Cooking with Kylie: Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce

So, I needed a break from bok choy after the caterpillar incident last week, and I went back to Simple Chinese Cooking to find another veggie dish try. Now that I have easy access to a Chinese grocery store, I made a list of veggies Kylie cooks with in the veggie chapter of the book and went to the grocery store to look for them. I found gai choy, AKA Chinese mustard greens, but because I'm not a fan of mustard I kind of didn't want to risk it. Luckily, there was gai lan, AKA Chinese broccoli, in abundance. There were actually two kinds and it looked very similar to another choy of some kind, so I asked a produce staff member to A) help me pick the right veggie and B) explain to me the difference between the two types of gai lan.

The difference, apart from 30¢ in price, is that one gai lan was younger than the other gai lan, and the younger one would be more tender and less fibrous. That is the one I went with. It was $1.99/lb.

The method for this recipe is exactly the same as the method for the bok choy recipe.

Chinese Broccoli (gai lan) with Oyster Sauce, from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, page 194

1 bunch Chinese broccoli
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
dash sesame oil
1 tbsp peanut oil

1. Trim 5cm/2" from ends of broccoli, cut bunch crossways into 3 lengths, and wash thoroughly.

2. Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Stir in vegetable oil, add broccoli and simmer until bright green & tender - about 1 minute. Using tongs, immediately remove broccoli from water and place on platter. Drizzle with oyster sauce and sesame oil.

3. Heat peanut oil in small frying pan until moderately hot and carefully pour over broccoli. Serve immediately.

OK, I skipped step 3 all together because I don't do peanut oil, and I didn't bother adding any vegetable oil to the boiling water.


Chinese broccoli is very similar to broccoli rabe, but is only mildly broccoli-flavoured. I made this for my roommate and I tonight, and we both liked it. This is a completely new vegetable for me, and I think it's a keeper (providing I don't find any caterpillars in it). I told the produce guy I spoke to earlier that I might put it in soup, but the look on his face said that was a no-no. He told me they don't usually put it in soup, but rather stir fry it or boil it. Well, I might just add it to soup - probably some Mama noodles - anyway. But, whatever, this was another good side dish to add to my repertoire. Go Kylie!

Cooking with Kylie: Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce

I've always liked bok choy. In my new favourite grocery store, T&T Supermarket, I've seen it in three different forms: regular bok choy, baby bok choy, and bok choy sprouts, which looks like mini baby bok choy. Baby bok choy was on for 99¢/lb the other day, bundled up in pre-packaged baggies. One of these baggies cost me $1.66 or something ridiculously cheap like that. I had plans for it, but they kinda fell through (long story involving a piece of salmon I left too long in the fridge...), but today I felt like making some comfort food in the form of Kylie's dressed wontons and after looking through the veggie section in Simple Chinese Cooking, I found exactly what I was looking for: a simple bok choy side dish.

The recipe is HERE.

Incidentally, did you know that bok choy gets pretty yellow flowers?


I adapted this recipe slightly because I don't do peanut oil. Apart from that, I followed the rest of the recipe as written.


It was ridiculously easy, and I'm glad it wasn't stir fried. I like, and always have, the texture of steamed bok choy in soups and stuff like that, so boiling the bok choy appealed to me. This was really good, and I'll definitely make it again. I still have bok choy left, in fact.

Here is a look at my wonton dish, too:


If you have not tried this recipe yet, YOU HAVE TO! It's soooooooooooo good!

Simple Stir Fry

I have at least three more posts coming up of Seattle-related food content, but for now, something simpler and less rich than the fare I had in that fair city: a simple stir fry.

