Easy Chinese?

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I am new here... n glad to have found this

I am new here and I am glad to have found this. Am a Malaysian Chinese and hope that I can give some insights on Chinese cooking here, the Malaysian way.

:)
 
I cook a lot for my family during weekends including making soup (the Chinese way of course). The Cashew Nut Chicken recipe looks nice and it looks like just how I would prepare it. The hoisin sauce and the dark soya sauce can always be replaced with oyster sauce and light soya sauce if you do not want your dish to look too dark.

I do have some other easy to cook recipes in my blog too..
 
Ellakav, making dumplings is actually very easy. The best would be to show you hands on but if that can't be done, the second best is to show you step by step in pictures. Please check it out at the 3 parts articles at Keep Learning Keep Smiling » Simple, Easy Chinese Dumplings To Make At Home (Part 1) My friends have tried it out and were able to follow through easily and liked the dumplings. Give a try. Let me know if you need further help.
 
The hoisin sauce and the dark soya sauce can always be replaced with oyster sauce and light soya sauce if you do not want your dish to look too dark.

But wouldn't this completely change the taste of the dish? Hoisin sauce tastes absolutely nothing like oyster sauce. And their colors are identical. Hoisin = thick & sweet; Oyster = thick & salty. Also "dark" & "light" don't have anything to do with the color of the soy sauce. Depending on the brand(s) that determination has to do with the amount of fermentation (& sometimes the sodium content). The colors of both are identical.
 
Ellakav, making dumplings is actually very easy. The best would be to show you hands on but if that can't be done, the second best is to show you step by step in pictures. Please check it out at the 3 parts articles at Keep Learning Keep Smiling » Simple, Easy Chinese Dumplings To Make At Home (Part 1) My friends have tried it out and were able to follow through easily and liked the dumplings. Give a try. Let me know if you need further help.

I am all over this!!
 
I have some experience about cooking chinese, if you are interested in how to cook chinese food, you can leave message with me, we can discuss about it.
 
Hoisin sauce vs Oyster sauce...

For me, I would prefer to use oyster sauce. Hoisin sauce is too sweet for my taste. But then if I use hoisin sauce, I will then tweak the quantity used(put in less) and then put in some light soya sauce so that it is less sweet and more salty.

And I think there is a "miscommunication" about the soya sauce. Generally in Malaysia, for us Chinese, there are 2 kinds of soya sauce. 1 is the light one which is not thick and hence we name it "light soya sauce". The other one is the thick one and the colour is darker. Also, when you use the thick one in cooking, it will make the colour of your dish very dark... hence we normally call it the "dark soya sauce".. The taste of the light soya sauce is saltier and the dark soya sauce is not so salty.

Hmmm... maybe if I take a picture of both the soya sauce and post it in my blog for everyone to see, then it will be clearer?
 
How to Make Restaurant Style Stir Fry

My family owned Chinese restaurants and I watched the chefs cook for years and experimented at home to get that "restaurant style" taste.

One thing the cookbooks don't tell you is that restaurants DEEP FRY their meats and vegetables in A LOT of oil in the bottom of the wok first, meat in one batch, vegetables in another. Then they scoop out the meat and veggies to strain on a strainer they keep on top of the big container of oil that they re-use for this purpose.

Next the cook makes a sauce in the wok, whatever soy sauce-based brown sauce they use, then add Sa Cha or black bean sauce or whatever flavor they're making. For white sauce they just start with stock and add garlic and seasonings. They let the sauce heat to boil, then they dump the meat and veggie in the sauce, flip a few times to incorporate, and that's it. Some dishes have more sauce, and they thicken with a cornstarch slurry at this stage. But if you have the right amount of sauce thickening isn't even necessary - just the right amount sticks to the oil on the meats and veggies.

Frying the meat and veggies first like this gives them a crispy texture that you can't get from "stir frying" with 2 tablespoons of oil. Home stir fry techniques always end up with a lot of moisture from the meats and veggies in the pan, and the food is more boiled/steamed.

Anyway, I've been able to come close to restaurant style stir fry by frying the meat and veggies in about an inch of oil that I keep in a small sauce pan, then using a wide strainer to scoop them out to drain on a paper towel lined bowl while I make the sauce. Keep the oil, because it actually picks up the flavor of the foods you fry in it, and adds to your dish. Just keep adding fresh oil as needed and straining it through paper towels or a coffee filter once in a while.

As for the sauce, that's easy, and don't be afraid to experiment. I usually just make it on the fly in the pan (I use a chef's pan or sauce pan, but a flat bottom wok is fine too). Try some of these combinations:

1. Low sodium soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, cooking wine, Mirin (or sugar) for a brown sauce that's like the one restaurants use on green bean dishes. Add red pepper flakes if you like spicy. Great with Japanese eggplants too.

2. Low sodium soy sauce, wine, oyster sauce. Like restaurant beef and broccoli.

3. Chicken stock or water, chopped garlic and/or ginger and/or scallions, thickened with cornstarch slurry for white sauce. For white sauce chicken or seafood dishes. Add a beaten egg right before removing from pan, let sit for a few seconds before stirring, and you have Lobster Sauce. (If you want to make old school traditional Lobster Sauce, you'll also need to add some ground pork when starting the sauce. I've used country sausage with ok results.)

4. Low sodium soy sauce, cooking wine, Sa Cha sauce or Black Bean sauce (you can buy prepared mixtures) for whatever spicy brown sauce you like from the restaurants.

But the key to all this is the deep frying. Try it with green beans and you can really tell the difference. They get that chewy caramelized taste and texture that I love but was never able to get with any other method.

Good luck.
 
The last two nights we made chinese dumplings inspired by this thread.
I had some radishes and garlic from the garden and 2 onions and I chopped them in the food processor, then saute them in oil to carmelize them and removed pan from the heat, added a lb of ground beef (would have used pork but had none), and added a can of sliced mushrooms.
I rinsed out the food processor, added 1 egg, salt and 2 cups flour and then added water until it formed a ball. Processed it for 3 minutes.
We rolled out smallish balls into flat round shapes, stuffed them with the meat filling and sealed with water on the edges....like little purses.
Boiled for 20 minutes or so.
We made a dipping sauce of honey, soy sauce, white wine, garlic, ginger, shook it up in a resealable jar. It was good.
Everyone was happy with dinner and we spent less than an hour in the kitchen. YUM! ~Bliss
 
Ellakav, making dumplings is actually very easy. The best would be to show you hands on but if that can't be done, the second best is to show you step by step in pictures. Please check it out at the 3 parts articles at Keep Learning Keep Smiling » Simple, Easy Chinese Dumplings To Make At Home (Part 1) My friends have tried it out and were able to follow through easily and liked the dumplings. Give a try. Let me know if you need further help.
in step 3 it doesn't tell you HOW to fill and crimp the dumplings!!
 
Here's an easy fried noodles the Chinese way. Good enough for 2 person. You need

600g noodles
2 shallots
2 pips garlic
Oil
Some leafy vegetables
3 eggs
2 T oyster sauce
2 T sweet chili sauce
2 T light soya sauce

First of all, make the omelet. Stir it before it sets to break it up into small pieces. Remove. Put a few tablespoons oil into the hot pan, add in the shallots and garlic. Once it’s golden, add in the noodles and fry well. The fire must be very hot. Add in the 3 sauces, stir well. Then add in the vegetables and omelet. Mix well and dish up. Enjoy.
 
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