Loofah Clam Soup --China's tongue

Loofah Clam Soup is my most favorite soup in summer. With the match of the two ingredients of the loofah ‘sfaint scent infiltrating the clam and clam’s fresh taste integrating into the loofah, the delicious flavor it forms is refreshing but not greasy.
The cooking time of Loofah Clam Soup is very short. The clam is cooked well after it is boiling, so dose loofah. It is so fast , convenient and very easy.
Major ingredient:
a half-kilo of clam
a loofah
Minor ingredient:
3 slices ginger
2 onion
Flavoring:
300ml cooking wine
4g salt
Direction:
1. Prepare all the ingredients and flavorings.
2. Clean the clam, and cook it with the ginger shreds in boiling water. Flavor with cooking wine, and cook it until it open the mouth.
3. Pick out the clam and dry for use.
4. Remove the skin of loofah, and cut into pieces.
5. Put a little oil into the pan, and stir-fry the loofah pieces.
6. Pour some water into the pot, and boil it. When the water is boiling, put in the fried loofah.
7. When the water is boiling again, put in the cooked clam.
8. When the water is boiling once more, add in some oil and sprinkle some chopped green onion.
How to deal with clam
1. To choose the clams with the mouth open, because the ones with the mouth closed are more likely dead.
2. The clams must be soaked in to salt water to let them spit the sand. The salt must be added appropriately according the status of clam mouth opening. The clams must be soaked for more than 1 hour and cleaned many times to remove the sand.

Braised lion's head -- China's Tongue

Braised lion head is a course of Huaiyang dish, also named Sixi Meat Balls, meaning “auspicious”. It also a very common dish or a festive dinner.

Major Ingredient:

fat and lean
Rib

Minor Ingredient:

green onion
ginger
water chestnut
egg

Flavoring:

salt
crystal sugar
light soy sauce
dark soy sauce
cooking wine

Direction?

1. Cut the fat with pomegranate seed size first, and the lean with rice grain size, and then mix together to chop evenly.

2. Chop green onion and ginger and mince the water chestnut, and then put in the meat stuffing. Add in salt, sugar, cooking wine and egg, and stir along one direction. Heat up the pan with oil, when it is 50% heat, turn to a low flam, and put in the meat balls in order to fry . Pick the meat balls out when they are brown.

3. Pour water in the pot and cook rib and ginger together for a while to remove the blood, then pick it out. Add some oil in the pan, and put in a crystal sugar to fry. When the crystal sugar melts, put in green onion and ginger to stir fry, and then add in rib.

4. Stir fry the rib until it turns to a caramel color, put in salt, light soy sauce, cooking wine and boiling water in sequence. Put cabbage at the bottom of the earthenware pot, pour the rib with soup together into the earthenware pot, put the meat balls in the middle. When the soup is boiling, turn to a low flame.
5. Put in minced water chestnut to stew together for 2 hours. It can be used to treat guests only by meat balls, and also ate by oneself with meat balls and cabbage together.

Tips:

1. The meat stuffing must be frittered and cut roughly so that it tastes chewy and has a meaty flavor.

2. While making meat balls, you must dip your hand in water first, then take a moderate amount of meat stuffing and beat it repeatedly back and forth between two hands.

3. Do fry the meat balls over a medium-low fire until the surface turns brown.
4. In the end, do stew the meat balls in the earthenware pot with a low flam in order to become saturated.

Spicy bandit duck--China's Tongue

Spicy bandit duck

From the word “bandit”, we can know that it certainly means Hunan cuisine. Yes, that is the well-known West Hunan bandits duck. Compared to the light Cantonese cuisine, the graceful Huaiyang cuisine and diversified Sichuan cuisine, Hunan cuisine is the most passionate. The taste Hunan cuisine pursues without restriction is extremely spicy flavor.

Major Ingredient:

duck
beer

Minor Ingredient:

bean paste
garlic
ginger
dried pepper
Tsaoko
anise
cinnamon
dried hawthorn
Flavoring:
crystal sugar
light soy sauce
dark soy sauce

Directions:

1. Clean the fresh duck and chop into pieces. Cook in water for a while to remove the blood, then pick out for use.

2. Prepare the flavorings, and put Sichuan pepper and hawthorn into the seasoning bag.(See pictures below)

3. Add some oil in the pan, and put in a teaspoon chopped bean paste to fry over a low flame. When the pan comes out red oil, add in crystal sugar, ginger slices, garlic, dried pepper, Tsaoko, cinnamon and anise to fry until the flavor turns out and the sugar melts.

