| Hello Cookingrecipes, Today we will cook some deep-fried dishes. You will also
get to know some great deep-fry cooking tips. Try one or
two. Some of them are my favorite.
You will also learn how to make Royal Concubine Chicken. I
have to check out how the name came out. I guess it's related to Xiang Yu, King of Chu (232-202 B.C.). He was a brilliant and complicated character known for his meteoric rise from a man with "no inch of territory" to a great conqueror, and his rivalry with and defeat by Liu Bang, founder of the Han dynasty in 206 BC.
In fact, if you are interested in his amazing story, I would
like to tell you a little about his death. You can also move on
to the recipes directly :-)
By the end of 203 B. C. many of the lesser kings and barons
had deserted Xiang Yu. One night, surrounded by Liu Bang's forces and low on supplies, he was sitting in his tent with his
favorite concubine Lady Yu when he heard the sound of songs from Chu, his own homeland, coming from the besiegers. "Can it be true that Han has conquered Chu, that they have so many men of Chu with them?" he asked. With this, another phrase entered the Chinese language: "Chu songs on four sides," meaning to be besieged from all sides. Overwhelmed with sadness, Xiang Yu sat late into the night drinking with the lady Yu and singing a melancholy song with his own words:
My strength uprooted mountains,
My spirit overstepped the world;
But the times are against me,
And my horse can gallop no more.
When he can gallop on more
What can I do?
And what is to become of Lady Yu?
He sang it over and over again till tears ran down his
retainers' cheeks. Then he rushed out of the tent and with
the 800 men left with him dashed through the lines till
he reached the Wujiang River. Heaven was against him,
he said: it was of no use to cross the river. Among his attackers he met an old friend. He offered him his head, on which there was a high price, and cut him his head.
The Chinese traditional opera Xiang Yu the Conqueror Bids
Farewell to his Concubine is based on this incident. There is
no record of what happened to Lady Yu. One legend has it that after him, she sang a song which echoed the line about Chu songs and killed herself.
Well, what a moving story - even it happened 2200 years ago!
Finally we come to our recipes! Maybe I have gone too far :-) Deep-Fried Bean Curd
Ingredients:
- 14 oz (400 g) fresh bean curd (tofu)
- 1/4 tsp scallions, chopped
- 1/4 fresh ginger, chopped
- 1 tbsp salt, or to taste
- 1 tsp rice wine
- 3 cups (750 ml) vegetable oil for deep-frying; uses
about 3 1/2 oz (100 ml)
- 2 tbsp (30 g) flour
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 tsp MSG (optional)
* You can find popular Chinese cooking ingredients and cookware at ChineseFoodDIY online store at:
http://www.chinesefooddiy.com/shopping.htm
Directions:
1. Cut the bean curd into 1/4 inch (6 mm) diamonds. Spread
on a dish sprinkle with the scallions, ginger, MSG, salt,
and rice wine. Let marinate. Beat the eggs.
2. Heat the oil in a wok to about 210oF(100oC), or until
small bubbles just appear around a piece of scallion green or
ginger when tossed into the oil. Dip the bean curd into the
flour and then into the egg. Add to the oil a few pieces at a
time. Deep-fry until brown. Remove and drain well. Place in
a dish. Garnish with cooked green leaves and serve.
*Recipes in this newsletter are from Nicholas Zhou's bestselling cookbook "Real and Healthy Chinese Cooking". 
http://www.chinesefooddiy.com/cookbooks.htm Deep-Fried Mutton
Ingredients:  1 oz (200g) cooked mutton
3 tbsp flour
2 tsp. salt water
1 tbsp cornstarch (cornflour)
2 tsp. rice wine
2 cups (500ml) vegetable oil
1 1/2 beaten eggs
Spiced pepper-salt for the dip
Directions:
1. Cut the mutton into 3/4 inch (2cm) chunks. Mix with the
salt water and rice wine and let marinate for several hours.
Remove and dry.
2. Mix the beaten egg, flour, cornflour and enough and salt
water to make a batter. Stir in 1 tbsp of the oil. Coat
mutton chunks with the batter.
3. Heat the remaining oil in a wok over high heat to very hot,
about 350oF (180oC). Add the mutton chunks and deep-fry
until brown. Remove and drain. Sprinkle with the spiced
pepper-salt.
Deep-Fried Stuffed Green Peppers
Ingredients:
9oz (250g) green peppers
2 eggs, separated
9 oz (250g) lean boneless pork
2 tsp. flour
1/2 tsp. scallions, chopped
1/2 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
1/2 tsp. fresh ginger, chopped
2 cups (500ml) vegetable oil for deep-frying
1 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp. spiced pepper-salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp. MSG (optional)
1/4 tsp. five-spice powder
Directions:
1. Wash, halve length-wise, and seed the green peppers.
Cut each half into two triangles and dry well. Set aside.
