One of the things that gives me the greatest pleasure is to serve a meal to people who supposedly don’t care for Asian food—“meat and potatoes” types who find the foods of the East too spicy or “foreign” or fussy. I set before them a plate of meaty braised lamb shanks, or an inviting roast chicken with Szechuan peppercorns, or a “red-cooked” beef stew, then watch as they learn that an Asian entree can be as substantial and comforting as anything they’ve ever eaten.
The entrees in this chapter represent my hearty, full-flavored style of cooking. They are the mainstays of my everyday home-kitchen repertoire. I’ve also served many of them at holiday family gatherings, sometimes accompanied by roasted potatoes, tomato and onion salads, Brussels sprouts, maybe with a crusty loaf of French bread on the side. I’ve tried to include dishes that incorporate many Asian cooking techniques.
A whole fried fish makes a great presentation and is the centerpiece for a memorable Asian meal. Buy only fresh fish. Find out which days are fish delivery days at your market and ask the fishmonger to hold what you want. The eyes must be clear and the flesh firm. Make sure the scales are removed when the fish is cleaned.
A frying pan big enough to hold the fish comfortably is a must. Cut off the head or tail to make the fish fit; fry the head or tail elsewhere in the pan and reassemble it on the serving plate.
The oil in the pan must be very hot. Fry the fish on the first side long enough that it releases easily from the pan on its own and is well cooked. Make sure it’s nice and crispy because this will be the displayed side. It takes longer to fry a whole fish than you would think, especially on a home stovetop. Be patient and test the fish for doneness by cutting to the center on the nondisplayed side.
A tomatoey, spicy—sweet, vinegary sauce—a combination of flavors common in Thailand and Singapore—is best on this type of fish.
Accompany this fish with plenty of jasmine rice and steamed Chinese or regular broccoli.
Serves 2
1 whole red snapper or sea bass (1½ to 2 pounds)
Kosher salt
Canola oil for shallow-frying plus 2 tablespoons
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced ginger
3 scallions, thinly sliced into rings
2 large shallots or ½ medium onion, minced
1 whole jalapeño chile, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon fish sauce or soy sauce
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
1. Rinse the fish under cool running water and pat it dry with paper towels. Sprinkle it lightly with kosher salt inside and out and set aside on a platter.
2. Heat the 2 tablespoons oil in a small saucepan or frying pan over medium heat and fry the garlic, ginger, 2 of the scallions, shallots, and half of the chile until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato and cook to a pulp, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the vinegar, salt, brown sugar, tomato paste, and fish sauce and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring in the tomato paste so that you have a smooth sauce. Taste it for spiciness; it should have a kick along with the sweetness. Add more chile if necessary. You can prepare the sauce an hour in advance and reheat it right before serving.
3. Fill a large frying pan with ½-inch oil. Heat the oil over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, until it is very hot but not smoking. Slide the fish in carefully and let it cook for 7 to 10 minutes on the first side. Do not touch it for the first 7 minutes, then see if it loosens from the pan easily. If it is totally free, gently turn it, otherwise continue to cook. The skin should be intact. Cook the second side for another 7 to 10 minutes until thoroughly cooked and remove it from the pan with two spatulas.
4. Drain the fish briefly on a paper towel and transfer to a platter. Pour the warm sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the last scallion and generously garnish the platter around the fish with the cilantro sprigs.
5. After you have removed the flesh from the first side at the table, remove the backbone to make the flesh from the second side easily accessible.
This is a quick-cooking fish stew, hot-and-sour style. The combination of flaky fish fillets and tomato in a sweet-and-spicy vinegar sauce is delicious. I use cod, haddock, scrod, or turbot, but any white, firm-fleshed fish will do. Serve it over rice noodle triangles, rice sticks, or rice. Accompany with sautéed spinach or steamed green beans. If you want a complete meal in a bowl, add a quarter head savoy cabbage, thinly sliced, and 8 dried Chinese mushrooms soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, drained, hard stems removed, and caps quartered) to the sauce with the tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes before adding the fish.
Serves 4
1½ pounds cod fillets (or other firm, white-fleshed fish fillets)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons white distilled vinegar
1 tablespoon sriracha chili sauce
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 large tomatoes or 6 plum tomatoes, chopped
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
1. Cut the fish fillets into 2-inch-wide pieces. Combine the fish sauce, vinegar, chili sauce, and brown sugar in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
2. Heat the oil in a sauté pan over medium heat and add the onion. Cook while stirring until the onion is quite soft and light brown, about 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook to a pulp, 5 to 10 minutes more. Add the fish sauce mixture and simmer for 2 minutes.
