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Pictorial Recipe Pot Stickers (鍋貼) This popular Shanghainese specialty needs no introduction. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 8-10 (as appetizer) Preparations: Main ingredients (upper right, clockwise): - Ground pork, about 1 lb - 1 small egg - Garlic, use 5-6 cloves - "Pot sticker" wrapper, 2 packs - to make about 70 pot stickers. These wrappers are twice thicker than wonton wrappers. - Chinese chive, about 1/2 lb - (Not shown) ginger, about 2 inches in length (Note: The traditional meat of choice for making pot stickers is pork. You may easily adapt this recipe using ground chicken, turkey, beef or other types of meat. Some even use pressed tofu. The cooking procedure is the same.) Marinate the ground pork in a mixing bowl. Add 2 tsp of sesame oil, 2-3 tsp of light soy sauce, 2 tsp of ShaoHsing wine, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of ground white pepper, 1-2 tsp of corn starch. Mix well. After washing (typically there is a lot of mud near the roots of the Chinese chives), chop the Chinese chive into 1/2 inch in length. The texture of cooked ground pork is a bit rough to be used as fillings for pot stickers. I used a food processor to make the ground pork filling a little bit smoother. Add the marinated ground pork and chopped Chinese chives in the food processor. Trim ends, peel and press 5-6 cloves of garlic. (Not shown in picture) grate some ginger (about 1-inch in length). Add to the mixture. Beat an egg and add half of the beaten egg to the food processor. Save the other half for sealing the wrapper later. (My food processor is small. I needed to break it up into 2 batches.) This is how it looked when the mixture was all ground and mixed together. Getting the fillings ready for wrapping. To wrap a pot sticker: place one wrapper flat on your palm. Spoon on a little bit of beaten egg to help to seal the wrapper. Place a spoonful of filling in the center of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper in half with the filling in the middle. Use the fingers of the other hand to pinch hard along the semi-circular edge. This will help sealing the filling inside. Continue to pinch along the edge and seal the semi-circular edge. Press down on the plate slightly to flatten the bottom of the wrapper so that it will stand up on its own. Observe that the bottom of the pot sticker should be nice and flat. Continue the same process to wrap the rest of the pot stickers. Cooking Instructions: Use a large size pan. Set stove to medium. Add 4-5 tblsp of cooking oil. Lay the pot stickers flat (with the sealed semi-circular edge pointing up) on the pan. Pot stickers usually take about 15 minutes to cook. After frying for about 5 minutes, add 5-6 tblsp of water. Water will quickly boil into steam. Place the lid on the pan. Let the steam cook the rest of the pot stickers for 7-8 minutes. After 7-8 minutes, remove the lid. The water should be all evaporated with only the cooking oil remained. Turn up the stove setting to high. Fry another 2-3 minutes. To make the condiment for pot stickers, finely shred some ginger - about 1-inch in length. Place the shredded ginger in a small dish. Add about 3-4 tsp of Chinese red vinegar. Transfer the pot stickers to a serving plate. Serve with the ginger/vinegar condiment. Picture of the finished dish. Note that these pot stickers have a tendency to stick to the "pot" (hence the name). Use a steel spatula to separate the pot stickers from the pan. Tips on storage 1. If you don't cook all the ingredients in one setting, the best way to store them is to store the filling and wrappers separately. You may keep them in the freezer, and defrost them to make some fresh wrappings the next round. 2. If you have already wrapped them, you can freeze them. However, don't put them crowded together when putting in the freezer. First freeze the uncooked pot stickers individually - don't let them touch each other, or else they will glue together. You will tear the wrapper apart when trying to separate them. Then put them in a bag to store in the freezer.

I am just curious. If you find this jar of Shanghai fermented bean curds (which I have never tried personally) so unappealing, repulsive, and suspected that it may be detrimental to your health, why pressed on to eat or finish it? It costs only around US $3.50, right? Is that the only brand of fermented bean curds available to you? There are plenty different brands of fermented bean curds. I have tried many different brands. I have my personal favorites but most of them taste good.

