Thursday, November 12, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Garlic Chicken
Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 lb.)
1 egg white
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. dry white wine or sherry
4 green onions, sliced very thinly diagonally
1 tsp. ginger root, minced
3 tsp. fresh garlic, minced (about 6 medium cloves)
2 tbsps. vegetable oi
1 tsp. crushed chili paste or more to taste
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. rice vinegar
1 tbsp. water
2 tbsps. dry white wine or sherry
2 tbsps. soy sauce
Place chicken breasts in freezer for 1 to 2 hours or until very firm but not frozen solid. Slice crosswise into thin shreds.
In small bowl, lightly beat egg white, then mix in cornstarch and wine, stirring until cornstarch is dissolved. Add chicken and mix well to coat all pieces. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.
Combine sauce ingredients, mixing well.
Heat wok or frying pan, add oil, and stirfry chicken until no longer pink. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon.
Add onions, ginger and garlic to wok and stirfry about 30 seconds, until ginger and garlic are fragrant but not brown. Return chicken to wok, restir sauce ingredients and add to wok.
Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is well combined, hot and bubbly and thickens slightly. Turn off heat and splash with about 1 tsp of dark sesame oil. Serve over rice.
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 lb.)
1 egg white
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. dry white wine or sherry
4 green onions, sliced very thinly diagonally
1 tsp. ginger root, minced
3 tsp. fresh garlic, minced (about 6 medium cloves)
2 tbsps. vegetable oi
1 tsp. crushed chili paste or more to taste
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. rice vinegar
1 tbsp. water
2 tbsps. dry white wine or sherry
2 tbsps. soy sauce
Place chicken breasts in freezer for 1 to 2 hours or until very firm but not frozen solid. Slice crosswise into thin shreds.
In small bowl, lightly beat egg white, then mix in cornstarch and wine, stirring until cornstarch is dissolved. Add chicken and mix well to coat all pieces. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.
Combine sauce ingredients, mixing well.
Heat wok or frying pan, add oil, and stirfry chicken until no longer pink. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon.
Add onions, ginger and garlic to wok and stirfry about 30 seconds, until ginger and garlic are fragrant but not brown. Return chicken to wok, restir sauce ingredients and add to wok.
Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is well combined, hot and bubbly and thickens slightly. Turn off heat and splash with about 1 tsp of dark sesame oil. Serve over rice.
Creamed Crab with Bamboo Shoots
Ingredients: * 2 tbsps. peanut oil
* 3 oz. canned bamboo shoots, cut into strips
* Salt, sugar and MSG
* 3 oz. cooked white crab meat, flaked
* 1/2 tsp. ginger sherry
* 2/3 c. chicken stock
* 1 tsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 tsp. cold water
* 2 tbsps. milk
* 1 sprig parsley or watercress
1. Heat oil in wok.
2. Add bamboo shoots, season with a pinch of salt, sugar and MSG and cook for 3 minutes, constantly stirring. Remove and set aside.
3. Wipe out the wok. Add the remaining oil.
4. When hot, add crab meat and as it cooks, add sherry, stock and another pinch of salt, sugar and MSG, turning and tossing for 15 seconds.
5. Add cornstarch mixture and stir while it comes to the boil.
6. Add milk and bring to boil again.
7. Return the bamboo shoots and heat through for 15 seconds.
8. Garnish with a sprig of parsley or watercress.
* 3 oz. canned bamboo shoots, cut into strips
* Salt, sugar and MSG
* 3 oz. cooked white crab meat, flaked
* 1/2 tsp. ginger sherry
* 2/3 c. chicken stock
* 1 tsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 tsp. cold water
* 2 tbsps. milk
* 1 sprig parsley or watercress
1. Heat oil in wok.
2. Add bamboo shoots, season with a pinch of salt, sugar and MSG and cook for 3 minutes, constantly stirring. Remove and set aside.
3. Wipe out the wok. Add the remaining oil.
4. When hot, add crab meat and as it cooks, add sherry, stock and another pinch of salt, sugar and MSG, turning and tossing for 15 seconds.
5. Add cornstarch mixture and stir while it comes to the boil.
6. Add milk and bring to boil again.
7. Return the bamboo shoots and heat through for 15 seconds.
8. Garnish with a sprig of parsley or watercress.
Fried Shrimps Chinese Style
Ingredients:
* 1 lb. lg. shrimp, in shells
* 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
* 1/2 tbsp. dry sherry
* 1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
* 2 tbsp. peanut oil
* 2 cloves garlic, chopped
* 3 green onions, chopped
* 1 tsp. salt
* 1 tbsp. sesame oil
1. Marinate the shrimp in the shells for 15 minutes in the soy sauce, sherry and ginger. Drain.
2. Heat peanut oil in a wok. When oil is ready, fry garlic until fragrant.
3. Add shrimps and stir fry until the color changes. Add the green onions. Add the salt and sesame oil. Toss until the onions barely wilt. Serve hot. Let each guest remove the shells at the table. Serves 6 as part of Chinese meal.
