eatingwitheddie

Favorites include: Crispy flaky freshly cooked pastries filled with red date. Steamed Malaysian Roll - a jelly roll of yellow cake and filling - yum That being said, send me to Wittamer in Brussels anytime!

Also it's a good idea to add a spoonful of vegetable oil to the marinade to help promote separation after the food is in the oil.

There is both good and bad food on both the east & west coasts. Had lots of both in each place. If you want to talk about where the food is of an overall higher quality perhaps you'd need to focus on Vancouver where there is lots of good cooking, and the really good is really world class.

While this BBQ sauce recipe uses some Chinese ingredients it is really my version of an American BBQ sauce that is meant to glaze a rack of ribs that which has been slow roasted in a kettle using the indirect method. The sauce recipe is inspired by a version the I learned from Craig Claiborne many years ago. ROASTING & SAUCING AMERICAN STYLE BBQ'd PORK RIBS 1. Season 2 meaty racks of spare ribs with garlic, salt and pepper. I would typically use two 2.25-2.5 lb. racks of regular cut ribs, not back ribs, trimmed St Louis style (cartilagenous tops and 1' of bottoms trimmed). 2. Prepare a charcoal fire in your kettle. I prefer using 'real' charcoal and then like to add a cup of wood chips soaked in water if they're available. I prefer applewood, though hickory is fine - don't use mesquite however, it's best use is for grilling not smoking. Push the coals to opposites sides of the fire box, add the wood chips, then place your ribs on the rack centered so that they are not directly above the coals. Cover the kettle and roast the ribs at 325 degrees (I have a thermometer in my kettle) for 65-70 minutes. When properly cooked they should appear well browned and almost finished. Turn them over once or twice while roasting so they brown/cook evenly. 3. Remove the ribs and set on the side while you tend to the fire. Rake the coals flat and add a few more if necessary. You want a medium hot fire with no flame. 4. To glaze the ribs, return them to the grill but this time place them directly over the heat source. Brush them liberally with the BBQ sauce, turning them so that the side facing the heat starts to bubble and then brown around the edges. The ribs should be turned and sauced generously for 5-10 minutes until they are burnished and richly glazed. I love the meaty texture, smoky taste and slightly charred quality of these ribs. If you'd like to achieve that super soft fall off the bone texture (I prefer tender but with a little more bite), hold the lightly foil-wrapped finished ribs in a 250 degree oven for about 1/2 hour. PS - These days i often add some 'jalapeno peppers in adobo sauce' to my sauce recipe. I would then leave out or decrease the tobasco.

Also you can checkout Hunan Cottage also on route 46 (in Fairfeld?). David Corcoran reviewed it in the Jersey section of The NY Times a week or two ago. It's really a Shanghai style restaurant and a pretty good one too. Ask for the the 'other' menu if they just hand you the Americanized version. It's in English, don't worry.

And Kohlrabi is German for "turnip-radish".

It's here because it is frequently used in Chinese cooking and it prominently displayed and sold in Chinese vegetable markets.

While walking through the markets of NY's Chinatown I saw lots of wonderful kohlrabi piled high. Anyone want to share favorite recipes or experiences? Cold dishes? Pickles?

Actually condensation dropping from the steamer's cover is a real issue during steaming and that's why the covers or top pieces of professional steamers are designed higher in the center with a downward slant to the outside so that the condensation runs to the sides of the cover and then drips off to the side and not on the food.

Lightly cover the top of the item you're steaming with foil or plastic wrap taking care that the covering is wider than the item you're steaming so that any condensation that drips off the covering won't land on the food. With bao or dumplings you may want some moisture to be absorbed so the sides may be left open. If you want no moisture on the food/steaming plate cover the food tightly. You might, for instance, steam a fish tightly covered but then pour a sauce over the fish after steaming. If you were to steam a fish uncovered you could season it with salt, wine, ginger, and scallion for instance, pour off any water that has condensed during the steaming and then pour a sauce over the fish. By the way I often serve steamed fish filets (typically salmon) which I cut very thin (1/2") and steam very quickly (3- 3 1/2 minutes). I season the fish with a sauce that is slightly over salted and over flavored with the knowledge that the condensation will dilute it. This doesn't work so well for a thicker piece of salmon because I would need to increase the steaming time to properly cook the fish which then produces too much condensation/flavor dilution.

