Dejah

Poaching the yolks gently until just firm would be great in a dessert soup. I've never done this, but I wonder if it would be possible to salt the yolks and save for zongzi? I picture laying the yolks on a bed of coarse salt, then covering the top, gently, with a layer of fine salt so as to not break the thin covering? You'd have to keep it covered and in the fridge, but might be worth a try if you have too many yolks.

Good to see you posting meals again, C.sapidus! Incredible range of meals in this thread. Snow covered ground, minus temps demand warming comfort food! Made sandpot rice again, and took diyee's idea and added mung bean thread to the whole shebang... Best part was the burnt rice on the bottom - lots of oil, juices, bits of meat, etc: Last night, lamb should chops marinated in yogurt and Thai red curry paste. The chops were browned in coconut oil, simmered for a couple of hours in coconut cream with green beans and carrots added for the last hour. Served with jasmine rice. The sauce was a reduction, and it was wonderful with the crispy burnt rice from the bottom of the rice pot.

I hear ya, sheetz! I love to read food magazines, cookbooks, and posts here on egullet. Now, I don't make the dishes I pick out the same way. Rather, I adjust so that it fits my diet scheme. So far, everything is working well. I've been on "this" diet" now for 2 weeks, with a little break in there due to scheduling and being away. But, I have lost 7.5 lbs without much sacrificing. Tonight, we are going to a Chinese restaurant for a 60th birthday celebration. Again, with Chinese food, I can be selective and just eat what I "should". I have gotten over the need for real rice!

Amazing food, Prawn! I am inspired to try my hand at the Golden Sand Shrimp, but it's easier to just order it in the restaurant. For the crab and Choy Sum, did you do up crab meat in a creamy sauce? I am intrigued by the steamed rehydrated seafood and ground pork. Can you give a little more detail? Sounds like a nice dish for our wintery weather. I had a dish of lightly battered deep-fried tiny fish while in Vancouver. Really enjoyed it. Another dish I had in Vancouver confused me. It was deep-fried chicken knuckles. Very tasty with a nice bit of crunch, but chicken knuckles?! Do you know anything about these knuckles?

Viktoria: When you made cauliflower rice, did you grate it? I do mine in a corningware casserole dish, add salt, pepper, cover, and microwave for 5 minutes, stir, then microwave for another 3 minutes or so. You don't add any liquid, and it "fluffs" up like rice. I also do the cauliflower fries as discussed in one of the other threads. That's amazing! I have used zuchinni strips in place of lasagna noodles. Not the same but satisfying. I've also used eggplant which is not as watery. In the WW thread, I think, I mentioned using shirataki noodles. I'm not sure if I can use them in this 17-Day diet because they are made from a yam. But, they have no nutritional value and are very high in fibre. I use them instead of ramen, and can also stir-fry them. Someone also mentioned Chinese and Thai as being diet-friendly. I made a big pot of Hot'n'Sour soup the other day, and it really filled the need. Funny thing about this soup, once I have a bite, then I crave it! Other Chinese soups are just as useful: watercress in chicken stock and sliced lean protein (fish, chicken), Chinese soup melons (wintermelon, moo qua). Being able to buy salt-free fat-free chicken broth by Campbells is very handy. Purple top turnips are a good substitute for potatoes. I peel, quarter, and boil. Drain the chunks and pan-fry in non-stick panwith Montreal steak spice. I was using this when I wanted to reduce carbs. Chayote can also be used in this manner. Tonight, we had curry chicken with lots of onion, orange pepper, blanched cauliflower, a couple of Thai peppers. Everything was stir-fried in a non-stick pan with 1 TBSP olive oil, simmered with chicken stock and thicken with 1 tsp. cornstarch in about 3 tbsp. cornstarch. We had the purple top turnips even tho' I am not supposed to have them for another cycle. I had 1/4 of one but lots of cauliflower on a bed of fresh watercress. Have any of you tried "sprouted grain" bread? It's high in fibre. I was eating it until I started this diet. It was my usual breakfast: 2 slices toasted with 1 tbgps of unsweetened - unsalted peanut butter. It was also my bread for sandwiches. Because it is drier than flour bread, I always have a big pile of lettuce and dill pickles with it. Before bed tonight, I will have my remaining 3 oz. of Greek yogurt with some stevia - IF I feel I need it. Darienne: Glad the tip about hot water will be useful for you.

