Ingredients

• fish (bone-in 2 in. pieces of any white fish)

• salt

• cooking oil

• soy sauce

• salt

• sliced ginger

Steps

First, prepare the fish by descaling and chopping into small 2-3 in. segments.

Mix in a thin layer of salt.

Heat oil in a wok. You can also use a flat frying pan.

One by one, add the fish to fry.

Make sure the fish lies flat so you can sear the entire side.

When one side is cooked to a golden brown, carefully flip over the fish to fry the other side.

After both sides are golden brown, then the fish probably done cooking. You can definitively check by seeing if the fish meat easily lifts off the bone. Remove the fish from the wok.

Now we are going to re-fry them in less oil to prepare the flavoring.

Start by adding a few slices of ginger.

Add in a dash of soy sauce.

Then add in a little salt.

Finally add a little water.

Carefully mix it all together without breaking apart the fish.

Then, take the fish out of the wok and it's ready to serve!

Ingredients

• marinade

  • star anise

  • bay leaves

  • dried orange peels

  • sichuan peppers (花椒)

  • soy sauce

  • dark soy sauce

  • oyster sauce

  • sugar

  • salt

  • scallions (only the white stem)

  • ginger

  • brown rock candy

  • hot chili peppers (optional)

• meats (flexible on which you use or a combination)

  • pig ear

  • pig stomach

  • pig ear

  • pig feet

• cleaning solution

  • ¼ cup of cold water

  • 1 tbsp flour

  • 1 tbsp salt

Cooking Tools

• wok

• chopsticks

• spatula

• knife and cutting board

Steps

First, prepare all of the spices (chili peppers, star anise, bay leaves, dried orange peel, sichuan peppers, ginger, scallions)

Slice the ginger

Begin boiling water in a wok with ginger, sichuan pepper and 1 star anise.

You can cover the wok to get the water to a boil sooner.

While the water is boiling, prepare the meats. First we need to thoroughly clean the meat.

The best way to do this is by mixing in ¼ cup of cold water, 1 tbsp of flour, and 1 tbsp salt with the meats in a large bowl.

Thoroughly work the mixture to rub out any residue off the meat surface.

Then remove the pork stomach and rinse with cold water.

Specifically for the pork stomach, carefully cut out all of the fat (white parts).

If any pieces are too large, feel free to cut them into smaller pieces.

Once the water is boiling, add the meat for 5 minutes.

It is alright to cook the different meats together

This picture shows what it looks like when close to done

The pig ear is ready for the next stage when it begins to curl itself like so

The pig stomach should be fully curled

Place the cooked meats into a bowl of boiled water to rinse. It should be noticeable how much of the pig scent has been washed off at this point.

Further rinse off the cooked meats with cold water.

Next, prepare the marinade in the wok. Start by cleaning the wok and heat until all the water evaporates.

Heat oil in the wok.

Add a few slices of ginger and mix for 30 seconds to cook.

Then add the star anise, chili peppers, and sichuan peppers. Mix around for 15 seconds to cook.

Next add in the white part of the scallions and stir fry until it is aromatic, approximately 1 minute.

Add a few cubes of brown rock candy and mix. You can use sugar if you don't have rock candy.

Add in bay leaves and mix.

Add in 1 pint of water.

Add in 4 oz of soy sauce.

Add 2 oz of dark soy sauce.

Add 1 tbsp of oyster sauce.

Add the dried orange peels.

Lastly, add in 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cook until the sugar and rock candy fully melts.

Add the meats into the marinate and mix together.

Then cover the wok and bring the water to a boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat to medium and cover. Let this cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour while also turning the meats around every 10 minutes so that it cooks evenly.

When it's ready, it'll look like this

Now you can remove the meats and slice.

Here's the pig ear.

This is the pig stomach.

And finally the pig tongue

Put it all on a nice plate.

Finally top with cilantro, scallions and a bit of sesame oil.

Ingredients

• pork spare ribs

  • you can ask the butcher to cut into cubes for you

• ginger

• dried black beans

• soy sauce

• oyster sauce

Cooking Tools

• steamer

• knife and cutting board

• metal bowl (size should accommodate fitting into a pot for steaming)

Steps

First, take the spare ribs out of its packaging. You can either buy the ribs pre-cubed, or cut it yourself.

First clean and rinse with cold water.

Then, place the spare ribs in a metal bowl and rinse once more with boiling water then drain. We do this to clean out as much blood as we can.

Slice a few pieces of ginger.

Place ginger slices on top of the spare ribs in the metal bowl.

Add dried black beans on top.

Drizzle soy sauce over the top of the spare ribs.

Add 1 tsp of oyster sauce.

