(joyful music) (knife chopping) (audience applauding) - [Announcer] And now, Martin Yan, the Chinese Chef!

(audience clapping and cheering) - (speaks in Chinese) How are you?

Today we're going to the western part of China to the Province of Sichuan, and I have hot flash for you.

Not all the dishes from this province are hot or spicy, so hold on to your taste bud.

We're gonna try Sichuan Omelet Soup, Smoked T Duck, and Fruit with Snow Mushroom.

The first dish we're gonna show you is Sichuan Omelet Soup.

All we need is two egg, quarter pound of ground pork, you can use ground beef, one small can of bamboo shoot, two tablespoon of chopped Sichuan pickle, two stalk green onion, including top, two to three black mushroom, four to five dry shrimp.

All we need is this, but we also need a tiny bit of soy sauce, one tablespoon of all-purpose soy sauce, one teaspoon of sesame seed oil for marinade.

Now first of all, I wanna show you how to cut up the bamboo shoot.

It's parallel cutting technique.

See, one, put it here, two, put it here, three, put it here.

This is how you do it.

And then, you stack them all up, and you go (knife banging).

(audience applauds) Put them all together.

(knife banging) This is a Chinese, ancient Chinese food processor!

(light audience laughter) With one of these, I guarantee nobody's gonna mince word with you!

(audience laughs) And then, we set this aside, we put it in this bowl, okay?

Put it in this bowl, and I also want to chop up tiny bit of Sichuan pickle.

This what give the Sichuan dish it's characteristic.

Sichuan pickle, you buy them in a can, or you buy them in a bag.

Put in the fridge, it last for 235 years!

(light audience laughter) (knife banging) Chop them all up, chop them all up.

Put them all together, put them all together.

Also, put some minced mushroom, finely chop mushroom and green onion, and also dry shrimp.

Put them all together.

And then of course, let us put approximately a quarter pound of ground pork.

You can ground it yourself, nobody really cares.

And then, put the seasoning right in here.

Now, let it sit anywhere from half an hour to two hours.

You can do it way ahead of time.

You can do it overnight.

Don't feel that you have to do it right before your dish.

Okay, let's set aside, let's move them in, set it aside.

Okay, let's set aside over here.

Now, the next thing I wanna show you is I know that some of you have been complaining violence and violence on television, but you have never seen violence on television cooking show until (knife banging) now!

(audience laughing) I am gonna crack this egg.

(egg cracking) Then, beat them senseless!

(audience laughs) (chopsticks clicking) I hope you don't consider this as viol.. And also, you notice that for those are diet-conscious people, make sure that you use lean meat because fat meat has a lot of cholesterol.

Cholesterol takes up too much room in your body, so no room left for food!

Make sure you do that.

Now, I'm gonna turn this on.

Heat up your wok, always heat up your wok.

You can do it in your frying pan, a non-stick frying pan, but I happen to use a wok.

In the meantime, I also bring a pot of broth, homemade broth to a boil, you see?

It's boiling.

One teaspoon or so.

If you use non-stick frying pan, you can use less.

When this is ready, you swirl the oil around like this.

Look at this, look at this.

But, make sure the oil coat a large cooking surface.

And then, you can start making the omelet.

Now, the most important thing is the filling, we just put them together, has to be cook ahead of time because when you cook this, look at this, you have to cook this ahead of time.

If I were you, I would cook this at least a couple hou.. And I fold this, make this omelet, at least a couple of hour ahead of time before dinner, so you don't have to do last minute running around because if you do this last minute running around, you can drive yourself up the wall.

See, a lotta people ask me, "How can I prepare dishes for dinner?"

The most important thing is do not cook too many last minute stir-f.. because you, in the last minute, will drive yourself crazy.

Now, when this wok is hot, we will make sure to make a little omelet here.

(egg sizzling) Okay, nice omelet.

Make sure you put an omelet right here.

Move them around a little bit.

Make sure the omelet is nice and round.

And then, we scoop out approximately on teaspoon full of this round on one side, okay, right here.

And then, I turn this around, and I hold on to it like this, and I make this omelet.

This is a gigantic omelet for those hungry people.

