Easy
Beef with black bean sauce
This version of a popular Cantonese dish is cooked with beef stock, which makes the sauce rich and tasty without needing salt or monosodium glutamate (MSG). This is an excellent dish to serve with stir-fried bok choi and shiitake mushrooms.
Serves 4 with side dishes
1/2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs black bean sauce
400g rump or fillet steak, sliced
1 red chilli, deseeded and cut into strips
100g onion, chopped into squares
300g yellow peppers, cored, deseeded and chopped into squares
200ml beef stock (buy or make as normal with ginger, cinnamon and star anise)
Fairly easy
Chicken with cashew nuts and vegetables
This is a healthier version of the Chinese takeaway menu version. As the chicken is simmered in stock, no oil is used in the preparation.
Serves 4 with side dishes
250ml chicken stock (buy or make as normal with ginger and spring onion)
400g chicken breast, cubed
2 tbs yellow bean sauce
200g carrots, sliced
200g bamboo shoots, sliced
cornflour paste - 1 tsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbs water or stock
1 spring onion, shredded
200g cashew nuts, toasted
Heat the chicken stock in a saucepan. Add the chicken meat and bring the liquid back to the boil, stirring. Lower the heat and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the yellow bean sauce and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the carrots and bamboo shoots and cook for another couple of minutes. Return the chicken to the pan, bring the sauce back to the boil and thicken with the cornflour paste. Stir in the cashew nuts and spring onion just before serving.
This dish comes from Szechuan where, traditionally, marinated duck is steamed then deep-fried until crisp and golden. In this recipe, the duck is also cooked first, essentially to tenderise the meat so that it comes away from the bone easily. It is then grilled rather than deep-fried to cut down the fat content.
Fairly easy
Crispy aromatic duck
Serves 8 as a starter
1 x 1kg Gressingham duck, halved and flattened slightly
For the marinade:
3 litres vegetable stock
1 tbs five-spice powder
1 tbs ground ginger
2 star anise
2 tbs Szechuan peppercorns
2 tbs black peppercorns
3 tbs cumin seeds
3 tbs fennel seeds
1 tbs shoyu or tamari sauce
6 slices fresh root ginger, peeled and crushed
6 spring onions
2 bay leaves, crumbled
To serve:
Chinese pancakes
sliced cucumber
sliced spring onions
hoisin sauce diluted with stock
Combine the marinade ingredients and rub into the duck halves. Cover and leave overnight or for at least a couple of hours in the refrigerator.
Bring the stock to the boil in a large saucepan. Lower the duck into the pan, then bring the stock back to the boil. Turn down the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for 45 minutes. Leave the duck to cool in the liquid for up to 10 or 15 minutes before removing it with a slotted spoon. Pat dry on kitchen paper.
Place the duck halves skin-side up on a rack set in a roasting tin and put under a very hot grill for 3-5 minutes to brown the skin. Watch it closely. Remove the duck and blot the excess fat from the skin. Leave the duck to cool slightly then flake off the meat using two forks. Serve with the Chinese pancakes, sliced cucumber, sliced spring onions and the hoisin sauce diluted with stock.
Easy
Kung Po Chicken
Serves 4 with side dishes
1 tbs olive oil
2-3 red chillies, deseeded and sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
400g chicken breast, cut into 1cm cubes
1 tsp of chilli bean sauce
50g canned sliced bamboo shoots, drained
50g canned water chestnuts, drained
1 tbs Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
100ml chicken stock or water (buy or make with ginger and spring onion)
cornflour paste: 1 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbs of water
50g unsalted or roasted peanuts
2 spring onions, cut into 1 cm lengths
Heat the oil in a nonstick sauté pan over a high heat and stir-fry the chillies and garlic for a few seconds.
Add the chicken and chilli bean sauce and stir-fry for a couple of minutes, then add the bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, rice wine and stock and bring to the boil. Slowly add the cornflour paste, stirring until the sauce has thickened and turned transparent. Mix in the peanuts and spring onions just before serving.
This is a variation of a Chinese regional Hakka dish from southern China, a very wholesome style of cooking. This dish goes very well with sticky rice.
Fairly easy
Steamed pork balls with plum relish
Serves 4 with side dishes
500g lean minced pork
2 tsp shoyu or tamari sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbs cornflour
1 tbs fresh coriander leaves, to garnish
For the relish:
1 star anise
1/2 tsp freshly grated orange zest
2 large shallots, chopped
1 tbs finely grated fresh root ginger
2 tbs vegetable stock
1 tbs plum sauce
500g red plums, stoned and quartered
Mix together the pork, shoyu sauce, sesame oil, shallot, egg and cornflour in a large bowl. Cover and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the plum relish. Simmer the star anise, orange zest, shallots, ginger, stock, plum sauce and plums over a low heat for about 15 minutes or until the plums are soft. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Pour about 5cm of water into a wok, place a metal or wooden rack in the wok and bring the water to the boil. Roll a tablespoonful of pork mixture into a ball. Repeat and put the balls into a heatproof bowl and set it on the rack in the wok. Cover the wok and steam the pork balls over a high heat for 10-12 minutes or until done. Check the water level and top it up with hot water if necessary. Serve the pork balls with the plum sauce, garnished with the coriander.
Fairly easy
Shredded beef with carrots and chilli
Serves 4 with side dishes
400g rump steak, cut into thin strips, 6cm long
2 tbs cornflour
1 tbs olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2-3 red chillies, deseeded and sliced
400g carrots, cut into thin strips, 6cm long
2 tsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 tbs tomato ketchup
1 tsp dark muscavado sugar
2 tsp shoyu or tamari sauce
3 spring onions, sliced very thinly, to garnish
Put the beef strips into a bowl and mix in the cornflour.
Heat the oil in a nonstick sauté pan until piping hot, add the beef strips and fry for 1 minute on each side. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the garlic and chillies to the pan and stir-fry for a few seconds. Toss in the carrots, then add the rice wine, vinegar, ketchup, sugar and shoyu sauce and stir-fry for one more minute.
Add the beef to the carrot mixture and mix through thoroughly. Remove from the heat and serve, garnished with spring onion slices.
