Dejah

Anna: I just buy some poultry skewers and bend them! I place one of the oven racks on the highest position, hang the pieces on it with a drip pan pf water underneath. I also do my char siu this way.

CFT: This time, yes, I used chicken stock. If I had fresh slices of pork in addition to the rest of the ingredients, I would have used stock made from pork neckbones or breast bones. Either way, yummy!

Our internet got knocked out for four days due to the crazy blizzard that hit us on Sat. April 30th. The 30cm of snow and 60k. winds screamed savory tong yuen: glutineous rice flour dumplings, dried shrimp, Chinese sausage, julienned daikon, cilantro, and chili radish. Last night, we had Cantonese Egg Foo Yung - something I hadn't made for a long time: shrimp, beef, Chinese sausage, scallion, bean sprouts.

Anna: I don't think you'd have to worry about the seasonings being too strong for the duck legs. I used to do chicken legs and wings with the kind of marinade in the third site: http://www.chinesefo...-roast-duck.php To roast the legs, I'd hang them in the oven with S-hooks. Place a pan of water under them and that will keep them from drying out.

In the midst of a crazy, absolutely unneccessary winter snow blizzard here in Manitoba, I so needed your blog from sunny California! The splash of sunshine in your first kitchen shot, the grapefruit tree, the views from your kitchen windows all provided the warmth and sunshine that's missing from my windows this weekend. Thanks, Heidi, and I'm looking forward to the week!

Char siu seems to go with everything, doesn't it? Are you one of these people who nip off the heads on mung bean sprouts?! I hope you don't do that when you have soy bean sprouts. The head gives these sprouts the nutty taste and texture.

Beautiful char siu, mgaretz. For tenderloin, they look moist. In the midst of a winter snow blizzard...yes...it's April 30th and we got 15 cm of snow so far. So, comfort food it is: beef tenderloin stir-fried with oyster sauce on a bed of green beans, sugar snaps, red bell peppers, and shallots.

I made 50 of these last week and tried to document the process: http://www.hillmanweb.com/soos/food/baos.html I use cupcake liners and they work better than wax paper. There is a little dough left on the paper but never enough to break the seal and make the bao leak. I am lazy; I don't want to cut parchment

Had our Easter ham yesterday. Tonight, made a couple of our kids' favourite dishes from their childhood days: Chicken lettuce wraps: ground chicken, waterchestnuts, bell peppers, onion, diced celery, fermented soy beans, hoisin and oyster sauce, chicken stock and lots of lettuce: Fun see: mung bean noodles with dried shrimp, lap cheung, Chinese cabbage, char siu

After seeing the duck breast, I'm happy that we are having duck tomorrow! Tonight, vegetarian lasagna from Loony Spoons: Made a throw-together meat version for the carnivores in the family.

Pierogi I just use my usual bao dough, but no yeast: flour, milk, sugar, baking powder and 1 tbsp veg oil. As I usually have lapcheung in the fridge, it's a great way to use up any leftover dough. I put the lapcheung in a little water and microwave them for about a minute, just to soften them up. My future s-i-l likes to take them hunting - easy to carry, to eat, and filling.

After making baos all afternoon, supper was quickly thrown together before tai-chi workout. Stir-fried King Topshell (abalone like shellfish - poor man's abalone) with shitaki mushrooms, gai lan in oyster sauce: Pan seared tofu with Saigon Chili Oil

It was a busy day, and a steamy one... Here are the baos you've been waiting for, Bruce... I made 40 char siu baos and 10 lapcheung baos. char siu diced and ready for the wok: After the addition of more Hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, chicken stock, thickened with cornstarch slurry. Hard to keep wayward spoons from scooping the filling into mouths... Lots of fun pleating: Hot from the steamer: Oozy with sauce and fluffy/chewy mouth-feel: lapcheung bao:

Pam: It's been wonderful to read your blog, about traditions and cuisine I know nothing about. It's especially a pleasure to have someone blogging from the Canadian prairies.

Made Musakhan by Paula Wolfert - a dish I made for students from Saudi Arabia acouple of years ago. Chicken marinated in lemon juice, sumac, nutmeg, cinnamon for a day before being baked with simmered onions on top of lavosh. I used flat bread the first time. Tonight, I omitted the bread as we had chickpeas and fava beans. Lots of aroma in the mouth and in the kitchen. Served chickpeaa and fava beans simmered with chopped tomato, onion, chili powder, cumin, cardamon, cilantro, and lemon juice.

