Stewed Tofu with Tomatoes (蕃茄豆腐)

Learning how to cook was driven by a very practical, and somewhat urgent, need to cook for my aging mom, in February, 2014.  As a beginner, this was one of the first dishes I tried.  Even though it's been made countless times in the past months, it's never written up as a recipe.  Now we've come to an end of 2015, a year not quite like other years in my ordinary life, it seems only right to close this year with an ordinary dish.  Have a Healthy and Happy 2016!

1. Tomato (2, or 4 Roma Tomatoes) rinsed and cut into bite size.
2. Tofu (1 box of Silken Tofu, 16-24 oz) sliced and diced into larger bite size.
3. Optionally, marinate ~1/4 lb of ground pork (with 1 Tbsp of soy sauce, 1 Tbsp of rice cooking wine, and 1 Tbsp of corn starch).  Let sit for 20-30 minutes..
4. Heat 2-3 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a flat bottom cooking pan (at high heat).  (Optionally) Place the ground pork in the pan, flatten with a spatula (to break up the pork), then stir.  Continue to flatten and stir for 2-3 minutes.  
5. Add tomato pieces into the pan.  Add 2 Tbsp of soy sauce and stir for another minute.
6. Add the tofu pieces in.  Season with 1/4 tsp of salt and 2-3 Tbsp of Oyster Sauce (蠔油).  Stir the content in the pot gently until evenly mixed.  Season to taste with salt.
7. Cover and bring the pot to boil, then let simmer for 10 minutes. Garnish with minced stallions and serve.  Here is a picture of the finished product.
   

Diced Chicken Wrapped in Lotus Leaf (荷葉糯米雞)

This is a Cantonese dish served in almost all dim-sum places, a seemingly plain dish, with its unique Cantonese flavor, that is created by combining Soy Sauce, Oyster Sauce (蚝油), and Fish Sauce (魚露).  The lotus leaf imparts an intoxicatingly fragrant smell to the wrapped content.

1. [Prepare the Wrap] Buy a pack of dried lotus leaf from a Chinese market.  Soak 4 pieces of the large-sized dried leaf in a kitchen sink, till soft (for ~30 minutes), rinse the leaves and brush the surface lightly, then cut into 4 quarters.  In the meantime, heat enough water in a stock pot till boiling, and drop the 4 quarters from each lotus leaf into the pot.  When all the leaves are in the stock pot, bring to boil and steam for 2-3 minutes.  Note- Each lotus leaf is a full circle (in 6" - 8" diameter), when softened and expanded, which can be cut into 4 segments.  Each segment is a quarter circle, in fan shape.
2. [Prepare the Sweet Rice- Cook] Soak 2 cups of round sweet rice (圓糯米) in water for 8 hours or overnight.  Strain out water and rinse the rice a couple of times. Place the sweet rice in a rice cooker, add water into the rice cooker based on the cooking instructions of the rice cooker, and cook the rice.  Note- (1) 1 measuring cup =1 & 1/3 rice-cooker-cups (in my kitchen).  The 2 measuring cups of sweet rice used here amounts to 2 & 2/3 rice-cooker-cups, which requires adding water into the rice cooker to the marker 3 (2&2/3 to be exact).  I let the rice cooker do its job, steaming for ~15 minutes and leaving the cover closed for ~15 minutes.  The result was quite good, except that the rice seems a bit too sticky, as opposed to being soft and not-too-sticky. (2) We experimented with placing a small amount of sweet rice in the microwave oven (rice soaked overnight and covered in water in a bowl), and heating 1 minute a time, stirring to make sure it's not boiling over, and repeating this process 5 times.  After 3 minutes, the sweet rice is fully cooked, soft, but not sticky at all.  The stickiness increases significantly as we progress from 3, to 4, to 5 minutes.  On next try, will use half rice and half sweet rice (or, 3 parts rice and 1 part sweet rice) to reduce stickiness.  (3) We also experimented with using uncooked sweet rice, which turned out to be hard to season and took longer to cook (not fully soft after 1.5 hours of steaming, mainly because there was not enough water for the rice to absorb and turn soft in a steamer).
3. [Prepare the Sweet Rice- Season] Add the following into a measuring cup and mix evenly: 4 Tbsp of Soy Sauce (1/4 cup), 2 Tbsp of Vegetable Oil, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of sugar, 2 Tbsp of Oyster Sauce (蚝油) and 2 tsp of Fish Sauce (魚露).  While the sweet rice is still in the rice cooker (on warmer), use a tea spoon to gradually add the seasoning mix into the rice, stir and mix thoroughly with the spatula that came with the rice cooker until the flavor of the rice is to your liking (please take care NOT to make the rice too salty).
4. [Prepare the Filling] Get ~ 1/2 lb of boneless, skinless chicken thigh (or lean pork), trim excess fat, and cut into smaller chunks (1/4" - 1/2" square).  Soak 15-20 dried shrimps in water for 10-15 minutes, and mince.  Soak 8-10 dried mushrooms in water for 25-30 minutes, remove stems, and cut into smaller chunks (1/4" - 1/2" square).  Heat 1-2 Chinese Sausages (香腸) in the microwave oven for 1 minute (to soften), and cut into smaller bite size.   Now, add 1-2 Tbsp of vegetable oil into a flat bottom cooking pan, and turn on high heat.  Place the mushroom chunks, minced dry shrimp, and Chinese sausage chunks in the pan, and stir for 2-3 minutes.  Add the chicken chunks, season with 1 Tbsp of soy sauce, 1 Tbsp of oyster sauce, and 1/2 tsp of salt, and stir for another 2-3 minutes.  Optionally, cut 1-2 salted egg yolks (鹹蛋黃) into smaller chunks and set aside.
   
