Basic fried rice

Ingredients

• 4 cups white rice (prefer refrigerated)
• 2 tbsp. cooking oil
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/4 cup frozen corn
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1/4 cup frozen carrots
• 2 eggs 
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 pinch ground white/black pepper
• Scallions

Fried rice is probably one of most popular food everyone eats around world. It is a such simple, tasty food and it is easy to make. My family loves it.

I make fried rice whenever there's enough left over rice. I refrigerate left over rice for next day to use. To refrigerate them is to make sure the rice is firm/harder, so it makes a lot easier to stir fried.  Before cooking, just make sure loosen the rice by hands. Sometimes I even mix in a bit salt and soy sauce and some of the oil before it goes to pan.

I personally love spicy food and lots vegetables, so I always add more veggies if I cook for myself. Veggies can be added in same time as when carrots, peas and corns go in. I use Sriracha sauce or sprinkle minced Thai chili on top of my ready to eat fried rice. Yum!

Step 1: Scramble egg
Beat lightly 3 eggs in a small bowl, then heat a fried pan with 1 table spoon oil, then add eggs into the fried pan.  Scramble the eggs until they are golden. Set it aside. 

Step 2: Stir frying
Heat a fried pan with oil, add in onion and cook until onion is translucent (medium or lower head for several minutes), then add in minced onion and let it cook just for few seconds, then add carrots, peas and corn and lightly stir for 15-20 seconds. Now, add loosen rice and give quick stir, then add salt, soy sauce, and sugar. Mix everything well, then add scrambled eggs, after a couple minutes, rice should be soft which means it is ready. Now, add black pepper/white pepper and scallions and mix them quickly. Now, it is ready to serve. 

Pan seared dumplings

Ingredients

• 12 Dumplings (Frozen/Fresh)
• 1 tbsp. cooking oil
• Scallions
• ½ or ¼ cup water
• 6" non-stick fried pan

Use a flat and nonstick fried pan. Turn on stove top heat, place a fried pan, then add a table cooking oil, then place frozen or freshly made dumplings one by one and sitting against each other. The pouch/body of the dumplings should be sitting on the fried pan.

Add water right after all the dumplings are placed then cover with a lid and bring it to steaming hot, then turn the heat down to median for 2 minutes then low for rest time. Total cooking time is about 7-8 minutes for frozen dumplings or 5 minutes for the fresh ones. Check the water level during the cooking. If water is out before cooking time, then just simply add a bit more water, but don’t over water. At very last 30 seconds, there shouldn’t have much or no water left in the pan, the dumplings should be fluffed with air and bottoms should be starting to sear into golden (turn the heat up to brown if that’s necessary). Then they are ready to plate and to serve with dumpling sauce.

For frozen dumplings add a 1/2 cup
For the fresh made dumplings add a 1/3 cup
Or water level in a fried pan should be about ¼” deep with all the dumplings. Please adjust water according to size of fried pan.

Sichuan chili oil sauce

Ingredients
(Makes about 3/4 cup sauce)

• 3 tbsp. Sichuan chili oil
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. Chinkiang (镇江)/black vinegar
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp cooking wine
• ½ teaspoon white sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch coriander
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 tsp. minced green scallions
• ½ tsp. crushed chili (sprinkle on top of the dumplings before serving)
• Pinch Sichuan peppercorn powder (sprinkle on top of the dumplings before serving)

Peanut butter dipping sauce

Ingredients
(3/4 cup sauce)

• 1/3 cup creaming peanut butter
• ¼ cup hot water*
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• ½ tsp. minced garlic
• ½ teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes or to taste*

Add everything in a small bowl to mix well, then add scallion when it is ready.
This recipe can be also for Satay sauce.
*Hot water is allowed to break down peanut butter much easier. Red pepper flakes can be eliminated or increased as like.

Traditional Chinese Vinegary sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. rice vinegar
• ½ tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tbsp. minced/shredded peeled fresh ginger
• 1 tsp. shredded scallions
• 1 pinch white pepper powder
• 1 tsp. hot oil or red-hot pepper flakes (to make spicy)

Add everything in a small bowl to mix well, then add scallion when it is ready.

Egg cheese sandwich with Shiitake mushroom paste

Ingredients (1 serving)

• 1 large egg
• 1 English muffing/bagel (toast)
• 1 slice American/Swiss cheese
• 1 tbsp. Shiitake mushroom paste (original or spicy flavor)

Pan fried egg (Sunny side up, over easy or scrambled), sprinkle some salt and ground pepper while toasting the English muffing or bagel. Once the English muffing/bagel is toasted, add a slice cheese on top of the newly cooked egg which is still in the hot pan, so the heat will soften the cheese. Then spread Shiitake mushroom paste on one side of the English muffing or bagel. Last is to assemble the sandwich. Now, it is ready to serve.

