Anyone Can Cook: 5 Easy Chinese Recipes

Anyone Can Cook: 5 Easy Chinese Recipes
Jul 08, 2014 By Jenny He , eChinacities.com

Chinese cuisine is incredibly varied and ranges from simple dishes made from tossing a handful of ingredients together to wonderfully delicate and complex ones. If you have lived in China for some time now, and still have not mastered the art of cooking at least a few basic Chinese dishes, worry not! With these five easy versions of Chinese recipes, you’ll be whipping up authentic-tasting meals in no time.

Shui Zhu Rou Pian (水煮肉片)
Photo: sohu.com

1) Shui Zhu Rou Pian (水煮肉片)
This dish originates in Sichuan, so it is quite spicy.  You can substitute the pork for beef, and change the cabbage to any leafy green vegetable.  The soup can be reused the next day to make a new batch or to cook spicy noodles.

Ingredients
300g pork
250g vegetables
1 tablespoon bean paste
1 whole head of garlic, diced small
3 thin ginger thin slices 
1 spring onion
2 tsp Chilli powder

Method:

- First prepare the meat by slicing it into thin strips. 

- Marinade the meat in a mixture of egg white with a dash of soy sauce for about 15 minutes.

- Heat a few spoonfuls of oil in the wok.  

- Add bean paste, ginger and onion, then stir for a minute or so before adding three tablespoons of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar.  

- Add water (the same amount as the bowl you will serve in).  

- Add vegetables, wait until the colour changes then remove and set aside.  

- Add sliced meat and cook for no more than two minutes or it will be very tough. Transfer to serving bowl.  

- Wash the wok. Add clean oil and heat very high.  

- Put garlic and chilli powder on top of the meat in the bowl. Pour the hot oil over the surface of the ingredients in the bowl so they sizzle, then serve.

Kung Po Chicken (宫保鸡丁)
Photo: abang.com

2) Kung Po Chicken (宫保鸡丁)

Ingredients
300g chicken breast or legs, diced
100g peanuts, toasted in a little oil
3 spring onion, diced to 1cm long pieces (just the whites)
8 red chillies, diced
2 tsp bean paste

Method:

- Marinade chicken pieces in a dash of yellow wine (黄酒) or baijiu (白酒) mixed with egg white.  

- Pour a little oil in the wok, add the bean paste and stir on a low heat until you can see the red oil on the surface.  

- Put the chicken pieces in the wok, and cook until the colour changes.

- Add the nuts, chillies, onion, and stir.  Then add a pinch of sugar.

- Combine all the ingredients well, then serve.

Dumplings (饺子)
Photo: Chloe Lim

3) Dumplings (饺子)
These are a vegetarian version, but you can put pretty much anything into a dumpling – pork, beef, prawns, vegetables, and egg are all common fillings.  Since it is quite time consuming you can make a large batch and freeze them for convenient fast food – they cook from frozen in a matter of minutes.  You can also reheat dumplings by frying them lightly in oil for a few minutes. 

Ingredients
500g chives
100 g dried tofu
1 egg
Ginger, diced
Spring onion, diced
500g flour
Cold water 

Method:

- To make the dumpling cases: mix water and flour to correct consistency. There isn’t a specific measurement for this; according to my mother-in-law, you just have to judge it. Make the mixture into small balls, then roll each ball out flat into circles.  

- To make the filling: mix the diced vegetables and tofu together. Add oil, egg, and black pepper, stir together until bound.  Add sugar and salt to taste and mix well.

- To prepare the dumplings:  Hold the circular dumpling skin in your hand and place a spoonful of filling in the middle.  Don’t overfill it.  Fold the edges together and pinch hard so the filling can’t escape.

- To cook the dumplings:  Boil a pan of water, and keep stirring it all the time. Add dumplings and keep stirring so the dumplings are always moving around the pan.

- Every time the water reaches boiling point add a cup of cold water. Repeat this process three times and the dumplings will be cooked. They should float to the surface when they are ready.

Red Braised Aubergine (红烧茄子)
Photo: dajiyuan.eu

4) Red Braised Aubergine (红烧茄子)

Ingredients
2 aubergines, sliced lengthways
Garlic (as much as you like)
1 tblspn soy sauce

Method:
Add lots of oil to the wok. Fry the strips of aubergine stirring all the time to keep it moist.  When the aubergine is nearly done, add the soy sauce and chopped garlic.

Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐)
Photo: Alpha

5) Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐)
Ingredients
250g firm tofu, cubed into 2cm pieces
50g ground meat (normally pork)
1 tsp crushed sichuan pepper corns
Toasted pepper corns
Bunch of spring onions diced
1 tsp bean paste

Method:

- Put oil in the wok and make very hot, add the bean paste and cook until you can see red oil on the surface.  

- Add meat and cook.

- Add sichuan peppers, toasted peppers  and salt

- Add tofu and mix gently

- Add a pinch of sugar.  Sprinkle spring onion on the top to serve.

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Keywords: Chinese recipes easy Chinese dishes

5 Comments

All comments are subject to moderation by eChinacities.com staff. Because we wish to encourage healthy and productive dialogue we ask that all comments remain polite, free of profanity or name calling, and relevant to the original post and subsequent discussion. Comments will not be deleted because of the viewpoints they express, only if the mode of expression itself is inappropriate.

rajpathak

I cook Nepalese food everyday myself. Most of the Chinese foods are not OK for me.

Aug 10, 2014 20:02 Report Abuse

nzteacher80

Steam the dumplings in a bamboo basket - makes them less stodgy. Put an oiled bamboo leaf on the bottom of the basket to stop them from sticking. It'd be a labour of love to make your own dumpling wrappers when it's 2 kuai to buy a hundred of them at the local market.

Jul 10, 2014 12:47 Report Abuse

doogsville

I on the other hand like cooking, it's a hobby of mine, so this article is very useful. Also, if you learn to cook these dishes while in China you can cook them when you return to your home country to remind yourself of your time here.

Jul 08, 2014 14:54 Report Abuse

mike168229

Unless you are cooking for a lot of people, it's just not worth it. It's much cheaper to just buy the dish from your local hole-in-the-wall then to buy all the ingredients and then cook it up.

Jul 08, 2014 11:36 Report Abuse

sharkies

Personally, I'd rather cook up a nice Aussie prime cut steak with eggs.

Jul 08, 2014 09:11 Report Abuse