Quick & Easy Chinese
Page 2
HOISIN SAUCE
As thick as apple butter and endowed with a deep, plush sweetness, hoisin sauce is an adored member of the family of bean sauces, which have been valued in Chinese cuisine since ancient times. Made from fermented soybeans ground to thick paste with garlic, sugar, and an array of spices, hoisin sauce serves many kitchen purposes, adding its color and sweet-salty flavor notes to marinades, glazes, dipping sauces, stir-fries, and barbecue sauces for roasted and grilled poultry and meat. Keep it in its jar in the refrigerator for about 6 months.
KETCAP MANIS
Dark soy sauce or dark sweet soy sauce. Fortified with a deep sweetness by the addition of molasses, this mahogany-colored essence is used extensively in the cooking of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Use it in place of dark soy sauce in recipes. A treasure any time you want to add deep, rich color to a dish; start with ½ teaspoon, as even a little bestows gorgeous brown hues to any food. Look for it in tall bottles in Asian markets. It keeps indefinitely at room temperature.
OYSTER SAUCE
This lustrous dark-brown essence is a salty signature of Cantonese cooking, though it is known and enjoyed throughout the cuisines of China. Made from an extract of dried, salted oysters, it is enjoyed directly as a condiment and sauce as well as in combination with other ingredients for cooking. Unlike soy sauce and many other Asian seasonings, oyster sauce is perishable and should be kept in the refrigerator.
ROCK SUGAR
This looks like a rough gemstone right out of the quarry, with its translucent amber color and hard yet crumbly texture. It’s actually much softer than it looks; you can break or cut it fairly easily, though it seems at first to be indeed a kind of rock. It is cane sugar and honey combined in a crystallized form, and is also called yellow sugar and yellow lump sugar in various translations. Especially cherished in northern Chinese cooking, it contributes an incomparable lush texture and gloss to red-cooked dishes, which are meat, poultry, or fish braised in dark soy sauce, rock sugar, and rice wine. Don’t worry about smashing it down to a state you can measure in a table-spoon—just break it up into reasonable chunks and eyeball it. A little extra will never be a bad thing, and I consider a walnut-sized lump to be pretty close to a tablespoon. Buy a box, since the packaging is charming and low-tech, the cost is minimal, the look is fascinating, and the flavor is divine, whether you dissolve it in your tea, lemonade, or red-cooked chicken braise.
SESAME OIL
See Asian sesame oil.
SHAOXING RICE WINE
Made from sticky rice and named after the town where it is traditionally made, Shaoxing rice wine is an amber-colored fortified wine, widely available in Asian markets. One standard brand is sold in brown bottles with a big red label. If you can visit a Chinese-owned liquor store, ask about various versions of the spirit; you could use any of them in your cooking.
SHERRY
Dry sherry, such as amontillado, is a very good substitute for Shaoxing rice wine, a traditional component of countless Chinese dishes. You could also use white wine or chicken stock if neither sherry nor Shaoxing rice wine is available or if you need a substitute.
SOY SAUCE
If you’ve kept a modest little bottle of soy sauce in the cabinet or on the fridge door, it’s time to move up. You will use soy sauce often in these recipes, so consider the biggest bottle you can find at the supermarket lest you run out at suppertime. Soy sauce is an ancient seasoning made from salted, fermented soybeans. It adds color and depth as well as its specific salty flavor to an array of dishes in this book, and belongs among your everyday seasonings if it’s not already there.
SZECHUAN PEPPERCORNS
The powerfully flavorful berries of the prickly ash tree, Szechuan peppercorns provide a zingy, intense and pungent flavor to numerous dishes originating in the Western Chinese provinces of Szechuan and Hunan. As prickly ash berries ripen to a rusty red, they split open and curl back like petals, exposing an ivory interior with tiny dark seeds. Adored for their oddly wonderful and numbing sensation of heat and flavor, Szechuan peppercorns pair wonderfully with rich and luscious dishes made with pork and duck. Usually toasted before being ground to a coarse or fine powder, this distinctive spice is mixed with warm salt to make a tasty dip for grilled meat.
