauce are the usual accompaniments to bitter melon (here’s my recipe: Beef with Bitter Melon (苦瓜牛肉, Fu² Gwaa¹ Ngau⁴ Juk⁶). This recipe uses chicken and fried tofu together with black bean chili sauce to spice up the bitter melon. Eating bitter melon is an acquired taste, but it is one that I’ve had ever since childhood. The bitterness can be reduced by salting the bitter melon and then washing the salt off before cooking. If the salt is left on long enough, the bitterness can be removed, but then what’s the point of eating bitter melon if there’s no bitterness?

Enjoy!

Baby Bok Choy Sprouts with Shredded Tofu (白菜苗豆腐絲, Baak6 Coi3 Miu4 Dau6 Fu6 Si1)

I had a similar dish to this recipe at my local Shanghai restaurant and wanted to reproduce it at home. I had posted a similar recipe earlier, Shrimp with Shredded Spice Tofu (五香豆腐絲蝦, Ng⁵ Hoeng¹ Dau⁶ Fu⁶ Si¹ Haa¹), which adds seafood. Long baby bok choy sprouts resemble spinach in form, but retains its crunch when cooked, and are the young long sprouts of the bok choy plant. The long sprouts go well with shredded tofu which is also long in length. If you can’t find long baby bok choy sprouts (also called long bok choy muy) at your local Asian supermarket, you can substitute baby bok choy (小白菜, siu² baak⁶ coi³). Regular firm tofu, cut into strips, can be substituted for the shredded tofu.

Enjoy!

Cashew String Bean Chicken (腰果青豆角鷄, Jiu1 Gwo2 Ceng1 Dau6 Gok3 Gai1)

While you could cut the chicken into chunks, as was done in the Cashew Asparagus Chicken (腰果蘆筍鷄, Jiu¹ Gwo² Lou⁴ Seon² Gai¹) recipe, for this dish the chicken is cut to mimic the shape of the string beans. While the shape of the chicken doesn’t affect the taste at all, the aesthetics of the dish are a little more refined. There’s also a range of textures: from the hardness of the cashews, to the crunch of the green beans, to the chewiness of the mushrooms, and finally to the tenderness of the chicken. A prepared black bean garlic sauce makes for easy preparation, but you could always make your own from scratch.

Enjoy!

Chili Lemongrass Shrimp Hong Kong Noodles (辣椒檸檬葉蝦雲吞麵, Laat6 Ziu1 Ning4 Mung4 Jip6 Haa1 Wan4 Tan1 Min6)

While this recipe is similar to the Chili Lemongrass Shrimp Dough Sliced Noodles (辣椒檸檬葉蝦刀削麵, Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Ning⁴ Mung⁴ Jip⁶ Haa¹ Dou¹ Soek³ Min⁶), Hong Kong noodles are used in this recipe together with eggs. Shrimp goes really well with the scrambled eggs in noodle dishes, and the spiciness from the dried red chili peppers goes well with the lemongrass.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili Sauce Beef with Sugar Snap Peas (黑豆辣椒蜜豆牛肉, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Mat6 Dau6 Ngau4 Juk6)

The crunch of the sugar snap peas contrasts nicely with the tenderness of the beef in this dish. The red bell pepper adds color and the black bean chili sauce adds spiciness. You can of course just make the dish with black bean sauce if you don’t want the dish to be spicy.

Enjoy!

Steamed Tianjin Preserved Vegetable Pork Baby Back Ribs (天津冬菜蒸排骨, Tin1 Zeon1 Dung1 Coi3 Zing1 Paai4 Gwat1)

Here’s another easy to prepare pork rib recipe using Tianjin preserved vegetables and steaming takes only 30 minutes to finish the dish. The preserved vegetables are dried salted mustard greens, and they go well as a topping with the marinated pork spareribs.

Enjoy!

Shrimp with Shredded Spice Tofu (五香豆腐絲蝦, Ng5 Hoeng1 Dau6 Fu6 Si1 Haa1)

I saw two ingredients at my local Asian supermarket that I’ve never cooked before – long baby bok choy sprouts and shredded spice tofu. As always I bought them before knowing what to do with them. Just those two ingredients alone would make a good dish, and I’ve had a similar dish using white shredded tofu at a local Shanghai restaurant, but I decided to add shrimp to the recipe. Long baby bok choy sprouts resemble spinach in form, but retains its crunch when cooked, and are the young long sprouts of the bok choy plant. The long sprouts go well with shredded tofu which is also long in length. I used spiced shredded tofu instead of the white version, which is more common, to give added flavor to the dish. If you can’t find long baby bok choy sprouts (also called long bok choy muy) at your local Asian supermarket, you can substitute baby bok choy (小白菜, siu² baak⁶ coi³). Regular firm tofu, cut into strips, can be substituted for the shredded tofu.

