Elite life
Taiwan (Taiwanese Recipes)
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken
Enough cold water to immerse chicken
Similar quantity of iced water
250 ml salt water ( ¾ teaspoon per 250 ml water)
100 g raw sugar
1 tablespoon Oolong tea leaves
Sunflower oil, for cooking
1 dessertspoon sesame oil, to glaze chicken
½ teaspoon salt
Water
Cooking Instructions:
Put chicken in cold water and bring to the boil. Boil for about 20 minutes. Check if cooked by inserting a chopstick or metal skewer into the bird. If clear liquid runs out, it is cooked. Remove chicken from water. Then soak the chicken in ice water for 10 minutes (Tip – This makes the chicken flesh tighter and creates a nicer texture). Remove chicken and dry in the air for a few minutes. Prepare a pot or a wok for smoking by putting two sheets of aluminium foil at the bottom of the pot or wok. Spread sugar and tea leaves over the foil, then put in a cake rack. Heat the wok or pot to a high heat. Brush the dried chicken with salt water, then put it on the cake rack and cover the wok or pot with the lid. Cook on maximum heat for 5-6 minutes so that the sugar and tea leaves burn to provide smoke. When the smoke can be seen escaping from the lid, the chicken is ready. Place chicken on a serving platter and brush with sesame oil to give it a glaze. Leave until chicken is cold and then slice to serve.
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
3 Chinese mushrooms, salted
1 large, whole, fresh coral trout
500 ml sunflower oil
2 tablespoons extra oil
2 onions, sliced
100 g lean pork, finely diced
½ carrot, cut into match sticks
80 ml soya sauce
80 ml Chinese vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
500 ml water
1 dessertspoon cornflour
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 bunch spring onions, sliced into 1cm lengths
Cooking Instructions:
Soak the mushrooms in water to soften, then remove and slice. Dry the fish with absorbent paper, patting until it is quite dry. Make two deep slashes in the flesh on both sides. Heat the oil in a saucepan until it is very hot. Deep fry the fish until golden and crisp on the outside (but not cooked through at this stage), for approximately 3 minutes, then remove. Drain on absorbent paper and set aside. Heat additional oil until very hot in separate frying pan or wok and stir fry the onion, carrot, pork and mushrooms for a few minutes. Then add soya sauce, vinegar, sugar and water. Boil the water, then add the fish and cook for another 5 minutes. Cover the pan so that the sauce doesn't evaporate. Remove fish when cooked – the flesh should be firm but cooked. Mix cornflour with a little water and stir through sauce. Add the sesame oil to give a 'shine' or glaze to the sauce. Stir through. Spoon sauce over the fish and garnish with the spring onions.
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
2 fresh green abalone
500 g sea cucumber
Oil, for cooking
20 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup spring onions, cut in 2-3 cm lengths
½ cup thinly sliced carrots
80 ml chicken stock
80 ml soya sauce
80 ml Chinese brown vinegar
40 ml rice wine
2 teaspoons sugar
1-2 tablespoons cornflour
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Cooking Instructions:
Put the abalone into the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to 'put it to sleep'. This will make it easier to remove from the shell. When chilled, lift it out of the shell with a very strong, thin, steel-bladed knife. Carefully cut and lever between the flesh and the shell, making sure not to pierce the flesh as it gives a bad taste. Remove the intestines from the flesh very carefully, too. Slice the sea cucumber and abalone very thinly. Heat wok to a high heat, then add the oil. Add all the cloves of garlic and stir fry for a few minutes. Add spring onion, and then add the sea cucumber, chicken stock, soya sauce, carrots, vinegar, rice wine and sugar. Stir through the abalone last. Cook for only a minute. Mix cornflour with a little cold water, then stir through the mixture. Add sesame oil. Remove from heat and serve with rice or noodles.
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
500 g fine rice noodles
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
250 g fatty minced pork
2 teaspoons Chinese five spice powder
3 Chinese mushrooms, soaked in water and diced
6 tablespoons light soy sauce
Pinch of sugar
1 medium onion, sliced and fried
Oil, for cooking
1 bunch spring onions, green ends only, cut into 2-3 cm lengths
½ cup carrot, cut into fine slivers
Additional 125 ml light soy sauce
500 mL water
2 cups bean shoots
1 bunch garlic chives, chopped
Few leaves coriander leaves
Cooking Instructions:
Soak noodles as recommended on the packet in boiling water, then strain in a colander. Take care not to overcook. In a frypan, fry garlic, then add pork mince and five spice powder. Fry the spice to enhance the flavour. Add mushrooms and soy sauce, then a pinch of sugar and enough water to cover the meat. Cover and simmer for about 50 minutes before adding the onions for a further 10 minutes. In a wok, heat some oil to a high heat and lightly stir fry the spring onions, then add the carrot sticks. Add additional soy sauce and a cup of boiling water. Add noodles and toss through the mixture in the wok. Add bean shoots and garlic chives. Toss together and serve on a large plate. Pour meat sauce over the noodles and garnish with coriander leaves.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup green scallions
1 head Asian green cabbage
2 large carrots
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
Cooking Instructions:
Slice scallions, cabbage and carrot into a very thin julienne and place in a salad bowl. Reserve 1/2 of the scallions. In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, vinegar, honey, ginger and sesame oil until thoroughly mixed and pour over cabbage mixture. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds and reserved scallions.
