TAIWANESE RECIPES
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Here are a bunch of Taiwanese food recipes, all created by my mom, compiled by my sister Meg. Enjoy!
Huo Guo (Hot Pot, and its ingredients/sauces)
Delicious, healthy, and satisfying, this serves a complete dinner and is best on colder days.
Ingredients (everything uncooked unless indicated otherwise, at reasonable amounts; one plateful for vegetables, smaller portions for everything else):
* Bok choy
* Watercress
* Shrimp (peeled except for the tails)
* Tofu
* Beef and Chicken, sliced neatly
* Large chicken leg bone (cooked)
* 1 Tomato
* Meat spheres (Wantse in Chinese)
* Mushrooms (various varieties)
* Cold drinking water
* Clear noodle (dong fun)
* Udon noodle (thick Japanese-style noodle)
* Barbeque sauce (sa tsa)
* Garlic
* Soy sauce
* Japanese soy sauce
In a hot pot (found in Chinese specialty stores), fill about 3/4 full with drinking water and add the leg bone for flavor. When the water is boiling, add a small handful of all the vegetables as well as tomato. Add tofu. When everybody is seated, everybody can add ingredients to the hot pot, waiting until things are done before taking them out. Be careful about the raw meat; do not take ingredients out immediately after the meat is put in. Keep putting food in and taking cooked food out until everything is finished.
To make the special sauce: In a souffle dish, spoon in about 3/4 of the dish of BBQ sauce. Add a generous amount of soy sauce. Chop the garlic into small pieces, ~ 1/4 a cup at most, and mix with the sauce.
Spoon the sauce onto the finished food as desired.
Serves 6, depending on how many ingredients are prepared.
Mahjong Noodles
One of the Lee family’s favorite classical dishes!
Ingredients:
* 1 tsp Mahjong
* 1 tbsp green onions
* 2 tbsp soy sauce
* 1 tbsp corn oil
* 1 tsp BBQ Sauce (sa tsa)
* ~One fistful of long straight noodles (per serving)
Mix the mahjong, soy sauce, corn oil, and BBQ sauce in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly until forming a liquidy brown substance. Sprinkle green onions on top of the sauce. Boil the noodles in a pot half full of water, stirring to prevent sticking. Taste the noodles occasionally until done. Mix the noodles well with the sauce and onions immediately after putting them into the large bowl.
Tea Egg (Tsa Yeh Dan)
Perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack.
Ingredients
* 2 dozen eggs
* 10 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
* 5 Tablespoons Salt
* 1 Tablespoon (anxi?) Ba Jiao tea leaves (star-shaped tea leaf)
Boil the eggs in a large pot filled nearly full of water for ten minutes. Remove the pot and drain the water, then add cold water and dump out the water immediately again. Crack the eggs by hand until cracked uniformly (do not remove the shell!). This will allow the flavoring to seep through and make it easier to remove the shell later. When all the eggs are cracked, replace water until nearly filling the pot and place back on stove. Add the soy sauce, salt, then tea leaves and bring to a boil. After the water boils, turn the heat down to simmer and simmer for thirty minutes.
Serve with xi fun or eat by itself. Make sure you boil the water again right before eating so eggs do not spoil. Also note that on the first day, not all the flavor diffuses through the shell; on the second day, the flavor is much more potent.
Pork Feet
– Break two medium pieces from big one, peel the skin, and dump it in
– For one leg, 1 mug of soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of salt
– Add enough water to submerge the meat
– Add 8-star (ba-jiao)
– Add ginger
– Cook 10 hours in slow cooker
Mi Fun (Fried Rice Noodles)
Mom’s classic mouth-watering dish!
Ingredients
* 1 package of either “Tiger” or “Buddha” Stick Noodle
* 1 large pepper (any color, red or yellow preferably)
* 1 slab of pork
* Dried black mushrooms (shitake?)
* 1 ear of bok choy
* 1 large carrot (peeled) OR several baby carrots
* 2 eggs
* A variable amount of salt (simply have the entire carton ready)
* 1-2 onions
* Cooking oil
* Soy sauce (have a bottle ready)
* 2 teaspoons curry (optional)
Prepare the ingredients as follows: Before doing anything, the black mushrooms MUST be soaked in water for several hours before cooking. Slice them when they are moist and ready for stir-frying. Cut the onion(s) in half and slice into thin semicircles. Cut the raw pork into thin, 2-4 inch strips. Peel of 4-5 large bok choy leaves. Wash, then cut in half, then layer on top and cut in half again. After doing this 3 times, slice thinly and evenly, until you get a pile of 4-5 inch strips. Grate the peeled carrot, or simply cut the baby carrots into thin slices.
