42. Chinese stir fried marrow and potato

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This dish is not so much a quick fix since cooking potato always takes a little bit longer.

How strange :) -- when you move to a totally different place, food habits can even change, and I am not only saying ‘adjusted to the locals’. When I came to England, there were many kinds of food I never thought I would like to have one day, now they are all my favorite, from flapjack to wholemeal bread, to different vegetables, like cauliflower, or marrow.

Yes, I never liked marrow before, no matter how my parents cooked them. You would think that since I was here alone, I could cook whatever I like and leave out the ‘dislikes’ ---who knows, I began to crave for them, and recalled hard -- and harder how my parents cooked them, and got fustrated on why the taste did not turn out like the ones at home. If you say it is called ‘emotional chemistry - homesick’, I totally agree.

So, I don’t remember the exact recipes for cooking marrow, just have tried different ways myself, and imagined that was how I saw my dad cooking it. A few years ago, my parents came to visit, and stayed with me for a few months, I cooked a marrow dish, they asked, ‘where did you learn this from?’ … :))

When they were here, my dad was ‘confused’ by the vegetables in the supermarkets, because the varieties and the ‘looks’ were all different to China (although he has briefly lived in other different countries before).

The first couple weeks, he ‘created’ many potato dishes, then he started getting use to cook with other vegetables (I eventually understood why there are many different potato recipes here), this was one of them. However, it is not very far from the original recipe, it is not exactly marrow stir fried with potato, but still the ‘marrow’ family, (sorry, I don’t know the name in English, this ‘family’ ‘has’ lots of ‘members’, it is confusing.) :(

I think the most well-known stir-fried marrow dish in the Northeast of China is marrow stir fried with prawns , (I will put the recipes here some other day). Marrow is also very popular in dumpling fillings, but this dish - with potato, has been well received at our dining table now. :)

It is quite easy home cooking recipe, again, it is hard to find in the restaurants. The main ingredients are marrow and potato. The taste of these two ingredients do not influence each other when cooked together in the wok, but in mouth -- not bad combination - both the taste and texture.

For marrow, the ones sold in the any markets are good, the only thing is that I prefer to choose the slightly ‘slim’ ones with thin and ‘crunchy’ skin, as they have less ‘seeds’ in the middle, and not too ‘mature’, taste better.

However, the problem with marrows is that they are normally relative big, and in this kind of dishes, only half of it is needed, so for avoiding wasting, in the next couple of days, it has to be another ‘marrow’ dish. :) But I try to make it in different recipes.
And the potato, again, I used Maris Piper or new potato, coz, potato needs to give that ‘mashy’ feeling.

Also I used five spice powder to give some rich taste, as both potato and marrow are quite ‘plain’ in taste as themselves.

Here you go.

The recipe: Stir fried marrow with potato

Ingredients

Marrow, potato.

Garlic, five spice powder , oil, light soy sauce (optional).

Preparation

1) Peel and chop the potato into thin slices.

2) Slice the marrow into same thickness as potato. I normally halve it first, then chop from there. If the marrow has many ‘seeds’ in the middle, remove them.

3) Chop around 3 garlic gloves.

Cooking

1) In a heated wok, pour in around 4 tablespoons of oil.

2) When oil is hot enough, add chopped garlic in along with 1/2 teaspoon of five (or thirteen) spice powder.

3) When you can smell the garlic and spice powder, add sliced potato into the wok, stir fry.

4) When the potato is appearing soft, (I think it is about 3-5 minutes on medium fire), add sliced marrow, and keep on stir-frying.

5) Add in around a bit less than 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Mix everything well together.

6) If the wok is getting too dry, add in some water or spiced water.

7) When both potato and marrow softened,

----- It’s done!!

(Sorry, forgot to take the final picture again, when the dish was presented. I was rushing to get them into my stomach.Je je...)

I like to have it with boiled rice.

Cooking salad leaves in Chinese cuisine

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... I know…:)) Yesterday’s recipe, stir-fried green salad leaves , sounds pretty strange. However, in Chinese cuisine, there are many dishes that involve cooking green leaves .

Stir-frying Bok choy , or choi sim (these are all cantonese pronunciations) sounds like a natural thing to do, and you can easily find many such dishes in restaurants. In contrast, stir-frying salad leaves , like lettuce, may sound a bit weird (well, I only just realized the weirdness of it when my husband pointed it out to me).

In Western countries, salad leaves (and also other salad vegetables like cucumber) are almost exclusively used for making salad, and they are never served hot. But in Chinese cuisine , cooking salad leaves is a very common thing to do.

For example, my grandma used to say that everything needed to be properly cooked, you should not eat anything raw or "cold", it was not good for your stomach and body. I do remember, however, how much I enjoyed eating raw leaves, cucumber and reddish with soybean paste dip. I guess she meant "in general", without mentioning the exceptions. :))


Anyway, what I want to say is that cooking salad leaves and serving them hot is actually very popular. There are normally two ways of making them, quick stir-fry and cooked in soup.

In northeast Chinese cuisine, salad leaves are normally stir-fried alone, never with other vegetables, You can have different tastes depending on your own preferences; for instance, spicy stir-fried lettuce , garlicky (chop plenty of garlic gloves, stir fry with leaves), with oyster sauce (not a typical northeast dish, but very popular in the past 20 years), or simply with oil and salt (very original indeed).

