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Oodles of Noodles surpasses its hokey name, very much so. After we arrived at KOA (Kona Airport) about 3pm we were starved. Headed to the town of Kailua-Kona which is 10-15 minutes south of KOA. Dined at Oodles of Noodles. We split an appetizer of the Hana Style Smoked Pork Spring Rolls w/sweet chili dipping sauce, quite tasty. $8 Wife had shrimp Pad Thai and it was quite good. $12 I had a house specialty, the Kona Style Tuna Noodle Casserole w/wok seared ahi tuna, a shiitake cream sauce, button like pasta and some crisp onions placed on top. GREAT DISH. $16 Directions/location/hours at: http://oodleskona.com/

That's a must in any good Chinese cooking/restaurant. The heat that's involved is part of the "wok hey".

Its literally using a Chan to stir fry the food. A Chan is a metal chinese spatula. Kind of like a flat shovel shaped thing. The chan is the spatula-like object next to the wok in this picture. It has a curved front so that it slides over the concave surface of the wok when you are stir frying. The sides of the chan have a lip to catch the food, so its more shovel-like than a regular spatula is. The one in the picture is a fancy one, I use a regular steel chan that came with our wok set that we bought in chinatown.

Amazingly, 100,000 is like the minimum acceptable BTU/hr rating for a commercial wok burner. The baseline seems more often to be 125,000 and the local place I used to go (before it lost its lease) had a water-cooled unit from Imperial Range that had those 32-tip jet burners at 160,000. Downtown at the restaurant supply places I've seen wok burners that are in the 200,000 category and I've heard tell of these new-fangled burners that are built on a concrete foundation with turbine-driven air intakes tunnels that crank well in excess of that. I assumed it was at least 100,000, I didn't ask. My bad. There were big ass flames shooting out of it and up the sides of the wok and I saw the guy almost get singed when they went like 2 feet into the air. He has 4 wok burner stations jammed into that takeout kitchen.

Amazingly, 100,000 is like the minimum acceptable BTU/hr rating for a commercial wok burner. The baseline seems more often to be 125,000 and the local place I used to go (before it lost its lease) had a water-cooled unit from Imperial Range that had those 32-tip jet burners at 160,000. Downtown at the restaurant supply places I've seen wok burners that are in the 200,000 category and I've heard tell of these new-fangled burners that are built on a concrete foundation with turbine-driven air intakes tunnels that crank well in excess of that. Just for reference, here's an outdoor unit rated at 185,000 BTU. Probably not suitable for an NYC fire escape landing, but surbanites with concrete patios might benefit. fish fryer

Amazingly, 100,000 is like the minimum acceptable BTU/hr rating for a commercial wok burner. The baseline seems more often to be 125,000 and the local place I used to go (before it lost its lease) had a water-cooled unit from Imperial Range that had those 32-tip jet burners at 160,000. Downtown at the restaurant supply places I've seen wok burners that are in the 200,000 category and I've heard tell of these new-fangled burners that are built on a concrete foundation with turbine-driven air intakes tunnels that crank well in excess of that.

Well, you would think that, but apparently not. Tonight I went to my local chinese take out place in Tenafly, Tea Garden. Unfortunately I came back with more questions than answers. Quincy, the proprietor of Tea Garden, was kind enough to let me watch the cook prepare me an order of pork fried rice and General Tso Chicken. Quincy and the rest of the staff are all from Taiwan, and for the most part Tea Garden serves a Korean, Chinese and Jewish upper middle class clientele. Most of the dishes are Sichuanese or Taiwanese and they make their own noodles. For a takeout joint, its very upscale. Anyways, into a firey hot wok with the burner going at full blast (they have a 100,000 BTU burner) they throw in chopped whole scallions and beansprouts and chan that up for a few seconds with a cooking oil blend. "this oil does not have strong taste. Some places use pure peanut oil, we don't like, goes rancid fast, flavor too strong". Then he throws in the chopped diced roasted pork, chans that for a few seconds, and then throws in the rice. Its pre-cooked old rice, which is from the batch of the day before. "Must use this kind or it will be too sticky gummy" the chef tells me. Then he throws in a dash of soy sauce. "We use Kikkoman. Not cheap. 32 bucks a case in gallon container. Many chinese takeout use crap dark soy from China. Too many chemicals. Don't like." He then adds "We do Taiwan style. Cantonese people use too much soy sauce." He then finishes off the dish with a whole beaten egg which coalesces into an omlette in about a half a second at the bottom of the wok, which he then tosses with the rest of the rice to chop it up a bit. He adds some cooked peas, chans that up for a few more seconds, and then the dish is then plated. The end product produces a rice with only a slight soy color to it. Note that no MSG was used. The whole procedure I may add takes about 60 seconds in real time. At home, you're not gonna get the same results because we don't have 100,000 BTU wok burners. So that coupled with the fact that you won't have restaurant style roast pork (Char Siu in cantonese, and its no menial feat to make) in your rice probably attributes to that flavor that is missing in home style fried rice. So basically what I learned is depending on the quality and ethnicity of the Chinese joint you are getting your fried rice from, the technique and ingredients are going to differ. I may add that Tea Garden makes a really good fried rice, but its the "expensive chinese restaurant" variety which I guess is Taiwan-style. I think we should attempt to do the same thing as I just did, but with a reputable Cantonese-American place. Last week I had the fried rice at King Yum in Flushing, Queens, which is the oldest operating Chinese restaurant in NYC (its now celebrating its 50th anniversary). They make the dark soy sauce kind there, and I must say it is a kick-ass example, as is all their food. This sounds like a job for Eddie Schoenfeld.

i have to agree with fat guy. also, i've never heard of shallots, garlic or ginger in fried rice. i'm chinese folks and i've never in my life used some of the things that are mentioned. i know that fried rice is a "leftover" dish in which you can throw almost anything...but there are limits has anyone mentioned lap cheong?! chinese sausage diced is a great addition. you pre fry it in the wok and the fat that it gives off helps to flavor the rice. i ditto the egg coating. that's what my mom does. edited: just read rachel's and jason's posts and she mentions chinese sausage. i don't really agree with msg though. i don't think you need it to make good, restaurant tasting chinese food in general. really instead of soy or msg...just make sure to season with a lot of salt. i also use green onions tossed in at the end of cooking.

Lots and lots of soy sauce. Peanut oil. A really hot wok. And MSG Oyster sauce has a lot of MSG in it... I've never tried it, but that can be the flavor and color we are looking for. Theres also TWO or three distinct kinds of Chinese Restaurant fried rice. There's the retro kind from the 60's, with lots of egg and is a really dark soy color. That one is my favorite. Then you have the modern (bad) kind which is this yellowish kind of fried rice, which has like an artificial coloring to it. Then you have the expensive chinese restaurant fried rice which is young chow style with no or little soy added at all. Then you got the vietnamese and thai restaurant fried rices, which use fish sauce and some soy, plus stuff like pineapple and cilantro to add extra flavor.

My guess is that what is missing is something called (and I'm spelling it phonetically since I don't know the correct spelling) "wok hey". The "hey" is literally the "chi" of the wok...the built up character/flavor that a wok develops the longer it is used. A well-used well-seasoned wok will be almost black on its interior and this is a key part of the magic of chinese cooking. A poor analogy would be a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. But a well-seasoned cast iron skillet won't really add that extra flavor, that extra "something", to your food like a well-seasoned wok will. I have a cheap sheet metal wok I bought for $10 in a chinese grocery store that is finally gaining some of this seasoning after years of use. "Wok hey" is something that can never develop in a non-stick or hard anodized pan. My understanding of wok hey relates to the seasoning of the pan, not the seasoning of the food. It's something that's very difficult to achieve at home because it requires extremely high heat. Even "professional for home" ranges can't pump out the BTUs in the same quantity as a commercial wok installation. Your best bet is to walk outside -- and wok outside, over an open LNG or propane burner like the ones that come with turkey fryers. Maybe Tolliver's experience demonstrates that time alone can achieve a similar effect; it just takes a while. I don't think flavor per se is transferred from the pan to the food (a pan that contributes flavor directly would be a dirty pan, wouldn't it?) Rather, the searing ability of the pan is enhanced, and this is what helps create flavor. Edit: thanks for taking one for the team, Fat Guy.

