hzrt8w

I also drain my lo shui before putting it away. (Removing the star anise, cinnamon, cumin, etc. from the sauce). In addition, I also let the sauce to cool in the refrigerator to let the chicken/pork fat float to the top. Skim off the fat with a spoon. Only retain the true liquid before putting in to the freezer. What Ben Hong said earlier is very true: if you don't want the master sauce to be mirky, don't put any liver in when you cook.

I found that curry powder by themself is not very spicy even if it contains cayenne powder. You need to add a fair amount of salt and some acidity (vinegar or lime/lemon juice) to bring out the hotness. The curry powder mix from Hong Kong or Macau usually are simple mix. You can come pretty close to it by mixing equal portion of cumin, corriander, tumeric and cayenne powder.

I found that cooking curry powder in oil makes it bitter. You either do this very quickly, or do it indirectly (use oil to sautee onion/garlic/shallots, then sprinkle on the curry powder.

I learned that trick from TV shows and some Indian friends too. Roast your spice before cooking. Then use a spice grinder (or coffee grinder) to grind the spice to almost powder form, then use them for cooking curry. I guess curry to Indians is as Lo Shui to Chinese. Like you said, every family has it's own hand-down recipe.

I always like morphing to come up with new recipes. This curry dish is one of those. If people didn't experiment to create new ways to cook, you wouldn't have many regional food as you know them today. There aren't that many new things under the sun... The color turned out to be dark yellow, close to light brown, just as a curry should be. It tastes very good. My wife thought it was a bit hot, but she delightfully finished her entire serving. One whole chicken, of course, is too much for the two of us in one meal. We ate 1/3 the first night. Another 1/3 tonight. Another 1/3 to be taken as lunch. But I don't want to tempt my coworkers. Curry is not to be thought as quick and easy. Except Japanese curry, perhaps. That can be done quickly.

Most of us know that curry is a mix of spices, primarily cumin, corriander, tumeric, giner and chili powder. It originates from India and spreaded all around Asian countries. Yet the curry recipes in every country is a bit different. Curry in India: very aromatic, rich, with many variations of spice blending. Vietnamese likes to put in lemon grass, fried shallots, coconut milk and a squeeze of lime in the curry. Thai curries are broadly divided into red, green and yellow curry. Red curry being sweet and hot, and thick. (From the galangal?) Both red and yellow curries have rich coconut flavor. Most of the Thai yellow curry I had were cooked with bamboo shoots, and green curry with Thai eggplants. Malaysian/Indonasian curries: very rich in coconut milk and ginger flavor. And they add shrimp paste to curries. Japanese curry: I haven't figured it out yet. It has its own class. So rich, so thick, nothing like the southern Asian style. Most of the time I bought the Japanese curry paste from the Asian grocery store, and just add water to dissolve/dilute the past, add meat/potatoes/carrots/peas and it's done. Chinese curry: I am not really sure if there is such a thing... Sure, curry dishes are offered in most restaurants in Hong Kong, but I don't recall seeing it on the menu while travelling in Mainland China. Perhaps those who travels to China often can enlighten us of your experience eating curry in China. 2 nights ago, I just cooked curry chicken and I don't know what style it is... but I like the outcome... A whole chicken (about 4 lb)... cut up in big pieces. 5 medium size potatoes. 1.5 onions. 5 shallots, thinny sliced, cook with a bit of oil, slow heat, to dark brown. Remove. 5 potatoes, peeled, cut into 1 inch cubes or so, brown over medium heat with a bit of oil and salt. Remove. Chicken pieces... brown over medium heat with salt and black pepper, about 10 minutes. Remove. Now the main curry sauce: In a pot, heat up 3 tblsp cooking oil, put in finely chopped shallots (2-3), freshly grated ginger (3 inch in length), finely chopped garlic (5-6 cloves), 2 tblsp sa cha sauce, 2 tblsp Thai basil paste, 2 tblsp Thai Tom Yum paste (the one used to make Tom Yum Goon soup), 1-2 tsp of shrimp paste, finely chopped lemon grass (about 3 to 4 inch in length), then put in the 1.5 onion (wedged), 2 tsp vinegar, salt (to taste) and some red pepper (to taste), 3 tblsp of curry powder, 1 can of chicken broth, 1 cup of water, 1/2 can of coconut milk. Bring the mixture to a boil. Stir occassionally. Once boiling, re-add the chicken and potatoes. Cook over medium heat for another 10 minutes. At last, re-add the browned shallots and squeeze in the juice from 1 lime. Ready. Serve 4 to 6 people.

