(Joyful music) (audience applause) - Practically, all my favorite recipes, particularly salad, combine the best of Eastern and Western ingredients and preparations.

Here is the updated version of the classical Chinese chicken salad everybody love, made with honey mustard dressing.

First, I wanna show you how to get the dressing ready.

First, honey mustard, right.

First, you got to have honey.

I have this much honey.

How much?

Exactly one and a half tablespoon.

Okay, and also have some mustard, hot mustard.

This is Chinese hot mustard.

You can buy them either in powder form, or you can buy them in a little paste form in a jar.

They are hot.

They are so hot.

It burns your lips.

So you've gotta mix it, and to make it a little bit more Western.

So I use a tiny amount of mayonnaise.

You can home make your mayonnaise, just buy the mayonnaise, put it right here.

And then also, times, sesame seed oil, put a tiny bit here, and, oh, this is chili oil.

Squeeze it in, sprinkle and pump.

This is all you need; more than this is too much.

I would not ever so much.

And then, tiny bit of soy sauce, not too much.

Just give a little touch, okay?

And then, when this is nice and ready, you set it aside, and use a whisk to mix it up and you have more, you want more liquid.

Use a tiny, tiny bit more sesame seed oil.

Okay.

Very good exercise.

And then set this aside, okay?

Because you don't need that anymore.

In the meantime, I'm going to cut up some of these cucumber.

I would cut this up, slice it, slice it.

And I will julienne this, okay?

Julienne, this.

(loud chopping) Make sure you julienne this cucumber.

And also we have some snow pea, marvelous snow pea.

You can serve all of these raw in your salad.

You don't have to cook it, okay?

Now to add color to your salad, I have some red bell pepper and I cut this off, set it aside.

And I julienne this by, first, removing the seed.

Look at that, okay?

And then I will julienne this like that.

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

If you have time, you can, you don't have time, you go (loud chopping, audience laughter) Done.

(laughter) When this is all nice and ready, you can partially and quickly water blanch the cucumber and the snow pea.

When you do that, you should put a tiny bit of salt, put a tiny bit oil to maintain that nice green color in the snow pea.

You should never do it for more than one and a half minutes because this will ruin the color.

So, can you see that?

Immediately punch into ice water?

That's all you have to do.

Look at how easy, when this is nice and ready, you'll put them all together, take it out.

Okay?

This is all you have here.

We'll get ready.

A wonderful, wonderful - look at this.

This is the salad.

Let it drain.

Put it right here.

Put a drain, put it right here, and th.. and then put the... Oh, look at this garnish, just a little bit.

Garnish just a little bit, nice and colorful.

And then, the next thing we want to show you is, let's remove these.

Let's get some chicken, all of these.

If you're concerned about diet, remove the skin, and a little piece of the chicken breast, remove and take this out.

Okay?

Because we don't really need a whole lot.

Because we already have cut up something.

And then, traditionally, the Chinese would hand strip the chicken breasts like this.

This is hand shredded.

The chicken salad's originally called South Sea hand-shredded chicken salad.

But if you don't have time, you just go, hah, like that.

And then you go (loud chopping) This is knife chef, shred with knife.

And when it's done, you sprinkle this like this, oh, look at that.

Isn't that nice?

This is the classical chicken salad.

Yet, the dressing is very unique.

And then, in the last minute, we will put the dressing right on top.

Look at how beautiful.

This is honey-glazed.

(applause) Walnuts.

Beautiful salad.

Now this is a wonderful salad, everybody can do.

I'm going to show another wonderful salad starring the Chinese favorite: roast duck, that you can buy in a Chinese deli.

If you have time, you should make it yourself.

It takes about 25 hours to do it.

So I just rushed to the Chinese deli, and I buy this and this duck apparently have a stiff neck.

(laughter) And then of course, now, a lot of people ask me, when you go to Chinatown, you see the duck hanging all over.

Those are not Peking duck.

Those are Cantonese-style roast duck.

And how can you tell?

They're just right out of the oven.

