Dejah

Ah Leung, I made your recipe for salt baked chicken as part of the Choy family Xmas dinner, along with the traditional turkey on Dec 26. It turned out beautifully. Wish I had taken a picture, but my camera was at my brother's house, and I was cutting up the chicken at MY house. I used an 8 lb chicken and 3 small packets of the spice mix. The chicken was seasoned, then rested for a day in my fridge-like garage where the skin dried up somewhat. I roasted the chicken according to your times, and it was perfect even tho' the chicken was twice as big as the one you used. My Mom was pleased with the flavour and the tenderness. There was one leg and thigh remaining after supper, so it was left for her supper the next day. I also made the ginger dipping sauce. My s-i-l gave it 2 thumbs up. Thanks, Si-low for the make again recipe. Next, on to Ben Sook's method!

Welcome to the forum, JH I'm sure you'll get answers to your request. Lots of knowledgeable people here in eGullet. Look forward to trying out your ideas!

Sort of off on a tangent: does anyone know why this technique is called "velveting"? Is it called "velveting" in any of the Chinese dialects, or does the word or words for this translate literally as something else? Just curious, as the texture it gives to meat doesn't necessarily make me think of velvet (the fabric). ← Velveting required marinating with oil, seasonings and cornstarch first before cooking the meat. This process gives the texture known as " wat in Cantonese, wot in Toisanese". These terms translate to smooth, silky. The surface of the meat, I suppose, reminds one of the texture of the surface of velvet. It's a mouth-feel. "wat or wot" does not translate to the English word velvet.

Russell, No need to apologize. That's what so great about the forum: we can all step in to help. The page you linked to is very informative. I just copied the "Pan-Roasted Salt & Pepper Crab With Ginger" recipe, and was reminded that the brown stuff we've been talking about is called tomally Your one post solved two mysteries!

I've never tried making soup with stuffed bitter melon. Would your cook add the melon shortly before serving? I don't think you'd add the "sweet ingredients" to bitter melon soup. Large piece of ginger, chun pei, rehydrated dried oysters, and pork neck bones if you want gnawing, or pork shanks for the marrow.

It's a good idea to leave the rubber bands on the crab claws until after it takes it's last gasp of air... Last summer was the first time I'd ever cut up a live crab. One of our elders instructed me to insert a wooden chopstick into its mouth. It's safer than a knife and delivers the same effect. Also, you can use the chopstick, still in its mouth, as a lever to separate the shell from the body. Another hint is to put the crabs into the freezer for about an hour. This "lulls them to sleep" if you are squeamish (they don't fight back as much). The idea of dissembling the crab before cooking is to let the flavours get right into the meat as it cooks. It's quicker using pre-cooked crab, but then, I'd want to dip it in garlic butter! We had a discussing about the "brown stuff" in another thread. Can't recall the name for this. It's my sister's favourite. I ate it for the first time last year and it's good! Ginger, green onions, garlic and wine are essential in stir-frying crab. I like adding dow cee and Thia chilis to the crab...messy to eat but so good! One of our stores will steam the crab or lobster for you while you shop. Dungeness are selling at 4.98/lb. I've been waiting for a quiet evening to have a seafood feast. Tonight might be a good time as our daughter is finished exams. Hooray! She's human again.

I bought a big chunk of wintermelon yesterday. In warmer weather, or when I am in a hurry (read lazy) I make a light soup with just pork bones, a piece of ham choi and sliced melon. In this colder weather, I will make a wintery soup with pork, rehydrated dried oysters, ginger and chun pei. The wintermelon will be cut into large chunks with the peel left on. This is supposedly good for "hui fong". I have also saved the heads of 2 ham yeu...saving those for soup with tofu, ginger, chun pei and green onions for "o- fow". Hmm, a thread for medicinal soups.

Do you really mean that Ben? Where do you source the "Gow Yook" (dog meat)? ← The Hong Kong Chinese find that when it's eaten any where with out a winter season very strange as they seem to only eat it during the start of the colder weather supposedly for health reasons. I have only seen it prepared in Clay Pots. Irwin ← I was told by my Korean and Chinese students that "gow yook" dishes stoke your internal furnace: keeps you warm in cold damp winters. I don't hear of many women eating this dish, so I am thinking that it's a different "internal stove" they are stoking! Somehow, saying "gow yook" doesn't make my dog Atticus wince like "dog meat" does.

BC: Tell your Mom to put Saran Wrap over the dish of ham yu while it is steaming. That would contain the aroma There should be enough ventilation in the restaurant kitchen to take care of any that might escape. I know it never infiltrated my dining rooms whenever my cooks made ham yu tow and tofu soup...made sure the pot was over the exhaust system! The "gourmet ham yu" was tongue in cheek...BUT! Maybe there is such a specialty...

The way you made this dish, Ah Leung, I would say "Wah! Gum daw yook ah!" The bell pepper is probably added as filler and colour in this dish. In my restaurant days, we added ( and I know I was laughed at by some eGulleteers for this previously) baby corn, waterchestnuts, diced onion, celery and green bell peppers. I used chicken tenders, peanuts, and toban sauce along with whole chilis. Most of my customers couldn't handle eating the actual chilis, but they could handle the heat... and loved the vegetables.The vegetables really are my favourite as I am not a big meat eater. The rest of my family would like the amount of meat you used.

