What do new cooks in China cook?
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- "New cook dishes" are sort of an interesting category of food to us. They're not quite the same thing as 'easy', but more a combination of... ease and fun?
0:00 - What are "new cook dishes"?
1:18 - Cola Chicken Wings
3:17 - Tomato and Egg
6:31 - Potstickers
8:46 - Dipping Sauce 1: Northern Vinegar
9:07 - Dipping Sauce 2: Cantonese Seafood Chili
10:42 - New Cook Dishes in your culture?
COLA CHICKEN WINGS
* Chicken Wings, 8
* Marinade for wings: salt, 1/4 tsp; white pepper powder (白胡椒粉), 1/8 tsp; liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tsp
* Ginger, ~1 inch, crushed
* Cinnamon (桂皮), 1/2 stick
* Dried Bay Leaf (香叶), 1
* Coca cola, 1 can
* Soy sauce (生抽), 1 tbsp
* Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 2 tbsp
* Dark soy sauce (老抽), 1/2 tsp (for color, optional but preferred)
* Salt to season to taste
Note that if you're trying to make this western supermarket friendly, the Shaoxing wine can be swapped for either brandy (preferably), a dry sherry, or simply skipped. The dark soy sauce is for color and can be similarly skipped. You can swap the dried bay leaf for fresh, or just skip it.
Marinate the chicken wings for ~15 minutes. Over a medium flame, fry the wings with your pan covered until browned on one side, ~3 minutes. Flip, then add the ginger, cover, and fry for another ~3 minutes.
Add the cinnamon and bay leaf. Fry until fragrant, ~30 seconds. Add the coke, the soy sauce, the wine, and the dark soy sauce. Staying over a medium flame, keep the lid uncovered to allow the sauce to reduce - it should be at a light boil.
After ~10 minutes, flip the wings. Stay attentive here. You want the sauce to reduce to a syrup-y consistency but you do not want it to scorch. Once thickened to your liking, season to taste. In the video I did not need any additional salt, but often I find it needs ~1/8 tsp.
TOMATO & EGG
* Tomatoes, 2 medium
* Scallion, 1, minced, white and green parts separated
* Eggs, 4
* Seasoning for the egg: salt, 1/8 tsp; white pepper powder (白胡椒粉), 1/8 tsp; liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tsp
* Lard (猪油), ~3 tbsp for frying the egg, ~1.5 tbsp for the stir fry
* Ketchup, 1 tbsp
* Reserved juice from crushed tomato gunk, 2 tbsp
* Liaojiu, a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), 1 tbsp
* Seasoning: salt, 1/2 tsp; sugar, 1/2 tsp; white pepper powder, 1/8 tsp; MSG (味精), 1/8 tsp
* Slurry of 1/2 tsp cornstarch (生粉) mixed with 1/2 tbsp water
* Drizzle (~1/8 tsp) of toasted sesame oil (麻油)
You can swap the egg-frying lard for pretty much any oil (peanut, vegetable, etc). For the stir fry, I'd recommend lard because it's tasty, but you can use the oil that's convenient. Butter (preferably clarified/ghee) might also be good here. MSG is available at western supermarkets under the brand "Accent". The wine can be swapped for sake, dry sherry, or skipped.
First, half the tomatoes, remove the gunk, and reserve in a bowl. Crush the gunk with your fingers. Mince the rest of the tomato. Prep the scallions.
Season the eggs, beat well until no stray strands of egg white remain. Add the ~3 tbsp of lard to a wok, heat until it can rapidly bubble around a pair of chopsticks. Add the beaten egg, allow to puff up. Periodically pull the egg up a bit to allow all the egg to set, then cut into ~1.5 inch pieces with you spatula and fry until lightly browned, ~1 minute more. Remove.
Same wok, add in the rest of the lard. Melt it over a low flame, then add the scallion whites. Fry until fragrant, ~30 seconds, then add in the ketchup. Fry the ketchup until the oil separates from it, ~2 minutes, then add in the reserved tomato gunk juice. Swap the flame to high, combine, then swirl the wine over the spatula and around the sides of the wok. Add the tomatoes, brief stir fry; add the eggs, brief stir fry; add the seasoning, another brief stir fry. Swap the flame to medium low, add in the slurry, and fry until thickened, ~30 seconds. Heat off, drizzle of toasted sesame oil, out.
POTSTICKERS
* Frozen dumplings, 8
* Water, ~1/2 cup
* Egg, 1, beaten
* Optional garnishes: black sesame seed, chopped scallion
Over a medium flame, add one tbsp of oil to a pan, and add in the frozen dumplings. Cover, moving the pan around the flame to let it heat evenly. 7-8 minutes later, once the popping has turned to sizzling, check for browning. If good, add in the water from a crack in your lid and immediately cover. Once evaporated, ~8 minutes, uncover. Let the potstickers fry to crisp up once again, ~2 minutes. Add the beaten egg, cover to let the egg set, ~30 seconds. Garnish, serve in the pan.
