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I have always tinkered with the idea of making a Salt Baked Turkey, though I have not tried it. Turkey meat is very thick. Rubbing on the outside and inside may not reach the majority of the meat. Thus only the skin-side or the inside would be tasty with the Sandy Ginger powder. I have one idea: My BIL bought a big turkey-marination syringe one year and that method worked pretty well to keep the turkey meat flavored and moist. In addition to rubbing on the cavity and the outside of the turkey, use 1-2 packs of "Spicy Bake Mix" and dissolve it with 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water. Feed the mixture into the syringe. Use the syringe to inject into the meat in a dozen places: mainly around breast and thighs. This should infuse the salty and gingery taste into the turkey meat and keep it moist. Just my theoretical cooking. Not sure if you would experiment on a family Christmas dinner.

Thank you Irwin, Dejah Dai Ga Jeah, Karen and William. This dip is typically called, with the lack of any creative terms, 蔥油 "Chung Yau" in Cantonese. Literally it means Green Onion Oil. I am not sure why the ginger is not mentioned, though it is 60% to 80% of the ingredient. It is a very common condiment accompanying the "white cut chicken". Typically they make it with chopped green onion, grated ginger and salt only. Over the years, I found that adding some "Sa Geung" (Sandy Ginger powder) and sugar would enhance the taste tremendously. Even when ordering Soy Sauce Chicken, sometimes the waiters would bring this green onion and ginger condiment with it. If you don't make Salt Baked Chicken, just make some of this condiment and eat it with rice. It tastes wonderful. Cantonese versus Hakka: I don't know what the difference is. Perhaps Cantonese learned the Salt Baked Chicken from Hakka people????? Not sure. One thing I haven't done is to try basting this chicken dish. Basting it with some mixture made from malt sugar, water, vinegar and honey in the last 1/2 hour would make it even "browner" and crispier. I am not if it is "appropriate" for this Salt Baked Chicken, but if one likes a really cripsy skin... Even my MIL, who is usually very critical of my cooking, accepted this dish with a praise. That's my ultimate compliment.

#33, Secret Salt Baked Chicken (秘制鹽焗雞)

Secret Salt Baked Chicken (秘制鹽焗雞) The classical Salt Baked Chicken calls for using parchment paper to wrap up a whole chicken, then bury it in a pot of coarse salt and simmer. Many modern restaurants choose to boil or steam the chicken instead because it's easier. Many Chinese restaurants advertise that they have their "secret recipes". I have my own secret recipe too. But I will reveal my secret to you! I have tried making Salt Baked Chicken by baking the chicken in the oven. I want the skin to be a bit dry and crispy instead of the soft and fatty steamed version. Here is the result: Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 4 to 5 Preparations: There is a special ingredient you need to make Salt Baked Chicken. It is a dry ginger powder made from a special species of ginger. In Cantonese, it is called "Sa Geung" (or literally means "Sand Ginger"). You can easily find them in Asian grocery markets. They may be translated as "Spicy Bake Mix". They are basically dry ginger powder mixed with salt and some MSG. "Sa Geung" has a very characteristic taste and smell. This box contains 5 packs of "Spicy Bake Mix". To make this dish, you need to use 2 packs of the "Spicy Bake Mix". Take 2 small bowls. Use 1 1/2 packs of "Spicy Bake Mix" and divide them into 2 equal halves. Save the 1/2 pack to make the condiment. Taste the "Spicy Bake Mix" and see if it is pre-mixed with salt. Some manufacturers do pre-mix it with salt. Some don't. If it is not pre-mixed with salt, add 2 tsp of salt in each bowl. In one of the bowl, add 2 tsp of five spice powder and about 5 to 6 star anises. Break the star anises into small pieces. Mix the mixture well with a spoon. Use a whole chicken, about 4 pounds. Rub the mixture with five spice and star anise in the cavity of the chicken. Then rub the outside of the chicken with the plain "Spicy Bake Mix". Make sure the dry ginger powder is spread evenly on the surface of the chicken. (Optional step): If you want to chicken skin dry and crispy, use a rack to hold up the chicken. Place a small fan about 3 to 4 feet from the chicken and blow the chicken indirectly at low speed for a couple of hours. (See next picture) Cooking Instructions: Place the chicken on a rack. Place it in the oven with a pan of water underneath to keep the chicken moist. Place a sheet of aluminum foil over the chicken to keep it moist. Set the oven to bake at 325F for 1 hour 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the condiment. Ingredients: Use about 3 to 4 stalks of green onions, 1 large piece of fresh ginger (about 3 to 4 inch in length), the remaining 1/2 pack of "Spicy Bake Mix", and 2 - 3 tsp of sugar (not shown). Finely chop the green onions. Grate the ginger. Place them in a bowl. Use a small pot/pan and heat up a generous 4 tblsp of cooking oil. Wait until oil starts fuming. Quickly pour the fuming oil onto the bown of green onions and ginger. Add the 1/2 pack of "Spicy Bake Mix". (If the "Spicy Bake Mix" is not pre-mixed with salt, add 1 tsp of salt.) Add 2 - 3 tsp of sugar. Mix well. The condiment is now ready. Scoop into small dishes to serve at dinner table. After 1 hour 30 minutes of baking at 325F, remove the aluminum foil. Turn up the oven to 400F. Continue to bake for another 30 minutes. This will dry up and brown the outer skin of the chicken a bit. Picture of the finished dish. The skin is slightly cripsy and the chicken meat is moist and succulent - just the way I want it. Carve the chicken at dinner table, or chop it up with a cleaver.

