64.Stir fried spring onion with lamb slice

Tweet

葱爆羊肉 （Cong bao yang rou)

Having said I am not a big fan of meat, this lamb dish is one of the very few I really like. - Confused by my statements of what kind of food I like? -- I am confused by myself as well. When I try to put down my food preference, for example, when I am taking a long haul flight, it is really difficult, like my husband says, ‘difficult to generalize the food for her - meat is ok, but no chicken or pork, vegetarian is good, but if there are cheese and cream, then no.’
- It is confusing, I know, my picky Chinese food upbringing. :)

Lamb in Chinese Ethnic Cuisine

Lamb, as I mentioned in anther post, is very important in my ethnic group’s traditional cuisine. Growing up with lamb, I can take lamb dishes cooked in many different ways, even if they have strong ‘lamb’ smell. But this dish is really ideal for me, tender - does not even have to feel the texture of ‘meat’; flavored (with spring onion, chilli and cumin) can just mask all the ‘lamb’ smell. It takes little time to cook (apart from the preparation), and is a very presentable dish for weekday dinner as well as a treat for guests. :)


This dish is called ‘Cong bao yang rou’ in Chinese - as spring onion stir fry lamb. Well, not totally exact, ‘Bao’ is one of the ways of cooking when stir frying. It is to cook quickly on very strong fire with very hot wok.

The way spring onion is used in this recipe is quite unusual; spring onion acts as part of the ‘main’ ingredients, (I prefer to use ‘Chinese big spring onion’ (Pic below left) or even leeks). So the lamb is heavily influenced by its taste. Last weekend, we bought some ‘long’ spring onion, which is very rare to find in the normal supermarkets, so I thought it was good to cook this dish. The meat from the back legs of lamb is the most suitable one.

                            Image source:www.dacongwang.com

The recipe: Stir fried spring onion with lamb slice

There are actually many ways of making this dish. One could mix the meat with seasonings first, or stir fry directly. One could stir fry the spring onion first, then add in lamb or stir fry lamb first then spring onion.

In this case, I decided to stir fry the lamb first, because the spring onion is not good to be stir fried for too long, it will loose the freshness which is quite essential in this recipe. But if I use leeks, I would normally stir fry the leeks first, then the lamb.)


Here you go.

Ingredients:

Lamb (from the leg), spring onion or leeks

Crushed chilli, salt, oil, cumin seeds, vinegar, sugar, cooking wine, light soy sauce, garlic and ginger.

Preparing:

1)Slice the lamb meat as thin as possible.

2) In a mix bowl, mix sliced meat with a teaspoon of cumin seeds, a few drops of vinegar and light soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/3 teaspoon of crushed chilli. Leave the mixture for around 1 hour.

Adding seasonings to the lamb

3)Chop around 3 gloves garlic, and a piece of ginger into strips.

4)Chop around 2 or 3 spring onions diagonally into long strips possible.

Chopping spring onions

Cooking:

1) In a heated wok, (the fire is very strong), pour in around 3 tablespoons of oil, and add in chopped garlic and ginger strips, then 1 teaspoon of cooking wine.

Stir frying the garlic

2) The smell of the garlic, ginger and wine comes out, add in the lamb slice, stir fry quickly.

3) When the colour of the lamb slice turns into ‘white’, add in chopped spring onion.

4) Add in a bit more salt and cumin seed ONLY IF it is needed (if you think the taste is not strong enough).

----- Done!

Chinese stir fried lamb with spring onion

It does need to be eaten while it is still hot, so you don’t get much of ‘lamb’ smell, and the meat is still very tender. Oh, don’t fry too long, otherwise, the meat might be harder, so chopping it thin is very important.

I think it is good to go with plain boiled rice, so you can have a better taste of lamb. :)

63. Fried vegetarian mince balls with swede

We have just been to a very glamourous wedding of a friend. It was my first time to experience a really traditional church wedding with the whole 'full set'. Since wedding ceremonies and receptions in China are totally different, and me and most of my friends normally opted for simpler ones :), this was not only a moment of sharing the happiness with them, but also a cultural experience for me.

It was very particular moving when listening to the Priest talking about love, marriage and their value in everyday's life. Sometimes, when we get on with daily life, and maybe at some point, started taking many things for granted, we forgot the value of them, forgot to appreciate we are being loved, and we have somebody to love. Listening to the those words for love and marriage, I suddenly felt like I could see a time tunnel, the starting point is now, and the tunnel is filled in with warm colour of the sun, we - walking through the tunnel with holding hands, with deep love towards each other, and sincere appreciation towards what we have and promise to ourselves again that we are going to continue this love to the end of the world.


