What a great thread!
I just wanted to add that Nasoya products are free of nuts the last time I asked the company.  I use the wonton and spring rolls wrappers and the noodles and tofu.
I have also stir fried cooked spaghetti and other pasta with Asian-type ingredients because my son does not like Chinese egg noodles.

I'm thinking I'm going to use something from this thread while my folks are here for week+ at TGiving.

Thank you!!

Thank you for starting this thread hk and thanks TwinTurbo for all the great advice and recipes!!  I've often thought about trying Chinese food at home...but had no idea where to begin. THANKS!!!

One question: I know I've checked soy sauce once upon a time...but I believe it has soy protein.  In which case, one DS can't eat it.  Any ideas for a substitute?

I made the Sweet N Sour the other night.  I subbed chicken for the pork.  Most of the family loved it!  (Please don't hold it against DS1, he hates pineapple and chewing on chicken).  I have some work to get it perfect and learning how to be aggressive with higher heat on my new stove.

But I added a wok to my Christmas wish list (and I really need another pot like I need a hole in my head).

Tell me about it I've been making myself hungry.

Yeah, it's the thicker noodles. I'll have to get my wife to try making it with me sometime. My experience making chinese food is limited to lu rou fan.

I had to google intestinal noodles as I wasn't sure what that was. They actually call those intestinal noodles? That was my favorite dim sum dish. I always thought they were using the word "long". Now that I think about it, the word long and  the word intestine sound pretty similar. I can only imagine the amount of people that avoided that dish due to it's name.

All this dim sum talk is making me hungry...  Radish cakes, shu mai, sticky rice, chicken feet, shrimp dumplings, black bean ribs, the fried taro root things.

Bubble tea deserves its own write up, I'm thinking, because you have to keep the balls moist and sweet (everyone get your laughs out now). Add in a tiered allergen management system to that equation and milk subs so MA and soy allergic people can try that's gonna be involved. Still do-able.

Rice noodles--okay, which rice noodles because I think we both know multiple types am I right? Your allergens are nuts and eggs? With thin noodles I prefer WaiWai they're the type you can dry fry with bbq satay not that I use Bull Head in our cooking anymore but for the thin noodle I would think that might be low enough risk for nuts & eggs my main concern would be cross contamination with fish, wheat, shellfish and sesame. WaiWai is a product of Thailand even though it's labeled for Chinese market. Ingredients are rice and water. Since most of this typeof stuff is produced in the same regions I never go for Western brands that repackage these products because they'll be no safer just more expensive.

Anyhow, the thick fresh rice noodle like sha ho fun/shahe fun, which is what I think you're intending, that I have made myself. It's a bear to work with unless you can really dedicate some time to it. The ingredients are straightforward enough although I don't remember off the top of my head what grain rice flour glutinous, non-glutinous or a mix, and if there was tapioca in that. I'll have to look it up my experience making is limited but once you make up the batter you pour it in a pan, steam in a steamer, then cool and cut. I have a big steamer, big enough for whole crabs and a whole lot of bao, but I really struggled to get a pan that was large enough to make reasonable noodle but small enough to fit in the steamer so it could still shut to seal in steam.

Then there's cheong fun the intestinal noodle which I miss like MAD but can't make for beans. If you do that one or can find a good blog entry on making it shoot it my way.

I have started to make radish cake at home lately. I'm still in the middle of tweaking it for our allergens, for instance how badly do I want deep fried onion in it? Enough to deep fry my own or just pan fry? The radish cake has gone really well thus far I'm happy to report. If I batch produce then I can chill, pre-cut then freeze for later use and it's not so different than what I've store bought.

twinturbo, do you have any tips for chow fun? My grandmother always told me it was a pain to make. I think I would probably have to make the rice noodles from scratch as I don't really trust the Asian grocery store's homemade rice noodles.

Also do you make your own milk tea for the pearl milk tea? I've tried the bottled milk tea but it doesn't taste anywhere close to what the bubble tea places have. Thanks!

Thanks for all the recipes. I love Chinese food but my kids tastes are pretty much limited to fried rice (I had them try Chung's egg rolls and they weren't fans). Maybe I'll try a few of these. Right now dh and can go eat Chinese without feeling guilty (because the kids don't like it) when they are with his sister. Which isn't very often.

Last night I was thinking how I'd do an at home menu top 8 free plus sesame free and still be able to pick everything up at the grocery store.

The FAS Family Special

Sweet & Sour Pork
BBQ Pork fried rice
spring rolls (deconstructed)
corn soup


S&S Pork

pork loin cubed
green, red, and yellow bell pepper cubed
carrot sliced on the bias for long oval shape
onion cut in thick square shape like bell pepper
can of pineapple with natural juice in cubes
strong tasting wine for cooking
mince garlic
white wine vinegar
salt to taste
pinch red pepper flake (optional)
cornstarch for coating and sauce
neutral oil like canola for pan frying

Cube bell peppers and onion, slice carrot, set aside in bowl.
Cube pork loin. Marinate in mince garlic and about 1 tablespoon of wine. Not too wet. Let marinate for 20 min turn occasionally in bowl.

Heat up oil in large stainless pan (or non-stick) when oil looks shimmery add bell pepper, carrot, onion to quickly stir fry. Only cook to crisp tender and when removing to plate don't pile up so veggies steam if that makes sense.

