5-Spice Barbecued Pork

4 servings

Ingredients:
1.5kg (3lb) lean pork chops
1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
1 1/2 tablespoons sweet sherry
1 1/2 tablespoon corn flour
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon finely chopped gingers
1/4 cup water- 1/4 cup water
1 chicken stock cube
oil for frying
salt, pepper

Preparation:
Trim chops, discard the fat and bones. Mix together remaining ingredients in bowl, except chicken stock cube, water and extra soy sauce; add chops, mix well. set aside two hours. Stir occasionally

Pour oil into wok or pan: oil should be 2.5cm (1 in.) in depth in wok. When hot, add marinated pork chops, fry quickly on both sides until golden blown and cooked through.

Remove pork chops from pan, cut into serving-size pieces, keep warm.

Combine in pan, water, crumbled stock cube and extra soy sauce, bring to boil. pour over pork. serve with Chinese mixed pickles scattered over. The pickles can be bought in cans or jars from Chinese stores, or you can make your own.

5-Spice Game Hens (Siu Yeahgai)

4 servings

Ingredients:
4 Cornish game hens
1 tb Five spice powder
2 tb Salt
1 tb Plum sauce
2 tb Bean sauce
2 tb Hoisin sauce
1 tb Sherry
1/4 c Dark soy sauce
1/4 c Maple syrup

Preparation:

Wash and clean game hens. Pat dry and rub cavities with the five spice powder. Mix hoisin sauce, bean sauce, sherry and plum sauce. Rub remaining sauce mixture plus salt. Let stand over- night. Mix soy sauce and syrup. Preheat oven at 350°F. Rub skin of game hens with soy sauce and syrup mixture. Roast back side up for 20-25 minutes. Turn breast side up and roast for another 20-25 minutes until skins turn golden brown.

5-Spice Peanuts

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:
2 cups unsalted peanuts, without skins
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder

Preparation:
Line a baking sheet with foil or wax paper, or spray with non-stick cooking spray.

In a small heavy saucepan, melt the butter, brown sugar and corn syrup over medium heat to dissolve the sugar.

Stir in the five-spice powder. Bring to a boil. Let boil for several minutes without stirring. When it reaches the "soft ball" stage remove from the heat. Stir in the peanuts.

Spread the mixture out on the sheet. Let stand until it has hardened. Break into pieces. Store in a sealed cannister.

Of course you can modify this recipe by experimenting with different combinations of spices. Have fun :)

5-Spice Tofu

4 Servings

Ingredients:
8 each Ckes tofu, firm
12 tbsp Tamari
3 cup Water
1 tsp Five-spice powder
8 each Whole stars of star anise
4 tsp Molasses

Prepration:
Cut each cake of tofu in half horizontally. Combine marinade ingredients in a pot wide enough to accept the four tofu pieces in a single layer. Bring marinade to a boil & add tofu. Simmer, uncovered, on very low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from heat & marinate for 3 hours, turning 2 or 3 times. Keeps refrigerated & wrapped for a week.

5-Spice Chicken

It's time for another chinese food classic

4 servings

Ingredients:
1 cup rice wine
1 cup teriyaki sauce
1 tsp. chinese 5 spicy seasoning
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 chicken (2 1/2 to 3 lb.), cut up

Preparation:
Mix all of the ingredients together and marinate the chicken for 2 hours. Grill the chicken for 25-30 minutes over a medium hot grill. Baste every few minutes and arrange chicken on grill to prevent scorching.

Serve with steamed rice. Easy as that :)

Food Blogs & Sites

Austrian Cooking - traditional authentic Austrian food. Recipes, descriptions and photos of authentic traditional Austrian dishes such as Wiener Schnitzel, Goulash or Apple Strudel.

Chinese Food Info

Chocolate & Zucchini

Coffee & Vanilla - simple Euro - Caribbean recipes by Margot

Columbus Foodie

CookingLinkCentral is dedicated to providing a comprehensive, organized link guide for those who love to cook. Features a full directory of popular Cooking Searches, a comprehensive Product Guide, and the best the web has to offer!