I agree that the Chinese for this Master sauce is 卤水 (Meaning: /crass/halogen/salt/brine/), and not 老水 (old water) that Transparent was thinking. These two characters 卤 and 老 sounds identical in Cantonese, though they sound different in Mandarin. Maybe in Toisanese they sound different like you described?

Speaking of chips for snacks... Some like to fry wonton skins. If you have a batch of wonton skins that you don't want to waste, just deep fry them and have them as snacks. Some cut of these wonton skin sheets into small strips before deep-frying. Also, one can use the dry thick egg noodles, cut them up in something like 3 inch in length and deep-fry them for snacks.

You can practically reuse it indefinitely. The key is to "replenish" the ingredients with more spices, more soy sauce, more everything is relative proportion. It makes me think of the mother dough of sour dough in San Francisco. They kept using the same dough, make more doughs, and save enough mother dough for the next day. I kept mine in the freezer and I used it about only once in 1-2 months for about 4 years. I had to pitch it when I moved. Now I have started another one and it's been over a year. I didn't make my Lo Shui from scratch like your book described. I bought a bottle of ready-to-use Lo Shui from Lee Kum Kee and started from there.

And don't forget the garlic! Black beans by themselves don't taste like much. But when cooked with garlic, it's wonderful. Also add a bit of ginger and sliced chili pepper too. I found that often I need to add dark soy sauce to the dish cooked with black beans and garlic to bring out the soy flavor.

The word 祝 is optional. It is implied. For a minute, I thought you were refering to the practice in New Orleans! LOL

I agree that taro chips are much harder to find. Even Asian supermarkets may not carry them. Perhaps it's a regional thing. The last couple of times we were in Hawaii, taro chips were everywhere. But of course taro is more like a staple in Hawaii. The last time I saw some taro chips in the Mainland USA was in a health-food store. I have an update on making your own taro chips. Yesterday I tried to bake them but the result was not very good. Deep-frying seems to be a better way to make them at home. (not sure if the ones they sell at health-food stores are deep-fried). Also, use a mandolin to slice the taro is much better than using a peeler in getting a paper-thin, perfectly round-shape taro chip.

At first I had the same puzzle as Dejah. But it seems like Chinese shrimp chips are called shrimp toasts in Indonesia. In Hong Kong/China, shrimp toasts mean a piece of bread with some shrimp paste (not the cooking sauce, but ground fresh shrimp meat) deep-fried - like how Dejah described. Served as a snack. I used to have a roommate in college who's from Indonesia. His lunch/dinner was typically a plate of steamed rice, some meat/vegetable stir-fries, some dry, minced pork and salted peanuts (with skins) sprinkled on top of the plate, and a big piece of shrimp chip/toast. The Indonesian shrimp chip/toast is much bigger than the Chinese ones -- about 7 to 8 inches in diameter. But of course he had to break up the chips to smaller size before eating... LOL And yeah... he didn't use any utensil for eating. I do like the mix of rice and peanuts and minced pork and shrimp chip/toast.

Light soy = thin soy = 生抽 in Chinese Dark soy = thick soy = 老抽 in Chinese (also known as 醬油) If you look at the bottle of the soy sauce, you should be able to find the distinction. Light sauce is used mostly when saltiness is called for, such as in Fried Rice, steamed fish (in general steamed seafood in Cantonese style). Dark sauce is used mostly when fragrance and rich taste of soy is called for, such as soy sauce chicken, braised fish with dark brown sauce, tea eggs, etc.. While my knowledge in the subject is extremely limited, I believe the difference between them is the process and the aging time. And I think dark soy is aged longer. Do you really want to make your own soy sauce at home? It would be similar to brewing your own beer or wine at home. Yes you can do it but it's a lot of work. I hope you can tolerate the smell of fermentation of soy beans in your home...

Have you even eaten Chinese shrimp chips and taro chips? They are both my favorite snacks. You can buy ready-to-eat shrimp chips in bags in the Asian grocery market. A lot of people don't know: that you can buy them in dry form (they look like plastic chips used in casinos, sold in boxes). When you are ready to eat them, deep fry the dry shrimp chips in oil. The chips will bubble up and expand to about twice the size. It cooks really fast (just a few seconds), so do be careful and not to over-fry them. It is really fun to see the shrimp chips curl up and grow right before your eyes. It is kinda like popping pop-corns, I suppose. You need to put in the chip one at a time and make sure no two chips stick together. Shrimp chips are typically served as a garnishing on top of the Cantonese Fried Chicken. 炸子雞 zhá zi jī [Mandarin]. Kids especially like them because the chips stick to their tongues when they eat them. It's fun. As for taro chips: I have seen them, though not often, available in bags in American supermarket. In Hawaii, they are more popular. Yet the taro chips sold in supermarket are fairly expensive. Something like $4.00 for a medium size bag. Taro chips are fairly to make yourself. Just buy some taros (in my neighborhood they cost only around $0.70/lb), skin them, clean them and pad dry. Then use a peeler to cut them in paper-thin size. You may either deep-fry them or bake them. Once cooked, sprinkle some salt on top.

