Dejah

Thanks for the Crepes: The avocado rolls are a pain to make....but we all love them. I cut the avocado into thin slices(from end to end) and lay them overlapping on the moist rice paper wrapper. The dark strip is closest to the skin, and the "white"part is the centre of the avocado. A green lettuce leaf is then laid on top before adding the long strips of cucumber, carrot, and shredded lettuce. I don't make them very often as it is painstakingly slow to get down that first layer. The bamboo sushi mats are a must... Unfortunately, we live on the prairies, the middle of Canada, and frozen claws and legs are all we can get. One of the stores had a sale and new cases had come in - early warning from the fish clerk. Shoppers were allowed limit of 4 bags each trip @ 18.99 each instead of the $25.99...so I made a couple of trips that week. We enjoyed 9 bags and I hid 3 more in the depths of my freezer. I think each of the bags were about 900 grams each. It was the first time for our 3 year old granddaughter and she loved it.

Yesterday, we celebrated grandson's 17th birthday, and his little sister's 3rd birthday. Food requested by the families was Alaskan King Crab. We cleaned up every leg and claw, along with corn on the cob, taters, marinated vegetables, avocado vegetable rolls and a lb. of garlic butter! This was the first batch of crab while the second batch was steaming... For dessert, we had DQ Oreo Cookies ice cream cake AND the first rhubarb pie of the season. It's May in Manitoba, and the weather is miserable...windy with gusts up to 90 km/h! It started raining yesterday afternoon, and by this afternoon, we were getting ice pellets. Now, evening...snow is falling! Kids requested black bean garlic beef and bitter melon for supper - hard to believe my kids call this "comfort food". Eaten with lots of rice and fuzzy melon soup. Now, some hot chocolate and snuggling on the couch under blankets...

Pork rib roast, in brine with maple syrup and rosemary overnight, then roasted along with beets.

We've just returned from spending a month travelling in Thailand, Lao, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The food was incredible, and I REALLY want to replicate some of my favourite dishes. However, 4 days after our return, I was hit with major stomach issues that kept me off work and on the toilet for 4 days. I noticed Ramen made quite a few appearances on egullet and also on my table. It was the most comforting thing to eat! Most of the time, it was just with the seasoning packet and a head of Romaine lettuce. Today, I felt well enough to make a different noodle soup, a feeble attempt at something we had in Hu, Vietnam, at a school training kids off the street to make rice noodles and basic cooking skills. The school is called Oodles of Noodles. The students were very engaging and after the demos, they served us the most delicious bowl of soup. Not sure if it's pho, but that'll do! I had the flat rice noodles at home, some commercial pho seasoning cubes, and other ingredients. Nothing like Oodles of Noodles, but it hit the spot. My soup had quail eggs, baby shrimp, a pork rib from a roast, soybean sprouts, baby bok choy jr., cilantro. I couldn't find any Thai basil in town, so skipped the squeeze of lime and added sesame oil Hubby had a Denver / Western sandwich - basically an omelet with bacon, green peppers, mushrooms, cumin gouda squished between toasted French bread.

Snowed some on the prairies today...drat! The yard was nearly clear! So, instead of cooking outside, I cooked char siu ribs in the oven. The slabs have been marinating in Hoisin sauce, Chinese wine, 5-spice powder, honey, and red food colouring for a couple of days. They turned out well. Found fresh soybean spouts at one of the small Chinese grocers. Love these stiir-fried with green onion and ginger - a nice change from the ever-present mung beansprouts.

BKEats: Great idea using chopsticks for the salad! Last night, needed a quick supper, so we had Beef Curry a la Patak paste. Added fresh green peppercorns and fresh curry leaves. Onion chunks were barely cooked, just the way I like it. Tonight, baked chicken with New Orleans Seasoned Breading (packaged for seafood) with added New Orleans Cajun Seasoning. I also cooked okra for the first time! Bite-size pieces coated with a mix of cornmeal and panko, Montreal Steak Spice, pan-fried then finished in the oven. The coating was crispy and the okra tender. I've had them battered and deep-fried, but I enjoyed this way more.

huiray: My comment was an observation of most of the dishes you've posted. It's not a criticism. If anything, it's a compliment as you do complicated combinations, use more intense sauces that seem to work quite well for your dishes. Perhaps it's because you take the time to explore these variations whereas I fly by the seat of my pants and cook the way my Mom did. I've always wondered why garlic is used in your soups. I've never experienced that, so it's very different from my point of reference. I do use ginger and orange peel in some of the herbal soups.

