jo-mel
-
Posts
1,633 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by jo-mel
-
-
4- 浸 Jin - Boiling (water, stock, or oil) for a very short time, then allowed to sit in the liquid -- off the source of heat
4- 浸 Jin
There are plenty of dishes that can be called 油浸XX, where XX can be the name of the fish being deep-fried.
For example:
油浸鲈鱼 (Deep-Fried Flonder(?))
The sample photo: (Click on the photo through Google's search page)
Example 2:
清水浸走地鸡 (Chicken Boiled in Water)
The sample photo: (Click on the photo through Google's search page)
#4 - 浸 Jin /jam
Jin is the process of cooking in water by gradual reduction in temperature ----- that is, controlled heating achieved through natural reduction in temperature by removing the heated container from the source of heat.
The usual procedure followed in this process is first of all to bring the heating liquid (usually water) to the boil, immerse the food to be cooked, and after a very short period of boiling, remove the pan from the heat, allowing the rest of the cooking to be done by the remaining heat in the liquid.
In this case the length of the boiling can of course be varied to suit the ingredient to be cooked, but it must be short (not more than one minute).
In China, this process is often used in conjunction with other processes of heating to complete the cooking of a given dish. When used alone, it generally applies only to young and tender food. A good example is Crystal Chicken, in which a pullet is immersed in boiling water for one minute and then allowed to cool in the liquid. When cold, the water is discarded, and the chcken is chopped into suitable size for eating along with various dips on the table. Alternately, the chicken could be marinated with wine, liquor, salt, chopped chives, ginger, and garlic, and served without further cooking as Drunken Chicken (an excellent item for hors d'oeuvres.
The advantage of this process is that by immersing the food in a liquid which is boiling, the shock of the immersion locks in all the flavorsome juices (provided, of course, the food is fresh and tender); and since the material is already tender, it requires no further cooking than that which the heat already present in the cooking liquid will do during the next 10 - 20 minutes, as the temperature recedes gradually from the boiling point. Good fresh food is invariably found to be richer in flavor and fresher-tasting than if it had been boiled in the ordinary way (say for more than 20 - 30 minutes).
Jin is not applicable to only heating in water, but also in stock and oil. Hence the terms 'cooking in stock-receding-heat and 'cooking in -oil-receding-heat'. (Kenneth Lo)
-
I got the joke!! I got the joke!
About the bagel -- well, it's better than a baked bean bagel!
(Life long Sox fan, now married to and living in NJ, and still hating the Yankees)
-
No, they are exactly the same as regular long beans except in color.
Shoot, I wish I had taken a picture last summer.
Here are a couple web images that seem similar:
Interesting! I've never seen them in the Chinese stores. Are they a hybrid of some sort?
-
...
Red ones? Are they the same as Chinese long beans - dow jie? The ones that grow about 2 feet long?
...
Don't know the Chinese name. They are about 2 feet long and sold in bunches of 8 beans or so by many of the Asian sellers at the farmers' market. They are either green or speckled with red spots.
It's my understanding, that, as plants, they are closer related to black eyed peas, than beans.
I'm not a connoisseur; but, find I have more trouble finding really good, cheap green beans than long beans, at least when they're in season.
Do you mean these?
Scroll down a bit to Dau Gok
-
I have a question.
How come the Chinese kitchen pictured in the "Cooking a western meal for Chinese grandmother" thread, and the pictures in hzrt's wonderful series (and great tasting Chinese food) all cook fine Chinese food &/or authentic stuff -- yet don't have ultra high heat?
I guess the answer is ---- trying to achieve restaurant heat equality, but I just thought I'd toss it out to see what comes back. (?heehee?)
-
乾煸 gan bian --- Isn't the 'dry' just a matter of not having a saucy dish? That the liquids are cooked down so as to give concentrated flavor?
-
3- 涮 Shuan - Steeping or quick boiling when carried out in a charcoal, or spirit-heated hot pot or fondue pot.
