junehl

My dad used to steam them with ginger and onion. Then pour a little warmed soy sauce and oil with more ginger and onion on top. The exact manner you would steam a fish. It was only lightly steamed, or else it would get too tough. I used to really enjoy this b/c i highlighted the sweetness fo the abalone. But he had to really watch it because it got really tough really quickly.

When making pho, I put a couple sticks of cinnamon in there as well. Also, I jsut read recently that some recipe uses black cardamom. So I'll have to try that the next time I make pho.

Hi all, I'm just came home from an Indian restaurant and I had ordered the Kozhi Nigiri (I did a google search on it, and think the menu might have a misprint and it should be Kozhi Nilgiri instead). I tasted the Kozhi Nilgiri and it was sooooooooooooooooooo good. I have been in heaven and besotted with the flavor, the freshness, the lingering enchantment of the sauce. I tried to google the recipe, but I can't find any recipe for Kozhi Nilgiri....I've seen Nilgiri this and Nilgiri that, but no Kozhi Nilgiri, so I don't know which is the right recipe. Here is the description from the Menu "Kozhi Nigiri - Tenders of chicken sauteed with green onion, spices, and herbs, cooked in a Nilgiri sauce. From the hills of Blue Mountain". Does anyone have a recipe for this luscious Kozhi Nilgiri dish? Can someone direct me in the right direction?

When my parents used to make nuoc cham for the restaurant they would only use vinegar, water, and sugar. Since they make a big batch of it, they did not use any fresh citrus juice, in case it went bad over time. When we eat it ourselves, i know they sometimes cut wedges of lime into the sauce and stir it around before using.

After hearing my friends raved about California Pizza Kitchen, I finally went there with some friends and my first pie was Peking Duck Pizza. That pizza was the same reason I vowed never to go back. The duck wasn't good and what was worse was that whoever did the hoisin sauce zigzags over the pizza went overboard so all I tasted was cloyingly sweet hoisin sauce in every single bite. The pizza didn't get finished.

My parents used to get some chicken from farms and process it themselves. I have always found fresh farm chicken or even the frozen ones i get from the Asian markets have skins to be of superior taste. The stocks are fuller flaver, and the skin has a nice crunchy/chewy texture when boiled/steamed as opposed to the one you get from the supermarkets. The supermarket chickens have skins that just taste soft,mushy gooey, unless it's been roasted. I am not sure if the taste/texture difference is more due to how their processed or the species of chicken that I have tasted.

Well never ye mind. Searched on this forum before posting, but found the same link on a different forum here.

Dejah, I make choy gon tong the same way you do (without the duck feet) though and with those little white olive kernels ?. But I have never tried drying my own bok choy that would be interesting! I have only used the ones you buy commercially and you have to reconstitute, wash and drain those quite a few times or else it'll have that sour taste in the soup.

My absolute favorite soup is pig stomach with white peppercorn. It's just whole peppercorn cracked w/ your cleaver, and pig stomach. Cooked until the pig stomach is tender and yummy. With salt to taste. It's simple, the soup is spicy, it's great for a cold day, and it just somehow reaches comfort level for me. Even though the first time I had it, i thought it was gross (before I took my first bite)!

Brie. EWWW. I love a lot of weird textures and flavors. But brie reminds me of rotten dirt. Baked Brie, soft brie, hard brie, refrigerated brie. Brie with mushrooms, Brie without mushrooms. Brie served on a platter by bulldogs. All ghastly, although I do enjoy being served by English bulldogs.

Oh I can't wait for a picture Dejah! Another one I love is curry tripe or tripe steamed with some black beans.

Ben Hong - Just for you I posted the recipe here Bao Dough One thing I was always amazed, for the most part (up until the last few years) it seems that baos were always $1.00. It didn't matter the inflation or where I was (in the US) I had seen it for the longest time at $1.00. Around the late 90s I started seeing the price creep up and it somehow made me sad.