Okay, in the interests of capturing the Chinese-restaurant taste, I've just finished eating some pork fried rice from my local generic Chinese restaurant. As far as I can tell, the ingredients were: - diced onions - peas - egg - white rice - roast pork - soy sauce - peanut oil - MSG I did not detect ginger or garlic, though either or both may have been in there in small quantities. Most likely absent also were oyster sauce, shallots, carrots, and bean sprouts. Most important, I think I could probably never recreate this dish at home because it was clearly cooked in a wok that was hotter than I could ever get a wok on my range-top at home -- and I have about as powerful a range as it's legal to have in a residence. The thing is, Chinese-restaurant wok burners are literally four times as powerful as my range, and eight times as powerful as most people's ranges, and as a result they allow for rapid stir-frying that keeps the food just this side of having the crap burnt out of it. I could see that each grain of rice had been seared in such a way as to give it a little extra texture and a Maillard/caramelized/whatever flavor. I might be able to achieve that in a very small batch if I pre-heated a cast-iron or heavy copper skillet for 20 minutes, but probably not.

by350, Fat Guy's post is completely accurate. A hot seasoned wok will impart that "smoky flavor", peanut oil is the oil of choice by most Asians, and MSG will finish it off. Just try it.

When steaming with a bamboo steamer and a wok, is it necessary to have the water come all the way up to the bottom of the steamer? I have a 14 inch wok and 12 inch bamboo steamer, so that is a lot of water...

My guess is that what is missing is something called (and I'm spelling it phonetically since I don't know the correct spelling) "wok hey". The "hey" is literally the "chi" of the wok...the built up character/flavor that a wok develops the longer it is used. A well-used well-seasoned wok will be almost black on its interior and this is a key part of the magic of chinese cooking. A poor analogy would be a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. But a well-seasoned cast iron skillet won't really add that extra flavor, that extra "something", to your food like a well-seasoned wok will. I have a cheap sheet metal wok I bought for $10 in a chinese grocery store that is finally gaining some of this seasoning after years of use. "Wok hey" is something that can never develop in a non-stick or hard anodized pan.

cook your rice, but not too much, then spread it out a bit to get rid of some of the steam, then lob it in the fridge. when cooled, beat up an egg and lob it in a hot oiled wok. scramble it, then get the egg bits and set to one side. now heat the wok up full, a generous amount of oil and lob in a little bit of garlic and ginger, plus other ingredients you want (perhaps a bit of diced ciar-siu pork or ham, a few prawns) then add the rice and stirfry it until cooked. it probably still won't taste like chinese restaurants, though, at least the ones in europe... you need MSG for that..

Repeat after me: MSG (Also peanut oil, an egg, and a super-hot wok)

I have been attempting to recreate that Chinese restaurant taste in my own fried rice, but it's still off. Hoping someone can help. Here are my ingredients: Pre-cooked white rice (cooked before and chilled) Fresh garlic Vegetable oil Oyster sauce Shallots Carrots Bean sprouts This is cooked in a pretty new Calphalon hard anodized wok. How do I get that restaurant flavor that's missing???

