Have you got stuck in a bit of a rut with your cooking? – Same old, same old, week in, week out. Let’s face it, everyone’s super busy, so it’s easy to get stuck on ‘repeat’. So, how about being a little adventurous? This week I’ll share three super easy recipes from Suzie Lee’s new book ‘Simply Speedy Chinese.’
Ireland has had a long love affair with Chinese food, sweet and sour, stir-fry, Chow Mein, spring rolls…The first Irish-Chinese restaurant was opened in Belfast in the 1960’s, but there’s so much more. I have only been to China twice, once to Chengdu in 2017 for a Slow Food International Congress and to Beijing and Yanti in 2018 for the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Every type of food was memorable – definitely one of the great cuisines of the world and enormously diverse, most of the Chinese food we have in Ireland is heavily influenced by Cantonese cuisine, but change is happening rapidly as the number of Chinese students particularly increases.
Dublin’s Chinatown centred around Parnell Street, Gardiner Street and Moore Street expands expeditiously with a hugely popular radio station, twice weekly on Ana Luna Radio Station and two Chinese newspapers for the growing Chinese community.
Recent celebrations to welcome in the Chinese New Year of the Fire Horse, were bigger, better and more artistic, colourful and musical than ever before, with an increasing number of Irish joining in the fabulous celebrations of Chinese culture.
Chinese people love offal and know how to cook the less expensive cuts of meat to melting tenderness. Suzie Lee’s new book concentrated on yummy meals in 30 minutes or less.
Sweet Chilli Prawns Skewers, stir-fried Choi Sum and chilli crisp green leaves can all be on the table in less than 10 minutes
Smashed Cucumber Salad. Hot Peanut Butter Noodles, Suzie’s Chicken and Pomelo Salad in less than 15 minutes.
Duck with Ginger and Spring Onions, XO Mussels, Pork and Bean Sprout Stir-Fry, Quick Dumplings two ways… 30 minutes or less and on and on.
Suzie is happy to use stock cubes and granules but do use homemade stock if you have it to hand.
All the ingredients for the recipes are readily available in many local supermarkets across the country and in Asian shops.
Simply Speedy Chinese, Meals in 30 Minutes or Less by Suzie Lee is published by Quadrille.
Veggie Mince Lettuce Wraps
These lettuce wraps (called san choi bao in Chinese) can be made with any type of minced (ground) meat or soy mince (TVP), which I have used here. The soy mince soaks up all the different seasonings and can be cooked from frozen in minutes, which is a real time-saver. This dish is packed with flavour and is great for sharing. If you decide to use minced meat, there may be some extra liquid when cooking, in which case, add a little cornflour (cornstarch) paste towards the end of cooking.
Serves 4
(Prep: 5 minutes/Cook: 20 minutes)
Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp finely chopped or grated garlic
1 tbsp finely chopped or grated fresh
ginger root
1 onion, finely diced
1 celery stalk, finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
handful of mushrooms of your choice, finely diced
300g frozen soy mince (TVP) or minced (ground) meat (chicken, beef, pork or turkey)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce (or regular oyster sauce)
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
1 tsp sesame oil
fine sea salt and ground white pepper
To Serve
sliced chillies
sliced spring onions (scallions)
1 large gem lettuce or small iceberg lettuce, leaves separated
Method
Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan over a high heat and fry the garlic and ginger for about 2 minutes until fragrant.
Add the onion, celery, carrot and mushrooms and cook for about 10 minutes until softened.
Add the soy mince (or your meat of choice) and cook for about 2 minutes.
Now add the light and dark soy sauces, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil and cook for a further 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and white pepper.
Serve garnished with chillies and spring onions,
piled into lettuce leaves.
Quick Dumplings
My children are addicted to dumplings in all their forms, and this is the quickest way I know to make them. Using a food processor to blend the ingredients helps to speed things up. You can make either gyozas or wontons and boiling them is much quicker than frying or deep-frying, but you can also pop them in an air fryer.
Makes
16-20 dumplings
(Prep: 10 minutes/Cook: up to 15 minutes)
Ingredients
150g chicken breast (about 1 breast)
50g mushrooms (white, chestnut/cremini or shiitake)
1 spring onion (scallion), roughly chopped
1 heaped tsp cornflour (cornstarch), plus extra for dusting if you are frying the dumplings
1 tsp sesame oil
½ tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dark soy sauce
¼ tsp fine sea salt
good pinch of ground white pepper
16-20 gyoza or wonton wrappers
1 tbsp vegetable oil (optional, if frying)
dipping sauce of your choice, to serve (optional)
Method
Put all the ingredients except the wrappers (and the vegetable oil and dipping sauce) in a food processor and blend for about 1 minute until a rough paste forms.
To make the dumplings, spoon about a teaspoon of filling into the middle of each wrapper, then dab water around the edge of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper around the filling in whatever shape you would like (just make sure the filling is sealed in well). I just gather all the edges and pinch them together in the middle to make an easy wonton.
To fry gyozas, dust the bottom of each one with cornflour. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the dumplings on one side for 2-3 minutes until lightly golden on the bottom.
Add 100 ml water, cover and steam-cook for 8-10 minutes until the water evaporates and the gyozas are cooked through.
To boil gyozas or wontons, half-fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Drop in the gyozas or wontons and boil for 3-5 minutes until cooked through.
To deep-fry wontons, pour vegetable oil into a small, heavy-duty saucepan over a high heat to a depth of 5 cm. Test if the oil is ready by lowering the handle of a wooden spoon into it. If bubbles fizz around the handle, you are ready to deep-fry.
Carefully lower 5-6 wontons into the pan at a time. Once they float to the top and are golden, they are ready. Take the wontons out of the pan and drain on some paper towel.
Eat
the dumplings as they are or with a dipping sauce of your choice, such as soy
sauce, black vinegar or chilli crisp oil.
Chinese Pulled Chicken
We love pulled pork and pulled beef in my house, but I wanted a change and had chicken in the refrigerator, so I thought I could try a really quick version with that instead. Not only does chicken cook quickly but it also shreds more easily if poached than both pork and beef. Serve with salad, rice or noodles and some steamed veggies. It’s great for packed lunches, too.
Serves
2
(Prep: 5 minutes/Cook: 20 minutes)
Ingredients
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 tsp grated garlic
2 tsp grated fresh ginger root
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
½ tsp chicken stock powder
pinch of ground white pepper
2 chicken breasts (about 400g)
200ml water
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) mixed with 2 tbsp water to make a paste
1 tsp sesame oil
To Serve
toasted sesame seeds
sliced spring onions (scallions)
sliced red chillies
Method
Heat the vegetable oil in a small saucepan over a high heat and fry the garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
Add the soy sauce, chicken stock powder and white pepper, then add the chicken breasts and flip them around to coat thoroughly in the seasonings.
Add the water, cover and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer for 10 minutes, then flip the breasts and cook for a further 10 minutes before removing from the heat.
Once cooked, remove the chicken from the pan and use two forks to shred the meat.
Add the cornflour paste to the cooking liquid in the pan and stir it through, then bring to the boil and cook until the sauce thickens.
Toss the chicken through the sauce until it is well coated, then drizzle in the sesame oil.
Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds, spring onions and chillies.