An example would be:
涮羊肉 (Quick-boiled lamb slices)
A Beijing specialty. Lamb meat is cut into very thin slices. It is then dip into a hot pot for a quick boil at the table.
For some sample pictures, click on the images through the Google search pages:
#3 - 涮 shuan / saan
When the previous method of cooking is carried out in a charcoal-burning, or methylated spirit-heated hot pot or fondue pot placed on the dining room table itself ( a sight particularly warming on a winter's evening), it is called 'Shuan'. The ingredients cooked are usually thin-sliced meats, such as beef, lamb, kidney, liver, and chicken. The best known of them all is Peking Mongolian Sliced Lamb Hot Pot. This dish has a Chinese Moslem background, originating from the Central Asian grasslands and prairies. (Kenneth Lo)
-
[...]
I've never seen that brand of Sichuan vegetable. Is it a small amount? All I've seen are the cans, the pickles in the crock on the floor or two vegetables in a plastic package -- sometimes whole, and sometimes shredded.
Yes, they distribute the Sichuan preserved vegetable in tiny packages (3.5oz) and make them "ready to eat". Selling at US$0.25 a package. The price is relatively high compared to buying a head of Sichuan vegetable and shred your own. However, I found that most of the time I have plenty of left over after opening a pack for one head of Sichuan vegetable. Besides, they made it "ready to eat" means I don't need to soak them in water before cooking. Time saving! This kind of packaging is perfect for me since I use only a little bit every time. The biggest problem is after I opened it, I couldn't stop snacking on it... he he he...
Why soak them? I usually just rinse off any clinging paste and some of the outside salt. Sometimes I don't even do that.
When I would show a whole pickle in a class, you would hear the 'eeeeuuuuuuus'!!! But when I'd slice it and give them a sample taste, they liked it, and looked at it with renewed interest --- and respect!
-
Looks great, Xiao hzrt! I like the idea of using jalapenos instead of the dried red chilis. I've used dried shrimp sometimes and a little Sichuan pepper sometimes, sometimes with or without pork - but as you said it is the Sichuan vegetable (炸菜 zha cai /zha choy) that is a feature characteristic.
And once again, you have shown that you can do Chinese cooking with just a pan! Not even a deep frying pot!
I was cooking for my husband's secretary and her husband one time. Her husband had a very bad heart and was on a non-fat diet, so this posed a problem. Most of the dishes were OK, but I wanted to have dry/fried green beans. So I boiled the beans, then put them on a broiler pan and lightly sprayed with Pam, then broiled them until they had the blistered look --- then I continued with the dish, but using ground turkey instead of pork. They turned out really good!
This was a time when oils were bad food, so when I had a lo-fat, lo- calorie cooking class, I used the same boil/broil method for the beans. They were a hit!
I've never seen that brand of Sichuan vegetable. Is it a small amount? All I've seen are the cans, the pickles in the crock on the floor or two vegetables in a plastic package -- sometimes whole, and sometimes shredded.
-
Theoretically speaking, may I make the following observations/suggestions for your "personal non-tested" recipe:
1. Do the smoking step before any other method of cooking so the flavour would permeat the meat. There isn't alot of meat on a duck, and if you roast it at 400 degrees for 1 hour, the smoking will have little or no effect.
2.The tea leaves for smoking: Wet them before putting them in a foil pan over the charcoal. Otherwise, they would burn up in a flash and not enough time for the smoke to permeat the meat. Wood chips, again, wet, would be a better choice than sawdust, again, the "pouff!" problem.
You may not want to "poke and stir to get a good smoke going" as there will be a cloud of ash settling over your duck!
3. From various sources, it is suggested that you steam the duck after smoking, to acquire a moist end product. If you roast it for an hour, then smoke it, then deep fry, the meat will be dry. Hang the duck to air-dry before deep frying at this point.
4. Brushing the smoked duck with sesame oil prior to deep frying would be counter-productive. We all know the wonderful flavour of sesame oil, but it's the camphor smoke flavour you are trying to achieve. I think sesame oil would muddle the desired flavour. Air-drying the steamed duck will help produce a crispy skin.
