ash123

I believe they have some savory dishes of beans in the South Asian cooking (like Pakistan, India, etc.) Thanks for all your response, I guess the beans are usually used in sweet dishes in Chinese and other Asian cusines.

Hi, I haven't seen the use of too many dried beans (like kidney beans, white beans, garbanzo, etc.... other than soya beans) in Chinese cooking. Are beans used widely in Chinese cooking? If yes, can you please share some recipes? Thanks

Gus, I second that. I love Chinese greens and I always wanted to know how to identify them hzrt8w, great presentation!

It looks YUM! I am particularly fond of the curry flavor. Gotta try this in couple of days. Once again a great pictorial. Thanks for sharing it.

I loved this dish. Simple to cook and very tasty. Two of my favorites here, green onions and ginger. Let us know if you have more dishes like these. This is sure to go in my routinely cooked dishes. Thanks.

You know I have had this sauce (Sa cha) for nearly a year now but didn't know what to do with it. I had bought initially thinking it of as a BBQ sauce that I can use on meats to BBQ. But when I opened the tin, it was different. I liked the flavor of it though so I just kept it in the cubbord. Thanks for this recipe. I have one more recipe added to my 'greens' list now. PS: Your comprehensive list on how to cook the greens has been very helpful. I have been trying various combinations you had suggested. I simply love them. Thanks!

My guess is something like: 1. "Superior" broth (chicken or pork typically) + dark soy sauce + salt + corn starch for the Northern style cooking. 2. "Superior" broth (chicken or pork typically) + oyster sauce + salt + corn starch for the Southern style (Cantonese) cooking. Or a combination of the above. ← Thanks Ah Leung. One quick question, when you saute chicken and vegetables with brown sauce do we saute ginger/garlic/scallion with it or is just the brown sauce?

What kind of brown sauce do they use in the following dish? Anyone? PS: The pictures are excellent. Thank you for sharing this with us. *** Hot foods included: Braised iceberg with brown sauce:

Thanks a lot everyone for sharing this. I have good variations now. Thank You.

To simplify my question... What are some of the ways of cooking Chinese Green Vegetables that we get in the Chinese Stores? Thanks!! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One of the things I used to love in our local Chinatown was cooked Chinese Green Vegetables. I don't know how they made it, but somehow it had a great flavor and I could never match that at home. I guess they would add chicken stock, chicken fat or msg to enhance the flavors but it was more their cooking style that would bring out the essential flavors of the leafy greens. I guess the Chinese word for one of the flavors I am referring to is xiānwèi (the 6th savory taste, which is also associated with chicken stock, msg, meats mushrooms, soy products and others). My question is which Chinese Green vegetables have more savory taste in them and what is the best way to cook them? I cook all kinds of greens at home... bok choy, baby choy, choy sum, Chinese Broccoli, regular broccoli, Chinese Cabbage, water spinach, Mustard Greens... and there are tons more available in our local Chinese stores. Could you also please suggest some good recipes to cook these vegetables, even if these recipes are as simple as blanching them in water? Thanks a lot!

Ah Leung, Thank You for sharing this recipe. I had been looking for it for long. I liked your idea of shallow frying it too. Ash

I wasn't aware that there was a pre-existing thread on this. My new thread has been merged with the earlier one. My interest here is also in understanding, which flavors and tastes go well together, essentially 'what goes well with what'? It may or maynot be limited to yin/yang balance. Thanks! Ashu

Being a non-Chinese I am little hesitant to start this discussion. However this topic has been of some interest to me. Chinese food is delicate, in many the flavors are subtle. There is a fine art of balancing tastes, harmonizing flavors and achieving the perfect ying/yang balance. A lot I guess is influenced by Taoist and Confucian doctrine. The Confucius stress on colors and presentation, and the Taoist stress on purity/subtlety, balance has been some of the basic principles of Chinese Gastronomy. Heat/Cold, Sweet/Sour, Vegetables/Meats are some of the harmonizing principles to produce the whole. It would be interesting to discuss which foods 'go together' both in subtle art of flavors, and in their basic food characteristic (like balance of heat and cold). Which vegetables/meats should be cooked together, which should be cooked only in ginger, or which should be used only with garlic, which sauces go together, which foods are ying and which are yang. This topic is wide open for discussion and contribution. Anything from balancing foods, discussing various flavors and tastes to even philosophy of Chinese cooking is welcome. If you are interested in this then please contribute. Thanks Ash

Thanks Ah Leung for this wonderful recipe. As dianalane said, if it would be possible for you we would like to learn more about the Chinese Greens. I simply love them but I don't know how to cook them. Whenever I go to a Chinese supermarket I see the produce section flooded with all kinds of greens, but I can't recognize most of them. My parents went to Shanghai and Beijing recently and they ate variety of greens with rice, accompanied usually with a fish or meat dish. They really liked it.

