Wendy Ra­hamut

De­li­cious Chi­nese foods spicy, earthy, aro­mat­ic, is a di­vine sen­sa­tion on our taste buds. No won­der we're al­ways in the mood! Con­trast­ing tex­tures crunchy with smooth; dish­es that sing with the flavour­ings of gin­ger and come alive with the headi­ness of gar­lic. The ex­ot­ic warm­ing sauces cre­at­ed with smoky black mush­rooms and height­ened with oys­ter sauce and the sub­tle in­flu­ences of soy sauce, sesame oil and fresh herbs all per­fect­ly bathe fresh seafood, poul­try, egg noo­dles and ten­der crisp veg­eta­bles. The won­der­ful thing about it all is that it's so easy to pre­pare in your very own kitchen. The trick is to have all your in­gre­di­ents on hand and have all your prepa­ra­tion done be­fore you start the ac­tu­al cook­ing. Try these!

MU SHU CHICK­EN

1 tsp Sesame oil

1 tbs soy sauce

1/2 lb chick­en breasts. Bone­less, cut in­to thin strips

3 Chi­nese black mush­rooms soaked in warm wa­ter for 30 mins.

1 tbs grat­ed gin­ger

1 tbs chopped gar­lic

1 cup shred­ded cab­bage

1 egg, beat­en

2 tbs veg­etable oil

Mar­i­nate chick­en in sesame oil and soy sauce for 20 min­utes.

Heat oil in wok, add 1/2 tbs gin­ger and 1/2 tbs gar­lic, stir fry un­til fra­grant, add chick­en pieces and stir fry un­til it los­es its pink­ness, two to three min­utes, re­move from wok and cool.

Clean wok, heat oil in wok, add egg and turn once, re­move and cut in­to rib­bons.

Add oil to wok and add the rest of the gin­ger and gar­lic to the wok add veg­eta­bles and Mush­rooms stir fry for a cou­ple of min­utes un­til soft add egg and chick­en

back to wok, add sauce and cook un­til thick.

Sprin­kle with chopped chives and serve with chi­nese pan­cakes.

Sauce

11/2 tbs soya sauce

1/4 tsp sug­ar

1 tbs Oys­ter Sauce

1/4 cup wa­ter

1 tsp Sesame Oil

1 tsp hot Chili oil

1/2 tsp corn­starch

Com­bine all the in­gre­di­ents and

use in the above recipe.

GIN­GERY STIR FRIED SHRIMP

2 ta­ble­spoons rice vine­gar

2 ta­ble­spoons chopped fresh chadon beni

1 tbs chopped gar­lic

2 ta­ble­spoons sliced gin­ger

1 hot pep­per, seed­ed and chopped

2 tea­spoons hon­ey

12 ounces un­cooked medi­um shrimp, peeled, de­veined, tails left in­tact

4 blades chives, sliced

1 tea­spoons corn­starch

1/2 cup wa­ter

1 tbs veg­etable oil

Mix vine­gar, chadon beni, 1/2 tbs gin­ger, and hon­ey in small bowl. Sea­son shrimp with one tea­spoon gar­lic, salt and pep­per.

Heat oil in heavy large skil­let or a wok over medi­um-high heat.

Add gar­lic, gin­ger, and pep­per; saut&ea­cute; un­til aro­mat­ic, about three min­utes.

Add shrimp, cook un­til pink and curled, add vine­gar mix­ture to skil­let; stir un­til shrimp are just cooked through, about three min­utes.

Dis­solve corn­starch in 1/2 cup wa­ter.

Add mix­ture to skil­let; stir un­til liq­uid thick­ens, about two min­utes.

Sprin­kle on chives and serve.

Serves Four

CHI­NESE PAN­CAKES

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup boil­ing wa­ter

1 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbs sesame oil to brush dough with.

Com­bine all in­gre­di­ents and knead to a firm dough, cov­er and let rest for 30 min­utes.

Di­vide dough in­to three parts.

Roll each part to 1/8 inch thick­ness and cut in­to 31/2 inch cir­cles. You should get six to eight.

Brush four pieces with

sesame oil and cov­er

with un­oiled pieces.

Re­peat for all of the dough.

Heat a tawah or fry­ing pan.

Roll each dough sand­wich to 1/8 inch thick­ness, cook on tawah un­til bub­bly on one side,flip and cook for a few sec­onds more.

Dough should bal­loon.

Re­peat un­til all the dough is cooked, place in a tow­el to keep warm.

Split the dough in­to two pieces.

Serve with mushu chick­en.