I use this method a lot, but somehow it never seems as good. And I'm only talking about myself, because other people I know have done it, and their stale bread comes out great. Mine just always seem to get chewy OR by the time the crust is crusty the innards are still stale. Maybe I have the oven on too high... I also heat up my bao in the microwave too, but I never cop a feel on my bao, I just leave it in the wrapper. One or two minutes in the microwave and the plastic wrap just expands and essentially steams the bao. I've only tried this on baos i've made myself and are individually wrapped, not sure about commercial baos you can buy from the stores. I just have to be sure not to over microwave it and once i take it out of the microwave i have to instantly take off the plastic wrap or it creates a vacuum and you have an imploded bao that is tough and extremely chewy - not a pleasant texture.

Bao Dough Dough for baos (using baking powder) 4 lb all purpose flour 1 lb sugar 2.2 lb milk 10.7 tsp baking powder 4 T oil 1. Mix the sugar and milk to dissolve the sugar. If the mixture is still slightly grainy from the sugar, it's ok, it'll get worked out w/ the kneading. 2. Add the milk/sugar, oil and baking powder to the flour. Mix together until a dough ball is formed (approximately 2-3 minutes). If the dough is too dry, you can add additional milk I have added up to 8 oz (1 cup). 3. Turn the dough out and knead for a few minutes. 4. Cover with a wet towel and invert a bowl over it (so the dough doesn't dry), you can also just wrap a plastic wrap over the top. 5. Let the dough sit for 30 minutes to an hour. 6. The dough is ready to be divided and used to make your own favor bao. Keywords: Chinese, Easy, Bread ( RG2062 )

I edited the first post to cover my tracks but yes I don't understand the dan tart being so small, i actually like having the fillings, and usually the small dan tarts don't have a lot of filling so you just get a mouth full of crumbs. boooo

Prasatin had mentioned she had her best ratio of dough to filling (haam) in her baos. This got me thinking, when making your baos how much filling to dough do you like? I LOVE a slightly sweet dough, so when I make my baos for myself I love having really fluffy dough with a little filling that has a strong flavored sauce. So of course my favorite is char siu bao with thick dough and a little filling. But when I make it for other people I go for a thinner dough and more meat. Which is why I like to make dai bao for other people, but I don't personally like it myself. Too much meat for me. Now bao wrapped around lap cheung like a pig in the blanket and steamed....mmmmm that is comfort food to me, and at some points even better than char siu bao. It's easy, it's meaty, it's got a high ratio of dough to meat. The only bao I like a lot of filling in is one made with ground pork, lots of chopped cabbage, mushroom and vermicelli, because it doesn't have a lot of meat in it. edited to protect the innocent.

What ratio and would the non fat milk powder dissolve then caramelize/brown? Or does it have a different effect?

hmm doesn't sound too hard, I'll have tot ry that, and maybe experiment some w/ sea cucumbers.

Jumanggy that opera cake looks good. How easy did you find making and assembling the cake?

Ah Leung, your picture of the Fa Gau gives me a craving for fa gau and sea cucumber braised with mushroom on a bed of napa cabbage. Now if I only knew how to prepare fa gau and sea cucumber

Do you make your own bicarb solution? baking soda and water? If so what parts baking soda and water? When my dad used to use that stuff on dry squid i think he always used a bottle of clear liquid i always thought was soda. What is it supposed to do to the product soaked in it?

prasantin - ahh, I never had that problem with the bao dough and I never boil the milk, I just mix it in to the sugar and swirl them around to dissolve it. If a little sugar granule is left it'll get dissolved w/ the kneading and sitting. I have left the oil out before and it does make it a little tougher, but not too bad. If it's ever too dry you can add more milk until it's manageable. I've had to add up to 8 ounces depending on the flour I used. And the extra milk only makes the dough fluffier.

What did you marinate it in? And how did you insure that the persimmon was soft at the same time as the pork?

prasantrin - the dough was tough to work with? was it too soft? too hard to roll out? Your idea about the pork belly is great for char siu bao. it didn't look too fatty either. You must of gotten some really good lean pork belly or did most of the fat drip out?

Had Congee with Silkie chicken, but not sure you can really tell from the picture, the taste was fantastic. Had Chicken and Black Bean Sauce with it