Kaixin Chinese Home Cooking by Xiaosui

[Kaixin]

Kaixin means Happy Heart

Hi

I have just had a look around the Forum and 'Ethnic Foods' ... Yum!

Here is the intro again, for those who did not see my Intro Post.

Hi, my name is Xiaosui. I moved to Australia last year and I am loving living here!

In China I owned a small school that specialised in teaching children who did not want to learn at school. We taught them how to enjoy learning. I also found many women looking for something to do. So the school started classes in many things, such as Chinese brush writing, paper-flower making, painting, English …

I made many friends at the school.

When I came to Australia my husband encouraged me to start a Blog to write about my Father who was a historian and a very wise man, he taught me how to face the life. Also, to write about growing up during the Cultural Revolution.

He also loves my cooking and suggested I include a section about Chinese Home Cooking, which I have done.

Cooking Chinese food is not difficult. I was doing it when I was 3 years old. My parents told me how good it was; my sister told me it was terrible.

I have learned a lot since then.

I want to show you how a typical Chinese mother cooks a meal for her family.

There are two main things you have to know before you begin. The first is that Chinese food does take a lot of preparation and the second is that it takes a lot of cooking utensils. The food is good, with rich variety, but the washing up is ‘terrible’, as my sister would say. My sister was six years older than me, so often when we were sent to do the washing up, it was I who had to do it all.

The photos are of meals I prepared at home for my family, taken just before they were served and eaten. They were taken with our little travel camera to show you that they really are the meals we eat at home. I want you to be able to do the same.’

Cashew fry chicken breast

Ingredients: 1 chicken breast (or 250gms of chicken mince), 6 cashews, half a carrot, 1 spring onion.

Seasoning: 1 desert spoon of vegetable oil, 1 desert spoon light of soya sauce, a little salt.

Preparation: If you purchased chicken breast, chop the into mince. Mix the chicken mince with light soya sauce. Chop the carrot finely. Chop the spring onion finely.

Cooking: Heat Wok, put in oil, fry cashews, put on a side plate. Fry the chicken mince until light golden brown, put on the side plate. Stir-fry the carrot, add salt, and then add the chicken and cashew. Stir-fry for another two minutes then add the spring onion and cook lightly. Good, now can eat. Hao Chi!



Stir-fried beef & capsicum with spring onion

Ingredients: 0.5 kg beef, 1 capsicum, 2 spring onions

Seasoning: 1 tablespoon of oil , a little salt to taste, 1 teaspoon of light Soya sauce

Preparation: Chop beef into strips, add light Soya sauce, mix ingredients together.
Then chop the capsicum into strips and chop the spring onion

Cooking: Heat the wok, put oil in, put beef in, stir-fry for 6 minutes until light golden brown, take out and place on a plate. Put more oil in, add capsicum and spring onion, stir-fry for 4 minutes, put salt in and then put beef in, stir-fry for 1 minute. Good, now can Serve. Hao chi.

[Kaixin]

Ingredients: .5 (half) kg of cow tripe. It must be cleaned very well.

Seasoning: two tablespoons of oil, half a teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of regular soya sauce, 1 large piece of ginger, 6 cloves of garlic, 4 spring onions (just the white part), 1 teaspoon of vinegar (Chinese vinegar preferably or white vinegar), 1 chilli (or to taste, if you like hot food. As your student is from Guiyang he probably will - Yunan Province is renowned for its hot food – then keep adding Chilli’s until he says ‘stop!’ Probably it is best to start with one the first time you cook it.)

Preparation: Chop the cow tripe into small pieces, bite sized and put in a wok to boil for twenty minutes, take out and drain. This removes the unpleasant smell. Chop the ginger and garlic into small pieces. Chop the onion.

Cooking: Heat Wok, put in oil, put in ginger, garlic, onion, (chilli if required) and stir-fry for around two minutes, put cow tripe in and stir-fry for five minutes. Put vinegar, soya sauce, water in, the water must cover the cow tripe. Cover the wok but leave a small steam vent, simmer until there is just a little water left. This will take a minimum of one hour until the tripe is tender (take a piece and try), you may need to add some water and give a quick stir along the way. Put in salt and sugar. Stir-fry the ingredients to meld for three minutes. Take out and place in serving dish. Now ready to eat. Hao chi.

Bite sized: Remember that Chinese food is served in dishes and placed in the center of the table. Everyone then uses chop-sticks to pick up the food and either eat it directly or put it into a small bowl. So meat and vegetables are usually cut into bite sized pieces.

Each individual dish is not all that troublesome to prepare, however most family meals would have 4 dishes and a large family meal between 8 – 12 dishes.

