Table Of ContentChina
MOON
COOKBOOK
enO A
nm
C O O K B O OK
DT DAfraA Tnorr
Assisted by Arminda Ajprer Schrell
Desert and Bread Recipes by Amy Ho
Illustrations by Sandra Bruce
WORKMAN PUBLISHING • NEW YORK
iv
Copyright © 1992 by Barbara Tropp
Mandarin Breadtwists, Basic Bun Dought, Sesame-
Encrusted Flatbreads, Pan-Fried Scallion-Chive
Breads, and all cookies and tarts copyright © 1992
by Amy Ho
Illustrations copyright © 1992 by Sandra Bruce
Dragon Head image copyright © 1988 by Larry Yung
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced—mechanically, electronically, or by any
other means, including photocopying—without
written permission of the publisher. Published
simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son
Limited.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data
Tropp, Barbara.
China moon cookbook I by Barbara Tropp.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-56305-315-2 : -ISBN 0-89480-754-4
(pbk.)
1. Cookery, Chinese. 2. Cookery, American.
I. Title.
TX724.5.C5T684 1992
641.5951-dc20 92-50283
CIP
Cover and book design: Lisa Hollander CATALOGUE-
Cover photographs by John Vaughan LOVERS ALERT!
Workman books are available at special discounts
when purchased in bulk for premiums and sales
promotions as well as for fund-raising or
We're busy putting together a
educational use. Special editions or book excerpts
fabulous mail-order source
can also be created to specification. For details,
contact the Special Sales Director at the address book for top-quality Chinese
below. cooking ingredients and
tools. To be included on our
Workman Publishing Company, Inc. mailing list, send your name
708 Broadway and address to China Moon
New York, NY 10003 Catalogue, do China Moon
Cafe, 639 Post Street, San
Manufactured in the United States of America
Francisco, CA 94109.
First printing October 1992
10987
v
To the China Moon Staff
for their loyalty and excellence
and to B.R.
who filLt my heart with joy
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The chef gets all the glory, that is the essence of restaurant life.
but it is the staff—the cooks, Barbara Haimes, our opening sous-
dishwashers, waiters, prep chef, set our standards and devised
people, hosts, and managers—who many of our favorite dishes. She
give a restaurant its renown. To the trained me to run a restaurant, and a
fine staff who have given a slice of better teacher and friend could not be
their lives to China Moon Cafe, my • had. Rachel Gardner, Camille
first thanks go to you. Convy, Mindy Schreil, Andre Fec-
I owe a particular debt to my teau, Katy Ross, Nance Tourigny,
lineage of sous-chefs. These are and Betsy Davidson have each
the senior cooks who do daily •—* followed in her path, enriching
battle against the forces of res- | our cooking and my knowledge
taurant mayhem—receiving [both. To these special cooks,
produce, overseeing the kitchen my special thanks.
staff, tasting their way x^ For me, writing a cookbook
through everything, and ,C is a good deal easier than run-
somehow doing it all \\ - ning a restaurant. How-
with streaks of brilliance \\ ever, I could not have
in spite of plumbing back- - \ j one it these past
ups and people freak- r^/ three years without
outs—the untimely chaos extraordinary help.
VI
Mindy Schreil, our finest sous-chef thousand starving booksellers at
as well as my twin palate and right their annual convention. Peter Work-
hand in teaching, tested the recipes man heads a wonderful family, and
through two pregnancies and gave I'm lucky to be in the wings.
birth without missing a beat. Andre Life is hard when you're a single
Fecteau, our most gifted natural parent and your child is a restaurant.
cook, took over when Mindy was too Fortunately, I have great friends. If
big to fit behind the stoves. Barbie not for them, cheering loudly on the
Debarros, our effervescent floor man- sidelines, I would have long ago fled
ager, and Mr. Luong, our impeccable the Moon and gone home to polish
senior scrubber, kept the business go- my toenails. Among the best friends
ing gracefully while their boss was one could have are Ellen Brown,
going bonkers. Amy Ho, China Denise Fiedler, Rosemary Manell,
Moon's superlative pastry chef since Margaret Fox, Maggie Mah, Suzy
Day One, committed to paper many Davidson, Barbara Kafka, Susan
of her recipes for desserts and Herrmann Loomis, and Jan Weimer.
doughs. Such is my delight in what Hooray for my buddies!
