(intense music) (Joyful music) (audience applause) - People often ask me, "Why don't the Chinese eat salads?"

But many Chinese dishes actually contain a fair variety of vegetables already, and it is like having the salad built right into a dish.

Today, we're going to give a salute to salads.

The first thing I want to show you is calamari with a Chinese vinaigrette dressing.

It's one of my favorite.

Some people call this, "squid," and somebody called it, "calamari."

You can call it anything.

My cousin, Tom, never liked squid.

But he loves calamari.

(audience laughs) Because he was born and raised in .. (audience laughs) Look at all these tentacles.

Look at ..

This tentacle gives the salad a much broader reach.

(audience laughs) We're going to show you how easy it is to clean up the salad.

Okay?

You see the tentacle?

First thing I want to do is pull this whole thing out.

There's a little backbone right here.

Like the (indistinct), we push this out like this.

Can you see that?

Push this out.

Everybody can see.

Push this out and pull the whole thing out like this.

Okay?

Pull the whole thing out.

And then, you can cut the tentacle, but don't break the ink, the ink bag right here.

Okay?

I did that all the time.

That's the reason why I have a collection of ink.

(audience laughs) Make sure you don't not touch it.

So this way, you do not disturb the ink bag.

Some people use the ink to make pasta, to give different color.

And then, we clean this up, and also, look at this, we're going to show you how quickly, how easy it is to clean this up.

What I do is I cut this, before you cut this, you're going to clean this up here.

Do it under tap water.

You see how I do it?

You remove this, you can pull this whole thing out like this.

Very, very fast.

See this?

If you don't like this, sometimes, you don't even have to .. because it's very, very easy.

Can you see how easy?

Nice and clean.

When it's done, clean up your hand, remove this, get this out.

Okay.

And then, you cut it open.

Right in half, cut it open.

Can you see that?

Very, very clean squid.

How easy it is.

Of course, clean this up.

Clean this up, clean this up.

And then you cut it like this.

One, two, three, four.

You don't even have to cut it up.

You can just cut in rings.

But I just want to cut it up so to show you.

Some of those, I did not cut it up.

After this is done, you put it in boiling water, and quickly blanche it very, very short period of time.

Okay?

Just quickly blanche it.

Look at this.

Very, very quick.

Now, everybody know the difference between a good cook and a bad cook.

A good cook never overcook.

If this is overcooked, you know what happens if you overcook this?

If you overcook this, it will turn into rubber.

(glove hits counter) Like this.

(audience laughs) It will chew your jaws off.

When this is done, take it out.

It only takes about a minute or less to do it because it's so small, okay?

When this is done, scoop them all out, shut off the heat, okay?

Shut off the heat.

Set it aside right here.

And then, you cut up the rest of the vegetable.

Let's remove these.

(knife clanking) This is celery.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, just cut at an angle, like this.

(knife chopping celery) See this?

Set it aside.

Put it all together.

(knife hits counter) Huh.

It jumps.

(audience laughs) Apparently, a pile of these celery, this is like the squid but still love calam.. (audience laughs) And then, we'll put this over here, and this is the purple onion.

We're going to cut it up.

(knife chopping onion) (audience applause) Okay.

Put them all together.

We're going to, we also have about one small can of water chestnut.

We're going to put all of this ingredient into this bowl.

We're going to mix them all up with a nice dressing.

Very easy to do.

Everybody, mixture.

It's hot.

Never do the, "You should have patience."

Wait, I am suffering.

(audience laughs) For the culinary art, I will suffer.

And then, we're going to make a dressing.

Here is the dressing.

Look at this.

The dressing right here.

We have one teaspoon of garlic.

We're going to get some garlic.

(knife hitting counter) Huh.

Done.

Garlic.

One teaspoon of garlic.

More garlic because in Italian cuisine, there's a lot of garlic.

Okay?

A lot of garlic.

