huiray

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/145452-cook-off-63-summer-squash/

Zucchini & minced pork (pan-fried) w/ rice. http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151568-dinner-2015-part-4/page-10#entry2024806 Zucchini blossoms, baby zucchini, roasted vermicelli, scallions and cremini soup. http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151568-dinner-2015-part-4/?view=findpost&p=2023838 Baby zucchini w/ blossoms; stuffed w/ ricotta + chopped chives, battered, deep-fried. http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151568-dinner-2015-part-4/?view=findpost&p=2022423 http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151304-dinner-2015-part-3/?view=findpost&p=2020573 Sautéed/browned halved baby zucchini w/ pan-fried pork Schnecken & angel hair pasta tossed w/ pan residues, summer savory, zucchini blossoms. http://forums.egullet.org/topic/151304-dinner-2015-part-3/?view=findpost&p=2019827

A summary of secret menu items. http://hackthemenu.com/mcdonalds/secret-menu/

Peanut oil, garlic (Siberian Red), minced pork, fish sauce [Red Boat], Hua Tiao Shaohsing wine, green zucchini, sea salt. Rice.

Fried rice. Peanut oil, (3 eggs, salt, white pepper, bit of water), very hot pan; "plain bubbly omelette", reserve, cut into strips. Hot pan, peanut oil, chopped smashed garlic, andouille sausage cut into rounds, Chinese green & purple long beans cut into ~2 inch lengths, 2-day-old rice, the cut-up omelette, lots of chopped scallions. Full flame throughout.

KennethT, thanks for the elaborations to my questions/comments. Appreciated! Looks like you enjoyed yourself. :-)

Earlier...Sunday buffet at Sichuan in Carmel: Pork meatballs & daikon soup, chillied chicken, tongue, pig maw, spiced jelly, chillied intestines, chillied glass noodles, pickled cucumbers, sesame noodles, tea-smoked duck, pickled bean sprouts, dumplings, spring rolls, bok choy, shrimp w/ dried chillies, beef brisket & daikon stew. Later... Beef stir-fried w/ lots of ginger & green onions, stir-fried kai-lan w/ garlic, oyster sauce & Bulldog sauce, white rice. The green parts of the green onions were a little tough and were largely left behind on the plate.

Kai lan is readily available in the USA. Ketchup is a fine ingredient in its own right. Many dishes in E/SE Asia even specifically use ketchup, including some renditions of S'porean Chili Crab, yes. It is odd that ketchup has such a bad rap amongst "Western/USA Foodies", when even Western chefs (such as in the USA) have sought to reproduce the taste of Heinz Ketchup in their own kitchens (and failing at it) with their "artisanal ketchups".

patrickamory, you're welcome. I myself am fairly neutral on whether one uses powdered turmeric or fresh (grated) turmeric for a dish such as this one. Powdered is more convenient, even if fresh turmeric does give a - what else - fresher and perhaps more pronounced taste...but reasonably decent powdered turmeric is fine by me. The texture of the dish (and the sauce) is also slightly different – I myself would not say that one is always better than the other, it just depends on which bee in one's bonnet one may have (if any) that particular day. Speaking in a more general sense, dried, preserved, salted, pickled, whatever, foodstuffs have their place – and many (if not all) are ingredients in their own right with tastes that cannot be obtained by substituting the fresh equivalent for the dried stuff. It is not the case that fresh stuff is ALWAYS better. It simply isn't.

I am puzzled by this declaration of yours. Could you elaborate on it? Surely it cannot be that you cannot find nice stir-fried baby bok choy, or that plate of kangkong belacan you show in a later post, here in the US -- or that you can't make it either. All the ingredients are readily available here, and such dishes are available (with great quality) in many restaurants, especially Chinese-style stir-fried vegetables. (OK, things like the kangkong belacan are found in more limited circumstances but, again, the ingredients for them are available especially in metropolitan areas or in any area where there are enough Chinese or SE Asian folks) But are you thinking of Western-style vegetables? But even there surely there are many preps of such things that are quite tasty &etc?

Pic of the produce.

Tomato soup w/ basil. On the way there. De-skinned, de-seeded, pulp+juices alone. Rigani Loukaniko salami [Olympic Provisions], Dodge City salami [smoking Goose], City Loaf bread [Amelia's], pickled rakkyo [shirakiku]. Sautéed French filet beans.

