Dejah

Been running about to the stores: -28C outside (-18F) Finishing up a large bowl of home-made chicken noodle soup with green beans, celery, carrots, peas, barley AND egg noodles. Very comfortable now. Have a small prime roast in the oven with purple sweet potatoes in jacket. Been checking out the sweet potatoe thread for some great ideas. Think we'll be eating these with a compound butter of lime (rind and juice), chilli, fresh coriander/cilantro and coarse salt as suggested by Snadra. Thanks, Snadra!

Winkles are lovely stir-fried with ginger and black bean garlic sauce - Chinese style. Once the trap doors are opened, they're done. Need paper towels and lots of rice for the sauce. I also enjoyed picking them out of their shells with a straight pin, eating, and walking along the seashore in places like Whitby, England! I think these were just boiled in seawater or salted water?

Hungarian Mushroom Soup - Moosewood: http://www.food.com/recipe/Hungarian-Mushroom-Soup-from-the-Moosewood-Cookbook-135215 Great stuff!

Katie: Make duck congee next time. I've beenfinding bags of mushrooms on sale for half price at our Superstore, so it's been Hungarian Mushroom soup from Moosewood Cookbook Recipe #135215. This seems to freeze well with adding some fresh dill and the cream when heating up to serve.

The perfect imagery, Jo-mel:-)

Chris: Try slicing the carrots on a diagonal. Leave the slices in the shape of the carrot as you slice, then pat them down, still in the "shape of the carrot" then julienne. I find that much easier then stacking the slice then cutting.

I have two egg urns just like the ones you mentioned. I have "elephant ears" - ornamental taro planted in them. They sit outside during the summer, and I've brought them in to winter over as they take a long time to sprout. The taro is just like the edible ones, but not sure if these are edible. The leaves are big so quite suitable for this size of container. I used to be able to get the eggs covered in light-coloured mud and grain husks. Then it was just very fine black ash-like dirt. They were such a pain to clean off. Now they are just wrapped in double plastic in styrofoam boxes of 6. I don't think the shelf life is as long as they used to be when covered in dirt. The dirt covering might have prevent air and moisture in the air getting into the egg causing it to dry out or ferment. The shell would be porous. Possible? I always keep my cartons in the fridge.

Yorkshire puddings from last weekend's roast, served with fresh green peppercorn cream sauce. No picture of the sauce as it was really no-descript but delicious.

Hopefully, with Chris's patience, this picture will be successfully uploaded. This was the Thai-style green curry with pork and fresh green peppercorns that I made last week. Yea!!! Thanks Chris!

Velveting is not always with egg white. I have never used egg white or "passing through oil". For me, velveting is marinating meat with a little oil and cornstarch after seasoning. The effect is the same and less labour involved.

Hi Chris, Yes. Orange extract. I add it to the chicken as well as the sauce so the flavour really stays on the chicken as well as being in the sauce. Thought I should also mention whether you are using re-hydrated tangerine (orange peel) or fresh, make sure you scrape off the pith before using or it will taste bitter when you bite into a piece of peel.

My version would be considered very non-authentic... But it was a favourite in my restaurant days. I used 1.5 chicken breasts per order, cut into long strips about1/2 inch or 2 cm thick. These were dressed with salt (MSG optional), a touch of orange essense, and an egg. Then I added a tbsp of flour/cornstarch mixture and mixed it into the strips. This will be wet and silky. I coated the strips with fine crumbs made from soda crackers, then deep fried these until golden. While the chicken is cooking, I'd make up the sauce: water, white vinegar, orange essence, shredded re-hydrated and fresh tangerine peel (when avaiable - more for the colour), five-spice powder, crushed chili flakes or acouple chilis cut up. Once it comes to boil in the wok (about 1 1/2 cups), I'd slowly add cornstarch slurry, just thickened enough to coat a ladle. The sauce should still be clear, not opague. Turn off the heat, add the chicken and toss quickly so that all pieces have SOME coating, but not coated completely. Never goopy!

That looks like a lot of egg in relation to the amount of tomato. Is that the way you like it? My family prefers beef as well in this dish, so the eggs are usually cooked separately, chunked, then added just before serving. I love cilantro, but like you, it has to be long pieces of green onion tossed in at the last minute. I'm wondering if you could add the broth-thinned-out egg mixture at the very end - like the restaurant mushroom egg-drop soup? If you poured a thin stream of the egg mixture over the tomatoes. Is that the "thread-like" effect you are looking for? Or, take out the tomato leaving the broth, set the broth in a swirling motion then adding the stream of egg mixture? That's how I do mushroom egg drop soup. I always add liquid to the tomatoes. To extract enough liquid from the tomatoes, they become too mushy, over-cooked. Besides, the family likes everything OVER their rice. I use vinegar, sugar, touch of salt. Sushi seasoning works well when I'm too lazy to find the perfect balance between sugar and vinegar.

Great post and pictures, Erin! I made a Thai green curry with pork and eggplant this week and really enjoyed the eggplant in that dish. Seeing your Asiah's eggplant curry will have me pulling out my Cradle book (which has been on the bookshelf wayyyy too long a period) this weekend. eGullet always inspires me to change up my meals regularly.