Post your questions here -->> Q&A Chinese Cooking : Southern home-style dishes Author: Trillium Blackmer General Introduction While it is not possible to even begin to cover the broad range of dishes cooked at home in the kitchens of families who live or have migrated from the southern Chinese provinces, I’ve chosen dishes that I hope will convey some of the variety of tastes and techniques that are frequently utilized. The food that goes on the rice (fan in Chinese) has its own broad category, called sung. The sung is seasoned with the expectation that it will be eaten with a significant amount of rice. You may want to cut back on the salty ingredients such as light soya, if you think you’ll be eating it more like a western dish (with less rice, more meat). Dishes from the southern provinces are seasoned more delicately, and some might say simply, compared to their counterparts to the west and north. For a dish to be successful it relies as much on the freshness and quality of the ingredients as the seasoning. To cook the tastiest southern food you must not only be a good cook, but a superb shopper. Let what looks best at the market drive what you will be eating for supper. I’ve tried to choose things that are fairly simple in their execution, but reward the cook with a complexity of taste that can be greater than the sum of its parts. Because these are dishes that fall under the category of “home cooking” you can imagine that there will, within the confines of a certain dish, be a multitude of variations within a household and between households. I’m going to tell you how we do it at our house, and suggest variations that we might use depending on mood and availability. This is by no means meant to imply that any other recipes or techniques for the same dish are invalid. In fact, I encourage discussion and instruction from other cooks, during the Q&A session, on variations that I might not have mentioned. Objective: I hope that by the end of the lesson, the students' appetite for exploring home cooking from the southern provinces will be piqued and they won’t just think of chop suey, broccoli beef, sweet and sour pork and egg foo yung when they think of “Cantonese” food. Rice Serves 4 – 6 with other dishes Introduction: Rice is pretty damn important to your southerner. Even 2 or 3 generations removed from the ancestral homeland, many people don’t feel right if they haven’t had rice at least a few times a week. At our house, due to the SE Asian influence, we use jasmine rice as our “everyday” rice and not just any jasmine rice, but one brand in particular, Golden Phoenix. Rice really varies from brand to brand and you may want to try different ones until you settle on a favorite. You’re not going to find a nice selection of brands until you go up to the 25 lb bags. Most households buy their rice in 50 lb bags. Forget the bulk rice in health food stores, it tastes terrible. Ingredients • 3 cups long grain rice • 3 1/4 cups water I’ve read western instructions for cooking rice and they usually use 1 part rice to 2 parts water. This ratio results in a much wetter and softer rice than most Asian families like to have. We use a rice cooker because the convenience outweighs the slight loss in quality in the cooked rice, but cooking rice Asian style in a pot is not very difficult either. You want something slightly more than a 1 to 1 ratio of rice to water. How much more depends on preference and the age of the rice. Newer rice takes less water. For 3 cups of rice, start out using about 3 1/4 cups of water and adjust to your taste. Bring the rice and water to a boil in a pot that is good for slow cooking. Once it boils, put a lid on it and turn it down to the lowest your burner can go. If you have one, a diffuser works well here. Cook for 15 – 20 minutes. All the water should be absorbed. Turn off the heat and let it sit for another 15 minutes or so to finish steaming. Try not to peek too many times. Fluff with chopsticks before serving. Steamed beef with black mushrooms, lily buds and cloud ear Serves 4 along with other dishes Introduction: While most people think about stir-frying when they think about Chinese food, steaming is often used to cook food that will be eaten with rice. Sometimes the partly cooked sung is added to the rice pot before the rice is finished cooking and left to steam the rest of the way while the rice cooks. This also imparts the flavor of the sung onto the rest of the rice. Other times the sung is steamed separately and then brought to the table to be placed on the rice by the eaters. For dinners where there will be more than one or two dishes besides vegetables, it’s a nice balance to include as many steamed dishes as stir-fried ones. I strongly encourage anyone interested in Chinese cooking to acquire a bamboo steamer. While you can steam your dish in anything that works (like a steamer insert in a pasta pot set or a pressure cooker), it’s my contention that the bamboo itself will lend a special fragrance to the dishes. The Cantonese, in particular, steam seafood very often. My favorite dish ever is a steamed whole fish, bathed in ginger, scallions, light soya and a little sesame oil. This much-loved dish requires that you start by picking your victim from a tank full of healthy, lively fish, having it killed to order, rushing it home, and steaming it, without ever storing it in the refrigerator. I like sea bass best, and don’t like tilapia at all, so I’ve had some trouble finding a suitable fish to steam where I live. Instead, I’ve decided to show you another classic steamed dish that can be made with beef, pork, chicken or even tofu. This dish is simple enough to be part of your everyday cooking routine but also nice enough to include in a meal with guests. I’m showing you the way to make this dish with beef, but you can substitute any meat you might like. This is not the time to use beef from the mark-down section of the meat department. Steaming requires that your meat be very fresh, no stickiness or off-odors. Chicken is also good, and if you decide to use the fair fowl please do not use boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Best is a free range, fairly lean, freshly killed chicken that is chopped into bite size pieces while still on the bone and then steamed (see the photo of cut chicken in the claypot recipe). If you must go the boneless, skinless route, use thighs. Black mushrooms come in different grades. I don’t buy the really expensive kind, but I do like upgrading from the cheapest ones with all-brown tops to a higher grade. I usually buy a grade that has a certain degree of flowering or creamy white cracks on the brown tops. This results in mushrooms with a firmer, less chewy texture when reconstituted. Lily buds are a great ingredient to have in your repertoire. They have a subtle, sweet smell reminiscent of dried fruits, and add an interesting textural variation to any dish. Shaoxing wine should not be the kind labeled “cooking wine” on the bottle, its flavor isn’t as good as it could be and you don’t want the additional salt in the dish. Substitute sherry if you must, but it’s worth finding a bottle of non-salted for the larder. The non-salted ones start around $3-4 dollars a bottle and go up to about $10 dollars a bottle, depending on how long the wine has been aged. Ingredients • 3/4 lb of flank steak • 3/4 ounce dried black (dong qwoo or shiitake) mushrooms • 1/4 ounce dried cloud ears (wun yee) or wood ears (or use fresh – scant 1/4 cup) • 1/4 ounce lily buds (gum tzum) also found labeled in English as golden needles, tiger lily buds, lily stems • 1 1/2 tablespoons finely julienned ginger • 2 teaspoons shaoxing rice wine • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce • 2 tablespoons light soya sauce • 1 teaspoon dark soya sauce • fresh ground black pepper • 1 1/2 teaspoons potato starch (you can substitute cornstarch, which gels to a harder consistency, but use a little less) • 2 green onions, julienned, white and green parts separate • a handful of cilantro leaves The mushrooms, cloud ears and lily buds need to be reconstituted in water before you cut them up. If you are a super-organized person, it’s nicer to soak them in cold water for an hour or two. I’m never that prepared, and I opt for the boiling water routine. In separate bowls, cover the mushrooms, cloud ears and lily buds with boiling water. Top with a saucer and let steep for around 30 minutes. The cheaper your grade of mushrooms, the less time you’ll need to soak them. While you’re waiting, cut the flank steak into pieces about 1 1/2 inch long and 1/4 inch thick, taking care to cut across the grain of the meat. Sprinkle 1 T of the light soya over the meat, and a few turnings of the black pepper. Toss and sprinkle the potato starch over the beef and toss again. Let it sit while you prepare the green onions, ginger and cilantro. I use beef that has been dry-aged. If your beef is more wet, you may want to add a little more thickener if you do not care for a more brothy dish. There should be no pools of liquid, but it should not be completely dry either. Depending on how it looks, I may add a couple tablespoons of the reserved soaking liquid from the mushrooms to the mixture. When the dried ingredients have plumped in the water, squeeze the mushrooms dry, reserving the soaking liquid (for use in this or other recipes), and remove the stems. Thinly slice the caps. Remove the hard bits from the cloud ears and thinly slice. Squeeze the lily buds, discard the soaking water and cut them in half crosswise (see photo). Hopefully you have better ones than what I could find…these started out faded and brown, but they’re best when they’re a brighter gold color. Spread the meat in a Pyrex pie plate and sprinkle on the mushrooms, cloud ears, lily buds, ginger, shaoxing, oyster sauce, the rest of the light soya, dark soya, and the white part of the green onions. Place in the steamer, taking care that no sides of the dish are touching the sides of the steamer. Place over about 2 inches of boiling water and steam on medium-high, 10 minutes for medium rare beef, 15 for well done. Removing things from the steamer can be tricky, but since this dish does not have a lot of liquid, it’s a good one to practice with. Using potholders, tilt the steamer while grabbing the side of the pie plate as seen in the photo. Sprinkle with the cilantro and green parts of the green onions and serve. Variations You can omit the ginger, or instead of ginger, you can use a couple of tablespoons of preserved mustard greens (hum choy – usually sold in the refrigerated section) that have been rinsed and chopped, or the same amount of Teo Chew- preserved mustard and olives (blackish-green, oily and very savory concoction, usually in glass jars in the “pickle” section). A tablespoon of aged, dried tangerine peel (chun pay) that has been soaked in cold water and julienned is also a nice addition, use it by itself or with the ginger, but not with the preserved vegetables. Stir-fried vegetables Serves 2 – 4 with other dishes Introduction: One of our favorite parts of the meal are the stir-fried greens and the variety of different greens available to stir-fry are seemingly endless. We generally choose whatever looks best to us at the farmers' market and then use it during the week. Sometimes we’ll have gai lan (Chinese broccoli), or Shanghainese bok choy, spinach, dau gok (long beans), ong choy (water spinach), dau miu (pea shoots), long cabbage (Napa), or even just plain old bok choy. What you’ll see in the photos goes by the name choy sum, flowering Chinese cabbage or yu choy. Some people have trouble telling it apart from gai lan when it gets older. In general, it will have yellow flowers while gai lan has white ones. These were so young they had no flowers at all. While the home cook cannot mimic the feet-tall flames of the restaurant stoves used to stir-fry vegetables and impart that delicious smoky “breath of the wok”, we’ve come up with something that comes very close. We use a flat bottom frying pan because our home stoves do not have a large enough output to use a wok. There are a few tricks to getting this right, and it takes a little practice, but it’s a very satisfying pursuit. The first trick is to make sure your greens are as dry as possible. If you don’t think to wash them hours before you’ll use them, spin them several times in a salad spinner and then lay them out on a towel. The second trick is to be fearless when it comes to how hot your pan is, both during the preheating stage and when you heat up the oil. We're talking a minute short of a grease fire, here…keep the lid handy in case you wait too long and remember, oil fires need suffocating! Do not pour water on an oil fire. You need an oil suitable for hot temperatures, preferably peanut oil, or if you don’t want to use that, then safflower oil. Please don’t use canola oil, it tastes like crap and makes your house smell bad when you heat it up this high. For the garlic, it’s worth hunting down the smaller, purple, hard necked type. We’re buying a Korean one from the farmers' market that is just great…lots of spicy garlic goodness. I’ll also note that I may be advising you to let your pan get hotter than the manufacturer recommends. We feel it’s worth replacing a pan in 10 years to have delicious vegetables. You may feel differently. The last trick is to be very fast. I’ve timed what we show in the photos below, you may find that your stove needs more or less time to preheat your pan enough to get the desired flavor. Ingredients • 1 lb of greens, washed, cut or torn to manageable sizes and dried • 3 – 4 cloves of garlic, smashed • 1 1/2 tablespoons of peanut oil • light soya to taste Heat a large frying or sauté pan over high heat. For the aluminum pan shown, we heat it for 3 1/2 minutes on full blast. A cast iron pan would take longer. Add the oil to the pan and heat it until it just begins to smoke, about 2 minutes further. Add the smashed garlic and stir it around while it browns and blackens, as shown in the photo. Add the greens all at once and do not stir. Wait 30 seconds, pressing down on the greens to let as many come in contact with the pan as possible. This is your best chance at getting that nice smoky flavor. The rest of the greens that come in contact with the pan later will not sear because the greens will begin releasing liquid. Begin to stir and toss, about 1 minute for these, a little longer for more mature greens. Once they have mostly wilted, splash in soya sauce, stir for 40 seconds and then put on a plate, fast! As you might have noticed, it takes longer to preheat the pan than it does to stir-fry the greens. Don’t worry if a few pieces of your vegetable are black or dark brown that means you’ve done it correctly. Variations For things with thicker stems, tear off the thick, outer leaves until you get to the heart. Remove the very thick and tough bottom pieces. For cabbage, cut into 2 inch squares. Vegetables like gai lan or dau miu may need to be very briefly blanched in boiling water and then dried off before stir-frying, depending on their toughness. I tend to prefer not to do this, because I think the flavor is diluted, but many other cooks like to use this method. You won’t have as much smoky flavor. You can also use other aromatics such as ginger or chillies in addition to, or in place of, the garlic. Claypot casserole of chicken and salted fish Serves 4 with an additional vegetable dish Introduction: The claypot, sandpot or sapo, a pre-iron age cooking vessel, is inexpensive, and is available in almost any Asian grocery store. Like other cultures who prize claypot cookery, southerners use it for long, gentle cooking. These pots need to be brought up to heat very gently, and not subjected to abrupt changes in temperature (like heating one up and then dumping something very cold into it. I lost my first pot doing that). Chinese grannies believe that things cooked in a claypot are more nourishing than the same dishes cooked in metal pots. However, if you do not wish to go to the trouble of finding and caring for a claypot, please do not let that stop you from making claypot dishes. Use an enameled casserole pot or anything suitable for slow and low cooking. Claypot dishes are true comfort food, they’re not usually very pretty but are delicious and homey, perfect for cold evenings. Salted fish (hum yue) is used a lot by the Hakka peoples, and we’re pretty fond of it at our house, too. Well, we’re fond of almost any form of salted, preserved fish (baccala, anchovies, sardines, ikan belis, you get my drift). It’s a wonderful match with chicken. It has a very pungent taste and needs to be used with restraint or it can overpower a dish. The long simmering in this recipe mellows the fish and adds a wonderful rich taste to the dish. If the thought of dried fish repels you, you can use preserved soya beans in its place (Yeo’s is a good brand) but do try it with the fish. A classic fried rice dish is also flavored with chicken and salted fish. If you like this dish, you might try that as well. Use fresh tofu packed in water for this dish, Nasoya or Sunshine are good brands. Ingredients • 14 oz package of firm tofu cut into 1 inch cubes and pressed down to drain (see photo) • 3/4 lb Chinese cabbage, about a half of one. Cut in half lengthwise and then sliced into 1/4 – 1/2 inch pieces. • 2 legs, 2 thighs and 2 wings from a chicken (use the breast for the soup recipe) • 3 tablespoons minced salted fish, rinsed • 1 tablespoon of chicken fat or lard (homemade lard only, not the disgusting non-refrigerated store-bought kind) or safflower oil • 3 –4 cloves of garlic, sliced • 1 slice of ginger (1 inch wide, 1/4 inch thick) • 3/4 cup chicken stock or water (store bought, low sodium is ok, homemade is ideal) • white pepper and salt • 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce • 1 teaspoon of sesame oil • 1/8 teaspoon MSG (optional) • 1.7 ounce packet of mung bean or cellophane noodle • potato or corn starch (optional) • 2 green onions, julienned Chop the chicken into pieces with a cleaver. Set aside the wingtips for use in stock. Clean off any bone chips, and sprinkle with salt and white pepper. Allow to sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. If you do not like chopping legs and thighs bone-in, try it with 1 lb of wings instead, they’re easier to cut. If you prefer to use boneless chicken, use about 3/4 lb, but again, please do not use boneless, skinless breasts, thighs are nicer. Preheat the claypot on very low, using a diffuser if you have one, for about 10 minutes. Brown the chicken in a frying or sauté pan in about a teaspoon of the chicken fat or lard on as many sides as you have the patience for. When you’re done, put the chicken in a bowl, pour the fat into the claypot, deglaze the pan with a little water or stock and pour it on top of the resting chicken. Add more fat to the claypot to make about 1 tablespoon. Turn the heat up under the pot to medium and fry the garlic and ginger until it begins to brown. Add the chicken and the deglazing liquid, the stock or water, sesame oil, light soya, dried fish, white pepper to taste, MSG, and cabbage to the pot. Put the lid on and allow the pot to come to a simmer. This will take some time because the cabbage takes a while to wilt down and start to cook. Cook until the chicken is tender, about 20 - 30 minutes after it reaches a simmer. Soak the mung bean noodle in cold water until it is pliable, and then cut it into 2 – 3 inch lengths. At this point you should have quite a bit of liquid from the cabbage in the pot. If you don’t, you could add some water and let it come back to a simmer. Add the mung bean noodle, let it heat for 5 minutes with the lid on, and then add the tofu. Stir it in gently so you don’t break it up too much. Allow the pot to come back to a near simmer. If you like, you can stir in a couple of teaspoons of a slurry made from 4 parts water to 1 part potato or cornstarch to slightly thicken the liquid, but it’s optional. If you do, stir it in gently and allow 5 minutes or so for it to thicken. Sprinkle with green onions and serve. Winter melon soup with peas and chicken velvet Serves 8 Introduction: Soups can play many roles in southern Chinese cooking, especially to the Cantonese. They can be a snack, such as ground roasted black sesame soup, lightly sweetened and thickened with rice flour, a medicinal health tonic, such as those containing ginseng and other herbal medicinals, or as a soothing part of the family meal. The best writing I’ve read on the role of soup in Cantonese eating was in a Usenet post by Timothy Ng. Winter melon (doong qwa) is very favorably considered for medicinal soups, fancy banquet soups presented in carved melons, or in a soup for the family dinner. Unlike a medicinal soup where the whole melon is used, peel, seeds and all, we’re going to peel and remove the seeds for ours. You can usually find pieces of winter melon cut for home use in the refrigerated section of the produce area in an Asian grocery. Many cooks believe that the more white powdery coating a melon has on its peel, the better it is, so I always look for that coating on the pieces I pick out. Avoid melon pieces that have been cut for too long, they’ll start to be soft and transparent near the rind. I’m giving a recipe for a fairly large amount of soup, because the pieces I can buy are quite large, but it scales down very nicely. The stock should be clear and light, made from meat, feet and bones that have not been cooked or roasted previously. I like to make mine with just a little salt, although some people add a few slices of ginger to theirs. Avoid adding any other aromatics, you’re going for a clear stock full of chicken “essence” and not much else. Ingredients • 4 1/2 cups homemade chicken stock (store bought is not an option for this) • 3 lbs winter melon • 14 oz frozen peas, thawed • 1 recipe for chicken velvet • salt and white pepper to taste The easiest way I’ve found to prepare the melon is to de-seed it, cut it into 1/2 inch slices, slice it off the peel and then cut the slices into pieces about 1/4 inch thick (see photo). If you want it to be prettier, you can peel it whole and cut it into cubes. Heat the stock to a light simmer and add the melon pieces. You’ll hear them hiss as they are warmed in the stock. Simmer covered until the melon is transparent, depending on the melon and the size of your pieces it can take 15 – 30 minutes. Add salt to taste, around 1/2 teaspoon, and a few turns of white pepper. You have two options with the chicken velvet: you can add some warm stock to it to thin it out and then stir it in, which will result in a more refined texture, or you can just put it in straight and stir it as it cooks, to break it into the larger pieces. You can see these larger pieces in the finished soup in the photo. What I do depends on mood and occasion. After you’ve added the chicken, stir in the thawed peas, let them warm, and then serve the soup with fresh ground white pepper on top. Chicken velvet (adapted from Yan Kit So’s Classic Chinese Cooking) • 1 whole chicken breast, about 1 lb, cut into rough chunks • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 1 egg white • 2 teaspoons ice water • 2 teaspoons cornstarch Put all of the above into a food processor or blender and puree. Variations Instead of peas, you can top your soup with finely minced Yunnan ham. Country hams (like Smithfield Virginia ham) or prosciutto are substitutes for Yunnan ham. Instead of chicken, you can add 1 cup of fresh bamboo, julienned, and top with a little roasted sesame oil and green onions. Fresh bamboo can usually be found already prepared in tubs of water in the produce section in Asian groceries in larger cities. For smaller cities, look for cryovac packages where you find tofu. You can use fuzzy melon (mo qwa) in place of winter melon if you can’t find winter melon. Stir-fried clams with black bean sauce Serves 4 with other dishes Introduction: This is such a classic combination I couldn’t resist including it here, although you can probably find it in just about any Chinese cookbook. I like all of the saltiness to come from the black beans. If you find their flavor too strong, you may want to use only 3 tablespoons and substitute 1 tablespoon of dark soya for the rest. I don’t like to eat leftover clams, so I’ve halved the recipe for the photo shoot. If there are only 2 people eating, you may want to do the same. Ingredients • 3 lbs clams, scrubbed well and rinsed, discard any that do not close when you wash them • 4 Tablespoons preserved black beans (dau see) • 1 teaspoon of peanut or safflower oil • 4 Tablespoons of ginger, finely julienned • 4 large cloves of garlic, finely minced • 4 green onions, julienned, white parts separate from the green parts • fresh red chilli, thinly sliced on the diagonal (optional… we’ve used way more then a normal Cantonese cook would in the photos, call it the Singaporean influence) • 2 –3 tablespoons shaoxing wine • 1/2 - 1 cup chicken stock or water (use water if you don’t have homemade, otherwise it will be too salty) • 2 teaspoons of potato flour stirred into 2 tablespoons of water (or use 1 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch) Rinse the black beans in several changes of water and set aside. If they are very dry, leave them with a little water. If they were moist to begin with, pour out all of the excess rinsing water. Heat your pan until it’s very hot, about 5 minutes for cast iron, less for aluminum. Put in the oil, swirl it around and add the garlic, ginger and white part of the onions. Stir-fry until they begin to color, about 30 seconds. Add the black beans and stir-fry until they stick a little. Pour in the clams and toss them around in the sauce for 30 seconds. Splash in some shaoxing wine, about 2 –3 tablespoons. Flip the clams around and when the wine stops sizzling, add the stock or water. If the clams do not open after a minute or so, then cover them briefly to allow them to steam open. When 3/4 of the clams are open, stir in the green parts of the onion and the chilli. Toss and add the potato flour and stir until the sauce is thickened. If your sauce is too thick, don’t panic, just splash in a little more water and stir. Put into a warmed bowl and eat with plenty of steamed rice. Further Reading on Chinese home-style cooking: The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing - Grace Young Every Grain of Rice: A Taste of Our Chinese Childhood in America - Ellen Blonder and Annabel Low Classic Food of China - Yan Kit So Post your questions here -->> Q&A

