- Nowadays, modern life.

Everybody's always rushing around.

Down the street from my apartment.

They have just opened a Russian restaurant.

They have you in and out in just five minutes.

If you have no time to cook, rush, rush, rush, I have developed a whole bunch of quick recipe that I call Oh, rushing cuisine not a Russian restaurant, but rushing restaurant.

Let me give you some example.

In fact, just one first, a Chinese pork and noodle soup that is ready in just four minutes or less.

Here I want to show you something first.

This is cellophane noodle in a package like this.

When you buy it little package, don't buy the big package.

This is made from mung bean flour or also called (speaking in foreign language).

This is also the same one.

The bean that they make the bean sprout and packaged like this it's dry.

If you want to deep fried it, don't soak.

Just deep fry and they puff up.

Okay.

And this is a rice stick noodles, very much like this but a little bit lighter and also easier to break.

And also not as translucent when it's cooked.

And this is the rice flour.

It's the rice stick flour.

This is mung bean flour made from rice flour made from mung bean flour.

You got to soak.

If you want to do a stir fry dish or soup with the cellophane noodle, you got to soak them in water for about half an hour or even 10 minutes.

And it's, they're very, very long.

That means if it's so long, you might have to get up the third floor to try to eat the damn thing.

So you got to cut this up like this.

You can cut this up, cut this up, this way it makes it easier to serve, to stir, to eat.

When this is ready, you set this aside and you going to cut up the rest of the stuff.

First we have Sichuan pickle and then we have pork.

And then we also have some nice mustard green.

Okay.

(speaking in foreign language) That means this is choy sum and we'll cut this up like this.

And we'll julienne this because I want to give him some color to the dish.

We cut it up, cut it up.

Now, traditionally in this particular dish they use Napa cabbage.

They use the Napa cabbage.

But I don't know why they always call it Napa cabbage.

When I was driving around Napa Valley in California I don't see a single one of this cabbage.

I see a lot of grape, but no Napa cabbage.

This is another one that you can do.

Traditionally.

They use Napa cabbage.

Okay.

Also called (speaking in foreign language) recipe.

Then you put this right here and then I julienne some of these Sichuan pickle.

Normally I rinse a little bit because they are preserved with chili pepper, salt, and Sichuan peppercorn.

They're pretty strong.

They are using a lot of dishes and I julienne this by f.. slice it into thin slice like this.

And then I am going to cut this up.

While you cut.

Look, make sure the soup is boiling.

Ah it's boiling.

And then you put them all here.

In the meantime, I also cut up some julienne pork.

You see how I do it?

Julienne pork, you see, you just continue to do this.

You need a sharp knife.

Put them all together.

If you have time, you can marinate your pork.

If you don't have time particular when you only have four minutes you don't need to marinate your pork.

When this is done, you'll put it in right in this broth and stir that a little bit.

Now talking about chopstick, I'm quite sure many people know that when Marco polo went back to Italy, that he has many, many description about his trip to China during the 13th century.

But he never once mentioned about chopstick.

I figure out the reason because he never learned how to use damn thing.

That's why he didn't want to bother.

Now we've put all of these when the pork is almost ready.

You put this in, you put this in, all the cabbage and Sichuan pickle.

Stir this.

And let it cook for a little while and marinate it with a tiny bit of sesame seed oil and a tiny bit of soy sauce to give that little touch of richness in terms of color and flavor, and then also pepper and salt.

And then cook it for about a couple minutes.

And then you put the cellophane noodle right in here in the last minute.

It's a very, very wonderful homey, light, simple family style soup they serve in Northern part of China all the time.

When this is done, you should kind of cover up and let it simmer for a little while like that.

In the meantime, we can get ready to serve as I always do because we've got so many people in the audience I always make enough for at least 75 people.

This is one extra batch.

This is for you.

Wow.

This thing moves.

Unbelievable.

Make sure.

And then you'll put this over here and then garnish this.

You have a beautiful soup.

Home style.

Next, I want to show you a speedy shrimp stir fry from Thailand, ready in just six minutes.

And I have all this exciting ingredient to make the Thai dish exciting, spicy, and fascinating.

First, the first thing I'm going to do is to get the spices ready.

I have some black pepper, coriander seed, and cumin.

I'm going to quickly roast this, toast this in this frying pan.

You can of course do it in the oven to get the spicy sniff right out toasted.

While you are toasting this, I want to get ready some lemon grass I'm gonna have to ch.. Now when you use lemon grass, the best thing to do this this is what makes Thai cooking very exciting is lemon grass, coconut milk, and lot of lime and all its shrimp paste and all kinds of stuff.

When you use lemon grass, you cut the tip off.

You cut this off.

You don't need this removed outer le..

This smells like lemon peel, lemon zest but this has nothing to do with lemon.

And then you cut it up in half and then you can press it like that press it like that.

And then you can chop it up.

- When you chop pay attention, total concentration don't get distracted.

Okay.

Then I put this into this chop grinder.

