First of all, there is much less cooking with gas (let alone coal, but that’s becoming less popular in China, too – and a good change it is). Add to that the popularity of heavy pots, and after cooking in China, it becomes clearer than ever that ingredients in European cuisine are meant to be boiled and cooked, not stir-fried and braised. I feel like a simple egg omelette takes a minute in China, but ten in Austria.

Funnily, this even translates into one of the first mis-translations of Chinese cooking to Europe: “wok” is a word that Chinese typically have never heard of, what they use is simply a pan. The Chinese frying pan is usually rather light and thin (albeit big) so that it can be picked up and moved so as to stir the ingredients with a few flicks of the wrist. What one gets as an Asian/Chinese wok tends to be a pan of similar size, but with much thicker walls, and therefore much harder to move around, let alone heat up quickly.

The ways of cooking, consequently, clash. You look at “Asian” foods in a European supermarket, or even many of the “Chinese” restaurants, and the dishes tend to wildly mix a whole host of ingredients: meat with various vegetables, with rice, all thrown together. Simply put: made in a way that Chinese consider pretty dysmal.
Not counting spices (and by that, I mean chile pepper, salt, possibly a pinch of MSG, maybe ginger or garlic or, rarely, both), Chinese dishes I know hardly ever contain more than two main ingredients.

Ingredients, finally, are a – or is that, the? – major issue.

The way you buy food in China: You go to the next market down the street and pick what’s freshest and suits your liking at the time, for the day.
Europe: You drive to the supermarket on the weekend, get some of the “freshest” vegetables in the frozen foods section, and a limited choice – compared to China – anyways.

Differences do not end there, mis-translations continue:

• You have 豆角 and you have green beans, but they are different (from different species of plant, even). Guess what? European green beans take a lot longer to get done, better being boiled for a while, whereas the Chinese green beans would be done after five to ten minutes of braising.
• 酸菜 / sauerkraut is my favorite example. The words translate directly, cabbage is used and in similar ways, too, and still the exact preparation differes enough to make the two utterly different.
• Not to forget chile peppers:

  Chilli is a lot easier to find in China, not surprisingly. In the Austrian supermarket, you can now find some rare varieties of sweet and hot peppers, you can get some mix of chillies or Thai-type peppers.  Still, the very use of small packages of peculiar chillis only points to how exotic chilli is and remains in much of Europe.

  China, in contrast… more of the household staples, less exotic kinds, but you can buy them by the pound – and that’s pretty much how they would be used, too.

  By the way, “pepper” is an interesting mis-translation, too: Chinese tend to translate 辣椒 simply as pepper, but the Chinese word means chile peppers and sweet peppers alike… gets pretty confusing when somebody is talking about frying pepper cut into small pieces and egg (where it would be sweet/bell pepper) and then misses the hot taste of red-cooked pork. Oh, and black pepper: where I live in China, that’s mainly used in hot water to make the Chinese equivalent of chamomile tea. The association with coughs and colds doesn’t add to its popularity, of course…

In time for my leaving China for the summer, the first peppers get ripe. More chile pepper has also been put out over the last month or two, with interesting ways of growing them. I’ll shortly be reporting a bit more about that and the kinds of peppers used here in Hunan.

Gerade rechtzeitig vor meiner Abreise für einen Sommer in Österreich gibt’s die ersten reifen Chilis hier. Es sind in den letzten Monaten auch weitere Feldchen angelegt worden, mit ganz interessanten Arten des Anbaus. In Kürze werde ich darúber und über die hier in Hunan verwendeten Arten von “Pfeffern” ausführlicher berichten.

Stay tuned!

The preparation is simple enough: the leafy tops get cut off, the stalks washed and cut into smaller pieces. The fern pieces get fried with some meat, chile pepper and ginger, and then boiled for a little while.

Die Zubereitung ist einfach genug: die blättrigen Spitzen werden abgeschnitten, die Halme gewaschen, kleiner geschnitten und mit etwas Fleisch, Chilli und Ingwer erst angebraten und dann kurz gekocht. Der Geschmack ist nicht besonders intensiv, ausser wenn man welchen erwischt der intensiv bitter schmeckt. Das kommt vor, ist aber nicht unbedingt beliebt.

