Creamy Tomato Chicken

Ingredients:
Chicken
Oil, Ginger, Onion
1 bar Brown Sugar
Salt, Oyster Sauce, Soy Sauce, Cooking Wine, Sesame Oil, White Pepper
Tomato
Ketchup (if the tomatoes are not ripe)

Instructions:
1. Wash and drain the chicken. Cut the chicken into 1-inch squares. Do not wash the chicken after cutting.
2. Marinate the chicken with salt, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine, and white pepper.
3. Let it sit for 1 hour.
4. Heat the wok. Add oil.
5. Add in the chicken and brown sugar.
6. Close the lid.
7. Stir occasionally until chicken is 90% cooked.
8. Add in tomato (and ketchup).
9. Stir for 3 minutes and serve.

Grilled Eggplants

Ingredients:
Eggplants
Fresh Basil
Garlic
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Preparation of the Sauce:
1. Chop the basil and garlic into small pieces.
2. Add salt, pepper, and olive oil.
3. Squeeze in some lime or lemon juice.

Preparation of the Eggplants:
1. Grill the eggplants until the skin is slightly burnt.
2. Peel off the skin and shred it by hand.
3. Mix sauce with eggplants and let it sit for a few minutes before serving.

*original recipe of a good friend, Chau Dang. Thank you for letting me share it with the world 🙂

Wintermelon Blue Crab Soup

Usually I like to make Chinese soup that has a health benefit to the body. The Cucumber Crab Soup has no unique health benefit but tastes sooooo good and not many people know it. I’d like to share this secret recipe for you to enjot and surprise special guests. 🙂

1. First, go to a Chinese supermarket and buy half a dozen on blue crabs. Depending on where you live, they are not always available so keep an eye out. Make sure you pick the ones that are active and lively as the meat will be sweeter.

The other ingredients that you will need to pick up along the way are:
– wintermelon
– dried tangerine peel to add sweetness and savoury and to kill any “fishy” taste from the crabs
– ginger which is biquitous in Chinese cooking, particularly seafood soups
– large dried dates to add sweetness to the soup

2. The most difficult part of making this soup is the preparation and cleaning of the crabs. I’m not good at this but I found an excellent youtube video that explains the various parts of a crab and how to prepare it for cooking. This video uses a dungeness crab but the cleaning and preparation process is the same for blue crabs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY_xvzYGAWM&sns=em

3. Wash the winter melon, remove the green skin, seeds, and the pulp. Cut into two-inch pieces.

4. Add 10 cups of water to a pot. Once the water starts boiling, you can put in all the ingredients and the crabs. Bring the water to boil again for 20 minutes. Then add a pinch of sugar, salt and a teaspoon of oil. Then simmer at medium heat for about 1.5 to 2 hours.

Body Cleanse with Watercress Soup

Did you know that in western and eastern studies, watercress is known to have many health benefits and helps to clean out the system? In the Chinese tradition, watercress is known to clear heat and nourish the body at the same time. And it is super cheap. You can get a big bunch for about $2 at the supermarket.

Now before I get into the recipe of this soup, here’s the legend of the Watercress Soup to share with your friends and family while enjoying:

Once upon a time in a small village, every man was shipped off to fight in the civil war. However, there was one man in town who was too weak and would be a burden to the army so he was advised to stay back.  He knew that staying back would be just as tough as joining the army as the government spent every penny on the war and the village would become very very poor.

Time went by quickly and a year has soon passed. When the army came home, the sick man who was left behind was healthier and stronger than ever before. No one understood why. There were no doctors in town and barely any food for him to nourish his body. The man responded with a big grin “Yes, I had no money and there was barely food to survive. So I started gathering wild plants from the riverside.” That wild plant is what we know as the watercress. From then on, watercress is known to have many healing abilities that is good for the body and that street in the town was known as Watercress Street.

And now here’s a quick and easy watercress soup recipe to cleanse your body:

1. Wash three cups of watercress.
TIP: watercress is a wild plant and has many bugs in it. Due to its shape, it’s very difficult to clean. The trick is to soak it in salt! Soak for 15 minutes and all the bugs and germs will fall off!

