Cooking Chinese for the Olympics! This is Recipe 2 in the series and another home-style Chinese dish for you to try.

(Recipe 1: Ground Beef with Beijing Sauce Over Noodles)

Oh…and there’s a contest in the middle of this post!!!

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Last fall, my parents treated Scott and I to a 10 day group tour around China. Our first stop was Beijing, and first thing I noticed was how clean the city was. I literally could eat off the streets, as there was an entire team of sanitation engineers whose sole job was to scrape gum off the streets and sidewalk. I’m so not kidding - they wore white gloves and could scrape even crusty, 2 week old Bubbalicious in one quick motion.

You could see the entire city was gearing for its big Olympic moment: sleek buildings, sporting stadiums and even beautiful parks were being quickly erected and created almost overnight. There was hardly any traffic for a city of over 17 million and in addition to the gum scrapers, workers were polishing the guard rails that lined the interstate.

But no tricking this smart rat! I knew our tour’s itinerary, including restaurants, shopping, sightseeing and even driving path was carefully planned and regulated by the government. I was half afraid to turn my head around and look out the back window of the tour bus, for fear that the set façade would be replaced by the daily regular.

Well, no matter…I mean, how can I blame Beijing? For if you come to my house for dinner, you’d find last night’s crumbs swept under my rug and mounds of dirty laundry shoved into closets too.

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing many of my favorite Chinese dishes, so that you’re not stuck just ordering take out from your local Chinese restaurant. But today, I want to teach you the secrets of a light, flavorful Chinese stir fry.

Ancient Chinese Stir Fry Secrets (at home)

Restaurant kitchens have extremely high powered stoves, flames that jump so high that your eyebrows will singe just standing in the doorway. At home, especially with electric stovetops, we just can’t get that kind of heat. To compensate, you’ve got take the time to let your wok or pan get super hot and the best way to judge whether it’s hot enough is to hold your hand 6 inches over your wok. The moment you start feeling some serious heat, it’s ready. Seriously, though, don’t try to be all macho and stuff, if it’s hot enough for you to say, “hot!” just pull away.

The second trick is to sear your meat or seafood first, remove from the wok, then cook the vegetables, and then returning the meat or seafood back to the wok towards the end of the stir fry. If you don’t, you’ll end up steaming your meat in the vegetable juices instead of frying it. You want each individual ingredient of a stir fry to sing on its own, instead of becoming a soggy, heavy, mish-mash.

The last trick is a tough one. I know it’s a gut reaction to constantly keep poking, prodding and stirring during a stir fry (which is essential in a massively hot restaurant wok), but resist the urge when you’re frying meat or seafood. When you first put your meat in the wok, spread it out so that the pieces are not touching and use all available surface area. Now, step away! Let the meat have a chance to sear. If you keep messing with it, the protein never has a chance to develop that wonderful carmelization and you’ll end up with mushy meat.

In this Stir Fried Shrimp, Eggs and Peas dish, you’ll practice all three of these secrets. You’ll let the oil heat up before adding the shrimp, spread out the shrimp so that they don’t touch and just let it sear. Once cooked, you’ll remove the shrimp and add it back in when the eggs are almost set. This will give you a light/firm/crisp/crunch/springy shrimp - a sure sign that you’ve cooked the shrimp properly.

STOP! I need a word or two that elegantly describes the texture of perfectly cooked, fresh shrimp. It’s the feeling in your mouth when you bite into the shrimp - “light/firm/crisp/crunch/springy” just doesn’t capture it quite right. There is a Chinese word for it (to not give Chinese speaking advantage on this contest, I’m not going to tell what that word is) - but I can’t find the right English words to match. The first person to come up with the best word or phrase wins a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com!!

Stir Fried Shrimp, Eggs and Peas

I always have a bag of frozen peas/carrots (and in this case just peas), some frozen shrimp and eggs on hand. When I’m cooking Chinese food and need just one more dish to make the meal complete, this is one of my go-to dishes.

In this recipe for Stir Fried Shrimp, Eggs and Peas, I’ve chosen to fry the chilies and garlic separate from the eggs and shrimp, using it as a topping. This is because my kids are eating this dish too - and they can pick the parts where the chilies are not touching.

