Chinese Cooking Experience

Recently in our class we have been experiencing some basic Chinese cuisine. One week we had some Chinese tea, and the next week we cooked a whole meal. This meal was a chicken stir-fry with every vegetable from carrots to water chestnuts thrown in. We also made egg drop soup and fortune cookies. Although the cookies did not originate from China, they were still alot of fun to make! After this experience the teachers decided to have us experiment on our own. We were given a packet full of recipies and were told to create a dish or meal on our own or with a partner, and have others try it. Shelby and I decided to make Huo Tui Tan Ch'ao Fan, a traditional dish comprised mainly of ham, egg, and rice. Our main dessert would be hot bananas in coconut milk. We also decided to make the egg drop soup and fortune cookies, since they were such a favorite in class.

The first dish, the ham and egg dish was simple enough, or so we thought. We heated oil in a pan and cooked the onions. Then we added the rice, egg, ham and salt to the pan. Where we went wrong was that we had not let the rice cool from cooking previously, which changed the texture of the dish a little. All we had to do after that was add soy sauce to taste- a great idea for breakfast some time!

The egg drop soup went smoothly, probably because the recipe was simple enough for our basic culinary skills! After heating up the chicken broth, we slowly dribbled egg into the boiling broth, which immediately cooked the raw egg. Once all the egg had been added, strips of spinach was put into the soup and cooked thoroughly. This in the perfect soup to make in a quick fix.

The next thing we created were the hot bananas in coconut milk, which turned out amazing. We boiled coconut milk and dissolved sugar and cinnamon into the pot. Then we added sliced bananas and boiled them until they were soft, but not mushy. This dish was a favorite of many, because it was so sweet!

All our dishes were completed except the hardest, and arguably the most complicated: the fortune cookies. In class almost everyone had not been able to fold their cookies correctly, and so we wanted to make the perfect fortune cookie! We whipped eggwhites and sugar, later adding butter, vanilla, almond extract, water and flour. Then we poured the mixture onto a cookie sheet in circles 3-inches in diameter. This was baked in a 375 degree oven for 5-7 minutes until the edges began to brown. Then came the hardest part- putting the fortunes in the circles and folding them fast and precisely enough so that they all looked nice. We had a couple of shots since we had a lot of batter, and managed to make 2 or 3 really nice ones! This recipe was definitely the most fun to make out of all the dishes.

Our Fortune Cookie Folding Fiasco!

Here are some reviews of our food:

Shelby's mom:
“I was amazed at how good everything tasted! The presentation of the meal was very professional. I was surprised that one could make ‘homemade fortune cookies’! All in all, it was a very delicious meal and the girls should be quite proud of their accomplishment.”

Savannah:

“Shelby and Natalie’s food was amazing. I especially liked the banana and coconut milk dessert. Loved it!”

Katie:

“Chinese cuisine is highly praised and admired for its beauty and preparation. The beauty and grace of the dish is paid unique attention. When such a thing is homemade it’s completely sensible for someone to be skeptical, but after tasting the four dishes that were prepared for criticism, I was delightfully surprised. The egg drop soup, although deceiving in appearance, was fortunately editable, even good. The rice, fortune cookies, and coconut bananas were also quite incredible. Most were humorously deceiving in looks but impeccable in taste. The only unfortunate part of the meal was that it was served cold due to the frantic preparation and mess. After spending at least two hours making the food, my servers spent another hour cleaning and carefully styling the table, taking constant pictures. All in all the meal was made beautifully.”

This project was an amazing way to experience the culture and cuisine of China in your own kitchen! I loved every second of it, and even though the food got cold after all of our picture-taking, it still tasted great!