Ah Leung, thanks a lot for this pictorial! Really!! Infact I already saw and commented on your posting (even before I read this response). Please take a look at my comment on your posting. Thanks, Ah Leung, much appreciate it. Ash

Thanks a lot Ah Leung. This is just what I was looking for. Call me American , but I love sweet 'n' sour... and the blend of the flavors in this dish particularly looks excellent. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I am already craving to make this now. I also saw your pictorial for the green beans. They look quite good too. I have to try that. There are so many things that I have to try now... the list is getting bigger and bigger. I am really glad you are sharing pictorials for the veggies too. I love Chinese beans and greens. BTW, would you have recipe for Chinese broccoli? I have a bunch lying in my fridge and was wondering how to cook them? I usually blanch them in hot water and then saute' them with little oyster sauce, soy sauce mixture. Are there couple of standard ways to make Chinese greens? Thanks! Ash

Thanks Dejah, I really appreciate it. Now that I have discovered that you were none other than a restaurant chef, I am going to be after you. You are just the person I had been looking for!! Please do make a trip down the memory lane. I will sponsor it. I have few more recipes to get from your secret pot. Thanks!

I don't know how I missed this recipe. It is my favorite. Now I have to cook it soon. Thanks for letting me know. BTW, I tried your "Shrimp Paste Wrapped in Bean Curd Sheets" yesterday. I liked it. It was my first experience with bean curd sheets. I think I soaked it a little too long so it became very soft. Kindof became difficult to handle. So unlike the neatly tucked rolls like yours, they were all horribly disfigured pieces (that rolling isn't all that simple as you had shown it to be ). But the end product came out really well. I also added few drops of oyster sauce and sesame oil to the shrimp paste. I loved it, akindof remeniscent of the fond memories of chinatown dim sums. Here is one dish that is made with tomato sauce and shrimp: Imperial Shrimp (Shrimp with Chili, Garlic and Tomato Sauce) (乾燒蝦) ←

Jo-mel: I guess I will be after Dejah now Thanks for sending me this recipe. It looks quite appealing. There are variety of flavors in it. It would be fireworks for sure. I will try and let you know. Thanks! ash---- Dejah's recipe might be just what you are looking for, as it is a bone fide restaurant recipe. This one I got from Hugh Carpenter (cook book author). He uses a lot of fusion, but the recipe is good. TOMATO FIREWORKS SAUCE == To 1 Tbsp. oil, add 2 tsp. minced garlic and 2 tsp. minced ginger and cook till fragrant. // Add 2 scallions sliced into ¼ inch pieces and ¼ cup sweet red pepper cut into ¼ inch pieces and stir/fry another 15 seconds. // Add 2 Tbsp. sherry, 2 Tbsp. tomato catsup (a bit more to taste), 1 tsp. curry paste, 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce, 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce, ½ tsp. sugar, and ½ tsp. sesame oil and bring to a boil. // Add stir/fried shrimp to the sauce and heat. ←

Dejah: Thanks a lot for sharing the recipe for "golden glaze". I will give it a try and then let you know how it went. Would you also happen to know how they make that "black glaze" for general Tso's? Just add dark soy? If you woldn't mind my asking, there is another dish that I really like in restaurant, and it is served as shrimps in tomato sauce. Would you know how to make that tomato sauce (is it just the ketchup or is there something else?). If you happen to know, then please let me know. Thanks a lot Dejah, I really appreciate your help. I like some of the American Chinese dishes (I guess they are more American than Chinese), but I love most of the authentic Chinese dishes. I like some of the restaurant chinese food however Chop Suey sloppy joes sounds out of the world. Never heard of a funnier dish! :-)) Looks like a total fusion of the East and the West.

Ah Leung: It would be great to have the pcitorial guide for ingredients. Please let me know when you are done with it. After sometime you can even publish a book and make some good money. :-) I tried your honey pork chops yesterday and I loved it. It was really good. As I didn't have malt sugar, I used brown sugar instead. Does malt sugar have a good flavor? I am thinking of buying it for my next try. I love trying good flavors. Thanks!

