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Thread: Chinese food blog

  1. #1

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    Default Chinese food blog

    So, I'm just reading some of the threads regarding Chinese food and there's a lot of stir fries or westernised type of Chinese cooking and I thought I would start this blog for anyone who would like to try something a little bit more authentic. Well as much as seeing my mummy cooking for me in the past authentic. Obviously there are different regional foods and I can not say which specific region my recipies will be from. They range from being born out of the Hakka people and might be mixed with a little of the Cantonese as well.
    I'll try and do one recipie a week. This way at least it will also encourage me to cook more Chinese food at home as well instead of my usual repetoire.

    So to start of with, some of the essentials you may want to have in your cupboards if you don't have them already.

    Utensils/ pots:
    Wooden chopsticks
    wok or frying pan
    rice cooker or pot will do

    Sauces:
    either mushroom sauce or veggie oyster sauce
    soy sauce (low salt and without msg)
    tomato ketchup
    chilli oil (watch out for dried shrimp)
    Fermented soya cubes (comes in a glass jar with a red top)
    seasame oil
    salted black beans
    yellow miso paste (I know that this is essentially japanese but there's no Chinese alternative)
    fermented brown rice miso

    Dried ingredients:
    dried beancurd sticks
    mung bean vermicelli
    dried ho fun noodles
    thin yellow noodles (these do not have egg and some are called vegetarian noodles)

    All of these ingredients can be found any in good Chinese supermarket.
    Sometimes I will use mock meats as they soak up the flavour of the sauce and just give you something to bite into.

    ok I'm going to start off with soup noodles I had this lunch time.

    To serve 2
    Ingredients

    Dried ho fun about half pack
    fresh ginger to your taste
    fried tofu about 8 pieces
    watercress two handfuls
    spring onion chopped

    soup base:
    1 tbs fermented rice miso
    1 tbs yello miso paste
    splash seasame oil


    First boil noodles until soft (approx 5-8 minutes) then drain and rinse in cold water. This is important otherwise noodles will be creamy and sticky.
    set aside.

    prepare soup by bring water to boil-about 200-300 mls
    add miso pastes and sliced ginger.
    Boil for about 5 minutes to allow ginger to infuse
    add splash of seasame oil
    add tofu (if you can't find fried tofu use firm tofu and just grill before adding to soup base)
    add water cress to wilt
    add noodles to reheat
    bring to quick boil
    serve in two deep bowls
    add spring onion

    enjoy.

    You can add some chilli oil after as well if like.

  2. #2
    timberly's Avatar
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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    bellybuddha?! not buddhabelly? well anyway, this sounds great!

  3. #3
    Glossgirl's Avatar
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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    sounds yummy, i love noodles for lunch

  4. #4
    rulska's Avatar
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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    This soup sounds lovely!

  5. #5

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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    Quote timberly View Post
    bellybuddha?! not buddhabelly? well anyway, this sounds great!
    Well if you make lots of my food then you are sure to have a buddha's belly (I make large portions) Oh and yeah there's another member here called buddhabelly so I couldn't use it. Which is why I'm bellybuddha.

  6. #6
    told me to Mr Flibble's Avatar
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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    Great thread

    I love chinese food and the only sensible vegan chinese book i've found in the past 10 years has been Bryanna Grogan Clark's book, which is quite americanised and has many ingredients not easily findable in the UK. It's not always obvious when using ingredients you're not used to which are essential and which are optional.

    I've bought vegan things from chinese supermarkets in the past without a particularly great idea of what I'm doing. There have been several things that have been thrown away after sitting in the back of my cupboards for a few years
    "Mr Flibble - forum corruptor of innocents!!" - Hemlock

  7. #7
    gutts's Avatar
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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    This looks good - might give it a try. Thanks for sharing!

    You mentioned a rice cooker (or pot) as being essential. Do you have any recommendations with regards to rice cookers? Since switching to (mainly) brown rice mine hasn't been producing brilliant results. Thinking about one of these.

    gutts

  8. #8

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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    Quote gutts View Post
    This looks good - might give it a try. Thanks for sharing!

    You mentioned a rice cooker (or pot) as being essential. Do you have any recommendations with regards to rice cookers? Since switching to (mainly) brown rice mine hasn't been producing brilliant results. Thinking about one of these.

    gutts

    If you intend to cook a lot of rice then it's well worth getting a good rice cooker with multifunction options. The one I have at the moment is the tefal 4 in 1. Otherwise it's easy enough just to get one that cooks and that's it. still can't go wrong really. The one my mum has is just a simple one button rice cooker without any other functions. She cooks rice twice a day every single day. Really depends on whether you want one that also cooks porridge, slow cooks or steam. I think with brown rice you need to add a little bit more water than with usual long grain or basmati rice. I haven't really cooked brown rice in my cooker as I am lazy and usually buy the easy cook packaged one.

