Dejah

Instead of char sui bao, I often cook extra sausages with my rice, cut each into halves, wrap some bao dough around them and steam. You can also deep fry them, then slice diagonally and serve as appetizer.

I am hopeless with Guoyu (Mandarin/putungqua)...and characters. That one term of studying with my prof from Nanjing didn't stick That term "banana" is so funny. My Canadian born neices are all bananas. The one named Anna gets the brunt of teasing...Anna Banana Ben> I'm not doing a good job of conveying nuance here I thought you did very well, lo wah kui

"tee doi"...sounds toisanese to me, What do you think? Ben? Even in toisanese, there are slightly different accents with different villages. My family would say tay doy...another may say tee du...etc Literally, I think it means "little pastries. dumplings" everything. For New Years, my Mom makes "chang tee (tay)doi" which is glutinous rice, dissolved brown sugar from slabs. Traditionally, the dough is thinned out with the hands into a bell shape, drop in some coconut or chopped peanuts, then pinched closed at the top, with a tiny hole. Mom used to blow air into the dough bell, then deep fry them. They really puff up, but collapses like a pita when cooled. These are one several tee dois she must make for her offerings. Tong yuan is soup dumplings...either savory or sweet.

For lunch yesterday, I had a package of quick soup noodles (Sappiro?). I cut some baby bak choy in half, threw it in along with the noodles, lap cheung and seasoning package. Just before devouring, I splashed some sesame oil and chili paste on top. Great for a cold prairie day

Last night, I made Grace Young's Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen recipe for woo tul gow.( taro cake) I chopped the ingredients finer than usual . This made for better distributiom. I am really happy with the results My sister-in-law made the neen gow, from the same book. It looks good but I haven't tasted it yet. Today, I will make the lobak gow. Tomorrow, I will load up my car with these, an electric fry pan, and the traditional "sweet meats" in the New Year's tray as a treat for our students.

Possibly from ketchup or food colouring? The only time I experienced red hot and sour soup was when the "cook", I think, tried to make the soup without ANY idea of what it is supposed to taste like! The soup was more like sweet 'n' sour with a touch of heat. From the colour, I'd say they also used food colouring. They also added julienne carrots and a wedge of tomato. I couldn't eat it after the first mouthful. My own version uses chicken stock, Chinese chili paste, vinegar plus all the other goodies. It has an amber colour, and thickened at the last minute with a touch of cornstarch and water.

Silkened coasely chopped chicken breast and slivered ginger, seasoned with a bit of sesame seed oil, salt, pepper.

For those in Canada, and anyone interested, check out: http://gunghaggisfatchoy.com/

My Mom always used a couple tablespoons of ketsup to "sweeten" beef and fresh tomato stir-fry. Other than that, our house uses ketsup mainly on foods like fries, burger, etc.

How about sliced pork belly or riblets steamed with plums in brine and brown bean sauce?

Here's a great fortune cookie story: We had acouple of customers at our restaurant who always came in for supper on Thurs. The fortune cookies we served had fortunes on one side, and lucky lotto numbers on the reverse side. The one and only time they played the numbers from a cookie, they won $10,000.00!! They brought a large party of family and friends in for supper after they collected their winnings. Shortlly after, the fortune cookie company replaced the numbers with French translations of the fortune

trillium: I make mine at home. Living on the prairies, I didn't even know you can buy them factory made! I add approx. 2 cups of cold water and 1/2 tsp. salt to 1 package (16 oz) of glutinous rice flour. Mix and knead a couple minutes to the consitency of "playdough". Pinch off pieces of "dumplings" and drop into boiling water (or stock). When the dumplings float, add the rest of the ingredients: fresh sliced pork, lap cheung, pre-soaked dried shrimp and/or scallops. I julienne the lo bak, and cook it separately...adding it when the rest is cooked. The lo bak is actually my favorite part, with big piles of cilantro.

