Sweet and Sour Prawns

Posted on May 12, 2012 by bilrob

Sweet and Sour Prawns

Are you like us, and have half bags of things in the freezer that have been there for months but you don’t want to throw them away? We always have prawns in our freezer. Whether they are peeled cooked prawns or whole prawns in boxes. After we have used a handful, they go back in the freezer for another time. We are always on the lookout for good recipes to use them up.

This is one such recipe, that is not only delicious, but of restaurant standard of presentation. It uses Tender succulent prawns, with a hint of ginger and garlic, coated in a light, crisp golden batter and served with a delicious tangy sweet and sour sauce and egg fried rice. This dish is quick and easy to cook and makes an excellent supper dish – or dinner party starter.

Sweet & Sour Prawns recipe

2 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp dry sherry
2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 in/2.5 cm piece root ginger
1-2 garlic cloves
3-4 spring onions
1 Ib/450 g peeled prawns, thawed if frozen

FOR THE SAUCE:
1/2 small red pepper
1/2 small green pepper
1 carrot
1/4 pint/150 ml fish stock
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp clear honey
1 tbsp tomato purée
1-2 tsp cornflour

FOR THE BATTER:
5 tbsp cornflour
2 eggs, size 5, beaten
oil for deep fat frying

Mix the soy sauce, sherry and oil together in a medium-sized glass bowl. Peel and finely grate the root ginger, peel and crush the garlic. Trim the spring onions, wash well, dry, then chop finely. Add the ginger, garlic and spring onions to the bowl and mix well.

Dry the prawns thoroughly, add to the bowl and stir well. Cover and chill for at least 1 hr, turning occasionally.

To make the sauce, cut tops off the peppers, discard seeds and pith, then cut into thin strips. Peel carrot, slice thinly, cut into thin strips. Place in a small bowl, pour boiling water over, leave for 5 minutes, then drain.

Mix the stock, soy sauce, vinegar, honey and tomato puree together in a small saucepan, bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Mix the cornflour to a paste with 2 tsp of water, stir into the pan and cook until thickened. Add the drained pepper and carrot strips, stir well then leave on one side.

To make the batter, sift the cornflour into a mixing bowl, add the eggs and beat well until smooth. Drain prawns then place small amounts in the batter and coat well. Heat the oil in a deep fat fryer to 350°F, 180°C. Drop small spoonful’s of the coated prawns into the batter and fry for 4-5 minutes until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper, and repeat with remaining prawns. Warm the sauce through, then pour a little over the cooked prawns. Serve remaining sauce with rice, to accompany prawns.

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Mongolian Hot Pot

Posted on March 26, 2012 by bilrob

Mongolian Hot Pot

Mongolian Hot Pot, Chinese Steamboat — the dish has many names — which all add up to a fun way of cooking for a small party. The cooking vessel can be purchased in Chinese food stores. If you have a fondue set, this makes a good substitute. Or if you have an electric frying pan or pizza pan, this is ideal for making the Mongolian Hot Pot Heat the chicken stock before pouring it into the fondue pot.

The hot pot is set in the centre of the table, guests add their own choice of food to the simmering stock. Small strainers, shown in picture, are for lifting the food from the stock into individual small bowls. When all the food has been eaten, the stock — which has now been transformed into a delicious soup — forms the last course.

Accompaniments set around the pot, from which guests help themselves, could be chosen from any of the following: soy sauce, chilli sauce, hoi sin sauce, sesame sauce, barbecue sauce or lemon sauce (all available in small bottles from most large supermarkets or Chinese food stores). Grated green ginger mixed with a little sugar and dry white wine, is a good accompaniment. Also have a large bowl of steamed rice.

TO PREPARE THE HOT POT:

Use heat beads available for use in barbecues. The beads must be set alight, then burnt until white hot; the best way to do this is in a barbecue or hibachi. While the heat beads are burning, stand the hot pot on a thick piece of solid wood to protect the surface on which the pot stands. Using tongs, quickly place the white hot beads down the chimney of the hot pot, then pour the boiling stock into
the pot.

