Posts Tagged ‘Chinese food’
Chinese food, food, recipes
In Dim Sum, Meat and Eggs on March 10, 2010 at pm
Steamed 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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, gluten-free, recipes
In Seafood on March 8, 2010 at pm
Curry 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.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Asian food, Chinese food, food, gluten-free, recipes, Vietnamese food
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, gluten-free, recipes
In Meat and Eggs on March 3, 2010 at pm
I 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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, gluten-free, recipes, vegan, vegetarian
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, recipes
In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Asian, Breads, Breakfast, Desserts, How-To, Main Course on February 24, 2010 at pm
I 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.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, gluten-free, recipes
In Seafood on February 23, 2010 at pm
In Chinese cooking, white fish are often steamed whole (in restaurants and in peoples’ homes). Steaming fish until it’s Just cooked is incredibly easy, healthy, and gives you a Very moist fish. It’s my favourite way to eat fish. By the way, the cheeks are the best part of the fish so you should definitely try it if you haven’t already.
Note that the fish in the picture below is missing its head. Normally the fish is steamed whole, but when I caught this fish ice fishing at the Winterlude Festival in Ottawa, Ontario, the people running the event gutted the fish and removed the head.
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, recipes
In Meat and Eggs on February 22, 2010 at pm
Hoisin sauce is a very popular Chinese sauce that goes really well with chicken, pork, or beef. It is also the dipping sauce for peking duck and deep fried dough sticks wrapped in rice noodle. I use it on baked pork ribs more than anything else. Although marinating the ribs makes the meat more flavourful, the hoisin sauce has enough flavour that you really don’t have to. So this is the perfect quick and ridiculously easy meal that doesn’t require any pre-planning and only requires 2 ingredients. I make this often for guests too, because I’ve yet to meet someone who didn’t like them. If you don’t like/eat pork, hoisin baked chicken is really good too. When asked what he wanted me to make for Valentine’s Day dinner, 2011, Ed requested these hoisin ribs. 🙂
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, gluten-free, recipes
In Asian Desserts on February 14, 2010 at pm
Other than being Valentine’s Day, February 14 was the first day of Chinese New Year, 2010. During the 15 day celebration, people traditionally make and/or eat tong yuen (tang yuan), which are sweet glutinous dumplings that are filled with a sweet black sesame paste. They are boiled and served in hot water.
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, recipes
In Dim Sum on February 9, 2010 at pm
I love dim sum and I was ecstatic when I started making it successfully 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.)
Siu mai is one of the simplest ones to make. You can make a large batch at once because they freeze nicely.
Below left: Siu Mai after being cooked.
Below right: Siu Mai before going into the steamer.
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, recipes
In Dim Sum on February 2, 2010 at pm
I never thought that I would be able to make chinese dim sum from scratch. I am so glad that I tried 🙂 because I love love love shrimp dumplings (ha gow) and now I can enjoy it without the MSG. 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.)
Ha gow (shrimp dumplings) are a bit time consuming to make but you can make large batches and freeze them. Photo instructions for how to wrap ha gow are at the bottom.
Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese food, food, recipes
In Dim Sum on February 2, 2010 at am
Chinese steamed buns are such great snacks and are often eaten at brunch or lunch. These are really simple to make and although slightly time consuming, you can make large batches and freeze them. I think it’s worth the effort to make these from scratch because the frozen ones, although delicious, contain MSG, preservatives and too much sodium. You can buy pre-mixed steamed bun flour or you can make the buns from scratch; instructions for both have been provided below. Photo instructions for how to pleat steamed buns are at the bottom.
Photos Below: Left – Pork steamed buns after coming out of the steamer; Right – Before going on the rack in the steamer
Read the rest of this entry »
Cooking with Alison 