Dejah

I love the chewy ginger candies with the edible inner wrap. These have a picture of ginger on the wrapper. Great for staying awake when you are driving . . . sweet and hot!

You all are killing me! I've got no Chinese friends here who'll be celebrating. (Must make new friends...quickly!) Please post no photos, no details! I'll be coming back often to make sure ← Yetti. You have your fruit porn, this forum has GH, and it ain't Good Housekeeping! Goh Porn!

I am familiar with the traditional rule of not sticking your chopsticks into your rice. I never do that, not because of tradition, but because I keep having visions of hitting the top ends of the chopsticks and flicking mounds of rice and morsels over others at the table! My Scottish hubby always use chopsticks when we have Chinese food. Everyone else may opt for forks, but he says Chinese food doesnt taste right with cutlery.

I've been taking pictures as I was making the lobak goh. Hope I will be able to get them uploaded. The 10" x 3.5 inch pan is steaming as I post! Can you smell it yet? Lobak is pretty powerful when it is cooking.

gastro888: [SIZE=14]Please take note! I corrected my daikon information from GLUTINOUS rice flour to rice flour.

I just jotted this bit of info' down from "somewhere". My Mom just knows how much water to add, but I am always unsure on the amount of water to flour. Lobak goh: 2 lbs daikon 3 cups rice flour Use 2 1/2 cups of water to the 3 cups flour. I use the water from boiling the daikon. I am making my goh today. I'll see if the above proportions work. Maybe I can take pics as well before I feed the masses. BEN: You are much better at Toisanese pronunciation than I am, I never got a drumstick on New Years morning. I always got CANDY to start the new year with sweetness. All those lye see came in handy when we were young. Now, it's expensive for us! Edited to change GLUTINOUS RICE FLOUR to RICE FLOUR! When I was still in the restaurant biz, my Mom told me I had to have a whole chicken for an offering in the morning every New Years Day. She dictated the prayer for me. I had to write it out phonetically. "They" must have understood "upstairs" as I had a bustling biz! 2 of my former students from China are getting married this evening. They wanted it official before the Year of the Rooster begins as it is supposed to be bad lunck for them to get married in year of the rooster. This will be just the minister, 2 signature people and one friend, I wanted to do something special for them...so I am making a sweet soup with lotus nuts, lily bulb and red dates. Another tradition .

The pear-shaped Asian pomelos are in stores now, just in time for Chinese New Year. Each one must be examined carefully before purchasing so there are no blemishes. The skin is a pain to peel. Hubby has that chore. The fruit is drier than other citrus and the "nodules" are big! I just enjoy it fresh. But, I save the peel and soak it in soya sauce to be ysed later for a steamed pomelo and fatty pork dish . . . Toisanese peasant fare.

If you are going to make this dish at home, you'd better be sure ALL the windows and doors are opened! You'd have to stir fry the chilis in hot oil to release the flavour and heat before cooking the chicken. Restaruants have huge exhausthoods to take away the choking fumes. I can't imagine what it would be like to cook that many chilis in a house! Beer, any dairy product, or slices of fresh lemon can help cool the tongue.

I just bought my packets of sweets for my "Toon Hap": lotus nuts, wintermelon, coconut, ginger, lotus root, potato, carrot, Lucky candy (strawberry flavoured). I will set one up at home and take another to school for my students. I haven't seen those square fruit flavoured candies for some time. I miss those My 6 year old grandson loves Rabbit candies. He thinks it's pretty cool that you can eat the inside wrapper! This weekend, I will help my Mom and s-i-l make deep fried "zhan tay doy". These are made with glutinous rice flour and bars of Chinese brown sugar. She puts sweetened chopped peanuts inside, sesame seeds on the outside. They are a challenge for me as you have to form the dough into a balloon, then blow some air into it . The oil has to be at the perfect temp. While frying, you must push and roll the dough so that it will expand like a ballon to create a round ball with a thin crisp skin. I love these cooked with guy choi after all the New Years ceremonies. Mom used to make so many different kinds of dumplings, but she has scaled down as she got older. One that I really miss is containers of "gie lawn yuen" (hard lumps of steamed dough in various shapes)immersed in water. These are so good sliced then fried up with lap yuk, bean sprouts, etc. I will be making lo bak go and maybe taro go for the family and my students. My s-i-l always makes the neen go and matay (watechestnut) go. Do any of your families go thru' traditional rituals on New Years Day...table full of food, wine, incense, chicken with head and feet intact, etc? This is to pay respect to the gods and ancestors. I will make my visit on the 2nd day of the new year, armed with dumplings, fruit and candies, as well as lucky money for the great neices and nephews.

With dried orange peel, you just have to soak it until soft, THEN scrape off the pith. That removes the bitterness.

Hey, what's wrong with congee? ← [/quote That was actually meant to be a thoughtful ...such as " wonderful idea for a cold winter's night!" I love congee but have never made it in a sand pot.

Bran Flakes with 1% milk, no sugar, with a teaspoon so I eat slower. I alternate with Crispex, again with 1%, no sugar.

