White Fungus Soup

Most Asian stores pack snow fungus. There is no substitute I know for this ingredients, and given its long shelf life and wonderful flavor, not to mention wonderful nutritional profile, should you try to replace it.

White Fungus Soup (based on this recipe)

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cooking Time:

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

1 package snow fungus

6 cups chicken broth

2 browned and shredded chicken breasts

1 cup peas

white pepper

Preparation:

Soak the fungus in warm water for fifteen minutes. Drain, place into a pot covered in water and bring to a boil. Boil it until it gets soft (around fifteen minutes). When it's finished, drain, and trim the "petals" from the hard inner body. Chopped the fungus into small pieces.

Cooking:

Heat the chicken broth and add the chicken, peas, snow fungus, and white pepper. Serve immediately.

Flowering Chives

This wonderful recipe utilizes flowering chives. You can find these in some Asian markets, or if you grow your own just take advantage of the flowers instead of discarding them!

Flowering Chives (based on this recipe)

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 7 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 bunches flowering chives

2 tbsp light soy sauce (or regular soy sauce)

2 tbsp chicken broth or water

1/2 tsp sugar

2 tbsp peanut oil (or canola oil)

1 tsp corn starch mixed with 4 tsp water

Substitutions:

flowering chives - chives

Preparation:

Chop up chives with a diagonal cut into 2 inch pieces (do not discard the flowers as you would for most recipes, they impart a distinct flavor in this one).

Cooking:

Heat a wok with the 2 tbsp oil. Wen oil is hot, add the flowering chives. Stir fry for 1 minutes, or until they turn a brighter green. Remove the chives and set them to the side.

Mix the other ingredients and add them to the wok. When mixed, add the cives back to the wok, and heat until sauce boils. Then remove from heat and serve immediately.

Chapter 23 : Cantonese (China)

Perhaps no cuisine has inspired as many retaurants as Chinese, altough there's almost no relation between actual Chinese foods and what is served at Mr. Lee's Best Szechuan Wok with its wonderfully greasy crab rangoon.

Now, we did explore Chinese food before, way back in Chapter 1. However, as we did so it was painfully apparent that while two weeks of attempted home cooking isn't enough to explore any cuisine, it doesn't even let us scratch the surface of the many regions of China.

Unfortunately, two weeks also isn't enough to figure outt he basics of even Cantonese cuisine, but we did what we could and we do have some interesting recipes for you, but before you jump in let me warn you: you're going to be doing a lot of steaming. And a wok wouldn't hurt.