Quick Note: Apologies to the followers, I know my site was down for the past two weeks. Everything seems to be up and running, and we’re ready to go!

Pardon the generic title. To be honest, I’m still unsure what the official name of this green is! It’s labeled as “Chinese Lettuce”, but somehow, something tells me the name was just slapped on! That does not sound very convincing. However, doing a Google Image search on the Chinese name (油麥菜) does the trick!

Here is what it looks fresh from the grocery store:

This is probably the most simple stir-fry dish that has been posted. I usually boil them, and put oyster sauce on top. This time, I tried stir-frying it, and it turned out delicious! I just love the crunchy stem (bottom part)!

You can pick up a batch at your local Asian grocery store. Don’t be intimidated by the large amount that it may come in, as it shrivels by more than half its’ size when you’re done cooking! One thing I would like to try next time is to perhaps cut them into halves. If your pan (or wok) is not very large, you may initially feel it’s being overflowed with the greens! But they will shrivel.

• one large batch of Chinese Lettuce
• 2 teaspoons of chicken broth powder mix
• 1-2 teaspoons of sugar (or to taste)
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped

• Clean all the greens with cold water. They do not need to be dried.

1. In a preheated wok (or pan), heat the cooking oil, then add the garlic. Once the garlic starts to turn a little brown, put all the greens into the wok (or pan).
2. You will most likely need to stir the greens, to ensure it is heated uniformaly. Gently stir for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the chicken broth powder and sugar and keep stirring for another couple of minutes.
4. You will notice that the greens have shriveled. When it has shriveled, and has a darker color, you can turn off the heat, and serve on a plate.

This is yet another recipe from the book “Chinese Cooking - The Food and the Lifestyle” with slight modifications. The original recipe called for regular potatoes, however yellow potatoes (smaller ones) were used instead.

Bell peppers were also added, as I’m always a big fan of adding extra vegetables when given the chance. I always enjoy the addition of cilantro leaves in most of my dishes as garnish, as adding this aromatic herb helps add a zesty flavor. For those unfamiliar to cilantro, it’s also called “coriander”. I hear both names quite frequently, so I also need to be reminded that they are the same!

You might also notice some meat from the photo, which is ground pork. This dish is also not “saucy”, as is the case for most of my other recipes. Judging from the photo of the cookbook, it seems like it was intentional. I do, however, have a couple of home-made recipes that use potatoes, and *are* saucy, so stay tuned for those!

• about a dozen yellow potatoes, cut in half (or 4 regular potatoes cut into large chunks)
• 1 bell pepper, sliced
• 150 g of ground pork
• 2 stalks of green onions (scallions), finely chopped
• 2-3 stalks of cilantro (coriander), chopped
• 1-2 tablespoon of cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon of chicken broth powder mix
• 1 teaspoon of corn starch
• pinch of salt, pepper, and sugar

• Mix the green onions and cilantro together in one bowl. This will be used as the garnish.
• Marinade the ground pork with: chicken broth powder mix, salt, corn starch

1. Boil the potatoes in boiling water until cooked (it can take up to 15 minutes). Once the potatoes are ready, drain and save 2-3 tablespoons of the water for later use.
   (Just an aside, the next time I try this recipe, I’m going to omit this step, and start at Step #2. I will lose out on the “potato water”, which will just be substituted with water instead)
   
2. In a pre-heated wok (or pan), heat the cooking oil, and cook the potatoes until golden. Once they are done, take out and set aside.
3. Re-heat the wok (or pan), and add more cooking oil. Stir-fry the ground pork and bell peppers. Add: salt, pepper, and sugar to taste.
4. Place the potatoes in the wok (or pan), and also add the water that was retrieved from Step #1.
5. Once the potatoes are warm enough, turn off the heat. Add in the green onions and cilantro as the garnish, and serve.

A non-stir fry dish - something quite different! From the photo above, this salad looks pretty plain and ordinary. I’ll agree with that from the looks of it. However, I can assure you that it was very tasty!

