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Supplemental: Here is another round. The basic recipes are the same. This time I used American broccoli and some left-over rotisserie chicken (chopped in big chunks). Stir-fry the broccoli separately with only a little bit of salt. Plate the broccoli so all the pieces radiate outwards. Scoop the stir-fried chicken and bamboo shoots and straw mushrooms and lay in the center.

I too would be very interested to see an illustration of stir-fried eel, Shanghai style. "Chow Seen Wu" as we Cantonese call it.

I will do whatever to suggest the "high class" restaurant operators that they can charge extra without spending extra.

In Hong Kong dim sum restaurants, it's customary that they do a "smooth" top for Lotus Seed Paste Baos. They also paint a small yellow dot on the top to signify the filling.

Sounds like there is some interest to see a: Ah Leung's Pictorial Guide to Chinese Vegetables ?

That looks lovely, peony! Would you point us to which recipe you were using?

I watched another episode of Kylie's show last night: Simply Magic: Episode 5: Europe in the Far Eat (The schedule on Discovery Home channel is on Saturday 6:30 pm and 9:30 pm PDT.) On the web site, this episode was supposedly featuring 3 recipes: Fried Rice Stir-fried Cucumber with Black Cloud Fungus Deep-fried Chicken Wings (Recipes can be found here) But what they aired was different from recipes in the website. There was no Fried Rice illustrated. Instead of Deep-Fried Chicken Wings, Kylie illustrated deep-fried snapper with Sichuan Pepper and Salt. My thoughts: The Stir-Fried Cucumber with Black Cloud Fungus looked pretty good. But the addition of sliced red chilis (why?) seems to kill the harmony of this dish - which is typically a mellow, vegetable dish. (Why add the chilis?) The Deep-Fried Snapper came in as a little bit odd. Fresh ginger, green onion and red chili slices were added on top of the fried snapper, while the Sichuan peppercorn and salt mixture (again) is set on the side. The style that I am used to is the addition of smoking hot oil onto the ginger/green-onion/chili mix with a splash of soy sauce (as with steamed fish), or just the "dried" salt-and-pepper mix with the deep-fried fish. Maybe her version would taste better? I haven't tried it. Has anybody?

#84, Chicken Stir-fried with Broccoli (芥蘭抄雞片)