Stir fried shrimp noodles (4 servings)

Ingredients

• 22 oz. Fresh wheat noodle/pasta (or 12 oz. dry noodles/pasta)
• 2 lb. Napa cabbage (cleaned, washed, and cut into strips)
• 1 carrots (cut into strips)
• 1 large yellow onion (sliced)
• 12 pieces Peeled fresh shrimps
• 3 clove fresh garlic (crushed or sliced)
• 3-5 sliced fresh ginger
• 4 tbsp. canola oil
• 2-3 tbsp. cooking wine
• 2 table soy sauce
• 1 tsp white sugar
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 2 of ½ tsp black pepper
• 1.5-2 tbsp. Shiitake mushroom paste (original or spicy flavor)
• 1 tbsp. olive oil/sesame oil
• 3 scallions (choped)

Step 1:
Clean and prep vegetables: Napa cabbage, carrots and onion should be cut in similar strip sizes, to accommodate length of the noodles (this meth applies to all Asian noodle dishes)

Step 2:
Marinate shrimp: Cleaned and deveined. Add them into a prepping bowl, 1 tbsp. cooking wine, 1 tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tsp white sugar, and a slice ginger. Leave it aside for 10-15 minutes.

Step 3:
Boil noodles: In a large pot, add ¾ pot full of water, bring it boil. Then add noodles into the boil water. Bring it boil again, then turn down the heat to median or lower, continue to cook for 3-4 minutes (If it is dye noodles, continue to cook for 7 minutes). Then strain out the hot water and raising off with cold water immediately and strain it again. Add drops of oil into the noodle right away and mix by hand gently, so they don’t stick to each other. Ready to set aside to stir fried.

Step 4:
Cook shrimp: Add 1 tbsp. canola oil into a non-stick wok/fried pan, once it is heated, add the shrimp and cook for just about a minute. Add another 1 tbsp. cooking wine during the minute cooking (Usage of cooking wine is to reduces unwanted fishy smell). Set aside.

Step 5:
Stir fried: Heat the fried pan with 3 tbsp. oil, add garlic, ginger and onion. Cook 2-3 minutes or until the onion is translucent. Then add Napa cabbage and carrots into the pan, quick stir for a minute or so. Then add the cooked noodles to the fried pan. Add soy sauce, salt, Shiitake mushroom past, then give a quick stir. Then add shrimp, give another quick stir. Taste the noodle to make sure there’s seasoning to your taste. It can be adjusted before serving. At last, add sprinkle ground black pepper and add sesame oil, green scallions and give one last toss. That will be it.

When do a mixed stir fried, always add hearty vegetables into fried pan first, after give a few minutes (sometime could be just a minute) then add leafy ones. Onion always is better to cook to translucent.

Garlic and ginger rule: Garlic is almost applied in all dishes. All the seafood dishes would recommend to use ginger. Always heat up one or both in oil before stir fried anything. Both of the ingredients are good to stir fried and marinating. Both can be prepped in minced, sliced and crushed forms.

Tofu skin & Chinese greens with Shiitake mushroom paste (Vegetarian)

Ingredients

• 6 oz. Fresh Tofu skin (cut)
• 1 lb. Shanghai you-chai (cleaned, washed, and cut)
• 1 carrots sliced
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 1.5-2 tbsp. Shiitake mushroom paste (original or spicy flavor)
• 1 tbsp. olive oil/sesame oil
• 1 tsp roasted sesame seeds

To blanche the tofu skin, Shanghai you-chai and carrots. Use a 4-quart pot, add 4 cups water bring it to boil. Then add tofu skin, Shanghai you-chai and carrots into the water. Give them a quick stir until water is boiling again. Then take them out of the pot and strain the water. Then rinse them off with cold water or soak them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking.

Now add the cooked and tofu skin, Shanghai you-chai and carrots into a large mixing bowl, add all rest of the ingredients and toss evenly. Now it is ready to serve over rice or as a side dish.

Make sure to cut tofu skin, Shanghai you-chai and carrots into similar sizes, so they can be cooked evenly.

Tofu skin can be substituted by firm tofu or without it. Shanghai you-chai can be subsisted any kind that has crispiness vegetables such as Napa cabbage, bok-choy, celery, fennel, broccoli, and etc.

