The Great Chinese Recipe Thread! (1 Viewer)

[Mike SJ]

so where are the recipies!


my throw together, im late getting home and my wife will be here in half an hour chinese recipe.

boneless chicken
flat rice noodles
cauliflower/broccoli
water chestnuts
snow peas
any other prefered veggie


a little olive oil in the bottom of wok @ med-hi to hi. cut the chiken to little bite size chunks. PLACE chiken in for a few seconds only, drain oil, turn tem to med-low throw in vegetables and sprinkle soy/teryaki sause. have noodles cooking in boiling water, at al dente drain noodles, put noodles in wok and turn wok to high. toss around till everything is really hot, pour in thick sesame seed sauce[find your own brand I cant think of mine], stir till everything is coated and very hot [to make sure chiken is cooked].

then serve

 

[Kim D]

There's a grocery store here in Chicago that sells whole frozen Durians. It looked interesting so I bought it and then searched the internet to find out what it was. And then I didn't know what to do. I was afraid to let it thaw. I didn't want to throw it in the garbage because I was concerned that it would smell and offend the neighbors.

A friend had lived in Singapore and was very excited that I had found it. I had zero desire to cut it open in my house and he suggested a dinner party at his place for a few close friends.

After dinner we cut it open. Only a few of us were adventurous enough to try it. Tasted like custard.

I had been afraid that once it thawed that it would reek. But it didn't. No smell at all.

I feel as though I missed out on an important part of the experience.

- kim

 

[Lew Crippen]

OK, back to recipes. All this talk about SE Asia reminded me of one of my favorites: Hainanese Chicken Rice, sometimes called Singapore Chicken Rice. In Singapore you just order Chicken Rice.

Bring a large stockpot of water to a full boil. Add a whole chicken. The pot has to be big enough to submerge the whole chicken and the fire hot enough to quickly return the pot to a full boil after the chicken is added. Boil until cooked or for about 15 minutes. Check the thigh with a fork, knife or skewer—if it goes in easily, the chicken is done.

Remove the chicken from the pot, drain and let cool. While the chicken is cooling, prepare the rice. I would make about four cups of rice, but many Westerners may get by with less. The rice is maybe the most important part of the dish. Save the water the chicken was cooked in.

Fry the rice (use fragrant or jasmine—I really like rice from Thailand for this dish) in rendered chicken fat in a wok over moderate heat (you can get this from the chicken before you boil, or just get at the market if you are as lazy as me). You can add some cooking oil to the chicken fat—this will help to reduce the chance of the fat burning. Stir the rice constantly, cooking until it is light gold.

Put the rice in a pot, add chicken stock (you can make your with chicken feet, neck and wings—I’m normally too lazy), a couple pinches of salt to the pot. You should use some of the reserved water from the cooked chicken to thin down the stock—maybe a 50/50 mix, but adjust to how you feel. I also lightly crush a clove of garlic and add some fresh ginger to the pot. Now cook the rice as you normally do.

By now the chicken will have cooled. Brush with sesame oil. Let the it rest a bit more. Then slice into moderate pieces. Remember you will be eating with chopsticks.. Place on a platter. Peel and slice a cucumber diagonally and place the slices around the slices and chunks of chicken.

Meanwhile also prepare the soup. Take the remaining portion of the reserved water and add some shredded cabbage and onion or shallots and some salt. Boil for 15 minutes. Garnish the top with finely cut spring onions.

You also need to prepare the sauces. I normally use two: a very thick, sweetish soy sauce (you can buy this) and a red chili sauce (you can buy this too—the stuff Angelo mentioned earlier will do nicely). Sometimes I also make a sauce from grated ginger.

Serve with the chicken and cucumber on one platter per person (or a central one in a family style setting), a bowl of soup for each person and a bowl of rice for each person. The two or three sauces are used as dipping sauces—just dip the pieces of chicken into the sauce of your choice and have at it.

This is served all over Singapore and KL. It is available everywhere from open-air food courts to fancy hotels. I never made it until I left SE Asia.. But the above is a very good rendition of what the real thing is like.

This sounds like nothing at all, but it is extraordinarily good. A real comfort food.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I wonder if we can change the title of this thread to Asian Recipe Thread?

Shanghai Mama's downtown has offered it as a seasonal item in the past. I don't believe it's currently on the menu, however, and it isn't cheap...somewhere between $15 and $20 for a bowl, if I remember correctly. I'm there at least once a month, so I can let you know the next time they offer it, if you want it that badly.

