Chinese Spaghetti - Zha Jiang Mian炸酱面

Chinese people have been eating noodles since 3000B.C. There is a legend saying that Italian noodle (spaghetti pasta..etc) was actually invented from the inspiration of Chinese noodle that brought by Marco Polo from China to European countries and then spread all over the world.

From the translation of Zha Jiang Mian - Chinese Spaghetti, you can tell that it is the noodle served with the ground meat sauce on top. It will be also topped with some thinly sliced cucumber, carrot. Some people will add some bean sprouts and celery slices too.



I'm lucky enough to live in a place that is so convenient to get many kinds of ingredients I want for different country's cooking. I got a pack of dried Chinese ramen from Lee Lee Asian supermarket for my Chinese spaghetti making. If it is not available at your area, you may substitute with instant noodle.

A very experimental sister at Tzu Chi told me that I can add whatever ingredients for sauce making as per desired taste. Here is my version of 炸酱面.

For 6~7 servings.

1. 500g chinese ramen (substitute with the instant noodle if ramen is not available)
- cook according to packing direction. Drain and set aside.
- boil some water. Noodle may be too dry and sticky when serving. You may add a spoon of water when you top with the meat sauce.



Meat Sauce (adjustable according to desired taste, add chilly if you want the spicy sauce. It has to be a bit saltier to mix with the noodle)

1. 150g ground pork (I didn't use too much meat for my recipe, add more if you like)
2. 6 cloves garlic - finely chopped
3. 1 inch ginger - minced
4. 3 tbsp crispy onion (油葱酥)
5. 5 pcs dry mushrooms - soaked and minced
6. 1 pc stewed bean curd (卤豆干) - small cubes
7. 100g pickled bamboo shoot - small cubes
8. 100g carrot - small cubes
9. 2 tbsp spicy bean paste
10. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
11. 1 tsp fish sauce
12. 1 tbsp soy sauce or as needed
13. 1 tsp dark soy sauce
14. 1/8 ground white pepper
15. Some sesame oil
16. 2~3 tbsp water or as needed.
17. 1 tbsp Shao Xing Wine


Topping vegetable (adjust the amount according to personal liking)

1. Cucumber slices
2. Carrot slices
3. Chinese celery
4. Green Onion
5. Bean Sprout
6. Cilantro

Steps :

1. Fragrant the garlic and ginger in a greased heated pan.
2. Add in mushroom and crispy onion, cook for 2 minutes, adjust the heat accordingly to avoid burnt.
3. Add in ground pork and ingredient # 5~12. Stir fry over high heat for 5 minutes.
4. Add some water, switch to medium low heat and cook for another 15~20 minutes.
5. Add in some white pepper, sesame oil and Shao Xing wine. Stir well and cook for another 3 minutes.
6. Top on the noodle. Serve with preferred vegetable toppings/garnishing.

BBQ Chicken

Back to 1980's~1990's, whenever someone had a party for a special occasion, they liked to have BBQ, grilling the chicken, corn, sweet potato and "kembung" fish with the charcoal heat. The host and guests took their time hanging around at the party by BBQing and talking or playing games. Those were a greatly cherished moments.

People now are lack the time or afraid it's too much trouble to prepare the food and clean up the mess, they prefer to have a caterer to get everything done, or celebrate at the restaurant.



My family always have BBQ party for certain occasions like Lantern Festival or Moon Cake Festival. Usually , chicken wing is first choice. It is always in short supply due to eating is faster than grilling. LOL!!

Here's our recipe for the BBQ chicken.

1. 2lbs chicken (about 6 chicken drum sticks)

Mix the following marinating ingredients in a mixing container.

A)
1. 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
2. 3~4 cloves garlic - crushed
3. 3 tbsp soy sauce
4. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
5. 1 tsp sesame oil
6. 1.5 tsp dark soy sauce
7. 1/4 tsp sugar
8. 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
9. a dash of 5 spices powder (五香粉)

B) Some butter and honey for brushing

Steps :

1. Rub the chicken pieces with marinating sauce to coat well. Refrigerate overnight, turn once for better marinating.
2. Place the chicken piece on the grate of the preheated grill. Grill over medium heat with lid covered for 10~12 minutes each side for drum sticks (reduce to 7~8 minutes each side for other portions).
3. Before you remove the pieces from the grill, brush the butter followed by honey on both sides.

Dry fried Green Bean (干扁四季豆)

Tom and Cici didn't have too much interest on having green bean before. All the while, they had the canned green bean from supermarket, they got the impression that green bean was always tasteless and soggy.

