Chinese Chicken Recipes for Busy People

I saw the bitter melon in the Chinese grocery store the other day, and that reminded me that I haven’t made bitter melon for ages. I have almost forgotten about it.  Dishes like Stir Fried Bitter Melon with Beef/Chicken, Stir Fried Bitter Melon with Eggs are very common home made dishes.  Unfortunately, you can’t find it from most Chinese restaurants in US.  I have a like and hate thing for bitter melon.  It tastes yummy and yet I don’t like it to be too bitter.  LOL.  A little bit bitter taste is OK.  My mom pre-cooked the bitter melon in a pot of water to get rid of some bitterness first before she stir-fried it, which turned out to be perfect for me.  I could taste a little bit bitterness, and not too much.  But some people can tolerate more bitterness like my sister or my landlady back in my college days.  My sister would add bitter melon with a pear and juice them together. It is a very healthy drink since bitter melon has tons of calcium, potassium, beta-carotene, vitamins etc.  I tried her invention once.  I almost puked.  Hehehehehhehe…  I couldn’t take the bitterness of the raw bitter melon.  My landlady from Laos would just eat the bitter melon raw like an apple. It was amazing how others can tolerate a wider range of taste.

Bitter Melon

Cut bitter melon in halves

Optionally blanch bitter melon to get rid of some bitterness

Cut bitter melon into thin slices

Cook meat first, then add bitter melon and seasoning

Stir fried bitter melon

Note if you skip the meat, this can be a yummy vegetarian dish by itself.

Ingredients:

• Bitter melon, 1 (the one I bought was about 12-14 inches long)
• Meat, 1/3 pound (you can use chicken or beef.  I probably used less than 1/3 of ground beef)
• Black bean sauce, ½ tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 tsp
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Cornstarch, 1 tsp
• Water, 5 Tbsp
• Sugar, ½ tsp

Steps:

1. Cut bitter melon in halves.  Get rid of the seeds and the white pith with a spoon.  The white pith has stronger bitterness.  In my case, I cleaned it so well. LOL.
2. Optional: Do this if you like mild bitterness like me.  Boil a small pot of water.  When the water boils, put the cleaned bitter melon in the pot. Use high heat. Let it cook for 2 or 3 minutes.  Drain it well.
3. Cut bitter melon into thin slices.  Put it aside.
4. Finely chop garlic.  Put it aside.
5. Cut meat into thin slices or you can use ground meat like I did. Either one is fine.  Put it aside.
6. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with water.  Mix it well. Put it aside.
7. Spray cooking oil in a frying pan.  Use high heat.  Add chopped garlic, bean sauce to the pan.  Mix it well and let cook for 10 seconds or so.
8. Add meat to the pot.  Stir fry it for a few minutes till it is cooked.
9. Add bitter melon to the pot.  Mix it well.  Add Chinese cooking wine, sugar, and oyster sauce. Mix it well.
10. Add cornstarch mixture to the pot.  Let it cook for a minute or so or until the sauce thickens.  Serve hot.

I love eggplant.  Every time I eat out at Chinese take out for lunch, I would either order Eggplant and Chicken, or Singapore Noodles.  Those are my favorite lunch food.  But I couldn’t find a classic Chinese dish that is made with eggplant and ground beef from any Chinese restaurants.  This could be because most Chinese restaurants sell Americanized/fake Chinese food, nothing ‘s too authentic. LOL.  Well… let me back off, they do have Eggplant in Garlic Sauce, but there’s no meat in it.  I did order it once in a take out place, and I asked the chef, “Where’s the BEEF?”  LOL… Again, they put a ton of oil in it, yucky.  I never ordered it again.  The other day, I saw some baby eggplant in the grocery stores.  I thought I gave it try, never had baby eggplant before.  It was very yummy.  I made it for lunch today. 20 minutes, that’s all it took. 

