Hot Bean Sauce Snow Pea Lamb (辣豆辦醬荷蘭豆羊肉, Laat6 Dau6 Faan6 Ho4 Laan4 Dau6 Joeng4 Juk6)

Lamb and hot bean sauce are a really great combination in my opinion. The spiciness is tempered to a small degree by the addition of some black vinegar, so the sauce looks blacker than a sauce just made with hot bean paste. The idea is not to make a sour (as in hot and sour) dish, but to add a slight acidic flavor to accompany the spiciness.

 

Enjoy!

Japanese Curry Chicken Wing Stew (咖哩鷄翼, Gaa3 Lei1 Gai1 Jik6)

Japanese curry goes well with chicken wings. The chicken wings are marinated before being browned in the Dutch oven. I always marinate my chicken (out of habit and being able to use the chicken in other stir-fry dishes), but you can simplify this recipe and not marinate the chicken at all. Chicken wings cook very fast, so only 15 minutes is needed to cook them with the carrots after being browned. As usual a prepared Japanese curry sauce mix is used and added at the end to finish the dish.

Enjoy!

Italian Sausage and Rock Shrimp Pasta

Rock shrimp has a very hard shell (“hard as a rock”, hence the name) and tastes like lobster. A previous recipe used rock shrimp, Chicken and Rock Shrimp with Winter Melon (冬瓜蝦仁雞, Dung¹ Gwaa¹ Haa¹ Jan⁴ Gai¹), and for this recipe, thin spaghetti was used together with hot Italian sausage to create a pasta dish. As is usual for my pasta recipes, I use a wok to stir fry the pasta before adding the sauce. Making a pasta dish is no different to me than making chow mein – the techniques are the same, I’m just using a different sauce to make the noodles.

 

Enjoy!

Japanese Curry Pork and Squid (咖哩魷魚豬腩肉, Gaa3 Lei1 Jau4 Jyu4 Zyu1 Naam5 Juk6)

The combination of pork belly and squid in a Japanese curry sauce is surprisingly tasty. S&B brand Japanese curry mix is used and is a really easy way to make a curry sauce. The mix comes already prepared in cubes, and one-half a package or four cubes are used to make the sauce by just adding water. Since pork belly is used, the cooking time is longer than the usual Japanese curry dish. If pork belly is not available, boneless country style pork ribs can be substituted.

 

My local Asian market occasionally has cooked squid available. I use it whenever I can, but frozen or fresh squid can be used instead. The squid gets added at the end of cooking, so if it’s not already cooked, it will be when the dish is ready. The quill has to be removed from the squid, since it’s inedible, and the only tricky part to removing the quill is keeping the already cooked squid body and tentacles intact when you do this – sometimes it’s impossible.

Enjoy!

Lemongrass Chili Garlic Sauce Green Bean Chicken (檸檬葉蒜蓉辣椒青豆角雞, Ning4 Mung4 Jip6 Syun3 Jung4 Laat6 Ziu1 Ceng1 Dau6 Gok3 Gai1)

Lemongrass adds a nice taste to this chili garlic sauce based chicken dish. Lemongrass provides a mild lemon flavor and can be purchased at your local Asian market (I’ve actually seen it occasionally available at large supermarkets). Only the thinly sliced white portions of the lemongrass is used, discarding the inedible and tough green parts.

 

Enjoy!

Grilled Beijing-Style Lamb Ribs (北京燒烤羊扒, Bak1 Ging1 Siu1 Haau1 Joeng4 Paa4)

This recipe uses the chili garlic sauce spice paste developed for the Beijing-Style Chicken Wings (北京鷄翼, Bak¹ Ging¹ Gai¹ Jik⁶) recipe. The spice paste also goes well with lamb rib chops and provides the spiciness present in the original recipe. The same strategy is used to cook the lamb ribs – quickly charring over hot coals piled high into one-half of the grill. The spicing of this recipe is similar to that used in the Grilled Xinjiang-Style Chicken Wing (新疆燒烤鷄翼, San¹ Goeng¹ Siu¹ Haau¹ Gai¹ Jik⁶) recipe. However, unlike the chicken wing recipe, lamb rib chops can be easily overcooked, so the fire must be very hot and the charring time as quick as possible.

 

Enjoy!

