Chinese Mise En Place and Cooking a Full Meal

How to cook for a family! Today we’ll be showing how to feed four people a full satisfying meal in the space of about an hour. We’ll be making four dishes: Beef and Gailan, Deep Fried Tofu, Steamed Pork Belly with Mianchi, and a simple Fishball soup.

Now, I’m not sure how useful this’ll be – I’m sure some of you’ve already got a lot of experience with this kind of thing. But we figured it’s an important topic nonetheless.

BEEF AND GAILAN

Beef Loin (牛脊肉), 150g
Gailan (芥兰), 250g
Marinade for the Beef: ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp cornstarch (生粉), ¼ tsp kansui (枧水) -or- sodium carbonate (碱面) -or- baking soda, ½ tsp soy sauce (生抽), 1 tsp liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1tbsp water, 1 tsp oil to coat
Seasoning ‘sauce’: 1 tbsp water, 1 tsp soy sauce (生抽), 1 tsp oyster sauce (蚝油), ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp sugar, ½ tsp cornstarch (生粉)
Aromatics: ~3 cloves garlic, smashed; ~1 inch ginger, smashed
For use while stir-frying: 1 tbsp liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), ~1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil (麻油)

1. Wash gailan, separate leaves from stalk. At the stalk, pull out the fibrous string. See if the stalk snaps (ala asparagus). If it does, toss the lower portion. If not, cut ~1 inch from the bottom and toss that inch. Alternatively, peel the stalk if you have time/feel like it.

2. Slice beef to 2-3mm. Marinate using ‘marinade for beef’. Mix everything, adding the oil in at the very end of mixing to coat it all.

3. Blanch gailan. ~30 seconds or until deepened in color. Strain well! Moisture can muff up the stir fry.

4. ‘Pass through oil’ the beef, oil at 160C. I said 20 seconds in the video, but 10-15 seconds would probably be better.

5. Stir fry. As always, longyau: get the wok piping hot, shut off the heat, add in your oil (~1.5-2tbsp), give it a swirl to get a non-stick surface. Flame back to medium high, add in the aromatics. Fry ~30 seconds, until fragrant. Swirl in the tbsp of Shaoxing wine. Quick mix. Add back the gailan. ~15 second fry. Add back the beef, ~15 second fry. Lower the flame to ~medium-low, add in the ‘seasoning sauce’. Mix, cook til thickened ~20-30 seconds. Heat off. Sesame oil in. Quick mix. Out.

FISHBALL SOUP

Video: https://youtu.be/8xFseU_l70c?t=381

Frozen Fishballs, ~8-12
Dried seaweed: Zicai (紫菜) a.k.a. Gim, Raw Nori, ~3g.
Water, ~1L.
Romaine lettuce (生菜), ~8 leaves.
Seasoning: 3/4 tsp salt, 3/4 tsp sugar, 1/8 tsp MSG (味精).
Deep fried garlic crisp (蒜酥), ~2 tsp
Sliced Scallions (葱)
Toasted sesame oil (麻油), ~1 tsp.

1. Add water and frozen fishballs (no need to thaw) to wok or pot.

2. Once boiling, add seaweed. Cook for ~30 seconds, break it up a bit.

3. Add the seasoning to the soup. Taste.

4. Nestle in the lettuce. Shut off the heat. Transfer.

5. Add the deep fried garlic, scallions, and sesame oil in the bowl to serve.

DEEP FRIED TOFU

Video: https://youtu.be/8vWIenK4p60?t=252

Soft Tofu, preferably Puning Tofu (普宁豆腐), 400g. You will likely need to cut your tofu in half into triangles. The tofu we got was very small.
Oil, for frying. ~3 cups if using large round bottomed wok.
For the sauce: 25g Jiucai Chinese chives (韭菜), ½ tsp salt, optional 1 tsp fish sauce (鱼露), ½ cup water.

1. Cut the tofu into triangles: Slice your tofu in half crosswise. Cut each crosswise piece in half at a 45 degree bias. Cut each into 3 pieces, ~1cm each.

2. Heat the oil up until 180C, then drop in the tofu. Continue over max flame, oil at 150-160C, until the tofu slices begin to float.

3. Lower the flame to medium, fry for ~7 minutes at 150C. Or until puffy & golden brown. Flip periodically.

4. Remove the tofu, lay on a paper-towel lined plate.

5. For the sauce: mince the jiucai. Add salt & mix it into the Jiucai. Then add the fish sauce & do the same. Then add the water.

PORK BELLY WITH MIANCHI

Pork Belly (五花肉), 250g
Marinade for the Pork Belly: ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp cornstarch (生粉), ½ tsp soy sauce (生抽), 1 tsp liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tbsp mianchi (面豉) -or- Japanese red miso, 1 tsp oil to coat.
Ginger, ~1/2 inch. Julienned.
Sliced Scallions (葱)

1. Slice pork to ~3mm thickness
2. Mix with the marinade.
3. Mix the pork with the julienned ginger and toss on a plate. One layer but no need to be too paranoid.
4. Steam for 8 minutes.
5. Remove, sprinkle scallions.

PICKLES

Apologies for the continued lack of pickling videos from us. We’re… fermentation novices.

Wang Gang’s video is here: https://youtu.be/Ua-TSz52LKo
Sarcasmo57 and his wife also have a nice video here if you prefer English: https://youtu.be/j2Mp6NTjMYo
And ChinaSichuanFood also has a good look: https://www.chinasichuanfood.com/pickled-vegetablesichuan-style/

We also have an appetizers 101 video if you’re cool with something tangential: https://youtu.be/5pGSBWuJVWo

And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!

http://www.patreon.com/ChineseCooking...

Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ
Found via My Analog Journal (great channel): https://youtu.be/GHaL5H-VYRg

Видео Chinese Mise En Place and Cooking a Full Meal канала Chinese Cooking Demystified