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.

Stir-Fried Rice Cake with Swimming Crab--China, On The Tip Of The Tongue

Stir-Fried Rice Cake with Swimming Crab
Ingredient: swimming crabs
sliced rice cakes
green and red peppers
Flavoring: green onion
ginger
garlic
chive
white sugar
salt
pepper powder
wine
starch
Directions:
1. Clean the swimming crabs and remove the crab cover the crab gills. Chop into pieces and slap the crab claws with a knife for several times.
2. Salt the chopped crab with wine, salt and pepper powder, then slap with starch.
3. Cut the green and red pepper into rhombic blocks and the green onion into sections. Slice the ginger and chop the garlic and chive.
4. Heat up the pan with oil.
5. Put the chopped crabs slapped with starch into the pan to stir-fry. It doesn’t need much oil.
6. Heat up another pan with oil.
7. Put in green onion, ginger and garlic to stir-fry.
8. Add in spicy sauce to stir-fry.
9. Put in the fried crabs and stir-fry with wine.
10. Put in sliced rice cakes.
11. Stir-fry with a fast speed evenly.
12. Pour in a bit of boiling water or soup, and flavor with white sugar and salt.
13. Turn to low fire when the juice becomes thick.
14. Put in chopped green and red peppers to stir-fry.
15. Pour a little bit of sesame oil.
16. Sprinkle with chopped green onion in the end.

China, On The Tip Of The Tongue--JinHua Ham

Jinhua ham is traditionally produced using the hind legs of a breed of pigs native to China known as the “two ends black” , which have black hair growing on their heads and hindquarters with white mid-sections. This breed is quick to mature, has excellent meat quality, and thin skin. Ham production begins when air temperatures drops below 10 degrees Celsius. The process takes approximately 8 to 10 months to complete.


Ham production is separated into 6 stages, starting in the winter and ending the following autumn:
1.Meat preparation: Well-developed and undamaged legs are selected and the “open” side of the leg trimmed of fat, tendons, membranes and other connective tissues. The remaining blood in the legs should also be squeezed out.
2.Salting: Salting is done at a temperature between 5–10 degrees Celsius (41-50 degrees Fahrenheit), since lower temperatures reduces salt penetration, while high temperatures promote bacterial growth. The salt is continuously rubbed onto the meat and allowed to absorb over the span of many days, using a specialized method and mnemonic which indicates the order and the important areas of the ham to salt. The salting process is repeated 5-7 times, with an average time of 1 month. Only plain salt is used, though some producers also include sodium nitrate in the salting process.

The earliest mention of the Jinhua ham processing technique is recorded in the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), and this method of dry ham production is reported by some have been in turn transmitted to Europe by Marco Polo. The name Jinhua was bestowed by the first emperor of the southern Song dynasty. It is highly regarded in Chinese cuisine, and may be eaten as part of a cold meat dish or used in producing soup stock, imparting its unique and umami flavour to any dish. Jinhua ham is an important ingredient in the dish Buddha jumps over the wall. The ham has been lauded in Chinese literature, and was prominently featured in the Qing dynasty novel Dream of the Red Chamber, when the cuisine of the nobility was being described.

The ideal ham should have certain physical characteristics, such as shiny and smooth yellow outside, a rounded shape in the style of a bamboo leaf, small joint and hoof, a thin and slender bone, an abundant layer of fat surrounding dark and red toned meat, a pronounced but not unpleasant odour, a fine textured meat with high levels of intramuscular fat, and a taste that is highly salty, umami, and sweet. The outside of the ham may have small amounts of mold, but this is considered normal and thought to contribute to the flavour of the ham.
3.Soaking and washing: After the leg is well salted and partially dry, it is soaked in water for 4–6 hours and then scrubbed. After the initial washing, the hams are then soaked for another 16–18 hours.
4.Drying and shaping: The hams are trimmed to the desired bamboo leaf shape, de-hooved, branded with an iron, and then hung up to dry in the sun. Sun-drying is terminated when the hams begin to drip liquefied fat, which usually takes a week’s worth of sun.
5.Ripening: The dried hams are hung in a low temperature room of 15 degrees at 55–57% humidity and allowed to dry, cure and develop aromas over the 6–8 months. During this period the hams ferment through molding, and the proteins and fats hydrolyze through endogenous enzymes. This improves the flavour by creating free amino acids and flavour compounds.
6.Post-ripening: The ripened ham is brushed clean of mold and dust, then a thin layer of vegetable oil is applied to soften the ham and prevent the fat’s excessive oxidation. The dried hams are piled on top of one another and allowed to further ripen for 2–3 months, which allows the flavours to stabilize and intensify.
New processing techniques involving adjustments in aging temperature and humidity to accelerate production and reduce the time down to 1–2 months.

Fish head foam cake

Fish head foam cake

Ingredient:  Half of head of big-head fish
400g pancake
1 scallion (only scallion bulb)
1 piece of ginger (size as half of egg)
1 part of cinnamon (size as thumb)
2 bay leaves
2 aniseeds
20 grains of Sichuan peppers

 Flavorings: 2 teaspoon salt (10g)
2 teaspoon dark soy sauce (10ml)
3 teaspoon sugar (15g)
3 teaspoon vinegar (15ml)
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil (3ml)
         
Directions:
1. Cut apart the fish head (chub), and take out the gill. Clean the fish head and dry it with kitchen towel.

