(joyful music) (chopping) (whooshing) (audience clapping) - [Narrator] And now, Martin Yan, the Chinese chef.

- (in foreign language), that means, "How are you?"

in Cantonese.

Today's Chinese adventure takes us to the city of Shanghai, a city of 11 million people.

In fact, one of the most populated place in the world.

Oops, now it's 11 and one, because every five seconds, there's a newborn baby.

Today, we're gonna show you some of Shanghai's favorite dishes.

Braised pork-filled cucumbers, drunken chicken, and eight treasure rice pudding.

The first dish is a very wonderful appetizer, or you can serve it as a main dish called braised pork-filled cucumber.

You can pork fill, you can beef fill, you can shrimp fill, you can chicken fill.

Nobody cares.

(audience laughing) Now, all you really need in this particular recipe is you will need about 2/3 of a pound of pork.

I used pork shoulder, or you can use ground pork, but normally ground pork is a little bit too fat.

And then you use one cucumber cut into one inch rounds.

And then also have some corn starch and also some braising sauce, which has 1/3 of a cup of broth.

And a tiny bowl, about two tablespoon soy sauce, and about two tablespoon of sherry, and one teaspoon of sugar.

And here, I also have some marinade for the pork filling of this cucumber.

Now the first thing I wanna show you how to do is first you cut this up.

(clanging) (audience laughing) I gotta psych myself up.

(audience clapping) Thank you so much.

It makes me feel good.

See, when you start cooking in the kitchen, you never have such thing, so that's the reason why I gotta cook in front of everybody.

(audience laughing) Now here, you cut everything into one i.. about one inch.

Measure it precisely, I always do.

(audience laughing) Exactly one inch.

See, precision is very important in Chinese cooking.

You can use this kind of cucumber.

This is what you call short cucumber.

This is what you call long cucumber.

This is what you call non-cucumber.

Chinese-style bitter melon, you can use this, too.

And if you don't want, you can also use fuzzy melon.

This darn thing need a little shave.

(audience laughing) I will show you how to do this one of those days, but today, because everybody can find cucumber, but some of you cannot find fuzzy melon or bitter melon.

That's the reason why we do cucumber.

Now, all you're doing is take this off.

You can use a little scoop.

You see, the melon baller.

How many of you in the audience have a little melon baller at home?

See?

17 out of two million.

(audience laughing) You take this little thing off, trim this off.

Set this aside, and then after that, you want to make the dish looks really nice.

You cut it like this.

Hold onto it like this, and you use your gig.. You go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Depends on how much time you have.

If you have a lot of time, you do this.

It takes about two weeks to this dish.

(audience laughing) If you don't have time, no big deal.

You just, see?

You go like this.

Of course, you can use the little paring knife to do it, but I normally like to use a gigantic knife because I love the challenge.

Because when you make one little mistake, you say, "Bye-bye."

(audience laughing) Now, when you cut it up like this, the dish looks much nicer than when you cut it up like this.

You serve these to those people that you don't really care as much, and you serve these to people that you really care, okay?

Now after you cut this up, I'm gonna show you, we are going to marinate the pork.

Now first, you cannot marinate the pork if you don't cut the pork, so we will have a little piece cut up.

One, two, three, four, five.

I wanna show you how to mince this the old-fashioned Chinese way.

You chop it up like this.

(chopping) Minced pork the Chinese way with these Chinese food processor.

(chopping) (audience laughing) (audience clapping) Believe it or not, it's all done.

Then you put 'em all here.

Now, I wanna show you, this is very easy to do.

After that, we are going to marinate this with our seasoning.

And then, after you marinate, you are going to fill this in the meantime.

We are going to heat up the wok with some oil right here.

This is already heat up.

Let us heat this up.

Oh, this is heat up.

Hot oil heat up.

And also here, I have a frying pan because after I slightly deep-fry this, I am going to braise it right here, see?

To fill this up is very easy.

Put it right here, fill this up.

Now make sure you put your hand down here, so you don't push nothing out from the other side.

This is ridiculous.