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Hey guys, a few notes:
1. The idea of “new cook dishes” was sort of a difficult one to articulate. By “new cook dishes”, we wanted to make it clear that we weren’t going for ‘the easiest dishes’ or ‘the dishes a novice *should* master to get a handle on the basics’. Instead, we wanted to take a look at the dishes that new cooks in China *do* tend to cook, as it’s an interesting sort of cultural space the world over. What’re the go-to ‘new cook dishes’ in Italy? In India? It’s something we were super curious about, but didn’t really have any luck with from a quick google.
2. We also want to make crystal clear that we *like* these dishes. We had a lot of fun testing these, it really hit the nostalgia receptors in both of us (as these are super common college/early 20s dishes here in China).
3. Our distaste for tomato and egg… yeah, I know we’re in the extreme minority. Tomato + egg is obviously a delicious combination, and we do like stuff like Northwestern style stewed tomato and egg (which is more of a sauce, we were over it in our Biang Biang toppings video a while back). Obviously also enjoy other tomato plus egg based dishes from around the world, ala shakshuka. Our personal distaste for the dish (as it’s usually prepared) stems from our distaste of tomato seeds and peels in cooked tomato dishes. It also often breaks that unwritten ‘shape rule’ in stir fries, as the chunks of tomato are often quite large in comparison to the egg its with.
4. Sample dialogue of our first date - C: “Do you like food?” S: “I LOVE food” C: “What cuisines do you like?” S: “Southeast Asian cuisines and food from around China. Do you like food in China?” C: “I LOVE food in China. Well, except tomato and egg. I don’t know why so many other foreigners love it so much” S: “I know! Why is it so popular? I HATED it at my college canteen…”
5. So for a while we avoid the dish out of principle. But honestly, as we explored different versions over the years, we found ourselves kind of liking the Hunan version. The smaller dice, the frying in lard, the eating next to rice… all sort of addressed most of our dislikes. We kept on playing around with it, and I found myself randomly whipping it up on weekdays and such. So yeah, just know that this is our weird-picky-person’s take on tomato & egg.
6. You know what’s absolutely delicious? The seafood chili dip from the last recipe *together* with the tomato and egg. Serve on the side, give your rice and/or tomato & egg a random sprinkling of that sauce when you want a bit of kick/complexity… awesome.
7. Speaking of that seafood chili dip, I think I prefer it to XO sauce. XO sauce is good, but often when I’m eating it, it feels like… *exactly* the sum of its parts? Maybe I just wish it was spicier, I dunno.
Ok, that’s all for now. I know that with this video and the last one we kind of flirted with “quick & easy” stuff - no worries, next video we’ll be getting back to our roots ;)
'New cook' dishes in India, I genuinely can't think of anything. You tend to just learn alongside your mother by cutting veg, watching her vanlis while the sambhar boils etc until at one point you find you just know how to make the dishes yourself.
Idli, sambhar, dosas, rice, and paruppu maybe? Coming from the South? Chutney doesn't really count as a dish, does it?
"What do *new cooks* in China cook?"
Me, an Italian American: *You mean, like, as a kid??*
For me a tomato and egg stir fry is all about adding a huge knob of ginger. It goes perfectly with sweet tomato!
@@AerysBat fried powdered asefotida and toasted dried chillies ground into a paste.
In Japan it seems to be that oddly nostalgic british/indian mishmash curry, and Oyakodon made from repurposed leftovers.
Some easy dishes I taught my father (80+ years old, ex-military so never learned to cook), involved things you could prepare in a rice cooker.
The easiest is "tomato rice", which went viral a couple of years back. Basically cook rice in a rice cooker, and put a whole tomato in there while it cooks.
From there, he started adding things. It started with sliced lap cheong, then came pickled vegetables, dried shrimps, dried mushrooms, fried shallots, char siu when he could find it, MSG and Lao Gan Ma on top of everything he ate! Then he started using the top steamer basket for marinated chicken wings, frozen vegetables, or frozen siu mai ... and suddenly he's inviting people over for lunch!
hey this comment is so wholesome what the fuck, actually made my day
The Evolution of Man but it starts with the monkey and ends with an older guy holding a really fancy serving platter
That is so cute!! Good for him, it’s never too late to learn!
I too, have thrown things into a rice cooker, just to see what would happen. haha
that tomato and egg recipe looks so good.
Woah fancy seeing you here! Big fan of the channel, always end up re watching your luke warm defence videos every few months
its really easy, i used to make it all the time. if ur feeling lazy u can cook the egg and tomato in the same pan, just keep separated until the egg sets or u get this really gross looking pink egg mess at the end. still tastes good
It's hat Dan, the Dan with a hat!
I like your channel and the content that you create too!
Yoooooo, I loved your NFT video
Love the call out at the beginning on all those click bait wacky "tutorial" cooking channels that have become popular over the past few years due to how much the UA-cam algorithm prioritizes them
Ever since I went premium, it is so worth not seeing ads any longer. I think its about 11 or 13 bucks Canadian.
@@revertinthemaking just use UA-cam Vanced if you need skip ads on your phone.
@@EpicvidsKetti08 Seriously. I haven't seen an ad in years and I'm not paying a cent. Vanced is literally just a massively superior version of the regular app.
