I want to try making my own Chinese/Japanese food, but...I don't really know where to start. All of the recipes I've looked at (ie. teriyaki, General Tso's, orange chicken) take a lot of preparation, and I want something that I can make without much trouble.

Any suggestions?

Fried rice. Any kind of stir fry.

youtube search cmtoy.

It's simple.

Easy as stir-frying your meat of choice, a bunch of different diced veggies, and cooking/reducing blackbean paste + cornstarch + water into a thick sauce. Pour over rice or noodles.

You can experiment with the sauce, replacing the blackbean paste with other types of flavours, curry powder, oyster sauce, soup stock, etc.

Fried rice is pretty easy too. Make some rice with less water than normal (you don't want it to stick). Again, stir fry your main ingredients but add an egg or two to the mix. Add the rice and a good amount of soy sauce and sesame oil, stir it all up for a few minutes and you're done.

Chinese vegetables are simple as fuck to prepare. Wash, cut, throw in a wok/pan with a decent amount of oil (and garlic or ginger if you like). Stir a bit, then cover and let steam for about 5 minutes. Salt to taste, or make up a quick sauce as above.

If you're really strapped for time, make a stop at the Chinese butcher's. Get a box of bbq duck, soya chicken, or pork (they'll cut it up for you). Make up a dish of veggies. Eat with the carbs of your choice. You can buy a couple boxes at once and freeze the ones you don't eat. Very cheap too.

Please don't call that westernized shit Chinese food.


*ObZ

how hard is sushi??

Well, I was looking for something different than stir-fry, I guess. Something more interesting, though...I have no idea what. I remember being at this Chinese restaurant once and they had some lobster dish...I think it was called Lobster Soom, or something; fuckin' delicious. Anyone know what that is, because I can't seem to find it on google.

Did the lobster have a cream sauce and noodles underneath?

*ObZ

No, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure it wasn't creamy, and I remember it was served in a lettuce leaf.

Plain brown noodles, onions, peppers, roasted pork and some star annise (sp?) works wonderful. To recreate that "chinese" flavour you'll need to look at the spices they use. Typical chinese food is peasant food. Plain rice, noodles, etc.

Start making black bean sauce to add to your dishes.

There's no way to skip the prep work on the dishes that interest you. Anything you skip will be at a cost to the quality of your food.

^Euda is basically right.


Here's what I do-

1.) Buy any or all of the following-
shoyu, cooking rice wine, garlic chili sauce, garlic, shiitaki, cremini, enokitake, honshemeji, ginger, fresh basil, chinese five spice powder, eggs, green onions, tamari, green curry paste, red curry paste, thai chilis, miso, shanghai cabbage, normal cabbage, boc choi, broccoli, bell peppers, etc, etc, etc, etc ..... and some meat or fish maybe.

2.) go crazy with the shit.

3.).....

4.) FOOD!!11