Die Tomaten-Troubles hat man auch in China (Wieso Troubles? Weil es eine wunderbare Vielfalt an Paradeisern gäbe, fast so schön wie bei Chilli. Man sehe etwa bei Irina nach, unterstütze Arche Noah und besucheErich Stekovics.): Traditionelle Varietäten werden zugunsten höher-produktiver, uniformer Hybriden aufgegeben. Findet man allerdings Sorten die schmackhaft genug sind, dann sind die typischen chinesischen Tomatengerichte ausgezeichnete Beispiele für die einfache und zugleich ausgezeichnete Zubereitung in der chinesischen Küche.

Nach dem Sprung, ab zu Rezepten.

#1: 西红柿炒蛋 – Gebratene Tomate mit Ei

Einfach genug: Tomate in Spalten schneiden, mit etwas Öl anbraten, Ei hinzufügen, fertig braten. Okay, ein Schritt mehr: Leicht salzen.

#2: 西红柿鸡蛋汤 – Tomate-Eitropfsuppe

Eines dieser wunderbaren Beispiele chinesischer Suppen, echter Suppen ohne künstliche Geschmacksstoffe, ohne Suppenwürfel, einfach aus Wasser, Salz und den Zutaten:

Zwei Tomaten schälen (in kochendes Wasser tauchen hilft dabei), klein schneiden, mit etwas Öl anbraten. Ca. 3/4 der zum Servieren verwendeten Schüssel an Wasser und 1 Teelöffel Salz hinzufügen. Zum Kochen bringen. Ein Ei einquirlen – dazu lassen sich Essstäbchen wunderbar verwenden. Für ein paar Sekunden noch einmal kochen lassen, in die Schüssel leeren. Mit Reis servieren.

The tomato tribulations are on in China, too: if there are traditional varieties, they are being given up in favor of more productive, more uniform hybrid varieties. Yet, provided you find ones that are tasty enough, the two typical Chinese tomato dishes are a great example of the simple yet excellent preparation one can often find in Chinese cooking.

After the fold, on to recipes.

#1: 西红柿炒蛋 – Tomato Fried Egg

Simple enough: cut tomato into wedges, start frying in some oil, add egg, stir fry. Well, okay: Salt lightly.

#2: 西红柿鸡蛋汤 – Tomato Egg Drop Soup

One of those examples of Chinese soups I particularly love, because they are real soups, without any artificial flavorings, without soup cubes, with nothing but water, salt, and the ingredients:

Peel 2 tomatoes (immersing in boiling water helps), cut small, fry with some oil. Add 3/4 bowl of water (use the bowl in wich you plan to serve th soup, that’s  natural measure), add 1 teaspoon of salt, bring to a boil. When boiling, whisk in one egg. I’d recommend using chopsticks for that, it works really well. Let boil for a few seconds, pour into the bowl. Serve with rice.

Die Blätter (die um die Sprossen gewickelt sind) werden meist schon vor dem Verkauf etwas entfernt; die Sprossen werden gewaschen, kleiner geschnitten und in einem Topf mit getrocknetem Chilli und Sichuanpfeffer, in Wasser das man genutzt hat, um Reis zu waschen, gekocht bis sie weich sind (ca. 30 Minuten).

Fertig gekocht werden sie abgeseiht, die Pfeffer entfernt, und sie werden zusammen mit frischem Chilli und etwas Fleisch (und, wenn gewünscht, in Streifen geschnittenen Shiitake-Pilzen) gebraten.

Leaves (wrapped up aroound the shoot) are usually removed somewhat already; the shoots get washed, cut smaller, and put into a pot with dried chile peppers and some Sichuan pepper (if wanted), to be boiled until soft (some 30 minutes) in water used for washing rice.

When boiled, the water gets drained, the bamboo shoots separated from the peppers and fried together with fresh chile peppers and some meat (and, if wanted, Shiitake mushrooms cut into strips).

Feld im 2. Monat - Field in 2nd Month

2. Monat: Blüten - 2nd Month: Flowers