I know you’ve been taught not to burn garlic, as it can be bitter and ruin the entire dish. But in this case, the garlic is fried to a crisp - it provides a wonderful texture. Since it’s a TOPPING - and not the base of the dish (i.e. I’m not cooking the garlic first and layering ingredients/flavors on top of the garlic) - the very slight bitterness is a welcome, especially nestled against the chili pepper’s sweet heat.

1/2 pound raw shrimp, shelled and deveined and patted very, very dry
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1 large mild chili (anaheim, Hungarian wax), thinly sliced
1/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
4 eggs, beaten
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
cooking oil

in a bowl, combine shrimp, salt, pepper, cornstarch and sesame oil, let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes to marinate.

In a wok or large saute pan over high heat, add 1 tablespoon cooking oil, swirling to coat the wok. When the oil is very hot (hold your hand 6″ above the wok surface), add the shrimp (the shrimp should sizzle loudly upon contact) and spread out around the cooking surface. Let fry, untouched for 1 minutes. Flip shrimp and fry for an additional minute, until cooked through. Remove the shrimp from wok to a plate, leaving as much cooking oil in the wok as possible. Keep the heat on high, add the garlic and sliced chilies and fry until fragrant and the garlic is crispy, about 30 seconds. Remove from wok to a small dish and wipe the wok clean with paper towels. Return the wok to high heat and add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. When the oil is hot (a drop of egg should sizzle immediately), pour in the eggs and gently stir for 1 minute, until almost set but still a little runny in the middle. Add the shrimp and the peas to the wok and stir to mix well until the eggs are completely cooked through. Dish to serving plate and top with the fried garlic and chilies.

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Other great Chinese dishes

Sesame Shrimp with Honey Mustard Sauce
Shrimp and Mango Firecrackers
Ground Beef with Beijing Sauce Over Noodles

As promised, I’m doing a series of simple Chinese dishes as we lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I’m hoping to post a new recipe at least 4 times a week, though that might be a little ambitious and make my family very hungry for something like spaghetti or meatloaf.

This dish, Ground Beef with Beijing Sauce over Noodles is so flexible - you can use ground turkey, chicken or even pork. If you don’t have Chinese noodles, serve over rice or any type of pasta. The greatest thing about this recipe is that the entire thing comes together in 15 minutes (if using noodles) and costs around $5 to feed a family of 4. How can you beat that?!

Normally, I’d serve this over rice, but I had some of these wonton noodles leftover from my

Crab and Pork Wonton Noodle Soup recipe that we’re currently testing for my Steamy Kitchen cookbook. (Come take a look and join the testing group if you’re interested!)

So, as thrifty as I am, I’ve served this over noodles instead of rice. You can do either.

There are certain dishes that my Mom always says in Chinese, “goes very good with rice,” meaning, You’re gonna eat A LOT of it and won’t be able to stop. This is one of those dishes where before you even know it, you’ve eaten the entire pot with rice or noodles!

This recipe is adapted from Chinese Rice and Noodles: With Appetizers, Soups and Sweets, published by the famous Wei Chuan Cooking School.

Bean Sauce

There are several different kinds of bean sauce, the one I used is “ground bean sauce” made by Koon Chun, the “ground” referring to a smooth paste vs. having whole soybeans inside the sauce. Either one is fine. If it doesn’t say “ground,” chances are that it does include whole soy beans inside the sauce.

If you prefer spicy, you can use the “hot bean sauce.”

On using frozen vegetables

I always have a package of peas/carrots in the freezer. One, they’re cheap; two, they are almost just as nutritious as fresh vegetables; and three they require no cooking. I also use the frozen vegetables for fried rice, ma po tofu (recipe coming) and anytime I’m being a total lazy fart and don’t want to go to the store.

There are many different kinds of dried chilies, most Asian markets will have a finger length dried chili - about the size of your pinky. Though if you look in the dried chili section of your regular supermarket, you can use any of those. In a pinch, just use a teaspoon of regular chili flakes.

