Fried Chicken Wings

I’ve been out of touch with so many food blogs for most of the year. Fortunately, twitter keeps me updated on the going-ons of some of my old food blogging buddies. I’ve seen some buzz about Bee’s (Rasa Malaysia’s) new book “Easy Chinese Recipes” and I’ve been meaning to get my hands on her book for a while now and finally, I did!
Rasa Malaysia has been my go to site for Asian Recipes. Bee has a knack for making Asian food approachable without losing its ethnic qualities – without Americanizing it – which is why I like her recipes very much.

A few years ago I was even able to get very authentic Bak kut teh spices from her – packed for her specially from a Malaysian herb shop. Yes, it made the best Bak Kut teh!

“Easy Chinese Recipes” Family favorites from dim sum to kung pao is exactly just that…Chinese cooking from its core. I see very familiar Cantonese dishes that my Dad and grandmother used to make. What Bee’s book does for me is bridge the knowledge gap that exists in my memory of my Dad and grandmother’s cooking –  of missing ingredients or procedures.{I took an interest in cooking when the two great cooks in my family had already passed away.}
 

Cream Corn Soup

I took some liberties in recreating some of the dishes like adding green onions to the cream corn soup and skipping the ground chicken because this is how I remembered it. This soup has a special place in my heart. Sure it’s made with a can of cream corn but my dad always made it for his sick daughter who wouldn’t want to eat anything else but that when she was not feeling well. Bee was right when she said that it was a soup that any child would like.

Fried chicken wings and Yangzhou Fried Rice? Perfect.Comfort.Food.

My fried chicken looked darker than what was in the book because I used dark soy sauce. I did not have regular soy and I didn’t want to use the Japanese brands I had like Kikkoman because I wanted it to taste very Chinese. The chicken was incredibly crisp and it made the skin puff up and be crunchy. The coating of equal parts flour and cornstarch was spot on. I have seen another version using rice flour on Rasa Malaysia site so I want to try that too.
 

YangZhou Fried Rice

Other recipes I can’t wait to try:
Shrimp. specifically Bee’s method of making them bouncy.
Green Onion Pancake
Crispy Roast Pork
Roast duck
Steamed fish – this is another nostalgic dish
ALL the Dim sum – the pictures of them alone are perfection
Pork Ribs with black beans

And so many more…
Congratulations Bee on your new book – fabulous work! My thanks for giving me a cookbook I will use over and over.