Do You Like Chinese Food? [recipe&food]

[whufee]

hi, i am a chinese guy, studying in DBS as a full time student, cooking is my habit, there are a lot of chinese restaurants around country, i just wondering why people dont learn how to cook chinese dish themselves, it's very health food, cheap to buy ingredients, and easy to learn. so if you want, i can post some easy start recipes here, hope you like it. any suggestions?

[Sarah]

Here are recipes from another source which I stumbled upon. The recipes show the raw ingredients, packaging and final product which help a lot.
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?s...

[nissenpa]

Thanks SArah---the link you provided is AWESOME!!

[chef chicklet]

Nice thanks!

[New England Patriots]

Hi,
I would like to ask if anyone has a recipie for Beef with wontons in Oyster sauce over white rice.The China Royal in Fall River, Ma used to serve this dish and they closed down a few years ago.It was a banquet restaurant and no one in the area has taken its place.I would love to recreate this at home.Also looking for Dragon shrimp recipe.
Thank you!

[chef chicklet]

New England, I might have one for the Dragon Shrimp, could it be referred to another name, such as Phoenix Prawn?
And the beef dish, actually had filled wonton (pork?).

[New England Patriots]

Thanks,the wontons were filled with ground pork.The Dragon shrimp was 1 large shrimp split with a 2 inch piece of green onion in the middle and a piece of bacon, then it was dipped in batter and fried.I have oyster sauce in the house but not sure of the proportions to make the dish.

[chef chicklet]

wow that shrimp dish is nothing I've ever seen on the Left Coast. Sounds pretty tasty though. The sauce was sweet spicy, red? or what
That beef dish is really different no wonder you want to find it. You must try to figure it out, it sounds wonderful.

[Joebob]

Anyone living close to Boston who likes Chinese food might like to try, then replicate, the Scallops, Asparagus, and Macadamia nut dish from Chau Chow (sp?) in Boston's chinatown. If you can replicate it, please post it. I have tried, but have not achieved complete success. As you can imagine, with those ingredients, it is delicious.

[pdxoski]

There is a won ton dish that is usually found in San Francisco - Gon Lo Won Ton or "Dry Boiled Won Ton." The won tons are boiled and covered with a topping of beef in oyster sauce. I have had this dish since I was a kid, but since I no longer live in SF, every time I've tried to order the dish elsewhere, my request is treated as an impossibility.

[scoopG]

whufee, I promise to make your dish and report back...in the meantime here is another one:

Please note, these measurements are all approximate. You can play around with them depending on how large the peppers are or if you like more cashews or less etc.

CHICKEN WITH CASHEWS AND PEPPER
One Green Bell Pepper (cut into squares)
One Red Bell Pepper (cut into squares)
One raw Chicken Breast (cubed)
One cup of Cashews
Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Shaoxing Cooking Wine (if not available use Sherry)
One clove of Garlic (chopped)
One small piece of fresh ginger (chopped)
1-2 cups of Chicken Stock (home-made is best, or use store bought low-sodium or even plain water)
Cornstarch slurry (1/4 cup of cornstarch mixed with cold stock or cold water)
One teaspoon of Sesame Oil (skip if not available)
Pinch of sugar

1) Mix about one tablespoon each of the Shaoxing Cooking Wine (or Sherry) with Soy Sauce and one teaspoon of Sesame Oil and the pinch of sugar. Add the cubed chicken and let marinate for 10-20 minutes.

2) Heat wok or fry pan until hot. Add oil to coat wok. (I prefer peanut oil.) You have to eyeball this - around a 1/4 cup of oil.

3) Add the garlic and ginger to the hot oil in the wok. Don't burn the garlic! Add the chicken soy-wine mixture and stir.

4) Add the Bell Peppers and Cashew nuts and Chicken stock (or water.)

5) Add a few drops of Oyster Sauce. If not available skip it. Check the taste for saltiness. Add more soy sauce if needed.

6) The minute the mixture starts to boil, slowly add the cornstarch slurry. If you made the slurry earlier you may have to use your finger to mix it up again. Do not add all of the slurry mixture as you will want to check for the desired thickness of the sauce. When the entire mixtures comes back to a boil, turn off the heat. You are done.

Serve with Rice.

[whufee]

great! thx very much, we should hold a home cooking competition ;)
i love to cook for all my friends at home rather than eating out,

[millygirl]

Good idea whufee, how about you come to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for the competition. We're right in the middle of getting dumped with 30 cm of snow!!!!