huiray and I are from entirely different Chinese roots, I think. His dishes are much more intense and wider range than mine. I guess my roots are Toisan and Cantonese - quite simple. Even with my herbal soups, such as one with angelica, almonds, lotus nuts, etc, my ingredients are limited to 4 -5. Tonight: Chayote Soup with pork broth and ginger Yeem Gok Gai (Salty chicken) rubbed and marinated overnight with purchased spices/ salt and addition of turmeric, pan-fried tofu, Shanghai bak choy

Life is SO busy: last 3 weeks of school term, getting ready for our month-long trip to Indochina, preparing presentations for a Senior's Summit in the city, taking students out for English interactive activities, but a girl's still gotta eat! Didn't do anything traditional for Chinese New Year other than a buffet for +400 at the nearby casino. The only thing I made for ourselves was savory tong yuen. So, it was good to see huiray keep up traditions with Ye Sang. Everyone has been posting fabulous meals and I've got lots of inspiration to check out for our next meals. Here are a couple of dishes the last few days: S-i-l brought me a package of sunchokes. Had forgotten about this tuber. Roasted it with a splash of olive oil, along with carrots and caulitlfower. Lovely with salmon. Combined ground chicken mapo tofu with some Asian eggplant. Eaten with konyako noodles and bell peppers. It was too cold to use the Big Easy (-32C) so the oven did the honours with the tandoori chicken. Turned out pretty good. Skin was hard to leave alone as it was crispy, tangy, flavourful from the yogurt and tandoori masala. Chicken was enjoyed with my "Chop Suey" And for dessert and breakfast for a couple of days: a ripened faster than I anticipated papaya and a pineapple. Strawberries were huge and actually tasted like strawberries, grapes, (Tasteless) star fruit, coconut flakes and pumpkin seeds = fruit salad! I've been enjoying fresh green peppercorns with everything. They did not go well with fruit salad, but they sure looked pretty!

Fuzzy melon named thus because of the "hairs" on the melon.

I use a mix of red food colouring, Hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese wine, sugar or honey. That produces a dark red colour with a light pink under. The meat is marinated overnight, then hang from wire rack and roasted in the oven. There are always charred bits. I use pork butt cut into thick pieces, poke holes in the pieces with a fork before marinating.

I use food colouring - a dark red liquid. This is added to my hoisin paste. It will add a pink tinge to the char siu.

Cut up 2 chickens, marinated overnight in citrus slices, juice, oregano, honey, soy sauce, chili pepper. Roasted at 350F for supper last night. We've eaten a lot of roasted cauliflower. so I steamed and mushed it up into "mashed potatoes", topped with grated Parmesan and broiled for a few minutes to get a crust. The veg. were from a package - high fibre ...Unusual mix but did the job - as vegetables, I mean. A breast slathered with the juice from the pan.

A facebook friend posted "egg white nests", so I tried some today. They remind me of the egg white "buns" I used to make on the Dr. Atkins diet, except today's didn't have cream of tartar powder. I need to make a deeper and bigger well in the middle before I bake the nests, but they were good. Egg white nest with yolk Mixed up some cooked bacon and sweet and serrano peppers for hubby's As we are trying to cut back on starches such as bread, potato, and rice, I'll be making more of the "buns" for lunch tomorrow!

Mustard greens is something that I love but don't get very often. I like using it in soup with lots of ginger. But, my favourite is when my Mom makes the sweet deep fried dumplings for Chinese New Year, then she stir-fries the mustard greens WITH the dumplings for afternoon snacking.

Smoked tulibee on a bed of mixed greens, tomato, sliced apple, olives, pecans and balsamic vinaigrette.

