118. Chinese snack: dried beef (Chinese style beef jerky)

Rarely stay in London late, and this time, we stayed in a quite central area, so we had chance to experience the late night London. Oh, gosh, how long I haven’t felt this -- noise, crowd, flashing colourful lights…

After dinner, we decided to go for a walk -- well, you cannot resist it anyway, as the streets are still so much alive, still many people around, but not busy walking like during the day, rather having a relaxing stroll, or chatting at the corner; many shops either open, or left the bright colourful lights on, giving the night London more colour; and many restaurants are filled with people -- along with food smell. The lights and noise from everywhere is keeping night London from falling into sleep.

In our hotel room, there is a noisy fan as if just located outside the window, but we could not figure it out from which restaurant it was. We asked receptionist, she showed understanding, and said, themselves already got used to all this noise, are ‘numb’, so could not feel the disturbance any more. She did sincerely apologise. -- But she is right, when we stepped out of the door, we totally understand what she meant. Where is that ‘me’ long time ago living in China? I was very much used to this noise then… :)

-------

Food, now… :)

I have not been in a mood for meat lately, actually, not at all. But suddenly one day, I began to long for this Chinese snack - dried beef.

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109.Chinese soup: Meat balls and Chinese leaves soup

Chinese soup with meat balls and leaves

Normally I would leave this kind of dish for the weekend, but since we are in Chinese new year time, every dish is a ‘weekend’ dish, no? Ha… Just spoil ourselves. And don’t worry about putting on weight, next month, I am thinking of sharing some of my Chinese ‘detox’ recipes. :))

The original version of this dish comes with meat balls and ‘little bok choy’, a type of northeast green leaves (see  Chinese leaves). It is called ‘Xiao bai cai chuan wan zi’, literal translation is little bok choy with meat balls ‘inserted’ in them. But since here in UK, I cannot find this particular type of leaves, (and the bok choy usually sold in the supermarkets is not suitable for this dish), I will use Chinese leaves instead.

The original dish with ‘little bok choy’ is normally prepared in spring or summer, because it is when this particular type of vegetables is on season. My version with Chinese leaves becomes a perfect winter recipe --- warming up your stomach, as well as taking in plenty of essential nutrients. Oh, saying that, I lately read an article discussing whether ‘we should eat more for winter’ --- the thing is I don’t think we particularly need to eat much more in winter, but we do need to have more ‘heavy’ and warm food to help us fight the cold, no? At least, I do, that is why my friends always say that I become a balloon in winter --- quickly ‘blown up’, even I did not eat that much. Ha…

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105. Chinese bakery recipe: ‘open mouth’ flat bread with fillings

Chinese flatbread

Having a very warm Christmas and new years seems unreal --- here is Valencia! In the morning, when I opened the curtains, the whole window was filled with blue colour, blue from the sky, not even a thread of cloud, and underneath, the buildings and streets are all brighting up in the sun. I always forgot how sunny Valencia could get even in winter, never remember to take my sunglasses with me. Now, I had to half close my eyes when I looked up. :)

‘Three kings’ celebration just happened here --- one of my favorite time in Spain. The celebration parade marched crossing the city, and I was squeezing myself in the crowd, totally forgot about age, manners or anything else, just standing on the side of streets, waiting for the arrival of the three kings, and screaming ‘aquí!! aquí!!!’ Then if we were lucky enough sometimes, we would receive some sweets that the ‘parade’ and the ‘kings’ throw to the crowds, and of course, when the parade ends, we would give all the sweets we had to those kids were still looking for sweets left on the ground.

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103. A special egg recipe: cooking egg with beef soup

Chinese egg and beef soup

Happy new year!!!