Cabbage Lamb Dough Sliced Noodles (青椰菜羊肉刀削麵, Ceng1 Je4 Coi3 Joeng4 Juk6 Dou1 Soek3 Min6)

I published the Lamb Dough Sliced Noodles (小羊炒刀削麵, Siu² Joeng⁴ Caau² Dou¹ Soek³ Min⁶) recipe in an earlier post, but this has now become the recipe I use to make this dish. I was able to purchase a portion of a lamb leg (as opposed to a whole leg) to make this dish. While the lamb leg has some of the best potions of meat, you need to remove the skin, bone, excess fat, and sinew from the leg meat before cutting into pieces that can be stir fried.

 

The addition of cabbage is a fairly common ingredient to stir fried noodle dishes. For some reason, I never used cabbage in my noodle dishes, but now I try to use it whenever I have it available. The cabbage adds a good vegetable component and a nice crunchy texture to noodles dishes, as well as being a good visual addition. The list of ingredients is long for this recipe, and there’s some effort involved to stir fry all the ingredients, but the resulting dish is worth all the work.

 

Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili Sauce Bitter Melon Shiitake Mushroom Chicken (黑豆辣椒冬菇苦瓜雞, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Dung1 Gu1 Fu2 Gwaa1 Gai1)

 

This recipe is similar to the Black Bean Chili Sauce Chicken with Bitter Melon (黑豆辣椒苦瓜雞, Hak¹ Dau⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Fu² Gwaa¹ Gai¹) recipe that was posted previously. For this recipe, Shiitake mushrooms were used in place of fried tofu. Chicken and bitter melon with a black bean sauce (in this case a spicy black bean sauce) is a classic combination. The classic recipe can be found here: Black Bean Sauce Bitter Melon Chicken (蒜蓉豆豉苦瓜雞, Syun³ Jung⁴ Dau⁶ Si⁶ Fu² Gwaa¹ Gai¹). As usual, the bitterness of the bitter melon is controlled by adding salt for 5 minutes and washing it off the bitter melon. The degree of bitterness is a personal preference, so if you like a more bitter taste, don’t salt or reduce the time of salting, and if you like less bitterness, increase the salting time (after 10 minutes, most of the bitterness will be removed).

Enjoy!

Creamy Tomato Dungeness Crab Pasta

This recipe was adapted from the Creamy Tomato Crab Pasta recipe at jeanetteshealthyliving.com. The key technique that I learned from the recipe was mixing an egg with the Greek yogurt (yes, this recipe uses yogurt) to prevent breaking when cooked. It actually works! The yogurt provides the creaminess for this dish. The other neat aspect of the recipe was the use of a garlic breadcrumb topping, which really helps to make this dish tasty. I used cooked Dungeness crab to make this dish rather than canned crab meat, but you can use whatever’s available. As is usual for my pasta recipes, I use a wok to stir fry the pasta before adding the sauce. Making a pasta dish is no different to me than making chow mein – the techniques are the same, I’m just using a different sauce to make the noodles.

Enjoy!

Carne Adovada (Red Chile Pork Stew)

This recipe was adapted from the Carne Adovada recipe at What’s Cooking America. I used the basic chili based marinade for the pork, which uses 24 rehydrated chilies. I am fortunate to live in an area where dried chilies are readily available in bulk at local Mexican markets, but dried chilies can be obtained from your local supermarket in packages. I used dried Guajillo and California chilies, since those were available, toasted them, and added canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for a little heat. The chilies are used for flavor and are not hot themselves, so don’t be alarmed at the number of dried chilies used in this dish. The chipotle peppers in adobo sauce used in this dish are together hotter than all the dried chilies. The chilies and all the other spices are used to marinade the pork for 24- or up to 48-hours (the longer the better). What I like about this recipe, is that the marinade is also the sauce and that all the work is done before the dish is cooked in a slow cooker.

 

Enjoy!

Basil Black Bean Chili Sauce Fuzzy Melon Shrimp (紫蘇黑豆辣椒節瓜蝦, Zi2 Sou1 Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Zit3 Gwaa1 Haa1)

Here’s a shrimp dish that has some spice to it, along with the taste of fresh basil leaves. The spice comes from Laoganma brand black bean chili sauce. You can, of course, make the sauce from scratch yourself, or use an equivalent brand, but this brand is readily available where I live. The sauce is spicy and not hot, so if you want hot, add dried red chili peppers to the recipe.

Enjoy!

