CANTON STYLE IN PRACTICE

Tuesday, the first day of August 2017, and I'm in the kitchen making some plates for my faithful. I am the light, that shines on the hill top, giving hope to my brethren. Wow! Is that Biblical? Hey man, I do not mess with God Almighty, but he did speak to me today, deep inside me, I felt his presence. "Ron you shall cook, and make the people happy who eat your food." OK, my dream  of being a rock and roll, heavy metal, progressive rock drummer is long gone, so my drum kit is now my wok! Oh I loves me my wok. A 14" carbon steel flatty from where? The Wok Shop in San Francisco, CA. This baby rocks! Only thing-I got to remember to make that oil super hot before I add any kind of meat protein in there because if it's not super hot, all that stuff sticks to the bottom. For a wok of this type, the oil has to be smoking for the wok to be non-stick. And for the love of God, I ain't using any non-stick Macy's wok, hell no!

So what was on the agenda? OK it was beef wontons, egg fu yung, and chicken black beans. 

First thing I did was get my 8" Mercer Chinese Cleaver and mince half a yellow onion, this will go into some lean ground beef (1.5) lbs. 

Next I put those minced onions into the 1.5 lbs. of lean ground beef, I seasoned it a little bit with some salt.

The total mixture added in, 3 large eggs, oyster sauce, minced scallions, white pepper, sesame oil.

The wonton skins (pi) was manufactured by a local company in Honolulu, Sun Noodles, these were nice to work with, the skins were thin, but it was floured well so each piece did not stick together. One pack made 54 wontons, some other brands will yield only 30-40, Sun Noodles does it right, more pi for the buck. Inside each dumpling is 1 teaspoon of ground beef mixture. Why not pork? I love working with ground beef, the texture and flavor to me is much better than ground pork. However if someone hires me and they want ground shrimp or pork inside, they'll get it.

Here I'm using a cast iron steal fry pan, all I'm using is vegetable oil, once one side turns golden brown, I flip it, and cook it until that side is brown and then I'll place it on a baking sheet with some paper towels to absorb the oil, and to let it cool down a little bit before serving.

The first batch rests on some paper towels as it helps remove the excess oil.

The bigger batch got to cooking fast, the trick is to make sure there's not too many dumplings inside of the pan when frying. Too much and the heat of the oil is reduced, we don't want any thing like that.

Here in a omelet pan is the Egg Foo Yung, 4 large eggs, soy sauce, salt and pepper, scallions, bean sprouts. The trick is to cook the first side really well, until it gets golden. You must make sure that the egg on the first side is always settled before attempting to flip the omelet. If it's too moist on the initial side, it is weak. When you flip it it will tear apart, always cook it well and don't be afraid.

The Egg Foo Yung has been flipped, notice how golden the top is, this was the first side that hit the hot pan.

Egg Foo Yung sliced into quarters, ready for the plating to happen, but wait. We need the chicken gravy to top it. 

The chicken gray simply made with low sodium chicken broth, seasoned with oyster sauce, a little sesame oil, salt and pepper, and thickened with a cornstarch slurry.

Time to prep the Chicken Black Beans, I bought some chicken thighs, no bones or skin. Took my 8" Mercer Chinese Cleaver and started to dice each chicken thigh, getting ready to marinade it.

Once the chicken has been cut into pieces, it was marinade time again. The ingredients starting from 12 o'clock is cornstarch, lower right is sesame oil, left of that is a small bottle of Chardonnay, ideally I wanted a Sherry Wine. And last is the white pepper. First I seasoned the chicken with white pepper, then added some sesame oil, and then the wine. Then added some cornstarch to the mix. Easy!

This is the chicken all done with the mixing of all the ingredients, I let it sit for a while until I am ready to jam this in a wok.

The wok welcomes the chicken, as I wok this, I add some garlic and ginger, scallions, oyster sauce, soy sauce, a dash of sesame oil, the aroma was awesome, the neighbors could smell it.

Finally it is cooked, and plated, the trick is not overcooking the chicken, cook it until the inside of each piece is heated through well enough to kill any bacteria and you are good to go. This was so juicy, because I cooked it right.

In a take-out box, we got some white rice next to the Egg Foo Yung topped with chicken gravy, some Chicken Black Beans and some Beef Wontons. Just plate to go and eat at the beach. 

© 2017