Pictorial Recipe Chicken Stir-fried with Broccoli (芥蘭抄雞片) This is a reader's request. I was asked to illustrate how to make the chicken stir-fries with broccoli in a brown sauce similar to what they serve in Chinese restaurants. The "brown" sauce is typically made by mixing superior broth (chicken or pork) with some oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and a little bit of sugar. This is a very basic Chinese cooking recipe. I used chicken and Chinese broccoli for this illustration. You may use pork, beef or other types of meat and American broccoli, bok choy, mustard green and other types of vegetables. The cooking steps are just the same. Serving Suggestion: 2 - 3 Preparations: Main ingredients (upper right, clockwise): - 3 boneless chicken breasts, about 1 1/2 lb - Garlic, use 4-5 cloves - Ginger, use 1-inch in length - 1/2 can of bamboo shoots - 1 can of straw mushrooms - 1 small egg for marination - 1 to 1 1/2 lb of Chinese broccoli Notes: - The bamboo shoots and straw mushrooms are for complementary purposes. You may use dried black mushrooms, baby corns, canned water chestnuts, carrots, green peas or other vegetables. Or you may skip them. - You may use "dark meat" (chicken thigh or drumsticks), bone-in or bonless, to make this dish. You may also use other meats in making this dish. Take the chicken breasts: trim fat, cut into 1/4-inch thick slices. To marinate the chicken slices: Add chicken meat into a mixing bowl. Add: - 1/2 tsp of salt (or to taste) - 1 tsp of ground white pepper - Break the egg and add the egg white only - 1 to 2 tsp of oyster sauce (since this dish is oyster sauce based) - 1 to 2 tsp of corn starch or potato starch Mix well. Set aside for about 30 minutes before cooking. Peel, trim end and mince 4 to 5 cloves of garlic. Peel and grate 1-inch of ginger. Wash and drain the broccoli well. Cut diagonally along the stem. If the bamboo shoots are of whole pieces, cut them into slices. Drain all the water from the can. Cooking Instructions: Use a pan/wok, set stove at high. Add 3 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil gets hot. Add the marinated chicken. Cook for about 2-3 minutes on each side. Stir well. If you have a second pan, you can cook the vegetables simultaneously to save some time. Or else you need to cook them sequentially. Add 3 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil gets hot. Add 1/2 tsp of salt. Add the Chinese broccoli. Back on the first pan: Remove the chicken when it is still slightly undercooked. On the second pan: Kill the fire once the broccoli turns soft. It takes about 5 minutes. Don't overcook the broccoli. Drain off any extra liquid from the pan. Back on the first pan: Continue with the stove setting at high. Add 2-3 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil gets smoking hot. Add minced garlic and grated ginger. Add 1/4 tsp of salt (or to taste). Stir well. Sautee for 20 seconds. Then dash in 2-3 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine. If you use garlic alone, it is tasty all right. But the addition of ginger will "kick it up a notch" - to quote Emeril. Add 1/2 cup of chicken broth (or more if you want it saucey). Bring the mixture to a boil. Add the bamboo slices and straw mushrooms. Add 2-3 tsp of oyster sauce, 1-2 tsp of sugar, and 1 tsp (or more) of dark soy sauce - depends on how "dark" you want the sauce. If you want the sauce light in color, skip the dark soy sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil. Add corn starch slurry to thicken the sauce to the right consistency. Add the corn starch slurry a little bit at a time. Keep stirring. Stop when the sauce is thicken to your liking. Return the cooked chicken slices to the pan. Stir-well. Continue to cook for just about a minute. Finished. Plating: Use an oversized plate: In the center, lay 4 to 5 chicken slices. Lay 5 to 6 bamboo slices at the bottom, and a few straw mushrooms in between. 2 to 3 pieces of Chinese broccoli along the side. Scoop the sauce into a squeegee bottle (or use oyster sauce) and scribble it onto the rest of the canvas area. Done. Serve this under candle light with a glass of wine. Have a great time! What? Oh, oh... you want Chinese style of plating? Okay... okay... Take a big serving plate: lay on the Chinese broccoli. Try to make it into a circle with a "hollow" area in the center. Then scoop in the chicken slices stir-fried with bamboo shoots and straw mushrooms in the center. Picture of the finished dish.

How "real" do you want it to be? Must it be inside Chinatown? My opinion has always been that most dim sum restaurants in SF Chinatown are over the hill. The "had been" or "once was". There are a few that I like along Geary, around 25th or so. Mayflower and Parc Hong Kong are worth visiting.

Potato, Tomato... I got mixed up. Sorry! When I looked at those red pieces I thought they were tomato chunks. They are carrots.

That looks marvelous, ChryZ! Adding tomato is interesting. I know in Indian curries, they use tomatoes often. I don't know why Chinese did not adapt that. I haven't seen tomatoes used in curry dishes in Hong Kong restaurants.

Nice work, Kent! What is "fleur de sel"? I am not familiar with this ingredient and have not heard of it used in Chinese cooking. Is this for some purpose or for the flavor?

I think it's okay if you have reduced the heat. From my experience if I add the curry powder when the oil is really hot, it would burn the powder and leave a bitter (very) taste.

Yes we should do our part. Too bad the locals don't catch them to sell to the market. They are quite tasty. But perhaps what we have in US soil are not edible?

No wonder that I have never seen them here. Off to the substitutes... Hmmm... Dungeness are just not the same...

Around the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival (Mooncake Festival) is Shanghai Hairy Crab season. I haven't seen any hairy crab in the Asian markets in the USA. Has anybody? Are they banned for imports?