Okay.

Put it right here.

Okay.

And in the meantime I also want to put the rest of the ingredient.

In the meantime you also remember you are toasting.. Now I'm going to put all of this ingredient here and chop it up.

I have all of these ingredients.

Look at this.

Shallot, put some shallot here.

Okay.

And this is what I call the (speaking in foreign language) right here.

(speaking in foreign language), you can buy it in a little package.

In a plastic package, it's from Thailand.

Okay.

You chop this up into little pieces and you can also put it here and then you're also put some garlic and you can chop the garlic once again.

Just quickly mince the garlic like this and put it right here.

And then I have some galangal, galangal right here.

It looks like this whole piece.

It gives a very unique taste.

Also chop it up put it right here in the meantime, you know what?

This is also done.

We're gonna shut this off and then put this right here.

Okay.

Okay.

We don't want to burn my counter.

Just cost me a fortune to remodel my kitchen.

And then the next thing I want to do is now this is what makes it hot and spicy dry chili.

And also give that red curry paste in.

Cut it up and put it all together.

If you want it to be very hot, put it in dry chili.

Okay.

And also this is what unique.

Look at this, coriander root.

This is the root.

It's got a lot of favor.

You don't want to waste it.

You got root.

Chop it up the root coriander, fresh coriande.. put it all together right here.

Okay.

And then the last thing you do is put some Thai shrimp paste.

Look at this.

You can tell the shrimp paste, Tha.. and you'll scoop out a tiny bit right here.

But to do that first, you should chop this up.

- Look at that.

Let's put this over here so everybody can see better.

Take the time of the six minutes you do the whole dish five minutes is blend your red curry paste.

And then when it's almost ready you put the paste right here and then this way it gives you a nice, nice texture, Okay?

Or you can save some and put it into your mortar and pestle right here.

So this way you can do it later.

And then you'll grind this up one more time.

Very nice paste.

And then after this, you take this out and you put this into mortar and pestle and then you just do it.

This is a very, very important basic Thai red curry paste that the curry dish use a whole bunch.

And then you take the time to do it.

This is a very heavy duty motor.

Impressive.

Let's move these so everybody can see better.

Take the time it can take anywhere from two hours up to two years.

Just do it.

Nice.

Also great exercise.

That's why in Thailand, it's so hot and muggy.

Sometime the weather.

You've got to do this and sweat it out.

I'm already sweating.

I don't know about you, just looking at the chili you can sweat.

When this is nice and done, you scoop out and get ready.

Let's let us sit there and you get ready the rest of the stuff.

Here I have some prawn.

You shell it like this.

Look at that.

You shell it like this, hold on to.. You just move this out, hold onto this.

You move this out and you do a couple of time.

And the last one comes out like this.

Very, very simple.

Okay.

Now, how do you devein this?

This is how you do it.

Put this right here.

And then you open it up.

Oh, damn thing is veinless No vein.

Show you another technique.

If you want to keep the tail, you start with this side, you hold onto it like this and you do it on this side.

And the whole thing come out on the tail is intact.

This is how easy it is.

Now.

How can you remove the vein without cutting it up?

You use a tooth pick like this and you go full like this and you push the whole thing out like this.

Look at the vein.

You can just push the vein out.

Like that is how you do it.

Okay?

Very, very easy technique.

And then when this is all done, we are going to do the dish.

Very simple.

We heat up our wok.

Okay.

We heat up the wok.

Always clean up, cut up some bell pepper.

Set it aside.

Red bell pepper.

Cut it up.

Save it.

Do it together.

Color.

You want to have a hot and spicy food some jalapeno or Thai chili.

Make sure after you handle this wash your hand before you touch your lips and your eye.

Otherwise you'll be dancing for hours.

Cut it up small as possible.

Cut it up as small as possible.

Set it aside and then some onion.

Okay.

You can cut little cute or you can simply cut it like this.

- Done.

When this is done, we are ready to cook.

Look at that.

First, we have some oil, about half a teaspoon to one and a half teaspoon up to at the most two teaspoon.

And then when this is getting ready, you'll put the chili.

Okay.

You put the fresh lime leaf to get the flavor lime leaf.

And then put the shrimp.

- And put the onion.

Put everything in.

Toss it around.

Wow.

Marvelous technique.

Great and I can smell marvelous.

And then put all of this bell pepper in to give extra color.

And then when it's almost ready, put a tiny bit off, ooh chicken broth.

And then a tiny, tiny bit of extra shrimp paste and the red curry.

Put it right in here.

You can actually serve this as a dip or just put it right in here as our flavoring because it's so good.

So easy to do.

And is this what makes Thai dishes so unique.

Because it has got all kinds of spices, very exciting.

It wet your appetite.

And then when it's done, all you have to do is stir this in and serve with some extra red curry paste.

If you want to make a little bit more sauce, all you do add a tiny bit more chicken broth.

And then when it's done, you put it right here.

You'll have yourself a stir fry Thai shrimp with a red curry paste.

