Three Cup Chicken

Three-Cup Chicken is a common dish served at Taiwanese beer houses, which usually open late and don’t close until dawn. Because most Taiwanese people don’t like to drink without having something to eat, beer houses are popular gathering places where you can get cheap and delicious xiah jio tsai, which are stir-fried dishes that go well with beer. But Three-Cup Chicken isn’t just a popular dish at the beer house. It’s also a common home-cooked staple. This week I’d like to share with you my own recipe for the yummy, spicy, gingery chicken dish.

You will Need:

Ingredients:

Serves 4 people

2½ lbs. chicken thighs
2-inch chunks ginger (about 2 Tbsp.), sliced
8 cloves garlic, sliced
4 hot peppers, sliced
2 scallions, cut in half
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1⁄3 cup cooking wine
2 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. soy sauce
4 Tbsp. sesame oil
2½ tsp. raw sugar
big handful of fresh Thai basil

Directions:

Roughly cut up all the chicken thighs. In a large cast iron skillet bring 1/2 Tbsp up to high heat. Sear the chicken thighs for two minutes until it's coated in golden brown and set it aside. Cast iron skillet is obviously not a traditional Chinese kitchen ware but it's a great tool that I've adapted from Maine cooking.  

Now in a separate large wok or a nonstick skillet on medium high heat, toss in the remaining ½ Tbsp. vegetable oil, scallions, hot peppers, garlic and ginger. Cook for 30 seconds to one minute until you can smell the spicy aroma in the air. De-glaze the pan with the cooking wine and place the chicken thighs in the wok along with the sesame oil, soy sauce and raw sugar. Three-Cup Chicken got its name because traditionally it calls for the same quantity of cooking wine, sesame oil and soy sauce. But I’ve found that sometimes the sesame oil can be overpowering, and it can also end up a little too salty.

Cook it until all the liquid has been cooked down, which will take you about 10 to 12 minutes. After the chicken is cooked, remove from the heat and throw in a big handful of fresh basil. Cover it up and allow the basil to infuse in the chicken for 1 minute. If you can’t find Thai basil, regular basil will do as well.

 Serve it with a bowl of rice or a glass of beer and enjoy this delicious chicken dish!

Taiwanese Beef Noodles

Nothing beats a hot bowl of spicy noodles when the weather turns cool. And I have never met anyone who doesn’t enjoy Taiwanese beef noodles, which happens to be my home country’s national dish. The smell of the spicy broth always reminds me of a Taipei night market on a cold winter night. It is believed that beef noodles were brought to Taiwan by Chinese Nationalist Party soldiers from Mainland China when Chiang Kai Shek and his Kuomintang army fled to Taiwan after Wold War II. There is actually a street in Taipei called the “beef noodle street” where you can find all kinds of noodle shops originally founded by retired KMT solders. Each one seems to claim to be the original one. This week I would like to share with you my own recipe for the famous Taiwanese beef noodles.

You will need:

Ingredients:

1 lb. beef shank
5 scallions
1 inch chunk ginger (about 1½ Tbsp.)
5 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 tomato
2 dried hot peppers
2 ~ 3 carrots
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. cooking wine
5 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 beef bouillon cube
1 tsp. chili paste
1½ tsp. granulated sugar
½ cinnamon stick
5 cloves
¼ tsp. fennel seeds
2 star anise
½ tsp. Szechuan peppercorn
1 bay leaf
a pinch five spice
salt and pepper
3½ cups water
3 ~ 4 servings noodle or pasta
handful of bok choy or cabbage (optional)

Directions:
Cut the beef shank into large cubes and season it lightly with salt and pepper. Bring 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil up to high heat in a heavy pot. Sear the beef shank cubes until they have a brown coating (about 1 minute), then take them out of the pot.

Cut 4 scallions into strips and slice the ginger and garlic cloves. In the same pot on high heat, toss in a scallion, ginger, garlic and the dried hot peppers along with the remaining 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil and 1 Tbsp. soy sauce. Cook for one minute, then de-glaze the pot with 2 Tbsp. cooking wine along with the cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise, bay leaf, fennel seeds, Szechuan peppercorn and a pinch of Chinese five spice. If you don’t have all of the spices, you can also just substitute them with an extra 1/3 tsp. Chinese five spice.

Now stir in the carrots, onion, tomato and the remaining scallions, which are all cut in to big chunks. Place the beef back into the pot and add in the remaining 4 Tbsp. soy sauce, 3½ cups water and chili paste. Bring it up to a steady simmer and turn the heat down to low. Cover it up and let slowly cook for 1.5 hour.