Stuff I got today. Other stuff not from Farmers' Markets also included in that post.

Saturday 2015-0718 Broad Ripple Farmers’ Market: Chanterelle mushrooms, Peppermint Swiss chard, Red Russian kale, celery, basil, green onions (almost negi-size), French filet beans. Carmel Farmers’ Market: Dragon Tongue beans, green & purple Chinese long beans, Siberian Red garlic (fresh crop), “ugly” tomatoes (for soup), poblano peppers, green zucchini, “specialty” melon (a cross between Honeydew & Cantaloupe).** ** Could be a Galia melon; but this one is kind of BIG, from what I read and see on the web. The Wiki article says the average weight is 1 kg, but also says that those grown in Pakistan range between 1 – 10 kg (mine is ~7 lb = ~3.2 kg). Well, the guy at the market chose one of the biggest there for me – there were smaller ones there for sure; and I know him to be an excellent grower of melons… Amelia’s Bakery: Half a “City Loaf” (a whole wheat & young sourdough type) Goose the Market: Local Folks Stoneground Express mustard, Dodge City salami, Andouille sausage, Rigani Loukaniko salami, Jamon Serrano (forgot to ask about the specific producer of their current stock), St Agur blue cheese, Ameribella cheese. The Jamon Serrano was sliced out as ~2 mm slices -- meant to be used in a steamed chicken dish, not to be eaten "as is". Hotel Tango Distillery: a half-bottle (375 mL) of Golf Gin. Batch & bottle hand-numbered on the back label.

Glad to. Mind you, I don't especially measure out quantities and usually "wing it" - as with almost any dish I cook. These were done with 8 big fat chicken wings this time, tips removed/set aside. Marinated w/ powdered turmeric (~2 heaped Tbsp), powdered cumin (~½ heaped Tbsp), peanut oil (? maybe a 2 sec pour?), some sea salt, a quick pour of double fermented soy sauce, plain cane sugar (? ~2 heaped Tbsp), freshly ground black pepper (maybe ~1 semi-heaped Tbsp worth), enough water to make the marinade sludge-like but not runny. Toss everything by hand. Leave alone for a while, maybe ~1 hr. Broil under high flame (gas burners) laid out on aluminum foil on a baking tray, turning over once, spooning the marinade cut with a bit more water over the wings. When "browned/caramelized enough" the gas fire was shut off but the wings left in the closed broiling compartment for a few minutes (? ~4-5 min?) then taken out and plated. (Taking them out right away is fine too, although with the way I do my wings under the broiler I have if I do that sometimes the wings will retain a slight pinkishness and remain just a tad "bloody" in and at the bones, depending on whether the wings are big fat ones or skinny ones) A tad more oil and some water was added to the residues, everything lightly scraped/mixed w/ a spoon and put under the broiler (full flame) again for a minute or two. Spooned off into a serving bowl. NB: the result is certainly not a sweet dish - although a sweet note is there, which balances the rest of the savory/salty/spicy (peppery) tastes. The broiling/caramelizing cuts the "sweetness" as I'm sure you know. There are recipes out there that use honey instead of plain sugar. I myself might do it with palm sugar or turbinado sugar instead with some batches of this.

Thanks for the Crepes, with regards to chow mein - I just noticed I never did directly mention that "Mr Wiki" is correct when it insists that there is a crispy version of chow mein. It's common in Southern China, specifically Kwangtung/Guangdong and in Hong Kong; as well as in the Chinese Diaspora. In the USA it is often found described on menus as "Cantonese-style Fried Noodles" (廣式炒麵) or "(Cantonese) Pan-fried Noodles" or, as is stated in Wikipedia, "Hong Kong style Chow Mein/Fried Noodles". This is actually the version I myself prefer, when I have a choice, and was the more frequent style I and my family ate when dining out when I was growing up in SE Asia. The 1st thread I referenced in my previous post also refers to this version as the one usually ordered by that poster who advised another poster to just order "pan fried noodles" in NYC's Chinatown. Yes, there is no single specific dish with defined ingredients and specific cooking steps -- as you have read, "chow mein" simply means "fried noodles". Usually "mein" does refer to wheat-based noodles, the default of which (in Cantonese cuisine, at least) would be egg noodles or noodles that are yellow in color, true; if rice noodles are used the term normally changes to "chow fun". Think of another generalized dish, "chow fan" (in Cantonese)(here's an old thread on this) or "nasi goreng" (in Malay/Indonesian)(remember this thread?) which simply means "fried rice".

