A tale of traditional Chinese dishes

Yesterday was cooking for a friend. Sadly, these aren't quite worthy of photos just yet. Willl post when I make them again:

These are the dishes that you will usually not find in the American-Chinese stories. Despite what we say, no General Tso's chicken does not exist in China.

Chicken Congee

http://www.chinese-traditional-food.com/chicken-congee.html

Ingredients:
100g lean chicken (1 piece, do not slice/chop)
1 scallion (finely chopped)
2 shiitake mushrooms (soak in water and sliced finely)
1 small piece of ginger (sliced finely)
3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1.5 cups rice
Salt to taste
Sesame oil to taste


1. Cook the rice into congee for 1 hour. Make sure the water do not dry out, keep adding water when the water is running out.

2. Cook the rice until it was fully soften and then add in the salt to taste.

3. Meanwhile, boil a pot of water and cook the lean chicken. Use a fork to poke through the chicken, if so then it is fully cooked.

4. Tear the chicken into slices by using your bare hand. It will not look nice if you use knife or scissor

5. Boiled the shiitake mushrooms until it was fully cooked for 30 minutes.

6. Heat up the oil and stir fry the garlic until it turn golden brown.

7. When the rice fully turn into congee, fill up a bowl. Mix in the chicken, shiitake mushrooms and garnish it with ginger, garlic and scallion.

8. Add some sesame oil with give you some aromatic fragrance.


This is usually a breakfast food. I used to remember eating this and being really comforted when I had an upset stomach or anything of that nature. It's very soothing.

Zha Jiang Mian

http://www.beijing-kids.com/blog/ellisf/2013/06/09/Do-Try-This-At-Home-Zha-Jiang-Mian

In a bowl, pour out the contents of one packet each of tian mian jiang and huang jiang. Add 6 tablespoons of water, mix well until free from lumps. Set aside. In a frying pan, heat up 2 tablespoons of oil, sauté some chopped shallots and 50 grams of ground pork or shredded chicken.

When meat is brown, add the sauce mixture, 1 tablespoon of sugar and a dash of pepper and mix well together. Let simmer on low heat for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. If the sauce starts to dry out, add more water a spoonful at a time. Maintain a thick consistency, the sauce should not be runny.

Meanwhile, boil the noodles the same way you would cook spaghetti. Bring half a liter of lightly-salted water to a boil, add a teaspoon of oil, then place 200 grams of noodles for two minutes. Bring the heat down to low, cover, and cook for another six minutes. Check that the noodles are cooked throughy, and when they are, drain the noodles and rinse in cold water. Serve noodles in individual bowls, and top with two tablespoons of the sauce. Have some cold julienned cucumbers and radishes on the side, as well as chopped spring onions. Go wild with some crushed peanuts on top.


I made this with ground beef which came out well. Definitely should have used more scallions though.

Yes, the Korean has a version of this called Jajangmyeon. This dish is actually native to the province that I come from in China which is right next to North & South Korea.