imitation shark fin soup.

Shark fin soup was a favorite staple for me growing up. Whenever my parents had a Chinese-style banquet to attend, this was the one thing I looked forward to. (Despite needing to lay down in my mom's lap afterward due to my allergic reaction to the MSG in the soup. Yes, what Asian is allergic to MSG?! Me.) My mom makes her own version of this soup. It's not exactly the same, but I love soup and I love mom so it's all good in my eyes. Plus, no MSG! Next time, I'd like to try adding clear noodles and dried mushrooms.

Ingredients (served 3 people with leftovers):

• Chicken broth (freshly made, or one can)
• Imitation shark fin ("fried conger pike maw" package pictured below)
• Crab (my mom used packaged crab like the one pictured below)
• Dried bamboo insides (?? still figuring out what this is, my mom didn't know how to translate it to English, but it seems optional)
• Celery, chopped
• Green onions, chopped
• Canned corn
• One egg, beaten
• One tablespoon corn starch mixed with two tablespoons water
• Salt
• Sugar
• Rice Vinegar
• White pepper

1. To prepare, soak imitation shark fin in warm water until soft, then chop into small pieces.
2. Soak bamboo insides in water until soft (optional ingredient)

3. Bring chicken broth to boil
4. Add shark fin and crab into soup when broth starts boiling, then bring down to light boil.
5. Add salt and/or sugar to taste
6. Add celery and corn.

7. Add beaten egg (hold high and use chopsticks to let it pour in using a circular motion), mix in until "flowered".

8. Add corn starch immediately after.

9. Add green onions, let simmer for a minute or two, then serve!
10. Serving tip: in individual bowls, add white pepper and rice vinegar to taste.

spam and tofu.

This dish is a simple one my mom makes using spam, tofu, shrimp and tomato. It's a comfort food dish for me since I love all of the ingredients, especially spam.

Ingredients (enough to serve 3 people with plenty of leftovers):

• One can low-sodium spam
• One large tomato
• Firm tofu
• Shrimp
• Corn (optional)
• Green onions, chopped
• One teaspoon corn starch mixed with some cold water
• Cooking oil (mom's pro tip: grape seed oil is better for the higher temperatures Chinese cooking requres)

1. Chop tofu into squares. Make sure to use firm tofu!

2. Cut spam into thin slices so it's easier to cook, chop into sizes that match the tofu.

3. Bring some water to a light boil, then put tomato in whole, flip over after a few seconds. Remove from water and wash with cold water. Skin becomes easy to peel off. (I didn't know this trick before!!!) Chop tomato.

4. Use about one tablespoon oil in the wok.
5. Add chopped green onions to oil, stir fry for about one minute.
6. Add spam and chopped tomatoes to wok.


7. Add some water (to taste depending on how salty dish becomes) -- you want enough so that it covers all of the spam, to help flavor the water.
8. Add tofu to wok.
9. When it starts boiling turn into medium low heat and cover, let it cook until flavors are brought out, stir occasionally. (At least 5 minutes)
10. Add shrimp once tofu looks plump and ready. Add corn (optional).
11. If there is too much water in the mix, uncover the wok and let boil for a few minutes. Add corn starch mix once water level is just enough, add to the sides of the wok in a circular motion so it's evenly distributed.
12. Once consistency is less liquidy, serve!

fukienese style gai-lan vegetable.

Gai-lan (or kai-lan in Cantonese) vegetable, also known as Chinese broccoli in the US, is a vegetable my mom prepares quite a bit. I learned that the difference between the Cantonese and Fukienese version of the dish is that the Fukienese add rice wine to the sauce. A subtle, but delicious difference. This was a ridiculously easy vegetable dish, and the results are delicious and healthy.

Ingredients:

• Gai-lan vegetable
• Cooking oil (mom used grape seed oil)
• Salt
• Oyster Sauce
• Rice Wine (optional)

1. To prepare, cut off the end of the vegetable and pull leaves apart. Break off and separate the stem. Skin the stems (If it's still fresh, the skin doesn't come off as easily and you won't need to skin too much), then chop into smaller pieces.

2. In a large pot, add a small amount of oil to some water, add some salt (helps keep vegetable looking green). Bring the water to a boil.

3. Add chopped stems first, then wait for the water to start boiling again to add the rest (stems will change from white to a slightly more transparent color). 

4. In a separate serving dish, add one tablespoon oil and oyster sauce to taste. Add rice wine (optional).
5. Remove vegetables from water and add to serving dish, mix. Add more oyster sauce if needed. Serve!

fried rice noodles.

This dish, also referred to as Taiwanese fried rice noodles, or in Chinese as "tsao mi fun" (炒米粉), is one of my mom's favorite dishes. And of course me being someone who doesn't discriminate against any noodle, it's one of my favorites as well. 

My inspiration for finally learning to cook this dish actually came from my co-worker, a fellow Fukienese descendant whose mom makes similar dishes. (Background: my parents are both from the Fujian region of China.) Lucky me, my co-worker brought some she made at home for me to try, and upon learning it was an easy dish, I immediately texted my mom and asked her to buy me my first wok and teach me her fried noodle ways.

