Dejah

Are you sure you meant "prevent" instead of "encourage"? For me the end goal is always a light yet firmly crunchy, evenly blistered surface. ← sheetz is correct in her use of "prevent" because she is referring to the outer layer of the skin which prevents crispiness. Those da#* relative pronouns.

250C = 482F celsius fahrenheit calculators: http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en...tor&btnG=Search ← Roughly, eh? I don't think there'd be much pf a tart left at those temps!

Now THAT'S I would call packing for a trip! I can't believe all the equipment, etc you are taking for this trip. How long are you going to be at the rental? How many people will you be cooking for? Looking forward to seeing all the action!

Yum... the prep sounds divine. What exactly does the lye water do? What is it's purpose? ← Don't ask such difficult questions! The lye water must do something to the skin to help make it crispy. Remember, she made holes all over the skin so the lye water would penetrate.

I agree. 250C = 420F roughly. Doesn't seem overly high. ← Just checked two of my books. The ingredients are similar, but the method of baking is different, along with the temperature. Wei Chuan = 360F (180C) Bake until the egg at the edges turn yellow. THEN, turn OFF the heat, cover the tarts with a cookie sheet and leave them in the oven until the custard is firm Pei Mei = 250F for 20 minutes. I bake my fruit pies at 425F for the first 10 minutes to set the raw fruit cooking, then I turn it down to 350F. I think if you bake the custard tarts at 420F for the entire time required, the custard would boil over and the pastry would burn. However, I am still practising my dan tarts... So, if someone is baking them at 420F, please take pictures.

Just got back from question Mom on the suckling pig , or siu yook. She makes sure the skin is free of any hairs, then using an ice pick (seriously dangerous woman!) she punctures the skin side. Then she rubs lye water (gan sui) all over the skin surface. On the meat side, she rubs in a mixture of mean see (brown bean sauce), hoisin sauce, 5 spice powder and cloves of minced garlic. The meat is left to marinate for several hours. (We are talking a slab of pork belly here) When it's time to cook it, the oven is cranked up to 400. She used a commercial roaster, or you can use any pan with sides what the meat will fit into. She puts some oil into the pan, let it heat up real hot, then lays the meat skin side down into the oil. Becareful as the oil will splatter as soon as the meat touches it. This plus the lye water will make the skin crispy. If the meat is about 3 inches thick, she said it will take about " bat gaw jee" 40 minutes.

I can't comment on whether the baking temperature is correct or a typo. ← It's a typo. It's supposed to be 250F That's what the recipes I've tried say. Slow oven so the custard sets properly without bubbling all over the place, leaving little in the shell.

TP, does it mean "Da truth" ← "Word!"per Urbandictionary ="I agree." can be used to express agreement and approval in several ways. 1. a: "Man, that song rocks." b: "word!" 2. a: "I'm not gonna take crap from him anymore." b: "Word!"

"Word!" ← "Word!"???

We'll be heading off to Chicago the second week of August for a conference. We'll be staying in Oak Park, but will have some time to explore a bit. I want xiao long bao! Is there such a thing in Chicago? Any recommends for dim sum restaurant?

Yes! Could you post the recipe? AND your secret recipe for the thousand layers tart shell.

Thank you. Precisely why I asked. And the peppercorns, just regular black, white, green and pink mix, correct? ← In my Charlie Brown moment, I forgot to answer the peppercorn question. I use a bottled 4 peppercorn steak spice mix. It has the aforementioned 4 peppercorns plus garlic. I use it on everything! This peppercorn is by choice because I like it so much. Ordinarily, white or black pepper can be used. I brown the meat because this is an adaptation. The ribs are baked, so the browning step adds more flavour and colour. I started doing this way because we served it in the buffet. I never worried about the tenderness of the side ribs because they are always tender done this way. I also do the steamed version. It is more traditional, but Po-Po sometimes find it difficult for her teeth.

Because you want to maintain the integrity of the dough of the mooncake, it would be best to avoid rapid defrosting to minimize condensation and moisture. Defrost the mooncakes in the fridge overnight and probably the better part of the next day before eating. ← Oh yeah, right....overnight and better part of next day...Give me a few seconds in that microwave!

Oh my! Sue-On! What a feast! Was it your birthday? Happy Belated Birthday! ← Tepee: Part of it was my bday back in June. We just collated 3 sessions into one page - less work that way. The seafood feast was for my bday, along with the cake pictures. The ribs and chicken balls were done last week. Those chicken balls are just like the ones we served in the restaurant...one mouthful of pure meat lightly coated with cracker meal. The sweet 'n' sour sauce was very light. None of that sticky "Xmas sauce- ticket to diabetic coma" for me!

Good Grief! Charlie Brown! Definitely NOT 1 cup of soya sauce!!! Like Ben, I just sprinkle it in until it looked and tasted right; it probably was about 1/8 cup. I didn't allow the liquid to cook down very much before I thickened it. The soya was really just to enhance the colour. I used maybe 2 tbsp. canola oil for the browning on the first batch...didn't add any more as there was enough fat on the ribs to do the rest. I browned them in 4 batches in a very hot pot. The whole process was done in one pot. You don't HAVE to cook it in the oven. You can let it simmer on the stove, or on the BBQ.