After tasted my saute green bean, they have changed their mind. Right now, it is one of the most desired dishes for our meal. :-)

Recipe and steps :

1. 350g green bean
2. 3 cloves garlic - chopped
3. 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
4. 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
5. some salt to taste.


Steps :

1. Saute the green bean in a non stick pan without oil for 8~10 minutes over medium high heat. Stir occasionally for better cook.
2. Stir the green bean to aside of the pan, add in the oil in the middle of the pan then fragrant the garlic.
3. Stir the bean and garlic together, season with oyster sauce and salt. Stir and cook for another 3~4 minutes.
4. Serve warm.

Garlic Bread

I can't resist the fragrance of cooked garlic. As you can read from my blog, I use garlic a lot for my cooking.
Garlic bread is most commonly served before the main course in the western restaurants in Malaysia. I love it so much but always ended up pack to go because I need to save some space of my stomach for the main course.



It is very easy to make garlic bread on our own. You may prepare extra garlic butter mixture and keep it in the fridge - you just have to soften it to room temperature whenever you need it.

Here's my recipe :

1. 1 loaf French Bread (cut to 2/3 slices)
2. 100g unsalted butter - soften to room temperature
3. 6~8 cloves large garlic (or as desired) - minced
4. 2~3 tsp parsley flakes
5. 1 tsp oregano flakes
6. 2 tsp (or as desired) seasoned salt & garlic powder
7. Some freshly ground black pepper


Steps :

1. Preheat the oven at 350F
2. Bake the bread slices for 4~5 minutes.
3. Mix well the ingredient # 2~#7
4. Remove the bread slices from the oven, spread over the mixture # 3 on each slice.
5. Return the bread slices to the oven, bake for another 6~8 minutes. The longer the baking time, the crispier it will be.

滑蛋鸳鸯 (Silken Egg Yuan Yang)

I have been busy for my work lately. Even though, I will not stop posting about my cooking, stay tuned, OK?

This is one of the famous hawker food (street vendor) in Malaysia - fried flat noodle sheets mix with rice noodle then served with thicken gravy with or without egg. If you order "hor fun" it will come with just flat noodle. It is also one of the popular item served in most of the Chinese restaurants in US, but I seldom order it. Because I like it best tasted with sambal chili.




To my surprise, Tom loved it and told me don't hesitant to cook it again in future. :-)!!

Here's the recipes :

Ingredients :

For frying Yuan Yang :

1. 500g Hor Fun (flat noodle sheets) - cut to smaller size
2. 150g Bee Hoon (rice noodle/rice vermicelli) - soak in water to soften it.
3. 11/2 tbsp soy sauce
4. 1 tsp dark soy sauce
5. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
6. 1/8 tsp sugar
7. 1/8 tsp fish sauce
8. 2~3 cloves large garlic - finely chopped
9. 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil for frying

For Gravy :

1. 1000~1200ml pork bones stock/chicken stock (cook in advance)
2. 200g medium~large shrimp (can adjust to your preferred amount)
3. 200g pork/chicken slices (can adjust to your preferred amount)
4. Some Choi Sum (vegetable)
5. 2~3 cloves large garlic - chopped
6. 1 tsp soy sauce
7. 1 tsp oyster sauce
8. Some salt to taste
9. Some white pepper to taste
10. 4 tbsp corn starch (or as needed) mix with some water
11. 3~4 eggs - lightly beaten

Steps :

For frying Yuan Yang, it must be done in high heat in order to provide enough "wok hei" - wok breath.

1. Mix together all ingredients from #3~7
2. Heat the fry pan with some oil
3. Over high heat, fragrant the chopped garlic, then stir in the flat noodle and vermicelli.
4. Add in mixture # 1, stir the noodle to coat well.
5. Cook for 2~3 minutes, remove the yuan yang from the frying pan to the serving plates.

For gravy :

1. Heat up the pan with some oil.
2. Fragrant the chopped garlic.
3. Add in shrimps and meet slices, stir for 1 minutes.
4. Pour in pork bones/chicken stock
5. Season with ingredients #6~#8
6, Bring to boil, add in vegetable.
7. Thicken the soup with corn starch.
8. Drop the beaten eggs, wait for 5~8 seconds, stir it.
9. Scoop the gravy and others ingredients to top the yuan yang, sprinkle some white peper to taste.
10. Best served with sambal chili.

