Sep 4, 2010: Dry Fried Chicken

As some of you may have noticed, I've been cooking from Land of Plenty a lot this week.
The main reason, beside enjoying the recipes, is the book is borrowed from the library. I'm trying to get the most out of the book before I have to return it.

Today's recipe takes advantage of the sale of chicken breast.

Dry Fried Chicken (Ref: Fuchsia Dunlop's "Land of Plenty")
2 Stalks Celery, cut on the diagonal
1 lb Chicken, cut into 1" cubes (I used chicken breast)
3 Green Onions, cut on the diagonal
6 to 8 Dried Chile Pods
1 t Whole Sichuan Pepper
1 1/2 T Sichuan Chili Bean Paste
1 T Rice Wine
1 t Dark Soy Sauce
2 t Sesame Oil

Chicken cut into cubes... Half of the chicken was dusted with cornstarch (not shown).


2) Stir fry the chicken in 1/4 C of oil over high heat for about 5 minutes.
I had the oil leftover from the smelt cooking so I just deep fried for about 5 minutes.



The chicken and oil are drained.
Next, about 3 T of oil was heated for toasting the chile pods and Sichuan Peppers.


After about 1 minute (you can smell the fragrance), add the chicken for more cooking.
Add the Chile paste, cook about a minutes to color the pieces.


Add the wine and soy sauce and slowly cook until the chicken is glazed, about 5 more minutes (10 minutes if you didn't deep fry).


Add the veggies and cook for about 2 more minutes.


The Finished Dish...


While I was sampling during cooking, I thought to myself I should add a little sugar. However, I held back since it wasn't part of the recipe. Fortunately, I followed the recipe. I think the celery provided a little sweetness to balance the savory/unami of the soy, the slightly spicy of the chilies and the numbing/tingling of the Sichuan peppers.

The chicken was a little over cooked, but the flavors made up for the firm pieces of breast meat.

Aug 31, 2010: Tofu Tueday - Savory Tofu Flower

It's Tuesday and time for another installment of Tofu Tuesday!

The new ingredient for today is Pickled Mustard Tuber.
The ingredients for this brand include Fermented Mustard Tuber, MSG, Salt, Chili, Sugar, Fennel, Licorice, Acesulfame Potassium, Sesame oil and Disodium this and that.


According to the package the pickled mustard tuber can be eaten as is.

The pickled mustard tuber is salty and crunchy. There's not mustard flavor nor is there any tartness from the pickling. You can taste the MSG, sugar and a faint bit of spiciness, not much though.


Today's tofu recipe is really easy to make.
It's a Sichuan-style Tofu flower. I'm familiar with the sweet version of this and didn't even know there was a savory version.

Recipe is from "Land of Plenty"
Flower Bean Curd

2- 10 oz packages Silken Tofu [I used a 16 oz package]

Seasoning
1 T Soy Sauce
1 T Chili Oil with Flakes
1 t Sesame Oil
up to 1 t Sichuan Pepper, roasted and ground [I forgot this ingredient. The result was still delicious. :-) ]
2 T Peanuts, unsalted, roasted and coarsely chopped
2 T Preserved Mustard Tuber, finely chopped
4 Green Onions, green part cut into rings.

Directions:
1) Soak the whole block of silken tofu in boiling hot lightly-salted water. I simmered a couple minutes and allowed to sit a few more to heat through. [The original recipe calls for parsing out into individual bowls, but I opted to serve family style.]

2) Drain and top with the seasonings. How simple is that? Very!


3) Serve by scooping as much as you like... making sure you take a bit of the topping with each scoop. :-)


I enjoy savory foods. The soft custardy tofu is flavored with sesame oil, green onions, chili paste, mustard tuber and crunchy peanuts.

This was eaten with rice and made for a very simple flavorful Tofu Tuesday.

Aug 30, 2010: Garlic Chives as a Vegetable

I originally purchased a bunch of garlic chives with the intention of making some type of dumpling. However, I worked the weekend so that plan was put on hold indefinitely.

I was reading through the cookbook, "Land of Plenty" and came across another simple recipe where the garlic chives is cooked with bacon and eaten as a vegetable. This make sense since rice is the staple for China and is kind of bland. The garlic chives being much milder than regular chives provide flavor and is long enough to be treated as a veg.

Flowering Chives with Smoky Bacon
8 oz Garlic Chives (Washed and cut into 2 in lengths)
3.5 oz Bacon (slab bacon preferred, cut into strips about the length of the chives)
2 T Oil
1 t Sesame Oil

1) The garlic chives was washed and cut into 2 inch lengths.


