Dejah

The chicken and broccoli is simple, but so satisfying. Those ten inch pyrex pie plates are perfect receptacles for big portions. I use the very same ones, and have often seen them used in restaurants. The sauce doesn't spill, and the handles make for easier removal from the steamer. I also use them when I steam ground meat patties, fish fillets, chicken and mushroom, etc. We had steamed ground beef with ja choi, stir-fried Shanghai bok choi with lots of ginger and a touch of garlic. Soup was lotus root simmered with octopus and pork breast bones. There was just enough leftover from Sunday for hubby and me! Our daughter is now studying at med school about 2.5 hours from home. She's missing traditional soups, so I'll be making the lotus root again with lots of octopus, foo juk with dried oysters, bittermelon with oysters, dried bok choi with dried duck feet and honey dates. Her brother is visiting her this weekend so I'll be sending in a care package.

Oh Majra! Causing envy with your first contribution! You're a lucky woman, especially if your hubby is the cleaner-upper. I would love to have a set up like yours. Perhaps when we can reclaim the backyard from the dog. At the moment, it's not a great place to cook in.

Cover and simmer for a few minutes until seafood is 3/4 cooked. Remove from heat, give it a toss, adjust the seasoning and serve. The pot keeps the food hot so it will continue to cook after it is removed from the heat, which was annoying because I had to rush to take pics before the seafood would get overdone. ← A suggestion: After you add all the ingredients except the seafood, bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes. Then, add the seafood and take it off the heat right away. As you said, the pot will keep the food hot and it will continue to cook. This will keep the seafood from overcooking while you put out the rest of the food. Don't you just love how the fried tofu soaks up all that flavourful sauce?

Our little Asian grocery store has started to bring in some sweets for Chinese New Year. I gave her a list of the goodies for "toon hap". So far, they only have coloured coconut, along with some cookies with sesame seeds, and big sesame coated balls. I want candied leen jee, leen gnow, wintermelon, persimmons, coconut wedges, carrot slices, red melon seeds. My favourite is the leen jee (lotus nuts). They have brought in 2 cases of bittermelon. It's not the Chinese customers, but the East Indians who have been buying them. They also had lotus root (leen gnow). I hope they'll have some closer to New Year! As for astrological signs:I am a RAT. Most of my friends are PIGS. They say that's typical because a RAT can always find food, and a PIG always wants to be around someone with food! You can find lots of information on Chinese astrology if you do a search on google, etc. Not sure how we'll celebrate this year as SON1's bday is on Feb. 17th. I want to go and eat at my mom's table, but being a married daughter, I can't. Maybe they'll save me lots of leftovers for next day when I can go for my visit.

We've been having some kind of tong everyday: guy choi, choi gone, say may, etc, etc. Tonight, we're having lee gnow (lotus root) with pork and octopus. Supper will be "fusion" - red braised leg of pork, another pork shoulder butte roasted with rosemary and dijon mustard. Our son, his fiancee, my grandson, and my mom are coming for supper. I wanted my mom's opinion on the braised pork. Cookwithlove: Look in the technical forum for instructions on how to upload images. I believe Ah Leung can also give you a quick and easy lesson as well. We will look forward to your pictures!

Glad to see Alanamoana and I were right on the guess! Hubby and I were supposed to go to a conference around your area last fall. Now I wish we did. Looking forward to seeing lots more of your cooking and photography!

Here are some of the dishes we've been eating: This couldn't have been very memorable as I can't even remember what it was called or what cookbook I culled it from! I THINK it was chicken breast stuffed with chopped shrimp, coated with panko crumbs and deep fried. This seemed to have been a favourite of everyone in this forum: beef, bittermelon and dow see. I usually make lots of sauce and have it in a side dish. This cold snap we are experiencing on the prairies - with the windchill factor = -50C - is perfect for hot 'n' sour soup. Hubby always adds steamed rice to his. Thursday was hubby's bday. My mom said he must have chicken on his bday. As I was teaching an evening class, I had this braising in the oven for supper: chicken legs, Chinese mushrooms, daylily buds, bamboo shoots, and deep fried tofu in chicken stock with a touch of oyster sauce. At the end, I added suey choy and thickened it with a cornstarch slurry. The sauce was wonderful on rice. Atticus, our Great Pyrenees dog is minding his manners, waiting patiently for his handouts. We are invited to a house party this evening - after supper. There will be lots of finger foods to snack on, and they didn't turndown my offering of summer rolls. Just got these finished. WHEW!

Two of my favourite ingredients: Thai basil and chilis. I add them to whatever and whenever I can!

Which one is better? Big tapioca balls or small ones? I had the impression the bigger the better but it seems that the smaller the balls, the more tea you would have. The big ones really fill me up quickly. ← I like the big ones myself - love chewing on them. I just bought a bag of multi-coloured ones for the grandson. The black tapioca was great for Halloween!

That would be a better method - just like slipping branches of rosemary under the skin when roasting a chicken. The flesh is not pierced, so the juice would stay in the chicken.

