Author: Grandson

Ingredients and Prep(Mise en Place!)

Serves:  One grandmother, two parents, grandson and wife.

• Approximately .25 lbs of ground pork
• 4 cloves of diced garlic
• 2 heaping tablespoons of 原晒豉 (yuánshàichǐ aka Bean Sauce aka yellow bean paste aka salted yellow soybean sauce.
  • The bean sauce used in this recipe is made by KoonChun Sauce Factory.
• 1 container of cubed tofu.  Firmness is up to you.
• Canola Oil
• Two tablespoons of corn starch
• One tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon of Cayenne Pepper powder(more or less to taste)

Steps

• Marinate
  • Marinate ground pork with a tablespoon of soy sauce and stir in one tablespoon of corn starch.

• Fry/Simmer
  • Start with the browning of the diced garlic in a little canola oil until starting to brown around the edges.
  • Add ground pork to the pan and continue to fry the pork, occasionally mixing with a pair of chopsticks until lightly cooked through.
  • Simultaneously add the cubed tofu and two heaping spoonfuls of the 原晒豉.  Mix well and add 1/2 cup of water.  Let cook over medium heat for 10 more minutes.

• Finishing
  • Mix one tablespoon with a small amount of water and add to the mix.  Stir until incorporated and of the desired thickness.
  • Add Cayenne Pepper powder to taste and garnish with green onions from your planter box.

• Enjoy!

Ingredients and Prep(Mise en Place!)

Serves:  One grandmother, one uncle visiting from Hawaii, mother, father, and two other adults

• Approximately 5 lbs of chicken drumsticks(6) and thighs(7).  You want all of the pieces to be of roughly the same size and we ended up cutting all of the thighs in half along the bone.
• 2+ cups of flour.
• Approximately 2L of Canola Oil
• A paper bag.
• Marinade
  • 1/2 cup of light soy sauce.
  • 1 tablespoon of sugar.
  • A cap(or more) of whiskey.

Steps

• Marinade
  • Marinade chicken pieces in a bowl for approximately 2-3 hours.
• Prep
  • Line the paper bag with a cup of flour and start transferring the chicken into the bag for tossing until each piece of chicken is lightly coated.  Waiting a little bit between shaking will allow some of the flour to absorb moisture so that you can shake some more!

• Remove chicken from bag and place on plates and create a queue for cooking.  Group similarly sized pieces.

• Cook
  • Heat up a wok on high with approximately 60% of the wok filled with oil.  It should be enough oil to cover the pieces without it coming too close to the top once the chicken is added.  According to grandma, you will know when it is ready when you place your cooking chopsticks into the oil and it starts to bubble!

• Drop in the chicken to cook for approximately 6-7 minutes per piece or until the outside is the desired level of brown.

• Eat!  Preferably with a Hawaiian chocolate cookie wafer dessert and Silver Oak 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

Ingredients and Prep(Mise en Place!)

• Three Rice Cooker Cups of Glutenous Rice (aka Short Grain Sweet Rice aka 糯米(noh mái or nuò mǐ))
  • We used Koda Farms’ California Grown Sho-Chiku-Bai from Sunset Super.
• 1 can of chicken broth (14.5oz / 411g)
• About 10 dried shitake mushrooms soaked in about 1.5 cup of water for at least 30 min. and diced.  (0.5 of this goodness will be used later so don’t dump it out!)
• A small handfull of small dried shrimps (蝦米(hā máih) aka 虾米(xiā mǐ)) soaked in the same water as the mushrooms for about 5 minutes and roughly diced.
  • This is perfect to soak while chopping mushrooms.
• 3 Chinese Style Sausages diced (白油肠 (bai you chang) aka臘腸 (lap cheong)aka 腊肠)
  • We used Kam Yen Jan brand (aka 棧然金 (zhan ran jin))
• A splash of Soy Sauce

Steps

• Delicious Mix
  • Cook the Chinese sausage on medium-high heat in a medium pan for a few minutes to release some of the oil.
  • Add the mushrooms and shrimp to the pan and let cook for a few more minutes.
  • Splash a little soy sauce on the mixture and take off the heat immediately.  You want the soy sauce warm and mixed in but not evaporated.

• Rice
  • Add three rice cooker cups of Glutenous Rice to the rice cooker and wash.
  • Add up to 3 rice cooker cups of Chicken Broth to the pot along with half of a small rice cup of the mushroom/shrimp water from the soaking process.  If you do not have 3.5 rice cooker cups of liquid, use water.
  • Start Cookin! 

• Putting it all together
  • Depending on your rice cooker, the timing will vary but the critical point is right when the last of the water is evaporated but the rice is not yet done.  In our rice cooker, this point occurs when there is approximately 10 minutes left in the cooking process.  Monitor closely but do not open the lid more than you have to!

• When the time is right, pour your mixture on top of the rice and close the lid to let the rice cooking process finish.

• When the rice is finished, mix with the delicious mix of ingredients that you placed on top and finish off with soy sauce to taste(only if it needs it) until things are juuuuuuuust right.
• Eat and have food coma.