(airy introduction music) (Joyful music) (audience applauds) - Ever since Asian cooking became popular in the West, woks have been putting in overtime!

So today, we are going to send this wok off to his much needed vacation.

We're gonna pack this tight- (audience laughs) - Make sure it's tight, and I'm going to give it to Margaret.

Margaret, make sure this guy travels first class!

(audience laughs) (audience applauds) (kitchen knife tapping) - Today we're gonna use a few of the very traditional, unusual ingredients.

And also traditional, unusual cooking utensils that you normally don't see in an average kitchen.

Here I'm gonna do a dish I call, "Double Steamed Chicken with Chinese Herbs".

We're gonna cut up some mushrooms.

Okay?

This is black mushroom.

We're gonna cut it up.

It doesn't matter how many pieces, and how big a piece you cut it.

You can cut it into one, two pieces.

Three pieces.

One, two, three!

Or four pieces.

One, two, three, four!

Or five.

One, two, three, four, five!

Or six.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven!

(audience laughs) Okay?

(audience applauds) And also, we're gonna use a tiny, tiny bit of nice dried, cured ham.

This is Smithfield ham.

You can use Yunnan Ham.

You cut it up into small chunks.

This will give the flavor to our dish.

And also, a couple pieces of, a small piece of lean pork.

Okay?

Slightly parboiled, blanched.

Wate.. Blanch in water for about a minute or so.

Cut it up, cut it up, cut it up.

Set it aside, okay?

Also, some boneless, skinless chicken.

Also, partially water blanched.

Cut it up into small pieces.

This will give some substance, good protein, to our dish.

And then, also, have what they call the dragon's eye.

This is longan.

Dry longan.

Looks like this.

This is a fruit.

Looks like lychee, tastes like lychee.

And of course, we are gonna have some variety, a few varieties of Chinese herbs.

You have dong quai, and you have ... A lot of these are roots.

Some of them are barks, some of them are blossoms, and leaves.

A variety of roots.

You go to a Chinese herbal shop, you'll see up to five, six thousand different varieties of Chinese herbs.

The Chinese believe, everybody know, the Chinese believe in holistic healing.

When you don't feel good, you, instead of going to a regular doctor, you go to a Chinese herbalist.

They ask to take your pulse, and look at your eye, look at your complexion, and they ask you to stick your tongue out, and say, "Ahhh!"

(audience laughs) - So this way they know what to pr.. and they give you a prescription, and you go to the Chinese pharmacist, they give you a whole bunch of this kind of varieties of herbs.

And all of these are natural ingredients.

Natural plants, animals, and all kind of things dehydrated.

And everybody knows, all the things that you have, you see in Chinese restaurants, a lot of them you see are basically, have a different composition of mineral, vitamins, and iron, and all the stuff.

So if you put the right thing together, it's good for you!

Okay?

Here we're gonna put all of this in this, what I call the Yunnan Air Pot.

(foreign language) It looks like this inside.

You see the little chimney?

Small chimney hole here?

When turned to the other side, you see a bigger hole here.

The steam; you put this on top of steam like this.

The steam will shoot up here and will cook your food.

Okay?

So first thing we do is, put all these ingredients inside here.

Okay?

The meat and the mushrooms and the herbs.

Soak the herbs a little bit.

Move them all together and then you fill it in with water.

Clean water, tap water.

Put it right in here.

Okay?

Just enough.

If this is not enough, it's no good.

So we're gonna put more water right here.

(tap running) - Okay?

And then you come back her.. (audience chuckles) - Okay, when this is nice and done, you cover up and you let the steam shoot up.

Let the steam cook the contents.

The water, the herbs, and everything.

That why you call, "Double Steamed".

Now, look at this.

I have done one a little bit earlier.

Nice and hot!

(winces and gasps) (audience laughs) - It is hot!

Now here, a lot of people say, "Why double steam?"

Why not?

Here, you double date!

Ah?

You double clutch!

You even double park.

Why not double steam?

(audience laughs) - This is traditionally; When you serve this, traditionally you only drink the liquid.

Okay?

Because the Chinese believe, if you.. and eat the meat, the meat would absorb the liquid.

So it's no good!

This is the essence of all these broths.

And it's very rich, a lot of herbs, a lot of vitamins, a lot of mineral.

Come over here!

It's good for people just recovered from an ailm.. and this is wonderful because it's very rich.

Traditionally, we do that, but for me, not only I can drink this for my heart, I also eat the chicken and the meat for my stomach!