-- So, best wishes to my dear friend, and best wishes to everyone with love, and enjoy loving and being loved……:)

Chinese vegetarian mince balls

I called this dish ‘Fried vegetarian mince balls with swede’. Swede is not exactly the same vegetable as we normally use in northeast China, so the name in Chinese is different.

Chinese Luo bo

The original recipe uses what we call ‘ Luo bo ’ - a very typical Chinese vegetable - I have tried to look up online see how to translate it into English, but no luck, :( what I got is this - "it is a vegetable originally grown in China, mainly in the northeast, so it is also called northeast big red luo bo. From the appearance, it is more like a very big radish, almost same colour, shape, texture, but the scale - more similar to swede. The big radish is more juicy, crunchy, and spicy when compared to Swede".

But I really thought swede was ‘luo bo’ when the first I saw it, until I bought it, and tried to chop it, then realized it is not … exactly the same, although it does have some similarities. I had no idea how to deal with it, so just tried to cook it as ‘luo bo’ recipes, it did not turn out very strange - I got encouraged, kept on cooking it this way.

Read more »

Sea kelp (Kombu or Haidai): a healthy Chinese ingredient

the image source:http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/seaveg.htm

Hai dai or kelp

I don’t really know how to call Hai dai in English. According to Wikipedia, in Japanese it is called Kombu or dashima, in English it is apparently called Laminariaceae, or kelp. In Chinese, Hai dai literally means sea’s belt, because of its shape. :)

Hai dai is a sea plant; in fact, in Chinese it is also called “Hai cao” as in Sea grass. It grows in the shallow part of the sea, and its shape resembles a long belt. It is said that some of them can be 7 meters long.

Uses of Kelp in Chinese cooking and Chinese medicine

In Chinese cuisine, the use of all kinds of seafood and sea plants is very common (an example is the ‘famous’ jelly fish salad). Sea food and sea plants are normally considered very healthy: they provide many nutrients that cannot be normally obtained elsewhere. :) The legend says that one of the reasons why many monks in Japan live a very long life is because of the many properties of sea kelp (they also eat a lot of tofu with this sea kelp). :)

True or not, the many benefits of seaweed are real. This kind of seaweed/kombu is best known for its richness in Iodine, which plays an essential role for thyroid balance; and calcium, needless to say its importance in the body. Sea kelp also contains dietary fiber, unsaturated fatty acids and glial, all these together can help with cleansing cholesterol, and stimulating stomach and bowel movement.

In the famous Chinese book "Yin shi ben cao', kelp is described as a powerful anti-expectorant, and it is also supposed to act against potential tumors, cool down the body heat, and help lowering blood pressure. It is known to be particularly good for people suffering from (hypo)thyroidism, over-weight problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, constipation...etc.

Kelp, however, is categorized as a ‘cold’ food in Chinese medicine, so it should be taken carefully if you have ‘cold’ stomach problems :) (it is a Chinese medical term, which basically describes the stomachache triggered by either cold weather or cold food. And in general, the intake of kelp needs to be carefully measured, as too much kelp could cause (hyper)thyroidism, which is a concern during pregnancy and breast feeding.

Sea kelp can be found in many Chinese, Korean, Japanese shops, it is normally sold dry and fairly cheap, it needs to be soaked it at home first, after soaking, it comes back as fresh and soft again. Actually even if you get the fresh ones, soaking and washing them properly is still very necessary due to potential problems related to sea pollution. Normally it is recommended to soak it for 5 or 6 hours before making it into dishes in order to get rid of the 'arsenic' that may be dissolved in sea water. I also boil it to make sure it is completely clean.

In modern Chinese Shi liao, kelp salad, kelp congee, stir fried kelp with meat, or tofu, kelp soup are all recommended. I have one kelp salad recipe posted already, the rest, I will write here as I am cooking them. :)

62. Stir fried dried bean curd with green pepper

Chinese stir fried bean curd

青椒炒素鸡／豆腐干

After weeks of my mother-in-law’s most delicious Spanish food, we came back to Oxford, and back our normal life. ‘What should we eat?’ Having no need to cook for such a long time, I ran out of cooking ideas. "Tofu, then." - We almost said at the same time. If one thing we really miss when we haven't had Chinese food for a while is is tofu. So we rushed to the Chinese shop, and bought a few different kinds of Tofu.

Bean curd and Suji in Northern and Southern China

This dish is something I kind of improvised, as in North East China we don’t have the exactly same kind of dried bean curd as the one we bought in the Chinese supermarket in Oxford. The bean curd we use is called Su ji in Mandarin. Cantonese-style dried bean curd is around 0.8cm thick and in the shops over here they are come in square shape.