Amy brings to China Moon Cafe and My last and sweetest thanks to
its cookbook that I can't imagine ei- Bart, my new husband. (I never had
ther of them without her. an old one; it just took many years to
Writing a book can be a joy or a find him.) Life without your love
horror. Thanks to Workman Publish- would be like food without flavor. Je
ing, it was a joy. Suzanne Rafer, my t'adore.
editor, is the best. Every cookbook
author should be so lucky. Lisa Hol-
lander, the designer, and Lori Malkin,
her assistant, made the book fun and
beautiful. Andrea Glickson got it all
off to a sweet, cool start, figuring out
how to dish up ginger ice cream to a
vii
CONTENTS
FIRST THOUGHTS STOCKS AND
SOUPS
PAGE ix
PAGE 68
The secrets be-
THE
hind our
CHIN A MOON PANTRY
sauces, plus
bowls of good-
and-plenty, to eat
PAGE 2
with other dishes or
The better-than-store-
as a whole meal.
bought basics that
make China Moon
food distinctive. POULTRY
PAGE 110
Baby chickens, big chickens, duck,
NUTS, PICKLES
quail, and rabbit—for baking, smoking,
AND
steaming, deep-frying, and casseroling.
PRELIMINARY NIBBLES
FISH AND SHELLFISH
PAGE 40
Dishes of color
PAGE 180
and dash that
stave off hunger
Whole fish, fish
and enliven
nuggets, and shell-
main courses.
fish from sea and
river. Hot and cold
dishes to show off their flavor.
v i i i
BEEF AND LAMB RICE
AND
VEGETABLES
PAGE 250
Dishes from Mon-
PAGE 406
golia and North
China to warm Rice, potatoes, vegetables, and sal-
you in winter. ads to anchor and embellish a meal.
DESSERTS
PAGE 446
Tiny cookies of good for-
tune, fabulous tarts and
tartlets, and inimitable ice
PORK creams.
PAGE 290
GLOSSARY
The classic Chinese red meat, as sa-
vory as it is light. Loins, butts, and
ribs cooked to perfection. PAGE 501
DIM-SUM AND
INDEX
THEN SOME
PAGE 509
PAGE 330
Dumplings, buns, and
other teahouse fare, along with
platters of cold noodles and
crispy springrolls.
ix
FIRST THOUGHTS
This book is a private cooking nese cooking, but my passions are
school. Its curriculum is the the alchemy of food and flavor, and
world of traditional Chinese the way we nurture ourselves. The
flavors combined with exclusively food I cook is colorful, light, and
fresh ingredients, a corner of the wildly flavorful, and while tradition-
good-cooking universe I call ally Chinese at the root, it is contem-
California-Chinese cuisine. This is a porary at the branches.
world where cans and bottles are Here, then, are the recipes.
banished in favor of fresh foods, and Though China Moon in origin,
the tyranny of MSG and cornstarch they've all been tested in a home
holds no sway. It is the world of a kitchen to ensure that they will work
traditional, albeit slightly eccentric for a home cook. I've included every
Chinese home cook, who shops a ingredient and every single worth-
daily market with intelligence and while technique. You may need some
passion, and who would sooner use gutsiness in the face of the seemingly
a fresh American ingredient than a exotic in addition to a good market to
canned one from China. speed you on your way, but every-
This book is also the culinary re- thing else is here—including the con-
cord of a small restaurant called fidence of a teacher who says, "Just
China Moon Cafe, which I opened in cook it. You'll love it!"
1986 in downtown San Francisco, in a
1930s art deco coffee shop. The set- REALITY CHECK
ting was small and my goal was
equally modest: I wanted to intro-
duce fresh Chinese home-style cook- This is an odd moment
ing to a city that adored good food. in American history to be
My eyes on fire with missionary zeal, writing such a cookbook. The
waving fresh water chestnuts in each Fear of Food is upon us with a
fist, I found myself with a roaring vengeance. If we're not eat-
restaurant beast and no cage in which ing in order to lose weight,
to put it. China Moon consumed me, we're eating in hopes of
and somehow in the process, I be- fending off fatal disease. Su-
came a professional chef. permarket real estate is
What I am, at heart, however, is a clogged with aisles of
cooking teacher. My subject is Chi- frozen dinners, and