Epicurean.com

Food Porn Watch

Hedonia

How To Start A Coffee Shop & Espresso Cafe

Italian Food Info

Kulinariusz

Mexican Food Info

Plate Of The Day Food Blog

RealEpicurean.com

Spices For All

Starting A Catering Business

Scallion Pancakes (to serve with Beijing Duck)

4 Servings

Ingredients:
1 c Unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 c -water
2/3 c Milk
3 Eggs
pn -salt
2 tb Unsalted butter; melted
2 Scallions; (green onions), w
-white bulb and 3" green
-thinly sliced lengthwise,
-then cut diagonally into
-1/4 -inchces

Combine the flour, water, and milk in a food processor. Process for 15 seconds.

With the motor running, add the eggs, salt, and butter through the feed tube. Process until well blended. Transfer the batter to a bowl, and refrigerate, loosely covered, for 1 hour.

Fold the scallions into the butter.

Heat a nonstick crepe pan until quite hot. Add 3 tablespoons of butter, and tilt the pan so that the butter spreads evenly. Cook until the underside is lightly browned, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Flip the crepe over and cook another 15 seconds. Repeat with the remaining butter.

Stack the crepes as they are done between pieces of waxed paper. (If made in advance, reheat by removing all the waxed paper, wrapping the stacked crepes in aluminum foil, and placing them in a preheated 350 F. oven until just warm, about 10 minutes). 10 to 12 crepes

Well, it looks like a lot of work but Beijing Duck is definitely worth it

Beijing Roast Duck

4 servings

Ingredients:
1 4-1/2 to 5 lb duck
1 ts Salt
8 Green onions or scallions
2 (1/4 in.) sliced gingeroot
3 tb Honey
2 tb Cornstarch
1 sm Can plum sauce

Pancakes:
2 c flour,
1 c boiling water,
2 T dark sesame oil

Preparation:
A day in advance, clean duck inside & out, dry thoroughly. Season inside with salt. Tie together stem ends of 2 green onions, place inside duck cavity with gingeroot. Bring edges of tail opening together, stitch with a length of fine wire. Attach another wire to neck as a handle. Mix 1 qt. water with honey in large wok or small turkey roasting pan, bring to boil. When boiling, stir in cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water. Continue to stir to consistency of a thin stream. Lower heat. Holding duck by neck wire, dip into honey mixture 3-4 times to coat on all sides. Remove duck, suspend over container in cool place. Set an electric fan towards duck to help dry the skin. Let duck drip-dry overnight.

Next day: preheat oven to 450 F. Place duck breast side up on flat rack in roasting pan. Roast 30 minute. Reduce heat to 300 F, turn duck over. Roast 30 more minutes. Turn duck breast side up again, roast for final 30 minutes.

Thinly slice stems of remaining 6 onions into 2-in. diagonal strips. Divide sliced onion between 4 butter plates, place 1 tsp. plum sauce on each plate. Prepare duck for serving by cutting off drumsticks & wings & placing on platter in position whole duck should be. Carefully slice off all skin pieces of about 1 and 2 inches, lay them aside. Slice same size pieces of meat from bone. Place all carved meat on platter, cover with skin pieces on outside to make presentation look like a whole duck.

Each diner rolls a bit of meat, a bit of skin, and a scallion/onion length into a pancake that has been spread with about a teaspoon of plum sauce and eats the mess with fingers.

Preparation of pancakes:
Add water to flour in a bowl and work with a wooden spoon into a dough. Knead 10 min. and let rest for 10 min.

Form into a long roll about 2" in diameter. Cut into 1/2" pieces and flatten to 1/4". Brush a little oil over a piece of dough and lay another piece over it. Roll out with rolling pin, slowly and from the center out, until the piece is 4" or more in diameter. Proceed until all dough is rolled out.

Heat ungreased griddle over low flame and add dough circle. When it bubbles slightly, turn it over and heat the other side. While it is still warm, pull apart the two halves and fold at the center with the greased side inside. Repeat with remaining dough circles.

Steam for 10 min. before using as above.