SZECHUAN PRESERVED VEGETABLES
This salty-hot pickle is fermented with chilies, garlic, and salt in great tubs, and then preserved in brine. Rinsed before use, it is chopped up and added to stir-fries, soups, and braised dishes for its contribution of tangy crunch and intense salty heat. Sold in plastic packets, it should be transferred to a jar and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.
appetizers & snacks
HOISIN SHRIMP IN LETTUCE CUPS
POT STICKER DUMPLINGS WITH GINGER-SOY DIPPING SAUCE
HONEY-GINGER SPARERIBS
SOY SAUCE CHICKEN WINGS
GREEN ONION PANCAKES
COLD SESAME NOODLES
TEA EGGS
Whether you’re on a Beijing side street, a Shanghai street corner, or a winding Chinatown sidewalk in New York City, you will find evidence aplenty that the Chinese love food. Watch people cooking, eating, buying, and selling food, and carrying it along to share with someone else, anytime and anywhere Chinese people are awake.
The variety and range of things to eat on short notice is a testament to the dedication Chinese people have to eating with pleasure, and this kind of food translates wonderfully into starters you can make for any gathering. Street food is a natural for this category, since it tends to be simple-to-eat, stand-alone fare, rather than a component of a rice-centered meal. Favorite appetizers on the menu of Chinese restaurants in the West are often versions of street-food classics, from spring rolls and spareribs to dumplings and deep-fried treats.
Many street-food specialties take time and years of expertise to master, but a number of these small dishes translate wonderfully to a home kitchen and make a delicious addition to your repertoire of starters. In this chapter you’ll find Honey-Ginger Spare-ribs (page 26), Soy Sauce Chicken Wings (page 27), Cold Sesame Noodles (page 31), and Hoisin Shrimp in Lettuce Cups (page 21), each of which is simple enough for your standard party menus. Pot Sticker Dumplings with Ginger-Soy Dipping Sauce (page 23) and Green Onion Pancakes (page 29) can be wrapped up and rolled out ahead of time, and then quickly cooked and served when you are ready to enjoy them.
When Chinese hosts present an appetizer course, it often begins a multicourse banquet and is waiting on the banquet table when the guests arrive. Even if restaurant chefs are doing the cooking, the focus is on a gracious welcome for guests and minimum attention from the cooks, who have, perhaps literally, bigger fish to fry. Traditional starters include cold cuts, a pedestrian name in the West but a Chinese category of great bites including thinly sliced ham, Char Shiu Pork (page 98), abalone, and nuts, including freshly fried cashews or peanuts, or Candied Walnuts (page 166).
To follow this wise tradition, consider designing your party menu in the same spirit, weaving in recipes from your standard starter repertoire with a dish or two from this chapter. For cold cuts, arrange smoked salmon, prosciutto, and thinly sliced salami or summer sausage on handsome plates. For nuts, set out ready-to-eat pistachios and roasted, salted cashews, along with smoked almonds or honey-roasted peanuts. Add a pile of boiled, chilled shrimp with Ginger-Soy Dipping Sauce (page 171) and spicy cocktail sauce, and an item or two from this chapter, and you’re done. You may enjoy your small plates theme so much that you add a few more and call it a meal, with lots of room and time for guests to sample and savor along with you.
HOISIN SHRIMP in lettuce cups
This dish pairs the delicate, sweet notes of shrimp with the earthy sweetness of hoisin sauce, with delicious results. Don’t let the long ingredients list deter you. You simply stir the seasonings into a sauce that is tossed with the shrimp and zucchini at the end of cooking. Serve this with lettuce cups on the side or spoon it into lettuce cups for a cool and flavorful starter, to
be eaten out of hand.
¾ pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 small zucchini
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry or Shaoxing rice wine
1 tablespoon chicken broth or water
2 teaspoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger
½ teaspoon Asian sesame oil
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons finely chopped green onion
About 20 cup-shaped lettuce leaves, such as Bibb, Boston, or iceberg
SERVES 4
NOTE To chop the shrimp, cut the tail portion into two or three pieces. Then halve the thick upper portion lengthwise and cut it crosswise into two or three sections.
