Dejah

Waited until Saturday when the kids and their S.O came home before we had our big meal: BBQ duck, char siu ribs, shrimp, chicken, mixed vegetables, fun see, dried bean curd sticks soup with oysters. Kids brought 2 big round trays of preserved fruits and vegetables (toon hap)to nibble on all weekend. On the 12th, my tai-chi group went to a local Chinese restaurant for lunch, and we had deep fried Salt'n'Pepper Tofu, Golden Sand Shrimp, Ginger Beef, Young Chow Fried Rice, deluxe mixed vegetables, and eggplant, potato, and green pepper stir-fy. I provided mango pudding for dessert. In the evening, we went to the annual university's Chinese association's Spring Festival celebrations. Another local Chinese restaurant catered: Chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce, char siu, fun see, sesame chicken, shrimp, Chinese vegetables (lotus root, wood ear, etc). Delicious food and excellent local entertainment with modern and traditional dances, instruments, vocals, etc. Year of the Rabbit bounded off with a great start!

Our staff is planning an after-exams dinner / staff meeting. One of the restaurants we looked into offered sopa de pederas as a soup choice. I gathered that "stone soup" is Portugese and is made with anything that's on hand with appropriate seasonings, seafood of some sort? I need more information so we'll have some idea of what to expect. Thanks!

Large beet leaves are often used in place of cabbage for cabbage rolls.

Thanks, Erin, for a great week! I was happy to see your last meal was japche - reminded me to make use of the packages of sweet potato noodles I have in my cupboard. As for lobak goh, I never eat it in the restaurants. Like Kent, I find they are lumps of steamed dough. But when I make it at home, it's full of goodies, just the way my Mom made it. Then it's worth eating. I do like the crusty bits on the surface of slices after pan frying. I do remember, as a kid, having fried rice with egg. But it was a raw egg, broken over hot fried rice fresh out of the wok. Once the egg is mixed it, it cooks from the heat in the dish - very lightly scrambled egg adding a silky texture to the whole dish. We didn't worry about salmonella way back then...

No. I don't think lobak goh freezes well, but it does keep in fridge for a week or so. I've never tried as it disappears quite readily. There is no crunh in the cake. The turnip is boiled first, then mixed into the batter. It's the flavour from the turnip that makes it so good - blended with all the other ingrdients. I also use the turnip for the savoury dumpling soup. Love that stuff!

Lobak goh is Chinese turnip cake. Glutineous rice flour batter, shredded white radish (lobak), dried shrimp, lap cheung or lap yuk, Chinese mushrooms. Steamed for an hour. Let it cool and slice. Then fry slices up before eating with chili oil. It's here on my webpage: http://www.hillmanweb.com/soos/lobakgoh.html

Son-in-law brought out a venison round roast. We're looking for suggestions. Would it work braised Chinese style - like red cooked pork?

Erin: Did the bao mix you used in your blog have baking powder or did you add yeast?

Lovely baos, Erin! Think I'll be making BBQ pork ones later today. I can't do the pleating in one hand, but I have seen some of the new immigrants do that...guys who were trained as dim sum chefs in China. Finally beat the rest of the immigrants to our Superstore this morning. Picked up cruellers, lobak, etc.I love lobak braised, but students have been asking "When will you make something for us?", so I will make lobak goh for them for Monday "breakfast" - first class.

Fish maw doesn't have a lot of flavour. It's like tofu - takes on the flavour of whatever is cooked along with it. I've made it with chicken stock, Chinese mushrooms, waterchestnuts, ham bits,and an egg stirred in just before serving. I forgot about the characters for sam gna wong. I don't write Chinese, but the first word - sam is the character for 3. Literally, and character by character, I think they are 3 - toothed yellow...would it be croaker?

How could I have forgotten salted fish! The best salted fish for fried rice is Sam gna wong. These are available from Sun Wah, Rona. I like big chunks steamed over pork with lots of ginger on top. Chun pei - dried orange peel... How about those peels cut into little bits - kids call them nose pickings... Love fish maw soup or foo juk (dried bean curd sticks)soup with rehydrated oysters

v. gautam: " "So, My Gracious Princess, would you not agree with the thesis that the utility of the Canned Soup Cuisine lies precisely in using what is at hand, and what is frugal, without having to worry about buying any special ingredients. " So true! Thanks for this! Campbell's soup takes up a fair amount of space in my pantry. I haven't tried the Shrimp Bisque. Must pick some up tomorrow. Two of hubby's family's recipes were creamed salmon made with either Campbell's cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup, or creamed salmon with peas or corn in a well surrounded by mac'n'cheese. These were easily prepared comfort food for hubby and his family, and now, for our children and grandchildren.

I used to have a stainless steel Jen-Air downdraft cooktop. It was a breeze to clean, or scrub down with a stainless steel scrubbie. It is from 1982 and was 1992 when we bought the house. The fan finally died last winter. I made do until thid winter when I couldn't open the window beside me for ventilation( it's usually -25-30C around supper time). Just before Xmas, I got a new one - black as the stainless steel was no longer avaiable. There's no problem in getting the guck off, but I can't seem to get it smudge free no matter what I use. I use Mr. Clean kitchen cleaner for the initail clean up, then Windex...nope...Oh well, I'll only polish when company's coming.

