We're just a week away from the year of the Tiger, so on today's Chinese Kitchen we're making tiger skin peppers. The dish uses large, mild green chili peppers, and gets its name from the blistering pepper skin which occurs after deep frying. Thomas Rippe takes us into the kitchen with Chef Zhang and Candice Lee to show us how it's done.
Black Sesame Kitchen (http://www.blacksesamekitchen.com/) developed out of founder Jen Lin-Liu's passion for Chinese food, starting with her own adventures in a local cooking school in 2005. After becoming a nationally certified Chinese chef, interning in several restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai, and writing a book entitled Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China, she began holding cooking classes in friends' homes along with the seasoned chefs she met during her cooking experiences. To expand her reach, she found a cozy space in a courtyard residence in central Beijing in the spring of 2008 and renovated it into an open kitchen and dining room, where she invites you to cook, socialize, dine, and wine.
Chef Zhang and Candice Lee [Photo: cribeyondbeijing.com]
Chef Zhang has run his own noodle shop and previously worked at Yushan, a Chinese banquet restaurant in Beijing. Though noodles are a specialty of Chef Zhang's, he has a broad knowledge of Chinese cooking techniques ranging from Sichuanese to Imperial Beijing cuisine. He is from Shanxi province.
Candice Lee grew up in Massachusetts and attended university at Fordham University. Despite not attending school for culinary arts, she has been eating and cooking her way through China these past three years. She has been working at Black Sesame Kitchen for 1 year and has, without too many cuts and bruises, survived attending and teaching cooking classes. Her passion for culture and food has culminated the longer she has spent in China. She makes a delicious spiced banana ice cream and enjoys her long bike rides to work. |
