Chicken Stir-Fry with Asparagus and Snow Peas, and My Thoughts on Carbon Steel Woks
May 11, 2010 by Andrea
Filed under Asian, Main Course, Poultry
My carbon steel wok is 13 years old and a treasured part of my kitchen gear. I found it for $5 on a clearance table and snapped it up, and that little bargain has proven invaluable over time. It wasn’t my first wok as I had given the nonstick woks a try, but after going through two of them and throwing them away due to peeling, I decided to go with carbon steel, which seasons over time similar to a good cast iron pan. It’s on the smallish side, about 12 inches across, but the size has been perfect for our family, up until recently. Read more
The Daring Cooks Make Chinese Dumplings and Potstickers
I remember first tasting Chinese dumplings and potstickers when I lived in Saipan, and I always liked ordering them in restaurants, but then I visited Hong Kong and southern China and got hooked. It was so fun to see the dim sum trays in the restaurants, taste different things, and try to figure out what was in all the fillings. Though I have enjoyed Chinese potstickers and dumplings all these years, I’ve never made them from scratch—getting bags of gyoza from Trader Joe’s is just too easy—so I felt a huge amount of excitement when I saw Jen of Use Real Butter had challenged the Daring Cooks to make her family’s recipe for Chinese dumplings and potstickers. Read more
Quick and Easy Mandarin Orange Chicken
Some of my favorite things to order at Chinese restaurants are the dishes I won’t make at home, basically anything battered and fried. I’m not lazy, I just don’t enjoy cleaning up the splattery mess I always seem to make when frying. Orange chicken is one of my favorites, but I always save it for eating out.
Helen Chen’s new book, Easy Chinese Stir-Fries, has a modified recipe that turns the classic battered and fried dish into a quick stir-fry. Some Chinese restaurants ruin orange chicken by making it overly sweet, but Chen’s version gives you orange flavor without all the sweetness. After tasting it the first time we decided we wanted more orange flavor in the sauce and started adding orange zest. I also like to use slivered fresh red jalapeno and used it as colorful garnish at the end rather than the dried chiles. Read more
Chicken Bok Choy
April 20, 2009 by Andrea
Filed under Asian, Poultry, Vegetables
Bok choy is one of my favorite types of cabbage because it’s both leafy and crispy, lending a nice mix of textures in a dish, and I like it stir-fried simply with chicken, garlic, and ginger. This time I tried Jaden’s technique for starting with a cold wok, which was totally contrary to any wokking I had done before, but I like it. The garlic and ginger infused the oil and imparted lots of flavor to the chicken and bok choy. I hardly ever measure ingredients when stir-frying, so the measurements below are an approximation.
Beef and Bell Pepper with Black Bean Sauce
October 30, 2007 by Andrea
Filed under Asian, Beef, Grow Your Own
As I have written in previous posts, I did not grow up with Asian food, and it wasn’t until I moved to Saipan for my first overseas teaching job in 1989 that I had any exposure to the real thing. The island was (and still is) populated with a mix of nationalities and there were a handful of Asian grocery stores around the island. The one closest to my house was in Chalan Piao right on Beach Road, and I remember going shopping there for the first time and feeling utterly bewildered when I looked at the food products. I was looking for a particular kind of Chinese noodles and some Chinese cooking sauces, but I couldn’t seem to figure out what products were Japanese vs Chinese vs Korean, so when I finally stumbled across a shelf that had Lee Kum Kee products with English labels, I was relieved and bought my first jar of Lee Kum Kee Black Bean Sauce.
That experience is how my Asian cooking and condiments love affair got started. I didn’t have a clue about any of the other ingredients in the store, I just knew that I had tasted a delicious beef and black bean sauce with noodles dish at Diamond Chinese Restaurant in Garapan and I wanted to learn how to make it myself. I still enjoy making the dish, and I was able to make it recently with the last of this year’s bell peppers from our garden. Read more
Chinese Beef and Broccoli with Tomato
I used to order this dish at China House Restaurant in Saipan, and the combination of flavors grabbed me. Admittedly this is an Americanized version of Chinese broccoli beef, but I like the extra layer of flavor the tomatoes add. Don’t add them too soon or cook them for too long; otherwise, they will turn to mush.
The key to making this dish successfully is to prep everything ahead of time. You’ll feel like you are on a cooking show with all the bowls of measured ingredients beside you, but it will help immensely because once you start stir-frying things move very quickly.
Preparation time depends on how long you want to marinate the beef, which can sit for 30 minutes or up to 3 hours. Freezing the beef for about 20 minutes prior to cutting will make it much easier to achieve very thin slices. Read more
