Chinese Eats at Home (Part 1)

[Dejah]

The Dinner! thread in the cooking forum is always an inspiration for meals, whether for a party or at home.

I wonder if there would be interest in such a thread with Chinese food? I know Ah Leung's pictorials are a great source, but it would fun to see what others are cooking(Is anyone else as nosy as I?) Somtimes we get really excited about what we cooked for supper and need a place to express that. If we have such a thread, then we won't have to look through every thread (besides hzrt8w's) to get inspiration.

How about it, folks? Shall we have a go at this?

[BarbaraY]

I'm in favor of this. I'm not Chinese but I cook Chinese dishes quite often.

Wednesday, I made a stir-fry with tofu and Bok Choy and served it with steamed rice. I didn't take any pictures but it was very tasty. I used some chicken broth, a little oyster sauce, some soy sauce, a splash of wine, and plenty of garlic.

Edited November 25, 2006 by BarbaraY (log)

[mizducky]

The Dinner! thread in the cooking forum is always an inspiration for meals, whether for a party or at home.

I wonder if there would be interest in such a thread with Chinese food? I know Ah Leung's pictorials are a great source, but it would fun to see what others are cooking(Is anyone else as nosy as I?) Somtimes we get really excited about what we cooked for supper and need a place to express that. If we have such a thread, then we won't have to look through every thread (besides hzrt8w's) to get inspiration.

How about it, folks? Shall we have a go at this?

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Oh, I'd be totally into a topic like this!

My experiments with my new little sand pot went on hiatus briefly while I got busy with Thanksgiving madness, but now that that's all over I expect to be playing with it again real soon now ...

[Tepee]

Splendid idea, dai gah jeh!

I am chinese but I only cook chinese 2 or 3 times a week; have been ta-pau-ing (take-away) meals this year And, I don't (get to) take pix of dinner dishes because, usually, it's done very fast and eaten even faster. Heavy kids timetable. Besides, stir-fries and braises aren't the most picturesque dishes to shoot in home lighting.

However, I shall be participating in this thread on and off.

[peony]

Dinner today.

Potatoes sauté with pork slices n onions.

this is a kind of stew made out of left-over in my fridge.

It is know as choy keok in cantonese. Basically, I dump whatever is in my fridge, esp roast meat. Add dried mushrooms and stew in a sweet n sour soup. The important ingredient in this dish is ' kai choy ' - mustard leaves.

[hzrt8w]

I wonder how Chinese Americans are eating turkey carcass jook this week? Raise your hands.

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I didn't get the turkey carcass this year. My MIL was there at the dinner. (Are you kidding??? Slap, slap.) The most senior person of the family got the honor, of course.

The "After Meal" is something to look forward to. (More so than the dry and rough turkey breast.) [Oops, did I say that? ]

[hzrt8w]

Last night's dinner, basically a repeat of the recipe presented in this pictorial:

Stir-Fried Lotus Roots with Dry Conpoy and Hairy Moss Fungi (連年發財: 瑤柱發菜炒蓮藕)

Exactly the same. Just added some dried oysters this time.

A wokful of "jai"! (Or maybe not quite. My mortal temptation is still on the dried seafood. Bow to the Buddha to beg for forgiveness.) Lotus roots, black mushrooms, dried scallop, dried oyster and black hairy moss fungi. Nam yu (fermented red bean curds) was the flavoring agent.

Really. They are all in there. The thing about this dish... everything turns out brownish color when cooked. Thanks to the red color from the Nam Yu. There is a whole dried scallop on the lower left corner, and a whole dried oyster on the lower right corner. Black mushrooms are scattered around. The black hairy-like thing is "Fat Choy" (black hairy moss fungi).

I know what I have been missing in my life-long Chinese cooking! Dah! I need to add some fresh red chili slices and fresh sliced cucumbers on top to add the pretty colors!!! While I am at it, I should just sprinkle a finger-tip-ful of Sichuan peppercorn/salt and some sesame too!

[sheetz]

OK, these are my first pics uploaded to these forums. I've been attempting to master daan taat (egg tarts) and today I produced my best batch yet.

