Grilled Capsicum Chicken (燒烤紅油辣椒鷄, Siu1 Haau1 Hung4 Jau4 Laat6 Ziu1 Gai1)

The principal flavor in this dish is capsicum, which is a fancy way of saying ground chili, with red oil. The capsicum is more spicy than hot, so the flavor of the chilies are dominant in the marinade over any heat. The capsicum is suspended in red oil that also is a necessary part of the marinade. The oil takes on the flavor of the capsicum and adds to the marinades flavor.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Garlic Sauce String Bean Chicken (蒜蓉豆豉青豆角雞, Syun3 Jung4 Dau6 Si6 Ceng1 Dau6 Gok3 Gai1)

Lee Kum Kee makes a bottled black bean garlic sauce that’s tasty and easy to use, which saves time in having to make the sauce with salted black beans. Canned baby corn is also used to help decrease the preparation time. You can use whatever meat is available, in this case chicken, and your dish is complete.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili Sauce Chicken and Mixed Mushroom Fish Balls (黑豆辣椒菇魚蛋雞, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Gu1 Jyu4 Daan6 Gai1)

Using seafood and meat in a dish is a classic combination in Chinese cooking. In this case chicken is used as the meat and mixed mushroom fish balls are the seafood in a mildly spicy sauce. This dish is a variation on the Chili Paste with Fermented Soy Bean Chicken and Mixed Mushroom Fish Balls (湖南豆豉辣椒菇魚蛋雞, Wu⁴ Naam⁴ Dau⁶ Si⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Gu¹ Jyu⁴ Daan⁶ Gai¹) recipe. If you like a spicy black bean sauce, this is the dish for you.

Enjoy!

Chili Paste with Fermented Soy Bean Chicken and Mixed Mushroom Fish Balls (湖南豆豉辣椒菇魚蛋雞, Wu4 Naam4 Dau6 Si6 Laat6 Ziu1 Gu1 Jyu4 Daan6 Gai1)

Using seafood and meat in a dish is a classic combination in Chinese cooking. In this case chicken is used as the meat and mixed mushroom fish balls are the seafood in a mildly spicy sauce. The more unusual ingredient in this recipe is the mixed mushroom fish balls. Fish balls are a fairly common ingredient in Chinese cooking and is used mainly in hot pots and soups, but can also be stir fried. When stir fried, fish balls are easier to cook and eat when cut in half. Fish balls, which mainly consist of ground fish, can be found in the refrigerated or frozen section of your local Asian market, and come in many varieties (i.e. the type of fish used). Mixed mushroom fish balls have bits of mushroom mixed in with the ground fish. If you’re lucky enough to have your local Asian market sell fish balls already thawed in the refrigerated section, all you have to do to use them is to cut them in half before stir frying. If mixed mushroom fish balls are not available, any other fish ball can be substituted.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili Sauce String Bean Beef (黑豆辣椒青豆角牛肉, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Ceng1 Dau6 Gok3 Ngau4 Juk6)

This version of the Spicy Black Bean Sauce Beef and Green Beans (青豆角牛肉, Ceng¹ Dau⁶ Gok³ Ngau⁴ Juk⁶) recipe uses a few more ingredients than just the beef and string beans. A spicy black bean sauce is still used (made by Laoganma), but the dish can be made without the spiciness by using salted black beans or a prepared black bean garlic sauce (made by Lee Kum Kee). Red chili peppers further enhance the spiciness of this dish, and the amount is a personal preference and optional.

Enjoy!

Sugar Snap Pea Fish with Cloud Ear Fungus (雲耳蜜豆炒魚, Wan4 Ji5 Mat6 Dau6 Caau2 Jyu4)

You need to use some technique whenever making a stir fried fish dish. First of all, the selection of the fish is important. You want to use a firm fleshed fish for stir frying so that it doesn’t break up when stir fried. The best advice is to pick the freshest firm fish fillet that you can find at your local market, but frozen works well too. Secondly, you want to cut the fillets into large pieces to help keep the pieces intact when stir fried. Small pieces of fish don’t survive stir frying very well. Finally, when stir frying the dish, you have to be gentle when mixing the dish together to minimize the fish breaking into small pieces. It’s also easy to mask the flavor of the fish with the sauce, so since a white fleshed fish was used in this dish, a simple soy based sauce was used.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Shrimp Hong Kong Noodles (蝦雞炒雲吞麵, Haa1 Gai1 Caau2 Wan4 Tan1 Min6)

Chicken and shrimp taste great together, and for this recipe, are paired with Hong Kong noodles (in Cantonese: won ton noodles). The noodles are flavored with just the basics – soy sauce (thick and regular) and some Shaoxing wine - so the taste of the chicken and shrimp aren’t hidden by the sauce.

