Cooking Chinese food is not difficult. I was doing it when I was 4 years old. My parents told me how good it was; my sister told me it was terrible.
I have learned a lot since then.
I want to show you how a typical Chinese mother cooks a meal for her family.
There are two main things you have to know before you begin. The first is that Chinese food does take a lot of preparation and the second is that it takes a lot of cooking utensils. The food is good, with rich variety, but the washing up is ‘terrible’, as my sister would say. My sister was six years older than me, so often when we were sent to do the washing up, it was I who had to do it all.
The photos are of meals I prepared at home for my family, taken just before they were served and eaten. They were taken with our little travel camera to show you that they really are the meals we eat at home. I want you to be able to do the same.
If you have any questions please send me an email or post a comment.
Remember that Chinese food is served in dishes and placed in the center of the table. Everyone then uses chop-sticks to pick up the food and either eat it directly or put it into a small bowl. So meat and vegetables are usually cut into bite sized pieces.
Each individual dish is not all that troublesome to prepare, however most family meals would have 4 dishes and a large family meal between 8 – 12 dishes.
After a meal, particularly a large family meal, the women usually do the clearing away and washing up while the men drink tea. My husband really enjoys drinking tea and says that he does not want to get in the way of 5,000 years of tradition. Hmmmm ...
The photo is of a lunch which we shared with four friends.
INDEX
Zongzi (Rice Dumplings in Bamboo Leaves)
包子 Bao zi (Steamed Stuffed Bun)
Stir-Fried Pork & Fresh Soya Beans
Stir-Fried wood ear and Fish Tofu
Jiao zi (Dumpling) - detailed instructions
Stir Fried Black Fungus & Choko
Cashew Stir-Fried Chicken Breast
Chairmman Mao's Red-Brasied Pork (Mao Shi Hong Shao Rou)
Red-braised pork is a dish that in Hunan is inseparably bound up with the memory of Chairman Mao: many restaurants call it “The Mao Family’s red-braised pork.” Mao Zedong loved it, and insisted his Hunanese chefs cook it for him in Beijing. It’s a robust concoction, best eaten with plain steamed rice and simple stir-fried vegetables; the sweet, aromatic chunks of meat are irresistible.
Ingredients
1 lb. pork belly (skin optional)
2 Tbsp. peanut oil
2 Tbsp. white sugar
1 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine
~ Fresh ginger (a ¾-inch piece), skin left on and sliced
1 star anise
2 dried red chiles
~ A small piece of cassia bark or a small cinnamon stick
~ Light soy sauce
~ Salt
~ Sugar
~ Scallion greens
Steps
1. Plunge the pork belly into a pan of boiling water and simmer for 3 or 4 minutes, until partially cooked. Remove and, when cool enough to handle, cut into bite-sized chunks.
2. Heat the oil and white sugar in a wok over a gentle flame until the sugar melts, then raise the heat and stir until the melted sugar turns a rich caramel brown. Add the pork and splash in the Shaoxing wine.
3. Add enough water to just cover the pork, along with the ginger, star anise, chiles, and cassia. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Toward the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat to reduce the sauce, and season with soy sauce, salt, and a little sugar to taste. Add the scallion greens just before serving.
In Shaoshan, Mao’s home village, cooks traditionally leave the skin intact for maximum succulence, and cut the meat into rather large chunks, perhaps 1 1/2 inches long; I tend to make the pieces a little smaller. This recipe takes its color from caramelized sugar, which gives it a lovely reddish gloss, but many people just use dark soy sauce at home.
Zhou Xiaosui
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Mooncake Recipe
The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is the Mid-Autumn Festival. On this night, people of prestige and wealth climb to the top of tall buildings. There, leaning on the railings, they admire the moon. Lesser business people also go up to the small open balconies. They arrange family feasts and spend the holiday with their children. Even poor people in the narrow alleys trade their clothes for wine. They try their best to celebrate this holiday in order not to let it pass in vain. On this night, the commotion in the streets of the capital lasts until the fifth watch of the night. People admiring the moon pace up and down the market till daybreak.
