Dejah

dong quai is mainly used after childbirth, when you want to build up your blood (bo huet). It is very bitter, as another poster indicated. I have seen bottles with Dong Quai on the label, at our Superstore, on the herbal shelves. This is a powerful herb and should not be taken indescriminately. . . acoording to my Most Knowledgeble Mom.

I am guilty of steaming food in my wok. . . It's fine if I get it cleaned and dried immediately after cooking, but when we have company for supper, then it gets left until later. Having to "cleanse and re-season" my wok many times doesn't seem to affect my wok. In fact, this is the same method we used on our four 24" woks at the restaurant on Sundays. This is when we do an all out thorough cleaning on the whole kitchen. It's wonderful to start the week off with clean shiny woks, steam tables, etc. Cleaning the woks regularly this way avoids any " black specks" coming off onto the food.

It has to be the original figgy for me, and generics need not apply! Nothing beats a Newton with cold glass of milk.

In the cookbook thread, FoodMan mentioned that in a BT book there was a section on how to re-season a rusty wok. Can anyone elaborate on this? For myself, my $15.00 wok of many years has gone through several rusty periods. I usually soak the whole inside of the wok with a mixture of half water and half vinegar for a few hours. When it looks clean, I wash it well with soap and water, heat it until the bottom turns blue then drizzle oil over the entire surface. Once it starts to smoke, I let it cool, then wipe off the excess with paper towel. That seems to do the trick.

To do char sui in my oven, at the restaurant or at home, I take cheap metal poultry skewers ( the ones used to seal up a bird once it is stuffed) and bend them into S hooks. Place a rack on the highest position in your oven. Hang the meat one one end of the S hook, and the other end on the rack. Place another rack on the lowest position with a pan of water as hzrt suggested to keep the meat moist. Hanging the meat this way, you wouldn't have to turn it every 20 minutes. Every jar of LKK Char Sui sauce I have bought have been really sticky and difficult to work with. I end up mixing hoisin and brown bean sauce with some wine and 5 spice powder. Has anyone tried NOH of Hawaii Chinese BBQ Char Sui seasoning mix? It does contain Red colour #3. I have a package here but haven't used it yet. Hmmm....maybe this week. When we made it for the restaurant, I used Hoisin, sugar, cooking wine, and a red food colouring we'd buy in gallon jugs. Wish I had some of that now! You could always tell who did the mix for the day. Used to be able to buy a deep red food colouring made for cake decorating. The ones now all seem pastel. I used to do chicken wings in the same manner. The fat from the skin made the wings a beautiful shiny deep red. It worked well on our appetizer platter.

ACK! You orientals all look alike!

hzrt: Strange. . . I just said to my daughter this afternoon, as I was search through my piles of print-out recipes, for the paper with the Chinese characters for Happy Birthday, Po-Po, that I need to get all these sheets into a binder. These recipes are usually ones I was searching for and have made, at least once. I see you also post in about.com. Did you explain to them how to remember your "name"?

I love cheung fun! They are best served fresh at dim sum restaurants. The texture is smooth, silky . . . soooooooooo good. The char sui ones are the best! Shopping trips to Winnipeg always end up with 2 or 3 packages. Most of my family likes the ones with dried shrimps and scallions. Son2 likes the plain ones drizzled with soya, sesame oil and sweet chili sauce. I have tried to make them from SCRATCH. That means soaking a flour dough ball, squeezing it again and again to extract the gluten?.! An elderly Chinese friend spent a day showing me how to do this. It was a wonderful day of conversation and learning experience. I didn't have the heart to tell her that one can buy the fixings in a package. The couple of times I made cheung fun, I couldn't keep up with the hungry mouths. You have to be careful when shopping for these. Check the ends of the cheung fun, and between the rolls, for any sign of pink or yellow spots. This is mold. Even if it is prior to the "best before" dates, they spoil easily.

I'm not sure if anyone else is the same, but I buy cookbooks for the beautiful pictures (usually close to meal times) and maybe a couple of recipes that appealed to me. I also like to buy books that have English pronunciation AND Chinese characters with the names. Keep thinking that one of these days, I may learn to read the REAL "menus on the wall". How can you folks name all your favourites the way you do in the posts? I had to go and pull out my most worn-looking books to see who the authors were! My first Chinese cookbook purchase was Helen Burke's Chinese Cooking for Pleasure. The names of the dishes sound just like the way I remember them! I don't remember whether I used any specific recipe, but more for guidance and jogging my memory as to how Mom made it. The Time-Life cookbooks were also some of my first acquisitions. That was when we were into the "subscription"mode . . .all those different sets of How-To books bt T-L. Bley Miller's Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook sits prominently in my bookcase ... because it is so damn big! Again, it is mainly used for reference. I just found out that I have several Wei-Chuan cookbooks! The one I read most often is the Chinese dim sum one. The steamed beef balls are very good. Along with the Wei-Chuan book, I use Mary Tsui Ping Yee's Chinese Immigrant Cooking quite a bit, for traditional foods such as: New Mother's Chicken Soup, Dried Bok Choy, Dried Oyster soup, etc. A good book for beginners is The Asian Kitchen: The best of Chinese and Far Eastern cooking by Lilian Wu. Good pictures showing the ingredients, cooking process and the final product. China Moon...Years ago, I bought the book and enjoyed reading it. Then we had the opportunity to go to SF. I had the address of the restaurant in my hand, and was so excited about trying out the dishes at its source! We walked and walked, kept checking the address, and yes, it's true, it no longer existed. The small store front was all boarded up. In fact, most of that street was abandoned. I, as other posters have since learned from Egullet, that Ms Tropp had been ill, and has since died. I think I was there around 1996. I still pull out the book for a read, but have never made any of the recipes. I guess the "original taste" wasn't there to inspire me to try the recipes. Of the +150 cookbooks in my bookcase, I'd say, 75% are Assian cookbooks. Do any of you buy the Australian Women's Weekly Library soft cover books? I have quite a few. They are also interesting additions to a cooking library.