Try it this way, jhirshon, and give us your results. Perhaps you should experiment both ways with TWO ducks, and take lots of pictures!
My suggestions, of course, are all theoretical.
I agree, Dejah. A duck may be loaded with fat, but the meat can still be dry. Oven roasting it for an hour at 400 and especially without moisture in the oven sounds like a dry duck to me. My best ducks are when they are steamed first and then roasted or deep-fried ---- and of course smoking as a first step, in the case of Smoked Duck.
-
2- 湯爆 Tang Bao - Steeping or quick boiling. Thin slices are cooked in the liquid, or the hot liquid is poured over the thin slices. Food is then eated by dipping in dips or mixes.
2- 湯爆 Tang Bao -
What the book said here are 2 words. 湯, with is a noun and it means "soup" and 爆 which means "explode". From the description "quick boiling", it is very close to the word I found: 灼
An example would be the Cantonese dish:
白灼蝦 (White Boiled Shrimp)
A picture? How about a recipe? I have one of my own pictorial on it
There could also be:
白灼牛肉 (White Boiled Beef Slices). That can probably be rewritten as 湯爆牛肉
I also found: 湯爆雙脆 (White Boiled Two Crispies) - they used squid and what looks like duck gizzard - I can't tell.
The page is here (but it is a LONG page). The picture is buried in the middle of the page.
http://www.gati.org.tw/chat/history/200510.../1129276582.htm
Here is the quick link to the picture itself through Google:
Kenneth Lo:
#2 - 湯爆 --Tang Bao / tong baau
This process can perhaps be described as 'steeping' or 'quick-boiling'. It is really a variation of the previous process of plain boiling. The method used here is to bring the soup, stock, or water to a high pitch of boiling; then the ingredients to be cooked are dipped into the hot liquid. The food is usually sliced or cut into suitable thin pieces and dipped into the hot liquid for the momentary process of quick boiling. Alternatively, the hot liquid can be poured onto the food arranged in a serving bowl. The heat of the liquid seals and cooks the food quicky. Again, food cooked in this way is eaten by dipping into dips and mixes . The method is sometimes also called "He".
-
If you woldn't mind my asking, there is another dish that I really like in restaurant, and it is served as shrimps in tomato sauce. Would you know how to make that tomato sauce (is it just the ketchup or is there something else?). If you happen to know, then please let me know. Thanks a lot Dejah, I really appreciate your help.
ash---- Dejah's recipe might be just what you are looking for, as it is a bone fide restaurant recipe.
This one I got from Hugh Carpenter (cook book author). He uses a lot of fusion, but the recipe is good.
TOMATO FIREWORKS SAUCE == To 1 Tbsp. oil, add 2 tsp. minced garlic and 2 tsp. minced ginger and cook till fragrant. // Add 2 scallions sliced into ¼ inch pieces and ¼ cup sweet red pepper cut into ¼ inch pieces and stir/fry another 15 seconds. // Add 2 Tbsp. sherry, 2 Tbsp. tomato catsup (a bit more to taste), 1 tsp. curry paste, 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce, 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce, ½ tsp. sugar, and ½ tsp. sesame oil and bring to a boil. // Add stir/fried shrimp to the sauce and heat.
-
hzrt -- That's a good idea! You lead and I will follow up.
I don't understand this "煮送 (with the "eat" radical to the left of 送) to mean "to cook an entree" Where is 'eat'? - 饣
-
While I'm not a big fan of Shrimp Toast unless it is freshly made, you can make and cook them ahead of time and either refrigerated a day or two or freeze them. Heat them, upside down on a rack, just before you serve them. (You want the bread nice and dry)
Curried beef turnovers can also be done ahead and frozen, then heated in the oven.
-
That explanation of 煮-Zhu, by Ken Lo, that I gave, was just part of 3 paragraphs. I'm a two-finger typer, so I was trying to just give the gist.
