This dish brings together fresh cucumber slices and savory meat stuffing, a combination that will be familiar to fans of Chinese and Thai food who have also encountered the dish stuffed bitter melon.

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Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground pork
• 1 cup raw shrimp, peeled and devined, finely chopped into a paste
• 3-4 pieces dried shitake mushroom, presoaked in the water and then finely chopped
• 1 tsp. soy sauce
• 1/8 heaping tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. white ground pepper
• 2 tbsp. cooking wine
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. tapioca starch
• 3 large cucumbers, sliced into 2 cm (3/4 inch) thick cylinders

Instructions:

1. Mix all of the listed ingredients together except for the cucumbers. Hand-whip the mixture, stirring in one direction only, until well blended. This should take approximately 3 to 4 minutes.
2. Remove the center part of the cucumber containing the seeds. Wipe cucumber slices dry and sprinkle with tapioca starch.
3. Stuff cucumber slices with the meat mixture. The bottom part of cucumber should be stuffed and then patted flat so that it lies flat when it cooks. The top part should be overstuffed liked a raised dome.
4. Place the stuffed cucumber pieces in a steamer and steam under high heat for 15 minutes.
5. Use tapioca water (1 Tbsp Tapioca + 1/4 cup of water) to thicken the broth that comes from steaming the stuffed cucumber pieces. Spread this broth evenly on each cucumber piece. Recipe yields approximately 20 pieces.

Tip:

Select large cucumbers since they can hold more stuffing.  You can also use the ends of the cucumber by cutting a small slice into each end so that it sits flat and can be stuffed and cooked. Otherwise, save the cucumber ends for another recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sweet potatoes or yams, cooked, peeled and cut into chunks. (Note: you can also steam the potatoes whole or boil them in water.)
• 3 cups broccoli florets ( about one big bunch)
• 3 cups king trumpet mushroom
• 3 cups Nagaimo, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 cup baby carrots
• 1 to 1-1/2 cup shredded cheese
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• ¼ cup fresh shallot or garlic chopped

Ingredients For Sauce:

• 1 cup Nagaimo (in chunks)
• 1 cup cooked white rice
• 2 cups chicken broth or water
• ½ tsp salt, if using water

Instructions:

1. Boil a pot of water. Cook broccoli, mushroom, Nagaimo, and carrots separately for about 1 1/2 minute each.
2. Place all vegetables, including sweet potatoes, into a large casserole dish or other deep, ovenproof dish.
3. Heat olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat, then add shallot or garlic and cook until the pieces turn a light golden brown. Then turn off the heat and pour over the vegetables evenly.
4. Blend the sauce ingredients in a blender. Then pour the mixture over the vegetables.
5. Evenly spread shredded cheese over the vegetables.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degree F and bake uncovered for about 30 minutes or until cheese is melted. Makes 8-10 servings.

Tips

Do not overcook the vegetables, particularly the Nagaimo. The vegetables should retain crispiness even after they are cooked.

Feel free to substitute the vegetables in this recipe with your favorite vegetables.This is what the vegetables look like before cheese is added:

Where can I get Nagaimo?

You can purchase the Nagaimo from Asian grocery stores such as 99 Ranch Market. Nagaimo looks like this:

Ingredients:

part (a)

• 4 pork chops, boneless
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup cooking wine. Note: I used Taiwanese cooking michiu wine, not to be confused with Japanese sweet rice wine.
• 1/8 tsp white pepper
• 1/8 tsp five-spice powder
• 1 tsp Chinese barbecue sauce
• 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

part (b)

• 1 cup bread crumbs. Known also as Panko, a flaky bread crumb used in Japanese cuisine as a crunchy coating for fried foods
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2/3 cup tapioca starch or corn starch
• 6 -8 Tbsp. of cooking oil

Instructions:

1. Flatten the pork chop, then marinate with the seasonings and ingredients listed in part (a) for at least three hours.
2. Place the tapioca starch, beaten egg, bread crumbs in three separate plates.
3. Dip both sides of each pork chop into the above ingredients in the following order: first, tapioca starch; second, egg mixture; and third, bread crumbs.
4. Heat the cooking oil in a wok and sear the pork chop first. Then cook the meat over medium-high temperature heat until it turns golden brown on both sides.
5. Cut the pork chop into slices and serve.

