Yu Hsiang Beef Noodles

The first time I had food flavored with Yu Hsiang was at Mary Chung's in Central Square, and it immediately became one of my favorites. The sauce is a sweet and hot and garlicky, and goes well with just about any kind of stir fry. I attempted to make it at home, and the result was so successful I made it again the next day.

Baby Bok Choy with Sausage

One of the things I like about good Asian grocery stores is that they have a wide variety of green vegetables. Baby bok choy is one of my favorites - it grills well and also works in stir fries like this one.  I like simple protein/vegetable/grain combinations, because they encourage healthy eating while also being filling and tasting good and fast and easy to cook.

Mango Chicken

This mango chicken dish combines sweet and sour flavors. The sauce is made mostly of mangoes and roasted red peppers which give it an intense red color. I battered and fried the chicken, but you can save time by just stir frying it.

Indo-Chinese Chili Chicken with Fried Rice

Indo-Chinese food is a cuisine that isn't well known in the US, but is an incredible fusion of Chinese and Indian ingredients and techniques. Many Indo-Chinese dishes are somewhere between a stir-fry and a dry curry, and tend to be spicy and fried. This chili chicken is a simple, delicious one-pan dish.

Bourbon Chicken

This is a bourbon chicken along the lines of what you get in mall and airport food courts. It actually a pretty simple dish, as it comes down to basically chicken and sauce.

Orange Beef

One of the first Chinese dishes I ate was crispy orange beef, and I loved it. It was the perfect mix of salty, spicy, crispy, sweet, and sour. Every time I've had it since then I've been disappointed it wasn't quite as good as that first one. This was my attempt to get as close as possible to recreate that dish.

Twice Cooked Pork

Twice cooked pork is a Chinese dish where pork belly is boiled and then sliced and fried. I like the idea of it, but in restaurants it's always too chewy. Traditionally, the pork is mixed with cabbage and/or leeks, but I used green bell peppers because that's what I felt like.

Pork/Asparagus/Red Pepper Stir Fry

This is a quick stir-fry that can be done quickly, and used with almost any combination of meat and vegetables.  Here I used pork, red peppers, and asparagus.  These three complement each other well - they are all strong flavors that don't interfere with each other, and visually, they are all different colors and are easily cut into a long thin shape.

Char Siu

Char siu is the red barbecue pork you find in Chinese restaurants.  In Boston, Hong Kong eatery has good char siu (along with skin-on roast pork and roast duck), but I wanted to make some myself... so I thought of how it tasted and poked around the Internet and bought some pork.  Pork butt seems to be the recommended cut, and I found some at Market Basket.