Su ji literally means vegetarian chicken. Northern ‘Suji’ is different to Southern Suji: northern Suji normally comes as a block and its taste is a bit savory taste, whereas southern ‘suji’ is more like ‘layers of dried bean curd sheet pressed together’.





But ‘Suji’ and dried bean curd share similarities in terms of textures and taste, they are normally ready-to-eat, so whenever I am making it, I really can not help ‘stealing’ a little bit. It is ideal for making salad / liangcai, and of course can be stir fried as well. In North East China, it is normally stir fried with vegetables (such as green pepper or Chinese leaves).


Cantonese-style dried bean curd usually comes in two different flavors, one is plain, another one is with seasonings like five spices. They both are good for this dish, I only found the latter one in my shopping trip.

Dried bean curd can be a bit heavy and filling. But it is healthy, and when cooking, it does not require much oil for frying, so it is a really good dish for boasting your daily protein intake.

Although dried bean curd can only be found in some far east shops here, you can also use tofu (or braised tofu ), which is sold in many supermarkets here. They are drier and way more firmer than the fresh ones. I always think that that those kinds of tofu are not suitable for the dishes I talked about before, but for this dish, it is good.

The recipe: Chinese stir fried dried bean curd with green pepper

Anyway, here you go, the recipe.

Ingredients

Dried bean curd (or tofu sold in normally supermarkets, they are normally sealed well, and have very long expiating days ), green pepper.

Garlic, oil, salt, light soy sauce (optional, especially if you use flavored dried bean curd, you don’t have to use soy sauce).

Preparation

1）Slice the tofu into thin pieces, then cut them in half again.

2）Chop a green pepper into strips.

3）Chop around 3 gloves garlic into small pieces.

Cooking

1） In a heated wok, pour in around 2 tablespoons of oil.

2） When oil is hot enough, add the garlic pieces in.

Stir frying the garlic

3） When you can smell the garlic, add in prepared green pepper and dried bean curd (or tofu), stir everything together.

Adding the green pepper and dried bean curd

4） Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and probably 1 teaspoon of light soy sauce, stir well ---

------- Done!

Chinese stir fried bean curd with green pepper

Every quick and easy, no? The green pepper doesn’t need to be soft, it is probably better to keep it fresh, crunchy and juicy, the taste of green pepper will match well with dried bean curd / ‘Suji’ / tofu. Rice dishes are good to go with it.

Chinese snacks

image source 'http://www.88695.com/list.asp?ProdId=05627'

… Well, I grew up with my mum saying, ‘no, no snacking now, you are going to have your main meal later’ - of course, she said in Chinese with mum’s ‘strict’ tone. But today, I am talking about those snacks I grew up with, with all the ‘growing up’ memories.

Now, whenever I go back home and go shopping to the supermarket with my mum, she would keep on picking up all my favorite snacks and putting them in the shopping trolley (-yes, a whole trolley of snacks, not a basket - this is the mum who tried to be strict with me on not having snacks, but now, she wants to buy the whole world for me - she misses me all these years.) After bringing all the snacks home, she would say, ‘I used to disapprove your snack habit, but where you still got this habit from…’ - This is my lovely mom.

Snacks in China

Before all these varieties of snacks could be found on the shelves of the supermarket, Chinese snacks were not really considered as ‘junk food'. They were mainly made from fruit - all sorts of dried fruit, or dried meat or fish; biscuits or cakes - very little sugar, cream or butter.

Fruit-based Chinese snacks

Fruit-based snacks have always played a big part in my snack habit, and it was my main intake of sugar (now I take lots of other sweet things :) ). It was not only dried fruits, but also in different forms. For example, my ‘cannot live without’ :) snacks are made from ‘Haw’, I have mentioned many times. :)

If you have these haw-made snacks before meals, it helps opening up your appetite, or you have it after meals, it helps digestion, or just as snacks, it satisfies my stomach, and doesn’t give me worries of putting on much weight.

Dried meat and fish

Having meat and fish as snack may sound very strange, especially nowadays they are packed like ‘sweets’ in small portions, and we normally buy them as ‘gifts from China’, but my friends would unwrap one, put it in the mouth, expecting sweet taste, it comes out - very unexpected - they are savory meat, and very ‘chewable’. Dried meat normally is dried beef or pork meat, with different spices, it is very similar to beef jerky.

Dried fish is another one of my favorite snacks. In the past, dried fish was only sold in seaside cities, in which they were made directly from fresh fish. So my mum used to buy packs and packs of dried fish snacks, and stored them in the ‘snack’ part of the cupboard.