Place the metal bowl into the steamer. Here we use a large pot with the metal grate to lift the bowl over the boiling water.

Steam for approximately 45 minutes.

Steam until the pork is cooked fully. When done, remove the metal bowl from the pot.

Stir the mixture fully to coat the pork in sauce.

Transfer on to a plate and serve.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp Annatto seed

• 1 tbsp Paprika

• 1/2 tbsp Tumeric

• 3 tbsp Madras curry powder

• 2 tbsp Chicken bouillon powder

• 1-2 whole red chili peppers

• Lemongrass

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp sugar

• Cooking oil

• Garlic

• Ginger

• 1 red onion

• 1 white onion

• Chicken drumsticks

• Japanese sweet potatoes

  

  

Steps

First, put 1 tbsp of Annatto seed in cooking oil

Heat the seeds over low heat until the color permeates throughout the oil. This will be used as a condiment on top of the curry later. For now, just set it aside.

Next, dice some red onion, ginger and garlic. There's no science to exactly how much of each, but feel free to do it to taste or based on the picture below.

Cut your chicken drumsticks into evenly-sized chunks. Put it in a mixing bowl along with your diced red onions, diced ginger, diced garlic, diced chili peppers, 1 tsp salt, and 2 tbsp sugar. Mix thoroughly and set aside.

Wash, peel, and cut your Japanese sweet potatoes into chunks.

Fry them over low to medium heat in some oil on a frying pan.

Cook the potatoes all the way through without burning them. You want them to be browned like this:

Set the potatoes aside. Now for the final ensemble!

Heat up some cooking oil in a big frying/sauce pan. I prefer to use a wok for everything.

Add a generous amount of diced red onion.

Then add diced ginger and garlic

Lastly, add several stalks of lemongrass and fry evenly.

Add 3 tbsp Madras curry powder and mix.

Now add the chicken mixture from before and start mixing frequently to evenly cook the chicken

Fry fry fry

Now add some water. Not a lot of water, we need to save space for the coconut cream. In other words, don't cover the chicken with water.

Cover the pan/wok with a lid and bring the water to a boil, cooking the chicken all the way through.

You can cut open a piece of chicken to verify if it's been cooked through.

Now add some whole milk, 1 can of coconut cream, and 1 tsp sugar.

Mix it all together

Cut some white onion slices and add to the mixture

Finally, add 5 tbsp of the annatto oil that we made earlier. Be careful not to include the actual seeds.

That's it! Traditionally, the curry is eaten with a French baguette, as opposed to rice or noodles. It is also common to mix salt and pepper in a separate dish for dipping the curry chicken into.

Ingredients

• 1 lb Pork shoulder or loin (no fat or skin)

• 1 Taro (can be replaced with potato or sweet potato)

• 1 egg

• Scallions

• Ginger

• Salt

• Baking soda

• Corn starch

• Soy sauce

• Sugar

• Vinegar

• Cooking wine

• Red food dye

• Sesame oil

Cooking Tools

• Butcher knife and cutting board

• Wok

• Large Bowl

Steps

Let's first make the sauce that we'll use for stir-frying later. We'll make 1 pint of sauce total. Combine, mix and set aside:

1 tsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp vinegar, 1/3 tsp salt, 2.5 tsp cooking wine, couple dashes red food dye,
and 5 tablespoons water.

Defrost your pork.

First cut the pork into strips.

Now with 1 strip on a cutting board, use the back size of a butcher knife to tenderize the pork in diagonals

Flip it over and tenderize both sides.

Now lay the strip flat. We need to cut 45 degree slits into the meet, creating flaps in a criss-cross pattern.

Start cutting a flap at a 45 degree angle at regular intervals along the diagonal of the strip

Then flip the strip 90 degrees to do the same in a criss-cross fashion. Flip the strip over on its back and do the same to the other side.

When you're done, cut the strip into even bite-size pieces.

Put all of the pork in a bowl. Add 1/3 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tablespoon of water and use your hands to mix well into the meat.

In a separate bowl, beat 1 egg together. Add 1/2 of an egg into the bowl. Use your hands to mix everything well into the meat.

Also finely dice your ginger and cut/wash scallions. Set aside for later.
Clean, cut, and cube the taro in a separate bowl. You can also use potato or sweet potato here

Add a little water to wet the taro. Then, add cornstarch to cover the taro in a batter for deep-frying. Pre-heat the wok with frying oil to 350 degrees F. The taro should be deep-fried first separate from the pork, as it requires less time and lower temperature. Now deep fry the taro and set it aside for later.

Now let's deep fry the pork. Just add cornstarch directly to the pork. It'll stick to the egg that was added previously, creating a batter around the pork.