Turmeric chicken wings. Sauce from the broiling fond/residues. Stir-fried Savoy cabbage & wong nga pak. White rice. On the way there.

TftC, oh, OK -- I should have used the actual terms written by the poster(s) in the post. See this post and the ones above and below it. As for "no one" can agree on what chow mein is, that may really apply to non-Chinese/American Caucasians (e.g.) with regards to Americanized Chinese food. "Chow mein" is fairly clear in meaning to a Chinese person, or at least a Cantonese-speaking/comprehending person, I would venture. (The term "chow mein" (炒麵) is transliterated Cantonese)

TftC, have a look at this. It's long but worth reading through to the end - note especially the sections dealing with "gwailo chow mein" vs "non-gwailo chow mein" as claimed by some posters, and East Coast (USA) vs West Coast (USA) in terms of chow mein vs lo mein. As for this – Have a look at this and this for fun. ;-)

Itek Tim. Water, chopped-up duck legs, crushed garlic, sliced galangal, wet salted plums (partly ripped apart) + some of the pickling liquid, trimmed & cut-up pickled mustard greens (syun/harm choy; presoaked, under slowly running tap water), slurry of tamarind pulp, half a chunk of palm sugar + some rock sugar, simmer till done. (Skim off some of the rendered duck fat) Cincalok ground pork & tofu, today's version. White rice. Hot peanut oil, julienned ginger, minced pork (butt), cincalok (a kind of fermented salted/pickled tiny shrimp), taucheo (salted soya beans), cut-up hot green Thai chillies, soft tofu cut into cubes, lots of chopped scallions. Some of the condiments - for those interested. L-R: Wet salted plums, taucheo, cincalok, tamarind pulp. Two brands of the pickled mustard greens. I used one pack of each.

Hebrew National beef franks/hot dogs – garnished with broccoli, yard-long beans, garlic, ho fan, "chicken-abalone" flavored broth, deep-fried shallots. See here.

A simple dinner. Water, smashed garlic, oil, Hebrew National beef franks, simmer; seasoning packages from "Ho Fan Abalone Chicken Soup Flavored" [sau Tao], trimmed yard-long beans (Vigna unguiculata ssp. sesquipedalis), simmer, the ho fan noodle block, simmer, trimmed broccoli florets, simmer. Bowled. Dressed w/ deep-fried shallots.

Fagioli corallo al pomodoro, last night's version. Cooked in the old-fashioned style but without deseeding the tomatoes. Served on a mixture of angel hair [De Cecco] and linguine [Rusticella d'Abruzzo]. Yum. EV olive oil. Medium heat. Sliced shallot & garlic, sweated. Hot red chili flakes. Chopped-up ripe tomatoes (Mountain Stream & Big Dena), cooked down/render the juices out, skins picked out. Seasoned. Trimmed young Roma beans (Romano beans; Fagioli/fagiolini al corallo). Simmer for a while. Some 10-year balsamic vinegar, plus some turbinado sugar. Simmer some more. Plentiful trimmed fresh basil. Simmer till done.

Regarding those clams shown above - in SE Asia they are called "lala" clams or just simply "lala" in the main Chinese communities. That's the local term, not an official English name or scientific name. See here, here, and here for some links. ETA: One shellfish that I miss is "see ham" a.k.a. blood cockle. Many scrumptious dishes (e.g. Hokkien char kway teow, Katong laksa, etc etc) are simply incomplete without these cockles, usually added raw (bloody red and all) right at the end of cooking or put into the bowl raw on top of the other stuff and hot soup ladled over them.. Over here, I have never seen Cape Cod blood cockles or their relatives around...perhaps a special request to a certain place is in order - I guess because it seems the vast majority of folks are pretty squeamish about them, so no market....

They are? OK then. I was going by the the salad bowl and fork/spoon -- which I guessed was like most such bowls, maybe 9-10 inches diameter - so that slice of zucchini prominent in the middle would be about 2/3 of the diameter, about 6+ inches long. Perhaps just pick more when they are 2 inches long, then!