jo-mel

In the recipes that I've seen it, it was called Chinese Parsley -- not Cilantro. Rhoda Yee uses it in her Shao Mai recipe. Those dumplings are good without it, but BETTER with it!!

Which restaurant? Please post about it in the New York forum; we want to know about it. ← Pan -- You know this place ----- NY Noodletown. It is on that menu that sits on the table.

Clay pot oysters? I'm dying! I have 2 turkeys in the oven and bowls and bowls of stuffing and winter vegetables waiting to be reheated --- and what do I want? ----- Those oysters! hzrt -- One of my fav restaurtants in NYC has an oyster sandy pot that is wonderful. With pork but no tofu. Your picture and recipe just might be dinner tomorrow night ---- if I don't eat those oysters after they have been fried. Maybe I'd better double the amount so that the final dish will have enough!! Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating today. Go Broncos, Go!!

Noted. Ah Leung Gaw....really yummy-looking lemon chicken. I always make lots of extra sauce to put in a gravy boat. The kids love flooding their chicken with tanginess. ← I even like extra lemon sauce on rice!

This google link leads to several recipes ------ a couple of them have pork in the list of ingredients. One time I made a dinner for a couple, and included 'dry fried green beans'. I had to adjust the meal as the gentleman had a heart problem, so no fried food and no fatty pork. For this dish, I used ground turkey, and instead of deep/frying the beans, I boiled them, dried them, then placed them under the broiler with a very thin spray of Pam to barely oil them. They blistered like the deep/fried ones! I was surprised just how good they turned out!!

Here is a google recipe: http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-archive/46/249698.shtml Keep the broth at a simmer for a clear broth. If you let it boil, ---after a VERY short time, the broth turns milky because of a change in the fat molecules ---- so keep the heat under control.

That looks so interesting! I just bookmarked it for good reading, as I will be very busy for the next few days. Thanks for posting it.

Aside from the 3-prong plate lifter, I have one like this. It is good on an oval platter. http://www.orientalpantry.com/shopping_car...item_no=4900605 You still have to lift carefully. I let a plate slip ONCE! Too bad there isn't something like those metal paper clips that latch firmly on whatever.

Before I bought my plate lifters, I used something similar to SuziSushi. But rather than foil, I used strips of cloth. You just have to use wide enough to support the dish. Dejah - My most used cleavers rest in the space between my stove and my counter. That space is about 1/2 inch wide, and they fit in just right there. I put them as far back as possible so that the burner can be used.

Hzrt - I was going to mention your sugar/lemon juice ratio also. I like it! But I've never used lemonade before or even tasted that particular lemonade. I guess it is not too sweet, since you don't like that cloyingly horrible sweet stuff either. A good Lemon Chicken is hard to find in the US - apart from a place that attracts Chinese diners. The overly sweetened stuff that is so popular has given that good dish a bad name.

Those taro 'footballs' are one of those things that ----- when I've had enough, when I can't eat one more piece, and then the taro comes around, I just HAVE to have one!

Could the 'batter' be caul fat wrapped around the shrimp and then coated with cornstarch? Your word 'lacy' made me wonder. Or could the taro give that appearance? They sound wonderful! I'm that way with DimSum, also! I guell we all are. ---- Just when I think I've had it--- along comes something else that cannot be resisted!

Wesza -- I agree. Those Leek Folded Pancakes (Jiu Cai Hezi 韭菜 盒子) are to die for. There is an Asian Supermarket with a hot food area near me. When I am there, if they have run out of those 'meals in a package' -- I feel cheated. They are soooo good!

If you brown the potstickers first, then add water, the skin (wrapper) will get soggy/soft at the end. Let the water do the boiling/steaming first, then when the water all evaporates away (and the oil remains) you will have some nice, crispy brown skins. Most efficient. ← But -- but ---- but----- Mine ARE crispy when they are done! They are browned, watered, steamed, uncovered, and when the water has completely boiled off the pan becomes dry-- except for the remaining oil. You can hear the change in the pan as the bottoms recrisp. When I lift one and take a fingernail and tap a bottom ----- and it is like tapping a shell --- then they are ready. Flip/invert on a plate and there is a ring of crispy bottoms facing you!!

Do you mean in use pressed tofu as a pork substitute in addition to the silken tofu (ie 2 kinds of tofu in the dish)? Woul you treat the pressed tofu in exactly the same way as the pork (marinate, fry, drain)? ← For a meat substitute you can used dry textured vegetable protein. When it is rehydrated, it has the texture of ground meat

Is the dace paste firm? I always use that fist - squeeze method for meatballs, but the mix is nice and firm.

The boiled dumplings are in fact called jiaozi. I'm not sure about the steamed ones, I actually doubt it, since I've haven't even heard of a phrase used to described steamed dumplings in general. ← I agree with AzianBrewer about jiaozi being boiled. Learned to make these when we had a visiting professor and his wife leading +20 of my Mandarin classmates for Chinese New Year in 2003. Wor-Teep is when you put the dumplings into a fry-pan or sautee pan, add some broth and cover to steam until the small amount of broth is gone. The dumplings will then brown and form a crispy skin. So, War-teeps are steamed(boiled) then pan fried. ← Dejah -- I've always (most always) browned the guo tie in the pan first, then added the water -- let them cook, covered, then let the water boil away and allow the bottoms to crisp. Then I read of a Shanghai way that doesn't brown them first. Just the oiled pan, the water, the cooking and then allowing the liquid to boil away so the browning can take place. Is your way the latter? Is that Toisanese? AND Shanghainese?

I never even thought of Salt and Pepper Tofu! (Something to keep in mind if I ever do a vegetarian class again.) Great for vegetarians who want the salt/pepper experience. I wonder if the tofu squares were deep/fried as is or if they were first dusted with cornstarch or waterchestnut powder.