I'd believe Virginia Lee over almost anyone! The lady really knew her stuff!

Nothing like fresh spices (food) - but that being said I have always found that older Sichuan peppercorns (1 year or more) do quite nicely after proper toasting. I suspect the 'ma la' quality (numb spicy) is more pronouned from oil infusion. The smell however is easy to capture. Try letting your toasted and ground peppercorns sit in a stir-fry sauce for a while before cooking with it, or alternatively grind them and infuse them into some veg oil and cook with it. By the way 1/8t is a very small amount which will only be mildly noticeable.

Pan toast the peppercorns for a minute in a dry pan - until they're fragrant and start to smoke - don't let them burn. Let them cool slightly, then grind, strain and mix 1/4 - 1/2 t of the powder into a stir-fry seasoning sauce. You may mix the Sichuan peppercorn powder with salt to make a dip, however the salt has nothing whatsoever to do with bringing out the numb (tingling)/spicy quality. I grind my peppercorns in a Japanese grinding bowl using my cleaver handle as a pestle. A mortar works fine - and in a pinch I wouldn't hesitate to flatten them on a cutting board with the side of my cleaver then chop and strain them.

What cut is it? Loin, shoulder, fresh ham? Makes a big difference.

You can use almost any type of chile in your Chinese (Sichuan) cooking. In the US when we cook with dried chiles we typically use red chiles that are about 2" long - they are inexpensive and easily found in Chinese markets. They often come from Thailand. It's no problem figuring out which ones are the 'right' ones, because typically they are the only dried chiles sold. Grind some in a spice grinder and heat them in some vegetable oil until they just start to smoke, then cool and strain the oil: you'll have chile infused 'hot oil' (la yu). In Sichuan cooking these dried chiles are often scortched until mahogany colored as the first step in making a Kung Pao sauce. This scortching gives the chiles, and the dish they flavor, a characteristic nuttiness and smell. When making a spicy Sichuan dish such as diced chicken with fresh chiles, 'La Tse Gee Ding', almost any variety will work. It just depends on what flavor and level of spiciness you are trying to create.

Place an oil pot, topped with a strainer or colander, next to your wok. Using a pot holder grasp the pan's handle where it is attached to the wok and pour the oil into your oil pot. I often use a long handled wok spoon which typically has a 1 cup capacity bowl at its end. When I pour the oil out of the wok I have my spoon in the colander, its bowl facing up. I pour my oil into the spoon and let it overflow and then fall down into the oil pot below. This prevents/minimizes splashing. Just do it carefully and not too quickly. If you're scared to do this, just ladle the hot oil out of the wok into the oil pot. This is slower, but it works just fine. After doing this a few times it's no big deal.

