Chinese Food Library

A youthful but weary Sinologist's Library of Chinese Cookbooks.

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

Tofu

This is a bit of a lazy blog post. I've always wanted to make my own tofu, but I've never found the gypsum to do it. If anyone can point me in the right directions, I might make my own video.

In the mean time here is someone who beat me to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCJuJT1SC88&feature=share&list=PLX98sAmndWt3U48ft1dyfkdS_bzXl6zrd

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

钵钵鸡 － Bo Bo Chicken

This is a classic Sichuan dish from a classic Sichuanese cookbook. The cookbook gives no real sense of the amount of the ingredients, which is a little problematic. With this dish you want the chicken to be swimming in a rich, chicken stock and chilli oil sauce. Peppered with sesame seeds and sometimes a little fresh coriander.

This dish is a classic of Chuan Xi cooking, it has a bright red lustre, the chicken tender with a numbing heat, both fragrant and rich. It is a delicacy that is perfect when drinking.

Ingredients: 

Half a Chicken (the best chicken are farm yard chickens that are not too large) Ginger Spring Onion  Salt Soy Sauce Chili Oil Sesame Oil Ground Sichuan Peppercorns White Sugar Cooked Sesame Seeds Cooking Sherry (Shaoxing Rice Wine)

Turn the chicken over and clean away any remaining hairs, wash and dry. Clean the ginger and smash it. Clean the spring onions, cut the greens and then slice the white part at 45 degree angles.

Heat up your wok and heat some water to the boil, put the chicken into the water with the ginger, spring onion and cooking sherry. Use a spoon to remove any foam and dirt, reduce the heat, slowly cook until the chicken is almost cooked then take it off the hob。 Leave it to soak in the soup until the chicken is cooked through then take it out and leave to drip dry. Once it is dry cut it into 0.5cm cubes.

Take a mixing bowl, take salt, soy sauce, white sugar and the chicken stock and mix them together. Put in the diced chicken, add the sliced spring onion, ground Sichuan peppercorn, chili oil, sesame oil and then mix together. Plate in a oval bowl (abalone bowl) and garnish with sesame seeds.

Main Points:

Be sure to use the correct temperature when cooking the chicken.

The chili oil must be red and fragrant.

Do not use too much soy sauce to avoid the dish being overly red.

Do not use too much sugar. The ideal is that you cannot taste any sweetness.

The roasted sesame must be crisp and fragrant.

From Huang Xiaoping's 'Sichuanese Cooking Bible' (川菜烹饪经典) published in 2001, page 8 in the Poultry section.

[rubyvivace]

hanging out with a new yet old friend over sour milk

[theorientale]

[pinchinacity-blog]

Yak meat steamed stuffed bun from Lhasa. - http://pinchinacity.com/yak-meat-steamed-stuffed-bun-from-lhasa/598/

PinChinaCity

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

啤酒鸭 － Beer Braised Duck

I was thinking of translating this dish as 'Beer Duck', but images of a drunken Donald Duck made me change my mind. The beer braise sauce is just that, a sauce, and it works very well with any game-y meat.

Ingredients

1 small duck 2 tins of beer (I like to use darker ales, but not stout) 2 star anise 2 bay leaves 1 piece cassia bark 4 dried chillies 1 spring onion 1 piece of ginger 5 tbs cooking wine 3 tbs light soy sauce 2 tbs dark soy sauce 2 tsp sugar 2 tsp clear rice vinegar

Tips

Duck meat is relatively tough and does not easily soften, so it is best to choose a duck with tender meat; this will improve the taste and reduce cooking time.

Duck has quite a strong smell of raw meats (腥味) so the use of cooking wine and vinegar is very important. The beer also serves a similar purpose.

This technique and these spices can also be used to make 'beer braise rabbit', 'beer braised chicken', 'beer braised lamb ribs', so on and so forth. Other than the cooking times differing, the process is exactly the same.

Method

Remove the head, tails and any excess fat from the duck. Clean, then cut into small chunks.

Slice the spring onion and ginger into slices.

Add water to your pan and bring to the boil, then add the duck.

Add the cooking wine and cook for approximately 5 minutes. Remove the blanched duck, wash and then pour away the water.

After you've cleaned and dried the pan, add oil and heat to quite hot (seven parts hot). Add the star anise, bay leaves, cassia bark and dried chilli; then add the duck and fry.

Fry briefly then add the light and dark soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, spring onion and ginger.

Add the beer.

Bring to a high heat, cover with a lid and braise for 40 minutes at a low temperature; until the duck is soft and falls off the bone.

Pictures to follow.

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

Playing Hard to Get...

