Rasa Malaysia's "Easy Chinese Recipes" & Cookbook Giveaway!

Being from an urban environment and because of the availability of hole-in-the-wall Chinese takeout stores I have always had a place in my heart for Chinese food. Chicken and broccoli as well as lo mein were staples for me. I never understood why some went straight for chicken wings and fries when you could get that anywhere. For me Chinese takeout meant something I couldn't get at home. Upon expanding my horizons and getting to know friends of East Asian descent and knowing that what we got in the takeout stores didn't resemble the actual traditions, I was interested in having the more authentic brand. But, I was pretty fearful of the process and technique involved in making an East Asian dish outside of one I defrosted.

So hearing the words: Easy. Chinese. Recipes. And knowing Bee Yinn Low (via her website Rasa Malaysia) wrote a cookbook of Chinese cuisine (published by Tuttle Publishing), I was intrigued.

I sat down, I mean really sat down, with Easy Chinese Recipes and didn't just skim it but read the details of what captures flavors I have enjoyed since I was a child--noting that Bee also mentions the difference between the takeout Americans are used to and the more realistic aspects of Chinese cuisine--as well as many of the 'How to's to make dishes similar to the way I'm used to with the right tools, sauces, and preparation.

First off, sauces are not meant to be thick like gravy and dishes aren't doused in them as I am used to. Also there are a handful of key condiments used in these dishes. I knew soy sauce was one but had no idea that oyster sauce was the other or that baking soda was used to aid in the tenderizing of meats when cooking.

I chose recipes that I could make a comparison against, ones that I have had in Asian restaurants/takeout/frozen, so that I had a basis for what I expected the taste to be for the dishes I made.

The Dishes

Beef and Broccoli

Even Bee notes that beef and broccoli is one of the most popular dishes in American takeout stores.

I didn't tenderize the meat (Bee has a section on how to do so with beef, pork, and poultry as well as making shrimp bouncy) for this dish and went all in with cutting flank steak against the grain and marinating (15 minutes). Then I prepped the broccoli, made the sauce and instant rice on the side rather than steamed long grain rice.

Using a large non-stick wok I prepped the beef, blanched the broccoli, added ginger to the oil, returned beef for final cooking, adding broccoli and sauce and voila I had my very own beef and broccoli! The sauce was a mixture of soy sauce, oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, white pepper, sugar, corn starch, and water and really brought me back to the flavors I have eaten over the years from takeout.

I may have over cooked the beef though. Tenderizing the flank steak may have gotten that smoother texture I'm used to. The main difference between what the frozen P.F. Chang's and the takeout place down the hill and this recipe is the lighter aspect of the sauce as well as the rougher texture I got from the meat. However, if I had had dishes side by side and the meat had been perfect I would've chosen what I made.

Cashew Chicken (sans cashews)

I made this after work as well. And I chose to take Bee's advice and tenderize the chicken before marinating it and making the dish. The additional sides to this are cut up peppers (red and green, but I used red and yellow) and roasted cashews (which I took out since I'm having orthodontic work done), in addition to the sauce. Ginger is prevalent in many of the recipes so make sure to have a bunch of it ready and minced, same goes for garlic.

After tenderizing the meat (letting chicken sit in baking soda and then thoroughly washing before marinating) I half cooked it, added the minced ginger, and then the peppers and re-added the chicken. The sauce was light as well but clings and adds a great flavor (hooray for oyster/soy sauce mix!)

I am IN LOVE with this dish. The chicken was so tender even the next day after nuking it and several days later eating remaining leftovers. The peppers melted in my mouth and all the flavors were amazing! I know one of the best things about Chinese food is texture and if you get that right then everything falls into place. And this one knocked anything I've had in takeout/restaurants out of the park! So I'll be making this again and again and again.

Classic Shrimp Fried Rice

I didn't follow the steps to make the shrimp bouncy in this instance. I had made the rice the night before as Bee suggested and went with brown long grain rice which has a grainier texture than white long-stemmed rice/jasmine.

The seasoning/dressing for this is quite light mainly soy and fish sauce with sesame oil (another new love of mine) and white pepper.

As with all the other recipes I tried you partially cook the protein, in this case you have two proteins with scrambled eggs and shrimp. Cook the eggs first then partially cook the shrimp, take those out and add garlic & ginger, return the shrimp with frozen peas and carrots, cook for a bit then add rice, eggs, and seasoning and mix well.