Enjoy!

Grilled Plum Sauce Pork Ribeye Steaks (燒烤酸梅豬排, Siu1 Haau1 Syun1 Mui4 Zyu1 Paai4)

Plum sauce can be purchased at your local Asian supermarket and usually is an accompaniment to roast duck. Koon Chun Sauce Factory makes the plum sauce and it’s the brand I grew up with (but you can use any brand available). The sauce is a sweet and slightly sour, and has a mild spice kick to it. For this recipe, I used plum sauce and, to emphasize the plum flavor, plum wine to marinate pork chops before grilling.

Enjoy!

Oysters with Ground Pork (蠔豬肉, Hou4 Zyu1 Juk6)

Ground pork and seafood, in this case oysters, is a classic combination used in Chinese recipes. I used fresh oysters from a jar, saving the liquid the oysters come in for use in the sauce. Add some mushrooms and vegetables, and dinner is served.

Enjoy!

Steamed Drunken Shrimp (蒸醉蝦, Zing1 Zoei3 Haa1)

This easy to prepare recipe uses whole shelled shrimp and the flavor comes from the marinade, which consists mainly of wine – hence the name. I used Shaoxing rice wine, but you can use something stronger like brandy or rum. The shrimp are quickly steamed and then they’re ready to eat. The most delectable part of the shrimp is the contents of its head. You break off the heads from the body and then suck the head out before eating the body meat. Try it, you’ll like it!

 

Enjoy!

Fried Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (豆豉炸鮎魚, Dau6 Si6 Zaa3 Nim4 Jyu4)

At my local Asian market, fried catfish pieces are occasionally available already cooked and ready to eat. This is a great way to get fried fish since I rarely fry fish myself at home. Catfish and black bean sauce is a classic combination, and I cheated again using a Lee Kum Kee brand prepared sauce. So the only real work in preparing this dish is cutting the bell peppers.

Enjoy!

Garam Masala Chicken Wings with Sugar Snap Peas (胡荽蜜豆鷄翼, Wu4 Seoi1 Mat6 Dau6 Gai1 Jik6)

This recipe was updated on 27 Aug 2015. Some instructions and ingredient quantities were changed.

This quick cooking recipe uses garam masala, instead of curry powder for flavor. Midjoint chicken wings are used, but you can use drumettes or whole chicken wings. The chicken wings are marinated in a bowl overnight and then the entire contents are put into a Dutch oven (or large pot). Add the Shiitake mushrooms and carrots, together with enough liquid to just cover the ingredients, cover, and place it over a burner on the stove. You don’t need to brown any of the ingredients! Towards the end of cooking, you add the sugar snap peas, thicken the sauce, and dinner is ready in less than an hour.

Enjoy!

Cantonese Pork Sausage Vegetable Rice (臘腸菜飯, Laap6 Coeng4 Coi3 Faan6)

At my local Shanghai restaurant, there is a dish called Shanghai Vegetable Rice (上海菜飯, soeng⁶ hoi² coi³ faan⁶) which consists of salted pork, baby bok choy, and white rice cooked in a clay pot. The first time I ate dinner at this restaurant, every table had ordered this dish (except mine, of course!). So the next time I went to the restaurant, I had to try the dish and it was quite tasty.

So I went online and looked for a recipe and found this one (this is Chinese language website in English, so I’m unable to give the English name of the site), which uses a rice cooker instead of a clay pot to cook the dish. I made a few modifications to the recipe: using Cantonese pork sausage, instead of salted pork; using the microwave, instead of water, to blanch the baby bok choy; increasing the amount of garlic; and using brown, instead of white, rice. All the changes resulted in a similar, but still tasty rice dish, and the amount of effort to prepare the dish is pretty easy. Try this dish if you’re looking for a substitute for plain rice.

Enjoy!

Shrimp with Sugar Snap Peas (蜜豆蝦, Mat6 Dau6 Haa1)

This looks like a standard shrimp with vegetable (in this case, sugar snap peas) stir fry. What makes this dish different and tasty, is black vinegar. The black vinegar adds a slightly sour taste to the dish, which is balanced by the hoisin sauce, which adds some sweetness. However, this is not a sweet and sour dish, but if you increase the quantities of the previously mentioned ingredients, it can be.