YOU WILL NEED:

250g (8oz) piece fillet steak
2 pork fillets
2 whole chicken breasts
2 large bream fillets
500g (1lb) green king prawns
240g can bamboo shoots
1 carrot
125g (4oz) bean sprouts
125g (4oz) snow peas
425g can baby corn
24 oysters in the shell or one large bottle oysters
1/2 Chinese cabbage
125g (4oz) bean curd
425g can straw mushrooms
185g (6oz) vermicelli

CHICKEN STOCK:

3 chicken backs (or other chicken pieces)
2 1/2 litres (10 cups) water
3 chicken stock cubes
1 medium onion
5cm (2in) piece green ginger
1 stick celery
salt
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
4 shallots

1. Prepare meat and fish. Remove all fat and sinew from steak, wrap in plastic food wrap, place in freezer for one hour or until meat is very firm. With very sharp knife or cleaver, cut meat into 3mm (1/8in) slices. Remove all fat and sinew from pork fillet, wrap in plastic food wrap, place in freezer for one hour or until meat is firm; cut as for beef fillet. Remove skin from chicken meat; cut chicken meat from each side of breast bone, giving two pieces of meat; repeat with remaining breast. Cut meat into thin slices. Remove skin and bones from fish fillets. Cut fillets into 5cm x 5mm (2in x 1/4in) slices. Shell prawns, remove back vein; if large, cut in two lengthwise. Remove oysters from shell or drain bottled oysters.

2. Prepare vegetables. Wash cabbage, drain well, cut into 4cm (1 ½ in) pieces. Cut bean curd into 5mm (1/4 in) slices. Drain bamboo shoots, slice thinly. Halve mushrooms. Slice peeled carrot thinly, wash bean sprouts, top and tail snow peas, drain corn.

3. An electric hot pot (which simplifies the preparation) or a large electric fry pan can be used. However, many people still have the hot pot which is fired by charcoal.

4. Make the chicken stock, Place chicken pieces, water, crumbled stock cubes, chopped celery, sliced ginger and peeled and sliced onion in pan. Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer covered 2 hours, strain stock, return stock to pan, add salt, sesame oil and chopped shallots on top.

Chinese with Bill & Sheila

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STEAMED DUMPLINGS

Posted on March 26, 2012 by bilrob

STEAMED DUMPLINGS

Dumplings are cooked balls of dough. They are based on flour, potatoes or bread, and may include meat, fish, vegetables, or sweets. They may be cooked by boiling, steaming, simmering, frying, or baking. They may have a filling, or there may be other ingredients mixed into the dough. Dumplings may be sweet or spicy. They can be eaten by themselves, in soups or stews, with gravy, or in any other way. While some dumplings resemble solid water boiled doughs, such as gnocchi, others such as wontons resemble meatballs with a thin dough covering.

Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. Dim sum is also well known for the unique way it is served in some restaurants, wherein fully cooked and ready-to-serve dim sum dishes are carted around the restaurant for customers to choose their orders while seated at their tables.

Recipes for steamed dumplings

Soft light pastry encases tasty fillings in these treats. We have made 5 fillings and 2 dipping sauces, and we show you how to shape the dumplings in diferent ways.

Fillings and dipping sauces can be made a day ahead, cover and refrigerate them.

The pastry is best made close to assembling, and dumplings must be cooked just before serving.
Each filling makes enough for 24 dumplings. Dumplings are not suitable to freeze; fillings are suitable
to microwave.

BASIC PASTRY
1 cup (150g) plain flour
1/4 cup (35g) cornflour
1 cup (250ml) water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons sesame oil

1. Sift flours into medium bowl. Combine water and vegetable oil in small pan, bring to boil, pour over flours, stirring quickly with a wooden spoon to mix to a sticky dough.

2. Knead dough briefly on lightly floured baking paper until smooth. Divide dough into 5 portions; wrap each portion in plastic. Roll each portion between sheets of baking paper until about 1mm thick (pastry should be paper thin, almost see-through). Cut 4 x 9 cm rounds from each portion of
dough. Re-roll all scraps, cut 4 more 9cm rounds. Drop rounded teaspoons of filling into centres of rounds.

3. Crescents: Fold rounds over to enclose filling and make crescents; press edges together to seal. Using fingers, crimp edges.

4. Pouches: Gather dough around filling and twist to seal. For a variation, turn dumpling upside down so the twist becomes the base.

5. Pockets: Using both hands, pinch rounds together as shown; press edges together.

6. Line a large bamboo steamer with baking paper. Place dumplings in batches in steamer, brush lightly with sesame oil, cover, steam over wok or pan of simmering water about 10 minutes or until pastry is translucent. Serve with dipping sauces.

FILLINGS

DUCK AND BLACK BEAN
250g Chinese barbecued duck
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 green shallots, finely chopped
80g mushrooms, finely chopped
2 tablespoons black bean sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon sugar

Discard skin and bones from duck, chop meat finely (you need 1 cup meat). Heat oil in small pan, add garlic, shallots and mushrooms, cook, stirring, until mushrooms are soft. Stir in remaining ingredients, cook, stirring, 2 minutes; cool.

