This Taiwanese popcorn chicken dish is called salt pepper chicken in Chinese (yan su ji).  It makes for a delicious snack or it can be served with rice for dinner.  My family used to order this every time we went to a particular Chinese restaurant in Markham, ON.  It was so good that we sometimes ordered two of them.  The best part of this dish is the garnish – deep fried thai basil leaves.  Even though I haven’t had it in a very long time, I still think about it from time to time.  So I finally got around to making it for myself.  In the authentic version, Asian five spice powder is dominant, but personally I prefer to reduce it.  Note:  This recipe was recently updated and improved!

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This is the simplest steamed whole chicken recipe.  Not only is it incredibly healthy, it results in meat that is moist, smooth, and tender.  Since this is served with flavourful dipping sauces, there is no need to pre-marinate the chicken, so it makes for an easy weeknight dinner.  The ginger scallion dip (recipe below) is also very healthy.  Update: Someone asked me how to steam cook a larger chicken – I recommend doing two or more rounds (as necessary) of steaming with the heat on followed by steaming with the heat off.

I can’t help but think of my family (and laugh) whenever I make this.  This almost never makes it to the table when my mom makes it for dinner.  I have to give her credit for being persistent;  She spent years trying to fight us off of the chicken while she prepared the other dishes.  Whenever her attention was diverted, the four of us would descend like savages and run off with large chunks of chicken.  She finally gave up a few years ago, and started steaming 2 chickens – one as an appetizer and one to last through dinner.  🙂 Read the rest of this entry »

In Chiu Chow (Chinese) cuisine, a master sauce is used to make many delicious dishes.  Foods that range from boiled eggs to pork belly and whole ducks are cooked in a pot of this sauce.  It is called lo sui / lu shui, which translates to “old water”.  In restaurants, once the sauce is made up in a pot, it never gets replaced, only replenished.  The juices from the meats that are cooked in the sauce get added back to the pot and more spices are added as needed.  Some restaurants are said to have used the same old water sauce for more than 75 years.  The sauce tastes better with age.  Keep in mind that it’s boiled frequently, so there are no concerns over bacteria.  To recreate this master sauce at home, you should store your sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  If you’re not using it regularly, then you should bring it to a boil for several minutes, once every three weeks.  Or you could freeze it.  I haven’t made my own lo sui / lu shui sauce from scratch yet.  Eventually I will.  Meanwhile, I use the store bought “Chinese Marinade” by the brand Lee Kum Kee as the base for my master sauce.  I love using this to make chicken or duck wings and the wings taste great cold too.

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Pineapple beef is a delicious and simple Cantonese (Chinese) dish.  We order this often at Magic Wok – one of our favourite restaurants in Markham, ON.  But it’s really easy to make at home; you just need a very good quality, ripe pineapple.  I made this dish again recently using an organic pineapple and my family and I agreed that it was the best pineapple we had ever had, and it made this dish incredibly tasty.  If you carve a pineapple boat (which is also really easy to do), this is the perfect dish to serve to guests.  Note that the pineapple bowl looks prettier if you keep the leaves on, but I was in too much of a rush when I was making this.  Just be careful when you’re cutting through the stem because it can be tricky and the leaves are sharp.  If you want more colour in this dish, you could cut half of a green pepper and half of a red pepper into chunks and add them to the wok shortly after you’ve started cooking the beef.

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This is incredibly easy to make and tastes just like the siu yuk (roast pork belly) that you buy at the Chinese restaurants and grocery stores.  I suggest buying the meat from an Asian grocery store because it is much much cheaper there.  Make sure you buy the boneless pork belly with the skin/rind on.  Pork side also works.  You want to choose a cut of meat that has an even thickness so that the rind cooks evenly, otherwise sections of the skin will burn.  But if this happens you can always scrape the burnt parts off with a knife before serving.  I tested three different methods of making crispy siu yuk.  The simplest method involved brushing oil onto the rind prior to baking; the second method involved brushing the skin with vinegar before drying it out in the fridge; and the third method involved scalding the rind with vinegar and boiling water prior to refrigeration.  From my experience, the rind that had been brushed with vinegar crackled the soonest.  Scalding the rind resulted in a very crunchy, but tough, skin.  I have posted the method that, in my opinion, was the best.

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This dish is called three cups because it is traditionally made with equal proportions of three main ingredients: soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine.  It is a one pot dish that is flavourful and very easy to make.  Although the authentic version has thai basil in it, I have also made this dish without it and it still tastes great.

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