Besides, I'll go home right after the show, so I don't have to worry about talking to anybody, so I use more garlic.

(audience laughs) Also, soy sauce.

One teaspoon of soy sauce.

Hot stuff.

Pepper sauce.

Oh, look at this.

And also, a tiny bit of lemon juice.

Okay?

One tablespoon.

And some, tiny, tiny bit of vinegar and sesame seed oil.

And also, a tiny bit of sugar.

Okay?

And of course, if you like, have whi.. tiny bit of salt, and chili pepper.

This is what you call a Chinese twist.

Okay?

(whisk stirring) A Chinese vinaigrette.

And this squid has no regret to team up with this calamari.

(audience laughs) Stir and mix them all up.

Look at how easy it is.

Toss this.

Toss this.

And then, you can serve it right here with this beautiful looking shrimp flavored chips.

Later on, if I have time I'll show you how to do it.

When this is done, you should take it out with your hand.

Continue to suffer.

(audience laughs) Put it right over here.

And what a beautiful calamari salad with Chinese vinaigrette.

(audience applauds) Next, I'm going to do a cabbage and pear salad.

There's a lot more to salad than just tossing lettuce and tomato.

You should always introduce some fresh, seasonal, exotic fresh fruit like Asian pear.

Have you ever seen an Asian pear?

This pear is juicy, crispy, succulent.

It's a pear beyond compare.

(audience laughs) How many of you in the audience have ever tried this before, raise your hand.

Everybody try this.

It's very, very good and I eat at least two of these a day.

It's very good.

You cut it up into little chunks li.. and they're like banana or pear.

Sometimes, they turn brown because enzymatic reaction.

So you should soak it with a tiny bit of lemon juice or vinegar, so this way it will stay white without turning brown.

Okay?

Let's set aside, let's pull, like I'm going to get rid of that, the lemon juice.

I'm going to pull the lemon juice out because we're ready to cook.

Okay?

And then, when you are ready, everything we need is right here.

All we have is watercress, okay?

This is approximately one little, small bunch of watercress.

I kind of take the big, large stem out.

So all of this are very small, very nice and tender.

Watercress is very popular in many, many parts of Southeast Asian, particularly in China, southern part of China.

They're grown in a marshland.

Very popular in soup and stir fry.

You put them, today we'll actually take this out of the water, because they normally grow in water.

We set it aside, put the pear in.

Okay?

Give some color contrast.

We'll also use a tiny bit of this nice red pepper.

(knife chopping pepper) (audience applauds) All done.

I can actually cut this right in half and you put it right here.

Okay?

And then, if you like coleslaw, this is good because I'm going to cut up a tiny bit of cabbage.

One, this is cabbage.

Regular head cabbage.

This way, we can put it all in there, give that nice, I'm going to set this aside, put it right here.

Put them all in here.

Then, you can quickly make a little salad dressing.

Now, this particular dressing is very easy to do.

I'm going to put this right over here to make all this a salad dressing.

Let's do it together.

Let's move this over here so we can have more place to work.

Here, in this particular salad dressing, I have garlic.

Okay, one teaspoon of garlic.

And a tiny, tiny bit of rice vinegar.

One third a cup of rice vinegar.

A tiny bit of, look at this.

This is hot mustard.

Okay?

Give that nice and hot and spicy.

And also, one teaspoon of sesame seed oil, a tiny bit of salad oil.

I use, this is walnut oil.

Two to three tablespoon.

Put it right here.

And also, use a tiny bit of salt and a tiny bit of sugar.

Mix them all up, (fork clanking) mix them all up and let's get this over here and break this up, and you can toss this.

(whisk clanking) Very, very good.

This is the kitchen aerobic.

(audience laughs) put it right over here.

And then, we toss these.

Once again, look at this.

This is going to be very, very beautiful.

And I love this because it's very easy to make.

Everybody can do this.

When it's done, you put this right in here.

Put this right in here.

And put the pear right on top.