Dejah: What is a hot plate? Is it a "sizzling" plate? Like an iron plate heated to red hot and you pour food on it?

Xin nian kuai le, wo do peng you men! Do I have it grammatically correct? ← Happy New Year everybody! I wish you an adventurous 2005. Be brave and go try out something that you have never eaten before! I have plenty on my list. Jo-mel: that's very good. Though one thing to remember... English sentence structure is usually the opposite of the Chinese sentence structure. That's why it's a bit difficult for non-native speakers to learn Chinese. I know it was difficult for me when I first learned English. So your sentence should be written as: 我的朋友們, 新年快樂!

If you don't want the sticky rice to stick together, I think one trick you can use is after you soak the grains and drain them (and before you steam the grains), pour in some cooking oil. Then thoroughly stir the oil/grain mixture to make some each grain is slightly coated with a film of oil. Then proceed to steam the rice. Try it and see if it works.

I think Dejah and Ben Hong and jo-mel are thinking of "sticky rice in lotus leave" (Nor Mai Gai [Cantonese]). Yuki you are thinking of "fried sticky rice" (Chow Nor Mai Fan [Cantonese]). Here's how I make mine: Soak the sticky rice grains in water overnight. Drain all water, transfer the grains to a shallow dish and put it in a steamer. Steam for about 15 minutes (without any water added). The result sticky rice should be dry and a bit hard and grainy. Then use a wok/pan, medium high heat, add cooking oil. For add lap cheung and dried shrimp, cook for a minute or so till fragrant. Add peanuts (roasted them first), reconsituted black mushroom (diced). Stir. Then add the sticky rice grains. Fry for a few minutes. At last add soy sauce and chopped green onions.

Yetty: Beautiful picture! And you still deny that you are a professional photographer? There is also another Cantonese name for the rice cupcakes: Boot jai go. Same meaning. Cakes that are molded from a small bowl or dish. The red bean cake is just... red bean cake. (Hung dao go[Cantonese])

There are a couple of issues in your approach. 1. Where is the binding agent? With regular pot stickers, the ground pork -- after smashing against the mixing bowl or put in a food processor -- is your binding agent which glue all the ingredients together (pork, chive, mushroom, carrot, whatever). Crab meat doesn't have the adhesiveness needed. That's why the ingredients are not sticking together. Can you accept adding a little bit of ground pork to your filling? 2. Dried mushrooms should be reconstituted by soaking in luke warm water for at least 6 hours (overnight if possible). There is no quick way to do this. Dumping in boiling water would not achieve the same result. 3. Your wrappers are probably too dry. When you brush on water on the rim trying to seal the pot stickers, the seal won't hold. Getting fresh wrapper would solve that issue. But... you can also use a bit of flour, mix it with water to form a sticky, thick paste. Use this paste to seal your pot stickers instead of just water. Or you can break an egg and use the egg white to seal your pot stickers. 4. The cooking process. No need to boil the pot stickers separately. Just use a bit of oil, lay the pot stickers flat on the pan, fill in a bit of water, cover the lid and let it fry and steam at the same time for 15 minutes. The water will evaporate and the bottom of the pot stickers will turn dark brown (and stick to the pan, guaranteed!) .

Pig feet can be tasty if done properly. In Hong Kong, typically pig feet are simmered in a broth made with dark soy, red vinegar, rock sugar and whole ginger for hours. Perhaps some five spice? I am not sure.

In Chinese, this is called 白糖糕, Bak Tong Go[Cantonese]. The literal translation is white sugar cake, which is pretty close to what it is.

Yetti: A Hong Kong based manufacturer named "Doll" (or "Dolls"?) make good (read "okay") frozen har gow and siu mai (and wonton too). Well, they are never as good as the real thing but they can be convenient. The same manufacturer makes ramen noodles, which I like very much. Most Asian grocers in the U.S. carry their brand. You should be able to find them in the frozen food section of the grocers in the D.C. area.

Hmmmm... that depends on the individual. On the average in my family, we typically consume 3.5 to 4 plates of dim sum on average per person. More if we are really hungry. Personally I can eat 2 plates of har gow (that makes 8 pieces) all by myself. But siu mai may be too meaty for me to eat any more than 2 pieces. 2 pieces per order seems a bit too few. I ate in one dim sum restaurant in Mountain View where they served about 8 varieties of dim sums, one piece of each, on a lunch plate. Perhaps that setting may suit you better.