Chinese food for dinner

Well, we're trying to clear out the freezer a bit. It does tend to collect things rather easily. Tonight, I made beef with scallions (one of J's favorites), steamed flounder (Hong Kong style), and steamed tofu.

I don't have any photos of the steamed tofu but you toss it into a bowl and steam it for ten minutes, then top with soy sauce and sesame oil. I really like this simple addition to dinner.

Chinese cooking is all about complete preparation and then you toss everything together pretty much all at once. It's always when I'm making Chinese food that I decide that people who design home ranges really don't plan for you to have a wok and more than one other pot on the range at once. It's kind of mean. J and I walk around stores looking for a new range and all I do is look at how much room there isn't.

Anyway, enough about my whining. Preparation for this meal is first taking care of all the garnishes and veggies: slicing up the scallions for their separate applications, mincing garlic, and slicing ginger.

Then I sliced up the flank steak into slices and marinate it. Pretty much all beef, chicken, shrimp, etc. are marinated for Chinese cooking. I use my mother's recipe: corn starch, black pepper, and soy sauce. This is how it looks before you mix it up.

Beef with scallions is a very simple yet pleasing dish. Saute the garlic until the very smallest bits start to brown around the edges a bit. Then add the beef, let cook a few minutes, flip/stir, and cook some more. Then add the scallions, cook, add a little water in the mixing bowl (it takes some of the corn starch to thicken the sauce), and voila!

Steamed fish is really one of my favorites. Actually, my very favorite is buffalo carp which is sweet and meaty. First you steam the fish for 10-15 minutes depending on the size of the fish. When the fish comes out of the steamer, you dump the water that has collected in the plate. Meanwhile, you heat corn oil, then fry up the ginger, then white scallions pieces, then green scallion pieces. Arrange into the fish and add soy sauce. And then you get this wonderful looking thing here.