So everybody know this is a cabbage and pear salad.

And then, right before you serve, sprinkle a tiny, tiny bit of sesame seed.

Voila.

You have a beautiful salad.

(audience applauds) Now, we're going to put this over here.

In the meantime, we are going to do an other exciting dish.

I call this, "chicken salad with glazed walnut."

Okay?

Here, we want to get all of these t.. Get ready a salad bowl.

Now, this particular thing, I want to show you quickly.

You can glaze the walnut in the oven.

You can glaze the walnut in a wok with a tiny bit of sugar and oil.

Some coat walnut, then you can glaze it.

I have done a whole bunch of these glazed walnuts already.

Right before I get up this morning.

That means I get up at 5 o'clock this morning, so you better appreciate.

Gloria, you at home, appreciate.

Now, when this is all nice and ready, get this hot.

This oil is getting hot because the water will deep fry something for garnishing.

This is carrot.

We're going to Julienne some carrot.

Okay?

Carrot, Julienne the carrot.

This is very easy to do.

A lot of people don't know that walnut is a very, very great ingredient.

You know why?

Because it has absolutely no choles.. Got a great source of fiber.

And in California will produce 98% of the walnut, almost two third of the trade, the world trade.

And the good thing about walnut is also, aside from that crunchy, wonderful texture, walnut also is a great source of good quality protein.

We'll set this aside.

Put it right here.

Do some cucumber.

Okay?

Slice some cucumber.

And also, walnut is good, you know why?

Because it's got a lot of vitamins and minerals.

It's very, very heart rich in niacin, thiamine, vitamin B6, and as I said, no cholesterol, have omega-3, this is help to reduce cholesterol.

(knife chopping cucumber) Cut this cucumber.

Set it aside.

This is good chicken salad.

Now, what we're going to do is put all this together, and then we garnish it.

Now, let us put all the vinegar together.

Put all the dressing.

This is a dressing.

Quarter cup of balsamic vinegar.

Okay?

Or you can use the Chinese style brown or dark vinegar.

And use a tiny bit of sesame seed paste.

This is what makes it a little Chinese or Asian.

And also, a tiny bit of sugar.

Okay?

This is a tiny bit, and not more than this.

(audience laughs) Follow my recipe.

And a tiny bit of pepper, and also a tiny bit of walnut oil.

Or regular salad oil.

This is nice and hot hot pepper sauce.

Once again, never forget to do your exercise.

(audience laughs) Twist your... (audience laughs) Great exercise.

Okay, look at this.

Make sure this is nice and (whisk stirring) I normally take a nap when I do this.

(audience laughs) And I always smile in my nap.

(whisk stirring) Okay, this is nice and done.

We'll set this aside.

Just grab the dressing.

We'll remove this.

And I will show you how beautiful this dish is, okay?

(plates clanking) Look at this.

You have lettuce here.

Okay?

Half a lettuce.

Slice it up, put some carrot.

Sprinkle around.

Cucumber, sprinkle around.

And you have some basil.

Put it around here.

And also some chopped cilantro and chopped basil.

Sprinkle around to get flavor.

And also, let us also put a tiny bit more of these cucumber and shredded chicken, steamed.

Look at how beautiful.

Okay.

Okay.

Sprinkle a tiny bit of toast sesame seed.

And of course, (clapping) never forget our favorite: walnut.

A lot of walnut.

To make it more beautiful, we'll put it in this gorgeous... Look at this.

We'll put more walnut right here.

And what are you going to do with the leftover walnut?

Oh, no comment from the walnut Gary.

But I love it and I eat it everyday.

(audience laughs) Make sure, look at this.

This is a beautiful dish already.

(plate sliding) I want to show you, look at this.

This is wonton wrappers.

And this is spring roll wrappers.

You cut it up like this and you deep fried it, you got a little nice flower, like this.

Can you see how beautiful this... Can you see how beautiful?

