Uber-Umami: Chinese Ground Bean Sauce

It is thick, salty and looks somewhat like peanut butter. Everything you cook with it tastes better, but only if you don’t overdo it. It is made from ground up fermented soybeans, rather like miso, but has a deeper, less salty flavor. It is Chinese ground bean sauce, and is a “secret ingredient” in many […]

Red-Cooked Pork With Taro and Sweet Potato

When most Americans think of Chinese food, stir-fried dishes come to mind; however, this is hardly representative of the entire range of culinary expression in China. While stir-frying is a good example of the ingenuity of the Chinese kitchen in dealing with the necessity of conserving fuel, and turning that necessity into culinary genius, stir-fried […]

Chinese Homestyle Favorites

Regular readers must have thought that I was never going to cook Chinese food again, after my hiatus on it during the latter half of my pregnancy. Brought on by the loss of mobility in my right arm caused by an intensification of my already extant carpal tunnel syndrome which came about through the general […]

Back to School With Black Cardamom: The Spice is Right VI

Black Cardamom (Amomum subulatum) is one of those spices that I use rather often, but about which I don’t know much. I first encountered it in the kitchen of the Pakistani/ Bangladeshi couple who were my first personal chef clients. The box was marked in Hindi and transliterated Hindi (Hindi in English letters) as “Kali […]

Stir-Fried Chicken with Gai Lan and Oyster Sauce

Morganna has been mourning the loss of stir fried suppers as I have been making foods for the freezer. The truth is that as my pregnancy has progressed, the naturally occurring carpal tunnel issues in my right hand have been exascerbated by the extra fluid retention that comes with the other joys of the third […]