Comments on: Chinese Food Mini-Project (Day 1)

By: G

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:03:09 +0000

This looks great. I love seeing what people make for dinner. For the green beans, you may also want to try the following:
1. Heat up the pan until it’s hot.
2. Add just enough oil to coat the pan and let that heat up. You’ll know it’s hot enough when you stick the tip of a dry chopstick in the oil and it sizzles.
3. Add the white part of the green onion, chopped, then the chopped ginger, and then chopped garlic, with each turning translucent before adding the next.
4. Add the green beans as you’ve chopped them (quickly blanched just until they turn bright green), or raw but sliced on the diagonal so that they are able to cook evenly, and cook until just after they turn bright green.
5. A sprinkle of salt or soy sauce, and a tiny sprinkle of sugar.
6. The green part of the green onion, thinly sliced, just before turning off the fire.

By: Violet

Violet — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:51:36 +0000

I made Fuschia Dunlop’s Hunan version of General Tso’s Chicken last week for my family and I nearly blew everyone’s heads off with the chilli heat! Think we’re used to the sweeter version. (It was really good though.)

By: Cary Milkweed

Cary Milkweed — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:14:01 +0000

Hah. Totally had the poor man’s version of General Tso’s Chicken tonight, which is as sweet and Americanized as it gets but which I loooove. Trader Joes’ Mandarin Chicken. *sigh* I was too tired for real cooking, but your dinner looks great!

By: june

june — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:09:49 +0000

Have you tried using the ready made mabo tofu sauce? I’m not sure if you have a Chinese market near you, but I always just buy the sauce and then cook it with tofu and ground pork (I’m lazy). It’s really good.

By: M

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:19:50 +0000

BTW, it’s very hard to get these beans fully cooked if you cook them in a pan. A good workaround is to put the beans in a microwavable plastic container and microwave them for 4 minutes on high heat. Then do the rest of what you normally do. That way, beans will be fully cooked and still retain its fresh taste. My American-born Chinese kids don’t really like Chinese food. They never crave for them. Good to know that Mr. A still likes them.