Home Cooking Recipes

A few home dishes cooked all over China, with step-by-step instructions.

Tomato and egg stir-fry (fanqie chao dan)　The most common home dish.
Ingredients: 2 tomatoes, 3 eggs, a little salt and sugar, chopped scallion.
Method: ① Beat the eggs with a little salt; cut the tomatoes into wedges. ② Heat plenty of oil in a wok, pour in the eggs, and when they set, break them up, stir briefly and remove. ③ Add a little more oil and fry the tomatoes until they release their juice, then season with salt and a pinch of sugar. ④ Return the eggs, toss to combine, sprinkle with scallion and serve.

Smashed cucumber salad (pai huanggua)　A cold dish ready in minutes.
Ingredients: 2 cucumbers, 3–4 cloves of garlic, vinegar, light soy sauce, salt, sugar, sesame oil, and chili oil if you like heat.
Method: ① Wash the cucumbers, smash them with the flat of a knife until they crack, and cut into pieces. ② Crush and mince the garlic. ③ Toss with salt, a little sugar, vinegar, light soy sauce and sesame oil, and let stand for a few minutes to absorb the flavors.

Stir-fried greens with garlic (suanrong qingcai)　Works with any leafy green, such as lettuce (youmaicai), choy sum or spinach.
Ingredients: a handful of greens, 4–5 cloves of garlic, salt.
Method: ① Wash and drain the greens; mince the garlic. ② Heat the wok and oil, and fry half the garlic until fragrant. ③ Add the greens and stir-fry over high heat; when they wilt, add salt and the remaining garlic, toss and serve.

Sour-and-hot shredded potato (cu liu tudousi)
Ingredients: 2 potatoes, a few dried chilies, vinegar, salt, scallion.
Method: ① Cut the potatoes into fine shreds, soak in clean water to rinse off the starch, then drain. ② Fry the dried chilies in hot oil until fragrant, add the potatoes and stir-fry over high heat. ③ Drizzle vinegar down the side of the wok and add salt; remove when the potato is just cooked but still crisp.

Steamed egg custard (jidangeng)　Silky smooth when steamed.
Ingredients: 2 eggs, warm water (about 1.5 times the volume of the beaten egg), salt, light soy sauce, sesame oil, chopped scallion.
Method: ① Beat the eggs, add a little salt, slowly pour in the warm water and stir well; skim off the foam. ② Cover the bowl with a plate or plastic wrap and steam over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes once the water boils. ③ Drizzle with light soy sauce and sesame oil and sprinkle with scallion.

Stir-fried shredded pork with green pepper (qingjiao rousi)
Ingredients: a piece of pork tenderloin, 2 green peppers, light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, starch, salt.
Method: ① Cut the pork into shreds and marinate with light soy sauce, wine and a little starch for 10 minutes. ② Shred the peppers. ③ Stir-fry the pork in hot oil until it separates and changes color, and remove. ④ Stir-fry the peppers with salt, return the pork and toss to combine.

Mapo tofu (Sichuan)
Ingredients: 1 block of soft tofu, about 50 g minced beef (or pork), 1 spoonful of Pixian chili bean paste, ground Sichuan pepper, chili flakes, garlic shoots or scallion, starch.
Method: ① Cut the tofu into small cubes, blanch in salted boiling water and remove. ② Fry the minced meat in hot oil until crisp, add the bean paste and fry until the oil turns red, then add chili flakes. ③ Add a little water and bring to a boil, add the tofu and simmer gently for a few minutes. ④ Thicken with starch slurry in two additions, scatter with garlic shoots, and sprinkle with ground Sichuan pepper once off the heat.

Red-braised pork belly (hongshao rou)
Ingredients: about 500 g skin-on pork belly, a small handful of rock sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, yellow rice wine, scallion, ginger, star anise.
Method: ① Cut the pork into chunks, blanch from cold water and rinse. ② In a little oil over low heat, cook the rock sugar to a jujube-red caramel, then add the pork and stir until coated. ③ Add scallion, ginger, star anise, rice wine, light soy sauce and a little dark soy sauce, then pour in boiling water to cover the meat. ④ Simmer over low heat for about an hour, then reduce the sauce over high heat.

Scallion oil noodles (congyou banmian)　A Shanghai home noodle dish.
Ingredients: thin noodles, a bunch of scallions, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar.
Method: ① Cut the scallions into sections and fry slowly in oil over low heat until golden brown; remove the scallions and keep the oil. ② Add light soy sauce, a little dark soy sauce and sugar to the scallion oil and bring to a boil over low heat to make the sauce. ③ Cook the noodles, drain, pour over the scallion-oil sauce, add the browned scallions and toss.

Seaweed and egg drop soup (zicai danhua tang)　A quick five-minute soup.
Ingredients: a small piece of dried laver, 1 egg, a little dried shrimp, salt, sesame oil, chopped scallion.
Method: ① Bring water to a boil and add the laver and dried shrimp. ② Beat the egg and pour it slowly in a circle into the pot; turn off the heat as soon as the egg ribbons float up. ③ Add salt and sesame oil and sprinkle with scallion.