KennethT
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Posts posted by KennethT
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54 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
Prompted by @Anna N's post in the Dinner topic, I'm bringing this one forward in the list to be gone through.
Perilla frutescens
Perilla comes in two main varieties: P. frutescens (var. frutescens), often called Korean perilla; and Perilla frutescens var. crispa also known as shiso in Japan. The plant, a member of the mint family, probably originated in China. It was first mentioned in Chinese literature around 500 AD and was introduced to Japan in the 8th or 9th centuries.
We get both varieties, and they come in various colours: green; purple; and purple and green. What we get most here is the purple/green. Known in Chinese as 紫苏/紫蘇 (Mand: zǐ sū; Cant: zi2 sou1) in which the first character means 'purple'..
The leaves are most commonly stir-fried with garlic. It is also pickled in China, like kimchi. The seeds are used in in both Japanese and Korean cuisines, but I've never seen them on sale here.
I loved the purple/green perilla that would be featured in the herb baskets in Saigon...
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OK - just had a chance to taste it. By itself, it has a strong flavor of fried garlic, and then has a background heat that comes through over time. Oddly enough, all the oil has been absorbed, and it basically just looks like a Chinese tapenade!
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1 hour ago, Anna N said:
Not quite sure of the difference between shiso and perilla. Thank you kindly for your offer but I can kill even artificial plants.☹️
shiso is a variety of perilla
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13 hours ago, Toliver said:
Is there any heat to it?
It looks like a chili oil a local Chinese buffet used to serve. I would dunk my egg rolls in it or anything else that was deep fried and crunchy.
Can you post the recipe? I'll put it on my list of things to make when i retire.
It's about 2 heads of garlic, and a 3" knob of ginger both minced finely, and a small handful of fermented black beans, roughly chopped. These are slowly fried in 1-1/4 cup (maybe a splash or two more) of peanut oil. You have to do this part slowly so the garlic doesn't burn - but after about 30 min. it gets nicely browned. Then I added a cup of sichuan chili flakes, a hefty pinch of salt and a hefty pinch of sugar, let fry for maybe 5-10 minutes, then added a few splashes of soy sauce, then let cool. I actually haven't tasted it yet (it's been in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld), but I'll send out an update after I do to give a verdict. But it does look like many of the chili oils I had in China or in some down home places in Chinatown in NYC.
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I've never seen such large open bins of flour before. Evidently sanitation is not high on their list of priorities!
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McMacaron??? McFromage??
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I'd seriously check a bunch of YouTube videos... you can have a major problem if done wrong and you could get hurt really badly.
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Wow this thread is old, but I didn't know where to put this. Just made a first attempt at chili oil, including copius garlic, ginger and fermented black beans.
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2 hours ago, Shelby said:
Dang, I wasn't smart and sneaky like you guys. I hid my boot leather steak under the edge of my plate.....yes, yes, I was like 4....and I thought I was so sneaky....forgot someone had to take the plate and wash it....
Sigh.
Yeah, but I was in 7th grade! (and my mom still did my laundry... hehe)
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1 hour ago, Anna N said:
Nice looking pork. Too bad about dessert. Amazed they would serve it. I have never quite grasped the point of spaghetti squash.
When I was a kid, the one time my mother made spaghetti squash, I wound up sneaking it off my plate and into my pocket, for later disposal in the toilet. Of course, I didn't realize it would SOAK my pocket and jeans I was wearing, so it was a bit suspicious when I came back to the table wearing a different set of pants... that and the little pieces of squash still left in my pocket that I couldn't get out!
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1 hour ago, Anna N said:
Wow. Things are really going downhill as far as cheer of flying goes.
I think it varies greatly by airline. I had some really good food in Economy on Singapore Airlines, and it's always tasty and serviceable on EVA to Taiwan.
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Also, in a restaurant situation, the water is reused for all the pasta all day long, so the water is MUCH more starchy than you could ever get at home, unless you want to save your pasta boiling water like a master stock, that's a real PITA.
Some people here have experimented in adding starch to the pasta water, but I don't remember where the thread was or who did it, or even the result... sorry.
Personally, I think there's a huge difference in flavor between pecorino romano and parmigiano reggiano - it's much sharper... I think doing this dish with parmigiano would be tasty, but it wouldn't be cacio e pepe.
Also note that some restaurants will add some butter or cream to help the cheese emulsify, and make the dish a little richer.
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Personally, I'm not a fan of knives that have a large flat handle that is perpendicular to the blade. I used to go to a high end restaurant in NYC that had them, and they drove me nuts because the knife would always flip over when resting on the plate or even on the table since the large flat handle wants to lay with the flat side on the table - so you wind up with the blade either facing down on the table or facing up - or if you rest it on the plate edge, in invariably spins around the moment you let it go, and sauce can go flying..,,
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Does peanut butter exist in China?
