Traditional Chinese Family Favorites

[Dejah]

How many of you make the tonic soup called "Sai mai". Do you know the English names of the ingredients? Please post your lists so I can compare with mine.

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"Sai mai" as "West Rice"? That is used in dessert more, and it is tapioca pearl. But I don't think that's what you were refering to.

Did you mean what in Cantonese it is called "Yee Mai"?

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Sai may be should have been "say" with a long A volwel sound=4

may=flavour? taste?

That's the soup with leen jee, hung yun, bak hap, sang day (raw earth), see goo, faka tam (American ginseng), look juk, etc.

I wish I knew Chinese characters...other than you guys!

[Ben Hong]

In "real" Toysanese it's "thlee mee hong" or in Cantonese "sei mei tong" = 4 flavoured soup.

[hzrt8w]

Ahhhh.... four flavors! But like so many things Chinese... the names are meant to be ambiguous. Like "eight treasures" (baat bow), "three freshnesses" (sam seen), "five fragrance" (ng heung)... your guess is as good as any.

[djyee100]

my mum has made a soup using fish's stomach. The texture is rather gelatious...I need to get back to my mum on what else she uses for the soup.

The father of one of my friends, who was a great natural cook, used to make a dish with fish stomach. This is how my friend described it to me: Her father took five spice powder and soy sauce, and rubbed it on a duck. He then browned the duck all over, tied it in a cloth, and steamed it for hours. Then he deboned it and served it on fish stomach, which my friend describes as like pork rind. There was a simple soy and sesame sauce to go with it.

My friend rolled her eyes as she talked about it. Obviously it was delicious!

I'll have to ask my friend about this again. Maybe we can make the dish together and I can post about it here.

[hzrt8w]

.... Then he deboned it and served it on fish stomach, which my friend describes as like pork rind. There was a simple soy and sesame sauce to go with it.

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What the Cantonese' term of "fish stomach" (yue toh) is actually fish air bladder (fish maw).

[Ce'nedra]

my mum has made a soup using fish's stomach. The texture is rather gelatious...I need to get back to my mum on what else she uses for the soup.

The father of one of my friends, who was a great natural cook, used to make a dish with fish stomach. This is how my friend described it to me: Her father took five spice powder and soy sauce, and rubbed it on a duck. He then browned the duck all over, tied it in a cloth, and steamed it for hours. Then he deboned it and served it on fish stomach, which my friend describes as like pork rind. There was a simple soy and sesame sauce to go with it.

My friend rolled her eyes as she talked about it. Obviously it was delicious!

I'll have to ask my friend about this again. Maybe we can make the dish together and I can post about it here.

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Wow sounds like alot of effort (I think my mum's method was kept to a minimum lol). The method you described sounds much like a feast while our one is a simple Chinese soup

I'll ask my mum soon and I shall tell you more about it...not yet though as we've been very busy since my granny's passing...

Oh and please do make a posting on it

[Ce'nedra]

Btw, 'gai dan cha' (tea soaked eggs) would be considered a traditional family recipe for my family

A lovely, simple dessert.

All you need is eggs (chicken eggs), Ceylon tea (black tea), water, ginger, palm sugar and a bit of white sugar.

[hzrt8w]

All you need is eggs (chicken eggs), Ceylon tea (black tea), water, ginger, palm sugar and a bit of white sugar.

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No soy sauce? Interesting.

[Dejah]

All you need is eggs (chicken eggs), Ceylon tea (black tea), water, ginger, palm sugar and a bit of white sugar.

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No soy sauce? Interesting.

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Ah Leung,

Ce'nedra did say it was for dessert, so soy sauce would not be appropriate.

[Dejah]

Tonight, we are finishing off the last of the large pot of lotus root (leen gnow)soup:

My family prefers the kind that is more starchy and has "strings" when you bit into each piece. "Strings" is an appropriate descriptor as my family, who cannot speak Chinese call the roots as "fiddle bridges" . When you cut a round slice in half, they look like the bridges on a violin or fiddle.

It's hard to tell which roots are more starchy - round-shaped or elongated-shape segments. Anyone have a way to tell the difference?

For the soup, I use a chunk of pork butt with bone attached, at least 3 rehydrated dried octopus (bak jow yu), fresh ginger, and a piece of ham choi (salty turnip). I like using the kind of ham choi that comes with the leaves.

Wash and soak the octopus the night before. Make the pork stock by simmering the meat and bone(s)for at least an hour. Add cut up octopus, ginger, ham choi, and sliced lotus roots. Bring the whole pot to a boil and then simmer until the lotus root is tender.

[orangeblossom]

I've been reading this thread with great interest. My repertoire of Chinese soups is limited to only a handful, though there are a few more lurking in the recesses of my childhood memories which for some reason or other, I have yet to try making. I shall strive to add at least three new soups to my repertoire this year!

One of these is the pig's stomach with white pepper soup, which i totally adore. I guess what's stopped me from trying this is that I'm very much daunted by the fact that the stomach needs to be really very well washed to get rid of the pig odour - anyone has a method to share?