Enjoy!

Steamed Red Fermented Bean Curd Pork Baby Back Ribs (南乳蒸排骨, Naam4 Jyu5 Zing1 Paai4 Gwat1)

Here’s another easy to prepare pork rib recipe using red fermented bean curd and steaming takes only 30 minutes to finish the dish. Serve with some vegetables and rice, and dinner is served!

Enjoy!

Basil Asparagus Beef (紫蘇蘆筍牛肉, Zi2 Sou1 Lou4 Seon2 Ngau4 Juk6)

This recipe is a variation on a Chinese-American standard - here’s my recipe for this classic:  Cashew Asparagus Beef (腰果蘆筍牛肉, Jiu¹ Gwo² Lou⁴ Seon² Ngau⁴ Juk⁶). I never thought that mixing asparagus and basil would work together in a dish because I thought that the flavors would clash. Well, I was wrong since the taste combination is actually pretty tasty.

Enjoy!

Cumin Red Cooked Pork Fried Rice (孜然紅燒肉炒飯, Zi1 Jin4 Hung4 Siu1 Juk6 Caau2 Faan6)

Here’s a recipe that uses leftover Cumin Red Cooked Pork and rice. Since pork belly is used to make bacon, stir frying the pork releases oil as it is cooked, and that oil is used to stir fry all the ingredients. The dish may not be the healthiest, but it is tasty.

Enjoy!

Shredded Chicken Hong Kong Noodles (手絲鷄雲吞麵, Sau2 Si1 Gai1 Wan4 Tan1 Min6)

This recipe is similar to Shredded Chicken Chow Mein (手絲鷄炒麵, Sau² Si¹ Gai¹ Caau² Min⁶). Leftover chicken is hand-shredded, some vegetables and Shiitake mushrooms are added, and a soy based sauce (instead of oyster) is used to make this noodle dish. You can use leftover chicken breast and/or thigh meat from the following recipes: Mom’s Grilled Soy Sauce Chicken (燒烤豉油雞, Siu¹ Haau¹ Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹), Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油鷄, Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹), Grilled Garam Masala Chicken, Grilled Soy Sauce Chicken (燒烤豉油雞, Siu¹ Haau¹ Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹), and Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil.

Enjoy!

Cashew Asparagus Chicken (腰果蘆筍鷄, Jiu1 Gwo2 Lou4 Seon2 Gai1)

Asparagus is in season, so here’s another black bean sauce dish using chicken. Cashews are an extra addition that goes well with this dish. I was feeling a little lazy when I made this dish, so I used bottled black bean garlic sauce to make it. Lee Kum Kee makes a really good bottled sauce in my humble opinion, and I use it whenever I don’t make the black bean sauce myself. I used the Shiitake mushroom rehydration liquid together with a corn starch slurry to increase the amount of sauce.

Enjoy!

Slow Cooker Beer Corned Beef

Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day, so here’s another recipe for corned beef cooked in a slow cooker. The first recipe was Slow Cooker Corned Beef in Beer with Vegetables. This version uses just beer and a shot whisky (optional) to cook the corned beef in the slow cooker together with cabbage. I like using the slow cooker because it’s easy to cook corned beef, since you start the slow cooker in the morning and have dinner ready in the evening without having to mind the cooking.

Enjoy!

Rice Vinegar Carrots (米醋紅蘿蔔, Mai5 Cou3 Hung4 Lo4 Baak6)

Whenever I need a quick dish and the only vegetable in my refrigerator is carrots, this is the dish I make. The carrots are just cooked with seasoned rice vinegar and sesame oil. Seasoned rice vinegar has sugar and salt added, so if you just have (unseasoned) rice vinegar, just add a pinch of sugar and salt. Since the carrots are sweet, you get a sweet and sour flavor in the completed dish. This is about as simple as it gets.

Enjoy!

Chili Lemongrass Shrimp Dough Sliced Noodles (辣椒檸檬葉蝦刀削麵, Laat6 Ziu1 Ning4 Mung4 Jip6 Haa1 Dou1 Soek3 Min6)

The white inner core of the lemongrass is sliced finely and stir fried with dried red peppers to flavor the oil used in this shrimp dish. Depending upon your tolerance for heat, you can use more or less red chili peppers. You can also use any noodle that‘s available to you, in this case I used dough sliced noodles.