Ah Leung, Thank You for your reponse. I have already downloaded some of your recipes, but it will be easier now to download everything at once. Thanks a lot for it. Your pictorials are really very helpful. I haven't read any of your other postings on American Chinese Food, but I can very well imagine how offensive American Chinese would be to Chinese people. It cannot even be called Chinese food, I guess. Fortunately I lived in Boston for many years so I had the good opportunity of trying many authentic Chinese dishes. I used to discover hidden treasures in those small Chinatown restaurants where very few people visited. And I also loved the Dimsums and the Bakeries. They were too good! However, as I have lived in America, I have also developed taste for American Chinese. And I must admit I love their crispy deep fried chicken pieces in spicy sweet and sour sauces. But certainly steak pieces doused with oyster sauce are offensive! For Gen Tso's sauce, I guess there are two or three different types that are usually made in restaurants. If you or any of your Chinese friends happen to know about them, then please let me know, otherwise don't bother. Please continue to posts your regular pictorials, they are very good. Infact I learnt that fire technique (using ShaoHsing rice wine) from your soy chowmein pictorial. It is a really good technique. I am still mastering it though. The last time I made the soy chowmein, it ended up getting a bit bitter. I guess the soysauce got bitter because I might have got delayed in adding noodles. I think I need more practice. Please continue with your pictorials. Not only me but my other friends too are benefiting from them. They watch me cook, they learn and then try it at their places. (If you have some more recipes on chinese greens then that would be great). So there are certainly more than one person benefiting from your efforts. It is difficult to find such details and techniques in regular cookbooks. So thanks a lot for your effots!

Thank You jo-mel and sheetz! Jo-mel: Thank you for your recipe. I will certainly try it this way. I used to do something similar but the proportions were different. I think yours are better proportioned. In vinegar I have never used the cider, I usually use the rice vinegar or white vinegar. Is Cider better? I will try it, I think it would taste good. I would also try double frying the pieces. I think it would bring the crunchiness. Thanks a lot! sheetz: I usually use the dark meat of chicken. I have also tried baking powder in the past and yes, that certainly improves the crunchiness. I haven't tried self-rising flour, I would certainly give that try. For chow-fun I sometimes use black fermented beans, and they do impart some smokiness to it. Thanks for your tips!

That's very interesting. As far as I know, the smoky flavor of chow fun is related to "wok-chi", the high heat of the wok. If that isn't it, is there any way you can contact the restaurant and find out how they get the smoky flavor? I'm definitely interested in knowing. ← There's a local chinese restaurant that makes a great beef chow fun. It is their well-seasoned wok (the "Wok-hey", I believe) that gives the dish its smokey flavor. This isn't something you can duplicate with a spice or sauce. The wok itself develops the flavor over time. ← This was a small joint in Boston Chinatown. I tried asking the chef earlier but he simply smiled. I don't think he would reveal his secrets. But I guess it might be wok-chi, as anna has mentioned. Maybe the next time I will try, I would heat it up really hot. However if it is wok-hey (which I think maybe the case), I would simply have to wait for that. Maybe after cooking a lot, the wok will get the life of its own. Thanks a lot for your response!

Hi, This is my first post here. First of all Ah Leung, I had been visiting your pictorials since long (even when I was not a member) and they were simply fabulous. They capture many subtleties of Chinese cooking that we usually don't get to see in any cookbooks. Thank you for taking the pains to share it with others. I am great admirer of Chinese cusine. Infact I prefer Chinese to any other cusine in the world, including my own. I have a high BTU stove and most of the normally used ingredients. I have tried many of your recipes and have enjoyed making them. Sometimes they turned out to be great, and other times they were failures because I am not very good with high heat cooking. I am still practising on my high BTU stove. I have been looking for couple of American Chinese dishes and was hoping you could help me get to the subtleties. They are very very common dishes. Actually one of the dishes I have tried almost all recipes that I could lay my hands on, but somehow have never been able to capture that restaurant quality (ofcourse the quality differs from restaurant to restaurant, but I am talking about the good ones). The dish is the infamous Gen Tso's chicken or sesame chicken. I know this is not an authentic dish and just a derivative of some cantonese dish, but I still love it.. I think many Chinese dislike this dish. I have tried it in various ways... with dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, rice wine, rice vinegar, white vinegar, orange concentrate, ketchup, pineapple juice, duck sauce.... but have never got that distinct taste that we get in the restaurant. I think there is something else to it. Would you know about it? Usually the sauce comes in two forms... one is reddish golden color, and the other really dark black (which I think is because of dark soy sauce). I am looking for both versions. I have tried waterchestnut flour, plain flour, or cornstarch with egg/water for chicken coating but somehow could never get that thick crispy coating. The fried chicken pieces also have a wonderful aroma. Can you please give me some tips on this dish? There is just one other recipe that I am looking for. In one of the restaurants that I eat, they make fabulous chow fun. For some reason their chow fun has a very distinct 'smoky' flavor that I don't find anywhere else. And it is not just because of high heat cooking or dark sesame oil. It has a very very distinct smoky flavor. Is there any standard ingredient or technique to get that? I would really appreciate if you could kindly share your experience with me. I have been hunting for these secrets since long but to date have had no success. Thanks a lot!