What is Chinese barbecue sauce?

Chinese barbecue sauce, unlike the barbecue sauce you might find at KFC, doesn’t contain tomatoes. It’s a flavorful concoction of ingredients ranging from hoisin to black bean paste. You can pick it up in most Asian grocery stores, but if you can’t find it in a store near you, the classic barbecue sauce is readily available for purchase online.

Hint

Flattening the pork chop will increase the tenderness of meat. When dipping the pork chop slices into the bread crumbs, gently press both sides of the pork chop into the plate to ensure that the crumbs stay in place.

Seafood often takes the spotlight in Taiwanese cuisine, since the coast is never far from any spot on the island. Taiwanese stir fried dishes are light and mild in flavor, which accentuates the freshness of ingredients like the shrimp used in this dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 4-5 large eggs, beaten
• ½ cup green onion, diced
• 1 Tbsp. tapioca starch dissolved in 3 Tbsp. water
• 1 tsp. cooking wine
• Cooking oil
• Salt, to taste

Procedure:

1. Marinate the shrimp with 1/8 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of cooking wine for 10 minutes.
2. Heat 2 tbsp. of oil in the pan over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and stir fry until 80% cooked. Remove and place shrimp in the mixture of beaten eggs.
3. Add to the mixture the following: 1/4 teaspoon of salt, along with the starch-water mixture and green onions.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium-high in the same pan and pour the mixture into pan. Gently stir fry the contents of the pan until the eggs are firm and soft. This dish is best served piping hot.

How do you devein shrimp?

I usually cut a line on the back of the shrimp with a knife and remove the black vein.  The cut will help the shrimp more plump and flavorful as it cooks.

How can I tell whether the shrimp and eggs have been cooked long enough?

In preparing this recipe, it is better to undercook than to overcook, since an undercooked pan of eggs and shrimp can be heated again until ready. If the shrimp and eggs taste dry or tough, they may have been cooked for too long.

An empanada is a stuffed pastry turnover of Spanish origin, which takes on many different forms in bake shops around the world, from Portugal to the Philippines. Taiwanese bakeries such as Yi Mei sell both savory and sweet versions of the empanada.

When I created this recipe, I wanted to make a sweet, filling dessert turnover that could be prepared quickly. To give the pastry a light, flaky consistency, I used a package of Indo-European puff pastry, rather than create regular pastry dough from scratch.

Ingredients for filling:

• 4 ripe bananas, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
• 4 Tbsp. margarine or butter
• 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. corn starch, dissolved in 2 Tbsp. water

Ingredients for pastry shell:

• 1 package of puff pastry squares (5″ x 5″- usually sold in packages of 10 pieces each)

Instructions:

1. Heat margarine or butter over medium heat in a wok or frying pan. Stir in sliced bananas and cook for about 2 minutes.
2. Add sugar and lemon juice, then cook for another 3 to 4 minutes over low heat until the texture becomes slightly creamy. Add the corn starch, dissolved in water, to the mixture. Once the filling is creamy with chunks of banana, turn off the heat.
3. Defrost the puff pastry and place the dough squares on a smooth surface or on wax paper. Put 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of filling in the center of each square and fold in half diagonally to make a triangle. Use a fork to press the edges firmly closed and to also make a decorative pattern. Arrange the turnovers 2 inches apart on a cooking sheet or in a baking pan lined with foil.
4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Brush the turnovers with an egg wash, consisting half of water and half of eggs. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.

The batter for the pastry filling looks lumpy. Does it need to be mixed more?

The pastry filling should be creamy, but it may also be lumpy because of the banana. This is what the filling should look like when it’s ready.

How do I know when the pastries are ready to be taken out of the oven?

A well-cooked puff pastry is brown, dry and flaky. The turnovers will be ready when the puff pastry is ready. Here is a picture of the type of puff pastry I used in this recipe, as well as a picture of fresh turnovers out of the oven.

Stewed eggs are hardboiled eggs with a salty-sweet, complex taste that comes from being repeatedly stewed in a mixture of spices.

Instructions