If you incorporate "presentation/plating" with Toysan dishes, it would work on a restaurant menu. Individual small pork patties, resting on thinly sliced finger of fresh ginger, topped with crisscross slivers of gourmet ham yu, finished with a sprinkle of deep fried ginger julienne, shredded scallions, and hot oil. Ta Dah!!! $18.99 I've mentioned this before, but I did enjoy gnow yook beng with mui choi, chili peppers and mint in a restaurant in Durham, England. This was not a hole in the wall type of place. It was the first time I had mint in a Chinese dish...now a favourite way of making gnow yook beng and mui choi.

That freezer idea for the marinade would work well, but you may want the marinade to sit and work on the bird a couple of hours before you roast it. The dental floss works well. I use a big curved needle that comes in packets of sewing needles when I sew up meat of any kind. As for hooks, check in restaurant supply shops. These would have sharpened ends. Or you can try plant nurseries. They have big S hooks for hanging plant baskets. Jo's idea with the hanger would work well unless the bird is really heavy.

Errr...5-spice powder with salt fish and meat patty? Truly Chinese cuisine is evolving before our very eyes. ← I've heard of cooks using 5-spice on salty fish, and that it is very good. I haven't tried it tho'.

You can brine your own (duck) eggs: Just make a heavy brine with salt and hot water (the brine is salty enough when an egg will float in it). Let it cool down. Put your eggs in the brine and place a bowl, plate, whatever on top of the eggs to weigh them down. I can't get duck eggs here, but I can get double yolk chicken eggs. I like these because the yolk is the best part! I used a wide mouth glass jar that commercial size relish/pickles, etc come in. Or, you can scour flea markets and get an old fashioned crock. Keep the brine and eggs in a cool place for about 3 weeks. Test one to see if the yolk has hardened. If yes, then the eggs are ready for use. Clean the brine off the eggs and store them in the fridge.

I made this dish in my enamel cast iron casserol tonight. Veered from Ah leung's recipe a bit as my brown bean sauce was "off". I added a spoonful of Guilan chili sauce instead, and sliced bamboo shoots. This added a little bite (not spicy) and a crunch to the otherwise soft texture. I thought the Guilan sauce would help cut the richness a bit, and it did. It is a make again dish. Might be an item for my Xmas list: clay pot!

What a good Si Low you are, Ah Leung! You just gave me the solution to Xmas dinner. I am in charge of the turkey this year, but I want it to be different. So, this should work with a small turkey, say 8 lbs. Cooking time will be different, of course. I love the idea of the crispy skin. Then, I will also do a 12 lb. turkey the traditional way, for some of the "out-laws" who will insist on traditional. I might even use an eight pound chicken instead of small turkey. Would the turkey be drier because of the salt? I see you roasted the bird breast side down. This sure keeps the breast meat moist. Funny, in the past, it's always been "roast the bird breast side up"in many cookbooks. I just emailed my niece in Vancouver to send me some of the spice packets you used. Hopefully, she will find it there and send them with the Xmas package. They usually send days before Xmas. I have small packets of spices for salty chicken, but I'm not sure if it contains the same ingredients. I used it in the dinner for the visiting profs.

Lap yok, lap cheung can be used when siu yook is not available.

Y'know, I bet it would work okay to use a carbonated lemon drink if you just can't find a non-carbonated one. And you could always let the carbonated drink stand awhile uncovered till it went flat, to get rid of excessive fizz. ← The fizz will disappear as you bring the liquid to boil.

I like gow choi with tofu in oyster sauce.

I think it is different as lap yook is not smoked. It is wind dried. But, the dish you described sound delicious! Any chance of you making that and posting a picture?

Are these Ya Cai considered expensive? Are they similar to other regular bean sprouts or entirely different?50 grams does not seem a whole lot for bean sprouts, which regularly are sold by the pound (e.g. US$1.00 a pound in California). Since they used the word 四川 (Sichuan) in the name, do they grow the Ya Cai in Sichuan then transport them to New York (by air?)? ← Ah Leung, I don't think they mean actual sprouts. Read pcbilly's statement again:

Headcheese is quite common in my neck of the prairies. haven't had it for a long time. I suppose you can add the Chinese touch by drizzles of sesame oil, or you can incorporate oyster sauce to make Ben Sook cringe. I guess we'll have to wait for Qing to tell us about

In comparing my sand pot with the clay pots I have seen, it appears that the clay pots are glazed both the inside and outside, and possibly fired in a kiln? My sand pot is glazed only on the inside, and I don't think it would have been fired. I was told to never put a sand pot on high or direct heat. Another bit of advice was to soak the sand pot before using?

Oh...my...

This is reminiscent of A Christmas Story by Jean Sheperd. The turkey was left to cool on the kitchen table when the neighbor's gang of dogs raided. Off to the local Chinese restaurant for Peking Duck and singing waiters! "Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra" I love that movie, and Peking/Cantonese roast duck!