Our teachers' staff room is inside of the general office for international students. I take wraps to school for lunch as I can handle and eat the lunch easily while correcting papers. The Chinese students ALL bring their own lunch of rice and whatever is left over from supper the night before. We too have a long line-up infront of the microwaves. The smell is usually tolerable . No one has brought in salty fish yet! Some of the students who live in residence have to eat the poor attempts at Chinese food in the cafeteria. No wonder they move out on their own once their stay for the term is up! I was invited to a student hot pot party acouple years ago. They used a hot plate and a Dutch oven. The meat was crudely sliced so it took longer to cook. At least they knew enough to have more stock simmering on the stove. Turtlemeng, any ideas as to what herbs they use in the broth? What did they use to heat the hot pot? I found it was hottest using charcoal, but that required my keeping the kitchen window open for ventilation. When it is -30C, it's not a good idea.

Thanks, Betty. I will follow the instructions and hopefully, this one will last longer than the previous ones! Congee... Sounds good!

My gosh, hot pot doesn't require any cooking skill. All it takes is to be good at using a knief to slice up the ingredients. ← EXACTLY Try to imagine someone who has probably never handled a knife until they came abroad to study! On top of that, can you imagine them slicing a piece of jiggly meat paper thin? My students tell me that they are learning how to cook by talking to Mom while they are preparing their meals. I am thinking of giving a course on basic cooking along with their academic studies.

The Real Canadian Superstore in our small city of 44,000 is gearing up for Chinese New Year. They have always handled a good variety of basic Chinese groceries and vegetables. Yesterday, I found a whole array of frozen, vaccum-sealed packets of thinly sliced meats ready for the hot pot: lamb, chicken, beef, pork and pork liver. I thought they were a bit pricy, but considering that we have many young international students from China without any prep. and cooking skills, this will be ideal for them. I love dipping my food into different complementary sauces after cooking. Wouldn't everything at The Little Lamb all taste the same as it comes out of the broth? My students all seem to use the red vinegar as a main dip, not only for dumplings, but . . . Whenever we've had shopping trips to Winnipeg, our main source of everything ethnic, they would lug home at least 6 bottles each!

Betty, I would appreciate any instructions you can send along. Thanks!

My son gave me a sand pot for Xmas. I have used them in the past and after about half a dozen uses, they always crack. Clay pots and sand pots are two different items, right? The clay ones are glazed inside and out?The sand ones are rough outside with a" wire cage" on the bottom half...glazed inside? Is there a thread on using sand pots?I have only used them on top of the stove making chicken and rice. Would appreciate more ideas on how to use them properly.

Abra, I hope you are trying the Steak Sauce Bison meatloaf recipe in the website. That's the one I made. I've never used pureed veg. as part of the binder for ground meat before. Usually I just used bread crumbs and onions. This was very good. I used leftovers in pita pockets with some spicy mango chutney the next day as a school lunch. The recipe for Italian Biscon meatballs was also good. I made a lot and froze half. Last night, I browned a couple dozen, simmered in a sauce made with fresh mushrooms and served them over Chinese rice noodles. Today, I mushed them up a bit and put them into wraps with lettuce, carrot sticks, and cilantro for school lunch. The university's aboriginal/First Nation students are holding a bison burger sale. I figured I've had about enough bison for the day . I just gave them the money.

I've got a load of bison coming in soon. Hubby worked a webpage for the rancher in exchange for meat. http://www.bisonspiritranch.com/ Last summer, I ordered New York Strips and they were great. I just threw them on the BBQ, some with a light brushing of cajun BBQ sauce, and the rest with just salt and 4 peppercorn steak spice. The meat was very juicy and tender. There's a picture of them on my blog in August. I also had some ground bison. These I made into a wonderfully moist and flavourful meatloaf and some meatballs. The meatballs were great in a fresh mushroom sauce over fettuccini. I too am looking forward to seeing some ideas and recipes for the roasts. There are a few recipes on the above website.

The duck looks great! Congratulations.

There is a mention of this bean paste in the Char Sui Bao cook-off thread in the COOKING FORUM. Check the last post by jackal10. OMG! I'm losing it! Of course it was mentioned by jackal10....I forgot it was jackal who made the query! It must be the leftover alcoholic fumes from daughter's party lasy night.

I used to use wax paper, then got the idea to use the paper liners for cupcakes. The medium size ones are a perfect fit. Quite often, I make 3 different fillings:, one is char sui, another one is a filling of shitaki mushrooms, ginger, lapcheung (Chinese sausage ), and chicken stir-fried with oyster sauce. The 3rd. is curry chicken and onion. This is when I use the coloured cupcake liners . . . a different colour for each filling.

Dejah (and snowangel), using a starter doesn't necessarily make the dough noticeably sour. If you use a shorter fermentation the bacteria don't have time to develop a pronounced sour flavor. The dough just has a more complex flavor than if you used a commercial yeast. Thanks, edsel. I'll have to try the starter method. I have always just used the baking powder method for steamed baos.