2. Wash these ingredients: one cup of lean pork, one tablespoon of Chinese north and south almonds, three large dried dates (to add sweetness). Lastly, add ginger slices (enhances energy flow in the body) or dried tangerine peels (clears the cold wind in the body).

3. Blanch the pork.

4. Boil six cups of water.

5. Add all the ingredients and bring to boil. Reduce to medium heat and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Chuen Pooi Tea for Coughs and Phlegm

So the weather is getting cold and everyone is getting sick. As I was growing up, it would take months for my coughs to go away whenever I got a cold. Later on, I discovered my grandma’s chuen pooi tea recipe is what made the phlegm disappear faster and nourished the lungs.

The key ingredient here is the chuen pooi – aka Fritillaria Bulbs. It has a bitter sweet taste to it and is traditionally used to treat coughs, clear heat and acts as a antibiotic agent. You can get it at any Chinese herbal store. Here’s what it looks like:

How to make this tea:
1. Use one tablespoon of chuen pooi and rinse with water.

Tip: Put the chuen pooi beans in a small piece of seran wrap and hit it a few times with a spoon. This will crack open the chuen pooi beans and release the ingredients deep inside.

2. Add in one cup of boiled water. The reason is that this kills bacteria and chemicals. Using filtered water is a good idea, especially when you are sick.

3. Steam the bowl of tea for 40 minutes.

4. Add honey to help reduce the bitterness. Enjoy!

Faster option:
1. Crush the chuen pooi beans in between two spoons.

2. Add hot water and honey.

3. Let it sit for 5 minutes and enjoy!

Longer, more nourishing option – Chuen Pooi soup:
1. Rinse in water: two tablespoon of chuen pooi, one tablespoon of chinese north and south almonds, a few pieces of dried coconut meat, one cup of lean pork meat.

2. Blanch the pork meat.

3. Boil four to five cups of water.

4. Add in all the ingredients and bring to boiling point. Then reduce to medium heat and simmer for 2 hours. Enjoy!

Nourishing Chinese Soup to Clear Heat

Ingredients:
– melon (for clearing and cooling)
– dates (for sweet taste)
– dried goji (for improve eyesight)
– white chinese yam (for clear heat)
– pig thigh or lean pork
– dried lilies (for nourishing lungs)
– salt

Procedure:
1. Squeeze water out of the pork by soaking it in boiling water for 5 minutes.

2. Rinse the pork in cold water.

3. Throw all ingredients in a porcelain pot with water. Boil for 30 minutes and then reduce to medium heat.

4. Slow-cool for another 1.5 hours.

Original Soy-Sauce Chinese Stew

Typical Chinese stew – perfect for easy cooking, large gatherings and to mix with rice.. The sauce can be over and over and for any meat.

Ingredients

1 lb beef or chicken. Marinate with 2 – 4 teaspoon (depends on taste preference) each for the following ingredients: sugar, cooking wine, salt, sesame oil, oyster sauce, white pepper powder.

1 lb cubed vegetables (mushroom, radish, carrots, cabbage, fungus, etc.) [Tip: stir-fry in a wok for a few minutes to bring out the taste and give more texture]

Sauce

Pan-fried green onions and ginger with 2 tablespoon of Chu Hou Paste. [Tip: The Chu Hou Paste is the key ingredient for this stew sauce]

Add in 6 – 8 star anises.

2/3 cup soy sauce.

2 cups of boiling water.

Directions

Bring sauce to simmer. Add ingredients to sauce and cook with lid tightly covered and stirring the meat halfway through. After about 30 minutes, the meat should be very soft and ready to serve.

Easy Chicken Rice with the Rice Cooker

This is lazy and short-cut cooking chicken rice, cooked in the rice cooker. All you need to do is dump the ingredients in the rice cooker when the rice is about 80 per cent cooked, and then let the rice cooker do the rest of the work. The hardest marinating the chicken. Here’s how:

For two cups of chicken, use 1 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoon sugar, 2 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 tablespoon ling powder, 3 teaspoon oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon cooked oil, 3 teaspoon soy sauce, and 1/2 teaspoon rice wine. Mix chicken and ingredients well together and let it sit for about 15 minutes. The colour of the chicken should turn reddish-brown.

If you have have a bit more time to spare, you can add in dried scallop, vegetables, ginger and mushroom slices to make it even more flavourful!