O, I am so sorry for not posting often recently, it seems I have been enjoying too much the paellas that my mother-in-law makes, and in my head it is all about the delicious Spanish food right now, I totally forgot about cooking Chinese. But if you have ever tried my suegra’s food, I am sure you will forgive me. :))) Ha… My mother-in-law said this is a perfect time for me to rest my mind, no need to think what to cook next, and what to buy… So I have been just eating and sleeping… and sunbathing in the sunny Spain. :))

Ok, coming back to cooking Chinese food -- with new year festival’s spirit. This dish is an egg recipe, in Chinese it is called ‘Shao jidan’. Shao is a method of cooking, like ‘Shao’ beef, --- slowly cooking, and ‘jidan’ means eggs. But this dish is quite special, as it is one of the landmark dishes of my ethnic group -- Hui. Talking about this dish, I guess I have to start with cooking beef first. :)

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100. A typical Northeast Chinese dish --- “mess stew” with beef, tomato, aubergine and potato

As I was writing this post,  I realized that this my 100th recipe. :) I remember when I started writing, I was very worried if I was going to run out of recipes very shortly, but, hey, this is the number 100 now. :)) So thanks for my friends’ and family’s encouragement, and hope you enjoyed these recipes. :)

Ok, today’s recipe, a stewed dish. As I mentioned before, not everything in northeast Chinese cuisine is about stir-frying; the most representative dishes are actually stews. So here is one of the most common one -- “mess stew”.

-- Ha.. “Mess stew” is a direct translation from its original name in Chinese, “Luan dun”, which literally means "to put everything together to stew", without any particular "rules".
Different people, however, cook it differently. For example, if you look a bit around in the internet, you will find recipes that mix potato, pork, aubergine, green beans, cabbage, and many more things together. I have to admit that I have never tried this kind of mix before, in restaurants, it is almost impossible to find this dish, as it is so ‘homey’, so it is really difficult to say which ingredients are more ‘standard’.

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99. Chinese Steamed dumplings with egg pastry

Chinese egg dumplings

Here, in Italy, everywhere is showing Christmas atmosphere -- the Christmas lights, shops, people, Christmas markets… I am really enjoying seeing people crowed in the streets, preparing Christmas stocks, and enjoying the festival atmosphere -- while searching for my favorite Italian Christmas food for dinner. :))

Are you preparing Christmas gifts and dinner as well? I guess everyone is super busy now. Anyway, if you want to cook something else apart from the traditional Christmas dinner, here is a super presentable Chinese dish.

Well, actually, I don’t know anywhere else you could get this dish in China apart from my dad’s kitchen. It is not one of his inventions, but I have never been able to find it outside home. I guess that one of the reasons is that it is a kind of time-consuming dish, many people could not be bothered.

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91. Chinese stir fried beef with cucumber

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Stir fried cucumber and beef

黄瓜炒肉片

Stir frying cucumber--- :)) I guess you might be frowning. Well, it is true, this dish does have stir-fried cucumber. And it is not any particular kind of cucumber, it is just the normal cucumbers that you would use in a salad. :)

I think this is probably one of those vegetables, such as salad leaves, which Chinese people use both for salad and for stir frying. which make it very different to western food. In Chinese cuisine, (or northern Chinese cuisine, to be more precise), cucumber can be made into salad (liangcai), or stir-fried, or even in soup (the famous hot-sour soup  uses cucumber as one of its main ingredients).

But cucumbers in China are so different from the ones here in UK. Firstly, the package. Before coming here, I had never seen any cucumbers wrapped and sold individually. In China, it is very important to see the actual skin of the cucumber before buying it, because the skin can tell if the cucumber is fresh or not.

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88. Four-Joy Chinese Meatballs (Meat Balls Braised with Brown Sauce)

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Chinese meat balls

Another not so simple simple, but very traditional recipe. It seems that I am very hard-working after all. Ha… After having continuously cooked in the kitchen on Friday and Saturday, I have so many recipes to share. :))

I normally cook a lot of vegetable dishes for our daily meals, but since we were having friends over, I thought it would be nice to make some meat and vegetable dishes and put together a traditional Chinese meal (along with some salad/liangcai dishes).

I chose this dish for our guests because they just got married, and this dish is a typical one for happy occasions, such as wedding banquets or festivals.

‘Four - joy meatballs’ is the direct translation. In many English menus, it is translated as ‘Four Meat Balls Braised with Brown Sauce’ -- don’t be confused with the ‘brown sauce’, it has nothing to do Western brown sauce, here ‘brown’ only refers to the colour.