How to cook salad leaves

The only difference between stir-frying leaves and stir-frying other vegetables is in the cooking time -- more precisely, the time that the leaves need to stay in the heated wok.


The best stir-fried leaves are those that stay fresh, juicy, and a little bit crunchy. However, leaves get soft very easily when they get in touch with salt and heated oil; so, the cooking time is definitely essential.


And the sauce should not be too strong or thick to mask the original freshness from the leaves. --- Sounds like …you might ask, then why bother to cook them not just leave in salad? Personally, I think that, after cooking them briefly, the leaves absorb very well the seasonings and the salt (the taste of the seasonings goes into the leaves), while when prepared in salad, the taste of the seasonings stays on the surface of the leaves.

Cooking leaves in soup is also common in China. However, saying "cooking" probably is not very quite right -- again, you don’t want to get it too soft, so I should say leaving the leaves in the soup briefly?

Sichuan Ma La Tang

The most popular dishes are hotpot, a spicy Sichuan soup (which you can find on the streets easily) called Ma La Tang , and spicy fish soup. In all the these dishes, the soup is well-cooked with full flavor, leaves are probably the last thing to put in to keep the freshness. But you have to be very careful when eating the leaves, because although the leaves themselves might not be very spicy or hot, after all, it is not in the soup for long, but they can carry all the spices on the surface, so when you swallow (the throat can feel it) and it might be too late to realize. :))

41. Chinese spicy stir fried Romaine lettuce

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This is a very common dish in northeast China; however, the vegetable used in the original recipe is what we call ‘da tou cai’ (big headed vegetable) as nick name, which is normally considered as a kind of cabbage. :) It looks very similar to the round cabbage that you can find in the markets in UK, but the taste is somewhere in-between cabbage and lettuce -- the leaves are thinner, crispier and more importantly, more juicy than cabbage.

For easing down my homesickness and ‘foodsickness’, I tried to cook round cabbage and round lettuce in the traditional Chinese way --- the looks did ease my ‘foodsickness’, but the taste... a totally different dish.

One day, we guested at a friend’s place, she treated us ‘Northeast breakfast’. Her husband cooked this dish, I almost jumped :)))-- the taste was very similar to the original dish, she said the romaine lettuce could achieve a more similar taste. --- So this is where this dish is from, but if you are in China, try the original cabbage. :)

Stir frying salad leaves

Stir-frying or say cooking salad leaves may sound weird, but they are part of the popular ingredients in Northeast food. (I will talk about more on cooking salad leaves in tomorrow’s post.) Although this is a compromised dish, it is not strange in Chinese cuisine. Especially recently it is advised not to have raw vegetables, this is just perfect alternative to green leaves salad. :))

Although the way of stir-frying "cabbage" is more or less the same, the taste can vary depending on what seasonings you put in and what taste you like. This dish is a bit spicy -- I think this dish is a combined northeast and sichuan taste, especially because of the strong influence of Sichuan peppercorn.
It is very quick to make, perfect for a weekday dinner dish, especially if you want to have another way of having green leaves. :))

The recipe: Chinese spicy stir fried lettuce

Ingredients

Two big romaine lettuce (Normally it is better to prepare a bit more than you expected, because after heated and salted, the lettuce 'shrink' a lot)

Crushed chilli, sichuan peppercorn, salt, oil, vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence /msg (optional)

Preparing

Wash and chop the lettuce to round 4cm long pieces.

Cooking

1) In a heated wok, pour in around 3 tablespoon of oil.

2) When the oil is hot, add in 1/2 teaspoon of crushed chilli, and 1/2 tablespoon of sichuan peppercorn. (However, depend on how much you like spiciness, the amount can be increase or reduced).

3) After the chilli and sichuan peppercorn being well fried, the flavor goes to the oil, you can remove them from the wok, otherwise just put chopped lettuce leaves in the wok.

4) Add a bit more than half of teaspoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce. (and 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence /msg, if you like)

5) Keep on stir frying on strong fire.

6) Once the lettuce is showing soften, turn off the fire, remove it to the plate. (probably it only takes around 3 minutes)

--- Serve!

Apart from the spicy taste, I prefer the rest of the taste (salt, soy sauce..) light in the dish, and the leaves are better to be still crunchy and juicy to keep the original freshness, so do not leave it in the wok for too long.
It is good to go with rice and beer, can be good for a light summer dish. :))

Culture note: the names of Chinese dishes

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It is said that food can be a representation of a culture ... partly true, because in Chinese cuisine , the real cultural representation is embedded in the names of Chinese dishes . :)) Unfortunately, when these dishes are translated into English, the original words... lost in translation.

In Chinese restaurants here (in UK), normally a menu already tells it all about each dish. Just by looking at the menu, you would know roughly which are the main ingredients, what does the dish taste like, and how it is made (for example, stew or stir-fried).

In contrast, in China, in some restaurants, especially more formal restaurants, those names can be... what is the exact word for this... unexpected ? :) you can be totally lost in the words -- I would, and have to ask all the time.