Made a Thai style green curry pork with eggplant this evening - a recipe I found at Suite 101.com (googled). It called for 1/4 cup of green peppercorns and eggplant. It was delicious, especially topped with Thai basi and over rice. I made a double batch and will have some for the freezer. Took a picture and will try this weekend to post on here - again. Tomorrow, I'll be doing the stir-fried pork with beans that Bruce recommended. I gave about 20 sprigs to a foodie collegue, have used about 20 sprigs myself, and I still have about half a pound left!

I love the green peppercorns so much that I've been using them in just about everything and anything: roast beef sandwich with horseradish then sprinkled with peppercorns (they stick onto the horseradish ) topped with Thai basil and lettuce (two lunches!); BBQ pork and ho fun (rice noodles) topped with black bean garlic bitter melon with peppercorns; now planning to make the pork and green bean green curry. Rona: I had a spicy stir-fried squid dish in one of the local restaurants on Monday. It was quite good, but like you said, it would have been even better with the peppercorns! I should have taken some down with me...never thought

Good idea about making a big batch of Thai curry and freezing it. I saw the pea-size aubergine at the store and thought about picking them up (but regret not doing so now). I used them in a vegetarian curry for an Indonesian student far away from home acouple of years ago. Might have to get my hands on some to try again. The cream sauce I made last night called for adding 2/3 of the peppercorns as the sauce simmered, then the final 1/3 just before serving. I really enjoyed biting into them. Onto more dishes probably tomorrow.

Found the answer to the ong choi question I posed. I was too busy looking at the images on Flicker before. Have 2 bunches of ong choi in the fridge, so I will try yet again.

Incredible meal, Prawn! I really enjoy Cradle of Flavour rendang. Need to get it going again now that the snow has arrived. The ong choi looks so good. How do you cook yours? Mine always ends up with the leaves too soft. One restaurant called them "empty heart" greens!

Got the peppercorns at Lucky - 6.00 for a lb. That was the only size available. I didn't know at the time how to use them, so I didn't realiz that's one heck of a lot of peppercorns! However, I will persevere... We had ptime rib tonight, so I made a green peppercorn cream sauce with white wine instead of gravy. It was delicious - a lighter version than the one I made last Xmas with green peppercorns in brine, morels, etc. I liked the way the peppercorns sneak up in the mouth - the aroma of fresh cracked pepper rather than the heat. C. sapidus gave acouple of Thai suggestions so that'll happen in the next few days. I also have a package of ho fun and Thai basil, so maybe I'll try that for lunch tomorrow. I love these peppercorns. Tried acouple fresh and they just "popped" with aroma.

This was the first time I have ever seen fresh green peppercorns. I seem to remember someone had posted a dish with this ingredient, but I can't rmember who...Prawncracker? C.sapidus? I have found some recipes for sauces and Thai dishes, but I would appreciate any suggestions - tried and true recipes, etc.

Jean-George's "fried rice" doesn't even looked fried. As for cooking the egg, taking it out, cutting it in pieces and adding it back at the end, that's the way we served it in our restaurant, unless it's deluxe fried rice. With the latter, the raw egg is added after everything else is incorporated and cooked in the wok, then the egg is cracked into a cleared space in the wok and worked into the fried rice. The result, there are flecks of fried egg thoughout the dish. A question about "grilled cheese". What makes a grilled cheese a grilled cheese if it's not done in a frying pan or griddle? Enquiring mind needs this cleared up... That's quite the "curing room" you've got Prawn. Great to see you blogging!

I guess we'll just have to wait for hzrt8w's next trip to Hong Kong to send us samples of the "authentic version" I have had lapcheung in mine - in some restaurant, somewhere (Vancouver? Toronto?). I can see using lapcheung at home IF there was no char siu on hand. "If I make a Rueben Sandwich with chicken breast and ketchup and mayo... is it still called a Rueben Sandwich?" I think the Rueben statement is a bit too far out as comparison. The fried rice with a variation of meat (chat siu or lapcheung or Chinese ham?)at least would still have some semblance. You could still tell it is something fried rice, and COULD be Yangchow fried rice. But with chicken breast, you KNOW it's not a Rueben on sight...I hope.

It seems everyone has their own version! I was just checking out a Youtube Epicurious episode for this fried rice. I've never had it with oyster sauce, but this made by Chef Shirley Cheng of the Culinary Institute of America used oyster sauce. It also had fresh mushrooms, ham, peas and scallions. I'd think that oyster sauce would be too heavy and strong for this dish because it has so many other flavours - char sui or lap cheong, and the milder shrimp. I don't even add soy sauce, but in the restaurant, we added a tiny splash of light soy only because my Canadian customers rhink colour is beautiful - NOT brown, just beige.

You probably are the only one, Prawn I've been known to leave out the egg while cooking, and just add it into a depression in a plate of fresh hot fried rice, mix quickly, and have "wat chow fan". I always thought Yangzhou fried rice had Chinese sauage?