Dejah

I have seen Chinese food displayed in bowls in the deli section of our major supermarket chains: Safeway. Superstore, Sobey, Co-Op. The visual effect is so terrible that I couldn't make myself spend money on them. Give me a cold sandwich anytime to tie me over until I get home! I'm sure the food must come frozen then thawed for the display. The sushi is good. It is made by a local restaurant with an established reputation. I have tried them as a quick pick up lunch for myself or my daughter. They are delivered twice a day to the store. On another note about places that "serve" Asian food when they shouldn't, I checked out our university's cafeteria the other day. They listed chicken chow mein as one of the specials. One look and I wondered what was the the fridge and freezer that they were trying to get rid of! It was grey with bits of green and what looked to be crispy store bought noodles stirred in. I wanted to jump over the counter and make the "cook" go out into the dining room to apologize to everyone for serving such slop.

When you say "green cabbage with ha mie, do you mean siu choi? isn't it amazing how 2 simple ingredients can taste so good? I've never had egg custard with haum har... Add lap yuk and lap gnap to the lap cheung and triple the greasy pleasure!

I use vegetable oil, canola because it's a product of the prairies. I used some of the fat trimmed off lap yuk and lap gnap the other night. When I was ready to cook the Shanghai bak choi, I "rendered" the fat in the wok then added the vegetables. It was very good. Wouldn't pork fat detract from the flavour of seafood? I use bacon in my Boston clam chowder, but haven't tried pork fat for seafood stir-fries.

Gung Hai Sang Yut Fie Lok! Ben Sook! You waxed so poetically in your post that I had to run out and check out the moon here in Brandon. It is indeed gorgeous, especially with a piece of green tea mooncake in our hands. It was announced that the harvest moon is bigger because its orbit brought it closer to earth. Our two younger kids are home for the weekend from Winnipeg, and we had pieces of wutao goh with tea, followed by mooncake. My s-i-l had a bak sui gai, siu yuk, wutao goh, mooncakes for bai sun earlier today. It was nothing like what she used to prepare under my mom's watchful eyes, but it's harder and harder to keep up with all these traditions as one gets older.

While you're at it, dice up some sweet potato and add it to the rice at the beginning. Mash of the the sweet potato into the burnt rice before you pour in hot water. Double yum!

I made a dish with rice and cured meats in my cast iron pot yesterday. I think that's something like yao fan. With all the lap yuk, lap cheung, lap gnap, which all have lots of fatty parts, you don't need to add "heated oil!" I let most of the water boil down, just a skimming on top of the rice, then added all the above sliced, on top of the rice. The heat was then turned down to lowest setting to finish the cooking. All the fatty juices cooked down into the rice. It was a wonderful fall dish. The aroma in the kitchen was worthwhile too. After I came back from teaching my evening class, I "burned" the rice that was stuck to the bottom of the pot, add hot water and let it soften a bit. I scooped it all up into a bowl, added a square of fu yu...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Go and buy yourself a sandpot or two, Gastro. They're cheap. Let your family buy you the expensive KitchenAide!

The flavouring agents in Kung Pao are dominant. I don't think the addition of vegetables will detract from it. They add only texture and eye appeal for "some" of us. Restaurants add vegetables not only for presentation but also to bolster the serving size without the extra costs of additional chicken.

This is what they were talking about: Chinese name: 蝦醬 ← Thanks for that. I immediately realized what it was --- altho I've never used it. For salted shrimp flavor, I usually use the dried shrimp, rehydrated, and finely chopped. ← Jo-mel, That ain't nothing close to ham ha flavour and aroma.

The tip was that when reusing (strained) peanut oil for deep frying, the next time it's heated up you should heat it up with some scallion and ginger to remove whatever odor the previous frying might have imparted to the oil. ← I've heard of using a slice of raw potato to absorb odours in cooking oil. Ginger and scallion would add their own odour to the oil?

Might be the way to get hubby into cooking. I can get everything here except for candlenuts. Any substitute? Both versions of your lemongrass kebabs look great! Thanks.

I usually just slice the chicken or beef, marinate it with salt, MSG, oil, and cornstarch, mix in some thin shreds of fresh ginger and lay that on top of the rice. There should be just a skimming of water left on the surface of the rice. That will mingle with the chicken to form a flavourful juice that will permeate the grains of rice. I just bought a cast iron pot the perfect size for 2 people. I plan on making lap mai fan on its first use. Has anyone used one of these pots? Should I season it like any other cast iron pan?

Did you have to soak the lemongrass before using, or is it green enough as is? What are sacred spices? A secret mix of your own or a name of a spice blend? These look delicious. I will give them a try!

Tepee, Your mooncakes look delicious and moist. What a talented lady you are! I'd like to order a tin of the white lotus double yolk please.

That's wonderful! I'll look forward to this thread as I don't know anything about Wuhan cuisine. Please include recipes.

Try dow see ngoh yook fu gwa ho fun. That's my favourite. I've been trying to find min see sauce with whole beans. Nada. All I could find was sauce. I also need to buy some sour plums in brine. I usually steam min see shoon mui pai gwut, of course, over rice. It's autumn and also soup time: Choy gon duck feet soup with waterchestnuts, foo juk ho see pork neck bone soup. Gota get my soup pot out!