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Is it common to find lesser ginger? In Thailand it is called grachai.
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6 hours ago, prashamk said:
One more query... Do commercial joints drizzle melted chocolate or just chocolate sauce over waffles?
I'm no expert, but I would imagine it would be a chocolate sauce (sometimes called chocolate syrup), not melted chococlate. Keeping melted chocolate melted and pourable over a long period of time may be problematic.... Plus, chocolate syrup is easily available (don't have to make from scratch) and is inexpensive.
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I love pea shoots, and was investigating growing them as when our (dearly departed) sichuan restaurant (closed due to fire) did have them, they were quite expensive. Now that the restaurant is gone, we don't see pea shoots unless we go down to Chinatown. But that's not the point... it seems like the variety used for vegetation is not the exact same variety used for the pea pods, which I guess makes sense.
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@heidih I wonder if that's why the english name is fish mint - as mint in general will take over a garden also
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45 minutes ago, liuzhou said:
Tonight I made a popular local dish. 啤酒鸭 (pí jiǔ yā).
A mix of duck leg and breast meat and the liver. Braised with garlic, ginger, chilli, Sichuan peppercorns, local beer and 豆瓣酱 (dòu bàn jiàng) - spicy fermented broad bean paste, known only in America as "Toban Djan". Finished with scallions. Served with stir fried Shanghai bok choy and rice.
This is a powerfully flavoured dish. If your Asian store has 豆瓣酱 (dòu bàn jiàng) from Pixian 郫县 (pí xiàn) in Sichuan, buy it! It is by far the best. Cheaper varieties, including Lee Kum Kee, cut corners and sub soy beans for the broad beans - not the same at all.
I just got some Pixian doubanjiang (among other things)! My wife and I used to eat a lot of sichuan food until the awesome sichuan restaurant right near us burned down. All the others that we've tried (that are close enough to deliver to us) are horrible by comparison, so I figured we could try to make our own.
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7 hours ago, liuzhou said:
Here's an odd one. At least it was to me when I first encountered it 22 years ago in Hunan province.
Houttuynia cordata
This is known in English as lizard's tail, fish mint, fish leaf, rainbow plant, chameleon plant, heart leaf, fish wort, or bishop's weed.
In Chinese, it is usually 鱼腥草/魚腥 (Mand: yú xīng cǎo; Cant: jyu4*2 sing1 cou2) which means “fish smell grass”, which sounds delightful. Other names include 截儿根 (Mand: jié ér gēn; Cant: zit6 ji4 gan1), literally "stem young root", 猪鼻拱/豬鼻拱 (Mand: zhū bí gǒng; Cant: zyu1 bei6 gung2) literally "pig's nose snuffle" and 臭草 (Mand: chòu cǎo; Cant: cau3 cou2), literally "stinking grass". The latter name is confusingly also used for the unrelated herb, rue.
The leaves, flowers, stems and roots are all edible. I have eaten the leaves in Vietnam, served with bánh xèo. The leaves do have a faint fishy smell, but 'stinking' is an exaggeration. The leaves are also dried and used to make a 'tea' in Japan and Korea. The flowers are also used in teas.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
However here in China, I've only ever seen the roots and stems and despite the weird names, these have little if any noticeable odour. They are served, often in a mild chilli sauce, at the beginning of banquets alongside peanuts and sunflower seeds. You know; something to keep you amused while waiting for the important people to turn up. It is sold in the sauce on the prepared salads counter in most supermarkets, as well as being sold au naturel.
I've had the fish mint many times in Vietnam - I found it quite stinky - but only when chewed and the smell is in your head - I never smelled them through the air. I like it when in combination with other herbs, but on its own, I try to avoid it.
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I can't help you any with your problem, but I am crossing my fingers hoping to see some photos of where you wind up going!
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I used to go to an Austrian restaurant in NYC from time to time... I loved their kasekrainer....
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Last night I cooked chicken thighs in a master stock, recently refreshed with garlic, ginger and green onion... These thighs will be featured in a Hainanese chicken rice later this week. The stock that the chicken was cooked in will be boiled briefly and then have the impurities strained, and will go back into the master stock container and refrozen for future use... but some of the original stock was watered down a bit and will be turned into the chicken rice.
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Jeez @FeChef - no need to be snippy.... OP was asking if the water would prevent the bones from developing a grilled flavor. The OP did not say that it was not wanted, just if the water would prevent it.
Dinner 2018
in Cooking
Posted
Weekly salmon variant... With cucumber salad using the homemade chili oil.