Again: enjoyable. This is best eaten soon after making, not when it's piping hot but still very warm. The shrimp and peas and carrots and egg and seasoning were great with the rice and a nice meal in itself. And what I noticed was that the seasoning was, again, not heavy. I was worried the flavors wouldn't be there. "Less is more" pervaded in all of Bee's recipes, particularly this one. The flavors melded and each one worked together and was not too salty as the takeout you'll  get nor was it greasy. I used low sodium soy sauce for all recipes but I think even without it the fact that you're adding light touches really does let the umami flavor break through on the fried rice. Again, I prefer Bee's recipe over takeout/restaurant/frozen foods that I've had of this variety.

Vegetables with Oyster Sauce

In Easy Chinese Recipes this is listed as Chinese broccoli (gailan) with oyster sauce. But since I did not like the gailan I found I went with another favorite, bok choy, and figured I'd see how this worked. I followed all the same steps of blanching the bok choy and cooking the sauce (again oyster and soy) and sprinkled this atop the vegetables. Man, oh man was this great! The sauce is not thick, more watery and you may want to add more bok choy than I did to make sure the vegetable isn't swimming in the sauce. Again, not too salty but with a familiar flavor that compliments the Classic Shrimp Fried Rice I ate it with and the Cashew Chicken I had it with the day after. I love bok choy for it's watery flavor and crispy texture. It reminds me of fennel but less intense in taste and for anyone who has had bok choy in an Asian restaurant you know that it works well with a light, meaty flavored sauce atop it. This is a new go-to sauce for me.

Shanghai Fried Noodles (with chicken instead of pork)

After trying, and failing, to find flat rice noodles I went with this recipe as it reminded me of lo mein.

Shanghai noodles are made of wheat and thicker than lo mein noodles. The base sauce here is significantly soy based (I used low sodium soy and dark soy sauce for color) along with white pepper and sugar (more staples in dishes with sauce in Easy Chinese Recipes).

Instead of pork, which is noted in the recipe, I made it with chicken, tenderizing it again beforehand.

Spinach and green onions are included in this dish and it's nice to have something green in there with all the noodles and protein.

I was worried that all the soy sauce would make this too salty even with low sodium because of the two used. But once I mixed it with the noodles and added chicken and spinach it was not a problem. This is not a slurpy, greasy mess when you eat it at all. It doesn't leave a huge oily mess on your plate but caters to having subtle flavors. The chicken was perfect, lightly toasted on the outside and a perfect moisture on the inside. I was glad to eat this over several nights.

Green Onion Pancakes

This was the most time intensive recipe (not hours or anything just longer than 30 minutes or so), and that is because you have to set the dough aside and also roll several out to prepare pancakes for frying. Also, I lost track of what stage I was in so re-rolled some balls more times than necessary.

I was worried that I didn't put enough green onions (scallions) into the dough. The basis for the dough is flour, water, and salt with little more additions besides the scallions and a brush of oil then more for deep frying. Scallions are darned strong (in smell and taste). I've always enjoyed eating scallion pancakes when going out for dim sum with friends. That with some hoisin sauce...awesome.

The frying went quickly. You have to make sure not to overdo it which may be hard as the oil gets hotter and hotter the more you cook. They came out golden brown then a bit browner and my whole apartment smelled of scallions (not complaining).

I waited a few minutes for the first batch to cool and then took a bit. I don't use acronyms when describing things but O.M.G! These were just as good as the ones I've had in restaurants and, you know what I'm going to say, less greasy. The grease factor may be because I often let things sit on paper towels and pat them to get rid of as much oil as possible where you may get the pancakes right out of the fryer in a restaurant. But the flavor even with less scallions than I had thought (because I had cut them up a bit bigger) was there! It pervaded in every part of the pancake but not so much you felt a need to hold a hand up  to your mouth to cover up your breath. Minimal salt and accompanying sauce was unnecessary. It worked on its own.

The Verdict

After eating each meal I didn't feel too full or lethargic, nor was I too thirsty which can happen with the overly salty ways and MSG found in many takeout eateries (though many may proclaim they do not have MSG). Specifically the fried rice and green onion pancake were lighter for me compared to their restaurant/takeout/frozen counterparts. The flavors weren't too bold in that they overwhelmed but each had a distinct taste I could place that was effective and delicious. I really, really enjoyed every dish I made. No offense to the places I've grown up eating at but I'll probably be making these dishes on my own from now on unless a major ennui hampers me in the kitchen.

Bee's book helped me realize that Chinese cooking can be easy and healthier and tastier! Easy Chinese Recipes also gave me a lot of faith in myself, of being able to make a quick meal for friends and family and have it be better for them than what we've grown up with in NYC. What is also great is that many dishes serve two so making them won't leave too many leftovers in the homestead if you're cooking for yourself.

