Dejah

My Mom says I always make my soup "yoong". No surprise there! So, I can't give you any proportions. Do most of you always make just enough soup for X bowls? I always make too much to ensure leftovers. This may be kept for another day. My s-i-l often portions her leftovers abd freezes them for maybe next week.

My qi-gong master is from Shanghai. He came to Brandon for his first workshop about 4 years ago. I was delegated to feed him. The first time, it was simple - I still had a restaurant at that time and we had banquet fare. After I got to know him better, I "found out" that he'd really appreciate home style cooking. He misses having simple basic fare when he is travelling - the kind that he'd cook at home. Since then, he eats at least once at our house - enjoying whatever our family is having. I usually do a soup, steamed dish, stir-fry, simple vegetables, lots of rice, and fruit. Or, I may have a sweet soup a little later rather than sitting back with coffee. I also keep a record of what I feed him each time so there is variation. So, as someone else suggested, find out, discreetly if you can, what your guest prefers. He may be tired of "banquet fare" if he's been travelling for some time. Sometimes, highly respected guests like to "let their hair down".

So, Ben, I guess you are considered "family"? BTW, your other Manitoba family is coming for the day on the 7th of May. I guess I'll try to work on the dan tart before they come. Also, I'll make my siu mai for lunch time along with jook, etc.

Gastro: Is that all waterchestnut in the bowl with the green wrapping? Looks like your Mama has a heavy hand with liu like I do!

Looking forward to the pictures, Gastro888.

At last! I checked out the recipe Rhea_s and I will give it a try again. Thanks for posting the pictures. There IS hope

So, what is in the spring rolls that CHINESE people eat? hzrt, I honestly cannot imagine cheung fan with hoisin sauce. I like the sweet soya and chili oil on mine, but I will try next time....with hoisin.

Let me repeat again: Frozen Puff Pastry does not work for dan tart!

I always thought plum sauce or apricot sauce was for egg rolls, and hoisin was for duck.

Well, it seems what jschyun and sheetz have said is true - the pastry recipe is a well kept secret! I know my second pastry, single layer method was flaky, as in shortcrust...but it's the elusive layers! I might try the double layer method again in a little while. Do I have the determination of the little yellow train who could? Think I'll put a call out to Irwin (wesza) and CharSuiBao and see if they have any contacts! Hope your foot is coming along, Kris.

Do as I did, drive down your neighborhood street and share with any neighbors you see standing outside!

Hog barn raised....hmmm I wonder if hog manure would have anything to do with their "monster size"! NOT a good thought...sorry... Actually, friends of mine have developed a system to take out 95% of the manure in hog barn sludge sloughs. The result is a grey ash-like odour-free material that is used as fertilizer, and the water extracted can be used for barn cleaning, etc. The experiments are being done on several Hutterite colonies at the moment.

Lovely siu mai dinner, Tepee. What is the "red" on top of the siu mai? What did you use for binding? I see asparagus is in season in Malaysia too...or is it always in season? I have been eating it with everything. The lobak goh, what recipe did you use as reference. If I know anything about you from your posts, I'd say you never follow ONE recipe! I often put too much lieu in my goh.

I used Tenderflake, Yuki. Make sure it says lard and not shortening...such as Crisco. You should be able to find it in the baking aisle. They come in 1 lb. blocks or 1.36kg tubs. Lard makes everything flaky and light. I used to use Tenderflake lard in one deepfryer for battered items. The other 2 fryers had veg. shortening. I have compared the results and the lard definitely produces flakier "crusts".

Very sorry to hear about your foot, Kris. As with the "other cook-off", it is never too late to enter your results for dan tart.

And I will be spending my evening picking out all the bits of fat from my siu mai ground pork.

Looking forward to all your creations this week! Tell your family to stop yelling...you need to be here to feed our hungry eyes!

I made my moussaka for our supper tonight. Instead of salting and frying up the sliced eggplant, I followed Rachel's recipe for eggplant cutlets. I will echo the fact that it is hard not to gobble them up as they wait to be put into the moussaka. I wanted to use ground bison, but the family wanted lamb as is our tradition. Couldn't find any ground lamb so I used 8 shoulder llamb chops, trimed and ground it myself. I used 2 large tomatoes, chopped red onion, parsley, and garlic, tomato sauce, red wine, nutmeg, cinnamon, ground coriander, cumin salt and pepper. The filling was really good! I used a combination of grated parmesan and leftover feta in the cheese layer. The bechamel sauce had butter, milk, cream and 3 egg yolks. The house smelled pretty good while it was baking! I kept peeking to make sure the top was browning. As sides, I cut up some turnip into thin slices, doused them with evoo, some salt, Cajun seasoning and baked them along with the moussaka. We pretended they were fries. Also had some asparagus and a salad with feta and balsamic dressing. Here is a close up of the moussaka. I think it could have used a little more sauce, but the flavour was great! I am happy that I made the eggplant cutlets. The recipe was a combination of suggestions here, an old book called Eastern Mediterranean Cooking by Roger Basque, and a book called Winners by a group of bridge players in Calgary, Alberta. And, because I love mint with lamb, I had lots of fresh mint with mine! Thanks for jogging my memory to make this dish again!

