dinner in under 30
Jimmy is clearly the faster cook; and tonight he whipped out two Chinese dishes - like that! Rice was already cooked, so that helped too. We got these vegetables from the Chinese vendor at the South Pasadena market - we like buying our asian veggies, garlic, ginger, kabocha squash and Okinawan sweet potatoes from him.
Fish Ball with Chives
Broccoli with Hunan Ham
Most Chinese food I cooked at home are not from any cookbook. They are recipes imbedded into me from childhood memory. Fish balls with Chinese Chives- a very traditional Taiwanese family dish ( I have never seen this in any restaurants), is typically prepared with Japanese Tempura (fishcakes, not the deep fried stuff you get with Udon) Tempura is sweeter, also the its flat shape and yellow brick color is more complementary to the Green Chives. However, they are mostly interchangeable.
ReplyDeleteHunan Ham with what we suspected as Japanese broccoli (not sure what it is, will confirm with vendor at Farmer's Market this Thursday) is another dependable standby. In my grandmother's kitchen, her cooks typically would stir fry vegetables (Bok Choy, Napa Cabbage and etc) either with garlic plus bacon or dry shrimp. Hanan Ham is what we got in the fridge and it was a good substitute.
Fishball with Chives:
ReplyDeleteIngredients:
3-4 cloves of garlic. Either smash or dice, up to you.
A dash of rice wine
salt and pepper to test
2-3 tbsp of peanut or any vegetable oil
1 package of fishballs, meat balls or Japanese fish cake
1 bunch of Green Chinese Chives (not the yellow variety), cut into 2-3" sections.
Direction:
1 Heat up oil til it starts to smoke
2 Toss in garlic, stir a bit til fragrant.
3 Add chinese chives and stir fried it for about 1 minute. splash rice wine.
4. Continue to cook til chives become slightly soft.
5. Add fishballs, flavor with salt and pepper. You may add a little soy sauce if you want.
Broccoli with Hunan Ham.
Ingredients:
3-4 cloves of garlic. Either smash or dice, up to you.
A dash of rice wine
salt and pepper to test
2-3 tbsp of peanut or any vegetable oil
4 or 5 slices of bacon or Hunan Ham
1 bunch of Japanese broccoli
Direction (same as fish ball and chives)
1. Heat up oil, toss in garlic and bacon (ham)
2. Stir fry til fragrant
3. Add the tough stem part of broccoli first
4. A splash of cooking wine
5. Add rest of the broccoli
6. Salt, pepper to taste