Dejah

Don't mind Ben Sook, herp17. He's been giving out too much advice lately. How big is the bag of flower? That kinda determines the amount of water to use. It is better to make it too strong at first. You can always add more hot water to dilute. For the sugar, it is better to add NOT enough at first. You can always add more if you like it on the sweet side. Too much tea? keep it in the fridge. With the hot weather we are going to have, guk fa cha is better than ordinary ice tea.

OR: You can buy the packets of guk Fa Cha crystals. You just have to pour the contents into a mug, add hot water, VOILA! Check your Asian market tea section. There are combinations as well. I like the ones with ginger mixed with other teas.

Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Only in Brooklyn, you say... Never on the prairies, I say. Mustard? Hmmm, chili sauce maybe...

kangarool: Your dish is more like chicken and bean sprouts which I used to cook as a treat for one of the maitresses who worked for me. On my menu, chow mein and chop suey both had shredded cabbage to be "authentic Canadian Chinese" We made our own noodles to put on top of chow mein. They were not hard, but crispy and fluffy...so good and hard to keep your hands out of the barrel! There must be quite a few differences between American and Canadian. bastardization of Chinese food. We didn't use straw mushrooms, waterchestnuts and bamboo shoots because of cost. Carrots would add a lovely colour but I don't think the actual taste of carrots would complement the other vegs. Ben Sook, your "OMG! " - Was that your head or your stomach?

I've never seen sweet 'n'sour spareribs like these before in Canadian restaurants. Is this how your family made them in the restaurant down east, Ben Sook? Our Canton Spareribs had a clear sweet and sour sauce with thin strips of sweet peppers...no tomato or tomato sauce. We breaded our ribs with cracker meal, deep fried them cooked in our "secret rib juice" Just got in from opening night at our art gallery. I've been helping a visual artist from Montreal re-creating a typical Chinese restaurant on the prairies from the 60's. They served deep fried mini egg rolls so there was "that wonderful smell". We lent her many articles that were saved from my restaurant days. Some of the guests were our old customers, and they recognized many things: the black laquered screen, wrought iron gates, the electric consomme soup kettle, the Soo's plastic take out containers, etc etc. In the storage area and "living quarters", we displayed many large glass relish jars filled with Chinese herbs, bamboo leaves, lotus leaves, real Chinese food! In the back "bedroom" was my old leather suitcase that I brought with me when I came to canada in 1958.

On the prairies, we used canned sliced mushrooms, not straw mushrooms, shredded cabbage, thinly sliced celery and onions, fresh bean sprouts, and no bamboo shoots. Sauce: no rice wine or soy. Yes to chicken stock,salt, sugar and MSG. But remember, you don't need a heap of MSG, just a little is all you'd need.

In restaurant days, we used large containers of curry powder packaged for the wholesaler: SERCA out of Toronto, Ontario. It's like McCormics if anyone is familiar with that brand. I still use it as I have six 482g. containers of it left! It has a nice aroma and our customers liked it, mostly stir-fried chicken and onion. It's not really hot, so when a customer wants spicy, we will add crushed pepper flakes or a chopped up habanero pepper. At home, in quick stir-fry dishes, I use mostly Vindoloo paste made by Patak as we like the heat and flavour. This produces a darker brown colour product. When I do a stew type of curry, I use the Serca powder to stir fry the meat (chicken or beef). Big pieces of celery, onion, carrots and potatoes are thrown in and simmered until tender. I love the celery in chunks, but mash up the potato and carrots into the sauce on my plate. When I make curry dal soup, I also use the powder to give a lighter colour and flavour. In the Chinese supermarket, they carry so many different kinds of curry. Two cans I had were labelled Chinese Curry Powder: a hot and a mild one. Don't have the cans anymore, but it seemed to me one was darker than the other. I keep buying different kinds, and they are still sitting in my cupboard. Out of sight, out of mind!

Chinese, communal style. Not necessarily all at once but like five and then stagger in some of the hot dishes and the bread pudding at the very end. Plans are still rough; I'm currently sightseeing in Yunan. I'll get back in Shanghai in a few days, start helping my aunt (who is the chef in my Grandma's household) cook Chinese dishes to get back in the swing of cooking and start finalizing recipes and prep plans. ← Very much looking froward to this. I hope you will take lots of pictures, or have someone chronicle the whole process with pictures and your comments added. I have never seen a kitchen in China, so I am realy interested to see how it all works.

I bought a large round chopping block made up of little pieces of bamboo bound by a metal ring. Made the mistake of setting it up on its edge, and the pieces were starting to edge out! I've got it lying flat now but haven't really used it. I just thought it was unique. Anyone else have this and is using it? What to cook in his new wok? From what you said above "that colander. It looks big enough to lift an entire fish., the first dish should be Squirrel Fish!

Really? That number should work! Your statement is double-negative. [English teacher Dejah Dai Ga Jeah hat on] No, no... No, no! ← Good try, Ah Leung, but THAT statement is grammatically correct even tho' it has "not" in it twice.

That would be extremely yeet hey, super Yang. Instant soar float. Guaranteed! ← Instant soar float. BAD Ah Leung!

Couldn't have said it any better, Trillium. Thanks for this! Forgotten about your Chinese cooking segment. It was great to visit it again.

I always use a wok shovel (wok chahn) for stir-frying, and tongs when I need to separate noodles, etc. That colander looks huge, tho', Ah Leung!

