Steamed egg (or water egg) is a Cantonese dish that is served with rice alongside other dishes at dinner. It is a very light dish that is incredibly quick and easy to make. There are many variations that include combinations of dried scallops, dried shrimp, minced pork, soy sauce, and green onions. But my favourite variation is the three colour dish (referring to the three different types of eggs used). Note that the texture of the eggs in this dish is very soft, silky, and slightly watery. The flavour comes from the salted duck egg and preserved duck egg (also known as century old egg).
Archive for the ‘Asian’ Category
Claypot Rice
In Rice and Noodle Dishes on March 15, 2010 at pmYou can make one pot meals using Chinese clay pots. These rice dishes are some of my favourite foods. When done right, the bottom layer of rice is crispy and the top layer is beautifully flavoured with the juices from the meat and other toppings.
Mongolian Beef
In Meat and Eggs on March 14, 2010 at pmI have to admit that this is the only Mongolian dish that I make and other than Mongolian grill, I don’t know much about the cuisine. Eventually, I’ll cook my way through more Mongolian food, I’m sure. I like the sauce of this beef dish because it has a subtle sweetness to it that differs from other Chinese beef dishes.
Thai Green Curry with Eggplant and Bamboo Shoots
In Other Asian Foods on March 12, 2010 at pmThai green curry is spicier than the red and yellow curries. (See my Thai Red Curry post.) I know this green curry doesn’t look very appetizing – in fact, I served it as “swamp sludge” at a Halloween party once 😉 – but it’s my personal favourite thai dish. Sometimes I make this vegetarian and it’s the only vegetarian dish that doesn’t leave me craving meat. I ate the eggplant and bamboo shoot green curry dish at a local Thai and Cambodian restaurant every day for about a month before I finally stopped being lazy and figured out how to make it myself. Thai curries are incredibly easy to make at home and, like a Chinese stir fry, you can use any combination of meat and vegetables you happen to have on hand. These freeze well too.
Steamed Spareribs with Black Bean Sauce
In Dim Sum, Meat and Eggs on March 10, 2010 at pmSteamed spareribs is a dim sum dish, but it also makes a great meal when served with rice. It is very easy to make at home. Dim sum refers to various types of small dishes that are served with tea during the meal, yum cha (“drinking tea time”), which starts early in the morning and ends between noon and 3 pm, depending on the restaurant. (Check out the other dim sum recipes that I have posted in the Asian – Dim Sum category.)
This recipe uses Chinese fermented black beans (douchi) which have a sharp smell and a unique salty flavour that is also slightly bitter. They are used to make black bean sauce (which can be purchased in stores) that is used in some Chinese noodle dishes, chicken stir fries, bitter melon dishes, and steamed pork spareribs, to name a few.
Hong Kong Curry
In Seafood on March 8, 2010 at pmCurry fish balls are a Very popular street food in Hong Kong that are usually served on wooden skewers. This is a mild, yellow curry. At dim sum, you can get curried squid or baby octopus.
Dim sum refers to various types of small dishes that are served with tea during the meal, yum cha (“drinking tea time”), which starts early in the morning and ends between noon and 3 pm, depending on the restaurant. (Check out the other dim sum recipes that I have posted in the Asian – Dim Sum category.)
Vietnamese Pho Tai (Beef Noodle Soup)
In Asian, Rice and Noodle Dishes, Soups on March 6, 2010 at pm
I love Pho Tai – Vietnamese rare beef and noodles in soup. But I’m too often disappointed by the unauthentic, MSG and chicken broth, cheap imitations that most restaurants serve. So I finally decided to try making it myself. I can’t even describe how excited I was when I tried the Pho recipe from the cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen. I could tell from the smell of the broth, even before I tasted it, that I had found the perfect recipe. This is an authentic, delicious, and easy to make broth that is so good, that I’ll never be compelled to order Pho from a restaurant again. If you have leftover daikon radish, see here for a list of other recipes.
Tomato Eggs
In Meat and Eggs on March 3, 2010 at pmI love eating eggs for dinner and Chinese people have several simple egg dishes that are served with rice alongside other dishes for dinner.
Picture below from top moving clockwise: tomato eggs, shrimp and garlic shoots stir fry, hot and sour soup, mongolian beef. See the Asian category for the rest of the recipes.
Udon Noodles, Broth and Panko Crusted Chicken
In Meat and Eggs, Rice and Noodle Dishes on March 2, 2010 at pm
Udon noodles: This was my first time making any sort of pasta from scratch and it was surprisingly easy. Since Japanese udon noodles are supposed to be thick (4 – 8 mm) and chewy, no machinery was required to make this. I plan to eventually buy the pasta making attachments for my stand mixer, so one day I’ll make italian pasta from scratch too.
Udon broth: My favourite way to eat udon noodles is in Japanese broth. However, I am often disappointed with the unauthentic broth variations served at most restaurants and I don’t like using powdered soup mixes because of the MSG, excess sodium and preservatives. So I was Very excited to see an authentic dashi recipe on the Rasa Malaysia food blog provided by a Japanese guest writer. Dashi is a type of Japanese stock that is usually seafood based, using ingredients such as shaved bonito (a type of fish) flakes and kombu (kelp). Unlike chicken or beef stocks, dashi takes only minutes to make. It is a basic soup recipe to which you can add whatever ingredients you like (see variation suggestions in the recipe below).
Hot and Sour Soup
In Asian, Soups, Soups and Salads on February 27, 2010 at pm
Hot and sour soup originated in Szechuan, a region in China. It’s one of my sister’s favourite foods and unfortunately, it’s incredibly difficult to find a restaurant that serves a truly authentic (and delicious) hot and sour soup. Luckily, it’s very easy to make at home. My family loves it when I make this soup and they can’t get enough of it. 🙂 You could easily make this a vegetarian or vegan soup by omitting the pork and egg, and by using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.
Thai Red Curry
In Other Asian Foods on February 26, 2010 at pmThai red curry is spicier than yellow curry but milder than the green (link to my green curry recipe here). These are incredibly easy to make and like Chinese stir fries, you can pretty much throw in any meat and/or vegetables that you happen to have around. I like to make these with chicken and at least 2 types of differently coloured vegetables. Personally, my favourite thing to put into a thai red curry is fresh Japanese enoki mushrooms. This curry is great when made to be vegetarian/vegan too.
How to Steam Cook Food
In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Asian, Breads, Breakfast, Desserts, How-To, Main Course on February 24, 2010 at pmI received a comment asking for pictures of my steaming equipment and technique. So here I show you how I steam food, I discuss other methods of steaming, and I go into detail about the steaming equipment that you’ll need for each method.
Steaming food is very commonly done in Chinese cooking. It’s a very healthy way of cooking as it maintains a lot of the nutrients in vegetables and reduces the amount of oil that you use. It results in tender veggies and moist and juicy meats. I steam cook vegetables, dumplings, whole chickens and fish, pork spareribs, a specific Chinese egg dish, etc. (You can do a search for some of these recipes on my website.)
Cooking with Alison 