Baby Eggplants

Cook beef first

Add eggplant

Eggplant and Beef in Garlic Sauce

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Eggplant, about a pound (I used two baby eggplants)
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Ground beef, about 1/3 pound
• Soy sauce, 1 tsp
• Oyster sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Chinese cooking wine, 1 tsp
• Sugar, 1 tsp
• Cornstarch, 1 tsp
• Water, 4 Tbsp
• Chinese chili sauce or chili oil, a few drops (optional)

 Steps:

1. Finely chop garlic. Put it aside.
2. Cut eggplant into big cubes like 1.5 inches long.
3. Spray cooking oil in a frying pan.  Use high heat.  Add garlic, ground beef and cooking wine to the pan.  Stir fry it until the beef is almost cooked.
4. Add eggplant.  Stir fry it for about 5 minutes or so.  Wait until it softens a bit, then add soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar.  Stir fry it for another 3 minutes or until the eggplant looks soft.
5. Mix cornstarch with cold water in a small bowl first. Then add it to the eggplant.  Mix it well. Wait until the sauce thickens.  Taste it.  Add a little bit more soy sauce if needed.  Add chili sauce if you desire.  Mix it well.  Serve hot.

My god, this detox thing that I’m doing is not easy.  It may be easy for others just to skip meat for breakfast and lunch. But the more I reminded myself not to have meat, the more I crave meat.  CRAP.  I think I screwed up because I also cut down the amount of food I had. I should have a regular portion so that I would feel full.  I had a no meat noodle soup for lunch today. After that I still felt so hungry and I ate a bag of chips!!!!  That totally ruin the purpose of having a detox diet.  I just ate a 100g of fat!  I felt guilty and depressed.  I really felt “meat-attack” after 4 days of detox for breakfast and lunch.  I needed some meat.  As a super meat-lover, I couldn’t go too low on the meat level, or I would have this “meat-attack” symptom.  There was a time when I was very broke in college, and I didn’t cook meat for a few days.  I ate a lot of ramen noodles but still felt so hungry.  I couldn’t even sleep.  It was 3am in the morning, and I woke up and went to the kitchen.  I had two pieces of pork chops in the freezer. I defrosted them, cooked them, and ate them at 3am!!  These few days, I had the same feeling.  I really felt I need a good meal of meat to ease my craving.  I made Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon. This was probably like a 2000 calories for one steak.  I knew it’s not a good thing to have when I wanted to lose weight. But I did watch out for my portion. I had a very small piece.  Not bad.  Tomorrow, I’ll go back to the boring detox meals.  I had never made Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon before.  But I had this once in at the Marc Charles Steakhouse.  It was so good.  The steak was completely wrapped with bacon.  Tonight, I tried to wrap 3 pieces of bacon around a small piece of steak, it wasn’t as easy as I thought.  But it was all worth it because the steak was very juicy and tender.  Besides, I didn’t have to pay a fortune for the meal. 

Wrap a piece of bacon around the side of the steak

Wrap two pieces of bacon around the steak like a parcel

Put the ends of the bacon facing down

Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon with Grilled Shrimp

Ingredients:

• Filet Mignon, 2 pieces (small, about 0.4 pound each)
• Bacon, 6 pieces (I put 3 pieces per steak, you can use less or more)

 Steps:

1. Wrap a piece of bacon around the side of the steak.
2. Wrap the second piece of bacon around the steak, make sure it wraps around the ends of the first piece of bacon, ie hide the ends of the first bacon inside.
3. Then wrap the third piece of bacon around the meat, and hide the ends of the second bacon inside the third piece.  This is kind of tricky because what I learned was the bacon may fall off if I didn’t seal the edges carefully.  I could have use a piece of toothpick to pin it.  But I didn’t have any toothpick.
4. Start the grill, or you can cook it in a frying pan.  
5. Put the side with the ends of the bacon facing down first.  In this way, the weight of the steak will press down the edges to stay in place.  The cooking time varies according to how you like your steak cooked.  I cooked it for like 6 minutes on one side. Then flip it over and cook it for another 6 minutes. Take it out of the heat, let it rest for three minutes or so. That was like medium.  You can sprinkle a little bit of pepper while it is being cooked.  I didn’t put any salt since bacon is kind of savory.  Serve hot.  I grilled some shrimp as well to make it surf and turf.

