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The February 2018 Challenge is 'Chinese'.

16K views 93 replies 16 participants last post by  kaneohegirlinaz 
#1 ·
The 2018 Chinese New Year begins on Friday, February 16, so I thought this would be an appropriate theme. It will be the year of the Dog - but please, no recipes for dog!

Lately I've been experimenting with Chinese dumplings so it would be good to see some Dim Sum entries. But really, there is lots of scope for all kinds of dishes. And don't forget - this judge likes spicy food! I look forward to your entries.
 
#12 ·
ALOHA Y'ALL!!!
Long time now see...
MG, love this Challenge, good call.
I have been getting myself ready for the Lunar New Year and have a few recipes ready to go.
Some I've made several times, some it's been awhile and others, well not so much, but Chinese food here in Cowboy-ville is sparse.

A very popular festival food in Honolulu anyways,
is Crispy Gau Gee, basically a deep fried dumpling, yeah ...

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A bit crisp there around the edges, but we did a taste test by steaming a few dumplings
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... very tasty indeed!
 
#18 ·
The Asian Grocer is in full Hot Pot mode. Thin sliced pork, lamb, beef, beef tongue, Waygu, boneless duck or chicken feet, pork belly around the corner....

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Turn around and there is a stack of various hot pot soup bases. The one on the right in Black actually looked interesting. Also not the pots and burners.
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I'm adapting between Fuchsia Dunlop in Land of Plenty and this Youtube version. I liked the pepper and sichuan pepper from the video.

Here I'm sauteing the dry spices:black pepper corns, sichuan pepper corns, star anise and some red peper flakes. I'm light on the chile as my family is not into brutal heat.

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I similarly adapt the bean sauce with just 2 tablespoon of hot Pixian Doubanjiang and 6 of regular bean sauce. Using straight chile bean sauce is too hot for us. Ginger has been added at this point as well.
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The Shao Xing Wine, chicken stock, soy sauce and let simmer
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The whole spread. Beef, Lamb, Pork, Potato, Lotus Root, Tofu, Bean Curd Skin, Mushrooms, Shrimp, Cauliflower, Zuchinni, Choy Sum, Boiled Eggs, Beef Tendon Balls, and Chicken Gizzards
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I'm using a divided pot because one of my kids has a seafood allergy and we'll just cook the shrimp on one side.

Sauce is some sesame sauce, shacha sauce, soy, sriracha, scallion and cilantro.
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Some cauliflower and egg posing in the sauce bath.

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#22 ·
The Asian Grocer is in full Hot Pot mode. Thin sliced pork, lamb, beef, beef tongue, Waygu, boneless duck or chicken feet, pork belly around the corner....
<SNIP>
The whole spread. Beef, Lamb, Pork, Potato, Lotus Root, Tofu, Bean Curd Skin, Mushrooms, Shrimp, Cauliflower, Zuchinni, Choy Sum, Boiled Eggs, Beef Tendon Balls, and Chicken Gizzards
View attachment 64481
You are so lucky to have a local Asian grocer selling such produce. I've searched high and low for lotus root to no avail. Its such a very pretty edition to a dish. And the total spread of ingredients is wonderful.

Are the pics to follow of the completed dish or am I misreading something...
 
#19 ·
A favorite item of mine at Chinese restaurants is hot and sour soup. Usually it is neither hot nor sour, but somewhat tasty. Making it at home you can control the hot, you can control the sour.

The Players

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Along the top row we have some dried wood ear mushrooms, and a single bit of dried lobster mushroom. Forgot I had that one, was thinking I still had some shittakes left, but no. Ginger root, good soy sauce and black vinegar are needed, as is a raw egg to be swirled in at the end. Bottom row has dried chilies, dried lily flowers, pork and tofu. I assume you can tell which is the pork and which is the tofu. Not in the picture are things like cornstarch, chili oil and home made chicken broth.

The Procedure

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First off, get the dried bits rehydrating in hot water.

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The pork, which was stashed in the freezer for a bit, gets finely sliced, and marinates with some soy and minced ginger.

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Meanwhile the chicken broth, soy sauce and vinegar get put into a pot, the dried chilies crumbled on top. Tofu is cubed.

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The dried veggies are drained, the soaking water from the mushrooms goes in the pot. As do the veggies after some dicing, and the pork along with the marinade.
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Brought to a simmer for about 20 minutes. Tofu tossed in, simmer another 5 minutes. A couple of tablespoons of cornstarch gets mixed in about a half cup cold water, it gets stirred in. The egg is cracked open into a bowl, well scrambled with a fork and then gets drizzled in with a slow stir.

The Product

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Topped with scallions, time to eat! It was hot. It was sour.

mjb.
 

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#23 ·
A favorite item of mine at Chinese restaurants is hot and sour soup.
Me too!
Along the top row we have some dried wood ear mushrooms, and a single bit of dried lobster mushroom. Forgot I had that one, was thinking I still had some shittakes left, but no. Ginger root, good soy sauce and black vinegar are needed, as is a raw egg to be swirled in at the end. Bottom row has dried chilies, dried lily flowers, pork and tofu.
A lovely combination of ingredients. Lobster mushroom I've not come across before.
 
