titus wong

Hey trillium/tissue: Got any good recipes (Fukienese or otherwise) featuring taro? I was about to try a taro with spareribs recipe that I purely improvised (I had no idea that this was a Fukienese dish). Would appreciate any tips, or even recipes. Also, I do this as a steamed dish; should this be a claypot/casserole instead? Thanks. My shot at taro w/spareribs: 1 medium taro corm, about 1 lb., peeled, quartered, and sliced into ½” slices 2 sheets dried bean curd skin, roughly broken up, and soaked in water for 30 min. Meat Marinade 1½ lbs pork spareribs, sawn into 1½” pieces 1 tbsp. soy 1 tsp. sesame oil 1 tbsp. Xiaoxing wine or sherry 1 tbsp. cornstarch 2 tbsps. oil 2 scallions, minced 4 slices ginger, minced 5 cloves garlic, minced 2 tbsp. soy 1 tbsp. Black Chinese vinegar (or balsamic vinegar -- purists: don't hate me) 2 tsp. brown sugar Ground black pepper 2 tbsps. cilantro, minced 1. Combine ingredients for meat marinade. Set aside for 30 min. In a pan of lukewarm water, break up two sheets of dried bean curd skin. Set aside for 15 min. Drain and reserve. Peel and slice taro corm. 2. In a hot wok or sauté pan, add oil and swirl until the sides are evenly coated. Add remaining scallions, ginger, and garlic, and cook briefly until fragrant. Add meat marinade and stir until evenly browned. Add taro and bean curd skin, and stir. Add soy, vinegar, brown sugar, and ground black pepper to taste. Combine ingredients thoroughly. Remove from flame and empty contents into a pie plate or other shallow dish. 3. Set up a bamboo steamer in a clean wok. Fill the wok with water until it touches the bottom of the steamer. Remove the empty steamer and insert your pie plate into it. Bring the water in the wok to a boil. Cover steamer and lower it into the wok. Steam for 45 min. Remove from heat. 4. Plate. Garnish with fresh cilantro. Serve with rice.

Thanks for the reassurance, trill! (I can call you trill, can't I -- Hest88 did) Glad to see that I'm not the only shrimp head sucker out there, although such behavior in public has earned me many a glowering stare. BTW, you might be right re: fresh noodles in Chicago. I have yet to find a brand I'm happy with. Gkapi hasn't gotten in a supply of Tra Chang shrimp paste yet, but I've located a seller of Amoy Light Soy -- who's out-of-stock at the moment.

Wena - After staring at your picture and licking my lips for a few minutes, I went out and bought the fixings for niuroumian. Mum, mum indeed. My recipe pretty much followed Eddie's recipe, except that I didn't have any cinnamon bark in the house, and I used some frozen braising liquid I had left over. Oh, and I added dried orange peel to mine.

I believe that it's a Sichuan or Hunanese specialty, but you can get niuroumian at a lot of major cities with local variations. I've had some on Chung Shan North Road in Taipei which included slices of yam. *YUM*

With the change in seasons, I've suddenly developed a taste for spciy beef noodle soup. Since I live in a predominantly Vietnamese neighborhood, I can get my hands on bun bo hue and pho on a daily basis, and count myself lucky to be able to do so. But I find myself craving garlicky, cinnamony chili-laced white wheat noodles studded with chunks of tender beef and sprinkled with chives. Does anyone have any good versions or memories of this dish? Recipes would be appreciated and pointers as to the cuts of beef or type of noodles preferred.

Suzanne F: I can't answer some of your questions authoritatively, partly because congee appears in many different versions with many different ingredients. I tend to think of it as a canvas. You supply the colors and the final result is left to the diner. I've never had a congee with fresh seafood for example, but somewhere, someone's culture might allow for one. Raw fish and meat seem more likely ingredients for a fire pot (charcoal brazier) dining experience. I'm stretching my memory in order to recall that as a child, we sometimes had canned dace as an item paired with congee but I hesitate to recommend it as it is an acquired taste. I often see dried scallops/dried oysters tossed in for flavoring but your post contraindicates that as a possible ingredient. As a kid I was infrequently treated to a rich chicken broth-based congee my grandma used to make from scratch, which was quite a treat. I've made congee on a few occasions from leftover roast duck. Flavored with a bit of tomato paste, it was a hit. The meat was already cooked when it went into the pot and the overall dish was none the worse for it. Most congee, however, seems to be simpler in flavor to begin with. You may wish to concentrate a bit beforehand on getting the texture of your congee to your preference. I've burned congee in the past from carelessness and it's not something that is quickly rectified.

Eddie: Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but I've read it countless times in order to assimilate the information. I have 2 questions: 1. As a professional chef, do you use a thermometer every time you velvet food in order to gauge the optimum temperature of 300º F. precisely, or do you have a short-hand method of doing this? I have read from various sources that you can dip a scallion or a chopstick into the oil and observe how rapidly it effervesces. Supposedly, if a constant stream of small bubbles arises from a chopstick, the oil is hot enough to begin velveting. Is this a reliable method or is it hooey? Can you suggest an alternative, or do you recommend a thermometer? 2. After velveting, the protein retains a great deal of oil. Do you recommend blotting the food on paper towels? Is there a better way to drain the residual oil from the protein or do you just proceed with the recipe as is? I must admit, I've only velveted food for those rare occasions when I'm entertaining and want to impress. Usually, I skip velveting and simply stir-fry the meat component in most dishes. Naturally the meat is drier, and the overall dish no doubt suffers for the omission. As I have no aspirations of becoming a professional chef however, I choose to skip velveting for dietary reasons and as a matter of convenience. Folks still seem to be able to stomach the end result regardless.