Dragon Boat Festival and Legend of Zong (Glutinous Rice Dumpling)

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month of the Chinese Calendar. In Chinese, this day is called Duan-Wu Jie.

Legend says that this day is to commemorate a Chinese poet and official named Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan was an advisor in the court of Chu during the Warring States period of ancient China. Qu Yuan had proposed a strategic alliance with the state of Qi in order to fend off the threatening state of Qin, but the emperor did not believe him and sent Qu Yuan off to the wilderness. Unfortunately, Qu Yuan was right about the threat presented by the Qin, which soon captured and imprisoned the Chu emperor. The next Chu king surrendered the state to their rivals. Upon hearing the tragic news, Qu Yuan in 278 B.C. drowned himself in the Miluo River in Hunan Province.

His countrymen, upon learning of this tragedy, rushed to the scene in small boats and tried to find his body. They failed to find it, so they made the dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river so the fish would eat the dumplings and not Qu Yuan’s body. Later, it became a ritual to eat the zong on the anniversary of Qu Yuan’s death and to hold dragon boat races. Another reason for dragon boat races is because on the lunar calendar, May is the summer solstice period – a crucial time when rice seedlings were transplanted. The dragon is one of the most important mythical creatures in Chinese mythology, the dragon is the controller of the rain, the river, the sea, and all other kinds of water. The honour to the dragon gods was a ritual to prevent tragedy and encourage rainfall to ensure good harvests.

So what is zong? Zong is a big dumpling with stuffing wrapped inside glutinous rice. They come in many different shapes and with a variety of fillings. It can be a meal or a snack. Today, you can get them at the supermarket for about $1 each. Since it’s so cheap and requires so much effort to make, most people buy it. But traditional families may choose to give out homemade ones. So here are the five steps to make your own zong for your loved ones:

1. Prepare the bamboo leaves. Clean each bamboo leave thoroughly and soak them in lukewarm water overnight. The next morning, boil the leaves for about 30 minutes. This will ensure the leaves are soft and flexible and makes wrapping a lot easier.

2. Prepare the glutinous rice. Soak the glutinous rice in warm water for 30 minutes. Marinate the rice with 2.5 spoons of salt for 1 pack of glutinous rice.

3. Prepare the filling. The fillings can include red bean paste, sausages, mushrooms, peanuts, shrimp, scallops, curry, dates, meat, yolk of egg, etc. My grandma’s favourite is to include:

• pork belly marinated in 1 spoon salt, 2 teaspoon oyster sauce, 3 pinches of five-taste powder, 3 pinches of white pepper (based on 1 pound of meat)
  (Hint: they should also be in cube chunks cross-cutted for better texture)
• fresh chestnuts
• peeled green beans soaked for 30 minutes and then marinated with 1 spoon of salt
• duck egg yolks (cut the yolk in halves)
  (Hint: the egg white can be kept and used to make fuzzy squash soup)

4. Wrap the fillings in the bamboo leaves. The most popular shapes are triangular and pyramidal. In the photos below, we’ve used an easier method where two leaves are lined vertically together. Scoop some rice inside, then the meat, green beans, egg, chestnuts, and then more rice over on top. Lastly, put a third leaf on top of all the fillings and fold the leaves around the rice and secure the dumpling with twine.

(Hint: make sure the spine of the leaf is on the outside of the dumpling)

5. Simmer the zongs. Finally, simmer the zongs for about 2 – 3 hours, depending on the filling. Keep adding boiling water throughout. Once done, let cool. You can freeze the zongs and microwave them when ready to serve.

(Hint: Use a few leaves to line the pot. This ensure the rice doesn’t stick to the pot.)

Sewing Stitches

There are three stitches that I often use to hem the ends of pants, shirts, or holes. These are:

1. Buttonhole Stitch. This stitch is best to close up loose ends or for buttonholes. Double thread is used.
View the how-to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qh8YsrgHIw

2. “People” Stitch (because it looks like the people character in Chinese). This stitch is best to hem pants and hold the ends tight. Single thread is used.
View the how-to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3C13z_z_RQ

3. “One” Stitch (because it looks like the one character in Chinese). This is a quick and easy alternative to the “people” stitch that doesn’t hold together as tight. Single thread is used.
View the how-to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqJW_XdFZ-A