As my trip neared its end - I got home last night, or more correctly this morning, at 12:35am - I knew I had to kind of come down from the eating high I'd been on for six days, so today, once I was up and lucid, I went to get some groceries. Pineapples were on sale at Kin's Farm Market for $2.99 each and they looked great, and Kin's also had asparagus on for cheap as well, two bunches for $4. After that, I made my obligatory trip to Wally World to buy my milk on the cheap, and I also picked up a bag of coleslaw mix, too. I then went to my favourite grocery store in these parts, T&T Supermarket, where I stocked up on veggies - cheap baby bok choy, spinach for salads, mushrooms, and a few other things - and I got a mini watermelon for $2.99. I also scored a piece of west coast salmon that should last me for two meals, and some really nice, thinly sliced sirloin. A can of mini corn and a can of water chestnuts completed the deal. The asparagus I got at Kin's reminded me of a great Kylie Kwong recipe that utilized that particular vegetable and mini corn, so I made myself a nice stir fry tonight. A little bit of rice and voilà.

I really love how Kylie's recipes are versatile and adaptable. I have learned so much from her books, and now that I have access to all kinds of actual Chinese grocery stores, I can start looking for ingredients I couldn't find at LOGS or in the Kootenays, and start exploring her cuisine again.

Cooking with Kylie: Neil's Chilli-salt Squid!

I love Kylie Kwong, but her books are not cheap! I did get some Christmas money, however, so I treated myself to Kylie's Heart and Soul. As is the norm with Kylie, everything is so mouthwatering, and also very simple to make. I have a ton of recipes flagged in there, but I decided to make something that really grabbed my eye the first time through the book, Neil's Chilli-salt Squid, on page 35. The flavours really appealed to me, and I do love calamari. I don't have access to fresh squid, unfortunately, so in order to get any at all, I had to make a trip to the LOGS in Trail where they sell frozen squid in 1lb packages. It's times like these when I miss living on the coast...

The dish was very easy to put together, but I didn't think it was an incredible success. This wasn't the fault of the recipe, though, but more my execution of it. I had to shallow fry the squid because I didn't have enough oil, and I don't think I heated the oil enough. It was hot, but not as hot as I realize now it should have been. The squid didn't crisp up, and though the meat was done perfectly, the coating didn't stick. Next time I'll make sure I have the proper amount of oil, deep fry, and make sure the oil is much, much hotter. The flavour was there, though, and the oil turned a spectacular colour!

I served my squid with some baked fries and an Asian coleslaw.

The recipe is here.

Cooking with Kylie: Pork Fried Rice

Yes, two Kylie recipes in a row! This is because I made two Kylie recipes this week!

There is just something so comforting about fried rice, and I have tried Kylie's Chicken Fried Rice and her Prawn Fried Rice. I'm not a huge fan of pork, but I was feeling like I wanted to try something new, so I got some nice pork loin for a decent price and made this dish.

Hoisin sauce and pork are just made for each other, I think. And again, malt vinegar makes an appearance! I actually think this sauce would make a nice glaze for BBQ pork loin, which I might try over the summer since I'll be babysitting my brother's BBQ for a while.

Pork Fried Rice, from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, page 260

400g pork fillets (I used pork tenderloin)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (OK, I never use the amount of oil Kylie calls for! I used about 2 tbsp in total for this recipe)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1 tbsp chopped ginger (I never remember to buy this so, um, I used dried)
2 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp malt vinegar
1/4 tsp sesame oil
4 cups steamed rice
a few finely sliced green onions

1. Slice pork into strips and set aside.

2. Heat half the oil in wok until the surface begins to shimmer slightly. Pour eggs in and scramble; remove.

3. Heat remaining oil in wok and stirfry onion & ginger for 30 seconds. Add sugar and stirfry for 30 seconds. Add pork and stirfry for another 30 seconds. Stir in hoisin sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil, stirring for one minute. Toss in rice and reserved eggs and stirfry, using a spatula to break up egg & any rice clumps. Lastly, add spring onions and stirfry another 30 seconds until well-combined and rice is heated through. Serve.

I loved this! I chose well with the pork, too, because it was so nice & tender. Another great recipe from Kylie!

Cooking with Kylie; Prawn & Mint Salad

Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking is rapidly becoming my most frequently used cookbook these days. The food is simple, delicious, and it really fits my budget. The recipes make enough for me to have leftovers if I want them, which is convenient for my work schedule. I am completely addicted to the Prawn Wontons with Spring Onion, Ginger, and Vinegar Dressing; it's just so amazing and I am really getting quick and adept at putting wontons together.