The original Chinese name for this dish is ‘Si Xi Wan Zi’, if you are in China, you probably have to mention this pronunciation, in order not to confuse the waiters.

The dish and the name of the dish actually have some history. This dish is a truly good example
showing how Chinese like to play with words and similar pronunciations.

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81.Chinese beef recipe: article beef slice -- Pa rou tiao

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Chinese beef slice

扒肉条

Actually, before sitting down for writing this post, I had just hung up the phone, finished a very unpleasant ‘discussion’ with a taxi company; the taxi driver charged 50% more than what we would normally pay. I am sorry if this start of the post makes you frown, but what I really want to tell you are two things from this incidents: one is … Can you believe how much the English ‘way of complaining’ and the ‘politeness’ (especially during the complain process) influenced me? Ha… I had never been a person who could calmly and politely discuss or complain, but after living in England for such a long long time, I started talking in English way with enormous ‘could you’, ‘please’, ‘if you don’t mind’, ‘sorry..’, ‘thank you’… even when I was in such horrible rage… ha...When I realize how much I changed, I just could not stop laughing, ok, forgive the taxi driver.

And the second thing is that if you were there listening to me, you would be so surprised to hear my ‘Mancunian accent’ coming out, where normally it has become much much milder nowadays. But, now when I am trying to rush words out, they are all in Mancunian accent. Ha… After living in Manchester for many years, I never thought one day if I leave, I would carry so much from Manchester to the next destination, but, now, I know something inside me, something I got from years of living in Manchester, still unintentionally kept in me, and not just the accent… I guess, it does not matter how much I liked or hated Manchester, one thing can never be changed, the time and memory have long become part of my life, part of me. It was my second home town.

Some friends have asked me to post more Chinese meat dishes… Well, one reason is that I don’t normally eat lots of meat, another reason is I am a bit lazy… ok, quite lazy. Some traditional meat dishes in northeast Chinese cuisine take way longer to make than just simple stir fried vegetables.

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68. Chinese Braised / stewed / red-cooked beef with potato and carrot (part II)

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Chinese braised beef

红烧牛肉

(Continues from yesterday)

As I mentioned yesterday, there are many slightly different ‘hongshao’ recipes, this is only just one of them. The taste is really good, unexpectedly good, even for somebody like me - never a big fan of meat. Hope you like it too. :))

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68. Chinese Braised / stewed / red-cooked beef with potato and carrot (part I)

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Chinese braised beef

I am actually a bit reluctant to call this dish ‘braised’ or ‘stewed’, I am not sure how to call it in English, so I looked it up online. The original name for it in Chinese is ‘hong shao rou’, literately means ‘red burning meat’. The actual  way in which it is cooked is different from what we usually understand as  ‘braised’ or ‘stewed’.

‘Hong shao’ is another very typical way of cooking Chinese food. It is not only very popular in Northeast cuisine, but in, almost every regional or ethnic cuisines in China. Although there are some differences from one to another, the main method is same - to cook the main ingredients first by ‘boiling’ them together with the seasonings, until the ingredients ‘soak up’ all the sauce in the sauce pan, then ‘stir’ fry them.

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49. Chinese Stir-fried broccoli and beef

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Chinese stir fried broccoli and beef

西兰花炒牛肉

If you want to cook a meat dish and you don't have too much time after work, stir-frying probably is the best and quickest way. No need of boiling the meat for hours in a pot, or preparing the "wrappings" for deep frying.

Broccoli and Beef in Chinese cuisine

You may not be unfamiliar with the combination of broccoli and beef . In fact, in many Chinese restaurants in the UK you can easily find broccoli and other mixed vegetables stir fried together with beef.


Stir fried broccoli and beef is a very common dish in Northern China . In the north of China stir fried dishes rarely contain more than two or three different kinds of vegetables at the same time. For example, stir-fry eggs with black fungus and onion , shredded potato with green pepper , and so on.


Beef is a very common ingredient in stir-fried dishes in northern China . Normally, beef can be stir-fried with many different kinds of vegetables, and it can also be stir fried with scrambled eggs. The best beef cut for Chinese stir fry is tenderloin.