I got this recipe from a book “Chinese Cooking - The Food and the Lifestyle” while looking for something easy. The recipe only called for tomatoes as the main ingredient, but cucumbers were added along as well! The dressing contains mainly white rice vinegar (as opposed to the dark ones). This white rice vinegar is similar to the Western vinegars, but not as acidic. I have not tried regular vinegar as a substitute, but I suppose it could work.

The next time I try this salad, I think I’m going to try including roasted peanuts (or cashews). I think that would be a great inclusion!

• 2-3 tomatoes, cut into slices
• 1 cucumber, cut into slices
• 2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1-2 stalks of green onions, chopped
• some coriander, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1-2 tablespoons of white rice vinegar
• pinch of salt and pepper
• pinch of white pepper

• Mix all the ingredients to form the dressing: garlic, green onions, coriander, sesame oil, white rice vinegar, salt, pepper, and white pepper into a bowl.

1. On a big plate, arrange and spread out the tomatoes and cucumbers.
2. Pour the dressing on top of the vegetables, and serve.

I got this recipe from another blog, and was intrigued as it was called “Mongolian Beef”, yet it had regular ingredients that I had in my kitchen. I’ve never made any Mongolian food before, so I was very tempted to try.

I must say I did make a couple of modifications. When I performed a taste-test while the sauce was simmering, I noticed it wasn’t salty enough. I’m not a fan of salt in the first place, but I felt the need to add some extra flavor. I looked at my collection of condiments and thought I’d experiment with some Hoisin Sauce. I usually stay away from adding Hoisin Sauce to any dish, as it’s pretty high in sodium (my bottle lists 530 mg in 1 tablespoon!). However, I wanted to add a bit of the saltines flavor in this recipe, so I gave it a shot.

For those unsure what Hoisin Sauce is, have you ever had the Vietnamese Pho noodles? If so, you’ve most likely dipped your meat in some dark brownish sauce. That would be Hoisin Sauce:



It is literally translated as “seafood sauce” in Cantonese.

One ingredient I *forgot* to include was sesame seeds! From the original blog entry, the inclusion of these seeds makes it very appealing.

I think I needed *way* too much water though! If you look at the pic, it looks very soupy on the side. Was not intentional at all!

• 300 g of top sirloin steak, sliced thin
• 2-3 chopped garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon of ginger, sliced
• button mushrooms, sliced (I used about 10-12)
• an onion, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• salt and sugar to taste
• 2 teaspoons of (light) soy sauce
• 3 teaspoons of corn starch
• chili sauce to your liking
• 1 tablespoon of hoisin sauce
• 1 teaspoon of chicken broth powder
• 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil
• 2 green onions, chopped

• Marinate the beef with 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of corn starch, and 1 teaspoon of the soy sauce.
• Place the remaining corn starch (2 teaspoons) in a small sauce bowl, and mix with 2 teaspoons of water. Set aside for later use, as we will be adding this mixture near the end to thicken the sauce.

1. In a preheated wok (or pan), heat the cooking oil, then add the garlic and ginger. Once the garlic starts to turn a little brown, add the beef and saute.
2. Once the beef is cooked to your liking, remove the beef, and place the bell pepper and mushrooms into the wok. Stir-fry for about 1-2 minutes.
3. Add about 3-4 teaspoons of water, the rest of the soy sauce (1 teaspoon), sugar (about 1 teaspoon), chili sauce, hoisin sauce, and the chicken broth powder. Allow it to simmer for a few minutes.
4. Return the beef back into the mixture. Grab the corn starch mixture that was prepared earlier on, and make sure to mix it again, as the corn starch may have settled to the bottom. Add the mixture into the wok, and stir. This will thicken the sauce.
5. Place contents onto a plate, and garnish with green onions

This is a recipe that was a last-minute throw-in that uses basil as one of the ingredients. I love basil, and I promise to add more basil recipes in the future. To be quite honest, this isn’t my favorite basil recipe. It was completely improvised, and more of an experiment. But I wanted an archive of most of my attempts, this being one of them. You can’t really see much of the basil from the photo. They really do shrivel up when cooked in high heat. So don’t worry, there’s a whole bunch in there :)

I think most of my readers will find a theme for all of my recipes (the stir-fry ones at least). I usually start out with garlic, cook the meat, take it out, cook the vegetables, add the condiments/flavoring, put the meat back in, add corn starch mixture, and then finish off with sesame oil. Sounds simple, but the execution and finding the right amounts to add is crucial!

