Chinese noodle sauce (炸酱面)

300 gr. ground pork (10 oz.)
hot peppers, finely chopped
4 shiitake mushrooms, minced
1 chopped onion
1 chopped tomato
4 (?) finely chopped celery stalks
4 pieces extra firm "dry tofu" (豆干) sliced into 1/3 thickness, then tiny cubes
sweet bean sauce 甜麵醬
sesame oil

Heat pan until very hot, add 3-4 Tablespoons oil, drop in peppers to sizzle, turn off heat and fry until fragrant (“爆香”: “sauté until aromatic” )
Turn on heat, add ground pork, break it up and stir-fry, adding salt & pepper and cook until browned. Oil will be pretty much absorbed. Remove hot pepper & pork to bowl.
Heat pan until very hot, add 3 Tablespoons oil, drop in shiitake mushrooms, turn off heat and fry until fragrant, adding salt and pepper, fry until oil absorbed. You may actually need to add oil. Remove mushrooms.

Heat pan until very hot, add 3 Tablespoons oil, drop in chopped onion, stir fry, add salt.
Add "dry tofu", continuing to stir fry.
Add chopped tomato, continuing to stir fry.
Add chopped celery, fry, add salt & pepper.
Continue frying until liquid is absorbed; may need to add oil.

The fried "dry tofu" & vegetables will be about twice the quantity of meat and mushrooms.

Add several Tablespoons of 甜麵醬; enough to darken.
麻油 to flavor.

Serve a small amount (with julienned persian cucumbers) over noodles

Chicken stewed in soy sauce and spices (滷味; lǔ​wèi)

Quantities and types of meats vary. I like:
chicken legs
chicken gizzards
hard-boiled chicken eggs

First parboil the meats a couple of minutes. Drain, then prepare:
1" length cassia bark (桂皮; guì​pí)
6-7 pieces rock candy sugar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper corns
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
smashed ginger root the size a large thumb
¼-½ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine

Put in the legs and add:
water to cover
simmer until cooked through (40 minutes?).
Remove the legs and put in the gizzards. Cook until tender (they'll take much longer than the legs; possible a couple of hours). Add the peeled hard-boiled eggs after 40 min. or so; when the whites are brown you'll know they've absorbed enough flavor.

Cool and eat. These also make good leftovers.

Sweet-sour cabbage

Rip the leaves of about half a green cabbage head into 1-2" pieces.

Using the pan for the Stuffed Jalapeños with the oil still in it, drop in the cabbage and after frying briefly, add

½ teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. Slowly stir fry until tender. Depending on how how"pungent" the jalapeños were, this may be very highly spiced, too.

Stuffed Jalapeños

Select about a dozen jalapeños that are fairly large and straight (easier to stuff ).

To ground pork (enough to stuff: about ½ lb.), add about ¼ teaspoon minced ginger and one minced scallion, a teaspoon of soy sauce and a teaspoon of rice wine (米酒), and a teaspoon (?) of salt. Mix together and add a splash of water to make the mixture a little pasty and easier to manipulate.

It's best to wear gloves when you cut the tops off the peppers and gouge out the membranes and seeds with a long skinny knife like a steak knife, then stuff with the meat mixture.

Heat a little oil in a heavy frying pan, and slowly cook the peppers over medium low heat. Keep them covered except when you turn them. It'll take about ½ hour till they caramelize so you'll know they're done.

The  jalapeños may be very "pungent" (spicy-hot). You may use the same pan to cook sweet-sour cabbage.

Spaghetti with zucchini and garlic.

• Grate zucchini.
• Cook pasta
• Fry minced garlic in olive oil.
• Add grateed zucchini.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Saute 7 to 10 minutes.
• Toss hot, drained spaghetti with zucchini and garlic oil.

Serve with Steamed shrimp.

Steamed shrimp

Defrost shrimp (if not fresh).
Steam on plate in top of double boiler; flipping over when pink.

Serve with Spaghetti with zucchini and garlic.

Taro root

Wearing gloves, slice the skin off a large taro root. Rinse, then cut into sections and cut the sections into slices roughly a quarter inch thick. Heat a little oil in a pot, briefly stir fry the slices, then add water (enough to cover at least halfway, but you're not making soup). Simmer, stirring occasionally until the taro softens, adding water if necessary, then season with salt and sprinkle with green onion cut into thin slices. Eat.

I've decided that it's better than mashed potatoes, and practically a comfort food.

Braised pork belly 紅燒肉

3-4 lbs. pork butt

The day before:
Cut pork into large pieces, bring to a boil, cool and then rinse, refrigerate

Fry in a little olive oil:
chopped one pound shallots or several scallions
sliced ginger (a piece the size of two thumbs)

Add:
All the meat
In a spice bag:

2 star anises

2 one-inch by ½ inch pieces of chinese cinnamon

1 Tablespoon sichuan peppercorns

6 dried hot peppers

5-6 pieces rock sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
½ cup rice wine for cooking （绍興酒 rather than 米酒）
½ cup soy sauce
1-2 teaspoon black pepper
1½ cups water; the mix of meat and spices should be about 7/10 covered

Stew over a low flame until tender (1½-2 hours)

Salmon fried rice

Use the leftover oil from frying salmon or salmon skin.

Chop about a cup cabbage, fry in the salmon oil, add half a cup of chopped cilantro, stir fry, mix in a couple of cups of cooked rice (adjust according to how oily you want it), sprinkle with salt, and you're done.

Salmon on rice wrapped in nori

That's about it. Salmon skin is good. Chop up the meat and skin and fry it up. (Save the oil and some of the meat for Salmon Fried Rice). Spread cooked rice at one end of a sheet of nori, spread on some salmon, sprinkle with furikake and wrap it in the nori; I don't know if it's genuine onigiri, but I like it.

