Beer used in Chinese cooking?

[hzrt8w]

I just had lunch at my neighborhood favorite New Hong Kong Wok Restaurant. From their lists of specials (not in regular menu), one item that caught my eyes was "Mutton cooked with Tsing Tao beer" (青島啤酒羊). I asked the waitress about it. All she could tell me was the dish is served on a mini-wok with mutton and sauce. I probed what kind of sauces is used on this dish: soy sauce? Nam Yu? She could not tell me. Because it was during the busy lunch hour, I did not question any further.

I know of a recipe to use Coca-Cola to cook chicken, Cantonese style. Sure beer is used in many southern US recipes. I don't think I have ever tasted, seen or ever heard of using beer in Chinese cooking.

Has anybody even had a Chinese dish cooked with beer? Can you recall what it was? The taste? What kind of sauce was used to make the dish? How was it served?

[Shiewie]

Well...not beer exactly, but there's a common pork rib dish cooked with Guinness Stout (huk peh pai kuat) in Malaysian Chinese restaurants - similar to the one with Coca-Cola but stout is used instead. The pork ribs are deep fried and then coated with a thick dark gooey sauce with stout in it.

[Raquel]

House of Nanking in San Francisco has a dish:

"Chicken Fillet with Tsing Tao Beer Sauce"

It has evolved a bit over the years; but basically it consists of a mild sauce, chicken fillets, and zucchini strips or slices. The sauce is a clear light color with a cornstarch thickener. There is not a strong taste of beer, but it makes it's impression. It's really quite good.

[jo-mel]

Probably innovating cooking?

Susanna Foo has "Cold Beer Shrimp" in her book.

I just found this "Yangshuo Beer Fish" in a google. Is says it is a local specialty. If this is the Yangshuo on the Li River, I wonder if it was influenced by the tourist influx.

http://www.ratebeer.com/Recipe.asp?RecipeID=71

[hzrt8w]

This is makig me very curious. I think I will try it next time. I have never seen a Chinese dish using beer as an ingredient. I will post some pics and my impression of that offer.

[chromedome]

Tsing Tao is pretty widely available, so I guess an inquiring mind could experiment. It's also pretty much identical to Beck's, so if you can't get Tsing Tao that's the alternative.

[AzianBrewer]

Try cooking crabs with beer! The taste is superb.

[hzrt8w]

Try cooking crabs with beer!  The taste is superb.

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Thanks! I want to try that. What other ingredients/sauces are used in cooking crab with beer?

[pcbilly]

Try cooking crabs with beer!  The taste is superb.

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Thanks! I want to try that. What other ingredients/sauces are used in cooking crab with beer?

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hzrt8w:

There is actually a Chinese Beer Shrimp recipe in the eGullet recipes:

http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r1272.h...0f550113f6c3b5c

Beer Shrimp

Submitted by: Ellen Shapiro

Keywords: Main Dish, Chinese, Seafood, Shrimp, Easy

While in China during my Seven Weeks in Tibet, one day on bikes ended at the cooking school. It was an optional activity, and I was tired, but I knew I had to do it for my fellow eGullet Society members.

200 g fish (firm white fish with skin on)

3 T peanut oil

1 tomato, chopped

1 red pepper, sliced

1 green pepper, sliced

2 T of sliced garlic tops or spring onion

25 g ginger, sliced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 T soy sauce

1 tsp salt

1 c beer

Heat wok. Add oil and heat. Put fish into wok, skin side down. Put salt on top of fish and fry on each side for about 3 minutes or until skin is brown. Put all vegetables, garlic and ginger on top of fish. Add soy sauce and beer. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove lid to reduce liquid (approximately 2-3 minutes).

For cooking crab, the people in Maryland where the famous blue crabs come from use "Old Bay" spices (mostly salt, red pepper...) and beer. It is delicious.

Not Chinese though. Maybe we can adapt the shrimp recipe for crab.

[AzianBrewer]

Try cooking crabs with beer!  The taste is superb.

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Thanks! I want to try that. What other ingredients/sauces are used in cooking crab with beer?

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I like to keep it simple...ginger and scallion with a bit of garlic. But let the beer reduce a bit before throwing in the ginger and scallion.

[hzrt8w]

I just had lunch at my neighborhood favorite New Hong Kong Wok Restaurant.  From their lists of specials (not in regular menu), one item that caught my eyes was "Mutton cooked with Tsing Tao beer" (青島啤酒羊).  I asked the waitress about it.  All she could tell me was the dish is served on a mini-wok with mutton and sauce.

