Kung Pao Chicken Recipe

Kung Pao chicken (or Kung Po chicken, 宮保雞丁) is a very famous and popular Chinese dish, originating in Sichuan province, central-western China. This dish is quite hot, yet you can adjust the amount of chilies and suit your preference to mild or little hot in home cooking anyway. Many people are very curious about why this dish is called Kung Pao chicken instead of chili chicken or fried chicken. According to Wikipedia, the dish is named after a late Qing Dynasty official, Ding Baozhen (1820 -1886). He was born in Guizhou, served as head of Shandong province and later as governor of Sichuan province. His title was Gōng Bǎo (宮保), or palatial guardian. The name "Kung Pao" chicken is derived from this title.

Nice stories about Ding were spreading around Chinese community. Ding was very found of foods and skillful in cooking. He also hired many famous cooks in his home to cook for his guests. There was a dish, fried diced chicken, often served on his guests’ tables. His guests loved this dish very much. So they named his fried diced chicken as Gong Bao Chicken.

Pork and Chive Dumplings (韭菜餃子 video)

If you really like to try any Chinese snacks, these pan-fried dumplings (jiaozi 餃子) must be on the top of your list.

The thin and soft dumpling pastry is filled with mince pork and Chinese chives. The bottom of each dumpling is fried to be brown and crispy. They are best served with black vinegar dipping sauce, and/or chili paste with soy sauce.

Kids in many Chinese families, especially those who are living in northern provinces of China would learn how to wrap dumplings at home from a very early age. It’s quite amusing to watch kids wrapping dumplings. They would first pick those dumplings they wrapped, eating with a great satisfaction.

There are many different ways of wrapping dumplings. Some are practical, some really artistic. I posted a video below showing how to wrap a dumpling easily and beautifully. I learned this method of wrapping dumplings from one of my Peking friends.

Basically, you can just seal the edges of dumplings and make sure not to let any fillings leak out when cooking. That’s it. When it comes to eating dumplings, flavours and taste always come before the looking.

Why not make some for your family or with your family if you haven’t tried before? Wrapping dumplings is fun.

Sweet and Sour Chicken Recipe

Sweet and sour sauce is a kind of versatile sauce, going very well with any kind of meat, like pork, beef including chicken of course. This dish, pan-fried chicken in sweet and sour sauce is perfect for going with white rice. You can deep fry the chicken if you like. This time I just pan fried the chicken for saving the oil, good to health as well.

Lemon Tart Recipe

These lemon tarts are so elegant and especially delightful for afternoon tea. The fragrance of lemon is so tempting and its sourness just balances the sweetness of crust. Every time I make this tart, it becomes a big hit in my family.

Prepare 4 round 10cm tart moulds

Ingredients
Sweet crust:

• 125 gm plain flour
• 1 large egg yolk
• 100 gm cold unsalted butter
• 50 gm caster sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 to 2 Tbsp ice-cold water

Lemon curd filling:

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 lemon rind
• 40 ml fresh lemon juice
• 2 egg yolks
• 60 gm caster sugar
• 1 tsp icing sugar
• 8 slices lemon, for garnish

Method

To prepare sweet crust:

1. Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a medium bowl.
2. Cut the butter into small chunks and add to the flour mixture. Use a pastry blender if you have, or just use knives in a criss-crossing motion, blend the butter into the flour mixture until it has the consistency of damp sand, with a few pea-sized pieces remaining. (Note: don’t use hands, the butter would melt quickly otherwise.)
3. Use a fork to beat the egg yolk with cold water. Slowly pour the egg mixture over the flour, stirring until the mixture becomes moistened. The dough should stick together and be able to hold the form of a ball.
4. Cover the ball with plastic wrap. Smooth the ball of dough with a rolling pin to form a flat disc that fills the corners of the plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. (Note: If it has been chilled for a long time, it may need to soften slightly at room temperature before use.)
5. Unwrap the disc and place on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough from the center of the disc to the edge, until the crust is the desired thickness. If the dough is sticking to the rolling pin, try placing a sheet of plastic wrap over it and then rolling it out.
6. Use a cookie cutter to trim out 4 dough discs with around 0.5cm bigger than each tart mould in size. Place the dough into each tart mould. Carefully press the dough into the tart moulds. If any cracks appear during the transfer, use lightly floured fingers to push the seams back together. Trim the excess from the edges of the tart moulds. (Note: practice makes things perfect.)
7. Prick the surface with a fork and chill for 10 minutes in the freezer. Bake blind for 20 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and brush the base of the tarts with lightly beaten egg. Return to the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until the base of the crust is golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To prepare lemon curd filling:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice, egg yolks and sugar until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a heavy-based saucepan and cook over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken, about 10 minutes. Beware not to let the mixture boil.
2. When the curd is thick enough to coat a wooden spoon, reduce the heat to low and continue cooking for 10 more minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, until melted. Strain the curd through a fine sieve into a medium bowl and stir in the lemon zest.

