Dejah

That was never my impression, but then I don't recall ever trying to eat the grass raw. Is your statement true even if the grass is freshly-picked or otherwise really fresh? ← Let me restate my sentence: From my experience, lemongrass does not seem to soften at all even after 3 to 4 hours of boiling. Maybe if it is cooked longer (e.g. 5 to 10 hours?) it will soften? I don't know. It seems to me that lemongrass has a texture similar to that of a sugar cane fiber. ← Hmmm...Since I had a hand in starting this discussion on how edible lemongrass is, I went into my fridge, cut off the bulbous end of the stalk and tried to chew it. It is like sugar cane, fibrous, and may soften with extended cooking time. So, maybe the Thai soup that I ate actually had onion so infused with the flavour of lemongrass that I thought it WAS lemongrass?

That's funny! Walk on the wild side once in a while. It's good for you!

Any seafood would work well with lemongrass. I have cooked mussels and salmon with lemongrass , and of course, the crab. Not sure if steaming would bring out as much flavour as simmering or BBQ, as I do with salmon fillets. We went to a gala dinner a couple weeks ago. The soup was Thai lemongrass and rice served in a whole coconut. I think they must have cooked the bulbous parts of the lemongrass for some time as it was very tender, like onion, but it was unmistakeably lemongrass. It was wonderful, and I want to make it at home. Anyone with a tried and true recipe? The use of this herb is probably a cross-over to Chinese food as people become more adventurous. I was introduced to it by 2 of my cooks who were Chinese from Vietnam. They made clams stir-fried with lemongrass, chili, and fermented black beans. I usually crush and cut the stalks on a slant into 2 inch pieces. As most of the pieces stay hard, it is easier to remove in larger pieces. The lemongrass was diced in the Thai soup we had. I see you chopped the bottom part of the stalk for you chicken dish, hrzt. Were the bits of lemongrass tender after cooking? Chicken is good with lemongrass, but I don't know about the "stronger flavoured" meats like beef, pork, and lamb.

What is REALLY scary is that I forgot to mention the leek bundles also had Chinese mushrooms in thm. And English trifle is our new "tradition" with the Choy family!

You didn't see the guests!

I took my time preparing Saturday...so the cooking didn't take much. My daughter was recuperating and cleaning up after her celebratory/Hallowe'en party from Friday night! She passed her MCAT exam, finishing in the top 10%...so how can we say no to a party...but for 80 friends?! I like her friends tho' as the ones who were still here in the morning helped clean up. We stocked up the fridge with BBQ chickens and they were picked clean. Waffles, bacon and eggs in the morning fortified them before the clean up. I enjoyed cooking for these kids. And the rest of the afternoon and evening, it was a leisurely time of organizing, washing, cutting and blanching. I consider it good therapy cooking for parties.

jo-mel: Check out hrzt's post on "quick and dirty" way to post pictures. It's easier to understand than the step by step of eGullet. I blanched the leeks before taking them apart for wrapping. The sliced carrots were also blanched. The scallops were too big so I sliced them crosswise into two. These bundles were steamed and held up well. I tied them with blanched scallions. A drizzle with a mixture of light soya, sesame oil, and fresh ground pepper on them just as they came out of the steamer was all they needed. You can substitute shrimp or chicken in place of scallops. Just be sure to silken whatever meat or seafood. The texture is nicer even IF you oversteam. The summer rolls. I used rice vermicelli, bean sprouts, scallions, carrot juliennes. I always stir-fry my filling, just a little, with some light soya or fish sauce, cool, then wrap. I like the blended flavours and softer texture of the vermicelli. The wraps I used before were the smaller ones. This time, I used the big rounds. They were more fragile, but easier to use. I put basil leaves in the last "roll over", and as you can see, they really showed through!

I can't get fresh lemongrass in Brandon, but whenever my son comes in from Winnipeg. I tell him to bring me afew bunches. Then, it's cook, cook, cook with them! When I don't have any on hand, the Campbells broth and some dried lemongrass will do. It's just that chewing on fresh stalks gives such a burst of flavour and aroma. Supper was great. Threw down some newspapers on the table and clean up was so easy! Tonight, it'll probably be BBQ salmon fillet with lemongrass...so healthy!

