Dejah

Use tongs to turn the stuffed pepper pieces over. This way, you are holding everything together as you turn. To keep the insides of the pepper dry, wash the peppers, dry with paper towel, then cut them.

I don't think there's anything as lethel as Dave's Insanity Sauce made from habanero peppers. I have used 1/2 of one of these peppers along with the little red chilis for spiking "10"s, but I wonder why would anyone want that? Not only is it painful, you can't even taste the food. It's even more painful when this food is served on a sizzling hot plate! I do like to add very thinly sliced half a habanero pepper when I steam beef and mui choi. Add my congrats to Ah Leung's on the 1000th, Irwin.

You'll be enjoying it for a long time, Irwin. Once minted...it's permanent! And I am sure, with or without the aura, you'll be a standout anywhere.

Irwin, Not that I would ever imply you were sexy or not, but the comment "sexy garlic breath" was deduced from your post in Garlicy Shanghai food thread... No, I can't say the students with morning garlic breath are all top notch students...and it's not all from their breath. It's an aura around them! I had some chopped fresh chilis with my cheung fun for lunch. I can still feel the heat in my stomach.

I just LOVE Shanghai noodles! So how is this dish made? ← Jo, The Shanghai noodles are fat white noodles that I buy in the fridge section of our grocery store. The version that I served at Soo's was Shanghai noodles stir-fried with sweet chili sauce, oyster sauce, bean sprouts and BBQ pork or some other meat. The one that I make at home more frequently is stir-fried with garlic, fermented black beans, and chopped fresh chilis or Thai bird's eye chilis when I can get them. I threw this version together for a visiting band of vegetarian musicians. They liked very spicy food, so I added a lot of chopped chilis and topped the whole thing with deep-fried shredded wonton skins and fresh mint. It was a hit and became a family favourite. Here's a picture of it from my foodblog: http://www.hillmans.soupbo.com/soos/foodlog4.html

I googled, thanks.

Does anyone have a picture of the above"true Sichuan chili"? I have always used the dried ones as shown in Ah Leung's photo...not as many, of course. It's not expensive when you buy in huge bagfuls, but if used in those quantities/dish, it is wasteful. A small handful would make just as pretty a presentation. Perhaps it's done as a challenge to Gwai Lows. I have a Glad sandwich bagful of these fresh chilis. Think I'll chop some up and make black bean GARLIC Shanghai noodles for supper in honour of "sexy garlic breath"Irwin.

. ← ← Dejah "WHAT BREATH" ? oh guess you mean the ones that's "SEXY". (It's never effected my pores, even after James Beards Garlic Chicken with 40 whole cloves) ← Turst me, Irwin, garlic does come thru' the pores, even after ingesting "no odour" garlic pills. And, at least to MY mind set, it "AIN'T SEXY!"- until 12 hours have passed. But, I do enjoy eating moderate amounts of cooked garlic.

← Hmm...sniff..sniff...don't think I reek of garlic, but I use up a bag of garlic a week. Typically, I'll use one whole bulb (if big) or 2 small bulbs to stir-fry vegetables. LOL, I can just imagine Dai Gah Jeh's look of horror. ← Well, you won't have to worry about vampires!

When learned the magic of eating garlic together with long leafed and curly parsley to avoid the after effects. "IT REALLY WORKS". Irwin ← Irwin, Eating garlic with parsley masks garlic breath, but there ain't NUTHIN' that can stop "garlic breath" from your pores! Bananas will also help with "garlic breath" from the mouth.

I always figure if I can get one good recipe or reference from a book, then it's worth buying. Good excuse, huh? I love pictures, especially when I am making something for the first time.

Do you mean cloves or do you actually use a bulb or two when making a meal? I always throw acouple cloves of garlic into the hot oil before any other ingredients, and one bulb will last about a week.

Aiyeeah! Ah Leung! How can you make such comments about the raw garlic with the eel when you, yourself, blendered up 10 cloves of garlic for your nam yu roast chicken! I know you said to temper the raw taste with salt and sugar, but still...10 cloves! Sheesh... I'll cook with garlic, and use it on garlic bread, but I wouldn't be allowed in the house if I ate raw garlic as with the chicken or eel! I can sympathize with hubby who doesn't handle second-hand garlic well. I face that with my morning ESL class - from my Korean and Beijing students. I swear they eat raw cloves for breakfast!

