Dejah

Spiced Cigars Serves 36 as Appetizer. This is a recipe by Bonnie Stern as posted in The National Post, on a Saturday in one of the "ber" months in 2003. I think the book may have been called Eating In. I still have the photo of her cigars, which do not look like mine, but the instruction portion of the paper is nowhere to be found:-( I have made these often, then freezing them individually and storing them in freezer bags. They are quick to finish off in the oven and make for something entirely different to take to potluck. 1 T olive oil 1 small onion, finely chopped 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 tsp EACH of ground cumin and paprika 1/4 tsp EACH of cayenne pepper and cinnamon 1 lb lean ground beef (see ****) 2/3 c tomato sauce 1 tsp salt to taste 1 egg beaten 1 T liquid honey 3/4 c dry fine breadcrumbs 12 sheets phyllo pastry 1/2 c melted butter or olive oil 2 T toasted sesame seeds Method: 1. Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onions and garlic. Cook a few minutes until tender. Add spices. Cook 30 seconds until fragrant. Add beef. Cook until meat looses its raw appearance. Add tomato sauce. Simmer 5 minutes. Season to taste. Transfer to a bowl. Cool. Add beaten egg, honey,and half of the breadcrumbs. Check for seasoning again. 2. Take the phyllo pastry out of the package and cut the stack of 12 sheets into thirds crosswise so that each strip is about 12” x 5”. Cover with plastic wrap and then a damp cloth. 3. Work with one or 2 pieces of phyllo at a time. Arrange the pastry in a single layer on your work surface. Have olive oil or melted butter and a pastry brush at hand. Brush oil/butter over the phyllo and sprinkle with bread crumbs. (I used a lot more than 1/2 cup butter! Ghee works well.) 4. Form about 1 tbsp. of the filling into a log about 3” long and place it the center at the bottom of the strip of phyllo. Fold the side edges over the filling then roll up in shape of a cigar. ( With practice, you can place one stack of several sheets on the work surface and do step 4 with each sheet. This saves having to take a new sheet out each time.) Arrange the cigars on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the top with oil/butter and sprinkle with sesame seeds. 5. Bake in a preheated oven 400F/200C oven for 20 minutes until brown and crisp. * You can freeze them after step #4. When you want to serve them, put them into the preheated oven without defrosting. Add an extra 5 to 10 minutes to the regular baking time. ** You can also bake them then freeze them. To serve, reheat in oven for 15 minutes. These are ok in a pinch. ***DIP: Combine plain yogurt with enough curry paste to taste. (about 1 tbsp) OR If you're rushed for time, use ready-made chunky salsa. The recipe makes 36 cigars, for most people, but never for me! **** I usually make 2 recipes at the same time - one with beef and one with LAMB. The lamb version also works great spread over flatbread before baking in the oven. To this version, I increase the cumin by 1/2 tsp, and add chopped fresh mint into the mixture after it's cooled, along with the egg and honey. After baking, the flatbread is cut into small pieces for serving as appetizer or pizza-like pieces as a main. Keywords: Hors d'oeuvre, Appetizer ( RG2156 )

WElcome to the forum, lilyhotel. Nice to have new input!

Hot pot is all I've ever heard about from my Inner Mongolian students. But then, that might be all they knew how to cook as most seem to come without any cooking skills! Mutton (lamb) does play a prominent role in their hot pots tho'.

I haven't tried posting recipes in Recipegullet, but will get my act together this weekend and give it a go.

I don't use an electric rice cooker unless I am having a dinner party. With cooking rice the traditonal way - on the stove - there is always that lovely toasted crust on the bottom of the pot. I keep the pot on the stove on lowest heat until the end of the meal. Then I pour hot water over the rice and the family fights over this stuff! My grandparents always enjoyed a bowl of the "rice tea" while the young'uns enjoyed the "fan jiu". May not be acceptable in Korea, but I have been known to cook yams along with the rice, then mash the yams into the bottom before adding boiling water. Dessert, anyone?

Fine looking menu, Chufi. Looking forward to seeing pictures of the dinner, especially the musakhan!

Vyieort, I think I'll never open the Spam to preserve the value. The egg smells like chalk and beets, if that can be imagined. I bought it only a week ago but there were two kinds -- black and yellow -- and the lady refused to sell me the other one, which she said was no good. She also said one had to be cooked first but I forget which one. ← The egg you bought is probably covered with rice husks / straw and the ready to eat kind. I use them in congee/jook, or as part of an appetizer plate served with pickled ginger (the pink kind) and pickled shallots. These can be a acquired taste. The black ones, I assume you are talking about the mud-like coating on the outside. These are most likely salted duck eggs. They do need to be cooked before eating.

Peter: You're like the Energizer bunny - you just keep going! Another wonderful travelogue. It's always a learning experience reading yours and Rona's posts. Thank you!

I dunk the oysters in a pot of boiling water for acouple of seconds, drain, then coat with cornflour. They are not as soggy then.

You can keep zha choi in a plastic container for months without any ill effects.