Flank steak is the most common cut. Its shape, texture and leaness work well. However any naturally tender cut of beef will work well. If it makes a tender steak it will make a tender stir-fry. Since I prefer to bring out the natural beef taste and juices in my cooking I shy away from baking soda marination. Also egg white marination, since it includes salt, will also remove some of the beef's juices. I therefore tend to use naturally tender cuts and marinate them with egg white but not for so long. I count on good stir-fry technique and naturally tender beef to achieve the results I want. Cuts of meat that work well include: 1) Tenderloin (filet mignon) 2) NY Strip - good quality 3) Short loin - Porterhouse or t-bone 4) However, when I can find an extremely marbelized one (not easy), my favorite cut is taken from the thin end of the chuck blade. Variously sold under the names of chicken steak, butter steak, beef blade steak, and more recently marketed by some cutting edge restaurateurs as flat-iron steak (a piece about flat-irons recently appeared in the NY Times), this cut can be both extremely tender and delicious. It has a very beefy taste and buttery texture, but only when it quite fat, and only the slices from the thinner end of the cut work well. The thicker end of the piece has too much gristle to be sliced into the correct shape. Before slicing it needs to be trimmed of its large center gristle and exterior membranes. Chicken steak is found in supermarkets and kosher butchers among other places. When it is sliced into steaks you can see how marbeled it is. I often travel to 3 or 4 different supermarkets looking for a sufficiently marbled piece. Even then my seach is sometimes not fruitful and I end up using an alternative. Chicken steak is quite economical, usually costing less than $4/lb. It makes a mean stew/pot roast by the way. Avoid cuts (which might seem logical to use) such as: Hangar - too coarse and toughens very easily during a stir-fry Boneless sirloin - not tender enough unless very prime and very aged Skirt - Too thin to cut into correctly shaped slices Round - not suitable/tender enough

Good question. Yes velveting is done to beef and yes that is one of the reasons it can be so tender. However, in the case of beef, when it is extremely tender it is often that way because before marinating it in egg white and wine, it has first been treated with baking soda. This is a trick professional Cantonese chefs use. They dissolve a small amount of baking soda in water and soak the beef in it for some hours. This really breaks down the texture so that cuts like flank steak become quite soft. After soaking, the soda is rinsed away with water, the beef is dried, marinated in egg white, and eventually cooked. The negative side of this process is that all the juices are leached out of the meat and the meat's natural beefiness is minimized in favor of its texture. They count on a flavorful stir-fry sauce to counteract the lack of natural beef taste. There are also other significant factors which affect the beef's tenderness. They include: 1) the temperature of the velveting oil - too hot and the beef will toughen 2) the amount of time you toss the velveted beef in its sitr-fry sauce - the shorter the time the better, just long enough to coat the food with the sauce is the goal - if you boil the meat in the sauce it will toughen 3) and very significantly the quality/tenderness of the meat you start with

HOW TO GET VERY CRISPY SKIN ON YOUR BRINED & ROASTED CHICKEN Try the following: Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. It's not compulsary, but I suggest using a 4 lb. bird. 2 1/2-3 lb. chickens will cook through before the skin becomes quite crisp Cut the raw brined chicken (2 methods): 1) Split in half tucking in the wing tips so they lie flat. OR 2) Split the chicken through the backbone and spread the chicken out so that it can lie flat in one piece. Dry and then season the chicken to taste. Choose a large black iron skillet (or alternatively a heavy roasting pan) large enough to hold the chicken in one layer. Set it over high heat and when it is quite hot add 2T vegetable or olive oil to the pan and when it is almost smoking place the chicken, skin side down, in the pan and start to brown it. After just a minute put the skillet in the preheated oven and roast the chicken without turning or moving it. After about 40 minutes, check the bird: you may want to raise the heat to 400/425 degrees F. to further enhance crisping the skin. Total roasting time should be 50 minutes plus. When properly done the fat renders during cooking and the skin crisps beautifully in it. You may also weight the chicken during cooking which causes even more of the skin come in contact with the pan and crisp. A foil covered brick works well for this purpose.

WHAT ABOUT VACUUM MARINATION? TRIED IT? Dave, Have you ever worked with or a you familiar with vacuum marination? It is a relatively recent addition to the world of brining and injecting. More suitable to small pieces of meat, vacuum marination involves a stainless steel cylinder which after being filled with brine and protein has most of the air removed from it. The interior has little ledges which pick up the meat as the cylinder slowly revolves and tumbles the meat and seafood in the brine. Somehow the removal of air causes the protein to to act like a sponge and it efficiently quickly soak up the brine. I have had great success working with a vacuum marinator and think they are really useful machines. I first saw them used at the Perdue R & D facility in western Virginia.