Ground Beef with Beijing Sauce Over Noodles

If you don’t have bean sauce, you can substitute with hoisin sauce or oyster sauce and omit the sugar. To save time, boil your noodles according to package instructions while you’re cooking. I’ve added dried peppers, but of course you can leave out if you’d like. If you enjoy spice, try the “hot bean sauce” instead of the regular bean sauce, add more dried chilies and leave the seeds in or use chopped fresh chilies instead.

(For GF - Ground bean sauce I use (see above) contains wheat flour. Here is a list of GF products from Lee Kum Kee - use the oyster sauce instead of bean sauce. Or, you can increase the soy sauce amount and just leave out the bean sauce. Serve over your grain of choice)

serves 4

For the sauce
1/4 cup stock (chicken/beef/veg)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon ground bean sauce
1/2 tablespoon cooking wine
1/2 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1/4 cup minced onions
4 dried chili peppers, cut in half, seeds shaken out/discarded
1 pound lean ground beef or chicken
1/2 cup frozen vegetables (I used carrots and peas), no need to defrost
1/2 cup chopped baby corn (1/2 can)
1 teaspoon cornstarch + 1 tablespoon cool water, mixed in small bowl
cooked rice or noodles

Mix the sauce ingredients together, set aside.

In a wok or large saute pan over high heat, add the cooking oil. When the oil is just getting hot, add the garlic, onions and the chili peppers, fry until fragrant about 30 seconds. Add the ground beef and stir fry for 1 minute until browned. Add the frozen vegetables and baby corn and stir well.

Pour in the sauce and turn the heat to medium. Bring sauce to a boil. Pour in the corntarch/water mixture and continue to simmer for another 30 seconds, until sauce has thickened. Taste and adjust for seasoning - you may add a little more soy sauce if needed.

Serve over noodles or rice.

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Beijing Olympics

You must click over to James in Beijing’s site to see what this silliness is all about

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Other great Chinese dishes

Martin Yan’s Pan Seared Steak Rolls
Baby Back Ribs with Orange Ginger Glaze

Traveling with kids and especially going to theme parks where it takes 3 hours just to walk back to your car because you have to catch the train to catch the monorail to catch the parking tram to then forget where you parked your car in the sea of 50,000 minivans and then head back to the park the same way. So you want to make sure you’ve got it all and when the kids were babies, we used to pack everything in 30 foot trailer and drag that behind us rickshaw style. Yes, I was one of those freakish parents who wanted to be prepared for any situation. Hungry for deep fried ice cream with bubblegum jewels while pretending to be a pirate? I’ve got you covered.

And every year that goes by, we are able to lug less and less. No more diapers, wipes, strollers and 5 changes of clothing. We’ve graduated to a DELUXE fanny pack, as modeled by my husband:

Sorry for the porn music…I just couldn’t resist.

As we were in Tomorrowland, I saw something that made me shriek with laughter. It’s very rare that I come across a situation that makes my body uncontrollably convulse into the most annoying human in on the planet. And especially at Magic Kingdom, where the park is really designed for kids. Yes, it’s really cool to watch the kids totally have fun, but there’s just something about people wearing big, furry, fuzzy costumes with heads the size of a giant water tower that makes the mother in me uncomfortable. Are they hot? How can they breathe? Can they see? How much do they get paid to wear this 50,000 pound costume in 95F Florida summer with 10,000% humidity? All these questions and I start feeling sorry for these people and I have an urge to unzip their costume and throw a bucketful of ice cubes down their backs.

We had just come from AdventureLand, where were rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the boys wanted pirate toys. They chose the light-up pirate gun and I happily paid the $10 each for them, because the other thing they were eyeing was the $40 dress up costume (and you know I’d have anxiety issues over that!)

So we get to TomorrowLand…you’ll have to watch the short clip. I just love the part where Nathan (3 1/2yrs old) doesn’t even say a word, calmly picks up his gun and shoots the robotic trash can.

Of course, I’ve just disqualified myself from winning the Mother of the Year award since I egg on my other kid to shoot him too. I just have one thing to say to defend my obnoxious behavior. When alien forces attack planet Earth, I’m standing behind my kids.