PRAWN AND BOK CHOY
2 teaspoons peanut oil
2 green shallots, finely chopped
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/2 small (35g) carrot, finely grated
2 teaspoons chopped fresh coriander leaves
2 tablespoons canned bamboo
shoots, finely chopped
1 small (50g) bok choy, finely shredded
300g uncooked medium prawns, shelled, finely chopped

Heat oil in small pan, add shallots, ginger, carrot, coriander and bamboo shoots, cook, stirring, about 2 minutes or until carrot is tender. Add bok choy, cook, stirring, until just wilted; cool. Combine prawns with vegetable mixture; mix well.

BEAN CURD AND MUSHROOM
3 Chinese dried mushrooms
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 green shallot, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
10 (55g) canned straw mushrooms, finely chopped
1/4 cup (40g) canned drained baby corn, finely chopped
1/4 cup (40g) canned drained water chestnuts, finely chopped
50g firm bean curd (tofu), drained, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Place mushrooms in small heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water, stand 20 minutes. Drain mushrooms, discard stems, chop caps finely. Heat oil in pan, add all ingredients, cook, stirring, about 3 minutes; cool.

PORK AND CABBAGE
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons cornflour
1/4 cup (60ml) water
1 tablespoon Light soy sauce
4 (125g) Chinese cabbage leaves, finely shredded
250g minced pork

Heat oil in pan, add garlic and ginger, cook, stirring, until fragrant. Add blended cornflour and water, and sauce, stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens. Add cabbage, cook, stirring, until just wilted; cool. Combine vegetable mixture with pork; mix well.

CHICKEN AND PEANUT
2 Chinese dried mushrooms
1 tablespoon dried shrimp
1/2 stick (55g) celery, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped unsalted roasted peanuts
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 green shallot, finely chopped
1 teaspoon hoisin sauce
150g minced chicken

Place mushrooms and shrimp in separate small heatproof bowls, cover with boiling water, stand 20 minutes; drain. Discard stems from mushrooms, chop caps finely. Chop shrimp finely. Combine
mushrooms and shrimp in bowl with remaining ingredients; mix well.

DIPPING SAUCES for dumplings

HONEY CORIANDER SAUCE
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 cup (60mI) chicken stock
2 teaspoons chopped fresh coriander leaves
1/2 small fresh red chilli, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients in small bowl; mix well.

BLACK BEAN SAUCE
1 tablespoon black bean sauce
pinch five spice powder
1/3 cup (80ml) chicken stock
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
2 green shallots, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients in small bowl; mix well.

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Peking Duck

Posted on March 26, 2012 by bilrob

Peking Duck

Peking Duck, or Peking Roast Duck is a famous duck dish from Beijing that has been prepared since the imperial era, and is now considered one of China’s national foods.

The dish is prized for the thin, crisp skin, with authentic versions of the dish serving mostly the skin and little meat, sliced in front of the diners by the cook. Ducks bred specially for the dish are slaughtered after 65 days and seasoned before being roasted in a closed or hung oven. The meat is eaten with pancakes, spring onions, and hoisin sauce or sweet bean sauce. The two most notable restaurants in Beijing which serve this delicacy are Quanjude and Bianyifang, two centuries-old establishments which have become household names.

Duck has been roasted in China since the Southern and Northern Dynasties. A variation of roast duck was prepared for the Emperor of China in the Yuan Dynasty. The dish, originally named “Shaoyazi”, was mentioned in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages manual in 1330 by Hu Sihui an inspector of the imperial kitchen. The Peking Roast Duck that came to be associated with the term was fully developed during the later Ming Dynasty, and by then, Peking Duck was one of the main dishes on imperial court menus. The first restaurant specialising in Peking Duck, Bianyifang, was established in the Xianyukou, Qianmen area of Beijing in 1416.
By the Qianlong Period (1736–1796) of the Qing Dynasty, the popularity of Peking Duck spread to the upper classes, inspiring poetry from poets and scholars who enjoyed the dish. For instance, one of the verses ofDuan Zhu Zhi Ci, a collection of Beijing poems was, “Fill your plates with roast duck and suckling pig” In 1864, the Quanjude restaurant was established in Beijing. Yang Quanren the founder of Quanjude, developed the hung oven to roast ducks. With its innovations and efficient management, the restaurant became well known in China, introducing the Peking Duck to the rest of the world.