3. Add the fish pieces, stir, and cook until the fish is just done, 3 to 5 minutes. Garnish with the cilantro sprigs and serve at once.
4. The sauce can be made in advance. Just bring it back to a simmer and add the fish 5 minutes before serving.
In Indian cooking, garam masala, a spice mixture of cardamom, peppercorns, cinnamon, cumin, and cloves, is added in the last few minutes of cooking or sprinkled over a finished dish, almost like a condiment. I prefer to add it with the other ingredients to soften the flavor. I recommend grinding the garam masala yourself. My young daughters, who won’t touch onions or anything green, have to be held back from the serving dish. I once made this recipe with two pounds of salmon to assure that my husband and I would get a good-sized portion.
Serve with rice and a green salad.
Serves 4
1½ pounds salmon fillet
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 large onion, chopped
¼ cup chopped cilantro leaves, plus sprigs for garnish
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1½ teaspoons cumin seeds, ground
1 teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 large tomatoes or 6 plum tomatoes, chopped
3 teaspoons garam masala (see page 12)
1¼ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1. Slice the salmon fillet into 2-inch-wide strips.
2. Heat the oil in a medium sauté pan over low heat. Add the onion, cilantro, and garlic. Cook the mixture slowly, stirring occasionally, until the onion is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Add the cumin, turmeric, and cayenne pepper and cook for a minute. Add the tomatoes, garam masala, and salt. Cook the tomato to a pulp, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the lemon juice and stir to mix. The recipe can be made to this point up to 2 hours ahead of time.
3. Shortly before serving, reheat the sauce and add the salmon to the pan. Spoon the sauce over it. Cover and cook over medium heat, turning the pieces once, until the salmon is cooked through, 5 to 10 minutes. Garnish with sprigs of cilantro.
Whitefish fillets with black beans is a classic Cantonese dish. I add shiitake mushrooms to enhance the flavor. I always welcome a nice preparation for flounder or other mild whitefish; however, delicate whitefish fillets are very difficult to handle and tend to fall apart while cooking. To combat this, I let the fish firm up in egg white and a bit of cornstarch in the refrigerator for a few hours before cooking.
Serve this with a crisp green salad or sautéed greens and jasmine rice.
Serves 4
1 egg white
1 tablespoon plus 2 tablespoon rice wine
2 teaspoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
1½ pounds flounder, sole, or tilapia fillets
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced ginger
2 scallions, thinly sliced into rings
1 tablespoon salted black beans, soaked in water for 5 minutes, drained, and chopped
4 large shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps sliced into ½-inch-thick pieces
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
1. Combine the egg white, the 1 tablespoon rice wine, cornstarch, and salt in a medium bowl and stir to mix. Dip each fillet into the mixture and place it in a shallow glass or ceramic dish. When all of the fillets have been prepared, pour any remaining egg mixture over the top. Cover the pan and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
2. Shortly before you are ready to serve, heat the oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat and add the garlic, ginger, scallions, and black beans. Stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for 2 more minutes. Add the soy sauce, the 2 tablespoons rice wine, and ¼ cup water.
3. When the sauce begins to simmer, add the fish fillets in one layer on top of the mushrooms. Cover the pan and reduce the heat to low. Check the fish in 3 to 4 minutes and gently flip the fillets. Cover again and cook until the fish is flaky, about 3 minutes.
4. Transfer the fish to a serving platter and pour the sauce over the fish. Garnish with the cilantro sprigs.
The first time I went to Singapore, it was while traveling on the cheap from Indonesia to Thailand. Our money-saving method involved riding a ferry from Jakarta to a tiny Indonesian island off the coast of Singapore that had seemingly been developed solely to exploit travelers. We were required to spend the night in what was considered a “classy” hotel, eat in their restaurant, and then continue the next day by hydrofoil to Singapore. There were no local villages—just these strange cinder block hotels. That evening, as we complained about being stuck in this surreal place, we sat down to a fabulous dinner of chile prawns. It was an unforgettable meal: dining outdoors in the tropical night, looking across the bay at the lights of Singapore, and eating these delicious prawns.
If you can get prawns, use them; I call for shrimp as they are easier to find. I serve the shrimp with the shells on because the shells impart flavor, but my husband complains about the peeling. The recipe works just fine with peeled shrimp—it’s up to you.