Shiitake mushrooms with snow peas

Snap both ends off snow peas, slice about equal quantity of fresh shiitake mushroom caps (discard the stem) into thin slices. Heat oil, first dump in the mushrooms, then the snow peas, stir fry adding water whenever the liquid dries up. Don't overcook!

Chinese meatloaf

OK, it's not really a loaf, but it's meat.

½ lb. ground pork

Mix in a couple of teaspoons of:
soy sauce
rice wine
sesame oil

salt and pepper to taste.

Mince:
2 scallions
1½ teaspoon ginger
1 cup shiitake mushrooms (3 or 4)

Microwave the mushrooms a minute or so; they'll shrink to about half.

Mix all ingredients together in a low bowl, then put the trivet in the rice cooker, two cups of filtered water, put a plate on the trivet (in case of spills) and the bowl on the plate. Click it on and take it out when it's done. Eat with rice.

Chinese broccoli (kailan; 芥藍)

Soak in a large container, then rinse all the dirt off.Cut off the tough thick bottom "trunks" and discard.
Cut the large leaves off the "trunks", then cut the stems off those leaves, then cut the top leafy part off.

• Cut the bottom "trunks" at a 25°-30° angle, so pieces are about 1" long
• Cut the leaf stems about 1" long
• Cut the leaves into sections about 1" long

Pour a little oil in a frying pan, then put in the cut stems and "trunk" pieces and stir fry for about a minute. Add the chopped leaves, gently stir-frying for another three minutes or so. (It's important not to overcook the broccoli.) Sprinkle with salt.

I like it much more than broccoli.

Chicken with shiitake mushrooms

• 1 lb. boned chicken thighs 
• 1 T Chinese rice wine
• 1 T soy sauce
• 2-3 minced garlic cloves
• 1 T hot broad bean paste (辣豆瓣醬)
• 15-20 shiitake mushrooms
• 1 cup fresh cilantro, washed and drained
• salt to taste
• 1 t sesame oil

Remove the fat from boned chicken thighs, and cut into small ¼-½" pieces. Steep in a little Chinese rice wine and soy sauce for 1/2-1 hr.
Wash 15-20 mushrooms, cut off and discard stems, cube caps into ¼-½" pieces.
Heat oil in frying pan, drop in minced garlic cloves, then add hot broad bean paste, stir-fry briefly, then add chicken and stir-fry until nearly cooked through, then remove from pan, leaving the liquid.
Dump in mushrooms, stir, add a little water, then cover for a few minutes (they'll suck up the liquid at first, then soften), then add chicken and when almost done, sprinkle with salt and add cilantro and sesame oil.

Tongho (茼蒿, aka Garland Chrysanthemum, Chop Suey Green)

She used her thumbnail to make sure the leaves or stems she pinched off were tender enough.
Stir-fry until they're wilted--they'll cook down a lot--add a little salt.

Shiitake mushrooms with mung bean sprouts

Wash 7 or 8 mushrooms, cut off and discard stems, cut caps into ¼ strips, stir-fry in oil about a minute then add the washed and drained sprouts (12 oz. package), continue frying, then add a splash of balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of salt and stir fry for 7 or 8 minutes until the mushroom flesh is no longer white but the sprouts aren't soft.

Oxtails stewed in red wine

• oxtails (2-3 lbs.)
• olive oil (enough to sauté the onions )
• 2-3 large onions, chopped
• 2-3 large tomatoes, chopped
• 3 slices of ginger
• other vegetables as you wish (carrots, mushrooms, etc.)
• hot pepper (if you like it spicy)
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste
• red wine

Place oxtails in pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Discard the water, rinse the oxtails, and set aside.
In the stewpot, pour in a little olive oil, and sauté the ginger and onions until soft
Add tomatoes, continue to sauté for 1-2 minutes
Add the oxtails and any other vegetables
Pour in enough red wine to cover everything
Bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer
Continue simmering for at least 3 hours, until the meat is almost falling off the bones
At this point, you can remove the meat from the bones, or leave it on for the diners

It's now ready to serve, but you can also refrigerate it and serve it the next day or the day after and it will taste even better.

Serve over pasta (rotini) or rice

Baby bok choy (上海白菜、青江菜)

Break the leaves off and soak in a large container, then rinse all the dirt off.
Cut the leaves from the stems, then cut the larger stems in half, then chop into sections about ⅓ of an inch wide. Cut the leaves into strips about the same size.

Pour a little oil in a frying pan, then put in the cut stems and stir fry for about a minute.
Add the chopped leaves, gently stir-frying for another three minutes or so. (It's important not to overcook the choy.) Sprinkle with salt.

Edamame, carrot, and potato

• 2 cups edamame (毛豆; green soybeans out of the pod; available frozen in asian grocery stores)
• 2-3 carrots
• 1 medium potato
• oil for frying
• salt to taste

Cut the carrots and potato into small cubes no large than ¼ inch.
Pour a little oil into a frying pan, dump in the cubed carrots and potato, then add the edamame/soybeans. Cover, stirring occasionally (the potatoes may stick to the pan), and cook for 15 minutes or so. Salt to taste.

Tomatoes with tofu

• 1 tomato (not really "tomatoes", is it?)
• 1 lb. medium tofu
• 1 scallion
• oil for frying
• soy sauce to taste
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste

Cut tofu into ¼ inch cubes, chop tomato into small pieces. Cut scallion into thin slices.
Pour a little oil into skillet, add the tomato and tofu and a splash of soy sauce, then cover, stirring occasionally (make sure tofu doesn't stick).
After 10-15 minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then drop in the scallion, mix together, then shut off the heat and leave covered for a few minutes.