2) Fry the bacon in the oil for a couple minutes (I used strip bacon which I cut into smaller lengths).
The bacon put off quite a bit of fat so I drained all but 2 T of oil/grease.
Stem ends (thick parts) were added first to start cooking, stir fry for about a minute.
The leaves were added and stir-fried for around 3 to 4 minutes.
Add sesame oil just before plating.


3) Wait there's more... My addition to the recipe. :-)
When I uses chives, I like to mix in some beaten eggs.
About 1/4 of the chive-bacon mixture was used and mixed into the eggs. Here I had 4 egg whites (leftover from the Daring Baker's challenge) and 1 whole egg to give the egg whites some "color."


Now we're done! Food's up!

Garlic chives with smoky bacon.


Scrambled eggs with garlic chives and bacon.


Served over brown rice and a couple squirts of Siracha hot sauce.


A simple, yet flavorful dinner!

Aug 29, 2010: Hot and Numbing Fish (Smelt)

Before going off to work, I caught a few minutes of a cooking show where the Chef made Salt and Pepper Shrimp. Hmmm... That looks good!

Thumbing through Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty, I noticed a recipe for Hot-and-Numbing Tiny Fish. It looked very similar to a Salt and Pepper Shrimp dish. Hmmm... that sounds good too. I could use shrimp instead of whitebait called out in the recipe.

However, a couple days ago, I noticed wild smelt at the supermarket. Fresh, wild smelt is a once in a year thing so smelt it is instead of shrimp.

Hot-and-Numbering (Tiny) Fish

1 lb Smelt
3/4 C All-Purpose Flour (I also experimented around with cornstarch)

Marinade
1/2 t salt
1 T Shaoxing Rice Wine
2 Green Onions, chopped
2 T Fresh Ginger, chopped

Seasoning
2 T Oil
1/2 t Cayenne Pepper, ground
1/2 t Sichuan Peppercorn, toasted and ground


1) The clean the smelt, wash and pat dry.
Mix the marinade and pour over the fish. Coating thoroughly.
Let sit at least 20 minutes... Actually a lot longer since I went and mowed the lawn.
Note: For Chinese cooking, ginger is a very common ingredient used to reduce fishiness.


2) Drain the fish in a colander, reserving the green onion and ginger.
For coating the fish, I found it easier to use a bag for the flour and shake to coat.
I experimented around with all purpose flour (on the left) and cornstarch (on the right).
I wanted to see how the fish's crispiness would be effected by the coating used.
The flour appears to have a thinner coating while the cornstarch formed a slightly thicker layer.


3) Heat oil to 375F and fry for about 4 minutes. I noticed the oil temp dropped to about 345F during the frying.


4) The cooked fish.
The cornstarch coated fish is above.
Both fish look pretty much the same. The flour was just a but browner. Maillard reaction with the gluten?


5) Seasonings ready for the hot oil - ground Sichuan peppercorn and cayenne.


6) 2 T of oil heated in the wok. Cayenne added to color the oil (about 30 seconds) before the Sichuan peppers were added.

The fish was added to the seasoned oil and tossed around to coat.


The finished dish... or is it?


I saved the ginger and green onion from the marinade.
The wok was heated and the marinade was added to cook down.
The seasoned fish was added to soak up the ginger and green onion flavors.


The fish turned out nicely were the whole fish is edible and crunchy.
I noticed the cornstarch coated fish was a little more crispy than the flour coated fish, but with all the flavor from the cayenne, Sichuan pepper, green onions and ginger, the difference is almost unnoticeable.

Was it hot and numbing?
As I mentioned previously about the recipes in Land of Plenty, the hot wasn't mind blowing but there was a definite low comfortable burn. The numbing effect was there too from the Sichuan pepper.

The hot can be boosted by adding 1 t of cayenne instead of 1/2 t, but would the extra heat throw the balance of the dish off? I guess it comes down to personal preference.

