This tender bone-in chicken dish, stewed in a pungent mixture of wine and black sesame oil, pays homage to one of the dishes commonly prepared for new mothers in Taiwan. It was once the custom for mothers to eat stewed chicken with sesame oil everyday for the first month after giving birth to a child. These days, many families still follow the tradition and serve this dish to new mothers, although perhaps not every day.

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Ingredients

• One whole chicken
• 10 slices of ginger
• ¼ cup (4 Tbsp) black sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp black sesame oil
• 1 cup rice wine
• 2 cups water
• 1 Tbsp sugar

Instructions

1. Clean the chicken and cut into large pieces approximately two inches in size. (If you’re new to meat preparation, you can refer to this great video by Martin Yan for a demonstration on how to quickly slice up a chicken into pieces.)
2. Heat ¼ cup of black sesame oil under medium temperature in a pot or wok. Add ginger and sauté until the ginger turns dry and fragrant.
3. Add chicken pieces to the pot and cook until the meat turn pale, then add wine, water and sugar. Cook and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook for 40 minutes.
4. Finally, add a single tablespoon of black sesame oil before serving.
5. You may serve this with thin noodles. Add more water and rice wine to increase the quantity of soup.

Tips

Salt is not needed for this recipe and is in fact not recommended, adding salt may result in a bitter taste. If you really must add salt, add it at the end of cooking. Some people may prefer to use wine only instead of a mixture of wine and water for cooking.  An all-wine approach yields a delicious, strong-flavored result, but the alcohol may render the dish unsuitable for children to consume.

Much as beef stew is the comfort food of Americans and Europeans, beef stew noodle soup is the comfort food of the Taiwanese. Though variations on the dish may be found throughout China, Taiwan’s take on beef noodle soup is unique: beef is braised slowly for hours and cooked in chili bean paste sauce.

12/7/2012 – We’ve recently updated this recipe, originally published Jan. 3, 2011, to answer some questions from reader Emie Lee. Thanks Emie for following the blog and sending in your questions!

Ingredients:

• 3-4 lbs of beef shank. In Chinese supermarkets, they sell beef shanks in whole pieces. This recipe calls for 2 medium-sized pieces.
• Package of noodles, either thin or thick depending on your preference
• 1 medium-sized white onion, cut into chunks
• 1 large tomato, cut into chunks
• 8 -10 cloves garlic, peeled
• 6 slices ginger
• 6 Tbs. chili bean sauce or bean sauce (not spicy)*
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup cooking wine
• 3 star anise pieces
• 3 Tbs. cooking oil
• Water to cover the meat

Instructions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
2. Place 2 whole pieces of beef shank into the hot water, then cook for 3 minutes. Remove beef from the pot, rinse the pieces in water, and then cut the beef into large chunks.
3. Heat oil in a wok, adding ginger and garlic first, then stir frying for about 2 minutes. Then add onion to the wok along with bean sauce, and stir fry for another 3 minutes.
4. Continue to stir fry, adding tomato and beef chunks until the meat turns white. Then add soy sauce, cooking wine and star anise. Either use the same wok or transfer to a larger pot with accompanying lid.
5. Add water to cover the meat and cook for about 4 to 5 hours over the low heat until beef is tender. The liquid in the beef stew will be condensed when it is done.
6. Cook noodles as indicated on the package instructions. Add beef stew soup into the noodle, as well as either hot water or soup stock to taste.
7. Garnish the beef noodle soup with fresh cilantro or green onion and serve.

*If you prefer strong flavoring when it comes to beef noodle soup, increase the quantity of chili bean sauce in the recipe.

What kind of chili bean sauce or bean sauce do you recommend? A picture of the packaging would help a lot.

Here is a picture of the type of sauce I use:

When cooking the meat for 4-5 hours, do you use a slow cooker or just a normal pot?  If it’s a slow cooker, what brand or kind would you recommend?

Use a regular pot to stew the meat. A slow cooker will be fine too, but a slow cooker will retain the liquid. By contrast, a regular pot will allow the soup to condense, which enhances the flavor of meat.

Salted duck differs from roasted duck; it has a lighter taste and is less greasy. The slight flavor of salt brings out the flavor of the duck in this recipe, which will please duck meat lovers as well as fans of easy, healthy cuisine.