Grilled Xinjiang-Style Chicken Wing (新疆燒烤鷄翼, San1 Goeng1 Siu1 Haau1 Gai1 Jik6)

This recipe was adapted from that published in Saveur Magazine, June/July 2013 issue in the article, “Fire in the Belly”. The original recipe was for lamb skewers and the Grilled Xinjiang-Style Lamb Rib Chops (新疆燒烤羊扒, San¹ Goeng¹ Siu¹ Haau¹ Joeng⁴ Paa⁴) recipe was the first adaptation. The spice paste, consisting of red chili flakes, cumin, Sichuan peppercorns, and oyster sauce would go well with any meat. I left out the skewers and the lamb, and substituted chicken wings for this recipe variation. The article makes the point that a very hot fire is used for cooking, so I piled the charcoal into one-half of the grill to place the coals as close to the grill surface as possible. You may have to increase or decrease the cooking time depending upon the heat of your grill.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Garlic Sauce Vegetable Chicken (蒜蓉豆豉雜菜雞, Syun3 Jung4 Dau6 Si6 Zaap6 Coi3 Gai1)

As the name of the recipe implies, this is just mixed vegetables with chicken in a black bean garlic sauce. No particular vegetables are required, just use whatever’s handy, but the vegetables were picked for their visual appeal. I also used Lee Kum Kee brand black bean garlic sauce to reduce the preparation time.

Enjoy!

Masaman Curry Basil Chicken

Here’s another easy to make coconut-curry chicken dish. As I stated in the Panang Curry Chicken Wing Stew recipe, I began using Maeseri brand (Masaman) curry in my curry dishes because they come in single use cans and in a variety of flavors. The chicken is marinated, but that step can easily be omitted if you’re in a hurry. The carrots are cut relatively thin so that they can cook quickly with the chicken. The broccoli florets are added at the end of cooking and are just cooked long enough so that there’s still some crunch to them (i.e. broccoli florets get mushy if cooked too long).

Enjoy!

Salmon and Long Beans with Salted Radish (菜脯豆角鮭魚, Coi3 Pou2 Dau6 Gok3 Gwai1 Jyu4)

Salmon can be stir fried in a dish if you’re careful. The color, aroma, and taste of salmon makes any dish appealing. The long beans and salted radish used in this recipe provides a nice crunchy contrast to the salmon’s firm flesh. Depending upon the brand of salted radish used, it will provide either a salty, or salty and sweet flavor to the dish. The brand used to make this recipe is salty and sweet.

Enjoy!

Grilled Miso Garlic Chicken (燒烤蒜蓉味噌雞, Siu1 Haau1 Syun3 Jung4 Mei6 Cang1 Gai1)

This recipe was updated on 12 Aug 2015. The Chinese name was changed to use the correct characters for “miso” rather than “miso paste”.

This recipe is a variation of the Grilled Miso Garlic T-Bone Steak dish. While the marinade for the beef was more of a paste, the chicken is marinated in a miso-garlic soy sauce solution. Unlike chicken breasts, thighs need to be cleaned first to remove the excess fat. Of course, chicken breasts may be used in place of thighs. The thighs are first smoked (pecan wood is a good choice) skin side up on the side of the grill without the coals and then moved skin side down over the coals to produce grill marks.

Enjoy!

Dungeness Crab and Quail Egg Shallot Sauce Noodles (紅蔥鵪鶉蛋北美大肉蟹麵, Hung4 Cung1 Am1 Ceon1 Daan6 Bak1 Mei5 Daai6 Juk6 Haai5 Min6)

This recipe was updated on 30 Aug 2016. The Cantonese for Dungeness crab was added to the title.

Crab and eggs is a tasty combination in any dish. In this case quail eggs, rather than chicken, are used. Quail eggs are small enough to be placed entirely into your mouth with the other ingredients when eating (try that with a chicken egg!). Fresh quail eggs can be purchased at your local Asian market, but then you have to hard boil and then peel them before use, or you can buy a canned quail eggs and just open the can. Unpeeled straw mushrooms (they also come in a can) are used because they match the shape and size of the quail eggs. Peeled straw mushrooms can be substituted if the unpeeled version is not handy.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Sauce Bitter Melon Chicken (蒜蓉豆豉苦瓜雞, Syun3 Jung4 Dau6 Si6 Fu2 Gwaa1 Gai1)

I was rather surprised that I haven’t published this basic recipe, since chicken and bitter melon with black bean garlic sauce is a commonly found dish in restaurants and in homes (well, at least in my home). The version of this dish found in Cantonese restaurants does not have any added spiciness (i.e. no chili peppers) and that is reflected in this recipe. The red bell pepper adds color and sweetness to the dish, while the bitter melon adds the bitterness associated with this dish. The bitterness of the bitter melon can be controlled by salting the wet bitter melon pieces for up to 10 minutes; more than 10 minutes and the bitterness is mostly removed, so it doesn’t take the salt too long to remove the bitterness. The salt can be omitted if you like the full bitterness of bitter melon.