Joni, Try adding some slivers of Chinese sausage (lapcheung) and fresh ginger to the chicken and mushroom filling. It adds another layer of flavour.

Sure. I hope you had them in a well sealed container. What kind are they?

Patiently and eagerly awaiting. Details on exactly what types of ribs would be appreciated. I'm fine with chopping bones with a cleaver ifnecessary. ← Mudbug: I have posted my "see jup pie guat" pictures on a webpage with other pictures. http://www.hillmans.soupbo.com/soos/food2005.html The page starts with my seafood feast, then chicken balls followed by the 3 pictures of the ribs. For this pot, I used my cast iron Dutch oven. I bought slabs of side ribs, cut them into bite size pieces myself. There were 3 lbs of ribs. To that, I put in "about" 1 tbsp each of salt, MSG, sugar, 1/2 tbsp of 4 peppercorn spice, 4 cloves of smashed garlic. The ribs were left to marinate for about a half hour while I used my mini-chopper to mix up 1/4 cup of rinsed fermented black beans with 1/2 cup of warm water. It was beaten up pretty good, paste-like but still retain some bits (hulls?). After I browned the ribs, I added the black beans, about 5 cups hot water and enough soya sauce just to balance out the saltiness. The whole thing was brought to a boil, then maintained at a gentle boil for about 30 minutes. Then I thickened it with a slurry of half cornstarch and half flour. Once this cooked to thicken, I put the lid on and stuck it in the oven at 350F for about 45 minutes. The flavour was wonderful, and the ribs were very tender, and the sauce over rice.... Hope that helps and you will have a go at this recipe!

Don't use gravy! Use dry curry powder.

This Lo Wah Kueh now thinks that I have trouble with my Chinese! Take a look at my original post. I said "Dry-Fried" for "gone chow", not "Deep-Fried", for the lack of better translations. I accept that Dry Stir-Fried may be closer. I know Deep and Dry look very close. Time to put on your glasses that you have stored away, Dejah... ← I stand to be corrected, and I accept your apology.

I have deleted "MSG" from my cooking vocabulary since college days. May be besides "wok hei", this is what separate home cooking from food in the restaurants. But, many of the sauces and canned ingredients would contain MSG anyway... ← I still use msg in moderate amounts, unless a guest has allergies. Mudbug, I took pictures and measurements when I made black bean garlic spareribs fopr supper Friday. Just got home from performing at a lily festival, beat...so I will write up the recipe and load the pictures early next week.

Dejah: you didn't use "night soil" to fertilize your garden, did you? ← Nope. The aged manure from the horse barn was MUCH ...errr....better. Besides, I didn't have the buckets and poles to carry night soil.

Yeh choi gaw

Peeled, sliced. stir-fried with leftover siu yook with the now non crispy skin! I like kohlrabi for the crunch and the sweetness. Sliced and cooked with pork broth and thin slices of lean pork makes a wonderfully light soup.

When we lived on the inherited family homestead, from 1966 - 92, I had a huge garden. Beets, peas, carrots, etc were available from neighboring farms, but Asian vegs were 60 miles away. So. like my mother before me, I grew Chinese vegetables on raised beds. My neighbor came over with his big John Deer tractor and broke up the "new land". I felt like a pioneer. It took me days to sort out all the grass, haul in very old manure from the hill out in the field, and tilled it all in. Hubby was great as he helped me hill up the dirt into beds. My mom had brought varieties of seeds from China in 1958. She gave me pill bottles filled with the descendents, with instructions to always let the best plants mature to refill the bottles. I grew snow peas, green beans, bok choy, guy choy, amaranth, cilantro, chives, garlic, kohlrabi, wolfberry for the seeds and another variety for the leaves, and the variety of tiger lily with the non-toxic edible bulbs. Never had any luck with lobak, gai lan or long beans. The growing season just wasn't long enough for the long beans but the shorter variety was great. The casing was darker and thicker fleshed. The aged manure worked wonders! I was able to share the bounty with my family, even tho' they lived in the city and can shop, but as mudbug said, homegrown is best! The kids helped eat up the pea crop by "browsing" in the garden while I worked. Alot of the bak choi was boiled and dried for choi gone. Kohlrabi was eaten like apples, stir-fried or in soup. My neighbors allowed theirs to grow verg big, boiled then mashed as a veg. I liked mine quite young and tender, without any stringiness. Those times were before I heard about eating pea shoots. I wish I had all those plants now! Not all the garden was used for Chinese veg. I grew alot of herbs too: basil, mint, borage, thyme, rosemary, parsley, oregano, and lots of flowers. Now, I just have room for flowers and some herbs in container. We have many older generation friends in the city and they provide us with gow gai choi, bok choy, guy choy, fu gwa, mo gwa, sut dow, han choi, and a variety of green beans that is about 20cm x 3 cm! Delicious!