Haven't made this Braised Chicken with Dates for over a year! Lovely aromas with ginger, garlic, coriander, sweet paprika, onion, cilantro, and finished with dates, lemon juice, and orange blossom water. I had used chicken thighs. TYaking a page from dcarch, I kept the skin and rendered them into "chips:"! Some were crumbled on top, and the other couple were eaten out of hand. I quartered baby siu choy and fried them in the chicken fat. Last night was liver & onions Tonight was boneless lamb shoulder with beets, peas, and lime rice with brown mustard seeds and fresh curry leaves.

dcarch: Great to see you back posting on this thread. Anna N - That duck breast is amazing! Everyone's posts are salivating worthy! Had my great nephew out from Edmonton playing volleyball against our university. He brought 2 buddies (both 6'6" tall) along for after-game supper. Knowing they'd be super hungry and big eaters, I cooked a whole 7-rib prime roast plus 2 dozen Yorkies, and Saskatoon pie. Forgot to take pictures after I completed the Yorkies and pie... Didn't have anything left of the roast other than the rib bones. Gnawed on several then used the last 3 to make beef, barley, and vegetable soup in the slow cooker. Tonight, we had steamed pickerel Chinese style - loads of ginger, green onion, red bell pepper, lots of freshly ground white pepper (from Malaysia), a dash of soy sauce and veg oil. Sides were pan-fried tofu with oyster sauce and chili oil for dipping, and some baby bok choy.

Picked up a bag of "Magic Chili" in the Asian section of the local Superstore. Lots of CNY goodies on the shelves. This is a deep fried chili pepper seasoned with sesame oil, seeds, and peanuts snack - very addictive. The peppers are crispy, hot but not hot. I decided to do some shrimp with mixed vegetables and threw in a handful of these Magic Chilis. Loved the different textures along with the crunch vegetables, Eaten with transparent shirataki noodles - almost like fun see (mung bean noodles)

Thanks for the replies. Don't have to worry about ribs now as the chef said he was doing the ribs with his own recipe. They will be positioned in the casino-section of the buffet. I will have my section for the 4 dishes I am doing. It's good for the separation as I don't think his will taste the same as the ones my former customers will remember . Many have already "booked their tables".

Hot dogs and fries or chips...ultimate comfort food! Lived in rural kielbasa country for many years and we loved buying chunks sold at the community summer fair - grilled over an open fire. Paired with a sweet potato would have been perfect! Kids called lotus root slices "fiddle bridges". When I can get fresh (like about now with Chinese New YEar), I make soup with dried octopus... We've been eating mostly chicken, fish, vegetables, low fat, and low starch, so more experiments with chicken recipes. Ariran Guisou - Honduran Chicken Stew - nice spices plus my adding fresh curry leaves, a serrano pepper and some chunks of Chinese eggplant that needed using. The eggplant was perfect for soaking up some of the liquid.

I have been invited to "guest chef" at a local casino for Chinese New Year. Along with the dishes I suggested, they'd also like some "char siu" ribs. I used to marinate the slabs over night then hang to roast in the oven when I had the restaurant. However, this is not do-able as I would not be there until an hour and a half before the buffet starts. Would it work if I ask the kitchen staff to slow roast the slabs in the oven early in the day, then we can slather the hoisin mixture I would use before they finish them on the grill for that bit of char? I'll be using slabs of side ribs. It's been 15 years since I cooked for a large group (about 150), but I'm looking forward to cooking in a commercial kitchen ONCE

Ann_T - Your bread always gets me wishing I could make bread...BonVivant - smoked pork belly will be on the make-shift smoker next time s-i-l comes out! Balti Chicken: I have not made this dish nor tasted it before, so I had nothing with which to compare. I found the recipe in a "Chicken" book, and I liked the ingredients list. It was fragrant, delicious, especially with my addition of fresh curry leaves. Eaten with cauliflower rice and steamed green beans.

OCelsius demands uncovering the Big Easy! Stuffed kaffir lime leaves under the skin, seasoned with salt, pepper, and the chicken was ready in 50 minutes! I used a store-bought "beer can chicken stand" and saved the drippings. Used that to sauteed steamed green beans. Added dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and a light squirt of Kraft Mango Chipotle dressing to brocoslaw, and made carrot fries.Satisfied!

Lunch the last couple of days: Finally used the Xmas turkey carcass, added celery stalks and leaves, carrots, lemongrass, and ground pepper, . There was lots of meat bits left, so no crackers or thickening required. Seems like I'm clearing out Xmas leftovers from the freezer! Cantonese BBQ duck, a small container of the included bean sauce, shrimp, kaffir lime leaves, gai lang and Romaine lettuce which had been languishing in the bottom drawer, chicken stock and shirataki noodles...a hearty lunch