[OldTimer]

The problem with Chinese cooking at home is often the unavalability of ingredients. Its not fair to fault American Chinese food when many times the fresh ingredients are not available. Because usually the meat or fish ingredients are so small, it is much more convenient (and many times cheaper) to go to a restaurant. I cook Asia food often, but I live in the SF Bay Area and have unlimited access to ingredients and condiments. Actually, you don't need recipes to cook Chinese food. Use you best judgment and devise a basic plan...and by all means, buy a steel wok and take good care of it.

[whufee]

haha, great ! i just finished school last wk, and actually i have a part time job in a butcher shop, so i some knowledge about meat. so i will start to use easy buying ingredients. ;)
i think sirloin steak is the best beef for stir fry. the reasons as follow
1, not very expensive as fillet beef 【2lb for 10-12euro】
2. tender that than other part of beef
3. short time to cook

so, i normally use sirloin steak to do most of my stir fry dishes, such as
Black pepper sauce beef stir fry.
now i am going to give my first easy start recipe! [ in here ;)]
ingredients:
300-454g sirloin steak, 1 egg white, 1-2 pepper[diced or cut into strips], half or 1 onion[diced or strips],
2 spring onion, 2g garlic，5g ginger 【all fine chopped】
5-10 g cooking wine 【chinese style】 2-5g salt， 0-5g sugar
3-5 g dark soy sauce ； 5-10 g light soy sauce
10-20 g Lee Kum Kee【李锦记】black pepper sauce 【chinese label on】
1.slice beef at 2-3mm thick
2. mix egg white， garlic， ginger，spring onion，cooking wine, both soy sauce with sirloin steak, and leave for 5-10mins
3. heat veg oil or sun flower oil in a pan/wok, when oil is really hot,[when you can see some smoke from the oil] put onion into it first[for 10 sec,just can smell the fragrant of frying onion] then meat mixture.
4. before meat are cooked, put red/green/yellow pepper into the wok
5, when meat are nearly cooked [ all meat are turning white or dark red color, depend on how much dark soy sauce you used] then add into LKK black pepper sauce.

All process should be finished in 15 mins[10 mins prepare all ingredients and about 5mins to cook]

Tips. a, when using dark soy sauce, you should know it only gives you color, the
flavour is only come from light soy sauce.
b. try to control the heat of fire
c. keep whisking to prevent sticky

[millygirl]

This looks and sounds wonderful whufee, can't wait to try it. Thanks so much. I have one question. I don't recall seeing black pepper sauce. Is there another name for this product? Is it like hot chilli sauce? Can something be used in substitution?
Again, many thanks. p.s. where is DBS, just curious - is that Dublin?

[Linnster]

here is link to Lee Kum Kee website that has a lot of information on all there products and recipes also. I have had good luck in using a lot of there products.

http://usa.lkk.com

[millygirl]

Thanks very much, I will see if I can get a hold of it. Shouldn't be a problem.

[whufee]

DBS=Dublin Business School,
If you live in Dublin, you can find this sauce in every chinese market, basically the sauce is more Hongkong/ cantonese style, i suggest to use it cuz the taste is the same, and very easy to use, and only cost 2.15euro per jar.

[chef chicklet]

what is the name of this dish?

[whufee]

Beef Stir fry with Black Pepper Sauce
[黑 椒 牛 肉]
/hei/ /dju:/ /nju:/ /reu/
黑=black
椒=pepper
牛=beef
肉=meat

[chef chicklet]

Sorry but what are the question marks equivalent to?

[hannaone]

Guess your browser doesn't do Chinese characters. The ?? are the actual chinese characters for the english translation.

[chef chicklet]

no I guess not or least I have not figured that out?
Was this the ingredient list and portions?

[hannaone]

Um - you asked whufee what the name of the dish was. It's the Chinese characters for the words hei dju nju reu (Black Pepper Beef Meat). I had a lot of trouble figuring out that east asian characters were translated into question marks by my browser/system, until I loaded the east asian languages into windows.

[chef chicklet]

Thanks hannaone, I have no clue how to change that on my computer.
Is the person writing in Chinese? Is this a program you purchased to convert or is Windows able to do that?
Zero computer skills here.

[Gio]

Thank you for the recipe, whufee! Since I don't eat red meat, I would like to substitute chicken. That's OK, isn't it?

[fmed]

I love Chinese food, but to cook wok stir fries is a challenge for most people with regular stoves. I have a pretty good gas cooktop with a hot front burner and it is barely hot enough for proper wok cooking. I can barely manage to achieve that unmistakable "breath of the wok" flavour with it. You really need a screaming hot wok to get that.

Braises, soups, etc. are not a problem in any kitchen, though.

[nissenpa]

DH and I are making 2008 the year we eat and cook more Asian. Last year we mastered braising.

We would LOVE some simple recipes to get us started. And thank you for doing this.

