Dejah

What a challenging task! I am the blogger for the week, started yesterday, running until next Wed. Take a peek ... in General Food Topics

We have to drive 2.5 hours to Winnipeg to buy our BBQ duck, sui yook, etc. Even tho' we keep everything in a cooler, the smell gets thru' to the nostrils. Do you think we'd leave it untouched until we get home! That's why we keep WetOnes in the car.

Day One continued . . . I needed a nap after my wonton soup but Dejah's kitchen had hungry family to feed for supper. Most of my postings in Egullet have been in the China and Chinese Cuisine Forum. As mentioned in one of the threads, I am a lo wah kiu . . a Chinese immigrant who's been here a long time. Our family's involvement with food began with my paternal grandfather, who worked as a cook (on the CPR railroad crew). Later, working as the cook for the first water commissioner of Winnipeg (Manitoba's capital city), he saved enough money to buy himself a little hotel and restaurant in the small village of Newdale. My dad joined him from China when he was 16 years old. They didn't serve any Chinese food at that time . . . just good hearty prairie fare, translated to mean meat and potatoes! Newdale was well known by many avid duck hunters . . . especially our American neighbours to the south. Clark Gable was said to have been a frequent visitor. During hunting season, Dad always had a big pot of stew, made with beef short ribs, big chunks of vegetables and buttermilk biscuits. It remains one of our favorite comfort foods. So, as requested by my sister, who doesn't do much Canadian cooking, I spent my afternoon cooking stew, biscuits, and another of my Dad's signature dishes -- home-made banana cream pie. For the stew, I used beef short ribs and brisket point. Stew never seems to taste as good without the fat and the bones. The meat is seasoned with salt, pepper and flour, then browned in my stew pot. While the meat waited patiently in a pan, I browned chunks of onion, celery and carrots in all that gooey stuff on the bottom. The meat went back into the pot, with enough beef stock (made from leftover roast beef, au jus, and rib bones) to cover. To this, I threw in bay leaves, 4-peppercorn steak spice, and about 1/4 cup of Italian herb blend. Brought this to a boil for about half an hour, then transferred everything to my big trusty old stainless steel roaster. This concoction "stewed" in the oven at about 300F for acouple hours. About 45 minutes before supper, I added new potatoes, more carrots and celery. It went back into the oven, without the cover. While waiting for the stew, I mixed up 3 batches of the buttermilk biscuit recipe. Once the roaster came out, I popped in 12 biscuits at a time. They were ready by the time everyone (14 adults 3 kiddies) came to the table. We're not really knowledgeable about wines, but we did have acouple bottles of Australian Wolf Blass Pinot Noir which went well with the stew. Oh, we also had peaches and cream corn on the cob. The West-Coasties liked their corn with lime juice and crushed peppers! Even Atticus, our Great Pyrenees dog, got into the act. Someone slipped him a verboten cob of corn -- he never turns down "human food." Any under-the-table contraband is a welcome change from his usual Pedigree "rice and lamb" pellets for sensitive stomachs. Also made banana cream pies in the afternoon. I was supposed to hand whip the cream like Dad did, but my Kitchen Aid insisted on helping. Hubby then dashed off for rehearsal with a Christian rock band, getting ready for Faith Festival on September long weekend. Knowing his religious inclinations, it must be his musical talent that prompted them to select him as lead guitarist for the gig. Tomorrow's schedule will be making dim sum and food for Saturday's crew. My head is spinning!

Good Morning! Thanks for all the encouraging comments . Damn nervous about doing this blog after reading the incredible ones that went before. Just getting last night's supper entry to post. I got home too late from chauffering duties to process pictures. To answer a couple questions first: Johnnyd and Laska: "Is that a dollop of chilli/sambal on top of the wontons? I can't tell but those look like fresh noodles? Store-bought or home-made? Shrimp egg noodles? I'm unfamiliar with those." That dollop is a mah la oil I made, crushed chili peppers, veg oil, garlic and shallots. One of my Vietnamess friends showed me how. It packs a wallop The noodles are store bought, at our local Superstore. Saves a lot of time, and really quite good. For the Soo's archived link, we used a Sony Mavica. It has since died. I am using a h/p 5.3MP now. My hubby Bill is the whiz on the computer. He processes and trims down the pictures for me. For that, he gets fed well What else but Tim Horton's would you drink in a rural hockey city? My grandson love TimBits...I love their honey cruellers.

FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD! The word "BLOG" is a familiar one in our house. My hubby Bill, is a prof. in the Faculty of Education, and "blogging" is one of the requirements for his Communications and Computer technology courses. But, I have never been involved in blogs until this invitation...and this sounds much tastier! Thanks for the opportunity. Life is much more relaxed now that we have retired from the restaurant biz. http://home.westman.wave.ca/~hillmans/soosera.html Since 2002, I have been teaching half time at our university in the EAP program with international students. This leaves me the rest of the day to cook . . . what else? Brandon is a rural city of 44,000. Dining out does not include gourmet meals, tasting menus, etc. Until I found Egullet, a tasting menu was a 9 or 11 course Chinese banquet, complete with a 26 oz. bottle of Crown Royal ;-) My cooking these days involve learning traditional family recipes from my 95-year-old mother, pulling out old recipes from pre-Soo's Restaurant days, and trying out ideas from Egullet and my overflowing collection of cookbooks. This week will be a hectic one for blogging. My sister and family are visiting from Burnaby, B.C. so lots of food will be involved. On top of that, hubby, our kids and myself are performing Saturday and Sunday at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Brandon Folk Music & Crafts Festival. We will have out of town musical guests . . . so more food! Good thing I am on summer vacation this month. DAY ONE I love my mornings. When university is in session, I am up at 5 a.m. so I could do my prep. while the house is quiet. These days, I can sleep in until 6 a.m. I take our daughter to work at her summer job at the hospital, then I get to relax with my breakfast and 2nd cup of coffee. Today, I sat out on the deck with a cup of Tim Horton's brew-at-home with Coffee Rich creamer, 2 slices of toast with my home made peach/apricot/pineapple conserve. I love this stuff on toast, ice cream or just by itself as a snack. The recipe is one handed down by hubby's Nana Campbell. She even used bits of apricot pits in her recipe! It added a touch of crunchy bitterness to the sweet and tang of the fruit, but not enough arsenic to topple us. For lunch, my daughter packed a roll-up made with whole wheat tortillia, poached chicken breast, a handful of spring greens with raspberry vinegrette, shredded carrot and juilenne cukes. At home, we had wonton soup with shrimp egg noodles, Shanghai bok choy, shrimp and lap cheung.

Wife's Cake picture and description: http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blphotowifecake.htm

Wife's cake is sweetened wintermelon paste encased in a flakey layered pastry, like the ones on pai dan so.

Black bean sauce is fermented black beans, mashed and blended with soya sauce. I find it too salty, and don't care for the flavour. I prefer to mash my own soaked and rinsed dried black beans...or blend my own "sauce" with water. Black beans in the prepared sauces are too fine to be rinsed.

I use a recipe from About.com as a base. http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blrecipe053.htm

Should it be "Pai Dan So"? "So" means crispy skin (made of flour and butter mostly). "Gow" means cake usually. I am familiar with Pai Dan So. What does Pai Dan Gow taste like? hzrt8w: You are correct. Pai dan so...of course! Should I have another piece for dessert right now? or Wife's cake?

Last night, (because I couldn't wait until today!) I had Wife's Cake and Pai Dan Gow for late night snack. My neice arrived from Burnaby laddened with boxes of pastries from Kam Do Restaurant and Bakery Ltd. of Richmond, B.C.

I usually brown any meat that goes into braised/stewed dishes first...adds nice flavour and a bit of "browning". I do this when I made a large casserol of black bean garlic spareribs. Once the ribs are browned, I drain off the excess fat. The smashed garlic and ginger is cooked first, then add the black beans before returning the ribs to the pot. To this, I add pork stock to cover, and some black beans that I previously blended with some water. This really adds to the flavour and colour without adding soya sauce. I boil this mixture for about 20 minutes, then thicken with a half cornstarch and half flour slurry. This prevents the sauce from breaking down when you do the next step. The whole lot is poured into a cast iron casserol dish. Put the lid on, into the oven at 350F for an hour. When ready, the meat is full of flavour, tender and ready to put over large mounds of fluffy rice...LOTS of rice! I agree with Ben about the hot wok/cold oil method. This is especially true if you rinse your wok between ingredients. This ensures there is no moisture left on your wok...so no surprise splatters when you add the oil. Mom said that if you salt your oil before the ingredients, this will also prevent splatters, especially if you are adding freshly washed and drained vegetables.

Gou qi soup is like rhubarb...the first treats from the garden for me. Gou qi is a perennial. Before guy choi, spinach, melons, etc is ready for soup, gou qi is. It always helps when the older "aunties" in the city bring you bags of the leaves, cleaned and ready to use. Gou qi zi is also the last soup harevst from the garden.

