Lotus Root-let's go vegetarian!

For those of you who are veggie lovers, this is an excellent Chinese dish-- Pan Fried Lotus Root. Lotus root is a very forgiving vegetable when it comes to simple cooking. You can't go wrong with it as long as you don't over cook it. It looks beautiful, it is tasty, and full of fiber! So get your butt to China Town this weekend and buy some lotus root!!
Ingredients
One lotus root, sliced into thin slices-about 1/16 inch (usually about 10-15 inches long)
Chinese celery (American celery would do, but Chinese ones are thinner and with more taste)
oe red chili pepper (optional), one clove of garlic sliced, a few slices of ginger
About 10 Chinese mushrooms, cut into strips (I buy a bag of dried ones from China Town- $6.99 per bag, you can also use 12 crimini mushrooms to substitude)
2 tb sesame oil, 1 tb vegetable oil, 2 tb soy sauce, 1tb black vinegar(optional), 2 tb rice wine (optional)

The Making
1. Heat up thesesame oil and beg. oil in a hot pan, toss in cjili, garlic and ginger to lure out the flavors
2. Put in the lotus root, celery, and mushrooms in the pan, fry for 3 minutes
3. Add soy sauce, vinegar, and rice wine in and close the lid to simmer for 3-5 minutes.
4. Taste it, season as needed with salt and pepper, then plate it.
5. You can always add carrots in it for the color, or even red bell pepper.

Suggested drinks- A bottled of iced cold beer!

Happy Chinese New Year!

This Chinese New Year I invied my aunt and cousin to my place for dinner. Chris and I went to Oakland China town for groceries. Gee~ it was crazy! After 2 hours of fighting our way through agressive, angry Chinese housewives - I got everything I need: a big live crab, fish, lotus root, vegetables, dried scallops, mushrroms, dried date, jinseng, chicken...etc. As Chris and I sat down at a restaurant trying to devour a bowl of noodle soup, our grocery bag moved. No kidding, the live crab in the bag slowly moved the bag towards the door. We could not stop laughing but meanwhile being a bit crept out about it. Well, so many animals died for me, for my aunt, and thousands of Chinese people during Chinese New Year. It is what it is. I can't think too much about it. So there, today, I present you "Crab steamed with rice wine & Sweet and Sour Fish" !!

Ingredients
1 live crab, 1 fish
Sweet & Sour sauce: 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 tb black vinegar, 2 tb brown sugar, arrowroot, 2 cloves of smashed garlic, sliced green onion, sliced ginger, 2 tb rice wine
crab steam sauce: 1 cup rice wine; 2tb soy sauce; 1 sliced ginger; sliced green onion, 1 clove of sliced garlic

The Making
Fish:
1. Heat up 2 tb vegetable oil in the pan, toss green onion and garlic in the pan, then add in ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, rice wine, and arrowroot to thicken the sauce (salt and pepper as needed). Put sauce aside.
2. Heat up 3 tb vegetable oil and then fry the fish, around 2-3 minutes each side.
3. Put the fish on the plate, and drizzle sauce over it. Put cilantrol as optional garnigh.

Crab:
1. Put rice wine, soy sauce, ginger, green onion and garlic in the pot to boil, and then put live crab in it, shut the lid tight.
2. When you're done steaming the crab, put everything on the plate. Add vinegar and soy sauce as needed.

The sharper your knife, the less you cry...

After reading this over my Christmas holidays, I've made up my mind to devote myself into French cuisine as much as I can. Therefore on X'mas day, I made the roast duck with orange sauce from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The dish is called Caneton à l'orange. It was probably one of the best ducks I've ever had-- certainly the best I've ever made.

The total cooking time was around 3 hours. And about 9000 calories later, I felt like I understood the joy of slow cooking and sipping wine at my own kitchen, listening to Gal Costa in my colorful SurLa Table apron-- Mmm~ why am I not living like this more often? Oh, right, work.

Well, there it is. I present you "Caneton à l'orange" !!


Recipe
Ingredients
A 5-6 lb. ready to cook duckling
half tsp salt and pepper; 2 tb brown sugar
2 cups of brown stock (I used the inner organs+neck from the duck with some carrots, onion, oregano, and celery, slow simmer for 2 hours. Feel free to use cicken stock)
1/4 cup of redwine vinegar
1/2 cup of port (feel free to use any red wine you have)
3 tb of orange liqueur (don't stress over this, if you don't want to buy it, whisky would do as well. or even triple sec)
4 oranges, skinned, keep orange peels for stuffing and garnishing
2 tb arrowroot (potato starch or even flour will do-only to thicken the sauce)
half diced onion; diced carrots

The Cooking
1. Season the duck with salt and peeper, stuff some orange peel, onions, and herbs in it
(all herbs welcome- I used rosemary, thyme, oregano, and some parsley)

2. Roast that duck like how you would roast any bird.
(grease the roast pot with some oil or butter, put carrots and onions around it. place the duck in the middle, 425 F for 15 minutes)

3. Reduce the over to 350 F- remove some fat (wit spoon, paper towel, or a bulb baster), turn the duck and keeps on roasting for another 30 mins.

4. Meanwhile, you make the sauce:
a. caramelized the vinegar and sugar. when it becomes syrupy, remove from fire to add brown stock.
b. immer the mixture, add in arrowroot and orange peel for 5 minutes. Season as needed.

5. Get the bird out
a. set the duck on a platter, remove as much fat as possible in the roasting pan.
b. add the wine into the roast pn to do a reduction, then add the sauce (from step 4), then the liqueur

6. Plating
a. cut oranges into segments and put it around the duck
b. all vegetables around the duck
c. pour some sauce on the duck, and use a bit orange peel for garnishing

Suggested Wine- Bordeaux-Medoc, chilled white Burgundy, Melbec, or Bourbon.