We've had some excellent dinners from this book. The standout recipe so far is a very simple one: you cook greens (e.g. gai lan or choy sum) briefly in salted water with a little oil, so that they are still somewhat crisp. You drain and shake them dry, then put them in your serving bowl. You top them with finely chopped ginger and spring onions. Then you heat up a few tablespoons of oil until they are really hot, and pour the oil over the veggies. Then you add a mixture of half soy sauce and half hot water. Done!
Here you see: (clockwise from top left) Chinese chive (chickpea) omelet; spicy firm tofu with garlic stems; spinach with chilli and fermented tofu; smacked cucumber in garlicky sauce. The second picture shows vegetarian 'gong pao chicken' (though I used tofu rather than mushrooms); the simple greens recipe mentioned above; green beans with black bean and chilli; vegetarian clay bowl 'chicken'. The last picture is ma po dou fu (vegetarian version), but with the tofu crumbled rather than cubed.
The only bad thing I can say about this cookbook is that it has the worst index I have ever seen. Like, I think you would actually have to go out of your way to make an index this bad.