I try to use a potato peeler after I cut the top and bottom off. Love these fresh and raw, but my s-i-l is great at making the steamed Chinese cake with the waterchestnut starch and diced fresh ones. The cake is gooey chewy with sweet crunchy bits.

I love musakhan and need to make it more often! If you want an appetizer with a Middle East them, you might try the "stuffed cigars" I make. These are ground meat (beef or lamb) cooked with tomato sauce, onion, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, honey, cooled, then rolled in phyllo pastry. These can be made ahead, frozen, then brushed with melted butter, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds, and baked in the oven for about 20 minutes. You can serve them as is, or a dip with yogurt and curry, salsa, etc. PM me if you'd like the recipe.

Late in reply, but Asian markets usually have dehydrated peeled chestnuts, and unseasoned peeled roasted chestnuts sold as snacks. The roasted ones would certainly have worked in your Valentine supper.

Gorgeous food, Tepee, Prawn. I want some! Is that siu gnap? how did you make it? I still have 2 ducks in the freezer as well as 2 pieces of pork belly. I wanted to make siu yook and siu gnap for CNY, but Mom ended up in hospital and awaiting placement in personal care home, so all our plans for celebration were shelved. In fact, all of my cooking these last 2 months have been quick and easy and comfort food for Mom. I am so glad I was able to enjoy these feasts vicariously! Thank you!

Not sure how I missed this post back in July, but that package of tofu is made by my cousin James Chan in Winnipeg!

It's time for the Brandon Lieutenant Governor's Winter Festival of Cultures again. Last year was our first venture, so we feel a bit more organized this time around. We will be serving deep fried wontons, mixed vegtables, hor fun. The main pork dish is a recipe by 2 of our chefs who work for Maple Leaf. Both recipes called for light curry flavouring. Thursday and Friday is lightly battered, deep fried and with a sauce. Saturday will be braised, I think. They both tasted great. We mixed up 60 lbs of ground pork yesterday according to my old restaurant recipe as posted in my blog in 2004. One group of 8 Guangdong ladies will start making them starting at 1 pm, then a group of 9 my Chinese students will take over until 9 pm. One former student will be in at 3 to mix up another 60 lbs. This seems more manageable than last year's 18,000 dumplings! However, we have to make the wontons each day for the wrapper to fry up properly. These cannot be frozen before-hand like the siu mai and jiaozi. 2 of the students will be deep frying once the pavilion opens at 6:00. Saturday we will open at noon. Tsingtao beer and Great Wall shiraz will be served at the bar. Hope to have photos of the food and event up later, but you can see our efforts from last year at: www.westmanchinese.com

I've got my Tray of Togetherness filled along with extra bags for my students tomorrow: candied lotus root, lotus seeds, coconut, melon, carrot, New Year's Lucky candy, watercheastnut, kumquat. I love them all!

I second what Bruce said about using a pressure cooker or crock pot in making dishes like rendang. In using the pressure cooker, you'd miss all the different aromas from different stages of cooking the rendang stove top, which is one of the most enjoyable things about cooking from Cradle of Flavour. With the crock pot, the liquid cannot be cooked off in order to brown the meat in the oil left behind which is an essential step in making rendang.

Merry Christmas to everyone! One of my Chinese students just told me about a tradition in China: everyone eats an apple on Christmas Eve because in Chinese, apple is pingguo which sounds like pingan. Pingan in Chinese means safety and peace. So, I am eating an apple for my family, and one for all my eGullet family - to wish you all peace and safety. Then, we're putting out a sauce of salt for the reindeer as we didn't have a salt-lick on hand. Santa will have a mince meat tart and glass of milk. Ice cube is a good idea, so I'll be sure to do that! I'd better add an apple too, so he will have a safe and peaceful journey home.

Nancy, Both duck dishes look great, as does your Chinese soup bowl. We have 2 ducks in the freezer (neither with skin worthy of Cantonese duck)waiting for inspiration. Your pictures are just what we needed. Thanks!

The meat pockets look very much like the curry puffs I used to make for our restaurant. I didn't use pork, I used ground chicken, chopped onion, curry powder, and mashed potato as thickener for all the sauce. I use egg-wash for that "glow", but at home, we prefer the pastry without egg-wash. It makes a more "powdery" top but the whole pocket is still flakey.

I had this on a "starving for carbs" day: leftover big chunky English style chips with ketsup and salt between two slices of Wonder bread. It was good.

Prawn: You bet I'm still reading this thread! It's got me thinking salt'n'pepper softshell crab as my next dish to cook at home. Picked up several packets of frozen crabs while I was in the city. Hope I can make them like your photos. if you have any hints, pass 'em on!

Pretty incredible that your post came up this morning. The cigars are always a hit. I am just getting ready to make Spiced Beef Cigars for a potluck party but using ground lamb instead of beef.

Peter, I'm glad you're getting back to the reporting. Your writing and photography are always colourful, entertaining, informative - well worth waiting for. Thanks for taking the time.