Aug 19, 2010: Spicy Cold Noodles with Chicken Slivers

I have some leftover Costco rotisserie chicken. Yum! Yum! Yum!
Another quick meal day with minimal cooking... Recipe from Dunlop's "Land of Plenty"

Spicy Cold Noodles with Chicken Slivers

1/2 lb Fresh Noodles [The recipe calls for wheat noodles which I didn't have. Also, I wanted a quick meal so I used rice noodles.]
1 1/2 T Peanut Oil [I did not need it for the rice noodles.]
3 Oz Bean Sprouts [No bean sprouts so I used slivered Nappa Cabbage.]
4 Green Onions, thinly sliced

Sauce
2 T Sesame Paste + 1 T Water
1 1/2 T Dark Soy Sauce
1/2 T Soy Sauce
1 1/2T Chinese Black Vinegar
1 T Sugar
3 Cloves Garlic, crushed
1/2 t Sichuan Peppers, roasted and ground
2 T Chili Oil
1 T Sesame Oil

1) Mix the sauce and set aside.

The toasted Sichuan Peppers mixed into the rest of the sauce. I tried a dab of ground Sichuan peppers and after a minute my tongue went numb, as expected.


2) Blanch the Nappa cabbage and use the hot water to rehydrate the rice noodles (about 10 minutes). Drain and cool under cold running water.

3) Shred Chicken breast.

4) Plate and Eat
Noodles, chicken, sauce and garnish with green onions and chopped cilantro.


The noodles had a rich sesame paste flavor, with the slight numbing effects of the peppercorns.
Rich, savory, slightly spicy and slightly numbing. :-)

Aug 18, 2010: Cold Pork in Hot and Garlicky Sauce

It's been record breaking hot here in Seattle. The heat discourages a person to cook.

While thumbing through Fuchsia Dunlop's "Land of Plenty", I came across a recipe that looked like a good one for a hot day.

Cold Pork in Hot and Garlicky Sauce
1 lb Pork Tenderloin
1.5 in Ginger, left whole, but smashed
2 Green Onions, white part - smashed

1/2 lb Bean Sprouts [I also added some slivered Nappa Cabbage. Both were blanched and cooled before serving.]

Sauce:
4 T Aromatic Soy Sauce
2 T Chili Oil
1 T Garlic, crushed
2 t Sesame Oil

Garnish:
Cilantro (or Green Onion tops)

1) Water, enough to cover the tenderloin, was heated to a boil with ginger and green onion.
After a couple minutes, to allow the ginger and green onion to flavor the water, the pork tenderloin is added. When the water came to a boil, the heat was lowered to a bare simmer. The pork is poached for about 30 minutes.


While the pork is simmering, the Aromatic Soy Sauce is made.

Aromatic Soy Sauce
1/3 C Dark Soy Sauce [Dark soy sauce is also known as "old" or "aged" soy sauce. It's typically thicker with the consistency of balsamic vinegar.]
2/3 C Water
6 T Brown Sugar
1/3 Stick of Cinnamon
1/2 t Fennel Seeds [Omitted - none in my pantry]
1/2 Star Anise
1/2 t Sichuan Pepper
Small Piece of Garlic, Crushed

Bring to a boil and simmer 20 minutes. Strain before using.

For the brown sugar, I used a brown sugar candy stick. The weight was equivalent to about 3.5 T of brown sugar.


With the pork cooked and the Aromatic Soy Sauce finished, both were refrigerated (separately) overnight.

The Next Day...
Making the sauce - Well I can't read Chinese, so when I go shopping I read ingredients or look for English words. This chili oil contains peanuts. Interesting.

Garlic and Chili oil shown, the rest of the ingredients for the sauce were added and mixed.


The vegetables were blanched for one minute and cooled. The veggies should retain some crispness to contrast the texture of the cooked pork and contrast the spicy sauce.

The veggies (bean sprouts and Nappa cabbage) were mounded onto the center of the plate.
Thin slices of the cooked pork were arranged around the blanched vegetables. Sauce was drizzled around the pork. Cilantro was used as garnish.


Digging in - Pork, vegetables and cilantro.
Extra sauce was off to the side for dipping or drizzling onto one's plate.


Another seemingly simple dish. The flavors are complex and not overpoweringly hot. Just a slight tingle. As I mentioned in previous post about Sichuan cooking, I'm not sure if the heat (spiciness) is supposed to knock you for a loop or just tingle your taste buds. My taste buds are happy :-)

Aug 17, 2010: Tofu Tuesday

Things have been busy so I haven't had much blogging time, but it's time for another edition of Tofu Tuesday.

I've been fascinated with the cookbook "Land of Plenty" by Fuchsia Dunlop. I've never had Sichuan cuisine, at least not that I know of, but the recipes I've tried in this book have been flavorful and not overwhelmingly spicy hot. I also enjoy the author presenting authentic recipes that haven't been rewritten (read: toned down) for a Western audience.