For people are not that hungry, you make skinny, small, dinky omelet like this.

(light audience laughter) This way, for the same egg, you can make twice as many omelet.

You see, move them around, move them around.

Turn them to the other side.

Move them around, turn them around like this.

This is the way to go, you see?

Turn them around.

When this is done, you put them al..

This is gigantic, this one is for me.

Now, when this is all ready, we will put this in this wonderful broth.

Let's put this in, one, two, three, four.

How many people are interest in th.. Raise your hand.

Practically everybody!

We're gonna have to cook this three times!

Put them over here.

And also, to make this dish more interesting, I want to show you, we are going to add some watercress, this give some color to it.

Sprinkle some watercress.

Then you can serve this right here, or you can serve it in a bowl, see?

A lotta the Chinese dishes you can serve it right here.

Lemme show you how wonderful it looks if you serve it right in the bowl, look at this.

Beautiful!

Look at this beautiful dish.

Everybody can serve this at home, and your guest will enjoy doing this very much!

Look at this, isn't that beautiful?

(audience oohs and applauds) Bobby, Bobby have a question for us over there.

- Yes, I would like to know is a electric wok as good as a stove top one?

- Well, I would say yes because in cooking, you want to perform a multitude of different purpose, different cooking techniques, different dishes.

When you have a regular stove-top wok, once you put it here, there's not much space for you to put another one.

But, the electric wok offer two advantages.

One, you can take this wok, and walk all over the place!

You can cook it anywhere you wish because this way you can free your stove-top wok.

At the same time, because of the temperature control .. it give you a great control when you're doing deep frying, and also steaming, also braising dishes.

So, I would definitely think it would be wonderful to have both.

Particularly for those here, and also at home, you enjoy cooking, you enjoy entertaining, it's wonderful to have.

I hope I have answer your question.

Now, this wonderful dish we call Smoke Tea Duck.

Right before I got here, I almost end up having Smoke Tea nothing because this little thing try to duck out on me!

(audience laughing) When it duck out on me, I can't do.. Now, I'm not quite sure if anyone of you know, all the ducks in China, they know exactly where they gonna end up, in a wok!

So, when they walk around, when they go around in the ranch, they always say, "Wok, wok, wok!

(audience laughing) "Wok, wok, wok!"

because they know they gonna end up in this little wok right here!

Now, I'm not quite sure if anybody have ever heard the announcement.

The Surgeon General has just determined Smoking Tea Duck is not dangerous to your health!

So, make sure you don't have to worry about smoking this kind of duck!

Now, basically, in this particular dish, you need one gigantic duck, about four to five pounds!

If you get a game duck, this might be about three pounds, but this is what we need.

Five pound duck.

I wanna show you exactly what we really need for the marinade.

We need star anise, approximately two or three of these a whole star anise, you can crush it a little bit.

And also use approximately three tablespoon of dry sherry, or Shaoxing wine.

And also, two tablespoon of salt, anywhere from two teaspoon to two tablespoon, depends on how much you worry about your salt intake.

Also, I use a tablespoon of minced ginger, and also garlic if you wish.

And also, I have a tiny, tiny bit of, about teaspoon to two tablespoon of Sichuan peppercorn.

Some people love Sichuan peppercorn, they use a little bit more.

And of course, I also use two whole green onion.

I'm gonna set it over here, I'm gonna show you how to strip the green onion.

First of all, you put it here, and you go wow!

Heck, the heck?

This what you call "What the Heck"?

(knife bangs) And then, you go (knife banging ra.. (audience applauds) And then, everything is done!

And, you put it here, and I also, to smoke the duck, I also will use approximately half-a-cup of brown sugar, and about half-a-cup of rice, and you can use a little bit more, this is long grain rice.

And also some black tea.

This happen to be Lychee Black Tea.

You can buy the cheapy tea, but this is wonderful, aromatic tea.

Before I start, I understand Francis over there have a question for us!

- Gee, do I have to use a duck, or can I smoke something else?

(chuckles) - If you love hunting, you can use wild game hen, wild duck, anything with two wings and two legs would work!

It works really well with chicken or a little quail.

All depends.

And just, as I said, it just happens this is the only thing available to me.