Chop the shrimp into small chunks, about ¼ inch in diameter (see Note). Trim the zucchini and chop it into ¼-inch chunks too. In a small bowl, combine the hoisin sauce, sherry, chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, and salt, and stir to mix well.
Heat a wok or a large, deep skillet over high heat until a drop of water sizzles at once. Add the vegetable oil and swirl to coat the pan evenly. Scatter in the garlic and ginger, and toss them well. When they are fragrant, about 15 seconds, add the shrimp and cook, tossing often, until pink on the outside, about 1 minute.
Add the zucchini and toss well. Cook, tossing often, until the zucchini are bright green and tender, and the shrimp are cooked through. Add the hoisin sauce mixture, pouring it in around the sides of the pan, and then toss to season everything evenly. Add the sesame oil, cilantro, and green onion, and toss to combine well.
Transfer to a serving platter, with lettuce leaves on the side, and invite guests to spoon shrimp into lettuce leaves to make small wraps. Or, spoon shrimp into lettuce cups and arrange the filled lettuce leaves on a serving platter.
POT STICKER DUMPLINGS with ginger-soy dipping sauce
These delectable dumplings are first fried, then steamed, endowing them with a fabulous dual texture. Smooth, luscious noodlelike wrapping and tender, meaty filling complement the handsomely browned bottom crust. Round gyoza wrappers, available in Asian markets and many supermarkets, are ideal here; but won ton wrappers work wonderfully if you trim off the four corners before wrapping your dumplings. Though these treats are quick and easy to cook, the mixing and wrapping steps take a little time. Plan to make them a day ahead and refrigerate or freeze them. Or follow Chinese tradition and invite guests to come fill, shape, and cook dumplings along with you, making the preparation and cooking part of the party.
1 pound ground pork or ground beef
¼ cup thinly sliced green onion
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed (see Note)
36 won ton wrappers or round gyoza wrappers (10-oz to 12-oz packages have about 50 wrappers each)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ cup water
Ginger-Soy Dipping Sauce (page 171)
MAKES ABOUT 36 POT STICKERS
NOTE You could also use blanched fresh spinach: drop about 4 cups loosely packed spinach into a small pot of boiling water, let cook 1 minute, drain well, squeeze gently but firmly to extract water, coarsely chop, and measure out ¼ cup. To use napa cabbage or regular cabbage, you could chop it finely and use it raw or blanched.
In a large bowl, combine the pork, green onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, salt, and sugar. Squeeze the spinach with your hands or press it into a strainer, extracting most of the water. Add the spinach to the bowl and use a large spoon or your hands to mix everything together until all the seasonings are incorporated and the spinach and green onion are evenly mixed in.
To fold the dumplings, set up a work space with a dry cutting board, a small bowl of water for sealing the dumplings, the stack of won ton wrappers, and the pork mixture.
To shape a potsticker dumpling, place a wrapper on the cutting board. Scoop up a generous tablespoon of pork filling and place it in the center of the wrapper. Dip your index finger into the bowl of water, then lightly moisten the outside edge of the wrapper. Fold it in half, enclosing the filling and pinching the top edges to make a tight seal. Try to squeeze out any air bubbles that may form. Create 3 small pleats on one side of the seal, folding toward the center and pressing to seal it well. Form 3 small pleats on the other side and press the entire sealed edge. Press the sealed edge down lightly to plump up the dumpling and make it stand up straight.
Continue folding dumplings in this way, one at a time, or setting up 3 or 4 wrappers at a time for an assembly line. Place the folded dumplings in rows on a dry platter so that they don’t touch each other.
To cook the potstickers, heat a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and then add the vegetable oil and swirl to coat the pan. Carefully place about 12 potstickers in the pan, tucking them to form a circle in one direction; squeeze a few into the center if you can. (Packing them tightly is fine.) Place a serving platter by the stove to hold the cooked dumplings.
Let them cook undisturbed for 1 to 2 minutes, until the bottoms of the dumplings are a pale golden brown. Holding the skillet’s lid in one hand, add ½ cup water around the sides of the pan and then cover quickly. Let potstickers cook for 8 minutes, and then uncover the pan.