Ingredients:
* 1 lb. lg. shrimp, in shells
* 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
* 1/2 tbsp. dry sherry
* 1/2 tsp. grated fresh ginger
* 2 tbsp. peanut oil
* 2 cloves garlic, chopped
* 3 green onions, chopped
* 1 tsp. salt
* 1 tbsp. sesame oil
1. Marinate the shrimp in the shells for 15 minutes in the soy sauce, sherry and ginger. Drain.
2. Heat peanut oil in a wok. When oil is ready, fry garlic until fragrant.
3. Add shrimps and stir fry until the color changes. Add the green onions. Add the salt and sesame oil. Toss until the onions barely wilt. Serve hot. Let each guest remove the shells at the table. Serves 6 as part of Chinese meal.
Hot and Sour Soup
Hot and sour soup is a specialty in Szechuan food and has a most unusual but very attractive taste.Serves 6
Ingredients:
* 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
* 1 med. onion, sliced
* 3 carrots, thinly sliced
* 3 cloves minced garlic
* 1 tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
* 4 c. chicken broth
* 1 c. water
* 2 tbsp. soy sauce
* 6 oz. shiitake mushrooms
* 1/3 c. sliced water chestnuts
* 1/2 lb. sliced snow peas
* 1 c. fresh bean sprouts
* 1/4 c. rice-wine vinegar
# Heat 2 tbsp. vegetable oil in a heavy pot over medium heat.
# Add the onion and carrots; cook, stirring constantly for 3 minutes.
# Add the garlic and ginger; cook, stirring for 1 minute.
# Add chicken broth, water and soy sauce. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes.
# Add the mushrooms and water chestnuts; boil for 1 minute.
# Turn off heat, add peas and bean sprouts. Cover and let rest for 2 minutes.
# Stir in rice-wine vinegar, sesame oil and chili oil. Heat through for 1 minute, serve immediately.
* 2 tbsp. sesame oil
* Dash of chili oil
Ingredients:
* 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
* 1 med. onion, sliced
* 3 carrots, thinly sliced
* 3 cloves minced garlic
* 1 tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
* 4 c. chicken broth
* 1 c. water
* 2 tbsp. soy sauce
* 6 oz. shiitake mushrooms
* 1/3 c. sliced water chestnuts
* 1/2 lb. sliced snow peas
* 1 c. fresh bean sprouts
* 1/4 c. rice-wine vinegar
# Heat 2 tbsp. vegetable oil in a heavy pot over medium heat.
# Add the onion and carrots; cook, stirring constantly for 3 minutes.
# Add the garlic and ginger; cook, stirring for 1 minute.
# Add chicken broth, water and soy sauce. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes.
# Add the mushrooms and water chestnuts; boil for 1 minute.
# Turn off heat, add peas and bean sprouts. Cover and let rest for 2 minutes.
# Stir in rice-wine vinegar, sesame oil and chili oil. Heat through for 1 minute, serve immediately.
* 2 tbsp. sesame oil
* Dash of chili oil
chilli Turkey Wraps
If chili-flavor tortillas are not available, mix 1/2 tsp. chili powder into the cheese mixture. For best results, use very fresh tortillas so they don't crack, and let them warm to room temperature before rolling.
1 package (8 oz.) Lucerne® Fat Free Cream Cheese
3 to 4 tbsp. tomato-based chili sauce
4 chili-flavor or plain flour tortillas (about 10 in.), at room temperature
2 cups finely shredded O Organics™ Romaine Lettuce
3 to 4 cups skinned, shredded cooked turkey
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 can (2 1/4 oz.) sliced ripe olives, drained
1.Smoothly mix cream cheese with chili sauce to taste.
2.Spread 1/4 of the cheese mixture evenly onto 1 side of each tortilla.
3.Down the center of each tortilla, spoon 1/4 of the lettuce, turkey, onions, cilantro, and olives.
4.Roll tortilla snugly to enclose filling, then cut each roll in half. If desired, stand rolls upright on flat end.
Per serving: 445 cal., 22% (95 cal.) from fat; 45 g protein; 11 g fat (2.4 g sat.); 40 g carbo (3 g fiber); 925 mg sodium; 87 mg chol.