Serve this with a green salad and jasmine rice.
Serves 4
1½ pounds large shrimp (31–40 count), peeled and deveined
1 small onion, roughly chopped
½ red bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1-inch piece ginger, roughly chopped
½ teaspoon shrimp paste
1 tablespoon sambal olek
Two 2-inch pieces lemon zest, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons canola oil
1½ tablespoons light brown sugar
1 dried red chile, broken into 3 pieces
1 teaspoon paprika
Juice of ½ lemon
½ teaspoon salt
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
1. Put the shrimp in a bowl of lightly salted water and refrigerate until you are ready to cook them.
2. Combine the onion, bell pepper, garlic, ginger, shrimp paste, sambal olek, and lemon zest in the container of a food processor or blender and process until a rough paste forms.
3. Heat the oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the spice paste and cook while stirring until it is a brownish orange color and the oil has separated, about 15 minutes. Add the brown sugar, fish sauce, chile, paprika, and ½ cup water. Stir to combine and dissolve the sugar. Cover the pan, reduce the heat, and simmer the mixture for 5 minutes. Uncover, add the lemon juice and salt, and stir to mix.
4. Increase the heat to medium-high, add the shrimp, and cook until they are just done, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with the cilantro sprigs.
These shrimp are so savory and delicious, I bet you can’t eat just one. The garlic is first caramelized with sugar, then the shrimp is fried in the same flavorful oil and finally combined with the garlic syrup. It is a Vietnamese method usually seen with hard-shell crabs. It is best if you leave the shells on the shrimp; I think they add a lot to the dish and it is fun to suck the shells to get every bit of flavor. For easy eating, buy large shrimp.
Serve this with jasmine rice and Arugula Salad with Deep-Fried Tofu (page 59).
Serves 4
1½ pounds large or extra-large shrimp
6 tablespoons canola oil
4 large garlic cloves, minced
½ onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
1. Devein the shrimp while leaving the shells on. To do this, lay them on a table and hold them in place with one hand while you slice through the shell down the back of the shrimp with a sharp knife from the top to the tail, about ¼ inch deep. Remove any black vein. Put the shrimp in a bowl of lightly salted water until you are ready to use them.
2. Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and stir-fry for a minute. Add the onion and reduce the heat to low. Let the onion cook until it is very soft and transparent, about 15 minutes. Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Add the fish sauce, salt, and pepper and stir to combine, simmer for a minute, and remove from the heat. The mixture should look smooth and syrupy and the oil will have separated from the sauce.
3. Carefully pour the separated oil into a medium frying pan and heat over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp and stir-fry until they are cooked through and the shells are pink, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the sauce from the first pan, stir to combine it with the shrimp, and heat through. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with the cilantro sprigs.
A Burmese-American woman named Mimi Khin worked at my restaurant for a few years; she generously shared with me her family recipes—of which this is one—and helped me simplify them for quick service. The food of Burma is touched by that of its bordering countries: India, China, and Thailand. This makes for a unique and extremely flavorful cuisine, where ginger, garlic, and turmeric (the three most dominant seasonings) are combined variously with soy sauce, coconut milk, Indian spices, dried shrimp in all its forms, and fish sauce. Garnishes are tremendously important in Burmese cuisine, adding many more layers of flavor. The national dish—mohinga, a fish soup—uses at least eleven garnishes. So please encourage your guests to squeeze the lime and eat the cilantro leaves and scallions.
This dish goes well with Sautéed Broccoli Rabe (page 159). To make it a bit more formal, serve Burmese Fish Cake Salad (page 52) as a first course.
Serves 4
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or more to taste
½ can coconut milk (7 ounces)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 cup chicken stock
12 ounces Chinese Canton noodles or udon
1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into ¼-inch-thick slices
1 lime, sliced into wedges
2 scallions, thinly sliced into rings
¼ cup cilantro leaves
1. Heat the oil in a large sauté or chef’s pan. Cook the onion, ginger, and garlic over low heat until golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes. It is very important not to rush this.
2. Turn the heat up to medium. Add the turmeric, paprika, and cayenne. Stir well and cook for a minute. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce, and chicken stock. Stir to mix and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. This much can be done in advance.
3. Shortly before serving, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, reheat the sauce over medium heat, add the raw chicken slices, and cook until cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the noodles to the boiling water and cook until just done, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the noodles and rinse with cool water.
