Dejah

Ok. Here are the results from my "braising" afternoon: We also had fresh lily bulb soup, stir-fried baby bak choi, and jasmin rice. Po-Po came for supper. This is Fushia Dunlop's Red-braised beef with Turnip - the dish on the left in the above picture. The smaller-portioned one is from Gloria Bley Miller - Red-simmered Spiced Beef with Turnip. For Ms. Dunlop's, I could have used more toban sauce. This time, I actually liked the underlying heat from the Szechuan peppercorns. I didn't bit into any, so just experienced the heat. I added some fresh chilis. I think I'd like more variety in vegetables rather than just turnip. The non-spicy one was really rich! It was very tender and Po-Po loved it. I used beef shortribs. There was a great deal of fat floating on top, so I took the meat out, chilled the liquid, and skimmed off the fat. The lobak was 1/2 cooked by boiling, then added to the braise 30 minutes before we ate. I'd make Ms. Dunlop's again with more heat. With the red-simmered recipe, I think I prefer the flavours with pork.

Catch up time with the pictures! Yesterday for lunch - fried wutau goh. For supper - Pickerel with mixed vegetables. The fish was marinated in salt, white pepper, MSG, sherry, ginger. oil, cornstarch. Lunch today - "Naked" wontons, egg noodles, siu choi, char siu, sweet chili sauce and cilantro -my favourite herb! Good to every last drop! I collect roosters.

The only stir-fried version I have had is just after CNY with tay doi - deep-fried sesame dumpling balls. These always collapse after the "offering time". This pastry is stir-fried with guy choi for a sweet/savory/bitter dish. I have been eating this mustard greens soup for 2 weeks because my niece brought several plants home! I had posted this in the Chinese Eats thread, but here it is again.

I've got two different "braises" in the oven: one is Fushia Dunlop's Red-Braised Beef with White Radish in the sandpot for those of us who like spicy, and the smaller cast iron pot is Gloria Bley Miller's Red-Simmered Spiced Beef with Turnips. I have them both in the oven set at 275F. In the last hour, I'll cook the turnip chunks separately, then add them for the last half hour or so. Show 'n' tell after supper.

Thanks, muichoi! The glossary did say it was cardamom-like. I have black cardamom, so I'm set to go! Liuzhou: You could fool me anyday. I can't read Chinese characters except for a couple.

Chi fan le ma? 吃烦了吗? ← I guess I didn't acquire the proper tones through osmosis in the Mandarin class. There's Cantonese coming thru' in the "lah mah" I want to make red braised beef with white radish tomorrow - a la Fushia Dunlop's Land of Plenty. Reading through the recipe, I don't know what cao guo is, even after seeing the image on google. I don't have it in my pantry, and if I can't find it tomorrow at our small store, can I substitute it with something else? I'll have to leave out most or all of the chili bean paste as my mom doesn't eat spicy. Maybe I should just use soy sauce, ginger, star anise, cinnamon, scallions, wine, rock sugar, and daikon?

I wonder if the red was to make it appealing to the non-Chinese when the cuisine first appeared in Gum San? If something looks familiar - like ketsup, people are more likely to try new food? ← But in Hong Kong you can find the sweet and sour dishes in bright red too (refer to the 2 pictures). Unless this is a backflow from those early American-Chinese immigrants who made their way back to Hong Kong. But I kind of doubt it. After all I don't think you can ever find a "shrimp with lobster sauce" in Hong Kong restaurants. ← Ah, but the "red pleasing colour factor" may have been at play in HK as well. Remember, it was a British colony, and I remember seeing and being warned about all "those sailors" (British AND American) swarming the streets for their R'n'R looking for excitment and "culture"... OR, as my hubby just pointed out, the Chinese LIKE RED.

I've got lemongrass ribs marinating in the fridge for tomorrow. This is from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. The marinade called for caramel sauce. I made it and it looks beautiful! The taste test tomorrow will tell me if the half hour of watching bubbles was worthwhile. Actually, the progression of the colour from white sugar in 1/4 cup of water to champagne - tea - dark amber - molasses made it worthwhile! The recipe said honey was an option, but for once in my life, I followed the recipe exactly! You'd be proud of me, c. sapidus (Bruce)!