In UK supermarkets, it is possible to find "ready-to-stir fry" packs of beef , where the beef is usually cut in strips. However, in the North East of China beef is always cut into very thin slices for stir-frying, and the cut is done following the patterns in the beef itself. The theory is that the beef will then be easy to cook and chew.

Preparation of beef in Northern China

Beef can be prepared in several different ways. First, it can be lightly boiled first after chopping, and then stir-fry. Second, the beef can also be lightly fried with oil first, and then stir-fried with vegetables. Third, beef can also be stir fried directly, then removed from the wok, and stir-fried again with the vegetables together. Finally, the beef can be boiled first together with the seasonings, then chopped into thin slices, and finally stir-fried.


I will be using the second method. I will lightly fry the beef first, then wrap it with dry corn flour, and finally I will stir fry it. When cooked this way, beef becomes very soft and smooth; also, the corn flour will mix with the beef and "disappear", and it will not absorb too much oil.


If you can control the strength of the fire and time in a more or less accurate way, you can alternatively stir-fry the beef directly. But then, you need to be careful because the beef can easily be overcooked and then it will become harder.

Preparation of broccoli in Northern China

Broccoli has been introduced in northern Chinese cuisine relatively recently (around 20 years ago). In Chinese, it is called ‘Xi lan hua’, as ‘Western green flowers’. :) It is usually stir fried with meat or tofu.. Recently, my dad likes to quick steam it with some very light seasoning for a super healthy treat ... Next recipe then.

The recipe: Stir fried beef and broccoli

Ingredients

Broccoli, beef
Garlic, ginger, oil, corn flour, soy sauce, salt, sugar, cooking wine.

Preparation

1) Separate the broccoli into small pieces, and quickly boil them in the water. (keeping it crunchy is very important.)

2) Chop the beef along with its texture pattern into very thin slices.

3) In a mix bowl, mix sliced beef with dry corn flour.

Mixing the beef and the corn flour

4) Chop around 3 gloves garlic and a small piece of ginger.

Cooking

1) Pour oil (at least to cover the bottom of the wok) into heated wok.

2) When the oil is very hot, (should not have any bubble showing in the oil), put prepared beef slice in.

3) As soon as the beef is drier, take it out to a plate, and pour out the oil with remaining 2 tablespoons in the wok.

4) Add chopped garlic and ginger into the wok, along with around 1 tablespoon of cooking wine.

5) When smell of garlic and ginger comes out, put prepared broccoli and beef , stir fry. The fire should be strong.

6) Add in 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar, mix well with the broccoli and beef in the wok.

7) Allow everything sit in the wok for around 2 minutes, serve in a plate


It is good to eat when the beef is just fresh out of the wok. Goes well with boiled rice and beer.

24. Chinese sweet and sour mince balls

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Chinese sweet and sour mince balls

糖醋丸子

This is another Chinese meat dish I like to make and eat from time to time. It does take a little bit time to prepare, but not too long though, and it is still considered as a ‘homey’ dish, as in restaurants you can usually find a more complicated,  fancier version of it. :)

Chinese sweet and sour mince balls

This dish is called  ‘Tang Cu Wan Zi’  in Chinese, which literally means  ‘sugar and vinegar balls’. In English, however, it is normally translated as ‘sweet and sour meat balls’. If you have read my previous post , you may already know that vinegar and sugar constitute the essence of sweet an sour taste. In Chinese, we often name dishes according to the ingredients they  contain, rather than according to their final taste!

As I also mentioned in a previous post, a round shape (referred to as  ‘tuan yuan’ in Chinese) often represents family reunion. Hence, dishes like ‘Mid Autumn Day’. In my ethnic group, mince balls are almost a ‘must have’ for every important occasion. 

I remember I used to help my auntie to roll the mince balls for Chinese new year meals, it was such an important thing. Making the mince balls look beautiful was very time consuming, as we had to roll them by hand.