I just started, 7 days ago, a diet called 17-Day Diet by Dr. Mike Moreno. It consists of four 17-day cycles: Accelerate (cleansing), Activate, Achieve, Arrive. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1374881/17-day-diet-Dr-Mike-Moreno-promises-quick-fix-drop-pounds-fast.html It's for losing "belly fat" but I just want to lose fat all over! There are no carbs allowed in this first cycle except of little bits that might be used in a recipe. For me, it's that tsp. of cornstarch for a sauce when I really need it. Whole grains are introduced in the second 17-day cycle. One of the questions in this thread was do you make substitions in regular recipes. That's what I do. I basically follow the allowable ingredients list and make up my own recipes. For example, I made "shepherd's pie" with lean ground turkey, the topping was steamed mashed cauliflower. All the ingredients were allowed in this cycle, and the result was tasty. Eating yogurt with fruit or sugar-free full fruit jam or spread is great for quick breakfast and snacks. I find I have to have some protein and fat in the morning or I am starving by 11 am.The yogurt fills that bill very nicely. The book recommends probiotic or Greek yogurt. Fish is another protein allowed in this first cycle. I marinated tilapia fillets with olive oil, a little soy sauce, lemongrass, citrus pepper, lemon juice, then wrapped around asparagus. These were pan seared and finished off in the oven. There was a fair amount of marinade so I made a reduction and served it with the fish. I am turned off by cooking everything with tomato, so this was a good option. I DO miss rice, but grated and steamed caulitflower provides a good "illusion", and it tastes great with any "sauce". Our meals are usually eaten with stir-fried mixed vegetables or a big salad. The hardest part was drinking 8 glasses of water everyday, one of which is hot water and lemon juice firsat thing in the morning. I have a hard time drinking that much cold water, but hot water I can handle. So, I keep a 1.8 liter thermos of hot water on hand and fill up my cup everytime I am in the kitchen. So far, I haven't had any craving even with all the leftover Halloween candy and chips! I got rid of them pretty quick by taking them to my students. The dieter is to do 17 minutes of various workouts everyday. I do a 45-minute workout with a trainer twice a week and one hour of tai-chi twice a week with a group. We'll see how effective this "diet" is. This morning, I weighed - lost 4 lbs - water weight. But, I do feel less bloated.

Darienne: I just used chicken stock, water, vinegar, and Koon Yick Wah Kee chili sauce. If I added more chili sauce or had char siu to add, it might be a little redder. Many recipes call for black or white pepper instead of the chili sauce, but I have always used this. I suppose pepper would be cheaper, but the flavour is different. I trained my former customners to this taste, and 10 years later, they still complain they can't get Hot'n'Sour soup like mine.

Snow was predicated for last night and today. None last night, but today's just beginning. In preparation, I made Hot'n'Sour soup last night for supper.

If it's Bruce aka C.sapidius, then he's left out the eternal cucumber to mislead us...

Look delicous, beautiful, AND entertainig, dcarch! Will have to reference these next Halloween.

Food and shopping therapy...who could ask for anything more? Wonderful blog. Thanks for"taking one" for the eguletteers.

I think a cobbler is "smoother"...more like a pie crust? At least the ones I've had are like a "pie" in a square baking dish. Definitely not a crumble. How would a "crisp" be defined? I don't know. This was called Canadian Cheddar Cheese Apple Crisp on the label. It is a little crispy on the top of the crust but soft inside. Whatever name, I can guaranttee it's deliciousness...