Ingredients:
A: 1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ cup boiling water
¼ cup cold water
½ teaspoon salt
B: 1 small piece stewed beef shank
2 white part scallions
Seasonings:
2 tablespoons sweet bean paste
½ tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon water
Cooking Instructions:
Mix ingredient A into flour dough and cover with a damp cloth, then let sit for 20 minutes until done. Divide the dough into three equal portions, roll each portion into a thin round crepe, then fry with a little oil in frying pan until done and remove. Cut stewed beef shank into thin slices. Rinse the white part of scallions and cut into two sections. Heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil to stir-fry sweet bean paste for a minute, add sugar and water, stir until evenly done, and remove. Spread each crepe with a layer of cooked seasonings, then line stewed beef shank and scallion sections in center. Roll up into cylinders and cut diagonally into two sections if desired. Serve.
Ingredients:
½ small free ranch chicken
3 Makino bamboo shoots
2 ginger slices
Seasonings:
1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
Cooking Instructions:
Rinse chicken well and chop into bite-sized pieces, blanch in boiling water to remove blood and scum, then remove and rinse well. Bring 10 cups of water to the boil. Add chicken and ginger slices, drizzle 1 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine in, then reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Remove shell from bamboo shoots, rinse well and halve lengthwise, then cut horizontally into thick slices, add to chicken, cover to prevent bamboo shoot toughening, and simmer on low heat until bamboo shoots are soft and well-cooked (about 25-30 minutes), add salt to taste, remove from heat and serve.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
2 stewed chicken legs
1 head lettuce
Seasonings:
1 cup water
4 tablespoon Maltose
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Cooking Instructions:
Bring water and maltose to a boil, cook until maltose is dissolved, add white vinegar and mix well, drizzle over chicken and coat chicken evenly with maltose, and let dry in well-ventilated place. Heat 5 cups of oil to 140-160°C, add chicken and deep-fry over low heat until done, remove. Or let cool first and cut into pieces, then remove to serving plate lined with lettuce leaves. Serve. Vinegar helps the maltose stick, while the maltose helps make it brown and crispy. However, it has to be air-dried before deep-frying. Vinegar evaporates easily when heated, therefore add vinegar after maltose is dissolved completely. Do not add too much.
Ingredients:
2 slices milk fish stomach
2 tablespoons cooking wine
2 tablespoons salt
Cooking Instructions:
Rinse the fish well, drain and drizzle with wine, then let stand for 10 minutes. Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in frying pan, dry the fish well with paper towel and fry the fish in oil. Cover and fry over low heat until the fish is slightly brown. Turn the fish over during frying. Sprinkle the fish with salt and fry until the fish is crispy and brown. Remove and serve.
Ingredients:
1.3 pounds beef brisket
1 portion La noodles
1 bowl Korean Kimchi
1 tablespoon chopped scallions
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Seasonings:
2 scallions
1 small piece ginger
2 tablespoons cooking wine
8 star anises
5 cardamom
15 cups water
Cooking Instructions:
Blanch the whole brisket in boiling water, rinse out the scum and remove from water. Bring 15 cups of water to a boil, return brisket and add seasoning ingredients, cook over low heat for 1 hour, then remove and cut into thick slices. Remove the dregs with a sieve. Return brisket again and add in soy sauce, salt and sugar. Cook for 10 minutes longer and add Kimchi and cook until the flavor is well absorbed. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook the noodles. Drain and put into individual soup bowl and pour Kimchi beef and soup over noodles then garnish with chopped scallions. Serve immediately.
Servings: 4
Ingredients:
100g ham, cut into small slices
60 g grilled pork slices, cut into small slices
3 Chinese mushrooms, soaked
50 g carrots, peel and sliced
150 g Chinese flowering chives, sectioned
2 tablespoons pork floss
300 ml water
Seasoning:
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
½ tablespoon sugar
½ tablespoon tomato sauce
½ tablespoon bottled curry powder
Cooking Instructions:
Rinse the Chinese flowering chives and cut into small sectionals. Then, blanch into boiling water for a while. Dish up and drained. Arrange on a serving platter. Leave aside. Blanch the ham slices, grilled pork slices, Chinese mushrooms and carrot slices into boiling water for a while. Remove and drain well. Heat up 2 tablespoons oil to sauté all blanched ingredients until fragrant. Pour in water and seasoning, bring to a boil. Simmer over a medium heat for 2 minutes, or until the sauce is slightly dry. Lastly, thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch solution. Remove, pour over to the Chinese flowering chives. Drizzled with pork floss, mix well before serving.
