It’s been ages since I last steamed a fish (years in fact). Today, I am steaming a whole Tilapia using a very popular Chinese method. It is quite simple but (and trust me on this one), you really want to try this recipe yourselves… Continue reading “Steamed Whole Tilapia”
I don’t recall actually ever seeing steamed clams as a dim sum offering in a restaurant, but this combination of clams and salted black beans, along with other typically Chinese seasonings certainly does make a nice ‘small plate’ delicacy and that’s what I had in mind when I put together today’s recipe. I am using the Mirabel brand of small frozen clams as these are deliciously sweet and look very pretty for this sort of dish, but you can use fresh ones of any type… Continue reading “Black Bean Steamed Clams”
Today I am showcasing a simple, light meal I put together one evening. It could easily be made with any chicken parts (chopped into small pieces) but I used the wing drumettes on this occasion.
Basically, I just seasoned the drumettes with salt, pepper, and a little sugar and then tossed them with flour to coat. I then placed them on a bed of finely slivered celery and drizzled over some chili oil. On top, I scattered a little more celery, including the leaves, as well as some finely sliced Black Chinese Mushrooms. Finally, I spooned over about a quarter-cup of a sauce made from a little soy sauce and oyster sauce diluted with rice wine and then steamed everything for about 30 minutes.
The Verdict? This was really excellent…. The Chicken was so tender and the flavoring was understated but just right. My wife especially enjoyed it. I think this would make a great dish as one of several in a Chinese meal but, in future I might also divide everything into smaller portions and steam them as Dim Sum type dishes. Give this a try!
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When I was a law student, I shared an apartment with two other students, one of whom had recently moved to Canada from Hong Kong. Like many Chinese immigrants, he adopted a Western name for himself but his choice, which was Gordon, was rather a poor one as he couldn’t pronounce it. Accordingly, my other room-mate and I re-dubbed him ‘G’…
G. was not a particularly accomplished cook but he had learned a few basic dishes from his mother and, one of these, which he cooked on a regular basis, is the one I am preparing for you today. This preparation represents my earliest introduction to dried squid as a culinary ingredient and I have loved it ever since… Continue reading “Steamed Pork Patty with Dried Squid”
There really is nothing like fresh Mussels. Sadly, we can usually only by them frozen in these parts so when our local stores do have a supply of the fresh article on hand, my signature Steamed Mussels always follows.
I never follow a precise recipe when I steam mussels… each version is just slightly different than the one before… but, essentially, I steam them whole in butter, garlic, onion, white wine and parsley. I also occasionally add lemon zest, or even chopped tomato to the blend. Basically, my dish is pretty much a version of the famous ‘Moules Mariniere ’, and goes great with crusty bread to sop up the delicious broth that is created by the steaming process… Continue reading “Steamed Mussels”
Today’s post is not really a recipe, as such. Rather, I just thought I’d show you a little experiment I conducted with some of the leftover Roast Pork with Crackling I featured recently. Rather than scarf down all the crackling in one sitting, my wife and I exercised considerable restraint and I managed to save a strip along with about two inches or so of the fat and meat underneath. I had in mind a little appetizer idea and wanted to see how it would turn out.
Basically, I made a sauce by pureeing a tomato and some red bell pepper along with Sichuan Chili Bean Paste, sugar, and vinegar. After reducing and cooling the sauce, I marinated the chunk of pork in the sauce for about an hour and then I made a bed of celery sticks (which were first quickly flash-fried) and placed the pork on top. I steamed it, with the sauce poured over, for about ten minutes and served it right away.
Basically, this method is sort of a cockeyed reversal of the Chinese dish Hui Guo Rou (回鍋肉), also known as ‘twice-cooked pork’, in which a chunk of pork with the rind attached is moist-cooked by simmering, and then fried, with sauce later added, so that the pork becomes crisp. Here, I started with crisp pork and then moist-cooked it with steam.
Anyway, I was curious to see if the very crunchy crackling on top of the meat would remain crispy after steaming. As it turned out, it doesn’t but the new texture that resulted is almost as delectable. The meat was nicely tender, while the fat gave a lovely, unctuous contrast to the slight chewiness of the skin. The sauce also worked even better than I hoped (it is something I am working on for another dish) and, in all, I have to declare this little experiment a success…
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I have a done a couple of lamb dumpling posts since I began my blog, notably Boiled Lamb Dumplings and Xian Market Dumplings with Lamb. Since I was planning to make steamed dumplings using some cooked lamb I had leftover in the fridge, I thought I would share the recipe with you as it illustrates not only a different filling mixture from my previous posts, but also another cooking and folding method for the dough… Continue reading “Steamed Ginger Lamb Dumplings”
I have published quite a number of posts featuring the Chinese dumplings commonly known as ‘Jiaozi’, all of which are comprised of fillings of one sort or another wrapped in a dough made simply of flour and water. The similar sounding ‘Baozi’, on the other hand, are formed with a leavened dough and are more ‘bun-like’ generally, although the steamed variety (as opposed to baked), are very like steamed or boiled jiaozi except in the texture of the skin.
I wanted to try using some of my Tienjin Pickled Vegetable in some sort of ‘bao’ after having used it with some pleasing results in jiaozi and I discovered, while doing a little research, that Tientsin is actually famous as the birthplace of a particular class of bao known as ‘Goubuli baozi’ (狗不理). The name has an interesting origin, which you can read at in more depth if you follow the preceding link, but it is commonly translated as ‘Dogs-will-ignore Dumplings’, and typically contains pork. For this experiment, I am not actually trying to reproduce any of the many varieties that exist (chiefly as I have never eaten them anywhere), and so I am simply calling this experiment ‘Tienjin Baozi’… Continue reading “Tienjin Baozi”
When I featured Chinese Preserved Pork-Belly in a recent ‘Foodstuffs’ post, I said that I planned to use some of it in a very common way by steaming it over rice. This dish, which permits of countless variations, is a very ‘homey’ sort of preparation and many people add the pork, along with other ingredients, to rice in electric steamers to make a quick, simple meal. I am using a clay-pot to steam my rice and I am departing from the more standard method by using pre-cooked rice, thus necessitating a fairly short cooking time. In addition to the pork, I will be adding some greens and other flavorful ingredients… Continue reading “Steamed Rice with Preserved Pork-Belly and Egg”
A decade ago, I wouldn’t have thanked you for steamed or poached chicken in any fashion as I really disliked the texture of the finished product, especially the skin. Nowadays, after persisting with trying various Chinese recipes I have come to love it and I find that the wings are especially delectable treated in this manner.
For this experiment, I took as my inspiration a Cantonese recipe I came across in a book my wife bought me for my birthday. It steams a whole cut up chicken with a variety of ingredients, including mushrooms, white fungus, and Chinese Sausage, and it also includes pickled radish from Sichuan and some pickled Cabbage from Tientsin. I am just going to use some chicken ‘drumettes’ for this dish (the portion of the wing that looks like a little drumstick) and steam them with dried black mushrooms, a little scallion, and some of the very interesting Sichuan pickled vegetable I featured in my recent Korean-Style Beef Ribs post… Continue reading “Chicken Wings Steamed with Sichuan Pickle”
