Dejah

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.

For our shrimp in tomato sauce, I'll have to look up the recipe for our special sauce base. Man! This is a walk down memory lane for me.

When is your dinner party and how much other prep. do you have to do for the day of the party? From my own experience, I would make up the siu mai, potstickers, purchased wrapper items and freeze them. They don't take any longer to steam than fresh ones, and taste fine. The juice from stuffing would dampen the wrappers if you fill them the night before and stored in the fridge. The one item that seemed to survive storage in the fridge was the har gow - not as juicy, and maybe the difference in the wrapper ingredient. For the yeast base baos, I have no experience. But, I seem to remember a post mentioning that they can be made up and refridgerated for steaming later. If you don't have a lot of other prep. to do the day of your party, I would suggest, for the baos, to make up your filling the night before, then make up the baos in time for the "rise and bake" before the party.

wonderbread: How much does your cast iron wok weigh? Is it as heavy as a 10 inch cast iron fry pan? Ah Leung: I wondered about the burners you showed in your posts. To me, they also looked like the replacement burners for my "wok tables"

Jo-mel, It's ok for your DH to love this. My Mom still enjoys a dish of freshly cooked chop suey once in a while. Sometimes it's just nice fresh cabbage stir-fried with dried shrimp. If Po-Po says it's good, then your DH can enjoy it without shame. Ben Sook, Again, you hit it right on the nail as to "wok hei". I think continuously cooking in the wok and caring for it is part of seasoning, but it's the high heat, the timing of the addition of oil, seasonings and ingredients, and the movement of the ingredients, thus distribution of heat evenly, that produces wok hei. It's illusive...sigh...

Dejah --Have you checked out a hospital lately? LOL! You can't tell an RN from an aide! For some reason they phased out nurse's caps in the 80's. Here's a picture: ← You're right, jo-mel! Haven't been very observant in the hospital lately.

Beggar's purse would be a bag with drawstring near the top. So when you smush up (That's for you, Jo-mel), squeeze a little lower and you'd have a gathering of the pastry at the top = beggar's purse. To see the nurse's hat, check out your local hospital.

I have a Taiwanese made kitchen hood (designed for Chinese cooking - with extra powered exhaust fans) that I can install. Beyond that, I have the options to cook in the garage or in the backyard. ← Does your Taiwanese kitchen hood vent to the outside? That's really important. Mine is an old Jen-Air vented down and out...but it's old and not as effective as I'd like. I just open the window right behind me and it works fine, except when it's -40C!

Well, truth be known a few Chinese restauranteurs have made a million bucks "serving" gweilo food and "not" publishing recipes. ← Good response, Ben Sook! I don't need to write a gweilo cookbook; they are everywhere but under the guise of "authentic". As Ben said, they have names like General Tso, etc makes them sound more authentic. Also, as Ah Leung said, batter is not the norm in most Chinese homes, so those would be considered gweilo recipes. We did exchange recipes with other immigrant restauranteurs, most of whom were from our village and surrounding area. It's not so much exchange as passing on new ideas. I know my brother in Seattle used to tell us different recipes and we'd use them in our restaurant. I suppose most of the recipes were based on something similar to what we ate in China, but using ingredients available to us at that time. Now, of course, supermarkets carry everything you'd need to cook real Chinese food. Because people were used to eating battered fish, etc, I think that's why we battered shrimp, lemon chicken. When new food look like what we are used to, even timid people are more willing to try. A customer asking for a substitution in a dish often resulted in a new item. For example, the chop suey snack (chop suey on a burger bun) became a Saturday night special when a customer asked for bread instead of rice. These were the perfect size for the ladies as they waited for their men to come out of the "men only" pubs in the 50s and 60s. This was a typical scene from a prairie town on a Saturday night...another story.

American Chinese recipes - exactly what we were talking about today. Actually, Canadian Chinese, but I suppose they would be similar. I was introducing a "spatial artist"? to a group of my Aunties. Karen Tam, the artist is recreating a typical Chinese restaurant as an exhibit in our art gallery. Through our website, she made contact and I am trying to coordinate interviews, etc for her. While we were talking with the ladies, we were exchanging our recipes for gwailo Chinese food. Canned beansprouts came up often as well as cabbage for chop suey, sweet and sour spareribs, batter shrimp, etc. Back to the topic: General Tso's chicken or known as sesame chicken on the prairies. I used to make pailfuls of "sesame chicken" sauce base with just vinegar, sugar and water. This is boiled then stored in the walk-in cooler. When we need some for an order, the cook would take a large kitchen scoopful, add it to a cold wok, add sesame oil, lots of chili peppers (crushed and whole dried),5 spice powder and bring to a boil. This is thickened with cornstarch slurry and the deep fried chicken pieces would be tossed in to be coated ( leaving some spots dry - without glaze). The dish is liberally coated with toasted sesame seeds just before leaving the kitchen. The chicken is best eaten right away; otherwise, it becomes soggy. I didn't use soya sauce as we preferred the "golden glaze". The chicken pieces, we used both breast and thigh meat cut into strips. We made a "batter " with egg beaten with a pre-mix of flour, baking powder and cornstarch. The chicken was coated with this batter, then coated with fine cracker meal ( like fine dry breadcrumbs). Then it is deep fried. The sauce is made while the chicken cooks. Our compeetitors used "bits and pieces" of chicken trimmings. We gave customers their money's worth!

