69 replies to this topic

[BarbaraY]

I made this for our dinner last evening. I used barley malt syrup since that's what I had. I don't know if it tastes anywhere near what you used but it was delicious and my daughter likes it, too. Didn't take time to get pics. Maybe next batch.
We had steamed Jasmine rice and Stir-fried Bok Choy with it.

[Spinner]

I made this for dinner this evening when things died down in the kitchen.

Dude, great job!

I had saved this the other day because it really caught my eye and I was not let down. Intense flavors and the honey really helps to bring the punchiness of the garlic into a nice smooth symphony of flavors.

hzrt8w..this is great stuff! Thanks..

Im very interested in this new offering for Lemon Chicken..it's almost playful..using Lemonade and all. I shall try it!

[hzrt8w]

Thank you for your kind feedbacks, all. By all means try the lemon chicken, and any of the other 28 recipes so far in my series.

Sometimes I am kind of debating in my mind whether to post some real Chinese recipes geared towards Chinese audience, or "less" Chinese recipes geared towards non-Chinese audience.

[Pan]

What do you consider the things you have posted so far?

[hzrt8w]

What do you consider the things you have posted so far?

Out of the 30 recipes I have posted so far, 28 of them are authentic Chinese dishes. Most of them are Cantonese style. The exceptions are Imperial Shrimp, Mapo Tofu, Chicken with Cashew Nuts, and White Bass Braised with Bean/Soy Sauce.

Chicken with Butter and Black Pepper is a bit of fusion.

Lemon Chicken is the one that is perhaps considered more Americanised. You probably won't find it on the menus in restaurants in Hong Kong.

[BarbaraY]

I made this once again with Jasmine rice and stir-fried broccoli. It is just too good not to have often.

[hzrt8w]

What a coincident! I made this again just 2 days ago. This time, I dashed in about 2 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine along with the white vinegar. It really jazzed up the taste by a notch.

[BarbaraY]

I'll remember that for the next batch.

[chappie]

A couple of questions:

I have palm sugar I purchased for making Pad Thai. Would this work as a substitute for the maltose or is regular brown sugar better? Secondly, would throwing a dried chili or two in with the sauce ruin the flavor balance?

[Gastro888]

From what I understand palm sugar is milder in flavor than maltose or regular brown sugar. I think it should be an acceptable substitution, however, you might not get as strong sweet flavor to contrast with the garlic. Chiles are always nice. =)

[Pan]

Manisan/gula Melaka/palm sugar is fragrant and a bit smokey, in my experience (I remember the disks we used to get in the village). It tastes something like sorghum syrup and is comparable to but not quite as delicious or fragrant (sort of rich-tasting) as maple sugar (i.e., I would be careful about substituting maple sugar of any kind for palm sugar). I'm not sure what maltose tastes like by itself, but based on my experience in eating sweets made with it, I actually have the impression that it's subtler than palm sugar and lacks the smokey overtones.

So, who has had both maltose and palm sugar by themselves? If you have, please give us your empirical comparisons.

[hzrt8w]

I have palm sugar I purchased for making Pad Thai. Would this work as a substitute for the maltose or is regular brown sugar better? Secondly, would throwing a dried chili or two in with the sauce ruin the flavor balance?

Regular brown sugar or white sugar would work well with this recipe. I haven't tasted palm sugar so I cannot comment. I suspect the palm taste may be predominant, which may be good (if you like it) or bad (if you don't like it). Just try and see. Adding dried chilies... it's a personal taste. I don't use chili in this dish because I want to appreciate the sweetness of the honey.

[Gastro888]

I suppose to each their own. The palm sugar in the States definitely can't compare to the Malaysian palm sugar. (It's more fresh, it didn't have to travel across the globe to get to you, etc, etc) Thai palm sugar is more available in my area and in my experience, it's rather mild (ie, no smokey flavor). But everyone has different taste buds so my suggestion is just to try it hzrt8w's way first and then go ahead with your adaptations. That way you can accurately compare the differences.

[Dejah]

What's wrong with staying with honey? The recipe is for honey-garlic pork chops!

[Tepee]

Manisan/gula Melaka/palm sugar is fragrant and a bit smokey, in my experience (I remember the disks we used to get in the village). ...maltose [is] subtler than palm sugar and lacks the smokey overtones.

So, who has had both maltose and palm sugar by themselves? If you have, please give us your empirical comparisons.

Yes, exactly like Michael said. Maltose is subtler. I'd use maltose for its stickiness. Palm sugar will not give that. Good gula melaka are very fragrant. Yum! In my little mind, I always associate maltose with toasted sesame seeds, and gula melaka with all things coconut.

[Ben Hong]

What's wrong with staying with honey? The recipe is for honey-garlic pork chops! 