When they're still, when they're hanging, when they're still dripping, that means they just get out of the oven.

And look at this, how fresh, look at this, very fresh.

Nice and plump.

And the skin is really plump, and not wrinkle and suppressed, depressed.

That's very nice, okay?

Now, of course, this is how I would do it.

I would, if you buy the duck in the Chinese deli, you can buy the whole duck, or you can buy half a duck, and they just cut it up fo.. And they give you the duck juice, come out from this cavity right here.

When they, you, you save the juice, and they give you a little cup, and this is the duck juice coming out from here.

Okay?

The duck juice right here, very flavorful.

And then, all you have to do is get the duck breast ready.

And then, look at that.

Hold on to this, the whole thing.

This is not the same as Peking duck, because Peking duck, normally, they carve it right out over... Look at that, I just cut this right out.

And this is beautiful.

And I'm going to show you how easy it is to cut the duck.

Look at that.

Now for the diet conscious, you got to remove your skin, okay?

Remove your skin like that, remove your skin.

And then you trim the fat off, because you don't want the fat.

So this is how you do it.

You hold onto this and you'll go like that.

You see that?

You just remove the fat, look at that.

Removed your fat.

You have beautiful skin, crispy skin, and then you get rid of the fat.

Okay, and then you can cut this up into (loud chopping) pieces like that.

You can even cut up this into pieces like that.

This is how you do it.

Look at that.

We have skin on one side, and this on the other side now.

And then when you're ready, you just heat up this and make a little quick dressing, okay?

Because you can heat up and make a little... wow, this is driving me nuts.

(laughter) I have some rice vinegar.

I have some duck juice.

I remove the fat.

Oh, look at that.

I remove the fat because I put this in the freezer.

So the fat kinda of float on top.

I put the duck, duck juice and I kind of warm it up.

And then I put a tiny bit of sesame seed oil, not much, and a tiny bit of soy sauce, and a tiny bit of sugar and cilantro.

We'll put them all together.

Mix them all up.

This is our duck salad, okay?

Dressing.

When this is all ready, look at that, very simple.

You put this, shredded duck, you put some baby green, or any lettuce, mix them all up.

And then, you put the dressing right on top at the last minute, don't do it too early, right in the last minute, warm salad, and then toss it.

And you know what?

You can serve these right here.

I want to show you how easy it is.

I'm going to go and get two of these and toss this up.

Toss this up.

This is marvelous.

Roast duck salad.

With the duck juice as a dressing, put it right here.

Look at this.

It is so simple to do.

Everybody can do it.

And to garnish this, you use some dried prune with walnut, dried prune with walnut, a very unique dish.

And not only that is healthy, it looks wonderful, and beautiful roast duck salad.

(applause) Now, speaking of dressing up.

Let me show you how they serve salads at one of the most fancy restaurants in Asia.

Without doubt, the most elegant hotel in Singapore is the Raffles Hotel.

Its impressive facade symbolizes the city's colonial past and its close ties with the British Empire.

This is Haji, the doorman.

He has met more celebrities than Robin Leach.

The grand lobby here shows the kind of opulence that we often associated with days long past.

The distance between the front door and the check-in desk is exactly three miles.

For me, one of the best things in the Raffles Hotel is the Tiffin Room.

Here, they serve the magnificent and one of a kind East-West buffet that is unmatchable anywhere, like this sweet mango chutney, pickled artichoke, Peking bolognese with peanuts, mix of fresh green lime pickles, pineapple chutneys, fried banana chips, and sambal belacan, tauhu sumbat, among others, spicy mix Indian pickles, and shrimp sambal, delicious road eggs, lemons with potatoes and peas.

The Raffle is best known for its warm rojak salad.

The ingredients are pieces of fresh ripe mangoes, cucumbers, preserved cuttlefish, kang kong, and sweet turnip.

(light piano music) It is seasoned with a fascinating East and West dressing flavor, with tamarind juice, lemon grass, and chili sauce.