Deep-fry that pork!

Now set the fried pork and taro aside. We will stir-fry these ingredients together with our sauce next.

Heat up a wok with cooking oil. Start with stir-frying your scallions and ginger.

Now pour in the sauce that we made earlier.

Cover the sauce and bring it to a boil.

Now add the fried pork and taro

Now stir-fry well and mix. The pork should absorb the sauce and red coloring.
In a separate bowl, make a small mixture of cornstarch and water (see the bottom right)

Add a spoonful of the cornstarch mixture to thicken up the sauce.

Add a dash of sesame oil for fragrance. Serve on a dish!

Notice that the sauce is not too loose or too thick.

Ingredients 

• black beans in oil

  • you can also buy dried preserved black beans, but you'll need dice and soak them in vegetable oil for storage.

  • Note: the black beans are already pre-salted when you buy from the store

• tripe

• 1 tablespoon salt

• 3 shakes of white pepper

• corn starch

• sesame oil

• vegetable oil

• scallions

• ginger

Steps

Tripe is usually bought as a giant connected piece. There's a thick half-shell skin, with flaps in the middle.

Separate between the flaps and cut long lines down the thick skin. Try not to cut the flaps.

Cut the tripe into small rectangular pieces. 

Wash the tripe in a large bowl.

You can buy black beans soaked in oil. If you bought dry black beans, prepare the black beans by dicing them into small pieces and soaking with vegetable oil for a 1-2 hours.

If the black beans were bought dry, you need to steam the black bean-oil mixture. As a short-cut, you can also microwave the black beans to release the flavor. This step is not necessary if you already bought black beans in oil.

Heat up a wok with cooking oil. Start by stir-frying slices of ginger. Then add the beef tripe and stir fry until done.

Add the black bean sauce. If the tripe is not salty enough, feel free to add some more salt. Add a couple dashes of white pepper. Stir fry for 30 more seconds.

Add 1-2 dashes of sesame oil.

In a separate bowl, make a mixture of cornstarch and water.

Only add a little of the cornstarch-water mixture. If you add too much, it'll get too thick. Ideally, the dish has little to no water/juice.

In the photo below, "That's too much in the ladle!"

"Look at how much water there is in this photo. Terrible."

Serve it on a plate! "The dish should look less saucy than this photo."

Ingredients 

• squid rings

• frying oil (e.g. vegetable oil)

• egg white

• cornstarch

• flour

• baking soda

• salt

Steps

First cut the calamari into rings if it's not pre-cut from the store. Wash it in a big bowl.

Add a dash of salt and mix it into the squid rings. Then mix in an egg white. Coat the calamari with a light layer of cornstarch to start. Mix well. This is the pre-coat.

In a separate bowl, create another thick batter of 1 tsp cornstarch, 2 tsp flour, 1/2 tsp baking soda, water, and a dash of oil. Mix well. We will dip the pre-coated rings into this batter right before frying. The batter should be thick so that it stays on the calamari after dipping, like so:

Prepare the wok by heating frying oil to 350-375 degrees F. You can also use a pot or a dedicated deep-fryer.

It takes a little while in a wood-burning wok.

For each ring, first dip it in the mixture.

Carefully place the battered ring into the oil to deep fry. You'll know the oil is sufficiently hot if the rings float to the surface after a couple seconds. If it stays on the bottom, the oil isn't sufficiently heated.

Don't be shy. We have a lot of fish to fry.

Remove the calamari from the oil to drain. Let it sit for a few minutes. 

It's recommended to re-fry the calamari a second time for 1 minute in hotter oil (375-400 degrees F) after the calamari has cooled a little. This second frying will give it a crispier shell.

That’s it! Plate and serve.

Ingredients 

• cabbage (pick your favorite type like Napa)

• fish cakes

• hot peppers, 尖椒 和 小辣椒 (optional)

• cooking oil

• salt and pepper to taste

Steps

Start by washing and cutting the cabbage to mid-sized pieces.

Cut and wash your fish cakes as well. These happen to be homemade, but most Asian grocery stores will carry fish cakes.

Dice up the peppers (optional ingredient).

Start by heating up a wok with cooking oil. Add the peppers and start frying that first to release the flavors.

Then add the cabbage.

Stir-fry until the cabbage is done. Notice how the cabbage has softened up.

Add the fish cakes and stir. These are usually pre-cooked, so you just need to heat it up with the rest of the dish.

When fully cooked, add salt and pepper to taste.

Tada! Short and sweet!

