China

The people's Republic of China is in East Asia. It is the largest of the Asian countries and has the largest population of any country in the world.
China has 33 administrative units directly under the central government; these consist of 22 provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities (Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin) and 2 special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Beijing is the capital city.

China is a very diverse country with mountains and lowlands, some of the highest and lowest places in the world. It's climate ranges from dry, deserts in the northwest to tropical monsoons in the southeast and has the greatest contrast in temperature between its northern and southern borders than any other country.
One fifth of the world's population is Chinese, with the majority of them being Han Chinese. There are many cultural and linguistic differences throughout the country.
China has 4000 years of recorded history and much of its cultural development has happened with relatively little outside influence - the introduction of Buddhism from India is an exception.

Chinese cuisine is also very diverse but is influenced by the 'eight major cuisines' from Sichuan, Cantonese, Jiangsu, Shandong, Fujian,
Hunan, Anhui and Zhejiang. Generally rice is a staple food of the south and wheat bread and noodles in the north.

Our son's girlfriend comes from China and we were really excited when she came to visit us recently. It was the Chinese New Year and she was keen to teach us some new cooking techniques and to introduce us to 'real' Chinese food! I am not including recipes as she didn't use them but I will try and describe everything properly.

One of the most exciting parts was smelling the range of sauces - mushroom soy sauce is my new favourite smell!

A spice mix of chilli, star anise, bay leaf, 

cassia bark and crystalized sugar.

A special Chinese liquor - it tasted pretty grim! 😀 
We used it in the cooking.

                                                 

Pork, napa cabbage and shitake mushroom Pot Stickers

猪肉白菜香菇锅贴

Chopping the vegetables

Stirring together the garlic, green onion, ginger, mixed with soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sesame seed oil.
It has to be stirred in a clockwise direction.

Adding the very finely chopped Napa cabbage.

All ready to put in the wonton wrappers

A quick lesson

Then we all joined in to make them.

Ready to be cooked.

The pan has a small amount of oil in it.

The pot stickers are steamed in water which
has had cornstarch dissolved in it.

自制辣椒油
Homemade chilli oil.
A spice base for adding to sauces or noodles.
Soy sauce, aged black vinegar, sesame seed oil, garlic oil,
chilli oil, chilli powder and sesame seeds.

蒜油

Garlic oil, it's made by adding hot-ish oil to the chopped garlic, 

this way it cooked the garlic without burning it.

The dipping sauce for the pot stickers was made by combining some chilli oil and garlic oil. It tasted a bit odd when sampled on its own but perfect with the pot stickers

Delicious!!!

This is a list of our main course. 

Things were cooked very quickly and 

I missed taking lots of photo but there are still 

enough to show what was happening. 

 

茄子青椒炒西红柿

Eggplant green pepper and tomato stir fry

韭葱五花肉小炒

Pork and leek stir fry

西红柿炒蛋

Egg and tomato stir fry

醋溜白菜

Vinegar napa cabbage stir fry

拉条子

Hand pulled noodles

A bit blurry but this shows the sections for different dishes. 

Garlic, ginger and spring onions (green onions) ready to start cooking. 

Lots of leeks for the pork and leek dish.

Vegetables including Chinese eggplant chopped and ready

Stir frying the stalks from the napa cabbage

The vegetables cooking.

The pork belly was thinly sliced and then cooked

so the fat could render down a bit.

Adding the leek to the pork

Now the fun bit - making the hand pulled noodles!

The dough had been rested then cut into small strips.

You then had to 'bounce' the dough against the work

surface while stretching the noodle.

Here's a video to demonstrate!!!!

Once the noodles had been cooked it was time to eat.

The noodles are served into a bowl.

Chilli sauce is added to taste.

Add some egg and tomato stir fry

some vinegar napa cabbage and eggplant,

green pepper and tomato stir fry

and some pork and leek stir fry.

Stir them all together and eat.

Eat as noisily as you can by slurping the noodles to experience the full flavour and to show your appreciation to the chef!

The verdict.

Absolutely amazing! Everything was delicious.

It was such fun to make and a great learning opportunity for our Chinese cooking skills. Thank you so much Christina! 😍