By the mid-20th century, Peking Duck had become a national symbol of China, favored by tourists and diplomats alike. For example, Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State of the United States, met Premier Zhou Enlai in the Great Hall of the People on July 10, during his first visit to China. After a round of inconclusive talks in the morning, the delegation was served Peking Duck for lunch, which became Kissinger’s favourite. The Americans and Chinese issued a joint statement the following day, inviting President Richard Nixon to visit China in 1972. Peking Duck was hence considered one of the factors behind the rapprochement of the United States to China in the 1970s. Following Zhou’s death in 1976, Kissinger paid another visit to Beijing to savour Peking Duck. Peking Duck, at the Quanjude in particular, has also been a favourite dish for various political leaders ranging from Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro to former German chancellor Helmut Kohl.

PEKING DUCK with panckes

We used the more fleshy Muscovy duck in this recipe.

2kg duck
1/4 cup (60ml) honey, warmed
1 small (160g) Lebanese cucumber
8 green shallots

PANCAKES
1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 cup (180mI) boiling water

SAUCE
1/3 cup (80ml) hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons chicken stock
1 tablespoon plum sauce

1. Wash duck, drain well. Tie string around neck of duck. Lower duck into large pan of boiling water for 20 seconds, remove from pan, drain well; pat dry with absorbent paper. Tie string to a refrigerator shelf and suspend duck, uncovered, over drip tray overnight. Remove duck from refrigerator, suspend duck in front of cold air from an electric fan about 2 hours or until skin is dry to the touch.

2. Tuck wings under duck. Place duck breast side up on wire rack in large baking dish, brush entire duck evenly with honey. Bake, uncovered, in moderate oven 30 minutes, turn duck, reduce heat to slow, bake, uncovered, about 1 hour or until tender.

5. Place duck on chopping board, remove skin, place skin in single layer on wire rack over oven tray. Bake skin, uncovered, in moderate oven about 10 minutes or until crisp and browned; slice skin. Slice duck meat. Remove cucumber seeds. Cut cucumber and shallots into thin 8cm strips. To serve, top warm pancakes with duck meat, crisp skin, cucumber, shallots and sauce, roll, eat with fingers.

4. Pancakes: Sift flour and sugar into large bowl, add water, stir quickly with wooden spoon until ingredients cling together. Knead dough on floured surface about 10 minutes or until smooth. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, stand 30 minutes at room temperature.

5. Divide dough into 16 pieces. Roll a piece into a 16cm round. Heat small heavy-based frying pan, dry-fry pancake about 10 seconds on each side or until very lightly browned. Repeat with remaining dough. Wrap cooked pancakes in foil as they are cooked to prevent drying out. lf necessary, pancakes can be reheated in a bamboo steamer or microwave oven. Line steamer with a cloth, place pancakes in single layer on cloth, steam over simmering water about 2 minutes or until pancakes are heated through.

Sauce: Combine all ingredients in small bowl, mix well.
Serves 4.

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RedFarm's Ed Schoenfeld Talks Dumplings, History Of Chinese Food In NYC

Posted on December 11, 2011 by bilrob

Chinese

Photo via Ed Schoenfeld’s Twitter/ Evan Sung

RedFarm’s Ed Schoenfeld Talks Dumplings, History Of Chinese Food In NYC

Ed Schoenfeld may not be a household name, but to anyone who’s paid attention to the city’s dining scene over the past 40 years, he certainly is. “Eddie Glasses,” as he’s nicknamed, is one the city’s (really, the country’s) preeminent food experts, particularly in Chinese cuisine, and he’s made a career for himself since the ’70s as a restaurateur/host/consultant/food-world insider of formidable authority. Schoenfeld’s first taste of fame was for running the front of the house at the four-starred Uncle Tais Hunan Yuan on the Upper East Side in 1973, and over the years he’s been involved with everyplace from Shun Lee to Chinatown Brasserie. Years ago, Gourmet magazine dubbed him “the curator of Chinese food in America,” and it still holds true today.

Most recently, Schoenfeld’s been in the spotlight with RedFarm, his new and ragingly popular West Village restaurant with chef Joe Ng. We sat down for dinner with the gregarious, opinionated, and impressively candid restaurateur to talk about everything from the history of Chinese food in America to his family. What we’ve printed below is a small selection of our two-hour meal, which was filled with enough food to feed a small army, and enough interruptions from well-wishers and passerby to exhaust even the most seasoned celebrity. Here’s a small taste of what it’s like to eat with Eddie.

