Dejah

Rachel, Do you always use rice noodles? Mung bean threads are what I use. Lately, sauteed julienned Chinese mushrooms and wood ears were added to my summer roll filling. Fresh mint adds a refreshing taste. Instead of lettuce, I have been using mixed field greens. These add a bite because of the baby beet leaves, dandelion, escarol, etc. Wrapping my summer roll with a lettuce leave just before devouring adds even more crunch. I find that if I put a wrap in warm water while working on one roll, the second is pliable by the time the first one is done.

I add reconstituted dried oysters with my soup. Or, I would hollow out the seeds, stuff the gourds with ground pork, cut it into one inch slices, then braised with a black bean garlic sauce, or if my daughter insistes, an oyster sauce. Bitter melon is considered a cooling element. Really enjoying the combined efforts in your blog, Laksa and Ms Congee!

Ok, Cantonese speakers: Let's see if I can get some semblance to pronunciation and getting this on here! I remember learning this many mooncakes ago. Chong tseen ming yuet gong, Yee see dai sheung sheung. Gueh tow mong ming yeut Dye tow see goo hueung. If someone can post the Chinese characters for this, it would be great! I can print it out for my Chinese students when the new term starts. We usually have an autumn BBQ with the new students and mooncakes and wotow go are my contributuions. I pay about $25.00 for a tin of 4 lotus paste / double yolk regular size cakes. These come from Vancouver and have been fresh when they are brought in by Superstore. The shelves are bare within a couple days. I find the mini-ones drier. One of my sons will snatch a couple right away and hide them in his room. He and I enjoy them the most.

Love moon cakes, and in my family, I get all the yolks! Guess I'll have to save acouple for Ben Hong, along with the joong.

saskanuck . . .by any chance --Saskatchewan . . . Canuck? If so, I'm your neighbor to the east. Wherever, welcome to Egullet! I've been trying to get a count on my collection. I had to use all my fingers and toes . . . several times over. total of 147 in this house. Not sure what's in the house out in the country. Judi, I'm going to go through the shelves tonight and see what might be of interest to you.

Judi, Is there any particular cuisine you are interested in? Give me some idea of your interest so I can send something appropriate? Dejah

Century eggs are also great as an appetitzer. The egg is sliced into 4 or 6 sections, and eaten with pickled ginger. Some equate the taste to rubber tires. . .

Laksa, a most interesting list! Looks like another great blog coming... Did you post your BBQ pork recipe in another thread? If not, please do! Bananas...do you do frozen bananas?

Abra, Thank you for the incredible blog! I'll have to try that salmon marinate next time. Looks like the ice-cream will be a project with our grandson as he loves cookie dough.

I like to think of "authentic" as what has been in my family, and passed down through generations . . . Does authentic mean producing the exact same results as when the original recipe was first developed? Is that possible considering the changes that have been made to the ingredients?

sequim:"Heck, I remember my mother kept a can of bacon fat out on the stove and cooked from that when we were growing up." When I came to Canada, one of my first tastes of Canadian food was fresh bread fried in bacon fat left on the grill, after Dad cooked bacon for a customer's BLT. Hubby's Nana always had her "tin" of drippings in her ice box. It was handy when there wasn't enough dripping for Yorkshire puddings for Sunday night's roast. It was also great for pan-fried left over potatoes!

I too am sorry to hear of your tremendous loss. An idea just occured as I was hitting the reply button: Judiu's collection would definitely "rise again like the pheonix" if some of us who have duplicate cookbooks could send them to judie. Judiu, are there any particular titles you desperately need? I may not have any that you lost, but this may be a good way to start new passions?

Sitting here, listening to my daughter go over her harp repetorie for a wedding this afternoon, drinking my coffee and eating a thick slice of warm home-made bread slathered with Skippy chuncky peanut butter topped with home-made Seville orange marmalade. "Who could ask for anythin g more...."

bloviatrix: You took the bars....errr...words right out of my mouth!