I'm one of "those Canadians" who grate cheddar cheese into my baked topping for apple crisp. It's from the can label of E.D. Smith apple pie filling. I have used the pie filling but prefer using a mix of fresh McIntosh and Granny Smith apples gently cooked with brown sugar and cinnamon. The recipe is: 1 - cup all purpose flour ¼ cup sugar 1 ½ tsp. baking POWDER ½ tsp. salt 1 ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese ( I use old cheddar) 1/3 cup melted butter ¼ cup milk 1.Combine and sift all dry ingredients and mix with the cheese 2.Mix together the melted butter and milk. and fold gently into the dry ingredients until all the flour is incorporated 5.Spoon apple pie filling into a shallow 1 quart / 1 litre baking dish 6.Drop flour/cheese mixture by forkful to evenly cover the entire dish. Don’t press down! Use the fork to spread the dough if lumpy 7.Bake in pre-heated oven at 375F for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown The top of the crisp is crisp. The inside is soft...SO good with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. I have also made this in ramakins

I would definitely take those pasties for lunch anyday, Blether! However, I am trying to eat less carbs and fat... so last night, I made shepherd's pie with a twist: ground turkey, green beans, carrots, poultry seasoning, in a light gravy (fat and sodium free chicken stock with 1 tbsp cornstarch). Topping was steamed mashed caulitflower drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with paprika. The whole dish was baked in the oven for 30 minutes at 350, then broiled for 5 minutes or so for that "crust". Tasted great...even the fake mashed potatoes.

The food blogs are such an education for those of us who haven't ventured far beyond the N.A. continent! I love how you showed the process of the Colada Morada and other exotic food porn, then, in total contrast, show us your roast chicken supper - something more familiar to most of us! Bravo!

Blether: The shrimp roe noodles are dried noodles with shrimp roe in them. I just buy them at the store - a little more flavourful than plain egg noodles. Wish I could have had a more exotic answer.

Amazing food, everyone! And dcarch...that plating and that cauliflower is gorgeous. Hassouni: Did you say Chinese style beef tendons? Here ya go... I had these with shrimp roe noddles, Chinese sausage and Romaine lettuce. These tendons were ones I bought in Vancouver, slightly different than what I make. These were from a dim sum restaurant - vinegary and very tender but still with a bit of chew. When I braise tendons, it's more likely to be with star anise, ginger, onion, and soy sauce.

Mmmmm...that chuck roast and Pernil is beckoning - perfect for this fall weather we are having. 2 nights ago, daughter and future s-i-l came out for a couple of days. Beef, tomato and egg stir-fry is one of their favourite comfort foods, which daughter really made wind-dried Chinese meats (duck, sausage, bacon) and salty fish sandpot rice to go with the tomato dish. Forgot to take a picture, but the burnt rice on the bottom of the sandpot was so delicous! Last night, we made panko-coated veal cutlets with a marsala-mushroom- shallot sauce, and wild garlic fettuccini noodles. I DID get a picture of that!

Don't know much "technical" stuff about knives...Just want them sharp... I do have a 32cm Wusthof Classic - seldom used as it is so long! My kids gave it to me for Xmas. It sits in a custom-made wooden slide-in sleeve until there is a big hunk of meat to carve. While in a Calphalon outlet in Seattle, I saw and tried out a 7" Nakiri from the Katana Series. I loved the way it felt in my hand, so I ended up buying 4 @ $78.00 with a $20.00 discount on purchase over $100.00. Each of my 3 kids got one. Then last week, my s-i-l sent me a knife that her son loves. I was waiting for someone to wade in about the Henckel Morimot Edition: Miyabi 600S. I got the 5.5 inch and love it. I use it mainly for slicing. Tried to use it to quarter Brussel sprouts - pulling the knife towards thumb...bad mistake! I quickly noticed shreds of skin on the ball of my thumb. It was taking off the top layer of skin even tho' it barely touched the surface. It didn't cut deep though or I would have felt it. For chopping, I have 2 cheap Chinese cleavers - one lighter and wider for vegetables and light chopping, and a heavy one for bones. My future son-in-law used my veg cleaver to chop up a rabit - bent the blade. He straightened and "sharpened" it, and it's working ok. He bought me the heavy one so he can continue to use my kitchen. I do have some standard restaurant-use Henckel knives that other people are allowed to use.

