117. A rice recipe: Chinese Tofu fried rice (Vegan)

Sorry for not posting lately. Saying I have been a bit busy and lazy is a good excuse? Ha… well, apparently, there is a problem with google, where this blog is hosted, so I got a bit discouraged. Sorry… And now we are trying to come up with our solution to sort out the problem -- fingers crossed, let’s see.

Before anything, I really want to say ‘thank you’ to Elizabeth and Adele for giving me so many nice feedbacks! I feel so encouraged, and inspired. :))

Ok, coming to today’s recipe, Tofu fried rice -- sounds strange? Ha… It is one of my own recipes.

Years ago, when I was helping a friend working in a takeaway, one day, a customer wanted to make a special order -- fried rice without eggs. The chef paused for a while -- as he never had a request like that before. He moaned, 'how can I make that?' Just stir-fry rice with oil sounds very strange, and a bit difficult to make, as the rice can get sticky on the wok easily, and I am not sure it will taste well either.

So as I mentioned before, in northeast China, stir-fried rice with chopped spring onion is an alternative -- instead of eggs -- yes, just a little bit chopped spring onion can make the trick. The taste and smell of the spring onion can really bring some freshness to the rice, and make the difference. But this recipe -- tofu fried rice is even better, I think, especially for somebody like me, crazy about tofu. … :))

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107.The simplest and most basic: egg fried rice

Chinese egg fried rice

Some friends have already asked me a few times about rice recipes. Some Chinese rice recipes simply combine rice with other grains, like mung beans; but most of the times, rice is stir-fried (an example is the famous Yangzhou fried rice). And all these fried rice dishes originate from the most basic of them all -- egg fried rice.

Talking about egg fried rice -- you really just opened my appetite and memory, as I always loved it!!! And even now, it is still my ‘quick fix’ meal of choice. :))

When I was little, as I said, I never liked meaty food, my parents and grandparents had to be creative in order for me to take all the protein I needed as a child -- so I started having lots of egg dishes. Egg fried rice was one of my favorites --- to a degree, that for my breakfast, my grandma had to make egg fried rice for me every morning, before I went to school.

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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.

29. Zongzi for Chinese DuanWu festival

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Chinese zongzi

Happy Duanwu Festival!! 

端午节快乐！！

－－－包粽子

Chinese Zongzi

Have you got the ‘five coloured thread’ already? -- Juat for the good luck, maybe? :))

Continue from yesterday -- making Zongzi today --- to feel the involvement of the festival.

I have to say -- it is really not easy to make it, and sometimes I feel thankful that I am actually far away from China, so I am forced to learn on my own, otherwise with my dad by my side, and millions ‘Zongzi’ being sold in the market, I would never be able to learn.

I have just showed my ‘Zongzi’ to my dad through webcam, he was super pleased --- I bet it is never as beautiful as he made, but being able to make it makes him proud -- he said that there are two things he learnt from my grandparents, one is making Chinese buttons another one is making ‘Zongzi’. He has been worried if these skills will be lost in the family (among me and my bro) -- now, he smiled -- there you go -- me with my (clumsy) hands and impatience. :))

Starting from scratch to make ‘Zongzi’ is not easy, but fun. I kept feeling it is a family thing, I remember when my parents were preparing the rice and leaves in the kitchen, they sounded serious, as if something important happening in the family. :))

The recipe: Chinese Zongzi for the Dragon Boat festival

This is Northeast recipe of 'Zongzi, the filling is very different to the Southern version)

Ingredients

Glutinous rice (It is very sticky rice after cooked. The stickiness is different from Northeast rice, the latter one would get broken grain and ‘melt’ with each other, where, glutinous rice is sticky together by a whole grain ‘glue’ to each other’. you can get it in any Chinese supermarket, it cannot be replaced by other types of rice in this recipe. )

Reed leaves or lotus leaves (I bought bamboo leaves in the Chinese supermarket, it is not as wide as some of ideal reed leaves or lotus leaves, but still good to use).

Iris lactea leaves (It is used for tightening after wrapping. Itself can be used for medical purpose, and wrapping zongzi could give Zongzi a more aromatic taste. Unfortunately  I could not find any in the shops, so I simply use thread instead).

Dried Jujube (in Chinese it is called ‘red date’.)

Sugar (when serving)

Preparation

1)Soaking the glutinous rice in water for a day (24 hrs)

2)Boil the

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Rice and making boiled rice

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Rice in Chinese cuisine

Since rice has been the main stable food in Chinese diet for over 5000 years, I think it is an unavoidable topic, :)) especially, given that a few friends have asked me many times how to make boiled rice - without a rice cooker.