4. Put in the cooked duck pieces and stir fry until the duck pieces turn dry. Then turn to low fire to fry again till the duck generates oil. Add dark soy sauce and some light soy sauce to fry evenly, and then pour into a half bottle of beer and some water with a lever over the duck, put in the seasoning bag, boil over big flame, and then turn to a medium-low fire to braise for about 40minutes till the duck becomes crisp and soft.

Tips:

1. The fresh grass-fed duck is the best choose due to its best taste. Please note that do not choose old duck.

2. According to own flavor to add pepper.

3. Bean paste is very salty, so it is no need to add salt in addition but some light soy sauce.

4. It tastes more better with adding some coriander to flavor in the end.

Kung Pao Chicken--China's tongue

Kung Pao Chicken, which means spicy diced chicken with peanuts, is a famous traditional Sichuan dish, and it was named by Ding Baozhen of the late qing dynasty who was dubbed “the little prince guaranteed”. It is delicious and tender, sweet and sour, spicy but not dry. With the combination of chicken’s freshness and peanuts’ crisp taste, Kung Pao Chicken sweeps the nation and is deeply welcomed by the public. Especially in England, America and other Western countries, Kung Pao Chicken is spread
everywhere just like a food, and it is synonymous with Chinese food just as Korean food and Japanese sushi.

Ingredient:


150g chicken leg meat
50g peanut kernel
20g carrot
10g green pepper
10g red peper
Flavoring:
10g Sichuan pepper
10g dried red pepper
20g white sugar
15g rice vinegar
15g soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Pixian bean paste
cooking wine
salt
water starch
50g ginger, green onion and garlic

Directions:

1. Clean one chicken leg.
2. Remove the skin, bone and grease.
3. Dice the chicken leg meat scraped off bone into a little big cubes.
4. Mix with some salt, cooking wine and water starch.
5. Pour some olive oil to stir evenly.
6. Use microwave oven to deep-fry peanut kernel. See “Quickly fried peanuts within 5minutes without fire”.
7. Chop garlic, ginger and green onion for use.
8. Dice carrot, green pepper and red pepper.
9. Heat up the pan with oil. Put in Sichuan pepper and deep-fry to generate flavor.
10. Put in dried hot pepper to deep-fry into dark red.
11. Quickly pick the Sichuan pepper and dried red pepper out and throw away.
12. Add in chopped ginger and green onion to deep-fry.
13. Put in diced chicken to fry dispersedly.
14. When the chicken’s color changes, add a bit of Pixian bean paste to fry until it generates the red oil.
15. Add in diced carrot to fry for a while.
16. Flavor with the juice mixed with sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, cooking wine, oyster sauce and water starch.
17. Sprinkle with chopped green onion in the end.

Cooking Notes:

1. The meat must be fresh, because the frozen chicken lose a large amount of water, which makes the dish dry. Chicken leg meat is the best, and chicken breast followed by.
2. Do stir-fry the chicken.
3. The cooking method can be used to make Kung Pao Chicken, Kung Pao diced Scallops, Kung Pao diced Tofu and so on.

Steam-pot chicken-China's tongue

Steam-pot chicken is a characteristic dish in Yunnan Province, which has a long history and has been long renowned. It is named by steaming chicken with ceramic steam-boiler of Jianshui in Yunnan Province. It not only can be used to treat guests at any size of dinners, but also used for food therapy, nourishing and home dinner. The chicken steamed with steam-pot is original and delicious. The juice drained is a little distilled water, which is clear, transparent and fragrant. The chicken tastes good and tender. Because of its less nutrition constituent loss, it owns a reputation of cultivating healthy atmosphere.