In sauce pan heat up canned pineapple juice until boiling, reduce by about half. Prepare about 2 tsp cornstarch with 2 tsp tap water in a cup, set aside. In reduced pineapple juice add, if desired, 1 tsp ketchup and pinch hot pepper flake. Add salt to taste. Sample sauce adjusting seasoning to taste. When satisfied with seasonings add 1 tsp white vinegar then add cornstarch slurry continuing light boil until sauce has thickened. Once sauce is done set aside in a gravy boat or similar vessel -- don't add to anything yet.

Pork should be marinated by now. Drain if pork is really wet otherwise dredge well in cornstarch. Fry pork cubes until done, set aside. The goal is to get crispy cubes.

There's two ways to make it to the table at this point: return cooled, fried pork cubes to hot dry pan, followed soon by pre-stir fried carrot, onion and bell pepper, then add reasonably dry pineapple chunks last. Quickly toss all to evenly heat then plate. Add sweet and sour sauce right before serving.

Or don't return all to pan, put on serving plate then then add sweet and sour sauce before serving. I'm a fan of "return to pan" which is what things like "twice cooked pork" means when translated. In either case you're waiting to add sauce before everyone tucks in to the food to keep it all crisp.

---

BBQ Pork fried rice

This is going to mock up char siu in the pan close enough for taste but avoid hoisin.

1-2 day old rice works best. Should be a little dried out.
small dice pork tenderloin
Salt, sugar, rice wine premixed in liquid form or Kikkoman brand aji-mirin.
minced garlic (optional)
a lot of green onion thinly sliced at bias for diamond-oval shape
some frozen pea and carrot cube mix
oil for frying. you can be generous with oil there's varieties of fried rice called "oily rice". depends on personal taste.
salt if desired, but not too much.
small cup of water in case you need to add moisture to mix


In a pan fry up the small dice pork tenderloin. When thoroughly cooked add wine/sugar/salt liquid to "candy" the pork mini-cubes. Cook until well coated and water has evaporated. Set aside to cool and dry.

Get a large pan to start the rice. I don't like limp green onion, I like them with sizzle, so I almost always bloom my green onions first in hot oil nearly fast deep frying them before I add the rice. Adding the rice should slow down the onion's cooking process. Old rice is dryer and doesn't stick together well which makes it great for frying but keep that cup of water handy.

Once you get your grains separating through frying and the rice is pretty even add frozen peas/carrots until heated, then garlic, then pork cubes, saving salt to taste at end if you think you need it.

---

spring rolls, deconstructed

I miss spring rolls but have put a pause on any making due to one child anaphylactic to wheat/barley. While I can't get the crisp taste of the wheat roll I can still get the taste of the filling so I make this sometimes. Depending on your veggie mix it makes a great vegetarian mushu filling.


plain old green cabbage
carrot
ginger root
salt
white pepper
oil for frying

optionals to add: shiitake mushroom, black "wood ear" mushroom, fresh mung bean sprouts, celery. Beware that much of the wood ear mushroom and shiitake are dried and treated with sulfites for anyone dealing with sulfite issues. Fresh mung bean sprouts should be trimmed and rinsed making them sometimes not worth the time.


Finely shred green cabbage and carrot and ginger. Heat oil in pan over medium-high then add shredded ginger until fragrant 20-30 seconds, then add carrot and ginger mixture. If you have a lot of veg cook half at a time to avoid steaming in pan. Fry until cabbage is no more than crisp-tender, add salt and white pepper to taste.

---

Corn soup

Any soup stock, homemade or instant
Can of cream corn
black pepper to taste
cornstarch slurry to thicken (optional)
thinly sliced green onion for garnish (optional)

Instead of trying to make an egg-free, sesame-free, soy-free and wheat-free egg flower or hot and sour soup, you can try some that don't have any of those ingredients to begin with. You take the stock of your choice and heat it together with a can of cream corn. Heat until you get the desired strength, add cornstarch slurry to thicken if you want the consistency, then add salt and black pepper to taste.

---

That's how I would do top 8 free plus sesame free using no special store ingredients. From there you can always add the allergens tolerated by other members of the family but in order to eat together sometimes it's worth going lowest common denominator.

fried rice. Just stirfry some veggies and add soy sauce, rice, a scambled egg, peas, sprouts, snowpeas ....you can add leftover pieces of steak or pieces of chicken. 


I have often asked myself is we should cook chinese at home so son would have the experience or just pretend it does not exist so he'll never get a taste for it and get tempted... not sure.

You can probably make some good soups. Look up hot and sour, wonton and egg drop recipes. I made a hot and sour once that was good -- but not sure where recipe is now.  I 'd try making orange chicken, myself.

TwinTurbo- the chicken turned out great!  DD was so happy!  The rice wasn't bad either.  Thank you again!

Mmmm, road kill and onions .... LOL, yep, that makes me hungry now.   

Okay, I am starving after reading this!  I do some chinese style cooking.  we have a large chinese population in town and some friends have taught me things along the way.  That is my favorite way to learn how to cook.  Friends who share their secrets, lol.  Some stuff you just cannot get from a book. 

I want to make dumplings now.  And you did not even give a recipe. 

Well, let's see if I made any sense first. I put up some links to allrecipes.com because it has a great step-by-step with better formatting on stir fry method. I'll put up some links later to some of the faves modded for FA use. Once you get the gist of it my hope is that everyone will look fearlessly at ingredients and think, "Hot dogs and carrots? I can stir fry that." "Road kill and onions? I can stir fry that, too."

Are there other things like dim sum treats, banquet foods, regional specialties, that would be FA friendly as well? Of course but for starters and good nutrition everyday foods are a good start. One last word, nearly all of our side veg is lightly sautéed in canola oil with either ginger or garlic and little salt. Have fun!