You could leave it spread out on a window ledge, away from moisture, or it will get moldy.

I wonder if the red was to make it appealing to the non-Chinese when the cuisine first appeared in Gum San? If something looks familiar - like ketsup, people are more likely to try new food? And, to compete for customers, the redder the better, and it got way out of hand? Thus, we have the Christmas sauce! I can see where the Polynesian influence came into play with Azianbrewer's uncle's recipe: citrus, pineapple... Now, inferno, to answer the question of ingredient proportions in a restaurant-size batch of anything is a challenge. We always made the same item in the same container or cooking pot, so, this much of this, so much of that, and just a little less of this!

Please post the information, Gabriel. I also have a bottle of mustard oil given to me, and I have no idea how to use it.

Oh, we we all do get carried away sometimes. After all, CNY is fast approaching. I was cleaning out my fridge for supper tonight - finished off leftover roast beef, topped with the curried beef, with a big plate of Shanghai bak choi miu stir-fried with garlic and drizzles of sesame oil. Instead of rice, we had Weight Watcher friendly pretend potatoes - boiled lobak then stir-fried with 4 peppercorn spice. I really like this substitute, but it's not rice.

I will be very interested in the suggestions too! My half a bag is still in the fridge.

I found that orange peels are not that suitable to be dried and used for Chinese cooking. The skin is too thick, with too much pith. Tangerine peels work the best. You can probably use Mandarin peels too. ← The fragrance of regular oranges is not the same as chun pei. hzrt calls them tangerines, but I seldom see them labelled as such. Here, they just call them Chinese oranges. They are bigger than the Christmas Japanese/Mandarin oranges, and the peel is not "attached" to the orange segments. They are very easy to peel - and save.

Congratulations! This thread has achieved page 30 now! Would you like to celebrate it with: Indian curry (so many to choose from) Malaysian curry (coconut milk!) Vietnamese curry (lemon grass and lime juice and fried shallot) Chinese curry (the green pepper, onion, patoto stuff) Thai curry (red, green or yellow?) Japanese curry (MSG!) English curry ??? ← All of the above! Last night, I made Beef Chili Curry ( bade aur mirch ki curry) from Meena Pathak' Flavours of India. To make this Chinese related, we had it for supper with jasmin rice. Just now, we ate the leftovers with cheung fun. That curry sauce was so good with the rice rolls! I was going to make Grilled Lemongrass Pork Riblets from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, but the meat needs to marinate for 24 hours. I will have to wait until the weekend. I am enjoying the two new books I bought. The photos in both are great inspirations. I always like to see what the food should look like even if mine don't look as pretty. Have to keep remembering: Professionals paint their food. Edited to add last night's Beef Chili Curry.

Couldn't you just use an orange like somebody suggested? And, is there a special process for drying them, if you don't have a radiator? ← Yes, you certainly can use an orange, but the variety that was used in the original and still preferred today, is the Chinese Mandarin orange. These oranges are not available all year round, and may not be available to some of us at all. So, we save the peelings when we do get to enjoy them. You don't have to have a radiator. I turn the pieces inside out, single layer them in a basket, place in a well ventilated place, and let them dry out. It's good if you remove the pith before drying. You can also buy packages of dried peels in Asian stores.

Bruce, Hubby says the trips to Wpg. are too expensive - on his wallet and on his waistline. I think I'll forgo anymore shopping trips, save his $, and go live at your house. That will at least save his waistline... Lovely looking supper. The beef looks very inviting, especially with that mix of flavours. What cut do you use? I'm going to have to ask you to refrain from listing the books you cook from! THAT'S why my trips to Wpg are expensive! I have Barbara Tropp's China Moon book, and was so excited by it I went looking for her restaurant when we were in San Francisco in the '90s. We found the location; it was all boarded up. I found out just a couple of years ago that she had died before we made the trip. Does anyone else have cravings for curry? What is it about curry? I go through spells where I crave it! We've had curry something 4 nights now: chicken, shrimp, lamb, then beef and cauliflower tonight. It all started at the International students dinner last Wed with butter chicken.