Rice production in China is massive, well, you can imagine given the large population. White rice used to be considered as a  ‘luxury’ product, as many poorer people (or most Chinese people in poorer times in the past) struggled to have it.

Thirty years ago, one of the future plans of the Chinese government was to ensure that everyone in China would be able to afford white rice on a daily basis -- It seems that these goals have been fulfilled.

And not only that; surprisingly, nowadays, people are trying to increase the amount ‘Culiang’ (which refers to millet, mung beans, corn, and so on) in their diet, because these are considered healthier than white rice.

There are many popular restaurants in China called ‘Recall the past’, which specialise in the kinds of food that people used to have in old days -- when the country was poor. The idea of this is not only to help people recall or re-experience the past, but also that ‘we taste the bitter past, so we can be more satisfied with what we have now’. :))

Different parts of China grow different types of rice. Northeast is considered to have the best soil to grow rice, thus Northeast rice is one of the best in China.

In the past, rice was distributed regionally, rather than nationally. During those times, my parents used to give away packs of Northeast rice as gift to their friends living in other regions. The grain of Northeast rice is short, but fuller, very good for boiling, and after boiling, the rice tends to be sticky, has great fragrance.

It is actually very similar to Japanese rice, I could not tell difference really. When Chinese rice was still exported to UK, we used to buy ‘Northeast rice’ for having Chinese food or making Japanese Sushi, which is much cheaper than Japanese rice, and I could almost feel that I was very close to my home land...

But since the exports stopped, we started buying Japanese rice instead. If you saw Northeast Chinese rice on the market, look for well packed ones to buy, otherwise it might be different type.

I like Sichuan rice as well. It can be white or black/purple. Its grain is long and slender, has strong fragrance when just open the lid of sauce pan, and it is dry, non-sticky, very easy to ‘separate’ after cooking, a little bit like basmati rice. Oh, if you like, you can try to mix a handful dark purple rice with Northeast rice --- a new experience.

The traditional way of cooking rice is to boil it. However, egg fried rice is also very common, which used to be my everyday breakfast when I was a little picky child (very ashamed, gave my grandma lots of headaches coming to cook for me.)

The most famous stir fried rice in China is probably Yangzhou fried rice from mid south of China. In North, other than boiled white rice, it is also popular to mix it with other different grains, for example, mix with millet, or mung beans… etc. -- much healthier than just white rice along.

Traditionally, rice has always been served in a rice bowl on the table, never placed on a flat plate, or mixed with dishes together. In my ethnic group, when we have honored guests, the rice in the bowl needs to be presented nicely -- use a smaller bowl to put the rice in first, then transfer to another normal rice bowl, this way, you can get a very nice round shape of rice on the top, like a ball. I still keep this habit to serve our guests at home.

Ok, now, talking about boiling rice -- when friends asked this, I have to admit that my heart bumped a little bit -- I have always used a rice cooker. I am so grateful for whoever invented rice cooker. As far as I can remember, my parents have always used rice cooker.

Long time ago, long before the time of all these fancy rice cookers, my dad even improved the basic rice cooker to meet his needs, for example, he made a timer connect to the rice cooker, so he would prepare the rice in the evening before going to bed, and in the morning, when get up, rice was just freshly made, ready for serving.

Of course, nowadays, there are all different kinds of functions in a rice cooker, not mention timer, but also auto make normal rice, congee, baby congee, cake… etc. I insist to have the one with timer, so we can have congee for breakfast with zero hassle. :)

How to Make Chinese Rice

Anyway, here is the way to make boiled rice without a rice cooker. (I had to make this myself and take photos, and I am so happy that I still can make it, not a slave of modern technology.. yet.):))

You need a deep sauce pan with lid, and it is better if there a little ‘hole’ on the lid for the air coming out.

1) In a deep sauce pan, put one and half cup of rice (it is for two people, average.)

2) Pour in water until it cover the rice by around less than 2cm. The best way,(well, apparently a common way in the East), is to put your index finger into the water, make sure your finger tip touch the surface of the rice, and your first joint line level with the water -- this way, your rice will just absorb enough water, and still moisture.

3) Turn on the fire to medium, cover the lid.

4) When the water is full boiling (it is normally very quick), turn down the fire to very low. (Be careful the water might spill out the sauce pan).

5) Until the rice absorbs all the water, but not totally dry yet, turn off the fire, and keep the lids covered for further 3-5 minutes, let the rice rests well before serving.

--- Done!