1 package (8 oz.) Lucerne® Fat Free Cream Cheese
3 to 4 tbsp. tomato-based chili sauce
4 chili-flavor or plain flour tortillas (about 10 in.), at room temperature
2 cups finely shredded O Organics™ Romaine Lettuce
3 to 4 cups skinned, shredded cooked turkey
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 can (2 1/4 oz.) sliced ripe olives, drained
1.Smoothly mix cream cheese with chili sauce to taste.
2.Spread 1/4 of the cheese mixture evenly onto 1 side of each tortilla.
3.Down the center of each tortilla, spoon 1/4 of the lettuce, turkey, onions, cilantro, and olives.
4.Roll tortilla snugly to enclose filling, then cut each roll in half. If desired, stand rolls upright on flat end.
Per serving: 445 cal., 22% (95 cal.) from fat; 45 g protein; 11 g fat (2.4 g sat.); 40 g carbo (3 g fiber); 925 mg sodium; 87 mg chol.
stewing&clear simmering
Stewing is a time-honored moist cooking technique that transforms less tender cuts of meat unsuitable for quick-cooking methods into melt-in-your-mouth meats. Stewing allows the cook to assemble the dish, boil it and then let it simmer, with little or no attention for an hour or more. A stew usually has smaller pieces of food that may or may not be browned first, and calls for a large quantity of liquid (enough to cover the food). Many "crock-pot" dishes are essentially stewed. Stews can be frozen and their flavors mature as they stand, so they are even better a day or so after you cook them. Vary the flavor profile of the stew dish by experimenting with seasonings (wine, broth, beer and vegetable juices) and different herbs and spices. In the final step, the sauce is thickened either with cornstarch or reduced by simmering. Cuts ideal for stewing are shoulder and pork cubes. In China, stews are usually cooked in a clay pot over a charcoal fire. The stew is cooked for a very long time, producing meat almost jelly-like in tenderness. Yummy! One variation of stewing is red-cooking.
Tips : Hard boiling a stew will render the food tough and chewy.
Red-cooking is stewing with soy sauce; some ingredients needing pre-frying, some not, imparting a reddish tinge to the final product - is a popular cooking technique in eastern China because there is where the finest soy sauce is produced in the China. In the final stage, the food is simmered over high or low heat till the sauce is reduced. Red-cooking is the typical family cooking. Red cooking has the advantage common to slow-cooking dishes that the leftovers keep well and can be eaten cold or warmed over. Cold red-cooked jelly of meat, chicken, etc., is especially good. If you are careful to warm it just to boiling point each time after use, the pot can keep for nearly two weeks!
Clear-simmering differs from red-cooking in several ways. It is clear because no soy sauce is used. Secondly, it is less dry and the slow cooking yields clear soup to serve as drink at the table. Except a few developed dried vegetables such as dried winter mushrooms, most clear-simmered dishes are meat and fish dishes. As soon as boiling starts, very low fire should be used. Any continued quick boiling will make the soup muddy and uninviting. Good Chinese cooks are proud of good clear-simmering, but ordinary cooks hesitate to clear-simmer, since it demands too much quantity, quality, and time. A practical advantage about a clear-simmered dish is that it combines the part of a main dish and that of a soup.
Tips : Hard boiling a stew will render the food tough and chewy.
Red-cooking is stewing with soy sauce; some ingredients needing pre-frying, some not, imparting a reddish tinge to the final product - is a popular cooking technique in eastern China because there is where the finest soy sauce is produced in the China. In the final stage, the food is simmered over high or low heat till the sauce is reduced. Red-cooking is the typical family cooking. Red cooking has the advantage common to slow-cooking dishes that the leftovers keep well and can be eaten cold or warmed over. Cold red-cooked jelly of meat, chicken, etc., is especially good. If you are careful to warm it just to boiling point each time after use, the pot can keep for nearly two weeks!
Clear-simmering differs from red-cooking in several ways. It is clear because no soy sauce is used. Secondly, it is less dry and the slow cooking yields clear soup to serve as drink at the table. Except a few developed dried vegetables such as dried winter mushrooms, most clear-simmered dishes are meat and fish dishes. As soon as boiling starts, very low fire should be used. Any continued quick boiling will make the soup muddy and uninviting. Good Chinese cooks are proud of good clear-simmering, but ordinary cooks hesitate to clear-simmer, since it demands too much quantity, quality, and time. A practical advantage about a clear-simmered dish is that it combines the part of a main dish and that of a soup.
All Chinese Resipes&Cooking Methods
The art of Chinese cooking is not, contrary to popular belief, complicated and difficult. Most Chinese dishes do not require a complex processing and equipment in the kitchen as does one of China's most famous dishes, Peking duck. Simplicity is the key to Chinese cuisine as evidently shown in their various cooking methods. When you have the ingredients, seasonings and marinades ready, you can use one of the following methods to cook in Chinese.
