Archive for the 'Chinese Recipes' Category

Steamed Whole Fish with Black Bean

Sunday, April 23rd, 2006

It does tend to freak out the Westerners, at least those who haven’t dipped their toe very far into the pool of Chinese cuisine. There it is, a whole fish, sitting on a plate, its eye glaring up at you, and you’re supposed to eat it. Why should you?
Well, how’s this for starters: if there’s […]

Chicken with Red Pepper Shreds

Thursday, April 6th, 2006

I confess that I don’t put much thought into presentation, but I think this is a pretty attractive dish:

Still, I wouldn’t make it if it weren’t delicious, and I’ve made it over and over, because I love it, and it’s one of my wife’s favorites. Moist, resilient, oily chunks of chicken breast, livened up with […]

Cauliflower with smoky bacon

Sunday, April 2nd, 2006

I’m willing to go to great lengths to try to cook awesome Chinese food. Sometimes you have to, to make wonderful things like Peking Duck. I don’t really have much of an interest in recipes that have been streamlined, to make things easy on the cook, at the cost of losing some of the […]

Spring Rolls, Part 3: Joyce Chen’s Chinese-American Spring Rolls

Friday, March 24th, 2006

I’m really making an exception here. It’s the wonderful, authentic Chinese food I go for, and that I’ve studied earnestly for years. And yet, this recipe, which its author, Joyce Chen, points out as completely inauthentic, is so delicious, despite its dubious-sounding ingredients, that I just have to share it. These are the first spring […]

Spring Rolls, Part 2: Authentic Spring Rolls

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

This recipe comes from Yan Kit’s Classic Chinese Cookbook, and is called “Special Spring Rolls.” That’s a clue that these rolls are absolutely loaded with the good stuff. There are two separate components, stir-fried separately.
The Veggies
1 pound carrots
6 oz bean thread noodles
8 oz sugar peas (I think she means snow peas, but maybe not)
I […]

Spring Rolls, Part 1: About spring rolls

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

As I’ve gotten more and more into real Chinese food, I’ve lost track of spring rolls. Before I discovered good Chinese food, I knew all about bad Chinese food. Ordered from a local takeout, it featured things like butterfly shrimp, Bok choy in a thick, bland sauce containing way too much cornstarch, and spring rolls. […]

Chicken Wings, Part 3: Cantonese Chicken Wings in Oyster Sauce

Thursday, February 23rd, 2006

Maybe you could tell I was leading up to something special in this series of chicken wing posts. Well, I was. To my taste, Chinese food is the most amazing cuisine in the world. And among the Chinese regional cuisines, Cantonese reigns supreme, something I have to admit despite a strong sentimental fondness for Sichuan. […]

Chicken wings: Part 2: Shanghai Fried/stewed wings

Wednesday, February 15th, 2006

There is a wonderful Shanghai cooking technique that is traditionally applied to pork shank. The shank is stewed in a mixture of dark and light soys, with other aromatic ingredients, and timed so that at the point when the shank is done, the liquid has reduced to a thick glaze that coats the meat. It’s […]