During the Chinese New Year gathering as featured in the Yee Sang blog, I learned how to make Hokkien Mee from Jessica, the host of the gathering. Hokkien Mee is a very much missed noodle dish from Malaysia. Jessica made some very nice Hokkien Mee and she always gets requests from this group of Malaysian/Singaporean friends to make this dish during our gatherings.

Hokkien Mee is a noodle dish made from thick yellow noodles and fried in pork fat and dark soy sauce. The fried pork fat gives the crunch to this dish and you simple cant find any restaurants in Vancouver which will cook this dish the authentic way. I guess the reason is Vancourites are very health conscious.

Ingredients

• thick yellow noodle
• pork belly
• pork liver
• prawns
• Choy Sum, a kind of Chinese greens
• few cloves of garlic, chopped
• thick dark soy sauce or cooking caramel
• soy sauce
• oyster sauce

Click on the link below for the instructions.

continue reading "Hokkien Mee"

Ming shared with us how to make noodle from scratch. She shared with us on how to make dumpling skin earlier. Hand made noodle is fresh and chewy. It does not any ‘gan sui’ taste in it compare with those store bought ones.

A bowl of hand made noodle is comfort food.

Ingredients

• all purpose flour
• cold water

Click on the link below for the instructions.

continue reading "Hand Made Noodle"

On the last cooking meet at South Arm Community Kitchen in 2007, Julie demonstrated two Chinese dishes. The first one is a very traditional Taiwanese dish called Shallot Pork Sauce.

The Shallot Pork Sauce is very fragrant as it has lots of shallots in it. The shallots are first fried to crisp and braised with the ground pork.

This Shallot Pork Sauce is great with noodles or rice. Kids will love this.

Ingredients

• lean ground pork
• shallot (use about 10 to 12 shallots for each pound of ground meat)
• dark soy sauce
• salt to taste
• sugar to taste
• ground black pepper to taste
• water

Click on the link below for the instructions.

continue reading "Shallot Pork Sauce"

Ben was away on his vacation at New York City and of course he had his precious camera with him. I had to borrow a point and shoot digital camera from Polly for the community kitchen photo shoot. Every time I use a new camera, I have trouble adjusting with the focusing and maneuver with the settings. So, the photos might not be as nice as those taken with the Rebel XT. Please bear with me.

Minoo demonstrated this Baked Spaghetti Squash in the South Arm Kitchen and also the Caring Place. Since this is the season for squash, it is a great way to introduce the Spaghetti Squash to the community kitchen.

The spaghetti squash (known as Sharkfin Melon to Chinese) is an oblong seed-bearing variety of winter squash. When cooked, the flesh falls away from the fruit in ribbons or strands like spaghetti or shark’s fin and is slightly sweet, crunchy and watery.

The Baked Spaghetti Squash is a complete meal with protein, fiber and dairy. It is an excellent healthy meal.

Ingredients

• 1 spaghetti squash
• 1 lb hamburger, extra lean
• 1 small onion, grated or diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1 cup canned tomato sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon basil leaves, crumbled and finely chopped

continue reading "Baked Spaghetti Squash"

The South Arm Community Kitchen started off with Mr. Chung making a Chinese Style Baked Chicken. Mr. Chung is the room mate of Julie who had demonstrated many times in this kitchen. Julie had went back to Taiwan for the summer.

Mr. Chung told us that he learn his cooking from his mother and Julie. Julie, you are very lucky to have a husband who enjoys cooking.

Vanessa, the group leader of the South Arm Community Kitchen made a simple noodle soup to complement Mr. Chung’s chicken dish.

The chicken is moist and taste great. This is a very homey recipe and it uses the most common ingredients one can in a Chinese home.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken legs cut into smaller pieces
• 2 green onions, cut into one inch length
• 1/2 bulb of garlic, peeled and rough chopped
• 2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and rough chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon white pepper

Mr. Chung emphasized that the most important ingredients in this recipe is the garlic.

Click on the link below for the instructions.

continue reading "Chinese Style Baked Chicken with Noodle Soup"

At the Gilmore Park Church community kitchen, Jean paired up with Tanni for this week’s demonstration. Sharing the load makes it easier for members as one do not have to come up with at least 2 dishes to fill the time slot.

Jean made a pot of Chili Con Carne, commonly known as Chili, is a spicy stew like dish with meat (beef or pork), chili peppers (if you prefer spicy), tomatoes, onions, beans other vegetables. The vegetarian version of Chili is known as Chili Sin Carne. Chile Con Carne in Spanish means “chili with meat”. Chili Con Carne is the official dish of the state of Texas in U.S.

Jean served the Chili Con Carne with whole wheat spaghetti. You may served it on rice or garlic toast too.

Even though Jean just prepare a dish for this week, she also brought homemade pumpkin raisin muffins to share with us. Thank you, Jean for your generosity.