Here is the recipe for sui mai filling. I use the thinest wonton wrappers I can find. Using a cookie cutter, I make them round with scalloped edges. The left over wrapper pieces can be used as noodles in soup. Sui Mai Recipe By Sue-On For 1 lb of ground pork: Add: 1/2 tsp. baking SODA 2 tbsp. cornstarch 1/2 tsp. salt 2 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp. MSG (optional) 2 tbsp. sesame oil 2 tbsp. cold water 2 tsp. lemon juice 1/4 tsp. white pepper. 4 tbsp. finely shredded carrot for colour Mix well. I am assuming everyone knows how to shape these dumplings? If not, let me know and I can do a show 'n' tell.

I had tried that method with potstickers. The potstickers still stick together under their own weight in the freezer over time. Unless I can provide individual separation in the freezer, I rather just freeze the filling and wrap as I go. I haven't frozen wontons already done up in the wrappers, but I do make up large batches of filling and freeze those. If the meat is put into Ziplocks, flattened so that it is only about half an inch thick, then you can break off the amount needed and it will thaw quickly. As for potstickers, I have made these and frozen them individually on a cookie sheet. Once frozen, they are put into freezer bags or containers. I am assuming these are made with home made pastry? I have never had them stick together. . . perhaps it's because they never last THAT long!

Dang, this sure beats the Ugoff salad that I had at Burger King last night... And you didn't take a picture to "entice us"?

NO! NO! NO! I don't want to hear this! Not when it is so close to mooncake eating time. Are you the PR person for the opposition?

Jason, The main reason I leave out the "green matter " is because it doesn't freeze well. Also, the texture seems to be just right without veg. matter. When I make wontons for soup, there are large pieces of vegetables and scallions in the soup. For deep fried ones, I like large pieces of scallions on the side to eat with them. This way, you have the full crunch and flavour of both, but separate. This is a basic recipe. You can add scallions, or more sesame oil, etc according to your taste. I can add scallions and bits of Chinese mushroom, then they are "fon suaw"...in Toisanese. These are made with the har gow pastry and steamed. This is a traditional item for my Mom's bday. Her actual lunar bday is tomorrow, so I will take these and steamed sponge cake. . . "amh tay", when I go over for lunch.

Beef, black bean garlic and bitter gourd stir-fried, poured over fresh ho fun ( wide, flat rice sticks) . . . OR Pork bones, chunks of bitter gourd, ginger and dried oysters in a soup.

How would the name of this noodle dish be pronounced in Cantonese? This is a saucy noodle dish?

Here's the recipe for wonton filling from my foodblog, as requested. Pork, Shrimp and Waterchestnut Wonton Filling ---- Recipe by Sue-On 1 lb. lean ground pork ( with a little bit of fat mixed in) 1 small can of waterchestnuts (about 15 peeled waterchestnuts) 6 oz. peeled and deveined shrimp 2 tsp. each of oyster sauce and light soya sauce 1 tsp. of sesame seed oil, 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil 3/4 tsp. each of salt, sugar and MSG (msg optional) 2 tbsp. cold water To prepare the filling: 1. Finely chop the waterchestnuts and shrimp. I use my mini-chopper. Make sure it is fine, but not paste. 2. Mix #1 into the ground pork. 3. Add the seasonings, water, oils to the meat mixture. 4. Mix everything together well. I use my KitchenAid with the paddles. 5. Test for adequate seasoning by putting a scant tsp. of the filling in a small dish. Add a tbsp. of water, cover and microwave for 15 seconds. Taste, and adjust if needed. 6. Use a heaping teaspoonful of filling per wonton. 7. Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown. 8. Drain and serve with plum sauce, sweet 'n' sour sauce, or sauce of your choice.

transparent: Here's the agar agar go you were asking about.

edited to remove 2nd. send

transparent: Here's the agar agar go you were asking about.

I just checked the dye choi go. It's great! Will have a picture of it in the next few minutes. The only thing I was disappointed with was the egg. it didn't "swirl" as it should have. Next time I will remember to pour slowly.

Get your list ready! Ben. I was talking to my bro tonight. He's going to get in touch with his buddies and we'll get you and your friend set up for the big hunt. It'll be Canada goose hunting season as well while you are here. Now, do I talk to Mom about cooking these things?

What can I say, Ben? She's only HALF Chinese!

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....hzrt! My Mom and I shared the last paidan so last week. The coconut tarts I can get here at our supermarket. I make a curry puff, with chicken and potatoe, and sometimes with ground beef. The only thing I am envious of is the pai dan so . . . My midnight snack tonight will be moistened burnt rice with mashed sweet potato! I cooked rice on the stove tonight so that I can have burnt rice. (fan jeu . . .yummy!)

Thanks hzrtw8, for the recipe. May get a chance to try it out this weekend. My daughter will only eat white meat, but I prefer the thigh.