Cooking my first Chinese Dish

I have spent hours combing the internet searching for good recipes for Chinese dishes.  I have amassed 15 or 20 that I think we will like.  On my trip to the IKEA, I had purchased a wok and some wok tools.  I had picked one of the recipes… copied the ingredient list… and gotten all them at the CarreFour run on Saturday.  I am armed and ready to make my first dish. 

I am an experienced cook and others tell me I am a good cook.  I cook lots of Italian and southern home cooking. Mostly I cook hearty comfort food.  And I love to bake…making desserts is a heavenly experience.  But do so now days only on holidays and special occasions.  Although loved by all, the dessert leftovers are a killer to the waistline.  However, I just never got into Chinese or Asian cooking.  I always thought it took too much time and was way too complicated.  Maybe it was because I did not know what most of the ingredients were… but whatever the reason I shied from it…I did.  But now I live in China… it is time to master the art of Chinese cooking.

So last night I tried my hand at Chinese cooking.  The recipe… Szechuan Beef and Green Beans.   I thought this would be a fairly simple recipe to start with.  So I careful read the recipe so I would have in mind what I needed to do.  Now, I should preface, I do not have any of my kitchen stuff from home… no measuring stuff or anything like that.  I bought a sharp knife and small cutting board, a couple of mixing bowls, one pot and a wok.  I also picked up two real serving spoons at the Carrefour.  Other than that, I have paper plates and plastic forks.  Not a very well equipped kitchen at this junction.

Following the step by step… washed and prepped the beans, then cut up the ginger, garlic, and scallions.  Guessimating all the quantities… thank goodness this is not an exact science like baking.  I mixed up the ingredients for the sauce.  Thinly sliced the flank steak… I must admit, I have avoided meat since I got here.  I have had concerns since there is nothing like the FDA in China that I am aware of.  But we found some that looked fresh at the Carrefour and will take the plunge. 

Now I must tell you here… it is me… and not Michael that is a bit uncertain of the food.  He has eaten everything that does not run from him.  He has tried EVERYTHING that has been offered to him.  I am not sure he has found anything up to this point that he would not eat again.  I on the other hand, have been reluctant to try much of anything.  Saturday was the first time I ate local food in a local restaurant.  It was really on the edge of actually eating the local food.  It was a fried rice dish with mushrooms and chicken.  It was ok… the seasoning was a bit strange.  I think a little soy sauce might have helped it a lot… but none on the table, which I thought was odd.  It was a place known for its soup.  I figured the rice dish was the safest bet for my first time out.

Anyway… back to my cooking.  Michael came in about this time and he began to help. He was reading the recipe off the computer, which actually was a great help.  Ok… it is time to actually put heat under that wok and give it a whirl!!  I am to dry cook the beans…. First term I am not familiar with… so we go to the step by step instructions so we can see the pictures.  This is really only coating the wok with oil and cooking the beans until they pucker.  That sounds easy enough.  So we puckered up those beans!  Removed them from the heat and drained them. 

Now it is time to really get busy.  Things happen pretty quickly from this point on.  More oil in the hot wok… add the ginger and garlic and cook for a second, then the Szechuan chili sauce.  I do not remember seeing any notation about level of heat in the chili sauce.  It calls for a teaspoon full.  I guess a conservative teaspoon with my trusty plastic spoon.  The minute it hit the heat… we knew we were in trouble. It was immediate…our eyes teared up and our noses burned!!!  There was no escaping the burn.  It opened our sinuses like only one other thing I can ever remember…. Uncle Thurland’s peppers!  He gave them to you in a small baby food jar.  It was all you needed.  The minute the lid popped and the vapors escaped you knew you were in trouble.  Well… that is how this was when it hit the heat of that wok.

You are supposed to stir this in for a second then add the meat strips… you are committed and cannot turn back now.  So the meat goes in and I am stir-frying that meat through the tears.  Michael has left the kitchen coughing… what a wimp!!!  I am browning that steak, stirring it around in that hot, and very aromatic wok when Michael shouts to me…. “Are we having any rice with this?” 

Oh darn… I had forgotten all about the rice.  I shout back… “You will have to do it…get in here!”  Rice takes 20 minutes so we are going to have to wait on it, but I will cover the wok to keep it hot.  I am telling him what to do for the rice and we get it cooking. 

I added back the green beans and finish the process.  I added the final drizzle of sesame seed oil and slapped the lid on it to wait for the rice.  The lid helped to stop the burning sensation in our eyes.

Everything is ready.  I heaped our paper plates with the freshly cooked rice.  Removed the lid from the wok and spooned the beautiful creation over the rice.  It is the moment of truth!!  How was it going to taste?  Were we going to have to call in a pizza?  I honestly did not know whether we would be able to eat it even if the flavor was good… it might be too hot for us to handle.  As we have grown older, the hot and spicy stuff really takes a toll.   And we have no antacids.  They are packed in the household shipment.  We have already gone through the few I had presence of mind to pack in our luggage.

Now … we take the first bite….. Yum!!!!  It was delicious… very spicy and definitely hot… not so much while eating… but the after burn!!!   However we ate every bite of it.  No leftovers for tomorrow.  But I am thinking next time…I will reduce the amount of chili sauce by at least half.  Yea…success!!!

Ok…it is time to determine the next Chinese dish I want to try.  I have the renewed confidence I need… maybe I will tackle something more complicated.  We will see.  Until next time….bon appétit!!!