Soy Sauce Chicken for the Birthday Girl

Unusual and festive! Traditionally in China this would be made with a whole chicken, but this rendition from Eileen Yin-Fei Lo is better for you! She remembers having the original version at birthday celebrations for her grandmother Ah Paw. She recommends serving it with stir-fried string beans.

Crab “soup Dumplings” (Dim Sum)

Not soup with dumplings in it, but dumplings with soup in them. This is a famous kind of steamed dumpling for dim sum. You bite a little hole in the dumpling, then carefully sip the scalding hot broth out of it, then dip the rest of the dumpling in a dip and eat. It’s amazing how they get it inside-out like that. I have just learned, from a cookbook called “Dim Sum and Other Chinese Street Food” by Mai Leung, that the secret is to gel some broth with agar-agar and seal the solid broth inside the dumplings. When the dumplings are heated, the broth liquifies again, so you get dumplings full of soup. I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I don’t usually make my own dim sum, so I thought I’d go ahead and post it for those who do. She says you can only make these a few hours in advance, and if you do, you should refrigerate them before steaming.

Cantonese Fried Rice

This delicious fried rice is a nice change of pace for leftover meat and veggies. It’s good made with your choice of ham, pork, or grilled chicken. I like to put the rice together early in the day then simply reheat it at suppertime. It’s already-tasty flavor seems to only improve with time!

Pea Shoots (Stir-Fried Pea Shoots — Chow Dau Miu)

Pea shoots are the tips of the vines and the top set of leaves of the pea plant. I was introduced to these by my BIL a couple of years ago. I found no recipes for it here or on line. Which lead me to add my recipe.

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