I'm so there when it's on the menu.

 

[Angelo.M]

Kind of like being at an Italian restaurant and seeing how they serve squid. They deep fry it and bread up the ring part and have a few tenticles lying around. Damm it, I want it plain with lots of tenticles and none of the breaded stuff!

Fried calamari that you might order at the Olive Garden or your neighborhood pizza/pasta joint should not be taken as being in any way representative of what Italians do with squid.

In Sicily, squid is prepared one hundred different ways, and I venture to say that you would enjoy most of them. I like broiled squid, Sicilian style; there is also a great Portugese broiled squid dish.

Seek out the authentic seafood dishes of Sicily and southern Italy. There's no turning back after that!...

Sorry to derail the thread.

 

[Mike SJ]

OK I thought of something, lets have a HTF meet and everyone bring their favorite Asian, Chinese, Cantonese, Laos, Korean, Thai, Guamish[?] food cause after reading all this im hungry!!!!!

 

[Mike SJ]

I vote this just become a world recipe thread.

 

[Lew Crippen]

In Sicily, squid is prepared one hundred different ways, and I venture to say that you would enjoy most of them. I like broiled squid,

.

I’m sure I would. How about Calamari Tinto (I don’t know what it would be in Italian), which is squid cooked in its own ink. A great dish, although if you don’t like the look of black food (with the white calamari sticking up), it might not appeal.

But I digress. Back to Chinese (or at least Asian). A favorite in Singapore out on the East Coast seafood restaurants (and in some of the food courts) is fried baby octopus. These are just so good and a great way to start a meal (you need a moderate sized group to go to one of these places so you can order a lot of different dishes.

 

[Yee-Ming]

A favorite in Singapore out on the East Coast seafood restaurants

Don't forget the chilli crabs there...

Kim, if the durian didn't stink, it'd probably gone "stale", so to speak. The fresh thing smells like nothing you've smelt before; OK, maybe 3-week old Limberger cheese or something...

Chicken rice: absolutely a staple here. I think in the new season of Anthony Bourdain's Cook's Tour, he might sample some. He was here recently and I attended one of those "An Evening with Anthony Bourdain" dinners, where a local food critic (with his own local food show) acted as host, and apparently for Bourdain's show this fellow was taking him around Singapore to sample the local delights. At the dinner, Bourdain said he still hadn't tried chicken rice yet, and they agreed to have a go the next day.

Shark's fin soup: IMHO overrated. Shark's fin itself is pretty tasteless, it's just like hard gelatin. The tasty bit is the soup stock (more like gravy, it's supposed to be quite thick), which is crab-based. IIRC a local university did a study and found little difference between real shark's fin soup and soup made with a gelatin substitute. Not that I'm trying to be PC or anything -- I'll happily eat a bowl if it's put in front of me -- but I thought I'd just chime in my $0.02's worth.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

 

[Jay H]

I like Shark's Fin Soup, but not because of the Shark's Fin which typically is in very small portions but the stock is pretty good, as long as it's not too salty.

When I go to eat with my parents, my father likes to go to seafood restaurants. They'll take a live fish and basically devour everything til there's nothing but bones.. and even then, the bones become the soup, like the head is boiled into the soup and stuff.

One of the best dinners we had was when we had a small group of elderly caucasian women in the table next to us and they served the fish dish to our table whole, head and all. I grew up eating this way and it's completely normal to me, but you should of seen the looks on these women. I caught them spying on us when our dishes were served and my sisters and I were all commenting on them, as they looked in amazement.

Plus, as my father calls them, the "oyster of the fish" is really good, anatomically, its the flesh on the fish's cheek on it's head, most fish have a small piece of flesh on the cheeks that is really tender and tasty that my father calls it the oyster of the fish...

Jay

 

[Lew Crippen]

Don't forget the chilli crabs there...

I may even like pepper crab better.

Now who is in the mood to head for Sarangoon Road for fish head curry?

 

[Yee-Ming]

Now who is in the mood to head for Sarangoon Road for fish head curry?

Do you prefer Muthu's or Banana Leaf Apollo?

(Typo BTW, it's Serangoon Road... )

 

[Danny Tse]

Plus, as my father calls them, the "oyster of the fish" is really good, anatomically, its the flesh on the fish's cheek on it's head, most fish have a small piece of flesh on the cheeks that is really tender and tasty that my father calls it the oyster of the fish...