Look at this.

Make sure you put it like this.

Fill it up, fill it up, set it aside.

Fill it up, set it aside, okay?

Fill it up, very simple dish to do, okay?

When it's done, we're gonna lightly deep-fry this to just seal in the juice, okay?

Put it in, don't drop the whole thing in.

Slowly slide it down like this, like a wheel.

This way, you don't splash all over the place.

Otherwise, you might end up having instant pimples.

(audience laughing) Stir, stir, very good, stir.

Just to seal in the juice.

Don't want to overcook them.

Nice and golden, seal in the juice.

Let us set aside right here, let us set aside.

In the meantime, we're gonna heat up these and let it braise.

We'll put this cucumber on ... (audience laughing) Never do this at home.

Now if it comes out, no big deal, put it back.

(audience laughing) Just three, and I also I have a couple here that I make ahead of time.

We're gonna heat this up and let it braise in this nice braising sauce.

Let's put it right here.

Let it braise over medium-high heat, okay?

When it's done, they are cook, they are delicious.

They are absolutely wonderful.

You heard of the old expression called, "Cool as a cucumber."

When this darn thing is hot, there will be a new expression.

"Hot as a cucumber."

(audience laughing) I understand that Arthur over there, right there, have a interesting question for us.

- Yes, Martin, I was interested if you could discuss the different kinds of soy sauces available on the market?

- Well, there are different types of soy sauce in a market.

See there are sometimes, particularly in Cantonese cooking, they have light, they have dark.

But normally, in North America, the best way to get is the naturally fermented all-purpose soy sauce because this way you don't have to worry about light and dark and all kind.

See, the light color soy sauce is normally lighter in color.

A little bit saltier.

Normally used for marinade.

The dark color soy sauce is normally caramel molasses.

That's why soy sauce is so dark and have that burned flavor.

Some restaurant, they make fried rice.

They'll add dark soy sauce and make the fried rice so dark, you can't see anything.

And sometimes when you do rich sauces for braising, for stewing, you also use the light, a tiny bit of dark soy sauce.

One of the problem, most of the soy sauce that are avai.. a lot of them are from the far east that have salt content up to 23 to 25%.

That means they are too salty for a lot of us.

But most of the all-purpose soy sauce in the supermarket are approximately 15.8 to 15.9% salt content.

In fact, you can even buy some of the reduced sodium which is only 7.9%.

For those sodium-conscious, diet-conscious people, you can get those reduced sodium soy sauces.

I hope I have answered your question.

Now, the next dish I'm gonna do is a very famous dish from Shanghai called drunken chicken.

This is part of a nice menu.

Start with this chicken.

This little chicken is approximately two and 3/4 pound.

It looks like it had just a heaped of sauced.

(audience laughing) And also, I have approximately half a bowl, altogether about one cup of this marinade, in which I have one cup of dry sherry.

You can use (in foreign language) wine.

And I also have about 1/3 of a cup of broth, and about three tablespoon of soy sauce, and also one teaspoon of minced ginger.

It's very easy to do the minced ginger.

Simply put it right here and julienne this, or you can simply say, "What the heck?"

(audience laughing) (chopping) Look it, look.

(audience clapping) Magic hand.

(audience laughing) Now, when this is done, we're gonna put the chicken right over here and marinate this right here.

Now you normally should marinate this for at least overnight, so make sure that hit the sauce long enough, otherwise you don't call it drunk chicken.

Otherwise you call half-drunk rather than drunk.

And then after you marinate it for approximately overnight, anywhere from overnight, I always joke with people.

Anywhere from overnight to two and a half months.

And then, we are going to let it cook after marinate.

We'll let it cook, let it simmer for about 40 minutes to an hour.

All depends on how much heat you want to do.

The wonderful thing about using a cooking utensil like this is you can tell what is happening.

You can see through, just like watching television.

Except this is a first run, it's not a rerun.

Pat over there have a question for us.

- Yes, thank you, Martin.

I'd like to know what the origin of thi.. and what was it served for?

What type of banquet?