4. Divide the noodles among four bowls and ladle the chicken curry over the top. Garnish with a sprinkling of scallions, lime wedges, and the cilantro leaves. You can also serve this from the table in a large pasta bowl.
Nothing beats a good roast chicken, and this recipe plays up its savory, comfort-food appeal by adding the unique flavor of Szechuan peppercorns. Szechuan peppercorns are not actually a member of the peppercorn family at all but are pods of the prickly ash. They are tremendously aromatic when roasted and add an exotic mouth-tingling quality to a dish. They are used to season meat as in this Chinese seasoning salt. It is often added after the meat is cooked but I like it as a spice rub.
When buying a whole chicken for Asian cooking, always try to find one that is between 3 and 3½ pounds. I think this is the best way to approximate the smaller fresh chickens you would find in Asia. Our chickens are frequently 4 to 5 pounds, and the ratio of white meat to skin and fat is far too high, which makes for dry chicken meat.
I recommend using the same spice rub on four 8-ounce beef tenderloin steaks and grilling them rare. It makes for a wonderful variation on steak au poivre.
Serve the chicken with simple roasted potatoes and Sautéed Broccoli Rabe (page 159).
Serves 4
2 teaspoons Szechuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 teaspoons kosher salt
One 3½-pound whole chicken
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
1. Remove the backbone from the chicken by cutting down either side of it. Wash the chicken and pat it dry. Spread it out flat, breast side up.
2. Toast the Szechuan peppercorns in a dry skillet over medium heat until just smoking, 3 to 5 minutes. Cool and combine them with the black peppercorns in a mortar or clean coffee grinder. Grind to a powder. Combine the pepper mixture with the salt in a small bowl and rub it well into the chicken on both sides. Let it sit at room temperature for an hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 375°F and roast the chicken on a rack, breast up, for an hour. Garnish with the cilantro sprigs.
This dish is a variant of an ancient Chinese cooking technique. Traditionally, it would be cooked in an clay pot. The pot is made of clay and sand and adds a deep, earthy flavor to a dish. If you have one, by all means use it, but this relatively quick-cooking recipe works well on top of the stove in a chef’s or sauté pan with a lid. A whole cut-up chicken is generally used, but here I use boneless, skinless chicken breasts because the fatty sausage coats the chicken nicely, and you don’t need the extra fat from the skin or dark meat pieces. Just make sure you don’t overcook the white meat.
This dish really shows off the taste of Chinese sausage. It is a vital ingredient—there is no substitute. If you can get a package, make this recipe and the Singapore Noodles on page 92). Each recipe calls for half a package, and I guarantee that you will want to buy more.
Serve this hearty dish on a cold winter night with a big green salad.
Serves 4
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons canola oil
½ head Savoy cabbage (1 pound), cored and cut into chunks
2 medium tomatoes, horizontally sliced
1 jalapeño chile, thinly sliced into rings
8 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, hard stems removed, caps cut in half, soaking liquid reserved
4 to 5 links Chinese sausage, sliced diagonally into thin pieces
2 tablespoons mushroom soy or regular soy sauce
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
1. Cut the chicken breasts into 2-inch pieces. Put in a bowl with the rice wine, cornstarch, salt, and sesame oil. Mix together with your hands. Set aside.
2. Heat the canola oil in a medium chef’s pan or sauté pan over medium heat and add the cabbage. Stir-fry until the cabbage is somewhat wilted, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to low. Scatter the tomatoes, chile, and mushrooms on top of the cabbage mixture. Place the chicken pieces over the mushrooms, and finally the sausage on top.
3. Combine ½ cup of the mushroom soaking liquid with the soy sauce and stir to mix. Pour this mixture over the sausage and cover the pan.
4. Cook slowly until the chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes once it begins to simmer.
5. Transfer the stew to a serving dish and garnish with the cilantro sprigs.
Beef curries are eaten all over Southeast Asia. Bathed in coconut milk with a complex spice paste as a base, they are rich and delicious. In this quick-cooking Thai curry you use steak, and with good quality beef cooked rare, it is quite a treat.
You can use top sirloin steak for this dish—it is an economical cut and the sauce will tenderize it somewhat. As a grilling alternative, use skirt steak, which should be grilled rare, sliced, and then added to the curry for the last few minutes of cooking. This treatment works well for steak that has a bit of fat in it—the fat is grilled off and the dish doesn’t become too greasy. Or, if you want an elegant meal, use beef tenderloin.