How did you first get interested in Chinese food and decide to pursue it as a career? As a kid growing up in the city in an intellectual, middle class family, my parents never went out to a French restaurant. And being a New York Jew, we would go eat Chinese food all the time. I had realized early on, when I was a little kid, I loved going to restaurants. I loved eating. So I thought it would really be fun to have a career like that. I started pursuing food in a thoughtful kind of self teaching pedantic way when I was about 16 or 17. And I decided to start taking cooking lessons, when I was about 18 or 19—

[Answer interrupted by the arrival of steamed vegetable and chive dumplings]—[Pointing to garnish] This is the tip of a flowering chive, as opposed to a garlic chive. When a plant bolts it grows quickly and develops a plant or a flower. So this is a chive that bloted. When a garlic chive bolts, the stem becomes crunchy and crispy, when a regular chive bolts the stem becomes woody and inedible. So in Chinese cooking, flowering garlic chives are a really unique vegetable. Something you don’t see so often.

Anyway, to get myself educated in Chinese food in particular I started setting up Chinese dinner parties at different restaurants throughout the city. At the time I was going to NYU, but when I was 20 I dropped out to support my cooking habit. I started driving a taxi to support myself.

So how did you end up working in restaurants? Well, through these parties, I met a lot of restauranteurs and I became friendly with one of them and made a joke to him that if he ever wanted to hire a nice Jewish boy he should call me. Six months later he called me up and I became his assistant and we did the opening of Uncle Tais Hunan Yuan, the first Hunan restaurant in the United States. I was 22 or 23 years old.

To run a four star restaurant in New York, the kind of clientele you get is kind of amazing. We had crazy customers, iconic people. When Norman Mailer came in, who looked like a crazy guy, they stuck him near kitchen like was he a street person. When Warhol came in, they had no idea what to make of that. The whole Sulzberger family who owned the New York Times, really big time people. Jackie Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty, Tennessee Williams, Lillian Harmon. For me it was enormous fun. I really loved that.

A spread at RedFarm (Courtesy Red Farm)

Do you think that New Yorkers have a different relationship with Chinese food than other Americans do? I think yes and no. I think that when I started in the business, Chinese food was the exciting Asian food. We had all these chefs coming into the country in the ’60s and that’s when we started getting all this authentic Szechuan and Hunan food. We moved away from Cantonese-American food. Szechuan food exploded and spread like wildfire.

Do you think the average diner recognizes the variation? Or are they just like, “that’s Chinese food”? Chinese food became so popular that it morphed into the main home replacement meal. There’s this enormous appetite for delivery and take-out. For the last 40 years people have been ordering in Chinese and it supplanted the Chinese restaurants with a kind of taken-for-granted experience. Then Japanese food became the hot cuisine. Chinese restaurants couldn’t keep up with the Nobus. And when they tried to do something out of the ordinary they were so provincial that it was very hard to do something different.

Seems like now people get excited by going out to Flushing to eat offal or some obscure dish. In your generation, by and large, you prioritize authentic over delicious. There’s a big difference now from the food I knew in the early seventies at Uncle Tai’s. When I go to the best Szechuan restaurant in New York City and eat their best dishes, every single time without exceptions, I think that I am eating the B- version of that dish. If I go and eat shredded pork with garlic sauce or Kung Pao chicken which are really classic dishes that have a pretty set way of being made, to my palate they’re almost all inferior, one after the other. If I go to Grand Szechuan and have the best food on the menu, I think its C+ to B-.

Are you telling me you don’t think you’ll ever be able to replicate the A+ level? No, I think we are able to replicate that, it’s just that just most people don’t.

‘Pac Man’ shrimp dumplings at RedFarm (Courtesy RedFarm)

So what are you trying to do with RedFarm? It’s pretty dissimilar to most Chinese restaurants in the city. What we set out to do was to showcase Joe’s cooking and to put it in a more modern format and to do something that was more of a market-to-table Chinese restaurant which is something that is lacking….When I really sat down and had a heart-to-heart talk with [Joe] he said, “I want to make food that surprises me and my guests.”

So are you prioritizing the delicious over the authentic? You know, I told Florence [Fabricant] at The Times that our food is unabashedly inauthentic and that we’re interested in making food that’s delicious, and we don’t feel like we have any boundaries here. We’re not trying to make something that’s authentic.

Do you get any Chinese customers in here? Many.

What’s the feedback? They love it?. We had a big, big piece on the cover of a Chinese-language newspaper, a two-page piece?.It’s nice and you know what’s going on is that, as I said to you before, we’re in a business where we’ve been stagnant for decades, certainly in the United States. Chinese food in the United States, and especially the Chinese food in the United States that’s oriented towards the caucasian community. There’s a lot of regional ethnic food in Chinatown and Flushing, or if you go to Vancouver, but…

What do you mean—that Chinese food for white people is boring? It’s not that it’s boring, it’s the stuff all over the country. If you look at the menu at the “best” Chinese restaurants and at the local take-out place, I bet you 70 percent of the items are the same. And this is an industry where creativity has been at a standstill.