Just a quick post about difficulty. I know it might seem bizarre that my recipes supply little alternative ingredients, you might be asking your self where you are going to get Baijiu or black rice vinegar. I promise you, this is half the journey and a lot of the fun. You will learn a lot by going to a local Oriental or Chinese supermarket. Five years ago I didn't know any Chinese and I had no idea what the different little jars and bottles were sitting in Wingfields - what was then my local Chinese supermarket. The owners were very patient, to be frank they were quite content to sit down behind the counter watching Hong Kong soap operas. 

Please persist. I have seen 1940's Chinese cookbooks in English that recommend watered down bovril instead of soya sauce... Maybe in another 60 years supermarkets will stock frozen Zongzi, big spring onions and black cardamom.

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

四川泡菜 －Sichuan Pickles

I’ve often presented these as a gift to friends, they are bright coloured, pungent, sweet and full of flavour. The textures of a good Sichuan pickle are good enough on their own, but they have the amazing effect of both filling your palate with sharp flavour contrast while preparing your palate for the next dish to come. 

Ingredients:

1/2 a head of White Cabbage 1/2 a stick of Celery 1/4 Daikon (Mooli) 1 Carrot 1/2 Turnip 1/2 Pear 1/2 Apple 1 tsp Salt (I recommend you use two) 10 pieces of Rock Sugar (roughly 40g) 1 litre Fresh Water 20 Sichuan Peppercorns (I recommend you use 30) 1/2 jar of Pickled Chillies 1 Star Anise 2 Bay Leaves 1 piece of Cassia Bark 1 Black Cardamom  4 cloves Garlic 10 slices of Ginger 3 tbp of Baijiu (or 6 tsp Shoju)

Tips

The vessel you use to make the pickles must be very very clean, without a trace of oil. Thus, after you have washed the vessel you must drip dry it to avoid picking up any bacteria. Do not use a dishcloth; air drying is the best choice.

When I was young, I’d watch my Grandma making pickles, she would always start by boiling water only when it was cold would she begin to make the brine. Nowadays, you can use spring or fresh water, which is much easier and saves a lot of time.

 When making your pickles, adding apple and pear improves the fermentation and improves the overall flavour of the pickles.

After you’ve put all your ingredients into your pickling jar and sealed the top, don’t open the jar to regularly otherwise the pickles will not ferment properly. 

After the pickles are done use a pair of clean chopsticks and put the pickles into a Tupperware box and store in the fridge. If you just leave the pickles in the jar then they will eventually loose their crispness.

You must not throw away the pickling brine, keep it to use as a starter (as you might for breads). Next time you begin the pickling process you can just add more spring water to it and then put new vegetables in to pickle.

Method

Put a litre of water in the pickling jar.

Add the Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, bay leaves, cassia bark and black cardamom. 

Remove the skin of the apple and pear, cut into chunks and add to the jar. Then add the garlic (without skins) and the sliced ginger.

Add the Baijiu. - If you don’t have or want to use baijiu, shoju, gin or vodka would also work well.

Add half a teaspoon of salt.

Add the rock sugar.

Add half a jar of pickled chillies and their brine into the jar.

Seal the jar and leave to develop for three days.

Tear up your cabbage, slice the carrots, daikon and turnip into thick strips and cut the celery into short lengths. Place in a large bowl and add half a teaspoon of salt. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.

Open your pickling jar and add the vegetables.

 Close the jar and leave in a cool, dark place for 48 hours.

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

In defence of the great art of food on the street. 

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

海鲜酸辣汤 - Seafood Hot and Sour Soup

One of the few dishes you find at takeaways up and down the country that actually resemble the real thing. But this seafood soup goes beyond the average Hot and Sour. White pepper is vital here and if you’ve not used it before you’ll be impressed with just how different it is from your standard black pepper.

Ingredients:

1 large Bamboo Shoot 1/4 box of Northern style Tofu 5 Dried Wood Ear Mushrooms 1 Egg 5 Prawn 6 Mussels 1 Fresh Octopus 1 bunch Coriander 3 tbs Black Rice Vinegar 1 tsp Salt 1/2 tsp Sugar 1/2 tsp White Pepper 4 tbs Cornstarch 1/4 tsp Sesame Oil

Tips:

In North China we add white pepper to Hot and Sour Soup, In South China they add toban spicy bean paste. You can choose different sauces dependent on your tastes.

The trick to getting a light and beautiful egg flower is: first, add cornstarch to your soup and once the soup has thrickened quickly add a beaten egg; second, if your egg mixture proves to thick add a little water next time. 

When making seafood hot and sour soup you have to blanch the seafood first or your soup will be overly fishy.If you don’t like seafood then you can use bamboo shoots, lean pork, tofu, egg or anything else. 

The basis of the flavour of hot and sour soup is white pepper, so it is essential you add white pepper. A bowl of this soup is very warming and is best suited to the winter months. 