Wu Zimu (Song Dynasty): Records of a Pipe Dream
祝你中秋节快乐
We wish you a very happy Mid Autumn Festival
It is a time for family, children and moon cake
Enjoy!
WSJ - Mad About Mooncake
Here’s a look at a few from this year’s batch.
– Amy Ma
Mooncake recipe
A recipe for mooncakes, traditionally served during the Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
* Filling:
* 1 pound red azuki beans
* water
* 3/4 cup lard or oil
* 1-3/4 cups sugar
* Water-Shortening Dough:
* 2 cups flour
* 5 tablespoons lard
* 10 tablespoons water
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* Flaky Dough:
* 1 cup flour
* 5 tablespoons lard
* red food coloring for design
Preparation:
Filling Instructions: Soak red beans in water to cover 2 hours. Drain and discard the water. Cover with 8 cups fresh water and bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat 1-1/2 hours or until skins open. Strain the beans and discard the skins. Place the strained beans in several layers of cheesecloth and squeeze out any excess water.
Place in a saucepan with the lard or oil and the sugar. Cook, stirring continuously, until almost all the moisture has evaporated. Let cool.
Dough Instructions: You will need 2 cups of filling for the mooncakes. Divide this into 20 portions and shape into balls.Mix ingredients for the water-shortening dough and the flaky dough separately until smooth. Divide each dough into 20 equal portions.
Wrap one portion of flaky dough inside each portion of water-shortening dough. Roll out each piece of dough, then fold in thirds to form three layers. Roll out again, and once more fold in thirds to form three layers.
Flatten each piece of dough with the palm of your hand to form a 3" circle. Place one portion of filling in the center. Gather the edges to enclose the filling and pinch to seal. Place the filled packet in the mold, gently pressing to fit. Invert and remove the mold.
Dilute red food coloring with water and pour onto a damp paper towel on a plate. Take some food coloring onto the cookie-design stamp, then press on top of the mooncake.
Repeat process for remaining mooncakes. Arrange mooncakes on a baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool before serving.
Recipe - Zongzi (Rice Dumplings in Bamboo Leaves) 粽子 (zòng zi) A traditional Chinese recipe eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival.
RECIPE - Makes 20 dumplings
Ingredients
40 large dried bamboo leaves (2 for each zongzi)
20 long strings (for binding leaves)
1 kg (2.2 Ib) long grain sticky rice
2 kg (4.4 Ib) pork belly, sliced into 3 cm (1") cubes
10 salted duck's egg yolks
40 small dried shittake (black) mushrooms
20 dried, shelled chestnuts
10 spring onions, cut up into 1 cm (1/2") lengths
500 g (18 oz) dried radish
100 g (3.5 oz) very small dried shrimp
200 g (7 oz) raw, shelled peanuts (with skins)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine
Vegetable oil
5 cloves of garlic, roughly crushed
1 teaspoon black pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 star anise
1 teaspoon five spice powder
Method
Prepare and cook ingredients
- Soak rice in water for three hours, drain.
- Stir-fry pork for a few minutes. Add chestnuts, soy sauce, rice wine, ground pepper, 1 teaspoon of sugar, star anise and five spice powder, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 1 hour. Remove pork and chestnuts from liquid and set aside.
- Boil peanuts until tender (30 minutes to 1 hour).
- Soak mushrooms until soft. Clean and trim stalks. Cut into 2 or 3 pieces. Stir-fry with a little liquid from pork stew.
- Halve duck egg yolks.
- Chop up dried radish finely and stir-fry with 1/2 teaspoon sugar and garlic.
- Stir-fry spring onions until fragrant.
- Stir-fry shrimp for a few minutes.
- To a large wok or bowl, add rice, peanuts, radish, shrimp, spring onions, a little liquid from the stew mixture and 2 tablespoons of oil. Mix well.
