Dejah

Choi Gon Tong per Dejah's Mom - Choy Family It's best to grow and dry your own choi gon. My Mom used to take the large outer leaves from the bok choi grown in her garden. These were blanched, then hung out on the clothes line to dry. I like it best when she pulled the whole young plant and dried them with the root-end intact. This was always great to chew on. This practice is carried on with many of the Chinese elders in my city. We are often gifted with choi gon from relatives and friends upon return from visits to China. These are often considered best because it was produced in China, thus authentic. To get the soft yet chewy texture from choi gon, it is best to soak and wash the choi gon the night before. (soak a handful of hung yun too ) Next morning, rub them gently as if you were washing clothes by hand. Quickly blanch pork neck bones, breast bones, whole chunk of pork butt, or pork hocks with skin intact, then set the bones in clean water to boil and simmer with a couple of slices of fresh ginger. About 2 hours before serving the soup, I cut up the choi gon with scissors, add them to the stock, along with hung yun, whole peeled waterchestnuts, and dried honey dates. If I remember, I also add a couple of wind-dried duck feet. This is left to simmer for a couple of hours, then season with salt and enjoy!

Re- thread on "favourite Chinese cookbook": There is much discussion on what is authentic, recipes that are not found in any of today's Chinese cookbooks. Muichoi suggested starting a collection in eGullet. This may be a way for all of us to start actually recording recipes that have been passed down through generations. Muichoi requested a recipe for dried bak choi soup. I am sure there are many "recipes" for this favourite. I can recount the different ingredients, but not the amounts - just a bunch of this, a few of those, etc. Start your engines, folks, and let's get posting!

Thanks, Chefcrash and jackal10. When I did the prime rib for our daughter's bday early Dec, I asked the butcher for extra fat. I drapped these pieces over the meat as it roasted. There was loads of dripping, and after making the dozen I needed for supper, I had enough to make another batch for the leftover roast next day - much to the grandson's delight.

Please share your recipe for the beautiful Yorkies! They look very much like mine, but I just throw in milk, flour and 5 eggs. When someone asks me for a recipe, I don't have the proportions.

The cornstarch gives the meat a smooth velvety texture. You would really notice the difference if she didn't add it - the meat would be "hard" on the tongue. I like lots of jup/liquid from this dish as it is like you said" It's really good with rice!" Remember to not eat root vegetables for 48 hours after drinking goh lai tong. I find the taste very cooling on the tongue and throat. Yum! Trotters in vinegar, eggs and peanuts. You've got a good mummy!

If you are referring to Yellow Valley Cheese, then I can assure you that it is very good. ← Yep - it was the Cumin Flavoured (but in Chinese 茴香味..it wasn't fennel, so that was a bit misleading...). Made by Shanxi Windmill Farmhouse Foodstuff Co. It was really nice - a very young Gouda-type cheese with good flavour and the cumin seeds added a great zip to the flavour! ← I love Gouda with cumin seeds. A quarter of a 12" x 4" thick round costs me about $25.00 CDN. We enjoy it with apples, whole grain crackers, or shaved and melted over lentil soup, Hungarian mushroom soup, etc. Don't imagine it's work with jook.

prasantrin: To make the rice and filling more compact, you may have to cook the rice with just a tiny bit more water. The softer rice is more difficult to work with when mixing it with the filling, but it makes for a more compact/squished together bundle which I prefer. When I unwrap my joong, the surface is almost as smooth as the bamboo leaf ones. It's good your Mom was allowed to relax and be the supervisor and official taster. We moms need to be pampered. So far, my daughter is the official taster and cleaner-upper. I like that too!

I usually buy lean ground beef at the store, mix with a tbsp. oil and 1 tbsp of cornstarch because the meat is too lean. If I don't add the oil and starch, it does not have that smooth soft texture - rather, it is "rough/sope in Toisanese". I mix it all together vigorously and dump into a dish, but I don't pat it down as it tends to be too "compacted". I may spread it out over the dish with my chopsticks creating ridges and small craters to hold any liquids resulting from the steaming. To top the meat, I sometimes use, as Ben mentioned, Szechuan vegetable or jah choi, mui choi with ginger slivers, chili slivers, and fresh mint leaves, or ham choi (the root veg that Ben calls choong choi?). For pork, I may use the same toppings as above, or with Chinese mushrooms and lap cheong. I'd like to hear what your Mom uses, Toisangirl. Please post the results.