Yeah, you two... don't let the cholesterol stop you! I would love to have shrimp every night too... but it remains an indulgence only once a week or so.

It sounds like your family's method calls for severing the shrimp head from the tail first. Correct me if I misunderstood. One concern for making it this way would be that the "juice" from the head would come out during cooking. This would make the dish overly "wet". I am very lucky in that where I live, good size shrimp (with head) are regularly selling at US $3.99/lb.

Are lap yuk and lap cheung still used as offering to the Gods/ancestors? I typically see the white cut chicken and roast pork. jo-mel: lap yuk is 臘肉. Lap cheung is 臘腸. Lap Ngap is 臘鴨.

The last time I made my batch of potstickers, I froze them but they stick to each other. When I tried to tear them apart in frozen state, the wrapper broke apart and created holes. Any trick to keep them separated during freezing?

I took a look at the recipe. Calling for 1/2 cup of brown bean sauce. That's almost 3/4 jar. It seems a lot for cooking a pig's head. It also calls for 1 cup of honey for basting. It also seems a lot too. And just one tiny teaspoon of five spice powder. Seems disproportionated.

There is a variety that is called "yellow chive", or gow wong in Cantonese. Those look like chive but are yellow in color throughout. The characteristic fragrance is stronger. I am not clear whether or how chive and yellow chive are related (they grow chive without adequate sunlight and it becomes yellow chive???), but they taste very similar. Yellow chive are more expensive and are typically used in small quantities in some dishes to enhance the taste. (e.g. Gon Chow Ngau Ho - the dry-stirfried rice noodles with beef slices.) The usages I mentioned in the previous posts were all referring to the flat, non-flowering chive.

Chris: Are you looking for a recipe to season a wok? Or a recipe for food with chives? I believe she mentioned to season a new wok with chive so that the chive will soak up the "metallic" taste of a new wok. Obviously that chive is not for eating. In Cantonese recipes, chives are used as stir-fries with meat (e.g. beef or pork or chicken), or to make a chive omlette, or used in dim sum to make gow choy gau (chive dumpling made with shrimp paste, or chopped scallop). What's good, also, is to boil chive in a broth with pork blood and pork skin (or stir-fried with them and some garlic would be good too). I have used chive to make pot stickers before and I like that taste.

Picture: Chinese name: 蜜汁蒜子骨 English name: Pork Chops with Honey Garlic Sauce Category: Cantonese dinner entree, pork Description: Pork chops first battered and deep-fried, then coated with a sauce made with garlic, honey, vinegar and some soy sauce. (Offered at: New Hong Kong Wok Restaurant ((916) 454-2828), Sacramento, CA, USA)

Thanks for the post, Qing. That's very enligtening! I used the term "猪头酥烂脱骨" to do a google search and got many returned documents (all in simplified Chinese though). Here is a page that contains a picture of a server holding the pighead dish: http://www.southcn.com/travel/travelzhuant...00206270871.htm

Are these Ya Cai considered expensive? Are they similar to other regular bean sprouts or entirely different? 50 grams does not seem a whole lot for bean sprouts, which regularly are sold by the pound (e.g. US$1.00 a pound in California). Since they used the word 四川 (Sichuan) in the name, do they grow the Ya Cai in Sichuan then transport them to New York (by air?)?

A simple dish of sauteed scallop with snowpeas and some straw mushrooms and bamboo shoots... A Cantonese seafood dish at its best! For recipe, click here.