It sounds funny, but the names of the dishes in Chinese can be formed by using different methods.

How are the names of Chinese dishes formed

One of the most common ways, of course, is by using the names of the ingredients in the dish along with the cooking methods (normally quite detailed, for example, "Liu / chao / pa / bao..." to distinguish different ways of stir-fry.), for example, Liu yu pian - stir fry fish pieces, or mu’er ban huang gua -- black fungus mix with cucumber salad dish.

Another common naming method is based on the the appearance of the dish, as "what it looks like", then exaggerate it into another comparable object or term, needless to say, lots of imagination is needed.

One of the most famous examples in Northeast Chinese cuisine is stir-fry potato, tomato and green pepper, in Chinese is normally called Hong lu deng , as "red green light" -- "traffic light"; or another one - stir-fry mince and fen si ( cellophane noodles ) in Chinese is called "ma yi shang shu", literal translation in English is ants climbing the trees . :))

There is finally another common way of naming dishes, which has been used in China for thousands of years and which can represent the culture the most involves using a metaphor.

The metaphor can be extracted from a part of poem to imply an event, a status, blessing or wishes. A very simple example is a chicken dish, after cooked, the chicken parts being re-assembled together and placed on the plate with open wings, it is named as "eagle opens up its wings", which in Chinese wishes somebody with ambitions to have great future (like eagle flying high, which can see a larger part of the world). :)

Another example, which is very popular in Northeast, it is a mix leaves, cucumbers and reddish dip with soybean paste , but it is named as "big harvest", referring to many different vegetables on one plate -- a harvest time indeed.

It is well-documented in Chinese history that many writers and poets used to write poems or phrases according to what they were eating, some terms had been kept till today, that is where those poetic names come from. So one can even more easily get lost in the words.

Chinese language and the composition of Chinese dishes names

It sounds like "playing around with words and imagination", this is because Chinese language is composed by each individual character called "Zi", although each of them has their own general meaning, it is normally combined with others to make up a phrase or words (called "Ci", a combination of two or more "Zi") when expressing, in another words, anyone can make up new words.

Of course there are some words being considered as "correct, non-alterable" terms, but, others are more freely combined or used. For example, there are no "pre-made names" (of people) in Chinese, you can make up any name you like according to what meaning you want to choose ---- same as the names of these dishes.
The language rules provide many opportunities for people to play around with words, which can be very interesting, but at the same time, it can make food orders quite troublesome.

However, looking at those names of the dishes can be great fun, for example, who can imagine that a dish called "a dragon hiding in a jade palace" is only "tofu cooked with dojo loach?" :))) People are also very sensitive with current affairs, for example, when Bosnian war broke out, stir-fry spinach with black fungus was called "Bo hei zhan zheng" ("bo" refers to "bo cai" - spinach, "hei" refers to hei mu’er -- black fungus ) which literally means "Bosnian war". ha…. a bit crazy.

Now, probably you understand what I mean when I say that the names of the dishes can be representation of Chinese culture ? :))

40. A Chinese islamic recipe: Oven grilled lamb leg

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烤羊腿

As promised, here is the recipe for Chinese grilled lamb , which I made for yesterday’s friends gathering.

A few friends have been asking already for some time how I prepare the lamb . Normally for small gatherings, I only make a few lamb chops or leg fillet; however, this time was one of those big gatherings where everyone would bring some food, (the host already prepared a lot), and I decided to prepare a medium size lamb leg .

Lamb and Chinese Ethnic Groups

This way of cooking lamb legs is not originally from the Northeast of China. I learnt it many years ago from somebody who came from Xinjiang , the beautiful and extensive province in the North West of China. (Xinjiang is comparable in size to Western Europe and borders many countries in central asia, such as Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhastan, and even India !)

In Xinjiang province, the majority of the population belongs to the Weiwu’er ethnic group , and lamb dishes are their speciality. I already mentioned that lamb is very important in the custom of Weiwu'er or Hui ethnic groups . For example, if you walk down the street in my city in the evening, there are many small stalls selling grilled lamb on a stick , and most of the sellers are from Xinjiang.

Lamb has become a very popular dish in the whole of China because of their influence. In fact, here is a popular chain of Islamic restaurants called "one cow" (although their specialty is to prepare a whole small lamb for their customers).

However, home grilled lamb leg in Northeast China is not common, mainly (probably) because Chinese home kitchens are traditionally not equipped with built in oven and grill, and selling a whole lamb leg is also not a common thing in the markets or butchers. Also, in Xinjiang the lamb is grilled directly over the fire flame!!

Chinese Grilled Lamb Leg

I am very glad that I learnt this way of cooking lamb, I often use the similar method to cook lamb pieces, chops, fillet, mince balls, etc. It is very different to usual Chinese stir frying or lamb in soup , but it is quite easy to make, and the time for preparation is very convenient, after that, it can just be left in the oven, then you can get on with making other dishes --- so it is definitely a dish recommended for having guests and you having to cook quite a few dishes -- it is very presentable , tasty, and time saving.

I think in some Western countries lamb legs are also grilled with potatoes and onions. However, the seasonings are very different.