Serve this with jasmine rice and Green Bean Sambal (page 168).
Serves 4
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 large tomato, coarsely chopped
1 pound top sirloin, grilled skirt steak, or beef tenderloin, sliced against the grain into thin 2-inch slices
8 ounces green beans, blanched in boiling water for 5 minutes, drained, and cut into 2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 kaffir lime leaves, or two 3-inch pieces of lime zest
20 Thai or Italian basil leaves, plus a sprig for garnish
1. Heat the oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the onion and sauté until it is light brown and very soft, about 10 minutes. Add ½ cup of the coconut milk. When it begins to bubble, add the curry paste and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the tomato and cook it to a pulp, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the steak and stir-fry in the spice paste until the steak is cooked rare, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the remaining ½ cup coconut milk mixed with ¼ cup water, the beans, fish sauce, and lime leaves.
3. Bring to a simmer, add the basil leaves, and stir. Serve immediately, garnished with a basil sprig.
“Red cooked” simply means slowly braised in dark soy sauce and other ingredients, a method that turns meat or chicken red in color with intense flavors. For tender but not dry stew, use two-inch cubes of beef chuck, not beef round, with plenty of marbled fat running through it. Meat that is floured and seared tends to become pasty and messy. To seal in juices, I prefer to boil the meat and then brown it without first flouring. Serve the beef stew over jasmine rice or on top of warm Chinese egg noodles with Tossed Salad with Lemon-Ginger Dressing (page 62) on the side.
Serves 4
2 pounds beef chuck, cut into 2-inch cubes
4 tablespoons canola oil 1 onion, thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
Three ¼-inch slices unpeeled ginger
½ cup soy sauce (if you have light and dark soy, use a half and half combination)
¼ cup rice wine 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
4 whole star anise
2-inch cinnamon stick
4 carrots, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 jalapeño chile, thinly sliced into rings
1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)
1. Put the stew meat into a saucepan, just cover with water, and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 minutes and then drain the meat in a colander.
2. In a medium saucepan or chef’s pan with a lid, heat the oil over high heat. Put in the beef cubes and quickly brown on all sides. Remove the meat from the pan, lower the heat to medium, and add the onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook until the onion is soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, star anise, cinnamon stick, and beef cubes along with any accumulated juices. Add hot water to cover the meat; when it starts to boil, cover the pan and reduce the heat to very low. Let the stew simmer for a total of 2 hours. Check the pot periodically to make sure it is simmering gently.
3. Add the carrot pieces 20 minutes before the 2 hours are up.
4. Spoon off the grease floating on top of the stew before serving. You can either take the whole spices out of the dish, or warn your guests of their presence. Garnish with the chile slices, or serve them on a small plate on the side.
5. This stew doesn’t have a thick gravy. If you want it thick, in the last 5 minutes of cooking, remove ¼ cup liquid from the pan and stir in the cornstarch until it is dissolved. Add this mixture to the stew, stir well, and continue cooking for 5 minutes.
The Philippines was ruled by Spain for more than three hundred years, and the cuisine reflects that. You find dishes cooked with olive oil, olives, tomatoes, and vinegar, right along with fish sauce and coconut milk. Adobo, which means cooked in a pickling style, is probably the best-known Filipino dish. It was originally conceived as a way of preserving meat before refrigeration. However, this dish, like Indian vindaloo (pork cooked with vinegar and spices), has remained popular because it adds a complexity of flavor to the meat. I like to cook this a day in advance and serve it cold for a picnic.
This dish is traditionally served with a plate of sliced tomatoes or a Filipino tomato salsa. I have served it with Carrot and Mustard Seed Salad (page 63).
Serves 4
1½ pounds country-style pork ribs on the bone
2 pounds skinless chicken thighs
¾ cup white distilled vinegar
4 large garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
½ small onion, sliced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
½ teaspoon salt
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon black peppercorns, coarsely ground
6 tablespoons canola oil
Spinach leaves, washed and patted dry, to cover a platter
1. Combine the pork, chicken, vinegar, garlic, onion, soy sauce, salt, bay leaves, and black pepper in a chef’s pan or medium saucepan and then add enough water just to cover the meat, 1 to 2 cups. Let the meat marinate for an hour.
2. Put the pan on a burner and bring it to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the meat is quite tender, about 45 minutes.