History of Beijing Roast Duck

Beijing Roast Duck has the reputation of being the most delicious food Beijing has to offer. Eating Beijing Roast Duck is regarded as one of the two things you are absolutely supposed to do while in Beijing. The other one is climbing the Great Wall.

The history of the roast duck can be traced back to as early as the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368) when it was listed among the imperial dishes in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages, written in 1330 by Hu Sihui, an inspector of the imperial kitchen. It was then made by heating the duck-stuffed with a mince of sheep's tripe, parsley, scallion, and salt-on a charcoal fire.

The two famous restaurants that serve Beijing Roast Duck are Bianyifang Roast Duck Restaurant and Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant, both of which have a history of over one hundred years. They represent two different schools of roasting duck.

According to the local history, the earliest roast duck restaurant in Beijing was the old Pianyifang Restaurant, which opened during the Jiajing reign (1522-1566). It makes use of a close oven and straw as the fuel, which won't make flames go directly onto the duck. Before being put into the oven, a duck is filled with specially-made soup to make it possible to roast the duck outside and boil it inside at the same time.

The first restaurant to bear the name Quanjude opened in 1864 during the reign of the Qing Emperor Tongzhi. Due to its high standards, the restaurant's fame spread rapidly and for many years the supply of roast ducks could hardly satisfy the demand. For this reason, the restaurant was rebuilt and expanded in 1948. In 1954 a branch (known as Hongbinlou) was opened in West Chang’ an Boulevard and another in Wangfujing Street in 1959. Quanjude uses an oven without a door. After a kind of dressing being spread all over a duck, it will be hooked up in the oven over the flame coming directly from the burning of the fruit-tree wood and it will be done in forty minutes.

The ducks are raised for the sole purpose of making the food. Force-fed, they are kept in cages which restrain them from moving about, so as to fatten them up and make the meat comparably tender. Beijing Roast Duck is processed in several steps: first the ducks are rubbed with spices, salt and sugar, and then kept hung in the air for some time. Then the ducks are roasted in an oven, or hung over the fire till they become brown with rich grease perspiring outside and have a nice odor.

The duck is served in slices. First, the chef will show you the whole duck. Then, he will slice it into between 100 and 120 slices in four or five minutes, each slice with an equal portion of both skin and meat. Usually the duck is served together with special pancakes, hollowed sesame bun, green onions and sweet sauce. Dinners can wrap duck slices, onion, and sauce in a pancake or a sesame bun with their bare hands. Sometimes people would like to put in mashed garlic and cucumber or carrot strips as well. Some young women like to dip slices into white sugar directly. Other parts of the duck will be served as either cold dishes with its livers, wings, stomach, webs and eggs, or hot dishes with its heart, tongue and kidneys. The bones can even be decocted together with Chinese watermelon and cabbage.

The simple eating procedure is as follows: Pick up a pancake in one hand and, using a section of raw scallion as a brush, paint a few splashes of bean sauce on the pancake. Next, place the scallion in the center of the pancake, and with your chopsticks add a few pieces of duck, finally rolling it up for convenience's sale. Here then is one of the most unforgettable mouthfuls in all of Chinese cooking.

Recipe coming soon

Chinese Garlic Chicken

4 servings

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 lb.)
1 egg white
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 Tablespoon dry white wine or sherry
4 green onions
1 teaspoon minced gingerroot
3 teaspoons minced fresh garlic (about 6 medium cloves)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
Hot cooked rice

Sauce:
1 teaspoon crushed chili paste (sambal oelek) or more to taste
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 Tablespoon water
2 Tablespoons dry white wine or sherry
2 Tablespoons soy sauce

Preparation:
Place chicken breasts in freezer for 1 to 2 hours or until very firm but not frozen solid. Slice crosswise into thin shreds. In small bowl, lightly beat egg white, then mix in 1 TBS cornstach and 1 TBS wine, stirring until cornstarch is dissolved. Add chicken and mix well to coat all pieces. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice green onions on the diagonal into very thin slices. Mince gingerroot and garlic. Combine Sauce ingredients, mixing well. Heat wok or frying pan, add oil, and stir-fry chicken until no longer pink. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon. Add onions, ginger and garlic to wok and stirfry about 30 seconds, until ginger and garlic are fragrant but not brown. Return chicken to wok, restir sauce ingredients and add to wok. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is well combined, hot and bubbly and thickens slightly. Turn off heat and splash with about 1 tsp of dark sesame oil.

