Dejah

Another incredible blog off to a flying start! Looking forward to learning lots about you, Louisiana, and the food.

Squid, any part, but especially the tentacles, are great in a curry sauce.

Patrickamory: Your seur rong hai will be the perfect recipe for the new package of fresh green peppercorns from the Asian market! Not sure if I'll be able to handle all those chilis, so maybe I'll scale those down and use more peppercorns. Thanks for posting this dish. I'm always looking for new ideas for the peppercorns.

Cantonese chow mein with squid tentacles, shrimp, and blanched baby Shanghai bok choy.

I'm actually just getting ready to make a spice paste to marinate 8 thick lamb chops It's from Gourmet mag, Sept. 2006. "It's aromatic without being spicy; a touch of the exotic but will please traditonalists too" The paste included sumin, lemongrass (reason for my search),shallots, garlic, ginger, tumeric, cayenne. The paste is cooked, cooled, rubbed onto the chops, covered, and chilled for at least 12 and up to 24 hours before grilling. This will be my first try with this recipe. I also make a Moroccan-style filling for an appetizer with ground lamb in place of ground beef. Instead of rolling them up in phyllo pastry into "cigars", I spread it on flatbread, top with roasted pine nuts and bake in the oven until the flatbread is crusty on the bottom. Sprinkle on chopped fresh mint and cut into slices. Great change from pizza.

Good deal on asparagus during the week, so with the last bundle tonight: Stir-fried with chicken And Thai mussels and clams:

Last of the Chinese eggplant before I shop again. Fushia Dunlop's recipe for Fish Fragrant Eggplant. Tomatoes with no "garden fresh flavour" worked well enough in Beef and Tomato Egg with an added dash of ketsup:

The leaves might be papaya leaves? I picked up a packet that were papaya leaves about a month ago and never did get around to using them. I'll be interested to know how you will use yours.

Supper tonight consisted of leftovers from last night in a different combination. I add some rice noodles and shrimp to the above stir-fried bean sprouts and made summer rolls: Leftover rice, chicken, shirtaki mushrooms from above steamed chicken, plus chopped onion, BBQ pork from the freezer, shrimp, egg became Yangzhou Fried Rice a la Fushia Dunlop.

Beautiful fish cakes and bread, robirdstx! I've only ever made crab cakes once. Now I'll try making the fish ones because of your inspiration. That pizza steel will be one of a kind. Looking forward to pizza!

Reminder to self: " Never check this thread out before breakfast!" I'll have some of everything, please...

Traditional Chinese for supper tonight: Fresh lily bulb soup. Steamed chicken (no bones to accommodate hubby ) with fresh shitaki mushrooms and lap cheung. I miss the more intense flavour of rehydrated mushrooms for this dish, but I thought I'd fresh. Quick stir-fried bean sprouts, shredded carrots, and green onion. Crisp and light to go with the chicken.

Feeling lonesome and needing some help here, People! Made a simple traditional Chinese home-style soup to go with the mish-mash of leftovers that made up "supper": Hairy melon in pork stock with velvet pork meatballs and a stalk of ham choi.

Working down to the bottom of the vegetable crisper! I had a quarter chunk of wintermelon left, so I made simple melon soup with pork stock and ground pork meatballs. The soup and melon tasted a little bitter - not the pleasant cooling taste like bittermelons. I must have kept it too long, but I thought one week was ok. Hubby wanted Kung Po the way we made it when we had the restaurant, so I made it, with dry roasted almonds as I didn't have peanuts. Blanched yu choy was the side, topped with ginger and chopped garlic. To "cook" the topping, I poured smoking hot cooking oil and sesame oil over the lot. Tasty without the raw taste of ginger and garlic.

Pierogi: I wonder if the Chinese meatball method would work to make your extra lean pork meatballs moist? My recipe calls for pork fat, ground pork and lean ground beef. I usually just use lean ground beef, but add cornstarch (or waterchestnut flour and cornstarch)and water to the mix being worked in the KitchenAid. Beat it until "thready". This produces very moist beef balls, usually steamed as a dim sum item.

