Pork and Bell Pepper Stir Fry

Pork and Pepper stir fry (青椒炒肉丝) is basic stir fry dish of thinly sliced green peppers and pork. Here, I used yellow pepper because it was available.

Method

Marinate/flavor thinly sliced pork strips with salt, sugar, vinegar, and rice wine. Slices the bell pepper into small slices. Slice some scallion.

Heat up some oil and drop in the pork to sear. When the pork starts browning, add the scallions and bell pepper and stir. After the bell pepper loses its rawness in a few minutes, add the soy sauce and stir until mixed.

Notes

The cooking method is pretty much the same as that for Beef and Garlic Chive.You can quick fry the scallions first before adding the pork, instead of afterward. ThRis is probably more common.

The dish is believe to be the forerunner of  the Chinese American dish, pepper steak, which is basically the same thing but with beef and more sauce and thickener. In most of China, pork is the meat of choice, so much so that when they use the term for meat (肉) they almost always mean pork (猪肉).

Dumplings

Dumplings (饺子) are common all over China and made in many different ways depending on the region. Today, we focus on the boiled dumpling of the north. It's filled with minced meat and vegetables and the thin wrapping is made of wheat flour. It goes great with soy sauce and black vinegar. Above, we enjoy them topped with a sauce of fresh sautéed tomatoes.

Method

Make a firm but pliable dough from wheat flour and water. Ball it up, cover it, and set aside.
 

Fill up a large bowl half way with minced pork. Finely mince ginger and scallions and mix them in. Also mix in some ground Szechuan pepper and a good amount of light soy sauce (more than you think you need). Next add the appropriately minced vegetables desired, anywhere from half to equal the amount of meat.

- For pork and leek dumplings, you just add minced garlic chive (韭菜) to the mix and no leek (the common name is a mistranslation). 

- For cabbage dumplings, you add finely minced napa cabbage leaves with the water removed. Before you add them, salt the chopped leaves and squeeze them as dry as possible with your hands.

- For root vegetable dumplings, grate daikon or carrot into fine shreds. Daikon has a bitter taste which is best removed by boiling. This will require cooling and squeezing to get the water out before mixing into the meat, which is fairly tedious.

Heat up a spoonful of the filling in a microwave to determine if it has the appropriate saltiness and adjust accordingly.

Roll out the dough into thin sheets with a pasta machine and cut out palm sized circles using an empty can. Place a little bit of filling in the center and wrap with the dumpling sheet, crimping the edges to seal it. Work fast as dried dough does not shape or seal well.

Add the dumplings to boiling water and stir to prevent sticking. When the water boils up again, add a bowl of cold water to temporarily stop the boiling. Do this 2 more times. At the final boil, you can scoop out the dumplings and eat them immediately or run them under cold water to prevent further cooking and sticking.

Notes

Dumplings are rather tedious to make from scratch. As a result, they are ideal for making in large quantities as a family activity. They are often eaten on Chinese New Year and year round as well.

Making the wrappers from scratch give the dumplings a better texture. The dough can also be rolled into a long roll, cut into little segments and individually rolled by hand with a small rolling pin. This is a more traditional way to make the wrappers, but I've always found this to be pretty difficult, so I opt for rolling a big sheet then cutting out the wrappers.

These dumplings go well with savory sauces like black vinegar and soy sauce. Other sauces include sambal oelek (rooster sauce) and soy sauce + sugar + scallion.

Sweet and Sour Ribs with Zhenjiang vinegar

Sweet and Sour Ribs, or Tangcu Paigu (糖醋排骨), is one of my father-in-law's great dishes. It is made with tender pork ribs stir fried with a mix of scallions, soy sauces, Zhenjiang black vinegar, and sugar. 

Method

Stir fry the pork ribs to get a nice sear and some flavor. Then add soy sauce, a few slices of ginger, a lot of water and boil for 20 minutes.

Remove the ribs from the liquid. Heat up oil in a big pan. Add scallions. Then, add ribs and stir for more searing. In quick succession, add soy sauces (light and dark), black vinegar, and sugar and stir. When the ribs are coated with sauce in a few seconds, the dish is ready.

Notes

The ribs are pre-boiled to remove some fat and tenderize the meat. The soy sauce and ginger also infuse the meat with flavor. The liquid can be reserved for soups and sauces. Sometimes my father-in-law fries the ribs before saucing them up, but I prefer the boil method because the meat is tenderer, less oil is used, and you have a lovely pork broth in addition to great ribs.

Zhenjiang black vinegar is also called Chinkiang vinegar. It is one of China's four famous vinegars and easy to find in Asian groceries. It is made from glutinous rice and has a complex aroma and taste than combines well with soy sauce. It's frequently eaten with fattier foods like ribs and all sorts of dumplings.

The combination of light and dark soy sauces are for flavor and coloring. The light soy sauce is what most people use when they say soy sauce. It is light in color, but big on flavor (and sodium). The dark soy sauce is thicker and darker and has a slightly different flavor. A few drops of it will color any meat dish dark brown.