After a meal, particularly a large family meal, the women usually do the clearing away and washing up while the men drink tea. My husband really enjoys drinking tea and says that he does not want to get in the way of 5,000 years of tradition. Hmmmm

[Bilby]

Originally Posted by Kaixin

After a meal, particularly a large family meal, the women usually do the clearing away and washing up while the men drink tea. My husband really enjoys drinking tea and says that he does not want to get in the way of 5,000 years of tradition. Hmmmm

Very generous of him!!!

I like the way you write up your recipes, Kaixin. Very easy to follow.

[guppyman]

Thanks for the recipes.

I like Australia too. I am a Singaporean. Which part of Australia do you live in. I live in Brisbane for a year.

regards

[Kaixin]

Hi 'guppyman'

We live in the Tweed Valley at the bottom of the Gold Coast

[Kaixin]

We shared a meal on Sunday which I cooked for four of our friends. There were 11 dishes. They will all be posted here over time - I have to write some of the recipies yet.

We finished with traditional tea - I will post a description and photos shortly.

I have to wait for my 20 post credentials before I can post a link directly, but if you go to Home Cooking at Kaixin the photo is at the top.

You will be able to see what you can do at home with the dishes I will be posting in this forum.

My husband said to tell you all that your are not expected to eat everything that you see on the table.

But as the host, you do have to be prepared to have left-overs for about 2 days, which is not a problem at all.



Xiaosui

[Kaixin]

Hong Shao Rou (red pork)

Ingredients: 1 kg of fat pork (pork with some fat)


Seasoning: a tea spoon of oil, a piece of ginger, a table-spoon of regular Soya sauce, a tea spoon brown sugar


Preparation: chop the pork into small pieces, wash, dry off the water


Cooking: heat the wok, put oil in, put pork in, stir-fry for 5 minute, add regular Soya sauce , fry for 1 minute , put water to cover the pork, wait until the water boils, turn the stove to medium, simmer, when the water has evaporated put in sugar, stir-fry for 1 minute , turn off the stove. Hao chi



Enjoy, Xiaosui

[Kaixin]

Rice is the normal food in South China. We like rice a lot. I must have some rice each day. When I just come to Australia, I had not bought my rice cooker so I used a small saucepan to cook rice. At Christmas, a good friend gave me a new, modern rice cooker, which I posted to Australia. My electric rice cooker has arrived!! It is much easier to cook now.

There are two main varieties of rice: long rice and short & fat (like my husband). Long rice is used mainly for fried rice because when it is cooked it separates easily. Short rice is stickier and is used with a main meal, sushi, congee (congee, uses more water than this recipe and is cooked longer until it turns into a gruel)

Use saucepan to cook rice
Ingredients: Two cups of rice, two cups of water.

Preparation: Wash the rice, put water in (a good test is to place your hand flat on the rice and the water should just cover your hand).

Cook: Turn the stove element to high if electric, or turn gas ring to full. Bring the water to the boil with a lid on, take off the lid, leave to cook until water has evaporated (you can see when it has evaporated enough when it is just visible at the top of the rice. At that point, you have evaporated all the water covering the rice, but the rice is still in water), put back the lid and turn the stove to low, gas (low flame). Leave the saucepan on the element or gas ring for 15 minutes. Turn off the stove. Wait for another 5 minutes. You may have a thin layer of hard rice on the bottom of the pan, this is considered the best part in China and there is usually a family fight to see who eats it.

Now ready, you can eat.

Use rice cooker
Ingredients: Two cups of rice, two cups of water

Preparation and Cook: Wash the rice, place in the rice cooker, put the water in, turn on the cooker as per the instructions.

You can rest or prepare the meal until cooker tells you the rice is ready.
That is why I ‘love’ my electric rice cooker.

[Kaixin]

Stir-fry sweet potato leaf
(vegetable side dish)

Ingredients: A generous double handful of sweet potato leaves

Seasoning: 1 garlic clove, 1 tablespoon of oil (more or less to taste), a little salt
(to taste), ½ to 1 level teaspoon of powdered chicken stock (to taste).

Preparation: cut the stems off the leaves, wash and shake off excess water, chop the
garlic finely.

Cooking: heat the wok, put oil in, put garlic in, stir- fry until the garlic gives off
aroma, put the sweet potato leaf in, stir- fry for six minutes, put the salt
and chicken powder in. Stir-fry gently for 1 minute. Serve on side dish.
Hao Chi.

[Kaixin]

Stir-fry potato stick
(vegetable side dish)

Ingredients: 1 large potato, half a medium sized carrot.


Seasoning: 1 desertspoon of oil, 1 piece of ginger, a little salt, 1 teaspoon of rice vinegar.


Preparation: Peel the potato and chop into long fine sticks (approx ¼ the size of a McDonalds French Fry), chop the carrot into long fine sticks also.


Cooking: Heat the wok, put oil in, put potato and carrot in, stir-fry for 1 minute, put vinegar in, stir-fry for 3 minutes, put salt in, stir-fry for 1 minute. Take out and put onto to a plate. Hao Chi.