Dejah

I never know how to call DOW SEE in English - the fermented soybeans, right? When I've mentioned them to people, they all say, "Oh. You mean the black beans found in the bean aisle? Do you cook them first? How do you ferment them?"

[Host's note: this topic is part of a continuing discussion that grew too large for our servers to handle efficiently. The conversation resumes from here.] Wish WE were booked up for Chinese New Year dinners. Not much happening restaurant-wise in our little city. My students have invited me, but I didn't want to spoil their care-free party worrying about speaking English and proper grammar. I know it's their Chinese custom to be kind. Kids were all working, so supper for two last night: Watercress - Pork rib soup Thai Flavours Steamed Mussels Fun See Fermented Black Bean Garlic Clams Steamed Snow Crab We did not starve. Dessert was a piece of leftover ice-cream birthday cake from the beginning of the month! Gong Hai Fat Choy! My maiden name is Choy, and I felt like one last night!

Amazing! [Host's note: this topic grew too big for our servers to handle efficiently. The discussion continues here.]

Having Mexican for Chinese New Year dinner. Beef Fajitas with low-carb tortillas

@rarerollingobject: after seeing your claypot dinner, I am on the search (2 tiny Chinese grocery stores) for the wind-cured duck and bacon (lap gnap and lap yok). I used the last pieces a couple of weeks ago...

Delighted that you are back posting, Bruce. Hope there won't be any more long absences. @dcarch: Enjoying your food artistry again! Chinese New year...will have to ramp things up a bit this weekend, but for last night, brined and roasted a piece of pork loin, rapini, and a lime-cilantro habanera cheese baked cauliflower side. Used sugar substitute (Swerve) for the cranberry sauce.

Bought a whole beef tenderloin this week. Cut up the "tail end" and made Beef and Bok Choy stir-fry. Eaten with tofu with spicy toban sauce

Steelhead trout fillets, clams, and fresh fennel looked so inviting. All came home with me, and all made a lovely plate. Fennel bulb was sliced and sauteed with shallots. Crumbled bacon and chopped cilantro were added to the mix. The whole mess was sandwiched between two fillets and baked in a 400F oven for 15 minutes. The clams were steamed in lemongrass Kaffir lime leave infused coconut milk.

Love Dungeness crab, especially for Chinese New Year. BUT, it's $15.99 / lb, and with my family, we'd need about 6 crabs!

Had time on my hands and feeling a bit nostalgic for food from my old restaurant menu, My brother just gave me a 14" pre-seasoned cast iron wok on sale at our local supermarket - $19.99, so I thought it'd be a good time to do a bit more seasoning by deep-frying. Made our Soo's (my family restaurant named after my dad) #17 - deep fried dry spareribs, then simmered the ribs in sweet & sour sauce for # 13. Eaten with cauliflower friend rice and some stir-fried broccoli. Satisfied the nostalgia but not the need to go back into the restaurant biz. New cast iron wok Soo's # 17 Deep fried Dr Spareribs Soo's #13 Sweet & Sour Spareribs Cauliflower Fried Rice

A couple of meals this week: Coffee-Spiced Roast Chicken, fried tofu with sweet chili sauce, bok choy Shepherd's pie with mashed cauliflower topping Prime Rib, roasted chayote, and sauteed rapini. This was my first time cooking rapini. Loved it! Curry Pork, baby bak choy, low-carb pita bread

@liuzhou : Have never heard of chayote shoots. Are they delicate like water spinach or yam shoots? The Kung Pao I made last week was very westernized with baby corn and waterchestnuts. Made moussaka early in the week, with ground beef and eaten with mashed cauliflower. It was a good meal to have on hand as we've been babysitting little granddaughters 3 days. Hubby's birthday was in the middle of the week. I made Emeril Lagasse's Crab Cakes.

Savoury oatmeal is something I grew up with in Hong Kong. Mom cooked it with pork bits.

Mint peas...mint peas...Must get me some... I DID tonight: Single rib roast, mint peas, whole grain mustard Brussel sprouts, and roasted baby taters.

Breakfasts have been late affairs through the holidays. Usually something quick and easy while trying to get other work done. Toasted leftover French bread with cilantro and an avocado sprinkled with chili-lime seasoning - none of the ingredients homemade The day was then busy with making baos! Today, enjoyed one of the dozens of steamed baos I made yesterday, filled with chicken, Chinese mushroom, Chinese sausage, bound together with oyster sauce. Baos filled with char siu or just a big piece of Chinese sausage were also made. Many of the baos went to our son's house (3 bao-hungry grandkids), but still have a couple of dozens in the freezer for quick meals

Make bread crumbs. I was buying low-carb bread and got tired of it by the time I got to the last loaf. I used my food processor, made soft crumbs, spread it out on a pan. Once dry, I put the crumbs thru' the processor again and they are perfect for breading.

