(Joyful music) (audience clapping) - Hi, welcome to "Yan Can Cook".

I recognize a lot of you, familiar faces.

Didn't I see you in the market yesterday?

I shop so often in the supermarket, I have joined the frequent shoppers program 4000 times!

I get to shop there for free.

(audience laughing) If you don't have the time or the pat.. yet you want to enjoy a good meal, it's very simple.

Rule number one, always make sure to have a few cans, and also a few dry goods available in your pantry, that's all you really need.

Today I wanna show you something you can easily make.

It's so easy, I make this absolutely, approximately once a week or twice a week, because it's very easy to do.

Because I always have some ground beef or ground pork in my refrigerator.

Because this is something that the whole family would enjoy.

Here I'm gonna make what I call a hamburger, Chinese style.

One thing that puzzles me is I don't understand why they call hamburger, there's no ham in the darn thing!

(audience laughing) I think the more appropriate should be beef burger, Chinese beef burger.

(audience laughing) Okay, here I wanna show you exactl..

I have some mushroom, which I'm gonna cut this up.

(sharp tapping) Set it aside, put it over here, and chop it up.

Set it aside, put it over here, and then another one.

If you wanna make it bigger.

(loud tap) Wow!

(audience laughing) (sharp tapping) Not only big, you smash the darn thing.

(rhythmic tapping) Wow, this is-- (audience clapping) You haven't seen nothing yet!

Of course, I also want to do some green pepper, to give some texture and flavor.

This is another way to do it.

You stack them all up like this, and you, see I'm showing you different techniques of doing it.

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

You can use a skillet or you can use a frying pan, it doesn't make any difference.

Chop it up, set it aside, and we'll put it in this bowl.

Now all you really need is half an onion, okay.

(sharp tapping) You go like this, okay.

Slice it up, and then you go.

(rhythmic tapping) Total concentration!

(audience laughing) (audience clapping) Now, the most important thing, all I need is approximately half an onion, okay.

Put 'em all over here.

You don't need the whole thing because you can save it, because I'm only making about two for myself.

If you want to eat, you make it yourself!

(audience laughing) Okay, now, always learn to clean up.

This is good habit, always clean up so you do not end up having a disaster area by the time you're finished.

Now, all you need is approximately four dry mushroom and about half a cup of water chestnut, and about half an onion, mix them all up.

And also one or two green onion, and about one tablespoon or so chopped cilantro, okay.

And also about half a teaspoon of salt, and a tiny, tiny bit of white pepper.

(light tapping) Make sure to put it in.

And also, of course you need about .. or three-quarter pound would be fine, ground beef.

Mix it up with about two tablespoon of soy sauce, two tablespoon of oyster flavored sauce, and about two teaspoon of sesame seed oil, and also a tiny, tiny bit of oil, tiny bit of oil.

The idea of doing that is, when you cook it, the oil would come out, and it would not be too dry.

And then you shape this.

I'm gonna show you.

I'm gonna put this over here, I'm .. You shape this with your hand.

It's the most efficient mixer in the world.

I have a battery here.

(audience laughing) In the meantime, you shape this, shape this, shape this, and then in the meantime you don't wanna make a mess!

Okay, make it into a meatball, shape it.

Huh!

(audience laughing) Shape this into a little patty.

(light slapping) This is how I practice applause.

(rhythmic slapping) (audience laughing) A wonderful patty.

And then, you put a tiny, tiny bit of oil, n.. Just a tiny, tiny bit, because this is a non-stick frying pan.

Put it right over here, nice.

(sizzling) Wow, look at this!

Shape another one.

Nicely brown.

Now, in America, you put everything on top.

In China, when we do this, we put everything in, not on.

That's why it's not hamburger, Chinese beef burgers!

No bones about it.

(sizzling) Now, when this is done, we'll clea.. because I said I only make two for myself.

(audience laughing), While I'm doing this, I'm gonna tu.. Oh, wonderful, can you see that?

(loud sizzling) Very good, can you see that?

Turn it to medium.

In the meantime, I'm gonna show you something exciting.

I'm gonna show you, you know, you do not, you cannot serve a burger without chips.

Everybody have corn chips, potato chips, this is Chinese chips.

When this is hot enough, the oil hot enough, this is different color of chips.

I put it over here, and please come!

Please come, come, come.

One, two, three, come, please come!

Don't embarrass me!

See, it is coming.

(audience laughing) (audience clapping) See that?

When it's done, this one called Shr.. Can you see how gorgeous this?

All it takes.

Isn't that wonderful?

I love these myself!

