Dejah

After reading jhirshon's method of preparing shark fins, I wonder - what's the point of shark fin soup? There's the prestige of spending big bucks and exotic source, and the texture, but the flavour of this ingredient has been boiled/ steamed/rinsed out. If the delicious flavours are from the stock and other ingredients in the final product, you can use different lengths of bean thread for texture...much less work and expense! That's something my mom used to make - not to fool anyone that it's shark fin soup - just as a nice soup filled with flavour and texture but easy to make. The first time she made this was for my son's Caucasian playmate; they were 10 at the time. Ja and Reagan were trying to out-do each other in the "most outrageous thing" they've ever eaten. Of course, Ja said "shark fin soup". Reagan wouldn't believe Ja, so they asked Po-Po to make some. Po-Po, wanting to make her grandson look good, but lacking time and resources at that moment, came up with this soup. She's been Reagan's hero ever since. The boys are now 27 years old, and Reagan still talks about this...and still hasn't been told the truth!

I cut mine into chunks lengthwise - still manageable with chopsticks and maintaining the "strings". Kids love playing with those. Throw the chunks into a big pot with pieces of leg of pork, (I buy the skin-on/bone-in pieces), acouple big pieces of ginger, rehydrated octopus, some stalks of ham choi. Let it simmer on the stove for hours...

I'm with you, Ben. I do understand the admiration of the diners toward the chef who goes through all that work for a dish, cost-wise and time-wise, but I will pass on making it. ← I believe Ben, jo-mel and I are probably the "should be revered elders" in this group. We want to just sit back and let you young'uns buy and make these delectable dishes for us to enjoy!

Fuzhu - Do you mean the 12 inch or so long dried pieces of dofu skin? Your friends are right in thinking they look like some innards of an animal...all wrinkled etc... I'd be surprised if you can't find that stuff in Montreal. We even have them here (a small prairie city of 44,000 with a very small Asian population ) at the local supermarket. Loads of the stuff on sale at the moment because of the upcoming Chinese New Year. The dried stuff will be hard to get home without being broken into tiny pieces.

Also (sorry another question!), some of the people I have coming over for CNY are allergic to seafood. Is it OK to miss out the dried shrimp? Is there something you would recommend for a substitute? Thanks again! ← In place of dried shrimp, you can use ham choi (salty turnip). Just soak a piece in water for a few minutes, rinse off and dice into small peices. Really, there are so many flavours already, I don't think the shrimp will be missed.

Hi Azn, I have never put nam yu in my recipe...fried tofu puffs, yes. rlr: I have never boned a whole chicken, but I have seen many illustrations and demonstrations. From what I've seen, the wings and the drum sticks were usually left bone in. Maybe Azn will have a secret method.

With statements like that, the officiers on eGullet need to prepare to give you some "dai lai see bao" (red pockets)! ← You saw through me.

There is another dimension to her versatility. Have you listened to her music yet??? ← Both of you have "silver tongues". With Chinese New Year coming up, you must be hoping for "dai lai see bao"... I also learned and am still learning from my Mom. Now, I am learning techniques and recipes from people who post pictorials and pictures of the food they enjoy. After I joined this forum, I discovered that I was quite limited in my food experiences - what I was familiar with from my immediate surroundings. With the sharing on eGullet, I am finding a whole new world of ingredients and cooking; and Chinese is but one forum! We start to learn only when we admit that ours is not the only way.

As I mentioned in a previous post, these sesame balls are supposed to collapse. After New Years, I cook these with guy choi. Yum! The ones I've had at dim sum have a thicker and firmer pastry. If you check my pictorial, the dough is not brown. I used bing tang, not ordinary brown sugar.

There was a lot of discussion on this ingredient a while ago. Ah Leung could pull up the thread and post link. I use these "preserved vegetables" for steaming with pork or beef, and also, the ham choi, I throw into lotus root/octopus soup. I especially like the stalk and leaf parts in the soup.

Some lotus roots are crunchy and some are starchy. Does anyone know how to tell whether a given root is one or the other without actually buying a few and cooking them? I prefer crunchy myself. ← The ones with round segments are starchy and the elongated ones are crunchy. I love this soup with pork and octopus!

The food isi ndeed beautiful and delicious looking, but I can't drink beer or alcohol of any kind, so I guess I'd better lay off those chilis! Must be the Toysan stock.