(applause) You'll find a lot of salads in Singapore, because of the British colonial influence in cooking.

The same goes with Vietnam and Philippines.

So there's a lot of very interesting thing.

And this is a Thai-style cabbage salad, napa cabbage.

Make with fish sauce and all kinds of good stuff.

Here, I have carrot, purple onion, and napa cabbage.

And this is a very wonderful salad dressing made with fish sauce, lime juice, and a tiny bit of sugar and one oil.

And we'll toss them around and put it right in here.

Look at that.

A very simple, and also some lime, toss, toss, toss.

And then, this is a very great appetizer.

You can see that in a lot of Thai restaurants.

Look at that.

And then we set this together, put a tiny bit of deep fry wonton.

Look at this, this is particularly great, because, you know why, this is perfect for picnic and perfect for outdoor party because the cabbage stays nice and crispy.

So you don't have to worry about the darn thing turn limp and soggy.

And then this is a beautiful Thai cabbage salad.

I call it a Thai coleslaw.

(laughter) And I'm going to move this and put it over here, because I'm going to show you one more salad.

Today, everything is a salad day.

Now, here, everybody know that nowadays, you go to the restaurant, always have warm salad over on top of salad and lettuce and all kind of things.

And it is like getting a whole meal all in one plate.

And let me show you how to make this warm scallop salad with ginger lemon dressing.

The first thing I want to show you is, I will do it quick.

I heat up a little frying pan here.

I'm going to quickly marinate the scallop.

This is bay scallop, with a tiny bit of salt and white pepper and corn starch, okay?

Set it aside and use a chopstick to toss these a little bit.

Look at that.

I use chopstick to do everything.

Not only you use for serving.

You also use it for this mixing, okay?

And I set this aside.

And then we're going to stir fry this, saute this, .. Let's saute the scallop, put a teeny tiny bit of oil, move them around.

And then, of course, if you're concerned about diet, always use only nonstick frying pan stir, stir, saute.

Can you see that, its nice and sauteed.

Now, in the meantime, I am going to get ready to make this salad.

I'm going to compose this salad, okay?

And show you how easy it is.

Everybody can do it.

Here, I have some lettuce right here, okay?

And then I have some red bell pepper and I have some enoki mushroom, look at that.

Enoki mushroom, enoki mushroom is a little baby mushroom and then I also have some watercress to give some color contrast.

Color contrast, take the time to enjoy.

And then in the meantime, you'll come back here, and you'll toss your scallop, nice warm scallop.

While your scallop is getting ready, we are going to make the dressing.

Look at that.

Here, I have some lemon juice, okay?

Squeeze some lemon juice, including the seed, lemon juice, a tiny bit of walnut oil, or salad oil.

And when you do that, make sure you use your chopstick, mix it like that.

And then also a tiny bit of salt, a tiny bit of white pepper and a tiny bit of sugar, okay?

And also sesame oil, just break.

Look at this.

Very, very simple, very easy to do.

If you want to make it more exciting, you put a tiny bit of garlic and ginger, put it in the dressing.

Garlic, garlic.

Ginger.

Everything is right here in this marvelous dres..

Mix again with chopstick.

And in the meantime, my scallop is done, okay?

We shut it off, and then we put the scallop right on top.

Look at that.

Scallop, scallop, toss, the hot bay scallop.

You can have sea scallop, bay scallop.

When its nice and done, you put the dressing right on top.

You have yourself a wonderful scallop, warm scallop salad, beautiful!

(applause) I just taste my scallop salad.

It is moist and it's tender and it's absolutely delicious.

Everyone knows that old salad standby, three bean salad.

It has "bean" around forever.

And I have "bean" trying a thousand times, and I'm going to show you a fresh new version, with a few surprises.

I call it five bean salad with artichoke.

Look at all the beans I have here.

You can tell that I have "bean" there.

Here, garbanzo bean, you can use dry garbanzo bean, and you can cook it yourself.

You can get the canned one.

And this is lima bean, marvelous beans, kidney bean, not only get nice color, but also texture.