To decorate tarts:

1. Pour the lukewarm curd into the tart shells. For ease of slicing, chill for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.
2. Dust with icing sugar and garnish with lemon slices. Refrigerate any remaining tarts for up to 3 days.

Pan-fried Pork Chops with Spicy Salt

This dish, pork chops with spicy salt could be a snack anytime or a main dish for dinner. If you bring this dish to a party for finger food (you have to cut into bite-size beforehand, of course), it won’t let anyone down. The red chilli and green spring onion (shallot) are very attractive to eyes and make people feel craving for more. The pork meat is very tender, with aromatic flavours. This time I only cooked five spicy pork chops. It seemed not to be enough. I have to add three more next time then.

Ingredients:

• 5 thin sliced pork chops
• 1 chilli, deseeded
• 1 spring onion (shallot), chopped
• 1 tsp cooking rice wine
• 1/4 tsp five-spice powder (available at Asian store)
• 1/2 tsp pepper salt powder (available at Asian store)
• a handful of cornflour, for coating
• lettuce, for garnish

Marinade:

• 2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp cooking rice wine
• 2 Tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger sauce
• Pepper, to taste
• Sesame, to taste

Method:

1. Rinse pork chops and pat dry with paper towels. Tenderize with the back of a chopper. Marinate for 30 minutes.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan. Lightly coat both sides of pork chops with cornflour, removing excess flour. Fry both sides until brown and cooked.
3. Push pork chops to the edges of frying pan. Add a bit oil in the center (see picture shown) and sauté spring onion, chilli and five-spice powder until aromatic. Sprinkle rice wine and pepper salt powder. Quickly stir and combine well with pork chops. Dish up and serve hot with lettuce or salad.

Tip:

Adding some freshly grated ginger sauce will help tenderize the pork chops.

Cantonese Wonton Soup Recipe (廣東雲吞)

This wonton soup is a comfort food. The wontons are silky, slippery, the stock is aromatic. These Cantonese wontons are very popular in Hong Kong. The fillings of Cantonese wontons are mainly prawns (shrimps) mixed with minced pork. Yellow chives seem to be a must to be added. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to find any yellow chives throughout the year in Australia. So I just used spring onion (shallot), adding a fresh green flavour though. The flavours of the soup are rich and the texture of wontons is very tender.

Makes 30

Ingredients:

• 150g minced pork (or called ground pork)
• 175g medium green prawns (shrimp), peeled and deveined
• 30 fresh wonton wrappers (1 packet, available at Asian store)
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 bunch Chinese vegetable (Choi Sum or baby pak choy)
• yellow chives (or chopped spring onion) for garnish
• A dash of sesame oil

Seasoning for pork:

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour
• a pinch of white pepper

Seasoning for prawns (shrimps):

• 1/2 tsp chicken powder (chicken bouillon powder)
  