Blether! I was up at 5 am but hadn't turned on the news or heard about the earthquake when I read your post this morning. I wondered what happened to your kitchen. Glad to know that you're alright. Rarerollingobject: Really like the sounds of your paella. Fennel sausage sounds interesting...homemade? store item? Shelby: Juicy Lucy...was that the name of an animal your hubby bagged? Did you stuff cubes of cheese inside the burger? Certainly would keep it moist. What started as a warmish snow-melting rainy day here on the prairies turned into a nasty March blizzard. I thought of BBQing racks of lamb outback, but was content to sear then roast them in the oven. Whole grain mustard and cumin crusted lamb, "clean-out-the-salad-bowl" stir-fried vegetables, buttered baby taters and sweet potato as sides.

Blether: The two pre-salted roast chickens look great! The skin looks crispy from the air-drying in the fridge? I could just eat that! I have roasted chicken parts with a packaged seasoning for salty chicken. It has 5-spice powder mixed it and is great for making the ginger/oil dip for salty chicken. But, now I must try your method. Your curried chicken drew my attentionas soon as I saw the spice mix. Anything with cumin is alright by me!

Ranch Market was a treat to wake up to! Thanks for producing "Chinese market" envy so early in my day... Pork Sung is shredded cooked and seasoned pork. Great topping for congee in our family. I think a poster here made a sandwich with it. Our kids used to sneak small handfuls and just pop it into their mouths. Chinese sausage: slice it up and stir-fry with veg, in fried rice, deep fried and sliced as appetizer, in sticky rice in bamboo leaves or lotus leaves, or simply lay acouple in with your rice and let them cook at the same time as the rice. The "fat" seeps into the rice to create a lovely flavour, especially on the burnt rice at the bottom of the pot if you're cooking rice on the stove top! Thanks for such a fun blog, P!

Wanted Fish-fragrant eggplant AND Mapo tofu, so combined the two - nice silky spicy mixture over jasmine rice and baby Shanghao bok choy - also posted over in the China forum:

Still trying to use up all the lovely Chinese vegetables from a shopping trip to Chinese supermarket in Winnipeg. Tonight was to have been Fish-fragrant Eggplant but I also wanted Mapo Tofu. So, I combined the two - great silky combo over jasmine rice along with simple stir-fried baby Shanghai boy choy. Had this Chinese mustard greens soup in pork stock last night.

The kind of rice used may determine the stickiness. If you use jasmine or regular long grain rice, the grains will not stick together unless you use too much water. Use short grain or "sweet rice", the grains will stick together no matter the method. I use arborio rice when I make paella - start off on top of the stove, then finished in the oven. That has been producing the right stickiness but not gummy or gooey.

Chinese celery, fresh shitaki mushrooms, fresh waterchestnu. I've never been able to buy Chinese celery, so this is the first time for me cooking this veg. I quite like the stronger flavour and the crispiness. It went well with the earthy mushrooms and the sweet waterchestnut slicces.

People born and bred in Dauphin - Yorkton area just seem to have the knack for pierogies and cabbage rolls. I used to have 2 guys working in my Chinese restaurant kitchen, and for staff celebrations, they'd have us all making pierogies. The wrappers were never as fine as yours, Pierogie. I like mine deep-fried with sour cream and dill. Last Christmas, a colleague's daughter was selling pierogies as a fundraiser. This time, they came from the Ukrainian church ladies in Yorkton, Sask. Apparently, they made thousands! They were beautifully shaped and quite delicious with our Xmas turkey!

Using fresh produce from Chinese supermarket in Winnipeg - Lucky Supermarket. Tonight, Chinese celery stir-fried with fresh shitaki mushrooms and waterchestnut. Lovely flavour of the crisp celery mingled well with the sweetness of the waterchestnuts and the earthiness of the mushrooms. Lemongrass beef with fresh green peppercorns and Thai basil. Had this dish at Mama's Noodle House in Wpg. It had a stronger lemongrass flavour. I tried to infuse the oil in the wok with lots of smashed lemongrass before I stir-fried the beef with lots of finely chopped lemongrass. Didn't get as strong a flavour. Any ideas?

Thanks, Frank! You'd think the installers (from the supplier) would know what is required. When they were here, they checked the outside vent, the length of venting, turns, etc. I'll go back to them to see what can be done.