DIY Chinese food

Lt_Red

Lt_Red

Lt_Red

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Hows about sharing your home made Chinese recipies?

I've been getting into cooking Chinese at home after watching that Ken Hom/Ching-He Huang program on iPlayer.

I bought a round bottomed carbon-steel wok from amazon for 12 quid, seasoned it and started out trying to cook Chinese.

It was mostly a failed experience in those first few days, but after a while I worked out a few recipes. This one below is my favorite - its a bodge of a Ching recipe using stuff I could actually find the the supermarket.

Twice Cooked Pork Belly

1. You need a cut of pork belly about 6-7 inches long, 3-4 inches wide and about 1-2 inches thick, skin on.
2. Get a large pan enough to fit in the belly. Fill it with water and add a star anise, some crushed schechuan peppercorns, a glug of soy sauce and a glug of shaxoing rice wine.
3. Bring to the boil, add the belly and boil it for 30-40 minutes.
4. Remove from the pan and leave to cool then put it on a plate into the fridge for at least hour to firm it up.
5. Slice the belly into 3-4mm thick pieces. Deep fry them in a deep fat fryer until the skin is crisping up. Drain on kitchen roll. They will pop and spit like nothing you have ever seen so put a lid on the frier or prepare to be burnt ;)
6. Heat the wok up till its smoking, add a little bit of oil and add a handful of mini sweetcorn and a handful of mange tout.
7. Stir once or twice then immediately add a chopped clove of garlic and a thumb nail size piece of sliced ginger (sliced into "matchsticks"). Stir fry for about 30 seconds.
8. Add a teaspoon of Chili Bean Paste and stir quickly
9. Add a tablespoon of ho-sin sauce, a tablespoon of black bean stir fry sauce and a tablespoon of Oyster Sauce. Stir quickly.
10. Add a ladle of the stock you boiled the belly in and stir.
11. Add the deep fried pork slices and a handfull of cashew nuts and cook for a couple more minutes until the pork has sucked up the sauce and the sauce is generally thickening.
12. Throw in handful of sliced spring onions and serve with whatever you like. Rice or noodles are good.

Anyone got any decent Chinese wok food they wish to share?
 
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I done pork and black bean last night actually, found some proper beans on ebay a month or so ago. It's Chings recipe although I don't stick to it 100% just what I have, always comes out good.


Also do a pork shoulder or belly low n slow Chinese style.

Ingredients 4 tbsp soy sauce 60ml rice or cider vinegar 2 tbsp honey 2 star anise 1 tsp Chinese five-spice powder 100ml rice wine or sherry 1kg boneless pork belly 250g pack or bunch pak choi or other Chinese greens sesame oil rice to serve


Chinese braised belly pork with greens

Heat the oven to 160c/fan 140c/gas 3. Mix the soy, vinegar, honey, spices and rice wine and tip into a shallow baking dish that will hold the pork snugly. Add the pork and cover the dish with foil. Cook for 21/2 hours, adding a splash of water if the sauce looks like it might evaporate. Take the foil off and turn the oven up as hot as it will go to crisp the skin and reduce the sauce. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn, it will take about 30 minutes.

That is really nice, with some rice, little pancakes, bit of green etc etc dig in.
 
I really want to do salt and pepper ribs or wings. Do they have to be fried to get that coating effect?

I have some seasoning for them but not sure what next...
 
Chinese Roast Pork Fillet

Rough measurements for the marinate (as I tend to go by eye), you can vary any of the amounts according to which flavours you prefer.

Soy Sauce (enough to be about 1/2 inch deep in the dish you are going to marinade the pork in)
2 tbsp Runny Honey
large glug of sherry or rice wine
3 cloves of garlic crushed
1 inch stem ginger finely chopped
2 tsp Five spice powder

Mix all the ingredients together in a dish and add the pork fillet. Coat the pork in the marinate and leave over night in the fridge, turning once midway through marinating. When it's done it will look like this:

marinade.jpg


Preheat the oven to 180. Get a roasting tin and place a wire rack/tray in it. Put some boiling water in the bottom of the tin, just enough so that the water doesn't meet the wire rack (this keeps the pork moist). Place the pork fillet on the rack and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes:

oven.jpg


When it's done remove it from the oven and then slice and eat hot or cold:

done.jpg


Great had as a nibble with other picnic stuff or with noodles and stir fry veg as a hot dish :)
 
Youstolemyname said:
I really want to do salt and pepper ribs or wings. Do they have to be fried to get that coating effect?

I have some seasoning for them but not sure what next...
Click to expand...

