Milk Street Digital Class: Chinese American Classics with J. Kenji López-Alt

J. Kenji López-Alt returns to the Milk Street Cooking School o teach you three of his favorite essential Chinese-American dishes.

What’s on the Menu:

Egg Drop Soup
Beef with Broccoli
Lo Mein with Charred Cabbage, Shiitake and Chives

J. Kenji López-Alt is back at the Milk Street Cooking School. In this pre-recorded livestream class, he teaches you to make three of his favorite things to order at Chinese-American restaurants—which also happen to be three polarizing dishes that can be either be truly extraordinary or seriously mediocre. Case in point: Good beef and broccoli is tender, seared to smoky crispness and tossed in a savory-sweet, garlic and ginger-scented oyster sauce. But bad beef and broccoli is drab, gray, mushy and thin. There are simple steps you’ll learn from Kenji to guarantee the first and banish the latter, like cooking in small batches over super-high heat and being strategic with your marinade. The same goes for egg drop soup, which is often viscous, eerily neon-yellow in color and rubbery. When you make it Kenji’s way, you fortify a simple broth with umami-rich ingredients and aromatics, then combine technique and one humble pantry ingredient to achieve a perfect egg “flower”. Finally, he shows you how to make a lo mein that’s a far cry from the gloopy noodles with a couple of sad vegetables thrown in. Instead, his lo mein is nearly 50/50 noodles to vegetables, the preparation of which will give you a perfect opportunity to practice your wok cooking skills. Join Kenji to enjoy these beloved dishes as they were meant to be made.