[Answer interrupted by the arrival of sauteed black cod with yellow leeks]: This is black cod. Are you familiar with black cod?
A little bit, you don’t see it on menus all that often anymore. Do you know why?
Is it un-environmentally friendly? No, it costs three times as much as lobster.

Do you think Chinese food, has it ever been cool? It was very cool in the 60’s and 70‘s. It’s cool here. That’s one of the biggest achievements of this restaurant is that it’s cool and it’s a business. This is the first Chinese restaurant to open in the New York market in 30 years that is exciting dining public and where people are like, clamoring to go out cause it’s something different.

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Real Chinese Food

Posted on December 8, 2011 by bilrob

Real Chinese Food

When I was a child, “Chinese food” at my house consisted of some chunks of chicken and a can of limp vegetables poured over crunchy chow mein noodles — from a can. It was pretty dull, and it wasn’t really Chinese, but we all cleaned our plates.

Years later, I visited a Chinese restaurant that did not feature American-style Chinese food. I ordered a hot, sweet, crispy Sichuan fish dish. Chinese food seemed a whole lot more interesting after that.

These days, one can order regional Chinese food from menus in many American cities. However, I imagine the most authentic Chinese cooking here in Columbia is happening in home kitchens, as I learned when I was recently invited to sample Arthur Du’s cooking at Hsiao-Mei and Ray Wiedmeyer’s home. Du’s multicourse meal is the subject of this week’s food cover story. Watching Du and tasting his food inspired me to experiment more at home. Because I don’t have a fabulous Chinese chef like Du at my house, I turned to a new cookbook called “Feeding the Dragon, a culinary travelogue through China and Hong Kong with Recipes” by Mary Kate and Nate Tate. (Andrews McMeel, 2011, $24.99) The book is written and photographed by a sister-brother team who embarked on a 9,700-mile eating and cooking trek through China. The Tates share what they learned about the people and the diverse regional cooking in China and Hong Kong. They also provide a fun-to-read cultural and historical context for the 100 recipes they have adapted for the home cook.

The book includes a glossary of terms and some of the basics on how to make staples such as rice, dumpling wrappers, good stock and hand-torn noodles. I plan to try many of the recipes, but I was first drawn to lemongrass chicken wings from Yunnan. After making them — and eating a few too many — I determined these wings would fly off the serving plate at a holiday party.

LEMONGRASS CHICKEN WINGS

3 stalks lemongrass, tender sections only, minced (see note)

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Zest and juice of 1 large lemon

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce

2 pounds chicken wings (about 20) tips removed

20 leaves peeled from lemongrass stalks

Use a mortar and pestle to mash the minced lemongrass, garlic, ginger, salt and lemon zest into a coarse paste. Whisk the lemon juice, sesame oil, sugar, Asian fish sauce and lemongrass paste in a small bowl. Place the chicken wings in a large resealable plastic bag with the marinade and toss them well so they’re well- coated. Place the bag in the refrigerator and marinate for 3 to 4 hours. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Remove wings from refrigerator and wrap a lemongrass leaf around each wing a couple of times, tying the ends together in a knot.

Marcia’s note: This looks pretty on the plate, but my son called it “slightly impractical.” Place the wings on a prepared baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes, or until cooked through. Serve warm, as finger food.

Note: Lemongrass is available at Hong Kong Market, Kea International Market and Chong’s Oriental Market.

Makes: 20 wings

— From “Feeding the Dragon” by Mary Kate and Nate Tate.

Marcia Vanderlip is the Tribune’s food editor. Reach her at 815-1704 or [email protected].

Reach Marcia Vanderlip at 573-815-1704 or e-mail [email protected].

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Red-Simmered Chicken Wings

Posted on December 3, 2011 by bilrob

Red-Simmered Chicken Wings

I have always loved Chinese food . As a child it was a treat for the family if we piled into the car and went to a Chinese restaurant . My mother would always order the Pu Pu Platter which we always loved as it was full of glazed meats, egg rolls , and the like. However as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that what we were eating was really Chinese food prepared for the American masses.

For years I’ve wanted to try more traditional Chinese food , but being poor and unable to travel to China , or even the closest American Chinatown , I’ve just lived vicariously through Anthony Bourdain and other such food travelers. But I’ve grown bored with that and it is time to start looking for traditional Chinese recipes to make myself. Besides I’ve always heard “If Yan can cook , so can you!” So, my first attempt at home made Chinese is Red-Simmered Chicken wings .