Sunny day

I woke up early.  I made an egg sandwich on whole wheat bread.  I played 18 holes of golf, I hit it well today.  I had a tuna fish sandwich on wheat for lunch.  It was a great day.  Recap for the last 7 days, I exercised 5 times at the gym and played 2 rounds of golf.  I felt great.  I was a couch potato the week before.  My childhood friend was crazy enough to join exercise classes at 9pm at night after her long hectic work days.  I was so inspired by her, and here I am working out 5 or 6 days a week, and watching out what I eat.  So far so good.  I am very proud of myself for the first week of my weight lost plan.  LOL.  My legs were so sore this morning since I exercised last night as well. But it was all good. Joy of pain.  I’m making Chili for dinner.  I love Chili.  You know why? Cos it’s meaty   Actually Chili is really a good meal by itself. It has meat, veggie, and beans.  I never knew how to make chili until my buddy showed me a cheating way of doing it.  He cheated with a can of ready-made chili and then added extra meat and whatever ingredients to it.  It was not bad at all.  So I modified this cheating version to use half beef and half turkey to cut down the fat.  One time, I brought some leftover Chili to work as lunch.  My coworker said it smelled good, and asked me how I made it.  Then he shaked his head and said “don’t do that!”.  He said it was much better just use chili powder.  Oh well, maybe I haven’t paid much attention at the grocery store and I haven’t come across any chili powder.  So for all of those Chili Police out there, don’t yell at me for not making the chili the proper way.  I’m going to keep making what I have been making till I learned the proper way someday.  For now, I still enjoy my cheating chili.  It is yummy.

Cook a pound of ground meat first

Add diced tomato, a can of ready-made chili, and bean

Add onion and garlic. Let it simmer.

Turkey Chili

Ingredients (Serves 4):

• Ground meat, 1 pound (I used half beef, half turkey, you can use ground chicken, or whatever you prefer)
• Canned chili, 1 can (I used a can of 98% fat-free turkey chili with bean)
• Canned diced tomato, 1 can
• Bean, 1 can (I used a can of baked beans, you can use black bean, or whatever you prefer)
• Onion, 1
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Cooking wine, 1 Tbsp
• Ketchup, 4 Tbsp
• Salt, a dash
• Grated cheese, 1 cup (Optional)

Steps:

1. Cut the onion into dices.  Put it aside.
2. Finely chop a clove of garlic.  Put it aside.
3. In a big pot, cook ground meat.  Use high heat.  Stir it until it is fully cooked.  Add a tablespoon of cooking wine, and mix it well.
4. Add a can of cooked chili to the pot.  Mix it well.
5. Open a can of diced tomato.  Disgard the water.  Add the tomato to the pot.
6. Open a can of bean.  Disgard excess water or oil.  Add the bean to the pot.
7. Add chopped onion and garlic to the pot.  Mix it well.
8. Add 4 tablespoon of ketchup to the pot.  Mix it well.
9. Lower the heat to medium low.  Put a lid on (or a piece of aluminum foil on if you don’t have a lid).  Let it simmer for 45 mins to 1 hour.  Stir occassionally. 
10. Taste it.  Add a pinch of salf or more ketchup if needed.
11. Serve hot with grated cheese.

It has been a while since I went out for dinner.  I don’t go out for dinner much these days.  I have been trying to cut down my expenses, and my calories.  Yesterday, a friend recommended a BBQ place called Holy Smoke that I haven’t tried before.  I love BBQ   So, I ordered a St. Louis Ribs and Brisket Combo.  I ordered two sides, chili and onion rings.  I love St. Louis Ribs.  They are so meaty.  When my food came, I almost fell off the chair. HOLY SMOKE!  It was HUGE.  The amount of food they offered on my plate was like the size of a laptop computer!  What were these people thinking?  Why would they serve so much food for a single portion?  If you think that regular diners serve huge portions, this one is like 2 times of that.  Insane.  No wonder so many people are overweight.  My sister’s Brazilian friends used to finish whatever was served to them because they were taught (like me) not to waste food when they were young.  But eventually they learned that it was too much to finish it all.  There was a family of 6 adults and 1 kid sitting across from my table. They ordered 3 combos, and extra corn breads to share among them.  And yet, they had leftovers to take home.  They looked at me a few times, I was sure that they thought I was a pig or something to be eating this much.  The dinner was very good. But I had to control my portion.  I ate most of the onion rings, finished the chili, some briskets, and half a rib.  Still, I had a lot of food to take home.   This meal certainly made it to the top three of “the biggest portion ever served to me” list.  I ate a 22 oz cowboy steak at Don Shula’s in New Orleans, and a huge (bigger than my face) pork shank at a German restaurant in Milwaukee years ago.  My god.  After dinner, I headed to the gym right away and burned off 500 calories.  Holy Smoke!