    Mr Flibble, I hope you'll be able to find all the ingredients needed. I'll try and take piccies of what I mean as well if the wording doesn't fit the description. That way at least people will know what I'm talking about.
    I certainly keep certain things in my cupboard which are a big staple for Chinese cooking such as those listed above. especailly noodles yum

  9. #9
    helen105281
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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    Quote timberly View Post
    bellybuddha?! not buddhabelly? well anyway, this sounds great!
    Yes it is very confusing I keep mistaking Bellybuddha for Buddha belly (my partner).

    Thank you for the chinese cooking info Bellybuddha.

  10. #10

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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    Ok, on to the next recipie
    Spicy aubergine and tofu in black bean and garlic sauce

    To serve 2
    Ingredients:
    1 medium sized aubergine (eggplant)
    4 pieces of fried tofu sliced (or if you want you could use mock chicken or beef)
    handful of Shitake mushrooms sliced (fresh or dehydrated) If dehydrated soak overnight, drain and keep water for stock. Boil for 20 minutes to soften.
    2 tablespoon of salted black beans. Wash thoroughly in sieve.
    half bulb of garlic chopped
    1 red chilli sliced
    2 tbs oil (some for drizzling)
    1-2 tbls veggie oyster sauce
    1 tbls cornflour mixed with a little water for thickening
    200-300 mls water

    Cut aubergine in half lengthways and drizzle with some olive oil. Grill untill slightly chared both ways. Chop into chunks. Keep aside.
    Using a wok heat until hot before adding oil.
    Add mixture of blackbeans and garlic and stir quickly. Fry for 20 secs, add chilli.
    Add mushrooms, veggiie meat or tofu in and stir coating in blackbean and garlic mixture.
    Add about 200 mls of either water or shitake mushroom water and stir.
    Add aubergine. At this point depending on how soft the aubergine is it may go mushy. This is fine. If you don't want it to be mushy then leave aubergine ungrilled and just slice into bitesize pieces and fry for a few minutes before adding water. If you find the ingredients stick to the wok then add some water to stop this.
    Add veggie oyster sauce.
    Add cornflour mixture slowly and stir until the sauce thickens to your likeing. If it's thick add more water and a little bit more oyster sauce.

    if you use ungrilled aubergine then cook for a further 5 minutes before adding cornflour mix so it becomes soft in texture without turning mushy.

    Serve with rice. happy eating.

  11. #11
    Mrs. Beane fondducoeur's Avatar
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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    Yay! This is a great thread! I am definitely trying the aubergine and tofu one...
    tabbouleh-bouleh

  12. #12

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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    Ooh blimey not been on here for quite a while now.
    Ok next recipie.
    This calls for black beans again and it's lovely with plain steamed rice. It may be require acquired taste but hay ho try it. You never know.

    Steamed tofu with black beans and garlic
    ingredients:
    one block of silken tofu (if you can get it from the Chinese supermarket in fresh form then it works better)
    2-3 tbs of salted black beans washed thoroughly and drained
    2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
    2 tbs soy sauce
    1 tbs vegetable oil

    Utensils/pots
    steamer
    deepish dish for steaming

    slice tofu into squares but not too small about 4x3 inches
    arrange onto dish so that they look like fallen dominoes
    sprinkle black beans and garlic all over the tofu
    pour soy sauce and oil onto tofu
    steam for 10 minutes
    serve with rice and Chinese veggies like pak choi or kai lan

    Happy eating

  13. #13

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    Default Re: Chinese food blog

    Just thought, after putting in last recipie and suggesting to serve with Chinese veggies, here's how I usually do my veggies.

    pak choi with garlic
    2-3 pak choi bulbs washed and separated
    2 garlic cloves crushed then chopped
    1-2 tbs vegetable oil
    wok or frying pan
    small amount of water

    heat wok or frying pan
    pour in oil and swish around to cover wok/frying pan
    add pak choi ( be careful of spitting oil)
    fry for 1-2 minutes then add garlic
    fry for a further 5 minutes
    add a little water so leaves do not burn
    serve.

    Kai lan (Chinese broccoli)
    depending on how hungry you are a good bunch of kai lan washed. No need to separate.
    good chunk of ginger peeled and bashed
    2 tbs vegetable oil
    2 tbs veggie oyster sauce
    splash of cooking sherry

    Heat wok/frying pan till hot before adding oil
    add bashed garlic and fry for a minute to get flavour out
    add kai lan and fry for 3-5 minutes
    add a little water and fry a bit more
    when it looks lovely and deep green then add splash of sherry stir for one minute
    turn off heat add veggie oyster sauce and then serve.

    happy eating

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