muichoi

It was the charcoal-burning oven I was tempted by.

I think basting is a no-no.I clean the Duck,scaldit with boiling water, put salt(about 1 tbsp) and five-spice powder on the inside,brush the dried skin with a maltose-vinegar-water solution, then hang the duck up until it's dry to the touch,which can take a while. Then I roast it-unfortunately my oven's not big enough to hang the duck in,and I think this is the problem.

I've been making them for years, and I'm completely happy with them except for the texture of the skin on the breast-instead of the beautiful parchment texture of the rest of the bird I sometimes get a slightly rough effect, and it it has a kind of european-style finish-fine in its place of course, but not in a Cantonese roast duck. I know that traditionally it's not made at home,and I don't have the right oven( my God I've been tempted, but there are limits!). Anyone got any suggestions?

Magnificent!

Agreed Wagamama is not great..but how many sides do you think Gyoza are MEANT to be fried on?it's not fair to criticise things for not being what they're not meant to be-very common though!

Don't drink wine with Indian food, they weren't designed for each other. Spirits and beer are far better.

Sue-On, in a word, no. It has almost the opposite effect in that besides making tough meat chewable and it also affects it by giving it a "springy" texture. Easy does it though as too much will give the meat a bitter taste. My usual dose is 1/3 tsp. to a half pound of sliced raw meat. Mix it in with the regular marinade and the longer you let it sit, the more tender the meat becomes. ← I find if you cut the meat finely enough then less than half this amount works, and then you can't taste it. I used to scorn the idea of freezing the meat before cutting-but actually it gives wonderful results.

I certainly wouldn't do more than 250g at once,even on my 55,000 BTU burner.

Thanks Danjou- I've never much liked the technique of passing through medium hot oil when applied to beef, though for fish and chicken it's obviously essential-I like to put a very moderate depth of oil in the wok, heat it up then add the beef, not starting to stir or toss for five seconds or so-I like the very fast cooking and seared effect that results, though this only works on a huge flame-your mother's marinade is the same as mine except for the egg white-do you stir in oil to separate just before frying?

The chinese cleaver is simply the best all-purpose knife for any cuisine. It can indeed do anything-though I don't like the western-style versions.

Do real people actually look at 'nutritional values'-inevitably grossly inaccurate?. That's depressing.

Why has no one mentioned the obvious substitute, dried whole milk powder? It works very well and is widely available from indian shops.

I don't know about the US, but english onions are totally unsuitable for grinding raw-when this is required, simply cook the punctured onions whole in the microwave, then proceed as before.This works perfectly.

Biryani was originally made from equal weights of Ghee and rice!

I've got a pretty good method for easy siu yok-it's really reduced to its most basic components but if you have really first class pork belly it's extremely good. Simply take a piece of whatever size you like, remove the whole rib layer for another use, then cut from the underside almost all the way to the skin at 1 1/2 inch intervals. Mix salt , a tiny bit of msg and freshly ground five-spice (always grind freshly ,it's spoilt after 3 days) and apply all over the flesh side and into the cuts.You need plenty of salt and not much spice. Hang for a few hours, then put the pork skinside up under the grill. When the skin starts to change colour a bit, remove it and make a million holes with a big fork. Put it back until the whole skin crackles-if some of it burns, just scrape off the burnt bits. Then roast in the oven for another 30-40 minutes. Very nice. Hang again after cooking.

Thanks Danjou-certainly makes sense and of course I agree with your mother! Really, though, I remember this soft and inflated dried squid with great pleasure, and was wondering whether this could be replicated by soaking in a borax solution which is then rinsed away-the pleasure of dried squid is not in its natural flavour anyway! Chinese food though is very much about texture-and warm water prawns simply aren't very good in general-so I don't have a problem about salt-washing them, and adding a bit of soda to the first wash-only 30 seconds contact or so-likewise beef-if i'm poaching or grilling ,for example, soda would be stupid, but in a saute/stirfry the meat is so denatured anyway that the smallest bit of soda is only an enhancement-such dishes are not designed to show of the excellence of an ingredient, which is possibly the main criticism to be made of chinese cuisine as a whole-which is strange given the cantonese ability to encapsulate the freshness of chicken, fish and vegetables like no other. Does your mother marinate beef at all?

Oh dear!

Oh dear. Maybe you shouldn't let that hamster out of its cage. ← We don't. It gets out by itself, no matter what precautions.

I bought Borax powder, not lye water, which I already had-it's good for noodles, but it doesn't give me a good feeling, in the end-like commercial chinese fresh egg noodles.

Good point, but this hamster is indestructible and can escape from anything . Last time she gnawed through the water main.

Thanks! Is Borax caustic soda? maybe I should think again.

I'm not sure that I am!

Sorry, this was meant to be a recipe for Laap Cheung-i've never come across the fresh ones, I'd certainly leave out the saltpeter from these,and just use a small amount of sugar. I'm not totally convinced about five-spice in this case, which is more of a preserved/roast meat type thing. Rock sugar I pound to a powder, but I think ordinary sugar would be fine as well- don't be afraid to ask more questions! If you haven't made such things before, the food will sense it, so feel very confident!Computer's working again, my daughter's hamster had chewed the cable!

Ok, so I couldn't resist buying a pack-what now?

Ong Choi with fu Yu is probably my favourite vegetable dish in the whole world-but it really needs a huge flame. I couldn't approach it until I got my outdoor wok, so I used to serve a cold version-the garlic and fu yu fried together, sugar and wine added then red chilli rings,the whole stirred into very quickly blanched, refreshed and drained Ong Choi. A beautiful starter!