This fermentation process is quite simple and consists of only a few ingredients. However, it is incredibly sensitive to impurities, so take extra caution to clean all utensils, bowls, and hands. Otherwise after months of work, you may just end up with a really strong vinegar.

Ingredients 

• 10 lb long-grain sweet rice (short-grain is acceptable too)

  

• 14 oz red yeast rice

  

• 20 cups of distilled water

Cooking Tools

• 1x Thai-style rice steamer

• 1x large food-safe bucket with airtight cover

• Multiple large glass bottles or ceramic urn with airtight cover

• 1x Thai-style bamboo strainer

• rubber hose - for siphoning wine

• saran wrap and parchment paper

• rubber bands

Cleaning glassware and utensils:

It is absolutely critical to have crystal clean tools and glassware for this recipe. Use 白灰 or baking soda with warm water, soaking for a few days to clean any utensils and bowls that you plan to use.

Steps

Measure 10lb of sticky rice and place it into a food-safe bucket.

First we're going to clean the rice. Add enough water to soak all of the rice, no need to be precise.

Lightly cover the bucket to prevent bugs from getting in. Let the rice soak overnight, releasing excess starch into the water.

Whenever dealing with the rice, make sure your hands are VERY VERY clean. Any residual oils will affect the taste of the wine.

Carefully clean the rice in cold water until the water is clear.

One way to tell when you're done cleaning is to pour cold water through the rice. If the water is clear on the other side, you're ready to begin cooking.
At this stage, drain the rice and give ample time to let the rice dry.

Place 14 oz of red yeast rice in the food safe bucket.

Add precisely 20 cups of distilled water as described in the ingredients list. This water will eventually become the wine. You should be using clean distilled water, but don't be afraid to experiment with different water sources. The quality of the water has a huge effect on the wine.
Use a clean wooden dowel to lightly mix it evenly.

NOTE: Take extra care not to accidentally introduce any oils or other substances into this mixture. Any tools should be washed in boiling water before use.  We're going to repeat this warning multiple times.

In theory, the rice can be cooked in any rice cooker. We prefer to use traditional Thai-style rice steamers, which can be bought online. Add water to the basin and bring the water to a boil on the stove.

Only after the water is at a boil, put a small batch of rice on the cooker in the woven basket. 

NOTE: The bottom of the basket should NOT touch the water. If there's too much water, pour some out.

Steam on high until the rice has cooked.

Slowly add more rice by hand to the basket as it cooks in layers.

Once the last layer of rice has finished cooking, pour boiling water over the rice and cook for another few minutes.

Batch 1! Repeat until you've cooked all the rice. Place the rice aside to cool after cooking.

Let the rice cool for several hours to room temperature.

Once all the rice is cooked and cooled to room temperature, carefully add the rice to the red rice/water mixture.

NOTE: Take extra care not to introduce any oils or other substances into this mixture. Any tools should be washed in boiling water before use. Hands should be washed very well. Seriously.

Mix everything together by slowly and methodically stirring in a single direction.
DO NOT change the direction of stir. It messes with the juju.

This is what the mixture should look like by the end of stirring.

Now cover the bucket with a lid, and leave the bucket for 2 weeks at room temperature. Basements work well for this.

Note: This does not need to be an airtight lid.

After 2 weeks, sterilize a mixing spoon by cleaning in boiling water. Remember, a dirty spoon will completely ruin the wine! Open up the bucket. You should smell alcohol and wine, with the wine settled on the bottom of the bucket, below the rice. Carefully stir the rice-water mixture in a single direction for a few minutes. Again, juju.

Mix for 2 minutes.

Now we must create an airtight lid for the bucket. We suggest using saran wrap to first cover the top, using either tape or string to firmly seal to the bucket. Then put the lid on last. When done, store the container in a dark and cool location. Again, basements work well.

After 2 months, we want to separate the rice from the liquid before we continue aging the wine. We suggest using a Thai-style bamboo strainer. Remember to clean it with boiling water before use.

By placing the strainer into the bucket, you create a pocket of liquid that is separated from the rice. 

Then using a rubber hose to suction the wine off into a separate container, kind of like when you go to steal gas from your neighbor's car. Notice the difference in elevation so you can let gravity do the work.

Now pour the wine into a separate glass bottle. You can use a funnel, but be sure to clean it well with boiling water first.

It is critical to seal the glass bottle really well, as we'll age the wine for years in this bottle. We recommend first using a layer of parchment paper, then saran wrap, then the bottle cap. Finally clamp it all down with rubber bands. If air sneaks into the bottle, it'll alter the taste. Hide this bottle in a dark cool corner part of the basement away from sunlight. 

