China recipes

Sesame shrimp toast “coins” (makes 24)

Ingredients
220 g shirmp peeled and deveined (about 500g unpeeled)
1 teaspoon grated ginder
1 tablespoon water
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice wine
1 egg white
1 tablespoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
6 large thin slices white bread
24 cilantro leaves
2-3 tablespoons sesame seeds
Vegetable or peanut oil for deep frying

In a foodprocessor, combine the shrimp and ginger and process to a smooth paste, add the water, soy sauce, rice wine, egg white, cornstarch, and salt and process well until well mixed.
Evenly spread the shrimp mixture over the bread slices.
Using a round cutter 1 ¾ - 2 inches (4.5 – 5 cm) in diameter cut out 4 rounds of bread from each slice. Place a cilantro leaf in the center of each round and evenlysprinkle the still visible shrimp mixture on each round with the sesame seeds, pressing them on lightly with your fingers.
Pour the oil a depth of 4 cm into a wok and heat to 180°C . Slide in 5 of the shrimps toasts, shrimp side down and fry until golden about 2 minutes. Flip the toast over and fry briefly on the bread side until golden brown. Transfer them to a rack placed over paper towels.Serve the shrimp toast immediately with the sweet and sour sauce in small dishes for dipping

Sweet-and-sour sauce (4 serves)
Ingredients
2 oz (60 ml) chicken stock or water
3 oz (80ml) rice vinegar
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 ½ oz (45g) superfine sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-3 teaspoons finely julienned ginger
½ teaspoon crushed garlic
2 oz (60g) diced red bellpepper
2 oz (60g) dices unpeeled English (hothouse) cucumber
2 green onions chopped including tender green tops
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Combine the stock or water, vinegar, soy sauce, and salt, and stir until the sugar dissolves.
In a saucepan over medium heat, warm the vegetable oil until the surface shimmers, add the gingerto taste, garlic, bell pepper, cucumber and green onions and stir-fry until slightly softened about 1 minute.
Raise the heat to medium-high, pour tin the vinegar mixture, bring quickly to a boil and simmer for 1 minute stirring constantly.
If using the food coloring, first stir into the cornstarch mixture and then stir the mixture into the sauce. Simmer over medium-high heat. Stirring slowly,until the sauce is slightly thickened and become clear, about 1 minute.
Remove from heat and set aside

Cabbage and bean curd soup (6 serves)
Ingredients
48 oz (1.5L) chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
¼ lb (125g) napa cabbage, white, fleshy stem portion thinly sliced and pale green tops roughly chopped
2 oz (60g) undrained canned chopped pickled cabbage
1 ½ teaspoons grated ginger10 ½ oz (330g) diced soft bean curd
Salt and ground white pepper

In a saucepan over high heat, combine the stock or water, the nappa cabbage stems, pickled cabbage and ginger. Bring to boil and reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for about 8 minutes to extract the flavor.
Add the chopped cabbage leaves and the bean curd and heat until the cabbage wilts and the bean curd isheated through, about one minute
Season with salt and pepper.

Honey-Glazed beef and walnuts (4 serves)
10 oz (315g) lean beef round, partially frozen
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoons water
1 small egg
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoons five-spice powder
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
3oz (90g) walnuts halves
3oz (90g) honey
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon light soysauce
1 tablespoon ginger juice
¾ teaspoon black vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoon sesame seeds

Cut the meat across the grain into paper-thin slices, then stack the slices and cut into long strips no wider than a matchstick
Stir together 2 ½ tablespoons of the cornstarch, the water, egg, soy sauce and five-spice powder. Add the meat strips and using chopsticks to separate the strips, sit...