Beef with broccoli is usually the worst offering at a Chinese buffet—who wants a dish laden with bland, overcooked florets of Western broccoli? Our version of the dish replaces them with Chinese broccoli, which has a more complex, mildly bitter flavor. Once you've got that ingredient, the rest of the dish is simple—just shallots, garlic, marinated beef, and an oyster sauce–based sauce.

Chinkiang vinegar is a black vinegar that can be found in most Chinese grocers or online. When shopping for chili oil, look for a brand that contains chile sediment in the bottle, such as the Chiu Chow Chili Oil from Lee Kum Kee, or make your own. Fermented chili broad bean paste can be found in most Chinese grocers or online. Either preserved Sichuan mustard root (zhacai) or stems (yacai) can be used for this recipe. They are available in many Asian grocers in either bulk sections or canned, or online. Shaoxing wine can be found in most supermarkets. If unavailable, use dry sherry in its place.

Once grilled, hearts of palm take on a deeply nutty, sweet flavor that's almost like charred corn; marinate them beforehand and you add an herbaceous flavor note to the filling. Alongside a crunchy, spicy cabbage slaw and salsa verde , this is a dish that will satisfy whenever the taco craving strikes.

Chow mein is another Chinese-American standard that's so easy to make at home and customize to your liking, you may never feel the need to order it again. For this DIY version, we quickly cook vegetables (chives, julienned carrots and scallions, bean sprouts) and tofu in a wok, then combine them with long, slender chow mein noodles and a soy-based sauce. Add extra vegetables, more tofu, or meat to turn it into a heartier meal.

Fried-things-in-sandwiches has been a recurring theme throughout Vegan Month, and noodle Game walkthrough|Https://noodleinsight.Com/ for good reason; they're delicious! Here is sandwich #3: tempura-battered oyster mushrooms with simmered daikon root. The two play off each other to make a crunchy, savory, chewy filling, and are perfectly complemented by a miso-agave mayonnaise .

The prototypical street food, dan dan noodles are an ultra-simple dish of cold or warm noodles placed in a bowl with a ladleful of highly seasoned sauce poured on top. Flavored with minced pork, preserved pickled mustard, black vinegar, fermented broad beans, garlic, and plenty of chili oil, the dish is eaten by swirling the slick noodles through the oily sauce, picking up bits of meat and pickles as they go.

Phat ka-phrao, a beef stir-fry flavored with garlic, shallots, fish sauce, and Thai bird chiles, can be found across Thailand. Re-creating the dish at home is tough because the ingredient that gives the dish its name—holy basil, or ka-phrao in Thai—is nearly impossible to get in the States. Fortunately, you can make something equally delicious with easier-to-find purple basil.

You have to do ribs on the grill at least once in the summer, and if you're looking for something beyond your basic bottled barbecue sauce, you've come to the right place. Here, apricot preserves give the sauce a sweet, fruity flavor, and chipotle chiles add a contrasting earthy, spicy flavor to the sauce that tastes just as good when licked off your fingers as it does on the ribs.

Especially if you're not blessed with a really good Chinese-American restaurant close by, having the recipes to make your own sesame chicken or crab rangoons can open up a whole world of fun dinner options to scratch that very specific itch. Here are our DIY takes on 10 staples of Chinese takeout, including General Tso's and kung pao chicken, scallion pancakes, vegetable chow mein, and more.

Patacones are the Colombian equivalent of Caribbean tostones —double-fried green plantains. Just like cooking a french fry, you start with a starchy chunk of green plantain, cook it once at a low temperature, then cook it a second time at a higher temperature to crisp it up. The difference is that with patacones, you smash them into a flat disk in between. This shape makes them ideal for loading up with toppings. This version calls for black beans (canned are fine), roasted poblano peppers, slices of creamy avocado, and a few pickled red onions.

This recipe applies a Chinese technique to two decidedly Western ingredients, kale and frisée, with surprisingly good results. We cook them like any other hearty greens—adding the stems to a hot wok, followed by the leaves. There's no need for blanching, which makes this recipe super quick and leaves you with one fewer pot to clean.

Anyone who's spent a significant amount of time in or around New York City should be intimately familiar with scallion pancakes, the flaky, savory disks studded with chopped scallions and fried. We use a laminated dough here (much as you would if making puff pastry) to create layer upon layer of very thin sheets of flavorful pastry. Frying them in oil is traditional; for a puffier, crispier experience, try cooking them on the grill .