(btw Andrew is wearing a big “Happy Birthday Andrew” button)

Did you see the guy at the end talking and controlling the trash can? He was so sly, dressing in regular street clothes and looking very Keanu Reeves. He wore a messenger bag slung across his broad, hunky shoulder, one hand in the bag controlling the trash can and the other hand holding a voice-changing microphone.

Ok, enough blabber, I’ve got a lot of work to do! In two weeks, 08/08/08 is not only my BIRTHDAY!!!! but the start of the Beijing Olympics and I want you to be prepared. I mean, prepared for cooking good, authentic, easy Chinese food - not necessarily my birthday, though all gifts of the chocolate or coffee nature are welcome with open arms - so I’ll be posting quite often and you’ll see a series of Chinese recipes and menu ideas!

from the Steamy Kitchen archives….

The software that runs my website has a nifty little feature that tells me what terms people are entering into the search box when they come to Steamy Kitchen. Although smart authors would probably use this information to enhance their site and serve the needs of their readers, the only reason I check this page is for comic relief.

Most terms are legit, such as a recipe for jap chae, but at least once a day, I find a gem, something that just makes me giggle. It’s a total mystery why someone would come to my Asian recipes Web site and enter into the search box: “what foods give you spots” and expect that I have the answer!? I doubt if these people ever found what they were searching for on my blog, but I wanted to take the time to address these curious questions and concerns:

Egg fried rice secret smell: There should be no secret smell to your fried rice. Maybe you’re using rotten eggs? Dishes that you serve really shouldn’t have secret smells. That’s totally gross.

Burger shrink: Thank you, but my hamburgers are emotionally stable. No therapy needed.

Horrid Chinese chicken: Most Chinese chickens are pretty nice. Sometimes if you get a mother hen that enjoys nagging and bossing chicks around, yes, then the hen might be a little horrid. But that’s nothing that a bottle of wine can’t handle. That’s how the Chinese came to invent the dish Drunken Chicken.

White stuff that goes out of salmon: I don’t know … maybe the salmon has some sort of chickenpox? Bad case of acne? My advice: If your salmon has pus, don’t eat it. But how you landed on my site is a mystery. I’ve never written a recipe for diseased salmon.

Chinese chicken cancer: Is this like the Beijing bird flu? Symptoms of the Chinese chicken cancer are: a sudden uncontrollable urge to peck at your computer screen; hair falling out in clumps, leaving you with a mohawk “comb”; strange feeling of wanting to sit on your computer mouse to keep it warm; and, lastly, waking up at the crack of dawn and scaring your mate by screeching “BAAAAKKKAAAACCCCKKKKKK!!!!!” You need professional help. None of my recipes will cure this.

And for the rest of you, here’s a recipe for jap chae, the No. 10 most-popular search term on my site.

The noodles used in this dish are made from sweet potato starch and become translucent when cooked, which is how they got their English name, “glass noodles.” They are also gluten-free and are wonderfully springy and light.

You can use any type of fresh mushrooms, such as shiitake or even the standard button mushroom, but traditionally, dried wood ear mushrooms, found in most Asian markets, are used. Just rehydrate the mushrooms in warm water for 15 minutes, drain and they will be ready for your stir-fry. I love making this dish in the summertime because you can serve these noodles at room temperature or even slightly chilled.

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This dish can also be spelled: Jab Chae, Chap Chae. The type of noodles used in this dish is made from sweet potato starch and translucent when cooked, which is how they got their English name, “glass noodles.” They are also gluten free and are wonderfully springy and light. I love making this dish in the summertime, because you can serve these noodles at room temperature or even slightly chilled.

You can find them at Asian markets or online at Komart.

Just boil the dried noodles for 5 minutes, drain and toss with sesame oil so that they don’t stick together:

You can use any type of fresh mushrooms, like shitake or even the standard button mushroom, but traditionally, dried wood ear mushrooms, found in most Asian markets, are used. Just rehydrate the dried wood ear mushrooms in warm water for 15 minutes, drain and they’ll be ready for your stir-fry.

The spinach was shy - didn’t want to jump in the group shot.