The fact of the matter is that these days regional Chinese cuisines are often mixed together sometimes blurring their individual identities. To the best of my knowledge basil is not tradionally used in the Chinese kitchen. However it sure can taste good! I use it frequently in my cooking.

Yep Went there myself and often, had some banquets there as well. They had great whole boneless crispy eight-precious rice stuffed duck and chicken, plus wonderful dishes with red wine sauce, which was made from rice wine lees.

The last decade has seen a large group of Fukien Chinese immigrating to the states. Has anyone encountered any especially good examples of Fukien cooking and/or restaurants?

CLAMS OR MUSSELS WITH BASIL While I haven’t measured out the proportions, if you read these instructions carefully I’m confident they will produce an excellent result. By the way I love using basil in my Asian cooking, especially right now when it is plentiful and fragrant. In fact I just used handfuls in a Hunan-style chicken stir-fry. Also try leaving out the soy, oyster sauce and the thickening: you’ll end up with a delicious brothy casserole style dish. Make the sauce base: Heat 1T of vegetable oil in a wok and add 1t minced garlic, 1t sliced ginger, some sliced fresh chile (more or less to taste – none is fine too), and a couple of chopped scallions. Cook, stirring for ten seconds then add a cup of chicken stock. Quickly bring it to a boil then add 2 T dry sherry or shaoshing rice wine, 1-2T oyster sauce, 2-3T soy, 2t sugar, a touch of salt, 1/2t white pepper and if you use it, 1/2t MSG. Taste for seasoning: the sauce should have a nice brown color and be flavorful without being too salty (when you add the clams their juice will dilute the sauce slightly and add more salt at the same time). Cook the clams: Add 1 1/2- 2 dozen well scrubbed clams (mussels work well too) to the sauce base, and cook until the clams start to open (clams may take 3 or 4 minutes, mussels much less). Using a slotted spoon, remove the clams just as soon as they open (so they don’t toughen) and hold them on the side as you finish the sauce. Thicken & finish the sauce: Taste the sauce and correct the seasoning, checking for depth of flavor, salt, sugar (which will give the sauce a rounded taste), spiciness and rich brown color. Reduce it if necessary, then when it tastes right, add a big handful of basil leaves and some coarsely chopped fresh cilantro. Working quickly, thicken the sauce with cornstarch slurry, and then recheck the seasoning. Return the clams and any of their accumulated juices to the sauce, and heat through for just a few seconds. Serve immediately.

This sort of braised beef is essentially red-cooked meat with the addition of a spicy element, very often spicy bean or chile paste. Any cut of beef that braises well will work, though the gelatinous meat of the shin is very often used. I myself might prefer using cubed chuck because I enjoy its higher fat content and sinewy parts (after cooking them tender). Avoid very lean cuts such as sirloin or round. To prepare the dish lightly brown a couple of pounds of cubed beef in some vegetable oil then remove all but 1 T oil from the pan. Add some sliced ginger and 2-3 scallions, the hot bean paste (you might also use some dried chile or nothing spicy/hot if you prefer), the browned meat, and liquid to cover, using stock if available, water, or recycled red-cooking sauce. Bring to a boil and add some rice wine or sherry (couple of tablespoons), soy (I would use a combination of light and dark, enough to darken the braising liquid without making it over salty), a generous tablespoon or two of sugar, 8-10 star anise, and a stick or two of cinnamon. You could even add a little 5-spice powder if you like. Cover and braise gently until the meat is tender 2 1/2-3 hours. Uncover the dish, skim away any fat, and reduce the liquid over high heat until its flavor is concentrated. While reducing, correct the seasoning: check for salinity, sweetness, heat and anise flavor adding a bit more of whatever is necessary. With less reduction the dish can be served as a soup, with more reduction and thickening (corn or tapioca starch) it becomes a dish. Before serving you can garnish the dish to your taste: with some chile or sesame oil, chopped scallions, beansprouts or pickled vegetable - and of course the noodles of your choice