@@DamnZodiak me using premium and vanced at the time time:
@@EpicvidsKetti08 aged like milk
"We all know Pepsi Cola is for heathens..." I LOVE you guys. This is a great example of why.
As for new cook dishes, a simple, yet not-so-easy dish I first learned is roasted chicken. Getting it right is more difficult than it seems. Omelettes are another in the US; very popular breakfast dish that new cooks can learn a lot from.
I literally stopped the video at that phrase and came looking in the comments - I howled!! Is Chris from the American South? You'll be asked to leave a lot of homes if you ask for a Pepsi in the South!!
@@EricHunt pepsi was invented in New Bern North Carolina. Very southern. Coke is from ATL. It just depends on your house preference.
Incidentally these three dishes actually makes a pretty nice meal together.
the tomato egg i learned to make from my father used sweet fried egg. he'd season beaten eggs with salt, pepper, and enough sugar to make it mildly sweet without making it taste like you wanted to make custard, then fry and roll it, then cut it into squares, kinda like tamagoyaki. he likes it when the outside is a bit caramelized and slightly burnt. then he makes the tomato sauce separately, and when it's done he puts the eggs into the sauce and let it coat. if he feels fancy he might scatter scallions on top, but most of the time he doesn't bother. he said that's the way his grandmother, who hailed from xiamen, would make it for him. it's among the first dishes i learned to make and it brings back memories of him teaching it to me when mom's away and we had to make our own dinner.
when my mom makes it it's always a bit less sweet and my dad would always complain about it. your wife may make killer braised pork your neighbors will fight over but no one beats grandma's cooking
In the US i feel like scrambled eggs, basic pasta recipes, grilled chicken, and maybe pancakes are things that a lot of people learn how to cook first. These recipes are super interesting so thank you for the video!
You misunderstood what he meant by new cook dish!
@@Tinil0 Nah, those were early recipes for me too. Goulash, spaghetti and meatballs, etc. egg dishes, grilling lots of meats and veggies... Not pancakes for me, but french toast was one I learned from my little sister when I was like 15 yrs old... I think it depends on the region of the U.S. and what your family heritage is... Green bean casserole seems like it was on everyone's list of first things to learn too.
Here in Holland the new cook dish is definitely "Grandma's" Meatballs. Big meatballs braised in gravy, often served with stamppot, a mash of potato and vegetables. Every homecook seems to go through a period where they're convinced they have the ultimate secret to good meatballs. Also Nasi/Bami Goreng (Indonesian style fried rice or noodles), because of the Indonesian community.
The secret for that dish would be to toast the flour for the gravy lol. Check ''Foodtube, Masterclass: De Jordanese Gehaktbal'' for the recipe really ultimate recipe IMHO you have to make it to believe it.
Oh, even in Holland it’s Nasi Goreng that’s the new cook dish.
The thought of new cook dishes for Indo-Malay cuisine never crossed my mind at all. Maybe Nasi Lemak alongside Nasi Goreng?
youtuuu.tokyo/IAjCkDCWBmq
@@revoltoff I have made that and thought it was a bit too dense (I like them to get really tender in the braise, "cut with a spoon" tender), but it is for sure a really good meatball.
@@iEGeek Satay maybe? Meat on a stick with a sauce has that exact impressive and pretty labour-intensive but easy to make quality that new cooks love.
I LOVE the idea of "new cook dishes," and I feel like I know EXACTLY what you guys are talking about. From my own experiences in cooking and in watching my sister go from novice cook to expert, there is definitely a phase of cooking where you have a repertoire of like...five dishes that you cook over and over. They might be completely unrelated, they might be completely impractical, but these are the dishes you chose to learn right away. For me, this was the Ina Garten macaroni and cheese, and I still make it basically like that to this day despite the fact that I can basically wing a mac and cheese recipe if I'm not cooking for eight people. I later taught it to my roommate and HE got really into making mac and cheese for a crowd. I think something about the bechamel speaks to new cooks, it's like magic when you first figure it out.
Broadly in the US, I feel like Italian American recipes have a lot of legs? My sister latched onto this Lidia Bastianich eggplant rollatini recipe, and I remember cooking Lidia's spaghetti and meatballs a lot as well. Same with things like eggplant parm, chicken parm, tiramisu. Those recipes are homey and familiar enough to a lot of Americans that they feel both approachable and impressive. My first "date night dish" was chicken piccata, and I stand by that as a barometer: either that dish gets you the date, or that person is not worth dating lol.
you described my experience so well.. i'm still in the five dish stage :p
Chicken Piccata! That was originally in my script over Stroganoff, but then I second guessed myself - was it really a classic ‘new cook’ dish in the USA, or was it just one of a handful of dishes that was the go-to of my college ex? Apparently I should’ve kept that one in there haha
The first dishes I learned, in a household with one Midwestern American mom and one Brooklyn Jewish dad were: French toast - few ingredients, hard to mess up; fried eggs, over well. No dippy eggs in our house; drop biscuits - the baking soda kind. More Midwestern influence than Jewish, although I later learned to make French toast with matzoh.