My dinner BEFORE

My dinner AFTER

You know how some people like to do the same things over and over again?  I used to tease my friends that they should order new dishes when they go out to eat.  Try new things, mix it up.  But I found out that eventually I’m turning into one of them.  I do similar things every week.  Life becomes very routine.  One of my college buddies used to order Tomato and Beef every time we went out for dinner.  We were in a very small town back then where there were only a couple of Chinese restaurants around.  Of course, the chef would know right away that it must be some Chinese ordering that dish because no one would order that, it was not even on the menu.  We usually made friends with the restaurants staff that way by ordering things that were not on the menu.  They knew we were Chinese and would treat us nicer, gave us bigger portion.  Tomato and Beef was not a dish that I grew up with.  Mom never made that.  So I learned how to make this from my college buddy.  It was good.  But I only like it cooked a certain way.  I have never ordered this dish from a restaurant.  Well, I don’t usually order any beef dish from any Chinese restaurant.  You know, most of them give us cheap cut of meat, and it’s yucky.  So for most Chinese beef dishes, I prefer to make it at home. 

Sirlon Tips

Stir fry beef slices

Stir Fry Tomato

Add beef back to the pan

Tomato and Beef

After posting a traditional Chinese vegetarian dish with black hair moss the other day, I felt that I owe myself a post on a meat lover dish. What else can be more basic than a good piece of steak?  I am a big meat lover.  The biggest steak I had was a 22 oz cowboy steak at Don Shula’s years ago. It was very good.  But still, the top steak on my list is Peter Luger’s.  I haven’t found any steak that top Peter Luger’s yet.  Morton’s is pretty close, Marc Charles is also good.  But Peter Luger is the king.  The only thing is that reservation at Peter Luger takes weeks.  I probably have eaten there 5 or 6 times.  I had dinner there with my sister and her Japanese buddies many years ago.  The waiter asked us if we would like to see the menu.  I was like “are you crazy? Of course we wanted to see the menu.”   I politely replied “Yes”. ;p Then I looked at the menu, I was surprised and I totally understood why he asked that question.  The menu said “steak for one”, “steak for two”, “steak for three” and a few appetizers, that was it. There were no choice of cut of meat, no other variety of dishes.  We ordered a salad, some crispy bacon, and a steak for three to share since my sister’s college buddy did not eat much meat, so did my sister.  Ya, I know, why the heck they even bothered to go to a steak place?!  Anyway, the steak came, it was T-boned and pre-cut into strips.  It was soooooooooooooo good.  It was heaven.  Of course, I out ate everyone, no surprise for that.  After having that wondeful meal at Peter Luger, for a long time I refused to have steak in any regular or so so steak place including Ruth’s Chris, Outback cos I had tried the best and anything else is like second-class.  Once in a while I would crave a piece of steak, and if I didn’t  feel like paying that much money a good steak, I would make my own steak.  It’s nowhere as flavorful as Peter Luger or Morton’s, but still pretty decent in my opinion… hahhah.

Pan frying the steak

After you bake it for 10 mins, let it sit for 5 mins

A little Surf and Turf

Ingredient (Serves 2):

• Steak, 1.5 pound (I had filet Mignon, you can pick whatever cut you like)
• Salt, a pinch
• Black pepper, a pinch
• 10 cooked shrimps

Steps:

Note that the steak I had was like 1.5 inches thick and the result was a medium cooked. If your steak is thicker, bake if for couple of minutes longer. If you steak is thinner, bake it for less time.

