Cashew Chicken - 腰果雞丁

Cashew Chicken in Taiwan looked and tasted very different than the ones in the United States. My kids like the American version since they are not too excited about cucumber or celery. This recipe is loosely base on the cashew chicken dish from the Mandarin Restaurant in Bountiful, Utah (from Good Things Utah on Channel 4). I heard people rave about this restaurant but have never ate there. We did ordered take-out once while we were at some kind of family gathering in Bountiful, but I was not particularly impressed. I should give the restaurant another try sometime; but it is just hard to drive more than 30 minutes to get dinner when I "think" I can produce pretty good Chinese food in my own kitchen.

Chicken

2 chicken breast halves cut into 1" pieces
1 teaspoon cornstarch
pinch of white pepper
2 teaspoon of brown sauce (see the blog about Stir-fry Seasoning or use equal parts of soy sauce and water)
Marinate chicken pieces with corn starch, white petter & brown sauce for 15 - 20 minutes in a bowl.
Sauce - mix all ingredients together in a bowl and set aside

1/4 cup of chicken stock or water
1 tablespoon of ketchup
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sauce
1 teaspoon of mushroom soy sauce

Spices & others ingredient
a pinch of chili pepper flakes (optional)

1 clove of garlic, crushed, and chopped

1 teaspoon of ginger, grated

1/2 cup of cashew, roasted, unsalted or lightly salted

2 teaspoons of cornstarch + 2 teaspoon of water mixed in a small bowl

Vegetables
1 small or medium onion, cut into 1" cubes
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1" cubes
1 small carrots, thinly sliced
a handful of water chestnuts, cut into large slices
a handful of sugar snap peas or snow peas
3 - 4 asparagus, cut into 2" pieces on the diagonal (optional)
I usually stir fry the vegetables separately. Kimberly always complain that this make the dish more oily. Alternate way is to blanch the vegetables briefly, strain, and then stir fry them. Be careful not to blanch them too long since each vegetable requires different length of time to reach the desired tenderness/crunchiness.

Heat wok to med-high, add 2 teaspoon of safflower oil and coat the wok evenly with oil. Sauté the chicken until almost cooked. Remove the chicken to it's original bowl. Lower the heat to medium, wipe the wok clean, and add 2 teaspoon of oil to coat the wok evenly. Sauté chili pepper flakes, garlic, and ginger for 10 seconds and add the onions. When the onions start to soften a bit, add the red bell peppers and stir fry for 1 minute, and then add the rest of the vegetables. When the vegetable are almost done, add the chicken and the sauce and stir gently to mix well. Add the water/cornstarch mixture and stir until sauce thickens. Add the cashew to the wok and stir just until cashew is mix in. Transfer to a bowl or serving plate and serve.

You can adjust the vegetables depending on your preference or what is available. The two vegetables I always use are onions and red bell pepper; the others I add them if I happen to have them.

Beef and Broccoli - 芥蘭牛肉

Even though this is a highly praised dish from my friends and family, I never can guaranty that it would turn out exactly the same every time. The official instruction from my trusted Chinese cookbook always give instructions to blanch the vegetables for the stir fry. I never bother with this step unless I am making a big batch for a party. I just sauté the vegetables with a little bit of oil and add a little water if needed until the vegetable is cooked to the desired tenderness.

1 bundle of broccoli, or 1 pound of broccoli crown, cut the floret into smaller pieces

Blanch broccoli in boiling water, remove, drain and rinse in cold water, drain, and set aside

1/2 pound flank stake, slice across the grain in 45 degree angle

1 teaspoon of corn starch

2 teaspoon of soy sauce

2 teaspoon of water

Marinade beef in the above ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoon Oyster sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

Heat wok to medium-high heat and add 2 teaspoon of safflower oil. Coat the wok with oil evenly. Sauté the marinated beef for a few minutes until it's almost cooked. Remove beef and set aside. Sauté the broccoli for a minute or two until the desired tenderness. Add beef back to the wok, add the oyster sauce and sugar and stir until beef is cook. Do not over cook the beef so it does not get tough. Transfer to a serving plate and serve.

Spareribs Cooked with Rock Sugar - 冰糖排骨

Since February 3, 2011 is the Chinese new near, I thought I'd share the recipes of a few of our favorite Chinese dishes this week.
Everyone in the family loves this dish; I have to confess that these ribs alone can persuade me out of wanting to be a vegetarian. Kimberly always complain that it's kind of fatty, which Cassidy usually echos, but we never have any leftovers. . .
Spare ribs is usually less expensive than back rib but it's a little more fatty and less meaty. According to the Wikipedia, the spare ribs is more tender than back ribs because of the fat content. I used to ask the butcher to saw the ribs into two or three sections and then I cut them into "riblets" at home. Nowadays I'm too lazy or too busy to ask the butcher to cut the ribs so I serve "longs ribs" instead of the shorter ribs you see in traditional Chinese dishes.

