mudbug
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Posts posted by mudbug
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Are they safe to eat?
As Dejah said, sure. Of all places, food is going to be "safe" to eat, the freezer would be it. Flavor, however is a different story and will depend on how the food is stored in and how well sealed it is.
For instance, we've found that literally freezing whole fish (freshly caught the same day) in a container of water so that the result is that the fish is literally frozen inside a block of ice is the best way to do it. The fish is completely protected from freezer burn.
Because you want to maintain the integrity of the dough of the mooncake, it would be best to avoid rapid defrosting to minimize condensation and moisture. Defrost the mooncakes in the fridge overnight and probably the better part of the next day before eating.
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone! Great list!
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I went to look up the label on the bottle of vinegar that I used for cooking (for hairy crab as a dip). It does say Jeet Cho in Chinese. As for the English translation, it only said "vinegar". Oh, go figure.
The other bottle of sweet, thick, dark vinegar used for cooking pig trotters: the label said "sweet black vinegar". Chinese is Teem Cho [Cantonese] (meaning sweet vinegar).
hzrt8w,
Thank you. Could someone please post links to corresponding pics with the proper Chinese characters?
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Mudbug, I took pictures and measurements when I made black bean garlic spareribs fopr supper Friday. Just got home from performing at a lily festival, beat...so I will write up the recipe and load the pictures early next week.
Patiently and eagerly awaiting. Details on exactly what types of ribs would be appreciated. I'm fine with chopping bones with a cleaver if necessary.
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Could you do a little step-by-step on the "green" and "clear" and frosting, etc.? This is my "beautiful" for the day. wow
As promised earlier in the thread, teepee has posted it here:
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I love abalone. So much so that I've had a can because I can't get fresh in the midwest.
Highly prized as mentioned above? Absolutely... the cost is $50 a can, and worth every delectable cent.
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Baker Creek Heirloom seeds probably has the largest selection of Asian vegetable seeds in the US right now: http://www.rareseeds.com
What are you all growing and harvesting this year?
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I must confess that I have always found kohlrabi to be pretty bland and tasteless. Is there any way to give it some zip?
Slice them thin and then squeeze fresh lemon juice with sprinkle of salt. Deelish.
Not too much different than the rice vinegar and salt principle advised above.
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May be of interest:
Trotters are supposed to provide collagen, especially good for strengthening limbs, joints and ligaments which have loosen during pregnancy.
Angelica sinensis
Common Names: dong quai, dang gui, tang-kuei
Not just for "women"
http://www.rain-tree.com/dongquai.htm
Exploring Chinese Women's Cultural Beliefs...
http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleA...U60DL1&ID=54637
Black Vinegar Trotter
http://www.thestar.com.my/kuali/recipes/mum.html#black
Pork Nuckles and Ginger Stew
It looks like quite a large site with quite a few recipes all based on pat chun sauces.
So just ignore the branding (if you can) & look at the recipes. Photos included.
Click on "New Babies" at the top.
http://www.hsiaonline.com/patchun/index.htm
You don't have to be a new mother or even pregnant to enjoy this dish
http://food.asia1.com.sg/recipes/mea_20050313_001.shtml
Confinement Recipes: ("confinement" - that sounds fun)
http://www.momsinmind.com.sg/confinementrecipes.html
The Other Side:
http://merenwen13.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_...13_archive.html
In traditional Cantonese families, the stock of vinegar cooked in black sugar is prepared a month before the baby is due.It is then boiled daily for a fuller flavour.
Once the mother goes into confinement, the trotters are placed in the stock, cooked for about 45 minutes and served the next day. The new Mum takes a bowl of it daily.
Traditionally, the confinement period is a time of rest for the new mother. During these 30 days, she is fed 'heaty' food like pig trotters cooked in black vinegar and ginger to replenish her strength.
It is believed that the old ginger used in the dish drives out 'wind' from the body while the black vinegar purifies the blood.
Pig trotters are said to provide collagen and help strengthen joints.
The Chinese believe that if the 'wind' is not purged after pregnancy, it can cause rheumatism, headaches and backaches in later years.
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Chinese name spelled in English: Lao Po Bing (sometimes Lao Po Beng)
Common English names: "Concubine's Cakes" or "Wife's Cakes"
Really just looking for a recipe for the filling for a friend. A recipe from scratch with fresh ingredients, not preserved ingredients such as candiied melon.
Rough Example: Winter melon pureed and reduced. Boil soy milk, puree, add sugar, add Midori and thicken with cornstarch and eggyolk. (Anyone?)