Another reason is to keep the soup stock clear. The wonton/noodle cooking water doesn't have the clarity after a batch has been cooked. ← That's why I said "I don't like to wash up, so I just use one pot: cook up the noodles, rinse the pot, bring stock to boil, add wontons, lap cheung, vegetables, serve over noodles topped with a dollop of ma la oil." I didn't find the stock clouded by the wontons. Perhaps the kind of wrappers make the difference.

Don't your Muslim friends eat seafood? Most Muslims consider seafood halal. ← If I were just serving wontons, I would make shrimp wontons for my Muslim friends. But sometimes, it's part of a meal, then I make them with chicken so I can use shrimp as a main course. I think of the waterchestnuts as textural contrast. The shrimp is chopped, not ground, so it does add a texture as well as a flavour. I also fold my wontons the same way as stephenc - like a tortellini, but that's just for the soup ones. For the deep fried ones, I fold into a triangle, then pleat in the two corners, more like old party hats made from crepe paper. I also use a thicker wrapper for deep fried ones. With these two differences, we can easily tell which tray is for soup, etc.

Ah Leung, You mentioned to me that ground turkey was an option for your wontons. What do you mix it with? Still shrimp? I have made wontons with ground chicken, chopped waterchestnuts and ginger. Just doesn't "do it" for me, but my Muslim friends appreciate it. Wesza: For ma la oil, I slice up shallots, garlic , slivers of ginger, and Thai chili peppers. On medium high heat, bring a pot with peanut oil to a point where a piece of shallot will sizzle when added. Carefully add all the fresh ingredients and take the pot off the stove. Let the ingredients continue to cook in the oil, cool and bottle. For the restaurant, I used canola oil as we often used the ma la oil to cook rather than flavour. I have been known to add habanero peppers or crushed dried chili peppers if fresh ones were not available. You can add szechuan peppercorns also for the numbing effect. The shallot, garlic and ginger will look burnt, but they taste really good when you bite into a bit...nutty flavour. A note of caution: GOOD VENTILATION is a must when making this stuff. I haven't made any for a long time...not since I found Saigon Chili Oil at the Chinese grocery. It's got lots of cayenne chili peppers and garlic.

Hi Pam, Great to see a Manitoban blogging! Looking forward to seeing your new store.

That wonton soup looks great! Ah Leung. I love Shanghai bak choi with mine as well. The only differences between your recipe and mine are the finely chopped waterchestnuts in my filling, and my way of wrapping. I have a 2 cup mini-chopper, and I use it to chop up the shrimp and waterchestnuts. I find it easier to wrap. Instead of cornstarch, I mix up the ingredients with my mixer, or beating it by hand to give it the "springy mouth feel". When we had the restaurant, we'd make up the filling with 40 lbs of ground pork, 1 large restaurant-size can of waterchestnuts, 5 lbs of shrimp, etc. My son had the job of chopping up the shrimp and waterchestnuts by hand, using 2 cleavers. I have a picture of my soup in the blog I did acouple years ago. Had to scale down the recipe for Jason Perlow as he didn't want to make 50 lbs of wonton filler! For even more flavour, I sometimes add slices of lap cheung when I add the wontons. I don't like to wash up, so I just use one pot: cook up the noodles, rinse the pot, bring stock to boil, add wontons, lap cheung, vegetables, serve over noodles topped with a dollop of ma la oil.

This second wok looks to be spun carbon steel, Ah Leung. At least, it looks like the two that I have. My two have wooden handles and flat bottoms. Carbon steel won't rust if seasoned properly. The only time I have problems is when I cook beef and tomatoes. Then, I scrub it well, and rub it down with oil, or deep fry something with the wok.

Good job, Ah Leung. I have the foo jook sheets, and use my mini chopper to make the shrimp paste, so that's my project during my break.

I think foo jook would be difficult to soften enough to roll out. Can you find flat dried sheets? I bought some once, thinking I'd soften and do the rolls. Sitting in my cupboard, it got all broken up, so I will make sweet tang with it. Another week and a half, and I'll hear from Tepee that I am to use the new package I have.

Can you post pictures of the ingredients? I do make herbal soups, but I don't know the botanical names, and my pronunciation may be a mix of Cantonese and Toisanese! I make a "say may" tong with more than 4 things! Leen jee, hung yun, bak hap, luk juk, see goo, sang day, sah tam and pork. This is to ease "yeet hai". I sometimes add dried fig, mut jo (honey dates) or American ginseng (fa ka tam) My favourite part is sang day (literal translatin is raw earth).