In the bucket, you are left with a thick rice mixture (lees), which we recommend saving into a separate jar. Again, we recommend an air-tight lid. The red wine lees can be stored for months in the refrigerator and is used for cooking.

Asian-American culture dictates that we should reuse bottles from 10 years ago.

The red wine lees might be even more valuable than the wine, as we'll use it a number of other recipes such as lamb soup, noodle soup, and stir-fried conch. Here's a photo of aged-pork marinated in these red wine lees. Yum!

As for the wine? The rice wine should be kept in airtight bottles in a cool, dark, and dry place, away from sunlight. My aunt stores it in between the walls of the basement, in a location more secure than her jewelry. The wine should be aged for as long as possible, growing darker in color over time. The wine will become smoother and more flavorful over time as well. In the picture below, the left jar has been aging for 2 years and the right jar has been aging for 4 years. Notice the color difference (ignore the labels from the 80's). We once tried a sip from 2, 3, 4, and 5 year old wine batches. The 5-year-old wine was definitively better.

Chinese Red Rice Wine, 酿造米酒

"You can do this for anything!" - Mom

Ingredients 

• meat, such as

  • poultry

    • chicken

    • duck

  • red meat

    • pig's feet

    • pork bones (e.g. 扒骨 or 同骨)

    • oxtail (or other beef bones)

    • goat

    • lamb

    • venison

• ginger

• salt

• vinegar

Steps

You can make a great broth from nearly any type of meat. Boney parts of the animal (e.g. ribs, feet, calf) have a lot of good fats that are great for soups. For red meats, it is required that you first follow the Cleaning Meats post to remove the layer of blood and odor before stewing. For poultry this is optional.

After you have cleaned the meat, start by heating a wok with oil and salt. Add some ginger slices when the wok is hot. Stir fry for 15 seconds.

Then add the meat and stir fry for 30-60 seconds.

The meat should be browned by this point, but the goal is not to fully cook the meat. Now add whatever flavors you want to the soup. This can include rice wine, salt, sugar, soy sauce, etc. If you have vegetables (e.g. daikon radish), you can add them here too. Now add boiling water along the sides, enough for your broth.

Cover the wok and bring everything to a boil. If there are floating oils, be sure to discard those.

Ew.

Now transfer to a slow cooker and cook on high. If you don’t have a slow cooker, can you can cook on the stove on low heat.

For chicken and other poultry, cook for 30 minutes. If you have a bigger chicken, then it might take 45 minutes. For pork, the soup will be ready in about an hour. For softer pork, simmer for longer.

When the broth is done cooking, add more salt to taste.

You can eat or freeze the broth once it’s done. Enjoy!

Ingredients 

• meat

• ginger

• salt

• vinegar

Steps

First, wash and cut the meat into chunks.
The picture below is goat meat, but it applies for any other red meat.

Boil water in a large pot (or wok). Set aside some water for later in a second pot. Then add with vinegar, salt, and large chunks of ginger to the first pot.

See the blood in the goat meat? That's what we want to clean out. Add the raw meat into the pot and boil for 2 minutes. (1 minute for thin meats like tripe).

Note: Only do 1 type of meat at a time. You can follow these steps in parallel with different types of meat.

Repeat these steps for other types of meat. 

Stir the meat in the water. The goal is not to cook the meats, but simply to clean it, remove the initial oils, and add a slight ginger flavor and scent.

Remove the meat from the pot and place it in the pot of freshly boiled water (that was previously set aside) for 1 minute.

Strain the meat and set aside for cooking later.

If you need to clean multiple meats, you can reuse the water until it gets too cloudy. Cleaner meats (Less bloody and without bones) should be cleansed first. For example, first pork belly, then pig feet, then lamb. 

And that’s it! You can set the meat aside until you are ready to cook with it.

Ingredients 

• spring roll shells (see picture below)

• vermicelli

• 1 head of cabbage

• 1 carrot

• white pepper

• salt

• sugar

• 1 egg

• deep frying oil (vegetable oil works well)

Steps

First, wash the cabbage and carrots. Then, finely shred the cabbage and carrots. This will be the filling in the rolls.

Soak the vermicelli in cold water for 1 hour. You want the noodles to soften up. You can soak for longer if you have the time.

Mix the cabbage and carrots with a couple dashes of white pepper, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp sugar. Add the vermicelli.

Beat one egg to use for wrapping the spring rolls. It's used as a glue to seal the roll.

To wrap a roll, start by laying out one shell in a diamond shape. Place a little filling in the corner closest to you. Be careful not to add too much filing, or the egg roll won’t close properly.

Fold the corner up and tuck around the filling. Then roll it half of the way up.