I'm intrigued. Can you describe what might be in it? How does it taste? I think it makes a dramatic difference. At the risk of stating a near tautology, since these wontons are freshly-made, they taste freshly-made. The most salient characteristic is the texture of the meat filling. They are noticeably firmer to the tooth and quite springy. I think freezing wontons might tend to degrade the consistency of the pork slightly. Also, this particular shop (Sun Wah located in Chicago if anyone is curious) includes shrimp in their filling which helps out a lot. Shrimp makes everything taste good! Some would say that the same goes for bacon. Now of course, Sun Wah is a commercial establishment that can afford to make up a fresh batch of wonton filling daily (I hope), which is not a luxury afforded to everyone. The rest of us will have to make do with frozen wontons or jiaozi . Or we can run down to the local bbq shop for a $3.25 bowl of wonton soup.

Your post brought up some welcome childhood memories for me. As a child, I would compete with my father and brother in hong you shui jiao eating contests. There was a restaurant called Tung Shing Lo in Flushing, Queens that made a good version (at least my shanghainese dad grudgingly conceded it to be so). Anyway, the idea was to eat as many bowls as you could before fainting from the heat or failing that, saying uncle. Brows awash in perspiration, our mouths aflame with chili, we gulped down as many of the savory, fiery dumplings we could. My father would usually win and with a satisfied smirk on his face, drive his children home in the family Buick, as they were prostrated by tummyaches. Good times...

cwyc - I concur wholeheartedly. I do monitor the cooking process assiduously and constantly stir the noodles. Next time, I will proceed with a larger amount of water.

Well, actually they're a little too chewy for my taste, so if anything, I think they're underdone. Is there anyone else who has the same problem with fresh egg noodles? Yeah, but their wontons really rock; easily the best in the neighborhood. When I place an order, I can see them making them fresh, i.e. they retrieve a tub of wonton filling from the refrigerator, slap a dab on a wonton skin, pinch it closed, and drop it into boiling water. The wontons are good, the broth is good, but the noodles are sub par, which is why I've taken to ordering wonton soup only. *Sigh*

You know, I don't think it has so much to do with fresh or dried noodles as it does with how thin the noodles actually are. Fresh egg noodles are commonly available at all my local asian greengrocers and are sold in the refrigerated section. They're very cheap at $1 per pound. Since I live in the same Vietnamese/Chiu Chow neighborhood with the bbq shops I frequent, I'm pretty sure they're using the same fresh noodles I do. I've had the same problem with some very thin dried buckwheat noodles I bought recently. I cooked an individual 4 oz. serving in a 3 qt. sauce pan filled with water and they invariably become entangled together. Very frustrating. Maybe next time, I'll try cooking them with in a 5 qt. sauce pan with a tablespoon of cooking oil.

Hey cwyc -- could you return the favor and post your recipe for wonton filling, and perhaps a brief description as to how you make those rosebud-shaped wontons?

Not at all. 2 lbs. ground pork 1 lb. shrimp, shelled, deveined and coarsely chopped, heads reserved (opt.) 2 cloves garlic, minced 4 tb. chives, minced (European as opposed to Asian garlic chives) 2 scallions, minced 1 tb. cilantro, minced (opt.) 2 tb. sesame oil 1 tp. ground white pepper 3 tb. light soy 2 tb. rice wine or sherry 4 slices ginger, minced Makes about 40-50 jiaozi, so buy an equivalent number of wrappers. Edit 9/4: Oops, forgot to mention that tablespoons (tb.) here are actually asian soup spoons, which I use to develop a recipe. Sorry. This is what I use for potstickers. I'm a little embarassed to admit that I reserve the shrimp heads, squeeze them, and return the brain matter to the meat filling. It's a practice I copied from my cantonese grandma. As we all know, grandmas (cantonese or otherwise) are the wellsprings of culinary wisdom in any culture. I've never seen this trick published elsewhere and have no idea how sanitary it is, though I imagine it is no more nor less sanitary than using the rest of the shrimp in the first place. Perhaps someone can chime in with an opinion and confirm whether or not this is a widespread practice, or if I'm being a more than a little weird. At any rate, it lends an orange hue to the meat filling and tons of flavor. I've also decided in favor of european chives as opposed to garlic chives in this recipe, as I find the former to slightly more piquant. Hopefully, this recipe can be used for wontons as well, and I welcome any suggestions eGulleteers may proffer.

I've never made wontons because...I don't know why, really. I have honed my jiaozi-making skills in the past few years however, and have arrived at a recipe for a shrimp/chive meat filling I'm satisfied with. By way of background, I should mention that jiaozi is the Mandarin term for northern-style dumplings that cwyc describes, and in particular, refer to the boiled/steamed variety. I do adore, wontons in soup, although I find the thin yellow cantonese noodles tend to agglomerate into a single tangled mass, at least at the local bbq shop I frequent. Yech. It's like biting into a rubber band ball. I do have some questions for the wonton gurus out there -- can you make them in advance and freeze them like jiaozi? Do they hold up well?