Two nights ago, after indulging in a pre-menstrual grease-filled pig-out, I decided I needed to eat something light, and I decided to make Kylie's Prawn & Mint Salad. I substituted some of the ingredients for ones I liked (cucumber and celery were out, yellow pepper was in, and I used romaine lettuce instead of iceberg), threw this together, and totally loved it! The mint was so nice & fresh and the dressing was light and tasty. I am really digging Kylie's use of malt vinegar in some of her recipes; it's so flavourful and rich.

The recipe for the salad is here.

Book Review: My China, by Kylie Kwong

I treated myself to this weighty tome for Christmas, being a fan of Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, which launched my series Cooking with Kylie.

My China's subtitle is "A Feast for the Senes" and that it definitely is.

Kylie is a fourth generation Chinese Australian, born in Sydney. This book is her homage to her Chinese heritage, and recounts her travels through much of China and Tibet, cooking and eating as she goes. She starts off in the village of her ancestors, where she is greeted like a long lost relative and where she cooks up the first of many feasts featuring local ingredients in rustic cooking conditions. My China takes the reader everywhere: up the Yangtze, along the Silk Road, the Great Wall, to the great cities of Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing, to Lhasa in Tibet, and to a place that really fascinates me Xi'an, where the Terracotta Army resides. Interspersed with food history and stories, are cultural vignettes featuring Chinese history written with Kylie's sense of wonder, respect, and enthusiasm.

Kylie's descriptions of her experiences are a feast for all the senses. She is a great writer, I discovered, incorporating sound, taste, touch, and smell into her narrative so well I could imagine myself there with her. And there are plenty of large, colourful photos to feast the eyes on.

There are over 80 new recipes in this book, and I have yet to try them. But I will!

This is a great companion book to Beyond the Great Wall, which I reviewed here. There were many similarities between the two books, both being a great mixture of travelogue, photographs, recipes, and personal stories.

If you are fan of Kylie Kwong and Chinese food, history, and culture, you cannot go wrong with My China!

Cooking with Kylie: Stir-Fried Asparagus with Baby Corn

I haven't made anything with Kylie's book Simple Chinese Cooking in a little while, but I am back on the bandwagon! This time, I made a simple stir-fried side dish that was really quick and delicious. Now, obviously, asparagus is not in season here in my little corner of the world, but I have to say that the LOGS has been carrying asparagus from Peru that has been a very decent price, like $2.99/lb, and it has been very tempting. So, I caved. And actually, the asparagus was very good. I always have mini corn cobs on hand for stir fries and snacking - I love these things!

I made half a recipe and had enough for two meals, but I made the regular amount of sauce because I didn't want to deal with the 1/3 cup of chicken stock the original recipe calls for. I never have small amounts of stock around like that, and I have no intention of starting to keep ice cube trays of stock in my freezer because I simply don't have the space or the inclination. The sauce was yummy, so I have no regrets! I also skipped the green onions.

Stir-fried Asparagus with Baby Corn (page 205 of Simple Chinese Cooking), adapted by yours truly

1 bunch asparagus
1 tbsp safflower oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 can baby corn, drained and sliced in half lengthwise
2 tbsp sake
2 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp malt vinegar
1 tsp white sugar
1/4 tsp sesame oil

Wash & trim asparagus, discarding woody ends.

Heat oil in wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add garlic and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Add asparagus and corn and stir-fry for about 1 minute. Add sauce ingredients and stir fry for a about three minutes, or until asparagus is bright green and tender-crisp. Serve immediately.

Awesome! I really enjoyed this, and plan to make another version of it tonight, incorporating chicken into it as well as some water chestnuts. I loved the sauce, too; it's light, like a vinaigrette, almost. Another fabulicious Kylie recipe!