I used to go there take two or three packs as one go. Eventually, one day, I felt that I could smell too much of fish, and that stopped me for years, then now, not only me embarking on dried fish, my (Spanish) husband too. Nowadays it comes with different flavor, some of the original tastes are very similar to Spanish dried cod, but of course, Spanish dried cod is way more salty, and used for cooking.

Chinese biscuits and cakes

As for biscuit and cakes, well, probably I should say ‘flour’ based snacks - there are too many, and they are too different to western snacks, actually, flour-based snacks in Northern China are different to southern China. In general, traditional Chinese flour based snacks do not contain many diary products, and they are not very sweet.

A friend, who really loves sweet things, once told me, ‘sorry, don’t take this as an offense, but I don’t like Chinese cakes, they are just not sweet enough for me.’ - Ha… No, no offense, it is exactly why I like Chinese cakes, they are more ‘spongy’ and quite plain, many of them are quite similar to Spanish bizcocho, but this kind of snacks in Northeast China are called ‘Dim sim’, as you can see, it is completely different concept to Cantonese ‘Dim sim’.

In Mandarin, it is pronounced as ‘Dian Xin’. -- Well, it seems I just touched a big area, I have to stop now, and continue another time with all the details, and hope I will have learned enough to talk about how to make them. :)

61. How to make Chinese steamed bread

Chinese steamed bred (man tou)

蒸馒头

Chinese Steamed Bread

I don’t really know how the name ‘Chinese bread’ was first used when referring to the dish I am introducing today, as it is not really ‘bread’ bread.

However, when my friends and I try to explain what Man Tou  is, we always end up saying "it is like … Chinese bread". Ok, let’s just call it Chinese steamed bread then! :)

If you are familiar with Cantonese Dim Sim, there is something similar to Chinese bread called "Bon". In the North East of China, Chinese steamed bread (without any fillings) is called ‘Man Tou’, but any other similar kind of steamed bread with fillings is called ‘Bao’ (Mandarin word for Bon).

In Northern China, Mantou/Chinese steamed bread is a very common "staple food" that often replaces rice on the dining table. Mantou is thought to be a bit ‘dry’, so it is usually accompanied with soup or congee.


In China, one of the most well-known mantou and soup dishes is ‘yang rou pao mo’ from Xi’an. It is served with mantou teared into small parts and soaked in lamb soup. -- A dish you cannot miss if you ever visit Xi’an, - oh, but in order to appreciate it, you have to like the ‘original’ flavor of lamb. :)

Mantou is not difficult to make -- raise the flour, shape it into 'half a ball', then steam. Nowadays, Mantou is normally made with white plain flour, which gives a very soft texture. As I mentioned before, many dishes from the times were China was ‘poor’ have been brought back to the dining table, and become very popular and highly recommended for their ‘healthy properties’.

So, for example, making Mantou with wholemeal flour or corn flour is becoming more and more popular. The flour, however, does not raise and become very soft after steamed as with plain flour.

Apart from using different flour to obtain different flavor, putting different fillings into Mantou is also very popular, however, of course, doing this changes the ‘concept’ of Mantou. In my ‘Chinese birthday food’ post, the two typical northeast birthday food “Doubao” and “Baozi” are derived from Mantou. If I start talking about different kinds of fillings, you have to bear with me for a long long time. :)

The recipe: Chinese Man Tou

Anyway, today, the weekend, I will only explain the original Chinese Mantou recipe, and it will be our breakfast for the next two days. :)

Ingredients:

Plain flour, yeast (or other raising agent if you are familiar with)

Making the dough:

1) Making raising flour. I normally use (same as always) 4 cups of flour, 1 and 1/4 cup of water, around 5g fast yeast.


2) After raising the flour, dust the board with dry flour, and place the dough on it. Knead well.

3) Divide the dough into small portions, don’t worry if they look small, need to keep in mind that after steaming, it will raising up again. So don't make the portion too big.

Shaping the mantou

4) Shaping the Man tou. There are two ways of making the small doughs into half ball shape. One is to use both hand ‘rub’ it into the shape from the small portion dough directly, (above pic) but it is a little bit difficult to shape the top ‘round’shape; the second method, which is my parents use, to press the small dough flat, then take the edges and press them into the centre (more like filling inside with its own edges), then ‘throw’ it hard onto the board, and ‘rub’ the side make it into the final shape.

Steaming:

1) Before putting the man tou into the steamer, it is better to ‘dip’ it in oil - this is only for avoiding it getting sticky on the steamer sheet.

