Tepee

My dear Ben-sook...so kind as usual....but you can't SEE how well a person can cook. You have to TASTE the cooking....HINT, HINT. Have you been working on your plans at all? Had a fully vegetarian lunch at my parent's home today. Will post the pix later.

Just had reunion lunch in my parent's home, with all siblings/spouses and nephews and nieces present. It was a steamboat/hotpot lunch, a more healthful alternative, with lo hei/yee sang as the starter, and almond agar-agar served with canned lychees for dessert. Next, reunion potluck dinner at MIL's. Hubby's making shark's fin soup. 新年快乐 恭喜发财 身体健康 吉祥如意 Jo, the Jade Emperor will surely cast his benevolent face upon you for you are definitely more chinese than many of us. Peace be with you, too.

Much appreciation, Pam. This is definitely something which needs to be learnt from a pictorial demo. Are there other filling variations?

First year? According to cantonese custom (that is, if you're cantonese...if not, you're safe..or maybe not), you've to give DOUBLE angbaos. Have fun!

Happy Belated Birthday, aznsailorboi! 22 yrs.....OLD? Sigh...you make me feel ancient....but wiser, hopefully, lol?? Of course, you're entitled to receive angbaos...as long as you're not married, which, then puts you on the Giving end. My 49 yo SIL, who's single, still gets angbaos from us.

Yes, it does, Wendy. In fact, you have to knead it a little to make it pliable. I'll be making it for a cake this Feb 5. If I remember, I'll take pix of the steps.

I use a recipe out of the Chocolate Paste Cakes from the Sugar Inspirations series to cover this cake. The modelling chocolate was a joy to use. Liquid glucose and liquid sugar are used instead of corn syrup. The recipe has been paraphrased. To make liquid sugar, bring to a rolling boil 4 parts granulated sugar with 3 parts water. Boil for a further 3 mins. Cool and store in a glass container in a cool place, not refrigerated. Modelling chocolate 500g/1 lb chocolate (milk, dark, white) 150g/5oz liquid glucose 50g/2oz liquid sugar Melt chocolate, using the method you like best, but do not overheat. Warm glucose and liquid sugar in a bowl and add to the chocolate. Stir mixture with a wooden spoon. Put this into a plastic bag and store at room temp overnight before using. Do not refrigerate or condensation-->bloom may occur. Knead before using until pliable.

Wash and soak rice? I think everyone washes rice at least 3 rinses, and I do now and then soak rice before cooking more for convenience than anything else as I don't find any difference in the outcome. Rinsing noodles under cold water is ideal not only to remove the excess starch but to stop further cooking. We, chinese, like our noodles al dente too, and not sticky mushy. Hawkers, who don't have excess to running water, just dip/rinse the noodles in a pot of water after the first blanch, then quick-blanch a second time.

As Ben-sook says, you shouldn't go empty-handed. There's plenty you can bring. We always arm ourselves with bags of gifts in the boot of our car because you must always be prepared for "Yau Lei Yau Hoey" (giving and receiving). Goodies include dried stuff (mushrooms, wolfberries, scallops, dried fruit, kuaci, noodles, nuts), canned stuff (abalone, or its cheaper substitutes), cookies (in nice cookie tins with a cut-out circle of red paper pasted on top), candies, neen go, and, etc. I would still include a pair of mandarin oranges for its auspicious significance, remember even numbers except 4). Sign TP, too busy making CNY cookies to stay and chit-chat.........

Indeed, England is the greatest sandwich nation in the world. Think of the amazing combinations (in varying degrees of nutritive value) one can have in the sandwich as well as the bread. This is not to argue the superiority of the sandwich (er...swinging off tangent already)...but, rather, to me, I'd pick a Hot Dog over a sandwich if I'm hungry and don't want to think too much... satisfy a craving so to speak I have to have my coney dog every 2 months or so. Just my 2 sen.

pg 482/3 Dan Lepard's Yorkshire Pudding. Yummy with Roast/Gravy. My kids say they want this at every meal.

Hi Mizducky! No matter how busy I am (CNY just round the corner), I simply must read your blog. Yup, enjoying myself tremendously. Guess what? I've been to your neck of the woods and back (early Dec) and I got a TAN!!! You know, Malaysia is sunny almost every other day of the year and I don't really get a tan. Just 2 weeks in LA and I'm all toasty. You should have blogged before I visited. Now my kids have been deprived of Hoddad's, although they had a good share of Carl's Jr, In-n-Out Burgers, Burger King, and, etc... Loved your produce, but good authentic chinese food was really, really hard to find... p/s...oh, I would've suggested making char siu with your pork belly, coz you can use the leftovers to make a good tasty rice or char siu baos.

How could I forget this! Karen, this fits your title to a 'T'. I made this for future hubby 17 yrs ago........for Valentine's. The Good - or so I thought. Heart-shaped strawberry jam-filled in the middle Lebkuchen cookies. Saw this in an Australian Women's Weekly recipe book and thought this should do the trick, since I really wanted to make an impression. And I had a heart-shaped box to put it in. The Bad - Ok, waaaaay back then, my kitchen skills were below zero, having been pampered by mom all my live-in-parent's-home-days. But, where there's a will........ The Ugly - The cookies turned out pretty.......pretty rock hard. Apparently, he did his best to finish it (he may have chipped a tooth) and had to hide it as far back in the larder as possible, just in case the rest of his family thought they discovered a good thing, bu-ut... Still wonder why he married me....? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And, no...I'm not revealing any fantasy romantic ploys. No private details, pls...I'm Asian.