I like using pork tenderloin for BBQ pork. It's lean and the shape is perfect for hanging in the oven and for slicing to serve as appetitizers. But, for char sui bao, I like a bit of fat to keep the filling juicy and for flavour, so I use pork butte roast. I'd trim some of the fat off around the edges but keep the fat within the lean parts.

My Mom's recipe for bao has been posted in the China and Chinese cuisine thread, in the RESTAURANT, CUISINE AND TRAVEL FORUM. For ma pao tofu, I cut medium firm tofu into cubes, put them into a colander and let them drain. While waiting for the cubes to drain, I brown ground pork (or any ground meat, or no meat at all), diced onions and any fresh hot peppers I may have on hand. Seasoning is held off until the dish is finished cooking. I brown the tofu cubes in about 1/2 cup of oil, drain off the oil, and add the meat and onions back into the wok. Instead of using mashed black beans, etc, I use LEE KUM KEE chili bean sauce (Toban Djan). This works really well. I usually add about 3 tbsp....adjust according to your tolerance. If you like lots of sauce, add some stock or water and thicken slightly with cornstarch slurry. I may season at this time, if I think it needs salt. Just before plating, I add chopped fresh mint, and some whole leaves on top. Mint and heat seems to go well together, in my opinion. My daughter China-Li thinks I am obsessed with mint, basil, cilantro and rosemary . . . I also like to put wilted lettuce, iceberg or romaine under the tofu, whether it's ma pao or tofu in oyster sauce.

ahem.... Did I hear my name ? Am I being paged? Those meals look wonderful! One benefit of Gladware...food won't clash with the dish.

Hi transparent, Here's the recipe for bao. I wrote down the measurements and steps as my Mom made bao, a long time ago. The only change we've made is using cake and pastry flour now instead of all-purpose. We found this made the baos whiter and fluffy, not as "chewy". I can't remember how many this batch made tho' because I usually double the recipe each time... I will be making some more this weekend in a dim sum lesson, so I may remember to keep track then. 4 cups flour, all purpose for chewy, cake and pastry for fluffy 1 cup of sugar ( to the 7oz. line, why? "cos Po-Po said so. ) 1/2 tsp salt 4 "full" teaspoons (not the measuring kind, actual tsps.) of baking powder. Shift dry ingrdients together. Add 2 cups LESS 1TBSP cold milk. I use my dough hook on the KitchenAid and knead the dough until it comes away from the sides of the bowl...10 minutes? Rest the dough for about 10 minutes, add 1 TBSP of vegetable oil. Knead again for 10 minutes, until smooth. Cut into desired pieces, roll out with the edges thinner than the centre. Tortilla presses work great! I thin out the edges when I pleat. Put filling of choice in the middle. Pleat the edges and pinch together at the top. Place the bao on a medium size paper cupcake liner with the pinched top up. These will "fan out" when steamed. Bring a steamer of water to boil. Steam buns for 17 minutes. I use different kinds of filling. One, of course, is the char sui. I also make one with chicken, Chinese mushrooms, lap cheung and onions. The third filling is curry chicken with onions. Let me know how you make out.

Thanks to Egullet for the opportunity to share my cooking this past week! To Soba, Thank you for your guidance, and for all the "behind the scenes" work that you do. You are too

1st: Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you.... Happy Birthday, Dear Abra. Happy Birthday to you! 2nd: Looks like I made the perfect choice. Very much looking forward to your blog. I'll take notes for my next dinner party! I LOVE blackberries, but they are not native to Manitoba. The best ones I have ever tasted were in a friend's backyard in Victoria, on Vancouver Island. They were the elongated ones and grew on a trellis.

Thanks you, Betty. It was a lot of fun. Now that the family has left, I need to go on a diet...