Isn't that beautiful or what?

(audience laughs) And then, they're not in the way.

If you don't want to bother to do that, you can easily do it like this.

Julienne this.

Julienne, Julienne, this is wonton wrappers, okay?

Wonton wrappers.

(knife clanking) And then you deep fry this.

You remember earlier, I said you can also deep fry this shrimp flavored chips.

Everybody look.

Are you ready?

- [Audience] Yeah.

- Okay.

Good.

Look at this.

One, two, three.

(sizzling) And one, two, three.

Done.

See that?

(audience applauds) As easy as one, two, three.

(audience applauds) This is already done.

When it's done, you take it out and put it right over here.

And then you can also put the wonton noodle.

(noodles sizzling) Look at this.

Move around.

Didn't I tell you?

Great exercise.

So when it's done, you shut it off, when this is all ready.

Look at how beautiful.

Nice and golden brown.

When this is good and nice and ready, (plate sliding) you put the salad dressing right over here.

Look at this.

This is how beautiful this is.

And then you put this right on top.

And then you make it more complicated and put some other thing here.

Make it as interesting, as complicated as possible.

You have the chicken salad with glazed walnut.

(audience applauds) Next, we're going to make a very, very exciting Thai d.. Chiang Mai lettuce cups.

But before we get started, I would like to introduce a Thai cuisine expert, author of this beautiful, "Wok and Stir Fry Cooking," my friend Joyce Ju.

(audience applauds) Welcome Joyce.

So glad that you can come.

See, I always, like many people, I always go to Thai restaurant to eat.

But a lot of the time, by the time they put everything to..

I never know what the heck is inside.

So I would like to have a lesson, how and what kind of stuff that they put in in terms of basic ingredient and seasoning in a typical Thai dish.

- Well, we've got a lot to cover here, Martin.

But basically, this is Thai fish sauce, okay?

And that's the soy sauce of Thai cooking, okay?

You've got to use Thai style soy sauce, though.

You can't use Chinese style.

And over here, we have the cilantro.

- [Martin] That's not what my mother told me.

(Joyce and audience laugh) - This is cilantro or fresh coriander, as it's known.

This is also galanga.

This one right here.

It's the Thai ginger.

Okay?

It's the equivalent to using ginger in Chinese cooking.

And this is the dry version of galanga.

And it has to be soaked in warm water before you use it.

- [Martin] Well, how long do you soak?

About, 10 half an hour?

- At least thirty minutes, at least until it's soft and pliable, okay?

Then over here, we have lemongrass, which imparts a very lemony flavor.

And it is a seasoning that's used almost in just about almost 50% of Thai dishes.

- [Martin] It looks like the scratcher.

(Joyce and audience laughs) - Alternate uses, here.

- And then what is this?

- Okay, this is palm sugar.

So if you want to sweeten a dish w.. you would use palm sugar.

This is what it looks like outside of the bottle.

- [Martin] Show everybody so everybody can see.

- [Joyce] It has a nice caramel ty.. and you can eat it as candy and you'd love it.

It's kind of buttery, as well.

Then this item over here which everyone knows, is Thai basil and it has a stronger anise flavor than the American basil.

Over here is an ingredient called kaffir lime leaves and there's oils in it and there's an aroma that you can't get from any other ingredient and it's available dry in the United States, but also frozen.

This was frozen.

This item over here is lime rind.

It's from a kaffir lime.

It's a special variety.

Again, it's a dried ingredient, so it needs to be soaked in warm water.

And over here, we have this tamarind, which imparts a sweet and sour flavor.

It comes from a pod, a tamarind pod.

And over here, we have shrimp paste.

If you want a real flavor of Thai cooking, like in Chinese cooking, shrimp paste will impart that.

It offers a lot of savory-ness in the dish.

This is an important ingredient in Thai cooking, it's coconut milk.

Make sure that you use unsweetened coconut milk.

