Just Like Crab

This is a dish that is trying to mimic the taste of crab meat using eggs and fish. I personally like this dish a lot because it is easy to do and cheaper than crab.




Serves 2

Prep time: 6 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
1 sole fillet, sliced into 2 inch sections
1teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoon corn starch
2 teaspoon cooking wine or dry sherry
3 eggs, cracked into a bowl
3 tablespoon peanut or other vegetable oil
1 inch ginger, minced
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup chicken stock

Tips:

1. The fish is suppose to represent the meat of the crab
   

Instruction:

1. In a bowl, mix the fish with salt, pepper, corn starch and wine, let it marinate for 5 minutes
2. In a wok or a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat, put in the fish slices and cook until fish is cooked through, about 2-4 minutes, put the fish into a plate
   
3. In a wok or a skillet, heat 2 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat, drop in the egg, and use a pair of chopstick or spatula to break it apart rapidly. When egg is almost cooked through, add in the fish, ginger, vinegar, sugar and mix well. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Lastly add in the chicken stock, bring to a boil and taste to adjust seasoning.
4. Transfer to a plate and serve
   

Fried Rice with Bacon

This is a moist/soft version of the fried rice. In earlier post I did a Fried Rice with Chinese Sausage, in this version I've substitute the Chinese sausage for something that is much more likely to be found in an American supermarket, and that is Bacon! This is the first difference, and couple other differences are that the fried rice in this version comes out more moist instead of the crispy texture in the previous version and there are additional mushroom and five spice flavor. Please don't worry if you can't find five spice powder, just half the five spice powder amount called for and substitute cinnamon powder.


Serves 2

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 strips of bacon
5 button mushroom, sliced
1 tablespoon of Chinese rice wine or dried sherry
5 cups of cooked rice, from the day before, loosened by using a spatula
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon of five spice powder, or 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
1 scallion, green part only thinly sliced

Tips:

1. Five spice powder or cinnamon powder is very strong, we only want to add a tiny bit to give our fried rice an enhanced flavor and at the same time not overpowering it.
2. Generally long grain rice are better for making fried rice because it has less moisture than the short grain rice. If you like the crispy texture of the fried rice, please refer to my early post Fried Rice with Chinese sausage.
   

Instruction:

1. Separate the egg whites from the yolk, and beat the yolk
2. In a medium sized pan, heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil over medium heat, add in the bacon, cook until crispy (about 8 minutes), turning occasionally. Once cooked, place bacon on a paper-towel to drain the grease. Cut length-wise into thin slices.
   
3. Discard the bacon grease, put in the sliced onion. When onion is soft (about 5 mintues), add in the sliced mushroom and wine, when mushroom is soft and the wine is almost evaporated (about 3 minutes), then add in the egg white and cook for 1 minute.
   
4. Meanwhile, in a wok, heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil over medium heat, when the oil is hot but not smoking, add in the egg yolk, let it cook in the oil for about 30 seconds, then break it into pieces with your ladle or spatula.
5. Add in the rice, using the back of the ladle to press the clumps of rice against the wok to break it apart. The goal here is to break up the rice into individual grains. Keep stir-fry and press the rice, and toss the rice and egg regularly to help this process, until rice is sperated into individual grains (about 10-15 minutes) .
   
6. Now add in the cooked onion and mushroom mixture into the rice, add in the soy sauce, five spice powder, and salt to taste. Stir fry until everything is mixed together and turn off the heat. Add in the bacon and scallions then serve.

Orange Peel Chicken

This orange peel chicken recipe is taken from the cookbook written in Chinese "Standard recipes for Sichuan dishes". I like the orange peel flavor in this dish and how the orange flavor is blended with sweet and spicy flavor. The chicken comes out very tender also. This dish can be served either hot or cold.


Serves 2

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
Marinate:
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of Chinese cooking wine or medium dried sherry
1 inch ginger, sliced
2 green onions, cut into 4 inch long sections, white part crushed
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
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1 pound of boneless chicken, cut into 1 inch cubes

Sauce:
2 teaspoon Chinese cooking wine or dried sherry
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon soy sauce 1 teaspoon sugar
4 cup chicken broth
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1 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar or wine vinegar 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Other:
15 whole Sichuan peppercorn optional
5 dried orange peel, cut into 2 inch squares or zest from 1 medium sized orange
6 whole dried chili, seed taken out, cut into 1/2 inch wide strips or 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 inch ginger, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
4 green onion, cut into 2-inch length
1 cup peanut oil

Instruction:

1. Mix the marinate in a medium sized bowl then add the chicken cubes, marinate for 15 minutes
   
2. Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients and sauces
   
3. When marinate is done, heat peanut oil in the wok till pretty hot but not smoking, put in the chicken cubes and fry till chicken pieces turns golden, use a mesh to scope out the chicken
4. Leave 1 tablespoon of the oil in the wok, put in Sichuan peppercorn if using and stir fry until the flavor comes out, discard the peppercorn. Put in the orange peel and dried pepper, cook until the oil turns red. Then add in ginger, green onion, and garlic, stir fry for a bit, then add in chicken, put in the sauces,cooking wine, salt, soy sauce, sugar and chicken broth, make sure the chicken broth will cover all the chicken pieces, use medium low heat to cook until all the sauces are evaporated and becomes thick, then add in vinegar and sesame oil
5. Transfer to a plate and serve either hot or let it completely cool and serves it cold
   

Fried rice with Chinese sausage

Fried rice is one of the staples in a Chinese restaurant. Every Chinese restaurant I've been to have had at least one version of it, sometimes several different versions. For picking my first recipe on this blog, I figure it has to be a common and popular dish that is easy to do, what is better than fried rice?

Like I mentioned earlier, there are many different versions of fried rice. The variations between them are the ingredients and the cooking method. This version of fried rice I've learned from a Chinese post on the Internet and it has instantly becoming my favorite version. What I love about this version is once finished, every rice grain is separated from each other, and mixed with golden egg pieces. The "mouth feel"/texture of the individual rice grains is filling, almost crunchy, which I prefer much more over the soggy texture. This dish is also very healthy too (). Okay, without further ado, here is the recipe for fried rice.

Fried rice with Chinese sausage

Serves 2

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
2 eggs
Half of a medium onion, thinly sliced
1 links of Chinese sausage, thinly sliced
5 cups of cooked rice from the day before, loosensed by using a spetula
1 scallion, green part only thinly sliced

Ingredients from left to right: cooked rice,
onion, Chinese sausage, eggs and green onion

Instruction:

1. Separate the egg whites from the yolk, and beat the yolk
2. In a medium sized pan, heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil over medium heat, add in the onion. When onion is soft (about 5 mintues), add in the Chinese sausage and continue to cook for 5 minutes, then add in the egg white and cook for 1 minute.
   
3. Meanwhile, in a wok, heat 1 tablespoon of peanut oil over medium heat, when the oil is hot but not smoking, add in the egg yolk, let it cook in the oil for about 30 seconds, then break it into pieces with your ladle or spatula.
4. Add in the rice, using the back of the ladle to press the clumps of rice against the wok to break it apart. The goal here is to break up the rice into individual grains so we can have the crispy texture. Keep stir-fry and press the rice, and toss the rice and egg regularly to let the moisture built-up escape. When rice is sperated into individual grains and if you slow down, you can see the rice grains are jumping on the edge of the wok, then this means the rice is done, about 10-15 minutes.
   
5. Now add in the cooked ingrindents from step 3 into the rice, and add salt to taste. Stir fry until everything is mixed together and turn off the heat. Add in the scallions and serve.