I don’t really cook it often, almost forgot all the details of the recipe, but the main thing I did not forget, well, it is a very necessary ingredient, is cumin seeds . Most of the famous Chinese lamb dishes are with cumin. Others, I just followed my instinct.:) Hope my friends liked it yesterday.

The Recipe

I think there are only two things you need to pay attention to: one is the seasonings, the other one is the grilling time.

If you are in China, in most of the supermarkets, you can get ready-to-use grill seasonings. The most popular brand is "Wang shou yi" - a Islamic recipe seasoning which mainly consists of ground cumin, dried chilli, salt, sugar. Sometime, I would bring some back, but most of the time, I have to make it up myself.

As for grilling time, it needs to be long enough for the meat to be done, and all the seasonings go into it, at the same time, it should not get too dry, so the best way to avoid it is to slow cook it in the oven at lower temperature. (I have made it a bit dry yesterday, all our friends just being nice.:))

Here you go. (I forgot to take the last picture after it was done, since got to run to friend’s place… sorry, next time)

Ingredients

Lamb leg, potato, onion.

Spring onion, ginger, ground cumin, ground ginger, cumin seeds, salt, oil, light soy sauce, sugar, ground chilli, rice vinegar, sesame oil

Preparation

1) Slice the surface of lamb leg, "making some cuts", so the seasonings could go in easily.

2) Cut potato and onions into cubes.

3) Chop a good piece of ginger and 2 spring onions into small pieces.

4) Evenly spread chopped ginger and spring onion, around 6 -8 tablespoons of oil, 1 tablespoon of ground cumin, probably 1/2 tablespoon of ground ginger, 3 (or more) tablespoons of cumin seeds, 2 tablespoon of salt, 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of white sugar, 1 tablespoon of ground chilli, a few drops (only) of rice vinegar, and around 3 tablespoons of sesame oil on the lamb leg, make sure both sides have plenty of seasonings.

5) Put chopped potato and onions in the tray, and mix well with the same seasonings.

6) Leave the seasoned lamb leg for couple of hours (or longer).

Oven Cooking the Lamb Leg

Place the lamb leg tray into the oven, and set oven at 150 degrees, for 40 minutes, then lower down to 100 for further 1 hour. ( I use electric oven) Sometimes, if I am in rush, I just set the oven to 200 degrees for 45 minutes, it is still good, but the very inner layer could have less taste.

It is good to go with beer or wine of your choice. As for stable food, well, I guess lamb can really fill your stomach up, but if you like, with yesterday’s recipe raising flour bread (fa mian bing) is also not a bad combination.

There is another way of making it -- to soak the lamb leg in seasoned sauce over night (for example), then grill it for around 2 hours at low heat, and dip in the mixed seasonings when eating. Equally good. :)

39. Chinese flat bread (fa mian bing)

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发面饼

Chinese bread varieties

Traditional ‘Chinese bread’ comes across very differently to typical Western bread. What is called in English Chinese bread can actually be two different things: one is steamed bread with raising flour; the other one is light fried bread with plain flour or raising flour. And these two types can also be distinguished by different fillings, different flour… all sorts. In Chinese term, most of the steamed ones are called bao , where most of the light fried ones are called bing , many are referred as Chinese flat bread.

And different regions make different ‘bing’ (flat bread). When I was doing my data collection for my graduation work many years ago, we travelled from my city to Beijing, then from Beijing to Xi’an through centre China then to Sichuan by train, crossed a few different provinces and major cities.

At every train stop, we would get off the train to buy some ‘Bing’ being sold on the platform -- then we were poor students, having that with some vegetables and chilli paste was our main food. (Well, on the long journey on the train, there were not much we could buy of anyway.) But we were totally fascinated by how different those ‘bing’ (flat bread) could be just a few train stops away from each other. Eating different regional bread became an interesting thing.

Nowadays, even with the regional food being introduced to every part of China, I still found hard to find the same ones as we ate on the train. I guess the sweet memories can never to overtaken…. if only there is a time tunnel. I have never been able to make those ‘bing/flat bread’, probably I know I will never be able to make the same taste, so I gave up.

Chinese Flat Bread

Anyway, this recipe is one of the "bing", and is the most popular and simplest one in Northeast China. It is very similar to ‘Nann bread’, but it is lightly fried in a shallow sauce pan, and the shape is different, if I am not too wrong, most of bing is round shape. It is called ‘fa mian bing’, as in ‘raising flour bread’. According to its name, you already know it is made from raised flour.

My mum used to make it often at home, I like it, well I like all kind of flour based food. It is too ‘homemade’ food, you cannot find in any restaurants or shops. I think I started learning to make it from mum was because my ‘homesick’? I just miss that when my mum made it, and we had it with soup, for example. Once, my mother-in-law and her sister (I call auntie) came to visit, this Bing was one of the dishes they really enjoyed (I am still in the process of learning authentic Spanish food).

The whole process is very easy. It uses raising flour, so needless to say that raising up flour is the main part, sometimes I use self-raising flour instead of making the raising flour myself, it also works.

The recipe

Here it is how I do it the simplest way.

Ingredients

Flour, raising agent (I used yeast), salt, oil

Making the Chinese bread

I made for around 3 people’s portion for dinner, it served as stable food, so no rice on the table).


