The cultural revolution has come to East Hampton. There was a time, in very recent memory, when Chinese cookery involving ingredients more sophisticated than scallions, celery, and soy sauce required a trip to Mott Street. Now, the shopping expedition may be only a few miles down the Montauk.
Crops have been planted from exotic seeds and the harvest is beginning. Snow pea pods, Chinese cabbage, fresh ginger, coriander, chard, and daikon (giant white radishes) are some of the items which will be displayed at the Green Thumb and the Farmer’s Market.
There is also a good selection at the Amagansett IGA where, for several seasons, a consistent effort has been made to stock an assortment of fresh Chinese vegetables. As long as the yield is good, prices will be reasonable.
Grow Your Own
The beans are sprouting, too. A lady in Amagansett is the supplier for some of the supermarkets, farm stands and groceries which carry them. Second Nature in East Hampton will sell you a gadget called “Bio-Snacky” for making your own bean sprouts. They also have the various beans.
Another do-it-yourself item is a set of six little peat-moss starters for growing Chinese vegetables. After one week, they are ready to be transplanted out of doors. The Complacent Cook in Bridgehampton has them for $2 a set. White radish, Chinese cabbage, bok choy, Chinese parsley, snow peas, and long beans can flourish next to the lettuce and tomatoes.
The other Chinese ingredients are canned or dried and there is an impressive inventory in East Hampton. Tree ears (a fungus), black mushrooms, dried shrimp, cellophane noodles, hoisin sauce, five spice powder, Szechuan pepper, rice vinegar, and yellow bean sauce are now available at the Complacent Cook and Newtown Grocery, to supplement the inevitable soy sauce, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and rice. The proper utensils, woks and cleavers and all those wonderful wooden and bamboo implements, which can be purchased at the Farmer’s Market, Complacent Cook, and Bailey-Huebner, may make the ingredients more willing to release their splendors.
The following superb recipes are from the wok of Karen Lee, who is conducting a course in Chinese cooking in East Hampton. The chicken makes demands on the Chinese cupboard; the zucchini does not.
Chicken With Hoisin Sauce and Nuts
2 whole chicken breasts, skinned and boned
1 Tbsp. dry sherry
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 egg white
1/4 cup raw cashew nuts
4 Tbsp. plus 1/4 tsp. peanut oil
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup Chinese dried mushrooms
1 Tbsp. dried tree ears
1/4 cup green pepper, diced
1/2 cup water chestnuts
1/4 cup bamboo shoots
1 tsp. sugar
3 1/2 Tbsp. hoisin sauce
Cut chicken breasts into large dice, mix with sherry, cornstarch and egg white, and refrigerate at least half hour. Toss raw nuts with half teaspoon oil and quarter teaspoon salt and roast in a 325 degree oven about 15 minutes, until golden brown (you will have to turn them once). Set nuts aside and allow to cool. Cover mushrooms and tree ears with warm water to soften. Cut them into wedges.
Stir-fry mushrooms, in one tablespoon oil in a wok or skillet for one minute. Add tree ears, green peppers, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots. Mix and add quarter teaspoon salt. Stir and remove from wok. Add remaining oil to wok, stir-fry chicken until all pieces are opaque, about two minutes. Add sugar and hoisin sauce and mix well. Return mushroom mixture to wok, stir a few times, sprinkle with cashew nuts and serve.
Serves two to four, depending on what else is served.
Stir-Fried Zucchini With Carrots
2 cups carrots (about 4 carrots)
4 cups zucchini (about 4 medium zucchini)
2 scallions
2 Tbsp. peanut oil
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. chicken stock or water
Peel and thinly slice carrots on a slant and blanch in boiling water about 60 seconds. Slice zucchini and chop scallions. Heat oil on wok or skillet. Add scallions, then zucchini slices. Mix until vegetables are coat ed with oil. Add salt and sugar and stir-fry about two minutes. Add stock and carrots. Mix and cook an other minute. Serve at once.
Serves four to six.