Enjoy!

Grilled Sambal Oelek Turkey Thighs (燒烤素辣椒火雞髀, Siu1 Haau1 Sou3 Laat6 Ziu1 Fo2 Gai1 Bei2)

This recipe was updated on 21 Oct 2015. Some instructions were changed and the Cantonese name for the recipe was added.

Here’s another grilled turkey thigh recipe, similar to the Grilled Ground Chili Garlic Oil Turkey Thighs recipe. The main seasoning in marinade is Sambal Oelek, which is ground fresh chili paste. Turkey thighs are my choice when I want to grill a small batch of turkey. I eat some of the turkey and then use the leftovers for sandwiches. My local supermarket now sells two fresh turkey thighs in a vacuum sealed package, so it’s very convenient to just grill the two thighs rather than having to thaw a whole turkey.

Enjoy!

Basil Long Bean Chicken Chow Mein (紫蘇豆角雞炒麵, Zi2 Sou1 Dau6 Gok3 Gai1 Caau2 Min6)

Fresh basil adds a nice flavor to this noodle dish. If you made this dish without the basil, you would notice the contrast in taste. Bamboo shoot strips are also used and is a hidden way to provide added crunchiness to the dish. The bamboo shoots blend into the noodles and most people won’t notice them. If you can find fresh bamboo shoot strips at your local Asian market, use them instead of the canned version. Long beans cut into small pieces are also used to provide added texture to the dish.

Enjoy!

Basil Noodles in Sauce (紫蘇乾撈麵, Zi2 Sou1 Gon1 Lou1 Min6)

This recipe is similar to Noodles in Sauce (乾撈麵, Gon¹ Lou¹ Min⁶), except that it uses leftover chicken and adds basil. Basil adds another nice flavor to the noodles that compliments the oyster sauce used in the dish. Using leftover chicken (e.g. from the Mom’s Grilled Soy Sauce Chicken (燒烤豉油雞, Siu¹ Haau¹ Si⁶ Jau⁴ Gai¹), Grilled Chili Sauce Chicken (Siu¹ Haau¹ Sin¹ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Gai¹, 燒烤鮮辣椒鷄), or Grilled Ginger Peach Chicken (燒烤薑桃子雞, Siu¹ Haau¹ Goeng¹ Tou⁴ Zi² Gai¹) recipes) means that you don’t have to cook the chicken when you make the noodles. If you don’t have leftover chicken, use any other leftover meat in your refrigerator to make this dish.

As I commented in the Noodles in Sauce (乾撈麵, Gon¹ Lou¹ Min⁶) recipe, the dish’s name is more the result of the Cantonese translation since there’s very little sauce in this recipe. You can simplify the dish even more by using just the oyster sauce (straight from the bottle) and the dish will still taste good.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Sauce Cloud Ear Chicken (蒜蓉豆豉雲耳雞, Syun3 Jung4 Dau6 Si6 Wan4 Ji5 Gai1)

Black bean sauce and chicken is a classic combination of flavors and taste. This dish is not only about flavors, but also has certain visual elements to it. A combination of red and green bell peppers and the (black) cloud ear fungus contributes to the color appeal of the dish, while the rectangular cuts of the bell peppers and chicken also contribute to the dish’s visuals. Using chicken breast meat allows for cutting regular pieces as opposed to using thighs (but use chicken thigh meat if that’s what you have on hand). If you can’t get fresh cloud ear fungus at your local Asian market, dried may be substituted – just rehydrate and be careful with the amount since dried greatly expands when rehydrated.

Enjoy!

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!

Shallot Sauce Lobster Noodles (紅蔥龍蝦麵, Hung4 Cung1 Lung4 Haa1 Min6)

Lobster is not a frequently used ingredient that I use, given the cost and all the work needed to extract the meat from the shell.  I found a cooked lobster available at my local Asian market for a good price and decided that I wanted to make a noodle dish. The previous published Lobster Noodles (龍蝦麵, Lung⁴ Haa¹ Min⁶) recipe, uses a sauce thickened by corn starch. This lobster noodle dish doesn’t use a thickener for the sauce and is made more like a traditional chow mein recipe. The main ingredient in the sauce is a prepared shallot sauce that also can be purchased at your local Asian market. The combination of shallot sauce and lobster tastes pretty good, so give this recipe a try if you’re lucky enough to find a good priced cooked lobster.