1) Mix four cups of plain flour with 1 and 1/4 cup of warm water, and 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of fast baking yeast.

2) Kneading the dough well, and keep it in a warm location to raise for around 1 hour and half.

3) Divided the big dough into a few small ones, and roll the small doughs into a flat sheet but not very thin, say around 0.7cm.

4) Heat the shallow sauce pan, and pour in a little bit oil, and make it evenly spread in the sauce pan.

5) When the sauce pan is heated up, (very hot) place rolled sheet into the sauce pan. (If the sauce pan is not hot enough, the first side contacted the sauce pan would not inflate, so it would not be too soft).

6) The bread would raise, like having bubbles :)) on the surface.

7) Then turn over on the other side, the bubbles would raise up as well.

--- Then it is done!!



It is normally good to have with soup or .. something like ‘Jidan geng’ (Chinese steamed eggs) .

Sometimes there would be some dry flour left in the sauce pan, if it is cumulated too much it could cause smoke, so you need to constantly clean the sauce pan.

Meal ideas: Chinese meal weekend garden dinner for 4/5

If the forecast does not lie :), it is likely that we are going to have very warm weekend, starting from tomorrow lunch time. :)) So we can enjoy the summer for 2 -3 days!! I am getting excited just by seeing the ‘sun’ sign on the forecast page. So, I imagine you are going to have a good garden gathering with friends, having some beer, soaking into the sun, chatting, eating…

In Chinese custom, you cannot only take drinks without having some dishes in front of you. :)) There are some dishes that are actually called ‘Xia Jiu Cai’, which literally means ‘the dishes going down with Alcohol. Probably you already noticed that in some recipes I mentioned that ‘this dish is good to go with beer’. ‘Alcohol’ with Chinese dishes  normally refers either to Chinese beer (which is a very light beer), or to Chinese rice wine (never to red / white wine).

The meal idea for this weekend is for either 4 or 5 people, (with beef and lamb dishes), if you will have beer or other soft drinks with them, rice is not necessary. It is only a suggestion, and I chose the dishes from the recipes I put out already, it is easy to explain.

The meal consists of two meat dishes --‘lamb pieces on toothpicks’(Ya qian rou) Soysauce beef salad’ (jiang niu rou); two salad (liang cai) dishes --mungbean starch salad (la pi liang cai) black fungus with cucumber salad (Mu’re ban huang gua); one stir fried green dish - stir fried mange tout (qing chao he lan dou), and just five spice adame beans for filling the gaps in between the meals, and it is the season now, too good to miss. :)

In hot weather, (or when having beer, which can be heavy already), I prefer something light, (I don’t drink), but with enough proteins and vitamins to give me enough energy to go through the day. So, this meal provides enough proteins from the meat, (having one type of meat can be a bit boring when chatting with a few friends), iron from black fungus, fibre from mange tout and adame beans. And there is not much fat in any of the dishes, (apart from ‘toothpicks lamb’, which can contain some).

Another advantage of this combination is that you don’t have to worry about the dishes getting cold since they are all good even if they are not warm, including the lamb (not too cold though). So, you can spend longer time drinking, chatting, and eating. However, for making preparation easy, it is good to do a little bit work the night before, for example, boiling the beef, soaking the seasonings with lamb and inserting the toothpicks, and soaking the black fungus, or even fry the peanuts.

After these preliminary steps, the actual cooking will take probably one hour: I would boil the adame beans first, and soak the mung bean starch. Meanwhile, chopping and mixing the beef, and making the black fungus salad. … By now, you have half of the table ready already. Then I would stir fry the mange tout, while it needs to be in the wok for a little bit, shred the cucumber and making the mung bean starch salad. I leave the lamb at the last, as it is still better if it is hot or warm. :)

Am I talking sense? For the details of each meal, check the original post.


I think it is a good table of food accompanying the sun, do you agree? :)

Enjoy the sun and weekend! -- I am off to prepare grilled lamb leg for our friends’ gathering tomorrow, and it will be Sunday’s recipe. :))

38 Chinese stir fried potato, green beans and carrots

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If the previous tofu salad (liang cai) dish was a ‘super’ quick fix, this one can only be ‘medium’ quick fix. :)) Say around 15 minutes?

Chinese "stews"

The original version -- I mean the very original version,:) is a typical Northeast dish, and the method of making is called ‘Dun’ in Chinese, which is considered as one of the most popular cooking methods in Northern China.

To explain it in a simple way -- the method essentially consists of cooking the food in a soup base. But the soup is not really suitable for drinking like we normally do, it can be mixed into rice which is great, but using spoon to drink it… a bit strange (although sometimes I do it). So, obviously it is different to making soups, probably more like ‘stew’.

The original dish involves ‘potato, green beans, and beef’ (sometimes with carrots as option) together in a deep wok. It is a typical winter dish in Northeast. But the green beans are different to the ones we could get here in England. There are different kinds of green beans in the markets in Northeast China, the ones used for this dish are normally much bigger and longer, the actual beans are fuller, and the skin is slightly thicker and less juicy. Since the normal way of quick stir-frying is not enough to get the beans very well cooked,  we normally cooke them in this kind of ‘stew’ dish.

