I very much liked the idea for this pork spare ribs braise in Hsiao-Ching Chou’s book Chinese Soul Food, but I thought her version (which I made last night) was too salty and not sweet and sour enough. In the recipe below, I have noted what I think would be the right proportions, and what Read More …
Twice-cooked pork was my introduction to Sichuan cuisine in the late 1970s. I spent a summer working in Washington, DC for a federal government agency and the office was near Washington’s small Chinatown. I ate twice-cooked pork for the first time in one of those restaurants and it was great. The normal way to do Read More …
This Cantonese dish is adapted from a recipe in Martin Yan’s Chinatown Cooking. He includes 1 tsp. of cracked Sichuan peppercorns which I have omitted since I do not like them. We have made this twice with asparagus, as he suggests, but I think it would be better with other, quicker cooking, vegetables, such as Read More …
Our son Nick has been very keen on his air fryer, so we also bought one and have had good results with it. This is an adaptation from a recipe in the Washington Post. The wings were nicely crispy. I thought there could have been more sauce to coat them. I think the next time Read More …
This is an adaptation of a recipe from Milk Street. I served it with bok choi sautéed with onion, garlic, ginger, and oyster sauce. I also served it with soft-boiled eggs (steamed 7 minutes and then chilled in ice water to stop them from cooking further, and warmed for serving). This made 6 servings and Read More …
These roasted ribs are an adaptation of a recipe in Saveur magazine in 2008, which in turn was based on the Joyce Chen Cook Book from 1962. I left out the red food coloring from the original recipe as not necessary these days. The ribs took about 90 minutes to roast. 2.33 lbs. of ribs Read More …
I had some leftover Chinese Braised Beef and was looking for a vegetable to go with it and some rice. We had a Napa cabbage in the refrigerator, and I found a stir-fry recipe for Napa Cabbage in Grace Young’s Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge. Grace’s simple recipe calls for some prosciutto, and I substituted Read More …
This easy braise filled the house with the smell of star anise from the Chinese Five Spice powder. We ate it with the Stir-fried Asparagus and Shitake Mushrooms and steamed rice. This recipe is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated’s “All-Time Best Chinese Recipes”. Cooks recommended making this with beef shank or short ribs, as flavorful and Read More …
This side dish accompanied Chinese Braised Beefin the photograph. The mushrooms were a good addition since they really soaked up the sauce. This is an adaptation from Cook’s Illustrated’s “All-Time Best Chinese Recipes”. Sauce 2 Tbs. water 1 Tbs. soy sauce 1 Tbs. dry sherry 2 tsp. brown sugar 2 tsp. grated fresh ginger 1 Read More …
The key insight to this version of fried rice is to boil the rice in lots of water like pasta, rather than steaming it in a precise amount of water as usual. This is a way to use freshly cooked rice and have each of the rice grains separate vs. the natural tendency to form Read More …