Posted by Patrick.C
Cabbage is a popular leafy green vegetable that can be easily found in the food market. I like cabbage because of its natural sugariness and of course it has to be cooked or boiled in order to tenderize the leaves for releasing the sugars. Cabbage is broadly consumed raw but I am not so into eating it this way except for coleslaw or maybe in salad occasionally. This is because I don’t like the sharp or bitten taste sometimes present in the cabbage.
Mostly I like to use cabbage to make soup but today I’ve cooked it with the dried shrimp. The dried shrimp is commonly used in Chinese cuisine for its extraordinary flavor that covers bitterness, saltiness, sourness, sweetness and savoriness (or so-called “fifth taste”). That’s the reason I used it to stir fry with the cabbage to make an easy and pleasant homey dish. I loved it and you should try it.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Eric.N
If you have checked out our blog, you will know that “chicken” is the most blogged recipe in Lama Kitchen. This is because chicken it is the most common dish to be prepared. I definitely love all varieties of chicken recipe because it is easy to be prepared and served for a comfort home meal. Therefore I am constantly looking to modify chicken recipes.
I have once tried the Braised Chicken with Mushroom and Dry Squid. It is a Cantonese style recipe and it has a quite distinct taste than the normal recipe. This recipe has a fresh taste that comes from the shredded dry squids, also adding the fried shallots gives it extra fragrant which I like.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Bel.C
I must say Crab Rangoon (炸蟹角) is a Chinese fusion appetizer introduced to the American Chinese cuisine. Yes, Americans love Chinese food too, but not all of the traditional Chinese food. Therefore a lot of Chinese food in the States are modified to catered based on the Americans’ taste. Crab Rangoon is one of them. I never had these before in Malaysia until I came to the United States. I was studying in Lincoln, Nebraska and there are two or three traditional Chinese restaurants I can recall, the rest are American Chinese restaurants such as Panda Express, Pick Up Stix, or other local ones like Golden Wok and China Wok. So I was able to try these delicacies in these Americanized restaurants.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually think the Crab Rangoon is a break through from the traditional Chinese cuisine in adapting to the American culture. The Crab Rangoon is filled with cream cheese (I like mostly anything with cheese), imitation crab meats or canned crab meats, scallions, garlic or other seasonings. They are wrapped with wonton egg wrappers or egg roll wrappers and deep fried until golden. Here in the States, some restaurants serve the Crab Rangoon with sweet and sour plum sauce or mustard for dipping. I just like mine plain and simple.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Patrick.C
It is always good to have a bowl of slow cooked soup for body rejuvenating and reinvigorating after a worn-out week. Weekend is normally the best time for me to boil soup especially slow cooked soup. It requires several hours (at least 3 hours) for simmer. Dried bok choy soup (菜干湯) was what I’ve boiled last weekend. This homespun soup was one of my favorites back in Malaysia.
Back in ancient times, bok choy was dehydrated for preservation until the next harvest but nowadays you can easily get the fresh boy choy all year round. Besides, you do not need to dehydrate the bok choy because packages of dried bok choy can be easily in most Asian markets. Some of the packages of dried bok choy are labeled as “dehydrated cole”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Bel.C
My boyfriend and I like eggplant, especially this Chinese recipe, Szechuan style Spicy Eggplant with Minced Pork (四川魚香茄子). If you know Szechuan, you will definitely know the place is very famous for hot and spicy food such as Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐), Spicy Pork Strip (魚香肉絲), and etc. Previously I was always wondering why the dish is called Yu Xiang Qie Zi (魚香茄子) in Chinese, literally means “fish-fragrant” eggplant. After getting to know more about Szechuan cuisine, Yu Xiang (魚香) is actually a Szechuan style of culinary tradition. It’s named so because the preparation of the sauce resembles the taste and flavor of the fresh fish, but it doesn’t use real fish in cooking.
The main ingredients for the Szechuan Yu Xiang (魚香) dishes are basically standard; dried red chillies, scallions, ginger, and garlic; not forgetting sugar, salt, hot bean sauce and soy sauce. The ingredients are well incorporated to bring out the essential flavor and tastiness of salty, sour, sweet, spicy, aroma, and freshness, that make it another mouthwatering dish to be served perfectly with steamed rice.
Read the rest of this entry »