That's why I want to use, and also this is a very classic dish, but, by all means you can always use tea smoke, use the duck, and smoked with tea, or sometimes some restaurant use camphor, then they call (speaks in Chinese), camphor-smoked tea duck.

So, you can anything in you want!

First, we're gonna marinade a duck, okay?

Here is all the marinade.

You start from the inside.

Put all of this, half of this, more than half of this, put it inside.

Wow!

It feels so cool!

Do it in the summer when it's hot and muggy because it really feels good!

Rub them inside and out.

(light audience laughter) And then, also the outside, rub them up, and marinate this whole thing for approximately two hours.

If you have a little more time, do it overnight.

Or, two days, or three days.

Nobody's gonna bother you whether it's two hours or two days!

(light audience laughter) Now, you can also, let's put this thing inside so it won't walk away.

(audience laughs) Now, after this marinade, you are goin' to steam it.

We're gonna steam it to save time.

Also, we want to have a lot of ducks around to serve all of us, so I have steamed one of these.

I steamed this, I've been steaming this for over an hour and fifteen minutes.

Normally, I have to steam it for about hour and a half, okay?

I understand that David, right there, have a wonderful question!

- Yes, Martin, besides sherry and Shaoxing wine that you mentioned, what other kinda wines do you cook with?

- In Southern China, they normally use rice wine.

In Northern China, they use Shaoxing wine.

Rice wine in use in China, in Southern China, is about 80 proof, okay?

But, you think that is potent, that is dangerous, wait until I show you this!

This is fanjiao, fanjiao, 130 proof!

(audience oohs and murmurs) Okay?

You use it for drinking, as well as for cooking if you wish, but normally for drinking.

If you think that is the only one, that is not true.

This is kaoliang chu, make out of cereal grain, 126 proof!

(audience oohs) Both of these knocks everything off, including your boot!

(light laughter) Now, after you steam it, you shut it off, let it cool down a little bit, and you start to get ready to smoke the dish.

Now, this is what you're gonna do when you smoke.

First, you get a wok.

Get one of these bamboo or stainless steel steam rack.

If you don't have these, no problem!

If you don't have these, you get chopstick.

Put two pairs of chopstick, tic tac doe, then you don't have to worry about this.

The wonderful thing about this is you can play tic, tac, doe with this at any time, you see?

(light audience laughter) Now, put this right in here, and we'll put the brown sugar, and we'll put the rice, and then we'll put the black tea right here.

Mix them all up like this, mix them all up.

Now, if I were you, I would line this up with aluminum foil because I don't want to spend three-and-a-half hours so to clean up the wok.

So, I'm gonna line this up, and then I put this in.

After I put this in, I will put this whole duck, which didn't get a chance to duck out on me, put it right here.

And then, we're gonna smoke this for approximately, over medium-high to high heat, for approximately five to seven minutes.

So, give the nice smokey flavor.

After it's smoked, it looks like this, wow!

Can you see?

(audience oohs and applauds) Oh, it is absolutely wonderful!

(audience applauds) After this is smoked, all you have to do is take it out.

And, I am going to show you, you can cut this up, cut it into bite-size pieces.

See, for me, I got a big mouth, so I cut big pieces!

See, first, I cut this up first.

See?

(knife banging) Put it right here.

Secondly, I cut this side up, and I set this aside because I want to put the whole duck back together after I cut it into bite-size pieces.

I wanna show you how I did it.

Look at this.

This is how I do it.

(audience applauding) This is one a very classic, traditional Chinese dish.

It's called Snow Mushroom with Fruits.

Basically, this is a classic banquet dessert.

Normally you go to Chinese restaurant, I know that you told me that you love Sichuan-style restau..

When you go to restaurant, normally when you eat the order dinner number one.

(audience laughing) Dinner number two.

You don't normally see such a classical dessert.

Normally when you order banquet, formal dinner, they serve this.

You can actually buy one of these because one pound would last you for 255 years because you soak it up, and they swell, and they expand to about six times as much.

All you really need is a tiny bit for your each guest.

Now, the next dish I will call Snow Mushroom with Fruit.

This is started with approximately one ounce of snow mushroom.

