(Joyful music) (chopping sounds) (slice sound) - Welcome to "Yan Can Cook"!

In China, love means never having to say you are hungry.

In fact, when romance is in the air, you can follow it all the way to your dining table.

You'll find, most likely you'll find, what I call Ginseng Chicken Soup.

This is something that when I was a little kid my mom fixed it all the time, particularly after I got sick when I'm healing always fixed this.

It's called Chicken with Ginseng in a Double Boiler Soup, okay?

Here, all you need is four half chicken breast, slightly blanched, poached in water for approximately 30-45 seconds.

This way, when you cook it, they would not have the little gummy coming out, so it looks much cleaner.

Also, I have four pieces of this ginseng.

See this?

Also, I have a piece of ling zhi.

This is Chinese medicinal mushroom.

It looks like this.

Look at this.

It is very hard.

You cannot chew on it.

You cannot slice it.

You cannot, see, look at this.

You can actually hurt somebody with this darn thing!

(audience laughs) But it got a lot of very very wonderful medicina.. so that's why people like it.

Not only that, I also use about three or four pieces of this ginger and salt to taste.

Very, very simple.

Here, I'm gonna use this gigantic dragon Kuehn pottery.

Everybody know, this darn thing, they expect to a thousand year during the Tang Dynasty.

And it's very popular cooking and serving vessel.

All you have to do is, put the water right in here.

Put half first.

In the meantime, we gonna heat up a big pot of boiling water, and then we'll put the chicken, tuck the chicken in, okay?

Tuck the chicken in, and also, slightly rinse this ginseng and put this in, put it in, tuck it in.

Look at how beautiful.

One to two slices of ginger.

You tuck it in very tight and fill it up.

Tuck it in, make it nice and cozy.

Is that romantic or what?

(audience laughs) And then you cover up, you are going to steam it.

Now this is a very unique cooking technique.

It's called double boiling cooking technique.

You put this whole thing on top of this big pot of water with exceptionally care.

And then you gonna cook it.

Oh, of course, if this is too high, you turn the darn thing upside down.

(audience laughs) And then, you cover this up and let it cook for about three to four hours.

You gotta have the patience 'cause it takes a long time to cook it, because what you're doing is, use the steam to cook this whole thing.

But then, love is something that you should not rush!

So let it sit there for a little while.

Now, here, I wanna show you another Dragon Kuehn Pottery.

This is traditional that they use for ginseng.

But we have so many people.

We'll all want to be healthy.

So we will use the big one.

Now here, I wanna show you something you probably have never seen before.

This is my crystal bowl!

Look at this.

(audience oohs) This is the preserved ginseng.

Some of the ginseng costs about $100, some of them go up to about $88,000 a pound.

This one is probably about $3,000 a pound.

Most expensive ginseng is grown in North Korea and Manchuria.

And they are very priced.

Not only that, a lot of people probably do not know that in North America, you can also find ginseng.

It's the best known Oriental herbs.

In fact, this is also grown as a very profitable agricultural product in states like Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and most of them are exported to Asia.

Some people in China believe ginseng prolong life.

One other believe it adds a spice to your romance.

(audience laughs) Whatever it is, it tastes wonderful.

But most people believe ginseng is wonderful because it improves your metabolism.

It also increase your also increase your vascular system, improve your vascular system.

Also is good for your muscle tone, so it's wonderful.

Now when it's done, I wanna show you how easy to serve this.

Look at this.

This is double boiler, I'm gonna remo.. and I'm gonna quickly show you how to serve this.

All you have to do is scoop this out, and you have ginseng soup for two.

Romantic dinner.

You see this?

Now normally in a Chinese household, they only serve the soup.

They would not eat the chicken.

But I most of the time also eat the chicken.

One of the most romantic spots in Asia is Hong Kong.

We call it the Pearl of the Orient.

Let's see the shines and the signs and the excitement at night.

(Chinese music) Hong Kong is an exciting place, especially when the sun goes down and the lights come up.

There's so many restaurants here, if you eat in a different restaurant every night, it's gonna take you 200 years to try them all out.

Everywhere you turn, you see plenty of action.

Colors and a lot of excitement.

Asian tradition is mixed with the best of the West.

And when it comes to romance, can you think of a more romantic place to have dinner for two than this beautiful floating restaurant?

