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Secrets of a Chinese Feast Revealed

Wok-fried Sliced Pork

The Wan Hao Chinese Food Festival

With the amount of Chinese food available in just about every corner of the planet, try one might be excused for thinking of it as some kind of a dime-a-dozen, commodity cuisine. But here’s an interesting little factoid. Really good Chinese food is actually quite hard to come by. Food that passes off as Chinese around the globe would very likely be laughed out of town, if the town happened to be Shanghai or Hong Kong.

Fortunately, the cuisine at Miramar-based Wan Hao, the award-winning signature Oriental restaurant of Goa Marriott Resort & Spa, would not be laughed out of town here or anywhere else in the world. On a recent afternoon, we attended Wan Hao’s Chinese Food Festival, on till September 22, and came away pleasantly surprised. The food passed the authenticity test from people in the know, and would certainly not have been laughed out of town – even in China itself.

Visiting Chef Sukhdev (from JW Marriott’s ‘Spices’ restaurant in Mumbai) and Chef Sundar (the newest addition to Goa Marriott & Spa’s oriental kitchen) are clearly hitting their stride in this festival. There’s an all-new a la carte menu featuring specialties like Qia Xiao Bao (barbeque pork buns), Ji Jiao Zi (steamed chicken dumplings), Braised Eggplant & Tofu, Fujian Fried Rice (garlic fried rice with vegetables), XO Chicken (wok-fried shredded chicken with homemade ‘XO’ sauce), Black Pepper Beef and Chilli Crabs with Scallions, to name a few.

Streets caught up with Chefs Sukhdev and Sundar who, happily defying the age-old injunction against the divulging of chef secrets, were kind enough to share some of theirs. And now we in turn are sharing them with you. Enjoy!

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Chef Sundar, the newest addition to the Marriott’s Oriental kitchen, with Fried Ice-cream.

BLACK PEPPER MUSHROOM

Ingredients (Yield: 4 portions)

4×200 gm fresh mushroom

4×20 gm corn flour

4×15 gm refined flour

4×10 ml vegetable stock

4×5 gm garlic

4×5 gm salt

4×10 gm castor sugar

4×5 ml light soya sauce

4×5 ml dark soya sauce

4×5 gm black pepper

4×10 gm potato starch

4x 1 gm coriander

4×150 ml sunflower oil

Procedure

Make batter out of corn flour and refined flour.

Deep-fry mushroom coated with batter.

Add some oil to the wok. Sauté garlic. Add pepper, vegetable stock, light and dark soya sauces, sugar and salt.

Now add the potato starch followed by the mushrooms.

Toss it nicely. Add coriander as garnish and serve.

SZECHUAN CHICKEN

Ingredients (Yield: 4 portions)

1 kg chicken leg (boneless)

100 gm corn flour

500 ml cooking oil

100 gm dry chili

100 gm Szechuan peppercorn

40 gm chopped ginger

40 gm chopped garlic

80 gm chilli-bean paste

60 ml Chinese rice wine

20 gm Chicken powder

40 gm spring onion

60 gm sugar

20 gm salt

Procedure

Dice the chicken and coat with corn flour. Deep-fry until crispy.

Sauté the dry chilli, Szechuan peppercorn, chilli-bean paste till fragrant. Add ginger and garlic.

Now add the chicken and Chinese wine. Season with salt, sugar and chicken powder. Toss well.

Lastly, add the spring onions. Szechuan Chicken is ready!

WOK-FRIED SLICED PORK

Ingredients (Yield: 4 portions)

4×250 gm pork belly

4×10 gm garlic

4×10 gm ginger

4×50 gm French beans

4×15 gm black beans

4×10 ml sesame oil

4×15 gm chilli-bean paste

4×10 ml dark soya sauce

4×10 gm pepper powder

4×25 ml cooking oil

Salt

Sugar

Procedure

Boil the pork belly till soft and tender. Set aside.

Slice the pork belly. Heat the wok and add oil. Sauté garlic, ginger, French beans and black beans.

Add chilli-bean paste and fry till fragrant.

Now add the sliced pork and the seasoning. Fry all the ingredients well. Serve.

DEEP-FRIED ICE CREAM

Ingredients

4 scoops well-frozen ice cream (any flavour)

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup of crushed cornflakes

Oil for frying

Procedure

Make 4 perfectly round (if you can manage it) scoops of ice-cream and put them in the deep freezer for 15 minutes.

Give all the scoops an egg wash once you remove them from the deep freezer, then roll them on crushed cornflakes to give them a nice coating. Put them back in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Repeat this whole process twice, so the ice cream will be thickly coated with the cornflake mix.

Heat oil and make sure it is burning hot.

Deep fry the ice-cream quickly for 5-8 seconds until crispy on the outside.

Serving

Serve immediately, with a drizzle of chocolate sauce on top.

At Wan Hao, Goa Marriott Resort & Spa, Miramar, Panjim

For reservations, call +91 832 2463333