#20 ·
A very very simple one:
Black bean beef with steamed rice and a fried egg.
It's a highly savury dish, so a little goes a long way

The main ingredients:
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Pre heated the wokky thing (I got several, so trying to give each one a turn in this challenge. This one needed a bit of a spiderweb clean first)
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Once hot, added oil, then onion, garlic and chili and once they were cooked I added the ground beef.
Once browned, I added black bean paste and rice wine (the dark blob is bean paste)
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Final touch: Fresh coriander (or cilantro for the Americans)
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I served with steamed rice and a fried egg.
The contrast of the very dark dish and white rice is always a bit difficult for my camera
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#21 ·
A very very simple one:
Black bean beef with steamed rice and a fried egg.
It's a highly savury dish, so a little goes a long way
Looks delicious. I like the addition of the egg. Black fermented beans (from which the sauce is made) are a very special thing - umami in bucket loads! Have you ever used just the beans? I mean, rather than black bean sauce.
 
#25 ·
You are so lucky to have a local Asian grocer selling such produce. I've searched high and low for lotus root to no avail. Its such a very pretty edition to a dish. And the total spread of ingredients is wonderful.

Are the pics to follow of the completed dish or am I misreading something...
Well it's a meal where you cook the pieces individually in the stock and eat them one at a time. So the finished dish is essentially the egg and the cauliflower picture but everything else gets cooked and eaten the same way. I was busy eating and didn't take a picture of all the different varieties of bites.
 
#26 ·
Split chicken breast is .99/lb this week so I picked up a four pack. After trimming out the bone and removing the skin I ended up with breast, tenders and bites. I was going to make Cordon Blue, but remembered the challenge so . . .

Pretty pedestrian chow dish - my six yr old granddaughter was over so I explained what I was doing and she ended up helping me prep. I cut the chicken into bite size pieces and dusted with corn starch to tenderize and crisp in the wok later. I processed red onion, scallion, bell pepper, snow peas and some steamed broccoli, garlic and ginger. I put my wet seasoning in a cup - lite soy, black soy, rice vinegar, xiaoshing wine, oyster sauce, black bean/garlic sauce and some fermented red tofu. I heated my wok, added a good amount of oil and fried my chicken, removed when golden and drained. With a reduced amount of oil I added my other ingredients in order of operations then mixed corn starch and chicken stock and added to my wet sauce and added that to the wok to finish.



After sauce and ready to serve topped with scallion greens and chopped peanuts.


Quite tasty, filling and no rice, noodles, or extra carbs. No extra sugars, or salt either. All flavor is derived from the ingredients that have enough of that stuff.
 
#27 ·
Looks delicious. I like the addition of the egg. Black fermented beans (from which the sauce is made) are a very special thing - umami in bucket loads! Have you ever used just the beans? I mean, rather than black bean sauce.
Yes I have.
I used them in an Indonesian dish called Daging Taoco (Daging being beef and taoco or taotjo being the Indonesian/Malay name for black beans).
 
#28 ·
Clay Pot/Sand Pots are a traditional cooking tool of China. But these dishes are rarely seen on the menus of restaurants here in Salt Lake City. I don't have a traditional clay pot. I've seen them for sale locally, but they always seem of poor quality and I just don't see them surviving my usage. I use a glazed earthenware pot instead. It's held up fairly well but does have some chips. Barbara Tropp in The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking has some good instructions and five or six dishes. Jeff Smith is probably the second best cookbook discussion of this tool in The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines. The Woks of Life has some Clay Pot Rice recipes that give useful ratios and seasoning volumes.

Some Clay Pot Rice using up the some of the final bits from the hot pot and stir fried choy sum, also the final bits from the hot pot. Mushrooms, zuchinni, commercial Char Shu (Yangtze brand, it's not bad. Not great either, but handy mostly). Seasoned with stock, rice wine, light soy, dark soy, oyster sauce and ginger. Cover, cook on the stove top over low heat until boiling. Time it to cook the rice through, adding water as needed depending how well your pot seals.

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I'm eating lightly tonight so just a little of the rice.
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And a little Choy Sum. I separated off the large leaves and blanched the leaves and stems. This is something I learned from Barbara Tropp and how she treats stir fried spinach. She comments that stirfried greens tend to go dark and weep dark bitter liquid. By blanching them first, they keep their color and weep no liquid. Stir fried with minced garlic and ginger, drizzled with some oyster sauce out of the pan.
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For Day Two of the clay pot rice eating, I needed some more vegetables. I opted for some Gai Lan or Chinese Brocolli. I sliced some large garlic cloves in half with some "coins" of ginger to season the oil. Then added the gai lan, turning to coat with the flavored oil. Add some chicken stock and rice wine and cover to steam. Time depends on the thickness of the stems. This approached 4 minutes as the stems were on the thick side. I test by piercing the stem with a paring knife and judging resistance.
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Because these were thick, I turned them half way through the steaming.
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Plate and drizzle with Oyster Sauce. For a more formal approach, you can remove the garlic and ginger chunks.
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#29 ·
While not chinese per say. Its kinda aisian inspired.
Decided to make asian style eggs benedict. Using rice with asian spicy carrots and some seseme seeds in the mix. Then browned on the griddle. Topped with pickled ginger sereno ham and a spicy chile hollandais. In all it came out well i think instead of treating the rice and try to brown like toast i am going to fry it so ut stays together better and not wanting to fall apart
 

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#30 ·
Forgot the seaweed soup.

The seaweed comes in a round 8 inch cake. I'm using about a third of that. You often see this with tofu and eggdrop. I'm just using eggdrop tonight. Pretty straightforward stock, seaweed, and eggs. Salt, white pepper and some sesame oil were my seasoning choices.
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In the bowl.
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#31 ·
Here are my crab dumplings in chicken broth (first attempt at making Chinese dumplings).

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I am a Chinese, maybe I can help you, your dumplings look good, but you can put some chopped green onions in the soup, if you like the taste of the South. Or, you can make hot sauce with a small amount of sugar and vinegar, if you like the taste of Sichuan.
 
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