Dejah

It's great that you decided to create your own version of Suan La Tang. My only suggestions, jhirshon, is to TEST your recipes before posting. For example, did you check to see if 1 cup of mushroom soaking liquid plus 4 cups chicken stock is sufficient for the amount of ingredients you are adding? Do you realize how big wood ears become once they are rehydrated? I have always been adamant about "NO SUGAR!" in my hot 'n'sour soup, so sweetened black vinegar would not be in my recipe. As for chopping the cloud ears, I would thinly slice them so they are the same as the lily buds, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms. Szechuan preserved vegetables is an authentic ingredient for hot 'n' sour soup. I hope you will make this recipe you created and report back on the results.

Exactly. Attempts on presentation. I agree that the ingredients should be as one orders...whether it's veg. combinations or simple one two. There should also be variety in combinations of vegetables. One of my pet peeves is to add oyster sauce to everything!

NO, NO, NO. You must be thinking of something else. Edible amaranth is very tender. If you finely chop it before cooking, it will turn to mush before your eyes. Leave the leaves whole as the stuff "disappears" on meeting heat, ie: loses its water content and shrinks. The ratio of raw to cooked volume is about 20 to 1 . ← It's as Ben says, amaranth is very tender, even more so than baby spinach.

Dejah, I hope you remembered where you hid them all! Looking at Eileen Yin Fei Lo's recipe I guess that the honey/maltose would caramelize the skin more, but what would the cornstarch do? ← Luckily, I remembered that I had 20 hens, and they were all accounted for at supper time. As for the cornstarch, I wonder if it is to help the liquid mixture adhere better to the skin?

I LIKE having the different textures and tastes of all the different vegtables in "Dai dap wuy"! If the list above were stir-fried and bound together with a light stock for sauce, that is, no soy, oyster, or hoisin, the different textures and taste is delightful. This is no different than when we do sand pot with mushrooms, chestnuts, bamboo shoots, fat choi, bean curd, sea cucumber, ha mai, dried oysters, scallops, black beans, oyster sauce, etc, etc. This is what I call real comfort food! There are times when we feel the need for a single vegetable focus: the whole bundle of gai lan. Other times, we want it all: a medley, like a salad. I think that's the purpose of the many restaurants that offer "dai dap wuy".

For scallops, I like to sear them in oil with aromatics until they are about half way done. Remove the scallops, add the wet sauce ingredients, bring to a boil, return the scallops, add the cornstarch heavy slurry, and toss gently to thicken. The scallops would finish cooking quickly without fear of becoming a tough hockey puck. For clams in the shell, I like to toss them in with the aromatics, stir fry them together, then add the wet sauce ingredients. I love the sound of the shells clattering against the wok! The lid would go on then to steam the clams open. Thicken with slurry and serve. When I make the cornstarch slurry, I use stock rather than water. There is more cornstarch than the usual ratio(can't remember what Ah Leung uses), so the thickening process is very quick.

The ones I eat are green with the purple in the centre, The red ones are plants that I use in my flower beds. Apparently, they are also edible, perhaps as young plants? In the past, people also collected the seeds for food.

Dai Ga Jeah and sheetz: how about mixing maltose/honey in hot water and use it to dilute the red vinegar? Maybe we can take advantage of both? I may try this in my next round. ← No reason to use both as this step is to produce a crispy deep golden-red coloured skin, unless you want a sweet 'n' sour Cantonese fried chicken.

OK, that's just..... weird. It's not like shrinp chips are hard to find or anything. A lot of the recipes I've seen for this include maltose or honey in the coating, which gives the chicken a nice crust after the frying. Looks great, Ah Leung! ← Game hens are perfect for single servings. I used 20 of them for a surprise bday party for my husband. Unfortunately, he decided to be "sick" for the day of the party, so I could only prep. 2 hens at a time. I was a bit frazzled by the time I "honey blanched" all 20, tucked them away in different out of the way places to air dry, but always leaving 2 out in plain sight. As I mentioned above, I used honey dissolved in the wok of hot water as a coating rather than red vinegar. This produced a very slightly sweet beautiful coating like Ah leung's. For large chickens, I would suggest simmering the chicken in the honeyed water until just cooked (as in bak jam gai) before letting it air dry. Then, finish it off with deep frying. The best parts are the wing tips. Shrimp chips are so easy, colourful, and much more interesting to eat. WHY would they use Pringles? Strange...

螺蛳 luo2 si1 isn't seafood. It is a type of snail found in rivers and rice fields. Big local speciality in these parts. They are invariably served in a spicy sauce. ← Oh MY! That reaches wayyyyyyyyy back into my childhood memories.

I take 150c to mean 150F, but I can't understand using those temperatures either. In my oven, that would be "warming". If meat were left for 2-3 hours at 150F, it would render the meat unsafe to eat. How big are the pieces of pork used? Boston butt/shoulder is a good choice. The fat provides the nice crispy bits.

