sheetz

Dejah, sorry to hear about your problems. Based on my past experience making custard pies, I think these are going to be a bit tricky.

Um, not NEARLY enough. lol I can sort of make out the ingredient list. Let's see, the dough has an "oil skin" part and a "water skin" part. The oil skin has flour, butter, and lard. The water skin has flour, egg, and water. Can't read the directions.

If the crust is sturdy enough it should be easy enough to lift out. If not, maybe you could line the muffin cups with foil and use the foil to lift them out. Right now I'm guessing it's similar to a French puff pastry, but with fewer folds so that the layers are still distinct. I was hoping someone would post the Pei Mei recipe because I remember she does something similar. Anyone?

Some of the high end dim sum restaurants make very tiny sized egg tarts, roughly the size of mini muffins.

Here's the recipe for glutinous rice shu mai I will use, courtesy of Martin Yan: http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails/recipe%5F2107.asp

For me, this falls under the heading of "DUH!" They put tons of pork fat into everything. Of course they are fattening. That's why they taste so good!

When I was in Australia the Chinese places sold something called a "Dim Sim" which looked basically like a gigantic shu mai. I think they must have used egg roll wrappers for the skins.

I think I'm gonna try a glutinous rice shu mai. Never made those before.

Could someone post the Pei Mei recipe? Thanks.

Like I said, that recipe is definitely good, but it's a fairly standard recipe as far as cinnamon rolls go, I think. The main differences between this recipe and others are the margarine for the filling and the huge amount of cinnamon. I do think using butter instead of margarine tastes better, but you don't get that gooeyness of a Cinnabon. I mean when you roll it out, you should roll it out as much as you can. Then when it won't roll out any more, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a half hour or so to let it relax. After this rest period you should be able to roll it out a lot more. It also helps to have a very soft and moist dough. Last time I made this recipe I used quite a bit more liquid than called for in this recipe.

I've used this one also and it definitely is good. In order to roll the dough out as thin as possible it's important to let it rest.

I've been on a real cinnamon roll kick lately, so I thought I'd ask this question. What do you think is the world's BEST cinnamon roll recipe?

There's also the reverse method: Fry the chicken to set the crust, then finish them off in the oven. The advantage to this method is that the excess grease drains away while the chicken is in the oven.

I was talking about the lard being refrigerated during shipping, which would make shipping expenses much higher. Packing the fat with dry ice might push the shipping costs over $20. In any case, I called around and found a local butcher that still does their own slaughtering. They slaughter the hogs once a week, and they told me if I call the day before, they will reserve however much leaf lard I want and sell it to me for only 69 cents a pound!

Thanks. Is shipping very high? Does leaf lard have to be refrigerated?

I use the stuff from the box cause I don't know where to get the good stuff locally. I normally use it in a 1:4 ratio with butter in pie crusts and that works pretty well. One of these days I'll have to find the good stuff and make those Chinese pastries like wife cakes that I grew up eating. The best almond cookies are made with lard.

They are typically served alongside the Cantonese deep fried crispy skinned chicken, a common banquet dish. You wouldn't ever get these with takeout.

Wow, I don't know of anyone who makes these at home. I think they'd make a terrific gift item. Any other suggestions for flavor variations?

I'm looking for a good recipe for a ham glaze to go on an inexpensive Cook's ham. What's your favorite?

Toisan is part of the Cantonese culinary region, so you probably won't find any restaurants that specialize in "Toisanese" food, just Cantonese. In essence, the Toisanese are the countrified cousins of the city slickers in Guangzhou (Canton)and Hong Kong, and this is reflected in their respective cuisines. While the food in HK and Guangzhou is more refined and sophisticated, the food of Toisan is more rustic and earthy.

I don't know exactly why, but it just seems like when I visit foreign locales I just have to sample the Chinese cuisine, and I know this is the case with a lot of other Chinese people as well. I think we Chinese take a certain amount of pride in the fact that Chinese can migrate to places all over the world and use their skill and ingenuity to create a successful business, despite not having a lot of education or knowledge of the local language. Even though the food may not always be fantastic at these establishments, it's kinda nice to see how our "cousins" around the world are doing.

I saw these at a number of Chinese restaurants Down Under. The Dim Sims looked just like gigantic Shu Mai. Does anyone know what their Chinese name is, if there is one?

I haven't eaten Chinese in Europe, but did in Sydney and in NZ. The food was fine, especially in Sydney. But even in NZ, where there wasn't a true Chinatown, the food I ate was not bad at all. Of course, I have Chinese relatives in Auckland and Wellington so they knew which places were good. The Chinese restaurants we visited outside of the large cities were pretty wretched, however.

Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that Cantonese/Toisanese folks are shopkeepers at heart, and don't give a flying fig if what they serve in their restaurants are in any way remotely representative of their native cuisine as long as they can laugh on the way to the bank. Instead, they save the real Chinese cooking for home.

How are we defining "Semi-Homemade." Do you mean using quality, prepacked foods as shortcuts or do you mean that crap that Sandra Lee does?