- Normally, this can be served as appetizer in a nice family-style meal, but it also can be served in banquets, in formal dinner.

And basically, this can be part of the meal, or it can be the appetizer.

You can serve with a snack, or just in case you get hungry, because all of these can be served either at room temperature or cold.

See, in fact, I have a couple of these already drunk in my fridge.

(audience laughing) When I'm ready, I'm gonna go over there and pick it up because we have 300 people over here and two chicken is not enough.

So we have half a dozen chicken back there.

Now here, this one I have steamed for you.

I'm gonna take it out.

When I say steamed because I use very slow cooking in water, so after it's done, I'm gonna take it out.

I wanna show you how easy it is to cut this up.

Then I'm going to put it in this plate.

Now, first I cut this up first, set it aside.

Then I cut this up and I set it aside, see?

And then, I cut this up.

Now, I'm not quite sure how many of you know in Chinese cooking, a lot of times when they cook chicken, they don't want to overcook it so you can still see a little trace of little red dot because they believe this way the chicken is wonderful.

It's not overcooked.

Take the wing out so it does not bother you, because you can put the whole chicken back together again.

(audience laughing) Now, this is kind of embarrassing, to talk to the chicken, so I say, "Goodbye."

(audience laughing) Nobody see anything.

So the chicken won't get upset.

Now, I wanna show you how easy it is to cut it up.

Traditionally, this dish is done by hand shredded chicken, that means you actually have to shred it like this.

(audience laughing) It takes seven hours to do one chicken.

But when you do it like this, you can actually do it like this, show you.

(chopping) Put them all together.

(shouts lightly) Altogether and you just lay them all in here, and then after that, you are going to soak it into a wine sauce, you see?

Now there's an other way of doing it.

One is you cook it with the marinated chicken, okay?

One is you cook the chicken, and then you use the marinade sauce.

I have a bowl of marinade sauce right there.

After this, you put this into a marinade.

This is what you call double-drunk chicken.

You can one drunk or you can have two drunk.

Now I'm not quite sure how many of you know why did the chicken cross the road?

Because the police asked for breath test.

(audience laughing) Now I'm gonna go over to the fridge and get the one the that I have already done, okay?

Look at this one that I have already done.

Look at this.

(audience clapping) To make it look a little bit nice, I slightly garnish this like this.

I slightly garnish this like this.

And I also use a little cucumber fan, look at this.

Wow, look at it.

Because chicken has to have a feather, so I put it, looks like this.

Look at how gorgeous it look, see?

Bi, you have a question over there.

- Yes, hiya, Martin.

Do you ever use MSG in your cooking?

- I would like to answer that question after I finish this because this is very important, because I wanna show everybody some basic ingredient in Chinese cooking.

This is my shopping list, look.

(audience laughing) If you can't read this, you got a problem.

Now, actually, if you really wanted to get going in Chinese basic Chinese dishes, Chinese cooking, all you really need is a few things.

Fresh ginger root.

A few cloves of garlic, of course, I love garlic.

Basic all-purpose soy sauce.

Sesame seed oil.

(in foreign language) wine or dry sherry.

White pepper, or regular black pepper.

Of course, corn starch.

Oyster flavor sauce.

Rice vinegar, and also, five spice powder.

Most of these can be kept for long time.

Of course, to answer Bi's question about MSG.

I normally, when I go to Chinese restaurant, I say, "(in foreign language)," means, "Good-bye."

(shattering) (audience laughing) (audience clapping) The next dish I'm gonna show you how to do is very simple.

It's called eight treasure rice pudding.

Many years ago, it used to be called 10 treasures.

Somebody broke into this darn chest and took off two treasure, so I can only do eight treasure.

Let's go through these.

You start with glutenous rice.

About one cup to two cups, depends on how big you wanna make the rice pudding.

One to two cups of glutenous rice.

Two cups of water, you let it soak.

And then, all the preserved vegetables and fruits.

I have plum, or you can use prune, raisins, almond, pecan nuts.

You can use almond or you can use cashew.