Hey, ecr, look time no hear from you! Loving your blog! Oh sure, I used to make sang har meen at home when I manage to get some gorgeous big prawns at the market...now with more heads, there's more noodles to fry, so I get a little bit lazy. Recipe. If you prefer the MSG taste, use the Maggi granules. I use concentrated homemade stock.

Frankly, I've never had Cantonese glue before - although I was raised on my mom's cantonese cooking - until I ate it in Spore last year. I gave it 2 spoonfuls and that was it. Horrible. Mom's cantonese porridge and, well, now mine, is never gooey...pasty, yes. Just had dinner at mom's....and it was superb pork ribs/groundnut porridge, eaten with freshly dry-fried/ground white pepper, spring onions/coriander, and mom's homemade pork yuk gon. Fantastic dose of LOVE from food and family.

Sigh....sharksfin soup is nothing but a status symbol. There's hardly any nutritional value in the gelatinous threads and in some parts sharks have a high level of mercury. If I want good food, this is not something I'd order. Somehow, many restaurants screw up on this soup, turning it into something gaggingly gooey and unnaturally-colored. Mom makes the best...and, yup, it's all in the soup. I'm going to have it for CNY reunion dinner. Oh no! Wait! Since I schemed my way to my parent's house for the Winter Solstice Dinner, I won't be able to get out of going to my MIL's place this time. Oh, Ben-sook, I can't wait for you to regale us with your tales of how the other chinese gustatory exotica came to be....like the deer's erm....jewels? LOL!

Pierre, a brave French fighter pilot, takes his girlfriend, Marie, out for a pleasant little picnic by the River Seine. It's a beautiful day and love is in the air. Marie leans over to Pierre and says, "Pierre, kiss me!" Pierre grabs a bottle of Merlot and splashes it on Marie's lips. "What are you doing, Pierre?" says the startled Marie. "I am Pierre, the fighter pilot! When I have red meat, I have red wine!" She smiles and they start kissing. Things began to heat up a little and Marie says, "Pierre, kiss me lower." Our hero tears her blouse open, grabs a bottle of Chardonnay and pours it on her breasts. "Pierre! What are you doing now?" asks the bewildered Marie. "I am Pierre, the fighter pilot! When I have white meat, I have white wine!" She giggles and they resume their passionate interlude, and things really steam up. Marie leans close to his ear and whispers, "Pierre, kiss me much lower!" Pierre rips off her underwear, grabs a bottle of Cognac and pours it in her lap. He then strikes a match and lights the cognac on fire. Marie shrieks and dives into the River Seine. Standing waist deep, Marie throws her arms into the air and screams furiously, "PIERRE, WHAT IN THE hell DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" Our 'hero' stands and says defiantly, "I am Pierre, the fighter pilot! If I go down, I go down in flames!"

Picture of saliva-inducing Asam Laksa. You can see what goes into the soup from this recipe. This particular one which we packed home was a tad sour for me. Cost: again RM3.50.

What are you making with it? If it's for a soup noodle, you can add it as it is. For stir-fries, run your fingers through the noodles to separate them, add more oil and make a quick job of the frying, or it'll stick together.

No recipes needed.

Using this spelt flour, I followed Jack's recipe. However, I don't have a powerful food processor, so I used my Kenwood chef instead. To compensate, I thought I'd mix it for 15 minutes...the dough was quite hot at the end. Hmm... Well, here's the bread, not quite light textured like Jack's, mine is moderately dense. Flavor's excellent, though.

Squeeeezing in my birthday wishes to you too, Mr John Whiting! This mustn't be your last/only blog.....it has been such an incredibly insightful trip. Thank you.

I make mine from recently cooked rice, sometimes cooled but most times straight from the steamer. No problems with clumping, and I don't use much oil. Just cook/steam the rice with less water than usual. When you've just about finished quick-frying the rice plus additions, throw a handful of water into the rice for some steam-frying.

Michael, you're so right. Rice gruel, Teochew(chiu chow, jiao zhou)-style, watery, grainy, basically tasteless, if not for the side-dishes, is really good detox food. This is what we had after the season's excesses. Dishes are Teochew Ark (Duck) with hard-boiled eggs, Soya Sauce Tofu and Giam Chye (Salted Veg).

Ooohh...yummy! I've steamed eggs with cubed cooked fish paste, salted eggs, century eggs, tomatoes , mixed cubed veg, sliced and marinated cooked mushrooms, silken tofu, char siew, and etc...but it has NEVER occurred to me to use conpoy. Thanks! BTW, instead of water, I sometimes use homemade soya bean milk to dilute the eggs. I like it quite diluted...almost 1:1....steamed at the lowest fire for 40 mins. Smooth as silk.