Dejah

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

Beautiful fresh pickerel from our local Sobeys: light dusting of fine panko crumbs seasoned with Old Bay. Pan seared with a tbsp of olive oil. Eatened with boiled purple top turnip quickly tossed in a hot pan with Montreal Steak Spice. LOVE pickerel! Made Kung Pow Gai Ding and pan-fried tofu. I don't usually use firm tofu, but I thought I'd try it as I wouldn't have to "squeeze out" as much liquid. Blah...Give me back the creamy insides of pan-fried soft tofu!

Great to have that "LIKE" function; otherwise, I'd be typing forever with comments on every post! Shelby: I'll ask my s-i-l next time he's out for information on his venison sausages. Yours, I am sure, would be better with your experience. Our Ryan is, ummm, pretty impulsive when it comes to cooking, but I think he does have some basic rules that he follows with spices, etc. As for Chinese New Year dishes, I'll leave that up to Prawncrackers! Now that my Mom is no longer with us, and the kids can't come home due to work, I don't do much on special dishes. But, I will be making 4 or 5 dishes for the local casino's CNY buffet - nothing too authentic, just what local prairie folks are used to. The last few days, been just throwing stuff together for supper. My lower level international students are REALLY low, so I am exhausted by the end of the day, and that's only a 4 hour day of teaching English! Last night, I made meatballs with a package of lean ground chuck. Mixed the meat up with an egg, a handful of Panko, and some grated Parmesan cheese, browned then simmered in a mushroom gravy. Eaten with carrot fries and quick pickle. Sides were so pretty...just HAVE to post their pictures... Tonight, I seared chicken breasts sprinkled with cajun spices - finished off in the oven. Sides were steamed carrots and cauliflower fried rice. I was happy to see Baselerd's post on roasted cauliflower with herb-yogurt. I was in need of a new way to enjoy cauliflower!

It's been in the -25 - 30 Celcius here with high winds = windchill of - 40s. When it's a west wind, we make sure all sink cabinets doors are open, heat tapes on any pipes that are questionable in terms of insulation...Oh to live on the prairies... Been invited to our local casino to guest chef on Chinese New Year. Request was for 4 dishes most requested from when we had the family restaurant. So I made sesame chicken tonight to see if I still "got it". It's all chicken breast strips, tender, crunchy coating, sweet, sour, spicy, smokey with sesame oil, fragrant with 5-spice powder. Gai lan was blanched, and drizzled with hot oil and ginger.

Not the healthiest meal but I REALLY wanted this: Fish and chips with 3 dipping sauces: curry mayo, malt vinegar, spicy ketsup. I didn't follow a specific recipe, just the ingredients that I thought would work: AP flour, rice flour, baking powder, carbonated water, salt. Turned out light and crispy for the cod AND onion rings. All fried in rendered beef fat! Really happy with double-fried chips...wishing I had mushy peas...

Shelby: My s-i-l would gobble up that "very very rare" venison you presented! He makes a lot of jerky and cured sausages with the deer he hunts. THAT was what he brought out for treats for Xmas. Our Xmas lights outside still come on at 6 pm. The tree will be up until Monday - after hubby's birthday. We'll have a tree-lite supper that evening as tradition dictates. Prawncrackers: That meal is AMAZING! Had a big package of chicken thighs but couldn't decide on which of two ways, so I did BOTH! Stove-top Butter Chicken with Nana's bottled base - a brand available from Safeway, and baked ginger marmalade whole grain mustard chicken. They worked well together with Jasmine rice and steamed mixed vegetables. Wishing we had naan, but -40C is a tad too cold to be outside making naan in the Big Easy. Broke my pizza stone so that was not an option.

Nice job on the cauliflower friend rice, Franci! Need to get it back on my menu planning. After seeing Ann's Arctic Char and Franci's mackerel, I am going to try these two new kinds of fish for me. Reading posts here always inspires me to try something new! Super the last 2 nights: Cheung Fun with yu choy and homemade char siu: And steamed pork ribs with black bean garlic ginger. Love this with just rice...

After helping out for two days and nights with a 2.5 year old granddaughter-diva and her 3-week old sister while daddy's away on a course, I finally had time to cook and enjoy our first meal for 2015 at home. Pan-seared a single rib Sterling Silver prime roast, served with green peppercorn gravy (McCormick International), carrots and rice. Pure bliss as I will also be getting more than 4 hours of sleep tonight! This was a great end to my Xmas holidays. Back to teaching tomorrow!