We cooked tonight. We did our take on Chinese food that my grandmother used to cook for me. I miss her.
Groceries out here in Jackson Heights are so much cheaper than in Midtown! I went to the HK supermarket in Elmhurst. I picked up napa, yau choy, 1 lb of ground pork, 25 pieces of chicken wings, a 2 lb sea bass, three heads of garlic, one chunk of ginger, scallions, soy sauce, oyster sauce, ribs sauce, a box of tofu and an onion for twenty one bucks.
It was just the bf and I for dinner tonight so we didn’t cook everything. We made steamed sea bass, tofu & pork, bbq’d chicken wings, yau choy and brown rice. The bf and I work well together in the kitchen. I joke that he’s my sous chef but I think we both know that I’m his.
Here’s a sort of how to – to the meal we made tonight.
1. Steamed Sea Bass
We over steamed this. Online we found that it said to steam a 1 & 1/2 lb sea bass for approximately 15 mins or until the meat is firm. I think my aunts at home definitely don’t even steam it for that long. I think the general rule of thumb is to let it cook til the meat is white and flaky.
The sauce is the best part to the steamed sea bass. Unfortunately I can’t tell you exact measurements b/c I just do what my aunts do- splish and splash haphazardly.
For the sauce, you will need soy sauce, oil (we used olive but my aunts use canola), ginger, scallions. All you have to do is heat all the ingredients together. I heat the oil first then quick cook the ginger & scallions – I then, add the soy sauce. But I don’t think there’s a hard rule to how you do it. You pour this sauce over your plated steamed fish i.e. after your fish is done steaming.
2 . Tofu & Ground Pork
I guess this is my ghetto version of Mao Pao Tofu. The bf doesn’t eat spicy so- we just made this plain.
We minced a ton of garlic in one of those small psuedo Magic Bullet blenders for this. After browning the garlic in oil, we added ground pork ( I just used a handful from my 1 lb chunk) to the pan. We seasoned the pork with sesame oil and some gourmet Spike seasoning.
After the pork is cooked, we added little cubes of the regular tofu to it. (Again, we didn’t use the full box- as it’s just two of us). To the mixture we liberally added soy sauce, oyster sauce, and water. We let the combo cook until the tofu was cooked to our liking. I think I overdid it a little with the soy sauce b/c it was a teensy bit too salty.
3. Bbq’d Chicken Wings
Okay, this is a hack job of a dish. I basically marinated the chicken wings in this rib sauce I found. It came out okay but I wish I could have found my Char Siu Sauce.
The way I usually make it is to marinate the wings in a blend of Char Siu Sauce, soy sauce and water. They come out really tasty.
I bake the wings at approximately 325 degrees to begin with and then just keep my eye on them from burning. If necessary, I turn up or down the temp.
4. Yau Choy
One of the easiest Chinese vegetable dishes to make. After cleaning the veggies, all you have to do is quick boil them. Just for a couple of minutes so that they’re not raw. After draining them- you just pour a little bit of oyster sauce over it.
All of it was really simple to make. And it all came out pretty tasty.
