Dejah

Gas on top of rich spicy food can made you feel nauseous. Hope you can clear your system up quickly. Can't do that with Metamuscil tho'... ← Yeah, I think that a lot of this is really a reaction from the gas. Even though the gas is gone, my system is all screwed up. I'm not going to be up to going to tai chi this afternoon, and I have no idea when I'll be able to sleep. ←

chocomoo, You're right, "siu yook" probably does not mean "suckling pig". "Siu yook" does mean crispy skin roast pork. I doubt any individual will be wanting to buy an entire suckling pig and still think you'd get a blank stare from most vendors in Chinatown if you literally asked for "suckling pig". ← Suckling would indicate that little piggy was small enough to be still at the teat? That would be around 15 lbs? The one my Mom roasted (years ago now) was about 2 feet long (60 cm). It barely fit into the restaurant size oven! The one we ordered for my brother's 60th bday must have been a young adult...It fed a crowd of 100 with the head left over. Ben mentioned pouring boiling water over the skin to get that crispy texture. I seem to remember Mom rubbing the skin with gan sui - lye water - to get that texture. I remember the skin blistered, had a beautiful colour, and was crispy. Must ask her later. Great to "see your face", Tepee.

If Pan were to take the leftovers home, we wouldn't get to "eat out" as often! That mapo tofu is exactly the texture I like. In the Chinese forum, there was much discussion as to what kind of tofu to use: silkened, soft, med. firm, etc. That tofu looks like it retained its shape. Was it "browned" at all? I usually cook the cubes in oil after they've drained, cook the rest of the ingredients, then add the tofu in. Some seemed to think that was not the thing to do. I have never stir-fried with lamb. Now that I have seen your pictures, I will have to try as that looks delicious! One of my students made garlic blackbean eggplant for our potluck last week. Another thing I haven't cooked myself. What else was in that dish with the eggplant? You are introducing lots of new Chinese food to me, Pan! Thanks. ACK!!! I hope you opened your windows before trying to light your stove! Or are you trying to salvage your eyebrows at the moment? Gas on top of rich spicy food can made you feel nauseous. Hope you can clear your system up quickly. Can't do that with Metamuscil tho'...

Mind you, lotus root will go quite soft if cooked for a long time. Takes on the texture more-or-less of boiled taro. I've never actually timed it, but I think somewhere between 20-30 minutes of cooking is the point where it starts going soft. ← Actually there are 2 "kinds" of lotus root. The ones with round segments will soften with long cooking time, whereas the roots with more elongated segments will retain more crunch even when cooked for the same length of time. The rounder roots are called "fun lean gnow"...flour lotus root. My kids called lotus root soup "fiddle bridge soup". A semi circle slice of the root looks like the bridge on a fiddle or violin. Do you like the candied lotus root sold around Lunar New Years? I've always enjoyed your posts in the Chinese Cuisine forum, Pan. It's great having this virtual tour of your eating style!

Or in stir-fries. There are 2 different ones that I use. Mook yee = wood ear is thicker. When dry, it is black on one side and off white on the other. Wun yee is a thinner fungi, black and more transluscent when rehydrated. I prefer the wun yee stir-fried with lotus root, snow peas, etc. The white fungi is so pretty in its dry state, like coral or a flower with ruffled petals. I find you have to really rinse them off well as tiny particles get lodged in every crevice. Cut off the hard orange coloured stem and you can use it in a savory soup with chicken stock, or in sweet soup made with Chinese rock sugar. Po-Po says this is good for "guen fai"...the lungs

Adding gou qi zi to muffins, that's very interesting! I'll have to try that. I know my kids used to eat them right off the bush. The bush is about 3 feet high, just the right height for toddlers. They are juicy and sweet fresh. I'm really enjoying your blog, Pan.

Mudbug, in case you missed the Dan Tart Cook-off, click here. ← I've been meaning to get back to this topic. Wesza! Where is your wisdom on the dan tart pastry?? With all your experience and connections, you must find out or know the secret! My classes are finished next week and I'd like to try my hand on this pastry again. My Chinese students will be my guinea pigs, as usual

In nor my gai AND joong, I was taught to cut the poultry up WITH the bones, a la Chinese style. There is a lot of flavour in the bones. Remember, BBQ duck is cooked with a marinate inside the bird. I like chomping on bones, but my hubby and kids prefer that I use just the meat. 39 years and I still don't have him trained.

Sorry you weren't able to get thru' on your call; the 1-800-Dejah line has been busy all day... I tied several packets with the grass instead of string. Won't do that again as I lost one joong when the grass came loose in the boiling. Made a mess as well as losing all the goodies. I made the ones for our son who doesn't like mushrooms. This last batch, his, I double tied with regular string, but left the grass on for identification. Looked authentic tho'...