2. Cut scallion and ginger into 2mm thick piece.

3. Wipe the pot with ginger. Heat the pot up on high. Add oil into pot. When the oil turn to 70% heat, put into the fish head to fry over a low flame. When the fish head turn into a golden yellow color on both sides, pick it out. (Note: Fry one side well, and then stir it to fry another side.)

4. If not use non-sticky fry pan to fry fish head, the bottom of the pot will stick with paste. It is advised to clean the pot before the next step.

5. Pour oil into the clean pot, and heat up on high. When the oil turn to 40% heat, add cinnamon, bay leaves, aniseeds and Sichuan pepper. When the smell waft up, add scallion and ginger to fry, and then pour into hot water (over 2/3 of fish head). Put into the fried fish head and flavor with dark soy sauce and sugar.

6. Cover the pot and stew over medium heat for 15 minutes when the water in the pot is boiling. Then flavor with vinegar and sesame oil. Cut pancakes into small pieces and dip in the soup to eat.

Fried lotus root sandwich

Fried lotus root sandwich

The Gift of Natural of the documentary of A Bite of China 1 does an introduction of lotus of Jiayu County in Hubei province. Fried lotus root sandwich gives us lasting memories and a deep impression. Below is the making method:

Major ingredient:
400g lotus root
150g streaky pork
Flavourings:
50g wheat flour
3g five-spice powder
1g baking soda
30g soy sauce
3g salt
5g green onion
3g ginger
100g sesame paste

Directions:

1.Wring the pork into meat stuffing.

2.Add a little water into starch and mix together.

3.Peel and clean green onion and ginger, and then mince them.

4.Peel and clean lotus root, and then cut into slices.

5.Mix meat stuffing with minced green onion, minced ginger, soy sauce and 6g water starch evenly, and then add into remaining water starch, baking soda, five-spice powder and flour to mix into paste.

6.Stuff the meat into lotus root, and wrap the lotus root sandwich with flour paste. Finally deep-fry it till it become golden brown.

A Gift Of Nature-Lettuce fried ham

Lettuce fried ham

In the documentary of A Bite of China 1, the first episode of The Gift of Natural does an introduction of Nuodeng ham. Lettuce fried ham is the most impressive. What is the nutritional value of lettuce? How to make Lettuce fried ham? This article will show you the making method of Lettuce fried ham in details.

Major ingredient:

1 lettuce
2 pieces Nuodeng ham or Jinhua ham
Flavourings:
2 garlic slices
2 ginger slices
Salt
Soy sauce
suger

Directions:
1.Clean and peel the lettuce, and then cut into pieces. Cut the ham and ginger into shreds. Cut the garlic into slices.

2.Add a little oil into pot and heat it up. Put into the garlic slices and ginger shreds to stir-fry. Then put into the ham shreds to fry, when the color change, put the lettuce slices. Flavor with soy sauce, salt and sugar.

Health Tips: Lettuce contains multivitamin and minerals, which have an effect on regulating the nervous system function. It is good for patients with iron-deficiency anemia, because its organic compounds are rich in iron which can be absorbed by human body. The hot water extract of lettuce has a high rejection rate of certain cancer cells, so it can be used to anti-cancer.

A Gift Of Nature-A bite of china

Stewed little yellow croaker with soybean and sour bamboo shoots


In the documentary of A Bite of China 1, the first episode of The Gift of Natural does an introduction of Stewed little yellow croaker with soybean and sour bamboo shoots. This article will share the making method of Stewed little yellow croaker with soybean and sour bamboo shoots with you.

Major ingredient:

200g little yellow croakers

50g bamboo shoots
Flavourings:

Lee Kum Kee steamed fish soya sauce
Salt
Cooking wine



Directions:
1. Boil the soybeans.
2. Scrap the scales, leave the viscera of the fish, and clean it.
3. Add a little oil into the pot, and fry the fish by both sides. Then flavor with cooking wine, soy sauce, sour bamboo shoots, a little water and salt.
4. Stew over a gentle heat until all liquids are reduced and absorbed.
Health Tips?
Bamboo shoot has an effect on nourishing yin and enriching blood?ease-constipation, removing heat-phlegm? heat dissipation detoxification? nourishing liver and improving eyesight? helping digestion, stimulating the appetite, detoxification of wine.

A Gift Of Nature –Grilled matsutake

Grilled matsutake

In the documentary of A Bite of China 1, the first episode of The Gift of Natural does an introduction of matsutake. Grilled matsutake is the most impressive. What is the nutritional value of matsutake? How to make grilled matsutake? This article will show you the making method of grilled matsutake in details.

Grilled matsutake

Matsutake, also known as tricholoma mcasutake, is a rare edible fungus. The fresh matsutake has a shape like umbrella. It has the vivid color showing brown on the pileus and white on the stipe.Both of the pileus and the stipe Hair scales have hair scales. The fleshy pileus with fine texture has a mesmeric aroma of taste