Enjoy!

Bean Sauce Chicken with Baby Choy Sum and Shiitake Mushrooms (豆瓣小菜心冬菇雞, Dau6 Faan6 Siu2 Coi3 Sam1 Dung1 Gu1 Gai1)

This dish takes a little work to eat since it uses uncut Shiitake mushrooms and baby choy sum cut in half lengthwise rather than cutting them into bite sized pieces. Keeping the ingredients whole also makes for a nice presentation. If the baby choy sum is small enough, you don’t even have to cut it in half, just cook it whole in the wok. When eating the dish, you take one ingredient, bite into it so that it fits into your mouth (unless you have a big mouth!), and then maybe do the same for another ingredient to eat with steamed rice.

Enjoy!

Grilled Ground Chili Garlic Oil Turkey Thighs

Turkey thighs are my choice when I want to grill a small batch of turkey. I eat some of the turkey and then use the leftovers for sandwiches. My local supermarket now sells two fresh turkey thighs in a vacuum sealed package, so it’s very convenient to just grill the two thighs rather than having to thaw a whole turkey. For this batch, I used ground chili garlic oil (which is more of a loose paste) as the principal flavor ingredient in the marinade. The ground chili garlic oil is made in Thailand and, from the picture on the label, is intended for noodle dishes.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Rock Shrimp with Winter Melon (冬瓜蝦仁雞, Dung1 Gwaa1 Haa1 Jan4 Gai1)

Rock shrimp has a very hard shell (“hard as a rock”, hence the name) and tastes like lobster. My local Asian market had a special price on rock shrimp, so I couldn’t resist buying some. You need about one lb. (500 g.) of whole rock shrimp to produce about ½ lb. (250 g.) of shrimp meat. Shrimp meat can be substituted for rock shrimp. Mixing seafood and meat is a classic combination in Chinese dishes. In this case, I used chicken together with the rock shrimp together with winter melon.

Enjoy!

Hot and Sour Wood Ear Chicken (辣酸雲耳雞, Laat6 Syun1 Wan4 Ji5 Gai1)

Black vinegar provides the sour and red chili peppers provide the heat to this dish. This flavor combination gives the dish its taste signature. Chicken and wood ear fungus is also another classic ingredient combination. Wood ear fungus is available fresh at your local Asian market and provides a slight crunchiness to this dish. If you can’t get fresh, wood ear fungus is also available dried, in which case all you have to do is rehydrate the fungus. Just be careful how much dried fungus you use, since rehydrating dried fungus expands greatly in volume.

Enjoy!

Tomatillo Salsa

Tomatillo salsa is variation of the Salsa recipe that I published earlier. Tomatillos add, what I would describe as, a slight lemon flavor to the salsa. Tomatillos are also crunchy, so there’s also a texture contrast to the rest of the ingredients in the salsa. I made this salsa for my family’s 2014 Christmas dinner. Everyone got to snack on tortilla chips and tomatillo salsa before dinner.

Enjoy!

Fish Maw and Crab Soup (蟹肉魚肚羹, Haai5 Juk6 Jyu4 Tou5 Gang1)

Fish maw is the bladder of the fish that controls buoyancy. Fish maw is one of those weird and wonderful special banquet ingredients (at least in my experience) that is served at auspicious events such as weddings and at Lunar New Year. I made this soup with fresh crab meat for my family’s 2014 Christmas dinner. Fish maw can be purchased at your local Asian market or herb specialty store. If you’re lucky enough to have an Asian herb store near you, it’s worth going in to see all the dried herbs and creatures that are sold at these stores. The herb stores also have the most variety of fish maw to buy and with the prices to match!

There are two types of fish maw: dried and fried. For this soup dish, the fried version is used. If you purchase the dried version, like I did, there’s an extra step to deep fry the fish maw yourself. I actually shallow fried the fish maw, ladling hot oil over the fish maw (be careful when using this method). You can save a step and time by buying the fried version. The best description of fried fish maw is that it look like chicharrón, which is fried pork skin. The fried fish maw has to soak in cold water for at least an hour to soften it to a spongy texture and then cut into bite sized pieces. After soaking, fish maw has no inherent flavor (so it won’t smell fishy at all) and acquires the flavors of the ingredients it is cooked with. So the use of a good stock and ingredients is important to the flavor of this soup.