No challah french toast?
Hey -- that's basically matzoh brie-- also many variations-- whole, scrambled, small patties, whole pan, additions like onion, mushrooms-- probably as many variations as Jewish families in the diaspora!!!
The Sephardic equivalent of "matzah french toast" might be Mina, which is also an excellent new chef food jajaja
Savoury French toast (elegantly named ‘eggy bread’) is a classic child’s cooking project in the UK. Thank you for the nostalgic reminder.
@@methyod Well you can't very well have challah during pesach ;)
Being a teenager around loads of squats in the 80s, we cooked gak. Gak was an ever present pot filled with various vegan things (dried soy chunks, which we called gak and hence the name of the stew) and various vegetables. It was really Victorian (pease pudding in the pot, 5 days old) and the pot could be replenished with stuff for weeks before someone ruined it with too much dried rosemary or whatever. Vegans today really don't know what we went through.
In the Philippines and in the Filipino diaspora, the automatic first dish is Chicken Adobo. Or sometimes pork, sometimes both. It's the easiest and the best of Filipino food though mastering the balance of flavors can take many many years.
Simple ingredients you can get anywhere in the world: meat, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, cracked peppercorn, and bay leaves. Sometimes some sugar to enhance flavor. Sometimes coconut milk depending on where in the Philippines your family is from.
Put everything in a pot. Marinate if you have time. Then just boil it at all together. Serve it on rice.
Technique varies, there's lots of style/variation options. My friend folds the sliced garlic into the chicken skin before cooking, for example. Some people brown the chicken before or after the boil.
But what each cook has to learn is how to balance the soy sauce and vinegar marinate. And you use a lot of it since it generally needs to cover enough of the meat for the boil (you can add water too).
I feel like Sprite Chicken is happening in the Philippines recently in the term of "new cook dish". Many Filipino celebrity chefs have demonstrated this dish and recently, a UA-camr Emmymade (previously Emmymade in Japan) did too......
J Kenji Lopez Alt made a really authentic chicken adobo youtube recipe, highly recommend watching it
I'm not Filipino, I was so happy the day I made chicken adobo and my Filipino friend said it tasted just like his mom's.
The vinegar: soy sauce ratio is so important, I've noticed a lot of people use too much soy sauce and it throws the whole dish off.
I use 1 part soy, 2 parts vinegar + an additional splash of vinegar, maybe an extra 2-3 tbsp.
Huh that's interesting! From a Chinese diaspora perspective my easy new cook dish was actually chicken jook! This can last you a few meals, like you buy a rotisserie chicken from Costco, eat it but use the bones and leftover meat to make the congee stock/porridge. Just need to add rice, scallions, white pepper powder. Also there's no way you can fail making this since you're essentially just boiling stuff in a pot lol
my ex is chinese and thats the first dish he taught me too, only we put spam and mushroom in ours. and PLENTY of ginger
the worst way you can fail this is letting it boil over and making a mess in your kitchen :P
in the uk, as a student I feel pretty qualified to discuss 'new cook,' dishes, and my top picks would have to be chicken fajitas, 'stir-fry,' (of packaged precut vegetables and premade sauce, that ends up way too large for the cooking vessel used, and is more of mixture of hot steamed veg and meat in an overly wet vaguely asian sauce), scrambled eggs on toast (with beans, avocado, bacon, or similar brunch--y additions), and of course the ever-present pesto pasta
Charlie you are so right, spot on.
You forgot spaghetti bolognese
Have you done the classic first cooked date meal of chicken breast with cheese inside wrapped in parma ham?
Now that's classic new cook meals.
@@mytimetravellingdog you know i’ve never actually heard of anyone being cooked. sounds kinda tasty if i’m honest, like a chicken saltimbocca hold the sage leaf (altho the lack of sauce would definitely be felt with a chicken breast)
Was gonna say Spag Bol, Curry with sauce or paste from a Jar, Omelette, Toasties, and a fry up are the classic student dishes. Forgot about Stir Fry and Fajitas, I had like 8 pouches of Asda stir fry sauce in my cupboard at any time 😅
My Omelettes were honestly more often scrambled eggs with peppers, ham and cheese but its the thought that counts :')
I also had the Tortilla Pizza which I made in a toastie press...
cha caan teng style macaroni soup HAS to be one; its so simple and totally customisable - one of the first things my mum showed me and my sister how to cook as kids. I actually used to think it was a british dish until i found out kids my age ate coco pops for breakfast? So I guess its a 'new cook' dish for HK/British/Chinese diaspora??
my favourite auntie always made it with chicken mince and frozen mixed veges. i haven't eaten it in a while, thanks for the nostalgia trip!
@@irium_pls it’s spam and peas for me!
When I was in China Noticed that the most ubiquitous home cooked dish was pork + garlic + soy sauce + some veggie and / or chili.
It is a default new cook dish (and quick and easy meal) in the People's Republic due to the inexpense and ease that it could be cooked and modified according to taste.