If you are in China, and can buy this kind of green beans (dou jiao), you do need to clean them well, I mean, because they are big and dry, there are normally some ‘thread’ from the two sides. The best way is to tear off both ends and break it into two or three parts, then you actually get rid of most of the ‘thread’.

It is a very ‘homemade’ dish, you have to go to ‘family run’ small restaurants to order it. The dish itself is difficult to be presented beautifully, but for a home dining table, it cannot be more cosier and ‘homey’.:)

However, it is really not easy to ‘recreate’ the original dish, so I adapted part of the ‘combination’ of the ingredients, (left out the meat), and changed to stir fried, made it into a vegetarian dish for all seasons. It is just good, lighter and fresh, but if you ever come to Northeast, you have to try the real one. :)

The recipe: Chinese stir fried potato, green beans and carrot

Ok, talking about my dish, nothing to boast this time, it is a very common and easy way of stir-frying. Here you go.

Ingredients:

Green beans, potato, carrots
Garlic, oil, ground sichuan peppercorn, five spice powder, salt, light soy sauce, vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence/ MSG (optional)

Preparing

1) Peel and chop potato, carrots into small cubes, and slice around 3-4 gloves of garlic.

2) Get rid of the ends of the green beans, and break it into half if it is too long.

Cooking

1) In a heated wok, pour in around 4 tablespoons of oil, the fire is strong.

2) When the oil is hot enough, add sliced garlic and 1/2 ground sichuan peppercorn.

3) When you can smell the garlic and sichuan peppercorn, put chopped potato in. And stir fry.

4) When the potato gets ‘golden’, add in prepared green beans, then carrots. Stir well.

5) Add in 1/2 teaspoon of five (or thirteen) spice powder, 2/3 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce. Mixed the seasoning well with the vegetables.

6) Gradually add some water if it is needed, and lower down the fire to medium -- you can cover the lid.
Continue cooking for further 5 minutes probably, until the potato is completely soft, green beans can still be crunchy, which is not bad for chewing :)). Add a little pinch of vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence/ MSG, if you like, otherwise ---

----- Remove it to a plate, and serve!! :)

I like it with rice (boiled white rice, brown rice are both good) or beer. :))

If you are like me, prefer the green beans crunchy with soft potato, it is great, no need to cover the lid. If you like it soft, just keep it in the wok longer and cover the lid, but make sure that it is not burnt. If the wok is covered with the lid, the green bean might lose its ‘fresh’ greenish, but this does not affect the taste. :)

Cooking note: adding water

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I am writing this note because in Western cuisine it is unusual to add water while stir frying. Hope this helps.

Chinese stir-fry: adding water

A few years ago, my husband decided to learn how to stir-fry Chinese way. I was standing by him to give  instructions. After heating up the oil, adding in all of the required seasonings and ingredients, the food was getting dry in the wok. I could almost see the smoke coming out. I said ‘add some water then’, he paused and asked, ‘water? really?’ --- Then I learned that when cooking Spanish food, one would add more oil instead of water.

I do think, however, that adding more oil would probably make the dishes more tasty. My mother-in-law always cooks wonderful Spanish food. Sometimes, she would even save some of my favorite dishes for me for my next meal. I love it -- every single drop, and I ate it Spanish way -- by using bread to wipe up all the tasty sauce in the plate, and that piece of bread.. delicious is not enough to describe it. I knew I was actually having ‘flavored’ oil, but… could not stop.

However, (Northeast) Chinese food is normally very different. Apart from oil frying, the other cooking methods always rely on adding water (or soup) to prevent the saucepan from getting dry...never oil. So, many dishes do not contain much oil at all.

Needless to say, it certainly works out well for soups, but for stir frying, it can be a bit tricky. Plain stir-frying is normally just oil, with ingredients, because it is cooked on strong fire, so you don’t always get the ‘juice’ coming out from the vegetables or meat, thus the wok can get very dry and even burnt. Most of the time, you can rely on cooking wine, soy sauce, or even vinegar to get enough ‘moisture’ to finish the stir fry. However,  there are times (for example, when stir frying aubergine) when you do need to add some extra ‘water’ to finish the cooking.

In this case, when cooking at home, we normally just pour in some water -- not a lot, just enough to prevent from burning, in the end, you still get a ‘dry’ dish. Plain cold water is good enough, but I normally prefer my mum’s spiced water’ --  you can get all the seasonings into the food easily when the liquid is absorbed.

Restaurants normally rely on ‘stock’, (boiled chicken in a big sauce pan with some seasonings and lots of water, sometimes vegetable stock), which is a good, but not very practical for home cooking.

The Chinese Wok

Adding water also sounds like ‘cooling down’ the wok -- I do think it is true, but with strong fire, the temperature will come back quickly, then it is actually helping the food to get cooked quickly. A very obvious example is when we shallow fry dumplings (instead of boiling), spraying some water in can speed up the cooking process (this is different to Japanese way of shallow frying dumplings, where steam raised from the wok is used to get the dumpling cooked).