2. For the filling, mince the pork and mix it with the
scallions, ginger, salt, soy sauce, five-spice powder,
MSG (optional), and half the egg white.
3. Beat the rest of the egg whites with the yolks and
mix with the flour, cornstarch and enough water to make a
thick batter.
4. Fill the inside of each piece of pepper with the filling
level to edges. Add coat the filled side with flour.
5. heat the oil in a wok over medium heat to 350oF (175oC) or until a piece of scallion green or ginger sizzles and
moves about rapidly when tossed into the oil. Dip the filled
side of each piece of pepper into the egg batter and then drop it into the oil , filled side down. Deep-fry until the coating is golden brown, then remove, drain well, and place in a dish, Sprinkle with the pepper-salt and serve.
Deep-fried Yellow Croaker with Sweet-and-Sour Sauce
Ingredients:
- 1 whole yellow croaker about 1 1/2 lb (750 g) (or similar fish)
- 1/2 tsp. garlic, chopped
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. soy sauce
- 6 cups (1,500 ml) vegetable oil for deep-frying; uses about
7 oz (200ml) 10oz (300ml) clear stock
- 1/2 tsp. scallions, chopped
- 14 tbsp (200g) sugar
- 1/4 tsp. fresh ginger, chopped
- 10 tbsp (150g) cornstarch (cornflour), dissolved in 5 tbsp water
Directions:
1. Draw, scale, and wash the dish. Blot dry. Make 5 to 7
diagonal slashes about 1/4 inch deep at even intervals on
each side. Rub salt in the slashes and dust all over with
flour.
2. Heat the oil in a wok to about 350oF (180oC). Hold the fish
by the tail and carefully lower it into the oil. Slide a
wok scoop or spatula under the fish to keep it from
sticking to the wok and deep-fry until the slashes open,
about 2 minutes. Continue to turn the fish and deep-fry
it until the skin is brown on all sides. Finish by laying
the fish flat in the oil and pressing the head down with
the scoop until it browns. Remove , drain and place on a
large oval sewing dish.
3. Pour all but 7 tbsp of the oil out of the wok. Heat until
the oil surface ripples. Add the scallions ginger, garlic,
vinegar, and soy sauce. Add the stock, sugar, and cornstarch.
Cook, stirring until the sauce thickens. Pour over the fish
and serve.
Royal Concubine Chicken
This Chinese version of Coq Au Vin is made with rice wine and
Asian seasonings. Serves 4 - 6 with other dishes Ingredients:
* 1 3 - 4 chicken, cut up
* 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
* 1/2 pound slab bacon, chopped into small pieces
* 2 medium sized onions, thinly sliced
* 2 slices ginger root, sliced
* 2 garlic cloves, crushed
* 2 tablespoons lard (you can substitute butter or margarine)
* 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1 1/4 cups stock (the original recipe calls for superior stock,
made with chicken and pork bones)*
* 1 1/2 cups rice wine or red wine or dry sherry
Oil for deep-frying and stir-frying
Directions:
Pre-heat over to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Heat wok and add oil for deep-frying. Deep-fry the cut-up
chicken pieces. Remove from the wok and drain on paper towels.
Place the chicken in a heat proof casserole dish and
add the soy sauce, mixing it in with chopsticks.
In a frying pan, heat the lard and then add the bacon, onions,
ginger, and garlic in that order, and stir-fry. Place around
the chicken in the casserole dish.
In a small pot, bring the stock and rice wine to a boil,
adding the salt. Pour over the chicken and cook in the oven for 1
hour.
Cooking Tips: Cooking Mothods in Chinese Cuisine: Sugar and Syrup Coating
Chinese cooking has three methods of coating foods with
sugar or syrups.
Spinning (basi)
In spinning a thread of syrup (basi), the ingredients are
deep-fried or boiled before being dipped into sugar that
has been melted in either oil or water and cooked until
it thickens and spins a thread.
Preserving in syrup (mizhi)
In preserving in syrup (mizhi), foods are partially cooked
and then boiled in a sugar and honey sauce until the syrup
thickens.
Coating with frost (guashuang)
In coating with frost (guashuang), foods are cooked by
deep-frying while sugar is melted with water or oil in another
pot to make a white syrup. When the food is mixed with
the syrup, it looks as if it is covered with a layer of frost.
Cookingrecipes, I would like to get some feedback from you:
How often do you think I should send our newsletters? Once per week, twice per week, three per week, or on a daily base?
Please reply this email with your suggestions. Thank you in advance!
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http://www.chinesefooddiy.com/recommend.htm
Happy cooking!
Nicholas Zhou - Author
Real and Healthy Chinese Cooking
http://www.chinesefooddiy.com | 