Method:

Soak then wash the dried wood ear mushrooms, then cut into slivers. Cut the bamboo shoot and tofu into slices. 

Beat the eggs. 

Remove shells from the prawns and remove their spinal cords then cut into slices. Clean the mussels and shred into slivers. Cut the octopus into 3cm pieces. 

Add clean water to the pan and bring to the boil. Then - in turn - blanch the bamboo shoots, prawns, mussels and octopus.Then throw away the water. 

Clean the pan then add fresh water, add the blanched bamboo shoots, prawns, mussels and octopus. Then add the slivers of mushroom and tofu, the black rice vinegar, salt, sugar and white pepper then stir.

Reduce to a medium heat and boil for 3 minutes. Bring up the heat then add the cornstarch and stir in one direction. Once the soup has thickened, add the beaten egg and once it has formed an egg flower remove from the heat. 

Just before you serve add a little vinegar and sesame oil, finally garnish with coriander.

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

Fiery Hot Kidneys

Often known in the overly descriptive and slightly morbid 'Exploding Kidney Flowers', this is a spicy quick fried pork kidney dish. The 'flower' is a reference to the cutting technique, which can be seen here 2.55 minutes in. 

This technique will challenge your knife skills, but it produces kidneys that are visual pleasing and cook evenly and quickly.

Ingredients:

2 Pork Kidneys 

2 Peppers (Red and Green)

1 chunk of Ginger

1 'Big Spring Onion' or 3 spring onions

3 cloves of Garlic

5 dried chilies 

1 tsp Cooking Wine (黄酒)

1 tsp Light Soy Sauce

1/2 tsp Dark Soy Sauce

1/2 tsp Black Rice Vinegar

1/2 tsp Sugar

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tbs Cornstarch

1/4 tsp Sesame Oil

Tips:

If you do not clean the kidneys properly then they will have a rancid/muttony smell, thus, before you begin you should: 1) Cut open the kidneys and remove the white fat; 2) Blanch them before frying.

Blanch the kidneys for very quickly, 5 seconds will do, if you blanch them excessively then the texture will deteriorate.

In the sauce you cannot not add sugar and vinegar, they remove the rancid flavours of the kidney. You cannot do without these two ingredients.

This is a quick fried dish, so I suggest you prepare all the sauces in advance, otherwise if you add the sauces and spices one by one then as the cooking time extend the kidneys will go rubbery.

The cornstarch in the sauce will solidify, so before you add it to the pan be sure to give it a good stir.

Method:

Clean the kidneys and then cut them open, placing you hand on top of the kidney and delicately running the knife along the middle.

Cut away the white fat in the middle of the kidney.

Slice long thin cuts along the prepared kidneys without cutting all the way through, spacing the cuts 3mm apart. After these cuts are made, turn the kidneys around and make similar long cuts that intersect with the other cuts. Cut the kidney into 3cm wide sections. Mince the ginger, spring onion and garlic. Remove the seeds from the peppers and then cut into strips. Cut the dried chillies into smaller pieces. Take out a small bowl then add the cooking wine, light and dark soy sauce, black rice vinegar, sugar, salt, cornstarch and sesame oil then mix.

Add water to the pan and heat until it is bubbling up, add the kidneys and blanch  for 5 seconds then remove. (Using a sieve to remove the kidneys is the easiest, cleanest and quickest method).

Add oil to the pan and heat until warm (five parts hot), add the dried chillies then the minced garlic, ginger and spring onion and died until fragrant.

Add the peppers and fry for 10 seconds then add the kidneys.

Add the prepared sauce and fry quickly, moving the kidneys around the pan, once the sauce has covered the kidneys remove and serve immediately. 

[mrsdengelsadventures]

The kitchen at Sancha Village

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

Parts Hot...

In Wen Yi's recipes she refers to 成热 - parts hot. This seems like an alien concept, but if you only just think of it as a ten point system it become a lot simpler. So 10 parts hot is the absolute top heat for oil: bubbling and boiling. You should never need the oil to be this hot. Eight parts hot is easily appropriate for deep frying and six parts hot is probably the lowest temperature you would use for frying. 

I know this won't help all to much, but if you remember anything it is that heat control is one of the most important parts of cooking in China. 

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

David Hagerman has taken some beautiful pictures of markets in black and white. Markets are at the heart of cooking and fresh produce is something of true aesthetic pleasure.

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

小鸡炖蘑菇 － Stewed Young Chicken with Mushrooms

This is a dish that will have you seeking out a good Oriental supermarket and a butchers. But do not fear, as the word of cookery rushes towards 5 minute quicker than quick recipes, be proud to take your time and make something unique and immensely rewarding.

