friederike's Reviews
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Cook Like a Master Chef - Tips for Kitchen Novice
By Liu, Alvin
Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education - 2010
To my great surprise, the bok choi I was preparing worked out very well. To DH's great surprise, the Clear-steamed Sea Bass he prepared was even better.
One of the things I found slightly difficult was the vagueness in parts of the recipe. E.g. I didn't know at what temperature I had to cook the bok choi. I opted for high, until I noticed the garlic turning golden, at which point I turned the heat down again. To my surprise, the bok choi had just the right texture, cooked yet crisp.
The result was a fairly easy, very classic and tasty side dish.
The small print: I didn't have ginger juice, so I substituted with 1 1/2 tablespoons grated ginger and 1 tablespoon water - 1 tablespoon ginger and water each would have done the job well. I only used 1 instead of 2 tablespoons garlic as I thought that would be too much, but actually, 2 probably would have worked fine. I used 1/2 teaspoon salt and sugar each instead of the 2/3 teaspoons recommended, and it definitely could have been less.
Fun fact: the title translates as 'Crushed Garlic Stir-fry with Baby Bok Choi', or literally 'Bok Choi Sprouts'; there was one character in the middle I couldn't really put into context, meaning 'granule / hoarse / raspy / sand / powder'. Any ideas?
useful (1)
A dish with potential, but boy it was salty!
We'll probably try again on Monday (if the clams survive the weekend), not use the stock cube and the salt, and replace the dark soy sauce with light soy sauce. We might also use more black beans as they didn't really come through; though that might be very different once less salt is added. We didn't use 10g of red chillis (which would probably be something like half a chilli - not nearly enough!) but two chillis.
Edited 9 January 2012:
We prepared the dish again with the amendments described above - still quite on the salty side, but at least edible. We had hardly any sauce, as DB didn't use the measuring spoons but normals spoon, not realizing that they are a lot smaller.
It might not have been as bad as there had been some sauce, but I wasn't very happy with the black beans in particular - you could only taste them when you actually ate one, and that then again wasn't necessarily pleasant. I remember this dish with a very dark, thick sauce, without any noticeable beans in it at all! I wonder if it had been better if we had soaked the black beans first. If all goes as planned, we'll test this version of the dish in a few weeks to see if it is any different.
useful (1)
It was delicious, but not as perfect as I've tasted it a few times (yes, really!); additionally, I've had a few issues with the instructions.
My major problem was that three ingredients are listed for the marinade: salt, chicken broth powder and potato starch. Aside from the fact that in my opinion this doesn't constitute a marinade, the instructions read something like: mix pork with marinade, set aside for 15 minutes, then add egg yolk and coat lightly in potato starch. So, err, the potato starch wasn't part of the marinade after all? I'm still not yet really sure. I added (corn)starch to the marinade and later on coated it in yet more cornstarch and thought it could have a nicer crust, so maybe any cornstarch added is a good thing.
Then minor points - why make the (very simple) sauce first, and only then marinate the pork? Didn't that same book say somewhere you shouldn't add salt to meat before frying? It says 'Thicken with potato starch solution' at the very end of the recipe, but makes no mention of that in the list of ingredients (as the you'll need the potato starch listed there to coat the meat) - so how much potato starch solution will you need? etc.
In the end, however, it was very delicious, far better than anything you'll get in a restaurant outside of China, and the meat's crispness is definitely something we'll work on.
Fun fact: The first two characters mean pineapple, the last three combined translate as 'sweet and sour meat', though individually they mean things as 'verbose' and 'to mutter'. According to the dictionary there are 5 different ways of saying 'sweet and sour pork', though only 2 of them contain the words 'sweet' and 'sour' (or 'sugar' and 'vinegar', which I think is close enough).
Edited 17 October 2014:
This is a quirky little cookbook that is divided into many very short chapters, each devoted to one specific question and accompanied by an appropiate recipe. What makes it funny are the sometimes overly dramatic questions used as chapter titles. This specific one is titled: Sweet and Sour Sauce: The Life-Changing Factor for Deep-Fried Food?
As of last night, I am sorry to report that the sweet and sour sauce was actually the death of our food, although I'll have to put some of the blame on my own shoulders. As so often, I only prepared half a portion, but made the full amount of sauce because I intended to use half of it yesterday, and the other half tonight. That of course I had forgotten when I poured the sauce into the wok. Bummer.
But I also wasn't sure how much potato starch solution I needed to add (see criticsm above), so I added way too much. Last, I can only assume that I last time didn't 'marinate' the pork in the chicken bouillion powder - I added some this time, plus the salt, and it was way too salty.
I'll make it again tonight, and possibly also use less ketchup (DH can't stand it, though it's in most recipes I've seen), and we'll see how it goes then.
Edited later that day:
Much better. I omitted the chicken bouillion powder, made half the amount of sauce, with only 1 tbsp and a squirt of ketchup (instead of 2 tbsp), and added just a tiny amount of cornstarch solution. Actually, I thought it wasn't quite enough sauce this time, and I don't think that any cornstarch solution is necessary at all - maybe that's the reason why it isn't mentioned in the list of ingredients? Also, I cooked the pork for too long, it was golden brown but quite dry - next time I'll have to use more heat, definitely not just medium heat.
useful (1)