In this recipe, however,

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20. Soy Sauce Beef Salad (Liang cai)

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Chinese beef salad

酱牛肉

Hopefully it is going to be a good warm beautiful weekend, after all, summer is coming, no? If you are a beef lover, this recipe is really good for a warm summer day, whether you like to have it with rice, or a glass of cold beer. :))

Although I keep on claiming that I am not a big fan of meat, this is one of the few meat dishes I really love (another one is guo bao rou). I remember when I was still at home, whenever my dad made it, the whole house was filled by the most loveliest smell, and I knew I was looking forward to a nice plate of beef.

Our guests have all loved this dish. Thanks to my dad.:)) But it seems my dad stopped making it lately, so my mum took over. In order to get the original recipe (I didn't want to improvise this time), I called my mum for the details.

I say it is a weekend dish, but it is actually very easy to make. Although it does require some time (couple of hours),   you don’t have to stand by the cooker all the time --- that’s why I would always make this dish when we have friends over -- it leaves me lots of time to prepare the other stir fry dishes in the meanwhile.

Chinese beef salad: Jiang Niu Rou

This beef dish called “Jiang niu rou”. It is one of those dishes with a long history in Northeast Chinese cuisine.

‘Niu rou’ means ‘beef’, and ‘Jiang’ here means ‘soy sauce’, so as you might have guessed, it is cooked with soy sauce, lots of soy sauce.:)

It is kind of similar to the ‘Five spice beef dish’ in some Chinese restaurants in England. The difference is that the savoury taste in this Northeast dish does not come from the salt, but from soy sauce (almost same thing, but slight different taste.. ha...) And for this dish, dark soy sauce is the best, it not only gives the taste, but also the colour.


The beef is normally served cold, so this dish qualifies as a kind of Chinese salad. But if you like, you can have it warm as well. It is good to make a  few big pieces within one go, after all, it takes time and seasonings to cook once, the extras can be kept in the fridge or freezer, whenever you have crave for it, it is there.

My mum just told me a ‘continuing’ recipe after making the beef -- the soy sauce is super tasty now, it can be used in other stir fry dishes, or super good for making beef soup noodles. We will talk about it another day then.

Before going into the actual preparation, there are two things I did improvise :), but you have an option.

First, I put two pieces of bay leaves in; traditionally, bay leaves are never used in Northeast cuisine,
but I started using it in my dishes since I came here, I just love the fragrance released from it.

Second, I used Goji berry. Although Goji berry has been used in Chinese medicine over thousands of years, it has started being used in cooking only recently because of its beneficial properties. So I started leaving a few in the soups or drinks for more nutritious intake. :))

And as for the saucepan used here, any deep saucepan is good, it can also be cooked in a pressure cooker or even slow cooker. (Personally, I prefer slow cooker, let the taste slowly sip into the meat, but pressure cooker is very good for a quick fix). But I like to use ‘thermal cook pot’, which means after 10 minutes, you don’t have to worry if the sauce is over spilled or anything, you can just put your feet up. :) It comes with ‘two in one’ pot, works like this -- using the inner one to cook, after bringing the sauce boiling, the pot can be transferred into outer pot, and close it tightly, so the food can be keeping on cooking with the heat from the sauce and the pressure generated. -- save hassle and electrical energy.

The Recipe: Chinese soy sauce beef salad

Ok, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

Beef (the best part for this dish is ‘shank’, and the beef is not chopped when boiling it)

Beef shank

Dark soy sauce, anise star, cinnamon stick, bay leaves (optional), sichuan peppercorn, goji berry (optional), white sugar, cooking wine
For dressing: coriander, garlic, sesame oil

Cooking

1) Place the beef chunk into a deep sauce pan or a pot.

2) Put a small handful sichuan peppercorn, anise star and goji berry (optional), two bay leaves (optional), couple of tablespoons of cooking wine, and one tablespoon of white sugar into the sauce pan.

3) Fill in the sauce pan with dark soy sauce, let the soy sauce cover the beef (if you are also put one cup of water instead a cup of soy sauce.)

4) Turn on the fire, bring the sauce to boiling point, then turn down the fire to low, keep it slow cooking for around 2 hours or use ‘thermal cook pot’ for a few hours more or overnight.

