At Home with Chinese Cuisine (22 page)
Read At Home with Chinese Cuisine Online
Authors: T P Hong
Sweet and Sour (TangCu) Pork Tenderloin
糖醋里脊
I once was told that there were at least ninety-nine different blends of sweet and sour in Chinese cooking. After experimenting with a large number of dishes, I came to appreciate that ninety-nine is just a figure of speech – there are so many variations in this blend of tastes that they are beyond counting. The long list of variables that can influence the taste of the sauce includes the proportion of sugar and vinegar, the source of sweetness and acidity, any addition of soy sauce and salt, and how the main ingredients are prepared.
The two very different styles of preparation found in Beijing and GuangDong Province represent the mainstream classic sweet and sour dishes in the north and in the south. Beijing and GuangDong Province have been fighting to claim for themselves the birthplace of the internationally renowned sweet and sour sauce. For those in the know, it is pretty much settled that sweet and sour sauce originated from Beijing. But after years of taking up residence in GuangDong, what remains of their common heritage is the name of the sauce in English.
TangCu is “sweet and sour” in Chinese; Tang is sugar, and Cu is vinegar. The traditional TangCu dish in Beijing uses soy sauce to give a brownish-red colour. The vinegar used is normally the general-purpose, brownish rice vinegar, which also gives a darker colour than that which Western diners are familiar with from the Chinese takeaways that predominately offer GuangDongnese style food. Even though ketchup and pineapple slices have been making inroads into the northern diet in recent years to give colour and acidity to TangCu dishes, the traditionalists in Beijing often wince at the sight of them.
To enjoy a dish of sweet and sour pork tenderloin properly, deep-frying is a necessary step. The bite into the tender pieces of pork, coated with the crisp batter that soaks up the sauce without turning too soggy, is one of the enjoyments of having this dish. The batter can be prepared using different flours. After being deep-fried, it needs to give a little for the sauce to penetrate without going too soft.
It is important to get the taste of the sauce the way you like it. Trial and error is the way to go. I suggest that you try out the sauce mixture in a saucepan to adjust the recipe to your liking first. Taste the liquid ingredients before using them so that you have an idea what to do with different brands.
250-300 g pork tenderloin cooking oil for deep-frying For the marinade: 4 t rice wine salt and pepper For the batter: 30 g cornflour mixed with 45 ml water 60 g plain flour 1 medium-sized egg | Prepare the pork tenderloin first. Remove any sinews and cut the meat into 2 cm cubes, 1/3 cm slices, or 1 × 1 × 5 cm strips. To marinade the meat, please see “Marinade (how to)” in the Readers’ Guide to Recipes. Prepare the batter by combining the ingredients together into a batter. Look for a coating consistency close to that of the double cream. To test the consistency, lift the batter up with a chopstick; the batter should coat the chopstick properly. Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl. To deep-fry the pork pieces: Heat the oil in a wok over a medium heat or a deep fryer until about 170°C. Put the pork into the oil one piece at a time and count to 10 before you start to stir them. Separate them to keep them from sticking to each other. Drain them in a colander when the batter picks up a bit of colour. Deep-fry the pork a second time to crisp up the batter. Heat the oil to 210°C and put the pork back in to the oil. Drain them in a colander when the batter is golden in colour with a hollow sound when dropped on the plate. |
Sweet and sour sauce mixture: 1 spring onion white, finely chopped 3 slices ginger, finely chopped 1 T light soy sauce 2 T rice wine 4 T rice vinegar (for example, ShanXi old-aged vinegar) 60 g sugar 2 t cornflour with 2 t water 75 ml water 1/5 t salt | Prepare the sauce immediately. Place a wok over a medium-low heat and add 10 ml of the cooking oil into the wok when it is hot. Pour the sauce mixture into the wok and stir continuously. When the sauce thickens and bubbles vigorously, put the meat in and stir until the sauce coats the meat and no loose sauce is left in the wok. Plate and serve immediately. |
Please note that ShanXi old-aged vinegar gives the dish a darker colour than when the generic rice vinegar is used.
Oxtail and ox cheek are forgotten cuts that have started to reappear in British supermarkets recently. They are lovely ingredients for slow cooking. The dish of braised oxtails and ox cheeks is the ultimate comfort food in the cold months when the sky is cold and blue. They are richly gelatinous, and one’s lips can be sealed if one is not careful during the meal.