Those of you who use the wok rims, I assume have gas stoves. I have only had electric stoves in my homes, so the flat bottom woks are what I have used in direct contact with the element. As for seasoning, I have baked and nearly burnt the "ear" of one wok as I didn't think to wrap and wet! It survived tho'. The other wok, I just used it for deep frying for the first while, and it seemed to do the seasoning job. Nothing sticks!

I have two 14" inch carbon steel woks. They both have one ear and a wooden handle. Not sure what kind of wooden handle the rest of you have, but mine screw onto a steel bracket that is welded onto the wok. There is a "loop" that I use to hang onto a hook over my stove. The handles never wiggle. Both of my woks hang over my stove with the rest of the pots I use the most often. My larger woks are stored in the garage. I find the 14" is sufficient for all my cooking, even for a crowd. I must confess I DO use soap for washing my woks. I soap with a soft plastic scrubbie, rinse, wipe dry, then wipe down with oil on a paper towel. Maybe they are not as "seasoned" as what you all try to achieve, but there's been no complaints about my food. My family and friends know enough to "never look a gift horse in the mouth!"

And for 15 guests!

I had to laugh when I saw Chris's mention of a post by "project". Those of us on this forum may remember his "dumpling post"! The BTU was similar. MY brain is once again twisted up like a Chinese fortune cookie AND pretzel together!

Too bad you didn't take note of my advice to take canned ones from stateside with you. I've got a 16 oz can of crab claw meat in my fridge right now. It's Chicken of the Sea brand, a product of the Philippines - wild caught. maybe you can find something similar in big dept. stores.

Just stay drooling, _john. I can't imagine you using one of these in the typical Japanese kitchen! I had a 3-wok unit in my restaurant. Two for all stir-fries, the other one specifically for fried rice and noodles, and a separate one-wok unit just for deep frying. This unit sits between 2 deep fryers for "finishing": one for seafood items and the other unit for chicken, etc. I miss my wok tables. I should have kept the single unit and set up an outdoor kitchen!

Harry, How is your burner housed? Is it part of your stove and uses household supply of natural gas? Or, is it a separate unit using a BBQ type propane tank outside? If I were choosing the Bayou cooker in the URL you posted, I'd want the double one! Just watch my eyebrows go "POOF!"

It's true they're hard to find in the Winter; but, come Summer Long Beans are plentiful and cheap at the farmers' markets, at least here. They were even the nifty red ones. ← Red ones? Are they the same as Chinese long beans - dow jie? The ones that grow about 2 feet long? I find you have to check them carefully when shopping. They can be pithy. Or, if you don't eat them right away, and let them sit in the fridge even for acouple of days, they will become pithy. When I make these, I like to add my chilis to the oil before I add the beans for the extra heat. Have never use Szechuan veg with them. Must try that! Somehow, I still prefer my green beans with fu yu.

Hmmmm? Are you a theoretical recipe'ist? ← Theoretically speaking, may I make the following observations/suggestions for your "personal non-tested" recipe: 1. Do the smoking step before any other method of cooking so the flavour would permeat the meat. There isn't alot of meat on a duck, and if you roast it at 400 degrees for 1 hour, the smoking will have little or no effect. 2.The tea leaves for smoking: Wet them before putting them in a foil pan over the charcoal. Otherwise, they would burn up in a flash and not enough time for the smoke to permeat the meat. Wood chips, again, wet, would be a better choice than sawdust, again, the "pouff!" problem. You may not want to "poke and stir to get a good smoke going" as there will be a cloud of ash settling over your duck! 3. From various sources, it is suggested that you steam the duck after smoking, to acquire a moist end product. If you roast it for an hour, then smoke it, then deep fry, the meat will be dry. Hang the duck to air-dry before deep frying at this point. 4. Brushing the smoked duck with sesame oil prior to deep frying would be counter-productive. We all know the wonderful flavour of sesame oil, but it's the camphor smoke flavour you are trying to achieve. I think sesame oil would muddle the desired flavour. Air-drying the steamed duck will help produce a crispy skin. Try it this way, jhirshon, and give us your results. Perhaps you should experiment both ways with TWO ducks, and take lots of pictures! My suggestions, of course, are all theoretical.

But that's what one of the restaurants I used to work at do. The dim sums (which were cooked) that they could not sell, they put in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning, those were among the first batch to be served to patrons. ← I can see the reason for refridgerating overnight in that case. For some items like siu mai, the "effect" may not be as noticeable, but for something like har gow, potstickers, you'd certainly know they were "leftovers". The texture of the dough changes. Let us know how your party went, zaskar!

← i'd love to hear your report on how it worked out (I haven't had the opportunity/time to try out my own recipe yet, sadly!). Looking forward to hearing your report (and a pictorial, hopefully) if you decide to go for it - JH ← Whaaat? You haven't tested your own recipe yet!? Will Ah Leung get any reward for being the guinea pig? and I don't mean just getting to eat the duck.

Sorry, Ah Leung, but I'd have to disagree with you on cook, refridgerate overnight, then re-steam process. From my experience, especially when we ran the Chinese New Year dim sum buffet for +250 people, I found that it is better to make the dim sum, freeze individually, then steam from frozen state just before serving for the best results. With char siu baos made with baking powder dough, I steamed them then froze them, even a week ahead. I'd bring them out the night before the event, thaw in the walk-in cooler over-night, then re-steam just before serving. We had three 28" woks with the biggest bamboo steamers stacked 3 high going for the full duration of the brunch run so there was freshly steamed items filling the buffet table all the time. The grill was for potstickers, using covers from large chafers for the steaming part.