They also sometimes called white fungus.

I try to stay away with the word fungus.

And also, some Mandarin orange, one small can of Mandarin orange, and a small can of lychee fruit from South China.

Of course, you should definitely have pineapple.

So, I have pineapple chunk.

You can use pineapple ring.

I also have one cup, three-quarter cup to one cup of water, and approximately three-quarter cup to one cup of sugar to make a heavy syrup.

To save time, we are going to make the syrup.

Put the water here with some water.

Exact measurement because it takes a while to cook this.

And, make sure when you're making syrup, it's tricky 'cause you gotta keep your eyes on because if you think it is burning, it already has!

Very, very careful.

Don't caramelize this, because your making a light syrup.

It's very important.

Now here, since we have some time, I wanna show you how to actually clean this up.

You soak this in water for a couple hours, and they'll swell like this, very big chunks.

Nice and soft, it feels good!

And then, you kind of see this little yellow spot here, this is more or less like the stem, okay?

We gotta cut it off.

So, I break this up, and I use a little scissor, and I am going to cut it off like this.

This way, this whole thing, you can use it, okay?

Let's cut this off, let's cut this off.

Take this out, cut this off.

Cut this off.

And, once you done, you can put this in a bowl.

This has been cook for approximately, in a nice smooth broth or water, for approximately half an hour over medium-low heat.

And then, you'll lay them all like this.

Trim the yellow stem away, put it here.

This is already cook, you see?

Put it here, put it here, put it here, and it's very wonderful.

And then, the syrup.

You spoon your syrup right in here.

This one, I didn't get burned!

I did not burn it, so it's nice heavy syrup.

Now, if you want to save time, you can use corn syrup, but it's not genuine, classical recipe.

Then, you put some, oh let us use chopstick.

Pineapple, right here, pineapple.

And also, Mandarin orange, right here.

It's very easy to do, and is a wonderful dish.

Also, we're gonna use lychee fruit.

How many of you have ever visited The Orient?

Raise your hand.

Oh, quite a few.

If you go to Taiwan, Hong Kong or China around the end of August, around anywhere between July 15th to August 15th, you see fresh lychee fruit.

In fact, right now you live close to Chinatown, you can buy frozen lychee fruit.

It's succulent, it's wonderful!

In case you can't find it, no problem because you can always use the can lychee fruit!

Now, I know that a lot of you love to go into Chinese restaurant, particularly Quincy over there.

We're gonna show you, and tell you, and teach you how to say something very important.

After a meal, if something is delicious, you gotta let the waiter or the people know, and this is how you say it was delicious: (speaking in Chinese) (audience repeating Chinese phrase) Isn't that simple?

(light audience laughter) Just like Santa Claus, ho, ho, ho, ho!

(speaks in Chinese) Repeat one more time.

(audience repeats Chinese phrase) See, when something is wonderful, delicious, and delicious, and marvelous, you always say, (speaks in Chinese).

(audience laughs) In Mandarin, it's called (speaks in.. Now, I understand some of you have never heard of other type of black fungus, or tree ear.

I wanna show you because this is a good educational process here.

This is wood ear.

In Chinese, called (speaks in Chinese).

Anybody?

Repeat.

(audience repeats in Chinese) This is just like a elephant nose, after you soak it up, they're really big, and if you love moo shu pork, and you love hot and sour soup, they always have this.

They soak it and shred it into little julienne, mix it inside and put it in, they nice and crunchy.

They are absolutely tasteless, but they're wonderfully crunchy!

That's the reason why people love it, okay?

Now, also wanted to show another thing that some of you have never seen.

This is cloud ear, this is little cloud ear.

It's also black fungus.

This is also tasteless, but also got a wonderful texture.

So, when you go to the Chinese restaurant, you can order this Fruit with Snow Mushroom.

Since you are so wonderful here, I also want to introduce to you, this is Hot and Sour Kung Pao Prawn or Shrimp.

We will serve you both of these over here.

It complement this wonderful menu wonderfully.

It's just about time for this show.

I would like to say if Yan Can Cook, so can you, “Goodbye!” ( ##! )

(upbeat music) (audience applauding)