Baked Chinese Cabbage (Napa Cabbage)

This week's recipe is a modern Chinese dish. Two things set it apart from traditional Chinese cooking: baking and milk. Baked Chinese cabbage 烤kăo 白bái 菜cài is deliciously creamy and is great way to get kids to to eat their vegies and goes well with Western as well as Chinese food.



Ingredients for 4 to 6 people



1 Chinese Cabbage/Napa cabbage (about 2lbs or 1KG)
1 small onion
1t salt
1T oil for frying
2T olive oil and 3T butter for making white sauce
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 milk
2 dried scallops (available in most Asian stores)
1T dried shrimps (available in most Asian stores)
1T rice wine

Preparation of shrimp and scallop

1 In seperate bowls soak shrimp and scallop in about half a cup of water for at least half and hour.
2 Break the scallop up.

Procedure

1 Wash the cabbage and cut into pieces.

2 Fry the shrimp.



3 Add the cabbage and fry for 3 minutes.



4 Add the scallops and the juice from soaking.


5 Cover the pan and continue cooking unitl the cabbage is soft.



6 Take the cabbage out and put the juice in a seperate container. Set the juice aside until it is cool.

7 On a low heat melt the butter in the olive oil.

8 Lightly fry the onion.

9 Stir in the flour and keep stiring while cooking for a minute. Then slowly add the juice from the cabbage to make a paste, remembering to stir all time. Gradually add the milk and continually stir to to avoid getting a lumpy sauce. The texture should still be a paste. If the texture gets too thick to stir, just add some water or milk.



10 Remove 3/4 cup of the paste and set aside.

11. Add the cooked cabbage to the pan and mix well. Then pour the mixture into an oven-proof dish.

12. Spread the saved cup of paste over the mixture



13 Bake for 15 minutes at 180°C/350°F or until the top is light brown and crispy.

14 Serve hot and enjoy.

Sichuan Hot and Sour Cabbage

This week we bring you something from Sichuan. Sichuan food is noted for being very spicy and using very special Sichuan peppercorns 花huā 椒jiāo to make it 麻má 辣là, tingling spicy.



Hot and sour cabbage is a staple vegetable dish of Sichuan food and so makes a great accompanyment to a dish such as kong bao chicken (宫gōng 爆bào （保băo ）鸡jī 丁dīng ), which we will be doing soon.

Ingredients for 4 people



600g (about 1 1/2lb) white cabbage
Oil for stir frying

Ingredients-A

1/2t Sichuan pepper corns (whole)
Half dozen whole dried chillis (if you want it spicier then cut the chillis)

Ingredients-B

1t salt
1T brown sugar
1T soy sauce
2T rice vinegar

Ingredients-C

A few drops of sesame oil

Procedure

1. Chop cabbage into triangles



2. Heat oil until very hot and then add chillis and pepper corns



3. After a few seconds add the chopped cabbage and stir fry for a couple of minutes



4. Add sugar and salt and stir fry for another minute



5. Add soy and vinegar and mix well



6. Just before taking the cabbage out of the pan, add a few drops of sesame oil.



7. Serve hot

Hope you enjoy this quick,simple and tasty cabbage recipe, and don't forget to let us know how it went.

Till next week, have fun

Lemon Chicken

Lemon chicken goes down well with most of our family and friends whether they are western or Chinese. The recipe we have for you this week gives you a twist on the theme of chicken nuggets. We haven't included a sauce recipe because we just eat it as it is, but if you really want a sauce just use ketchup, mayonaisse or oriental sweet chilli sauce.

Enjoy

Ingredients for 4 people



4 chicken breasts
Oil for frying (either sunflower or canola. I prefer canola as it gives a better color to the nuggets)

Ingredients A - marinade

1 t salt
1 t sugar
1 egg yolk
1 T rice wine or vodka
juice from half a lemon
zest from 1 lemon
1 t white pepper

Ingredients B - coating

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
(or substitute with 1 cup of 炸zhá 粉fěn, literally frying flour. Usually available at your local Asian food store)


Ingredients C

juice from half a lemon

Ingredients D - garnish

a couple of sprigs of coriander (cilantro)
a spring onion
lemon slices

Procedure

1. Cut the chicken into thin pieces

2. Mix ingredients A and then add chicken.




3. Let the mixture marinade in the refrigerator for at least half and hour

4. Mix the flours together (ingredients B)

5. Coat the marinaded chicken in the flour mixture

6. Heat the oil for deep frying and fry the chicken until golden

7. Shake off any excess oil, drain and put on a serving plate

8. Drizzle the lemon juice on top of the chicken nuggets

9. Garnish with chopped coriander, spring onion and lemon slices

10. Serve hot

The secrets are to marinage the chicken for at least half an hour, and the flour mixture. This creates a really crispy outside and very tender chicken inside.

If you don't want to use chicken you can also use a white fish such as cod and make fish nuggets instead.

凉liáng 面miàn (Cool Noodles)

A delicious, yet simple, dish for a hot summer day.



You might want to forget about the Sichuan peppercorns and the hot chilli oil if you or your companions don't eat spicy food. Alternatively you can add the chilli oil to the individual bowls when serving.

Chinese people tend to approximate quantities so don't be over concerned with getting things exact. Also you might like to experiment with the proportions of peanut butter and sesame paste (tahini), or even just opt for one of them.

Ingredients for 4 people

400 g (14 oz) of noodles

Ingredients A
1 spring onion


Ingredients B
2 T sesame paste (tahini)
2 T peanut butter
1 T soy sauce
1 t sugar
some chilli oil (optional)
1/2 t Sichuan peppercorns (optional)
1 t sesame oil
1 T warm water


Ingredients C

1 Cucumber
1 t sesame seeds




1. Cook the noodles. Personally I prefer soba noodles, but spaghetti also works well


2. Drain the noodles and rinse them with cool water. Then put them in iced water to cool for ten minutes. After that put them in the refridgerator until just before serving.



3. Chop the onions finely.


4. Grind the peppercorns if you are using them.


5. Mix ingredients B and half of the chopped onions and peppercorns if you are using them.


You can add sesame oil or water to the mixture to make it smoother.



6. Slice the cucumber lengthwise and remove the seeds. Then cut it into thin strips.



7. Finally, put the noodles into 4 bowls and cover with the cucumber and the sauce. Garnish with sesame seeds and the remaining onion.

8. Yum!


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