MY PRIVATE COOKBOOK: Shanghai Cuisine: Chinese recipes with legends

By Yun Hua and Chunhui Gu

Cook healthy and simple! Chinese cuisine, especially Shanghai-style. I have written down selected recipes containing my so-called "secrets" in this book and supplemented them with photos, notes and entertaining stories. I hope it will be of help to anyone who is interested cooking Chinese in general and Shanghai-style in particular.

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Apr 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9783347483309

Yun Hua

COOKING has become my passion since I moved from China to Germany. My motto is: Cook healthy and simple! Based on my basic Shanghai knowledge, I have since received a lot of praise from my friends, acquaintances and neighbours. They all want to know more about Chinese cuisine, especially Shanghai-style. It is not so easy to describe everything orally. Therefore, I have written down selected recipes containing my so-called “secrets” in my books in English and German and supplemented them with photos, notes and entertaining stories. I hope it will be of help to anyone who is interested cooking Chinese in general and Shanghai-style in particular. More contents, updates and faqs can be found on my homepage: www.cspecial.de/yun

Book preview

1. Shanghai Spring Rolls

  Legend:

Everyone knows Chinese Spring Rolls. But do you also know its history? Let’s start with once upon a time:

It is said that 1000 years ago there was a scholar in Fuzhou in southern China who often forgot to eat and sleep while working. Time and again his wife found it difficult to persuade him to eat but then she thought of solution: She invented pancakes made of ground rice, filled with meat and folded in rolls. She left these rolls on her husband's desk so that he could help himself any time. When it got cold in winter, she fried the rolls briefly in hot oil. Her husband liked the rolls so much that he couldn’t stop eating. Later, the pancakes were made from wheat flour and the filling also became varied. The recipe gradually became popular in all of southern China and it was even included in the list of the 128 best dishes in the imperial palace. People named the dish spring rolls because they liked to eat them as a snack during the Spring Festival.

In Shanghai, the filling differs from those of other regions in China, with Chinese cabbage as one of the main ingredients. The spring rolls from Shanghai therefore taste more savoury than those from other regions.

  Ingredients for 20 spring rolls:

• 20 frozen spring roll pastries 215 mm x 215 mm (8" squares)

• Carrots 200 g (7 oz)

• Pork fillet 200 g (7 oz)

• Chinese cabbage approx. 500 g (18 oz)

• 3 pieces of dried tongu/shiitake mushrooms – optional

• 2 tbsp rice wine/ Shaoxing wine or dry sherry, beer

• Glass noodle 10 g (0.4 oz) – optional

• Corn starch, Salt and light soy sauce

• 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced

• Ground white pepper

• Neutral vegetable oil for frying

  Instructions:

1. Soak the dried tongu mushrooms (or shiitake mushrooms) in lukewarm water for about 15 minutes, and defrost the spring roll wrappers by unpacking and covering them with a damp cloth. The mushrooms can be omitted if they are not available.

2. Shred the pork into fine strips and add 2 teaspoons of light soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of rice wine / Shaoxing wine (alternatively dry sherry / beer) and