If you use sweetened coconut milk, it's not going to be the same.

And right here, we have ... - Dangerous looking things right here.

Smold your hair.

(Joyce and audience laugh) Give you a perm.

- Anyway, that's Thai chilies.

Fresh Thai chilies.

And it seems to be the smaller they get, the hotter they are.

And this over here is the Thai eggplant.

And there's several different varieties of Thai eggplant.

This one happens to be the shape, it's about the size of a ping pong ball.

Okay.

- [Martin] When this is done, we're going to lose these and we'l.. We can start to cook because these are wonderful ingredients.

And already, I am confused.

(Joyce and audience laugh) Now, when I go to Thai restaurant, I know exactly what I'm going to have.

The next thing we'll do is to save time.

We're going to do a wonderful Chiang Mai lettuce cup.

The first thing was I told by you, because this is your dish, is that we have to brown our - [Both] Rice.

- So we're going to brown this first.

Okay?

After we brown it, we quickly ground it up.

We're going to grind this.

Make the rice work.

Put it through a daily grind.

We're going to grind it.

This is the only time that I don't crush things with my cleaver.

I'm going to let the cleaver take a little break.

(spatula scraping) When this is nice and ready, it doesn't take too long to brown this.

When this is brown, let's put it in the grinder.

Let's put it over here.

Let's put it over here and then ground it up.

(pot slamming) And then we're gonna set this wok ready to cook the beef.

In this particular dish.

Yes, let's do it.

Wow.

(grinder whirring) As simple as that.

Done.

- It's hard work.

Okay.

- Very hard work.

- And you want to make it to this consistency.

- [Martin] Yeah.

This consistency is nice and ground.

So this way, we use it, what are we going to do this for, because why would we put the ground toasted rice he.. - Think of it as bread crumbs.

Asian bread crumbs.

And it binds all the ingredients together.

It holds it.

- When this is nice and ready, we're going to put some oil over here.

Shower it.

And a tiny, tiny bit of crushed chili, see?

And also, we're going to stir this with a tiny, tiny bit of ground beef.

Lean ground beef.

(beef sizzling) Stir.

In the meantime, let's get this together so we can put all these things ready for me.

And then give me the ingredient when we are ready, as we go along.

- Okay.

What do you need?

- See, this is Joy's dish, so pushy.

Put me to work.

(audience laughs) But I need exercise.

I haven't done this for hours.

(audience laughs) And then stir fry it.

And then let's put a tiny bit of all these sauces, fish sauce.

- Okay.

- And then the lime juice.

Put them all together.

And the sugar.

And then the green onion.

And then the cilantro.

- The green onion's in there.

- Yes.

- Okay.

- Let's put them all together.

Let's put them all together right here.

Let's make sure it is hot enough, okay?

All I need is about half a teaspoon of oil.

Let's put them all together.

Stir.

Let the flavor, all this herbs and spices permeate into this.

- Let's chop up some of this - Let's chop up some ... - Mint for you.

- Let's move this.

We don't need this anymore.

(knife chopping) okay.

- [Joyce] Am I doing this right?

- Oh, you are, I'm helping you.

What are you talking about?

(audience applauds) I'm helping the expert.

I am helping the expert right here.

When this is nice and ready, we're going to put them all together.

Put the rice.

- We'll put this in that last.

- Put them right last minute.

- Okay?

- Oh, look at this.

Let's put them all in.

Okay.

Good.

- [Joyce] There you go.

- [Martin] Let's put them all in.

And let's get the lettuce cup out.

And then we will put them all together.

This is how easy it is.

Look at this.

(food sizzling) Put them all together.

One, two, three.

This is how beautiful this dish can be.

You see?

(audience applauds) I want to thank Joyce helping me to salute the salad.

Salads are light and healthy, so lettuce remember, (audience laughs) if Yan and Joyce can cook, so can you.

“Goodbye!” (##!)

- Thank you.

(audience applauds)