The Cooking Club to End All Cooking Clubs (or, Lucky Number Seven)

The students arrived today in a new line up. Because each class has already sent a group (I have six classes or student groups), today two from each class came. There were a couple that had already been to Cooking Club, which is a big no-no, since with 270 students each spot for each Saturday is full. But I'll work on their understanding of the Western idea of "rules" another day.

This was quite a day.

1) Cooking Club took 6 hours.
2) The dishes cooked today were the best so far. I would cook them all again, and plan to.
3) Students removed hot oil to a plastic container, although I strongly suggested using a metal pan. Oil melted through onto the stove and floor. Oil smoke filled my apartment. And my stove caught on fire (picture below). No injuries, and, while I had it ready, we didn't need to use the fire extinguisher. The responsible student was crushed, so I did my best to make her feel better. She did cook the best dish, after all (the tofu/pork balls; see below).

Thus, it was an appropriately grand finale to the semester. Next semester, more Cooking Club--if I get a new stove by then!

Cooking Club 7, December 15th, 2012

Li Yue

Long Zhongxia

Ren Deying

Yang Qin

Pan Xiaolu

Wang Qing

Bai Qin

Luo Qian

Xia Mingfeng

Wei Sisi

Zeng Xiangdan

Wo1 Sun3 Chao3 Rou4 – Lettuce Stems Fried with Pork

Ingredients: 2 lettuce stems peeled and sliced into ovals, thin short slices of boneless pork, starch, whole dried red chilies roughly chopped.

Combine the pork with a little starch. Add chilies to hot oil, then the pork. When it is cooked, add the lettuce stems. Finish with salt and MSG.

Zhe2 er3 gen1 Chao3 Rou4 – Guizhou Root Vegetable Fried with Pork

Ingredients: zhe er gen washed with root hairs removed and chopped into long pieces, very thinly sliced pork, roughly chopped whole dried red chilies, salt, MSG.

Add pork to the hot oil. Remove when cooked. Add the zhe er gen and chilies, cook for a couple of minutes, return the pork to the wok. Finish with salt and MSG.

Rou4 Mo4 Qie2zi – Pork Strips and Eggplant

Ingredients: 2 eggplants cut into 1/8ths then chopped into long piees, boneless pork thinly sliced, green chilies chopped into rounds, minced garlic, scallions finely chopped, doubanjiang (chili bean paste)

Mix the pork with some starch and then with the chilies, garlic and scallions. Add the meat mixture to the hot oil and remove when cooked. Add more oil. Fry the eggplant in batches, removing when cooked. Return the meat mixture to the wok, adding doubanjiang, and returning the eggplant to the wok. Cook until the eggplant completely cooks down.

Jin1 Zhen1 Chao3 Rou4 Si1 – Dried Lilies Fried with Strips of Pork

Ingredients: boneless pork sliced into threads, red bell pepper sliced into long thin strips, celery sliced into long thin strips, minced garlic, minced ginger, roughly chopped whole dried red chilies, salt, soy sauce.

Add the pork to the hot oil. When cooked add the pepper, celery, and dried lilies. Then add the chilies, ginger and garlic. Finish with 1 Tblsp soy sauce and some salt.

Zhe2 er3 gen1 Chao3 Mu4’er3 – Guizhou Root Vegetable Fried with Wood Ear Mushrooms

Ingredients: Wood ear mushrooms sliced into thing strips, zhe er gen washed with root hairs removed and broken into long pieces, minced garlic, salt.

Add the mushrooms and root vegetable to the hot oil. When cooked, add the garlic and some salt.

Fried Tofu and Pork Balls – A dish of the Bu4 Yi1 Zu3 (minority group) of Southern Guizhou. They have their own language, so there is no pinyin transliteration.

Ingredients: minced boneless pork with fat left on (basically, ground pork), minced small scallions, firm tofu, 1 egg, minced ginger. I've been making this for a while and I often add mince mushrooms as well (porcini / xiang gu). 

Mix the pork, scallions, tofu, ginger and eggs together. Add a little salt. Heat a large amount of oil in the wok to deep fry. Form the mixture into balls and cook in batches until golden brown and cooked through. Note: If the oil gets too hot, you will burn the balls before the pork is cooked. 
They're delicious as is as part of a larger meal. You can also make a sweet and sour sauce for dipping (Black vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, chicken broth, ketchup if you have it. bring to a boil and add some corn starch dissolved in water.)

Chao3 Tu3dou4 – Fried Potatoes

Ingredients: 2 large potatoes washed, peeled, and julienned, roughly chopped dried red chilies, minced garlic, thinly sliced red and green bell peppers, salt.

Add the chilies and garlic to the hot oil, then the peppers. Then add the potatoes and cook until softening. Finish with salt.

Tang1 Huo3 Guo1 – Soup Hot Pot

Ingredients: Chinese cabbage broken into large pieces, chopped cilantro, rou4 wan (processed meats for hot pot), sliced mushrooms, red chili flakes, whole cooked small white beans, whole small scallions, whole dried red chilies, salt, MSG.

Add whole chilies and garlic to a little hot oil. Then add 3 bowlfuls of water. Add salt and MSG to taste and bring to a boil. When boiling, add the meats. Then add the vegetables. Serve when vegetables are cooked. Prepare a dipping paste from the red chili flakes, cilantro, and beans, with a little oil. This hot pot is not nearly as spicy as the Chongqing hot pot of a previous post, although the dipping paste is quite spicy.