Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 44 No. 9. May 4 1981
Chinese Cooking
Chinese Cooking
Many Chinese dishes are quite spicy and savoury, but they are not very common in the local Chinese restaurants because highly savoury foods may not be agreeable with many Kiwi customers. But savoury dishes are the appeal of Chinese cooking and two such dishes are 'Soy Sauce Chicken' and 'Steamed Pork Spareribs with Salted Black Beans'. Pork Spareribs are readily available in the local butchers and salted black beans can be obtained from the Chinese commodities shops.
Soy Sauce Chicken
Ingredients
1 chicken, 1½ cup dark soy sauce, 1½ cup water, ¼ cup dry sherry, 1 cup sugar, 3 star anise, 1t black peppercorn, 1t sesame oil.
Method
Place the soy sauce, water, sherry sugar, star anise, sesame oil, peppercorn in a large pan. Bring to the boil, stirring. Place the chicken in the pan, breast side down. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn the chicken over and continue cooking for about 20 minutes, turning and basting with the sauce occasionally. Then let the chicken cool in the sauce. Remove the chicken and cut into bitesize pieces. Serve on a big plate and pour some of the warmed sauce over the chicken. Garnish with some chopped spring onion or sprigs of parsley. The remaining sauce can be used for future cooking of chicken or pork and can be kept in the refrigerator.
Steamed Pork Spareribs with Salted Black Beans
Ingredients
½ kilo spareribs, cut into 1 inch pieces, 2T salted black beans, soaked for 10 min, drained and mashed, 1T soy sauce, 1T sherry, 1t sugar, 1T cornflour, 2 garlic cloves chopped, 2 chillies, sliced, 1T oil.
Method
Heat the oil In a wok or frying pan. Add the garlic and black beans and stir fry for a few seconds and add in sherry, soy sauce, and sugar and continue stir frying. Mix the cornflour with half a cup of water and stir in the pan. When the sauce starts to thicken, add the spareribs and the chillies and stir fry for 2 or 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and put the spareribs onto a heatproof plate and steam for about 20 minutes. Serve hot with chopped spring onions as garnish.
Note
For steaming the pork spareribs, the method for steaming is the same as with steaming the fish in an earlier recipe. The above two dishes can be served with a plate of stir fry Chinese cabbage or any vegetables and plain rice:
Bon appetit.
Vincent Wong