Dinner for a Chinese New Year

I made a small feast for dinner tonight. My CSA box contained bok choy and snow peas so I found two recipes to use these fresh vegetables. Since it is Chinese New Year's I turned to My China and Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong. She is one of my favorite Asian cookbook authors.

The shrimp in the picture is with a packaged sauce that I got at the Asian market. Basically just stir fry the shrimp with the sauce. But with the veggies I got to make my own sauces. I love playing with Asian ingredients and I think they both turned out well.

Stir-Fried Snow Peas with Garlic 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil 1/2 tsp. sea salt 8 oz. snow peas, trimmed 4 garlic cloves, roughly crushed 1/2 tsp. brown sugar 1/2 cup chicken stock or water 1/4 tsp. sesame oil Heat vegetable oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add salt and snow peas and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute, stirring constantly to ensure garlic does not burn. Add sugar and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Pour in stock or water and simmer for 2 minutes or until snow peas are tender. Lastly, stir through sesame oil and serve immediately.

Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce 1 bunch bok choy, cores removed 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil 2 Tbsp. oyster sauce dash of sesame oil 1 Tbsp. peanut oil Separate bok choy leaves and wash thoroughly. Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Stir vegetable oil, add bok choy and simmer until bok choy i sbright green and tender - this should take about 1 minute. Using tongs, immediately remove bok choy from water and place on a platter. Drizzle with oyster sauce and sesame oil. Heat peanut oil in a small frying pan until moderately hot and carefully pour over bok choy. Serve immediately.

Mongolian Beef

I've never had Mongolian Beef with ground beef before, but that is exactly what Kylie Kwong suggests in her recipe for it in her Simply Chinese Cooking cookbook. I would prefer to learn a recipe using flank steak or something similar to what I get when I order Chinese takeout, but I agree with Kylie, the ground beef gives this dish a light texture and it hold the flavor really well. I don't think it tasted the same as it does when I order takeout, but I liked it anyways.

This is a dish I think everyone will love. It's kind of like tacos. Just good flavor with ground beef. In fact, I used the leftovers for some breakfast tacos. So I crossed cuisines from asian stir-fry over to tex-mex. It seems like you can put anything in breakfast tacos, so I thought "why not"? I scrambled a few eggs and then mixed in the leftovers while reheating and then wrapped them up in a flour tortilla. It was really good. Look for a roundup of this month's Leftover Tuesdays at ceres & bacchus next week.

Mongolian Beef (serves 4) 1 lb. 4 oz. quality ground beef 5 cups finely shredded Chinese cabbage 2 teaspoons sea salt 1/4 cup vegetable oil 2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce 1 tablespoon oyster sauce 1 teaspoon malt vinegar 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil 1 small carrot, peeled and finely sliced 1/2 medium-sized red pepper, finely sliced 3/4 cup finely sliced scallions Marinade: 2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry 1 tablespoon light soy sauce 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 tablespoon finely diced ginger 3 garlic cloves, finely diced 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Combine ground beef with marinade ingredients in a large bowl, cover, and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, place cabbage and salt in a large bowl, mixing together well with your hands to combine. Stand for 15 minutes then rinse under cold water and drain. Use your hands to squeeze out any excess liquid.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add half the marinated beef and stir-fry for 30 seconds, breaking up any lumps with a wok spoon. Remove from the wok with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add remaining oil to hot wok, stir in remaining beef and cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Return reserved beef mixture to the wok with wine or sherry, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar and sesame oil and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

Toss in reserved cabbage, carrot and pepper and stir-fry for a further minute. Stir through scallions, reserving just a little to garnish, and remove from heat.

Spoon beef into a serving bowl, sprinkle with remaining scallions and serve.

Hot Sour Soup and Cucumber Salad

I'm reviewing some recipes from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking for Paper Palate at The Well Fed Network. They sent three recipes and tonight I tried out the Hot and Sour Soup and Chilled Cucumber Salad. They were both really good, even though I didn't have all the ingredients for the Hot and Sour Soup. It calls for "black cloud ear fungus". I'm not sure that I want to add that even if I can find it at an Asian grocer. I will probably get some since I have to go there to get something for the third recipe.

Update: My review has been published.


This soup was really good and very easy to make so I'll make it again with this extra ingredient to check the difference. Also, the cucumber salad called for 5 small cucumbers and I got those tiny cucumbers. I think it just meant regular cucumbers that are small in size. I had way too much dressing! I'm timing my article to be published in time for Chinese New Year next week. I really like her style in explaining things in the recipes. The book just came out February 1, 2007.