Enjoy!

Cumin Red Cooked Pork with Baby Choy Sum (小菜心孜然紅燒肉, Siu2 Coi3 Sam1 Zi1 Jin4 Hung4 Siu1 Juk6)

Here’s another dish using Cumin red cooked pork. Pork belly meat is used for bacon, so you can think of this as a stir fried bacon dish, but using bacon made using a different technique. When the pork is stir fried, oil is released into to the wok and is used to stir fry the rest of the ingredients. The poaching liquid used to make the pork is also used in the sauce.

Enjoy!

Cumin Red Cooked Pork with String Beans (青豆角孜然紅燒肉, Ceng1 Dau6 Gok3 Zi1 Jin4 Hung4 Siu1 Juk6)

Cumin red cooked pork is the basis for this dish. Pork belly meat is used for bacon, so you can think of this as a stir fried bacon dish, but using bacon made using a different technique. When the pork is stir fried, oil is released into to the wok and is used to stir fry the rest of the ingredients. The poaching liquid used to make the pork is also used in the sauce.

Enjoy!

Cumin Red Cooked Pork (孜然紅燒肉, Zi1 Jin4 Hung4 Siu1 Juk6)

I made this dish not to eat alone, but to use as an ingredient in another dish, so this is not made the standard way. Usually red cooked pork is stir fried in sugar in a wok as bite sized pieces, but since I intend to use the pork in other dishes, I cooked the pork in large pieces without the sugar stir fry and added cumin to the spice mix. The pork is cut into thin pieces before making the other dishes and tastes more like bacon than pork.

Enjoy!

Ground Pork with Fuzzy Melon (節瓜豬肉, Zit3 Gwaa1 Zyu1 Juk6)

This is an easy to prepare spicy pork dish. You can substitute ground chicken in place of the pork if desired. The spice comes from Fu Chi Foods brand chili paste with fermented soy bean sauce, which you can buy at your local Asian supermarket. A good substitute is salted black beans and chili garlic sauce if you can’t find that brand. Fuzzy melon gets its name from the fuzz on the outside skin of the melon (it’s really a squash). All you have to do is to rub the skin under running water, and the fuzz comes off.

Enjoy!

Oyster Sauce Shrimp with String Beans (青豆角蠔油蝦, Ceng1 Dau6 Gok3 Hou4 Jau4 Haa1)

Shrimp and oyster sauce make a great taste combination. The other ingredients – string beans and Shiitake mushrooms – are easily obtained and pair well with shrimp. The salted radish is the ingredient that’s uncommon in this dish. Salted radish is slightly sweet and salty at the same time, and provides an added crunch to the dish. You can buy them at your local Asian market.

Enjoy!

Chili Black Bean Sauce Peanut Chicken (湖南豆豉辣椒花生鷄, Wu4 Naam4 Dau6 Si6 Laat6 Ziu1 Faa1 Sang1 Gai1)

A bed of bok choy serves as the base for this dish. The dish leans more towards presentation even though the bok choy could have been incorporated into the stir fry of the other ingredients. The other ingredients are rather straight forward – just chicken and straw mushrooms, but the toasted peanuts are a nice added crunch and flavor to the dish.

Enjoy!

Shredded Chicken Chow Mein (手絲鷄炒麵, Sau2 Si1 Gai1 Caau2 Min6)

So, what to do with leftover chicken? Why make some noodles, of course. The leftover chicken is hand-shredded, some vegetables are added, and an oyster sauce based sauce is used to make this noodle dish. I happen to use fresh Shiitake mushrooms, but you can always use rehydrated dried mushrooms. You can use leftover chicken breast and/or thigh meat from the following recipes: Mom’s Grilled Soy Sauce Chicken (燒烤豉油雞, Siu¹ Haau¹ Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹), Soy Sauce Chicken (豉油鷄, Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹), Grilled Garam Masala Chicken, Grilled Soy Sauce Chicken (燒烤豉油雞, Siu¹ Haau¹ Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹), and Poached Chicken (白斬雞, Baak⁶ Zaam² Gai¹) with Ginger-Scallion Oil.

Enjoy!

Mom’s Grilled Soy Sauce Chicken (燒烤豉油雞, Siu1 Haau1 Si6 Jau4 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 16 Aug 2015. Some hyperlinks were fixed.