(audience clapping) Look at this.

And when you are done, you put it over here, and you can serve everything.

Look at this, you can serve with the regular chips.

I wanna show you something.

This is the regular American style hamburger, this is potato chips.

And this is a Chinese hamburger, with a different kind of chips.

And also, let's put this wonderful looking one right over here with the Chinese hoisin sauce and can you see?

(audience clapping) How gorgeous!

(audience clapping) When you have no time to shop, but you have to rely on your pantry a lot more, because this way, whatever you want to fix, just open your pantry, open your fridge.

These are the few basic thing that I think all of us need for Chinese cooking.

Here you start with a bottle of all purpose soy sauce, some sesame seed oil.

Once you open this, you should keep it in the fridge.

Some oyster flavor sauce, and also rice vinegar.

Of course, if you don't have rice vinegar, you can use regular red wine vinegar, or regular apple cider vinegar, or distilled vinegar, it doesn't make any difference at all!

And then you have, if you love hot and spicy food, ch..

I keep on reminding people, you can smoke your hair with this!

Then, the cooking wine, this is Shaohsing Wine.

You can use regular dry sherry.

Of course, you need corn starch, or tapioca starch, or arrowroot starch.

Chili sauce, very important if you like hot and spicy food.

Sesame seed, just regular sesame seed.

You can put in your salad dressing, you can put on hamburger buns, all kind of thing.

Of course, you should have rice.

This is long grain rice, you can also have long grain rice, plus medium grain rice.

Cellophane noodle, of course, ginger and garlic.

Now, if you love tea like me, I'm a tea lover, then you should also have some tea.

This is oolong tea.

You can have jasmine tea or oolong tea.

It's very, very simple, it's very, very good.

So, I'm gonna show you what I can do with some of the thing that I find from my pantry, and also from my fridge.

Now, first of all, in my pantry, I found some chicken broth.

So I'm gonna pour the chicken broth over here because I am going to do some tomato egg flour drop soup.

Very simple dish, yet very nutritious.

Here I have a tiny bit of tomato, and I cut it up like this.

One, two.

See, and then go one, two, three.

I chop it into little chunks like this.

And then you go one, two, three.

Now you got to use a nice sharp knife.

If you don't have a sharp knife, you end up making tomato ketchup!

(audience laughing) You put it over here.

Okay let's move this so everybody can see.

Now I wanna show you one more time, very easy.

One, huy, two, huy, three, huy.

And then go one, two, three.

One, two, three.

You see, a lot of tomato.

Tomato's wonderful.

I also have about four black mushroom.

Soak and dice.

And I also have one or two green onion.

And also, all you need is about one to two eggs, okay.

And then, I am going to make, I'm gonna turn this up, because I'm gonna make a little, first we're gonna put mushroom because mushroom is nice and flavorful.

Wanna get the flavor out.

And then some green onion, if you want.

And not only that, I am gonna put a tiny bit of tomato.

Okay, now, this is enough for six million people, so I'm gonna use just enough for myself.

(audience laughing) This is not funny.

(audience laughs) At home, you're watching, right, you think it's funny?

I don't think so.

Now, then also, when it's all nice and ready, all you have to do is put a tiny bit of Shaohsing Wine or dry sherry.

Give that little touch of spirit soup.

And then also, you wanna make sure put a tiny, a few drops sesame seed oil.

Half a teaspoon to a teaspoon.

When it's ready, look at this, when it's ready, all you have to do is shut off the heat, or remove from the heat.

And then you drizzle in the egg, which is already beaten.

Let me remove this.

The Chinese, when they serve this, it's very customary to salt to taste, just a tiny bit of salt.

This is all you need!

(audience laughing) All you need!

This is absolutely too much!

And then also a touch of white pepper.

Oh, look at this, this is what you call a touch.

Wow, I'm not, I'm glad I'm not trying it myself.

And then when it's done, you see, boiling, you shut it off, and then you remove from heat, and then you drizzle in a tiny, tiny bit of egg, which is already beaten.

You see, while you stirring it, you pour it .. while you are stirring it.

The reason why you stirring it this way, you won't end up, you have, because you wanna make egg flour drop.

If you don't do it, it gets stuck, you end up having egg omelet soup.

(audience laughs) So make sure, it's very important,..

Wonderful, beautiful, dish like this.

When it's done, all you have to do is put in this gorgeous looking bowl.

Look at how beautiful, nice egg flour.

- [Audience] Mmmmmm.

- Isn't that easy to do?

All you have to do is open your pantry, open your fridge, and then you have wonderful soup like this.

Can you see that?