This has got to be the craziest thread for Chinese forum, but as Ben Sook said,"Hey! It's Christmas!" I guess we DO have to deviate once in a while. I am so happy that we are out of the restaurant biz during these times - money was good, but OI! I wish it was more evenly distributed throughout the year rather than crazy-as-all-get-out on Xmas eve, Xmas day, 30th and 31st as well as days like Mother's Day. It used to be so hectic getting home by 8 on the 24th and finish getting supper ready and wrapping gifts. This year, I was so ready I kept thinking I forgot a food item or someone's gift. The kids and families all got in on the 24th - started with late afternoon snacks with hot'n'sour soup, and we sat down to 2 roasted boneless legs of lamb marinaded with raspberry wine vinegar, fresh rosemary, fresh mint, cracked tri-coloured peppercorns and garlic, fresh mint sauce, letteuce wraps with various diced vegetables and shitaki mushrooms, mixed vegetables, pan roasted potatoes, saffron/cumin basmati rice, shrimp stir-fried with citrus pepper, bottles of red wine, and ambrosia delight dessert (not the marshmellow salad!). The rest of the evening was spent nibbling shortbread cookies, skor-bits slice, butter tarts, and other various slices. Xmas Day was the traditional dinner at older brother's with all of his kids and families: I did the turkey and works, and English trifle as is the tradition, augmented with baked ham, brussel sprouts, oven baked vegetable medley, pickled cucumber Chinese style (s-i-l's specialty), curried beef in flaky pastry, scalloped potatoes, rice, mixed vegetables. Dessert was trifle, lau po bang from Vancouver, and all the other dainties. Today - chow ho fun for lunch, and then beef and tomato as part of supper. Will make watercress soup for something a bit lighter! Happy Boxing Day and a Happy and Good Eats in 2008 to everyone!

That "recipe" sounds like what I am planning to use. I'll probably throw in some chili peppers for that ma lah kick. Thanks, Fugu. IN my search for recipes, I read in one blog where you'd have to watch the timing on the tendons. Too little, they remain tough, too long, they become a gelatinous mass. I had some tendon at a dim sum restaurant in Winnipeg recommended by prasantrin (not Kum Koon, Ben), and they were very good - tender and flavourful. I"ll be sampling some this afternoon - the shipment from Vancouver. I'll keep a couple of containers in the freezer for comparison when I make my own.

1. The eggs can just be kept in a dark cool place. 2. Yes, the eggs are raw when you put them in brine. The yolk hardens but the white stays clear but becomes more runny-like. 3. Salted eggs are definitely NOT the same as the "thousand year old eggs"! They are a different thing all together. Salted eggs must be cooked before eating whereas the TYOeggs can be eaten right out of the shell or steamed with salted eggs and fresh eggs, thrown in with congee, etc.

Scored! Elder sister has sent out cooked beef tendons from Vancouver -dim sum style. Elder brother found frozen beef tendons in Winnipeg's Asian market - Sun Wah. Happy Happy Joy Joy! Now, how to duplicate the dim sum style, and try out new recipes. Please help!

I have frozen hundreds of leen yeep joong - the proper name for these. I usually made a large batch, freeze and send them back with the kids when they go back to Wpg. They don't even resteam them before eating - just zap em in the microwave to reheat. The small bucket might have contributed to some of the cracks. One thing my Mom always said, with both bamboo and lotus leaves - DON'T cram or push them down! Use a large container with water to cover. Next time - prasantrin... ETA: As for putting the filling together, I used to do it the same way you did. Then I started mixing the rice and filling together before scooping it onto the leaves for wrapping. I like this way better as the filling and flavours are mixed throughout the rice. I'm so happy that you made all these things with your Mom!