5) Then the beef is done. Take the beef out, chop it into thin slice.

------ It is ready to eat already. Only if you like coriander and garlic, you can continue to the next step.

6) Mix coriander, minced garlic and sesame oil together with sliced beef.

7) Place on a plate.

---- Ready to serve!

15. Chinese fried stuffed aubergine with beef mince (Zha qie he)

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炸茄合

Chinese aubergine with beef mince

As requested by a good friend, I made this dish, and here is the recipe.

-- Another aubergine dish, this time is with meat mince. And it is another very homemade Chinese dish, not easy to find in restaurants. It takes slightly longer to prepare… so good for the weekend. I have to say that my dad is the best for this kind of dish, me…. you can see in the picture… I am a bit embarrassed that the final thing doesn't look very pretty… But I know how to make it... hope that can make up for the looks. :))

Chinese fried aubergine with meat mince

‘Zha qie he’ can be translated literally as ‘fry aubergine box’, or it can just be called ‘Qie he”. In any case, the ‘box’ here is actually ‘stuffed aubergine’. Oh, btw, you probably already get that ‘qie’ means aubergine , but we normally call them ‘qie zi’ . :)

For this recipe, Northeast people normally use pork mince, but in my ethnic group (see here), people normally use beef mince. We had a friend over the day I cooked this and she just recently turned into 'half-vegetarian', so I modified this meat mince, used meat free mince for her plate. So if you are vegetarian, this is your option.

The recipe

The dish is actually not that complicated at all, just half slice pieces aubergine, then stuff the prepared beef mince in it, and use flour paste to ‘block’ the mince from leaking out, then oil fry the whole thing. easy?:)) -- Here are the steps.

Ingredients

Aubergine (As I mentioned, the aubergines here are different from Chinese aubergines. So, I went to buy the slenderest ones I could find in the supermarket. I don’t know if it is just me or what, it seems this season the shape of the aubergines is different to the normal ‘fat’ ones - at least it is what I saw in different supermarkets.)

Beef mince (or pork mince, or meat free mince for your choice), oil, eggs, flour, cooking wine, light soy sauce, salt, five spice powder, sesame oil (optional).

Preparation

1） Preparing the filling:

In a bowl of beef mince, mix in one egg, 1 cup of flour (or corn flour), 1 tablespoon of cooking wine, 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce, I teaspoon of salt, 2 tablespoon of sesame oil (optional), 1 teaspoon of five spice powder, and around 4 tablespoons of oil (if you are using meet free mince, you need to put a bit more oil).

2）Preparing the flour paste:

Mix two cups of plain flour (or corn flour), one egg, water, a small pinch of salt, a few drops of light soy sauce into a nice thin paste, but not ‘waterish’.

3) Preparing the aubergine:

1) Slice the aubergine across into about (not more than) 1cm thick pieces. Then slice every piece from the middle,  but not slice through, keep one end still connected.

2)

Stuff prepared the mince into half sliced aubergine, slightly press the aubergine, make the mince flatly, evenly placed in the aubergine. The shape of the aubergine is still ‘flat’, not raising too much.

Cooking (or really just frying)

1) In a sauce pan ( I use a flat sauce pan for this kind of frying, coz I prefer shallow fry, it is normally done in a wok for deep frying).
2) Dip ‘stuffed’ aubergine pieces into the flour paste, pay attention to the bit where the mince is exposed --- use the paste to prevent the mince from ‘leaking’ out. (Some people would use the paste only on the part where the mince is exposed -- it is the same. But since I like the crispy surface, and don't like it when the aubergine absorbs lots of oil, I wrap the flour all around the aubergine).

3) Turn around the aubergine pieces time to time, until both sides turn into slightly golden colour and crispy -- it is ready for serving!

It is slightly heavy, good to go with boiled rice or beer. If you like, you can also prepare a little mix of salt and white pepper on the side, dip ‘qie he’ in, and just enjoy! :)) But you need to eat it soon after it is cooked, otherwise it will loose the crispiness.

