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白灼蝦/White Boiled Spotted Prawn with Ginger and Green Onion

My nanny is on vacation and I have to keep up with my hyper, two-year-old little one so I have to make a really quick and easy yet nutritious dinner for my family.  This White Boiled Spotted Prawn with Ginger and Green Onion can be made in 15 minutes and it's very healthy and delicious.  My daughter ate 7 prawns for the very first time and she loved it so much.  This dish is great for kids because prawns are a rich source of protein that helps your little one to grow.  It's also fun for them to play with the prawn and then enjoy eating them at the same time.


The key to this dish is using live prawns.  We live in Vancouver, BC, Canada where we have the freshest seafood all year long.  Late spring and early summer is spotted prawn season and you can get them for really cheap in Chinatown.   "White Boiled" in Chinese means a simple cooking style so there is not a lot of extra sauce added.  Fresh live prawns are naturally juicy and delicious so they don't require any fancy cooking style.  

Ingredients:

• 1 - 2 lbs of live prawns
• 4 green onions
• 2 oz sliced ginger
• Half tsp salt
• 1 tsp olive oil

For the dipping sauce:

• Half oz julienne ginger
• 2 green chili peppers
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp olive oil

Directions:

1. Cut the green onion approximately an inch long.  Julienne the green chili peppers. 
2. In a small bowl, add all the dipping sauce ingredients and mix everything evenly.
3. In a medium pot, bring half pot of water to boil.  Add olive oil, salt, green onion, sliced ginger and all the prawns to the boiling water and cover. When the water is boiling again, transfer all the prawns to a serving plate.  Now you can enjoy your White Boiled Spotted Prawn with Ginger and Green Onion!

蠔油芥蘭/Blanched Kai-lan in Oyster Sauce

This Blanched Kai lan in Oyster Sauce is one of my easiest recipes, you can make it in 5 minutes.  Anyone can make this dish and the ingredients are very simple too.  This dish is very healthy, clean and refreshing.  Kai lan is known as Chinese broccoli. Its flavor is very similar to broccoli and it's very low in fat.  It's a great side dish and goes well with any main course, fried rice or noodles.  This is also a very common dish at many Chinese restaurants, but for the same amount of money you can have triple the amount of vegetables if you cook it at home.

Ingredients:

• 10 oz Kai lan
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Half tsp salt
• 1 - 2 tbsp oyster sauce

Directions:


In a medium pot, bring half a pot of water to boil.  Add the olive oil and salt, and then blanche the Kai lan until the water is boiling again.  Transfer to a serving plate and pour the oyster sauce on top of the Kai lan.  Now you are done!

白切雞/Cantonese White Cut Chicken

I have been very busy with my little two-year-old because my nanny is on vacation this month.  We have been eating out a lot!  Trying different restaurants is fun but I still like my homemade food the most.  We once ordered this Cantonese White Cut Chicken from a local Chinese restaurant and I transformed it to a Sichuan Spicy Sesame Chicken by adding my own Sichuan style sauce.  It was so yummy!  After researching this Cantonese White Cut Chicken recipe, I decided to make it from scratch.  It tasted even more delicious when I made it myself and I know there is no MSG added!  After the chicken is made you will have the soup to use for other Chinese dishes that require chicken stock.  The chicken was so tender, moist, and flavourful.  I made a Cantonese traditional dipping sauce and also a Sichuan style sauce so we had two types of chicken to eat.  I will update the Sichuan Sesame Chicken recipe in my upcoming postings.  If you are not used to eating spicy food this Cantonese White Cut Chicken will be the best choice.  I got a cornish chicken this time because I just happened to see it on sale in Chinatown.  You can use a regular chicken if you would like.  A regular chicken will be just as delicious as a cornish chicken, try to choose a small one that's under 1.5 lbs. With a small regular chicken (around 1 lb) - turn off the heat when the water starts boiling. This allows the chicken to cook in the residual heat for around 30 minutes and the chicken will still remain tender and moist.  Even my two-year-old daughter loved this chicken so much.  She was trying to copy us by dipping the chicken in the dipping sauce and had so much fun with it.  She ate at least a whole chicken leg by herself and we were so proud of her!