2) Place them one by one into steamer, (leave enough water in the bottom of the steamer), keep in mind leave enough space for Mantou raising big later. (You can see from my picture, I did not expect that they raise up so big, so they are a bit 'squeezed".)

3) Cover the lid of steamer, and leave it for further 15 minutes for letting the dough raising again, before turning on the fire.

4) Then turn on the full fire. AFTER the water BOILING, for further 7 or 8 minutes, it is done. Turn off the fire, take them out. DON’T leave them inside the steamer after it is done.

Steaming Chinese mantou

Serving:

Have them with rice, millet or mung bean congee, or different soups along with other dishes, if you like. We also like to have it with steamed eggs for breakfast.

Home-made steamed Chinese bread

Storing and warming up:

Mantou can be kept in room temperature if the weather is not too hot, but don't leave them for too long though. Or leave them the fridge, or freeze them after cooling down. When eating them, they can be eaten as room temperature, or for the best result, is to re-steam them. If you cannot be bothered to use the steamer again, you can also leave them in the microwave, but ONLY 1 minute, if not warm enough, try 20 seconds more per time --- if it is too long, it will be very very hard. And microwave warmed mantou needs to be eaten quickly, otherwise it will get hard once it gets cold.


That's all -- too much already, sorry, have good Sunday!! It says that the weather will be good!

60. Chinese rice with mung beans (mung bean rice)

--- Actually, in Chinese, when referring to ‘having a meal’ (dinner/breakfast/lunch), we always say ‘Chi Fan’, Chi as ‘eat’, and Fan in this context means food, but if by itself, Fan only means ‘rice’.

Normally, a meal is composed by two parts - Fan and Cai. Fan is the stable food, normally only refers to rice, where Cai means the actual dishes. Am I talking sense again? :)

Combining rice with other grains

My friends from South China used to ask me, ‘in the North, you eat lots of flour based food, right?’ … I was always a bit puzzled - well, we have rice with dishes most of the time, then I realized, it is true, particularly compared to South Chinese people, who sometimes only make dumplings once per year, we eat dumplings, steamed bread, bing… almost every week.

But apart from these, we normally have a bowl of rice to accompany the dishes. The varieties of rice are different to those used in Southern cuisine.

In south China, rice is normally stir fried, for example, the most famous one, ‘Yang zhou fried rice’; in contrast, in the North, we usually mix rice with other types of grain. For example, today’s rice is white rice mixed with mung beans (although, in Chinese it is called ‘mung bean rice’).

In northeast China, the popular combinations include red bean with white rice, Chinese millet with white rice, Sorghum grain with white rice, crushed corn with white rice, and so on.

In the past, since China was very poor, and white rice was expensive, combining the different grains with rice was very common. However, nowadays, it is considered as a healthy way of eating, it can help making up what white rice lacks. And for example, today's recipe includes mung bean, which are very healthy and are even used for medical purposes (they are also good for hot summer days ).

In addition, mung beans certainly enrich the flavor of the rice, and I could get bored of eating white rice only everyday. The proportion of white rice and mung bean (or others) is very flexible, depends on how strong you want the flavor.

It is very easy to make, the only thing needs to pay attention is grains like mung bean and red bean (for example) takes longer to cook than white rice, so you do need to soak them first, then put them together with white rice to boil.

The recipe: mung bean rice

Here you go the simplest way of making mung bean rice.

Making for 3 people for dinner.

1) Soaking around 1 cup of mung bean in water. (I soaked it in warm water for 2 hours, if it is cold water, it takes longer.)

2) Mix 1 and half cup of white rice with soaked mung bean, and fill in with water around 2.5cm above the rice level.

3) Then the rest, boil it as normal rice.
(If you like congee, just add double or even a bit more water. )

You can have it with all kinds of dishes.

59. Chinese bean sprouts salad (liang cai)

Bean Sprout Salad

Waved good-bye to the mediterranean sun and heat, we quickly dived into another kind of summer…
Grandpa called last night, asked, ‘it has been the hottest two days since you left, how about there?’ I told him it has been a bit cold for summer days in Oxford, he laughed, ‘how good! Here, I have to turn on the air conditioning, then stay indoors all the time. Ha… but you would still like it, don’t you?’ -- Yes, I like the heat, I guess it is to do with I was born in the hottest time of the summer, and my mum had to do the traditional confinement in the house, which helped me build up the heat tolerance from the very very early age.

Our friends in Spain all wished to spend summer here, to have cooler days, while we want to be in the hot waves. How interesting we want to cross over to each other’s side!

---------

When I was little, one day I walked through the narrow streets, then arrived at a busy road, my school was right on the other side. I was scared to cross the road, always just stood there, and kept on standing on this side watching people waiting for the traffic slow down so that they could cross to the other side, then carry on their journey of the day.

