Friday Recipes: Chinese Food

Sorry this one is late folks I've been busy busy busy this week. This week we're doing a couple of Chinese food favorites.... Shrimp with Lobster Sauce (without the black beans), Egg Drop Soup, Chinese Chicken Salad



Shrimp with Lobster Sauce (without the black beans)

Ingredients:

• Fresh shrimp, deveined and butterflied, 10 - 15 per person
• 4 to 8 green onions chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped or minced
• 2 cups of chicken stock
• 4 tablespoons of sweet white wine
• 2 tablespoons lite soy sauce
• 1-2 teaspoons sweetener
• 2 1/2 tablespoons of Cornstarch and 1/2 cup of water
• 4 egg whites, beaten with 1/4 cup of water
• baby bok choy steamed

Preparation:

Rinse the shrimp in warm water and pat dry. Rinse the spring onions, drain and chop. Chop or mince the garlic cloves.
Combine the chicken stock, white wine, lite soy sauce, and sweetener and set aside. In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch into 1/2 cup water. Whisk the egg whites into 1/4 cup water and set aside.
  Heat non stick wok, large pot, or frying pan or skillet on medium high to high heat.
Stir fry the garlic and spring onions for about 30 seconds to a minute, taking care not to burn the garlic.
Add the shrimp and stir fry for 2 minutes.
Add the chicken broth mixture, bring to a boil and boil about 1 minute.
Re-stir the cornstarch and water mixture and stir it into broth. Immediately afterward, slowly pour in the egg whites, breaking them up by gently stirring them with a fork (the author recommends stirring them twice across and then twice across again in a tic tack toe pattern). Be careful not to overstir the egg whites.
  The dish is ready when the sauce begins to boil and thicken. Serve over the baby bok choy.

  Notes: Leftovers can be microwaved the next day. When left overnight it tastes even better!

Egg Drop Soup Ingredients

And here are our ingredients:

• 1 quart unsalted chicken stock
• Three eggs
• Two thirds of an ounce of cornstarch
• 1/2 cup of chopped green onions
• 1 tablespoon of oil (this is optional as its used to stir fry your ginger and garlic)
• 1/2 tablespoon of chopped ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon of chopped garlic
• lite salt
• Black pepper

Directions:

In a non stick saucepan over medium-high heat dry fry up your garlic and ginger (don't let it burn!). Take 1 cup of chicken stock and put that to the side. The rest pour directly into the pan with the ginger and garlic. Stir making sure nothing gets stuck on the bottom. Then bring it to a boil.

While that’s coming to a boil, whip eggs just  like you would make scrambled eggs. Put aside.

Next add chicken stock into a bowl with the cornstarch. This will thicken up the soup. Just stir it around with a fork until the lumps are gone. While the soup is boiling start to whisk  in cornstarch mixture. If the cornstarch mixture starts to settle on the bottom of the bowl as you are adding it to the stock just stir it around a little more. Bring stock back to a boil so that it will thicken. Add pepper and lite salt. 

Slowly add the eggs while whisking the stock a little bit at a time. This is where you get the egg drop from. The eggs should be thickening up as added. Once all the eggs are in bring stock back to a boil and the soup is done. Top it off with the green onions.

Chinese Chicken Salad

• 1 lb chicken meat breasts, boneless, skinless chopped into cubes or strips
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce, or as needed
• ginger 
• red pepper flakes
• salad makings (salad, tomatoes, red peppers, green onion, cilantro etc... really whatever you like in your salad)

Dressing:

• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon ginger

Marinate unfrozen chicken breast in soy sauce red pepper flakes and ginger for about 15 mins. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the breasts on a roasting plate dribble it with the marinate and cook for 45 minutes, turning over halfway through cooking (add more marinate then if it looks dry). Remove the chicken and cool.

*note* Chicken has to be cool or cold when added to your salad otherwise the salad will wilt because of the heat.

While the chicken is cooking, prepare the dressing and salad. In a small bowl, combine the rice vinegar, lemon juice, light soy sauce, ginger and then set aside. Make salad. Refrigerate.

Cut up or shred chicken adding to the salad. Add dressing and toss salad. Enjoy!

 *note* You can cook your Chicken in several ways including using fish sauce instead of soy sauce, or no sauce at all and using 5 spices instead. Fish sauce is a derivative of fish and not soy and is salty like soy sauce. Use it sparingly. I"m a huge fan of using lemon juice with a little bit of fish sauce and a little rice vinegar to cook my chicken.