This is beautiful.

I think this is wonderful, so nutritious.

I'm gonna set it aside and put it over here.

Now, the next thing I wanna show you-- (audience clapping) Thank you very much!

The next thing I wanna show you is very easy.

The next thing I wanna show you is Roast Beef Salad, with a Chinese dressing.

Everybody knows that most of the time you need this kind of iceberg lettuce, cut it up a little bit.

And I have some julienne carrot, julienne cucumber, and julienne green onion.

I also wanna julienne some leftover roast beef I have from my Christmas party many moons ago.

(audience laughing) Cut it up into long strips like th..

If you have time, you cut it up.

If you don't have time, you just throw the whole thing in there, who cares?

(audience laughing) And then, you sprinkle this with carrot, because when you eat it, you can always, always mix them all up.

And then green onion, and then roast beef.

Oh, look at how gorgeous.

Then you make a dressing.

Now a lot of people don't know.

Everybody heard about French dressing, Italian dressing, Russian dressing, a lot of people don't know that there's also Chinese dressing.

The Chinese have been dressing for thousands of years!

(audience laughing) Now, first of all, I want to put a type of sugar.

This dressing is very, very unique.

I have sugar, I have garlic, minced garlic.

This is about two teaspoon of sugar, and about one to two teaspoon of garlic.

Mustard, okay, hot mustard, hot stuff.

And also, I use a tiny bit of vinegar.

Let me just, mmmm, this is oil.

(audience laughing) They look like, they look exactly the same, so make sure use rice vinegar.

Mix it up, make it until, don't add oil until the last minute.

Also, use about anywhere from two tablespoon to three tablespoon of soy sauce.

(swishing) Great exercise.

And then put a tiny bit of sesame seed oil, slowly, so you get a homogenized mixture.

And then slowly, drizzle in oil.

(audience laughing) All a sudden, I get shorter!

Nice mixture, and this is gonna guarantee tasty, hot and spicy when it's done.

Wow, look at this!

Gorgeous looking.

All you have to do is, mix this and put it right over here.

(clapping) I enjoy having you all in the audience so much, I say, "Thank you, thank you!"

Now, some people gain weight because they don't know what to do with the leftover.

So, they eat up everything, but that's totally unnecessary, because storing leftover is actually very, very simple and very, very easy.

So let me show you a few tips.

If you have leftover bamboo shoot from the can, can't use it, all you have to do, put it in a jar, fill it up with water.

See this is bamboo shoot, okay.

If you have leftover water chestnut, and change water about one or two day, every two days or so.

This is water chestnut, also fill it with water, cover with water so they won't turn sour or moldy.

And then here, if you have leftover tofu, tofu, soy bean curd, you'll also rinse a little bit and fill it with water, cover the whole thing with water.

And then, you cover this up like this, okay.

It will keep for about three to four days.

Keep it in the fridge, don't leave it in your garage.

(audience laughing) And then, you have ginger juice like this.

You can actually make a lot of ginger juice.

You can dilute it to whatever percentage of water, so you can always have it at hand.

And then, here this is how you store your ginger.

Particular, you're moving to the middle of no where, you never see ginger the rest of your life, what are you gonna do?

All you have to do, is peel the ginger, and put the ginger in dry sherry, like this.

Look at this, this is a whole piece of ginger.

Please come out, see, the whole piece of ginger.

This way, not only you got a gingerly flavor wine!

The wine is also intoxicated.

(audience laughing) And then you cover this up, and then you put it in the fridge, it lasts for several months.

When you store fresh ginger, you just kind of wrap it up, punch a few holes so they can breathe a little bit.

Another way to store minced garlic and minced ginger, the best way is like the Chinese chef, put in oil.

Let me show you, here is minced ginger, here is minced garlic.

You see that?

This you can keep it for up to a week.

After this, I'm gonna put this over here, then I wanna show you something very exciting, very easy to do.

I'm gonna make pasta with spicy meat sauce.

It's my favorite, particular when I'm hungry.

I can make this ahead of time so I don't have to do it at the last minute.

You start with lean ground pork, or you can use ground beef, any ground meat.

Make sure these are the lean ones, because you don't wanna have excessive fat.

You wanna make a spicy sauce.

It should be lean and mean!

(audience laughing) Now, I'm gonna heat up, to save time, I'm gonna heat up my wok once again, get my spatula ready, and I am gonna get ready.

Here, in this particular sauce, I have approximately half a cup of tomato ketchup, you can use tomato sauce.

Half a cup of beef broth, or you can use chicken broth, it's no big deal.

