Chinese hot and spicy chicken

Thanks to the bite from anise and hot peppers, this is so good that I ate it for lunch, dinner and supper yesterday. I consumed an entire pot of rice which normally lasts me two days. Yummy!

Chinese hot and spicy chicken

4 T oil
1 scallion
2 hot peppers or more
1 green bell pepper (optional)

1 T shredded ginger
1 T sherry
2 T light soy sauce
2 lb fryer chicken

1/2 cup chicken broth
1 T light soy sauce
2 T wine vinegar
1 T sugar
1/2 t salt
1 t anise pepper
1 T cornstarch

Marinate the chicken:
Cut chicken into bite-sized pieces, marinate 15-20 mins in ginger, sherry, soy sauce mixture.

Prepare the veggies and make sauce:
Cut scallion and hot peppers diagonally into 1-inch pieces. Grind anise pepper to powder. Mix chicken broth, soy sauce, wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.

Stir fry:
Heat oil. Add scallion and hot pepper and stir fry several times.
Add chicken with marinade and stir-fry for 1-2 mins more. Add chicken broth mixture, mix well.
Cook over low heat until chicken is tender. Add cornstarch to thicken.

Sweet and sour chicken pineapple

If you are in the mood for something mild and sweet, here's a perfect chicken dish I cooked today. Lots of juicy pineapple make it taste like a main course combined with a dessert. I actually changed the proportions of the original recipe, which called for more chicken, to the below, in which veggies and fruit prevail. You can see all the ingredients I used in the picture. I skipped the chestnuts, bean sprouts and MSG. I also used less sugar because last time I made this dish it came out much too sweet. Today's, however, was just right.

Ready to serve over rice. The tiny black bits you might have noticed is the seasoning of my wok peeling off. I need to scrub and reseason it. They won't be there in your dish.

Below is my recipe.

Sweet and sour chicken pineapple

1 whole chicken breast, without bones, cut up into thin strips
3 T vegetable oil (preferably peanut)
1 green bell pepper and 1 red bell pepper, cut up into bite size pieces
1 sm. onion, sliced
2 c diced celery
1 (5 oz.) can water chestnuts, drained (optional)
1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in 1/2 c water
1 t salt, 3 T apple cider vinegar, 3/4 c brown sugar and, optionally, 1 t MSG

1 can chunk pineapple, undrained
1 (1 lb.) can bean sprouts, drained (optional)

2 T cornstarch, 2 T water

Pre-cook the meat:
heat wok, then heat oil in wok. Add chicken and cook at medium heat, stirring, until meat turns white, about 5 mins.

Add the veggies, seasonings and fruit:
add bell peppers, onion, celery, chestnuts, bouillon, MSG, salt, vinegar and brown sugar. Cover and simmer for 10-15 mins. Stir often.
Add pineapple and bean sprouts, stir.

Thicken the sauce:
mix cornstarch with water and stir into mixture. Simmer for 3 mins.

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Chinese spaghetti - zhajiang mian

Before going shopping tomorrow, I've been planning a menu for January. With another heating bill expected next month, I intend to cook cheap. I am also craving to try a new dish. While googling for pork cuts I came across a recipe for "Chinese spaghetti" - northern Chinese noodles with stir fried ground pork. See link for all possible ingredients of this dish, I will be using only the below, which I already have. This is what you need to do:

Dice scallions and garlic.

Stir-fry the ground pork until slightly brown, remove from wok.

Stir-fry the green onions and garlic until slightly brown (optionally, add shredded tofu or soybeans).

Return the meat to the wok.

Add hoisin sauce with some water and simmer until the meat is done.

Serve over noodles. If desired, add shredded carrots and/or cucumbers, bean sprouts, scrambled eggs, fresh soybeans/edamame and hot sauce.

Sounds really easy, albeit mild tasting. I think I will be adding hot peppers to the onion and garlic mixture, and perhaps some fish sauce to enrich the taste. I will post a picture when I make it.

Update: above, a picture of the ready dish. I decided to keep it mild and actually forgot to add the fish sauce. It's very quick to make. To me, it tastes better cold, as a filling for sandwiches.

Five spice pork belly

A Cantonese recipe jotted down from Travel Channel's show Planet Food, episode on Southern China hosted by New Zealand chef Peter Gordon. It's easy and very tasty, I made it countless times. Including today. A word of warning, though. This hearty dish is somewhat fatty and not the easiest on the digestive system. If you've been dieting or eating little meat recently, be careful - don't eat too much right before bedtime or it might give you nightmares.