These statements do sound like cat meats are served in every Cantonese restaurant. From my 20+ years of experience living in Hong Kong and many visits to Guangzhou (two major cities that offer the best Cantonese food), I can assure our audience that it is not the case. Yes I have heared of "龙虎斗(The Fighting Dragon & Tiger)". But if someone just walks in to any Cantonese restaurant trying to order it, I am sure he/she will come out empty-handed (or empty-stomach'ed). You may need to go to some "specialty" restaurants to eat such a dish. I am not sure if it is legal to eat cats or dogs in Hong Kong. In my circle of relatives and friends, I have not heard of anyone who had eaten cats. So if less than 1% of the population would even consider eating cats, would that qualifies it to generalize us Cantonese, and "often"? I suspect not.

Regarding the red versus blue labels: I just went shopping in my neighborhood Asian grocery store. Down the isle I did see 4 to 5 different brands of rou song all following the convention of "red label for fried rou song", "blue label for regular rou song". And the artwork designs (which are very simple) looked almost identical. My theory is that this is a case of mimicing successful products. One of these brands, and I think it is probably the Taiwanese "Tung Yang", might have used red label for fried rou song and blue label for regular rou song way back when. Because its products are so successful, other manufacturers just mimiced it and created labels that looked almost identical. You can find example of this kind of marketing (which is perfectly legal) in Tobasco hot sauce (you see many of the competitive products all have similar bottle design and the color on the label), and soy sauce (some created labels that looked almost like the Pearl River Bridge brand). I did some a few other almost unknown manufacturers packaging rou song in different labels.

I saw the same jar, same label in one of my neighborhood Asian stores, selling at US$3.50 a jar. It is sealed and the jar is not transparent so I cannot peek inside. Do you have pictures of the fermented bean curds for us to take a look?

Er.... no. "yu" means "milk" in Chinese. It is referring to fermented tofu. "fu" means fermented. So "fu yu" is fermented tofu. The word "nam" doesn't mean red. Literally it means "south". Why is it called "south"? I read somewhere that it is referring to the way "southerners" make the fermented tofu. But "south" to whom I was not sure. I have seen the roasting done strictly on a wok from a street vendor in Guangzhou. I tried to mimic that. For me it's mostly getting the nam yu mixture evenly spreaded (while heated) over the peanuts.

You might just have created a new entry in Chinese snack food! Thanks mrbigjas. I will try it with some fu yu next time. That's wonderful! I love this feedback loop!

I found myself hooked on Taiwanese snacks: all kinds of beef/pork jerkies, rou sung (dried minced pork/fish) and pickled or dried fruits such as plums, olives, lemon, ginger, etc.. They make very tasty treats. I think they make this category of food better than any other regions.

Devagi Sanmugam: Welcome to eGullet and the China forum! Thanks for the additional info on the soya milk machine. That's what I was afraid of... a lot of work for making the soya milk. For dinner cooking, more work is not an issue. Cooking is part of the enjoyment. But for day-to-day consumption, a lot of work everyday is not that desirable. Something to think about... Thanks!

Ah... thanks for the lesson, Irwin. These labels look familiar. I always picks these items up by the Chinese labels, which does use the term "Bau Yue" (= Abalone). Sneaky merchants! I just thought there are different grades of abalone. It tastes pretty good though.

Phage: Welcome to eGullet and the China forum! No the soya milk did not rot and there was no foul smell. The liquid just turned into a curd. It can no longer be poured. One needs to spoon it out. It's quite easy to reproduce as it happened to me a few times: just take the soya milk bottle out of the fridge, leave it in room temperature overnight (12-14 hour is my guess) and put it back in the fridge. Once it chills again, the curd will form. Thanks for more details on the soya milk machine. Something for me to think about...

Ellen: I will sell you some of mine via mail-order for just as little as US$76.00/lb +SS. I have a Paypal account, so Visa/Master/American-Express are welcome! I would imagine you can find the stores that sells dried seafood and Chinese herbs in the Convoy area. Or... I'll bet there are some along El Cajon Blvd or (more likely) University Ave. You are a regular at Saigon restaurant, right? Just ask a friendly waitstuff. They would probably know. Vietnamese and Chinese use just about the same stuff (many are Chinese Vietnamese anyway).

That's true... where we are a clay pot sells at under US$10 a piece. Not seems worthing the effort to "fix" it. Are they much higher in U.K.?

It looks like I was confused. Conpoy = Dried scallop, so it is already "dried" by definition. He he... I shouldn't use "Dried" Conpoy. I used the term "Dried scallop" in the past and the audience seemed not knowing what I was talking about. But they knew "conpoy". Taking a look at the Chinese name, "conpoy" is just a translation by sound. "Con" = Gan [Mandarin], means "dried". "Poy" = Bei [Mandarin], means shellfish in general. Now I know where this came from. I will modify my post and be more consistent to use the term "dried scallop". Thanks JasonZ!