(audience laughs) - I bet- (audience applauds) - I bet you cannot guess what this is?

I got this from my favorite bakery in Chinatown.

Let's see what it does!

- One of my favorite festivals when I was growing up in China was Moon Festival, around mid-autumn.

(foreign language).

To celebrate, we prepare a great variety of special moon cakes.

The most common fillings for most of these moon cakes are: sweet black bean paste, brown sweet lotus seed paste, sweet mung bean paste, black date with walnut.

We're gonna make a lot of moon cake right now!

You start with a smooth dough, made with cake flour and syrup.

Then you knead it until they're nice and smooth.

Roll into a cylindrical tube, like this, and then you break it up.

We'll use this for the moon cake skin.

And then you use a tiny bit of flour, coat over the working counter, and flatten it up into a nice, circular ... Like a wonton wrapper.

Okay?

Look at this.

And then you use a baseball size, sweet lotus seed paste.

Put it right in the middle, wrap it up, wrap up the whole thing.

Look at all these expert hands.

Make sure you entirely enclose this particular sweet lotus bean paste.

Then you put in this cake mold.

Look at this cake mold!

Put it in this cake mold.

And then press it down.

And then you will be able to get it out by banging it on the table.

(wooden banging) Marvelous cake!

Look at how beautiful th..

Moon cakes come in many different sizes and shapes.

I guess you can call this a "full moon", and this one, "half moon", and this one a "baby moon".

And this is also a moon cake, but it is square!

Perhaps is was made by a moonlighting carpenter?

Once you get the hang of it, it does not take too many moons to make an entire galaxy of moon cakes.

But it will take me too many moons to try to eat all of these alone.

Even with my cousins!

So I guess I'm gonna bring some of these back to the studio audience.

(audience applauds) - See, I promised I'd bring some back to you.

I'm glad that when they make this, they didn't break this mold!

I want to show you how quick and how easy this is.

See this dough?

You put it right over here.

Push it down, push it down.

Down.

Down.

Okay?

And then you go, "Ha, Ha, Ha!"

Look at this!

(audience applauds) - It is so simple; piece of cake!

(audience laughs) - I'm gonna put it over there, and the next thing I want to show you is a very, very exciting dish.

I'm gonna show you how to do a Korean barbecue beef.

And I call it: bulgogi.

This is how they call bulgogi in Korean cuisine.

This particular dish is very easy to do.

When you go to a Korean restaurant, there's so much beef barbecuing in Korea, this is probably the closest thing to Texas cooking in Asia.

I wonder how they say, "Howdy, partner!

", in Korean?

(audience laughs) - Now, here is a piece of beef.

I have about one pound of tender beef.

Okay?

And I cut it in very thin slices.

Look at this: parallel cutting technique.

Parallel cutting technique.

Just to show you how thin this is.

I'm not kidding; this is thin!

Look at this.

(audience gasps) (audience applauds) - You continue to do this, okay?

Why I'm cutting this up?

Cut this all up into very, very thin pieces.

The more people, the more pieces you have to do.

Just make sure you do this when you are totally alert!

(audience laughs) - And don't do this when you are ha.. Make sure, put them all together.

Then you can do a whole bunch of these; a whole bunch of these.

I'm quite sure many of you have tried and loved Korean cuisine, because it's quite interesting.

After this, we're gonna marinate this.

And while we marinate this, I'm gonna also heat up this Genghis Khan Grill.

Can you see this Genghis Khan Grill?

They're shaped like the head of those people; they were in Mongolia.

Genghis Khan, this domed shape.

So, we're gonna cook it right on top of here.

I use approximately three to four tablespoons of soy sauce, tiny bit of minced green onion.

If you need more green onion, all you have to do is go, "Bap!"

(knife chopping) (audience applauds) - People say, "You can cook.

Can you go faster?"

If I go faster than this, you won't be able to see it!

(audience laughs) So I slow down.

And also, we're go.. Because this is good for garlic flavor.

Okay?

A lot of people think, "Italian restaurants; they use a lot of .. And an average Korean meal; it's a garlic festival!

(audience laughs) - Garlic, more garlic!

Garlic, more..

This is how you mince garlic, once again.

Great exercise.

Smashing is exercise.

Also put a tiny bit of ginger and dry sherry.

Also put a tiny bit of sesame seed oil; half a teaspoon of sesame seed oil.

Put a tiny bit of sugar.

Also a tiny bit of black pepper.

And a few sesame seeds.

Okay?

Toasted sesame seeds.

Marinate this.