Trillium, I thought tang yuen was Cantonese...maybe better pronunciation would be tong yuen? Yup, these are made with glutinous flour.

Irwin:>Whole Steamed Winter Melon Soup with Yunnan Ham, Ginkos and Flowers. Do you remember ? Darn you! It's still -35C and and I am without whole winter melon! However, I do have a quarter, so will make my quarter melon soup for supper tonight, with sliced pork belly steamed with ham choy and slivered ginger Someone mentioned that the price of pork belly will go up now that it's been "discovered". That happened about 4 years ago in our area. Pork belly used to be one of the cheaper cuts, so ku lo yuk was a mainstay in our buffet. Then the price went double, and it became a menu item instead.

errr...trillium... did you say it might hit freezing temps on the Pacific coast? Try -41 C on the Canadian prairies with 30 cms of snow Savory tang yuen sticks to your ribs and everything else...an extra layer to keep me warm...

Savory tang yuen with lo bak, dried shrimp, lap cheung, topped with fresh ground black pepper, splash of sesame oil, lots of chopped cilantro with a side dish of light soya, slivered ginger and ma-la oil for dipping yuen.

Ben: KOU yuk...same as ku lo yuk as I described in my first post? Chopstickfull...hmmm I liked it better when grandma fed me by the porcelain spoonful Lop yuk steamed on top of cooking rice, add some lop gnap and lap cheung... now THAT should really go in the winter Chinese cooking thread! Then the burnt rice on the bottom of the pot, wetted down with hot water is so delicious...we fight over it

Pork ku lo yuk with sweet 'n'sour subgum: Used to cut the pork belly into one inch cubes, egg wash and lightly covered with CRACKER crumbs, deep fried a golden colour then ladled some translucent sweet 'n' sour sauce over the top. Served with a scattering of pickled subgum, a restaurant favorite. At home, I like to steam left over crispy BBQ pork belly with shrimp paste, eat with a big bowl of jasmin rice...comfort food!

House has finally settled down...time for me to jot down some results from our family hot pot night I tried the sterno under the bigger hot pot in the afternoon, with some boiling water in the pot. Not effective. The smaller pot didn't have a big enough opening to insert the sterno, so it was charcoals for both. I really appreciated the info' you posted about lighting the charcoal under the broiler, jo-mel! Luckily, my oven is close to the kitchen window, and our dining area is also open to the kitchen, so ventilation was not a problem. The only problem was that I didn't put enough briquets in the bigger pot with the taller chimney. The "squat one" was great...broth stayed very hot even when there were several food items immersed. I ended up nuking the broth from the big pot acouple times to bring it back to boil quickly. We had: sliced beef and pork tenderloin, chicken breasts, shrimp, baby squid, pickerel fillet, baby bak choy, baby spinach, whole green onion stalks, shrimp flavoured noodles. I started with chicken stock which I made earlier with ginger, celery and chicken carcasses I had in the freezer. I gave each person a platter of the ingredients, chopsticks, soup spoon and a small long handled strainer. Everyone had a small bowl of rice, a dish of light soya flavoured with slivered ginger, green onions, sesame oil and fresh ground pepper, a dish of hot chili oil, one of sweet chili sauce and one of oyster sauce. There was a big platter of sushi with crab, avocado, cucumber and julienne carrot with pickled ginger and wasabi. We ate and visited for about 3 hours...often fighting over the food and stealing from eachother. It was the first experience for our kids. They enjoyed the food but not sure if they liked having to cook their own food! :D. We had to replenish the coals under the broiler once. I was very glad I didn't have to go out to the BBQ! We had left over meat and seafood so it was stir fry for supper next night. I had fresh oysters but I didn't think the kids would enjoy them...so we breaded them with cracker crumbs, toasted sesame seeds and pan-fried with our supper with the stir-fries. They were delicious! We had lots of broth left...very flavourful. I froze it and today I used it and made war wonton soup for lunch!