Serves 4 – 8
Ingredients:

8 whole Chicken Wings

3 Green Onions

¼ cup Soy Sauce

¼ cup Cooking Sherry

½ cup Water

2 tbsp. Brown Sugar

Directions: Chop off bony wing tips, and then cut chicken wings in half. To avoid this work it is pretty common to find already halved wings. Cut the green onions into one inch pieces. Place wings and green onions in a large pan/skillet with soy sauce, sherry, water, and brown sugar. Bring it to a boil, then reduce to a simmer over medium-low heat and cover for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook another 15 minutes, stirring and basting frequently. Remove the wings from the pan, and put in the refrigerator to chill. (Chilling Optional*)

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Chinese food in Italy, you are kidding me!

Posted on November 29, 2011 by bilrob

Chinese food in Italy, you are kidding me!

Americans are open to different cultures’ music, customs, and mainly, food.

Mexican, Italian and Chinese restaurants have become mainstream favorites — one of their biggest customers being college students.

Some colleges even have similar-type restaurants as eating alternatives in their food courts.

Many afternoons and nights are filled with delivery orders to college students — from pizza and wings to Chinese food.

How long can students resist the coupons that come directly to the campus mailbox, the student discounts, and the lunch and dinner specials?

“When a food item is on special for less than $10 and your roommate or friend wants to split the difference, it is almost impossible to not take advantage of the deal,” said Simone Alcorn, a senior music education major from Maryland.

“I feel that we are lucky to be in a place where we have availability to different cuisine and get to sometimes experience [their] traditions,” Alcorn said.

In the college town of Urbino, Italy, many students rarely try different cuisine other than Italian.

For example, beyond the walls of the city of Urbino lies the Chinese Ristaurante — the only Chinese restaurant in town. The Likang family left Southeast China with a mission to find a more marketable location and open a restaurant in 1996.

“[We] traveled around half of Italy, and saw none in Urbino and chose here,” Liu Likang said.

They arrived in Urbino, Italy in 1997 and opened the restaurant in 2001.

According to Likang, there are other Chinese restaurants in Italy, but theirs is the only one in Urbino and the surrounding locations.

For the Likang family, it has not always been easy to reach their Italian neighbors.

Likang said their main customers are tourists.

“Not many people that I know go to the restaurant,” said Alice Bertaccini, a student at the University of Urbino.

The Likang family also acknowledged the Italian tradition.

“Some accept, some have not adapted,” Likang said.

“Many [Italians] just prefer their own foods,” Bertaccini said.

What Americans consider as the traditional Chinese experience is different in Italy.

In Chinese Ristaurante, one would not find the condiments Americans enjoy such as duck sauce and white sauce.

Chinese American food plates like sweet and sour chicken with rice is served on separate plates.

At the Chinese Ristaurante, delivery is not an option, but customers are able to carry-out their order.

On average, Chinese Ristaurante has 30 to 40 customers daily, depending on tourists.

The restaurant is open everyday.

Likang said he has no knowledge of the Chinese American culture and no relatives in America.

Likang said there is no Italian influence to the traditional Chinese [food].

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The Brits Favourite Treat is a Chinese Takeaway

Posted on November 25, 2011 by bilrob

The Brits Favourite Treat is a Chinese Takeaway

2011-11-22 09:17:12 – A Chinese Takeaway food is very famous in the World. One leading paid surveys site, has conducted a new online survey which revealed that Chinese food is Britain’s favorite takeaway treat.

The takeaway market in particular reflects how Brits are enjoying foods from every corner of the globe. In the recent Valued Opinions online opinion poll on the UK’s favorite takeaways, Chinese takeaway was the first choice. Overseas Chinese restaurants serve various forms of Chinese cuisine outside China. Some have distinctive styles, The Chinese food is called as Chinese Takeaway in UK and Commonwealth, but it is called as Chinese Takeouts in America and Commonwealth. In 1907, the first recorded Chinese restaurant in London, England was opened. The rise in the number of Chinese restaurants in the UK only began after the Second World War, and has been attributed to service personnel.

Every Country men now like a Chinese food. So that

they have established the Chinese takeaway restaurant in UK and in other countries. Not only like the taste but price is also another reason. Sometime we don’t have a time to prepare food, now we will go to eat outside; this is also another major reason.

If we will celebrate our birthday or function in Takeaway restaurant, it would better or else we may order the menus of cuisine by online, then they can bring it to office or home, it is very easiest way to celebrate.

Nowadays There are plenty of specials available for delivery, Chinese takeaway or dine in. A Chinese Takeaway Food is very easy to prepare with tastefully, normally it is very opulent. So that everyone likes to eat. If you are eating out, a fast food restaurant is often the cheapest option. Freshly cooked Chinese takeaway food delivered to your home within 45 minutes. Choose from over 2300 Chinese takeaways and restaurants in the UK. You can pay cash on delivery or by credit / debit card.