Enjoy!

Grilled Chili Garlic Sauce Lamb Chops (燒烤蒜蓉辣椒羊扒, Siu1 Haau1 Syun3 Jung4 Laat6 Ziu1 Joeng4 Paa4)

Lamb chops are easily overcooked, so the lamb grilling and smoking time needs to be based upon the heat of your grill and previous experience. The trick is to quickly grill both sides of the lamb over a very hot fire before smoking. This recipe uses lamb chops marinated overnight with spicy chili garlic sauce mixture.

Enjoy!

Shrimp Sauce Chicken Rice Roll Chow Fun (幼滑蝦雞炒腸粉, Jau3 Waat6 Haa1 Gai1 Caau2 Coeng4 Fan2)

Shrimp sauce is an unusual addition to a noodle dish, but I liken it to anchovy paste, which is used in many dishes to enhance flavor. Like anchovy paste, even though it is a fish/shrimp based ingredient, there’s no fishy taste once it’s cooked. Shrimp sauce is an unusual shade of purple out of the bottle, but don’t let that stop you from using it. An alternative to use, if shrimp paste is not available, is fish sauce.

Chow fun noodles should be fresh and unrefrigerated before cooking. The texture of the noodles becomes hard once refrigerated, so to keep the soft texture they should be bought and used the same day. In California, where I live, there is a law that allows chow fun noodles to be sold unrefrigerated. If only refrigerated chow fun noodles are available, microwaving the noodles will soften them, but the texture will not be the same as fresh.

When you eat chow fun noodle dishes at a Chinese restaurant, you can specify (at the good restaurants) that you want the dish wet or dry. What that means is that you can specify if you want the noodles with or without gravy. With gravy (“wet”) means that the sauce will be more liquid, thickened with a corn starch slurry; without (“dry”) means that the sauce will be minimal with no thickeners. This dish is a “wet” version of chow fun. My previous recipes for chow fun are “dry” – Black Bean Chili Sauce Beef Rice Roll Chow Fun (黑豆辣椒牛肉炒粉, Hak¹ Dau⁶ Laat⁶ Ziu¹ Ngau⁴ Juk⁶ Caau² Fan²) and Spicy Pork Rice Roll Chow Fun (辣豆辦豬肉炒粉, Laat⁶ Dau⁶ Faan⁶ Zyu¹ Juk⁶ Caau² Fan²)

Enjoy!

Grilled Lemongrass Rosemary Garlic Boneless Pork Ribs (燒烤檸檬葉迷迭香蒜去骨的豬排骨, Siu1 Haau1 Ning4 Mung4 Jip6 Mai4 Dit6 Hoeng1 Syun3 Heoi3 Gwat1 Dik1 Zyu1 Paai4 Gwat1)

The spice mixture used in the Grilled Apple-Oak Smoked Lemongrass Rosemary Garlic Turkey recipe was the basis for making a spice paste for boneless pork ribs. Like the Grilled Lemongrass Rosemary Garlic Lamb Rib Chops (燒烤檸檬葉迷迭香蒜羊扒, Siu¹ Haau¹ Ning⁴ Mung⁴ Jip⁶ Mai⁴ Dit⁶ Hoeng¹ Syun³ Joeng⁴ Paa⁴) recipe, the spice mixture – lemongrass, rosemary, and garlic - has dried red chilies added to give the pork an added spicy kick to the taste. Pork rib chops are easily overcooked, so the pork grilling and smoking time needs to be based upon the heat of your grill and previous experience.

Enjoy!