#32, Sauteed Scallop with Snowpeas (油泡帶子)

Sauteed Scallop with Snowpeas (油泡帶子) Cantonese style seafood is about bringing out the natural taste of the fresh ingredients. No heavy sauces. A simple dish of sauteed scallop with snowpeas and some straw mushrooms and bamboo shoots... A Cantonese seafood dish at its best! Picture of the finished dish: Serving Suggestion: 2 to 3 Preparations: Main ingredients: (From top right, clockwise) About 3/4 to 1 lb of scallop, ginger (use 1 inch in length), garlic (use 3 to 4 cloves), straw mushrooms (canned), bamboo shoot slices (canned; use 1/2 can), and snowpeas (use 1/2 lb). Some of these scallops are quite thick. Slice each scallop in half (horizontally). Marinate the scallop: Scallops are quite delicate. Use minimal ingredients to marinate. Add sliced scallops to a mixing bowl. Add 1 tsp of cooking oil, 3/4 tsp of salt (or to taste), 2 tsp of corn starch. Mix all ingredients. Set aside the mixture for about 30 minutes before cooking. Peel and minced 3-4 cloves of garlic. Grate about 1 inch of ginger. Peel the unedible edges of the snowpeas (not shown). Cooking Instructions: Use a wok/pan, set stove to high. Add a generous 6 tblsp of cooking oil (or frying oil). Wait for a few minutes until the oil heats up before frying. Add marinated scallops. Velvet the scallops in oil until slightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes total. Remove and drain excess oil. Add 2 tblsp of cooking oil on pan. Wait until oil starts fuming. Add minced garlic and grated ginger. Stir. Add a pinch of salt (suggest: 1/4 tsp or to taste). Dash in 2 tsp of ShaoHsing cooking wine. Let it induce a quick flame. Add 1/4 cup of chicken broth. Bring to a boil. To minimize stir-frying time, I pre-heat the snowpeas in a microwave oven. Snowpeas cook very quickly. Place some water at the bottom of the dish and set for one minute at high. Likewise, pre-heat the canned straw mushrooms and bamboo shoot slices together for about 2 minutes at high. Add the snowpeas, straw mushrooms and bamboo shoot slices to pan. Stir well and cooking for a minute. Add corn starch slurry (suggest: 1 tsp of corn starch and 1 tsp of water mixed) to thicken the sauce to the right consistency. Return the scallops. Stir-fry for another minute until the scallops heat up. Finished. (Note: The quantity of food made in this recipe is about twice the portion shown in this picture.) Variations: You may prepare this dish with shrimp or squid, or a combination of any two or all three. The marination and cooking methods are the same.

May be clay pot and sand pot are different names for the same thing? The ones glazed on the inside only are the most common ones used in Hong Kong restaurants. Again, I have seen those clay/sand pots on high open fire (kind of like we have at home in the USA, not the strong burner for wok cooking) in restaurants specialized in bo jai choy (clay pot entrees).

Spanner: Fantastic! Thanks for your feed back! Give the oyster pot a try. If you like Cantonese clay pot dishes, you would like it.

I too do not use oyster sauce to cook sticky rice. I do not feel it is appropriate for this dish. In Hong Kong, sticky rice is first steamed, then stir-fried with the ingredients (diced lap cheung, dried shrimp, diced black mushrooms, some peanuts and green onions). They season the rice with dark soy sauce. That's the version I have been making. Nor Mai Fan (stir-fried sticky rice) is quite different from Nor Mai Gai (steamed sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves). The former is consumed with the sticky rice retaining a good grainy texture. The latter is consumed with the sticky rice steamed to soften and glued together - almost like a cake.

Sounds like another family of fellow Cantonese.

I have been doing this for a while on this particular clay pot (pre-heating on high). I did not notice anything unusual developed. I remember seeing the masters in clay-pot specialty restaurants heating their clay pots over high flames over in Hong Kong. Note: the high flame we have at home with the regular stove burners (maybe 10000 BTU/hr???) are not the same as the high of a 120000 BTU/hour, professional burner. I don't exactly know the difference between a clay pot and a sand pot. Anybody?

Really? Wow! Japanese don't drink lemonade? You can use juice from fresh lemons. I was just being lazy. Maybe use the juice from 5 lemons. No need to reduce (they are quite sour). Just add a bit of water and sugar.

Oh, yes! Absolutely! We usually use it in very moderate amount though. e.g. 3 to 4 priks. And many use it as a garnish than something to add taste to the dish. The only dish that I can think of using cilantro as a main ingredient is "cilantro and fish filet soup". One of my father's signature dishes. We also add cilantro to steamed fish.

canucklehead: Thank you for your kind words. I thought very few people care for home-made Cantonese recipes because many of them don't look like much. You haven't had this oyster/roast-pork dish before? It is my favorite (and so are many other dishes! ). The Cantonese style restaurants in Vancouver gotta offer it. Why? Did you show her these pictorials?