Ingredients for Chili Con Carne

• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 large can of tomato soup
• 1 large can of chopped tomatoes or chopped fresh tomatoes
• 1 large can of kidney beans, drained
• 1 can of sliced button mushroom or fresh ones
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon vinegar, to tenderize the meat

continue reading "Chili Con Carne"

Julie’s second dish is a Taiwanese Taro Noodle Soup. I have never had a noodle soup with Taro. It is something new that I learnt here. The taro gives the noodle soup added textures, soft and creamy.

This is an easy meal to prepare at home. Julie added some fish balls in her noodle soup. You may substitute the fish balls with other meatballs like beef, chicken, squid, pork, etc.

Ingredients

• 1 large piece of Taro, peeled and cut to bite-size
• 1 packet of vermicelli noodle
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• fish balls
• lettuce, thinly sliced
• a can chicken stock

continue reading "Taro Noodle Soup"

Yvonne made a Chinese Fried Noodles (Chow Mien) in the Caring Place Community Kitchen due to the popularity of this dish in another community kitchen which I did not attend.

It looked like a daunting task to make this noodle because Yvonne used a lot of ingredients. But, when making it at home, you can simplify the recipe by using your favourite meat or seafood and vegetables.

Yvonne served the Chow Mien in the wok itself because we could’nt find a platter big enough to hold the noodles.

Ingredients

• 2 packets of Chinese instant noodles
• 2 sweet peppers, sliced
• 2 onions, sliced
• 2 inches of ginger, sliced
• 3 to 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 to 4 shallots, sliced
• 10 large button mushrooms, cleaned with paper towel and sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced into match sticks
• a bunch of green onions, cut into 1 inch length
• a bunch of cilantro, chopped, save some for garnishing
• some bean sprouts
• 1 packet of large prawns, with shell removed
• fried shallots for garnishing
• toasted sesame seeds for garnishing
• chicken stock

Marinates and Sauces

• Soy sauce
• Oyster sauce
• Mirin or rice wine
• Fish sauce
• Corn starch
• Salt and Pepper

Click on the link below for the instructions.

continue reading "Chow Mien"

Allie had been a good good friend of mine. Having stayed in Vancouver for a few years, she will be returning to Korea at end of this year. Before leaving, she invited Helen and I to her house for a authentic Korean homemade dinner. She showed us how to make Japchae, a very popular Korean noodle dish. The recipe is at the bottom of this blog entry.

Allie also served some black rice which her husband brought all the way from Korea during his last visit. I have never see or heard of black rice until now. It tastes the same as the normal rice, looks different (of course) but have a rougher texture. It is known to have high nutritional value.

Allie also made a Seaweed Tofu Beef Soup. Allie told us that this is very popular among Korean ladies. It did not occur to me to ask her then why it is popular among ladies only. Any Korean reader here knows why?

She also prepared an Apple, Tomato, Romaine and Chicken Salad. She used Balsamic Vinegar as dressing. The chicken used is roasted chicken. I like this, more because of the apples used in it.

Lastly Allie prepared some “Thousand Year Eggs”. This is not Korean but Chinese.

I love the Japchae the most. It is kind of similar to the Chinese Dry Glass Noodle except that it uses a sweet sauce. Korean dishes commonly uses corn syrup and sesame seed oil which gives that sweetness in the dishes. There is quite a bit of steps in making this but it is worth the work. Try it out.

Despite her busy schedule preparing for the move home, she found the time to share this meal with us. I am going to miss having her around the neighborhood.

Here is the recipe for making Japchae.

Ingredients

• Potato noodle, boiled for about 6 minutes and rinse in running cold water
• Rice cake, boiled and rinsed in running cold water
• Green, Red and Yellow sweet peppers, thinly sliced
• Shiitake mushroom, thinly sliced
• Beef, thinly sliced
• Spinach, blanched
• Seasonings include soy sauce, sesame oil, cooking syrup and brown sugar

Please click on the link below for the instructions.

continue reading "Japchae (Korean Noodle)"

Shao-Zi Noodles is the second dish which Julie showed us in last week’s cooking club meeting. Julie prepared the dough ahead for making the noodles. She told us she used 4 cups of flour with 1.5 cups of water and some salt (probably 1 teaspoon) to make the dough for the noodle.

The star of this dish is the meat sauce. Julie told us that the meat sauce can be made in big batch and store in the refrigerator for a few days. The noodle dish can be prepared easily using the preprepared meat sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 lb Lean ground pork
• 1 lb spiced bean curd, diced in small pieces.
• sweet bean sauce
• soybean paste
• hot bean paste
• soy sauce
• salt
• sugar
• corn starch
• for decoration, thinly sliced carrot, cucumber or celery

Click on the link below for the instructions.

continue reading "Shao-Zi Noodles"