Chop Suey
An Westernized Chinese dish. In the 1940's when Chinese cooking first entered mainstream America, chop suey was introduced as an easy-to-make dish that uses Western ingredients. However, this is not representative of Chinese cuisine, it was more an attempt by the Chinese cooks to create a dish that would not upset the Western stomachs, and yet uses Chinese seasonings and cooking style (stir fry) and cook as if it was really Chinese food. Here is how you make it:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tbs olive oil
1/2 chopped onion
2 celery sticks
1/2 lb beef, chicken or pork
1 lb soya beans
3 tbs corn starch
Pre-cooking:
Chop the onion and celery
Cut the meat into bite size chunks
Mix the 1/2 cup soy sauce with 2 1/2 cups of water and
the corn starch
Cooking:
Set tall frying pan in mid-high heat
Add the olive oil to frying pan
Fry the chopped onion, celery and meat for 1 minute,
continuously stirring
Add the soya beans, continuously stirring for 3
minutes so that all vegetables are fried
Stir the soya/water/corn starch mix and add to the
frying pan
Once boiling, continue stirring for a few minutes
until all vegetables appear darker and the meat is
fully cooked
It's a quick dish, and was Chinese enough to serve in
the past. Now, with more specialized Chinese
restaurants appearing all over the country (Northern,
Sichuan, Cantonese, etc.), chop suey is a lot more
rare than it used to be.