That's a new idea: simmering before roasting. Has anyone used and can compare the two methods? One with just marinading then straight into the oven, and jtnippon's method of simmering then roasting? What "times" did you use for simmering and roasting? What cut of meat? Would the flavour be more intense if the meat was simmered first? In order to get the red colour, you pretty much have to use some food colouring. Just as long as it doesn't come out fluorescent pink, you're ok. I think this forum has taken things up a notch compared to the "requisite fridge shot" in foodblogs: oven shots!

That depends on what cut of pork you use. If it's pork belly, then it would be fine. Even if it's a lean cut, the pieces are small enough that an hour and a half of constant boiling would still tenderize the meat. The joong that I make require at least 2.5 hours. They are best at 3 hours. Looks like I'll also be making them in July. June will be busy with visitors, student exams, field trips, etc.

Checked my wolfberry bush and it's survived another prairie winter and neglected lawns. It's alive but needs pruning badly. I'll have to leave it until the fall. The soup variety has been delivered daily to our house by "aunties". It's our spring tonic, just like the first rhubarb. We've had to distribute bags to my students from Beijin just so we don't become tired of gow gai dan fa tang. Apparently this leaf-only variety is not known outside of Guangdong area? Anyone outside of this area only know the wolfberry, but not this variety.

If flat pork chops are what you are aiming for, just make a couple of nicks (1/2" or so deep) along the top of the pork chop. You may see a transluscent strip along the top of the chop. It's this that shrinks during cooking and causes the chop to be "bent out of shape". Just make sure the nicks cut through this. People have been "bastardizing" Chinese and all other cuisines for ages, so I am sure Ah Leung can handle your variation. I think your pork chops look delicious! Not sure about the shredded raw cabbage, but if they were steamed or stir-fried, then I would go for that. Rice of course, would be better. Did you eat the raw cabbage, or was it just for presentation?

What great suggestions for roun song! I've always just used it in jook or out of hand. Thanks!

So glad you persisted, Apicio. This may kickstart the dan tart cook-off to another round!

I know ... I should probably send out an advance notice: "Warning, warning! Clueless gweipo on the loose!" ← Mizducky: No one would dare call you a "clueless gweipo", not while I'm around. You've had more varied Asian cuisine, and have greater access to Asian foods that this poor ole Chinese on the prairies! There is nothing wrong with the labelling of the "baby bak choy sum". Choy sum just means the "heart or centre" of the bak choy. When I had my restaurant, we used big bak choy. My mom always asked me to save the "choy sum" for her: the centre of the plant which is more tender than the outer leaves.

The sweet rice/sticky rice that I use for joong is from Thailand. There are 2 sizes/types of sticky/sweet rice, die nor mai, si nor mai. These are both available from China or Thailand. I have always used the si nor mai which is longer and skinnier grained just because my mom said that's the one to use. I DO use the die nor mai for lotus leaf nor mai fan.

... and, if you think the Shanghainese are all about sugar - what about those Cantonese folk? ← Cantonese use a lot of sugar in cooking? I've never noticed excessive sweetness unless you are talking about the bastardized Chinese food such as sweet 'n' sour pork, etc. In Toisanese cooking, I do use a pinch of sugar to balance the salt and MSG. I don't use soy sauce much in my daily cooking, only if I were making soy sauce chicken, or master sauce braising.

Hmmm...maybe not enough salt was used. The salted eggs made at home should not be stinky at all. ← If the egg yolks are firm, then there was enough salt. The only reason the eggs would be stinky would be if the egg was already spoiled prior to brining. I tried eating joong with stinky egg. Couldn't do it. Now I wonder if I'll ever be able to eat stinky tofu again after 48 years!

What shape did you call your joong? Ah Leung? And you razzes me about the amount of liu in my joong? I imagine yours are quite rich, with all the ingredients and seasonings. How many can you eat at once? With the batch I make, there's enough to share and keep in my freezer until the next round.

Whoa! That's some beautiful cake, and abalone/conpoy/mushrooms and lettuce. Thanks so much! Ah Leung Silow, and Tepee Mui Mui. The evening started with a harp concert by my daughter China and her ensemble with 5 other harpers. This was to be her last recital as she will be leaving home in the fall. China's been studying the harp since the third grade, and she just graduated from university last week. To come home with this dish and the cake was a wonderful end to my day.

Kent, Thanks very much for sharing your culinary skills, food pictures and Flickr. You've opened a whole new China for me.

Po-PO used to brine eggs all the time, before they were accessible on the prairies. Duck eggs were not easy to find, but we were able to find double yolk chicken eggs quite often from local farmers. These were great as the yolks were the favourite part, especially for joong. The Asian markets in Winnipeg carry vacuum sealed packets of salted duck egg yolks. My s-i-l bought them last year. Handy but they spoil quickly once the packet is opened. She had some left over and gave them to me. I used them next day to make joong, and I thought they were a bit smelly. Used the few I had but kept the batch separate. I couldn't eat the joong, but found out my sister loves them that way!