DITTO, DITTO, DITTO

[Gastro888]

<waves gai mo sow>

...so my suggestion is just to try it hzrt8w's way first and then go ahead with your adaptations.  That way you can accurately compare the differences.

Ai ya! That's what I said...try it the original way first THEN go for some palm sugar/brown sugar/maple syrup/etc changes...if you want to.

[chappie]

Well I made this Saturday, using the palm sugar/water/honey mixture and I think from all descriptions here that maltose must be the way to go for its stickiness. I also used about seven cloves of garlic, to which I couldn't keep myself from dashing some crushed red pepper flake. (This may be heresy, but I also used four or five Sichuan peppercorns -- and liked the result).

It's a great dish I'll definitely tinker with on my own. I couldn't find cilantro, which surely would've helped.

Oh, and (perhaps more heresy?) I added broccoli.

[Ben Hong]

Oh, and (perhaps more heresy?) I added broccoli.

Heresy? Nah, but be reminded that this is strictly a meat dish, not a one pot meal. (But then there must be at least one person in the world who would add broccoli to his fish and chips too).

[chappie]

Also I found with my leftovers that a splash of soy was a nice addition. I'll pick up some maltose at Great Wall in Fairfax next time I'm over there, though, so I can try it the way it was meant to be.

Keep up the great work, hzrt8w — your pictorals are great and I'm looking forward to making tomato beef in the next few weeks.

[hzrt8w]

Also I found with my leftovers that a splash of soy was a nice addition. [...]

The versions of this dish I had in nearby restaurants, they looked a bit dark. They probably splash some soy sauce to it.

Not sure about the hot pepper...

[jeniac42]

I've been wanting to make one of the pictorial dishes for a long time, and last night I finally tried this one because I had everything on hand. It was really good. I used brown sugar because I don't have a microwave and didn't feel like dealing with maltose...

Eric really loved it but I thought it was a little too sweet for me. I think next time I will add a little bit of soy sauce to it, or maybe use less sugar.

I put the leftovers (with steamed jasmine rice) in my bento for today's lunch:

[hzrt8w]

janiac: Thanks for sharing your result. Malt sugar is really hard to deal with. I didn't like the work involved using it either. Brown sugar sure works really well too.

[Adam Balic]

I made this for dinner a few nights ago and we all really enjoyed it, thank you very much. I made a slight change and added some finely shredded ginger to the sauce, but other then that I followed the instructions exactly!

Finally got to use the maltose that I bought many years ago.

[hzrt8w]

[...]I made a slight change and added some finely shredded ginger to the sauce, but other then that I followed the instructions exactly!

This is brilliant! Ginger is very complementary to sugar. It must have added another dimension to this dish!

[Della]

I just made this tonight and it was wonderful. Thanks for posting such great ideas.
Della

[Grub]

Here's my effort:


I built upon the variations made previously. Shredded cabbage was good, but could have used a little something else (I was planning on using a little roasted sesame seed oil, but forgot it) -- rice would probably have been just as good though. It seemed like a good idea. I used soy sauce, water, honey, brown sugar, corn starch, ginger and garlic -- and a couple of dried chili peppers for the sauce. Came out very nice. The pork cutlets tend to get bent out of shape a lot when sauteed, so I was considering cutting it into strips and stir-frying it -- which I still think might be a good idea.

I'm not entirely sure what the author thinks of such variations/bastardizations of the original recipe, but I am really happy about this string of pictorials. Great stuff, wonderful inspiration.

[Dejah]

Here's my effort:

The pork cutlets tend to get bent out of shape a lot when sauteed, so I was considering cutting it into strips and stir-frying it -- which I still think might be a good idea.
I'm not entirely sure what the author thinks of such variations/bastardizations of the original recipe, but I am really happy about this string of pictorials. Great stuff, wonderful inspiration.

If flat pork chops are what you are aiming for, just make a couple of nicks (1/2" or so deep) along the top of the pork chop. You may see a transluscent strip along the top of the chop. It's this that shrinks during cooking and causes the chop to be "bent out of shape". Just make sure the nicks cut through this.


People have been "bastardizing" Chinese and all other cuisines for ages, so I am sure Ah Leung can handle your variation.

I think your pork chops look delicious! Not sure about the shredded raw cabbage, but if they were steamed or stir-fried, then I would go for that. Rice of course, would be better.

Did you eat the raw cabbage, or was it just for presentation?

[Grub]

Thank you -- for the compliment, but even more so for the advice. I'll try to keep that in mind. The cabbage was eaten, raw. It's got a great texture, I think.

[jo-mel]

Thank you -- for the compliment, but even more so for the advice. I'll try to keep that in mind. The cabbage was eaten, raw. It's got a great texture, I think.

I had these wonderful pork chops with cabbage, too, but I sauteed the cabbage with some bacon and had them on the side.