Serve over rice.

Sesame Green Beans

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4


Ingredients:
1 lb. green beans, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 Tbsps. sesame seeds
2 Tbsps. soy sauce
2 tsps. Oriental sesame oil
1/8 tsp. nutmeg


Preparation:
Place green beans in a steamer basket over boiling water. Cover saucepan and steam 8-10 minutes or until almost tender. Heat a heavy nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add sesame seeds. Shake skillet constantly until sesame seeds are golden. Reduce heat to medium low and stir in soy sauce, oil and nutmeg. Add green beans and toss.

Chinese Alcohol - Classification

Alcohol always accompanies delicious dishes either when people first meet or when old friends have a reunion. China produces liquor, beer, wine, yellow wine, and fruit wine.

Liquor
Chinese liquor, which is one of the six world-famous varieties of spirits (the other five being brandy, whisky, rum, vodka, and gin), has a more complicated production method and can be made from various staples - broomcorn, corn, rice, and wheat. Opinions regarding the origin of this liquor are divided but in the main there are four possibilities varying from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220), Tang Dynasty (618 - 907), Song Dynasty (960 - 1297) to the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368), but most people tend to agree that it actually dates from the Song Dynasty. Based on this long tradition, today's distillers create a spirit that is crystal clear, aromatic, and tasty. The most famous brand is Maotai and this holds the title of the 'National Liquor'. It is said that an empty bottle that was once filled with Maotai will emanate its fragrance after a few of days. There are other excellent brands also such as Wuliangye and Luzhou Tequ. These were both award winners at the Panama International Exposition. To facilitate its slow maturing process, the spirit is stored for 4 - 5 years, over which time the full fragrance and flavor develops, thus ensuring that it is a most enjoyable beverage to offer honored guests.
Yellow Wine
As one of the world's ancient wines, Yellow wine, is unique and traditional in China. With a history going back some 5,000 years, it is renowned for its yellow color and luster. Made from rice and sticky rice, the alcohol content is usually 10 - 15 per cent. After the fermentation process, the wine has a balmy fragrance and is sweet tasting with no sharpness. The wine has a wide appeal and is often used for culinary purposes as well as a beverage. The most popular brands of yellow wine are made in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province and in Shandong, while Hongqu yellow wine made in Fujian.

Fruit Wine
Fruit wine is mainly made from grapes, pears, oranges, litchis, sugarcane, hawthorn berries, and waxberries and all are quite palatable. Fruit wines possibly have the longest history and there is even a legend that apes brewed wines based on the natural fermentation of fruits; while the man-made wines appeared later. Wine was probably brought into China from the western region in the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220) and was popular in the Tang Dynasty. Now the fruit wine production is quite widely produced, with grape wine being the most prominent.

Integrated Alcoholic Beverages
These drinks are created from wine and spirits to which has been added the zest or fragrances from fruits, herbs or flowers. More exotic or medicinal concoctions can contain other plant or even animal derivatives. These blends include wines and medicinal beverages with a very wide range of aromas, flavors and benefits in which the various levels of alcohol and sugar content help to produce styles that are so unique to China. The craft of medical practitioners from ancient times has been well documented and there are many books detailing the art and methods of producing these health products. Alternative medicine is a vital part of tonic day-to-day Chinese life and medicines such as tiger-bone liquor, wolfberry wine, safflower wine, ginseng-antler wine, etc. are still produced and contribute to the extensive repertoire of treatments available.

Beer
Unlike spirits and many wines, beer has much lower alcohol content and is most commonly made from barley and hops. Although beer was not produced in China until the early 20th century, the historical records show that as far back as 3,200 years ago a light, sweet wine named 'li' was made using malted barley. It took time for beer to become widely accepted by the Chinese people but in modern China there is a thriving brewing industry and today there are many brands of quality beers which have become well-known and appreciated by beer drinkers both at home and abroad.