Hope you like it. Saying that, I hope this is the one that my friend asked for, if not, another aubergine dish is on the way. :))

7.3 Chinese dumplings: the fillings

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beef mince (or ‘meat free mince’) and celery

饺子馅－牛肉芹菜馅

Chinese dumplings

Sorry, got carried away with the good weather and beautiful sun. :))))
Keep on making dumplings. :))

Common Chinese dumpling fillings

Now is the fillings. The common  dumpling fillings in Northeast China are either beef, lamb, or prawns, seafood, which are normally combined with different vegetables. Of course there are also many vegetarian choices. Popular vegetables that go well with beef, lamb or prawns are the ‘big’ spring onions (here I just use leeks as alternative), celery, or JiuCai. The latter are called ‘garlic chives’ in English  (however, there are slight differences between the Jiu Cai and chives in mainland China. )

The dumpling filling I made last week was a mix of beef mince and celery, and this is the filling I am going to explain in more detail next (I will try to discuss some other vegetarian fillings as soon as possible. :))) Even in the recipe I am giving next, the beef mince can be replaced with ‘meat free mince’ as a vegetarian option. :))

Making chinese dumpling fillings

The basic method of making the filling is very simple: just mix the minced meat and vegetables together with the seasonings, and try to prevent the filling from getting  too much liquid from the seasonings and vegetables (otherwise it will be too difficult to fold up later).

Ingredients

Beef mince: I prefer to use lean - extra lean mince, however, it can be a bit ‘dry’ for the filling, (it is tastier when you have the first bite if the filling is ‘juicy’  from the fat of the meat and the vegetables), so I normally put more vegetables in, or when we have guests, I would mix in a bit of ‘normal’ mince, so that it contains  a bit more ‘fat’ and becomes more tasty:))). Last week, I used a pack of 454g of beef mince.

(Or meat free mince)

Celery: since at home we like to have lots of vegetables in the dumplings, I use 2/3 portion of the typical pack of celery that you can normally find in the supermarket. However, if you are a ‘meat lover’, you can put much less or even none:  simply put a bit of celery and spring onion to give the meat a slightly different flavor.

Spring onion (or leeks): actually the leeks can be used alone with beef mince, but here I just want to give the filling a bit more of flavor, so I used half of a leek. (Or you can use two spring onions.)

Ginger: I used only a few slices of ginger, it helps the flavor of beef mince. (needs to be very fine chopped though.)

Salt, cooking wine. light soy sauce, sesame oil, five (or thirteen) spices (or spiced water or flavored oil, see the end of this post)

Preparation

1) Chop the celery, leek and ginger into the smallest pieces possible - ‘mince’ everything. The best way of doing this is to slice, for instance, celery, as thin as possible diagonally, then chop again cross.

 2) Put the mince and chopped celery, leek and ginger all together into a mix bowl. 

3) Put salt (according to amount of the mince and vegetables you use), 1 table spoon of cooking wine, 1 table spoon of light soy sauce, 1 tea spoon of spicy powder (or 2 table spoon of spiced water), 1 table spoon of sesame oil, and 3-5 table spoons of oil or flavored oil.

---- Done! Ready to fold up the dumplings! :))

If you think the vegetables contain too much ‘liquid’ which can cause trouble for folding the dumplings, you can try this traditional way:  put salt into ‘minced’ vegetables, after a while, the ‘juice’ would come out from the vegetables, then use your hands to squeeze the extra liquid away. However, nowadays, it is said that the juice of the vegetables is very nutritious, so we try to keep them.:)))  If you make vegetable fillings, try to put some ‘fensi’(Chinese vermicelli) in, which can help absorb liquid.

If you are preparing the filling with ‘meat free mince’, put a bit more oil to avoid the ‘dryness’, since this type of ‘mince’ could absorb liquid.


Continue here to see how to fold the dumplings.

(Flavored oil - the oil can be made a very sophisticated way: pour the oil in the wok, when it is heated up, put anise star, cinnamon stick, sichuan pepper corn and fresh coriander into the oil. After 3 minutes or more, let the oil cool down. Remove the all seasonings, the flavored oil can be used for mixing the dumping fillings or stir frying… etc.)