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Ingredients

• One whole duck (approximately 4 to 5 pounds)

Part A

• 1 tsp ground peppercorn
• 3 Tbsp salt

Part B

• 2 cans of chicken broth
• Water to cover the duck in the pot
• 2 tsp salt
• 5 slices ginger
• 2 green onions, cut in half
• 3 Tbsp wine

Instructions:

1. Clean the duck meat and wipe it dry.
2. Stir-fry the ingredients listed in Part A (ground pepper corn and salt) over low heat until the peppercorn and salt turn light brown.
3. Evenly spread the pepper-salt mixture outside of the duck as well as inside the duck. Place duck meat into a large freezer bag or in a pot and store in the refrigerator for at least one day. Rotate occasionally to ensure that the duck marinates evenly.
4. Place all the ingredients listed in Part B into a large pot. Then place the marinated duck meat into the pot and cook until the liquid comes to a boil. Turn the heat to low and then simmer covered for 40 minutes, rotating the duck after the first 20 minutes have passed.
5. After the duck meat has cooked, let it soak in marinade for another hour more or for longer.
6. Remove duck meat from marinade and store in the refrigerator. When the meat cools down, it is ready to slice and serve.

Tips

It is easier to slice duck meat when it is cold. When preparing salted duck, do not select a duck that is too large since the larger ducks yield fattier meat.  After preparing this recipe, you can strain the marinade and save it in freezer for the next time you make another batch of salted duck.

Ingredients

• One whole chicken – about 2 to 3 lbs (or chicken legs)
• 20 cloves garlic, peeled
• 10 slices ginger
• 1/3 cup sesame oil
• ½ to 2/3 cup soy sauce (depends on the size of chicken)
• 1 cup rice wine
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 cup fresh basil

Instructions

1. Clean the chicken and cut into 2″ x 2″ chunks.
2. Heat sesame oil in a deep pan over medium heat, and sauté ginger and garlic until fragrant.
3. Add chicken to the pan and stir fry until the meat turns pale. This should take approximately 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Add soy sauce, wine and sugar to the pan and cover the dish with a lid. Cook over medium-low heat until liquid is mostly absorbed.
5. Add basil and stir fry for another minute.
6. Serve the chicken in the clay or ceramic pot.

Tip

There is no need to smash the garlic cloves; they will become very soft and flavorful after cooking.  Note that a clay or ceramic pot is best for maintaining food temperature in this recipe.

The Hakka are an ethnic group from the southeastern Chinese provinces. Many people in Taiwan (including my brother-in-law) are members of this group and speak some version of the Hakka dialect.

Hakka cuisine is the cooking style of the Hakka people, who were once nomadic and eventually came to adapt their culinary styles to the regions where they travelled. Some of the most popular Taiwanese dishes, such as salt-baked chicken, stuffed tofu and lotus-leaf rice, originate from Hakka cuisine.

Pork belly is a staple of many Taiwanese dishes, as some of you may already know. This recipe for Hakka bacon uses Hakka-style salting techniques to produce tender, savory slabs of pork belly.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 strips of pork belly* (approximately 1 ½ to 2 lbs.)
• 2 to 3 tbsp. coarse salt or sea salt
• 6 cloves garlic, chopped
• ½ tsp five-spice powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon powder
• ½ tsp black pepper powder
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp of cooking wine
• 1/3 to ½ cups of soy sauce

Instructions:

1. Marinate pork strips in coarse salt for at least three hours. Keep the meat in the refrigerator during the marination process.
2. Rinse the pork belly and dry with a paper towel.
3. Marinate the pork strips with the rest of seasoning for at least 6 hours. Again, keep the meat in the refrigerator as it marinates.
4. After you have marinated the meat, transfer the pork strips and the marinating sauce to a skillet or wok. Add 1 to 1-1/2 cups of water, then cook covered over medium-low heat until the meat is thoroughly cooked. This should take 40 minutes.
5. Slice the pork when it cools and serve.

What is pork belly, and where can I get it?

Pork belly is a boneless cut of fatty meat from the belly of a pig. It is the same as fresh bacon and can be ordered from a good butcher or online from a variety of retailers, such as Niman Ranch. This is what uncooked pork belly looks like:

Make-Ahead Tip

You can make large quantities of this dish and store in freezer. This dish is a convenient pairing for a variety of different dishes. You can slice and serve it, stir fry the pieces with vegetables, add to a piping-hot bowl of ramen, or use it to accent a platter of fried rice. The sauce can also be strained and saved for later use, for example, as an flavor-enhancement for a dish of dry noodles.