I like my watermelon au naturel as well. My older relatives seem to like salt to "enhance the sweetness" of the melon. Anyone know how to cook the white part of watermelon rinds? I remember eating it but can't remember how or with what it was cooked ? I love Chinese pomelo rind (goo look pei) that had been soaking in soya sauce... thinly sliced and steamed on top of pork.

I know what I will be snacking on tonight...gai jai bang...those little chewy cookie things with nam yu in the middle. My sister just came in from Burnaby, B.C. with a suitcase full of goodies. I have beside me, nam yu peanuts, candied ginger and of course the cookies mentioned above. She also brought me lots of dried goods, for making soups. I have just found out what one of the items I use all the time is called in English. At least, this is what is written on the package " fragrant solomonseal rhizome". Also, I got lotus nuts, Chinese almonds, shittake mushrooms, and several other soup ingredients. Back to the topic on hand...midnight snacks: I love having leftover soup or vegetables from supper as my midnight snack.

I have a gou qi zi shrub in my garden and it is always loaded with plump red berries by late summer. Used to pick them and air dry for later use in soups, but mostly, I like to make soup with freshly picked berries, with a clear pork broth. My daughter likes to eat them fresh off the bush. If you air dry the fresh berries, they will stay red. You must pick them WITH the stem intact. I didn't know that you can use the leaves from the gou qi zi shrub for soup. There is one kind where I use the leaves for soup, just called gou qi. The leaves on the qi zi bush are longer and more slender. The soup gou qi are more rounded. I cut the individual stalks, run my hand in the opposite direction the leaves grow, then stick the stalks back into the ground for next year. These have never developed into bushes. I love the soup with salted egg swirled in it... gou gai dan fa tong!

Funny how the bitterness can be refreshing. I find that whenever I make soup with bitter melon...Bitter followed by a cool and refreshing sensation.

lap cheung bao! This always works when I run out of char sui

I enjoy the grass jelly drink, but hate the struggle to get the" last chunk"from the can... One of my Chinese students brought grass jelly to a potluck supper. It was cut into chunks and swimming in a mixture of diluted sweet condensed milk. I prefer it ice cold in a light sugar syrup. 仙草 I believe the second character is "grass"? There is another "jelly" that I love...called agar agar. Can't remember for the life of me, at this moment, what it is called in Chinese. It is like Jello, except it is clear, and often has egg swirled in it with sesame sprinkled on top.

Gary, I'll take your wife's advice on that! That would save me acouple hours of work. Just don't tell my Mom. We were at an 11 course Chinese wedding banquet last night. The final dish before dessert was fried rice in lotus leave. The leave was mainly for presentation. The fried rice had egg cooked in the rice, Chinese mushrooms, peas. It was then wrapped in a large leave and cut on top to look like a lotus flower.

The joong I made were with bamboo leaves. They average around 3.5 to 4" wide and about 18" long. You'd have to soak and then boil these to soften them up before use. The banana leaves I have were cut into big squares, about 12" x 14". The original leave would be much bigger of course. I have never made joong with banana leaves, just for steaming fish.

I think it may be "xiao luobo" (not to be confused with "xiao laopo"). ...perhaps hung lo bak jie? for the little red salad radishes. Regardless of what they SHOULD be called, I am, at this moment, making savory cake with those big, long white suckers.

Oh Man! That looks SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! I must try fo yu as a marinate component. Whenever I've eaten in restaurants, they use a "sweet soya" on spring onion crispy chicken and cheung fun. Any suggestions on brands? I haven't found one yet

Shiewie and Yetti, Could you post your recipes for the jongzi you each mentioned in your posts. This would be a great way for us to, as lorea said" One of these days, I'm going to go beyond my comfortable favorites (glutinous rice, fatty pork, and shiitake mushrooms....or using Yo Fan as a filling) and try something new."

Spaghettti, Can you take pictures when you make the jongzi with your mom? I have a friend from Indonesia. She would love to see your work with your mom. I made some jongzi for her, with duck, mushrooms, shrimp, peanuts, salted egg yolk and onions.Called me last night to say she only had one left... For your dad's, after parboiling, how long would you boil the jongzi? Actually, I like the shape of the ones you showed. They could be done much quicker! With the no mai gai ( sticky rice in lotus leaves), I cook the rice completely, cook the filling, then wrap it all together. These only require steaming for 20 minutes to "set" everything.