Tepee

My previous experience with water and oil dough pastries did not have any one dough colored. This is the first time I had to color an oil dough, which resulted in very beautiful spirals on the cut side. Problem is, in the recipe you're asked not to squish the dough too hard, lest the oil dough comes out. When I was rolling it out (cut side down), it looked OK, no broken dough. Where did I go wrong? I'm guessing, either, 1. I should have flipped the dough the other way around, with the side revealing the purple oil dough inside, next to the filling...or, 2. I should have minimised the rolling out...but I don't like the crust to be too thick. Is anyone going to make this? Trillium? One more thing...I wonder if it would make any drastic change to the very light and crispy crust if some salt is added. As it is, it's really bleh.

My bad...and now, I've to cover my, er...back__. #1. My oven is calibrated in centigrades...so I dry it in 80 deg C (roughly times 2 = 160 deg F). Be my guest to do the exact conversion, but the last time somebody I know did that, it was waaaaaaaaaay off. Which means - bingo! I've adhered to the 160 deg rule. #2. We're talking about MY yuk gon here, not yours, not Ben's. And we always grill them. So there!

Oh ho! So, that explains your disappearance. With mummy dearest pandering to your every whim and fancy, you don't have to visit amateurs like us. Mua Chee...think it's hokkien. But looking at the chinese characters for it doesn't make much sense, it's just words based on the sound mua chee.

Well, for goodness sake! Ben Go-Gaw! You don't HAVE to eat it all by yerself! What about your many mui-muis? ← Was thinking the same thing. Food Hoarder!

But...but...hz, we are not eating the RAW meat. The yuk gon is definitely very cooked (twice-over, in fact) by the time we eat it. Get very fresh pork...pork which hasn't been chilled...ever.

Right you are, Yuki. The yuk gon is done in 2 steps...first, we dry it under the sun (but I prefer the oven way-don't have to worry about pesky flies) then we grill them over charcoal. MMMMmmmmmmMMmm.

My first attempt at Teochew Spiral Mooncake....pls be kind. I used this recipe but I must have done something wrong bcos it looks very different. Could I have used the wrong side of the pastry? Anyway, I don't quite like the taste of the crust...too oily, 'sides, I never liked the taste of shortening...and it's a bit tasteless. I didn't color the yam paste...che gay sik mah (eating ourselves). Harro??? I thought some people were supposed to be making mooncakes over the weekend?

Since it's confession time, I'm also guilty of being an unorthodox chopsticks-holder. <Don't throw bad salted eggs at us!!!> However, my criss-cross style is very effective too...whatever that works, right? We won't go into the other things I do in an idiosyncratic way...some people just can't stand it.

Ben-sook. Your beef jerky is different from the one we do. Yes, I've eaten the one you're describing...someone got it from China...great flavored chinese chewing gum. Dry stuff. What we're used to is more like This is pork yuk gon made by my mom...beef would be darker and with spices added, though not as spicy as the China ones. For this we need fats and the meat is roughly ground rather than sliced.

The binding is done by the sugars in the long list of ingredients and the ko fun (cooked glutinous rice flour) and there is indeed quite a lot of chewy stuff in there. All I can say is you're one lucky, lucky loved lady.

Thanks for the visual, Sue-On. Has maukitten answered your question on how to get the meat out? Gosh, don't know what winkles are...sounds cheekily wrinkly.

Remember to post the link!

Personally, I haven't seen it in KL or PJ before, Kuching is keeping it all to herself since it's a low-yield variety. I do keep an eye out for it, since I love it over white rice. The beauty of this rice is not only you get fiber out of it, it's not coarse or dry like brown rice...and it's so fragrant! If you run out, just pm me. Yes, the grains are not perfect...although the branded ones are more perfect than the unbranded ones.

If you can consider having Malaysian pomelo airfreighted over, you may want to pm Paradasia who's a member of this board. That link is from his website. If I'm not mistakened, he's currently in Canada. The Malaysian Tambun pomelo is juicier and tastier than the Chinese breed. It's definitely in season because it's one of the festive fruits for the Mooncake festival.

You're talking about drying the yuk gon to keep for subsequent grilling? Then, yes, I do that too... in a very low oven.

Glad you liked it! A bit of background for those who are not in the know...While making our OUG market round, we came upon achar siu/siu yoke man (well, not this particular one, but the stall in front) and I told ecr that we sometimes buy some siu yoke home to freeze...makes a super quickie dish by frying it with lots of smoked garlic and thick black soy sauce, sugar to taste. Even better with some dried chillies. She bought some home to try. ecr...did you cook the black rice?

I've been a happy custodian of Jack's starter since the beginning of April. Not a pain to maintain at all. I just keep 2 small jars in the fridge, taking a tablespoon out now and then to use, usually once or twice a week. Longest I've gone without feeding it was 3 weeks. To shape the bread at 9 in the evening (for overnight retardation in the fridge), I start refreshing the starter at 9 in the morning. If it's sluggish, I feed it one more time at 1 in the afternoon. That's always enough to send it gurgling and bubbling, even to the extent of making a 'great escape' out of the jar. I need more practise with slashing and timing but I've arrived at the crumb which I like. Would love to 'dial' into a successful baguette formula, though.

I've also, recently, been very interested in Japanese breads. Not a book, but this site has good step-by-step pics. I use a translator to understand the recipe instructions.

Simply Kelapa Laut.

Michael, sea coconut is the fruit of a palm tree, not really a 'coconut' tree. You can find it fresh in the pasar malam or tinned, honeyed or not.The flavor is quite like the coconuts but the flesh is translucent rather than opaque white like the coconut's.

Yep, looks like a mini winter melon to me, though this one looks very very young...no seeds. Some recipes I like to use it for: 1.Savory soup recipe - if getting some of the ingredients are difficult for you, you can just do the basic...chicken stock, chicken meat and red dates. 2.Sweet soup - Use a V-shape knife to cut off the top in a jagged fashion. Scoop out the seeds in the middle. Fill with dried longan meat, pre-soaked white fungus, ginseng, red dates, boxthorn berries and water. Close with top, skewer with one or two short toothpicks. Slow double-boil for at least 2 hours. Betcha get a good night's sleep. When serving the soup, scrape some flesh off for each portion. 3. Another good cooling sweet soup. After peeling off the skin and clearing the seeds, finely grate the melon. Boil with barley and flavor with pandan leaves if you can find them. When the barley seeds 'open', add rock sugar to taste. 4. #3 value-added: Add sea coconut and dried longan meat. For #1 and #2, if you have a lot of time on your hands, do some carvings at the sides, like a dragon or bamboos...but, you may be more used to Jack-o-lanterns.

DH confirms this. He saw from his parked car vantage point the guy throwing charcoal into the stove. See the straw fan on the table? Also, DH says the gas is used to help get the fire started.

The hot charcoals would be more effective! Their wrapping skills are quite amazing. They make superfast folds here and there, and a final tie. The finished package looks pyramid-like. No spills. And, it's very easy to unwrap. Hz, that is not a question to ask a female (at least, not with me). I didn't pay attention to the stove much; I was more interested in the human aspect. Anyone else can help out here? I thought they used gas because I saw a gas tank there. Whatever they used, it was flaming hot, literally.

Boy, oh, boy! If you think that of my pics, wait till you see Boo's close up pictures. Wait a minute.....I think I can hear your tortured screams from across the seven seas.

I'll be checking on you, Ben-sook-sook.