5. Chinese crispy beef (Guo bao rou)

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Chinese crispy beef

锅包肉

This is our version of Sweet and sour crispy beef - a weekend dish.

Actually, a little bit late for the weekend dish now… sorry, probably next weekend?


Saying it is a weekend dish is because it will take a little more time, 10 mins more - probably? :)) and it is a little bit ‘complicated’, people normally don’t cook it during the week days or even at home at all.


I never really loved any meat dish since I was little; however, this was one of the only fews I would order in the restaurant. And I have the treat whenever  I go to my auntie’s, my lovely uncle would cook for me at very high standard.:))) ( oh, he is a very good chef, taught me lots.)  I learnt this from him.. well, till now, I still cannot cook to his level. :)

Chinese crispy beef

This dish is called Guo Bao Rou in Chinese in .. actually I am not sure it is only called like that only within my ethnic group or in the whole North of China.

Guo Bao Rou literally means the wok wraps meat, Rou means meat in general, but there is another dish in other places with very similar taste called “Hui Guo Rou", literately means putting the meat back to wok to cook.

Whichever, this is the dish:

It is normally a beef dish for my ethnic group people, however, if you walk in a normal restaurant in the Northeast of China, it is normally cooked with pork instead. The taste is -- sweet and sour source wraps crispy beef.

In the North of China, we often joke and say that this is a lady’s dish, because of its soft touch of sweet and sour without very sharp or strong taste. :))) It is different to the ‘sweet and sour’ you get in Chinese restaurant or takeaways here.

Chinese Guo bao Rou recipe

Ingredients

Beef : it is normally lean steak, which it has to be sliced in a very thin layer. I can't distinguish very well among the different beef cuts, so I either I would walk into the local butcher, tell them I want a piece of beef for frying, they would nicely choose one piece for me, or I just go to M&S (the nearest supermarket) to get the ‘quick fry steak’. Lazy me, really need to learn more. :)

Egg , flour , light soy sauce , salt, ginger , spring onion , tomato sauce (or ketchup), rice vinegar , white sugar , corn flour , cooking wine.

Again, cooking the dish involves two steps: 1) frying the steak; 2) ‘wrap’ with the sauce.

Preparation:

1) Slice the beef: the ideal piece is not too small, at least 6-8cm long, and thin-- as thin as you can slice. (having a sharp knife in hand helps a lot :0)

2) Preparing the ‘coating batter’: beat one egg in the bowl, then put flour in, a little bit water, half teaspoon of salt, a few drops of light soy sauce, mix well, then put sliced beef in.

3) Chopping a piece of ginger and a whole spring onion into strips.

4) Place one and half spoon of corn flour, mix well with (4-5 table spoons) of water.

Cooking

1) Pour oil into the wok, 2cm or more, turn on the fire to medium.

2) When the oil is heated up, place well coated beef with batter into the oil, keep on turning until both sides are well cooked, place the meat on a plate.

3) Refry the meat -- Ok, this is a trick I learned from my uncle. After frying the beef with coated batter, let it cool down for a little bit, then turn on the fire, heat up the oil again, refry the meat, this way can make the surface of the meat very crispy.

4) Put the cleaned wok back on a high fire, pour in a bit oil, half cup of tomato sauce (or ketchup), 2 table spoons white sugar, 1 table spoon of cooking wine, 2-3 table spoons of rice vinegar, chopped spring onion and ginger at last.

5) After mixing everything together, pour in prepared corn flour-water mix.

6) When the sauce starts showing bubbles, put well-fried meat pieces in, allow the sauce wrap the meat pieces well, then remove everything to a plate.

Chinese guo bao rou

---------- Et voila!


The steps 4-6 need to be done very quickly, the main reason is not to let surface of the meat pieces soak into the sauce, and becomes softer, the sauce is supposed to be just hung on the surface. So the first bite is crispy, then you taste the sweet and sour.  Although it is oil-fried, it is not greasy, especially with the fresh smell of the spring onion and ginger - it is just freshness of the meat. :))

---Do you like? :)))