Servings: 2
Ingredients:
300 g fresh rice noodles
150 g pork and fish paste chunks
1 bamboo shoot
4 shiitake mushrooms
½ a small carrot
2 stalks cilantro
1 stalk celery
4 tablespoons black vinegar
A dash of pepper
Seasonings:
6 cups soup broth
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons cornstarch water
Cooking Instructions:
Soak mushrooms until soft, then discard stems and shred. Cook bamboo shoot until done and shred. Peel carrot and shred. Cut cilantro into small sections. Mince celery. Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil to stir-fry shredded mushrooms, add bamboo shoot and carrot. Cook until soft, add soup broth and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Add pork and fish paste chunks and the rest of the seasoning A, and cook until the flavor is absorbed. Cur rice noodles into small sections and add to the soup. When the flavor is absorbed, season with the black vinegar and pepper to taste and remove from heat. Sprinkle with cilantro and celery over on surface. Serve immediately. Ready-made pork and fish paste chunks can be purchased from the market. Squid pork and fish paste chunks may be used instead. Do not select pork and fish paste chunks with too much fish paste as they are less appealing. If soup broth is not available, use water, though the flavor is not as good. The congee will taste sour if the vinegar is added after removing from the heat. Black vinegar is more aromatic than other types.
Ingredients:
2 chicken thighs or 1/2 chicken
⅔ lb yam flour (to increase crispiness)
4 tablespoons pepper salt
Lettuce leaves, cleaned and dried thoroughly with paper towels, to serve
Seasonings:
1 tablespoon cooking wine
3 tablespoons soy sauce
½ tablespoon sugar
1 scallion
2 ginger slices
Cooking Instructions:
Cut chicken thighs or half of a chicken into bite-sized pieces, marinate in chicken marinade for 10 minutes. Dip chicken pieces in yam flour, coat evenly and squeeze with hand tightly to prevent flour from falling off. Flour will not come off easily if the oil is hot enough. Additionally, flour can be made to stick by deep-frying over low heat in 6 rice bowls of oil in pan until done, removing, increasing heat and returning chicken again to fry until brown and crispy. Remove and drain well on paper towels. Sprinkle with pepper salt when it is hot, mix well. To serve, line plate with dried lettuce leaves (to prevent chicken from getting soft).
Servings: 2
Ingredients:
150 g ground beef
1 pack Maitake mushrooms
2 red chilies
1 portion basic flat fine noodles
chopped scallions as needed
1 tablespoon cooking wine
Seasonings:
1 tablespoon chili bean paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon cooking wine
1 tablespoon sugar
5 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cornstarch water
Cooking Instructions:
Heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil in wok to stir-fry ground beef to release any blood and liquids. Drizzle with wine and stir until fragrant. Trim off the bottom from the stems, rinse well and dice, then stir-fry with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil until fragrant. Add ground beef and seedless diced red chili to mix. Season with seasonings to taste, sauté until evenly done and remove. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook noodles until done, remove to a bowl and drizzle with mushroom beef, then sprinkle the top with chopped scallions. Serve. This minced ingredient dish is a Szechwan style noodle dish. Besides minced mushrooms, minced bamboo shoots or water chestnuts can be used instead.
Servings: 2
Ingredients:
600 g duck tongues
1 pot basic stewing broth
Cooking Instructions:
Remove the trachea and esophagus, rinse well, then blanch well and rinse well. Stew in the stewing broth over low heat for an hour. Remove from heat and soak until the liquid begins to cool. Remove and serve. There are not many duck tongues available in the market, so they must be pre-ordered from a duck vendor. Duck tongue have a sticky mucus. There is a layer of white membrane on surface after blanching. Remove it when rinsing under water.
Ingredients:
2 chicken thighs or breast
½ cup deep-fried peanuts
8 dried red chilies (wiped with a wet cloth, do not wash with water)
1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
1 tablespoon chopped garlic and ginger
Marinade:
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixture
½ white of egg, lightly beatened
Seasonings:
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon black vinegar
1 tablespoon cornstarch water
Cooking Instructions:
De-bone chicken thighs, break the white tendon so that the meat will not shrivel and be tough when cooked and cut into cubes. Marinade chicken cubes with marinade ingredients for around 30 minutes. Meanwhile, de-seed the dried red chilies and cut into sections. Run chicken cubes through hot oil. Leave 3 tablespoons oil in a wok. Stir fry Sichuan peppercorns until fragrant. Remove and add in chopped garlic, ginger and dried red chilies. Stir vigorously until aromatic and add in chicken cubes. Add seasonings and stir fry well. Add peanuts and stir before removing onto a serving dish.
Ingredients:
10 large grass shrimps
2 slices Chinese angelica
2 slices cnidium officinale
2 tablespoons medlar
2 cups concentrated rice wine
½ teaspoon salt
Cooking Instructions:
Remove feelers from shrimps, de-veined and blanch in boiling water rapidly, then remove immediately. This blanching is to ensure that the dish will be clean. However, do not blanch too long to keep the shrimps tender and not overcooked. Place other ingredients, the concentrated rice wine and shrimps in a pot. Bring to a boil until alcohol is evaporated completely, season with salt and serve.