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. Line a baking sheet with a piece of aluminum foil.  Put it aside.
3. In a large pan, spray non-stick cooking oil to the pan.  Sprinkle salt and pepper to the pan.  Use high heat. Let the pan to be heated for a minute.
4. Add steak to the pan.  Let it cooked for 2 minutes.  Don’t touch it.  Searing the steak helps to seal the juice of the steak inside.   Flip it over and let it cook on the other side for 3 minutes.
5. Turn off the heat.   Put the steak on the baking sheet.
6. Put the steak in the oven, bake it for 10 minutes.  Remember to set your timer.
7. Take the steak out.  Foil the aluminum foil into a pouch.  This will let the remaining heat to cook the steak and makes the steak tender.  Let it sit at the counter for 5 minutes.  Serve it.
8. If you like surf and turf, add a few shrimps on the side.

You know what else would make this dinner great, get Peter Luger steak sauce. YUM YUM YUM. They are sold in some grocery stores.

I’ve been stressed for the last few weeks on my job search and the health of my cat. I’m glad that at least the job search is over.  My cat is doing much better, but still I got a lot to follow up with the blood sucking vets.  Anyway, I really need something to make me feel better. I need comfort food.  Something like mom’’s Chinese Chicken, fried chicken, or meatloaf would do.  I know that would kill my diet.  But today is Saturday, I’m gonna cheat a little bit.  I promise I’ll do more Cardio X after this.  I never had meatloaf until I was in college.  My mom never made meatloaf as we couldn’t afford an oven back then. I told you, I grew up poor.  One day, I was at my classmate’s place, and she was making meatloaf for dinner.  I told her I never had meatloaf in my life.  She laughed.  She must have thought what planet I came from. LOL.  She said it was easy to make.  She put the ground beef in a container.  Put a bunch of ketchup and breadcrumbs and an egg in it.  And put more ketchup on the top and that was it.  Not too shabby.  I could not believe how easy it was.  I started to search for people’s meatloaf recipes, and modified them.  Finally, I come down to my own combination.

Meatloaf Mixture

Super Easy Homemade Meatloaf

Note: You will need spray oil and two baking loaf pans.  One for the meatloaf.  Another one fills with water. I will explain later.

Ingredients (Serves 4-5):

• Ground meat, 1-1.5 pound. I usually use 85% lean beef, but today I use 93% to cut down the fat.  Ya, trying to be healthier.  You can use half beef half turkey, that would be even healthier.
• Onion, 1/2
• Whole wheat English Muffin or regular Whole wheat bread, 1
• Seasoned Breadcrumb, 1.5 cup
• Large eggs, 2
• Parsley (dried of fresh), chopped, 2 Tbsp
• Italian seasoning, 1 tsp
• Wostercher sauce, 1 Tbsp
• Cooking wine, 1 Tbsp
• Parmesan/Romano cheese, 2 Tbsp
• Ketchup, 3 Tbsp
• Mustard, 2 Tbsp
• Garlic, 1 clove

Steps:

1. In a large mixing bowl, put the ground meat, mustard, wostercher sauce, cooking wine and ketchup.   Mix well.  Put it aside.
2. Cut onion into small pieces.  Add to the bowl.
3. Chop garlic. Add to the bowl.
4. Cut bread into very fine cubes.  Add to the bowl.
5. Add parsley, Italian seasoning, bread crumbs, cheese, and eggs to the bowl.  Mix well.
6. If it is too dry, add a couple tablespoon of water or milk.  Mix well.
7. Pre-heat the oven to 375F.
8. Prepare two loaf pans.  Spray one of them with non-stick cooking oil inside the edges of the pan.  Fill the other loaf pan with water about couple inches high. 
9. Put the meat into the loaf pan that is sprayed with non-stick cooking oil.   Press the meat down. Then add a tablespoon of ketchup on top of the meat.  Use the back of the spoon to evenly spread it on top.  This will create a nice crisp surface after it is baked.
10. When the oven is pre-heated, put the meat loaf and the other pan with water into the oven.  The water will create moisture in the oven and prevent the meatloaf from getting too dry.