Priscilla, you've created a monster. 150+ pages and growing, like an Energizer bunny on steroids... Been on a Filipino comfort food binge lately, when not working late: Thursday (last week): Adobo rellenong (chicken adobo), steamed rice, stir-fried broccoli with tofu, garlic and tree ear mushrooms. Iced green tea with honey. Bananas. Friday: Pancit with shrimp, dried scallops and vegetables (pancit is a noodle dish that uses rice noodles, beef, chicken or more commonly, pork, some seafood and lots of veggies. I used dried scallops which I got from Chinatown, and minced shrimp in this version). Steamed tofu with orange blossom honey, for dessert -- this is a very simple dessert -- basically steam a block of tofu in a bamboo steamer, a double boiler, or a bowl inside a covered wok, top with honey that's been heated through, with a little crystallized ginger mixed in. Blueberry oolong tea. Saturday: Leftover adobo. Brown rice. Pakbet (talong (eggplant) stewed with okra, bitter melon, tomatoes and onions). Baguoong (shrimp) paste with garlic, fried until crumbly. Pellegrino. Pumpkin flan (while preparing the custard, mix in some pureed pumpkin). Sunday: Leftover pancit. Talong omelette. Banana ketchup. Pellegrino. Eight treasure rice pudding (which I had gotten from China Fun) for dessert. Soba