(audience claps) This floating restaurant was so romantic, I even go there by myself.

(audience laughs) Now, to add some more excitement to this romantic dinner for two, we're gonna show you how to fix a sizzling ginger oysters.

This is very easy.

You need eight ounce, one little jar of fresh ..

Eight ounces, okay?

And you need about four to five slices of ginger, okay?

And also one to two stalks of green onion.

Then, the rest is very, very easy.

But first, everybody know in Chinese cuisine, that's our Golden Rule.

What comes out of the water goes back to the water.

First, we are going to blanch this first.

Water blanch.

The idea of doing it is, is partially clean it up, and also partially firm it up so when you stir-fry it, it won't fall apart.

See this wonderful.

We'll put it over here.

While you're doing that, in order to make it easy, we gonna set this aside, put a tiny bit of ginger over here.

Now, a lot of people don't know how easy it is to peel ginger the Chinese way.

See, this is a piece of ginger, right?

You peel it like this.

Because in China, there's no peeler, so they use this Chinese peeler.

Look at this- this is how you peel ginger.

You see that?

Now when you do this, make sure you are totally alert and you're not sleepy.

Because you do, you can be in trouble, you see?

What you do is peel only the peel.

Not the ginger.

(audience claps) So you waste, you don't waste anything.

Thank you very much.

We have a cheerleader in the studio.

I'm believe- thanks a lot!

(audience laughs) And then you need four slices of th.. One, two, three, four, five, six!

You see?

And then, you, if you want, you ca.. the whole slice of ginger there because we gonna need a lot of slices.

But just in case somebody don't like to have so many slices, so all you have to do is julienne this!

(audience oohs and claps) Julienne all of these!

Are you impressed or what?

(audience oohs and claps) Look at this.

And then we'll set this aside and put it over here.

Now, the rest of this is very, very easy.

Basically, you do not want to blanch it for too long, okay?

We'll clean up this a little bit, make sure this is nice and clean.

We'll pick this up and get ready for stir-fry!

Now pick this up like this.

Now if you have a lot of time, you use a little baby slotted spoon like this, you don't have time!

You should use a gigantic one.

This is driving me crazy.

(audience laughs) But since I have so much time, see?

Pick it up, this is the last piece.

This is so good, I'm not going to miss anything.

Now look at this.

You heat up the wok.

Let us heat up this wok, and start to cook.

In the meantime, I'm gonna heat up this hot plate, okay?

Put a, when a wok is hot enough, use approximately half a teaspoon to one teaspoon (audience laughs) to another half a teaspoon of cooking oil.

That's all you need.

Shut this off.

First, you put the spicy ingredient ginger and green onion.

Look at this.

And then, stir.

And then, put the oyster, which is already partially cooked right in here.

(audience oohs) Wow, look at this.

Isn't this wonderful?

Sizzling!

Stir, do not overcook!

And then, all you have to do is add about one to two teaspoon of soy sauce and about one to two teaspoon, up to a tablespoon of oyster flavor sauce, and a touch of white pepper.

Half a teaspoon of sesame seed oil, and a tiny bit of Shaoxing wine or dry sherry.

And then last minute, put a tiny tiny bit of broth.

That's all you need.

And then we remove this, because we gotta get rid of these.

Thicken it up!

Quickly, thicken it up.

One portion of corn starch to about two portion of water.

Thicken this up.

When this is up, shut it off, because you are ready to serve.

Now, look at this.

Here is very very hot.

Let me also remove this, because I don't want this to block everybody's view.

(audience laughs) This is so hot.

I cannot believe it.

And then, listen to this.

This gonna be wonderful.

(audience laughs) A lot of people love raw oyster.

There have been all kind of story about raw oyster, you know what I mean?

(audience laughs) I have no idea!

(audience laughs) Listen to this to add excitement and make it more dazzling, we gonna serve this in this hot plate.

(sizzling sound) (audience oohs) Wow!

How steamy can you get?

(audience claps) I know what your next question is going to be!

What goes best with a romantic Chinese dinner?

The answer is, of course, wine!

But there are many many wine available.

But in China, they have certain wine you probably have never seen before.

So I wanna introduce you some Chinese wine.

This is what they call the Green Bamboo (Chinese For "Green Bamboo").

Now this is all made from cereal grain.

In China, there's only one word for wine.