The oxtail is a fairly common ingredient in China with no north-south divide. It was used in court cuisine and prepared with upscale ingredients such as abalone. Braised oxtail or oxtail soup is a traditional dish in provinces such as GuangDong, HuNan, ShanXi, and SiChuan. The main ingredient has a humble origin, and chefs tend to prepare the dish with the utmost care so that the dish is fit for high tables.
The French way of adding vegetables such as onions, carrots, and celery in preparing stock and sauce is not a common practice in China. Chinese use herbs and spices instead. I think it is a good idea to combine the two practices to increase the variety of ingredients and to add more flavour to the dish. The thing you need to strive for is to achieve a harmonious blending of tastes, aroma, and texture that you enjoy. This recipe is my take on the fusion for preparing the cuts. The quantity is sufficient to feed two adults and two gluttonous Labradors for dinner.
1 kg (about 7–8 pieces) oxtail of similar size 500 g ox cheek 6 T rice wine 4 star anise segments 3 cm cassia bark 1–2 fresh hot red chilli (optional) 10 g tomato purée 10 g ginger, finely diced 4 garlic cloves, split in half 1 small carrot, finely diced 1 medium onion, finely diced | Put sufficient cold water in a pan to cover the oxtail. Place the pan over a medium heat and bring the water to a boil. Let the water boil gently for about 5 minutes. Drain, rinse the pieces, and pat them dry. Prepare a frying pan with oil over a medium heat. Put the oxtail and the ox cheek in and pan-fry until the meat picks up a light golden colour. Use kitchen towels to remove excess oil on the surface of the meat, or rinse them with warm water and pat them dry. Dice the onion, carrots, and celery into 5 mm pieces. For this dish, use the tender layers of stalks in the centre of the Chinese leaf. Remove the outer 5–6 layers of the Chinese leaf. Chinese leaf, with its cylinder shape, has a core to hold the stalks together. Cut the Chinese leaf lengthwise in half, and cut each half into 6 pieces with the stalks still attached to the core. |
1celery stalk, finely diced 6–8 fresh shiitake mushrooms, rinsed and cleaned hot water salt and pepper 1 T naturally fermented or light soy sauce (optional) cooking oil 1 Chinese leaf (optional) | Prepare a braising pan with flat bottom over a medium heat. The meat should snugly fit into the pan in a single layer. Pour in 20 ml of the cooking oil and wait until it is hot. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and ginger and stir-fry. Turn the heat down and put the lid on to cook until the onion is transparent and soft. Turn the heat up a little, add the star anise and cassia bark, and stir until their aroma is released. Add the tomato puree and stir to amalgamate with other ingredients. Put the meat into the pan, add the wine, and let it simmer away until there is no liquid visible in the bottom of the pan. Add the garlic and the chilli (if used) and stir. Pour enough hot water into the pan to just cover the meat. Allow the liquid to boil; skim off the scum. Turn down the heat to allow the liquid to simmer gently (with fish-eye bubbles, as described by the Chinese). Put the lid on and cook for about 2 hours. In an AGA cooker, leave the pan on the rack at the bottom of the baking oven for 1 1/2 hours (or in the conventional oven 160°C for about 2 hours). Taste to season on the light side because you are going to reduce the liquid further. Place the pan over a medium-high heat; let the liquid bubble away to thicken. Add the shiitake mushrooms and Chinese leaf (if used), stirring from time to time to prevent sticking. Add the soy sauce at this stage (if used). Reduce the liquid down to the extent that the meat is coated with the sauce and is shiny and viscous. Switch off the heat and put the lid back on. Leave the pan somewhere warm to rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. |
Meatballs (Lion Head) with Crab Meat
清炖蟹粉獅子頭
According to folklore, this famous JianSu dish was designed by imperial chefs from the court of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty (who reigned from 606–618) to commemorate the scenic spots he had visited in YangZhou, a city in JianSu Province. One of the places the emperor visited was the Hill of Sunflower. Imperial chefs were hard at work and designed a meatball to symbolise the circular head of the sunflower. It was further told that this dish was renamed over a dinner hosted by a well-respected, retired military mandarin in the following Tang Dynasty. It was agreed among the guests during a banquet that a giant meatball resembles more of a lion’s head than the circular head of the sunflower. It had double meanings that compliment the host’s status: the head denoted the leader of the military, and the lion symbolises bravery, power, and nobility.