Ingredient:
1 steam-boiler
a 2000g chicken
15g green onion
7.5g salt
0.5g gourmet powder
15g ginger

Directions:
1. Choose a fat hen(capon is ok), slaughter it and remove the chicken feather. Then Paunch it and cut into square pieces. Slice ginger, cut the green onion into two parts and slap it with the knife blade. Scald the chicken for a while, and then pick out to clean and put into steam-pot. Boil the soup and pour into the blood water of scalded chicken before. At the same time, clear the floats on the soup. Flavor with salt and gourmet powder and pour the soup into the steam-pot to a level over the chicken. Put into green onion and sliced ginger, and then cover the pot.
2. Prepare a earthen pot with a capacity of 5kg water(put in some ham bones), place the steam-pot in the earthen pot under the precondition that pouring enough water into the earthen pot and sealing the connection area of the cover with cloth or stencil tissue paper. Then mix flour with some water to make into paste, and stick the stencil tissue paper with paste. An ordinary pot can be used if there is no earthen pot.
3. Place the earthen pot over the fire to cook for four hours until the meat and bone separate. Finally remove the green onion and ginger.

Tips:
1. The connection of steam-pot and earthen pot must be sealed to make sure no leaking.
2. Boil over big fire first so that the vapor can flow into steam-pot via the pipe, and then turn to soft fire to steam.

Steamed bun filled with crab

Steamed bun filled with crab is a famous snack of Jiangsu Province in China. The most famous places of making Steamed bun filled with crab are Yanchun restaurant in Zhenjiang City, Wenlou restaurant in Hexia town of Huai’an City, Woodlands House Buffet in Jingjiang City, Liuhe District and Longpao town in Nanjing City. Steamed bun filled with crab has been renowned in the Ming and Qing Dynasties with characteristics of extremely thin wrapper and marinade made by frozen pork rinds.

Ingredient:
500g wheat flour
300g pork shank
200g crab meat
250g pork rind
150g lard
1000g soup-stock
5g shrimp egg
10g salt
80g soy sauce
gourmet powder
green onion
ginger
cooking wine
30g white sugar
Directions:
1. Add 150g lard into pan, and put in crab meat to boil until the crab oil boil out.
2. Clean pork shank and pork rind and put into the soup pot to cook with ginger and green onion until they are 70% done(the meat and the pork rind are tender). Then pick out to dry and cool down. Cut the pork shank into 0.3cm-sized cubes, and chop the pork rind with a size of half a mung bean, and then add in original chicken soup, 30g shrimp egg sauce, chopped green onion and ginger, cooking wine and salt to stew until the juice becomes thick and cool down to be jelly.
3. Clean the pork rib meat and chop it into mud, flavor with soy sauce, sugar, chopped green onion and ginger and cooking wine to stir evenly, then pour in cooled crab oil and frozen pork rinds to mix to make into stuffing for use.
4. Mix the 250g fermented flour with water containing soda to knead thoroughly, and then cover it with a damp cloth for a while to make it soften. Mix another 250g flour with water to make into dough, and then knead it with the soften fermented dough together. Twist the dough into a rope-like strip and pelletize into 50 small lumps, and then roll the lumps into round pieces with 8cm in diameter. Use the round pieces to wrap meat stuffing and work it into the shape of carp mouth by using a method of making steamed stuffed bun. After all of that finished, steam them for 5minutes until the steamed bun swell and the soup overflow. To eat with balsamic vinegar and ginger shreds.

Lanzhou noodles--China's Tongue

Lanzhou noodles is the most typical and popular cost-effective snake. The authentic Lanzhou beef noodles was invented by the hui people named Pauzi Ma in 1915. At that time, Pauzi Ma’s family was very poor, and he was forced by life to make beef noodles at home and carry it around on a pole. Later, he blended the beef noodles with the soup cooked cattle, goat liver, and it tasted very good. Everyone liked his beef noodles. Then he opened his own shop, so he didn’t need to peddle any longer. He presented
a promotion of “having a bowl of soup once entering the shop for free”. When you came into his noodles shop, the waiter would serve you with a bowl of hot and delicious beef soup to stimulate your appetite.Every time I eat more-than-usual amount of beef noodles with sweating, and even drink up hot and sour soup.
Where authentic Lanzhou noodles can be ate in Hong Kong, and where is the best? There is a recommendation that the Authentic Lanzhou Beef Noodles King’s Restaurant.The shop attracts many neighborhood customers with Shanxi noodle and Lanzhou noodles. The freshly-made noodles has popping texture and mellow flavor, the soup is very thick and tasty, and the price is very reasonable.



In Beijing, if you want to eat the most authentic Lanzhou beef noodles, you should choose the restaurant made by Lanzhou Beijing office, which locates in the first floor of Lanzhou Hotel of the garden district in the northeast corner of Xizhimen.