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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.

Ingredients:
1/2 cabbage (chopped)
3-4 garlic cloves (minced finely)
2 tbsp dried shrimp (soaked in warm water for 10 minutes, drained and set aside)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp water

Cooking method:

1. Heat up the pan or work with 2 tbsp oil. Sauté the minced garlic until fragrant.
2. Add in the dried shrimps and do a few quick stir until you smell the aroma of the dried shrimps.
3. Followed by the cabbage and stir well until the cabbage is cooked (not overcooking it).
4. Add in the oyster sauce and water and do a few stir.
5. Dish up and serve.

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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.

Ingredients:

1 chicken thigh and 1 chicken breast (cut into pieces)
10 shitake mushrooms (soaked in hot water, shredded)
1/2 can of straw mushrooms
1/2 can of button mushrooms
3 shallots (sliced finely)
2 dry squids (soaked in hot water, shredded)
10 slices of fresh ginger
1 1/2 cup water
1 tsp cornstarch (dissolve with some water)

For the Seasoning:
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
Few dashes black pepper

Cooking Method:

1. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in a pan over medium, deep fry the sliced shallots until golden. Remove and set aside. Then deep fry the  shredded squids until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
2. Remain 2 tbsp of oil in a pot over medium, stir fry ginger until fragrant.
3. Add in chicken pieces and stir fry for few minutes. Add in all mushrooms and stir fry for a bit.
4. Pour in water and seasoning, bring to boil. Add in half of the fried shallots and shredded squids. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Add in dissolve cornstarch, bring to boil until the sauce has thickened.

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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.

Ingredients:

1 8 oz package Kraft cream cheese (soften at room temperature)
1 cup (6-8 pcs) of imitation crab meats (chopped)
4 stalks scallions (chopped finely)
1 clove garlic (minced)
Dashes of Salt & Black Pepper
50 pcs wonton wrappers or egg roll wrappers

Cooking Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine soften cream cheese, chopped crab meats, scallions, minced garlic, salt & pepper. Mix thoroughly.
2. Lay a wonton wrapper on a flat surface like a diamond shape. Place a teaspoonful scoop of cream cheese mixture to the center of the wrapper.
3. Use your middle finger and thumb of both hands to slightly lift the opposite sites of the wrapper from bottom to form a “+” shape. Then press towards the middle to hold the shape. Press on the other two sides to hold and form like a flower shape. Try not to overfill wrapper.
4. Sprinkle some flour on baking sheet or plates. Place the completed Crab Rangoon on them.
5. Heat oil in a deep pot, or deep fryer to 375 degrees.  Add Crab Rangoon in three batches and deep fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels.

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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”.

I love the unique salty flavor in the dried bok choy soup. It is so appetizing and perfect to be consumed together with the steamed white rice. Not only is the dried bok choy soup flavorful, it’s full of nutrients. It is traditionally used for body heat relief in Asia. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1/2 lb baby back rib or rib (cut into chunks)
1/2 lb pork loin (cut into cubes)
5-6 bunches of dried bok choy
15 baby carrots or 4 carrots
8 red dates (红棗)
2 honey dates (蜜棗)
2 ½ gallons water
Salt to taste

Serve size: 6-8 people

Cooking method:

1. Pre-soak the dried bok choy for at least 1 hour (or until soft). Rinse and drain them. Set aside.
2. Fill the big pot with the water and boil it with high heat.
3. Blanch the ribs and meat in another pot with boiling water for few minutes until the scum has come out. This will give you a clear soup.
4. Remove them from the pot and rinse the ribs and pork with cold water before putting them into the big pot.
5. Add dried boy choy, carrots / baby carrots, red dates and honey dates into the pot right after the ribs and meat.
6. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 2-3 hours.
7. Add in salt to taste.

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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.

This dish can be easily found in most Chinese restaurants and indeed it is deliciously prepared I often cannot resist.  However the restaurants deep fry the eggplants and end up the dish comes out too oily which I don’t really like. Therefore preparing the eggplants at home takes a bit of challenge and work. I have modified the original recipe by blanching the eggplants, it has lost some of its purple color but the dish came out not oily and yet another healthy dish to share.

Ingredients:
2 Chinese eggplant (cut into 2″ strips)
2 tbsp sesame oil or cooking oil
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
4-5 dried red chilli (break into half, seeded)
1/2 green bell pepper (cut into strips)
1/2 red bell pepper (cut into strips)
1 stalk scallion (chopped; for garnish)
1/2 lb minced pork (marinate with 1 tbsp rice wine, soy sauce and 1 tsp cornstarch)

For the sauce:
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp Hot Bean Sauce (辣豆瓣醬)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tsp cornstarch (dissolve with water)
1/2 cup water
Salt to taste

Cooking Method:

1. Marinate the ground pork with rice wine, soy sauce, cornstarch for 30 minutes.
2. Cut the eggplant into 2″ strips, soak in salt water to prevent turning brown color and to reduce absorbing oil.
3. Brings a pot of water to boil, dash some salt and drizzle sesame oil into the water. Blanch the eggplant until slightly tender about 2 minutes. Remove and drain.
4. Heat up a pan with 2 tbsp cooking oil over medium, add in ginger, garlic and dried red chillies, stir fry till golden brown with spicy fragrant.
5. Add in marinated minced pork, stir fry till half cook.
6. Add in all seasoning, brings to boil until sauce thickens.
7. Add in green and red bell pepper, quickly stir fry. Then add in eggplants and quickly toss and coat with sauce.
8. Dish up, garnish with chopped scallions.