Cooking with Kylie: Wonton Soup

All right, after last week's dreary chicken noodle soup, I decided to use some of the left over stock for wonton soup. I just love wontons and wonton soup! And luckily, Kylie's wonton recipe is one of the best I've ever made. You can find the recipe for the wontons here; it's the same one that appears in this post.

When I made this batch of wontons, I saved myself a lot of hassle by whizzing the ingredients all up in the food processor. This was most excellent. Again, I used my #100 cookie scoop, which is about 1 tsp, to easily fill the wonton wrappers.

Because I knew beforehand that the stock needed help, I was able to tweak it so it was flavourful - and I did a damned awesome job, if I do say so myself. I made half a recipe and got two meals out of it.

Prawn Wonton Soup (adapted by me from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, page 46)

1/2 bunch of bok choy
3 cups Chinese chicken stock
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sake
2 tbsp oyster sauce
green onions, sliced, for garnish

wontons

Simmer everything except the bok choy & green onions for a few minutes. I boiled the wontons in a separate pot because I didn't want a starchy soup. When wontons are done, add to soup with the bok choy & simmer for a minute. Serve with green onions.
The chicken noodle soup failure was a good learning experience, because this soup was far more flavourful than the chicken noodle soup. In fact, it was fantastic! The wontons were also fan-fracking-tastic! It is so worth it to make homemade wontons, I think.

So this was another winning Kylie recipe!

Cooking with Kylie & 101 Uses for a Roasted Chicken #21: Stock & Soup

First of all, a Coyo-NoWriMo update can be seen here. So far so good with the word count, but my back is feeling it sitting in my chair all day! I'm peeking in on your blogs, by the way, but not posting as many comments.

OK, now onto Kylie...

You all know of my love for whole chickens, right? And I believe I have lamented a few times that this leads to a build-up of chicken carcasses in my freezer. I refuse to throw these things away because you can do so much with them! And because I'm cheap!

So, I decided to make another Kylie recipe with one of my carcasses, as she has a chapter in Simple Chinese Cooking on different kinds of stock. She uses whole chickens in her stock, but since I have a surplus of carcasses hanging around, I thought I'd use one of them. And then, I decided upon a soup to make once the stock was done.

So, I made Kylie's Rich Chinese Stock on page 22 of Simple Chinese Cooking. As usual with stocks, I did it in my slow cooker and it turned out great! I added some stare anise as I had some courtesy Palidor's wonderful gift, and the house was filled with such a wonderful aroma.

Rich Chinese Chicken Stock (adapted by me from Kylie Kwong's recipe)

1 chicken carcass
2L cold water
2 star anise
5 spring onions, cut in half crosswise
1 medium red onion, roughly chopped
5 large slices ginger
5 cloves garlic, whole

Stick everything in crock pot & crank it to high for about 6 hours. After that, strain out all the solids & pick the meat off the carcass, reserving the meat for soup.

Notice there are no seasonings in here, just aromatics. I wondered about this, because when I make stock I always make sure to season it & adjust the seasonings as I need to. In this case, however, the seasonings are added when the soup is made, as you will see in the upcoming recipe. I can see why holding off would be an advantage; you get a more neutral -tasting stock that can be seasoned in a variety of ways when you go to make soup, making it more versatile. This stock was good & I'd make it again.

The soup I decided to make was the Chicken Noodle Soup from page 40 of the book. It calls for Hokkien noodles. Well, good luck trying to find those around here! LOGS sells fresh Udon noodles but they are very cost-prohibitive for me. There were also some fresh chow mein noodles, but I've tried using them for soup before and they didn't work so well. Over in the Asian section of LOGS (and it's a miracle there is a small Asian section as this is an Italian grocery store) there were some rice noodles, more chow mein noodles, an a selection of different Chinese egg noodles. These were decently priced, so I went with them. This would turn out to be a big mistake.