THE LAST SUPPER With this cooler weather, and the way I've been using chilis, banana and habanero peppers, one would think I was stoking up my internal stove for winter. One chicken thigh and a breast were hiding in the fridge. These I browned quickly in a small cast iron casserole. I added a splash of cooking wine and light soya, the leftover wood ear, Chinese mushrooms, gum choy (lily buds), and some chicken stock. The dish went into the oven at 350F, with the lid on. There really wasn't enough for three people, so I decided to save this dish for China-Li as a late night supper. She's not back from her volunteer job yet. For Bill and myself, I made ma pao tofu with ground pork. Wow! This is the second item we've eaten today that didn't require much chewing, and I still have all my teeth. I had saved some green papaya from the early afternoon snack. The bone from a piece of pork butte steak was used to make a clear broth. After simmering the bone while the rice cooked, I added a few slices of pork and the papaya. Even though it seemed a shame to cook this beautiful fruit, it did make a nice soup that is beneficial for the lungs and digestion. With the now boneless pork butte steak, I sliced it into thin strips, added seasoning, cornstarch and oil and put it into a shallow bowl. On top of this, I added chopped preserved mustard greens (mui choy) on my half, and thin slices of preserved turnip (ham choy) and habanero peppers on Bill's half. I steamed this in my wok. I know -- I know. You are not supposed to use your wok for steaming, but I do. Vegetables are a must for me. Tonight, I had a dish of bok choy, stir-fried with garlic and slivers of ginger. A dish of chocolate ice-cream was our last dessert! This has been a hectic week for me, but made very enjoyable by the opportunity to share my cooking with you. I already have a Web site dedicated to many food-related topics: http://www.hillmans.soupbo.com/soos/ The experience of doing this blog was so satisfying that I have adapted it to Web page format for display at: http://www.hillmans.soupbo.com/soos/foodlog.html I've thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with other eGulleteers that this medium has provided. I look forward to an ongoing interchange with fellow foodies. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Dejah has left the building ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

HMMMMMMMMMM-----------!!!!!!!! There! That is my rant!! LOL! Before my first wok, for years, I used a large iron frying pan. Worked beautifully. Great tool! HZRT - What is the 'salt and pepper SAUCE' you used in that shrimp dish? Anyone---- About posting pictures --- is there a trick to doing it? I know how to transfer an image, but even getting my digitals to Webshot has been difficult. ahem.... I just have a household General Electric stove, at least 15 years old, and it works very well with my 14" cheapy rustable wok. My s-i-l has a gas stove, and I find it slower to heat my wok than my electric. I DO agree with you that, unless you have 80,000btu burner, one cannot reproduce that restaurant flavour. I miss my old restaurant stove. In fact, I dragged it out of the restaurant before the demolition crew came in. It is sitting in our garage. I thought of installing it for an outdoor kitchen, but the thought of having to clean up the baked- on grease on the backside from the late 70s on kinda discouraged me. One of my friends is going to haul it to his farm and use it for an outdoor kitchen. Jo-mel: As for posting the pictures, this is our proceedure: Download the pictures from your digital camera to a folder in your computer. Then when you go to upload your pictures on image egullet, you hit "BROWSE", then go into your folder and type in the jpg number. Once you have entered all your pictures, hit the "upload" button. It will show you your entries. Copy the line and paste onto your post. I think this is what you are asking...but the WEBSHOT kinda threw me... Is this the info' you need. Funny. It took doing the blog for me to figure out how to post a picture.