You know, when I was growing up in China my mom knew all about quick cooking.

That is because she was always busy running around to manage our little grocery store down the street from where we live.

Let's take a quick peek at the typical neighborhood grocery store in Hong Kong.

- This is just like my mother's store back in China.

Small, cozy, and has everything you can imagine.

I think Chinese were the ones who invented the convenience store.

There must be over 5,000 items in this little corner alone in China.

There's a store like this on every corner.

Many of them still use an old fashioned cash register.

Pretty snazzy, huh?

You know, that's how I got interested in cooking as a kid.

We have the ultimate convenience store right down.. and everything was free.

And speaking of convenience here's a quick vegetable stir fry make with a few simple ingredient that you can always keep on hand, or you can find most of these ingredients in your supermarket produce department already cut up.

For instance, this is broccoli, cauliflower, and some straw mushroom in a can.

So you can whip up a wonderful dish in no time.

First, I want to show you this dish doesn't take more than two minutes to do.

First, we'll cut up some garlic, mince the garlic.

Mince.

Mince.

And mince.

Okay.

Put it right here.

And then you cut up some broccoli.

Now to cut up broccoli is very, very simple.

And I'll show you after we get everything into the wok first, because we are always in a rush, rush, rush.

Turn on the wok or frying pan or sauce pan.

Put a tiny bit of oil, move this around and put your garlic right here.

And stir this, very easy to do.

Okay.

Make sure to heat is up.

And then you'll put the broccoli, cauliflower.

It takes a few minutes to cook.

So you're going to put it in first.

And you can even put the whole thing in the straw mushroom.

Okay.

Put the whole thing in.

Stir.

Very hot.

Toss them around and then put a tiny bit of wine.

Dash of wine.

You don't use wine, use non-alcoholic wine.

Wow.

Look at that.

Ooh.

Excitement is happening.

It is so hot.

Take tiny bit of chicken broth and you can let it cook for a little while.

You can actually cover this up.

Okay.

In the meantime, put a tiny bit of sesame seed oil.

The worst thing for most people to do is overcook the vegetable.

Okay?

Don't overcook the vegetable.

When broccoli is properly cooked and not overcooked they are bright green, put a tiny bit of oyster sauce.

Okay?

You don't even need, you do not even need.

Wow.

Stir, move them around.

Move them around, a pinch of white pepper.

When you do spices do not breathe.

This is basically done.

Okay.

In the meantime, I want to quickly show you how easy it is while I'm still cooking my broccoli, my cauliflower, and my straw mushroom.

After you cut this broccoli flower you can make it very interesting by using this technique.

You see this, you cut this and right in half you cut this quarter.

When they cook, they open up like this.

It's very interesting.

Not only it looks cute and also cooks less time to cook is how you do it.

Okay.

Cut this crosswise.

And then how do you cut this?

When you cut broccoli or cauliflower, if you cut it like that you're going to cut it up into many thousand pieces.

It doesn't look good.

So use a little paring knife and you go l.. You know, this is how you do it.

You go like this.

And the whole thing comes out like.. You see that?

This is how you should do it.

This way you do not have to cut everything up into 600 pieces.

You see, you cut it right here.

And then you just break it up.

When this is all nice and done, this is also d..

When this is done, you take this out and you transfer this and you put it over here and you can tell this is a beautiful way to do a dish.

Very easy to do.

Everybody can do it.

And it's a dish looks very very interesting and yet very simple.

It's a main dish.

And as a side dish, you can serve it any time.

And it's very easy to do.

Let me make sure they won't run all over the place because it's got to look nice.

And also before I serve it we clean this up and you have a beautiful dish.

You know.

We just have some time for a quick dessert.

So here is the fastest way to turn a store-bought ice cream into a beautiful, sweet treat.

I here, I have some ice cream.

Okay.

Right here, which is vanilla ice cream.

And what I did with it is I mixed some green tea powder to mix it with this.

And I want to show you the different type of tea that you normally can see.

Wonderful, easy to do.

Look at this.

Everybody knows that we have Jasmine tea.

And then we have this what they call the gunpowder tea also.. literally like a Pearl.

This is the green tea powder.

And this is the tea bowl.

Looks like this, looks like a little cap mushroom cap.

And this is the tea cake.

This is (speaking foreign language) tea.

This is a (speaking foreign language) And then this is Iron Goddess tea.

And this is of course.

This is the oolong tea.

And you can have also some black tea, fermented tea.

And then all of these all you have to do is put this green tea powder right here and mix with this, and then you can get this out and you can serve.

Mix this with the, oh look at that very simple dish with plum.

All we have to do is scoop some of these and put it right over here.

And then you'll have a very simple green tea ice cream served with these.

Well, speaking of life in the fast lane, we're out of time with a little planning and a few minute in the kitchen.

Even the busiest cook can create a simple healthy and delicious home make meal.

'Til next time, think fast walk fast.

And remember, if Yan can cook, so can you.

“Goodbye!” (##!)