This is the yardlong bean.

Look at that, yardlong bean.

That's only a half a yard.

I don't know what happened to the other.

You have a yard.

And then this is little soy beans.

And this is how you squeeze the darn thing out.

Come out.

Another one, out.

One more out.

Once again, out.

You just, this is a lot of fun.

Done.

And then, done.

They come out on both ends.

Then this is bean sprout.

Everybody can find bean sprout.

This is fresh water chestnut.

Look at how beautiful, you can buy them.

You just peel them, peel them like this, and slice it up, much better than the canned one.

And this of course, artichoke hearts.

Everybody know that artichoke is grown right here in California.

A lot of great artichoke.

This is red bell pepper.

And of course I have a tiny bit of shallot and onion that I can put it in.

Now look at that, to save time, I'm going to quickly cut up this shallot.

(loud chopping) Watch what you do.

(laughter) Always make sure you check after you finish.

And then we put them all around here, this mixing bowl, and cut up some onion.

(loud chopping) Can you imagine, I can do it when I'm half asleep.

Can you imagine what I can do when I'm totally awake?

(laughter) Then I'm going to put all this beans right here.

Now a lot of people don't realize beans are very healthy.

There are four most important virtue about beans.

And also that's the reason why the Health Department also and the Medical Association also recommend us to eat more beans.

They are healthy.

They are good taste, they are versatile, and also they're very convenient.

Because if you have time, you'll get the dry beans.

If you don't have time, you can just buy the beans in a can.

If you have dry beans, always store in a cool dry place.

The great thing about beans, I don't know whether you know that it's a great source of complex carbohydrate, and protein, and a great source of dietary fiber.

So it reduces the risk of some cancers.

And also, beans is also very good because it's low in fat, no cholesterol, and very low in sodium.

When you buy beans, you know what you should do, when you buy beans, you should look for firm uniform size with a uniform color, whole beans.

The great thing about beans also is, sorry, I should have tossed it with this, instead of five pair of chopsticks, one pair of chopsticks and go like that.

You see how functional this chopstick is.

Marvelous.

If you run out of time, you can do it like this.

A lot of freedom of choice.

Because of the mild flavor of beans, a great thing about it, it goes well with all kinds of dressing, all kinds of flavor.

That's why, if I were you, I would be like you, you will be like me.

Have more beans, it's good for you.

Toss it in nice.

And another thing that I want to show you is to cut up, a tiny bit of these yardlong beans.

Okay?

And we'll set this aside.

We'll push it away because we don't want this anymore.

We don't need this.

And we are going to show you how e.. and we're going to tie this into a knot.

You go one.

If you have time, you'll tie it very nice.

And otherwise you just cut it up li.. You can saute them.

You can do a lot of things with this yardlo.. mix it in, and give some extra color, okay?

Otherwise, if you have time, you can tie it up like this.

Look at that.

I go like that, one to the right, one.. to the right, one to the left.

And you just go like that.

Look at that.

Use as a garnish to, look at this.

And then when it's done, you scoop the bean out.

Now everybody should know that when you have beans, this, a lot of people always concern, hey, when I have beans, I tend to walk faster.

No problem.

Nowadays, in the store, I used to walk so fast.

I can not believe it myself, but no problem.

You know why?

Because, nowadays, you can buy what they call an enzyme to break down the complex carbohydrates.

So you don't have to build up all the gas.

Now, this is a dressing very unique.

I call it the fermented soy bean curd dressing, like this.

Look at that.

Fermented tofu.

And I have some white pepper, ginger, sesame seed oil, rice vinegar, kind of a walnut oil, soy sauce, mix them all up, have this dressing.

And I sprinkle this in, this is a five bean salad.

Beautiful.

You know that, to create a solid se.. you just have to toss your salad preconception right out the window, start with a salad, you know, and wake it up with a new surprising ingredient, get fresh, stay light.

And may your salad days never end.

Until next time, remember if Yan Can Cook, so can you!

“Goodbye!” (##!)

(applause)