Here is the whole thing:
"Chu" is the usual Chinese verb to indicate the general process of cooking; more specifically, it indicates cooking in water by boiling. As a culinary method, it has to be a well-controlled and well-timed process. The boiling must not be too long or most of the flavor and juice of the ingredient cooked will go into the water (soup), nor must it be too short, resulting in undercooking. In the accepted Chinese practice, the boiling is controlled by bringing the water initially to a full-boil, and then either by introducing small amounts of cold water at intervals or by lowering the heat to such a point that the boiling will continue only at a simmer.
Meat and poultry are often cooked whole in this manner. Once cooked the meat is sliced or chopped into pieces of suitable size and eaten after being dipped into various dips at the table. These dips are made by mixin various sauces and ingredients, such as chopped ginger, chives, scallions, garlic, soy sauce, chili, sherry, mustard, plum sauce, and purees (tomato, apple, etc.). Alternatively the pieces of meat may be dipped intomixes, which usually consist of mixtures of dry condiments, such as salt, pepper, chili powder, and five-spice powder (equal quantities of anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, and star anise).
Boiling is a very popular ans well-favored method of food preparation, due primarily to the purity of flavor resulting from the plain cooking of the ingredients, which tend to retain more of their original tastes and flavors. The usae of highly-seasoned dips allows the individual diners to flavor the food according to personal use.
hzrt -- I like the idea of 'one dish a day'!!
-
I'll be making some Dim Sum for a dinner party and I was wondering how far in advance the dumplings can be made with out the "stuffing" seaping through the wrappers.
I'll be making the yeast based dough for steamed pork buns, shu mi (sp?), and others using the premade wonton wrappers.
I plan on making the "stuffing" ahead of time, I was wondering about filling the dumplings/buns the night before and placing them in the refrig.? Although, I think this may compromise the "wrapper"?
Anyone have any thoughts on this? Or should I just stick to making the stuffing the day before?
-z
I have made fillings for shao mai and potsticker, for instance, and frozen it. Then thaw and procede.
Also, for shao mai and potstickers, I have made them, and while uncooked I have placed them on a cookie sheet and frozen them, then placed in an air tight plastic bag. When cooked from the frozen state --- add an extra 5 minutes to the cooking time.
For something like pearl balls, they have to be cooked first, then you can freeze them. Again adding 5 minutes to the steaming time.
You can take some cues to what you see in a Chinese store. In the refrigerator section are all kind of dim sum tidbits, filled and ready to cook.
What is your menu?
-
Dejah -- You wrote:
"A customer asking for a substitution in a dish often resulted in a new item. For example, the chop suey snack (chop suey on a burger bun) became a Saturday night special when a customer asked for bread instead of rice. These were the perfect size for the ladies as they waited for their men to come out of the "men only" pubs in the 50s and 60s. This was a typical scene from a prairie town on a Saturday night...another story
I'mn not even going to tell my DH about that combo ----- he will try it! And he will LOVE it!
AAAARRRGGGHHHHH! See what I have to put up with??!! LOL!
-
_john -- Your Chinese cleaver (3.5 inches?) looks like a standard everyday cleaver. The BIGGER ones are used mostly for large cuts of meat or bones, and a thinner one ( 1.5 inches), called a 'lesser' knife is used for carving and slicing. They have cleavers like yours that are basically carbon steel with a stainless coat that avoids the staining, but keeps a nice edge.
I'm not yet versed in posting pictures. My knives of choice are the two knives I described above.
Plus a paring knife and a Cutco bread slicing knife. My fillet knife is an old knife that has just worn down over the ages!! But it fillets and skins beautifully.
I don't keep my knives in a drawer or in a knife block. Rather, they hang in the very narrow space between my stove and countertop. Very handy!
(I MUST learn how to post pictures!)
-
To see the nurse's hat, check out your local hospital.