My "New Cook Dish" when I grew up in Liverpool, UK was Scouse. Lamb, onion, carrot and lots of potatoes cooked down in some stock. Unseasoned apart from salt and maybe some black pepper and of course the stock, but it's one of those dishes that's great in mid-winter, served with pickled red cabbage and or pickled beetroot, and buttered barmcakes (bread rolls).
Nostalgic food
The other dishes I started out cooking were the standard British version of a Ragù (or Bolognese sauce)
🤤
I mean there is a lot of flavour in a good stock. So no need for seasoning really. You don't need spices for every dish
@@svenfrosterud6362 true. But my childhood version would be a cheap powdered stock cube!
I mean a common "new cook dish" is often just enhanced ramen with egg and green onion or something. But also roast chicken thighs with roast potatoes and roast veggies or something are common. Sheet pan dinners!
"Ramen but add frozen veggies and eggs" was a huge staple for me too!
I love this concept of “new cook” and really enjoying everyone’s comments. You guys always making me think about food in new and interesting ways, even when Im just looking for a tomato egg recipe!
Babe wake up, new Chinese Cooking Demystified just dropped
For Bengalis, some of the "new cook" dishes would include a basic chicken curry, an egg curry, and rice cooked with either meat or vegetables. Oh and some version of lentils. Also, took me forever to be sold on tomato and egg, and I'm still a bit iffy tbh!
The quintessential "new cook dish" in the UK is probably spag bol - the kind that an italian would furiously denounce. Onion, garlic, beef mince, tinned tomatoes, some supermarket dried mixed herbs, maybe a splash of red wine if you're feeling fancy. Not something that I've cooked for a long time, but I'm suddenly very nostalgic for it.
Or maybe UK-style chilli, which is basically the same, but swap the herbs for some cumin/coriander/chilli powder, and chuck in a tin of kidney beans. Serve over rice.
I was going to say the same thing. At university spag bol was the first dish that friends would invite you over for.
Spag Bol is everyone’s first foray into Italian cooking, it’s fast and easy. Not authentic, but it’s like; quintessentially Italian that everyone recognises.
I really wish you guys would just say "meat sauce" like americans do. "Spag bol" sounds so gross.
@@methyod Meat sauce would be completely incorrect since it's short for spaghetti bolognese.
These dishes would likely be on BuzzFeed Tasty if they got an outlet in China
When I first read the title, I misinterpreted the video as one about new cuisines and dishes currently being innovated in China. While this video is great as usual, I think it could also be interesting to do a video on how Chinese chefs might be innovating on Chinese cuisine there, as much of that never reaches the West.
I thought the same thing when I saw the title lol. I think this channel has talked about some new trendy dishes here and there but not in a dedicated video yet.
I used to make tomato and egg - or my version of it with onions & garlic - without knowing it was a typical Chinese dish. I used to make it a lot when I first moved to Mexico and was dirt broke, goes great with fresh corn tortillas(YELLOW, preferably) lightly blackened on the burner. 😉
I'm a good home cook, but I live alone and found myself with an empty fridge, save for some eggs and tomatoes...I was so sad I couldn't find a video from y'all, but I shall never fear again!
It's funny how frozen pot stickers--with the fry and steam method--were one of the first things I learned to cook as a kid. Reading the instructions goes a long way lol.
"We all know Pepsi is for heathens." LMAO. My sentiments exactly.
My mother taught me the diced tomatoes (without skin) to be stewed first for about 8-10 minutes with garlic and onions and a splash of soy sauce, salt and sugar with a healthy splash of sesame oil with corn starch slurry and the scrambled eggs to be mixed in last minute and barely be set and poured over rice with topped green onions as garnish. I guess everyone has a different method of preparing this dish. I guess I preferred mine to be saucy as it is easy to eat when it is soaked into rice as gravy like.
I feel like pancakes are one of those new cook dishes pretty much everywhere in the world. At least here in Finland if someone who usually doesn't cook has to make something for guests it'll probably be pancakes. Pancakes were also my first ever experience with cooking, making them together with my grandma.
Some kind of pancake is also a common early cooking experience in the UK
As an Aussie the first thing I learned how to cook was steak (牛排). Nowadays I love cooking all sorts of food particularly Chinese and other East Asian cuisines.
I encountered cola chix wings about thirty wings ago and were disappointed when the cook who brought this to his restaurant left about a year later. The owner had foolishly failed to to get the recipe before putting the item on the menu. My then wife figured out the secret ingredient, although we weren't sure if it was coca cola or royal crown cola. It was surprisingly good.
Surprisingly enough, my favorite easy new cook dish is risotto. It’s just stock and rice stirred together for twenty minutes, plus a can of chicken and maybe mushrooms if I have the extra budget that week. It makes tons of leftovers and reheats like a dream!
Risotto is great! I didn't have arborio but the cooking technique also worked with brown rice in a pinch
For me at least my "new cook dishes" were things that most people would have considered "exotic" at the time.
