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| This is a whole lot of food!!! |
Well, I guess I have to give an explanation why I chose a
Chinese dish as my first post and why I decided to cook Chinese again right
after that. On one hand the answer is really simple. I lived in China for
almost a year and memories are hard to part with. On the other hand I decided
to cook Chinese for my friends simply because my budget was quite tight
in China and I couldn’t buy presents for everybody. However, I thought that a
sort of preview of the cuisine I had been getting familiar with could be a good
experience for the guys.
I have to be honest, it was not that easy for me to prepare
this dinner that night. When I came back from China there was one thing I
was sure about, I did not wanna eat Chinese food for at least half a year and I
was busy eating all the stuff I hadn’t had possibility to in China, though I
was sure that I would miss real Chinese food in a short time. Actually, there
is one thing that I already missed in the first few weeks and that was the
amazing variety of vegetables. I liked them so much that whenever we went to a
restaurant in China I looked for my favourite vegetable dishes and meat could
only come after that. In Hungary there are only very few types of Chinese
vegetables but I am already a regular customer at the Vietnamese and Chinese
grocery stalls.
Before getting to today’s recipes I would like to make one
comment about my previous recipe. If you read about my first dish – the Yangshou
Beer Fish, maybe you would think it was not a clever choice because today less
and less people eat carp or catfish. However I said to myself: "I do not wanna
conform to today’s culinary trends” so I chose something that was among my top
10 dishes in China to encourage you that when it comes to cooking for instance
for friends be brave enough to deal with something not too ordinary. Forget
about salmon, chicken breast or pasta. I love those too and it is actually much
harder to make a good pasta than beer fish, but still just the fact that it
is something that you have never encountered in your life makes it somewhat
more exciting, ain’t it?
Now, finally let’s say some words about the dinner menu I
prepared for my friends. You will see 8 dishes and since it would take a very
long time to explain everything one by one I just shared the recipes and a
hopefully easy guide that you can follow to cook these meals if you like any of
them. By the way the reason why I cooked so many dishes is because I wanted to
follow Chinese traditions. They always prepare lots of different dishes and
they share the food, they do not serve separate portions. I wanted to be
authentic and I think I managed, at least my friends told me that they enjoyed
the food a lot.
Some useful tips before you go through the recipes.
- Forget everything that you know about Chinese cuisine if you
have only been to fast food restaurants.
- Buy a wok and use the oven at the highest temperature. One
key to cooking Chinese food is the high temperature – and due to that fast hand
moves.
- Prepare everything in advance coz there is no time to start
chopping garlic if the whole dish is only 5 minutes to prepare.
- Try to stick to the
key ingredients and buy quality ones. Fresh meat and vegetables, real Chinese
sauces are inevitable.
- Last but not least, do not forget the steaming rice!!!
Chinese food without rice, that’s just ain’t good.
Help yourselves! Bon
appétit!
P.s. The next one will be something different!
Gongbao Chicken - 宫保鸡丁
Ingredients:
1 lbs diced
chicken leg
marinade:
- Shaoxing rice wine
- salt
- 1 tsp starch
Gongbao
sauce:
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp black rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp starch
- a pinch of salt
- 1-2 tbsp water
- chopped garlic, ginger and spring onions
¼ lbs boiled,
unsalted peanut
dried chili
peppers
sichuan pepper
leek
Time of
preparation: 30 minutes
Time of
cooking: 6-7 minutes
Preparation:
- Mix the diced chicken with some tablespoons of Chinese
cooking wine, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of starch and set it aside for 30
minutes.
- Mix the Gongbao sauce.
- Heat some oil in a frying pan and when it is hot, stir-fry
the chicken until ready. (5 minutes) Put the fried chicken aside.
- Heat some more oil and when it is hot add some dried chili
pepper and 20-25 sichuan peppers.
- After 30 seconds add the chicken, the sauce and finally the
peanuts.
- Mix it well and it is ready to serve.
Help
yourselves! Bon appétit!
Red Cooked Pork - 红烧肉
Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs
pork belly meat (with skin and fat)
garlic
leek
ginger
sugar
salt
2 tbsp dark
soy sauce
2-3 whole
star anise
Time of
preparation: 1-2 minutes
Time of
cooking: 1-1,5 hours
Preparation:
- First fry the cubed meat on oil together with garlic and a
tablespoon of sugar.
- When it is golden brown, add a litre of boiling water and
the soy sauce. Wait some minutes and skim off the scum as it forms on top of
the boiling water. When the water is clean you can add some sliced ginger and
leek.
- To season add the star anise and a pinch of salt.
- Cover the pot and leave it to simmer for an hour or until
the meat is tender.
- When the meat is almost ready remove the cover and leave it
so simmer for another 10 minutes to reduce the sauce to smooth, thick consistency.
- Garnish it with some Chinese green leaf vegetable e.g. pak
choi.
Help
yourselves! Bon appétit!