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Your kids not eating their veggies? Well, thank goodness for ketchup

Posted on November 23, 2011 by bilrob

Your kids not eating their veggies? Well, thank goodness for ketchup

My parents are preparing a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for the extended family this year. They’re excited to have all their grand kids at the table, but also a bit nervous as they’re venturing far outside their Chinese food comfort zone. I’ve warned them, though, not to feel hurt if my 6-year-old daughter eats nothing but mashed potatoes.

That’s right, despite our vibrant heritage of Chinese-American gluttony dating back to the Ching dynasty, my family has been cursed with a picky eater.

There is no universally accepted definition of what makes a fussy eater, but most parents say they know it when they see it. Nutritionists and psychologists define “food neophobia” as the fear of trying new foods. It’s thought to be an evolutionary vestige from our Neanderthal days, when eating something new, particularly a plant, carried a risk of poisoning. Food neophobes will often reject a new food based on sight or odor alone, refusing to even taste it.

Neophobia starts at age 2, when the child becomes more mobile and hence less supervised, and usually ends at around age 6. Picky eaters, on the other hand, may try new foods but will regularly eat only a narrow range of items. Picky eaters gravitate toward carbohydrates and away from vegetables and protein sources. There is a great deal of overlap between food neophobia and picky eating, and many kids have both.

Scientists aren’t even sure of what causes some kids to be picky

eaters. Twin studies suggest that about two-thirds of picky eating is genetically determined, rather than environmental. Part of this may be due to a known genetic variation in the ability to taste bitterness in vegetables; those with higher sensitivity may be more likely to avoid veggies. Picky eating may also be associated with higher rates of anxiety. Regardless of the underlying cause, meal times can often deteriorate into a battle for control, further exacerbating the pickiness.

My daughter Sarah’s all-time record was being forced to sit two hours at the dinner table with an unwanted pork chop in her mouth. I finally gave up when she started nodding off. If she was going to choke on something in her sleep, I wanted it to at least be a vegetable. Otherwise, what would the neighbors say?

There are studies examining ways to diversify the picky eater’s diet. The French, naturally, are on the cutting edge of gastronomical research. Half of the 9-year-old kids at a Dijon school were assigned to a weekly 90-minute program to train their tender young palates. The sessions included lectures, cooking workshops and a field trip to a restaurant (though contrary to stereotype, no wine tastings).

The children were surveyed before and after the program, and were presented with unusual items to taste, such as leek sprouts and dried anchovies. Kids enrolled in the program were slightly more likely to sample the offerings. Of course, this study isn’t much help to those of us in the States, where schools are dealing with budget crunches by dropping frivolous subjects, like long division. So what’s a beleaguered parent to do? Here are some tips:

Don’t reward your kids for eating healthy food. Multiple studies have found that if you reward a child for eating something, she will consume more in the short term, but she’ll end up disliking and eating less of it in the future–the thought being, “If Mom has to give me a prize to eat this green bean, it must taste terrible.” Even verbal praise for consuming a particular food reduces a child’s liking for it.

Present healthy food as a reward. Rewarding behavior with food increases the desirability of that food. Note that this trick works best with the very young. One researcher who tried the old “eat your dessert, then you may eat your vegetables” ruse was unable to fool a single 4-year old.

Expose your child to the food you want him to eat. Then do it again. And again. And again. In fact, studies show you must present new food to a child a minimum of 10 times for him to finally accept it. One randomized trial had parents in the experimental arm present an unpopular vegetable (most often a bell pepper) to their child every day for 14 days. The parents were to encourage their child to taste it, but not to offer any reward for eating it. At the end of the two weeks, kids in the exposure group increased their liking and consumption of the vegetable.

Set a good example for your kids, and eat your veggies. This won’t be a surprise to anyone, but several studies have found that vegetable consumption in kids closely mirrors that of their parents.

If all else fails, talk to your pediatrician–preferably someone as nonjudgmental as my kids’ doctor. I became really concerned when Sarah weighed one pound less at her 4-year-old visit than she did at her 3-year-old one. I bemoaned her tuber-based diet, and asked for suggestions on how I could get her to eat her veggies. Her pediatrician’s answer? “Does she eat ketchup with her french fries? Ketchup counts.”

Ketchup counts? I’ve got Thanksgiving covered.

Stephanie Chan is an internist at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Her views do not necessarily reflect those of the hospital, and reading this column is a sorry excuse for not consulting with your pediatrician. Read more at www.evidencebasedmommy.com.

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