Chinese Style Green Beans

''I wanted to make something Chinese today and found Green beans in my kitchen. So here's a very quick and popular way to make Green beans the Chinese way.''

Ingredients: serve 4

Green  Beans 250g

1tsp fresh minced ginger

2 cloves garlic minced

2 tbsp water

1 tsp corn flour

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1/2tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp soya sauce

1/2tsp red chili flakes

2 tbsp sunflower oil

salt to taste

Method:

Pick the edges, string and wash the Green beans.

Steam the Green beans until tender but not too soft. Dump the green beans in cold water to cool off. Drain the water and wipe each bean with kitchen towel.

Cut to desired pieces if preferred or keep as it is.

Heat a wok with sunflower oil, add in the minced garlic and ginger. Fry till the raw smell goes off. Add in the Green beans and fry for 5 minutes. 

Mix all other ingredients together to make a sauce and pour over the green beans and toss to mix well. Fry for a minute and take off heat. Season with salt to taste

Serve with fried rice.

Gyoza ( Chinese Dumplings)

Saw a cooking programme in NHK and I thought of trying out this dish. It required dumpling wrappers and since its not readily available here, I had to make them from scratch. The original recipe had minced pork but I used canned Macarel instead. I strongly recommend eating Gyoza with a soya sauce based sauce; I made my own twists. :D

Here's the recipe for the dumpling wrappers:

Makes about 30-35

2 cups of plain flour

2/3cups of hot water

1/4tsp salt

Method:

In a large bowl, add in the flour and salt. add hot water 1/2 cup and mix with a fork at the beginning and then knead by hand. Gradually add in remaining hot water and gather the flour to make a ball. Knead lightly. (Add a little more water if required as the water amount needed can be varied)The dough should be able to handle by hand and non sticky.

Cover the bowl with a wet cloth and keep aside for 1 hour. 

Knead the dough slightly and on a on a lightly floured surface roll the dough in to a roll shape with diameter of about 2 inches. 

Cut slices of the dough. Roll and flatten them with help of rolling pin in about 2mm-3mm thickness. (make sure to dust the work surface and rolling pin with flour to avoid sticking) 

 

Roll them in to 3'' or 3 and 3 1/2'' inch rounds or roll them in to a square like shape and cut rounds with a cookie cutter or with a rim of a glass.

Stack the wrappers made on top of each other and cover with cling film. Store in refrigerator, if wanted to be used later on.

Here's the recipe for the Gyoza:

Ingredients (Serves 4)

100g cabbage finely chopped
100g Chinese cabbage finely chopped

1 onion finely chopped

1/4 red pepper finely chopped

1 tbsp garlic minced

150g minced pork (I used flaked canned macarel fish)

1/2 tbsp minced ginger
1/2 tbsp Chinese soya sauce
1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp Chinese chille paste
sesame oil
salt

pepper

16dumpling wrappers (round type)
1/2 cup / 100ml water
1 tsp plain flour

sunflower oil

Sprinkle salt on the Chinese cabbage and cabbage in the bowl, mix them lightly, and let them stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Squeeze water out of the vegetables.
Put the sesame oil in a frying-pan, and fry the chopped garlic, ginger and onion lightly.
Put the flaked fish, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, garlic chives, and Japanese leek, ginger in the bowl, add Chinese soya sauce, Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp Chinese chille paste mix them together. Add the salt, pepper, and the fried garlic, and mix them until they become paste like.
Scoop the mixture onto a pastry skin with a spoon. Put the mixture on each pastry skin and fold it over. 

Press the edged to stick together and seal. (run a fingertip damped with water around the inside of the wrapper to act as a glue and then pinch the edges together to stick and can even press by the back of a fork to seal)

Lay the prepared dumplings on a lightly floured tray.

Put the sunflower oil in the heated frying-pan, and put the dumplings in a circle. Pour the flour dissolved in water, (1tsp of lour dissolved in 1/2 cup of water)and place the lid on. Keep the flame low. When the water has almost evaporated, pour a little sunflower oil around the dumplings, place the lid on, and turn the heat high. Cook the gyoza until the bottom gets crisp and brown on one side. And turn over to a plate and brown the other side.

Serve hot with soya sauce based sauce.

Hint: mix Soya sauce with tomato ketchup and minced ginger and finely chopped green chili to your taste.

VEGETABLE MANCHURIAN

''This ever popular Chinese dish is really easy to make. When you eat these deep fried vegetable balls in a soya sauce based gravy, do not let mundane things like the weighing scale bother you! Just dig into these deep fried delights and enjoy!''

Preparation Time : 15 mins.
Cooking Time : 20 mins.

Serves 4.
For the vegetable balls
3 cups cabbage, finely chopped

1¼ cups carrots, grated

½ cup onions, chopped

2 tablespoons cornflour

5 tablespoons plain flour (maida)

3 to 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 green chilli, finely chopped

¼ teaspoon Ajinomoto powder (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

oil for deep frying


For the sauce
1 tablespoon garlic, finely chopped

2 teaspoons green chillies, finely chopped

2 teaspoons ginger, finely chopped

1 cup clear vegetable stock or water

1 tablespoon soya sauce

1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with 1 cup water

2 pinches sugar

2 tablespoons oil

salt to taste


For the vegetable balls

1. Combine the cabbage, carrots, onions, cornflour, plain flour, garlic, green chilli, Ajinomoto, salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix well.

2. Shape spoonfuls of the mixture into small balls. If you find it difficult to form balls, sprinkle a little water to bind the mixture.

3. Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper and keep aside.

For the sauce

1. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan on a high flame. Add the garlic, green chillies and ginger and stir fry over a high flame for a few seconds.

2. Add the stock, soya sauce, cornflour paste, sugar and salt and simmer for a few minutes.

How to serve

1. Just before serving, put the vegetable balls in the sauce and bring to a boil.

or

Place the vegetable balls on a serving dish and drizzle the sauce there.

2. Serve hot.

Tips
-As you go on making the balls squeeze the water out of the mixture or too much moisture in the balls would break them while frying.
-Add some water or vegetable stock to thin down the sauce if it is too thick.
-Garnish with spring oninons