Dejah --Have you checked out a hospital lately? LOL! You can't tell an RN from an aide! For some reason they phased out nurse's caps in the 80's. (At least down here in the lower 48s.) The only time you see them is with some die-hards. I always wanted to wear a standard nurse's cap, but when I went into nurses training, I realized that my hospital of choice had small folded crinoline caps. I got to love them, but soooo wished they were my standard dream cap!
hzrt -- If you fold the wrapper into a rectangle,( instead of a triangle), then pull together the two side tails on the folded edge, the unfolded top edge will pop up into the nurses cap shape. The triangle one does the same, but is not a standard nurses's cap.
Here's a picture:
-
At the risk of taking this topic even further off on a tangent, I want to piggy-back on this with another question about pepper in Chinese cooking.
Whenever I go into an Asian grocery store, I find a large selection of pepper--white, black, ground and whole peppercorns. But I never see anything labeled as Szechuan peppercorns (even now that the US ban is supposedly off). I do see various bottles of peppercorns whose English labeling says something like "special pepper" or "special quality pepper" or similar. Are these just marketing-speak, or is this some code for "Szechuan peppercorns"--or do they have some other significance? (Heh. I see I'm going to have to learn to recognize at least a few Chinese characters if I'm going to get any further along in my appreciation.
)Here are some pictures of what they look like. You'll be able to select them because regular pepper doesn't look like them:
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=n...rns&sa=N&tab=wi
And these characters should be on the package.
花椒 - Flower pepper
And maybe the province of Sichuan:
四川
The package might say 'fagara' on it. If so then you've struck gold --- er-- pepper!
-
Once I was teaching a class of kids how to make wontons. I showed them the easiest way -- the triangle and pulling the tips together. Well -- they got creative and one tried to outdo the other! They all tasted the same when cooked, tho.
-
One question, though. I don't remember seeing recipes which use white pepper in the Chinese cookbooks I've used. Is this a personal touch?
-Erik
Can I take a stab at that -- the white pepper?
It's been around in Chinese cooking as long as black pepper -- since antiquity. Some of my cookbooks use it frequently and some chefs seem to use it exclusively. It is supposed to be the "hot" in Hot and Sour Soup -- and it is often used when you want to keep the color purity in a dish as in a creamed sauce. (Napa Cabbage in White Sauce)
-
hzrt -- I had this dish tonight and they were wonderful. A simple dish, but far from ordinary!
Since it was a last minute idea, they weren't marinated -- and since they were lean, thin boneless pieces, I coated them with a paste mix of Eggbeaters and cornstarch before I fried them. They turned out great. Tender and moist, and even DH loved them. The flavor of the dark shallots really does something! And the subtle shaoxing/soy/sesame flavor is just right.
Thanks!
-
"Smushed top" ?
I love that term!!!!
hzrt8w's wok and burner shopping project
in China: Cooking & Baking
Posted
Send a copy of this thread to Storekeeper #1 so that he will know the negative impact his attitude is giving. And tell him to give a raise to storekeeper #2 as she is the reason you (a potential customer) stayed.
I like the idea of showing what a seasoned wok looks like.
Did they have woks with a wooden handle and a METAL ear on the other side? Do the ones with the wooden handles wiggle? I like the immovability of the solid metal.
I stack my woks, too. The 12'' (flat and round) upside down on each other, and the same with the 14"er flat and round bottoms. They are right over the stove for easy access. (I am tall) And an 18" hangs on a wall.
For about a year I had my cast iron wok upside down on top of one of the stacks. When I've used it, I've replaced it back on the pile. But last week, I didn't balance it correctly, I guess, as it came tumbling down, knocking over a large teflon wok in which I was boiling a pile of potatoes for salad. The boiling water went flying and the heaviness of the iron wok DENTED the heavy teflon one. Thank goodness I wasn't in the kitchen -- but what a BANG (and mess)! So-- stack, but stack carefully if you get both woks!
BTW -- your pictorial visit to the WOK STORE was great --- as far as it went. Too bad the storekeeper didn't realize that you were giving him some publicity.