Fill a large pot approximately 3/4 full. Wait until boil, then add the entire package of noodles. Let boil for 1-2 minutes, then strain the noodles into a bowl, ready for stir frying.
Layer the bottom of the wok with cooking oil and the turn the heat on high. Wait until it simmers with a crackling sound. Add about 1.5 teaspoons of salt. First add the pork strips all at once. Add another teaspoon of salt and keep stirring until the pork turns white. Add the onions, continuing to stir. Add another teaspoon or so of salt. Keep stirring; wait two minutes, then stir again. Pour the carrots and bok choy in about the same time, adding another dash of salt. Cover the wok and wait about 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms, along with the water that the mushrooms were soaked in. Stir for 30 seconds, then push the mixture to the sides of the wok creating a small hold for a “pool” of egg yolks. Add the premixed eggs to the hole. Wait ten seconds, then use a large spoon and carefully cook the eggs without the stirring the rest of the mixture in.
Aanother two tablespoons of soy sauce and mix. If desired, add the tablespoon of curry. Keep stirring for twenty seconds, then lastly, add the mi fun. Stir the entire mixture thoroughly until the mixture looks like mi fun!
Serves 4-6.
Updated Order of ingredients:
* Mushrooms (30sec)
* Onion
* Salt – cook for 2 min
* Meat
* Carrots/Shrimp
* Soy Sauce (2min)
* Red Peppers
* 2 eggs
* Cabbage
* Add water and let steam
Mom’s Fried Rice
Tasty and quick for lunch or dinner, this dish can be customized in a variety of different ways with different spices and ingredients.
Suggested Ingredients:
* 1 cup diced baby carrots
* 2 red baby onions, peeled and diced
* 1 chicken breast, cooked and refrigerated, dressed with pepper
* 3 cloves of garlic, diced
* 2 eggs, mixed together (both whites and yolks)
* 1 can tuna fish
* 3 cups of white rice, precooked
* 1 bottle of soy sauce (amount mentioned later)
* Corn oil (for the frying pan)
* 1 handful of frozen green peas (or less)
Prepare all the ingredients above, and have them ready on a large plate and/or cup(s). Slice the chicken breast into thick, 2-inch strips. Ladle enough oil into a large frying pan, enough to cover the sides and bottom. On medium heat, wait until the oil begins to sizzle; accelerate the process by covering the top of the pan. Sprinkle all the garlic into the pan; wait thirty seconds. Onions are next, followed by green peas and onions. Mix the ingredients with a wooden spoon while cooking, tilting the pan along the way. Pour the mixed eggs into the mixture. Wait until the edges of the egg are white, then mix well with the wooden spoon. When the eggs are mostly finished, pour the can of tuna fish inside. Keep mixing until the ingredients are well mixed together and well done. When all the ingredients are finally done, turn the heat slightly lower and add the white rice, chunks at a time. Pour some soy sauce into the mixture while mixing the rice, and continue mixing. The white rice should be browner after adding the soy sauce; add enough to satisfy taste, but not too much to drown out other flavors. Continue to stir until everything looks like fried rice. Turn off the heat and taste.
Serves 3, 2-3 bowls each.
Beef Shank
– Chop up carrots, radishes (important), and 2 potatoes
– In a slow or fast pressure cooker, add water, soy sauce, and a little salt.
– Bring to boil
– Add 2 beef shank pieces
– Bring to boil
– Add radishes, carrots, and potatoes
– Cook for 6 hours in slow cooker or 30 minutes in fast cooker
Yeast 1 tsp
Flour 625g (3 1/2 cups)
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 2 TBSP
Milk powder 1 TBSP
Oil 20g (1 TBSP)
Water 310ml (1/2 cup)
Pizza dough cycle (45 min)
Take out and spread the dough into a roughly round shape and cut cut cut into small pieces, (I used to roll the dough into a log and cut into similar shapes but I’m not selling them so the less work the better!) then cover with a hand towel and proof for 30 min to 1 hour depending on temperature.
Steam for 10 minutes and eat. It should be enough for 4 adults. Or maybe 2 if they eat as much as I do. I just can’t stop eating them. I guess it’s the milk powder content that’s so addictive.
I suppose you can bake them too? I’m more into traditional Chinese “steaming” way of making buns and quite believe steaming costs less than baking.
I would add a date to each Mantou to make it more traditional but it would take me another 1 minute.
Or next time I could try adding some descicated coconut. Or some wholemeal flour. Or whatever in the pantry that I want to get rid of.