Tofu, carrot and mushroom stuffing

• 3 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. minced fresh garlic
• 1 tsp. minced fresh ginger
• 1 bunch (5-7 pieces ) scallion chopped (separate white and green parts)
• 1 pack of 16 oz extra firm tofu (crushed by hands)
• 2 cups shredded carrots
• 2.5 cups chopped crimini mushrooms
• 1 tbsp. Shiitake Mushroom sauce/Soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. cooking wine
• 2 tbsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• ½ tsp sichuan peppercorn powder
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• ⅓ tsp white pepper powder

Heat oil on a fried pan, add garlic and ginger to toss for few seconds. Add carrots and stir for a minute or until they are soft, then add mushrooms, salt, Shiitake mushroom paste or soy sauce and stir for an other minute or so or until it is soft. Now set the cooked ingredients aside to it cool. 
Once the cooked ingredients are cooled, try to drain the extra liquid, then add in crushed tofu, Sichuan peppercorn powder and white pepper powder then mix them all together evenly. And the stuffing is ready to use. 
During this whole process, just beware of amount of liquid it produces. It gets tough to wrap dumplings when the stuffing gets too wet, so it is always good to train as much the liquid as possible. 

Handmade Chinese dumpling wraps

Dumplings are a traditional Chinese comfort food and it is also one of many most celebrated food during Chinese new year. My family loves dumplings, so I would make a few hundreds of them each time, then I would freeze and pack them for later. I started with store bought dumpling wraps. It was very convenient and less time consuming to have something fresh and healthy eat. Later on, I learned how to make the wraps from scratch. 

Dumpling nuggets

Dumpling Dough Recipe (about 80 wraps)

• 4 cups all-purpose flour + extra a cup flour on the side
• 1.5 cup water
• A pinch Salt

Direction: Add flour into a large bowl. Slowly stir water into the bowl, combine both water and flour together. Dust a prepping surface with some of the extra flour, transfer the preformed dough to the surface and start to knead until it is smooth on surface. Then cover the dough to rest for at least for an hour. Then knead for a few more minutes, then rest for another half hour. Now the dough is ready to make into wraps.

A couple steps before making into wraps. Cut the dough into strips, dust with flour then roll and back and forth until they are in nice and even dome shapes(about 1" diameter), then cut then into 3/4" thick nuggets, sprinkle them with more flour dusts, then flat each of them into coin shapes by pam and put them aside for rolling into wraps. 

Braised Pork Belly

• 2 lb Pork belly sliced in cubes (1 ½”)
• 2 tbsp Canola Oil
• 1 Garlic whole head
• 3-5 sliced Ginger
• 1/3 cup Soy sauce
  1 tbsp Dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp white sugar
• 1/3 cup cooking wine
• 3-4 pieces star anise
• 1 stick cinnamon stick / 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp of green scallions chopped

Heat up oil in a 4 qt. pot, then add ginger slices, star anises, cinnamon sticks to stir for a couple minutes or until the aroma stars rising, then add pork to the pot and pan sear the meat lightly. Then add wine and cover the lid for a minute then add sugar and cover for another couple minute. Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce and star anise and cinnamon stick and stir roughly. Then add ½ cup water, whole garlic and black pepper and let it simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. Check in every few minutes during the simmering. Make sure the water is not dried out and taste the seasoning to what you like. Add a bit if the liquid is running low. If there's too much liquid at very last 10-15 minutes of cooking, then turn up the heat to reduce it to almost thing gravy like. At last, just sprinkle some green scallions on top of it when it is ready to serve.

Five spice beef

Ingredients

• 2 beef shanks 
• 1 Garlic whole head
• 5 sliced Ginger
• 1/3 cup Soy sauce
  2 tbsp Dark soy sauce
• 4 tbsp white sugar
• 1/3 cup cooking wine
• 3-4 pieces star anise
• 1 stick cinnamon stick / 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 2 bay leafs
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 4-6 pieces of cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp of green scallions chopped

Five spice beef

Add everything into a pot and add water accordingly. The water should just about covering the meat. Then bring it to boil then turn down the heat to simmer for 2 hours. Check the pot in every 20-25 minutes to make sure there's enough liquid (halfway to the meat at least and turn the meat once in every while. After it's done cooking. Keep the beef in the liquid in the same pot or transfer them to a container to soak for 3-5 hours which will infuse more flavor into the beef. After the beef done soaking, saperete the beef and the liquid. Refreige the beef over night. Then slice into thing slice and ready to service on following day. The left over braised liquid can be reused over and over. More it is used more flavor it becomes.

To reuse the liquid to braise any other meat, just add all the ingredients above, but less salt with the liquid. 

Pork/turkey and Napa cabbage dumpling stuffing

• 1 lb ground pork
• 4 cups/1 lb diced Napa cabbage
• 1 bunch (5-7 pieces ) scallion chopped
• 1 tsp. minced fresh garlic
• 1 tsp. minced fresh ginger root
• 1 tbsp. cooking wine
• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil (2 tbsp oil for turkey stuffing)
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• ⅓ tsp. white pepper powder
• ½ tsp. onion powder

Mix all ingredients together well. It is best to mix them in circular motion (toward same direction) for at least 15 times. That tenderizes ground pork during the mixing.