- cincinati style chili, put into any sort of taco or burrito
- gumbo
- fried rice
So the sort of dishes that seem special, but really are just simple foods from elsewhere
I never knew new cook dishes were a thing until now! As an aside, Wang Gang has a video where he teaches I think 7 or 8 ways to make tomato + egg, if anyone is looking to level up their egg game.
Cola wings are my favourite excuse to buy a whole bottle of the good stuff (ie. *not* sugar free!)
Just made this cola chicken recipe
- substituting the chicken steaks for firm tofu - for myself and my partner and we both absolutely loved it ^_^
I like the term '新手', I hadn't encountered it before :)
Here in Ireland, I think 'beginner cook's dishes' are restricted to Shepherd's Pie and stew. This also constitutes the pinnacle of Irish cooking (though neither are truly Irish), due to us having a national cuisine hovering somewhere between lacklustre and non-existent. Almost all simple dishes that novices learn tend to be abominable 'western interpretations' of foreign foods like stir fried rice (not stir fried) or 'curry' (from a jar or just using curry powder to 'make it curry'). I guess some pasta dishes are easy enough to pull off well with what we can find in the shops here, and Italian food is pretty ubiquitous.
One exception would be a full fry (for breakfast; including but not limited to sausages, bacon, eggs, b/w puddings, mushrooms, baked beans), which could be quite daunting, between the intimidating pops and splashes of frying, the mis en place required, and nailing down the cooking times for all the various ingredients using only one pan and maybe a little pot for the beans. I think plenty of people take pride in their breakfast frying skills, and nuances in doneness, presentation, choice of ingredients (down to the brand) tend to pass down in families, each becoming subtly yet concretely defined.
I was lucky in that my (also Irish) mother has been veggie since her teens (very uncommon where/when she grew up!) and lived for quite a while in England, so I was brought up learning authentic Indian dishes with her, Madhur Jaffrey being our patron saint ;)
Love this question! The ones I steer new cooks towards as an American are pancakes, beef chili, and Spaghetti aglio e olio. Very different techniques and flavors. After that I suggest something like wonton or egg drop soup 🤤
Chili con carne also pretty common early recipe in the UK - didn’t think of that one!
For me here in Germany, the first dish I learned to cook was probably pasta and egg. When my mom was making some pasta dish, she would usually cook some extra and the day after I'd fry the leftover pasta, throw some pepper/salt in there and a few eggs. Scramble the eggs, heat to high to get some browing on pasta&egg - done. Super simple, even for preschool me.
In Sweden i'd say most of us learn swedish pancakes first then we move on to homemade meatballs and homemade gravy. Toast skagen is probably the first more gourmét dish people learn. For grilling grilled salmon and dill is also really common. All of these are delicous
Quesadillas are still popular. Right up there with grilled cheese sandwiches.
As a white boy from california, quesadillas are certainly the first food I remember making for myself.
Great idea for a video! As for your question, some examples from Germany:
My memories of university might be a bit fuzzy, but pancakes, pasta with self-made tomato sauce, chicken strips with cream sauce, and chili con carne are definitely up there.
I'm from a foodie British fanily, and the first dish I learned to cook was a really simple spaghetti sauce; tin of tomatoes, onion, garlic, meats and vegetables, and italian herbs. From what I understand, a typical beginner dish here tends to be cheese toasties (like grilled cheese but made with a toastie-maker, which presses the bread and cheese tightly together) and cheese on toast
Now now, Pepsi isn't for heathens. It's for _bootlickers._ ;)
Edit: Quesadillas are 100% a new cook dish in California. I've been working on mine lately, and you can't go wrong with sharp or smoked cheddar and pepperjack cheeses and shredded chicken on corn tortillas. There's just enough oil and fat for each one to self-lubricate on your skillet, and it's super easy to turn overflow cheese into crispy cheese with those little tortillas.
My "new cook" were mostly just stir-frys or taco, basically just cook whatever and eat it with rice or throw it in a tortilla. I think stuff like that is nice for a new cook because the complexity level can vary widely and there's a lot of room for experimentation.
As someone with a Diet Coke problem, I completely understand. About 20+ years ago, I was stationed in S. Korea, and Coke was only found on Military Bases. Everywhere else only had Pepsi in the 16oz glass bottles, which are surprisingly resilient and dangerous in bar fights. As an Army MP, I have more than one scar and multiple concussions from braking up bar brawls. I can still hear the almost comical *ping* from those encounters (A side effect of the concussions, probably). Pepsi is truly only for heathens. LOL.
WONDERFUL! To me, When I want to make something quick and easy, I usually poach some tofu and eat it with Lao Gan ma black bean sauce and some sesame oil. if I have more time, I make your wonderful Ma Po Dou fU and eat it with rice. Occasionally,I make an old reicpe (I blush to say it was from the Joyce Chen cookbook in 1965) for so-called Mandarin Eggs. Or simply fried rice with shrimp.
Wait no wonder I couldn't find a tomato and egg dish on your channel!! I absolutely loved that dish at my local chinese restaurant in college. Huge portions, super cheap, warm, salty, sweet. It coats the rice perfectly too. And its strange cause I have a hard time finding it at a lot of chinese american restaurants, despite being a popular and simple dish. I used to also get something that my friend called Salt and Pepper Pork which was bell pepper onion and then fried slices of pork with salt and pepper breading. Hard to find that exact dish as well, and the name makes it hard to distinguish it from other similar dishes when im looking for it.
