Chinese Food Dinner

Here are links and recipes to the Chinese food recipes I made for our Christmas dinner! This amount of food could probably feed 4 people with leftovers.

Beef and Mushrooms - winner!
(Chinese Recipes: Stephen Yan)

Ingredients:
1 package fondue beef (I used it because it's already thinly sliced)
2 tbsp sweet sherry or white port
Olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled (to remove at the end)
1/2 package mushrooms, sliced
2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
Splashes of soy sauce to taste

Directions:
1. Marinate the beef with the sherry while you prepare the veggies.
2. Heat your pan or wok on medium heat with a little olive oil. Add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the mushrooms and carrots and cook another 5 minutes. Add the beef and cook until done. Remove ginger before serving.


Pineapple Chicken - winner!
(Chinese Recipes: Stephen Yan)

Ingredients:
2 Chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
Salt to season
Batter:
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water or more to make a batter than isn't runny, but drips off a wooden spoon.
Sauce:
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 tbsp tapioca starch
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 can pineapple chunks

Directions:
1. Prepare the chicken. Prepare the batter by mixing it all together. Dip chicken cubes in batter.
2. Heat vegetable oil in a wok or pan to no more than 375F (or to your oil's high point).
3. In small batches, fry the chicken for about 5 minutes per batch. Set on paper towels.
4. In a small pot, bring sauce ingredients to a boil, simmer to the thickness of your liking.
5. Add chicken to sauce, warm for a few minutes.

Fried Liver and Tomatoes- just okay
(Chinese Cooking: Good Housekeeping)

Ingredients:
1/2 pound liver, sliced
1 tbsp dry sherry or white vermouth
S&P to taste
6 tomatoes, skinned and sliced
1 onion, sliced thinly
Pinch of ground ginger
1/4 cup chicken stock

Directions:
1. Marinate liver with sherry for 2 hours.
2. Heat oil in a wok or pan on medium heat. Add liver and cook for about 1-2 minutes. Remove from wok.
3. Add veggies and ginger and cook about 5 minutes.
4. Add chicken stock and liver, bring to a boil and simmer for about 5 minutes.


Spareribs - loser...not much flavour considering the humungous amount of ingredients. Cooking time is all off, they burned.

Eggrolls - okay, need better wrappers
(I looked at many recipes, and combined them all to my liking. I made this recipe twice because I like chicken and Alex likes pork. Each batch of filling makes well over 12 small egg rolls.)

Ingredients:
Egg roll wrappers
**I had to buy what was available, the Wong Wing brand. They were very floury, next time I'll try to find a different brand or make my own. Plus they were mini! Too much work!!!

Filling:
1 cup cooked meat
1 carrot, peeled and shred
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup shredded cabbage
1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 tablespoon water
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar

Directions:
1. In a wok on medium heat, add a little oil and all of the veggies. Cook for about 3 minutes, then add your meat for another three minutes.
2. In the meanwhile, mix the cornstarch, water, soy sauce, olive oil and brown sugar together in a small bowl.
3. Add the sauce to the filling mix and heat for a minute. Remove from heat and cool.
4. Preheat oven to 425.
5. Spoon 2 tbsp-ish filling mixture on the bottom third of one egg roll wrapper; fold sides toward center and roll tightly. Seal with water to ensure a tight seal, pinch if necessary. (Keep remaining wrappers covered with a damp paper towel until ready to use.) Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet.. Repeat.
6. Lightly brush tops of egg rolls with melted butter. Bake at 425° for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned. (mine took 20 minutes, but my oven is wonky).

Chicken Fried Rice - winner!
 (my recipe)

Ingredients:
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sweet vinegar (I use fig)
1 tsp sesame oil
Pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 green onions, chopped
Dash ground ginger
1/2 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup cooked chicken, pork or beef
Veggies if desired: broccoli, peas, beans...

Directions:
1. Mix first 4 ingredients and set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in wok on medium heat. Add garlic, green onions and garlic and cook for one minute.
3. Add rice and chicken, cook for 2 minutes. Add soy mix and cook about 5 minutes. Cook longer if you want it really fried up. Add cooked veggies if desired.


Fortune Cookies - horrible HORRIBLE loser! If anyone has a good recipe, let me know!!! These were difficult to work with, the dough kept ripping no matter how short/long I baked them. Also, they never really dried crisp - completely inedible!