• 1 Tbsp egg white
• a pinch of salt
• pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Marinate minced pork for at least 20 minutes. Put pealed and deveined prawn under cold running tap water for 5 to 10 minutes. This step will make the prawn meat crunchy. Drain well and pat dry with paper towels. Dice prawn meat into 1.5cm cubes to make about 175g. Blend the prawn well with the seasoning. Cover and chill them for 15 minutes.
2. Stir chilled prawn meat in minced pork. Prepare 4 tablespoons of water in a little bowl for wrapping wontons. Place one rounded teaspoon of prawn and minced pork filling in center of wonton wrapper. Dip a finger in the little bowl of water and run along bottom edges of wrapper to moisten. Gather the corners of the wrapper, lightly twist to enclose filling. Repeat with the remaining filling and wonton wrappers. Set aside.
3. Heat chicken stock in a large saucepan on high and bring to a boil. Cook Choi Sum or baby pak choy in the stock. Usually I place the hard stems in the stock first, then followed by the leaves. Cook until softened. Add salt, white pepper and sesame oil to taste. Set aside.
4. Use another wok or saucepan to cook wontons with boiling water. Carefully place wontons in the boiling water, stir immediately and don’t let them stick to the bottom or stick together. When the wontons float to the surface, that means they are cooked. Transfer the cooked wontons out with a strainer and divide them between bowls. Ladle over chicken stock and serve with vegetables. Sprinkle spring onion or yellow chives if desired.

Note:

1. You can just buy minced pork from any supermarket. Usually I use pork neck and mince it with a food process by myself. Jut rinse pork and pat dry with kitchen papers. Cut into chunks and mince the pork meat in a mini food process.
2. The water will become cloudy after cooking wontons. And that’s why we used another saucepan to cook wontons. Hong Kong people like clear soup going with wontons.

Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe (海南雞飯)

Ever tried the famous Hainanese Chicken Rice? I’m not quite sure if this popular dish was originated from Singapore or Malaysia. Some friends told me that it was from Singapore. Is it right? No matter you go into a Singaporean or Malaysian restaurant, they would definitely offer this dish on their menu, not very expensive and worth trying if you didn’t. The chicken meat is very smooth and tender, going so wonderful with the unique chili sauce. I can’t describe how yummy is the rice. It’s not ordinary white rice, but is cooked with chicken broth. So you can imagine that’s a luxury treat when you order Hainanese chicken rice with not-so-expensive price, enjoying a dish with rich flavours. However, it’s quite disappointed when I go into some restaurants that only offer salty and oily rice instead of the premium rice cooked with chicken broth.

When it comes to cookIng this dish, there’s a traditional way of using the whole chicken. Due to my family’s craving for chicken legs, I simply used chicken legs so that I saved more of my energy and time for cooking. That’s good to me and my family.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken legs
• 4 to 5 slices ginger
• 1 spring onion (shallot), sectioned
• 2 cups white rice, rinsed and drained well
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 2 to 3 bay leaves
• Salt, to taste
• 2 cups chicken stock
• Cucumber, few slices for garnish

Iced water for soaking cooked chicken:

• 1 bowl water, should cover the chicken
• 20 ice cubes

Ingredients for chili sauce:

• 2 to 3 chilies (depends on how hot you like)
• 5 slices ginger
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3 Tbsp lime juice
• 4 Tbsp chicken stock
• sugar, to taste
• salt, to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in wok, sauté minced garlic and grated ginger until aromatic. Be cautious, don’t let them burn. Or else your rice would turn brown when cooked. Add drained rice and stir fry for 3 minutes. Toss in bay leaves and pour chicken stock into the rice. Bring to a boil. Transfer to electric cooker and cook rice as usual.
2. Rinse chicken and drain well. Place spring onion and ginger on chicken and steam over high heat, covered with a lid, for about 20 minutes, or until cooked through. Insert a chop stick or needle into the thickest part of chicken leg. If clear liquid runs out, it’s cooked. Immediately transfer chicken legs into iced water and soak for 15 to 20 minutes. This is an old traditional Chinese way of making the skin and meat of steamed chicken become smoother and tenderer.
3. To prepare chili sauce, just process all ingredients with a food processor for a minute. Add salt and/or sugar to taste.
4. When the chicken legs cool down, drain well. Chop into chunks and serve with cooked chicken rice. Garnish with cucumber slices if desired. Many Chinese people like eating steamed chicken with minced ginger and spring onion sauce. Just heat up a bit oil in wok or saucepan. When the oil becomes very hot, immediately pour the oil onto minced ginger and finely chopped shallot. Add salt or soy sauce to taste. That’s the popular ginger and shallot sauce for chicken. This Hainanese chicken tastes fantastic, accompanying with both chili sauce and minced ginger shallot sauce.