Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:31p.m.
Chinese cooking has been around for ages in New Zealand! It all began when Cantonese men from the countryside came to New Zealand as part of the Gold Rush. They cooked for themselves and ate a frugal diet of vegetables, rice and meat when they could afford it, especially pork and chicken.
When the gold ran out, those who stayed on had to look for other jobs and turned their hand to establishing fruit and grocery shops, laundries, restaurants and market gardens.
The art of Chinese cooking took a while to catch on with the rest of the population. It was not until the 1960’s that Kiwi women began to try their hand at it. Chinese recipes now began to appear in our recipe books. They soon became family favourites as they were tasty, economical and quick to make. There were endless variations on a few themes such as fried rice, chop suey, chow mein, sweet and sour pork and egg foo yung.
In the seventies I too jumped on the Chinese bandwagon and invested in the necessities: a large wok which took up a great deal of cupboard space, a sharp cleaver, and a bottle of soya sauce. Asian greens were unheard of but there was plenty of cabbage.
On Friday nights we began to have Chinese Takeaways as a special family treat. They were just as tasty and greasy as fish and chips! The sweet and sour pork was one of our favourites, chunks of pork that were battered, deep fried and dredged in an artificially orange coloured sauce which had no doubt been liberally laced with MSG.
Thirty years on the same Chinese takeaway is still there, but it is now competing for business with its new Asian neighbours: A sushi bar, a Japanese restaurant, a noodle place and a Food Hall just down the road.
In the 1980’s Celebrity Chef Ken Hom appeared on our TV screens to show us how to do Chinese cooking properly and it was revealed that much of what we had been cooking was not genuine Chinese food at all as it had been rather heavily doctored to suit Western palates. Oh well!
Ken Hom taught us that Chinese food could also be braised and steamed and that there were many different sauces and ingredients that could give variety and complexity to Chinese cooking. His chicken cooked in black bean sauce was added to my repertoire, as well as stir fried chicken with cashews and Sichuan-style scallops.
Early in the new millennium I briefly made it to China and was bowled over by so many different food experiences, varying from region to region. We ate yum cha in Hong Kong, a tea ceremony in Suzhou, dined in small family restaurants in Shanghai, visited a famous little Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing recommended by the Lonely Planet Guide, and walked around the market close to our hotel there in the early morning sampling freshly steamed buns. The food everywhere tasted great.
I came home with a renewed enthusiasm for cooking Chinese Food. The ingredients were readily available in our supermarkets, including hoi sin, black bean and oyster sauce and lots of different Asian greens.
There were also many new opportunities for eating Chinese food ranging from restaurants specializing in different regional cuisines to food halls. At the Lantern Festival which will be held in Auckland next weekend there’s bound to be lots of food stalls where we can indulge ourselves.
On Sunday mornings freshly picked Asian greens are sold at our local market. Last week I bought a bunch of Gai Lan (whose name in Chinese means mustard orchid). I chopped it roughly into large pieces, dropped it into boiling water for one minute, then lifted it out and stirred in a tablespoon of oyster sauce and a few drops of sesame oil. It was nice served with marinated barbecued pork spareribs and bowls of steamed rice.
This weekend I wandered around one of our local Asian Supermarkets, both fascinated and overwhelmed by the huge range of unusual products most of which I don’t recognize and have no idea how to use.
I noticed a very pretty Asian Green with tiny yellow flowers called Choi Sum. This flowering cabbage has long crisp stalks and fragile leaves. I wasn’t quite sure how to use it so I asked one of the customers. Here is her recipe:
Slice 3 garlic cloves (or to taste) finely.
Stir fry in 1 tablespoon of canola or peanut oil until they are golden brown.
Add some sliced pork (about 250 grams)
Stir fry again for a few minutes until the meat is browned and cooked.
Chop a bunch of Choi Sum (stalks and all).
Add the chopped Choi Sum to the frying pan/wok and stir fry again for a minute or two.
Then add salt to taste and its done!
“No soya sauce? I asked.” No other ingredients?” It seemed too easy.
“The garlic and salt are enough,” she said. “And you can leave out the meat if you wish, although we think it is tastier with.”
I bought a bunch of Choi Sum, some garlic, and some organic pork and went home to cook it. And it is a nice homely dish which is cooked in a flash. Good for hot summer days when you don’t want to spend time in the kitchen. Give it a go!