[Chinese Word For "Wine"] Doesn't matter whether it's 12% al.. or 40% alcohol or 75% alcohol.

This happen to be 92 proof.

Knock my boots off!

(audience laughs) Here is one of the most famous drinking wine, Wu Chia Pi yee ka pee jow, happen to be 110 proof.

And here is the most famous, Moutau Jiu, Moutai wine, which is also 110 proof.

This, if you think this is exciting, this is called "Fen" chiew fon jow, make in Tianjin, China.

They drink them straight.

This is a hundred and thirty proof.

(audience wows) Here is the regular rice wine.

The Chinese, my mother, either used this for cooking or for stir frying or for simmering, also drinking.

This is 80 proof rice wine, okay?

Here is the very famous Shaoxing wine.

(Chinese wine name) Very famous in northern part of China.

This also Shaoxing wine.

Here is Guihuajiu.

Is brew not only with cereal grain but some kind of gui fa flowers.

Here is the regular, they are even making a lot of great white wine.

This is white wine made from grape.

And of course, beer is very very appropriate for Chinese cooking.

Now here, to add some excitement, we are gonna do one hundred and thirty proof!

(audience wows) But before I start tasting, (audience laughs) let me finish up over there, otherwise I may not have the energy to walk over there.

In fact, I was doing so well, they even give me one of these medal.

This is a taste wine.

That means when you go to all those winery, you taste wine, and then they give you little medal.

And I'm gonna put it on.

I'm gonna taste that later.

Now for to continue our romantic dinner, we are gonna make a dish I call "Lover's Prawn"!

Now we are going to get totally committed.

This particular dish is actually a combination of two dishes.

You actually stir-frying two dishes and put them all together.

It's wonderful.

The Chinese yin and yang, okay?

Here, I have prawn, which is approximately, three quarter of a pound, okay?

Very very easy.

In the meantime, I'm gonna heat up my wok.

Heat it up, heat it up...

Okay, get ready.

I'm gonna divide it into two portion.

I'm gonna marinate this with about one teaspoon of sesame seed oil, two teaspoon of corn starch, and also about quarter of a teaspoon of salt.

Also, a tiny bit of white pepper and corn starch.

I wanna divide this.

This is one for me, one for my other half.

Two for me, two for my other half.

Make sure you divide the darn thing evenly, otherwise you're not gonna have a lover's prawn, you're gonna have a lover's quarrel.

(audience laughs) Put 'em all together, divide it.

I am gonna show you, this is actually very exciting, very easy to do.

I want everybody pay absolute attention!

I've never done this with two wok before.

I hope I can do it.

Now, here, I also want to get ready a tiny bit of ginger, okay?

Because one of these... Set it aside.

Set it aside.

One of these, we gonna use garlic and ginger and one prawn with salt and pepper.

That's all I use, okay?

Ooh, look at this.

(audience oohs) And then another one, I am gonna also stir fry this.

Oil, hot.

Stir fry.

Stir... (audience laughs) Stir... (audience laughs) You might wonder why I use a little stainless steel spatula on this nonstick cooking surface.

Because this is the sci- very uniquely designed like a little record player, got little peak and valley, so you cannot really scratch the nonstick cooking surface.

And then one, I use the tomato sauce two to three tablespoon and a tiny bit of chili sauce, and a tiny bit of sugar, and also a tiny bit of vinegar.

Nice and red, okay?

Another one, I use salt and pepper.

That's all you use.

(audience laughs) That's all you did.

And also use a tiny bit of Shaoxing wine.

Wow, look at this.

Wow, isn't that romantic or what?

And then when it's done, you serve this.

I'm having so much fun, I can't believe it myself!

And then we shut it off.

One, you put the, ooh!

This is for yin.

And then this one is for yang.

Oh, look at this beautiful.

(audience oohs) Two dishes is absolutely wonderful.

(audience claps) Now, a lot of people, a lot of people always ask me, when you go out to Chinese restaurant, how do you serve?

I wanna introduce you to a very typical Chinese setting.

Here, you have a little teaspoon or serving spoon.

This is a chopstick, chopstick rest.

You see this?

Chopstick rest.

And here is the soup bowl, see?

When you go to formal banquet, you put it in a little silver container like this on this saucer.

This is Chinese soup spoon.

And then you put it on top of this.

