Braised Chicken and Potatoes

1 package of chicken thighs, sliced the short way
4 potatoes, cut and sliced

1. Saute garlic.
2. Add chicken, 2 spoons of 面豉, and potatoes.
3. Add cooking wine and stir for a few minutes.
4. Add almost 1 soup bowl of water.
5. Cover, bring to boil, and cook for ~5 minutes.
6. Add soy sauce, sugar, and boullion.
7. Cook until potatoes soften.  
8. Sauce should cover 2/3 of ingredients.  Discard any excess.
9. Add slurry.  Once ingredients are coated, cook for another ~1.5 minutes to coat even more.

Braised Spareribs and Taro

Spareribs - enough to fill 2/3 of a soup bowl
2.5 lbs taro, peeled, then halved, then cut in thirds, then sliced (thicker for spareribs, thinner for meat slices), should be about 1.5x size of sparerib pieces.
Aromatics - garlic, leeks, etc.

1. Marinate spareribs in salt and pepper, then cornstarch (add at end to lock in other ingredients).  Can also add wine to cover taste of not-so-fresh meat.
2. Heat wok, add oil, then add aromatics.
3. Add spareribs, 2 spoons of 面豉 and 1.5 cubes of 南乳.
4. Add taro, then cooking wine - cook for a couple minutes.
5. Add a few cups of water, as taro absorbs lots of liquid.
6. Bring to boil.
7. Add sugar and soy sauce, then taste and adjust.
8. Simmer 5-10 minutes.
9. Add aromatics where crispness is desired (e.g., white part of leeks).
10. Add slurry.  After it begins to wrap around the food, cook for a bit more to coat the food even more.  (Mix about 1 heaping plastic spoon of cornstarch with a couple Tbs of water, should have consistency of soymilk.)

Chinese Noodle Dishes

乾河粉 (banh pho)

2 adults + 1 kid = 2/3 package

1. Soak at least 2-3 hours or overnight.
2. Drain in colander for at least 30 mins.
3. Place 1/3 of package on flat glass plate and heat in microwave for 1 minute to soften.
4. Saute in oil until soft, add small bits of water to separate noodles, then add soy sauce (otherwise, noodles will stick to wok).

炒年糕 (rice cake) with Pork and Chayote

1 package of rice cake
1 boneless pork chop, cut in half and sliced thin
3 chayote, cut into quarters and sliced diagonally (with seed removed)
garlic
S&P
cornstarch
sugar

1. Soak one package of rice cake for at least 1-2 hours or overnight.
2. Marinate pork with S&P and cornstarch (adding cornstarch at the end produces a coating that wraps the flavor of the other marinade ingredients into the meat).
3. Saute garlic, then add chayote, and then add cooking wine.
4. Add enough water to almost cover ingredients.
5. Add soy sauce and sugar.
6. Bring to a boil.
7. Add pork (note: braising results in smoother meat than sauteeing) and wait until cooked through before stirring so as not to remove the top coating of cornstarch, about 2 minutes.
8. Mix and simmer until melon is soft.
9. Add rice cake and cook until rice cake is soft, about 5-8 minutes.

Noodle Soup

1. Prepare noodles.
2. Boil water in pot.
3. Add salt and boullion, to taste.
4. Add soup ingredients - e.g. tomatoes.
5. If adding meat slices, separately place each slice gently in the water so as not to remove the coating of slurry.
6. Wait until water boils, then add final ingredients - e.g., seaweed, green onion.
7. Pour over prepared noodles.

白切雞

Steam on max a whole chicken for 20 mins.
(Can buy one for $13 at Marina - 龍崗雞 or 黃毛雞）
Meat will slide up from drumstick bone when done.

Serve with green onion and ginger sauce and/or oyster sauce.

Chinese Sauces and Ingredients

Sacha Stir-Fry Sauce
Sacha Sauce - 1.5 spoons
Soy Sauce - 3 spoons
Sugar - 2 spoons
Water - 3 spoons
Boullion - optional

Green Onion and Ginger Sauce
1 bunch scallion
1" x 1.5" piece of ginger
1/2 spoon salt
pepper
oil
- Mince green onion and ginger and combine in small bowl with salt and pepper.
- Heat wok, add oil, heat slightly.
- Pour oil into sauce bowl, should hear a sizzle.

Oyster Stir-Fry Sauce
Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce, 1/5 the amount of soy sauce
Sugar

南乳面豉
南乳 - 2 spoons
面豉 - 1.5 cubes (best to use the whole bean sauce rather than the ground bean sauce)
Soy Sauce
Sugar

Black Bean Sauce

4 cloves garlic

2.5 Tbs preserved black beans, rinsed

pepper

1 Tbs sugar

1 tsp cooking wine

1 Tbs soy sauce

1/6 tsp salt

1/2 tsp chicken powder

Mince together the garlic and black beans.  Combine with the other ingredients.

Green Radish and Carrot Soup (青紅蘿蔔湯)

INGREDIENTS

• 1-1.5 lbs Pork Loin Back Bone (豬背骨) - $2.99/lb  (This should automatically be "cut" by the butcher for you.  Do not buy neck bones - they blacken soup.)
• 4 dried scallops, shredded roughly
• 4 dates (蜜棗), quartered with a knife
• 1.5 lbs green radish, large roll cuts (the greener and heavier, the better)
• 0.75 lb carrot, large roll cuts

DIRECTIONS 

• Place scallops, dates, radish, and carrots in a pot halfway full of water (i.e., leave some space for the pork bones and the water used to boil the bones) and bring to a boil.
• In the meantime, wash the pork bones, poke out the fatty part of the marrow with a chopstick and discard, and bring a small pot of water to boil.  
• Briefly blanch the bones to lock in the blood so it doesn't leak into the soup.  If the water looks fairly clean, skim out the impurities and add the remaining water to the soup.  If the bones don't look vibrant red and fresh, boil for ~1 minute to remove more impurities and don't keep the water.
• Simmer soup for at least 2 hours.

Sugarcane and Imperatae Drink (竹蔗茅根)

• Purchase a bag of Cane & Arrow Root Stock in Aisle 5A at Ranch 99 (one possible brand is Double Swallow & Flower from Zhong Shan Gu Zhen Li Hua Farming - http://www.lihuazs.com).  Find a bag where the sugarcane and arrowroot is white and the carrots are vibrant orange, not dark and dull.
• Wash ingredients in a pot of water, pour out water, and soak in fresh water for 10 minutes.
• Rinse again with fresh water.
• Add 10 cups of water and soak 30-60 minutes.  At the same time, wash 5 carrots and the stalks and leaves from a bunch of carrots.
• Chop carrots.  Leave stalks and leaves whole.
• Boil water, then add carrots, stalks, and leaves.  Simmer for 40 minutes to 1 hour.
• Taste a sugarcane.  If there is still sweetness, pour the soup out into a container and boil the solids with fresh water for ~10 minutes to extract remaining sweetness.
• If needed, add a bit of sugar.