Yun'er zhengji: Cantonese chicken steamed with cloud ear and shiitake mushrooms
Chinese Cooking Demystified · ♥ 801 likes · 35.4K views · 5 min video
Read about mushrooms in the BrightCulinary Book
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Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- 300 g chicken cut across the bone
- 8 g dried yun'er (cloud ear mushrooms)
- 5 whole dried shiitake mushrooms
- 15 g huanghuacai (dried daylilies)
- 6 whole dried red dates
- cool water
Soak the dried cloud ear, shiitake, daylilies and red dates in cool water to preserve their fragrance: 4 to 8 hours, except the cloud ear, which needs 30 minutes.
- ¾ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp shiitake mushroom soaking liquid
Marinate the chicken with salt, sugar, a slurry of cornstarch and a tablespoon of shiitake soaking liquid, light soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing wine and ginger juice.
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- ½ tsp liaojiu (Shaoxing wine)
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 tsp shiitake mushroom soaking liquid
For the ginger juice, smash about an inch of ginger, pound it with a teaspoon of shiitake soaking liquid and squeeze it over the chicken.
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Mix well, add a teaspoon of oil and a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil, coat and set aside half an hour.
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp cornstarch
- ¼ tsp light soy sauce
- ¼ tsp yaojiu (Shaoxing wine)
- oil
Squeeze the shiitake, remove the stems and slice; marinate with a quarter teaspoon each of salt, sugar, cornstarch, light soy sauce and Shaoxing wine, coat with a touch of oil and set aside 20 minutes.
Quarter the dates; squeeze the daylilies and optionally cut out the hard stems; squeeze the cloud ears and tear larger pieces in half.
- 3 sprigs green onion
- 2 inch julienne ginger
Cut three green onion whites into two-inch sections and halve them; julienne two inches of ginger.
Mix the chicken with everything except the dates and green onion, then spread in one even layer on a plate about 24 cm across; top with the green onion and dates.
Arranging on the plate
Steam covered for 10 minutes in a bamboo steamer, or on a steam rack with a larger plate over the top to keep condensation off.