For the US it’s gotta be grilled cheese and mac & cheese as well
Using softdrinks in dishes are actually fun to use, like here in the Philippines where we use Sprite in Mussels soup
My first dish I learnt was fried rice. Taught me a lot about stir frying techniques in general. Eg: ingredient sequences, cutting ingredients, techniques to create fluffy rice etc etc.
That steam technique y’all taught in the video was a game changer to me
One of the first dishes I learned to cook was biscuits and sausage gravy. I still cook it pretty frequently - it's dead simple and comes together in like 15 minutes, but is super tasty and comforting. Also, I remember cooking burgers a lot when I wanted to do something special for family or friends. It felt like there was a certain "cool" factor to cooking meat on an outdoor grill that was really appealing as a newer cook.
Your "fry roast chicken" recipe was one of my "new cook" dishes that introduced me to chinese cooking styles. Before then the closest I had gotten was doing a korean style honey butter chicken recipe.
Thanks for the comprehensive chapters makes cooking videos so much better. Love your channel. Szechuan Chinese is my favourite food.
Im British, the first thing I learned to cook was Mac and Cheese.
Bless you for doing this.
UK. First dish I ever cooked (baked, actually) was fairy cakes. Like a muffin or cupcake but smaller and airier, and always iced. That was when I was about six.
I think the equivalent of "new cook" dishes in this is the sort of things you see on social media as like a cool exciting easy recipe or "hack". Something like a giant cookie in a cast iron skillet. Or one pot dishes with loads of cheese. The sort of thing were you're just getting into cooking and you think "hey that looks pretty cool, I can totally make that".
My starter dish, and i live in the US, was 3 things in particular: Carbonara, Fried Chicken, and Alfredo
I always recommend chicken piccata to new cooks. It is easy but impressive. And learning how to make a pan sauce will take a new cook far.
Rice, beans, enchiladas (casserole style) and pancakes were probably the dishes I made most often. But another wild card dish for me was Thai basil chicken (with the purplish Thai basil, not the krapao). I learned how to make it just before I moved out. Fish sauce had never entered our house before and the aroma once it hit the wok left my parents AGHAST. Seriously. I remember the trepidation with which they took their first bite, but they were hooked, and it became something with which I terrorized (and then tantalized) my subsequent roommates.
Hey, I just want to say thank you for always giving me inspiration with creating new dishes. A lot of the things on your channel I can't make exactly to your recipe because of money/equipment/time limitations, but I often learn something from them or adapt them to make something I can. One of my favourite things to make nowadays is based on your chicken sweetcorn egg drop soup recipe, but I add onions, and potatoes, and I replace the chicken with smoked mackerel to make what becomes a hearty chowder. Absolutely delicious! I'm also always combining Lao Gan Ma products with noodles and other ingredients for amazing quick meals!
I’m really enjoying steph’s narration!
I’ve been cooking since I was old enough to safely use the stove, so I don’t know if I hit that “new cook” phase of being a young adult learning to cook for the first time? I know one of the first things my dad taught me to cook was eggs, probably in scrambled or omelette (folded over and stuffed) form. I also was very fond of curry, and still am to this day. When I was a teen I was really into big-pot ‘vat-o-food’ dishes like chicken soup, chili, red beans and rice, etc. As a young adult cooking for myself, I really liked shrimp and grits (that fits the ‘visually impressive but not too complex’ vibe) and a version of shepherds’ pie that had chicken curry as the base saucy meat rather than the traditional lamb or beef in gravy.
"Pepsi's for heathens." True.
"Pepsi's for heathens!" Best UA-cam line ever. I knew I did the right thing when I Patreon-ized you guys. Keep it up!
Now I want to try coca-cola braising fried tofu... or maybe cauliflower
Now I like tomato gunk juice more than most, but when I absolutely can't with extra liquid, I just cook my tomatoes into a mush and further until they caramelize into a super concentrated fried paste, that I then let down with just enough liquid to bring it to the optimal liquidity
Fantastic video concept
Tomato and Egg was the 1st dish my Dad taught me and it's now a ... Fusion sauce base I keep in my cooking repertoire. I do all the time as an over rice dish but recently I've been making it with miso paste as a sauce with fettuccine. It's ...pretty insane actually ☺️
for us in the south USA.
biscuits and gravy [both home made]
pot pie [Crust store bought]
Meatloaf
I'm currently in my new-cook phase as an Undergrad college student in her first apartment, but my faves I use to impress people my age here on the west coast USA are:
-Chili (WITH BEANS!!) To stretch out leftover and frozen meat that doesn't look good, but still tastes good. Beans makes meat last longer! Don't fight me about true chili! This is the way my dad made is as a child and thats how I was raised to cook it. Wasted meat is wasted money and beans makes that meat last for weeks if you freeze it!