5. Now spread sweet rice on a quarter-circle of lotus leaf (to form a 3" x 3" square or 3" x 4" rectangle).  Start spreading the rice about 2" from the bottom and 2" from the right edge.  Add the filling (and some salted egg yolk chunks, optional) on top of the sweet rice rectangle, and add a small chunk of sweet rice on top (not too much on top).  Fold the bottom edge up, then the left and right edge, to form a square packet.  See picture to the right for a few wrapped rectangle packets.
6. Steam the wrapped packets with a steaming pot for 60 minutes.  Here is a picture of the finished product.
   

Pearl Balls (珍珠丸子) & Braised Lion Head (紅燒獅子頭)

These are two ground pork based dishes, both genuinely authentic, easy to make, and delicious to taste.  The first recipe below, Pearl Balls (珍珠丸子), i.e., Small Chinese Meatballs rolled in Sweet Rice, originated from Hubei Province (湖北, Shanghai's upstream sister along the Yangtze River), and became popular in Shanghai region, esp. as a Chinese New Year dish. The second recipe, Braised Lion Head (紅燒獅子頭), i.e., Large Chinese Meatballs braised in Soy Sauce, is a well-liked Shanghai region dish, esp. when it is served in a cold winter night.

I. Pearl Balls (珍珠丸子, Small Chinese Meatballs rolled in Sweet Rice)  Note- remember to soak 1 cup of sweet rice overnight before doing anything (see Step 3 below).

1. [Prepare the Pork Paste] Place ~2 lbs of ground pork (or, grind a pork butt and use 2 lbs) in a large mixing bowl.  Gradually stir in ~1 cup of water (1/2 cup for firmer meatballs) in circular motion in single direction (either clockwise or counterclockwise, but one direction only), till the pork turns into paste form (5-6 minutes).  Add 1 medium-sized onion (minced), 1 8-oz can of water chestnut (minced), 1 egg, 1/4 - 1/2 box of Tofu, 1 tsp of salt, 4 Tbsp of soy sauce, and 1/2 tsp of white pepper, into the mixing bowl.  Stir vigorously in the same single direction again, for 3-4 minutes.  Note- Cut the salt and soy sauce to half if you like mild-tasted meatballs.
2. [Make the Meatballs] Use one large spoon to scoop up enough pork paste to make a meatball that is ~3/4" - 1" in diameter.  Pass the paste between one spoon and the other, to form a ball.  Set aside the meatball.  Repeat this process 12 -16 times (enough for a full plate).  
3. [Make the Pearl Balls] Soak 1 cup of sweet rice in water overnight (or 6-8 hours).  Strain out the water, and spread the sweet rice in a large pate.  Roll each meatball in the sweet rice until the meatball is fully covered with the rice (now, that is a Pearl Ball).  Place the pearl ball in a glass or ceramic container that is suitable for steaming later (I used a 8" x 8" glass baking pan that could fit 16 pearl balls).  Repeat this process until all pearl balls are placed in the container. Spread the remaining sweet rice evenly into the cracks of the pearl balls.  
4. Steam the pearl balls for 60 minutes in a steaming pot (no need to cover the container with plastic wrap), and serve.  Here is a picture of the finished product.　
   

II. Braised Lion Head (紅燒獅子頭, Large Chinese Meatballs braised in Soy Sauce)

1. [Prepare the Pork Paste] Same as above, and use the remainder of the pork paste after making 12-16 pearl balls.
2. [Make the Lion Heads] Add 1/4" deep of vegetable oil into a deep non-stick flat bottom cooking pan. Turn on high heat.  Use a small-to-medium sized soup ladle to scoop up enough pork paste to make a large meatball (~3" in diameter).  Place the paste in one palm, and pass the paste between one palm and the other plam, back and forth, to make the paste form a ball.  Place the meatball back in the soup ladle and slide the meatball into the pan (now with the oil near smoke point, ~400-degF).  Sear both sides of the meatball till brown (check the bottom of the meatball regularly).  Repeat this process until you have enough to fill the cooking pan.  A seared large meatball is known as a Lion Head (獅子頭).  After searing, set aside the lion heads.
3. Rinse and chop half a Napa Cabbage into larger bite size (~2" x 2", or larger).  In a fresh flat bottom cooking pan, place the Napa Cabbage pieces at the bottom until fully covered.  Add into the pan: 6-8 dried mushrooms and a cup of dried black fungus (both reconstituted and cut into bite size).  Turn on high heat, add 1/4 cup of soy sauce (i.e., 4 Tbsp), 1/4 cup of water, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of sugar.  Place 4-5 Lion Heads on top of the Napa Cabbage pieces.  Bring to pot to boil, and let simmer for 30 minutes with lid on.  Optionally, during the last 30 minutes of simmering, soak some mung bean noodle (bean vermicelli, 粉絲) in water till soft (~5 minutes), then drop it into the simmering pot at the very end (~3 minutes, add water if the mung bean noodle absorbs all the fluid).  Here is a picture of the finished product.