But I'm looking for a sweet filling for Chinese pastries that's based on Wintermelon. All applications I know and practice for wintermelon is savory (like your soup recipe). The sweet wintermelon filling tastes like tutti frutti but, as far as I can tell, has no additional flavorings, although some pastry makers do add in stuff like candied citron, nuts or waterchestnut. This I really don't care for as it interferes with the delicate flavor of the wintermelon and gives me the impression that the pastry maker is trying to cut corners by adding fillers to the filling. My mother said that this wintermelon filling was quite costly to produce because of the ingredients and the labor. But it's not like the pastry shops don't make it back. I remember making multiple trips to a bakery in NYC Chinatown when I was a kid just to stand in line in hopes of securing a box of mooncakes made with this filling. The bakery did not take orders so the public had to depend on luck or perseverence. No matter how much the bakery said they were making that year, they always ran out. We scored only a few times. The rest of the year, we bought a lesser pastry made with the same filling.The bakery is right on Mott Street. It is a bakery called Kwong Wah. It's still there. Folks liked to get mooncake at this place because the pastry skin made here was so delicately thin. Personally, I liked the thicker skin made by less experienced pastry makers because the pastry was the novelty for me. Lotus seed paste was a constant part of my diet so getting a huge hunk of it in the form of mooncake was not so special. But the wintermelon paste was very special. For some reason, it tasted so much better in the mooncake than in a loh po beng, a lesser, more commonplace pastry, even from the same bakery. My mother, who still lives in New York, says that the wintermelon filling is not as good these as it used to be those days. But I'll bet it's still much better than the stuff we get here in SF.
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Apicio & Dejah,
Thank you for your information. I do mean in a mooncake and not in Lao Po Bing in this case.
Here's a new thread for the Lao Po Bing/Lao Po Beng with further details:
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When I first saw "Dong Gwai" posted by Origamicrane, I thought he was referring to winter melon (Benincasa hispida) too. But now I understand he was talking about "Dong Quai" (there are different spellings), or Angelica sinensis.
Thank you for the clarification. That helps explain things... when in doubt, always go to the scientific name which is universal around the world. While many of it's medicinal properties are geared towards symptoms females have, it still has properties well suited for males as well.
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I've used Martin Yan's recipe for filling and I thought it was pretty good. Just subsitute candied winter melon for the stuff he uses. For the pastry I like the recipe Tepee suggested.
Thank you... but looking for a more pure recipe from scratch with fresh ingredients, not preserved ingredients such as candiied melon.
Example: Winter melon pureed and reduced. Boil soy milk, puree, add sugar, add Midori and thicken with cornstarch and eggyolk. (Anyone?)
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Re: winter melon moon cakes, are you talking about Lo Pah Beng ("Wife Cakes")?
Yes. Common English names: "Concubine's Cakes" or "Wife's Cakes"
"Lao Po Bing" is actually more common to find regarding spelling
winter melon filling (Dong gwa yung)
Reports say the filling tends to be much better made in New York than in San Francisco. Really just looking for a recipe for the filling, not with additions such as candied citron, nuts, bean, etc.
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Just click on TPcal! at the bottom of her post.
This is assuming your user "Board Settings" are set to view signatures by the way.. which I usually have turned "off".
Tepee,
The Peach Mousse Cake sounds divine.
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Wow, I've never heard of anyone making their own mooncakes. Is it difficult? Where do you get the mold?
Here you go:
http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en...2+molds&spell=1
Anyone have a recipe for winter melon moon cake? Been looking for a while... TIA
Let's kick up this old thread again! (mudbug... you got competition now!
)Nah... word has it that this place needed some recharging! The more lively discussions the better!
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Whenever I see that I want to whack those idiots on the side of the head and scream at them! (Sorry, that's one of my pet peeves. )
It's not worth it to get upset if someone is ignorant. Maybe I'd have to see this in action. Many people might know exactly what they're eating and simply prefer to eat it that way. Like me, I seek out the black vinegar in order to dip. I never pour soy sauce on anything at the table. If I have to do that, then as far as I'm concerned the dish wasn't seasoned properly to begin with. Why not lean over and ask innocently... "Excuse me... Is that soy sauce or black vinegar?" They might respond... "Black Vinegar! Great stuff!" Who knows, you might make a new friend.
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Yeah, this is right. I've always thought of the one for pig's feet as black vinegar - it has spices and sugar in it, I believe - and the other one for dipping as brown vinegar. The brown vinegar is much thinner and it's what we use as a dipping sauce for hairy crabs.
Intriguing. will have to buy some live blue crab and some brown vinegar to try... any recommendations on brands for brown vinegar anyone?
actually saw an interesting use of black vinegar while i was doign a trainee day in a hotel kitchen. They were using it like blasamic reducing it down to a glaze and drizzling it on to some fish dishes it was quite nice much sweeter then a balsamic glaze.Ah... good idea... will have to try this and trillium's cabbage dish... thanks for mentioning these.
anyway there are lots of chinese things that guys aren't meant to eat like "dong gwai"if i even have a little bit of that i can't breath properly!!