Blanch a handful of greens of your choice and cook the noodles right before the broth is ready to serve. In the past, I’ve also substituted the Chinese noodles with pasta noodles, which tastes just as good. Or you can also check out http://thewayriceshouldbe.blogspot.com/2015/12/homemade-noodles.html for my homemade noodle recipe.

Serve the soup and beef over the noodles and enjoy it while it’s warm!

Sponsored by The Free Press

Homemade Noodles

Noodles is one of the staples in our diet. In fact, there is a saying in Chinese, "Grain in the South, Wheat in the North." In Southern China rice is commonly consumed, while in the north, noodles and buns are the common dishes. Here's a very easy homemade noodle recipe which you can use for soup dishes or stir fries.

You will need:
Serves 5 people

3 C AP flour
1 C cold water
1Tbsp vegetable oil
pinch of salt

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients together, kneed for 3 minutes until dough is smooth. Cover it up and let it rest for 30 minutes.

After the dough has rested, roll it out as thin as you can. Dust the surface well with flour the do a tri-fold. Cut the noodle with a sharp knife vertically. If you have a pasta machine, roll it out to the 3rd setting and cut it with the fettuccine cutter.

Loosen the noodles and dust it well with flour.

In a large pot on high heat, boil 6 cups water. Cook the noodles for 30 seconds and immediately shock it in ice cold water.

Pour hot broth over the noodles and it's ready to serve.

Get the full recipe for Taiwanese Beef Noodle http://thewayriceshouldbe.blogspot.com/2015/12/taiwanese-beef-noodle.html

The Flakiest Pie Crust

With the holiday season upon us, I thought I'd share with you my trusty flaky pie crust recipe which can be used for both sweet dessert pies or savory meat pies. This pie crust is so flaky I've even had people think I used filo dough for my crust. One of our friends  who is born and raised in the area once told me that with a pie crust like this one, you can win anybody's heart from Maine.

I know pie crust can be a scary thing to make if you don't bake often, but you'll be really surprised at just how easy it is to make a delicious and flaky pie crust with only three ingredients. I call it my 3 2 1 recipe.

Ingredients:
Yield for one 9 inch double crust pie or two single crust pie

3 C AP flour
2 sticks salted butter
1 C cold water1 egg for egg wash
Raw sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Directions:
The number one key to getting a flaky pie crust is to have cold ingredients. The first thing I always do is cut the butter into cubes and pop them in the freezer for 10 minutes. In the meantime, measure out the one cup of cold water and 3 cups of flour separately and chill them in the refrigerator.

Once all of the butter has chilled, toss them in the chilled flour. The second crucial step to having a flaky crust is to never work it too much or else it will develop too much gluten and create a tough dough. Use a wire cutter and cut the butter into the flour until you have a somewhat coarse-looking dough. This will only take two to three minutes. You want to leave some butter in bigger pieces, which will create some pockets in the pie crust as it melts while baking. That's what's going to make the pie really flaky.

Now pour in the cold water in batches while you gently stir it in the flour and butter mixture using the wire cutter. I always try to challenge myself and see how many times I actually touch the dough with my hands. For this you don't even necessary need to mix it into an actual dough. Once all of the water is mixed in, just transfer the dough onto a parchment paper or a plastic wrap, gather and squeeze the crumbs up in to a pile, wrap it and chill it in the refrigerator for an hour.

Once the dough has chilled, you will see that they have formed into a more solid dough itself as it was resting. Now cut the dough in half and place the other half of the dough back into the refrigerator until you need to use it.

Now very gently form the dough into a disk; this way it will be easier to roll out.

Roll the dough out. You will see some of the bigger pieces of butter and that's exactly what you want.

The easiest way to pick up the rolled-out dough is to use the rolling pin.

Gently unroll the dough onto the baking pan.

Using a pair of kitchen scissors, cut off the excess dough, but leave about half an inch around the baking pan.

For the lattice pie crust top, roll out the other half of the dough and cut it into strips. You can skip this step if you are making a regular pie top.

Now place the fillings in the dough. Here I'm just making a very simple old fashioned mock cherry pie.

Place half of the strips parallel to each other.

Starting from the middle and work your way out. Fold up every other strip and start weaving though the dough horizontally across the pie.

Keep weaving until you've covered up the whole pie.

Cut off the excess strips and leave half an inch around the pan.  Tuck it in and fold it around the bake pan.

Pinch around the edges of the pie crush to seal it. You can use the back of a folk as well.

Brush on a layer of egg wash and sprinkle some raw sugar on top, this will give the pie a beautiful golden color and a nice crunchy texture on top.