Dejah - I'm curious to hear that you put ham choi (salted mustard veg) in your lotus root soup. Does that add an element of saltiness, as in salted veg and duck soup, to it?

I use lotus roots, pork bones, zhu zhang (is that the same as pork butt?) and or spareribs/softbone pork, red dates, dried octopus and dried scallops. Sometimes, for variation, I add peanuts and/or, some chicken feet (I use less pork in this case).

Other favourite soups of mine include the ubiquitous carrot-potato-white radish-pork soup, foo juk tong (I add barkey, yee mai, in mine), peanut and pig's tail soup, peanut and chicken feet soup, chicken and yuk chok soup, and salted veg, white pepper and duck soup.

Would be great to hear some other "lo-for" (old-fire, ie, slowly simmered for at least 3-4 hours) tongs you folks are making.

OB

[CFT]

I guess what's stopped me from trying this is that I'm very much daunted by the fact that the stomach needs to be really very well washed to get rid of the pig odour - anyone has a method to share?

Bicarbonate of soda?

[Dejah]

Orangeblossom: What a lovely name!

CFT is correct in suggesting bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). I would suggest soaking the stomach in a baking soda solution. If you purchase the stomach from a reputable source, they are usually pretty clean. The soaking will remove any odour that remains. I would also suggest a quick blanch after you rinse off the soda solution before actually making the soup.

To be honest, I've never made just pig stomach with white pepper soup. I've always added slices to foo juk tong. Can you explain the white pepper soup more? Someone else mentioned it being their favourite.

Dejah - I'm curious to hear that you put ham choi (salted mustard veg) in your lotus root soup. Does that add an element of saltiness, as in salted veg and duck soup, to it?

I just add a small piece of ham choi to the soup. I do it because my Mom does it. She says it adds flavour. The ham choi is rinsed before hand so it's not that salty. I also add ham choi to melon soups, but only in the last few minutes before the soup is cooked. Otherwise, it causes the soup to have a slight sour taste.

I know what you mean about "a handful of soups". I remember my Mom making many different kinds, different ones for different seasons and needs. I only make a few favourites. I was hoping that more people would share here their recipes/methods here so I can be motivated to try more variety.

With my schedule, I seldom make lo-for soups. My s-i-l does more of that, especially during hunting season when she has access to fresh venison, game birds with herbs. I need to go to a store and find out English names of some of these ingredients.

[Ben Hong]

To be honest, I've never made just pig stomach with white pepper soup. I've always added slices to foo juk tong. Can you explain the white pepper soup more? Someone else mentioned it being their favourite.

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I think I mentioned it a while ago that it was a favourite of mine. My mother used to add a handful of rice to the soup as it was slow cooking.

Funny story; I first returned to HK in 1967 after a 19 year separation from my mother and grandmother. After the requisite social activities had settled down, I made a request for my Mother to make me a pot of pig stomach and white pepper soup. It was just as hot and comforting as I remembered as a 6 year old boy. After several meals of that and some other of my Mother's "village" dishes, I finally felt that I was "home" in the comfort of my Grandmothers and Mother's bosom.

[hzrt8w]

I use lotus roots, pork bones, zhu zhang (is that the same as pork butt?) and or spareribs/softbone pork, red dates, dried octopus and dried scallops.

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I think "zhu zhang" sounds like pork knuckle.

[Dejah]

I use lotus roots, pork bones, zhu zhang (is that the same as pork butt?) and or spareribs/softbone pork, red dates, dried octopus and dried scallops.

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I think "zhu zhang" sounds like pork knuckle.

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I know Mom talks about using "zhu zhang" in making soup, and I think it's the knee or elbow part of the pig, and not the knuckle.

Dried scallops too! Ho teem lah!

[orangeblossom]

Thanks guys for the tip on using bi-carb powder to wash the pig stomach. Now I have no more excuse to put off making the soup!

Dejah - thanks for the compliment

Regd your question on the pig stomach and white pepper soup - it's just a recipe I used to drink as a child. It was made by both my maternal and paternal grandmothers and I've just sort of assumed it was the "normal" recipe. If I remember correctly, my paternal grandma made it once or twice with the addition of a big head of ham choi as well, something akin to duck/ham choi tong.

Zhu zhang - definitely not pork knuckle, which is zhu kyok or zhu sao (translated directly as pig leg or pig hand). I think Dejah is right - it is the part above the knuckle, I think the leg. I asked the question because I normally buy my pork from my regular butcher at the wet market and local terms are sometimes tricky to corelate to the Western terms. Asian And Western cuts / styles of butchery are also slightly different, due to difference in cooking methods. As such, I usually go to a speciality butcher shop to get my "Western" cuts.

OB

[liuzhou]

Does anyone know the characters for this Zhu Zhang? It would clarify things greatly. We all seem to be speaking different dialects! Or using different transliterations.

[Ben Hong]

Would it be pork hock, which I normally use...and it is dirt cheap?

[Dejah]

Would it be pork hock, which I normally use...and it is dirt cheap?

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closer...anything below the knee/elbow but not feet/trotters.