Ingredients:

• 1 cornish chicken
• 4 green onions
• 2 oz sliced ginger
• 2 - 3 tbsp cooking wine
• 1 tsp salt

For the dipping sauce:

• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp chopped green onion
• Half tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• Half tsp salt
• Half tsp roasted sesame seeds
• A quarter tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Cut the green onion approximately one inch long.
2. Add half green onion and half sliced ginger in the chicken's tummy.
3. In a large soup pot, add chicken, the rest of the green onion, sliced ginger and half pot of water (just about cover the chicken).  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, and then use a soup strainer to strain all the dark bubbles on top of the water.  Reduce the heat to the lowest and cook for 25 minutes.
4. Transfer the chicken to a plate.  While the chicken is hot, add cooking wine and salt and rub everything evenly with the chicken.
5. Cut the chicken into small chunks. Add all the dipping sauce ingredients in a small bowl.  Now enjoy your delicious Cantonese White Cut Chicken!

滑蛋筍片牛肉三文治/Chinese Beef and Bamboo Sandwich

This Chinese Beef and Bamboo Sandwich recipe is based on my previous recipe - Fried Beef and Bamboo in Egg Sauce.  I put this Chinese dish into a bun and made a healthy delicious Sandwich.  It tasted so fresh and delicious!  The bamboo shoots have a unique texture and flavor all of their own making the variety of textures in this Sandwich extraordinary.  It's very simple to make and brings a tasty Chinese flavour to a very common Western style meal.  Because this is not a traditional sandwich, the kids don't feel bored when they eat.  It's not only tasty and delicious, it's packed with protein, calcium and fiber that help them to grow.  There are lots of Chinese dishes that you can combine with Western cooking styles. I will show you how to do that in my upcoming recipes.

Ingredients:
(Makes 3+ servings)

• 7 oz shredded lean beef
• 5 oz bamboo shoots
• 2 oz butter lettuce
• 2 green onion
• Half cup julienned onion
• 1 oz sliced ginger
• ½ tsp salt
• A quarter tsp white pepper powder
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 eggs
• 4 buns
• 2 sliced Havarti cheese
• 1 tsp hot sauce

To marinate the beef:

• 1 tbsp cornstarch water
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp soy sauce

Directions:

1. Marinate the beef 15 minutes before cooking.
2. Cut the green onion an inch and half long.  Slice the bamboo shoots.  Beat the eggs in a bowl.
3. Bring half pot of water to boil.  When the water is boiled, blanch the bamboo shoots in the boiling water for one minute.  Transfer to a plate.
4. In a nonstick medium saucepan or a wok, heat 1 tbsp cooking oil over medium-high heat.  Add the beef and cook for about a minute.  Transfer to a plate.
5. Wash the wok, and then add 1 tbsp cooking oil over high heat.  Add green onion and ginger to cook for about 10 seconds.  Add bamboo shoots, pepper powder, salt and sesame oil.  Stir for about 2 minutes.  Reduce the heat to medium-high, and then add cooked beef.  Mix everything evenly, add the egg.  Keep mixing it until everything is covered by egg.  Transfer to a serving plate.
6. Place the beef in the bun and add sliced cheese.  Toast the sandwich for 2 - 3 minutes and transfer to a serving plate.  Add lettuce and hot sauce.  Now enjoy!

黃豆排骨湯/Soy Bean and Pork Soup

This Soy Bean and Pork Soup is an old style Chinese soup.  It's fairly common in all regions of China and most families know this recipe.  My mom used to make this soup for my bother and I when we were babies.  I was born in China at the end of the Cultural Revolution and resources were very slim back then.  My mom told me that they couldn't even buy milk before the 80s, so most families made this Soy Bean and Pork Soup for their babies because it contains a lot of calcium and protein.  I was lucky because I had my mom's milk until I was two-years-old, and my mom used to drink this soup because she was breastfeeding.  This soup is simple, easy and also tastes clean, refreshing and it's very healthy.

Ingredients:

• 5 oz dried soy beans
• 2 chicken legs
• 1 lb fresh chopped pork ribs 
• ½ oz sliced ginger

Directions:

1. Soak the soy beans half an hour before cooking.
2. In a large soup pot, add ribs, chicken legs, ginger, soaked soy beans and water.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, and then use a soup strainer to strain all the dark bubbles on top of the water.  Reduce the heat to the lowest and cook for 2 - 3 hours.  Add salt.  You are done!