Stir fry the carrots and onions until softened, oh…about 1 minute…but it really depends on how thin you slice your onions and carrots:

Add garlic, scallions and mushrooms. Fry 30 seconds:

Then add spinach, noodles, soy sauce, sugar, fry 2-3 minutes until noodles are heated through. Turn off heat, toss with sesame seeds and remaining 1 1/2 tsp of sesame oil:

1/2 pound dried Korean sweet potato noodles
2 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil, divided
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3/4 cup thinly sliced onions
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 stalks scallions, cut into 1″ lengths
1/2 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced (shitake, wood ear)
1/2 lb spinach, washed well and drained
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Fill a large pot with water and boil. When water is boiling, add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes. Immediately drain and rinse with cold water. Drain again and toss with only 1 tsp of the sesame oil. Use kitchen shears to cut noodles into shorter pieces, about 8 inches in length. Set aside.

In bowl, mix soy sauce & sugar together. Add the cooking oil in a wok or large saute pan on high heat and swirl to coat. When the cooking oil is hot but not smoking. Fry onions and carrots, until just softened, about 1 minute. Add the garlic, scallions and mushrooms, fry 30 seconds. Then add the spinach, soy sauce, sugar and the noodles. Fry 2-3 minutes until the noodles are cooked through. Turn off heat, toss with sesame seeds and the remaining 1 1/2 tsp of sesame oil.

*rehydrate your mushrooms if you are using dried

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If you’re not into the whole healthy vegetable thing, then you’ll love:

Con your kids to eating healthy, SteamyKitchen style

Garlic Scallion Noodles

Normally, when Scott plays poker, it’s late at night in his office at home. He’s wearing his baby blue striped pajama bottoms that I bought him for Christmas last year, grey fuzzy slippers and a ratty shirt that says, “I luv my daddy.” His hair is usually messy and he has a can of diet coke with a bowl of microwaved sweet butter popcorn by his side.

So last night when we got home, Scott showed me the link to the WSOP photos - as we scanned the thousands of photos from the event, I didn’t even recognize his photo.

My goofy, gentle elephant got swallowed up in that black hat and sunglasses! Check out that fierce poker face!

Remember this shirt that I made for him? Yes, he wore it, but not while playing because Scott won his WSOP entry through Full Tilt Poker and the deal was that if Scott ever appeared on the TV broadcast wearing Full Tilt gear, they’d award him $10,000.

Let’s see.

SteamyKitchen.com’s marketing budget = $13.48
Full Tilt Poker = $10,000

I was outbid. Bastards!

Anyways, the first three days of poker playing was a race for the players to get into the money. 6,844 players and only the top 666 players would get paid. Scott was low on chips for most of the tournament and definitely the smallest at his table amongst massive stacks. I think they called that “pretty much fucked,” but he survived and played his “short stack strategy” by not letting the others bully him around.

Yeah. You certainly don’t mess with a guy looking that fierce!

When he finally busted out - and for you poker players, he went all in with AA and was beat by QQ’s when a queen fell on the turn. (translation: bad stinkin’ luck)

But WOW, what an accomplishment to go out at 466th place! Scott told me that once he was in the money (meaning reaching past 666th), everything else was gravy on top. After he busted out, a tournament runner escorted him to the payout room, where he filled out all the necessary tax forms to get paid.

The tournament cashier offered him his prize amount in every way possible: any combination of cash, chips, check, wire transfer, money deposit at the Rio Casino or just a big hug and pat on the back. They’re easy like that.

Of course, after enduring some of the most intense few days, Scott said it kinda seemed anti-climactic to just get a small piece of paper with some writing on it as a receipt for the wire transfer. So, he chose to get a wad of cash. Specifically, a BIG wad of cash. And so when he came home last night, after we put the kids to bed, we had our own little Demi Moore/Woody Harrelson Indecent Proposal moment.

Climactic for sure.

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I know you’re all wondering what we’re going to do with the $27K - I mean it’s a lot of money, and certainly more than we’ve ever had to just hanging around with no agenda. After much thought and deliberation, we’ve decided that the best thing to do - the RIGHT thing to do - was to be very responsible parents. I’m getting a boob job.