Finished my second joong session...Whew! With my big stock pot and turkey fryer, I am able to boil 3 doz at a time. Had some for supper. By God! They were great! Didn't take pictures today but the packets were bigger than usual because of the amount of liu. You should have seen them this time! hzrt: BBQ duck, salty pork, lapcheung, egg yolk, chestnut, peanuts, onion, dried shrimp meat, Chinese mushrooms, and rice. The second batch is boiling now...in a thunderstorm! I have to top it up with a kettle of boiling water every half hour. In one of the packets of leaves, I found a bundle of grass string. Mom was quite excited about them as that's what she used in China. She told how as a young girl, their job was to shred these long pieces of grass into thinner strands, tied them together and wind the one long piece into a ball like yarn. Then they'd use it like I use my cone of string. She also told how she learned to wrap joong by collecting discarded leaves, using sand for the rice, and practising the technique until she was able to do them properly.

Dejah: You sure use a lot of "liu" for your joong. No wonder that you need to use 3 leaves to wrap it. ← That's why everyone wants my joong! The proportion is still about 1/3 liu to 2/3 rice. You just can't see the back part of the joong, which is all rice. My sister will take 3 doz back to Vancouver with her because of the liu. Uncle Ben will get some when he comes out in July. Maybe he'll give a report after he gets home as to whether there is too much liu. I believe he said upthread that he was a connoisseur of joong. If I want lots of rice, I may as well just cook a pot of rice with acouple of lapcheung. I put hours of prep. and TLC into these suckers, so I want to make my eating worthwhile.

Here is a sneak preview of my soon-to-be joong2 webpage. This was the how-to session on June 11 with my international students and friends. http://www.hillmans.soupbo.com/soos/joong2.html I promised hubby that I will put up comments/instructions for this page.

I think that looks more like puff pastry? I buy puff pastry sheets and cut them to whatever size I want the pastries to be. Easier than from scratch. Phyllo would make a crisper pastry. That would be great too! I have made the filling with ground chicken or beef...with the addition of curry powder or paste, chopped onions, garlic, and mashed potato. The potato makes a nice binding agent and gives the filling a better mouth feel.

No... but we did have what this restaurant called Peking soup... very good. ← Which restaurant, Pam? Would you recommend it?

I like your tradition! Did you have Peking duck like the movie "A Christmas Story"?

We pampered hubby/Dad here at home. The kids and I bought Bill a new 17" LCD flat screen monitor. Son Robin had it set up with a Happy Father's Day greeting on it. He had to close his eyes as I led him towards his computer desk. Older son and his family came over and we had waffles, bacon, eggs and fruit for brunch. The only Chinese food we had was spinach soup with pork tenderloin slices. The rest of the supper was BBQ bison striploins, and skewers of 2 oz.lobster tails with chunks of peppers, mushrooms, red onions and zucchini. Oh, wait, we had persimmons for dessert! Does that count...even if they were imported from Chili?

It' called Shanghai bok choy here in Canada...about 89 cents a pound at the moment. I like it quick stir-fried with ginger, garlic and chopped chilis, and drizzled with sesame oil. I can eat it everyday and not be sick of it.

I stir-fried everything, (except the pork and lapcheung) separately, with salt, pepper and MSG/sugar mix. I don't "cook" with green onions. I may add them at the last minute, otherwise, they basically disappear in other flavours. Spanish onions are different. I cut them fairly thick and they maintain their flavour even after boiling or stir-frying. I also season my rice with salt, MSG and sugar. For every 8 cups of rice, I use 2.5 Chinese soup-spoons of salt and 2.5 ssp. of a mixture of half MSG,half sugar.

Our plant nursery brought in shiso (perilla) this spring. After reading about this plant in the forum, I wanted and bought some. They are growing in my planters instead of coleus this spring. But, I am not sure if this variety is edible? and the salespeople didn't know anything about the culinary uses of perilla. Can anyone tell me if there are ornamental varieties as well as edible ones? I haven't been able to find any info' on this problem. The leaves look like the ones in Kiem Hwa's picture but more red/purple. Thanks.

Barbara, That looks delicious! I love the colours, much like the vegetable combination we had for supper. Were your noodles crispy? How did you cook them?

What can top that? Next year you need to Cook with Sue-On and Jam with the Hillman Band at the same time! ... Do a little bit Country (cooking)... Do a little bit Rock'n Roll... ← Oh, you're cute...very cute... Hubby, our son and I just finished a 3 hour practise for our gig on Friday 17...for the German Summerfest, of all things! We will be working alternate sets with an oompapa band. I'll be back on drums for the first time in about 2 year other than for a few jam sessions. Won't be much country; we'll be rockin' in the 50s, 60s, 70s. I've already booked my massage session for Sat.morning. Won't be any joong there, but I'll be enjoying brawurst, schnapps, German beer, etc!

