Spicy, snaky and porky

I always believe that in order for one to learn the authentic flavours from a culture, it is best to go straight to members of that culture and watch how they cook what they eat, as many popular and traditional home-cooked dishes are not found in restaurants. This popular Chinese dish is not a restaurant regular, like many westernized dishes such as sweet and sour pork with pineapple, fried rice with bacon and peas, and so on, but it is one of the most popular home-cooked dishes for the Chinese-it is spicy, snaky and porky, just the way we like it! This quick and delicious dish, served with steamed rice, makes a perfect weeknight dinner, as it is not only quick to make, but also well-balanced with protein (from the pork and tofu) and vegetable (snake beans). This is how I cook my spicy stir-fried snake beans and pork:

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp dark soy
• 1 tsp corn flour
• 500 g snake beans, trimmed and cut into 5-6cm length (note: snake beans are firmer and more difficult to break down than green beans, hence they need to be cooked twice)
• 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped or minced
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 300 g pork mince
• 2-3 pieces of five-spice tofu cakes, cut into strips (note: five-spice tofu cakes are widely available in all Asian grocers. They add texture and body to this dish)
• 2 tsp fermented chili bean sauce (Doubanjiang) OR black bean in chili oil (note: the one on the left in the picture is the black bean sauce in chili oil, and the one on the right is Doubanjiang. Both sauces are widely available in Asian grocers. I personally prefer the black bean sauce in chili oil in this dish)

Method:

1. Heat vegetable oil in a wok on high. Add half of the beans and stirfry for 1-2 minutes. Cover the wok with a lid and cook the beans for further 6-7 minutes, or until tender and slightly brown (note: stir every minute or two to ensure that the beans are cooked evenly). Remove the cooked beans and drain. Add more oil and repeat the same process to cook the remaining beans. Set aside the cooked beans
2. Heat oil on high. Add garlic and shallot and stir-fry for 1 minute, or until fragrant. Add pork mince, five-spice tofu strips and chili black bean sauce (note: do not put in too much chili oil, or the dish would become too oily) and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes, or until the pork mince is cooked
3. Return beans to the wok. Combine and mix vinegar, soy, corn flour and 2-3 tbsp of water. Add the mixture to the wok to bring everything together and form a sauce. Stirfry for another minute or so, until the sauce coats all the beans, tofu and pork
4. Serve with steamed rice and garnish with some chopped shallots.

The beauty of one-pot cooking-Sukiyaki

A few years ago, I went back to Japan to visit family friends. We were invited to stay with Mr. S and his family. It was a real honour to be invited to stay with Mr. S and family, as the Japanese do not easily invite people to stay at their home. Mr. S's wife is a wonderful cook (like most older Japanese women), and she cooked dinner for us every night. One day, she told us she was going to cook something special for us for dinner, and I was excited. When we got home that night, I was instantly drawn to that ‘special dinner’ I had been promised. I rush to the dining room to find her preparing ingredients for Sukiyaki-a traditional Japanese hot pot. It had been a while since I had authentic sukiyaki, so I was positively excited. Sukiyaki is a traditional Japanese hotpot-one of the easiest, yet most delicious one-pot wonders. It is essentially thinly-sliced beef with various vegetables, Asian mushrooms, firm tofu and gelatinous noodles (shirataki noodles) braised in a sukiyaki sauce, and dipped in raw egg before eaten. Mrs. S fried thinly-sliced Japanese Kobe beef in a dry pan on medium heat, as the fat released from the marbled Kobe beef lubricates the meat and keeps it moist. She then carefully added shitake and enoki mushrooms, chopped Chinese cabbage, shirataki noodles and firm tofu into the same pan, and fried them for a minute or two before adding the sukiyaki sauce. Sukiyaki sauce is made by simply mixing mirin, light soy sauce, sugar and cooking sake (or you can purchase ready-made sukiyaki sauce from any Japanese supermarket). The beef, mushrooms, vegetables, noodles and tofu are gently braised, covered, in the sweet sukiyaki sauce until all the ingredients are tender and cooked through. As the recipe is very forgiving, you can practically throw in whatever thinly-sliced meats and chopped vegetables you fancy. While traditionally Kobe beef is the main meat ingredient in sukiyaki, I do not see anything wrong with thinly-sliced chicken or pork. Sukiyaki is usually cooked in a traditional sukiyaki pan, on a gas stove put at the centre of the dining table. You fish out the cooked ingredients, piping hot out of the pan, and dip them in a whisked raw egg before eating. While the idea of eating raw eggs is not particularly appetizing, in this case, the raw egg is partially cooked by the heat coming from the piping-hot ingredients, and serves as a 'silky' dipping sauce. Sukiyaki, like other hotpot dishes, is more than just a dish-it is a social institution that brings family and friends together. Nothing beats sitting around the table with loved ones, sweating to piping-hot sukiyaki, and drinking warm sake on a cold winter night. So for your next dinner party, ditch the old-school-3-course approach and let the one-pot approach shine!