Are you serious??? I bought this can for US$5.00. And I thought it was high...

Thank you, gus_tatory. Avoid the ones with sand? LOL! Yeah, for obvious reasons... such as protecting your teeth. Broken conpoys are sold at a lower price than whole ones, of course. It depends on your use. If you use it to cook congee or steamed eggs, using broken ones are fine. They shred apart during cooking anyway. For a banquet-like hot entree dish, then it would be best to use whole ones. I know very little about buying different grades of dried conpoys, except the obvious clues: cracks, color (I prefer dark brown color), size (the bigger the better). I found some really good prices in San Francisco Chinatown (along Stockton Street). There are a dozen of dried herb/dried seafood stores. I usually pick up the whole ones, medium size, dark brown color for only US$38/lb. I would imagine in other places the prices would be much higher.

#66, Braised Abalone Dried Scallops and Black Mushrooms (紅燒瑤柱鮑魚)

Pictorial Recipe Braised Abalone, Dried Scallops and Black Mushrooms (紅燒瑤柱鮑魚) A few people asked me for the recipe of a braised abalone dish I made a few weeks ago in honor of Chef Dejah's birthday. Here it is for all who may be interested. Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 2-3 Preparations: Main ingredients (upper right, clockwise): - Dried scallops (a.k.a. "conpoy"), about 20 - Garlic, use 4-5 cloves - 1 can of abalone - 1 head of lettuce - Dried black (shitake) mushrooms, about 20 - (Not shown) 5 star anises - (Not shown) 3 pieces of "chan pei" (dried mandarin peels) (Not shown in picture): The night before cooking, soak all dried scallops with 1 cup of water (just enough to cover all the dried scallops) for 16 to 24 hours. Before cooking, drain and save the soaking liquid. Use 4-5 cloves of garlic, peel and mince. Use 5-6 star anises and 3-4 pieces of "chan pei" (dried mandarin peels). Soak the dried mandarin peels in water for about an hour before cooking. Open a can of abalone. Drain and save the "juice". Cut the abalone into thin slices. One technique to slice an abalone is to hold it down with your fingers, and use the knife to slice horizontally. Abalone meat is very soft. You can slice them up slowly. Here are all the abalone slices for this dish. Soak the dried black mushrooms for about 2-3 hours before cooking. Drain and save the soaking liquid for cooking. Trim off the ends and leave the mushrooms whole. Wash and peel the lettuce. Cook the leaves whole. No need to cut them. Cooking Instructions: Use a medium size pot. Set stove to medium. Add 2-3 tblsp of cooking oil. Add minced garlic. (No salt is needed) Stir quickly. Add 1 tsp of brown bean sauce. Dash in 3-4 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine. Optionally you may add 1 stalk of green onion - cut into 1 to 2 inch in length. (Discard the green onions in the end.) Sorry the garlic was burnt a little bit. Hard to take pictures while cooking. But this would not matter. Use a strainer to filter off the undesirable burnt residue in the sauce before serving. Add 1 cup of "water" - should first use up the "abalone juice", then the soaking liquid from the dried scallops, then the soaking liquid from the black mushrooms. Add 1 cup of chicken broth, 3-4 tsp of oyster sauce, 2 tsp of dark soy sauce, 2 tsp of sugar, soaked mandarin peels and star anises. Mix well. Bring this to a boil. Once the mixture starts boiling, turn down the stove to a simmer immediately. For the rest of the cooking, only simmer. Gently add the soaked dried scallops. Try not to break any of them for good presentation reasons. Make sure that all dried conpoys are completely immersed in the liquid. Add water/broth if necessary. Add the abalone slices. Finally, add the whole reconstituted black mushrooms. From this point on, do not stir. Leave everything as it. Put the lid on and simmer for 2 hours. 10 minutes before serving, set a pan on top of a stove. Set for high. Boil 1 cup of water. Quickly blanch the lettuce leaves. This is what the pot of ingredients look like after 2 hours of simmering. To assemble this dish, use a big round plate. Strain the excess water from the blanced lettuce and lay them in a circle near the rim of the plate. Use chopsticks to pick the whole black mushrooms from the pot and lay them on top of the lettuce. Pick the abalone slices from the pot. Set aside. There are only dried scallops, star anises and dried mandarin peels left in the pot. The dried scallops should stay whole but are very easy to fall apart. Pick and discard the star anises and dried mandarin peels. Use a large spoon to spoon off the conpoy from the pot, one by one, and transfer them onto the center of the serving plate. Like such. Then lay the abalone slices between the conpoy and black mushrooms. With the sauce in the pot, turn to stove to high and bring the sauce to a quick boil. Add corn starch slurry (suggest: 1 tsp mixed with 1 tsp of water, adjust) to thicken it to the right consistency. Spoon the thicken sauce and pour on top of the finished dish. Picture of the finished dish. Keys to cooking this dish 1. The art of braising - once the sauce is brought to the initial boil, turn down the stove to a simmer. Simmer the ingredients for about 2 hours or more. 2. Once the conpoys are in the pot, do not stir any more so that they can stay whole. 3. You may use other whole spices of the "five spice" group to enhance the flavor.

