Chinese

Juicy tomatoes mingle with softly scrambled eggs in a saucy dish that's delicious over rice.

This stir-fry is staggeringly simple. A drizzle of sesame oil gives a nutty-toasty boost to thinly sliced bok choy and cabbage.

Editor's note:
The recipe and introductory text below are excerpted from Grace Young's book The Breath of a Wok. Young also shared some helpful cooking tips exclusively with Epicurious, which we've added at the bottom of the page. A high-quality curry is key to this recipe's success. I prefer curry paste, which I think has greater depth of flavor than curry powder. Be sure to stir the coconut milk in the can; the cream always floats to the top.

Beef with broccoli, the popular Chinese restaurant dish, is even better with the addition of sweet yam.

This quick preparation really showcases the gentle flavor of oyster mushrooms. The mild dish, brightened with a small amount of cider vinegar, helps balance the forceful spices of the rest of the meal.

Ji Geung Lo Mein Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted from My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen: 100 Family Recipes and Life Lessons, by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. At the New Year, noodles represent longevity. Because of this they were never cut when preparing them, and to serve them was to wish those who ate them a long life. In Sah Gau there were many varieties and shapes of noodles, and for vegetarians there were noodles made without eggs. These are what were served to the nuns, along with that special food that came usually with the onset of the New Year, young ginger, more subtle, less hot than the customary kind. These days this young, often pinkish gingerroot is available year-round. This dish illustrates what a "lo mein" is — that is, a dish tossed together, not precisely stir-fried.

Fan Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted from My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen: 100 Family Recipes and Life Lessons, by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo.

Jah Sang Ho Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted from My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen: 100 Family Recipes and Life Lessons, by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. Oysters are one of those three fruits of the sea permissible to Buddhists and were therefore insisted upon for New Year lunch by my grandmother. Cooking them with a batter is traditional. Their name, ho see, sounds like the Chinese words for good business.

Geung Chung Jing Hin Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted from My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen: 100 Family Recipes and Life Lessons, by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo. Clams are the fruit of the sea that represent prosperity and are, to be sure, permissible to be eaten by observant Buddhists, including nuns.

Cumin makes this easy stir-fry exceptionally fragrant, while the last-minute addition of celery leaves creates a counterpoint of aromatic freshness.

This classic Mandarin Chinese recipe can be made with either ground beef or pork.

This simple, delicious dish hails from China's Shanghai region. It's a great way to use up leftover rice—if your rice is already cooked, you'll need 3 cups of it.

This spicy Sichuan dish gets its layers of flavor from two different types of heat: fiery chiles and mildly numbing Sichuan peppercorns.

The Lisu are one of many distinctive cultural groups who live in the mountains of southwestern Yunnan province.

Xiao Fan's spicy sauce will transform not only this steamed chicken but also plain rice, noodles, tofu, even grilled steak. The sauce can be doubled and leftovers chilled for a week. To reheat, add a bit of broth or water and simmer for about a minute.

You'll want to have plenty of white rice on hand to soak up the incredibly complex sweet-and-sour sauce that adorns these ribs.

These candies are very chewy. The combination of dates and nuts is classically Middle Eastern, as in Turkish delight, but Chinese confectioners have adopted the combination as their own. You will often see versions of this easy-to-make candy around the Chinese New Year. A celebratory gift, they are traditionally wrapped in thin rice paper, but plastic wrap works just as well. CHEF'S TIP: Maltose gives this candy its distinctive subtle sweetness and chewy texture. It can be found in most Asian or natural food markets.

These classic pleated Chinese dumplings are delicious either steamed or fried. When fried, they're called "pot stickers." Though the dough is easy to make, if you're short on time you can use premade round gyoza wrappers (also called dumpling or pot sticker wrappers) instead. Look for them in Asian markets and the refrigerated section of many grocery stores.

It may sound like the kind of bogus claim made on late-night infomercials, but trust us when we say it's true: You really can have juicy ribs ready in an hour! Finishing the ribs under the broiler is the secret to getting a perfectly crisp-moist texture.

Beware—once you've had a few bites of this rice, you'll surely be back for seconds and thirds. Loaded with bits of treasure—smoked oysters, meaty mushrooms, Chinese sausage that tastes almost candied—the rice itself has an amazing chew that exemplifies the Chinese genius for varying textures in a meal. Though the lotus-leaf wrapping is optional, the rice gains a beguiling aroma, suggestive of tea, if you do use it—and the drama of unwrapping the stuffing at the table, like a lovely present, shouldn't be underestimated.