Shanghai Braised Vegetarian Chicken 上海紅燒素雞

Did you know that the Chinese have the most delicious vegetarian fare?  There are even vegetarian restaurants which serve a throve of ‘meat’ entitled dishes entirely made from tofu!  But note that, despite the names of the dishes, the ‘meats’ don’t actually taste like meat, they just taste veggie-licious!

We recently discovered a source of Shanghai style vegetarian chicken and so were able to make this truly yummilicious veggie dish.  This Shanghai Braised Vegetarian Chicken 上海紅燒素雞 is deliciously creamy and tender and soaked thru with the five spice infused savory sauce.

Red Braised Wheat Gluten Kao Fu 紅燒烤麩

Chinese cuisine is well known for its vegetarian fare, indeed whole Chinese restaurants can be found devoted to vegetarian foods only!  And if you visit a Chinese monastery you will often find the unexpected delight of enjoying a fine vegetarian meal during your visit.  (Chinese people always take very good care of their tummies, wherever they are.)  Do be forewarned, however, that just because it's vegetarian fare, don't expect the Chinese to give up their daily meat intake!  

Whaaaaaat the hey, you say?! 

What I mean is that Chinese vegetarian dishes are mainly based around 'mock' meats: mock duck, mock chicken, mock pork, you name it, they've got it.  And these fake meats are mostly cleverly made from tofu and wheat gluten.  

Determined to make my own vegetarian dish, I first made my homemade wheat gluten kao fu (see our kao fu recipe here) and then cooked up the classic Shanghainese Red Braised Wheat Gluten Kao Fu 紅燒烤麩, a simple yet yummilicious vegetarian dish of soy sauce braised kao fu wheat gluten, mushrooms, bamboo and wood ears.  Tis so satisfying to your tastebuds and filling to your tummy!

Red Braised Fish Tail with Roast Pork 紅燒斑尾

Okay, I have to say right off the bat that just thinking about this dish makes me sooo hungry.  This traditional Cantonese fish dish maybe does not sound super exciting when you describe it in words but once I had tasted it, it just burned into my food memories as one of the most delicious, comforting, unforgettable kind of Chinese dishes that I've ever had.  That's a tall order, I think, and I confess that now that I have written that sentence I'm nervous that people will make this dish and think, what the hey is she talking about?  

But then I backtrack in my mind to the last time I had this spectacular dish, cooked up by my Cantonese cuisine extraordinaire 老公, and all I can remember is joy and muffled sounds of eating and the soft slurping sounds of delight and happiness.  You know what I mean.  All those funny body movements and facial expressions people have when their food makes them really, really happy.  

So I present you with the Red Braised Fish Tail with Roast Pork, or 紅燒斑尾, a truly yummilicious fish dish braised to perfection with heapings of succulent roasted pork and tender chewy bean curd skins, all smothered in a thick, glossy, delectable sauce, the one fish dish besides the glorious Steamed Garoupa Fish, that I think is truly fit for a Chinese festival table.

Lion's Head Meatball 紅燒獅子頭

Roarrrrr!!  Meatball lovers alert!  Interested in  a light wondrously fluffy tender deliciously tasty pork meatball just dripping with luscious sauce? Well, maybe you'd be surprised to know that this famous Shanghai style Chinese meatball, the Lion's Head Meatball, or 紅燒獅子頭, can probably knock the socks off of its meatball competitors!  The key to this extraordinary Chinese meatball's goodness, I think, is in it's wonderful fluffiness.  Tender tasty almost falling apart lusciousness as you pick a bit of meatball up with your chopsticks.  Yum, yum!

Soy Sauce Chicken Wings 紅燒雞翼

Every chinese kid will tell you, soy sauce chicken wings, or 紅燒雞翼, is one of their favorite snacks bar none.  And how could it not be?  Melting from the bone chickeny goodness coated and infused with the aromatically sweet, savory, sticky coating of red cooked soy sauce with a subtle hint of licorice and ginger.  This is chinese snack food at its supreme. Well at least for kids and those of us who still keep their inner kid alive and kicking.  

My family originally being from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, we grew up eating this kind of thing pretty much every day, be it red cooked (another name for soy sauce cooking) chicken or beef or pork.  This kind of cooking is more of a northern china kind of thing and since I've been in Hong Kong I have missed it.  

I know, I know, you can find some red cooked meats in Hong Kong too, but, honestly, I don't think it's that good.  It's only so-so on the taste radar.  Usually the flavor's not quite right or it's been sitting around too long.  

So what else to do but make it myself every once in a while to sooth my nostalgic longings.  Beware, though, these little suckers will disappear before you can say "Soy Sauce Chicken Wings"!