Wow Dejah! I hope you had help both in the preparation AND the cooking. Were the scallop/carrot/shoots wrapped with leeks steamed or fried or baked like rumaki? Precooked carrots? Could one of you photographers please come to NJ and give me lessons in posting pictures ------ please!!!

hrzt -- "The quantity made in this recipe is a bit more than twice the portion shown in this picture." Got it! I was thinking "portion of black pepper" for some reason -- not the actual quantity of chicken on the plate. And my question on the amount of black papper was also a case of misreading the pepper quantity and the amount of salt. All is now straight in my mind -- and THAT is something!

jo-mel: Huo is just a surname with no special meaning. (Like mine: Leung has no special meaning). The word Qu in use is a transitive verb, means "to get rid of". So his name means "to get rid of sickness". I have used Google last night to search based on 霍去病 and 蟹. There were many documents returned. But of the dozens that I scanned through, none of them tied Huo to eating crabs. I can't quite understanding this legend... whether it's the famer losing the crops because there were too many crabs, or the farmer were afriad of eating crabs because they thought the crabs carried disease? If it is the former case, why not just kill the crabs (not have to eat them)? ← I understand about surnames. (I was given Mei 梅 by my language teacher.) But the literal translation struck me as funny because of his early death. Even his given name seems odd -- even if it was not his birth name. Last night I googled, also, but came up with nothing about the good general and crabs. Crabs have been around since really ancient times, so I can't imagine their not being accepted - and eaten ------ but then again, tomato was considered poison in fairly modern times. I did find this, but it doesn't mention China: According to the Encyclopedia Americana [1995 edition] there are approximately 4,500 different species of crabs living on Earth. They are distributed throughout the world. This means? It is probably impossible to tell for sure who (much less where!) ate the first crabs. Food historians tell us crabs were known to ancient Greeks and Romans. How do they know? Art and literature. Historians also tell us crabs were not well liked by these ancient Mediterranean people as food. "Crab, group of water creatures characterised by their hard, round, flat shells. Several of the larger kinds are very good to eat, but ancient sources do no suggest they were eaten enthusiastically. The various classical names cannot be confidently attached to individual species; they varied in their reference across the ancient world and through time." ---Food in the Ancient World from A to Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 105)

Huo Qu-Bing -- Suddenly Go Sick? Which came first? The name or the illness? LOL! I googled the good general and found this: A name with 3 character is very popular nowadays. It was rare only at the time before, especially during Han dynasty. One of my favorite generals in Han dynasty has a name with 3 characters--Huo Qu-Bing (140 BC~117BC), qu means get rid of, bing means sickness or some shortcomings. He and his uncle Wei Qing (his mother's elder brother) fought against the Hun several times, broke them into two, one surrender to Han and became part of Chinese, the other part escaped far far away to the northwest, and finally another general Chen Tang drove them out of Asia, the Huns gradually moved to Europe, caused the famous domino effect. After his first fight against the Huns, he was granted the Marquis of Champion (guan jun hou), for his bravery showed in this battle make him the top one in the whole army--with his 800 cavalryman, killed more than 2000 Hun soldiers, the prime minister and many other major officers of Hun as well, and captured some VIP of Hun. I think the most impressive thing about Huo is the following: After one main battle, the emperor built a luxuriant palace for him, and decided to marry him the princess, but he refused and said, "Since the Huns haven't been destroyed, it's not the time to settle down the family yet"---"Xiong1 Nu2 Wei4 Mie4, He2 Yi3 Jia1 Wei2". Only a few years later, Huo died of disease at the age of 24, what a pity.

"The quantity made in this recipe is a bit more than twice the portion shown in this picture." I have to figure this one out!! LOL! So how much pepper did you use -- the tsp or the 1/2 tsp? Somewhere in China, I had a vegetable dish (?snow peas or tips? I forget which), but it had the unmistakenable flavor of butter and soy sauce. It surprised me, even tho I'm aware of butter being used in the Tang and Yuan Dynasties. And altho I'd have to search my Chinese travel food log, I know it was not a Moslem restaurant. Even now, when I stir/fry spinach, I add a little butter (or a sub) to the final flavoring. Have you used any of the jarred Black Pepper Sauces? I've tried them and DO NOT LIKE THEM! I even tossed one jar! Black pepper dishes have been favorites of mine, and I often order them if they are on menu --- usually beef, scallops, shrimp and ocassionally chicken. Easy to make and not have to rely on the jarred stuff. A simple sauce and fresh pepper. Easy! This dish will certainly be on the menu this week, but I might have to {{{{{groan}}}}} use a teeny little bit of fake butter along with the real stuff -- for diet sake.

ROTFLMAO etc!! I'm feeling real punk today, and needed the laugh! About the cleaver and chopping. When I'm just doing plain cutting/slicing, I have my hand on the handle AND partially on the top of the blade itself, so as to have complete control of the knife. But when I am chopping I grasp the handle only -- firmly, and use hard wrist action --- a firm flip from a height of a foot or more. And as Dejah said, if you knick the thick bones, so that the cleaver is stuck, the next flip of the wrist should do it. I also keep my other hand behind my back so that I won't be tempted to hold the piece.

The only time I've seen and bought them was in NYC's Chinatown and they were hanging from the ceiling in plastic packages. You couldn't miss them there!! I'm with Chrisamirault and for asking at a grocer --- or even a restaurant. But then a trip to SF's Chinatown would be fun. If you go-- stop at Bow Hon on Grant St. and have one of their clay pot dishes and then do a chicken/sausage sandy pot for us. --- will ya? Huh?Huh?