I would say yes to both. So, the next blogger is definitely someone really into, or knows a great deal about, or seriously trying and learning about SE Asian cuisine. But, Susan needs to say, "Getting warmer!"

If you poke holes, then you'd probably lose some "juiciness" in the final product as you are roasting the chicken breast down. The breast meat can be very touchy with the baking method. I like the lovely contrast between the colour of the skin and the white of the meat. The trick is to eat each piece WITH the skin, but I suppose your better half would say, "NO, No!". If you want the colour and flavour to infuse throughout the meat, then you would simmer the chicken in the marinade.

This has been a terrific diary. Thank you for sharing with us. If you have any leftover pictures, please keep posting them! I have a love-hate relationship with this thread: I love all the pictures and the descriptions, but I hate the fact that I can't taste as well as see all the food!

Oh, I see you DID use bing tong. I haven't been using pork belly because it is way too expensive to buy here. I was looking at a small slab, about 12" x 12", and it was going to cost me $30.00! Pork shoulder picnics with the skin on was $1.00/lb last week, so I stocked up. May not have as much fat on it, but that's ok diet-wise. I have also made this with pork butt roast if I find a piece with a good layer of fat. That turned out well also.

Beautiful colouring on that belly of yours. Did you use bing tong with the mushrooms too? Somehow I can't get past the sweet and what I consider savory of the mushrooms.

I blanch, sear, add all ingredients, bring to a boil, then braise in the oven for several hours. The heat is consistent, and you don't have to keep watch over the pot as often. Chinese rock sugar - bing tong, gives a different flavour as it is produced from strong solution of sugarcane juice. Common granulated sugar is the very refined form from sugarcane juice, or from sugar beets. The refining process pretty much removes all the flavour except the sweetness. Not sure about the pein tong - the brown sugar bars. One source says they are totally unrefined sugar from the sugarcane or a special kind of palm.

I'm not sure those are tiles on the roof tops - not familiar enough with them as they are non-existent on our prairies. And I'm not sure the architecture can be found in Maryland, but the ingredients made me think of C. Sapidus immediately.

To xiaoLing's suggestion of rehydrated dried shrimp, add some pre-soaked mung bean noodles and soy sauce. I think Ah Leung has a pictorial on that. You can also stuff these melons with seasoned ground pork - with or without finely chopped shrimp, then braised. Or, make a soup with chunks of melon and pork. I have also used this as a substitute when wintermelon is not available. I have a "hoard" of eight jeet gwa in my cool basement from the Chinese gardeners in my city. Boy! Do they baby their melon vines - to my benefit.

See gwa and okra are very different items. I think non-Chinese call see gwa okra because of its similar ridge appearance. See gwa is from the squash family while okra is from the mallow family. I've seen okra used more in East Indian than Chinese cooking.

I would leave out the shitake mushrooms and the soaking liquid - does not work well with the honey. I use palm sugar or rock sugar when I make braised pork along with star anise, cinnamon stick, ginger. garlic, scallions, chili peppers, but no daikon. Gastro, are those the same dong goo you'vew been soaking for...how many hours now?!

I love fresh waterchestnuts, but I hate peeling them. Did the lady selling them use a special tool, or was she just really adept with a paring knife? Really enjoyed your blog. Thank you!

Would love to see your Lunar New Year Feast, Peony - just don't post any pictures of your father drinking blood! I remember drooling over some of Tepee's posts last year! My food has been looking particulary blah picture wise, but tasty. Maybe I should start using food colouring! Hubby's been wanting hot' n 'sour soup, dong gwa tong, gnow yuk jing mui choi, even jee juk jing ham yu - a real change from prime rib, sweet desserts, etc over the holiday season.

By Day 8, I just might have to accept the many invites from my former Taiwanese students to visit and eat! All the food and pictures have been amazing, Nishla. Now, I assume you've been collecting recipes from all the banquets, food stalls, etc, and we can expect to see them pictorialized in the Chinese Eats thread very soon!

Shouldn't be any problems using the dong goo if they've been soaking in the fridge, but they may not be as flavourful. If they haven't been refridgerated, check and see if they smell like dong goo, and that there's no slime on them. I've had some soaking in the fridge since the 27th and just used them for dong gwa tong on Monday, and hot 'n' sour soup yesterday. As for salting the oil prior to stir-frying, this helps to better distribute the salt. It's the same as infusing the oil with aromatics, heat from chilis, etc. Po-Po also said it will prevent dangerous splatters if you drop some water into the hot oil. I'm not so sure about the second reason, but I'm not about to question her +85 years of cooking (she will celebrate her 98th bday this August).

Not sure if this is widespread at all Safeway stores, but the ones in my city have a package of six or eight? "connected" cupcakes iced to look like a slab cake. You can have it decorated for birthdays, anniversaries, etc. The idea, I suppose, is "just in case" there is no knife for cutting the cake. Just before Christmas, we attended a "welcome home to the newlyweds" event. They didn't have a second wedding cake; instead, they had an arrangement of cupcakes decorated with Xmas themes. It was unusual in that they had charms that represented certain prizes hidden in them.