Wrap zongzi
- Soak bamboo leaves in warm water for 5 minutes to tenderise, before washing thoroughly in cold water.
- Wet strings to make them more pliable.
- Take 2 leaves with leaf stem or spine facing out. Overlap them lengthwise in inverse directions (pointed end of one leaf facing the rounded end of the other).
- With both hands hold leaves about 2/3rds of the way along their length. At that point bend them so that they are parallel lengthwise and also overlap. This should produce a leaf pouch that you cup firmly in 1 hand.
- Add a small amount of rice mixture, compressing with a spoon.
- Add 1 piece each of pork, chestnut, mushroom, duck egg yoke.
- Add more rice until you have nearly a full pouch. Compress firmly with a spoon.
- Fold leaves over the open top of zongzi, then around to side until zongzi is firmly wrapped. Zongzi should be pyramid shaped with sharp edges and pointed ends. Trim off any excess leaf with scissors.
- Tie up zongzi tightly just like shoes laces with a double knot. Normally they are tied to a bunch of zongzi.
- *Steam for 1 hour, unwrap and serve.
Notes: Chinese groceries should stock most of these ingredients. They will almost certainly have the wrappers and strings in the lead up to the Dragon Boat Festival. Eat zongzi plain or with a sauce of your choice. Wrapped tightly in plastic, zongzi freeze well. To reheat, thaw, and without removing the bamboo leaves, steam (best option), or microwave. Before micro-waving, poke a very small hole in the wrapping and pour in 1/4 of a teaspoon of water to help prevent the zongzi drying out. To test for doneness, plunge a sharp fork into the centre of the zongzi. If the fork is hot, so is your snack.
If you do not have all the ingredients, then mix and match. Experiment until you find the right mix for you.
Detailed Instructions on how to wrap zongzi
Tang Yuan
Cooking Tang Yuan at the Yuan Xiao Festival - China Daily Video
In Chinese New Year the last day (15 days from New Year's Day), we call is Yuan Xiao Festival, family come together. Have a meal and after meal, we eat some sweet Tang Yuan. Tan Yuan mean to have a reunion.
Ingredients: 1 cup of glutinous rice flour
Seasoning: 1 tablespoon of ground sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon of ground nuts (peanut or walnut or pecan), 1 tablespoon of Sugar.
Preparation: Mix the ground sesame, ground nuts and sugar together.
Then, using a lager bowl, put the flour in, add cold water to make the flour become paste.
Then shape into a long roll, cut the roll into 2cm rounds, flatten the pieces, put on your hand and add a teaspoon of the mixed jam. Form into a ball
Cooking: Put water into a big sauce-pan, bring the water to a vigorous boil, put the ball in, wait for the ball to float on top of the water. Put some brown sugar into the water, cook 2 minutes, take out , eat, Hao Chi
Golden Roll
Ingredients: 0.3kg of pork meat, 4 eggs.
Seasoning: 2 tablespoon of oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, some ginger (to taste), 2 spring onions,
a little pepper (to taste), 1 teaspoon of potato flour.
Preparation: Combine the following ingredients: 1 tablespoon of oil , half a teaspoon of salt, ginger(chopped into small pieces), the spring onions (chopped into small pieces), pepper, one egg white, meat.
Put the remaining 3 eggs into a bowl, put in half teaspoon salt, spinkle in the potato flour until it is a smooth mixture.
Cooking: Using a fry-pan, heat the pan , put some oil in, put the egg mix in, allow to spread out, fry until bottom is cooked then turn over. Take out an put on a tray. Spread the meat onto the egg pancake and then make into an egg roll ( see the photo). Wrap the egg roll in tinfoil. Place in a steamer and steam for 20 minutes. Take out, take off the tinfoil, cut the egg roll into 2 cm sections, (see picture), put on a serving plate. Ok can eat now, Hao chi