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The other day I ordered this dish: "Mutton cooked with Tsing Tao beer" (青島啤酒羊). Here is what it looks like:

Hot from the kitchen, and served on a mini-wok on top of small fire provided by a methanol gel stove. The taste is excellent! From what I can tell, the sauce is made from: Nam Yu (red fermented bean curd), ginger, dark soy sauce, star anise, celery, leek, bay leave (that's a surprise to me as I haven't seen bay leaves used in Chinese cooking), and one piece of spice/fruit (show in picture, bottom left) that I don't know the name of.

Very delicious! And being that this is mutton, served boiling hot... very "yeet hei" (the "yang" in "yin yang"). After my first sip on the boiling hot sauce, I had a instant soar throat! Not kidding!

Edited October 28, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[AzianBrewer]

Lamb with Tsing Tao??? That sounds pretty good. Hmmmm.....How about using stout instead of lager for this dish?? Since stout has a richer and robust composition wouldn't that better to reduce the gaminess of lamb/mutton/venison? I normally use lager to cook my seafood, ale for poultry, and porter and stout for red meat. And as for Belgian beer....poached bosch pear.

[jokhm]

Beer with chinese food?

Hmm... about a whole page on a menu of this Guizhou place I frequent is devoted to dishes with beer in them. They are all dry or slightly less than wet hot pots that come partially cooked with raw herbs on top. Really fantastic stuff. And it is also SPICY. Wow. They have an amazing beer cooked sour catfish hotpot.. a whole catfish fresh out of the 'aquarium' in a red hot broth.. and each person gets a small sauce dish that comes only with fresh chopped onions, garlic, ginger and Fu Ru... then you pour in some of the fish broth as it heats up. I better go there now... report back later.

[alycemoy]

I was in Guangzhou, China last year and was hanging out with someone from Hunan. We went to eat at a Hunan restaurant and I asked her to order things that are signature for that region. One of the dishes she ordered was Beer Duck.

It looked pretty much a lot like the Mutton cooked with beer, but it was cooked with pieces of duck. All I remember was that it was amazingly good.

I have yet to find it in this country at all (though a restaurant just north of Berkeley called China Village has a Beer Duck on the menu, it's more Szechuan in style; the duck was in a large bowl of broth that was made spicy with chilis... quite good, but not the beer duck I was expecting).

Anyone know of a good recipe for Beer duck? Would love to make it at home!

[AzianBrewer]

I was in Guangzhou, China last year and was hanging out with someone from Hunan. We went to eat at a Hunan restaurant and I asked her to order things that are signature for that region. One of the dishes she ordered was Beer Duck.

It looked pretty much a lot like the Mutton cooked with beer, but it was cooked with pieces of duck. All I remember was that it was amazingly good.

I have yet to find it in this country at all (though a restaurant just north of Berkeley called China Village has a Beer Duck on the menu, it's more Szechuan in style; the duck was in a large bowl of broth that was made spicy with chilis... quite good, but  not the beer duck I was expecting).

Anyone know of a good recipe for Beer duck? Would love to make it at home!

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There are many ways to cook duck with beer. It really depends what's your style. One Xmas, I had couple of geese confitted in New Castle Brown Ale. The birds came out malty and hoppy, and I used the fat to brown my Yukon Gold "tay-tas". Beer rules!

[jokhm]

Beer with chinese food?

Hmm... about a whole page on a menu of this Guizhou place I frequent is devoted to dishes with beer in them. They are all dry or slightly less than wet hot pots that come partially cooked with raw herbs on top. Really fantastic stuff. And it is also SPICY. Wow. They have an amazing beer cooked sour catfish hotpot.. a whole catfish fresh out of the 'aquarium' in a red hot broth.. and each person gets a small sauce dish that comes only with fresh chopped onions, garlic, ginger and Fu Ru... then you pour in some of the fish broth as it heats up. I better go there now... report back later.

[liuzhou]

Beer is frequently used in cooking in this part of China (Guangxi).

Beer duck is perhaps the most famous, but there is also beer chicken and beer fish and I've even had beer snake.

[Ben Hong]

Jeez, I almost always cook with a cold beer in hand.

[Big Bunny]

Jeez, I almost  always cook with a cold beer in hand.

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I open the beer after I have done most of the cutting.

BB

[liuzhou]

QUOTE(Ben Hong @ Dec 17 2005, 10:34 PM)

Jeez, I almost  always cook with a cold beer in hand.

I open the beer after I have done most of the cutting.

Presumably, Ben doesn't wait till the cutting is over. Would explain why he uses 'hand' in the singular!