Wow, Dejah! How long have you had that page posted? That's terrific! That's such a hidden gem. You need to hire me and jo-mel to do marketing work for you... ← It's been up since last Chinese New Year. I think we talked about that in a past thread. The nice looking ones were made by my Mom. She wasn't able to "repair" the ones I made! These seasme balls are not like the firmer ones you'd get at dim sum. These are suppose to collapse. These are called chang tay, specifically for Chinese New Year. I have other stuff to put up, but just never seem to get a hold of a computer for a period of time to collate everything! School has started, so time is limited. I have a challenging group this term: a multilevel class of 11 at the university, and 20 multi-level immigrants in the evening! jo-mel: a word of caution: once you get into our site, it may pull you in deeper and deeper...soon...you may be lost in cyberspace!

If your son likes Chinese food, try making congee with chicken and rich chicken stock. When the meat is cooked, I minced it and put it back into the soup. Buy some large diameter straws ( smoothies, bubble tea size); they worked well with congee when one of my students had his jaw wired.

Anna: Try pork butt steaks if you like pork with some fat. These stay moist and tender...or you can coat the meat with bread crumbs before frying. This process helps to keep the moisture in the meat. The bones would be my favourite part.

I guess I must make the deluxe version as I add lotus nuts, peanuts, and small glutinous rice yuen to the red beans, chun pei, ginger and rock sugar. I love this stuff, hot or cold!

Did you cook with it or did you eat it with rice?! It is readily available at Asian markets. I haven't found one that has "blistering chili oil" tho'. That sounds good!

First, let me welcome rlr to the Chinese forum. And ALL the new members who who joined in the last while. Second, I want to echo rhr's comments about being able to partake, vicariously, the wonderful cuisine of HK as Lee has depicted in his delicious pictures. I came to the Canadian prairies 40 years ago and have not gone back for a visit. So, until I do, please, all you frequent HK flyers, continue to entice with your descriptions and pictures! Thanks, Lee, and all for the "trips to HK".

Your golden sands recipe looks great, Eatingwitheddie. Good to see you posting in the forum!

I saw lots of fresh, lively crustaceans in Chinatown when I was in Chicago in August. It's unusual that you can't find any fresh seafood in such a centre when we can get fresh dungenese crabs, lobsters, clams, mussels, oysters here on the Canadian prairies.

Glad to hear they freeze well. I was planning to try that for my party. Do you freeze them after assembling them OR after steaming the assembled packet? Do you need to thaw them before steaming or just steam them longer? Thanks! ← You can freeze them after assembling, then just steam for the same amount of time as freshly assembled ones - 20 minutes before serving. No need to thaw them before steaming.

Less-is-more: When I make nor mai fan in lotus leaves, I cook the rice separate from the rest of the ingredients. While the rice is cooking, I would stir-fry the diced lap cheong, mushrooms, lap yook, shrimp, onion and sometimes peanuts with oil and seasoning. Then when the rice is cooked, I mix it all up together in a big bowl, make the packets with the presoaked lotus leaves, then steam for 20 minutes. Leftover packets can be frozen for later enjoyment. There are 2 "sizes" of sweet rice; one is short and plump - dai nor(like moi! ), and the other skinny with pointed ends - sai nor mai. I have used the kind from Thailand and it's fine. If it says "sweet rice" then it's glutinous. The only time I mix regular long grain and glutinous short grain is for zoongzi.

Whats Ham ha(Cantonese)? Can you explain further? I might know it under a different name (speaks Hokkien=ok and Mandarin=a little better) ← Ham Ha is fermented shrimp paste often used as a flavouring or steamed on top of meat - ham ha jin jee yook... Here's an interesting site: http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/...e_new_year.html The only food they list as unlucky for Chinese new year is fresh tofu because of the white colour - indicating bad luck.

I cook nor mai the same way I cook regular long grain rice, either on top of the stove or in an electric rice cooker. The texture depends on the amount of water you use in the cooking - the more water, the "gluier" the rice. For the texture that I prefer - sticky but still maintaining the individual grains, I soak the rice for about an hour, then cook with about 1/4 inch of water above the surface of the rice. Once the pot boils, I turn the heat to the lowest setting and let it finish cooking in about 15 minutes or so.

Annachan: You and I must have the same oxtail recipe - a German version with savoy cabbage. Haven't made it for years, but I did buy some oxtails before Xmas. Will have to try out Ah Leung's recipe now.