[chef chicklet]

fmed~~~

I know what you mean about getting to that searing heat with a home stove. But sometimes you'll see cooking demos and theyr'e using portable burners when doing demos - look at this! I am thinking about getting one myself, (where's my Christmas list at?) It might be the answer to your problem, so you can enjoy stir fry knowing you have the best temperatures. You are so right one does need HOT heat for cooking stir fry.

But check out the temperatures!
http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/vi...
ok this link won't take you to the page where I saw it for some reason, but it's a Halogen tabletop burner, designed to be used with woks. 6 temperature settings, 185-806F around $78. This is about 10 inches (small) but searching the internet they come in different sizes and prices, and larger to suit ones needs.

Really there are so many other uses that you could use it for too. It would work great as an extra warming plate for a party or brunch. And even better, to make more exotic dishes and fun dishes such as Banana Fosters tableside! Hey, could be fun!

[fmed]

Report back on that Halogen burner. I have an outdoor propane burner that can achieve hellfire temperatures. I can easily wok cook on it...but only outdoors!

[chef chicklet]

Yes I have one of those too, but it gets pretty chilly in the garage....(yes I leave the door open) it was purchased for cooking home brew beer after my stove top was nearly destroyed!
I will let you know, I have had my eye on this particular item for awhile now.

[scoopG]

Yes, but with a very high BTU gas flame, in which the wok more or less rests (perhaps with the aid of a wok ring) one can get the heat concentration in the wok very quickly. Is that possible with the halogen burner? Not familiar with it. When I think halogen I think of a flat electric type burner.

[chef chicklet]

It says so with the description of it, for woks. No mention of a ring. Yes they are flat, why would one need a ring if it gets to temperatures as high as 806 degrees.Does the heat source matter, maybe I don't know something?

[scoopG]

Chef, I've never cooked with anything but gas. My only concern with electric/halogen is with the flat surface - how will the "flat" heat be concentrated into the round wok? I don't know how exactly halogen heat works. With that high of a temp at 806 degrees, I'd still try a large flat frying pan - that would give you the very high heat required over a large flat surface area. With the high BTU gas in Chinese restaurants (and homes) that flame is concentrated to the bottom one third of the wok, creating instant heat. So the sauce in the wok then actually boils well before the vegies overcooked, creating hot but crunchy vegies. Perhaps you could experiment with both the frying pan and the wok and see what works best. The wok wing is for home style gas range cooking and allows the wok to rest above the range in a stable manner. In Chinese restaurants (and homes) there is no need for a wok ring - the wok rests over the gas in a sort of pit or large enough hole or pit for the wok to rest in and provide stability.

[chef chicklet]

Yes I have cooked on a gas stove (well this house for 13 years) and used a steel wok for about 20. The point I was trying to make is that even though I have a gas stove, sometimes I would love to have the ability to really crank that heat up. I have seen cooking demos on TV where a Chinese Chef is using a flat halogen burner, I believe it was Kylie Kwong? and she seemed to be doing a pretty good job. But then I didn't really notice the bottom of her wok.

I will check it out. Just trying to give another option other than going outside to the grill, And I think that if you have 806 degrees, it would pretty well heat all the bottom of the pan with little contact.
I'll probably get one, that high heat is crazy, and a little scary but I think it would work since I one can hold the wok, and the heat can be adjusted up and down very quickly,
Interesting though don't you think?

[scoopG]

Absolutely Chef! I've seen Kylie's show once in a while (on the American Life Network) and have not paid much attention to her wok. Sometimes they cut to the restaurant kitchen. I'd love to hear how this halogen thing works. At 806 degrees it should work.

[Aromatherapy]

If you're springing for the halogen, why not get a flat-bottomed wok? I like mine, goes right on the (regular) gas burner. In any case I hope you do check it out and report.

[chef chicklet]

Is it carbon steel? Gee whiz, I have had the same wok that I learned how to cook Chinese in, bought it for my class. I love my wok, it is perfectly seasoned. Two woks? Sure, I'm down!

[Aromatherapy]

Yes, carbon steel. Very handy for all sorts of things, one of my most-used pans.

[chef chicklet]

That is a great idea, and I think I'll get a slightly smaller one. Thanks!

[scoopG]

That does look like a great recipe whufee. No need to use a wok at home for stir frying unless you have at least a 15,000 BTU (British Thermal Units) range (from Viking or Garland here in the USA where I live.). Even at 15,000 BTU's that would not be very high compared with what is available in Chinese restaurants. The secret of wok cooking is to have extremely high heat combined with a quick cooking time. With a lower BTU range (5,000 - 10,000 is the usual kitchen stove I think) just use a large frying pan that will then give you maximum surface area. Make sure not to put too much in the fry pan at one time if you are cooking for an army.