These posts about crab had me hungering for same! So, this is what we had for supper tonight. We had 3 small crabs, cut into segments. I stir-fried these with lemongrass, ginger, Thai chilis, cilantro, and a few fermented black beans. For stock, I used one of my favourite standbys: Campbells Thai Broth. It is lemongassy, peppery and has a light coconut fragrance. We had a simple stir-fry of baby bak choi with ginger and garlic along with the crab.

Not really a birthday party, but a Hallowe'en party at our house on October 30th. I'm posting acouple pictures in this thread. The rest will be compiled for a webpage. The first picture is a display of all the food I was cooking - in the prep. stage. This second photo shows the cold plate: braised beef shank, summer rolls, jelly fish, BBQ duck. These are the BQ backribs, Chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce, and scallops, carrots, bamboo shoots wrapped with leeks. This final photo is the black bean garlic shrimp and peppers sizzling hot plate, along side of the simmered salty chicken, bison stir-fry with lotus roots, snow peas, etc. We had wintermelon soup to start, and finished with English trifle.

why not just kill the crabs (not have to eat them)? ← AHEM, Ah Leung, Really! Do we, Chinese, ever throw anything away that can be eaten!???

I wonder how bad it would be to use boneless chicken to make it... ← "Hacking up" a cooked chicken is much easier than cutting up raw bone-in meats such as spareribs. My method is to use the tip of my cleaver to cut through from the neck to the butt along one side of the breast bone. At the butt end, you will have closer contact with the cutting board, and a hard a "push" on the top of the cleaver with the hand that is not holding the cleaver helps cut thru' the chicken into two still connected halves.The rib bones ( that are at the bottom in contact with the cutting board) are pretty flimsy. Place your cleaver full length along these rib bones on one side of the back bone, a push on top of the cleaver with one hand to add pressure will help you to cut thru' the rib cage. Now you have 2 halves. Using the tip of you cleaver, chicken half cut-side down on the board, cut along where the drummet joins the body of the chicken. After the inital cut, pull the wing away, cut the tendon and put the wings aside. Leave these parts whole. Do the same proceedure with the thigh and drumsticks, then pull the thigh away from the drumstick and sever the connective tendons. The thigh bones are strong, so you will have to be firm. If you are worried about hacking off your fingers, cut into the meat, then keeping your cleaver buried in the meat, hold the tip of the thigh with the other hand, raise both hands high enough to bang down on the cutting board with enough force to cut through the bone. If the first try doesn't cut through, as Laksa said, the cleaver is now embedded in the bone, and your second swing will be that much safer! These are usually cut into 3 pieces. I am starting to sound like PROJECT!!! The same can be done with the drumsticks. You can leave these whole or cut into 2 pieces. With the rest of the chicken, it is fairly easy to cut up. If a rib bone resists, give the cleaver a downward jerk and it should cut thru'. To minimize splatter, cut the chicken with the skinside UP. This will also keep the chicken from sliding around on your cutting board. If you arrange the pieces on a plate as you cut, you can keep the shape of a whole chicken for better presentation. I cut up one half, arrange on the plate, then cut up the second half. Otherwise, it ends up an alien chicken! You can certainly use boneless chicken for this, prasantrin. Just ignore all the above! For a variation, try a lightly thickened sauce made with rich chicken stock. This is good with just breast meat.

Nope. You don't want to know... Food coloring. ← As Chris said "originally", perhaps at one time nam yu WAS used ? There is a version called nam yu jee yuk bao.

All of the above, especially for the Chinese New Year table. Toasted soya beans (bak dow) add a nutty flavour and texture.

Fat choi takes on the flavour of dominant ingredients...in hzrt's dish, nam yu and conpoy. It's kinda spongy...I think it's mainly symbolic in its use. Fat choi doesn't digest either...so...its re-appearance next day can be scary for someone not used to eating fat choi. The ingredients hzrt used would make a more robust, meatier version of what I make...great for cold wintery nights. I usually add snowpeas, carrots and woodears along with with fresh seafood, beef or chicken. Last Sunday, I also added straw mushrooms. I'll have to process my pictures later to show my lighter version.

I use your type of steaming rack when I cook rice on top of the stove. With electric rice cookers, there is usually an extra tray with holes on the bottom that sits jon a rim ust under the lid. My s-i- law steams her dishes that way. Usually, 15-20 minutes will be fine with sliced and ground meats. With spareribs, because of the bone, I like to steam them a little longer - 30 minutes. The longer you steam ribs, the more tender they become. Not true with sliced meats tho'.