Salt and pepper chicken is nice and easy. I didn't really follow the exact quantities used to make it, but it'll be easy to get a feel for it.

If you've got some salt and pepper seasoning already, you can just add that to some wheat or corn flour (wheat flour makes for a coarser crunchier coating, corn flour makes for a less coarse crispy coating).

I whisk some eggs, dip the chicken in to the egg and then dip it in to the salt&pepper and flour mix.

Once you've coated the chicken, you'll need to deep fry it, when I do it it's more of a semi-deep frying in a wok which works really well.

Whilst the chicken is frying cut half an onion and a green pepper in to long and thin strips, dice a up a few cloves of garlic, and cut 1 whole red chilli in to thin slices.

Fry all the veg on a low heat with some salt & pepper seasoning (without the flour) until the chicken is ready (when the coating has gone all crispy), then transfer the chicken to the pan with the veg and fry all together for a few minutes.

Done.

I'm not a fan of meat on the bone, so I use skinnless chicken breast for my salt & pepper chicken, and I have it with egg fried rice.
 
Try cooking the pork fillet more rare. Once you've had it pink you won't go back! Everyone overcooks pork.

Sounds really nice though, I have a fillet at home I need to use as well...
 
Wagamama Cookbook!

Tried a few recipes from the one I got and they've all turned out really well despite my cack handed "julienne" veg hehe
 
I have my own sweet/spicy stir-fry recipe.

Really quick for during the week without buying the manky pre-made stir-fry sauces:

For the sauce:

Add some sugar and boiling water to a frying pan then chuck in fresh sliced chilies, dried chili flakes, powdered chili, honey, paprika, salt, lemon juice, dark and light soy, rice vinegar and a touch of sesame oil.

While that's reducing, heat up some more sesame oil in a wok until it's smoking, add the chicken or pork or what ever until it seals, then add some veg (I use the pre-prepared Tesco stir-fry veg for speed) once the veg has softened slightly add the noodles or rice then go back to the sauce.

If it's too thin, add some Arrow Root to thicken (like cornflower but goes clear instead of creamy) if it's too reduced add extra water.

Once you're happy with the sauce, chuck it in the wok to coat all of the other ingredients.

Give it a good mix and serve. :)
 
For about 500g of fillet.

1 heaped tbsp char siu sauce (~45g)
1 heaped tbsp hoi sin sauce (~45g)
Glug of rice wine (~20ml) (optional)
Glug of soy sauce (~5ml)
1 heaped tsp of honey (~15g)
1 tsp of sesame oil
4 cloves of garlic diced


1. Brine the pork for a few hours in the morning.
2. Dry it and pierce the meat in several places.
3. Leave it to marinade for 6+ hours (if possible) turning a couple of times during.
4. I basted every 10-15 minutes at about 180c, so that took about 50 minutes to cook.
5. Enjoy!
 
Thread needs revival. Give me more recepies! :p

From me, something a little different. North-east Chinese Lamb Stew

500g lamb on the bone, chops work well
5-6 Spring onion
1/2 bulb garlic
1 Leek
250g sliced Kimchi
Chilli Powder
Tsingdao
Peanut oil

Method:
Remove bone from lamb and set aside, chops lamb into small pieces
Slice spring onions and leek along the diagonal
Add about 1 table spoon of oil into the pan, and start to fry the onion and garlic on medium heat
Once soft and fragrant, add the lamb meat, stir reguarly
Once the lamb is browned, add a tablespoon of chilli powder, salt and pepper and mix it in to coat the lamb
Now add the leek and kimchi, and about 1/4 - 1/3 bottle of tsingdao.
Mix together and add the bones whole on the top of the mix
Put the lid on the pan and simmer until the liquid is gone

Serve with rice, and enjoy!
 
One thing that's seemingly always left out is that they soak their meat in some water with some bicarbonate of soda added, about a table spoon to half a kilo of meat for a few hours.

That's why beef and chicken is so tender and succulent in Chinese cooking.
 
spoffle said:
One thing that's seemingly always left out is that they soak their meat in some water with some bicarbonate of soda added, about a table spoon to half a kilo of meat for a few hours.

That's why beef and chicken is so tender and succulent in Chinese cooking.
Click to expand...

There are a few methods for tenderising the meat. Velveting is another one:

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/cookingtechniques/f/velvetchicken.htm

Personally I'm not a huge fan of it as (imo) it makes the meat taste kind of mushy.
 
I've never tried that one. I think the bicarb method is the more common one for takeaways and restaurants. They use bicarb to make mushy peas too. :p
 
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