[KellBell]

Chinese food is my favorite!!! But, I hate the greasy stuff we have in our restaurants here. I would love to learn how to cook these recipes at home.

[violabratsche]

Some years before the Food Networks started, there were many cooking shows, such as the Galloping Gourmet-Graham Kerr, Jehane Benoit, Julia Child, and so many others. There were also Steven Yan and Martin Yan, each with their own show. As a young married and mother of 2 young children, we were on a very tight budget, I learned to cook stir-fries, and became more adventuresome, using more and more interesting ingredients, that were locally available. I got a lot of my inspiration from the Yans. I also went to my local library and checked out recipes and methods there. My daughter was having some friends over for her high school graduation, one of her friends looked into the kitchen, and saw my shelf-over-the-stove that is well stocked with oriental oils and sauces. The girl remarked, in much surprise, that I had seasonings in my kitchen!! (My daughter has a very cosmopolitan collection of friends.) Daughter laughed and said yes, mom cooks "chinese" often. My daughter taught herself to do a few simple dishes herself. I have to admit that anything with fancy prep doesn't appeal to me.

Yes, please post recipes. And don't be surprised if you get questions about certain vegetables, the sort that I can get at my local asian market. When I ask the clerks, they don't have enough english to clearly respond, and I don't find any particularly satisfying website that explain clearly.

AnnieG

[millygirl]

Yes please!!! And remember, you said it, make 'em easy to start.

[Fanthai]

Hi Can you please posts me some autentic chines food. and I like to cooks some thai food.

[chef chicklet]

Right you are about the budge! Tasty and really satisfying food too.
Pork Fried Rice, first Chinese dish I ever made, and I still make it with left over rice...

[chef chicklet]

whufee, I do love cooking Chinese, and do. Took a cooking class, and can do most things, but I am always looking to cook more! I would love a hot spicy,Chinese Shrimp Curry. The one we get uses a yellowish curry, but I have a feeling they don't add cream.. which I don't care but I'm guessing. Its one of our favorites that we always order out. Do you happen to have a good recipe for that?

Oh and the other I want to try, is Ants Climbing Tree - Spicy version please..see a trend here?

[pilotgirl210]

Oh yes, please! I'd love to know how to make shrimp curry noodles. They're my all-time favorite!! That would be the best Christmas present of all!

[chef chicklet]

I make a few Chinese shrimp curry dishes,but I was hoping that Whufee would give me the ultimate one. There are quite a few versions, some made with like an angel hair pasta, is that what you want? Uncle Yu's in San Ramon makes one that is just a knockout.

[pilotgirl210]

My favorite Chinese restaurant recently closed, taking with them forever my beloved shrimp curry noodles. The noodles were like those found in a pork noodle dish, and the golden sauce covered larger chunks of yellow onion, green onions, green pepper, baby corn ears, mushrooms and celery. The dish could be ordered *mild, medium or hot.* I always opted for medium. I know I can replicate this dish at home, if I could only be pointed in the right direction on the sauce. It wasn't a thin sauce. It was more like a gravy. Thanx, Chef, in advance for any assistance you may offer.

[chef chicklet]

"were like those found in a pork noodle dish," are you speaking about the very thin noodles?

[pilotgirl210]

Yes, exactly. But if I were making this dish at home, I'd probably use fresh udon noodles. I love those!...tee hee.

[bakerboyz]

Yes, love Chinese food: Beef Chow Fun, Beef with Broccoli or Asparagus, Stir Fried String Beans; Chinese Eggplant in Garlic Sauce; almost any dish with Shrimp so long as it doesn't have peanuts, Boneless chicken in Black Bean Sauce, etc.

[southernitalian]

Bring it on! I've been told all my life that the Chinese food we eat here in the US would be unrecognizable to a Chinese person. Start with something easy!

[ymushi]

'unrecognizable ' ! I am not Chinese but I've always thought American Chinese,especially delivery one is awful.I am from japan ,Chinese restaurant in Japan is really nice.
there are lots of high end good Chinese restaurant.
they don't look cheep.they are sophisticated look, never greasy,beautiful dishes..etc.lots of good thing.
I have never seen American style that 'gives you stomach ache later' Chinese before.

Who brought "American Chinese food to US ?'

yes, people,start cooking for your self.
stop eating greasy one !

[brittle peanut]

>Who brought "American Chinese food to US ?'

Uh, Chinese immigrants have been here for more than 150 years. Most of them were men (especially given the exclusionary immigration laws in place that made it virtually impossible for wives to come). Draw your own conclusions.

[ymushi]

I meant ' americanized Chinese food '.
not who actually brought Chinese food to US.