Continue cooking 1 to 2 minutes more, shaking the pan gently and using a spatula to discourage the pot stickers from sticking too much. When the water has evaporated and the dumplings are a handsome crispy brown, turn them out bottom side up onto a serving platter. Serve hot or warm, accompanied by Ginger-Soy Dipping Sauce.
HONEY-GINGER SPARERIBS
You can use regular or baby back ribs in this recipe, cutting the rack into individual ribs before marinating them so that they cook and brown quickly and evenly. Call ahead to make sure that the butcher at your supermarket meat counter will have what you need. Let the ribs marinate in the sauce for 30 minutes, or cover and refrigerate them to marinate as long as overnight.
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup honey, plus 4 to 5 tablespoons for glazing
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar (or another kind of vinegar)
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce, molasses, or maple syrup
1 tablespoon dark brown or light brown sugar
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
About 3 pounds pork spareribs, cut into individual ribs
MAKES ABOUT 24 RIBS, ENOUGH FOR 4 PEOPLE
In a large bowl, combine the soy sauce, ½ cup honey, vinegar, dark soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, salt, and pepper. Stir well, until the sugar dissolves and the soy sauce and honey combine to make a smooth marinade.
Add the spareribs to the bowl and turn to coat them evenly with the marinade. Set aside for 30 minutes, or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day. Turn them once or twice to season them evenly.
To cook, heat the oven to 350°F. Line a large rimmed baking sheet or roasting pan completely with aluminum foil, to keep cleanup easy. Arrange the seasoned ribs on the foil-lined pan individually, spaced a few inches apart to help them brown evenly. Place the pan in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
Remove the pan, turn the ribs over, and then continue roasting for 15 to 20 minutes more, until the ribs are evenly browned and cooked through. Increase the heat to 400°F and cook another 5 minutes.
Remove the ribs from the oven and push them together into a low pile in the center of the pan. Drizzle the reserved honey over the ribs, and then turn and tumble the ribs a few times, to coat them evenly with the honey. Transfer to a serving platter and serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
SOY SAUCE CHICKEN WINGS
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p; This simple recipe gives you a delicious-looking pile of wings to serve warm or at room temperature. Perfect for a picnic or potluck, they can be made ahead and reheated gently, or chilled and brought to room temperature on the way to an event. I remove the wing tip and either discard it or save it in the freezer for stock, but it’s fine to leave wings whole. You can use trimmed chicken wings or “drummettes,” the first portion or drumstick, or “Buffalo wings,” the first two joints divided with the third joint removed. Whatever form you use, choose a saucepan that keeps the wings covered with sauce as they cook, rather than spread out in a single layer.
1½ cups soy sauce
¾ cup water
¼ cup dark or light brown sugar
3 tablespoons molasses or honey
1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup very coarsely chopped fresh ginger
8 slices fresh ginger
3 green onions, cut crosswise into 2-inch lengths
1½ pounds chicken wings
SERVES 4 TO 6
In a large saucepan, combine the soy sauce, water, brown sugar, molasses, salt, ginger, and green onions. Stir to dissolve the sugar and salt, and then bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Carefully add the chicken wings to the pot. They should crowd the pot and be almost covered with the sauce. Let the sauce return to a boil, and then adjust the heat to maintain a lively, visible simmer.
Let the chicken wings boil gently for 12 minutes, stirring once or twice to make sure that the wings cook and color evenly. Remove from the heat and leave the wings in the sauce to finish cooking and deepen in color, about 30 minutes.
Transfer the wings to a serving platter. Remove and discard the ginger slices and green onions. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
GREEN ONION PANCAKES
These fabulous street-food flatbreads show up in night markets and in street-food centers all over Asia. On our annual visits to Taiwan, my family and I eagerly seek out the couple who serve them up from a simple stall by the Taipei subway stop near the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial. Theirs are incomparably delicious, but these are very tasty, lovely to look at, and amazingly simple to make. Plan to roll and cook the pancakes one at a time while you’re learning, and then speed up once you’ve got it down.