Quantities are approximate, adjust to your liking:

1 lb pork belly, without bones or skin (I left the skin on because I like it)
1-2 t Chinese five spice powder (make your own or buy a ready made product)
2-3 T oil for frying, peanut oil is best (smell-free)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 inches ginger, chopped
8 green chillies, cut up into pieces (I use Thai bird's eye chillies)
1/4 cup light soy sauce mixed with 1/4 cup honey
rice vinegar to taste
rice wine (if you don't have it just skip it or substitute with apple juice)
a handful of prunes (optional)
a handful of mushrooms (optional)
hot water

Chinese five spice powder (enough to cook at least four dinners):
Pound finely or grind finely and mix
1 t Szechuan peppercorns (these can be first roasted for 3 mins in dry skillet to release more aroma but no problem if you skip this step)
4 star anise
1/4 t cloves
1/2 T ground cinnamon
1/2 T fennel seeds

Cut pork belly into bite size pieces and sprinkle well with five spice powder. Do not use too much powder (definitely not more than 1-2 t) because it tends to be pungent, especially if the spices are very fresh.

Heat wok, then heat oil in wok. Fry the pork until no longer pink, remove from wok.

Add oil to wok if necessary, lower the heat, add garlic, ginger and chillies. Stir fry briefly to release aroma without burning. Add the pork, soy sauce with honey and vinegar, rice wine, prunes and mushrooms and hot water to more or less cover it all. Stir, bring to boil, cover, reduce heat and cook for 60-90 mins or until the pork is done.

I make mine with prunes but without mushrooms. I also make my own five spice powder, simply pounding the spices one by one in a mortar. I don't bother to sieve them afterwards but if you don't like biting on an occasional piece of anise shell, grind them in a coffee or pepper grinder and then sieve them.

ready dish

Eating dangerously: pork belly stew Tung Po Rou

I made some pork belly stew Tung Po Rou according to the recipe enclosed below, only skipping the spinach. The dangerous part is that the pork belly was five days past its expiration date. It smelled very little so I decided to give it a try. I made sure the recipe called for prolonged cooking in order to kill whatever might already be living in the pork. I recall reading that before refrigerators eating unfresh meat was a normal practice and that spices were used not so much to add flavor but rather to cover the unfresh smell. So I am now eating it. It doesn't taste off, in fact it's quite good, and I hope to still be around tomorrow.

Pork belly stew Tung Po Rou

1 1/3 lb pork belly
2 scallions, crushed
1 inch piece fresh ginger, crushed
6 T soy sauce
1 cup Chinese rice wine or sherry (substitute with apple juice)
4 T rock sugar (I used brown sugar)

1 bunch of spinach, washed and drained
1 T oil
1/3 t salt
a pinch of MSG, optional

Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan and put in the pork. When the water returns to a boil, remove the pork. Cut into pieces 2 inch long and 1/2 inch thick.
Put the scallions, ginger and wine in a pan. Add the sliced pork, and bring to a boil over high heat.
Reduce heat and pour in the soy sauce. Cover and simmer until the meat becomes tender. If the juice evaporates too much, you may add a little water.
Stir in the sugar. When the sugar has completely melted and the pork is glossy, remove from the heat.

Heat the oil, add the salt and spinach, and stir-fry quickly over high heat. Just before removing from the stove, season with MSG. Put the meat and the sauce on a serving dish and place the spinach along one side.

(recipe from chinesefood-recipes.com)
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Chinese chicken in oyster sauce

Tonight's dinner. Easy and delicious. Not spicy.

1/2 lb. chicken breast, sliced finely

Marinade:
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 inch cube ginger, chopped
2 T soy sauce

Chopped veggies:
1 red pepper, 1 onion, 1 small head broccoli, 1 carrot

Sauce:
1/2 T oyster sauce
1/2 t sesame oil
1/2 t cornstarch mixed with a little water

Mix the ginger, garlic and soy sauce. Marinate the chicken for 1 hour.
Heat wok, add oil. Stir fry the chicken over a low heat for 5 mins.
Add the vegetables and stir fry for a further 5 mins.
Add the sauce ingredients and simmer for 5 mins.
Serve with guess what.*

I skipped the carrot because I didn't have any, and used Napa cabbage instead of broccoli (ditto). I love Napa cabbage stir fried in Chinese dishes, it's so juicy and delicate. It was a yummy and simple dinner which I thoroughly enjoyed.

*rice :-)