Thanks I'm honoured! * You mention the importance of temperture control in making beurre blanc. Do you find that the same 100 to 130F guideline applies when mounting the butter for a pan sauce? I think the mechanisms are different for a beurre blanc (which is mostly butter) and a pan sauce (which has a knob of butter in a pan of sauce - maybe 10%). The former maintains the butter emulsion, but the latter makes new emulsion from the vigourous boiling and the denatured protein in the pan residues acting as emulsifier. Keller says Beurre Blanc is stable up to 190C, but even so pan sauces are much hotter. * Regarding cornstarch/cornflour thickened sauces: are there time and temperature considerations here as well? I find that they separate if held too long at a simmer, or allowed to boil vigorously for even a couple of minutes. Is it me or the cornstarch? You may be right. I only really use cornstarch sauces for Wok cooking, or in special cases like Rote Grutze(sp?) - cornstarch thickened red currant puree. Long cooking can degrade the starch, and the oil or fat component starts to leak out of the sauce. However that takes more than a couple of minutes - in the old days Bechamel was cooked for hours. Maybe your sauce is high in oil or fat, and when you stop whisking, the emuslion begins to seperate, just like oil and vinegar. * Maybe you could talk a bit about flour slurries? At the Pig Pickin', we used a recipe (it was red-eye gravy, come to think of it) that called for cornstarch as a thickener. We couldn't find any, so we made a slurry of flour and tomato juice, which, along with the coffee, was the other liquid component in the sauce. Though I've read about the technique often, I'd never tried it before. I was quite pleased with the results, though it simmered for two hours, eliminating the possibility of any raw flour taste. What are your thoughts? Cornstarch is traditionally slackened with water into a slurry, which ensures quick dispersion, and a smooth sauce. Flour is usually used with a fat, such as butter in Beurre Manie or in a roux to coat the particles. I'm guesing, but htis might be because cornstrach, because it does not have gluten, does not form a dough the way wheat flour does, so can be slackened with only a little water. With flour I guess you need more water, or to work quickly before the gluten hydrates and goes lumpy. I don't see why it should not work as a thin batter, however, the amount of liquid needed might dilute the sauce overmuch.