However, you need to be careful when adding water. If the wok gets very very hot and dry, adding drops of water can cause flame from inside wok -- this is what we normally see in some restaurants, which is a very good ‘direct’ way of cooking -- heat up the food directly from the flame, but cooking at home can be a bit dangerous, I almost set the table cloth on fire once. So -- unless you are very experienced with this flame, I wouldn’t advice --- speaking from the lesson I learned . :))

37. Chinese spring onion and tofu salad

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It actually should be called super quick fix, it is a liang cai dish, no need to fry, stir fry... nothing. :)

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Paris has been so beautiful, but we have not been very lucky with the weather, only on our way back, the sun started shining out, and the weather got warmer, like the forecast predicted for yesterday. :( And we were caught in the peak time traffic, the underground was unbearable, crowed - people all had to stand next to each other closely, I could feel my body had been ‘squeezed’ -- I wished I had a shell protecting my flesh. ha… But probably deep, deep down, at the bottom of my heart, I enjoyed and loved this moment even at the same time I complained a little bit, it all reminded me when I was in China crowed with millions people. :)) Walking in the busy street or getting on the bus at the busiest time of the day, the shoulders rubbing shoulders, back 'knocking' back -- it cannot be more 'real' to feel the physical existence of self, I liked that feeling, especially after staying in the studio painting for a few days.

--- Now, I miss it.

The metro in Paris at that time went very slowly, sometimes it had to stop for a while, and the light went off. The conductor announced that everyone should be patient, just a few seconds. But those a few seconds, as if the time stayed still, I could not helping thinking how people passed by on the 'over' ground. The smell of the bodies' sweat mixed with some people’s perfume started spreading in the air. I almost smelt the ‘flesh’ and the body temperature. ---- I was dying to have some fresh water, (I could not even be able to move my hand and lift up my arm to reach and drink some water from the bottle, which i was carrying in the hand -- there was no space for this luxury movement), and really wanted to eat something fresh -- fresh from just the field, no hot oil, no meat… The freshness that I could smell, that I could see, that I could dive in...

But it is sad to leave Paris -- too beautiful to say goodbye, to leave all the fresh market in the street, and to sad to see the paintings of Monet’s garden eventually out of sight …… I did not know if I wish to take them all back with me, or more to leave myself with them....

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A Chinese salad with tofu and spring onion

I was not very satisfied with my tofu dish yesterday in the restaurant, too much thick sauce, although it was not fried, but it masked the freshness and the original taste of the tofu --- so I am dying for … this tofu salad dish -- to cool down the heat I gathered in the heavy traffic, the sadness for leaving Paris, and my desire for tofu. :))

This is a very typical tofu dish in Northern China , especially for the summer days. There is a saying for it, ‘spring onion mixes with tofu -- one ‘blue’ two white’.
Blue colour in traditional Chinese refers to green colour, It is particularly common when describing landscapes and traditional Chinese ink paintings. This saying is a metaphor for something that is very clear, without ambiguity. So you can imagine this dish is just a simple combination of the two things, there is no colour mixing, but you can taste it. :)

The recipe: Chinese tofu and spring onion liang cai

The only essential ingredients are tofu, spring onion and salt, all the rest are optional -- super easy ?!

Ingredients

Fresh tofu, (medium firm is the best)

Spring onion, (mainly the green part), salt, (essential)

Sesame oil, vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence (optional), light soy sauce, chilli oil (only if you like spicy)

Preparation

1) Chop tofu into small cubes, around 2cm square each side.

2) Chop 2 spring onions, only the green leaves part into small pieces.

3) Mix everything together in a salad plate, and add in 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 big spoon of sesame oil, 1/2 vegetable/mushroom/chicken essence, 1 teaspoon light soy sauce, if you like chilli, 2 teaspoon of chilli oil.

---- Mix everything together, then serve!!

Super quick fix, no? :)) --- for a hot summer day! Good to go with rice, or bing, or beer-- of your wish!

Stories of food: Having Chinese food in Paris

I love Paris. I always think that there are cities that one can visit in just a few days. But Paris is different for me; to understand Paris, one needs to live there for some time. Just hopping on and off the metro, walking in between the shops, getting lost in the streets… Probably you can then understand why it is the way like this, what made all the artists and writers came here and became famous, how the city with massive destructions and reconstructions in the past hundreds years still present a whole historical path from the very early settlement to now.




But coming to food… we lost. We are not big fans of butter, cream, cheese -- so you can imagine.


Tonight, we had Chinese.


I know that the Chinese migrants in mainland Europe, are unlike the ones in England who are usually from Canton. In Paris, Chinese migrants mostly come from Central China. So, Chinese food in Paris is supposed to be very different from Chinese food in England.


We purposely got lost in the small streets in a district we didn't know at all, and thinking whichever restaurants came up and looked ok, we would just go for it. Then we passed by this small window, and saw a chef hand pulling noodles --- not very skillful, but enough to attract us to look at the menu and enter to give a try. --- I really missed white plain boiled rice.


The menu was very simple, and mostly consisted of mainland Chinese dishes. I even saw ‘Di San Xian’ on the menu, which I have never seen ever before in a Chinese restaurant in Western Europe!


Today, I am sharing my eating experience in the restaurant, rather than cooking in the kitchen. We ordered two very typical mainland Chinese dishes - ‘spicy fish in soup’ and ‘ma po doufu’.