I'm having problems with lotus leaf breakage, though, so I might have to eat some of that rice plain. Poor me! The things I suffer for eGullet! ← Did you Mom take the leaves over for you? Did they crumble in travel? You DID soak the leaves for several hours, or overnight so that they are pliable, or as Ah Leung did in his pictorial, covered with boiling water? Me thinks you're just making the excuse-to-eat-just-filling up.

Braised the tripe tonight after washing it and rubbing it with baking soda. It smelled "fresh" I braised it in diluted dark soy, rock sugar, star anise, cinnamon stick, orange peel, ginger. I should have used light soy as it is very brown, so my mistake there. The tripe was braised on top of the stove for 2 1/2 hours. The house smelled yummy; the tripe was ugly as all get out, but tender and delicious. I think I'll steam them like Ben suggested tomorrow. Having problems with my camera. Hope hubby can get it to work tomorrow so I can take a picture. My sister has sent, via Greyhound bus, frozen cooked beef tendons from her favourite dim sum restaurant in Richmond or Burnaby. I wanted dried ones, but I'll certainly enjoy these as well. My s-i-l has pork tendons. I wonder if they'll work? They are thinner, so may melt away with braising?

Shhhhhh...prasantrin - SHE likes baos, PERIOD! I always make mine with lots of filling and thin doug mainly because my family are carnivors. My students actually "complain" that there isn't enough dough. I think it must be what you grow up with. My Mom always puts lots of "haam" in her baos, so I continue thus.

I've never had braised goo look pei. My mom usually lets the whole peel dry first, then it is rehydrated in water. When it is pliable, she'd squeeze the peel, change the water, soak again. The process is repeated several times to get rid of the bitterness. The loose pithy stuff is taken off, leaving the firmer pith and peel. She then cuts the peel into chunks and soaks them in soy sauce for a couple of months until they are black and infused with the salt and flavour of the soy sauce. Whenever she wants to cook some, she'd take a chunk out, slice it thinly, lay these on top of sliced fatty pork, then steamed. I seem to remember seeing this in cans? sold in Chinese grocery stores. I must check next time. I always save the peel, but never seem to get around to preserving them.

Dear Ben Sook, Have you been using Wikipedia like the young'uns?

Hor fun is considered a "snack"? I thought almond cookie is a snack. Beef jerkie is a snack... ← Well, the book consists of recipes for dim sum, and I think the title was a result of "lost in translation". My grandson would eat chow hor fun as a main course AND as a snack!

Thanks, Ben Sook. I might get the chance to work on this stuff tomorrow. Waiting to hear from a new butcher shop to see if I can get beef tendons. Any guidance on that?

The lobak goh at dim sum places is sometimes greasy because the slices are pan fried prior to serving. The taro cake in the title is similar to radish cake except that it's made with diced cooked taro. The taro puffs you described are quite a different thing, but also delicious!

There's a recipe in Wei-chuan cookbook: Chinese Snacks - revised - by Huang Su-Huei. Rona: I've sent you a PM.

I want to try making tripe dim sum style. I've eaten lots, but have never made it at home. I bought some yesterday, and it had a nice beige/white appearance. I assume these have been prepared for cooking at home. Do I still need to "clean" it in some way before using? One recipe said to braise it like Chinese beef stew: with star anise, hoisin sauce, peppercorns, garlic, etc. Anyone make this at home or have a recipe? I'm STILL looking for curried baby octopus recipe too!

Dejah, I used the recipe from Into the Vietnamese Kitchen. Do you have that book? If not, I will be happy to PM it to you. ← Oh! I actually have that book - from your recommendation. I'll look it up. Thanks!

I can't remember who sent me the recipe for hom siu gok - someone here, and the recipe had mashed cooked yam in the dough - 6 oz. of yams to 1 lb of glutinous flour. For sweet version, the recipe called for Chinese brown sugar. Can someone please chime up if you sent me the recipe? Glad you made the baos and hom siu gok, Rona. Joongzi next?