I did not understand why people needed to cross, why they couldn’t just stay on their own side - they could find their happiness there. Not until I grew up, gradually I understand this is life, we have to cross the roads to do things we need to do, and meet each other, and then probably will say good bye to each other, does not matter how many people have passed by, this is how people knit a big net on the surface of the earth. And that road becomes a wider road, then a land, then a continent, and an ocean...

See now, like me, I want to cross the sea to feel the heat…:)

Chinese bean sprouts salad

I hope summer is still here, it is just playing hide and seek at the moment, it will come back. Then my summer recipe continues as well - bean sprouts salad / liangcai.

I know I have said that I did not like bean sprouts for a long while, but time to time, I still want to give a try - to grab the memory when I was at home, maybe?

But this salad/liangcai recipe certainly refreshed the taste as well as my memory. It is simple and quick, oh, and healthy.:) It is not involved with actual stir frying, just boil the bean sprouts, and make the sauce with the ‘usual’ seasonings.

Here you go.

The recipe

Ingredients

Bean sprout 1 bag (Bean sprout made from mung beans is very good for this recipe, otherwise, yellow beans also do.)

Minced garlic, salt, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, crushed chilli (optional), oil.

Cooking

1) Boil the bean sprouts first in the water - but not long time though, after bringing to the boiling point, last for anther two minutes, then remove it from the wok. (This is only just getting rid of the ‘rawness’ from the bean sprouts. Bean sprouts still need to be crunchy and juicy. )

2) Rinse the bean sprouts in the cold water, then place them into the plate.

3) Place the wok on the fire, pour in around 2 tablespoon of oil, then add in 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, 1/3 teaspoon of crushed chilli, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of vinegar, a small pinch of sugar. Mix everything well.

4) When it is bubbling in the wok, turn off the fire.

5) Add in 1 tablespoon of sesame oil.

6) Pour the sauce on top of the bean sprouts, and mix well.

(You can also put all the seasoning directly on the bean sprouts without needing to heat the oil.)

--- Done! Easy and quick, no? And very fresh!

Common ingredient: Garlic

If you have been reading my recipes here, you have probably already seen so many dishes with garlic. As I mentioned in another post, the taste and smell of garlic is used as one of the main influences in Chinese dishes along with ginger and spring onion.

Garlic in Chinese Cooking

Garlic in Chinese is called “suan (4)’, sometimes “da suan” in northeast China, as ‘big garlic’. It has been one of the most essential components of Chinese dishes -- functioning more like a seasoning.

If you walk into any home kitchen in the China, you will always see some garlic prepared for cooking. I remember in the past, most families would buy garlics in a whole branch, which were hung in the kitchen. When garlic was needed for cooking, people would just pick up one, so they were still ‘fresh’. Although nowadays scenes like this are rare to see, I have seen the same thing in Spain - branches of garlic hanging in the shops, restaurants, markets… I just totally lost in the culture, place, time...

Anyway, so since I learned to cook, my dad told me the use of the garlic from the very beginning. In northeast China, we always use fresh garlic for cooking, whereas in the south, dried garlic is often used.

When cooking, garlic is normally sliced, and always needs to be in contact with oil first, to influence the oil, thus also the rest of the ingredients. It is just as most recipes I mentioned - put the wok on the fire, when the wok is very hot and dry (if you just washed it), add the oil into the wok, and when the oil is hot, put sliced garlic into the oil - when the garlic is ‘cooked’, the smell of the garlic comes out, and adds to the rest of the ingredients.

Even when making soup, (garlic is normally used for meat soup), garlic still needs to be ‘cooked’ first, before adding the water.

Northern Chinese people often use the spiciness of garlic to accompany dumplings, or ‘baozi’ - things with fillings, for example the dip I made for the dumplings, sometimes with noodles as well.

It is also common to use the properties of garlic to prevent food poison, for example, when having seafood, it is always recommended to have some garlic with it.

Well, of course it will leave you with some smell, :( one of the knacks is to have some tea or chew some tea leaves. There is another way have garlic is to have ‘pickled’ garlic. It might loose some healthy benefit compare to the fresh one, but still good.

In northeast China, entering the coldest time of the year, it is custom to make ‘la ba suan’, means the garlic on ‘8th December’ in Chinese calendar. Garlics are peeled, and gloves are placed into a sealed bottle, filled in with a bit sugar, salt and lots of rice vinegar. Normally it takes a week or two to get it ready, the garlic will even turn ‘blue’ or ‘greenish’. The garlic will not be as spicy as it was, and not very sour either, but the vinegar will be very ‘garlic spicy’, they both become very good to have dumplings with.