All of the above... Lap cheung - Chinese sausage...When hubby and I were younge, we used to go on road trips, Chinese sausage and rice were the staples cooked on a Coleman camp stove. Cheap, kept well, and delcious in the fresh air! Lap yuk and salted eggs also served us well. Chinese beef jerky is better than sunflower seedswhile driving - less messy too!

v. gautam: Most interesting! I sincerely hope you'll do a blog of this "back of the can" cooking. I've been thinking about this type of cuisine and would love some guidance!

Thanks, Erin, for clearing up the debate on the lily bulbs. The lotus roots, I saw them for the first time acouple of weeks ago in the city. Those are the long tentacles that reach into the water along side of the well formed lotus root that we see and use. Not sure how they'd be used...stir-fried? Soup? I'd be interested to know. The long beans you showed are certainly more worthy of eating than what we get here. Ours are very dark, skinny, and often woody by the time they get into my wok. I love them, but end up buying regular green beans instead. Do you know how they use the dried chickens? I've never seen those before...

Not sure what to make of the explanation from Wiki. If it is just dried bok choy - then I soak it over night to rehyrdate, then rub it between my fists like I was washing clothes the old-fashioned way to soften the stalks. Bring a pot of pork neckbones to boil for stock, then add the choi, Chinese date, Chinese almond, and waterchestnut to make a soup. Bring it all to a boil then simmer for a couple of hours. Season before serving. If it is salted and fermented "mui choi", then I'd soak it for about half an hour, rinse off some of the saltbefore mincing it. Cut up some beef into strips, marinade it in some cornstarch, salt, oil and layer it losely in a wide bowl with a lip at least an inch deep. Layer the mui choi on top, add some thinly sliced chili peppers and mint leaves. Steam until the meat is done. There is another one that is just salted and not fermented - ham choi - salted veg. It's more of a salted turnip, but I have recently found one made from dried bok choi and rolled up in little balls. I rehydrate them to flavour soups such as melon soup, lotus root soup. Again you have to rinse off much of the salt. A little goes a long ways. These kinds of preserved vegetables will never be tender like the fresh ones. The joy of eating is the chewiness, the flavour... These are all very tradional Chinese family fare. If it's not the kind of dried veg you're referring to...then I don't know what to tell you.

I googled and found a recipe on http://www.homemade-chinese-soups.com/chicken-soup-recipe-04.html You can peel it and make a soup with chicken breast, carrot and Chinese yam. Or peel and slice them up. Sandwich the slices between slices of lap yuk and steam. They'd probably be good sliced and stir-fried with ginger and slices of lap yuk. I might have to buy some now and try these ideas myself!

Definitely "see goo" arrowroot. These are always available for Chinese new Year. Other than steaming or boilng them and eaten with slices of lap yuk - wind-dried pork, I've never had much taste for them. I think you can make soup with them as well. Arrowroot powder, as a thickening agent is made from these. Bruce had the perfect word to describe lily bulbs - segments. Why couldn't I think of that!?

The buds and bulbs are from a different plant.

heidih: The lily buds in darch's pictures are the fresh ones. Dried ones look like over-sized golden needles, thus the name "golden needle" or gum choi - golden flower. These arefrom the same plant. What I was quizzingErin about was the "BULBS" with green tops in the above picture. Sorry to be driving you crazy!

See Goo / arrowroot are like a tulip bulb - with a little tuft on the top. They are tan in colour. Lily BULBS are formed in layers, and can be two or three separate bulbs grown together. They are shaped like a closed up flower blossom and are white. Does that help?

A thought just popped into my head, Erin. Are you sure those are lily bulbs? Maybe they are sprouting arrowroot bulbs which would be a necessary item for Chinese New Year. These you can cook with rice then eaten with lap yuk. You can also stir-fry them sliced. I'm not fond of them, but my Mom loved them. My s-i-l buys them just to grow as plants. Tangerines, oranges, pomelo are all symbols of good luck and wealth based on sound association and colour of gold.

These shitakes are like the more expensive dried ones - called Fah goo - flower mushrooms. It's a variety of shataki. I have only seen them once here at our Safeway. It was years ago. The store received a case, but they had been sitting between styrofoam for too long. The aroma was so developed / intensified, and had a hint of stryofoam that we couldn't use them. I got the whole case free and was so excited, but...

I'm still gasping and reeling from the NY blog, and here we go, with another super blogger. This one is of particular interest to me, a Chinese who has never been back to her homeland since age 2 in 1950. I teach students from this area, and I am inspired to make the homeland trip in a couple of years. So now, I am getting some education before then. As for the curtains idea for your cupboard, if you have flies in the summer, it may be a better idea to have "screen doors" put on instead of curtains. This way, you get aeration as well as insect protection. That's what we had in HK. I was interested in seeing the picture of the fresh lily bulbs as it was under discussion in the China forum. I haven't seen them with leaves sprouting, so I'd be interested in hearing others' suggestions on how to cook then.