Roasting - Roasting is not family cooking in China, since few Chinese kitchens have facilities for roasting. Only restaurants go much into roasts and Cantonese restaurants excel especially in these. In roasting, raw ingredients are marinated in seasonings before being roasted in an oven or barbecued over direct heat from charcoal fire, with the roast turning slowly round and round. Marinades is added inside and out from time to time so that the skin remains smooth and shiny, instead of rough and flaky, and the meat remains juicy instead of powdery. The Peking duck is one of China's most famous dishes cooked this way. Families can go to food shops to buy roast meat or poultry and eat it cold. But for the crisp juicy hot roast duck, one has to go to a restaurant.
Boiling - Strictly speaking, this means cooking food in boiling water (A liquid is boiling when the surface is continually agitated by large bubbles). Violent boiling should be avoided. It wastes fuel; it does not cook the food any faster, it tends to make the food break up and so spoils the appearance; the liquid is evaporated too quickly with the consequent danger of the food burning. There are one or two exceptions to this rule; for example, when one wants to drive off water quickly from syrup or a sauce to make it thicker, then violent boiling with the lid off hastens the process.
In Chinese cooking, there is very little big-fire boiling, as a complete process. Chinese would not consider eating boiled potatoes. After a thing is boiled, the natural question is - Now what of it? Quick plain boiling is often only a preparatory process for other ways of cooking - where the term parboil comes into place. There are some exceptions, such as plain boiled celery cabbage with salt and a little lard, or boiled yam, to eat with sugar. But celery cabbage and yam are such cook-proof things that they are good in any method prepared. It's not necessary to use continued big fire after water has started to boil, because water cannot be hotter than 100° C or 212°F.
Turn the fire to medium if you want but to make sure that it is at least hot in all parts, especially in a large tall boiling or steaming pot, the fire must be big enough for you to see the steam come out.
Frying methad-----> shallow frying uses a small amount of oil in a frying pan or wok at a temperature lower than stir-frying. Ingredients are usually cut into slices or flat pieces, and are used as they are, slightly coated with batter or rubbed with seasonings. Fish is ideal for this cooking method. The presentation side of the food should be fried first as this side will have the better appearance because the oil is clean, then turned so that both sides are cooked and browned. Sauces, if called for, are then added. Food cooked this way is tender inside with some crispness outside. This method is quite similar to sautéing in the West.
Roasting - Roasting is not family cooking in China, since few Chinese kitchens have facilities for roasting. Only restaurants go much into roasts and Cantonese restaurants excel especially in these. In roasting, raw ingredients are marinated in seasonings before being roasted in an oven or barbecued over direct heat from charcoal fire, with the roast turning slowly round and round. Marinades is added inside and out from time to time so that the skin remains smooth and shiny, instead of rough and flaky, and the meat remains juicy instead of powdery. The Peking duck is one of China's most famous dishes cooked this way. Families can go to food shops to buy roast meat or poultry and eat it cold. But for the crisp juicy hot roast duck, one has to go to a restaurant.
Boiling - Strictly speaking, this means cooking food in boiling water (A liquid is boiling when the surface is continually agitated by large bubbles). Violent boiling should be avoided. It wastes fuel; it does not cook the food any faster, it tends to make the food break up and so spoils the appearance; the liquid is evaporated too quickly with the consequent danger of the food burning. There are one or two exceptions to this rule; for example, when one wants to drive off water quickly from syrup or a sauce to make it thicker, then violent boiling with the lid off hastens the process.
In Chinese cooking, there is very little big-fire boiling, as a complete process. Chinese would not consider eating boiled potatoes. After a thing is boiled, the natural question is - Now what of it? Quick plain boiling is often only a preparatory process for other ways of cooking - where the term parboil comes into place. There are some exceptions, such as plain boiled celery cabbage with salt and a little lard, or boiled yam, to eat with sugar. But celery cabbage and yam are such cook-proof things that they are good in any method prepared. It's not necessary to use continued big fire after water has started to boil, because water cannot be hotter than 100° C or 212°F.
Turn the fire to medium if you want but to make sure that it is at least hot in all parts, especially in a large tall boiling or steaming pot, the fire must be big enough for you to see the steam come out.
Frying methad-----> shallow frying uses a small amount of oil in a frying pan or wok at a temperature lower than stir-frying. Ingredients are usually cut into slices or flat pieces, and are used as they are, slightly coated with batter or rubbed with seasonings. Fish is ideal for this cooking method. The presentation side of the food should be fried first as this side will have the better appearance because the oil is clean, then turned so that both sides are cooked and browned. Sauces, if called for, are then added. Food cooked this way is tender inside with some crispness outside. This method is quite similar to sautéing in the West.
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