The only critical thing I can say is, as someone who bakes, I wouldn't have minded a larger dessert section. Easy Chinese Recipes is divided up by appetizers, dumplings/dim sum, entrees (pork and beef, chicken, seafood, vegetable, noodles & rice), and dessert/drinks. There are five dessert recipes in total, including custard tarts and shaved ice.

However, the major benefit of Easy Chinese Recipes is the amount you learn and the fact that you get wonderfully tasty sauces and succulent meats goes beyond any critical thing I could say.

The Giveaway

I definitely want to share my new love and ease of cooking Chinese food at home. And I'd like to thank Rowan at Tuttle Publishing for being generous in helping me with this giveaway. 

So here's the deal, from September 3rd to September 17th (12:01am, EST) I'll be running a giveaway. There are a few ways to enter: make a comment on this post (once a day if you like), liking Tuttle Publishing's and/or Rasa Malaysia's Facebook page and noting both via Rafflecopter (below).  Rafflecopter will choose a winner at random and I'll be in touch about an address and send the book to you via USPS.

Check out Rasa Malaysia for new recipes and some from her cookbook. Also check out other cooking titles from Tuttle Publishing. Personally, I'm really looking forward to Paleo Indulgences. :-)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(Mini) Flushing Food Crawl!

My friend Anna is at it again! Taking place the day before Halloween she organized a mini food crawl in Flushing, Queens. We hit up three places, including the Flushing mall! And enjoyed some delectable and specifically Asian cuisine. Unfortunately, since a couple of these places had names written in Cantonese or Mandarin (Flushing is Queens' Chinatown after all) I couldn't name every location we enjoyed. But, good food is good food.

Anna and I wore our Halloween outfits for this crawl on a chilly and breezy Saturday. And I have to say I kind of regretted holding a bow and arrows during a food crawl on a chilly day, it got kind of tedious finding places to put it while eating on the street. We met up at Flushing library and headed across the street and ducked into 41st Avenue, across the street from the Starbucks and hit a whole-in-the-wall place that had a menu that was in English.

It was mainly appetizer, finger food type goods and most of us indulged in dumplings. I enjoyed the spring roll which was greasy and flaky and delicious. Plus those prices were reasonable for bite-sized goods and a good preparation for larger dishes.

The line was a bit long and you have to kind of elbow your way in and stand your ground so you can order, especially if you don't know the language.

Next up, we had $1.00 duck buns(!) at Corner 28 Restaurant and Caterers on Main Street.

These buns had more skin than meat, but all around good. And as Anna said "It's a dollar!" So how can you complain?

And we're walking, we're walking, northbound to the Flushing mall on 39th Avenue. We went to the food court here and passed by a booth that made and sold mini moon cakes. The moon cakes were bite-size and filled with cream so it reminded me of a mini Boston cream doughnut, but the cake portion wasn't overly sweet. They were so good at 12 for $3 that I ended up eating the whole batch within minutes. And I am not ashamed to admit this.

Once we were in the food court we found a table and half of us went for food while Anna and I waited. Anna's recommendation was for Xian's. This location was endorsed and visited by author Anthony Bourdain and also recommended by New York Magazine. It took the first leg of the group about 15 or so minutes to get their orders.

It took way longer for Anna and myself. I watched numerous people get their orders and then watched one of the women behind the counter make my dishes with ease within seconds, which kind of irritated me about the wait since everyone else who ordered after me had gotten their dishes already.

I got lamb meat soup, which wasn't as meaty as the picture at Xian's counter. And the cumin lamb burger which was HEAVY on the cumin. Basically that's all I tasted when I bit into it. My husband liked it and said the cumin wasn't too much for him, but that's where he and my pallets differ.

By the time Anna and I returned to the table the group had basically finished their dishes and rallied for seconds.

Bev got szechuan dumplings with garlic that wasn't as szechaun-y as she would've liked. As I was informed it should set your throat on fire and this was not the case. Andrew got a noodle dish which he thought was okay and I ventured off to find a bathroom after a while. When I returned Anna bought a large bowl of ice with many accoutrements  such as tapioca bits and coconut jellies. We didn't know everything that we were eating, but it was tasty and light and probably a nice cool down for those of us who had exceptionally spicy foods.

Afterward, we all went our separate ways from the 7 train and went for some napping, trick or treating, or other plans. All-in-all another successful crawl and I officially got to vegetate for the rest of the weekend.