I was fortunate enough to prepare this dish while Dungeness crabs are in season, so I was able to get 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 meat that can be used, and you can use abalone or sea cucumber 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 used. 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!

Bone Soup (湯, Tong1)

 

Soup stock is always made from bones, so the name of this dish is just my way of naming a most basic dish with a cute name. My sister and I were joking about growing up with a freezer half filled with bones to make soup stock. While there’s some truth to that, I don’t remember my parents ever having to buy bones in the market to make soup. As dishes were prepared, rather than being discarded, the bones were saved in the freezer. So unless you specifically want to make a particular soup (e.g. pork soup), you just use the collection of bones from the freezer to make soup.

I have the same habit of saving my bones in the freezer and then using them to make soup. So this recipe doesn’t produce the clear broth that is characteristic of a single species stock (e.g. using just chicken bones to make a clear stock), but is a rich collection of proteins leached from a variety of bones that are boiled together with some ginger and garlic. Now I know that doesn’t sound very appetizing, but it’s an apt description of making soup stock.

When making the soup stock, scum and oil from the bones will float to the top of the liquid. You can be obsessive and remove scum and oil as it rises while the pot comes to a boil, but I’ve found that you can wait until the soup stock boils in a covered pot and then remove the scum and oil. As a result of removing the scum and oil, the level of the liquid will go down in the pot. I just add some boiling water to restore the level of the liquid in the pot, so make sure that you have some boiled water available in a water kettle. As the soup stock cooks, the level of the liquid might also go down, so this method can also be used to restore the level of liquid in the pot. Not a lot of boiling water in total gets added, so taste of the soup stock is not affected.

I don’t add any salt when making the soup stock. Salt can be added, if necessary, when cooking the ultimate dish in which the bone soup will serve as the stock. Some salt comes from the preserved mustard stalk, actually half a stalk, which I use to make the bone soup. The addition of the preserved mustard is my way of introducing a slight sweetness to the stock and no one will ever know that the ingredient was ever used. I guess it’s my secret for making tasty soup (well, not anymore). I used to use a whole stalk when making soup stock (there are two stalks per package), but the center of the stalk never got cooked through. Cutting a stalk lengthwise and using half a stalk, the mustard green gets cooked thoroughly and the taste of the soup stock is the same.

Enjoy!

Sourdough Cranberry Linguica Oyster Stuffing

 

For the first recipe of 2015, I am posting a recipe that I’ve been making every year for my family’s Christmas dinners and has now has become a standard dish. Like the Chinese Sticky Rice (糯米飯, No⁶ Mai⁵ Faan⁶) recipe, the dish’s preparation starts a few days before cooking and some ingredients are stir fried before assembling the dish to add flavor.

I’ve been making this variant of the original Sourdough-Cranberry Stuffing Recipe at Epicurious.com for many family Christmas dinners. The most notable additions are linguica and dried oysters. Given the aversion of one of my family members to celery, that ingredient is left out of this recipe, but definitely should be included if you make this dish (use the same quantity as the carrots and onions – 1 cup/125 ml.). I was always intrigued by the use of cranberries in this dressing, which is probably why I keep making it year after year.

I’ve been fortunate to be able to get my linguica from the Goulart Sausage Company. They are a small family owned business and I’ve been buying from them for many years (they make other products besides linguica). You know that their products have to be good when you see hardwood, used to smoke their products, stacked at the front of the business and smelling their smoker at work. I keep telling them that I need to visit them more often! Hopefully you can find such a gem of a meat producer, but if you can’t, store bought linguica or Italian sausage are good substitutes in this dish.

Oysters in stuffing is nothing new, but the oysters used are usually fresh. In this case, I’ve added dried oysters, an Asian ingredient, to a traditional American dressing. The dried oysters are of course rehydrated and are much smaller than their fresh counterparts. The oysters are a fairly recent addition to this recipe. I’ve made this stuffing without oysters for many years, so feel free to omit them since I think you’ll still like the results.

The thing about stuffing that I like are that the quantities of ingredients can vary and the resulting dish still tastes good. The recipe is very forgiving if you use too much of one ingredient or not enough of another. Some years I’ve used more linguica because I bought more than I thought I needed. Sometimes the onion I used is just a little too big, so I use it all. I’ve used other root vegetables, like turnips and parsnips, and in the end the dish was still tasty. So what I’m saying, is that you should feel free to experiment with the ingredients and quantities, and after all, you’re only experimenting on your family. 8-)

Enjoy!