Bake it for 50 mins.  Set your timer.

The first time I tried Beef Sukiyaki at a Japanese restaurant years ago, the waitress asked me if I would like it cooked in the kitchen or at my table. I chose the latter. I just wanted to see how it was done.  She brought the gas stove, a shallow pan, a large plate of raw ingredients to my table.  I saw her cooked the whole dish. My mouth was watery just watching it.   It was delicious.  I got hooked on Sukiyaki since then.  So whenever I tried out any new Japanese restaurants, I would order Sukiyaki, and I could tell if they serve authentic Japanese food or not.  You know, a lot Japanese restaurants are opened by Chinese, and they put fake stuff in it. LOL.   For example, instead of putting good cut of beef, they have London broil.  Instead of thinly sliced beef, the meat is like half an inch thick.  Instead of thick Japanese cellophane noodles, they put the skinny Chinese cellophane noodles.  Instead of using Japanese fresh shaiitaki mushrooms, they use Chinese dried shaiitaki mushrooms…. Ya, you can tell I have tried a lot of bad sukiyaki.  These days, I don’t go out to eat often, I started to make my own sukiyaki.  It probably costs me $25 or so to get all the good ingredients from a Japanese grocery store, but it’s all worth it.  I got the thinly sliced ribeye, tofu, mushrooms, veggies and Konnyaku noodles.  Konnyaku noodles are also called Shirataki noodles or miracle noodles.  It has zero calories.  I highly recommend Konnyaku noodles to anyone like me who craves noodles, and yet worry about the calories.

Beef Sukiyaki with Shirataki Miracle Noodles

Ingredients (Serves 2-3):

• Thinly sliced ribeye, 1 pound 
• Tofu, 1 pack
• Fresh Shaiitaki Mushrooms, 1 pack
• Enoki Mushrooms, 1 pack
• Chinese Bok Choy, 3 leaves
• Carrots, 3 sticks
• Onion, 1
• Garlic, 1 clove
• Scallion, 3 stems
• Konnyaku noodles (aka Shirataki noodles, or miracle noodles)
• Soy sauce, 1/2 cup
• Mirin, 1 Tbsp
• Sugar, 2 Tbsp
• Saki or Chinese Cooking wine, or white wine, 1 Tbsp
• Chicken Stock or water, 1 cup (chicken stock would make it tastier)

Note: If you don’t like beef, you can use other kind of meat like pork, or chicken.  You can also use all sort of other kinds of leafy veggies.

Steps:

1. Cut carrots, Chinese bok choy into bite size pieces.  Put it aside.
2. Cut onion into thin strips.  Put it aside.
3. Cut the root part of the enoki mushrooms, then break them into small chunks. Put them aside.
4. Cut tofu into big cubes (like 2 inches).  Put them aside.
5. Cut scallion into strips.  Put it aside.
6. Finely chopped the garlic. Put it aside.
7. Use a large shallow pan, or a frying pan.  Use high heat.  Spray cooking oil on the pan.  Lay beef slices in the pan. Let it cooked for a minute or so on each side. They cook fast since they are so thin.  Take it out from the pan when it is cooked. Put it aside.
8. Note that from this point onwards, you can put everything into the pan and cook them all at equal amount of time, or put them in at separate time like I did.
9. Put onion and garlic in the pan.  Stir fry it for couple of minutes.
10. Add carrots to the pan.  Add soy sauce, cooking wine and chicken stock to the pot.  Lower the heat to medium low. Put a lid on.  Let it cook for 10 minutes.  If you don’t have a big lid, just cover it with a piece of aluminum foil. That would work too.
11. Add shaiitaki mushrooms, tofu and sugar to the pan. Cover it and let it cook for 5 minutes.
12. Add noodles, and Chinese bok choy, mirin to the pan. Add the beef on the top.  Cover it and let it cook for another 2-3 minutes.
13. If the sauce gets too dry, you can add more water.  Taste it.  Add more soy sauce if needed.