Chicken Noodle Soup (adapted by me from Kylie Kwong's recipe on page 40 of SCC)

3 stalks bok choy, chopped
3 bunches Chinese egg noodles
3 cups rich Chinese chicken stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp white sugar
meat from chicken carcass, about 1 cup
1 tsp sesame oil
green onions, sliced, for garnish

In a medium pot, cook noodles according to package directions. Drain & set aside.

In a separate pot, bring stock to boil. Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, ginger, & sugar. Simmer gently for a minute or so. Add bok choy & chicken & cook about 2 minutes. Add noodles. Serve.

This soup was terrible! It's the first recipe of Kylie's I haven't liked. It was bland, for one thing; I needed to add a lot of soy sauce to the soup as I was eating it in order for it to be palatable. Also, the noodles were awful! My first clue was when I went to drain them, a terrible yellow slick of God knows what separated from the rest of the water, alarming me as I saw this all go into my sink. I don't think it was fat, though it was thick like that, and I don't think it was unnatural colouring in the noodles. But the noodles left in the pan after draining were a different colour than they were when I put them on to boil. This prompted me to take a very close look at the ingredients, which were also quite alarming! Check this out:
First of all: "lye water?" WTF is that? Second of all: MSG? Shit! I try to avoid the stuff like the plague.

I also love the third part of the instructions: "serve with meats, vegetables, or soys, if pleased."

But I wasn't pleased! These noodles, weird yellow slick and all, tasted terrible and had a heavy texture.

I am not sure what I'm going to do with the soup now. I hate throwing stuff out, but I just didn't like this at all. And I will never buy those noodles again.
Sigh...Oh well, onwards and upwards, right?

Cooking with Kylie: "Mum's Stir-fried Chicken Fillets"

Oh, how I am loving this series I'm doing! I can't get enough of this cookbook, and think I'll take a look on Amazon to see what else Kylie has published, because she's awesome!

Here is another simple recipe from Simple Chinese Cooking that was delicious. I didn't use chicken fillets, but rather I used some chicken breasts because that's what I had on hand. I also didn't use any chilli as the recipe calls for because I don't like them; I used some orange bell pepper instead. The original recipe also calls for stock, but I didn't need any more liquid so I didn't use it. Kylie describes this as one of her mum's "no-nonsense dishes."

Stir-friend Chicken, à la Kylie's mum (adapted by me from "Mum's Stir-fried Chicken Fillets on page 81 of Simple Chinese Cooking)

For the marinade:

1 tbsp sake
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp finely grated ginger
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2cm slices

Combine chicken with marinade ingredients and set aside to marinate for about half an hour.

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 medium white onion, sliced
3 spring onions, trimmed & cut into 10cm lengths
1 tbsp sake
1/2 orange bell pepper, finely sliced

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok until surface appears to shimmer. Add chicken and marinade & stir-fry until cooked. Remove from wok & set aside.

Add 1 tbsp oil to wok & stir-fry onion, pepper, & spring onion for 1 minute. Add chicken and stir-fry for another minute.

I served mine with rice.

Again, yummy, simple, and quick. Again, a winner from Kylie!

Cooking with Kylie: Prawn WonTons

I adore a good wonton, so it was only a matter of time before I made one of Kylie's recipes for these wonderful meat-filled noodles. What attracted me to this recipe for Prawn Wontons with Spring Onion, Ginger, and Vinegar dressing was the lightness of it: prawn wontons with a simple vinaigrette sounded like comfort food without the heaviness often associated with comfort foods.

Once again, I was not disappointed.

The recipe for this dish is HERE.

Here's how it went.

First of all, I made the dressing, which was easy-peasy. It had an ingredient in it I'd never used before called kecap manis. From what I gathered, this is a condiment similar to soy sauce, but in addition to having soy sauce in it, it also has molasses. It's a little thicker than soy sauce, but it has a richer, more complex flavour. It was really good. The dressing was delicious, and I could see a version of it being used in other dishes as well as with these wontons.

Wontons are easy to make but do take a bit of patience. Again with this recipe, I halved the ingredients, and so I used 150g of my medium shrimp that I usually have in the freezer. To fill the wrappers, I used my #100 cookie scoop, which is about 1 tsp. Using the scoop makes wonton so much easier.