In Hong Kong (where most of these masters in London/Europe/USA/wherever else come from), there are 2 ways the vegetables like gai lan, choi sum, even ong choy, bak choy, etc. are made. 1) Noodle houses - these houses may or may not have a kitchen (with woks and burners) in the back. But they always have a big pot of boiling water (to cook the noodles) and another pot of high broth in the front. For convenience, they simply boil gai lan/choy sum in hot water and serve them. To add a little flavor, they squeeze on some diluted oyster sauce (and maybe a splash of sesame oil). The dim sum places took this approach and do this in a small cart. They cook the vegetables in front of the customers. Well... not quite. The vegetables are usually slightly undercooked in the kitchen before transferring to the cart. 2) Regular restaurants (with woks and burners in the kitchen). They typically stir-fry vegetables on a wok with oil and a bit of garlic. And typically vegetables are stir-fried with some meat (beef, chicken, etc.). I don't think it's a traditional Chinese practice to steam vegetables. We steam many things. But vegetables by themselves (not part of a meat dish), seldomly.

I disagree that oyster sauce is used as "shortcuts". Shortcuts to what? Cookings always evolve. There are dishes we see as common place today that I had not heard-of/eaten/seen as a child in Hong Kong. For example: XO sauce stir-fries, Zha Leung ("yau tieu" wrapped in steamed rice noodles), black pepper steak ribs, stir-fried udon/spaghetti, etc., etc.. New items get created everyday. Those which get accepted by large population will find the way into the menu of many restaurants. Oyster sauce may be a very expensive item once (and so are many ingredients). Or it may not even exist 50 years ago. The Japanese dried Shitake Mushrooms (black mushrooms) that are sold for US$7.00 a big everywhere today were once sold 5 times that price, and that was only 10-20 years ago. Well... the "dan tart" as we know it today, where you can buy some from virtually any restaurants/stores in Hong Kong that have a baker, did not exist a hundred years ago. Today using oyster sauce in cooking/marination is a common place. The only thing that matters is whether the end result tastes good.

Chef Dejah: It is time to get out of retirement and open up another Chinese restaurant again! These people need to some homey "chow". Or how about you catering for them, with weekly gau gai tong?

My interpretation: "Not understanding" is just "Not understanding", there is no "right or wrong" about it. I think, therefore I am...

She lives near the North Pole. At least much closer than I am. Take a look at her profile brief (on the left under the screen name).

Living in California, many older generationers like to grow vegetables in the backyard. The younger generationers would rather not, as vegetable gardens are usually not as visually appealing and the backyard/garden is more of a place for retreats - trees, flowers, shrubs, grass... more so than vegetables. Many Chinese vegetables are suitable to be grown in California. And we have plenty of Asian markets in a lot of places. So growing our own vegetables may not be as desirable/practical. When living outside of California where Chinese vegetables are not easy to find, they are not easy to grow there either. My FIL grows only one kind of vegetable in his backyard: Gau Gai (wolfberry plant? Chef Dejah... help!). That species I have not seen sold in the Asian markets here so far. He harvests some every week or so and use it to make soup (with pork and salted eggs). My wife's aunt grows winter melon in her backyard. Though home-grown, the melons are huge (about 10-15 lb). Every year when we get together for year end dinner gathering, she would give away a few melons to each party. Taste great!

Thank you for the detail description, jasie. One more question: from the moment you switch on the machine (after you added the soaked soya beans and water), how long would it take to "brew" a whole pot of soya milk, ready to drink?