Nowadays, Chinese use garlic as natural anti-biotic as well, isn’t it said that after the whole ‘sars’ thing, the price of garlic has been keeping on increasing.

I probably never appreciated garlic before, but I do now, no matter which way it is prepared. Lately, my favorite way is when my mother-in-law cooks them in the Spanish rice dish. The garlic becomes so soft and ‘mashy’ - the best. Oh, and the Spanish garlic mayonnaise, if I did not know when ‘fat’ it can be, I could just continue eating it with every dish. :)

It is always good to have garlic, no? Especially for its healthy benefits? Oh, also there is a very old saying that hanging garlic and eating garlic can prevent you from ‘weird’ stuff -- you know what I mean. :) :) I have just bought a few - to be cooked. :)

My Chinese encounter

Tweet

:))) Yes, I call this post as ‘my Chinese encounter’ in Barcelona… During my short stay there, I realized that I did not have much chance to practice my Spanish for food, instead, I spoke Chinese all the time. ha…

___________________

I slept till ‘naturally’ woke up, it was half past ten already - just love that “Mediterranean’s” lazy morning. :)) But I do need coffee - I know, don’t remember since when I started needing a cup of black coffee to start the day off, while him drink green tea all day long - we swapped cultural custom. :)

On the way down to the hotel’s cafe, I was a bit joyful, a bit nervous - I was going to try out my Spanish on my own, and not to families and friends.

I ‘pretended’ causally walking into the cafe, was just about to open my mouth to ask in Spanish that I had practiced many times in the elevator, the only girl -- waitress wearing a straight black pony tail, a ‘honest’ pair of ‘glasses’, with a Chinese looking face, started talking in English to a group of guests. … A sigh of relief - I will try to talk in Spanish later then, now, I can make an order in English --- I was thinking.

I did make my order, then sat quietly waiting for my coffee. I still was not sure if she was Chinese, coz she had much darker skin, and her English (and Spanish that I later heard) did not sound with very strong Chinese accent.

After a long while, she noticed me still waiting for my coffee, she rushed into the back of the counter to make coffee for me herself. I felt really sorry -- it was my lazy day, I should not bring her any rush at all, so I quickly spoke to her, “no, no rush for me, I am not in rush, I can wait…” She immediately looked at me with a surprise but warm smile, answered, “it’s ok. It is just my colleague is supposed to be here as well. She will be back soon I guess, I will be ok then.: --- In CHINESE. Then I realized I actually talked to her in Mandarin too. My instinct (while confronting a Chinese face) did talking before my mind choosing the language. :))

Anyway, in between her busy work, we talked enough to know each other in Chinese briefly.

___________

I wandered around the residential area where the hotel was, trying to choose a bar for a typical Spanish lunch. But I am not that kind of person comfortably sitting in a restaurant alone, also all I saw was Spanish man in groups having beer in the bars and small restaurants. Eventually, I saw a small bar with a few families sitting around the tables outside in the shades. A little girl with cute blonde girl waved at me with a big smile, “hola!” I waved and smiled back - here it is then, I sat down.

A few seconds later, a lady with a modernized Chinese ‘qipao’ top came to me, asked me what I would like to order in Spanish. I puzzled - isn’t it Spanish food bar? I looked at the menu, and looked around the food on the other tables -- yes, they were all Spanish food. I made my order - in Spanish to her.

When she brought the food out, I decided to try my settle my wonders. “Are you Chinese?” I asked in Mandarin. “Yes! Yes! I just told my husband that this girl outside looks like ‘our’ Chinese.” Then she pulled the chair in front of me, sat down, started talking in Mandarin with very strong their local accents - never mind I was eating. Ok, then, I have accompany for lunch. :))

She started telling me the story since she came to Spain till what happened the night before. I did enjoy listen and fill in my curiosity of their life here. They are from a small village in south China, used to live on land and a rich mine nearby. They left all that behind, now own this small bar, working from half past six in the morning to around 12 or 1 in the midnight.

“But how come you serve Spanish food in your menu?” - it was my big surprise, because, for example, in England, the Chinese takeaways or restaurants mainly serve Chinese food, apart from ‘Fish and Chips’. In fact, I probably have never seen Chinese run a complete ‘western menu’.

She did not explain much, or I could not get her accent right. I think she meant that a small bar like this will not have business if only serve Chinese food, since people always expect to have tapas and drinks here.

Honestly, the lunch I had was not … very authentic. Ha… But I do appreciate her effort.