Braised Black Bean Chili Sauce Chicken Wings (紅燒黑豆辣椒鷄翼, Hung4 Siu1 Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Gai1 Jik6)

This dish actually doesn’t take too long to cook once all the preparation work is done. Whole chicken wings, parts separated, or chicken wing drumettes and/or midjoint pieces can be used. The chicken wings are marinated overnight before cooking, with the marinade becoming the basis for the sauce. A wok is used to brown the chicken wings and then the dish is cooked in a Dutch oven. If time is short (or you forget), the chicken wings don’t have to be marinated beforehand; just stir fry to brown and then add the browned wings to the Dutch oven together with the marinade ingredients. The dish will taste slightly different, but is an acceptable substitute to use when time is short. The carrots are cut thin to cook in the short time the Dutch oven is over heat. If the dish is prepared correctly, the beans will still be slightly crunchy.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Snow Peas with Salted Radish (菜脯荷蘭豆雞, Coi3 Pou2 Ho4 Laan4 Dau6 Gai1)

The salted radish adds a nice crunchiness and saltiness to this chicken and snow pea dish. A basic sauce is used to allow the salted radish to flavor the dish. I used a salted radish produced in China, rather than Thailand, because the Chinese salted radish is sweeter and less salty than the Thai version. If the Thai version is used, the salted radish may have to be washed first to remove any excess salt.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Abalone Mushroom Hong Kong Noodles (鮑魚菇雞雲吞麵, Baau1 Jyu4 Gu1 Gai1 Wan4 Tan1 Min6)

I had a can of abalone mushrooms and decided to make a noodle dish with them. Chicken and mushrooms are one of my favorite combinations, and all you have to do is to add some fired tofu and vegetables (in this case baby bok choy), and your dish is complete. In the USA, only canned abalone mushrooms are available in Asian markets, but any mushroom can be used if abalone mushrooms are not available.

Enjoy!

Grilled Lemongrass Rosemary Garlic Lamb Rib Chops (燒烤檸檬葉迷迭香蒜羊扒, Siu1 Haau1 Ning4 Mung4 Jip6 Mai4 Dit6 Hoeng1 Syun3 Joeng4 Paa4)

The spice mixture used in the Grilled Apple-Oak Smoked Lemongrass Rosemary Garlic Turkey recipe was the basis for making a spice paste for lamb rib chops. The spice mixture – lemongrass, rosemary, and garlic - has dried red chilies added to give the lamb an added spicy kick to the taste. Lamb rib chops are easily overcooked, so the lamb grilling and smoking time needs to be based upon the heat of your grill and previous experience.

Enjoy!

Black Bean Chili Sauce Cabbage Lamb Chow Mein (黑豆辣椒青椰菜羊肉炒麵, Hak1 Dau6 Laat6 Ziu1 Ceng1 Je4 Coi3 Joeng4 Juk6 Caau2 Min6)

I used brown beech mushrooms for the first time in a noodle dish. These mushrooms are also known as Shimeji (Hypsizygus tessellatus) mushrooms and are available at your local Asian market. The mushrooms are firm with a nutty taste. Any mushroom can be substituted if beech mushrooms are not available. This lamb noodle dish actually has a lot of texture to it, through the use of cabbage, bamboo shoots, and onions, and is similar to the Cabbage Lamb Dough Sliced Noodles (青椰菜羊肉刀削麵, Ceng¹ Je⁴ Coi³ Joeng⁴ Juk⁶ Dou¹ Soek³ Min⁶) recipe, except for the addition of the black bean chili sauce.

Enjoy!

Hot Bean Sauce Fuzzy Melon Chicken (辣豆辦節瓜雞, Laat6 Dau6 Faan6 Zit3 Gwaa1 Gai1)

This recipe is slightly spicy through the use of hot bean sauce, whose amount can be adjusted to suit your taste. Regular bean sauce can be used if spiciness is not desired in the dish. Outside of marinating the chicken and cutting up the vegetables, there’s really no other preparation work since button mushrooms, available fresh at your local market, are used.

 

Enjoy!

Chili Garlic Sauce String Bean Fish (蒜蓉辣椒青豆角魚, Syun3 Jung4 Laat6 Ziu1 Ceng1 Dau6 Gok3 Jyu4)

Firm white flesh fish fillet pieces can be stir fried, but you have to be gentle so as not to break up the pieces. You don’t want to cut the fish fillet into pieces smaller than 2-inches (5 cm.), which would seem to be too big, but smaller pieces would likely break up when stir fried. For some reason, the picture has uncut string beans, but to make them easier to eat, the string beans really should be cut into pieces, and the recipe reflects this.

 

Enjoy!

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!