3. Remove the meat from the pan, bring the liquid back to a boil, and reduce it to 1 cup. Strain the sauce and skim off the fat.
4. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Quickly fry the pork and chicken, turning once. You want a nice brown crust.
5. Reheat the sauce. Arrange the spinach on a serving platter and cover with the meat. Pour half of the sauce over the top and serve the rest on the side.
Although it’s a staple on Chinese takeout menus, I find it odd that mapo tofu is rarely well executed. If made as originally intended—with black beans, sesame oil, and lots of garlic to flavor the tofu and mushrooms—it is earthy and delicious. It’s also a good dish to serve people who don’t think they like tofu. Tofu, sold in sealed 15-ounce tubs, takes well to marinades and sauces. Before using, tofu must be well drained. Wrap it in paper towels and put a heavy plate on top for thirty minutes or so, pouring off liquid as it accumulates.
If you have an Asian market nearby or even a well-stocked supermarket, use the fresh cakes you’ll find there floating in tubs of water. If you aren’t going to use them that day, put them in a bowl of fresh water and change it daily, and they will last a few days in the refrigerator. You will find that they need much less draining time than the packaged variety.
This dish needs a vegetable side along with the rice. I would suggest a tossed salad or Sesame Spinach (page 161).
Serves 4
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 teaspoons sriracha chili sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
½ pound ground beef or pork
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon salted black beans, soaked in a cup of water for 5 minutes, drained, and chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
3 scallions, thinly sliced into rings
8 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in a bowl of warm water for 30 minutes, drained, hard stems removed and caps sliced (½ cup soaking liquid reserved)
1 pound firm tofu, drained and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1. Combine the soy sauce, hoisin, chili sauce, and sugar in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
2. Sauté the ground beef in a a medium frying pan over medium heat until no longer pink; remove with a slotted spoon, and drain on a paper towel. Pour the fat from the pan and add the oil.
3. Heat the oil over medium-high heat, add the black beans and garlic, and sauté for a minute while stirring. Add the ground beef, half the scallions, the mushrooms, tofu, sauce, and the reserved mushroom soaking liquid mixed with the cornstarch; stir until the cornstarch is dissolved.
4. Cook while stirring until the sauce is thick and the tofu is heated through, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the sesame oil for the last 2 minutes of cooking and stir to combine. Serve over rice, garnished with the rest of the scallions.
5. You can make this dish vegetarian by omitting the meat, in which case I would suggest using a combination of fresh and dried mushrooms. Try 10 dried mushrooms and 4 ounces of fresh shiitake mushrooms.
Roast pork loin and whole roast duck hang in the windows of many Chinese restaurants. This prominent placement allows no mistaking their importance in the cuisine. They are used to add depth and flavor to many Chinese dishes. Roast pork can be found in fried rice dishes, soups, stir-fries, and braised dishes. This recipe is a variation of cha siu, traditional Cantonese roast pork; try making it at home if you don’t live near a Chinese deli.
I recommend using pork butt or boneless country-style ribs for this dish. The extra fat in the meat melts and gives it a better flavor. When thinly sliced and piled on a crusty roll with sliced onions, this pork is great for sandwiches, but you could easily serve it sliced with grilled vegetables and pour some of the pork sauce over them, too. This sauce also works well on grilled pork or chicken.
Serves 4
1½ pounds small pork tenderloins, or 2 pounds pork butt or boneless country-style ribs
1/3 cup hoisin sauce
1/3 cup rice wine
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Cilantro sprigs for garnish
1. If using pork butt, cut it into 2-inch cubes and trim off the visible fat. If using ribs, separate them by cutting between each rib with a sharp knife. Otherwise, leave the tenderloins whole.
2. Combine the hoisin, rice wine, soy sauce, garlic, and brown sugar in a small bowl. Stir well and pour over the meat. Allow to marinate for 1 to 3 hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Bring the marinade to a boil over high heat, lower the heat, and reduce slightly. Bake the tenderloin for 20 minutes, remove from the oven, and baste with the sauce. Put it back in the oven for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on how thick the tenderloin is, until cooked through. It should have a deep brownish red color and have little burned edges. The pork butt or ribs will take 40 to 45 minutes.
4. Heat the remainder of the sauce in a small saucepan over medium heat and allow it to simmer for 3 minutes. Remove the meat from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes. Slice into ¼-inch-thick pieces. Serve garnished with the cilantro sprigs, with the sauce on the side.