Fold the left and right corners in. Pack it in tight, but be careful not to tear the skin. Apply a layer of egg mixture to the top corner. Then roll the rest of the way up to close the spring roll.

Now lather, rinse, and repeat.

Heat the frying oil to 80 degrees Celsius.

Place the rolls in one-by-one.

When the rolls are a nice golden brown, it's done. Because the rolls float, remember to flip them over to cook the other side.

And you're done!

Ingredients 

• whole fish; can be any type with large scales:

  • striped bass, 鲈魚

  • yellow fish, 黄瓜鱼

  • 西班鱼

  • 马头鱼

• corn kernels

• peas

• For the sauce:

  • 4 tsp tomato sauce

  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder

  • dash of salt

  • 4 tsp sugar

  • 2 tsp soy sauce

  • 3 tsp of corn starch

Steps

First scale and wash the fish. 
Cut a slit along the bottom side of the fish to remove its guts. The guts will be in the bottom-right quarter of the picture below. Then cut off the head. The grocery story can do this for you if you ask.

Using a large knife, cut straight along the spine. All of the bones will be up/down along the spinal axis. Do this for both sides of the fish, but leave the fillet connected to the tail. Put the fish bones aside. It can be used for a separate dish. 

Now that you have 2 deboned fillets attached at the tail, you want to remove the bones that lined the gut. The bones are along the white tissue in the picture below. Using a large butcher knife, carefully remove these bones by cutting parallel to the tissue.

Now you have a deboned fish connected by the tail.

You want to slice diagonal cuts into both fillets, without cutting through the skin. These cuts are made diagonally into the fillet about an inch apart. Now you want to repeat these cuts at a 90 degree angle, so that you've cut X's in a checkerboard criss-cross pattern.

When the fish is fried, it'll look like a pine cone.

Now coat the fish in corn starch to prepare for frying. To help the corn starch stick to the fish, first apply a layer of egg to fish.

Now deep fry the fish in hot oil.

To make it extra crispy, you can deep fry it a second time in fresh oil.

When the fish is floating, it means the fish is done cooking. Drain the fish from the oil and place it on a plate.

Now to make the sauce, start with a 4 tsp of tomato sauce. Then add a half tsp of garlic powder, a dash of salt, 4 tsp of sugar, 2 tsp of soy sauce, and 3 tsp of corn starch. Finally, add water until it is thick and mix until it is smooth.

Make sure the peas and corn are defrosted from the freezer. Cook the peas and corn in hot water until they float in the pot.

Heat up the wok. Then add the sauce, corn, and peas

Mix well and cook until thick. This should take only a minute with a hot wok.

Now pour it all over the fish and you're done!!

Ingredients 

• dried bean curd

• firm tofu

• black mushrooms, 冬菇

• black fungus, 木耳

  

• prince mushrooms, 王子菇 [optional]

  

• fried pork skin (see packaging below)

  

• cabbage

• vermicelli

• chicken broth (or some other meat broth)

• skin trimmed from pork belly [optional]

• celery [optional]

• dried scallops [optional]

• salt

Steps

First, soak the dried bean curd, mushrooms, black fungus, vermicelli, and fried pork skin in water, then drain. These should soak in different bowls for different amounts of time.

• Bean curd: 2 hours

• Mushrooms: 2 hours if whole, 30 minutes if you split it in quarters

• Black fungus: 20 minutes

• Vermicelli: 15 minutes

• Fried pork skin: 30 minutes
  

  

  

  

[Optional] If you are making a separate pork belly dish, you can skin the pork belly and cut into little strips. Flash boil the skins by putting it in boiling water for a short period of time. Set this aside for later.

Heat up a wok with oil. Stir fry the cabbage, pork belly, and fungus.

Add mushrooms. Celery is optional.

After that, fill the wok with chicken broth. Make sure the soup has already been brought to a boil separately. Pour the soup around the sides of the wok. DO NOT pour the soup in the middle (it will ruin the taste).

Add bean curd, fried pork skins, and tofu. Optionally add some dried scallops (just washed, not previously soaked; if you soak, you'll lose the taste).

Cover the wok and bring to a boil on high heat. After it's boiling, then turn the heat to medium. Cook for 30 minutes. You should check that all the foods are fully cooked (especially the bean curds).

Add salt to taste.

And you're done! 

Ingredients 

• pig's feet aka pork knuckle, 卤猪蹄

• chicken drumsticks

• sliced ginger

• first batch of spices

  • 2 dried red chili pepper

  • 2 anise cloves

• soy sauce

• salt

• sugar

• Shao Xing cooking wine (绍兴酒)

• 1 green onion heads (the white part)

• 1 celery clover (large)

• 1 ginger (large)

• second round of spices

  • 1 tablespoon szechuan peppers (花椒)

  • tangerine peels

  • licorice (甘草)

  • 2 anise cloves

  • 3-4 dried red chili peppers

• crystal rock sugar

Note: oil that is dirtied by deep frying will need to be recycled. Restaurants commonly have an oil recycling provider but for personal use, check on options within your local community. 

