Chinese food

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Cooking Essentials

Essential Knife Skills for Chinese Cooking: Knife & Board

Welcome to my new series, Essential Knife Skills for Chinese Cooking. I’ll be introducing the most common knife cuts in Chinese recipes, with instructional videos that actually work with the produce you have on hand. Compared to many knife skill videos I’ve found online, my methods are based on traditional Chinese knife skills that are minimal waste. Step 1, if you’re struggling with knife work, your tools may be to blame. Fortunately, it doesn’t cost much to set yourself up for success. Here are some of my favorite tools at every price point, along with how to care for them.

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Cooking Recipes

Easy Hot & Sour Hunan Green Beans
懒人版 酸豆角炒肉末

Hot and Sour Hunan Green Beans are my take on a classic Hunan side dish: pickled long beans with ground pork. It’s one of the most memorable flavors of my childhood. Crunchy, spicy, savory, spicy, bright, these green beans instantly perk up any meal.

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Cooking Recipes

Easy, Healthy Mung Bean Cakes 低糖少油 绿豆糕

Happy 端午节 (duān wǔ jié) Dragon Boat Festival! This year, I’d like to introduce you to a traditional Chinese dessert that deserves a spot at your table: 绿豆糕 (lǜ dòu gāo) mung bean cakes! Mung bean cakes are delicate, pretty pastries that started out as imperial desserts 贡品 (gòng pín) in the 清朝 Qīng dynasty. Back then, only emperors and nobles could have them. They are soft and creamy, lightly sweet and refreshing. And my version is so healthy that it’s ok to have several!

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Cooking Recipes

Healthy Vitamix Blender Soy Milk
健康营养 搅拌器豆浆

A comprehensive look at soy milk 豆浆 from a historic, nutrition, and environmental perspective concludes that homemade soy milk is the top choice. We’ve updated cooking methods and carefully selected ingredients to make extra-nutritious, environmental and budget-friendly Vitamix / blender soy milk.

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Cooking Recipes

Authentic Sichuan Spicy Boiled Fish 四川水煮鱼

Sichuan Spicy Boiled Fish 水煮鱼 (shuǐ zhǔ yú), literally just “water-boiled fish” sounds ordinary but tastes extraordinary. It’s a vibrant, moderately 麻辣 (málà) spicy and mouth-numbing dish of white fish and vegetables lightly poached in fragrant broth. Sichuan spicy boiled fish is a variant on the famous 重庆火锅 (Chóngqìng huǒ guō) Chongqing spicy hotpot, modified to serve large groups of taxi drivers during their breaks. It’s been one of the most popular dishes in restaurants across China since 1983, when a young Chongqing chef won first prize in a Sichuan food competition with this local invention. Here’s my easy, authentic, and scratch-made version, along with the best wines to drink with it.

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Cooking Lifestyle

Introducing: Chinese Food Wine Pairings!

The flavors in Chinese food are definitely complex, nuanced, and varied. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t be harmonious with wine. To show that delicious Chinese food and a nice bottle of wine make the perfect match, I’m including recommended wine pairings with my Chinese and Chinese-inspired recipes. I’ll have favorite varietals, good bottles, plus the characteristics and proper serving temps. 干杯 Cheers!

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Cooking Featured Recipes

Instant Pot Red Braised Pork (Hong Shao Rou)
电压力锅 正宗红烧肉

Instant Pot red braised (hong shao) pork ribs

Red braised pork is a rich, flavorful Chinese dish with 1500 years of history. We get truly authentic flavor from an ancient cooking method, coating with caramel 炒糖色, updated with a modern Instant Pot pressure cooker twist.

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Cooking Recipes

Hubei “Steam Water” Meat Custard (Qi Shui Rou)
湖北名菜 汽水肉

“Steam water" meat 汽水肉 is a steamed meat and egg custard from China's Hubei province (Wuhan)

“Steam water” meat is a delicate, savory steamed meat and egg custard, kind of a mash-up of steamed meatloaf and Japanese chawanmushi (steamed egg custard). Although it’s a 名菜 famous dish in 武汉 Wuhan and across 湖北 Hubei province, it’s rarely found elsewhere at even the most authentic Chinese restaurants. Like Wuhan Hot Dry Noodles 武汉热干面, this is a regionally specific dish that is simultaneously well-known and hard-to-find.

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Cooking Recipes

Easy, Delicious Home-Style Tofu 家常炖豆腐

Tofu gets a totally undeserved bad rap. Everyone knows that tofu is healthy (low carb, high protein, high calcium), but today’s recipe is proof that it can be delicious too. If you’re convinced that there’s no such thing as tasty tofu, I promise this dish will change your mind.

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Cooking Recipes

Quick Chinese Soy Braising Liquid
快速懒人卤水

"Secret sauce" braising liquid, notice the gelatin gives it the texture of jello when chilled 卤汁

The best option for Wuhan hot dry noodles 热干面 is the leftover braising liquid from soy-braised beef 卤肉. This recipe will give you that authentic umami flavor and glossy mouthfeel without simmering meat for hours.

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