1 1/2 lb. pork spare ribs (side ribs) or back ribs, cut into riblets
2 tablespoons rice wine or cooking wine
2 tablespoons or 1 oz rock sugar (can substitute with regular sugar)
3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
4 tablespoons of soy sauce

Wash the ribs and pad dry. Place them is a medium pot and add the all of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and then cover with lid and turn the heat down to low to simmer for about 40 minutes or until the liquid has almost completely evaporated. Stir occasionally to prevent the ribs from burning. If the liquid has not almost completely evaporated after 40 minutes of cooking, turn the heat up to high and stir until the liquid has almost completely evaporated.

Scallion Pancake - 葱油餅

Yesterday I had a craving for scallion pancake; I think the root cause of the sudden Chinese food craving was that I had a fun conversation with a friend about all the yummy food you can enjoy in China and Taiwan from street vendors. I decided to make this snack even though I know I would not have time time to finish it until the evening. I did the prep-work in the morning, chopped up the scallion (green onion) and made the salty scallion mixture and set it aside (since it's best to let the salt has time to soften the scallion). After we return from Roland's nephew's wedding last night, I started to mix the dough at 8:30pm. Roland was wondering if I was still hungry. Of course it had nothing to do with hunger. Anyway, I finished panfrying the last pancake at about 10:30pm and went to bed with way too much food in the tummy but very happy!

Traditional Chinese cooking always uses white flour and white rice (my understanding is that only poorer folks ate brown rice is the olden days so it's a social status thing).  I made this pancake with whole white wheat flour and coconut oil for healthier ingredients.

Dough:
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (from white wheat)
1 cup hot water
1/4 - 1/4 cold water
* For softer scallion pancake, use more hot water and less cold water.

Scallion mixture:
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup scallion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup safflower oil or coconut oil

Stir together the hot water and the flour until the dough is partly mixed. Add the cold water and mix until all flour are incorporated into the dough. When the dough is cool enough to handle, kneed the dough until smooth. The consistency of the dough should be firm but soft. That sound contradictory but let me explain; I mean you should be able to make a indention in the dough very easily by gently pressing the dough with you finger. Cover the dough and let rest for 1/2 hour.

Mix the scallion, salt, and oil and a small bowl and set aside.

Divide the dough into 4 portions.

Lightly dust the working surface and roll out one dough ball with rolling pin into a large flat circle.

Spread 1/4 of the green onion and oil mixture evenly over the dough.

Starting at one side of the circle, roll up the dough into a long cylinder shape, pinched the end closed.

Wind the long cylinder dough into a circle. Tuck the end under and press to make sure it is firmly attached.

Roll the dough with the rolling pin gently into a pancake; about 1/2 inch think. This step always make a mess; scallions and oil will seep out of the dough. Be sure to clean up the oily mess before you start the next pancake. The pancake is now ready to be pan fried.

Bring a frying pan to medium heat and add a little oil to a frying pan. Place the pancake in the frying pan and fry both side until light golden.




Cut into 4 to 8 slices and serve when warm. You can save the left over in a air tight container or ziplock bag in the fridge. Be sure to warm up the pancake before serving.

Pot Sticker - 鍋貼/餃子

The Nielsons were in town this weekend and we made pot tickers one evening. Yummy!
Try this recipe at you own rick since I do not have exact measurements of seasonings and no good instructions. It's better to come to our house and learn by "live demonstration", so give us a call and come make some pot stickers with us!

1 head of cabbage
1 lb of ground pork or ground turkey
Pot sticker/Gyoza skin
salt
soy sauce
sesame oil

Cut the cabbage into 6 sections and chop in the food processor (I have a Cuisinart Prep 11 Plus) one section at a time. Use pulse so the cabbage does not turn into cabbage soup. Salt the chopped cabbage and let stand for 20-30 minutes. Squeeze the water from the cabbage with a cloth; 1/2 - 3/4 cup of cabbage at a time. Mix the dry cabbage with ground meat, add the seasonings and mix well together and you are ready to make pot stickers.

The wrapping part is where you have to come see the demo; I don't think I can explain. I promise that if my friend Chris and I get together to make pot stickers again, I'll take lots of photos and update this blog with detailed instructions!

Misc information: 
If the dumpling is boiled, it's called 餃子 (jiaozi) or 水餃 (shuǐjiǎo); if the dumpling is pan fried as the picture shown above, it's called 鍋貼 (guōtiē) or 煎餃 (jiānjiǎo); if the dumpling is steamed, it called 蒸餃 (zhēngjiǎo). Dumplings are one of the major foods eaten during the Chinese New Year, and year round in the northern provinces. They look like the golden ingots yuan bao used during the Ming Dynasty for money and the name sounds like the word for the earliest paper money, so serving them brings the promise of wealth, good luck and prosperity. Many families eat these at midnight on Chinese New Year's Eve so they have money at the changing of the years. Some cooks will even hide a clean coin in one for the most lucky to find. According to legend, the pan-fried pot stickers were invented when a royal chef accidentally left a pot of dumpling on the stove too long and burned the bottoms. Undaunted, he served the dumplings anyway and a new dish was born! 
He must not burned the bottom of the dumpling too badly. When I burn something, it's burned; not usually fit to be consumed a food!