Ingredients:

1 Young Chicken 100g Hazel Mushrooms 1 small handful of Potato Flour Vermicelli - these are thicker than rice vermicelli  1 'Big Spring Onion' or 3 Spring Onions 1 chunk of Ginger 1 small piece of Cassia Bark 5 Bay Leaves 5 Star Aniseed 1 tbs Cooking Wine (黄酒) 2 tbs Light Soy Sauce 2 tbs Dark Soy Sauce 1 tsp Sugar 

Tips:

The meat of a young chicken is tender and it will be cooked through after just 35 minutes stewing. If you can't buy a young chicken, then a Chinese yellow chicken will also do (clearly this tip isn't very useful outside of China - thanks Wen Yi). Some say this dish is best when you use farmyard chickens but in the city we are not so lucky.

Hazel Mushrooms (榛蘑菇) are a specialty of North East China... (Wen Yi then goes on to describe how you can pick them up dried in supermarkets or travel to North East China for the best quality - once again not the best of tips for most of us).

Although the vermicelli are only cooked for a few minutes, but they will quickly swell and take on the flavour of the chicken and mushroom stew. So every time I eat this dish I start by eating the vermicelli and only eat the chicken and mushroom afterwards.

If you have a taste for spicy food then you can add a few dried chillies to this recipe. What does it matter if it isn't very authentic. The fundamental rule of cooking is to fill your belly with tasty food.

If you can't finish this dish in one go, then you can heat it up again the next day. But remember that as there is vermicelli in this dish it is best not to use an iron pan or wok when reheating, otherwise the vermicelli will quickly break up into little pieces. When reheating this dish it is best to use a non stick pan.

Method:

Wash the vermicelli then put in a bowl and soak in cold water for 15 minutes. Wash the hazel mushrooms to remove the dirt on them and then soak in a separate bowl for 15 minutes also.

Once you've removed the head, feet and guts from the chicken, wash thoroughly and cut into small chunks. Add water to the pan, bring to the boil and blanch the chicken for 2 minutes. Remove the chicken and wash away any remaining scum. Pour away the water. Add oil to the pan then heat until quite hot (seven parts hot) then fry the chicken.

Add the sliced spring onions and ginger, then add the star aniseed, bay leaves and cassia bark. Fry until fragrant then add cooking wine.

Add the light and dark soy sauce and sugar.

Add just enough boiling water to cover the chicken.

Add the soaked hazel mushrooms and stir. Place a lid on the pan and stew for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes remove the lid and put in the soaked vermicelli.

Stir well then lift to a high heat and reduce for 5 minutes then serve.

[chinesefoodlib-blog]

地三鲜 - 'Three Fresh Flavours of the Earth'

Chinese food often employs the use of vague, metaphoric and sometimes downright strange names. but befor you grunt and complain ask yourself: Would a Brit consider 'Toad in the Hole' strange? Do American buffalos have wings?

Ingredients:

1 Long Aubergine 1 Potato 2 Peppers (red and green) 15g Minced Spring Onion 30g Minced Garlic 2 tbs Light Soy Sauce 1/2 tsp Sugar 1 /4 tsp Salt 1 tbs Cooking Wine 2 tbs Water 1 tbs Cornstarch 1/2 tsp Sesame Oil

Tips:

Different times are required to shallow fry potatoes and aubergines so they must be fried seperately. Dont't put them into the pan to fry together, otherwise the aubergines will not be cooked when the potatoes are already too mushy. 

Only put half of the minced garlic in at the beginning, then add the remaining half to the dish just before you serve, this will give the dish a more discinct flavour.

Prepare the sauce in advance. The frying stage of this dish is extremely quick, if you add the individual sauces one by one it will over extend the cooking time. This will overcook the potatoes and aubergines impacting the overall appearance and texture of the dish. 

Long aubergines have a firmer texture and their skins have a pleasant taste, so I do not suggest you remove the skins. If you do not plan on shallow frying the aubergines immediately after they have been cut, then place them in salty water. This will stop them being exposed to air and, thus, stop them oxidising and turning black. 

Method:

Remove the skin from the potato and cut into 0.3cm thick slices (here a cheap Asian mandoline will come in handy). Wash the aubergines then remove their seeds then cut into chunks using the "rolling knife method." Remove the seeds from the peppers and cut them into triangular pieces. Mince the spring onion and garlic. Take a small bowl and add your Light soy sauce, sugar, salt, cooking wine, water and cornstarch then mix into a sauce.

Put enough oil into the pan to shallow fry, heat until very hot (eight parts hot) then - separately - fry the potatoes and the aubergines to a golden yellow colour.

Leave a little oil in the pan, heat, then add the minced spring onion and half the minced garlic. Once they are fragrant add the fried potatoes and aubergines and the peppers; fry for half a minute.

Add you sauce.

Fry for one minute then add the remaining half of the minced garlic, stir and serve.