-Biscuits and Gravy using cheap frozen sausage. Buying heavy cream for the cream biscuits and the gravy can be a bit of a splurge but it really does feed a crowd, I can hardly eat one serving on my own. (Shout out J keni lopez alt for this one)
-Pasta with 'Bullshit Alfredo' never fails to impress. Grated cheese of any kind tossed into a skillet (I use my wok because my only other option is cast iron and that.... isn't a good combo) with pepper, butter, slightly al-dente pasta can build into whatever you want. I also start with roux and then add parm (hand shredded OR pre grated can work when you have milk or sour cream handy!) garlic, and sometimes other cheeses. I also use this random combo of various dairy products to spice up boxed mac and cheese. It requires an understanding of personal taste that can be daunting (I LOVE tangy flavors, so sour cream gets added to a lot of dishes for me) but most cheese + roux + milk + spice of choice will work out great if you're scared about wasting food/cant afford to experiment (I've been there, I get it). The techniques here can be observed in basically any pasta sauce making video on youtube- thats how I learned it. Trying to impress girls when you don't know what you're doing is a hell of a force for cooking improvement.
Oh man, I love tomato egg...mostly because it's the most "Chinese" tasting dish I can whip up in minutes with any sort of reliability and have it taste to my non-Chinese family and friends and impress them with something that isn't fried rice. I'll admit as a standalone dish though it's not very impressive, no matter how good it tastes once the novelty wears off
This is an amazing idea of a video, thank you so much!
That cola chicken looks so good 👍. Thank you for the recipes and (basically) a meal set with the 3 dishes :)
just made the tomato & egg, it came out so good!!
As a kid in China I remember a primary school assignment that asked us to learn to cook one thing with the help of parents and I made fruit salad, a mix of fruit with kewpie mayo and nothing else. My first dish. Straight after I learned egg and tomato.
I love your show.
Tomato & eggs is so nostalgic to me :) I'll try this version!
I adore chris and his classic voice. Steph though is a wonderful commentator, the more Steph, the better
hhh the frozen dumpling potstickers definitely my college dorm kitchen staple! Recommend the huge dumplings you can find in Korean supermarkets!
In Denmark you learn basic cooking in school at the start of your teenage years. I still cook one of the recipes we learned there.
Looks interesting!
As a korean american kid, definitely kimchi fried rice!! but also simple stuff like braised tofu (두부찜/dubu jjim), kimchi jjigae, soondubu, and buchimgae/jeon.
1. I'm disappointed you didn't do a tutorial for that hotdog star situation. That's like the tackiest thing I've ever seen, and I love it. (Maybe save that video for the 4th of July?)
2. I'm obsessed with your dog. Can you make a video about your dog? Like, what is it? Is he something exotic, or does he just have an amazing haircut and great markings?
Looks great.. Which Camera and which Lights do you use for your Videos? Any Link?
I learned my cola wings the easiest way possible.
Cut the wings like you did, parcook in water to get rid of some bloodiness and junk, then boil and reduce in a mixture of coke and soy sauce. No oil, no spices.
Im definitely trying those wings
10:40 Speaking of daikon cake, have y’all done a video on that yet? My mom would cook it when I was growing up but I couldn’t really follow what happens between grating the daikon and the finished product.
Ma yi Shang Shu is another classic new cook dish. Just bean curds, basic ingridients, noodles, minced meat and chopped scallion. Really good for learning how to season and portion right from the get go
'until it sounds like walking on sand???!!!!!!! I was impressed at the 2-minute Mark. The obvious level of... Maybe sensuality isn't the right word? Evident when you inquated the stopping point in your fry-up with walking on sand blew my mind. I'm sure I'm likely quite ignorant, but the attention to detail - without being tedious, in this case - is so eye-opening. Thank you for your channel. I can't wait to try this
hehehehe the Pepsi call-out made my heart sing. Those cola wings look so so so good
The vinegar dipping sauce is my favorite.
Hello from Brazil and congratulations for the video.
I am trying to buy a cleaver knife, do you have any recommendation?
Does the coke in China use high fructose corn syrup or cane sugar? In the us we sadly have the corn syrup
Tomatoes and eggs are my fave ever, but the way i make it is cook the tomatoes until they are basically chunky sauce, add soy sauce for umami and helps break down the tomatoes, then add (pre stir-fried eggs). I will eat sooo much of it.
My dad love really watery tomato and eggs.
Sometime he just cook a bowl of them for dinner. Taste really good with rice.
I had coca cola chicken a few months ago but I didn't have all the other ingredients at that time just basic spices and it still surprised me how good it came out I'll definitely try that that out sometime
Hahaha, that Pepsi callout was perfection ❤
really cool to compare the tomato egg recipe to the scrambled egg recipe you have on this channel, which i really love. i wonder, is there a mix of steps being simplified for the “new cook dishes” theme (eg not separating the egg yolks) vs things that genuinely are a better fit for this particular dish? would you suggest any modifications for someone who is already used to making your scrambled eggs recipe?
I started learning to cook with blue-box max 'n' cheese and Hamburger Helper, and from there I've just been cooking whatever strikes my fancy. XD