Around the World: Cantonese Style Shrimp with Napa Cabbage

This recipe is our last dish on our Around the World tour of China.  Prior to making this dish and doing a little research I didn't really know the differences among the Chinese styles of cooking....minus Szechuan, which I know is spicy hot!  I discovered that Cantonese "style" is the Chinese food that Americans are accustomed to and includes stir-frying, steaming, and roasting and the well-known dim sum.  According to Wikipedia, especially when cooking seafood, Cantonese cuisine uses light seasoning just to bring out the sweetness of the seafood.  Unfortunately, I think in this dish, the seasoning was just too light.  To me it tasted kind of bland and didn't have the normal flavors that I associate with Chinese food.  This of course may not be due to the recipe but more to my experience with Chinese food.  Prior to making this, I hadn't cooked with shrimp in a long time.  The kids like shrimp and ate all of theirs up.  However, the cabbage was another story.  I was lucky to get them to try a bite.  I served this with white rice and some frozen egg rolls (this was a weeknight meal!  I definitely didn't have time to make home made egg rolls!).  So, we bid farewell to China, though this definitely won't be the last Chinese dish that I make.  Stay tuned as we travel around the world to our "D" country soon!

Cantonese Style Shrimp with Napa Cabbage
recipe slightly adapted from Cooking Light, November 2011

Ingredients:
1/3 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons medium dry sherry
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 pound peeled and deveined large shrimp
1 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
4 cups shredded Napa cabbage
1/3 cup diagonally cut green onions

Preparation:
1. Combine first 6 ingredients in a small bowl; stir with a whisk.

2. Heat a wok or skillet over high heat. Add oils to pan; swirl to coat. Add shrimp; stir-fry 1 minute. Add garlic; stir-fry 30 seconds. Add broth mixture to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until mixture thickens. Stir in cabbage; cook 1 minute. Top with onions.

Family Rating: So-so.

Around the World: Chinese-Barbecued Pork Tenderloin (The Weekend Chef)

Again, I'm not sure if this pork recipe is authentic Chinese, but I had a pork tenderloin in the freezer and saw this recipe in Cooking Light.  Based on the ingredient list it definitely had Asian flavors so we went with it.  The Weekend Chef (my husband) prepared this dish to go along with the Vegetable Lo Mein that I posted yesterday.  This was quick and easy to prepare and was surprisingly flavorful!  The kids enjoyed this too and ate all of their pork.

Chinese-Barbecued Pork Tenderloin
from Cooking Light, July 2000

Ingredients:
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon orange juice
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°.

Trim fat from pork. Combine sugar and next 3 ingredients (sugar through pepper). Rub pork with spice mixture.

Place pork on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray; insert a meat thermometer into thickest portion of tenderloin. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes. Combine hoisin, orange juice, and oil in a small bowl; brush over tenderloin. Bake for an additional 15 minutes or until thermometer registers 160° (slightly pink).

Family Rating:  1 1/2 thumbs up.

Around the World: Vegetable Lo Mein (The Weekend Chef)

I have to admit this is a recipe that I've made before.  Many years ago, but nonetheless, I have made this.  My husband, "The Weekend Chef" wanted to make a noodle dish to go with the pork tenderloin he was making (see tomorrow's post).  I remember making this dish and it having a sweet and tasty sauce.  I didn't remember the recipe having a little heat, which my daughter didn't like! We adapted the recipe to use a can of baby corn and straw mushrooms that we found in our cabinets! Although probably not authentic Chinese, we enjoyed this tasty noodle dish.

Vegetable Lo Mein
recipe adapted from allrecipes.com by ANGCHICK

Ingredients:
8 ounces uncooked spaghetti
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 can straw mushrooms
1 can baby corn
1 cup shredded carrots
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon curry powder

Directions:
1.Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

2.Heat oil in a large wok or saute pan. Stir fry mushrooms, carrots, corn, onion and garlic until tender. Stir in green onions; cook one minute. Mix cornstarch and chicken broth in a small bowl and add to stir fry. Stir in hoisin sauce, honey, soy sauce, ginger, cayenne pepper and curry powder. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly.

3.Add cooked spaghetti, and toss. Serve immediately.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Around the World: Chinese Broccoli Beef

About once a month or so we usually order Chinese take-out.  Although we like to try different things we have our favorites that we like to order.  Growing up my family always ordered Chicken with Broccoli.  We rarely order it now and I don't think we've ever ordered Beef with Broccoli.  Broccoli is one of the kids' favorite vegetables so I thought this would be a good dish to make.  I found some beef already prepped for stir-fry at the grocery store.  Although it may look like a lot of steps/ingredients, this was really quick and easy to put together.  Beef doesn't have to be cooked very long and the broccoli is steamed so it still has crunch to it.  The sauce was really tasty.  My daughter, who loves steak loved this dish.  My son, who dislikes most meat tried a bite and found it too chewy, only ate his broccoli.  We served this with rice for a complete meal.