I didn't shape mine in Kylie's way, but I don't think that matters too much. After boiling them, they were ready to be bathed in dressing!This was delicious, absolutely delicious! I was kicking myself for only making 1/2 a recipe because I wanted MORE! Once again, this was very simple to make & put together, just as the cookbook title suggests. Another awesome Kylie recipe!

Cooking With Kylie: Prawn Fried Rice

I really have been cooking up a storm with Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking!

I love rice, I love fried rice, I love shrimp, I love scrambled eggs, so how could I go wrong with this recipe? Well, I couldn't. It was excellent, and it was very simple - made even more simple due to the fact that I hate celery, so I didn't have to chop any of it up! This was really easy to put together in the time it took to cook some jasmine rice. I made half a recipe, and discovered that 3/4 cup of uncooked rice will give you approximately 2 cups of cooked rice, which was perfect.

Prawn Fried Rice* (from page 256 of Simple Chinese Cooking adapted by me)

about 1/2 lb shrimp (I used medium because this is what I usually have on hand), de-veined & roughly chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
2 cups steamed rice
1 tbsp saké
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 cup finely sliced green onion
salt to taste (I didn't need any)

* prawns are basically shrimp. Tomato/Tom-ah-toe.

1. Cook rice. Or, use leftover.

2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok, at high heat until oil shimmers. Add eggs & scramble until almost done. Remove to a plate.

3. Add 1 tbsp oil to the wok. Stir-fry shrimp & ginger about 1 minute, or until the shrimp are nearly cooked.

4. Add rice, saké, and oyster sauce, and eggs, and stir-fry for about 1 minute. Add green onions & stir-fry for another minute. Serve & enjoy!
I loved this meal - and it was a meal in and of itself! The flavours were subtle and delicious, and as I said, this was simple.

Cooking with Kylie: Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce

After having lackluster results with Kylie's recipes using the cooking sherry I'd purchased since I can't find shao hsing wine around here in the boonies, I consulted with Palidor of Crazy Asian Gal about what I could use in the sherry's place. She suggested saké. Today, with the last remaining few bucks in my food budget, I strode into the local well-used government-controlled liquor store and asked where the saké was located. The helpful clerk showed me and there was a selection of exactly one saké, priced at $10.80. I hesitated momentarily, because there was a bottle of sherry on the shelf next door for half the price, but it wasn't dry and I wasn't sure it would be suitable.

In the evening, I made Kylie's Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce.

Oh, what a difference! This dish really popped, and it was much more complexly flavoured than the previous two recipes I've made using the sherry in place of the shao hsing wine! It was simply delicious.

I'm really enjoying cooking from this book; the recipes are easy to put together, simple as the title suggests, and the dishes aren't bogged down with heavy sauces like the food found in Western Chinese restaurants.

Another winner from Kylie! And now that I have the saké, I feel like going back & making the previous two dishes to see what they taste like. All in good time!

Cooking With Kylie: Stir-Fried Chicken Fillets with Cashews

So, this is my third recipe using Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking (I've also made soy sauce eggs and Mongolian Beef). I was attracted to this dish because of its simplicity and the fact that I had cashews on hand. I made half a recipe, which gave me two hearty meals, and since I don't like cucumber, I stir-fried in some sliced zucchini in its place.

Stir-fried Chicken Fillets with Cashews (adapted by moi)

Marinade

1 tbsp shao hsing wine or dry sherry
1 tbsp cornstarch
1.5 tsp cold water
1/2 tsp sea salt

Chicken

400g boneless, chicken thighs (about 4 thighs)
1 medium zucchini
2 tbsp veg oil
1/2 cup raw cashews
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp shao hsing wine or dry sherry
1 tsp sea salt
3 finely sliced green onions

1. Combine chicken with marinade ingredients & marinate for 30 minutes.

2. Chop veggies.

3. Heat oil in wok & stir-fry chicken until cooked through and slightly browned. Remove from wok with slotted spoon & place in a bowl.