Yup, my hubby can eat more than one. I used to buy them by the case for my restaurant. We had some chili heads for customers, and most of them were musicians. I used to be able to eat acouple, but I think I suffered burnout...or is it burned-in? I'd cut a slit in the side of each pepper, slip in a chunk of mozz. cheese, dip them in a batter, and deep fry them. The whole pepper would be encased in this crispy batter, the cheese melted, and the stem left as a handle. We didn't clear out the pith, but the cheese really helped! Some of the peppers I froze for some spicy dishes. I also sliced some up into really thin slices for mah la oil. I heated up some vegtable oil until a haze forms over the surface. Slowly and gently with a mesh strainers, I'd add the habaneros, chopped garlic and shallots. The solids get crispy, and I would take it off the heat immediately. You'd need very good ventilation to make this stuff. It's incredible drizzled over chow mein noodles, fried rice, etc for a touch of heat.

Oh Yum! You rendered the fat back so that it's "bubbled" and soft enough to absorb the ham ha. Mom and I were just talking about that on the weekend. We don't make it because it smells up the house, but we may have to give in and cook it once before things are closed up for the winter. Maybe I can use the burner on the BBQ...My neighbors may not be too happy tho'. I was able to find several bundles of Chinese chives yesterday, so we had tofu with loads of chives with beef on top. I loved the texture of the chives. Also cleaned up the leftover chicken/mushrooms/daylily and deep fried tofu that was braised in the sandpot. I threw in some lettuce to reheat in the oyster flavoured sauce. Both of these are Toysanese comfort foods. I've never had potato soup with prok ribs and ja choy. Deprived childhood?

Dejah -- are these mini mooncakes? I bought a tin last year and really enjoyed them. But when I went back for more, they were all gone. Very popular, I guess. I don't have any real favorites, (except anything with nuts grabs me) so the selection was nice. I should keep away from them, because of South Beach diet, but just reading and writing about them is melting my resolve! I can taste them just thinking about them!! ← Jo-mel, No, these are full size cakes. I'll take a picture of them when I cut into them, probably before Oct 6. I love the ones wesza sent last year - with the nuts, shark fin, etc. This will be the first time for the green tea one. I might go back and pick up another tin with just lotus paste and double yolk for the students. There are 20 and 4 cakes just will not do! I said " " to South beach...can't do it! Too many good carb-foods to enjoy.

I don't have the time or energy to make mooncakes, so I bought a tin of 4. They look really fresh. The brand is Riwei. I've never seen these before. One cake is lotus paste with egg yolk, one is 5 nuts and egg yolk, one is green tea lotus paste and egg yolk, and the fourth one is sesame paste and egg yolk. I'll be taking them into class for my students, along with taro cake.

Is "Kung Pao" the name of a sauce? I think it's the name of a style. ← Among the Americanized Chinese restaurants, "Kung Pao" sauce is general term for brown sauce. ← Really? Maybe only in America, but definitely not at Soo's, my restaurant of the past. Our Kung Pao sauce is made with chicken stock and toban jang. This dish, Pan, has the green peppers in it. I know you don't like the peppers, but at one time, green peppers were not common fare for prairie towns. It seemed exotic to them, and it was colourful. It is considered by some that baby corn and waterchestnuts were a no no for kung po, but aren't waterchestnuts an Asian ingredient? I, perhaps in my ignorance, also thought baby corn was Asian fare. Anyway, at one time, our customers thought this dish was "exotic"... The base for our sesame chicken sauce was simple: vinegar, sugar, 5-spice powder, crushed chili peppers, and lots of sesame oil. The chicken pieces were mixed with an egg, seasonings, and a mix of flour and cornstarch, then rolled in cracker meal. These were deep fried, then tossed quickly into thickened sauce, finishing with lots of sesame seeds on top. The orange beef/chicken used the same base as above except for the sesame oil. In its place, we added orange extract, rehydrated chun pei (dried orange peel) for the flavour. Brown sauce has been mentioned several times in this thread and others. To me, brown sauce is gravy for egg foo young. This is nothing like the sauces we used for kung pao or sesame/orange chicken. The gravy is using oil from the deepfryers to make a roux, then adding chicken stock. To me, that's brown sauce.

I thought it was just me and my inferior taste buds. ← Perhaps it's just the way my favorite chinese restaurant makes it, but I've always thought the sauce for General Tso's Chicken had a definite "kick" to it. It's spicy and not at all comparable to the mild sauces in Sesame and Orange Chicken. ← Orange flavor chicken is supposed to have plenty of dried hot red peppers in it, I think. Not so? ← My version of orange and sesame chicken both had kick. We didn't have General Tso's, but I equate Kung Po chicken with the General except with "colour" (bell peppers, etc). The flavourings and base for the sauces were different, but they all had chili peppers.

I would not substitute more than 50% of the flour for bran because adding bran makes a recipe denser and a little drier in my opinion. What I do when a recipe calls for say 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour is substitute 1/2 cup all-purpose (I use 1/2 cup + 1 tablesoon cake flour) + 1/2 cup wheat flour. I think this would work for you muffin as well. So, say the muffin recipe calls for 2 cups all-purpose. I would substitute 1 cup by using 1/2 cup all-purpose (I would still use 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon cake flour), 1/2 cup bran, or in other words, swap out a 1/4 of the flour portion. ← Thanks, Rodney. I'll give your proportions a try.

I am using a couple of fruit based muffin recipes: mango in one and canned cranberry sauce and dried apricots in another. Neither of these have bran. I would like to add some bran in place of the flour. Can I do that, and what proportion would work the best? Any other alterations to a recipe when I add bran?

One non electric waffle iron - check - I'll keep my eyes open. ← The waffle iron, it's made by Nordic Ware. The ones they have now are made without the "heat indicator" which I find really useful. I was given a used one years ago and have been searching for another since then. The only place I found one with the dial was on eBay. This second brand new one I got for $34.00 US. I have used mine on both gas and electric. I find mine works better on electric. As Snowangel said, these never wear out, never fail... I've enjoyed your blog very much. It's been wonderful reading, as with all the great blogs on eGullet!