________________

The first time I came Spain to visit my-in-laws a few years back, there was a couple passing by in the street. We overheard the lady asked her husband where he thought I was from, the gentlemen answered, “must be from ‘east’ somewhere”. Because there were not many Chinese in the streets.

But now, :)) I have had Chinese lunch (southern cuisine) in the Chinese restaurant next to the hotel a few times already, not to mention breakfast or coffee in the bar that all like these encounters I had.

Eventually, I found myself just enjoy sitting in a bar like this, looking at locals having coffee and chatting with the Chinese owners or waiters/waitress. The topics are normally like, “How is your son now? Did he sleep well last night?” The Spanish lady asked. “Yes, he was well. My wife was going to bring him to visit you.” …

58.A typical Chinese breakfast： You Tiao

Tweet

Chinese you tiao

Oil fried strips/sticks

油条

I also call them "Chinese churros". :)) The way of making the two and the taste of them are very similar. So whenever I could not get Youtiao, I would have churros instead to ease down my desperation. So you can see my emotional attachment towards it. :)

But, in contrast to Spanish churros, which are more of an afternoon snack, Youtiao is a popular Chinese breakfast. In English, probably it can be described as “oil fried strip’ ('You' means oil, tiao means things in strip shape) - just like churros.

In the North East of China, there is a term “lao you tiao” (old fried stips/sticks) used among locals to refer to somebody who is very skillful,--- not always a positive description though. :))

You tiao in China

'You tiao' are very popular across different regions in China, of course, different regions have different way of serving them, for example, in North, we have them with soy milk, where other places, it can be wrapped in an other thin ‘pancake’, or stuffed with sausage.


Normally people would buy them from the morning ‘stalls’ in the street, or eat them in 'open for breakfast' restaurants. Less and less people make them at home nowadays. … Well, almost, except my dad. :))


My lovely doesn’t trust the oil used for frying You Tiao sold in the stalls, so if we want to have it, he would still make it at home. But when I was little, my dad would make it on almost every Sunday morning. Hearing my dad cooking You tiao in the kitchen was one of my most relaxed memories of my childhood ‘holidays’.

Back then in China, people still had to work six days per week, we, as kids who just entered school, very much looked forward to Sundays. And on Sunday morning, my dad would get up around 7am, put on his favorite music, and cooking You tiao, so we could have a relaxed Sunday breakfast around 8, otherwise it would be at 6 something. -- It was such a good break for the busy study schedule. (Probably you already heard the hectic schedule for students in schools in China.)

The recipe: Chinese breakfast You Tiao

Youtiao are not difficult to make -- raise up the flour, make it into shapes, then fry it in the oil. However, to make it nice is not so easy. (At least to me, I started to learn making it at home after the increasing ‘foodsick’’, but failed many times).


Different kinds of raising agents can be used for raising the flour dough, the trick is that you need to make it less ‘solid’ as you would make … for example, bread, but still good enough to hold up as a whole. The most important part for making ‘Youtiao’ is, after frying, the flour dough would raise up, having ‘bubbles’ in the middle, so the ‘Youtiao’ is very soft.


Well, saying that, there is another type ‘youtiao’ is crispy, which is also good, but the flour dough needs to be very thin.


And for the shape, if you buy from the restaurants or the ‘Youtiao’ stall, they normally are in ‘stick’ shape, but homemade is normally as a ‘fried flat bread’ with some cuts in the middle -- easy for separating it when eating.

Ingredients:

Flour, yeast (I used yeast, but other raising agent if you are familiar with will also ok), salt, oil

Preparation

Preparing: (raising up the flours)

I normally use the proportion as 4 cups of flour, 1 and half cup of water, and 2 tablespoon of oil, 1/2 tablespoon of salt, around 5g of fast yeast.

Cooking:

1) Brush the board with oil, and place raised flour dough on top of it.

2) Press the dough down to flat (around 1cm thick, for example), and divide the big dough into smaller portions.

3) You can use a rolling pin or just hand to press the smaller dough into thinner flat sheet. (Around 0.5cm, probably?)


4) Use a knife to make couple of ‘cuts’ in the middle of the ‘flat sheet’.

5) In a wok, pour in oil (quite deep). When the oil is very very HOT, (if it is not hot enough, the dough would not raise up with bubbles, instead will be ‘solid’), place the ‘flat sheet’ in the oil.


6) Keep on turning over, make sure both sides are ‘raising up’.

7) Then remove it to the plate.

The final result

--- Done, for your Sunday morning treat. :))


In northeast China, we normally have it with either rice congee or more popular with soy mike (to soak ‘Youtiao’ in the soy milk).

You tiao dipped in soya milk