An
Westernized Chinese dish. In the 1940's (in
Australia where I was it was a little bit later, more 1960's, thanks
sensei for the date) 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 look as if it was really
Chinese food. Here is how you make it:
Ingredients:
Pre-cooking:
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.