Thanks Tepee, for your recipe.

The pastry and custard look lovely, Tepee! Can you send them...errr I mean the recipe? I just MIGHT try again once the students are back in class next week. Then I will have some new people to eat up my experiments.

Can you tell us what the end result was? I'm guessing that a puff pastry-like dough must be used in order to get a flaky layered result but that the pastry must be blind baked before the filling is added. ← The frozen puffed pastry looked right around the edges, but when you bite into it, it is chewy like a danish. With the first dozen, the instructions said to bake at 350F until the edges (brushed with egg yolk) are golden. Then cover the tarts up with a cookie sheet , turn off the oven and cook until the custard set. The last 2 dozens were baked at 300F for 45 minutes. The pastry was flaky in that it was like shortbread cookies...but not the layered look of the classic dan tart. Kris's pastry looks good. IF I ever make them again, I will roll the pastry out thicker and be brave and add more filling. Helen's recipe looks interesting. Did I really say Well, Helen DID give a recipe. Not sure about the food colouring. A dab of orange colour might be good. Yellow makes it too lemony. I liked the natural colour of the second recipe with the milk and cream.

Well, it's been one long day with these da** tarts. Needless to say, I won't be making these again anytime soon, unless someone gives me a "no-fail flaky-layers, just like the dim sum chefs recipe"! Here's hoping the images will load! May just end up as links, but I am too beat to try to figure this image posting thingie! The first batch, I used a recipe from Wei-Chuan. I bought a whole can of evaporated milk only to use 1 tbsp in the outer dough! The dough worked easily but did not give me the desired results. The filling was very disappointing. I should have realized because it only called for water, 5 eggs and sugar. The photos in the book showed crimping along the tart edges, so I did. Like I said, I followed the directions exactly. This dozen went into the garbage! Egg Tarts: Double Layer Pastry http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11137768...8_1102_7319.jpg Egg Tarts: First Dozen Pre-Baked http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11137768...38_1102_991.jpg Egg Tarts: First Dozen Baked http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11137768..._1102_27221.jpg The second dozen, I used a recipe by Rhoda Yee. It was a short pastry of 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup lard, 1 egg and 6 tbsp sugar. The filling was more like what I thought egg custard should be...at least similar to English custard. It called for 2 whole extra large eggs, 3 extra large egg yolks, 1 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup half and half, and 1 cup sugar. Look out arteries! The end result was more like an English custard tart than the classic Chinese dan tart. The filling was wonderful, silky. The shell like a piece of short bread. I thought the colour was a bit pale so I added a dab of yellow food colouring in the filling for 3 tarts. Nah...too much like lemon tart in colour. Egg Tarts: Second Dozen Baked http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11137768...8_1102_8663.jpg Rhoda's recipe was for 24 tarts. I rolled out 7 more out of her pastry recipe, then cut out 5 from frozen puff pastry to see what would happen. Definitely DO NOT USE PUFF PASTRY for dan tart. Egg Tarts: Third Dozen Baked http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11137768..._1102_29182.jpg I tasted 1/4 section of each dozen. Rhoda's filling was the best, although I might reduce the sugar in the custard by a couple tbsps. We are not allowing ourselves any sugar or flour at the moment, I took the last 2 dozen tarts down to different neighbors on our street. (Other than the puff pastry ones!) I also left some in my office fridge for our secretary and Chinese students who did not go home for this short break. Tomorrow...onto something I know more about. ..siu mai!

I made my first batch of dan tart, and was very disappointed in the results. I used a recipe from Wei-Chuan's Chinese Dim sum book. I actually followed the recipe( for the first time in my life without wavering) to a gram by using a newly purchased electronic scale. Followed the instructions carefully, but it must be my technique in rolling the dough with the two layers. The filling was a terrible colour...very pale yellow with a greyish tinge. Did not look appetizing at all. It used eggs, water and sugar. I tasted 1/4 of one, and man! The pastry was chewy on the bottom inspite of having layers. The instructions said to crimp the edges, so I did. Can't see any layers when you do that. So, I have another recipe done up and 12 are now in the oven. This is a recipe by Rhonda Yee. She uses a recipe with butter and lard...single layer. None of this outsy and innsy stuff. The filling called for eggs, milk and half'n'half. I thought the colour was still too pale, so for 3 of the tarts, I added the tiniest dab of yellow cake decorating colour. We'll see what happens. I took pictures of the process from the first batch, and the rexults before I threw them into the garbage. The seond batch, I didn't take pictures of the process but I will post the results. "sigh"

Don't rush me! I keep forgetting to bring the meat out from the freezer...Besides, I did something to my back and have been going for therapy. I looked in the mirror this morning and I don't look quite so lopsided, so I am going to do the "other dim sum" today. I DO have the pork out now and will do siu mai tomorrow.

Go ahead and make these "enormongous" dan tarts anyway! The size would be like the custard pies we bought in England. Most people would share one among 4 friends. I ate a whole one by myself! But then, that was when I was pregnant and ate alot.