Thursday, May 31, 2007

Very quick, healthy Chinese dishes which you can make a zillion times in a row

Heat some peanut oil and fry some minced, wet ginger in it. Turn up the heat and add in green beans. I prefer "French beans" chopped in half, but any kind of greens will work. Put in a tiny amount of rice vinegar. Put in a tablespoon or a bit more of Chinese cooking wine, Shao Xing or the best you can get. Periodically add a bit of dark soy sauce. A bit of Virginia Smithfield ham is nice as well. Serve over steamed rice, wash and soak the rice in water before steaming it and don't cook it to full dryness. You can add hot stuff to this dish as well.

2 comments:

David said...

Today's MR post reminded me to say that this is just the type of entry I'd like to see in a secret TC (sorry, SS) blog: a recipe. You are known to be a serious foodie, and as a serious foodie myself (albeit a vegan and therefore somewhat more limited) I've always been interested in what you would cook. I think cooking is very personal and to some degree provides a window to the soul, as they say. So if more posting is to be done here, tally one vote for an occasional recipe post. I mean, I wouldn't turn this into just a cooking blog, but throwing some of your favorites out onto the web every now and then would be enjoyable to read, at least for me.

Anonymous said...

My approach to the recipe would be a little different.
First boil the beans for 2-3 mins, until mostly cooked. Rinse with cold water once or twice until they can be cut into smaller pieces.

Heat the oil until quite hot then add the beans in batches not too large. Cook until brown patches appear.

Add the ginger, garlic, etc. Cook for 0.5 - 1 min, until pungent. Then add the liquid, usually about scant quarter cup of mix of soy sauce, wine and chicken stock. Cool until done, 1-2 mins.

A variation is to char chili peppers in the oil prior to cooking the beans. Remove the peppers when charred. They can be added back at the end of the cooking.