My Mom will observe all her traditions...supervising my s-i-l in the preparations. They always make "nian gow" and waterchestnut cake...both sweet and sticky. I love watching her make the big deep fried balls (with glutinous rice flour?). She blows air into the ball of dough, then deep fries them. The left over ones always collapse and these are later cooked with guy choy...unusuall sweet and bitter dish that is so yummy! Then there's the white dough "worms and disks" that are steamed. These are kept in cold water. Later, she slices them and stir-fries them with veg, meat, as you would with ho fun. I also loved the deep fried sweet crescents filled with sesasme seeds or chopped peanuts. How many of you keep those round trays with sweet meats to munch on: candied lotus nuts, coconut slices, winter melon, waterchestnuts, carrot slices, lotus root, red melon seeds, etc? New Years eve they will have tang yuen (sweet ones). The big ceremony will be New Years morning...with the complete chicken, crispy pork, fish, pastries, fruit, little cups of wine, rice, soups and kumquats. The ceremonial incense urn and table always look so beautiful. The local paper sent the photographer last year and they featured a beautiful silhouette picture of my Mom making her prayers with tendrils of incense smoke rising. When we were kids, my Mom would wake us in the morning with a piece of candy to start the new year "sweet". Days before, we would be warned not to say anything negative during these next few days. We will make our new year visit on the 23rd. Being a married daughter, I can't visit my parent's home until the 2nd day of the new year. I must take fruit, candy and sweet pastry on my visit. New Years is expensive for elders! Those "hung baos" for the neices, nephews, their kids add up! For our house, nothing like the above! Last year, I hosted a dumpling party for my classmates from our Mandarin language class. Our visiting professor and his wife from Nanjing showed us how to make jiaozi...boiled dumplings...the ones that you bring to a boil, add cold water, boil again...3 times? There were 20 of us, and I lost count as to how many we made...and ate! I also served BBQ ribs, Cantonese chow mein, salty chicken and salt and peper shrimp in the shell. This year, it will depend on how many Chinese students I will have in my university class. I know the ones who studied with me last term have been hinting to come up for cooking lessons on dim sum... So, if there are around 20, that may happen ;) Before we retired from the restaurant biz, we held a "dim sum" lunch on the Sunday before the new year. This is reservations only...for 250. Those who reserved early, get to sit in the banquet room ( 165 seats), and get to see the entertainment. This is usually tai-chi and other martial arts demos, Chinese music students ( one who is a professional pipa artist), and dim sum demos with my Mom and her friends:)

Thanks for your input, Gary. Maybe I can keep my extra broth hot in the rice cooker.

I just brought my hot pots down from the shelf...and they are different from yours, Gary. Yours is one big "bowl"...Both of mine have a "chimney" up the middle so the broth would be in a "moat" around the chimney. Would this make a difference with the heat distribution? Tonkichi mentioned using a rice cooker. Would this provide more heat? I DO plan on bringing the broth to a boil before transferring to the hot pot. With 2 pots, we might be able to use one, then let it heat up again as we use the other pot? Guess I should work this out before tomorrow evening! Maybe I can use the propane torch I got for my creme brulee to heat things up!

Gary et al: With the meat for hot pot...did you marinate at all before using? Or silken? I would think the "silken method" would cloud the broth? I haven't had the opportunity to find a butane stove yet...so will use my hot pots with sterno... Superstore got a fresh shipment of pickerel fillets today...so we will have that in place of the fish balls...

Thanks for the info', Tan. I made the eggnog recipe last night and we tasted it tonight. I had some "bubbles" on top, and now I realize I should have strained it as I poured into the baking dish. Otherwise, I browned the sugar under the broiler ( as I don't have my Xmas present yet ). The family enjoyed my first creme brulee! Tonight, I was just wanting more info' as I think I am ready to try and make the recipe for the large family dinner on Thurs. I am also making my traditional trifle, just in case