cooking bang bang! chicken (bang bang ji) alone

I normally cook with Nate and both us of have strong opinions on what to cook or what should go in a recipe. Our kitchens end up being very loud and heated. This weekend I was too exhausted from a doozy of a week to argue about chicken so Saturday I stayed in to cook Bang Bang Chicken,棒棒鸡 (bang bang ji), by myself. I went to a few different grocery stores just because I felt like it and I knew no one was waiting on me. Trader Joe's had great seedless cucumbers (how do they grow vegetables without seeds?) and a great deal on chicken but I ended up getting out of the checkout line that wrapped around through the entire store and going elsewhere. Whenever I go to Trader Joe's, I feel like I'm in line for the most popular ride at an amusement park, except when I get up to the front, there's no ride, just a bill to pay.

I got home and put on my favorite soundtrack that no one will ever listen to with me, "Hello, Dolly!" Not the Broadway version but the 1960's Barbra Streisand movie version. I danced around with Barbra singing to my favorite tracks, "put on your sunday clothes," and "so long dearie" while I made bang bang chicken just the way I like- extra thick and spicy. The chicken is supposed to be shredded into strips of chicken, but instead I tried cutting the meat into bite-size chunks. Not a good idea. The chicken is much better when shredded. Then I smothered the sauce on the chicken and veggies. I didn't eat alone however. Nelson joined me as I watched one LOST episode after another until I got through the season 5 finale. I can't believe I have to wait five months after that cliffhanger. How are they going to make another season after that ending???

I chose Bang Bang Chicken because I've been craving its peanut butter-y sauce since we made hot pot last week. Bang Bang chicken has a similar creamy peanut butter sauce to our hot pot dipping sauce recipe. So good. You might think that Bang Bang sounds like a gun but really it means "Stick Stick Chicken" which refers to the wooden stick traditionally used to beat the cooked chicken to shreds.

Here's the recipe I adapted from a Chinese language site. It was overall pretty tasty, but not nearly as good as Nate's and my recipe that we will put in our book.

-mary kate

Bang Bang! Chicken Recipe

3 green onions
1 cucumber
3 chicken breasts
1 pint chicken broth
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 teaspoons chili sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
1 tablespoon ginger, finely chopped

Slice the green onions lengthwise and into 2-inch pieces, using both the green and white parts. Slice the cucumbers into thin 2-inch sticks.

Heat peanut butter in a bowl over boiling water for 5 minutes and remove from heat. Mix in chili sauce, sugar, sesame oil, vegetable oil, Shaoxing rice wine, and ginger.

Poach the chicken for 10-15 minutes in the chicken broth until cooked through. Drain, dry, and shred into bite-size pieces. Place chicken on top of the vegetables and generously drizzle on the peanut sauce.

peanut butter dipping sauce for chinese hot pot

My best friend Krista is moving to Boston this week to start Harvard Law school and she came to visit me in New York for her last weekend outside of a library. I really wanted to show her a good time in the city. I got us on the list for a party at the Tribeca Grand hotel. I didn't know it was going to be such a big deal, but a band was playing that Mark Ronson produced. Next thing I know, Mark Ronson is standing right next to me and Nate is talking to Mischa Barton (crazy Marisa from the OC). He offered to buy her a drink, which as I told him later, was not such a good idea because according to Perez Hilton she just got out of rehab. The girl who checked our names at the door had a red sequin shirt on with shoulder pads glued on the outside, if you can picture her, you can picture this crowd.

Krista and I met in Chinese class in college and we bonded as the only two white girls in the class completely new to Mandarin Chinese. We ended up studying abroad together in Nanjing and we both love eating Chinese food. She's been living in India for the past year working as an intern at a law office and she hasn't had good chinese food for a year. That's why Nate and I wanted to cook our favorite dinner party meal for her-- sichuan hot pot.

Nate made a different broth and a different sauce than we normally make. Both were a disappointment. The broth wasn't nearly as spicy as we wanted it (even though we dumped in two bottles of chili sauce and a bunch of sichuan peppercorns). It's frustrating when you have people over to eat and the food sucks. It wasn't a disaster, just bland. Note to self: it's not a good idea to make up a new recipe when people are coming over to eat whatever you come up with in two hours. We're going to have another dinner party again soon and we'll make the broth spicy enough even for a restaurant in Sichuan, China to serve-- the kind of steaming pot that is so spicy everyone at the table is crying. I also think adding cumin and a few other spices in there as well will make it more flavorful.

 The main reason I think dinner could have better is if we had served Mongolian peanut dipping sauce for people to dip the vegetables and meat they cooked in the pot into. The sesame paste sauce is great, but only if the broth in the pot has a balancing strong spicy flavor. The Mongolian peanut sauce is good enough to eat with a spoon. 

-mary kate

Here's our recipe, smooth and delish:

Peanut Butter Dipping Sauce for Chinese Hot Pot

½ cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon chili bean paste
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ cup hot water
fresh cilantro

Whisk together peanut butter, soy sauce,
chili bean paste, sugar, and hot water in a mixing
bowl. Spoon equal amounts of sauce into 4 small
serving bowls and top with a heap of chopped
cilantro. Give each guest a bowl of sauce and a
bowl of white rice.