Cooking Tools

• wok

• large bowl

• large pot

Steps

Clean the chicken drumsticks in cold water. Clean the pigs feet (卤猪蹄) in cold water.

Create a marinade for the chicken with 4 cloves of anise, 1 tablespoon of Szechuan pepper, 1 tablespoon of salt and enough water to cover the chicken.
Let the chicken and pig's feet soak in the marinade for 3 hours in the refrigerator.

Now to "clean" the meat, bring a pot to a boil with a few big chunks of ginger

Place the chicken and pigs feet (卤猪蹄) in the boiling water until it turns gray. Stir the meat in the water. The goal is not to cook the meat, but simply to clean it, remove the initial oils, and add a slight ginger flavor and scent. This step is brief (2 minutes for chicken, 4 minutes for pig's feet).

Drain the chicken and pigs feet (卤猪蹄). 

In a separate wok of hot cooking oil (65 deg C), deep fry the pigs feet (卤猪蹄), but not the chicken. Again, this step is brief (1-2 minutes for pig's feet). We do this to release the natural oils/fats from the pig's feet. The fat is dissolved into the deep frying oil and the remaining pig's feet is leaner. Look! less fat!

You can skip this step if you’re okay with the natural amount of fat in the feet.

Drain the pigs feet and set aside.

Now to the stir frying. Heat up a wok, and then add a little oil. Start by stir frying ginger, green onion heads, a couple chili peppers and anis cloves. Stir fry for 10 seconds.

Add the szechuan peppers (花椒). Stir fry for 10 seconds.

Add white onion, celery, tangerine peels, anise cloves, dried red peppers and licorice.

Add 4 splashes of cooking wine (1/4 bottle), soy sauce (1/2 bottle) and salt. 

Add enough water to cover the pigs feet (卤猪蹄) and chicken. Bring it to a boil without the meats.

At this point, we transferred everything into a large pot.

Place the chicken drumsticks and pig's feet into the broth slowly.

Add 4 heaping tablespoons of sugar.

Add a handful of crystal sugar.

Bring it to a boil first on high heat. Then turn the heat to low and cook for 45 minutes until meat is tender. The chicken will finish cooking sooner than the pig's feet. Check the chicken to see if it's done, and remove first. Cook the pig's feet for an additional 20 minutes until it is done.

Enjoy!

Ingredients 

• shrimp

• scallops

• squid

• ginger

• Hong Kong style pan fried noodles

• onions

• green peppers

• carrots

• tree ear mushrooms (black fungus)

• salt

• soy sauce

• sesame oil

• white pepper

• cooking wine

• corn starch

Cooking Tools

• wok

• large bowl 

Steps

Begin by preparing the vegetables. First soak the mushrooms in water to soften them. Separately, clean, peel, and slice the carrots, onions, and green peppers into thin slices. Then set to the side.

Clean and cut the squid. See the recipe for salt and pepper squid for more details on how to prepare squid.

Clean and cut the shrimp into halves. See the recipe for salt and pepper shrimp for more details on how to prepare shrimp. Cut the jumbo shrimps into 2 halves.

After thawing and cleaning the scallops, slice the scallop into 3 horizontal slices.

Clean the seafood in cold water and drain.

Boil some water in a wok or pot. To cook the seafood, place the shrimp, scallops and squid in for 1 minute. Drain and set aside. Take care not to overcook the seafood.

Now when cooking the noodles, boil a fresh pot of clean water. Boil the noodles to al dente. It takes about 1-2 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Drain the noodles and mix in 1 tsp oil to keep the noodles from sticking together.

Heat up a wok with 1 tablespoon of oil.

Rotate the wok so the entire surface is covered with hot oil.

Heat the oil on high to a very hot temperature. When the oil is extremely hot (without burning/smoking), then add the dry noodles.

Flatten the noodles into a cake.

Fry the noodles until it's crispy/golden brown on the bottom. Without disturbing the noodle shape, shake the pan periodically to ensure that it doesn't stick to the bottom. Reduce heat to medium after a couple minutes.  

Then flip the wok for the noodles to flip over and cook until the other side is crispy/golden brown. Be careful not to break the flat pancake. Continue to shake the pan. 

Set the noodles aside to a separate plate. 
Now with hot oil, stir fry the vegetables first. Then add the seafood.