Spicy fish in soup’ is a landmark Sichuan dish, which  suddenly became famous and popular in Northeast China. It is normally seabass cooked in spicy soup.
The dish is normally presented in a big ( I really mean big, big) bowl, with the soup covered by red chilli pepper and sichuan peppercorn. After being presented in front of you, the waiter normally offers to help you take out the ‘top layer’ of chillis and peppercorns, so you can see the fish and vegetables in the bowl. :)) It is a bit ‘oily’, but with distinguishing sichan spiciness --- don’t worry about the chillis, it is not chilli as it shows. Since then, it became a ‘must’ order dish for us. So if you ever go to China, and don’t mind spicy food, this is definitely recommended.


Second, because we both like tofu, after a few days haven’t had tofu, we really miss it. So I ordered ‘ma po doufu’ with stressing that I don’t eat pork, so either beef mince or no meat at all. --- If you are ordering in China, this is never a problem, because the dish normally doesn't contain meat, but since the food has been adapted many times, ‘ma po doufu’ always comes with meat. Famous ‘ma po doufu’ is from Sichuan as well, it is made from fresh tofu, (not fried), and normally with pure chilli sauce, no pickles or other ingredients. The colour is red, and this can be very spicy! If you don’t like spicy food, do not bother to tell the chef to make it less spicy, rather just order another way of cooking tofu, because the best of this dish is the ‘sichuan spiciness’.


At last, we ordered some mixed vegetables. Mix many different vegetables together is never a Northeast style. In stir frying leaves, the green leaves are normally still very juicy and crunchy, and the dish normally doesn’t come with ‘thick’ sauce. It is supposed to be light and fresh.


Coming back to our dinner in this small restaurant, these three dishes are definitely a good combination. But although the waitress claimed that the chef was from Beijing, the dishes... ok. It is a ‘hybridized’ Cantonese and sichuan style. I learned a lesson -- never put too much soy sauce and corn flour thickening, and always try to keep the taste fresh. :))

36. Won ton soup (folding, boiling and serving)

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Continued from yesterday's post on Chinese wontons . Hope you are not tired of reading about wonton soup Northeast style… we are only half way through. :) Fun ? :)

Folding the wontons

I really should call it folding, it is different to wrapping the dumplings . :)) --- Place the filling in the middle, and fold up the three ‘corners’. The filling of each wonton is not supposed to be too full, otherwise it is going to be difficult to ‘close’. So, it is not only the wonton that will fill up your stomach, but also the soup -- nice soup base is very important.

1) Take one wonton pastry sheet, and place it on the palm with one corner facing you.

2) Place an adaptable portion of the filling in the middle of the triangle pastry sheet. (I prefer to use a table knife or a long coffee spoon. This helps me getting the amount right, and place the fillings correctly.)

3) Fold up the corner which was facing you, ‘ceil’ well the filling.

4) Use both hands to hold the other two corners, overlap them underneath the ‘filling’.

---- Done. (Sorry, I could not take the picture well during the process. The one on the left is the finished wonton facing up, the one on the right is the wonton facing down.)

Again, before you place the prepared wonton on the plate or, like me, on the bamboo board, dust enough plain flour to prevent the stickiness.

Making the soup and boiling the wonton

In Northern Chinese cuisine, the wonton soup is normally clear soup, often with some dried seaweed in (zi cai).

It is different to those dark green ‘thicker’ sea leaves (normally we use in the salad dish), this seaweed is lighter, very thin. Long time ago, with my good friend Zhenya, we saw somewhere it was called ‘black mess’ --- we really laughed hard.

But this seaweed is different to the ones used in Japanese or Korean cuisine. In Northeast cuisine, they are in original formal (not toasted), sold dried in ‘block’, and normally in dark purple colour (sometimes dark green colour), so it is also called ‘Zicai’ as ‘purple food’. In the North of China, it is cooked in the soup, to which it gives a fresh ‘sea’ touch. :) But in this recipe, it is optional.

1) In a heated wok, pour in 3-4 tablespoons of oil, (I made for 2 people, with some leftovers).

2) When the oil is heated, add the chopped spring onion in, and 1/2 teaspoon of ground sichuan peppercorn.

3) When the spring onion is well cooked (the smell fully comes out), pour in 3-4 big bowls of water.

4) When the water is boiling, put prepared wonton in the wok, and bring the water to boil again.

5) Meanwhile, add 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 tablespoon of light soy sauce.

6) When the body of the wonton is popping and floating to the surface, tear some dried seaweed into the soup. (Don’t leave the seaweed too long in the boiling soup, otherwise it will ‘disappear’ in the soup -- it can be cooked very quickly).

Turn off the fire, add in drops sesame oil (optional), and take the wonton with plenty soup into a soup bowl.

---- Almost there!! :))

Serving

I like to put some chopped coriander leaves on the top of the soup to give it a fresh fragrance. I also like to have some old vinegar in the soup and spread some ground white pepper. (Try it, probably you are just like me --- the taste is good.) If you like it spicy, pour in some chilli oil. :))

Normally wonton soup is served with a spoon, … no chopsticks, it is difficult to ‘pick up’ the soup liquid. :))