Tomato with Egg

I am very excited to introduce today's new dish, this dish is very special because this is a classic Chinese home cooked dish. In fact, it is probably one of the first dishes when someone wants to learn cooking in China. The reason this dish is so popular is because tomato and egg is a mouth watering combination and it is really easy to make. I still remember when my mom use to make this dish while I was little, and it was delicious over rice! This recipe came from Beijing chef Xu's website.



Serves 2

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
5 medium tomatoes
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

Tips:

1. Cut the tomato into pretty big chunks so they don't dissolve during cooking
2. Only beat the eggs couple times until the egg white just mixed into the yolk, but can still see the white and yellow color seperately, this way the eggs coming out will look prettier with two colors.
   

Instruction:

1. Cut the tomato into pretty big chunks and discard the tough core on the bottom
2. Beat the eggs
3. Heat 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a pot over high heat, when oil is hot but not smoking, put in the eggs and stir fry until it's not runny and you can smell the egg fragrance, put the eggs into a bowl
   
4. Heat 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a pot over high heat, when oil is hot near smoking point, put in the tomatoes and stir fry until you can smell the tomato fragrance about 2-4 minutes.
5. Mix in the eggs, salt and sugar
6. Put on the lid, simmer over low heat for 2-3 minutes, then change to high heat and cook for 1 minute
7. Taste test to see if it needs more sugar or salt, then serve
   

Chicken with Spicy Sauce

Sichuan Provence in China is known for its spicy, numbing and flavorful dishes. Like I promised yesterday, here is a recipe that will use up the other half of our cooked chicken. I really like the simple steps to create this dish and the chicken comes out salty, sweet and spicy. This recipe and the chili oil comes from the cookbook "Land of Plenty", which is written in English.



Serves 4

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients:
Half of a cooked chicken, about 2 pounds, cooled
1 teaspoon salt
8-10 scallions, white part only, thinly sliced
2 tablespoon and 2 teaspoon white sugar
6 tablespoon light soy sauce
6-12 tablespoons chili oil with chili flakes or store-bought chili oil
4 teaspoons sesame oil
1-2 teaspoon ground roasted Sichuan pepper (optional)

Tips:

1. The chili oil adds a smooth texture and a fiery flavor to the chicken, if you can't find chili oil in your local store, here is a recipe to make it at home.
2. If you don't have cooked chicken on hand, please cook the chicken according to my earlier post Cold Cut Chicken
   

Instruction:

1. Cut the chicken into slices and sprinkle with salt and ground Sichuan pepper if using.
   
2. In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar into the soy sauce, then add the chili oil and sesame oil.
3. Put the chicken slices, scallion slices and sauce in a large serving bowl, mix well and serve.

Chili Oil:
Makes 1 pint

1/2 cup chile flakes
2 cups peanut or corn oil

1. Put the chili flakes into a glass jar with lids.
2. Heat the oil over high heat until smoking
3. Remove oil from heat, let it cool for about 10 minutes, to 225-250 degrees. Pour onto the chilies, and stir couple times. Put lid on the jar and store it in a cool, shady place.

Cold Cut Chicken

This is a famous Cantonese dish, the finishing chicken comes out light, with tender meat and crispy skin. The dip for the chicken is packed with flavor which kicks the chicken up another notch. This recipe comes from Cantonese chef Hu's online posts.



Serves 4

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
A whole chicken, about 4-5 pounds
2 tablespoon finely sliced scallion
2 tablespoon finely diced ginger
8 tablespoon peanut oil or olive oil
salt to taste, about 1/2-1 tablespoon
20 cubes of ice


Tips:

1. If there are left over chicken, there is another spicy dip that can be made to change things up a bit.
2. The finer dice of the scallion and ginger, the better. Just make sure they are sliced/diced and not chopped, as chopping would make them mushy.
3. It is very important to have the right water temperature when cooking the chicken, because we want to simmer the chicken so it has a tender texture.

Instruction:

1. In a deep soup pot that will fit a whole chicken. Put in enough water that can cover the whole chicken, bring to a boil over high heat. While water is boiling, clean the chicken, if using a whole chicken, take out the necks and organs from chicken cavity, you can keep them if you like. When water is boiling, submerge the chicken into the water. Cover, bring the water back to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for about 40-50 minutes.
2. The water now should be around 175 to 185 degrees, another way to tell is there will be bubbles lazily rise to the surface. If using a whole chicken, every 15 minutes while simmering, take the chicken out of the water, and quickly dump the water inside chicken's cavity back in the pot, then put the chicken back in the pot. This is to help to keep the temperature inside and outside of the chicken the same.
   
3. The chicken is done when cutting through the thickest part of the chicken thigh and the meat inside is no longer pink.
4. While chicken is cooking, prepare the dip. Put the prepared green onion and ginger in a small bowl, add in salt to taste. Heat oil in a wok to 175 degrees over high heat and let it cool for a minute then pour it on top of the green onion and ginger.
5. During the last couple minutes of cooking, put ice and enough cold water to submerge the chicken in a deep bowl/pot.
6. When chicken is done, put chicken into the ice bath and run cold water on it until chicken is cold. Cut up the chicken and serve it with the dip on the side. Taste test with a small piece of chicken with the dip to see if more salt is needed.
   

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
   

Red Radish Salad

Red radish is not a common vegetable on our dinner table, but after trying this family recipe, I think radish will be visit our dinner table more often, especially during the summer months. The outcome of this dish is sweet and sour in flavor. It is light and healthy, and it also helps that red radish are cheap, it is like 45 cents for a bunch at my local grocery store.


The above photo was borrowed from Chee Wei's website. Doesn't it look nice?

Red Radish Salad

Serves 2

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Ready in: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
1 bunch red radish about 10 radishs, trimmed of leaves and washed
2 tablespoon white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
2 tablespoon sugar

Instruction:

1. Sliced the radish into thin slices
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix the radish slices with the vinegar and sugar well
   
3. Let it stand for 15 minutes, turn the radish 2-3 times in between to let the marinate coat evenly then serve
   

Tomato Salad

We have a small vegetable garden with tomatoes and peppers. My fiancee is in charge of it and she has been doing such a great job. The tomatoes looks and tastes really good. Since our tomato supplies are pretty plentiful, this simple salad comes in handy to enjoy our fruit of labor.

Tomato Salad

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Ready in: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
3 medium sized vine-ripen tomato cored and cut into wedges
1 tablespoon of sugar

Instruction:

1. Mix the tomato with the sugar in a bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes then serve.