Marinate all of them, and then you can grill them.

Look at this.

You are going to be able ... Let it marinate for about half an hour.

Hour and a half.

Two hours.

Two days?

(audience laughs) - Two years?

(audience laughs) - No.

Doesn't have to be so long.

..

When this is nice and done, we're gonna put it over here.

We're going to grill this in this Mongolian, what they call Genghis Khan Grill.

(grill sizzles) Wow, can you hear the sizzling sou..

Isn't it exciting or what?

(audience applauds) - Okay.

Look at this.

(audience applauds) - This is very easy to do.

It's delicious!

We're gonna cook a whole bun..

This way, not only we have enough for the entire studio audience, we still have enough to send it to you at home!

(audience laughs) - While I'm waiting for this to get ready, I am gonna show you another very, very popular dish.

You cannot imagine having a meal in Korea without having kimchi.

Just like if you don't have kimchi; it's just like eating Chinese food without rice!

This particular ...

I use one to one and a half pound of, this is Napa Cabbage, look at this Napa Cabbage.

Now, while I am talking about this, (grill sizzles) - I hear the sizzling sound and my.. telling me we better turn it upside down!

So we'll turn it upside down.

Otherwise you're gonna have uncooked, charcoal burned bulgogi.

(audience chuckles) - Make sure you don't ... Look at how beautiful this is.

Huh?

This is great.

The good thing about this, if you see the sign of this, the juice and the sauce will drip down, and later on, when you cook a whole lot, all you have to do is collect the juice and put it, and serve the juice on top of the meat.

It's very easy to do.

I have used about two to three teaspoons of salt, and I mixed with this Napa Cabbage, and I squeezed the water out.

(bowls clinking) (cabbage squishing) - Good finger exercise.

(audience chuckles) - I am having fun!

(audience laughs) - Get all the water out.

Let me show you.

There's actually water coming out from here.

You get rid of the water because we're gonna use this bowl to marinate our Napa Cabbage, to make our marvelous, delicious kimchi.

In this particular dish, all I have is soy sauce.

Marinate it with soy sauce, okay?

Approximately one tablespoon of soy sauce, some sesame seed oil, two teaspoon or so sesame seed oil, some Szechuan peppercorn.

I make this a little bit Chinese, so I use Szechuan peppercorn.

Okay, toasted.

And also use chili powder, about a teaspoon or so.

This is gonna be hot!

That's the reason why, you go to a Korean restaurant, when people eat, they don't talk because their lips, their tongues, and cheeks are on fire!

(audience laughs) - Oh, to make it look dangerous, you also you these dried peppers, just to look dangerous.

And also, put some green onion to get some flavor.

And then, some garlic.

One tablespoon garlic.

Chopped garlic.

Tiny bit of ginger.

And also, use a tiny, tiny bit of rice vinegar.

Quarter of a cup of rice vinegar.

Okay?

This way, mix them all up.

After that, you put it in this, one of these pressers.

Okay?

Put it in here.

Look at this.

(cabbage falling) And then you press it.

Exert some weight!

You press it; squeeze the water out.

Now, if you want to make it faster, and you don't have nothing to do, sit tight!

Add some more weight.

Sit on it and read a book.

(audience laughs) - Look at this.

Just press it, press it.

See?

I press it.

How do you press it?

Traditionally, in many parts of Southeast Asia, after they do this, they bury this in a big urn and put it underground.

So, you can take it out any time you want.

It's just like a caps ... a time capsule.

You know?

When it's done, you take it out and you serve these.

It looks like this.

Look at this!

We'll show you how you can serve a dish.

Our bulgogi is done.

One.

Two.

Three.

This is very delicious, very light, very easy to do, and nobody can mess up!

Okay, look at this.

And when it's done, you can also scoop out some of this kimchi.

I love this.

This is good!

Hot and spicy and give you that punch!

(audience giggles) This is what I call, "Kimchi with Bulgogi," in a beautiful platter.

(audience applauds) That kimchi is so good and so hot, it gave my nose a punch!

The best way to clear up your sinuses.

(audience chuckles) - The next dish I'm gonna do is Lamb in a Mongolian Fire Pot.

Look at this beautiful Mongolian hot pot.

I want to give you a lesson on the anatomy of the fire pot.

This is the lid, and underneath this lid, you boil your broth.

This is the broth, okay?

And when you lift up your broth, you see this chimney?

(winces and gasps) - Hot!

Never do that!

(audience laughs) - And you take this up, and all you have to do is put the charcoal or the mesquite on the external heater.