[hzrt8w]

sheetz: Your daan taat looks fantastic! Which recipe did you use to make the So Pei (flaky crust)? I have been dreaming to make this at home some day.

[sheetz]

sheetz: Your daan taat looks fantastic!  Which recipe did you use to make the So Pei (flaky crust)? 

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Oil Dough

150 g cake flour

50 g butter or margarine (butter tastes better but margarine is easier to handle)

175 g lard

Water Dough

100 g AP flour

50 g cake flour

20 g sugar

5 tsp vegetable oil

1/2 egg, beaten

3 T water

Putting it together is just like puff pastry but I can describe my procedure if you wish. I used this Nordicware tartlette pan, which is a professional quality heavy duty pan and seems to make things a little easier. I also placed the pan on a preheated pizza stone to ensure the bottoms were properly baked.

Edited November 27, 2006 by sheetz (log)

[Dejah]

Here are some pictures of the food I've cooked this week:

Red braised pork shoulder picnic just after browning and liquids and spices added, ready for the oven. This was for my students.

after braising for three hours in a slow oven:

These baos were also for my students on Friday for their lunch. I made 3 kinds: char siu, Turkish spices Halal chicken, and Thai vegetarian for my Sri Lanka student.

I didn't get the Sechuan chili pork baos made. I got tied. That's the filling at the top of the picture.

These are the Thai veg. baos.

These are the char siu baos.

[hzrt8w]

Dai Ga Jeah... you are going to cause me to run out of the disk quota for storing pictures very quickly!

Tonight I am repeating the recipe that I made for your birthday:

Braised Abalone Dried Conpoy and Black Mushrooms (紅燒瑤柱鮑魚)

(Sorry for the steam-caused blurriness) First started by sauteeing garlic, ginger and green onions. Added a bit of salt. Dashed in ShaoHsing wine. Added chicken broth, abalone (like) water, dried scallop soaking water, oyster sauce, brown bean sauce, dark soy sauce, cloves, star anises, chan pei, and a bit of Sichuan peppercorn. Added abalone-like shell fish, dried scallop, dried oyster, black mushroom.

The pot is bubbling as we speak. (Err... as I type). Will braise it for an hour or so.

While I am in the kitchen, I treated myself to some sliced pei dan (I don't have pickled ginger at home, so these have to do):

These pei dan sold in the USA are sooo "so-so". They are far-cry inferior to those like what Kent had in Hong Kong Yung Kee.

See what influences you guys have? My dinner, my snack... Reading eGullet is dangerous! It makes me become fay lo Leung!

[Dejah]

Monday evening is one night when I don't teach an evening immigrant ESL class, so hubby and I were able to enjoy a relaxing meal. He wanted scallops, I wanted clams, and there was a piece of lemon pepper salmon fillet in the fridge that needed using up. So, we had all three!

I cooked the clams in black bean garlic sauce, the scallops were just seasoned and seared, and I seared the salmon in butter, then finished off in the oven. The Sri Lanka Yellow Rice is from the day before. I suppose only the clams can be considered Chinese. Just ignore the salmon and scallops.

[C. sapidus]

This thread is a great idea – there is a similar Thai home cooking thread that has helped many of us to share successes and learn from our less-successful attempts. I recently started experimenting with Chinese food, working from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty and Grace Young’s Breath of a Wok. To cheat, I am posting a few of our recent dinners, and welcome comments and suggestions from the wonderfully experienced cooks here. Apologies if I have mangled Chinese names or cooking traditions.

Cashew chicken and tiger-skin green peppers (fu pi qing jiao). I used Poblano peppers – delicious but definitely not traditional.

Sichuan dry-fried chicken (gan bian ji).

I think this was chicken with Sichuan peppercorns and dry-fried green beans.

Salt and pepper shrimp. I believe that eating the shells is traditional, but our sons prefer the shrimp to be shelled before cooking.

Gong bao chicken:

Dry-fried beef slivers (gan bian niu rou si), chicken in red oil sauce (hong you ji kuai), and tiger-skin peppers (fu pi qing jiao).

Some sort of Sichuan chicken (la zi ji, perhaps) with stir-fried bok choy.