Post your questions here -->> Q&A Non Stock-based Sauces Author: Jack Lang (jackal10) Various sauces have been discussed in the eGCI - see Stock Based Sauces and Cream Sauces. In this course I will discuss a selection of savoury sauces not previously covered: Vinaigrette Mayonnaise and its Derivatives Beurre Blanc and other Butter Sauces Pan Sauces and Gravies Vinaigrette Vinaigrette, or in classical parlance Sauce Ravigote is easy to make yet has ample potential for individual creativity. It is a thin sauce which coats leaves well so its traditional role is as a dressing for salads. Vinaigrette is a water-in-oil emulsion. Droplets of water are suspended in an oil, which is the opposite way round to a mayonnaise. A vinaigrette is quickly made, but without additional emulsifiers, it is not stable, and will revert to oil floating on water. To make vinaigrette, put 1 part of vinegar and 2 parts of oil (see below) in a jar. These proportions are sacred for the best and thickest vinaigrette. Say out loud “Two of oil and one of vinegar”. Now say it again. Two of oil and one of vinegar If you increase the proportion of water to oil, you can get “inversion”. Now, instead of having water droplets suspended in the oil, you have oil droplets suspended in water. This is why you should make sure the salad leaves are dry before adding the vinaigrette, lest the water on the leaves invert the emulsion. Shake well (make sure you have the lid or stopper on tight). You have vinaigrette. That is it. Serve it with salad, or marinate fish in it. Garden salad of little gem lettuce, and edible flowers: nasturtium, viola, borage, and rose petals, chives. When you dress a salad, do it at the last minute, otherwise the acid in the vinaigrette will start to wilt the greens. However, that is not the whole story of vinaigrette. It can be a lot more interesting. Garbage in, garbage out. Make sure you have the very best ingredients. Nasty oil or vinegar will make nasty vinaigrette. A good olive oil is ideal, but some find that the very strong olive oils are too assertive, and need diluting with a neutral oil, like corn oil. The better the oil, the better the vinaigrette. See note below on olive oils. Not all vinegars are created equal. In particular they have different levels of acidity. Here I’ve used a mild wine vinegar. You would want to cut a normal malt vinegar by half with water, so that the proportions are 1 of vinegar, 1 of water and 4 of oil. Check the level of acidity on the bottle. I think something in the range 3% to 4% is ideal for a vinaigrette that doesn’t burn the throat. You could use lemon juice, or orange juice, or even plain water. You can use a flavoured vinegar, such as raspberry or basil. You can use aged balsamic vinegar, but it will make the sauce very dark coloured. (I prefer to save my balsamic to dip bread into or adsorbed on croutons). Vinaigrette has the reputation of being unfriendly to wine. If this is a concern, use wine instead of vinegar as the acid. You might want to reduce the wine by about half to concentrate the flavour. Plain vinaigrette separates easily and quickly. To slow this down you need to add an emulsifier and stabiliser. In commercial practice a vegetable gum, such as Xanthan gum is used to glue it together. That stuff stays mixed for weeks, but you eat it at your peril. Read the fine print on the ingredients of commercial vinaigrettes next time you are in the supermarket. An emulsifier we can use at home (and avoid a chemical cesspool) is mustard, dry or ready mixed. It doesn’t stop the vinaigrette from separating, but it does slow it down. The fine grains act as nuclei for the water droplets to attach themselves to. Use a half a teaspoon for a cup or so of vinaigrette. Notice how much smoother the sauce is. Other emulsifiers include hard-boiled egg yolks or a little mashed potato. Now comes the creative part. You can add all sorts of flavours, such as garlic or herbs or spices in moderation. You can add sweetness, such as sugar, or honey, fruit or even jam. You can add salt or salty things, such as soy or anchovies. You can add meat glaze. You can use different oils or vinegars. There are infinite variations. Be creative. Stake out your claim to a "house vinaigrette". Here are some of my favourites. All are for 1/2 cup vinaigrette: Honey-mustard-garlic vinaigrette. Honey-mustard-garlic ½ tsp mustard. 2 tsp honey, 1 clove garlic, crushed (if liked). Pinch salt. You could also add some chopped dill. I use this for most of my green salads. Sometimes it's nice to have just a plain salad: fresh, crisp buttercrunch or cos lettuce tossed with this vinaigrette. Or, you can serve it with avocado. Raspberry-pepper 2 tsp raspberry puree or raspberry jam, ¼ tsp white pepper, salt. Blackberry puree or jam is good too. This makes a light, fruity vinaigrette that matches well with a chicken or turkey salad. Asian 2 tsp light soy, 1 tsp crushed fresh ginger, 1 spring onion, chopped. A little sesame oil would go well, also. Use this to dress Pak Choy or steamed Chinese broccoli or perhaps a rice salad with peas and fresh corn (you could add a few shrimp for a more substantial salad). Sauce Ravigote 1 Tbs each of chopped shallots, capers, herbs (tarragon, chives, parsley, chervil). Ravigote with crabmeat salad or crab cakes is a classic. Thousand Island 1 Tbs chopped hard-boiled eggs, 1 tsp tomato ketchup, 2 tsp chopped shallots or spring onions, 1 tsp chopped parsley, 1 tsp chopped tarragon, and for that authentic touch of luxury, the cooked and sieved coral of a lobster. Most cheap imitations just colour it pink with a little tomato ketchup. Some people also add sweet pickle and mayonnaise. This is the sauce to dress the salad on a burger. Hot bacon Use hot bacon grease for the oil part. Fry some fatty bacon chopped small until the fat runs. Remove the crispy bacon bits from the pan and add them to the salad, splash in some vinegar (roughly half the amount of fat), swirl and pour over the salad. A salad of spinach leaves, with this dressing is simple and good, or you can be extravagant and pretend it's breakfast with baby green leaves, some quail eggs, fried potato cubes, mi-cuit cherry tomatoes, and, if you like it, black pudding. The last word has to be from Sydney Smith (1771-1845), poet, and gastronome, written in a letter to Lady Holland in 1839. To make this condiment your poet begs The pounded yellow of two hard-boil'd eggs; Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen seive, Smoothness and softness to the salad give. Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl, And, half-suspected, animate the whole. Of mordant mustard add but a single spoon, Distrust the condiment that bites too soon; But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault To add a double quantity of salt; Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown, And twice with vinegar procur'd from town; Lastly o'er the flavour'd compound toss A magic soupçon of anchovy sauce. Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat! Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat; Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul, And plunge his fingers in the salad-bowl! Serenely full, the epicure would say, Fate cannot harm me, I have dined today. Note on Olive Oil Olive oil is graded according to the amount of oleic acid it contains. This represents how much the fat molecules have been broken down in treatment. It is quite a complex subject:- for example the US and the European Union have slightly different definitions. See here. for example. To be considered "virgin", an olive oil cannot be sujbected to heat during processing. Apart from pressing, washing, decanting, centrifuging and filtering, it must not be subject to additional treatment. Neither can it be mixed with oils from other sources. Oil obtained by the use of solvents or re-esterification cannot be labelled "virgin". Oils that have undergone further treatment than that allowed for virgin oil can be labelled "olive oil", "refined olive oil" and even "olive-pomace oil" (pomace is the matter left after the olives have been pressed). Roughly: Extra Virgin Less than 1% free oleic acid. This grade generally has all the nuances and characteristics of the olive it is taken from. It is full-bodied and can be astringent, peppery, buttery, green, piquant. A vinaigrette made from it will reflect these elements. Virgin Less than 2% oleic acid. This grade has less flavour, but some reflection of the olive can still be present, especially when you pair it with a light vinegar. Ordinary Virgin Less than 3.3%. This grade will be taste neutral . Lampante Virgin more than 3.3%. Not edible without further treatment. The terms “Cold Pressing”, “First Cold Press” or “Light Oil” may be descriptive, but are obsolete. Mayonnaise and its derivatives The legend is that mayonnaise was invented by the cook to the Duc de Richelieu in 1756 as a field expedient while the French forces under his command were besieging the English at Port Mahon in Minorca. However, there are older versions of the sauce, with records dating back to Roman times. Some say the name is derived from the French manier to manipulate, others that it derives from moyer an old French word for egg yolk. You can make it in a blender in a minute or two, but I think that a better sauce is made by hand. For me, it curdles easily in a blender, as I am tempted to add too much oil at once. To quote Elizabeth David: I do not care, unless I am in a great hurry to let [a kitchen gadget] deprive me of the pleasure and satisfaction to be obtained from sitting down quietly with bowl and spoon, eggs and oil to the peaceful kitchen task of concocting the beautiful shining golden ointment that is mayonnaise. Mayo is an oil-in-water emulsion, with many small drops of oil dispersed in a watery base. There are so many (about half a pint of oil to a few teaspoons of water) that they jostle together and make a thick sauce. They are kept from coalescing by the emulsifiers in the egg yolk, principally Lecithin. The oil droplets are the original fat globules from the egg yolk, swollen by the added oil. The watery stuff they swim in is some of the watery components of the egg yolk, but mostly the added water phase components. Traditionally this is something acid, such as lemon juice, or a mild vinegar, but it could be just plain water. We will start by making a classic mayonnaise, and then look at derivations and other ways to make the sauce. To make mayonnaise you need an egg yolk (see note one), 1 cup/250ml mild, room temperature olive oil (see note two), half a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of mild vinegar or the juice of half a lemon. Oh, and a bowl and a spoon. Put the egg yolk in the bowl. Put the oil in a measuring jug, so you can see how much you have added. Beat the egg with a spoon until it is smooth. Add the salt and beat that in. Do not add the lemon juice or vinegar yet. Add a drop of oil—literally a drop. The biggest mistake is to add too much oil at once in the early stages. Beat with a spoon until the oil has completely disappeared and the sauce is shiny again. Add another drop and repeat. Have patience, and do not be tempted to rush it. Slow down. Relax. It’s a beautiful thing you are making. After about 10 drops you can add a little more at a time- say a teaspoonful. You must beat it in completely before adding more. Pretty soon it begins to look shiny - more like a sauce. Be patient - cooks have been doing this for two thousand years or more. After about a third of the oil has been added it will begin to be very stiff, and look like mayo. Time to add a squeeze of lemon juice or a little vinegar, or whatever water-phase liquid you are using, and beat it in. This will thin and whiten the mayo. Keep adding the oil a few teaspoonfuls at a time, and beat in. Never add more than about a third of the volume of the sauce you have already made. The mayo will stiffen again. Make sure to beat in each addition of oil before adding more until the mayo comes together and looks shiny again. If it gets too stiff, add a little more lemon juice or equivalent. If you are bold you can now start to add the oil in a very thin stream, while beating with the other hand. Remember that the oil in the emulsion prefers to dissolve into a pool of oil if it can, rather than be absorbed into the tiny droplets in the emulsion. Don’t add too much at a time. If it begins to pool, stop pouring and beat the mixture until the oil you have already added is absorbed. When all the oil has all been incorporated you have mayonnaise. Taste it, and adjust the seasoning. If it is too thick you can add more of the lemon juice, or whatever you are using. If too thin beat in more oil, assuming it hasn’t split. Mayo is fairly stable at room temperatures, and should keep for a day or two, covered. The acid in it kills most bugs. If you refrigerate it, especially if you used an oil that thickens in the fridge, for example an unrefined oil like extra virgin olive oil, it will tend to separate. Escoffier, as always, is definitive: Unless it is exposed to too low a temperature, the mayonnaise...never turns, and may be kept for several days without the fear of anything happening to it. Merely cover it to keep the dust away. He also says It is an error to suppose that it is necessary to work over ice or in a cold room. Cold is deleterious to mayonnaise, and is invariably the cause of this sauce turning in winter. In the cold season the oil should be warmed slightly, or at least kept at the temperature of the kitchen, though it is best to make it in a modestly warm place. Derivative Sauces All quantities are for 1 cup/250ml mayonnaise. Aioli – Garlic mayonnaise Peel and crush two cloves of garlic and add to the egg yolk at the beginning of the process. Ideally pound the garlic to a paste with the salt in a pestle and mortar. This is the French version. In some parts of the south of France (Provence) it is used much as ketchup is used in the US, and sometimes called “the butter of Provence”. Aioli Garni is aioli served with cooked and raw vegetables, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs and sometimes salt cod or other fish to dip into it. With good bread, it makes a wonderful summer lunch or supper. The garlic flavour should be so strong it makes your throat tingle. Elizabeth David writes: The aioli garni is a Friday dish as well as one of the traditional Christmas Eve dishes; on non-fasting days the beef from a pot-au-feu or even a boiled chicken may form part of the dish. It then becomes le grand aioli. Le Grand Aioli. The Provencal advise those who find aioli indigestible to take a trou or coupe de milieu in the form of a small glass of marc (the local spirit) as a digestif in the middle of the meal. Aioli is also used as an ingredient, for example in bourride, the fish soup. Pureed roast garlic makes a nice flavouring for mayonnaise, but it is not Aioli. The excellent Catalan Allioli is made without egg yolk, but is based on a paste of garlic and a little vinegar. It is lighter, but more fragile than the French version. Rouille fiery mayo. Rouille means rust in French, and refers to the colour of the sauce. It is an indispensable accompaniment to bouillabaisse and other Mediterranean fish soups, slathered onto the accompanying crouton. There are as many versions as there are cooks but broadly in Nice it is Aioli with lots of cayenne pepper (2tsp) and sometimes some saffron, while in Marseilles chillies (deseeded) are pounded with the garlic, as well as a handful of bread which has been soaked in hot water and then squeezed dry. Tartare Originally the sauce for Steak Tartare, now more generally used for fish and fried foods. Add 1 Tbs each of chopped shallot, gherkins, capers, chervil or parsley and chives to 1 cup mayonnaise. This delicious sauce, named after the bold Tartars of old, is often sadly abused in chemical commercial offerings. Remoulade Add 1 tsp anchovy sauce, ½ tsp Dijon mustard, 2 tsp chopped capers and chopped gherkins. This is traditionally served with shrimp but it is also good with hard-boiled eggs or any cold meat or fish. Sometimes horseradish is added. Cambridge Puree together 2 sieved hard boiled egg yolks, 2 anchovy fillets, 1 tsp each of chopped chives, tarragon and parsley. Pass the resulting puree through a sieve and mix with the mayonnaise. Good for cold meats etc. Gloucester 2 Tbs sour cream or yogurt, 1 tsp chopped fennel and 1 tsp Worcester sauce. Excellent when served with smoked meats and fish. Tyrolienne Soften 1 Tbs chopped shallot or onion in a little oil, add 2Tbs tomato paste, a bay leaf and a clove; simmer then pass through a sieve. Cool and add to the mayonnaise with chopped fine herbs. Verte Puree together 1Tbs/25g of each of blanched spinach, watercress, tarragon, chervil or parsley, and chives. Pass the puree through a fine sieve and add the green liquid to a stiff mayonnaise. This makes a lovely green mayonnaise and can be served with an Aioli Garni (as illustrated above) for those who dislike garlic. Vincent Mix equal quantities of Sauce Verte and Sauce Tartare. This is a green version of Tartare and is used similarly. It makes a nice colour contrast with salmon. Andalouse Add 2Tbs very red tomato paste, and 1Tbs julienne of red pepper. This sauce is used more for its colour than for its taste. Use it with hard-boiled eggs, for example. Cleared Add 1/3rd the amount of a firm melted aspic. This was formerly used to coat decorative pieces, now replaced by Chaud-Froid. Gribiche Not quite mayonnaise, more a salad cream, but still a lovely sauce. Like Cambridge but without the raw egg yolk. Mix together 3 hard boiled egg yolks, sieved, 1 Tbs French mustard, a little salt and pepper. Work in 1 cup oil, as for making mayonnaise. Finish with chopped herbs, capers, gherkins and the chopped white of the eggs. Since it has no raw egg, it can be served with hot food. Try it with hot boiled ham or tongue. Notes on egg yolks 1. Mayonnaise contains raw egg yolks. Some are concerned that raw eggs can contain Salmonella and other bugs, although there is also evidence that the acid environment is not conducive to their survival. If this is your concern, or if you are serving the sauce to potentially vulnerable people (the very young or the very old, or people who are otherwise immuno-compromised), then use pasteurised egg yolks, or use a technique to pasteurise them first. 