Today's recipe is "Fish-Fragrant Bean Curd". There's no fish in it, but in Chinese cooking (at least in Cantonese cookin, which is what I'm familiar with) Fish is usually cooked with garlic, ginger and green onions. Since this is a Sichuanese cookbook, the addition of pickled chili peppers is added to give the tofu a fish frangrance.

Fish-Fragrant Bean Curd
3 T Peanut Oil [I used 2 T Canola Oil]
1 T Ginger, finely chopped
1 T Garlic, finely chopped
3 Scallions, white part cut at a steep diagonal
2 T Pickled Chili Paste
8 oz Deep Fried Bean Curd [I had firm tofu so I pan-fried until crispy]
3/4 C Stock [I used chicken buillon]
2 T Soy Sauce
1 t sugar
1/4 t salt [I left the salt out since I used buillon]
Green onion tops for garnish, sliced.

The fish fragrant flavors - starting on the right going left:
Minced garlic and ginger; Green Onion and Pickled Chilies.
This is my first time using pickled chilies so I didn't know what to expect. Tasting them as-is, I taste a salty, slightly tangy chili. The heat is really mild.


Since I didn't have deep fried bean curd, I pan-fried the tofu in a non-stick pan with about 1 or 2 T of oil. Flipping to ensure even browning.


Onto the recipe:

1) Heat the 3 (or 2) T of oil until smoking. Add the garlic, ginger and chilies and saute to release the flavors, about 1 minute. The pepper while mild did get me coughing a little.


2) Add the rest of the ingredients - tofu, stock, soy sauce and sugar.
Turn down the heat to simmer and allow the moisture to evaporate.
With all of the moisture evaporated, the tofu will sizzle again.
Optional: at this point I added the green onion tops to cook for a minute.


The Finished Dish served family style.


A simple dish with a lot of flavor. The chilies did not add a lot of heat, but their presence was a subtle and flavorful. By allowing the stock to reduce, the tofu obtained a light glaze from the reduction.

Overall, a delicious dish.

I served with brown rice and steamed Nappa cabbage, which is typical of a Chinese meal.
Flavor centerpiece dish with vegetables served on the side... All meant to flavor the brown rice.

Jun 19, 2010: LOP Ants Climbing Tree

This is another recipe based upon Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty... However, I forget to write down the recipe before I returned the book. Looks like I'll have to cook this dish from memory (or I'll just update this post when I get a chance.) I'm glad I take lots of pictures to jog my memory.

Ants climbing a Tree is a weird name for a Chinese dish. I remember watching a film from the 70's where an actor was ordering food over the phone. One of the dishes he ordered was "Ants Climbing a Tree". I forgot the name of the film and the actor (vaguely remember Jack Klugman, but not sure), but I do remember the dish he ordered.

Who would eat ants? Who would eat a tree? What is so appealing about an ant climbing a tree?

I do know about ants and rubber tree plants. Well I have high hopes for this dish.

Ants Climbing a Tree (Approximate)
4 oz Vermicelli
Ground Meat (Chicken for this version)
1 t Chao Hsing Wine
1/2 Salt
1/2 t Dark Soy Sauce
(to taste) Light Soy Sauce
1 1/2 T Hot Bean Paste
2 C Stock
3 Green Onion, chopped

Directions:
1. Soak the vermicelli noodles in water for about 15 minutes.
Marinade the ground meat with the wine and salt.


2. Fry the ground meat until partially cooked. Add the bean paste and stir in to mix and infuse flavors.


3. Add the stock and 1/2 t dark soy sauce.
Cover and simmer about 5 to 10 minutes.
Mix in the green onions before serving, reserve about 1 T per bowl as garnish.


4. Dish out into a serving bowl and garnish with more green onions.


The metaphorical ants (ground meat) climbing up a tree (the vermicelli noodles).


This is a straightforward dish that tasty too - slightly spicy, except for the chili bean paste, this is a familiar dish I've had growing up. I guess we've been eating "ants climbing a tree" without knowing it's "ants climbing a tree."

So far good recipes from Land of Plenty (LOP).

Jun 17, 2010: LOP Kung Pao Chicken

So far I enjoyed the first dish I cooked from, Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking.

