My Journal

Recipe collection of common home made style food.

Boiled Peanut - Snack

Boiled Mao Dou (毛豆) - Snack

Fish boiled in water

Fried pancake with meat and vegetable

Fried Egg with Tomatoe

Noodle: fried noodle, cold noodle

Fried Rice

Hawthorne Juice

Hong Shao Ruo (Meat Stew)

Lamb Stew

Meatball without Flour

Oxtail Soup

Oyster Mushroom with Egg

Pork with Sour Vegetable

Stir Fry Meat

Stir Fry Vegetables

Tofu

Authentic Chinese cuisine Recipe Books here

A few interesting points:

1. There are many nice recipe web sites in Chinese. Some has a clear step by step instruction. For example this for ma po dou fu  麻婆豆腐.

2. Garnish: Very often food in Beijing (China?) is garnished with coriander and onion spring. For all type, soup, stew, stir fry, etc. 

3. To remove the taste of lamb, cow, pig etc, when we make soup, we always do this first: put the meat/bones in a pot, boil the water. After the water boils, replace the water. (Some even add vinegar (cu) too in the water.) Then... start the real cooking.

4. a. For stir fry we need to use HOT oil, but not too hot that the oil itself got burnt. b. When things get too dry add a bit of water, bit by bit. Not more than around one tablespoon at a time.

5. To spice things up when making stir fry: mix it with fried Si Chuan pepper and dry hot pepper. Here's how: Warm about two tablespoon of oil in a wok, put Si Chuan pepper and dry hot pepper. How many? Depends on your taste. (Note: don't burn it). Stop cooking when the smell is good and things look "dry".  

6. How to sharpen BIG Chinese knife (磨刀). We can pay someone or do it ourselves or do it yourself.  Use a stone to sharpen knife (磨刀石). Be sure that the stone is wet, every once in a while  drip water to the stone. Depending on how dull the knife is, usually it takes a few minutes to sharpen. Let's say at least three minutes. Use both hands. (I put cloth under the stone so it won't damage the counter's surface.)

7. Vegetables are very cheap in Beijing （2009）, especially if purchased from farmers market or in tradional market. They are really fresh too. The price goes up (a lot!) in the winter and reached the climax around the spring festival.

One of popular vegetables is bai cai. The price can be as cheap as 3lb for 1 yuan (as of year 2010). Very big and delicious. Used in a lot of recipes like bao zi, dumpling, and more!

UPDATE

2012: Bai Cai price goes up to 6 mao/lb

2015:  Long bai cai could get up to 2yuan/lb! It becomes harder to find someone to sharpen knife.