4. Stir-fry veggies until tender. Add nuts & stir-fry until golden.

5. Return chicken to wok with accumulated juices. Increase heat to high and add wine/sherry. Stir-fry for a few more moments. Season with salt.

6. Serve & garnish with some more green onions.

I suspect that, with this recipe, I was really missing the shao hsing wine. Try as I might, I cannot find this ingredient anywhere in da boonies. We simply don't have the population for specialty ingredients like this, and I think I'm going to need to get to a larger centre, like Vancouver or Calgary, in order to do pick up some of these more obscure items. Instead of shao hsing wine, I've been using cooking sherry, which is OK, but this dish needed a lot of help flavour-wise. I wound up adding a bunch of soy sauce to boost the flavours.

I served this over rice, and it was a good meal. I really liked using the chicken thighs; they aren't something I use a lot - I always thought them too fatty. But they are quite succulent and flavourful, and not to mention, cheaper than breasts. I'll definitely cook with them again!

I probably won't make this recipe until I get my hands on some real shao hsing, but it's still not a bad recipe. Worth attempting again once I get the right ingredients.

Cooking With Kylie: Mongolian Beef

So, at the local overpriced grocery store the other day, this coyote came upon a screaming deal: 1.5kg local, organic, lean ground beef for $7.50. It was my lucky day! I picked up and brought it home, packaging it up and freezing it. I had a half pound portion, and decided to make this recipe by Kylie Kwong that I'd bookmarked when I got my copy of Simple Chinese Cooking.

I present to you Mongolian Beef!

I made a half recipe, and instead of using cabbage I bought a package of coleslaw mix, which is one of my stir-frying allies. I love it!

Now, the cookbook recipe calls for shao hsing wine and I notice that the recipe on the web site has changed it to rice wine. I had neither. When I got the cookbook, I looked everywhere I could in this one horse district for shao hsing wine but to no avail. The cookbook says you can substitute the wine for dry sherry, but I am too cheap to do that, so I bought a bottle of cooking sherry from the local inexpensive but butt-ugly big box grocery store. I have no idea how the flavours compare, but we do what we can, right?

The verdict: great recipe! Simple, as you might expect. I didn't do the step of combining the cabbage with the salt because I was lazy, and perhaps I'd have had a more complexly flavoured dish, but still, I wasn't disappointed. Thank you, Kylie!

Kylie Kwong's Soy Sauce Eggs

Over the winter, I bought myself a copy of Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking with an Amazon gift certificate my good friend Jodi gave me. And I am just now getting around to trying out a recipe!

I might venture into one of those food blogging trends a la Julie & Julia, where I cook my way through a cookbook & blog about it. I think this Kwong cookbook is a good place to start. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, with my weird appetite issues, which persist, unfortunately, I for some reason remembered this recipe and it really appealed to me at the time. It looked simple enough and the flavour combination intrigued me. I made half a recipe to start out with in case I didn't like them.

The recipe is here.

Here is a look at my process, from the beginning. My hard boiled eggs went into the soy sauce mixture, after mixture camed to a boil.

The cartouche part didn't really work for me, and I didn't see the point of it. When I placed it on the eggs, it kept the steam in and would bubble to the top. It got annoying to keep letting the steam out so the cartouche wouldn't fly away on me, so I tried the lid of the pot. It boiled over. So, I simmered without any covering, just making sure to keep the eggs basted in the liquid. This worked fine.

This recipe takes a long time - an hour of braising. Here are the eggs half-way through.

And here they are at the end, by which time the soy sauce mixture had reduced to a thick syurp. BTW, I didn't use the fresh ginger, I used 2 tsp of ground.

They don't look terribly appetizing at this point...

And here they are plated...I couldn't resist the googly-eyed face...

These taste delicious, but the drawback is that it's a lot of work for not a lot of end product. The outer part of the egg was a little rubbery, but not off-puttingly so. I might make a larger batch for a special occasion.

I wonder what I'll do next?