And then also have approximately half an onion, chopped.

And also, tiny bit of chili sauce, about one teaspoon.

And also, approximately one teaspoon to one to two teaspoon of curry powder.

Mix it with a tiny bit of salt, and also mix it with sugar.

About a half a teaspoon of sugar.

And then, I also wanna show you, we need some green onion.

So we chop it up.

(tapping) The white part, put them all together and you go like this.

While you're watching your wok to heat up, make sure they won't smoke too much, otherwise you'll never see your house again.

(audience laughing) (rhythmic tapping) Total concentration.

(audience laughing) How you doing?

How you doing at home?

Okay, when this is done, set it aside.

We'll put it over here.

Then we are going to cook this up.

Now, this is very important.

Hot wok, look at this, hot wok.

Put a tiny bit of oil, two teaspoon or so.

Put some onion.

(sizzling) Wow.

- [Audience] Ooooh.

- Toss the onion.

Wow, look at this, isn't it amazing?

And then garlic and ginger.

About one teaspoon of garlic, and one teaspoon of ginger.

You can use half, or one, or one and a half, or two, doesn't make any difference.

And then, put a tiny, tiny bit of ground pork or ground beef, or you want, you can even use ground lamb.

And then green onion.

Stir this around.

Use a spatula to crush this.

Look at this, this is a well seasoned wok.

I used this when I was a little kid.

I've been using this for 74 years.

(audience laughing) Believe it or not.

(sizzling) Isn't that fun?

Great exercise.

How you build up your muscle, you do this about 2000 times everyday.

(audience laughing) Just make sure you catch everything.

The idea of doing this is, you know why I keep on doing this, the idea of doing this is you're allow uniform cooking.

Okay, look at this.

Can you smell it?

- [Audience] Mmmmmm.

- Isn't it wonderful?

I hope you at home also can smell ..

Okay, and then we'll put curry powder.

Wow, this is wonderful.

Salt and pepper, and a tiny bit of sugar.

And then the broth, beef broth.

And also, chili paste, hot stuff.

This is good for those people that love hot and spicy food.

And also tomato paste, half a cup.

And then, we will set this aside, we don't need this anymore.

And, you gotta make a sauce.

While you're making the sauce, you should cook your noodle.

Now, if you want to have nice, soft noodle, you cook a little bit longer.

You want it firm, like my friend, al dente, likes it.

(audience laughing) You cook a little bit shorter, and then after it's cooked, you remove it, and you put it under running tap water to rinse it.

Look at how wonderful.

Thicken it up slightly, with a tiny, tiny bit of corn starch mixture.

And then, I have these noodle here.

And then all you have to do is put this, let's shut it off, and put this right over here.

Look at how gorgeous.

- [Audience] Ooooooh.

- Isn't that beautiful?

(clanging) I cannot believe it myself.

Now, if you wanna make it nice and wonderful, you can do some garnishing, like this green onion flower.

How easy to do it, look at this.

You hold onto it like this and use your knife.

You go, one, see this.

Total silence please!

(audience laughing) Look at this.

And then you go, one, you see how I do it?

Two, three, four.

And then you open up, put in ice water.

They open up like a flower.

Then you can put it anywhere you want.

You can put it-- (audience clapping) I will show you, you can put it here, or here, or here, or here, nobody cares.

(audience laughing) Now, I wanna show you another thing to make this dish look more interesting.

This is a garnish everybody can do at home.

You go one, two, three, four, five, six.

You see this?

And then you trim this a little bit, and se.. And then you have a little fan like this, can you see that?

(audience clapping) Isn't it amazing?

And then, every other one, you tuck it in like this.

Every other one, you tuck it in like this.

Every other one, you tuck it in like this.

Can you see that?

Isn't it cute?

(audience clapping) And then, you use this as a garnish!

Can you see how beautiful it is?

You do two of these, then you can put it on the other side, symmetrical.

Now, this is another garnishing I think most people would like to learn.

It's very simple.

Everything I do, you should be able to do at home.

Cut a little wedge of tomato, and you use your knife, you go like this.

One, two, three, four, five, six.

And then, look at this.

And then you cut it right in the middle, and then you are making a little Chinese rabbit!

(audience laughing and clapping) Look at this beautiful dish!

Now, even if you are not a frequent shopper like me, you can always prepare delicious dishes with only a few basic ingredient, very simple ingredient from your fridge or your basic pantry.

Thank you very much for joining us.

You at home and also you in the studio.

I have to run, there is a sale on chicken feet.

“Goodbye!” (##!)

(audience clapping) (Joyful music)