Interesting that this topic should come up today. My Korean students were giving a demo on making kimbap. They also used a knife to peel the cucumbers. Now, Fat Guy, do you peel the whole cucumber or segments? These ladies used my chef's knife, and used a slight sawing motion as they moved around the whole cucumber lengthways. These were slicing cukes, about 8" long with the ends trimmed. They also "sliced" the cukes this way before they cut them into thin strips for the kimbap. I can work with 4 - 5" English cuke segments, but worry about slicing off my thumb.

It all depends on whether you want crispy beef or stir-fried. With ginger beef, you can stir-fry the beef with lots of fresh ginger and green onions - or as I did in post 749 of the Chinese eats at home thread. So, I suppose you can do the same with orange beef - stir-fry with orange zest and orange segments, or per recipe above. You just have to remember that they are different dishes! I was in a restaurant once, and assumed ginger beef to mean spicy, crispy ginger beef. I was quite shocked when it came out stir-fried!

Here are some of the arrowheads I bought in Winnipeg, but haven't eaten yet. So pretty...maybe I should just plant them. A couple of dishes we've enjoyed this week after my Winnipeg Chinatown shopping trip! Monday night: Gai Choi ham dan tong (mustard greens and salted egg soup) I thought I picked up dow miu, but it was gai lan miu. It was very good with char siu for hubby and pig stomach for moi. I made a thin sauce with oyster sauce for the blanched vegetables. The cheung fun was bought. It had ha mai and green onions - great microwaved with sweet soy, sesame oil, and ma la oil. Tonight: Seaweed/siu choi tong I made the kuo yuk a la Tepee - for tomorrow. Had some wutau left, so, a treat for the students' lunch tomorow. The fading daylight from the window gave a surreal colouring to the picture. Kinda pretty. I know. I know. So much lieu la! For supper, we had curry shrimp, zuchinni, and onion over jasmine rice. It was pretty and delicious, but I was in too much of a hurry to eat and get to work. So, use your imaginations. Finally, a treat hubby picked up while browsing down the candy aisle - sesame ginger shreds. This is packed shreds of ginger, topped with sesame seeds. It's hell trying to get a piece, but really, really good stuff. I've never seen this before. I want more!

The tangerine peel that I buy and use is dried. We can't always get fresh tangerines. It is also said that the older the dried peel, the more flavour. My mom had always saved her peelings, dried and stored in a glass jar. The bags one buys in the store are nothing compared to the fragrance of her stash. Unfortunately, she hasn't been collecting for years, and this unworthy daughter hasn't kept up the tradition.

I just use ordinary white vinegar. Maybe others use rice vinegar, black vingar, but the main flavour you want to stand out is orange. Edited to add: Check post 749 in the Chinese Eats at Home thread, Priscilla. I made the ginger beef, but my orange beef looks like that...except orange flavoured.

I do the marinade with an egg, seasonings and orange zest (or orange essence), and an equal mixture of cornstarch and flour. This makes the meat pretty sticky. Then, I bread each piece with fine bread crumbs before deep frying. The beef is crispy on the outside but tender inside. For the sauce, I just use vinegar, sugar, chun pei (juliennes of rehydrated tangerine peel - pith scraped off), whole and crushed dry chilis, and a touch of 5-spice powder. Bring to a boil, simmer, then thicken with cornstarch slurry. I usually have all the ingredients for the sauce simmering in a wok as I deep fry the beef. Once the meat is ready, thicken the sauce and toss in the beef to coat. Don't drench the meat in copious amount of sauce unless you like it like that. Put some of the sauce aside in a dish and add more if needed. I like sauce and crispiness in my orange beef. I still have large bottles of orange flavouring from my restaurant days. Sometimes the tangerine peel just doesn't give enough punch. I used the flavouring more when orange beef was on the buffet.

Woks are not brand driven. Just go to Chinatown and buy the basic spun carbon steel wok, or if you're strong, the cast iron one. If you check thru' hzrt's Chinese cooking tutorials, you'll see he's just graduated to a wok! Most of his food had been cooked in a deep fry pan prior to his wok. Both of mine are from Wal-Mart.

The tuber/corm commonly referred to as the see koo, popular at CNY cooked with lup yuk is in fact of the "arrowhead" plant or sagittaria sagittiflora. The Algonquin Indians of North America made use of the tubers (wapato) of a similar plant. This latter plant is indigenous to North America. ← Ah....there we go! But, I still need suggestions besides pairing with lap yuk.