I heard that as well. But you forget about the fish eyes....

 

[Lew Crippen]

Do you prefer Muthu's or Banana Leaf Apollo?

I’m a Muthu’s man, but I’m also happy to eat at Banana Leaf Apollo. A place that I like as well is out just off Military Road in a barracks sort of a building. Just long communal tables, IIRC. The name escapes me at the moment, but they also have very good fish head curry.

Thanks for correcting my spelling—I was not too sure if I remembered correctly—clearly not.

Actually Danny, it is not uncommon to eat the eyes in fish head curry. I’ve been with groups where there was some discussion as to who was going to get the eyes.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

One of the best dinners we had was when we had a small group of elderly caucasian women in the table next to us and they served the fish dish to our table whole, head and all. I grew up eating this way and it's completely normal to me, but you should of seen the looks on these women. I caught them spying on us when our dishes were served and my sisters and I were all commenting on them, as they looked in amazement.

A whole world of flavors out there, and I still have friends who insist their diet is fine with burgers and fries. Such a sad, sad sight.

 

[Ted Lee]

Plus, as my father calls them, the "oyster of the fish" is really good, anatomically, its the flesh on the fish's cheek on it's head,

ditto that.

i remember, as the youngest child at the table, i always received the best parts of the dishes. (i wonder is that another asian-only thing??) anyway, they would always give me the cheek part of the fish, as well as the meatiest drumstick, the lobster claw, etc.

that is...until my two younger cousins came along!

 

[Yee-Ming]

Count me as one who prefers Muthu's as well, although as you said, Apollo is all right too.

A whole world of flavors out there, and I still have friends who insist their diet is fine with burgers and fries. Such a sad, sad sight.

Same thing, in reverse, with many older Chinese. Hence, I got really pissed off when I went on a group tour to the US, just about every included meal was at a bloody Chinese restaurant! (And some of it was quite piss-poor...)

I think the only non-Chinese meal was at the Grand Canyon, probably because a local operator was subcontracted (I hesitate to guess whether there are any Chinese restaurants there, given how ubiquitous they are... ) It was a great American buffet, ribs and everything

The irony was that most of that particular group were in their 20s and 30s, so they would probably have been more amenable to non-Chinese food anyway. But this is a curse of travelling with older folks, they have to eat Asian food and can't stomach Western cuisine, so all tour operators by default provide Asian food.

Sorry, we seem to have turned this into a general discussion about food, rather than Chinese recipes... :b

 

[Dome Vongvises]

But this is a curse of travelling with older folks, they have to eat Asian food and can't stomach Western cuisine

Can you blame them for not liking Western Food? Westeren Food is so bland. Them Farangs have tongues of alligators.

:p)



Oh to be one of only two Thai people on this board.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Makes their complaint even worse, in my eyes. At least the other way around, elderly Western tourists can say that hot Asian food is just too spicy for their tastebuds and digestive systems, not that all Asian food is spicy.

The big "sin", in my eyes, is the wilful refusal (BTW this goes both ways) to try overseas cuisine at all and to insist on eating that which you're familiar with. Why go all the way to a foreign country, where you're expected to see and do different things from your home, yet insist on eating food imported from home and not try the local stuff? Just as I find it funny when Western tourists here flock to McDs, so too when locals travelling overseas are looking for the nearest Chinese restaurant.

(I still remember in Finland, I asked my host to find me a place which served good reindeer. And New Zealand was non-stop lamb, not that lamb is peculiar to NZ, but it is a specialty).

 

[Lew Crippen]

Sounds like Dempsey Road, around where the old Central Manpower Base (army posting HQ) used to be, off Holland Road.

Exactly the place I was trying to recall.

As to the general comment on trying other foods, you can always tell the clientele that an international hotel expects when you go for breakfast.

Congee means Chinese, soba means Japanese, cold cuts and cheese, northern European, pancakes and maple syrup and bacon and eggs are North American and so on.

BTW Dome, not all American food is bland (you knew this already). Come down to Texas and I’ll treat you to some of our local specialties that are a tad on the spicy side. Or head for southern Louisiana, where no breakfast table is complete without a bottle of hot sauce (preferably Tabasco) on the table—after all how can you eat fried eggs without a few drops?