Dining Out : Congee Village NYC - Allen Street

Sharing one of our favorite cantonese restaurant in Chinatown, NYC.

Congee Village 

100 Allen St, New York, NY 10002

(212) 941-1818

Manila Clams with Black bean garlic sauce

-

 Garlicky Chinese Broccoli..great greens and to freshen up the palette .. 

only if you can avoid the whole fried garlic..

Crispy wonton noodle with soy sauce, chives and bean sprout ...excellent with hot sauce

Ginger Scallions stir fry whole lobster .. so good!

Salt and pepper calamari .... very good tender squid ..wish it was less oily. 

Along with these dishes we all shared steamed rice and crab congee.

Will be back with some more next time...

Drunken Chicken with Shitaki Mushroom and Ginger - Steamed

Drunken chicken,  marinated chicken in rice wine. 

And yes, I love it very marinated, the wine just does something magical to the meat - helps tenderize and gives it this lovely aroma.

Often reminds me of the chicken wine soup Mama Ng likes to cook for us from time to time. Very popular in the cold seasons as it helps promotes the blood circulation. It is very strong in flavor but delicious and best consumed in small amounts. Will post more on Mama Ng chicken wine soup one day.

Here is my version. 

Steamed Chicken with Mushroom and Ginger 

I used boneless chicken thighs, marinated in rice wine mixture over night.

Steamed it with 2 types of mushroom and a lot of ginger. With the tender chicken soaking in the ginger rice wine mushroom broth.... delicious ! You can serve it over noodles, rice or congee. We had it with white rice and Chinese broccoli on the side.

Ingredients 

- Chicken - Boneless thighs - slice into 1 -2" size

- Shitake Mushroom - cut to 1 "

- Wood ear mushroom - cut to 1 "

- Ginger - cut in matchsticks

- Garlic - minced

- Scallion - cut slant

Marinade for the meat 

-ShoaXing - Rice wine

-Light soy sauce

-Sesame oil

-brown sugar

-white pepper

-garlic and scallion - minced

* combine together in a bowl and adjust the seasoning to your liking

Wood ear and Shitake Mushroom

Most of the flavor you get is from the shitaki and not much from the wood ear but you get a fun jelly texture.

Soak into warm water until soften then slice in bite size pieces.

Mix together the marinated chicken with mushrooms garlic and ginger.

Top with scallion ( I like to drizzle a few drops of fish sauce right before steaming)

Steam for 20 - 30 mins depending on the amount of meat. 

while the chicken was cooking I quickly stirred fry Chinese broccoli with garlic and oyster sauce.

Here's dinner... and don't forget the chili garlic hot sauce!

Quick Stir Fry - Beef Cubes Eggplant & Chinese Greens

Who doesn't like a nice quickie meal especially when you're tired from work.

Here is a dish with easy prepping and all you need is a pan or a wok.

For a good stir fry try to use a wok, that way it maintains the heat with the ingredients.

Ingredient: A

beef - cut into cubes

eggplant - slice into 2"

chinese greens - slice in half

oil

Sauce: B

Lee Kum Kee-Black Bean Sauce

sugar

ginger

fish sauce

Marinade for Beef Cubes: C

soy sauce

rice wine

sesame oil

1. Marinate beef cubes with "C "for 10 mins.

2. In a bowl mix together "B". You can add water or broth to thin the paste (black beans are fermented and are very strong in flavor , so be careful with amount you can always add more when tasting)

3. Heat wok with oil, oil must be hot , add the beef cubes - work them around the wok to give it a quick browning. Remove and put aside.

4. Add the vegetables and cook until done then add "B" on the inner side of the wok ( i like the sauce to thin out so it can distribute evenly)

5. Add the beef cubes back to the wok and give it another quick stir with the rest of the ingredients. Done!

Here is a savory dish with tender beef cubes, crunchy greens and eggplant that just melts in your mouth mmmm

This was very good with a bowl of rice and chili garlic sauce.

Let's Sic Faan!

Anyone want to share their quickies?

Chinese Steamed Minced Pork with Dry Salted Fish

Here is another family favorite an authentic Tai Shan's dish -steamed minced pork with salted dried fish..Some like to use other surprise bits like dried squid, scallop, mushroom, salted duck egg, water chestnut, there's more can't think of now ( fill me in on what I missed).

I was given a bag of goodies on the day I visited mama Ng..thanks mom!

In the bag, she has given me a salted yellow croaker, what to do .....got it! straight to the butcher and got what i needed.

Ingredients:
salted fish
ground pork

corn starch

fresh ginger - thick slivers

dried shitake mushroom - chopped
Scallion
white pepper
sesame oil
soy sauce

Wash the and slice the fish. Lined the bottom of the plate with ginger place the fish and cover with rest of ginger. Drizzle oil and steam until done. something smells fishy.....

While the fish is done remove from steamer and let it cool. Mix together the pork, mushroom, scallion (white part ),cornstarch , sesame oil, white pepper, let it sit until fish is cool.

When fish is cool to touch remove all bones and add in to the mix along with the ginger and oil the fish was steamed in.

Steam until done.

Drizzled light soy on top and serve with rice and steamed chinese broccoli.

This can be fried aswell but I prefer this way with the juice mixed wth the rice ......

mmmmm you know what I'm talking about..remember the tapping sounds of the chopsticks cleaning the last bite of rice.......my tummy is growling as I'm writing this.. :)

 I believe this is traditionally made with Mui hurn - a salted dried fish with finer taste and texture.

Tastewise .....yup good old fashion Mui Hurn wins!

We can never get bored of this old time favorite.

Spaghetti with Italian Sausage Spinach Meatballs

In the mood for meatballs and thought of a recipe I came across the other day

 " Chicken and Spinach Meatballs" from Girl Gone Gourmet.  Pay her a visit , very nice blog.

For more flavor I used Italian sausage instead of chicken and boy i'm glad i did. This was my first time on making meatballs so there were a few bumps here and there.

Ingredients:

    

Meatballs

• italian sausage 
• spianch
• mozzarella - shredded
• egg
• panko ( did not have any that night )

 Sauce  

• onion - diced
• garlic - diced
• canned whole tomato (crush with hands)
• balsamic vinegar
• milk
• brown sugar + white pepper

take casing off and quickly blanch the spinach mix with meat and mozzarella and cup into shape with hands

the shape did not stay, started to flatten

here is where i had trouble -no panko! no sticking ! and water from the blanching did not help!!grrrrrr

 

so i had to quickly fry and brown them to hold the shape then transfer on to foil and baked for 20 minutes.

start putting the sauce together by heating the onion and garlic add sauce / sugar....simmer

add the meatballs and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

 

while simmer meatball sauce , time to cook the pasta.

when done , serve on plate and top it off with some parmigiano reggiano!!!!!

                                     

Even though i was missing panko and basil .......this dish was still very enjoyable!

anyone know any meatball tips?