2. How much oil can a single large egg yolk emulsify? Traditionally it is about ¾ cup of oil; with 2 tablespoons of water ( or its equivalent) per cup of oil. McGee in the Curious Cook (see "Further Reading" below) gives the theoretical limit as about 15 cups of oil, and experimentally 100 cups, or 6 gallons. He also gives a technique using frozen egg yolks. For some not well understood reason, freezing an egg yolk liberates a much greater emulsifying power. Freezing whole egg yolks makes them almost rubbery and too hard, but freezing 1 whole yolk for four hours or 1 whole yolk whisked with 1T lemon juice (not vinegar) for eight hours or 1 whole yolk whisked with 1T water for 24 hours and then using ¼ of the thawed result gives a low-egg yolk mayonnaise. Dave the cook gives a full recipe in the eG Recipe Archive. Substitutes It is possible to make an oil-in-water emulsion using many other emulsifiers besides egg yolks. They may be fine sauces, but they are not mayonnaise. Examples include egg white, evaporated milk, gelatine, mustard and mashed potato. Garlic, onion or shallot puree, either raw or from the roasted bulb, also work. Notes on Oils 1. Since a mayonnaise is mostly oil, it is important that the oil is good quality. However, using a full-flavoured oil will result in too powerful a taste in the finished mayonnaise. Milder oils, or a full flavoured oil cut by half with a more neutral oil, will give a better product. Some flavoured oils, such as lemon infused oil, work well. 2. As noted above, unrefined oils, especially those that cloud when cold, tend to make the sauce break when kept in the fridge. Notes on Vinegars and other watery ingredients In the section on Hollandaise, we said that not all vinegars are created equal, and it is easy for a strongly acid component to overwhelm the delicate taste of the sauce. Use lemon juice, or a mild vinegar, or cut the vinegar with water. There is much less chance of the emulsion inverting and the sauce splitting if you don’t add the additional water-phase component until after the initial oil has been added and the mayonnaise has started to thicken. Many authorities (including Escoffier) advise adding 2 tsp of boiled water at the end to both hollandaise and mayonnaise to improve their standing properties. I think it is a bit of a myth. To quote McGee: Finishing the sauce by adding a dollop of boiling water is a piece of conventional lore not to bother with....The important thing is not the temperature of the of the water or when it is added. The important thing is that there be enough water in the sauce to accommodate the amount of oil you've beaten in. The consistency of the sauce will tell that: if it is getting stiff and sweating oil, it is clearly in need of a drink. In any case a tablepoon or two of boiling water in a cup or more of room-temperature sauce is not going to raise its temperature enough to do anything useful. It's fine to adjust the flavour and texture at the end, but there is no need to put on the kettle. Blender mayo It is perfectly possible to save all that stirring by making mayonnaise in a blender. Same proportions. Put the egg and the salt in a blender, set it running, and drizzle in the oil, slowly at first, then a little faster. If it gets too stiff add the lemon juice or equivalent. The strong mechanical agitation helps the emulsification, but it is easy to add the oil too fast. Rescuing split mayo If it splits either the oil was too cold, or you added too much at one time. Take a clean bowl and another egg yolk, and use the split sauce as though it was oil, adding it to the new yolk no more than a teaspoon at a time and beating well before adding more oil. Beurre Blanc and other Butter Sauces Beurre Blanc means white butter. It is reputed to have been discovered when a hurried chef forgot to add the eggs when making a hollandaise. It is also attributed to Mme. Clemence as a sauce for salmon and other fish of the Loire, but there are many similar sauces from historic times. Beurre blanc has periods of fashion: it is a quickly made sauce, and low in carbohydrates, but you are basically eating softened flavoured butter. It is a very rich sauce – use sparingly. Like mayonnaise, beurre blanc is another oil-in-water emulsion. It uses the ready-made emulsion in butter as the emulsifying component. You can’t use margarine, or any butter substitute as they are held together differently. Butter is already a stable emulsion, provided it does not get too hot. If it gets too hot the emulsion breaks. If, after it is melted, it is allowed to solidify again, the emulsion will also break. Thus the secret to beurre blanc is temperature control. McGee says the temperature should be between 100F and 130F, (38C and 54C), but Keller indicates it can go up to 190F/90C. It should feel warm, not hot. If you can’t keep a finger in it comfortably, it is too hot. On the other hand if the butter is not melting into the sauce it is too cold. The vinegar or wine and the shallot are just dilutants and flavourings, rather than contributors to the structure of the sauce – the butter already contains enough water. However if you add more than 1 stick/8oz/250gms to a tablespoon of liquid the sauce becomes vulnerable to overheating. You can make things a little easier by adding some cream (ideally reduced by half over a gentle heat) at the beginning. Cream is another emulsion, and you are adding additional emulsification. To make a classic Beurre blanc, start with 4 Tbs of dry white wine and 4 Tbs of wine vinegar and add a finely chopped shallot. Put in a good solid pan. Reduce until about 1 Tbs of liquid remains and the shallot has softened. Have 1 stick/250gm of best unsalted butter ready, cold, and cut into pieces. Whisk in the butter. Correct the seasoning. Add a squeeze of lemon juice if you like. That is it. Keep it warm, not hot, for service. If you need to keep it for some time, a thermos flask rinsed with warm water works well. It cannot be kept in the fridge, or frozen. Traditionally, Beurre blanc is served with seafood. Here it is shown with pan fried scallops. There is a debate as to whether to sieve out the shallot pieces or not. It depends on the dish you are making. For a classical dish sieve them out, for a rustic style dish keep them in, Use a solid pan that does not have hot spots or the sauce will overheat locally and break. Some pans with thin walls and a copper sandwich have hot spots at the corners. Don’t use a non-stick pan either, since the non-stick surface forms an oily film which can break the sauce, and a metal whisk can easily damage the surface of the pan. To rescue an overheated sauce: cool, add a teaspoon or two of water and whisk until the oily streaks disappear. To rescue a solidified sauce, you need to re-emulsify it. You can sometimes rescue it by whipping the melted sauce into cream, but it is easier to treat it like a split hollandaise, and make hollandaise instead. Instead of wine as the liquid component, you can use water, mild vinegar, lemon or other citrus juice or even some of the poaching liquid from the dish you are making. If you use red wine or madeira as the liquid, you will be making a Beurre rouge. Beurre Noisette is butter heated in a frying pan until it is nut brown, then, off the heat, lemon juice is whisked in (1/2 a lemon for 4oz of butter). Beurre Noir or black butter is made the same as Beurre Noisette, but when it has coloured, it is taken off the heat and a tablespoon of vinegar (for 4 ozs butter) and a large pinch of chopped parsley is whisked in. I like to add a tablespoon of capers as well. Traditionally, Beurre Noir is served with skate wing. First fry the skate wing in butter and remove it from the pan and keep it hot. Wipe out the pan, and with fresh butter make the beurre noir. Beurre a la Meuniere is butter cooked gently until it just begins to colour – slightly nutty, but not as dark as Beurre Noisette. Once it has reached this slightly nutty stage, add the lemon juice and chopped parsley. This is the traditional sauce for Sole a la Meuniere. Pan sauces and Gravies A brief survey of a large subject In one sense, a pan sauce, prepared quickly in the same pan the main ingredient was cooked in, and hence flavoured primarily with the cooking residues, is the original and true sauce for the dish. Because the pan residues are essential to a pan sauce, it is only used for pan-fried or roast dishes. However, those cooking residues residues are only there if they have escaped from the main ingredient. The main ingredient is typically a piece of meat or fish. The residue is the result of partial over-cooking which breaks down the structure so that the juices escape. These then reduce or dry in the pan. Brillat-Savarin, the gourmet, in The Physiology of Taste (1825) (see "Further Reading" below) tells the tale of how he managed to take the pan juices of a leg of lamb being prepared for another party, and serve them with eggs. He says We feasted indeed…we were swallowing the very essence of the roast, and leaving nothing to [the other party] but the dry remains. Some argue that it is better if the main ingredient is cooked at a temperature that does not leave much residue in the pan, and the sauce is then made separately. They also point out that the pan residues may not have been cooked under ideal conditions, and may be burnt or otherwise inappropriate. Let us assume though that there is enough residue, for example from the initial browning, or from ingredients, such as onion, explicitly added to assist in making the sauce. Then the steps are: Remove the pan-fried (or roasted) main ingredient and keep it hot. Pour off any excess oil or other cooking medium. Add additional components to the pan to add flavour (chopped shallots or onions for instance) or to change the texture and adsorb the fat (flour to make a brown roux). Deglaze the pan by adding liquid to the pan and stirring over heat to dissolve the dried and caramelised deposits. The liquid can be water, stock, cream or wine, vinegar, or even black coffee for red-eye gravy. You might want to reduce the liquid to concentrate the flavour. Finish the sauce by correcting the seasoning and, if appropriate, strain it and add a squeeze of lemon or give it a gloss with a knob of butter. I will illustrate the required processes first with pan fried chicken breasts with a shallot and sherry vinegar sauce and then with steak and a red wine sauce. Finally, I'll offer suggestions for variations of pan sauces. Sauteing the chicken breasts Saute the chicken breasts until done and remove from the pan and keep warm. Pour off any excess fat leaving about 2 Tbs in the pan. Add some finely chopped shallots and a little garlic to the pan and saute briefly. Sautéing shallots. Deglaze the pan. I used sherry vinegar but you could use balsamic vinegar though it will make the sauce darker. (Demi-glace is used for classical meat dishes, but the use of reduced meat sauces is a becoming a cliché, and the universal spread of brown sticky goo can make everything taste of Bovril (commercial meat glaze)). Deglazing with sherry vinegar. Note the steam from the rapid reduction. Bourdain puts it well in Kitchen Confidential …we finish nearly every sauce with [butter]…that is why my sauce tastes richer and creamier than yours, why it's got that nice thick opaque consistency. Finishing with butter. Completed sauce. Poured over the chicken and served with fingerling potatoes and a salad (omitted for clarity). Red Wine Sauce This is traditional with steak so first, cook the steaks to the desired doneness. Remove the steaks and keep them warm. Note the flavoursome pan deposits Add a generous slug (1/4 cup/60ml) of good red wine. If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it. Add any juices drained from the steak. Reduce at a rapid boil until syrupy. Finish by stirring in a generous knob of butter into the rapidly boiling sauce. Correct the seasoning. Steak with a red wine pan sauce. Variations on the Pan Sauce Theme Flavourings might include soy, garlic, ginger, mustard, pepper, peppercorns, capers, brandy or liquors. The sauce is reduced to concentrate the liquid component, if required. The sauce is thickened if a thick sauce is desired. Often a thin gravy is nicer. Thickening can be divided into: Emulsification: An oil or high fat ingredient like butter is added, and the contents whisked vigorously or boiled rapidly to achieve emulsification. This works best if there is plenty of gelatinous material to act as an emulsifier in the pan residue.Like beurre blanc, a ratio of 2 of fat to 1 of liquid is desirable. Starch: A starchy thickener is added. Essentially a sort of veloute is being made. Be sure to cook it sufficiently for the floury taste to disappear. Don’t add too much starch. Pan sauces should be moderately thick, not glue-like. Typical thickeners include: Cornflour (cornstarch), slackened in twice the amount of water. This is often used for Chinese wok cookery. Commercial gravy powder is mostly cornflour, with some seasoning and colouring. Roux, or roux made in the pan with the fat (and extra butter if required) and flour. Beurre manie: butter mashed up with an equal part of flour. This provides both thickening and a finish in one step. Use sparingly, and cook out properly. Vegetable purees, such as onion puree. Finishing. The sauce is typically finished by correcting the seasoning, and if appropriate, straining, adding a squeeze of lemon, or a giving a gloss with a knob of butter. Ham with red-eye gravy Red eye gravy Whether the origin of the name was President Jackson’s red-eyed cook, or because the evaporating gravy is said to make a red “eye” in the centre of the pan, this a traditional southern accompaniment to county ham. It is often served with eggs or grits and biscuits. The distinguishing feature is that the pan is de-glazed with black coffee. This is my version, and I’m not even American. I may be treading on sacred topics. I break with tradition, partly to illustrate the technique, and partly because I prefer my gravy thick—I finish the sauce with beurre manie to provide instant gloss as well as thickening. Of, course, it must then be cooked for a few more minutes to get rid of the raw taste of the flour. Remove the ham from the pan, and deglaze with about 4 Tbs of coffee and a teaspoonful of sugar. If you want a less pronounced coffee flavour, use half coffee and half ham stock. Beurre Manie is softened butter and an equal quantity (by volume) of flour. Mash them together with a fork. Add a knob of the Beurre manie (about 2 tsp) to the pan and stir rapidly. Instant sauce! Country ham and egg, red eye gravy . Further reading The Curious Cook - Harold McGee Physiology of taste - Brillat-Savarin Sauces: Classical and Contemporary Sauce Making - James Peterson Post your questions here -->> Q&A