Another popular dish in the USA is Kung Pao Chicken.
Peanuts in a sweet, savory and spicy sauce cooked with Peanuts. Besides the restaurant version, The "authentic" version I'm familiar with was made by a classmate for a graduation party. She (Taiwanese, hence the air-quotes on "authentic") made the dish with chicken thigh meat. I on the other hand used chicken breast which was the best deal at the supermarket.

Kung Pao Chicken
(Ref: Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty - Gong Bao Ji Ding)
Ingredients
2 Chicken Breast(about 12 oz), cubed into even chunks
3 Cloves of garlic, minced
Same amount of Ginger, minced
5 Green Onions, White Parts Only, coarse diagonal slice
3 T Peanut Oil
8 - 10 Dried Red Chillies, split in half lengthwise and seeded
1 t Sichuan Peppercorns
75g (2/3 cup) Roasted Peanuts

For the marinade:
1/2 t Salt
2 t Light Soy Sauce
1 t Shaoxing wine
21/4 t Cornstarch
1 T Water

For the sauce:
3 t Sugar
1 t Cornstarch
1 t Dark Soy Sauce
1 t Light Soy Sauce
3 t Chinkiang Vinegar
1 t Sesame Oil
1 T Chicken Stock or Water

.

Directions

1.Pour a little peanut oil into the wok and heat until it smokes, swirling the oil around to cover the entire base of the wok. Pour off into a heatproof container. Add 3 tbsp fresh oil and heat over a high flame. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the chillies and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry for a few seconds until they are fragrant (take care not to burn them).

The peppers frying in 3 T of oil.


2.Add the chicken and continue to stir-fry. When the chicken cubes have separated, add the ginger, garlic and spring onions and stir-fry until they are fragrant and the meat is just cooked.



3.Give the sauce a stir and add to the wok, continuing to stir and toss. As soon as the sauce has become thick and lustrous, add the peanuts, mix them in, and serve immediately


Adding the sauce mixture...


Finally, adding the peanuts to coat with sauce


Dished out onto a serving plate...


Another tasty recipe. It's not as sweet as the Taiwanese version that I remember. Also, the vinegar didn't add the tartness I was expecting.

I'm going to sound like a judge on Iron Chef America and state the oil 3 Tablespoons seems a bit much. I could probably get away with using 1 to 11/2T of oil. This is called "making the recipe my own." lol!

I'm thinking of layers of flavor - spicy, tart, sweet and numbing (from the peppercorns). I may try adding distilled vinegar to bump up the tartness of the dish.

However, overall, the Kung Pao Chicken was very good.

Jun 15, 2010: Tofu Tuesday - LOP Mapo Tofu

I'm familiar with Cantonese cooking. I wanted to expand my Chinese cooking horizons. I found a book in the library Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking by Fuchsia Dunlop. I abbreviated the title of the book as, "LOP".

Sichuanese cooking has a reputation of being loaded with peppers and spicy. Spicy food sounds good to me!

So for Tofu Tuesday, I made the classic dish, Mapo Tofu.

Mapo Tofu
Ingredients:
1 block bean curd (around 16 oz), cut into 1 in cubes
2 Leeks, cut into thin diagonal slices
1/2 cup peanut oil [Yes, that's half a cup!]
6 ounces ground beef [I used chicken]
2.5 Tbsp chili bean paste
1 Tbsp fermented black beans
2 tsp ground Sichuanese chiles (optional) [I used Japanese Chiles]
1 cup stock
1 tsp white sugar
2 tsp light soy sauce
4 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 6 Tbsp cold water [I only used about 1 T of the slurry]
1/2 tsp roasted Sichuan peppercorn, ground

Directions
1) Soak the tofu cubes in salted boiling water. That's salted water brought to a boil... Soak time was about 20 minutes while I prepped the other ingredients.



2. The recipe called for beef, but chicken breast was at 1/3rd of the cost.
Chicken was cooked in the 1/2 C of oil at medium heat.


3. After the chicken has browned, add the chili paste, chili flakes, black beans. Cook until fragrant.


4. Add the drained tofu, stock and let simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes... to allow the flavors infuse into the tofu. Add the leeks and continue cooking another 5 minutes. Thicken with the cornstarch mixture.


5. Garnish with the ground peppercorn.


Restaurant Sichuan food is much more spicier. However, this version gives a nice tingle to the lips and the fermented black beans offers a nice complement.

The red oil bathing the dish seemed a bit much. Based upon the amount of oil left in the dish, I could probably cut the oil by 2/3rds. Would it effect the dish?

Overall, a good dish.