 

my top 5 favorite chinese movies

(above: an "uplifting" still from the movie Suzhou River)

When I watch a Chinese movie, I know to keep a few tissues on hand, no joke. Yesterday I watched the movie CJ7, a movie filmed in Zhejiang Province about a boy who finds a little fuzzy alien friend. (The film's unusual title refers to the Chinese space program.) From the trailer, you might think it looks like a cute family flick full of only laughs, but its plot touches on class prejudices even amongst elementary school kids and the pain of losing someone you depend on (tear). I highly recommend seeing this funny albeit moving movie. It has a classical Chinese slap-stick humor like Mr. Bean, but it's done very well.

My top 5 favorite Chinese movies of all time also share common themes: death, loss, unrequited love, introspection, and other sad topics:

1. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon has amazing fight scenes. The characters
chase each other across tiled rooftops and atop 10 story high bamboo
trees by jumping fifty feet in the air. I saw this movie before I ever
went to China and I knew I'd have to go there sometime just to see the
physical beauty of the countryside and China's ancient architecture.

2. In the Mood for Love

Wong Kar Wei movies are shot beautifully, like moving paintings, and In
the Mood for Love is, I think, his best. It depicts Hong Kong in the
1960s. It's worth watching just to see the insides of HK apartments
back then and the hairstyles and the dresses women wore! The movie's
sequel, 2046, is also worth seeing.

3. Suzhou River

Suzhou River is filmed with a handheld camera and you can see a first
person view of riding through Shanghai on the back of a motorcycle and
floating down the winding Suzhou River on a boat. The opening scene of
the movie is one the most haunting scenes I've ever seen. It starts
with a blank screen and only dialogue:

woman: "If I leave you someday... will you look for me?"
man:  "Yes."
woman: "Would you look for me forever?"
man: "Yes."
woman: "Your whole life?"
man: "Yes."
woman: "You're lying."

4. Not One Less

Not One Less is a movie about a 13 year old girl who goes to a
neighboring small town in China to teach the village kids. Fascinating
discovery of life in rural China. It's in Mandarin and most of the
dialogue is elementary level (kids are the main characters). I must
have watched Not One Less ten times by now to help me practice my
Mandarin.

5. Kungfu Hustle

The star of CJ7, Stephen Chow, directed, wrote, and starred in Kungfu Hustle. It's my favorite martial arts movie of all time. I'm glad it got as much international attention as it did: 27 nominations, 18 wins including an MTV Movie Awards "Best Fight Scene" nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for "Best Foreign Language Film." Rent Kungfu Hustle if you're just looking to watch a good fun movie. You'll forget it's in another language.

-mary kate

chinese truism of the day

不言而喻  

(bù yán ér yù)

It goes without saying
 

Sichuan Spicy Eggplant (yu xiang qie zi)

For the past couple of weeks Mary Kate and I have been working non-stop on designing a website for a client. The two of us run a creative agency together (Carotene, Inc.) and sometimes when we're in the middle of a big job we think of nothing else...not even food. Lately for lunches (and occasionally dinners) we've been going through a noodle phase because noodles are quick to make and pretty nutritious if you throw a fried egg, some swiss chard, or bok choy leaves on top. I actually think we can safely say that the design of the website we're working on was fueled by noodles.

We're now in the homestretch of the site design, finishing up everything, and today I realized I could not eat another freaking noodle, at least not for a few days. So I ducked into my fridge and took inventory of the ingredients to think of something to cook other than noodles. I saw ginger root, garlic, chili bean paste, half a jar of hoisin sauce-- and that's when it came to me, if I had a few eggplants I could make Sichuan Spicy Eggplant, or 鱼香茄子 (yu xiang qie zi). I walked to the grocery store down the street and picked up a few of the purple vegetables, then on my way back I grabbed some white rice from a take-out chinese restaurant.

Sichuan Spicy Eggplant is a tasty Chinese dish that is a favorite of foreigners in China. When non-chinese speakers are faced with an all-chinese character menu, this is one of the first dishes they turn to. The sauce is spicy and a little sweet and sour. The eggplant is juicy and filling. The Chinese name for this dish actually translates to "Fragrant Fish Eggplant" but since there is no fish in it and "fragrant" in my mind sounds like smelly, we're calling it Sichuan Spicy Eggplant.

I made this Sichuan Spicy Eggplant vegetarian-style but it sometimes comes with ground pork. If you want to add pork, brown the meat separately and add it to the wok at the end when you add the sauce.

-Nate

See our recipe after the jump...

Sichuan Spicy Eggplant

1 lb. narrow eggplants or round eggplants
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 green onions, chopped
2 teaspoon chili bean paste
2 teaspoon rice vinegar

Trim the ends off the eggplants and peel them. Slice the eggplants lengthwise into 2-inch long by 3/4-inch thick strips. Place the strips in a bowl, toss them with the salt, and set aside for 1 hour to draw out excess water.  Rinse the strips under cool water, drain, and pat them dry with paper towels.

In a bowl combine the soy sauce, garlic, ginger, hoisin sauce, sugar, sesame oil, green onions, chili bean paste, and rice vinegar.  Set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok over high heat until it is very hot.  Add the eggplant strips and stir-fry for 5 minutes or until the eggplant is limp and cooked through.  Add soy sauce mixture to the wok and stir-fry 1 additional minute.  Serve with white rice.