The Lunar New Year is fast approaching and one of the traditional dishes to have is a whole chicken. Now when I say whole, I mean with the head and feet attached – otherwise it’s not a whole chicken! Now I didn’t use a whole chicken as it was just defined, but the results are just as tasty. This is based on my Mom’s favorite recipe for Chicken Stuffed with Sticky Rice (糯米鷄, No⁶ Mai⁵ Gai¹). She would roast her chicken in the oven stuffed with Chinese Sticky Rice (糯米飯, No⁶ Mai⁵ Faan⁶), but I chose to use my grill to cook the chicken. I used a chicken stand to cook the chicken in the grill. The stand is also known as a “beer can” chicken stand (although no can was used to cook the chicken) since a beer can fits perfectly into the cavity and supports the chicken upright. The stand I use also has a base that catches the juices, so a gravy can be made.

I made a few other modifications to the chicken marinade, but retained the most important ingredient that made my Mom’s roast chicken flavorful and that ingredient is gin. The only reason I purchase gin is to make this chicken, otherwise the bottle just sits in my cabinet waiting for the next chicken to marinade. If you don’t have gin, you can always substitute Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry, but it won’t taste the same.

Enjoy!

Oyster Sauce Beef with Broccoli (蠔油西蘭花牛肉, Hou4 Jau4 Sai1 Laan4 Faa1 Ngau4 Juk6)

This dish is a Chinese-American standard, with the basic ingredients being beef, broccoli, and oyster sauce. The oyster sauce gives the dish its signature taste and can be the only element used in the sauce. You can buy broccoli florets instead of a whole broccoli head. I use the microwave to pre-cook the broccoli before stir frying to reduce the cooking time. Microwaved broccoli is wet, which helps with the heat transfer and browning (you’ll still have to add some liquid to help the cooking), so the stir frying will go much quicker.

Enjoy!

Bak Kut Teh (Pork Bone Soup) (肉骨茶, Juk6 Gwat1 Caa4)

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

I had this dish at my local Singapore/Malaysian restaurant. It was so good, I wanted to make it myself, and so I went to my local Asian market and found a prepared packet of spices to make this dish. As I read the recipes on the Internet for this dish, I realized that there is no one way and just about any ingredient can be used to make this dish. The package of spices I bought is actually made in Taiwan, so I’ll have to try other brands in the future and contrast the taste of the soups.

The literal translation of the Chinese name for this dish is meat bone tea. There’s no tea involved in making this dish and is commonly made with pork spareribs. I also saw recipes using cut-up chicken, which I would like to try using in the future. A whole rack of spareribs would be too much, so fortunately my supermarket sells portions of a rack which weigh about 2 lbs. (1 kg.). You need clean and parboil the cut up pork before cooking it in the soup so that the finished broth is clear.

Enjoy!

Shrimp with Crab Sauce (Haai5 Zap1 Haa1, 蟹汁蝦)

Shrimp in Lobster Sauce is a standard dish that you’ll find at Cantonese restaurants. Since I was fresh out of lobster, I substituted Dungeness crab in its place. You make this dish backwards. By that I mean for most stir fry dishes, the meat is cooked first, then the vegetables, and finally the sauce. Since this dish only requires the vegetables to be stir fried, the baby bok choy gets cooked first, then the sauce, and finally the meat. The shrimp is cooked by the heat of the sauce, so a thick sauce is made using the crab and eggs after the vegetables are cooked. The sauce can be made using chicken stock, but since I had lobster stock, I used that. The lobster stock was made using the Lobster Noodles (Lung⁴ Haa¹ Min⁶, 龍蝦麵) recipe.

Enjoy!

Lobster Noodles (龍蝦麵, Lung4 Haa1 Min6)

Happy New Year! For the first dish of the New Year, here’s a lobster noodle dish. The traditional recipe puts the cooked lobster pieces with the shell over a bed of cooked noodles using a chicken stock based sauce. This recipe is differs from the traditional in three major techniques, the first being stir frying the ingredients like a chow mein dish, the second being using shelled lobster meat, and the third being a sauce made from lobster stock to further emphasize the lobster flavor. The stock is made by boiling the lobster shells after removing the meat. Any lobster stock not used in this recipe can be used in other dishes.

I found that using kitchen shears is the best way to remove the meat from the lobster shells, especially the small legs that contain that hard to get at lobster meat. If a whole lobster is too much of a challenge, you can substitute lobster tails. Since I’d rather eat lobster without having to pick out the shells, I remove the meat from the shells before cooking. The cooked lobster shells provide a deep red color to the traditional dish, but I’d rather eat the lobster than look at it.

Enjoy!