Add 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp soy sauce, and a dash of white pepper. Add 1 tablespoon of cooking wine. Then add a little water mixed with cornstarch and bring it to a boil to thicken the sauce. At the very end, add a dash of sesame oil.

Pour the seafood/vegetable stir fry over the fried noodles on a flat plate.

And you're done! 

Ingredients 

• cauliflower

• carrots

• white half of green onions

• rice cake

  • This is usually purchased as slices. You can also buy a long piece and slice it diagonally yourself. 

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons salt

• dash of cooking wine

• couple drops of sesame oil

• soy sauce

• optional:

  • seafood (shrimp, scallop, squid)

  • meat (pork, chicken)

Cooking Tools

• Wok

• Large Bowl

Steps

Clean and cut the cauliflower and carrot slices.
Optionally, you can cook the cauliflower briefly in boiling water to soften it up.

Separately, we need to cook the rice cake. You can either deep fry or boil the rice cakes to cook them. Deep frying is better, because the rice cakes won't stick together.

Alternatively, you can cook the rice cakes in boiling water. This option is alright, but will lead to stickier rice cakes.

Heat up a wok, and add a little oil. If you have meat or seafood, I would stir fry them separately first and set it aside.

Empty the wok and heat up more oil. Stir fry the cauliflower and carrots. 

Add rice cake and stir fry for a couple minutes. If you have meat or seafood, you can add it here.

Add salt, sugar, and a dash of cooking wine. Throw in a dash of water to steam.

Add a dash of soy sauce and a couple drops of sesame oil. Make sure to salt to taste.

Try one of the rice cakes to see if it's done. When you're ready, transfer to a plate.

And you're done! 

Ingredients 

• 1 lb bag of rice flour (usually a clear bag with red print)

• 1 cup of water

• salt

• green onions, aka scallions

• cabbage

• mussels [optional]

  • This can be any desired seafood for taste, such as clams or shrimp

• chicken broth

  • We make our own broth with chicken or pork bones and salt that is slow cooked for 4 hours. Additional vegetables can be added for flavor.

Cooking Tools

• wok

• large bowl

• large pot

Steps

Wash and cut your vegetables. In this case, we used onions, napa cabbage, and humongous home-grown scallions.

Mix the whole bag of rice flour with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. 

Create a crater in the middle of the rice flour and pour in 1 cup of water. Mix the water and flour until the mixture is at the desired consistency.  

You may need to add more water. How do you know how much water to add? You want it to be relatively thin, but still form a continuous stream (without breaking) when you pour it.

Here's a video:

Heat up a wok. Add some oil. We'll start by stir-frying the onions. They take longer to cook.

Then add in the cabbage.

 Finally add scallions.

Once they're relatively cooked, pour 2 scoops of chicken broth into the wok. Cover the wok to boil.

Steam for a few minutes.

Then remove the vegetables and set it aside.

Pour all the remaining broth into the wok and bring it to a boil. We're just trying to heat it up for later.

Then remove half of the broth from the wok which will later be used to maintain the consistency of the noodles.

Here comes the tricky part. With some broth remaining in the wok, you want to heat up the wok to a high temperature. The edges of the wok need to be hot. Then in a fluid motion, pour a bowl full of the rice batter around the dry side of the wok to cook it into a noodle. You don't want the wet flour to touch the soup, or the soup gets goopy. 

Here's a video of the whole process

Wait for the noodle to cook. You can cover the wok if it helps. Then push the noodle into the broth. Noodles should only be pushed into the broth when it is boiling. The key is to have these solid flakes of noodle.

If the soup becomes too dense with noodles, scoop it out into a pot and start with some fresh broth that you previously set aside. Continue until you use all the batter mixture. When you’re done making all of the noodles, mix all of the vegetables, noodles, and soup and bring it to a boil. Then transfer to a big pot.

And you're done! You’ll want to salt it to taste at this point.

Dalmagoo, 锅边糊

Ingredients 

• squid, 尤鱼

  • this recipe also works for shrimp, 虾

• egg

• sweet potato flour

  • corn starch can be used as a replacement but it will result in a less crunchy shell. 

• red/green bell peppers

• salt and pepper mix

  • 1 pint salt

  • 1 tsp ground dried huajiao (花椒) pepper

  • 3 tbsp white pepper

  • Heat up a hot wok with no oil

  • Stir fry the salt

  • Turn off heat and add the huajiao and white pepper

  • Mix well and store in an airtight container.
    This batch will keep for a long time.

Steps

Wash the squid and separate the bottom of the squid from the body. 

Set aside the part with tentacles. Then cut the body of the squid down the center.