I also disagree. Not quite sure if you're joking or being serious. I may not know as many traditional customs as I "should" but I certainly have never seen any "man" turn down a good bowl of winter melon soup (assuming I interpreted your words correctly) I'll refer to it by it's botanica/Latin/scientific name of Benincasa hispida.). Medicinally it is used for many things, as are most plants.
Food is food. Sustenance is sustenance. If you're a human being, you need food to survive regardless of what gender you are. I'm pretty sure most people on the planet would agree that there is no food reserved specifically for males or females on a global scale. Some traditions are simply ridiculous, many still practiced today (not food related) are downright inhumane, and many were created in times where the logic and proof of science was not present.
Traditions may be fun for reminiscing and historical purposes and the stories should not be lost, but let's be realistic. Times have changed and many traditions shoud not be perpetuated as being absolutely necessary.
If you have breathing problems after eating doong gwa or other food, it is likely you have your own individual issues unrelated to being male or female. Perhaps you should start a new thread on the topic and post the recipe you use or in what format you're consuming it in... are you eating the diced interior of the melon freshly cut and cooked in soup? Are you eating dried forms of the rind? Candied versions? Are you eating the seeds? How much are you consuming?
Do you have issues with foods you eat where you haven't heard stories regarding that food?
Too much of anything can kill you or result in severe consequences - including water, the body requires balance.
(Water Intoxication: Hyponatremia
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=milit...=Google+Search)
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You said you are Cantonese. Did you grow up in Missouri, or elsewhere (in China?) before immigrating to the U.S.?
Never have been to China. Born in Canada, raised in the US. Can understand some of the language, can't really speak it. Traditional customs such as these I am unaware of.
The feet sound pretty good based on the recipe, thanks for the link!
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My favorite green bean preparation is to stir fry them.
Try it with preserved chili bean curd from an Asian grocer. You won't regret it. Many an American have tried it and asked for the recipe!
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I've never heard of this as custom aprilmei, quite intersting. Is the black vinegar used as a dipping sauce?
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You can't see from the pic but 'cake' has 8 layers of different hues of green, blue and clear. Inside - and I buried them too deep - swims 8 koi fishies made from agar-agar. You can barely make them out too. Lotus flower is made of white chocolate and as I took the photo, I saw it melting right before my eyes. It was upright and pristine when I made it...sob.
It's gorgeous. Good designers know that it's ok and often best to "keep it simple".
Thank you for sharing the picture. Any chance of a recipe?
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I also love wood ear. My grandmother used to stir fry wood ear with "golden needle" (a dried vegetable of sort) with chicken wings. My mom tends to put it in stew with mushroom and pork/spare ribs.
Golden Needle is a common name for a couple of things... either "blanched" (in this case grown without light) garlic chives or the dried unopened glower bud of certain yellow or orange day lilies.
"The nutritious dried vegetable kam cham, which means golden needle in Cantonese, is derived from the yellow flower of day lily. It is also known as “forget worries vegetable”. It is a highly recommended Chinese health food. It is high in iron, potassium, phosphorous and calcium. Frequent intake can prevent stone formation in the kidney and bladder."
http://malaysiancuisine.net/cgi-bin/editor....pl?article=118
I personally never did care for the dried day lily "golden needles". But they are an interesting chewey, squeaky texture worth experiencing.
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Cold rice, mixed with scallions and enough egg to hold the rice together ---- then fried in little pancakes. Yum!
That does sound good! Will have to try it.... A good breakfast is a bowl of rice topped with a quick deep-fried egg made in just a couple of inches of hot peanut oil (bubbly, blistered, crispy edges and sunny side up center) and then topped with good quarter-inch diced ham.
Salted Black Beans
in China: Cooking & Baking
Posted · Edited by mudbug (log)
hzrt8w,
Yes, I was meaning the recipe details... Thank you. I look forward to trying both yours and Dejah's variations very much. Seasame oil instead of peanut oil? How much af a difference do you think this makes. I find that I'm personally sensitive to the flavor of seasame oil when it's used to finish off soups and vegetables for example...
It certainly steers me in the proper direction! Thank you Dejah... a few random questions:
Peanut oil to sear the ribs I assume? With three pounds I'm guessing maybe divide the ribs in half and sear each half with 2 T peanut oil.
"1/2 tbsp of 4 peppercorn spice"
uh.. is this the regular American green, pink, black and white mix or other like five-spice?
"enough soya sauce just to balance out the saltiness."
Hummm... my guess would be maybe one cup?
I'll probably use a tablespoon rice wine vinegar to draw out the minerals and flavor from the bones and a thai chili pepper for a hint of a kick. As well as wait for the outside temps to come down a bit. Heat index was 108 degrees a couple of days ago.... ugh... so trying to avoid using the oven.
I can taste the dishes already... will require freshly steamed rice, some stir fried choy and a an ice cold Dr. Pepper.