Stir-fry sauce

Here are a couple of sauces that I always have on hand for making stir-fry dishes. I keep them in the fridge in empty Briannas' salad dressing glass bottles; the recipes have been modified to fit in the 12 oz container. The brown sauces can be very versatile; it can be used for stir-fry as is or you can add other ingredients like plum sauce, ketchup, or black bean sauce to make some totally different dishes. Sometimes I even use the brown sauce as dipping sauce for pot stickers and the teriyaki sauce for dipping tempura (after thinning it some by adding water).  I prefer using fresh garlic and ginger and always have some garlic in my spice cupboard and a piece of ginger in the fridge or freezer. Ginger can keep in the fridge for a while but if you can't use it up fast enough, just put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in the freezer. I sometimes grate the ginger when it is still pretty frozen. There are a couple of indispensable tools that I use all the time if a recipe calls for minced garlic or powder ginger.  One tool is the Microplane stainless steel zester; I use it to grate lemon/lime zest or ginger. The other one is a Kuhn Rikon stainless steel garlic press; it cost me dearly but it is easy to use and easy to clearn. Plus, I hate the cheep one at the grocery store that don't work well or I manage to break them (I have broken two OXO garlic press). Did I also mention that I don't like to chop garlic by hand? I don't like my fingers to smell like garlic.

Brown Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup broth or water
1/8 teaspoon garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon ginger, minced
1 oz cooking sherry or replace it with broth or water
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon vinegar
The original recipe also had 1/2 tablespoon of accent (MSG) but I never use it.

Teriyaki Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup dry sherry or replace it with broth or water
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
2 Tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 t ground ginger

Honey Walnut Prawns - 核桃蝦

The first time I had walnut shrimp was when I went to visit my friends the Nielsons in 1995 or 1999 while they still lived in the Bay area. We went to a Chinese restaurant together and the food was so good. I ordered it in several restaurants in the Salt Lake area but it was never nearly as good. Finally I decided to do my research on the internet and see if I can come up with something better to serve in one of our annual Chinese New Year dinner. I eventually bought a deep fryer just for this dish because it works great for the walnuts and the shrimp. I also have some fond memories of helping my mother making candied walnuts in her little kitchen in Taipei. I don't remember what she was using the candied walnuts for but I sure remembered that they were yummy. I think I used to help her in the kitchen not because I was a helpful person but it was a great way to do some food sampling. The walnuts does take some time so I usually make it a couple of days in advance. The last time I made a batch of the candied walnuts, I had to hide them from my family or else they would be all gone before I get around to make the shimp.

Shrimp:

1 lb of large or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
a dash of salt
1/4 cup corn starch
1 egg white
1 cup oil

Sauce:
2 Tbs honey
3 Tbs mayonnaise
1 1/2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tsp of fresh lime juice
1 Tbs condensed milk

Preparation:
Shrimp:
Mix cornstarch and egg whites together to from a think sticky texture and mix well with shrimp with a dash of salt. Set aside.
Sauce:
Mix honey, mayonnaise, lemon juice, lime juice, and condensed milk in a bowl until smooth.

Heat the oil in wok until hot and deep fry the shrimp until golden; drain the oil and fold in the honey mayonnaise mixture into shrimp. Mix well, sprinkle with candied walnuts and arrange on platter. Usually the shrimp is served over lightly stir fried or steamed vegetables like broccoli or Napa cabbage.

Candied Walnuts
1/2 cup walnuts
2 cups water
1/8 cup sugar, use 1/4 or 1/3 cup if you like more sugary walnuts
2 cups oil

Rinse walnuts; boil in 2 cups of water and continually changing water until water is clear. Drain water from walnuts and boil with sugar until sugar dissolved. Heat 2 cups of oil until almost smoking and deep fry walnuts until they are shiny and brown, no longer tan/golden; about 3 minutes. Place walnuts on cookie sheet, let cool.

Mongolian Beef - 蒙古牛肉

This is one of the favorites and most requested dishes by Kaydn and Cassidy. I usually do not measure any ingredients when I cook Chinese dishes. But I know it's really a pain to get instructions from someone who does not measure ingredients or always say "measure to taste". If you have not tasted the dish a few times, how do you know what it suppose to taste like? So, I took the ingredient list from Weight Watchers - five ingredients 15 minute cookbook (page 52) to give everyone some guidelines.

1 lb flank stake, trimmed and cut crosswise and in 45 degree angle into bite size thin slices. 

1/4 cup of water

2 Tbs soy sauce

4 tsp cornstarch

2 tsp brown sugar

Note: it is important to cut the beef into even, not to thin, not to think, bite size pieces so the pieces will be cooked in about the same amount of time. Marinade beef with water, soy sauce, cornstarch, and sugar for about 15 minutes.

1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs sesame oil
2 tsp minced garlic
1 bunch green onions, cut into 2 inches pieces
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
toasted sesame seeds

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium hight heat, add garlic, pepper flakes and green onions and stir fry for about one minute. Add marinaded beef and stir fry for a few more minutes until beef is done. Do not over cook, remove from skillet immediately and place in a serving plate. Sprinkle with sesame seed. Serve over cooked cellophane noodles or rice.