Leftovers work well, with congee or non-Asian soups. "replacing the water during cooking"?! No, no. You want to keep the starch so the congee would have body and not watery. You would lose that "rice" flavour also when you replace the water. Aiyeeah!

Pressure cookers are great, but it's like a having a big pot of stew or hearty soup sitting on the back of the stove for hours - the process, the aromas and the flavours are every bit as enjoyable to me as the actual eating of that bowl of congee.

If the above is directed at my comments, then I would say," Read my Lips..errr words, Uncle Ben!" The potato would remain neutral if boiled because water is a neutral element. BUT, deep fry it to a crisp, it would not lose its neutrality, but would be moderated by the deep frying and oil factors.

I think both Pan and Ben are corrected in their, um, "assumptions". The humour in unripe fruit would be different only because it would intensify as the fruit ripens. It would remain yin or yang no matter the age and cooking time (a thousand points for Pan.) However, with watercress as an example, if it is too mature, it will take longer cooking time to make it edible. With maturity, watercress can become bitter or retain less flavour, but still yin. Upon increasing the cooking time to make it edible, the cook would add other ingredients: pork bones, dried oysters, gingko nuts, etc. to make it more palatable. In doing so, the yin effect would be MODERATED, unless the cook chooses all yin addtional ingredients! (Equal points for Ben. )

Is that the same oil with flavor built-up from being used over and over again for deep-frying stuff? ← Exactly! But, we changed our deepfryers more frequently than McDonald's so we need the soya sauce for colour!

In my mind, it's not so much in the taste as knowing the inherent qualities in a food. However, some foods with a bitter taste, such as bitter melon, would be considered yin - (leung)cooling tonic. Nuts, especially roasted chestnuts, pistachios,peanuts would be yang - (yeet hay - gawn) if you eat too many of these. Sometimes, you need a combination of foods: such as ham jeu tow and tofu soup for lowering fever, dong gwa with the peel on and dried oysters for when you have yeet hay... Whether there are other food groups where the taste would indicate yin/yang, I don't know.

Omit the lettuce, tomato and mayo, toast the bread and that's a Denver or Western sandwich when I make it at home. In a restaurant, that patty would be egg, diced onion, bacon or ham. Gotta have ketsup to dip the sandwich in!

I am having a hard time visualizing oil at a "rapid boil"and deep frying egg foo yung. So, this method would be more like fritters?

Perhaps Dejah knows this better than I, but when they are deep fried, the oil is boiling and a ladle of mix is carefully tipped into the oil and then the ladle is used to immediately splash (or pour) the hot oil on the top surface so as to harden the top before turning. I guess some restaurants also pan fry them. ← jo-mel: We didn't deep fry the egg foo yung. The western style was always done on the grill, and the Cantonese style was done in the wok.

I'm impressed! You make ja gwai for congee! I tried it once and decided it was much better and easier to buy them ready made. 1.5 hours is enough for congee if you are in a hurry - and you have stock on hand. I have used store bought stock - Campbell's Chicken stock - and it turns out well. My s-i-l on the other hand, uses her rice cooker and puts the congee on at night before she goes to bed.

With the omeletes, as Ben Sook prefers to call 'em, we'd stir-fry up an order of "chop suey" - shredded cabbage, onion, celery, mushrooms, bean sprouts, then add it (no liquid) to 3 eggs with a tsp. of cornstarch beaten into it. This helped the omeletes hold its shape when we put the mixture onto the grill. The shallow Chinese soup ladle used was the perfect size for each of the 5 patties for each order. The gravy was made with the flour roux because it held up better than the cornstarch thickened method, which would turn watery if it sits for any length of time. The gravy was kept hot in a double boiler on the stove. We didn't have the luxury of making gravy for each order that came in.

I made a roux with flour and oil from the deep fryer - the one used for cooking breaded meats. To this, I added stock, water, seasonings and soya sauce for colour. Always made a big potful in the morning, for the egg foo yung or boneless almond chicken. This stuff was good. Customers were never able to duplicate it 'cos they didn't have the same oil as I did. I didn't mean to say there was anything wrong with the bean sprouty pucks. I love eggs and bean sprouts!