This recipe did not take very long at all, 10 minutes to prepare, and about 10 minutes to cook. I’m honestly a bit shocked that the list of ingredients is as big as it is. I’m always intimidated by long lists of ingredients when I look at recipes, so I hope I did not scare any of you off!

By the way, I apologize again for the long time in-between postings. A lot of busy days have kept me away from the site for a while, especially decisions on a new house! I have recipes queued up, it’s a matter of posting them. Hang in there everyone :)

• handful of fresh basil
• 1 zucchini (I used two, I had a huge craving!)
• 1 small onion sliced
• 250 g of chicken, cut into small bite-sized pieces (white, dark, choice is yours)
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 teaspoons of sesame oil
• 1-2 teaspoons of soy sauce (light if possible)
• 1-2 teaspoons of oyster sauce
• 1-2 teaspoons of sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon of the chicken broth powder
• 3 teaspoon of cooking (rice) wine (aka rice vinegar)
• 3 teaspoons of corn starch
• pinch of salt to taste
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil

• Marinade the chicken with the soy sauce, chicken broth powder, 1 teaspoon of the cooking (rice) wine, and 1 teaspoon of the corn starch
• Place the remaining corn starch (2 teaspoons) in a small sauce bowl, and mix with 2 teaspoons of water. Set aside for later use, as we will be adding this mixture near the end to thicken the sauce.

1. In a preheated wok (or pan), heat the cooking oil, then add the garlic. Once the garlic starts to turn a little brown, add the chicken and saute.
2. Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the wok (or pan) and set aside.
3. Re-heat, put more cooking oil, and then add the zucchini and onions. Saute for a few seconds, and then add 1/4 cup of water, the rest of the rice vinegar (2 teaspoons), soy sauce, and oyster sauce.
4. Once the vegetables are almost cooked, return the chicken into the wok (or pan), and also add the basil leaves. Do a quick stir, and finish off with the corn starch mixture (prepared from the Preparation section) and sesame oil.

I’m not even sure if this counts as a “recipe”, since there really isn’t any “cooking” involved! A reader e-mailed me and asked how I like to cook fish. I actually don’t cook a lot of fish (in the stir-fry sense), instead I usually steam them.

The type of fish we always use is tilapia (called 鰂魚 or 黑立 in Cantonese). I usually buy them from my local Chinese grocery store, where the butcher would use a fish net, and grab the fish from a large full tank of swimming tilapia. Hopefully the butcher does a good job removing the scales on the tilapia, otherwise you’ll have to do that when you bring it back home.

For the sauce, I use a specific soy sauce labeled “Seasoned soy sauce for seafood”. I would say that if you have the regular soy sauce, that should be fine. It made sense for us to buy this bottle since we have fish at least once every two weeks or so.

If you look very closely, you’ll notice that I’m actually running out. Time to get more!

• 1 tilapia
• soy sauce for seafood (I use about 1 tablespoon)
• 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
• 3 pieces of pickled ginger
• ginger cut into matchsticks (optional)
• handful of green onions & coriander for garnish

• Depending on how well the butcher prepared the fish, you shouldn’t have to remove any scaling or guts. However, you should still clean it with running cold water. Once cleaned, place it on a dish, and if you had ginger (optional ingredient), sprinkle it around the fish (whoa, I just made a rhyme). Next, spread the pickled ginger on top of the fish.
  
  
• Chop the green onion and coriander, mix them together, and set aside.

1. Prepare the food steamer. I should note that I use a stove top steamer that has water filled at the bottom, so the cooking time may vary. Once the water comes to a boil, place the dish containing the fish into the steamer for approximately 8-10 minutes. For larger fish, you may need to go a tad over 10 minutes. Be careful to not overcook the fish.
2. Once the time is up, take the dish out (watch out, it is hot hot hot!!). Place the oyster sauce on top of the fish, then pour in the soy sauce. Garnish with the green onions & coriander.