Speaking of green stuff, grabbed a bag of pea shoots at the small Chinese grocery yesterday. It was perfect with steamed black bean garlic pork ribs and jasmine rice. Winter melon soup made it complete.. Tonight's meal was citrus marinated roast chicken with more green stuff (asparagus, and green beans sauteed in fermented tofu - fuyu) and coconut rice. This is the only way I can get hubby to eat green beans.

Temps still warranted "extreme temperature warning", so more comfort food to warm the belly: Cooked in a small cast iron pot: rice with cured Chinese bacon, sausage, and duck. Was making some chicken and mushroom filling for steamed baos, so threw some of that in with the rice. A bowl of chayote and pork bone soup made a lovely meal. Had to fight for the crispy rice (flavoured with all the oils and seasoning) on the bottom of the pot!

Have everything in the fridge...sounds like a plan!

Picked up a heavy cast iron grill pan 'cos I didn't want to BBQ outside with temps at - 2C, windchill of -40C. Started racks of whole grain mustard coated lamb on the pan then finished in the oven. A bit over-cooked but still juicy and tender. Picked up the 2 four-rib racks at 50% off - $15.00 for both. Marinated a package of country-cut pork chops in hoisin sauce, wine, and five3-spice powder and roasted them in a 450F oven. Diced and stir-fired in a sauce to be made into char siu baos later.

Beautiful meals by everyone over the holidays! The dust has finally settled here with all the kids, kidlets, dogs gone back to their respective homes. Some of the food we've indulged in over the last few days: Safeway had cooked lobsters on for Xmas. They had too many so on Boxing day, they were on sale at 50% off. I picked 4 up for $30.00 and split them for the two of us. Covered with herb butter and grilled. The tails were a bit chewy from the double cook, but the claws were lovely. Eaten with black bean spaghetti Trying to get back to simpler food, we had Chinese Ham Yeu (salty fish) steamed with ground pork and ginger. Rice is SO good with the juice from the steaming! I got some silver chopsticks from our s-i-l for Xmas. Had to try them out with some Shanghai noodles - a bit messy! Think I'll keep the bamboo ones for these dishes. Friends came for the day on New Years Eve. We were also visiting other friends in the city, so I put together a slow-cooker pot of Coconut Chicken Curry for supper. It was ready by supper time and all I had to cook then was the rice. Safeway had another batch of cooked lobsters for New Years, so I picked up 3 more for our supper tonight. Heated up some butter with slivers of ginger and cilantro. Warmed the extracted lobster meat gently, and eaten with ciabatta bread and a salad of mixed greens. Think we've had our feed of lobster now, unless they were fresh!

@Anna N: Want to double, triple LIKE that liver and onion, with a helping of the fried rice @chefmd Been baking and shopping all day. Something quick for supper: Panko coated pork loin, mashed cauliflower with fresh dill, sauteed mushrooms.

So I braved the duck fat issue today! Thawed a duck out last night, and other than rendering the fat, I didn't know what I was going to do with the duck! I've always made Cantonese BBQ duck, so I googled for recipes. Found Jamie Oliver's Spicy and Salt Duck. It looked do-able in the amount of time I had before supper. We'd been outside trying to finish putting up Xmas lights. (The week-long -32C temp went to -9 C by morning!) Rendering the fat gave me 1 1/2 cups of fat! How is that possible from one little duck?! The kitchen smelled wonderful, and the "quacklings" were incredible with a sprinkling of Szechuan peppercorn / sea salt mixture that also went into the flour for the breasts. The breasts were steamed for 12 minutes, rested for 20, then coated with a mixture of flour, ground cumin, ginger, fennel seeds, chili powder. I only had baby taters, so cut them into thick pieces and double deep-fried them in the duck fat. Then I deep-fried the duck pieces. OMG! Then tonight, I saw where @liuzhou mentioned duck-fat ROASTED potatoes...Damn! But these were delicious. The skin on the duck was crispy, and the flavour was delectable...with a delayed numbing of the lips from the Szechuan peppercorns. Thanks for the push to the "duck side"!

Made up a batch of beef filling for my Moroccan Spiced Cigars. They'll be rolled in phyllo pastry tomorrow and into the freezer for Xmas parties. Took out 1/3 of the filling and made it into Moussaka for supper. We first had this dish while on our first musical tour in England in 1976. Every night, after our gigs, we'd head for either an East Indian or Greek restaurant. These were the only establishments open after 11:00 PM. Food was cheap, so this was where entertainers, musicians, strippers went "after work". Moussaka was usually ground lamb, served with lovely chips and peas. Tonight, we appreciated the extra warmth in the kitchen with the -32C (windchill -41C ) temperatures outside. Buttered Panko crumbs on top of the bechamel sauce. I love the eggplant, but hubby is not keen. He had leftover corn and taters cooked in foil. I had the green beans and tomato wedges.

I always get big slabs of beef fat when I order roasts. This is rendered and kept in a sealer jar, for yorkies AND for deep frying fish 'n' chips. The flavour can't be beat. Then there's the crispy bits left in the pan after the fat is drained off...A sprinkle of sea salt and num...NUM...! I haven't had duck fat...something that must be remedied.