Beef with Oyster Sauce - 耗油牛肉
 |
| I forgot to take a picture of it that night, so I had to look for a pic among my older Chinese pictures. |
Ingredients:
1 lb sirloin
marinade:
- salt
- sugar
- Shaoxing rice wine
oyster sauce
sugar
starch
garlic
ginger
spring onion
Chinese
green leaf vegetable or broccoli
Time of
preparation: 30 minutes
Time of
cooking: 8 minutes
Preparation:
- To tenderize the meat we should make a marinade out of
salt, sugar and a few tablespoons of rice wine. Mix it well, put the meat in it
and leave it in the fridge for about half an hour.
- After 30 minutes, heat some oil in a frying pan. Add the
meat and fry them until ready (about 5 minutes).
- Put the meat aside and heat some oil in the frying pan
again. Add the chopped garlic, ginger and spring onions.
- After 30 sec add the meat, the oyster sauce, a teaspoon of
starch, few tablespoons of water and a tablespoon of sugar. Mix it well and it
is ready to serve.
- To garnish it, you can choose basically any kind of Chinese
green leaf vegetable – my favourite is kongxincai/water spinach/ong choy or
some flowers of broccoli.
Help yourselves! Bon appétit!
Chinese Eggplant - 地三鲜
Ingredients:
eggplant
potato
green pepper
garlic
ginger
spring onion
1 -2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp dark
soy sauce
salt
starch
chicken
stock
Time of
preparation: 15 minutes
Time of
cooking: 15-20 minutes
Preparation:
- Boil the previously diced potatoes for five minutes.
- Drain the potatoes and then fry them until golden-brown.
- Fry the diced eggplants separately until well-done.
- Heat some oil in a frying pan. Add the garlic, ginger and
the spring onion. After 30 sec add the eggplant, the potatoes and green
peppers.
- After 3 minutes add the soy sauce, salt, sugar.
- Leave it to simmer for a minute or two and the last thing
is to add some starch mixed with some tablespoons of chicken stock.
Help
yourselves! Bon appétit!
Chinese Peanut Salad - 黄瓜花生
Ingredients:
½ lbs unroasted,
unsalted peanuts
4 tbsp rice
vinegar
2 tbsp light
soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
chopped cucumber,
red onion, spring onion
cilantro
Time of
preparation: 5-6 minutes
Preparation:
- Wash the peanuts and scald them in boiling water for 1
minute.
- Dice all the vegetables
- In a bowl mix the sauce for the salad: vinegar, soy sauce,
sugar, salt.
- Heat some oil in a wok and when it is hot fry the drained
peanuts until golden-brown.
- When the peanut is ready mix everything well in the bowl.
Help
yourselves! Bon appétit!
Chinese Cucumber and Fungus Salad - 木耳黄瓜
Ingredients:
Chines black
fungus (muer)
cucumber
garlic
salt
sugar
sesame oil
rice vinegar
Time of
preparation: 6 minutes (+1 hour)
Preparation:
- Steep the mushrooms for one hour.
- When the mushrooms are tender, scald them for two minutes
in boiling water.
- Meanwhile, dice the cucumbers and chop the garlic.
- Drain the mushrooms, slice them and together with the
cucumber and garlic put them into a bowl. To season add a pinch of salt, a
tablespoon of sugar, a few tablespoons of rice vinegar and a tablespoon of
sesame oil.
Help yourselves! Bon appétit!
Shiitake with Pak Choi - 香菇油菜
Ingredients:
pak choi
dried shiitake
mushroom
spring onion
ginger
garlic
2 tbsp dark soy
sauce
1 tbsp oyster
sauce
oil
water
Time of
preparation: 30 minutes
Time of
cooking: 5 minutes
Preparation:
- Steep mushrooms for 30 minutes.
- When mushrooms are
tender, heat some oil in a pan/wok. When the oil is hot, add the chopped
garlic, ginger and spring onions.
- After 30 sec add the mushrooms and after 2-3 minutes add
the dark soy sauce and the oyster sauce. Usually in Chinese cuisine we add dark
soy sauce to the dish at the last stage so when we add this last ingredient the
dish is already ready.
- Heat some water in a pot, put some salt and oil into it and
when it is boiling add the previously washed pak choi. You do not have chop it,
Chinese people usually boil it as it is. However be careful, it only needs one
or two minutes (depending on the size of the pak choi), it has to be crunchy!!!
- So the dish is ready. It is simple, but very delicious and
I think that at the end the neutral, green taste of the pak choi will perfectly
balance the strong flavour of the Shiitake mushroom.
Help yourselves! Bon appétit!
Chinese Tomato Scrambled Eggs - 西红柿炒鸡蛋
Ingredients:
1 lb tomato
3 eggs
salt
sugar
(pepper)
Time of
preparation: 2 minutes
Time of
cooking: 6-7 minutes
Preparation:
- Slightly scramble the eggs, then set it aside.
- Heat some oil in a pan and when it is hot, add the
previously diced tomatoes. Stir it for some minutes, but remember we are not
making tomato sauce, we still need to chew on something, however, we need some
liquid to make this dish tasty.
- When adding the tomatoes, add a big pinch of salt and 1
tablespoon of sugar. The sugar makes it really Chinese, otherwise it is just scrambled
eggs with tomato. At the end I usually add a pinch of pepper to taste.
Help
yourselves! Bon appétit!
