Ader1

...and you need a little salt. Say half a kg of flour....a couple pinches of salt or so. This is what this La Mian guy told me re-salt but he was using Peng Hui as well. 25kgs flour - 200grammes of salt - Hot weather. During cold weather; use even less. Yes, that's 25kgs! And that's how much they would make every morning. Nobody (in my opinion) can do that without a dough relaxer.

I think I'll try my gas oven with a thermometer I just bought off ebay.

Weinoo, Would you be able to tell me what type of range do you have? dcarch, Thanks for that tip about placing water or oil in cups in the oven. Maybe I should now ask 'What oven should I buy then'?

So you have to open your oven to find out the temperature? And in doing so, lowering the temperature and leaving what it says on the thermometer meaningless. Or are you somehow able to read the thermometers without opening the range? I'm sorry if I seem ignorant about this issue.

Presently, I have a gas oven at home and an old Rayburn type oven/hot-plate oven. Neither of them give me accurate temperature control. I often see recipes which require oven cooking for a certain amount of time at a certain temperature. I don't feel like I'm able to really cook these with the setup that I have. Could some of you good people on here give me suggestions of ovens which I might buy for home cooking and for being able to accurately control temperatures and time too would be a bonus? Thanks.

That's it huiray. Was going to plant today but it's pouring down with rain. :-( May in fact sow a few indoors in-case this weather continues a long time. This is another piece of the Chinese culinary jig-saw I feel I've put together. Thanks. PS But I think I will also look for a variety which develops a longer stem.

Yes huiray. The link you posted to the photo of leeks is what I meant when thinking of leeks. I can't tell you the names of what Dunlop was talking about it Cantonese. When I observed chefs in China using what was called 'Scallion' they looked quite big for a Spring Onion and also darker in colour. I have grown Spring Onions here in the UK in the past and they're always picked at a fairly young aged and almost pencil shaped so I don't know what would happen to them if I left them to grow for longer. It looks like I'll be taking care of the garden this year due to my father's health and I've a packet of Spring Onion seeds ready for planting. The variety is 'Shimonita'. It does say on the packet: Unique double use; Produces sweet tasty 'bulbs'; Use stems in stir fry's; Use for cooking or in salads. I may leave a few to see what happens to them. Thank you for your comprehensive reply and to everybody else too. I've learnt quite a lot here.

I just found a reference to them in Fuschia Dunlop's 'Sichuan Cookery'. She says that they are similar in appearance and flavour to European Spring Onions, but never develop onion bulbs. They are used as baby green onions (xiao cong) as a garnish, and as older onions (da cong) which are used in marinades and all kinds of cooked dishes. So both may appear in the same dish and that's what got me confused. I spent some time in China and I would ask what the veg was and I would sometimes get the reply of 'Spring Onion' or sometimes 'Scallion'. Indeed, the Scallion did confuse me as they looked to me similar to leek. Thanks for the replies.

Thanks for your reply Simon but I sometimes see them mention Scallions and Spring Onions in the same recipe so they must be differentiating somehow.......

Sorry if this is a bit of a stupid question by I often find that scallions are required for certain dishes in Chinese cooking. This is what I found on the web: http://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqscallions.htm That description would fit what I would call 'Spring Onions' or even 'Leeks' here in the UK. Does anybody know what they're called in the UK or what I substitute them with? Thanks.

Anybody have any other recipes for this? I tried Jamie Oliver's and although nice, it wasn't the same as the one I used to eat in Chengdu.

Doesn't look like many have this book although I have seen it mentioned briefly on other threads.......

Well done. You should add a little bit of salt to your flour mix.

Ching He Huang: http://www.chinghehuang.com/page/basket

I'm considering buying Florence Lin's Complete Book of Chinese Noodles, Dumplings and Breads. It's out of print but it's possible to get hold of it but it's expensive. I've seen some brief reviews on this site and basically, most of them rate it quite well if not highly. I would like to hear what people who've got this book think of it? Have they tried making noodles from the recipes provided? Have they made any of the noodle soups/dishes and how did they turn out? And also, how to you rate the dumplings and bread recipes? It's a shame that they don't do a re-print. Thanks in advance.

Again larb is a dish which includes rice. And usually white rice.

LOL! Yest stick some chillies, sugar, fish sauce, lime on whatever....

Gan Guo is one of my favourite Chinese dishes. I ate it in Sichuan. I never did eat a Tofu in Dry Pot. My favourite was a beef and shrimp dry pot. Don't seem to be many recipes of the net but here's one using tofu: http://allrecipes.com/cook/taozheng/blogentry.aspx?postid=208292 Anybody else have a recipe?

How about glutinous rice? Eat with Papaya Salad. Thai style barbecued chicken. And how about a Pad Thai noodle dish? But the noodles would be rice noodles. Oh yes and how about the fried battered banana? Could eat it with ice-cream.

I think the Chilli that I make is quite similar to many on here although I just include some mild chilli powder so that family members can eat and I add a little cayenne. However, what I haven't seen is the inclusion of cloves. I always add around 5 of these to my 1kg mince mixture along with cocoa powder which is essential and a little vinegar and some sugar. I may use oregano or mixed herbs. Last week I was reading Heston Blumenthal's (sp?) and Gordon Ramsey's Chilli recipes. One of them (I'll have to check) put a couple of star aniseeds into their chilli. I wonder if that would work in addition to my cloves? Anyway, I'm very happy with my Chilli and would consider a tweak or two but nothing drastic.

I did see a pasta maker at one place but this place was a little different. It was a horticultural farm with it's own dou ban 'factory' and also a kind of weekend get away for city people. And the food I had there was something else. Anyway, I bough some 'Amoy' noodles the other day here in the UK and they were over £1.70 for a small pack for 2 people. I think it's quite expensive.

Yes nice pics and explanation. Looking at the pics I should maybe get the spaghetti attachment.

Slightly O/T I've got a pasta maker and I want to make my own noodles. I currently don't have a cutting blade suitable for this size. I believe the ones I have are too big. However, it is easy to buy different size cutters. Sizes available are: 2 mm which I think is diameter as it's a spaghetti cutter. The rest are widths of strips: 1,5 mm ; 2 mm ; 4 mm ; 6,5 mm. There are much bigger ones but I don't think they would be suitable. I was hoping to make something similar to Dejah's above and some Dan Dan Noodles. Although I see Dejah's noodles are round as opposed to strips and the seem finer than spaghetti so maybe my pasta maker isn't ideal? Any thoughts?

I am beginning to think that the Alkali isn't important for stretching the dough. I know that alkali is put into the dough but correct me if I'm wrong.....this is in order to make the noodles not 'fall apart' when they are boiled and give them that particular yellowish colour. I have tried some lye water which is very alkaline in the dough and as I think Lukermyaz (sp?) found, it actually has the opposite effect if only more than a little is added. Isn't there a story about some people who would make the noodles years ago and found that the water from a certain lake would make the noodles have a certain texture and colour (ie yellow) when boiled in this water? More recently, they've found that the water is highly alkaline. I think it was in Mongolia. There is (I think) something else which effects the gluten network to make the dough more extendable and less elastic.

I gather if one doesn't have a Sous Vide set-up then it's pointless getting MC at Home?