Chinese Broccoli Beef
recipe from New Asian Cuisine

Ingredients:
1 lb top sirloin or flank steak, sliced into 1/8-in (3-mm)-thin strips

For the marinade:
1½ teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon cooking oil

For the Stir-fry Sauce:
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
2 teaspoons black vinegar (can substitute dark balsamic vinegar)

For the Broccoli:
1½ lb broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic

Directions:
Marinate the beef in soy sauce, cornstarch and the ½ teaspoon of oil for 10 minutes at room temperature.

In a small bowl, mix together the stir-fry sauce ingredients.

In a wok or large frying pan, add 1 inch of water and salt and bring to a boil. Add the broccoli and cover to steam for 3 minutes. Broccoli should be bright green, crisp tender and you should be able to pierce the stem with a fork. Drain.

Discard the water in the pan and dry the pan well. Heat the pan over high heat and when hot, add the 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the garlic and fry for 15 to 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the steak strips, keeping them in one layer and fry 30 seconds. Flip the strips and fry the other side.

Pour in the stir-fry sauce and stir to combine. Simmer until the sauce is thick enough to coat a back of a spoon, about 30 seconds. Add the cooked broccoli back into the pan and toss to coat well.

Family Rating:  1 1/2 thumbs up.

Around the World: Chinese Boiled Pork Dumplings

Last month during our Around the World trip to Brazil I decided that most, if not all of our country cooking would be done on the weekends, preferably cooked as a family.  Of course when choosing China we had to make dumplings.  Especially since my daughter loves them so much!  This was a great dish that we were able to make as a family.  My husband and I got the filling together and then we all sat at the table and filled the dumplings.  This made so many, we were eating dumplings for days!  I wish I had thought of freezing some before cooking.  This was a great weekend project for us to do together as a family but I do not recommend trying to make these on a weeknight unless you have a lot of time!  I could not find round dumpling wrappers so we had to make do with square wonton wrappers.  These were definitely not as good as the ones you get from the Chinese restaurant.  If we fried them, they would remind me a lot of Korean Mandoo (dumplings).  However, they were tasty enough and we all ate them (minus my son!). 

Chinese Boiled Pork Dumpings
recipe from Steamy Kitchen

Yield: approximately 50 dumplings

Ingredients:
12 ounces napa cabbage leaves, roughly chopped (or regular cabbage)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (or 1/2 teaspoon table salt)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (use microplane grater)
1/4 cup minced green onions (white and green parts)
2/3 pound ground pork
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 package frozen round dumpling wrappers (gyoza/potsticker wrappers), defrosted at room temperature for 30 minutes

for the slurry: 1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1/2 cup water

Directions:
1. To make the filling, put the cabbage in a food processor and process until cabbage is finely minced. Remove the cabbage to a large bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Let cabbage sit for 10 minutes. In the meantime, return the food processor bowl to the stand and add the ginger,onions, pork, pepper, soy sauce, sherry and sesame oil. Pulse 4 times to mix the ingredients well. Set aside.

2. Use your hands to grab a handful of the cabbage and squeeze and discard the excess moisture out into the sink. You can also spoon all of the cabbage onto a cheesecloth and then squeeze all the water out. Place the dry cabbage back into the large bowl and add the pork mixture. Fold the cabbage into the pork mixture.

3. Mix together the slurry. Take one dumpling wrapper, spoon scant 1 tablespoon of the pork mixture onto the middle of the wrapper. Dip one finger into the slurry and “paint” the edges of the dumpling wrapper. Bring up the bottom side of the wrapper, fold up and press to shape into a half-moon shape, encasing all of the filling. Place on baking sheet, cover loosely with plastic wrap and repeat with rest of dumplings. Make sure that the dumplings do not touch each other on the sheet.

4 When all dumplings assembled, you can cook immediately or cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to several hours. To cook, half-fill a large pot with water and bring to boil. When boiling, and gently slide in 1/3 of the dumplings. When water returns to a boil, turn heat to a simmer and gently cook for 6-8 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and repeat with remaining dumplings. Serve with hot chili sauce.

Family Rating:  1 1/2 thumbs up.

Around The World: China

Even though we are only up to our third country in our Around The World series with our children it has already been a fun experience.  Even more so recently with the recent summer Olympics. Although we did see Afghanistan in the Parade of Nations, we haven't seen much of them since.  However, we've been watching a lot of the swimming races and it's so cute (and makes us proud!) when my just turned 4 year old son says, "We know that flag!" when we see the Brazilian flag. 

Our next stop in our trip around the world is letter "C" for China. We've seen a lot of the flag of China during the Olympics!  Choosing this country was really easy.  As soon as we said we were up to a "C" country our daughter said China since "it's my favorite food."  However, choosing what to make wasn't so easy.  I know American Chinese food and China Chinese food can be very different.   Then we had to choose dishes that we knew (or hoped!) the kids would enjoy.  I hope you enjoy these next few days of "China" recipes as much as we did, whether they are authentic Chinese or not!