They will heat up the broth over here.

And if you want to make sure it heats up faster, you cover this up first!

Now besides this, this always comes with little baskets, like this.

You see this little basket?

Everybody cooks their own food.

It is a dish like, you invite participation.

Everybody cooks!

There's a saying, "Too many cooks spoil the broth."

In this case, more cooks, the better the broth!

(audience chuckles) - Because the richness of the meat.. will slip in the broth.

Okay?

So you just cook your own.

And how can you gain weight, to eat things in these little baskets?

(audience laughs) - If you're on a diet, you don't worry, because you'll become a basketcase before you gain any weight!

(audience laughs) - We are going to, to make it easy, because some of you do not have this.

So we are not gonna do it right here, because we're gonna show you, you can easily do it in a regular wok or frying pan.

Here, in this frying pan here, I've heat up broth.

Very light broth.

Okay?

And here, I have all these ingredients.

I have shrimp, cellophane noodles- Now this is soaked cellophane noodles; make sure to show you how to do it.

Okay.

Here I have a bowl of water.

This is dry cellophane noodle, made from mung bean flour.

You soak them in water for approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

And then, when they're softened, you break it up.

Okay?

Let it soak this up and move them around.

Then when they're softened, then you can cook it.

It's very easy to do.

Okay?

Cellophane noodles.

And then, also, I'm gonna have some shrimp, and some lamb.

Okay?

You can use any meat, you can use any seafood.

I'm gonna show you quickly how I'm gonna remove the shell.

One.

Two.

Okay?

Remove this whole thing.

Comes out like this!

Very easy.

Then, you de-vein this by putting into use your knife.

Butterfly.

See this?

And then you can see the vein.

Remove the vein.

Okay?

And put it right over here, so nobody can see.

(audience laughs) - And then you can have all of these around.

I also have some spinach, you can use watercress, you can use tofu, and also some of these green onions.

When you cook, this is how you cook it.

Put a little piece; look at this.

Put all these little baskets; everybody has their own basket, and everybody has their own bowl so they can eat out of it.

And then you put the prawn, okay, in the basket.

I like prawn, okay?

If you like lamb, I'd put the lamb in the basket.

Okay?

Now, if you're on a diet but you want to participate, you put nothing in there, and cook!

(audience laughs) - Okay?

This way, you can never gain weight.

How can you gain weight?

There's nothing to eat!

And also, I want to put some of the cellophane noodles right in here; whole thing.

Put it right over here.

And I put some spinach, okay?

Put it right in here.

Just like doing fondue.

I call fondue, fun-do!

Because it is fun to do.

(audience laughs) - And then, we put also a little ... some people also like lettuce, so we'll put a whole piece of lettuce.

And we cook more shrimp, and a piece of meat, and when it's nice and done, all you have to do is make some sauce.

And prepare the sauce ahead of time, so everybody can serve a different sauce.

Now here, I want to show you, we're gonna show you; we're gonna make a tiny bit of sauce over here.

Everybody can see.

Here, I have some chicken broth.

I'm gonna put all my sauce in little pet wok, here.

I put tiny little water here, some chili paste.

This is what you call the, "Hot and Spicy Sauce".

Some garlic, okay?

Some cilantro.

Some ginger, okay?

And also a tiny bit of white pepper, and also soy sauce.

This is a hot and spicy sauce.

Okay?

You put it over here, and you put them around this wonderful Mongolian Fire Pot.

All the sauces: soy mustard sauce, hot and spicy sauce, ketchup, this is plum sauce, and also this is a tiny bit of broth, with a tiny bit of wine, a tiny bit of soy sauce.

That means you can create your own sauce.

You can do anything you want; it doesn't make any difference.

When you are ready to do, you can put all this here, and you can even serve with a tiny bit of pickle.

Okay?

When this is done, you scoop out a tiny bit of this broth.

Look at this.

Tiny bit of this broth.

That's why the more you cook, the more it is tasty.

And then you get a chopstick, pick up some of these, pick up some cellophane noodles.

Look at this, some cellophane noodles.

You have to get on the third floor to grab this darn thing!

(audience laughs) - And then, you put the lamb, the shrimp, everything right here.

And when you serve- (audience applauds) - All you have to do is dip this into whatever sauce you want.

Just like a fondue.

Now, I don't care if my wok takes a long vacation, because with all these wok-less wonders, we are going to eat well anyways.

So until next time, if Yan can cook, so can you!

“Goodbye!” (##!)

(audience applauds)