And also have one little red cherry.

And of course, I have a pineapple ring.

And also, I have syrup.

This syrup is made of water, about 3/4 of a cup of water, 1/3 of a cup of honey, and approximately four teaspoon of orange liqueur, if you love it.

For those who cannot take alcohol, don't bot.. And also two tablespoon of corn starch and one tablespoon of water.

Now, when it's done, everything is there.

I wanna show you how easily to put this whole thing together.

First, after you soak the rice, you have to cook the rice.

Normally it takes about 25 minutes to cook, okay?

Cook the rice, their nice and sticky.

And then, I'm gonna use a tiny bit of these sugar.

This you have to melt the sugar in a tiny bit of ... Look at this, a tiny bit of sugar and honey.

Put them all together, put it right here.

Mix it in so it is nice and sweet.

Toss it in, toss it in.

Of course, when I do it at home in front of myself, I use five chopsticks to do it, much more efficient.

But you are wonderful people here, and I wanna show you how you can do it, and it takes three times as long.

Now when this is done, this is how you should do it.

First, you put a pineapple ring right in the middle.

One of these red cherry, and then almond.

Stack up like this, one, two, three, four, five, six.

Anywhere from six to eight.

Then you put some raisin around.

Raisin in between, okay.

And then after you do this, you fill it up with rice, with the cooked rice.

You should do it ahead of time because you can keep it in the fridge.

Now all you have to do is re-steam it right before you serve this, wonderful menu.

Put it in, squeeze it, put the rice.

And after you do that, and then fill it up, and then you put plums or prunes or peach, nobody cares.

The whole idea is making it symmetrical.

Put it like this, and then.

And then, you fill it up again, you see?

You do it by layer.

Some Chinese restaurant also use sweet bean paste to put it right in the middle, okay?

You just fill it up, you just fill it up like this.

And after you do that, they look wonderful like this, see?

And then, you steam this over here.

I'm gonna walk over here and I'm gonna steam it.

Wow, lot of steam.

Now I wanted to mention a little bit about the significance of the word number eight.

Eight means wealth, okay?

It means prosperous, fat, butt-fat.

That's the reason why some of the people in the far east, and their license plates say 8888, means, "Prosperous."

Now one of the most important trick that I want to remind you is before you pack this in, make sure you grease this with approximately one to two tablespoon of shortening or oil, so when you invert it out, the darn thing comes out.

If it doesn't come out, you are gonna have a heck of a problem.

Let me show you, you hold onto this and you go- (shouts lightly) Come, come.

(tapping) Wow.

(audience clapping) Look at this.

I have been practicing this for the past three days.

(audience laughing) Wow, final touch.

Isn't that beautiful?

See, I tell you, I have 12 of these here because I've been practicing, because sometimes it come out eight treasure.

Sometime it come out six treasure.

(audience laughing) But remember, the wonderful thing about this dish is when it's done, you can keep it in the fridge.

That means you can prepare many of these ahead of time.

When you're ready, you take it to the steamer and you cook it up and you steam it, and when you are ready, and you put this sauce on top.

Now, this sauce I have water, honey and everything.

Also, leftover pineapple juice already cooked.

We'll put it, use a spoon and scoop it in and sprinkle on top this, absolutely delicious.

Wow, look at this.

Look at this, because the rice is already slightly sweet, and then you serve with this sauce, this is a perfect compliment to a wonderful Shanghai menu.

Now, to conclude the menu, to make it just in case you have one extra guest.

What are you gonna do?

No big deal.

You make pineapple fried rice.

How many of you like fried rice?

See, I like it myself.

(audience clapping) See, basically, you stir-fry the fried rice.

The most important thing is use long grain rice.

Now I'm not quite sure how many of you know the difference between long grain and glutenous rice.

This is long grain rice.

Wonderful to cook this for fried rice.

And this is glutenous rice.

A little bit wider, stickier.

It is time to say goodbye again today.

Remember, if Yan can cook, so can you.

“Goodbye!” ( ##! )

(audience clapping) (joyful music)