There are so many different ethnic groups in China! Soooo many, it's kind crazy, yet incredible at the same time. Have you ever heard of the Uyghur people? Yeah, before today, I haven't either. The Uyghur people inhibit in the northeast border of China. They are a very distinct group with their own unique style of clothing, lifestyle, as well as culture. Most of them practice Islam. And of course, how can we forget about their food?? Righhttt??
Again, today we are going to make two different food dishes! Yayy more food! So let's start with meat, becauseeeee I like meat :). Well, I guess if you compare it to potatoes. You'll know what I mean later!
Okay, marinade ingredients:
- 1 tsp. ginger powder
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 tsp. dried chili flakes
- 1 tsp. ground coriander
- 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 3 tsp. sea salt
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 80 ml vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
Once you already made your marinade sauce, cut your beef into bite sized pieces. In a bowl, pour in the sauce and let the meat, well marinade, for about 15-20 minutes. And while this super delicious flavouring soaks into the meat, I have something else for you to do! Grab some toothpicks and soak them in a bowl of water. We do this because later when you make the skewers, the meat would slide through easier than it would if the toothpicks were dry. When the beef is done, your toothpicks will be done as well!
Tick...tock...tick...tock... Well technically I could tell you guys what to do for the second dish, but I really don't want to confuse ya'll like this! Is 20 minutes up yet? Well, if it is almost hitting the 20 minutes mark, you can start the griller and get it all heated up! This part is pretty much self explanatory. After you have finished making all your cabobs, throw them on the griller and let it cook, cook, cook! Ooooh talking about this is making my mouth water all over again! I'm sure you guys have cooked beef before, so when you know it's done, it's done! Honestly, I had to like...fight for my skewers! Because they were just sooooo goood!! :D
Now onto this second dish: basically Chinese mashed potatoes (I'm not going to use that fancy name. I mean...what are titles for, right? Haha :).)
Okay, enough of this nonsense and let's get started! So in order to make this potato dish, you will neeeeeeeeeed:
- 1 lb. waxy potatoes
- 1/3 c. peanut oil or canola oil
- 4 garlic cloves, smashed and sliced
- 4 whole dried red chilis
- 4 green onions, chopped
- 1/2 c. fresh fennel greens
- 2 tsp. chili garlic paste (we added more because we're boss)
- 1 tsp. salt
The most tedious work ever, well in cooking terms, is peeling the potatoes...thank goodness I didn't have to. Thanks to Caitlin, Katie, and other wonderful people in my class! What would I do without them? Starve. Running on a tangent again, FOCUS! Once your potatoes are peeled, cut them into blocks, and them smash them to make it into a mashed potato kind of consistency. The rest of the ingredients, you are going to put all of them into the wok! So first heat up your wok, add some oil; the first few ingredients you want to add are the garlic and the salt. Then right after that, you want to put everything else (except for your green onions), including your mashed potatoes. If you feel adventurous like how we ALWAYS are, add in some chili garlic sauce, siracha, or whatever hot sauce you want to spice things up! (Haha, see what I did there? SPICE things up? Okay fine.)
Well ladies and gents, here is your Lao Nai Yang Yu 老奶洋芋! Or in other words, Chinese mashed potatoes! Enjoy!
I'm going to be quite honest with you guys. I LOVED the beef skewers, the mashed potato....not so much. I mean, I didn't dislike it, but it's not something down my alley. Like...if I had a choice I wouldn't choose to eat mashed potatoes generally. But the beef skewers on the other hand... oh boy can I please have seconds? Thirds? Uhh...all of them pleaseeeee??!!? They were soooo delicious! I ate so much that I had an obvious food baby when I left the class. Quite embarrassing actually but..NO SHAME FOR FOOD! And while we're on the page of honesty right now, my family never made mash potatoes before...I've always thought the mashed potatoes is such a western meal. Like...never have I even seen mashed potatoes on a Chinese restaurant menu before...I don't know, I just found it quite odd and interesting.
The beef skewers we made today was actually another thing that I thought was quite interesting... I don't think I've ever seen it on a Chinese menu before... Well, given that I lived in the southeast border of China, which is DIRECTLY opposite of the Ugyhur people, that would explain some food culture differences. Given the location of where the Ugyhur people reside, I'm not that surprised that their foods have a western twist to it. Well if I were to make these skewers again, I would sprinkle some pepper on top while it's grilling to bring out the taste even more! What do you think? I don't know, I'm not a great cook, I just know what I like to eat :).
Woohoo! Another two dishes under our belt! We are GOOD aren't we? Like always, thanks for reading and I hope you guys have a wonderful day! If it's cold in your region, please stay warm! Have fun creating the foods and I would love to see ay pictures :).
Evann
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