The art of Gyoza

The more I learn about food, the more I discover the similarities of cuisines. As discussed in one of my previous posts, everyone enjoys a good sandwich, no matter where we are from. The same thing can be said of the versatile dumpling. The dumpling, like the sandwich, represents an idea, an idea of wrapping a filling in pastry. As ideas can be expanded, stretched and applied in a way that is relevant to the context, there are many varieties of dumplings, from the Italian Ravioli to Chinese Wonton and Japanese Gyoza. While dumplings can be boiled, steamed, pan-fried or deep-fried, I have always fancied the pan-fried version, as the crispy bottom provides a textual boost to the steamed top and the soft and juicy filling. One of my favourite dumplings is Japanese Gyoza, and here is how you can make those culinary delights to impress family and friends!

Japanese pork Gyoza (Yaki Gyoza)

Ingredients (make around 50 pieces):

• 300 grams of fatty pork mince (note: fatty mince will ensure that the gyoza filling is juicy)
• 250 grams of white cabbage, chopped very finely
• 5 shallots, chopped very finely
• 125 grams of garlic chives, chopped very finely
• 1.5 tbsp of light soy sauce
• 1.5 tsp of white sugar
• 2.5 tbsp of Japanese cooking sake (note: you can also use Chinese cooking wine, if you wish to make the Chinese variety)
• White pepper to taste
• 1.5 tbsp of sesame oil
• 2-2.5 tbsp of corn starch (note: the corn starch should help the mince mixture achieve a slightly sticky consistency, as the starch will absorb some of the liquid)
• 2.5 tsp of grated garlic (around 3-4 cloves of garlic)
• 1.5 tsp of grated ginger
• 1.25 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 50 Gyoza wrappers
• Vegetable oil for pan frying

 

Method:

1. Chop the cabbage, shallots and garlic chives finely (as large chunks of vegetables would release too much liquid, hence making the filling too wet for the gyoza wrappers)
2. Grate the garlic and ginger
3. Add grated garlic and ginger, soy, sugar, pepper, sesame oil, corn starch, mirin, sake and oyster sauce to the pork mince. Mix the mince mixture well to reach a slightly sticky consistency (note: this consistency would ensure that the filling stays juicy when cooked). Add the chopped cabbage, shallots and garlic chives to the pork mixture, and mix well. Cover the meat filling with cling wrap and pop in the fridge to rest for 20-30 minutes in order for the pork mixture to absorb the flavours
4. Scoop 1 heap teaspoon of the pork filling onto a Gyoza wrapper. Dip your finger in water and wet one side of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half and pleat the damp side of the wrapper, and pinch both sides of the Gyoza together
5. Brush or spray a small amount of vegetable or sesame oil in a heated non-stick frying pan, sit the dumplings in batches in the pan, add enough boiling water to the pan to cover the bottoms of the dumplings (note: if you wish to use cold water, increase the steaming time slightly till the dumplings become translucent). Put the lid on and steam the dumplings on medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes, or till the water has evaporated and dumplings begin to sizzle. Add oil to the pan and put the lid back on to cook the dumplings for 1-2 minutes, or until the gyoza bottoms become crispy and golden brown. Remove the gyozas in batches and serve them crispy-side up  
6. Serve gyozas with a dipping sauce, made from mixing 1 tbsp of black vinegar (or balmasic vinegar), 1 tsbp of light soy sauce, and a couple of drops of sesame oil. If you feel extra kinky, you may add a small amount of raw minced garlic and a drop of chilli oil.

Who is the parent? The chicken or the egg?

There has been extensive debate on the subject of who the parent is-the chicken or the egg? Well, while everyone has their philosophical stance on the subject, there is one thing we can all agree on: chicken and egg taste good together. There are many 'parent and child' recipes out there, such as chicken caeser salad, chicken and egg fried rice, and chicken and egg pad thai, but if I had to choose one recipe that brings out the best of the parent and the child, it would have to be 'Oyakodon'-a popular Japanese dish that literally means 'parent and child'. Oyakodon represents the cooking philosophy behind Japanese cuisine: fresh and lean ingredients+light and flavoursome sauces+simple and quick cooking techniques=delicious and healthy dishes. The chicken and onions are braised in a sweet soy braising liquid, and the beaten eggs are added at the end of the cooking process not only to add body, but also a velvety dimension to the dish. The parent and the child form a harmonious combination of both flavour and texture. So here is how you make the Japanese chicken and egg rice bowl (Oyakodon):

Oyakodon

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 200ml instant dashi stock (‘Dashino-moto’, or instant dashi powder, is readily available from large Asian grocers)
• 4 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp cooking sake
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 4 dried shitake mushrooms, rehydrated in warm water and sliced
• 1 small clove of garlic
• 400g chicken thighs, chopped into small (around 1-inch) chunks
• 6 eggs, beaten lightly
• chopped coriander or chives for garnish

Method:

1. Add dashi stock, soy sauce, cooking sake, sugar and mirin to a frying pan, turn the stove on to medium high heat and cook till the sugar has dissolved
2. Add the sliced onions, garlic and shitake mushrooms, and cook, covered, until the onions start to soften
3. Add the chopped chicken and cook covered for 6-7 minutes or until chicken is tender
4. Pour the egg mixture over the chicken mixture, cook, covered, over low heat for about 2-3 minutes or until egg just sets. Note: the egg mixture should be just set, as we are not after scrambled eggs here. Remove from heat and keep covered to cook the egg mixture a while longer, if desired
5. Serve Oyakodon with steamed rice in a bowl. Garnish with chopped coriander or chives.