Made 2 lasagna(s) in one 9 x 13 pan: Looney Spoons Vegetarian, and added ground beef on the other half for hubby. Sides were blanched green beans with sesame seed oil and crushed chili flakes, a couple leaves of Romaine lettuce with Kraft mango-chipotle dressing and toasted pecans.

Looking forward to this, as with all blogs! What better way to begin than with mapo tofu and fish fragrant eggplant...WITH beer, of course!

Keith_W: Beautiful presentation on the hotpot! I am sure the results were delicious too. MJX: This all looks fantastic, but the fried fish... would you mind sharing the recipe? I'm a bit of a fried fish junkie, to tell the truth. I started with Tyler Florence's recipe for English-style Fish and Chips but found it really unsatisfactory. It was too thick for the proportions of 2-cups flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 egg, and 12-ox can of soda water. Even when I added more soda water, it did not give me the texture and thin crust that I associate with my memory of English batter. It looked great, but did not retain the crispiness by the time we ate - right after I took the picture. Next time, I will go back to my tried-and-true batter mix from my restaurant days: nearly equal parts flour and cornstarch, baking powder, vinegar, a little splash of oil, salt, and water to mix into a batter. It's hard for me to give exact measurements as we used to mix up the flour-cornstarch in big barrels - 7 scoops flour to 6 scoops cornstarch. The scoops were those big ones used in bulk sales. Then when we do a batch of batter, we add BP, vinegar, oil and water accordingly. The batter was light, crispy, even after it was put into the buffet. I'll have to try my old recipe and see what proportions work the best... I would appreciate any recipes anyone here would share!

Fish'n'chips for supper, with curry sauce and peas. I saw a recipe in Aug. Bon Apetite - Eggplant fries and thought I'd give it a try. Followed the instructions but made the mistake of drying the "fries" too much before tossing them in the rice flour mixture. The first few ended up without "batter" but still good. The second batch, I added a little soda water to the rice flour mixture to make a batter. The eggplant fries were crispy on the outside and buttery soft inside. The za'tar in the rice flour was nice.

Randi: I love that you took pictures of the food on the next table. I like to do that too, especially if it's something I'd want to try and replicate at home. I once told another egulleteer to do that, and she actually used it as her signiture line. Enjoying your blog. Have some places I'll try next August. And I'd love to cook with you when I'm down that way again...or go for a meal.

My daughter's future M-I-L is gluten intolerant, so it was a bit more challenging this Thanksgiving. There were 12 of us for supper. I cooked two 7kg turkeys, one with regular day-old dinner rolls stuffing(cooked in an oven in another house), the other with gluten-free bread; a smoked picnic shoulder; crab cakes; Brussel sprouts with dijon mustard, blackpeppercorn crusted bacon, and pecans; carrots with cardamon; green bean casserole, (d-i-l's contribution); corn; mashed taters; apple,orange,cranberry chutney; gravy made with Better than Boullion chicken soup base and tapioca starch; pumpkin cheesecake with sour cream icing ( 2nd son's SO's contribution, and a pumpkin pie. Everything was gluten free except for the green bean casserole and the pumpkin cheese cake. The gluten-free pumpkin pie was more like a cheesecake. The crust was made with gluten-free flour, crushed organic unsweetened coconut flakes and pecans, and butter, all pulsed together and baked like a graham crust. The filling was pumpkin puree, cashew cream, coconut cream, spices. It turned out remarkably good! The gluten-free stuffing was made with rice flour bread and corn bread. It didn't have the same texture as my usual stuffing, but was acceptable. The extra poultry seasoning and fresh herbs helped. We didn't cut into the other turkey until next day (sent home with kids), but the kids helped themselves to the stuffing after our guests left! It was interesting cooking with new products and being vigilant about gluten-free counters, etc. I now have a stock pile of flour, bread crumbs, etc. I am thankful that our small city has these supplies.