Ben, Gan sui is only used when you make the "sweet joong"...the ones with dow sah inside, and you have to dip in sugar before eating. I don't make these as I don't really care for them. Po-Po always make about 6 for "bai sun" on the festival date: the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar.

Don't have any pictures ready yet, but I wanted to post this write up I did for Lily, for the joong cook-off as soon as I can to get the rest of you moving! The big day is over, and Lily, (aka Amandasmom on EG) rose to the occasion with more energy than the Energizer Bunny. Lily and family, and my other "family", Leslie and Sija, arrived at noon to share a yummy lunch of jook, century egg, cruellers, chili radish (Lily likes them!), cilantro, and various chili oils and sauces. I used a "year-old laying hen", the best for stock, to make the base. Meat was a bit tough but the flavour was good. Lots of ginger and extra pieces of fresh chicken carcass, 2.5 cups Jasmine rice, 2 hours of simmering, and a bit of thickening with rice flour slurry produced a good lunch to start a busy day of making joong. My 8 international students arrived at 1 pm via cab. Acouple had slept in, no breakfast, so they cleaned up the jook pot. I don't think Lily or Leslie realized how much work they had ahead of them when they wanted to make 5 dozen joong EACH! Leslie had an inkling when she called the night before and asked " How many packages of leaves am I supposed to prepare? I must have HUNDREDS!" They both did! We set about stir-frying the mushrooms, Spanish onions, peanuts, rehydrated shrimp. The sausages and salty fat pork were cut into fingerlings. Lily had the "extravagant" version: crispy BBQ pork, duck yolks, and chestnuts. YUM! By the time the cones of string, leaves, and containers of ingredients were set out, we all took up positions at the 8'x4' table. It was quite a mob scene! One of the students, Josh from Inner Mongolia, and Ryan from Shanghai have had some experience in making joong, the pyramid shapes. Once I showed them my style, I just let them go on their own. My Japanese student showed me her style, and the other students picked up pretty darn quick. Hunger drives learning. Besides, I told them they were being graded! Leslie's daughter, Sija, was at one of my previous joong making sessions, so she was able to guide her Mom a bit. They were proceeding at a good clip. We had a short break enjoying the lemon loaves Leslie baked, along with the homemade wine Lily brought. This was Lily's first time and she was pretty nervous. At first, she was squeezing her joong so tightly you'd think she was making sausages! But, once we got her to relax, she got the hang of it pretty darn quick! I was able to made a few with her, and the students waded in as well once they used up all their makings. I think they both got the 5 dozen AND more that they planned. Must have felt like 12 dozen by the time they finished. With all the joong we made as a group, we probably used about 20 kgs of sweet rice! About 1758 grains were swept up off the floor. Leslie had to take her socks off 'cos the rice made them look like porcupines! I used a turkey deep fryer gas unit outside to boil one batch and a big canner on my electric stove inside. The fryer works great. I highly recommend it! The ones boiling in the house were ready by 5:30, so we each sampled a small one as we fed the students. We sent them home with a dozen each. While they were waiting for the joong, I had them mix up 3 pounds of ground pork into sui mai. They polished those off in a hurry! Not sure if I got any pictures of those... It was rather hilarious when the "cab" came to pick them up. There is an air-show happening in Brandon and the cab companies are running shuttles for the spectators. Because all the vans and cabs were tied up, they sent this huge 30 seater tour bus to pick up 8 students! I am sure my neighbors were wondering what was happening at my house to warrant a tour bus picking up people...all foreign looking people at that! By 7:30, we were sitting down to a feast of joong, BBQ ribs Chinese style, chicken, and gow gai egg drop soup. Lily was pretty wiped, but I think she was happy. She will fill her freezer with joong from her hard day's work. But! She's already talking about "the next session"! Good for you! Lily! Welcome to my family. Hubby and I were too beat last night to process the pictures...I even had to go for a massage by my son Jay to recuperate! Today, we went to the air-show to catch the Snowbirds perform their precision aerobatics. Hubby is the webmaster for the air museum here, one of the sponsors of the show. Hope to have some joong pictures up soon. With the success of the joong session and the Snowbirds show today, I am proud to be a China Born Canadian!

Ben Always room for more! Leslie and Sija, along with "Amandasmom", 6 students from China, one from Korea. and one from Japan will descend at noon. As I rinsed out my pot from blanching the leaves last night, I noticed quite a bit of fine dirt at the bottom. I am glad I soaked, rinsed, blanched, washed! One is bringing new bagged leaves that she soaked and rinsed multiple times daily. It will be interesting to compare and see if there is any difference.

I might be reading the above incorrectly. Do you mean crab ragoon is authentic Chinese? Is cheese a traditional Chinese ingredient? The first time I had cheese was from a British lady living next door when I was a youngster in HK. The only cheese I knew until then was Chinese Cheese: fuyu... and somehow, I can't imagine that in wonton skins.