sheetz

Well, for better or worse, Tropp's term, "velveting," has become widely used as the de facto English name for "guo yiu," which literally translates as "passing through oil." "Oil blanching" is a good descriptive term that gets the general idea across, but until someone else writes a more authoritative book on Chinese cooking techniques Tropp's name will continue to be used. I normally marinate my sliced meats overnight since it's generally more convenient for me to do the prepping the night before, and I'm not a big fan of using egg whites as that can get a bit messy during the cooking. Instead I often use a pinch of baking soda which has basically the same effect as the egg whites on the meat. I never "velvet" meats in water, but I've heard some cooks will do it with certain types of seafood. The only vegetable I ever cook in oil before stir-frying is eggplant, but that's at a higher temperature and really more like deep frying.

Very different--Chinese sesame paste is toasted, whereas tahini is not.

That's what Barbara Tropp calls it in Modern Art of Chinese Cooking.

I haven't felt like doing too much cooking the last few days, as we're finally digging out from underneath 17 inches of snow. The hot and sour soup I made tonight really hit the spot and was just what I needed.

For chicken, especially dark meat, it's really not that important. It makes a much greater difference for beef, which can get very tough if overcooked.

Does it really matter, though? Unless you're cooking for group of Chinese diners and have promised them a traditional dinner I doubt they would even know the difference.

In addition to stir-frying, I think steaming has not been popular in Western cooking until recently due to Chinese influence. Other traditionally Chinese foods that have now become fairly mainstream include soy milk, bean sprouts, and fresh ginger. ETA: Also, ginseng is a commonly taken herbal supplement. And don't forget about the popularity of bubble tea.

I wouldn't say his recipes are particularly "Americanized" (FYI, Sweet and Sour Pork really is an authentic Chinese dish.) but more "dumbed down" for beginners. His Chinatowns book is pretty good, IMO. One fairly major issue I have is that some of the photos of the final dishes look nothing like what you'd get if you follow the actual recipes themselves.

It's a cultural thing. His manner might seem strange to people not used to it, but in Hong Kong it's considered funny. I know guys from Hong Kong who act the same way.

Or, if you aren't impressed with the All Clad woks, you can invest in a high powered induction wok. http://www.mingspantry.com/comsooncookm.html

Haha, we're supposed to be getting a foot of snow tonight, so it's no picnic here, either. I spent most of the weekend making dumplings (or as the Toisanese say, "tay") for CNY. It was a lot of work, but here are the fruits of my labor. Here I have spring rolls filled with pork, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and carrots; jin dui using this recipe for the dough and homemade lotus seed paste for the filling; and fried wontons stuffed with ground turkey (I ran out of pork) and shrimp. These are potstickers made with homemade wrappers and stuffed with ground turkey and bok choy, and lo bok go with dried shrimp and lop cheong. Whew! I have a newfound respect for Chinese grandmothers.

Here is the All-Clad take on woks: http://www.chefsresource.com/all-clad-round-bottom-wok.html ← Thanks, I didn't know about this one. I prefer the design of the chef's pan instead.

I've seen snippets of the guy on TV, but I won't buy any of his books or help support him in any way. Martin Yan purposely plays up and exaggerates his accent for the TV audience. To me, that would be similar if a african-american purposely exagerrated the way he spoke and acted until it becamea cariacture to appeal to his non african-american viewers. Its one thing if he actually speaks like that, and another matter if he does that on purpose. ← Actually, you may think he's exaggerating his accent for American audiences, but in reality his mannerism are a lot like those of many comic entertainers in Hong Kong.

I think you're talking about the All Clad chef's pans, which are essentially flat bottomed woks. We got one for my mom as a present and I think it works pretty well for what it is. And it's true that you wouldn't season these because the cooking surface is stainless. You would only season carbon steel or cast iron.

Yes, it's just so cold here that you want to eat curries and sichuanese food. Favorite curries include curry beef stew, curried stir fried rice noodles, and curried beef turnovers.

Today I tried making Eight Treasure Rice Pudding. For the topping I used dried cherries, candied pineapple, raisins, candied winter melon, lotus seeds, peanuts, almonds, and dried apricots. For the filling I used homemade red bean paste. A peek inside:

I used to use a cast iron skillet on a weak electric burner with good results. I now how have a stronger burner and use a flat bottomed carbon steel wok. The problem with Cook's Illustrated is that they recommend a NONSTICK frying pan for stir frying, which I would definitely NOT recommend. For stir frying you will often be using very high heat, so a nonstick surface will be destroyed in no time.

I've been eating nonChinese stuff lately, but today made Habeas' recipe for black bean spareribs in a sandpot with a few minor adjustments. Added some minced ginger and cooked it in a 200F oven for 6 hours. Here's one of my favorite "leftovers" soups. Since I bake quite often I usually have leftover egg whites, and it seems like I always have leftover cilantro. To those I added some marinated minced beef to make Westlake beef soup.

The best cooking setup is going to be an inexpensive carbon steel wok coupled with a high powered burner. Ah Leung has a pictorial about choosing a wok. Regarding cleavers, I understand the Dexter/Russell cleaver is a very high quality knife. http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.a...%26ei%3Dutf%2D8 I've heard there are good Chinese brands, as well. Re: America's Test Kitchen, if they are anything like Cook's Illustrated, then I'm convinced they don't know sh*t about Chinese cooking. It's like the people who developed their recipes have never cooked Chinese food before in their lives.

No, I think they only allow cooked salted duck eggs to be imported to the US now, from what people have told me.

LOL, I wonder if everyone has a different way of velvetizing meat, too!

It's funny how everyone has their own recipe for black bean garlic sauce. For me, yes to shao xing wine, sugar, and sesame oil. Oyster sauce rarely, but not in marinades. 5 spice never .

My guess is that you could just use corn syrup, but I'm pretty sure the recipe means something like Lyle's golden syrup. You can also make your own golden syrup using this recipe, which is what I did. http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=2379

Snow ear fungus? Really? That's very interesting! Is it in their original recipe or it is your add-on? I never thought of using snow ear fungus for this type of stir-fried dishes. Would be a very interesting texture contrast. ← It's actually in the original recipe. Edit: DOH! It's actually cloud ears.

Eileen YF Lo's Heng Yang style spicy scallops with water chestnuts, bell peppers, and snow ear fungus. Vegetarian hot pot using whatever vegetarian stuff I had.