That's even more expensive than in Manitoba! Hurry up and go to "Frisco, Ah Leung. I want fish maw/chicken in lotus leaf!

Pickled plums, salty and sour, like the ones Kris mentioned are the ones I use for spareribs. Talk about variations, I use brown beans! I suppose I need to call mine salty plum spareribs. There are times when fatty ribs are better...like BBQ ribs. I made some last night with baby back ribs, and they were not nearly as good as side ribs with bits of fat dripping as they cook.

I think I would have enjoyed Kris's version better...with the ginseng etc. mixed with the rice. The one I had was just the rice inside the chicken and everything else was in the broth. The rice was mushy without much flavour.

I actually tasted the Korean version at a workshop lasr weekend. Beside the whole chicken stuffed with glutinous rice, ginseng, red date, cognac was also added to the broth. The aroma was incredible, but I really didn't enjoy the rice part. Would that make it doubly strong ... at night?

The "chop suey" American style chow mein was always on our Soo's menu. This was shredded cabbage, onion, celery, mushrooms and whatever meat ordered...beef, chicken, pork, shrimp. The noodles were a favourite for everyone. We used to make our own once or twice a week. This was my son's specialty when he worked for me. He was taught this task as he had strong arms from working out! The noodles were eggs, flour, and a pinch of salt...no real measurements. The dough was rolled out on a huge prep. table, cut into uniform strips about 1/4 wide. These were shakened loose then deep fried. The bits of flour on the noodles always killed a deepfryer full of fresh oil. The finished product was cooled, then stored in a big barrel. A bowl is always set out with the consomme soup, and these were used to top the "chow mein". The noodles were light in texture, not like the hard crunch of store bought ones. It was hard to keep staff from constantly snacking on them! I used to set out bowls of them at our Saturday jam sessions in the banquet room. It was required ( and became addictive) to take a noodle and dip in Dave's insanity (habanero) sauce before eating. Talk about "hot licks"! My Mom used to make " keh mah" with these noodles and maltose. They were the best!

Daw Jeh! Ah Leung. You are certainly taking good care of your elders. This re-energizer will give me the boost I'll need for my weekend of entertaining and for Halloween! There's been warnings about ginseng for people with high blood pressure. My brother and s-i-l will no longer touch it, whereas 18 years ago, we credited this herb for saving my brother's life after a year's radical chemo for leukemia. I don't imagine this amount of ginseng, in a soup, shared by a family, will affect one's blood pressure. Do you know anything about this? Another warning I have been giving (by Po-Po) is to not eat any root vegetables for 24 hours after eating ginseng. We've received excellent quality ginseng from family and friends, but I don't often cook it other than as a highly concentrated "soup". This I do in a ceramic container inside a pot of boiling water. The herbalist had used a special saw to cut the root into slices and packaged for for 4 small cup servings. The process takes 4 hours. Now, I have another way to enjoy genseng. Thanks!

Dai Gah Jeh...where were you when I needed you??? It turned out exactly as you described...dry to the taste I added some hard-boiled eggs into it towards the end. ← I was teaching when you needed me...but not about tenderloins. Dare I say this, " Tepee! You put hard boiled eggs in everything!"

hrt, In "lo mein", what does the character for "lo" mean? When it is said in Cantonese, I assumed it meant "mix together"? When I make this, I use soft egg noodles. These are mixed together with bean sprouts, thinly sliced vegetables like suey choi, onion, celery. In the restaurant, we added carrot juliennes for colour.

Marc, your changjorim sounds good! I think I will try both hzrt's and your version soon...maybe this weekend for my Chinese guests. hzrt, I've looked at those bottles of Chinese marinate on the grocery shelf. Never tried any, but I will have to buy a bottle now. You've used it in acouple pictorials already. So, if it's good enough for our banquet chef, then it's ok by me! I think using a "nice piece of tenderloin" would be a waste...The whole idea is the nice gelatinous tendons in with the meat. With tenderloin, the meat would fall apart before it could absorb lots of flavour. I find that with making beef stew. If I use a lean cut, as with chunks of "stewing beef", I find the meat just falls apart and dry to the taste. If I use shortribs, with bits of fat and gristle, it is moist and flavourful.