I have one pictorial recipe on cooking bitter melons with "foo yu" (Chinese fermented bean curds): Stir-fried Bitter Melons with Foo Yu It is also popular to cook bitter melons, in Chinese cooking, with garlic and black beans, like this recipe: Stir-Fried Chicken and Asparagus with Black Bean Sauce (豉汁蘆筍炒鸡片) Just use bitter melon in place of asparagus.

Sounds like the best is to roll your own wrapper dough.

Moutai is a very strong liqueur. Chinese drink it during the meal, not after (like we do Cognac and XO ). It is seen as "the" drink good enough for official state dinners. That's the stuff they served Nixon during his historic visit to China. Unlike XO, its strong taste and high alcohcol content makes it hard to sip and hold. Most of us drink Moutai with small Chinese cups that look like shot glasses. You usually drink a small shot at a time, but hold the cup straight up and swallow it. The alcohol effect will kick in immediately. It may not feel like much at the time, and you want to drink more and more... the hang over can be nasty if overdosed. (Gee... how do I know that? ) It is quite expensive. I don't think you want to use it as a pesticide or cloth cleaner. You can get cheaper products for those! In the US they are selling a small size bottle for about US$20 to $30. If you are willing to pay US$121 a bottle, let me know and I will sell you a truckload.

Susan: I sympathize. It is easy to get confused in choosing wrappers. They come in: 1. Different shapes: square or round/oval 2. Different colors: white or yellow 3. Different thickness: very thick to very thin Different wrappers are made (designed) to be used for different dumplings. The yellow color is from adding eggs when making the dough. It seems that only Cantonese like the yellow wrappers. Other regions in China typically use the white ones (no egg). Cantonese wonton: we use yellow, square, thin ones. Some use white, square, thin ones. Potstickers: use round/oval, white ones. Could be thick or thin. I personally like thin ones Shanghainese (or northern Chinese) wontons: use round/ovel, white ones. Thin is better. Cantonese dim sum (e.g. siu mai): use yellow, square, thin ones. But they are different from wonton wrappers. Don't be confused with the egg roll wrappers, which are typically big in size (4 to 6 sqare inches) instead of 3 square inches. Back to the question of which kind of wrapper for Xian Long Bao. Well the best is to roll your own dough. If you must use a packaged wrapper, choose the white, round/oval, thick ones. Those are closest to the dough that you would make or need. I wasn't thinking in the line of prettiness. I worry that the packaged wrapper may (1) be hard to close out at the top (you do need to have a tiny little hole at the top to let the steam come out, (2) may break on the side during steaming. Well... good luck ladies and gents! I can't wait to see some pictures of your practice. I am just a theoretical cook, you know...

Here is a quick translation of this first page (dough making): http://eatingchinese.org/xlbtutor/drill01.jpg Corresponding to the narration on the numbered pictures: Use medium gluten flour. No yeast. Use water to mix the flour and repeatedly knead with cold water to make the dough. The key is to make a wrapper that is thick at the center and thin along the rims. 1. Use medium gluten flour 250cc. Pour in to a mixing bowl. Add 120cc off old water into the center (form a small depression). 2. Use chopsticks to mix the flour. 3. Use 5 fingers, from the outside to the inside, start kneading. If necessary, add a bit more water. 4. Keep folding and kneading. 5. Make the dough into a ball shape. 6. Leave the dough in the container, cover with a sheet of plastic wrap or a piece of wet cloth. Leave for about 10 minutes.

Keep in mind that those wrappers are meant for wrapping Shanghai wontons. I think you would likely run into difficulties trying to curve them up and close out the top when pleating.

Welcome to the cook-off Oh, no... does posting comments on this thread implicate me as a participant? That chicken-feet jelly looks beautiful, Pam! Ginger. Definitely mix in grated ginger with your ground chicken meat. The link works fine for me. Perhaps try to type that in yourself: http://eatingchinese.org/xlbtutor/xlbtutor.html

The following weblink has very detailed illustration on how to rough the dough and pleat the soup dumpling. The narration is in Chinese but you can learn a lot by just looking at the pictures. They showed 3 methods of making the gelatins: 1. Use pork rind 2. Use chicken feet 3. Use chicken wings Xiao Long Bao Tutorial