Folklore did not touch upon the cooking method of the imperial dish. The more elaborate cooking method for the banquet JianSu style is to simmer the meatball in broth. Shiitake mushrooms can be added to the broth to enhance the umami taste. The broth is then clarified the same way as preparing consommé. “Gentle does it” is the motto in preparing this dish. The very gentle cooking process demands the cooking liquid to be simmering very gently, or else the dish will turn into a pot of minced pork soup. The resultant melt-in-your-mouth texture of the meatball makes a good chef stand out from others.
Pork belly or side pork is used for preparing the meatballs. In the old days when fatty pork was feasted on with no concern for its health implications, 50 per cent fat and 50 per cent lean meat were used. The meatball will taste dry and compact if there is no fat in it. These days, the percentages vary depending on individual’s preference. The mixture of 30 per cent fat and 70 per cent lean meat is probably the limit to give the right texture.
The leaves of the cylinder-shaped Chinese leaf are used to cover the meatballs during the cooking process to ensure that the meatballs are fully immersed in cooking liquid so that they will be cooked evenly and no part of them will float above the cooking liquid to catch a brownish tinge on the surface. The leaves also help to trap the steam underneath to cook the meatballs properly. They are discarded at the end of the cooking process.
The clay pot or saucepan used to simmer the meatballs needs to have plenty of room to accommodate the meatballs, with enough width and depth to allow the meatballs to float about without bumping into each other too much during the cooking.
400 g belly pork or side pork 50 g crabmeat, fresh or tinned 50 g water chestnuts, fresh or tinned, cleaned and rinsed 50 g medium-sized egg white salt and pepper 2 spring onion whites, finely chopped 15 g ginger, finely chopped 4 t cornflour 8 baby pak choy 3–4 leaves from the Chinese leaf water or chicken stock | Dice the pork finely first and then chopping it coarsely to the size of pomegranate seeds (no larger than 0.5 cm). Dice crabmeat and water chestnuts to the same size of pomegranate seeds as well. Place the pork in a mixing bowl. Mix in 2–4 T of water by hand, lift up the mixture, and throw it down against the bottom of the bowl several times until the mixture feels a bit sticky. Add the salt and white pepper and continue throwing until the mixture is sticky to touch. Add water chestnuts, crabmeat, spring onions, and ginger. Continue throwing the mixture by hand until it is sticky again. Mix in 2 t of the cornflour followed by 20 g of the egg white. Do not stir the mixture in the same direction vigorously during the mixing process, or else it will affect the structure of the protein. Instead of melting in your mouth, the meatball will have a compact texture you can bite into. Mix well 2 t of the cornflour with the remaining 30 g of the egg white. Prepare a pot (clay pot preferred) of gently simmering water or chicken stock over a low heat. There should be sufficient liquid to allow the meatballs not to bump into each other too much and to float comfortably in it. Divide the pork mixture into 8 portions; place each portion in the palm and move between the palms gently to produce a meatball with smooth surface. Cover the palms with a thin layer of the cornflour and egg white mixture to evenly coat the surface of the meatball. Switch off the heat and put the meatballs gently into the water. Repeat the process with the rest of the pork mixture. Switch the heat back on over a low heat. Wait for the meatballs to float on the water surface and place the Chinese leaves on top of them. When the water returns to a gentle simmer, turn the heat down as low as possible, put the lid on and simmer very gently for 2-3 hours. Check from time to time that the water is simmering very gently or remove the lid. Measure sufficient quantity of cooking liquid for the serving (soup) bowls. Clarify the liquid or put it through a sieve lined with muslin. Leave it in a saucepan over a medium heat and season to your liking. Leave the meatballs in the pot still covered with the leaves Just before serving, blanch the young pak choy in lightly salted boiling water. Put the stalks in first, count to 5, and slide the whole plant into the water. Count to 5 and bring them out. For serving, ladle the (clarified) cooking liquid into the individual serving bowl. Discard the leaves covering the meatballs and place the meatball in the bowl. Place pak choy by the side of the meatball and serve immediately. |