Of course I only have two of this.

One for me, one for my other half.

Now also, they normally only have a little saucer with soy sauce.

Because when you go to Chinese restaurant, normally, you'll make sure the food is seasoned properly so you don't need to season it too much later.

That's why they only give you a teeny, tiny bit of soy sauce rather than give you a big bottle of soy sauce.

And then when you eat, this is how, I'm gonna show you.

When you eat, you pick this up.

After you finish your soup, they normally, the waiter or the waitress will take this out, will set this aside, okay?

So you have this little plate, okay?

And then when you eat, this is how you do it.

This is how you properly eat from a rice bowl.

Pick up the chopstick, particularly when you are hungry you sit down first, see?

Like me, you sit down.

I am sitting down right now!

(audience laughs) It so comfortable, I cannot believe i.. (audience laughs) Unbelievable.

And then when you eat this, how the Chinese eat, you graciously put the mound of rice, stare at the darn thing, and put this graciously, push in your mouth.

You don't go like that.

You go like that, okay?

Never, never... Like most Chinese restaurants, you go out, they serve rice in a rice plate like this.

Can you imagine they give you a big plate and you put all the stuff in there, you have to use your chopstick to pick it up.

This is only done when people go on a diet, a strict diet in China, because it takes about two months to pick up .. (audience laughs) If you are served with a plate of r.. this is how you do it.

You use a spoon, okay?

And then you scoop this, put it over here.

And then you transfer this, and you put it- This is how you do it.

Never never just go...

Even you sit down, it takes too long!

(audience laughs) See?

Very very easy to do.

Now in the meantime, I want to show you how easy to make an other dish.

This is wonderful for a romantic dinner for two!

And in fact, after I finish, I'm gonna invite one of the young lady I just met today and have dinner, candlelight dinner, with me.

She is only 24 years old!

(audience laughs) Now, I'm gonna set this aside.

Lover's prawn, isn't it beautiful?

I'm gonna remove this and get this out, because I'm gonna make a syrup.

I'm gonna remove all of these.

So this way, it would not cause any problem.

Here, I wanna show you what I have here.

I wanna show you how to make Champagne Melon Ball.

Of course, no romantic dinner is completed without champagne!

So that's the reason why I'm gonna do this.

Champagne!

Now, first of all, you use this.

Heat up this, I'm gonna make the syrup.

In this syrup, let me show you what it is.

You have approximately, this is approximately half a cup of water, okay?

You use about two tablespoon to three tablespoon of sugar.

And then you use about three or four slices of ginger, because you wanna make ginger syrup.

Put it over here, and then bring it to a boil.

Okay?

You make a syrup.

That means you can make this ahead of time, and you should chill it.

And then you use a melon baller.

I have honeydew.

You can also use honeydew, you can use cantaloupe, or you can use also... Watermelon!

You scoop this out, if you are very much in love with melon ball like me.

(audience laughs) When I was growing up, I loved all kind of ball.

(audience laughs) Ping pong ball, beach ball, graduation ball, I loved them all.

Some of the melon baller is a little bit smaller, okay?

You scoop it out, and you use about a quarter of a cup, one half of a cup of each, okay?

Because it's only dinner for two!

Unless you want to invite an other two for dinner.

Then, it would not be as romantic.

And then when this is nice and done, you should chill it.

And in the meantime, I wanna show you how beautiful you can put the whole dish together.

First of all, you scoop out the melon, okay?

Three of these, three of these, three of these, three of these, three of these, and then also chop up some ginger- crystallized ginger.

Okay?

And then, this is crystallized ginger..

Put a tiny bit over here, put a tiny bit over here, get ready, a tiny bit of mint leaf.

Because this is wonderful.

When this is done, you use a little spoon.

Chill this, use a spoon, and put this right over here.

Gingerly syrup, about a half teaspoon or so.

And then, when you are ready, sprinkle more candied ginger.

And then, when you are ready to serve, you pour the champagne.

Just like give this melon ball a nice bubble bath.

Is that romantic or what?

(audience claps) Now today, we have fixed a number of wonderful, delicious, nutritious, and exciting, dazzling dishes for dinner for two.

Very romantic.

And I hope all of you go home and enjoy romantic dinner for two.

If Yan can cook, so can you!

“Goodbye!” (##!)

(joyful music)