Hi! Like tammylc said, I think Canadian Thanksgiving fare is similar to what's offered at an American Thanksgiving table. I'd have to add that I'm Chinese, and this was our first Thanksgiving dinner with more traditional Thanksgiving food. In years past, my mom roasted a turkey and made sticky (glutinous) rice as stuffing (both inside the bird, and another huge wok full of it since it's so damn good). Also, other Chinese side dishes that you would find at any big dinner (like braised shitake mushrooms, egg "pockets"--tiny egg crepes filled with seasoned meat, Chinese roast pork, etc.) For Christmas, I think my mom and I will both cook so we can have the best of both worlds! I want to make the sausage stuffing again, but I missed the sticky rice and other sides over the weekend.

Well, I did manage to find the worst Chinese food in Naperville, if not in fact in the entire State of Illinois. China Buffet 720 E Ogden Ave Naperville, IL 60563 Tel: (630)-548-3388 I should have known to walk out when I entered the place and they collected the cost of the meal ($6.50) up front. The hot and sour soup tasted of warm melted Vaseline with chunks of tofu floating in it. I managed two bites and set it aside. The fried rice looked and tasted like Vigo's yellow rice mix with some chopped onion and frozen peas and carrots. The entrees were all rather bland and oily. The potstickers had never made it into a wok and the skins were thick and gummy. Also, for reasons I can not begin to fathom, they had two different kinds of potatos and onion rings on the buffet. The onion rings appeared to be the most popular item with the regulars. Help!!!!

The original recipe looks very familiar with the one I have experimented with, except of course no green onions (replace with shallots in the paste) and some shrimp paste (in the paste). The other difference is that I use no oil. First of all, I will 'crack' the thick coconut cream in the wok over medium heat. This is the point where the oil will start to emerge from the cream. This usually takes a couple of minutes. Then add the paste into the cream. The coconut cream is then able to be used as a cooking medium for the paste (instead of oil). Once the paste has 'cracked' a little, then it is time to carry on with the rest of the recipe as you currently do (add chicken, etc). I too often find that the colour doesn't come out quite as green as I've had in restaurants and would be interested too find out what other people do to try and help this (without resorting to artificial colouring). I think the cumin/coriander sometimes causes it to go slightly muddy coloured. I have the same problem with the red curry. It often comes out brown and although tastes pretty good just doesn't look like a 'red curry'. Sometimes adding a fresh red chilli does help although I am hesitant to add things like paprika (which I have seen in some recipes). Rgds Rick

when it comes to cut of beef: my mom uses anything that's on sale and she can make it tender and flavorful with cutting/cooking technique. i've never seen her use baking soda or egg white. she does marinate with cornstarch. usually a little cooking wine (which if using chinese wines has salt added to it so they can sell it at a grocery store without liquor license) and soy sauce. she almost always "velvets" in oil. i've never heard this term and when she comes back from china, i'll ask what the chinese term for this is. this was an interesting thread. i didn't think anyone but my mom did this. i can't eat chinese food in restaurants (mostly) because the food is never as good as hers! very disappointing. i don't have a hot enough stove to cook really authentic chinese food. my mom cooks outside over a wok ring with a propane tank.