FOOD BLOG: DAY 7 ~ Wednesday Woke up to another chilly, windy and wet morning. I packed China-Li a double lunch of chicken, (Again? Hey! it's her favourite!) and shredded vegetables in sun-dried tomato tortilla wrap, fresh vegetable chunks, chocolate cupcake, cantaloupe and cheese strings. After she finishes work at the hospital, she will head to a small town called Onanole as a St. John Ambulance volunteer. Not sure if you non-Canadian readers are familiar with the R.C.M.P. (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) ceremonies. They are performing their precision musical ride (all on horseback) at the country fair this evening. BTW, I am also a member of the R.C.M.P. WAIT! I am not an officer, but I am an advisor on the Commissioner's Cultural Diversity Committee. Because of the weather, we will be eating comfort food today. Breakfast for the two of us was a bowl of hot Red River cereal. This is an unadulterated mixture of three whole grains -- wheat, rye and flax, which originated in Manitoba's Red River Valley. It is a great "cleanser" after food binges. I ate mine with brown sugar and milk. Bill must have his pushed into a mound, and the milk forming a moat around his porridge. Some days, I feel like I am back in time; back in the restaurant! I barely got through my cereal before the phone started ringing. One of our old customers called up for my "bad cold fixes." I used to dispense this foul herbal tea to my customers if they have a cold, the flu, or just a hang over. They also asked for some of my kick-ass hot 'n' sour soup. It comes with a guarantee to clear up sinuses! So, out came my soup pot, Chinese mushrooms, wood ear, bamboo shoots, chili paste, vinegar, ginger and chicken stock. While that was simmering, our grandson Soulin called and asked for his favourite lunch stuff: mini-pizza swirls. He's at mini-university (a day camp for kids at our alma mater and place of employment, Brandon University). At least my kitchen got warm and cozy. I took a snack break with papaya while the pizza dough was rising. Only half of the fruit was ripe, so I saved the green parts for soup this evening. Soulin likes pepperoni, green peppers and cheese on his pizza. These were easy to make up, baked for 20 minutes in a moderate oven, and I put some in the freezer for China's lunches. For lunch, Bill and I had savory tang yuen. As I was getting the ingredients together, the phone rang again. It was CyraCom International, an interpreter service out of Tucson, Arizona. Even when I don't log on, the calls come through automatically as I am their only Toisanese interpreter on the roster. Most of the calls are from hospitals and immigration at ports-of-entry. By the end, I was pretty distracted. This always creates problems. Turning back to make lunch, I reached blindly into the pantry for the glutinous rice flour to make the dumplings. The daikon was julienned and boiled. What a foul smell, but oh so essential and delicious in this soup. After removing the daikon, I dropped in the dumplings. Half an hour later, they still hadn't floated to the top. I took one out, cut into it, solid! I threw those out, thinking I didn't add enough water in making the dough. The same thing happened with the second batch. Then I got the bright idea to check the date on the flour package. Guess what . . . I had grabbed the ordinary rice flour and not the GLUTINOUS rice flour. Even if I boiled them for another hour, they would still not be light and chewy. I made the new batch with the proper rice flour. This time, the dumplings floated in just a few minutes. I added the lap cheung, dried shrimp meat, silkened lean pork and the cooked daikon. The tang was worth waiting for. It's one that will stick to your ribs. Bill was able to tackle about six dumplings . . . with help from Atticus. For an added crunch, I opened my last package of "instant jelly fish." I don't know why I love this stuff . . . rubber bands with chili/sesame oil. Bill doesn't like them, and even Atticus turned up his nose! I finished the hot 'n' sour soup with silkened sliced chicken, BBQ pork, shrimp and tofu. The cornstarch rubbed into the chicken was enough to thicken the soup. It was picked up shortly after. I have some chicken pieces in the fridge, tofu, ground pork, leftover wood ear, mushrooms, and the green papaya. I think I see supper forming up . . .

hzrt, I'd love to have your recipe for Indian tandoori chicken. Do you cook yours in a conventional oven, the BBQ, or do you actually have a "tandoori oven"? How about your BBQ pork? and your potstickers? I am always looking for different ways to cook my favourites. I cook Chinese food most of the time. . . This week was a liittle different because my sister and family were here. The Canadian fare was by request. They get all kinds cuisine in Vancouver, but not old Canadian family favourites like our beef stew, banana cream pie, etc. You need to take pictures of your food! This blog has given me the impetus to do my cookbook for the family and past customers. This morning, we are having porridge to clean our system of last night's over-indulgence!