Bake in a 400 F preheated oven for 45 minutes until the top is golden brown. Let the pie cool for an hour before serving.

Bake a pie for the holidays and win the hearts of your family and friends!

Taiwanese Beef Stuffed Scallion Pancake

My home country of Taiwan is known throughout Asia for its bustling night markets and the amazing street food. Every night at 9 p.m. in the evening you will start seeing food carts, stands and trucks setting up on the streets of Taipei. And that is also the time when many people come out to get their xiao yieh which means night snack. For many Taiwanese, xiao yieh is an important meal because it’s a chance to go out with family and friends to unwind after a busy day. Street food is a huge part of our culture and it is also one of the things I miss the most about Taiwan. This week I want to share with you one of the most popular street foods  from Taiwan, the Taiwanese beef stuffed scallion pancake.

Scallion pancakes, which originated in the Shan Dong province of northern China, have become a well-known dish around the world. Some people even call the flaky flat bread layered with fresh scallion a “Chinese Pizza.” In fact, my mother used to make pizza with a scallion pancake crust instead of regular pizza crust which is absolutely delicious. Scallion pancakes are tasty on their own as a snack or topped off with a fried egg for breakfast. In the night market it is also commonly stuffed with some spicy steak along with a sweet soy sauce paste.

You will need:

Ingredients 

(Serves 3-4 people)

 

For the scallion pancake dough: 

2 cup all purpose flour

2⁄3 cup hot water

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1⁄2 tsp. granulated sugar 

pinch of salt 

 

scallion fillings:

5 scallions finely chopped

11⁄2 tsp coarse salt 

1⁄8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 

4 Tbsp. vegetable oil

 

For the beef:

1 lb. thin steak

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp ginger 

1 hot pepper

2 scallion

11⁄2 tsp. cooking wine 

3 tsp. soy sauce

1 tsp. brown sugar

1 tsp. Chinese five spice

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil + 

2 tsp. for frying

 

For the sweet soy sauce paste:

2 Tbsp. vegetable oil 

2 Tbsp. soy sauce

11⁄2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 Tbsp. AP flour

2 Tbsp. cold water

 

Other:

3 fresh scallions

Hot sauce of your choice

Vegetable oil for pan 

frying

Directions:
Start by marinating the beef, then roughly cut the thin steak into large pieces, about the size of your palm. Mince the garlic and mix it in with the steak along with the cooking wine, brown sugar, Chinese five spice, 1 T vegetable oil and 2 tsp soy sauce. Let it marinate for at least 30 minute to and hour.

Now mix the dough and kneed it for two minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover it up and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

In a separate bowl, mix the scallion fillings. I’ve added 1 tsp fried shallots in my mix which is optional. You can get them at the Chinese grocery store.

While waiting, we can make the sweet soy sauce paste. Using a small stainless steel pan on medium high heat, whisk together the vegetable oil, soy sauce and brown sugar until the sugar dissolves and starts bubbling. Mix in the flour and keep whisking until the flour dissolves, about 30 seconds. Quickly whisk in the water. Once the sauce has thickened up into a gravy consistency, remove from the stove and transfer into a bowl. Any of the soy sauce paste not used can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. You can use it as a spread on any Chinese buns and even mix it in noodles.

 After the dough has rested, roll it into a log shape and cut it into 6 to 8 pieces.

Then roll the dough out individually and spread a layer on the scallion filling on the surface.

Roll it into a log shape again, starting from the bottom to the top.

Then roll the log into a spiral, making sure to tuck the end into the bottom to prevent it from unrolling. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes. The relaxed dough will make it easier to roll it out flat for frying.

After the dough has rested, use your palm to press down the dough.

 Now, very gently roll the dough out. Don't worry too much if some of the scallions runs out.

Use a non stick frying pan on medium high heat fry the pan cakes individually along with a little vegetable oil. Once you see the pancake's surface starts bubble with air pockets, it's ready to flip sides. Fry until both sides are golden brown, about 2 minutes on each side.

After all the pancakes are cooked, turn the heat up to high and toss in the remaining ingredients for the beef: vegetable oil, soy sauce, ginger, hot pepper and scallion. Sauté for a 20 seconds until you can smell the spices intensively in the air. This process is called “bao xiang,” which literally means explosion of flavor and is an important step in almost all Chinese cooking. Next, add the steak and cook for about 4 minutes until the it is fully cooked.

Now it's ready to assemble.

Spread a generous amount of the sweet soy sauce paste on the pancake and place the steak, fresh scallion and hot sauce on top.

Roll it up and it's ready to serve.

Enjoy!

For more Asian recipes visit www.thewayriceshouldbe.blogspot.com