You definitely need a good-sized wok for this dish, since with all the ingredients together, it takes up a lot of space and requires constant stir-frying to keep the flavoring even.

My first try. Easy and delicious!

Ingredients (about 4-6 servings):

• Pack of thin rice noodles (half)
• Dried shitake mushrooms (8, soak in hot water for 30 minutes. Keep the water)
• Dried small shrimp (optional - these are the tiny dried shrimps Chinese use a lot in their dishes)
• Green onion (2)
• Ground pork (about 1/2 lb. or more)
• Soy sauce
• Fish sauce
• Sugar (optional)
• White pepper powder
• Cooking oil (I used olive oil)
• Cabbage (half, thinly sliced)
• Carrots (2 medium sized carrots, julienned)
• Chicken broth (1 small can)
• Plenty of arm strength for flipping noodles in the wok

The dried mushroom and rice noodles I used.

1. Let dried shrimp soak in boiled hot water for 15 minutes.
2. Let mushroom soak in boiled hot water for 30 minutes, wash with sink water, then chop. Use about 8 mushrooms for a medium wok-ful of noodles. More if you're like me and love mushrooms.
3. Boil water, then cook half of the pack of rice noodles until soft. Drain and set aside noodles for later.
4. On High heat, put one tablespoon oil and cook two tablespoons of chopped green onions in wok.
5. Stir fry two "clumps" of ground pork in wok. (My mom specifically used "clump" in Chinese as a measuring size. Each "clump" was about the size of my palm. I looked online for similar recipes and I'd guess about 1/2 lb. would be good for this.)
6. Add one teaspoon soy sauce (optional: a small amount of sugar). Cook the meat until ready, then remove everything and set aside.
7. Add two tablespoons of oil and cook dried shrimp and mushroom together in wok.
8. Add chopped cabbage and carrots, then stir fry.
9. Add mushroom water and shrimp water (but make sure to exclude the dirt that will settle at the bottom). You can also use fish sauce for the a similar type of umami. Dilute the fish sauce with water when adding.
10. On Low heat, add chicken broth (start with half a can) and add noodles to the wok. Stir fry.
11. Add a few dashes of white pepper powder. I added quite a bit since I like the smell of it.
12. If noodles are not soft enough, add more chicken broth.
13. Add back the cooked ground pork and stir fry everything until flavor is consistent throughout.
14. Add soy sauce and fish sauce to adjust the flavor.
15. Serve and enjoy!

egg and tomato.

The Chinese egg and tomato dish is one of the easiest and fool-proof dishes ever. I didn't take a photo the times I made this dish so I had to struggle Google image this.

Photo Source: The World of Chinese

Ingredients:

• Eggs (about 4 or 5 for two people, more if you're hungry)
• Tomato (about 2 or 3, or more if you want)
• Green Onion (chopped, keep the white parts)
• Salt
• Sugar
• Some kind of cooking oil (I use olive oil)

1. Scramble eggs with salt. To measure the amount of salt for this, my mom showed me a neat trick: Dash a bit of salt on each yolk right before you beat he eggs.
2. Add chopped green onion (however much you want for flavor) to the beat eggs.
3. Heat oil in pan, then scramble eggs lightly and remove from pan.
4. Heat more oil in the pan and add the chopped white part of the green onion
5. Chop tomatoes and add to pan with a small amount of water. The amount of water depends on personal preference for how watery you want the dish, but it should be just enough so that when you add the eggs it will easily cook and soak up the tomato flavors.
6. Add a few pinches of salt and sugar "until it tastes right." (My mom's words.)
7. Depending on how soggy you want the tomatoes, add the eggs back to the pan when the tomatoes are just the right amount of cooked.
8. Cook the eggs in the tomato mixture until the flavor has been cooked in.
9. Serve over rice.

introduction.

I am a second generation Chinese American, born and raised in Southern California. I understand conversational Mandarin and speak fluent Chinglish. I even look Asian, too! And, as evidenced by the photo below (note: outdated photo and clearly an outdated outfit), I actually freakishly resemble the women on my mom's side. Same squinty cheek dimples and all.

L to R: meet my mom, grandma, and aunt!

Unlike them, most of their culture is now lost on me. I barely know where my parents and their families came from and I won't be able to teach my kids Mandarin. The older I get, the more that fact saddens me. I can, however, eat... and sort of cook.

Enter 2015. Realizing my mom's Chinese dishes are basically the best thing to ever happen to me growing up (second only to my mom's sheer awesomeness), I no longer wanted these dishes to be lost with her as my generation and the next all grow up and move on in life. Learning dishes from a Chinese person whose first language isn't English is a bit of a challenge, as I can't just ask for quick and easy write-ups and my mom only knows the Chinese names of many of the ingredients she uses. However, I'm up for this challenge and want this to be a chance to not only preserve my heritage, but to spend precious quality time with the woman who gave me everything I have today. My boyfriend's cousin also had a brilliant idea to take photos for reference and start a blog to document the recipes. (Shout to Ryan and Andie for being my initial supporters of this project, and Amy for the name of the blog.)

Meet Keli, master chef (in my house, at least), my best friend, my mom. This is Keli's Kitchen.