Enjoy :-)

Onion Ring

Onion Ring is a snack/appetizer that commonly served in US restaurant. Normally the large size of sweet onion will be used for this cooking. It will be cut and split to about 1/3" ring slices then dipped in batter, coated with seasoned bread crumbs then deep fried.



When we talk about deep fried food, it is always give you a sign of unhealthy food. Ya... I know. But, I think it is no harm to eat it once a while, right? We have a saying food, yummy food is always unhealthy, but healthy food is always tasted blend. So, I don't my to spoil my stomach once a while.



To prepare the onion rings, you need :

1. 1 Large size of sweet/yellow onion (about 300g) - cut and split to 1/3" ring slices
2. 1 cup all purpose flour
3. 1tsp baking powder
4. 1tsp salt
5. 1gg
6. 3/4~1 cup of milk
7. 1/2~3/4 seasoned bread crumbs - sprinkle some salt to taste
8. Some oil for deep frying

Steps :

1. Heat up the oil in a deep frying pan.
2. Mix well the flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Place the onion ring in the dry flour mixture, dust/coat each ring well.
4. After all the rings are dusted/coated, whisk the egg and milk into the flour mixture to form the batter.
5. Dip the floured onion rings in the batter, then remove and place it on the cooling rack by a kabob skewer (or any thin stick), let the batter drip off a bit from the rings.
6. Get ready the seasoned bread crumbs in a shallow bowl. Move the ring from the rack with a skewer, coat it with the bread crumbs evenly.
7. Deep fry in the heated oil over medium heat for 2 minutes or until it turns golden brown.
8. Serve with tomato ketchup or sweet chili sauce.

Onion rings coated on flour then batter


Bread crumbs coating


Frying

Chai Boey/Chap Chai

I have some leftover turkey and ham bones sitting in my freezer. I wanted to use it for "Chai Boey/Chap Chai". Chai Boey/Chap Chai is a very common dish in Penang that usually cooked after certain celebration/worshiping. It is cooked with a lot of leftover goodies mix together - BBQ pork bones, roasted chicken, roasted duck then simmer with a bunch of big mustard leaves(大芥菜).



I was surprised that Tom actually loves it. When did he start to love sour and spicy food?? That might be my cooking influence. Believe it or not, both of us could finish a big pot of Chai Boey in just a single meal. :-p

The following recipe is prepared according to the flavor of the leftover bones I have. It is adjustable if you have different kinds leftover goodies.

1. 1 kg left over roasted Turkey and Ham bones
2. 1 kg big big mustard leaves (大芥菜) - cut
3. 100g Pickled Mustard (酸菜/Kiam Cai) - OPTIONAL
4. 100 Jicama (莎葛 - "mang guang in Hokkien) - cut to slices
5. 4~5 mushroom - sliced
6. Some dried squid slices (干鱿鱼丝) - OPTIONAL
7. 3~4 cloves large garlic - crushed
8. 4~5 thin ginger slices
9. 1 tbsp bean paste (豆酱)
10. 4~6 dried chili
11. 2~3 Chili Padi (I substituted 1 Jalapeno - sliced)
9. 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
10. 1 tsp dark soy sauce
11. Some Soy Sauce - to taste
12. 1/2 tsp sesame oil
13. 1 pc pickled plum and some syrup to taste
14. 10g Tamarind Paste (Asam Kor)- mix with 30ml water (I don't have Tamarind skin, so I used the paste instead)
15. 1 stalk lemon grass - crushed
16. 800ml~1000ml
17. 2000ml water to cook the mustard leaves.

Steps :

1. Heat a non-stick pot with some oil. In a different pot, boil the 2000ml water
2. Fragrant the garlic crushes and ginger slices.
3. Stir in bean paste and cook for 10 seconds.
4. Add in bones, jicama slices, mushroom slices, squid slices, oyster sauce, dried chili, chili padi/ jalapeno, sesame oil, dark & light soy sauce.
5. Stir and cook for 3~5 minutes, sprinkle some water for better cooking.
6. Meanwhile, cook the mustard leaves in the boiled water for 1 minutes. Drain.
7. Slowly add in the water and drained mustard leaves, pickled mustard, lemon grass into the bones mixture.The water should cover up about 2/3 of the ingredients.
8. Bring to boil, simmer for 15 minutes, stir occasionally for better cooking.
9. Add pickled plum,syrup, tamarind juice to taste.
10. Simmer for another 20~30 minutes.
11. Serve warm.

A pot of goodies!!