Two items from our Soo's Restaurant menu: # 5: Mushroom Chop Suey #111: Sesame Chicken

Enjoyed everything in your week of sharing! I love the "parting shots" of the tea pots - another of my weaknesses. Did you make some of them?

All the seafood look delicious! And Chris! That pork belly crust...Was the bite as crispy as it looked in the picture. Kim: You must look for and try some steak 'n' kidney pie while you're in England. Wherever you're going to, make sure you have some recommends for both the sole and the pie. Used to be able to buy steak 'n'kidney pie in a tin, about the size of a 6" pie. You'd open the top and bake it in the oven. The puff pastry cooked up beautifully. Then the prices went way up and eventually went off the market around here. So, I had to learn to make it myself, for my hubby and his Dad. They were the only ones in his family who ate it until I came along. Good thing Chinese eat everything. Wish I were going with you! Wouldn't it be incredible to meet up with and taste some of Prawn's cooking!

April 15 and yet MORE snow on the prairies. Not quite as much as Calgary, but really, we've had enough! A good day for Steak and Kidney Pie! The filling was browned then simmered for 2 hours on top of the stove: steak, beef kidneys, a few mushrooms, onion, thyme, bay leave, peppercorns, beef stock, worchestershire sauce. So easy with store-bought puff pastry: Tender chunks of beef and kidneys, oozy gravy, crispy puff pastry, baby carrots, peas and some healthy stuff that DH is not too keen on.

I can't believe that we lost the warm temps we've had for about 2 weeks - from +8C to -8C today (with wind -14C) Any of the above gorgeous meals would have helped to warm me innerds, especially the stroganoff... Shelby: Love the idea of the egg in the middle of your pizza! Did you crack the egg on half way thru' the bake? I've been using my Jenn-Air grill since Dec, and of all days, I decided to do burgers outside. But they were worth it. Not quite Shelby's Juicy Lucy, but juicy nonetheless: Lean ground beef stuffed with smoked Gouda and brushed with bottled Guinness BBQ sauce.

Yay! Glad you kept your promise, Bruce, as I left "today" just for you! ojisan I always use boneless pork butt. Love the fat that runs throughout - keeps the meat juicy.

Bruce: For once, I didn't hang the chunks of pork like I usually do with char siu. I think the lovely crust came from over-marinating... I didn't get around to cooking the meat after one day. It was in the marinade, in the fridge for three days, tho' I did take the time to turn the pieces. This time, I just laid them on the broiler rack with water in the bottom. Oven at 425F, turning and basting half way. Baos didn't get made either. We had too many little"nibbles"! I'll be making more next week, AND baos, before the kids come out for Easter.

I picked up the bag of maple flakes while cruising the baking aisle at one of the frocery chains...sounded interesting. Haven't done much with it other than on cereal. It's made from "pure maple sugar" and that definitely came thru'. Suggested servings: on cereal, stir-fries, maple whipped cream. I wanted different tastes on the roasted vegetables: cumin and chili peppers sounded good on the parsnips, but for fennel..., so I sprinkled some on before and after cooking. I liked it with the "licorice". The latter sprinkle added a bit of crunch. Would be good as maple whipped cream for waffles...

Beef short rib stew just the way my Dad made it all those years ago for our small prairie town cafe. This was a favourite of the many American hunters who frequented our area during duck hunting and deer hunting season. Clark Gable was said to have been a frequent visitor. The dish is one of the family-style soup tureens from the set my Mom and I brought from Hong Kong when we immigrated in 1958. Oven-roasted vegetables: fennel with five-spice powder, parsnips with cumin, baby carrots with maple flakes, and spaghetti squash with butter.

As mention in my previous post, my version is unorthodox. Here is a picture of the one I made last month. I threw in a Chinese eggplant that was left in the bottom of my fridge. It's fusion: Fish fragrant eggplant and mapo tofu! Most of the sauce had settled to the bottom of the dish. I also like to throw in fresh mint - for any spicy dishes I make.