[OnigiriFB]

Wah! This thread makes me hungry! I had Kai Palou (sp?) that I believe is a chinese dish. It''s hard boiled eggs, pork belly, and tofu braised in five spice powder, soy sauce, and dark soy sauce. Very yummy. It's my version of comfort food since my Dad used to make it for me a lot when I was a kid. To cut the richness I did a simple broccoli stir fry in oyster sauce with red pepper flakes.

I didn't get a picture of tonights dinner but theres a picture of the braised dish on the bad dinner thread since it's not the prettiest thing.

Dejah - I want to go to you your school! Could you tell me how you made the chili pork? I've always loved savory baos but get kinda tired of the char siu.

[sheetz]

Gosh, everything looks so good! And I need to lose all the weight from overeating this past week.

Dejah, here's my tentative recipe:

CHINESE EGG TARTS

Water Dough

100 g AP flour

50 g cake flour

20 g sugar

5 tsp vegetable oil

1/2 egg, beaten

3 T water

Oil Dough

150 g cake flour

50 g butter or margarine (butter tastes better but margarine is easier to handle)

175 g lard

1. For the water dough, mix flours and sugar together, then stir in egg, oil, and water to form a soft (but not sticky) dough. Add more flour or water if needed. Form into a rectangle roughly 5 inches by 7 inches, wrap with plastic, and refrigerate for 1/2 hour.

2. For oil dough, blend cake flour, softened butter/margarine, and lard to form a paste.

3. On a lightly floured board roll water dough into a rectangle roughly 8 inches wide by 14 inches long with the short end nearest to you. Spread lard paste on the bottom 2/3 of the water dough, leaving a 1/4 inch border around the edge. Fold the top third of the water dough onto the lard paste and the bottom third over that, just like folding a business letter. Pinch the edges to seal, making sure there are no air bubbles. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour, or until the fat has firmed up.

4. Once the dough has firmed up roll it out again into 8 by 14 inch rectangle and fold again like a business letter. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1/2 hour.

5. Repeat step 4.

6. Once again roll the dough out into a rectangle, but this time fold it into quarters. To do this fold the top edge to the center and then the bottom edge up to meet it. Then bring both sides together like you are closing a book. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate. The dough is now ready for use.

To make the tarts

7. Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut to fit whatever tart molds you are using. (I use this one.) Press the dough to fit the molds, making sure to keep away from the cut edges. Refrigerate for 1/2 hour.

8. After 1/2 hour the dough will probably have contracted a bit, so press it again up the side of the mold until it goes slightly past the edge of the rim. Gently fold down the edge of the dough to form a slight lip at the top. The point of doing this is that you want the dough to be very thin because it will puff up quite a bit during baking while also pulling back from the rim.

9. Fill the tarts 2/3 to 3/4 full with custard filling. (I haven't yet decided on a recipe I like) and bake in a 300F (150C) oven on a preheated pizza stone for 20-25 min until the custard is nearly set.. Turn off the heat and rest in the oven for an additional 5-10 min until set. Remove from the oven and cool for 20 min.

Edited November 27, 2006 by sheetz (log)

[Tepee]

It's dinner time here. Lazy Monday and we were too busy to go to the market this weekend....so very simple stir-fries this evening. The girls went out with their aunt this afternoon and doggy-bagged some char yoke (hakka deepfried spice pork).

Hakka char yoke

Black Bean and Black Soya Sauce Chicken fried with onion wedges and 2 slices of ginger.

I didn't even have any green leafy veg. This is leek and yellow capsicum stir-fried with dried shrimps (har mai) and garlic.

So simple. I'm humbled by the awesome meals upthread. Sheetz, what lovely daan tarts!!

[Dejah]

This thread is coming along very nicely!

Thanks for the dan tat recipe and procedure, sheets. That will definitely be on the schedule during the Xmas break.

C. Sapidus: I've just started using Fuchsia Dunlop’s Land of Plenty, and am finding it very useful in taking my dishes up a notch or several. The Sechuan dry fried chicken and salt and pepper shrimp look particularly inviting! Somehow, I'll have to learn how to use Sechuan peppercorns. I'm not sure I like them yet - maybe it's the grittiness that bothers me.

Tepee Mui: You are too funny!

You said:

So simple. I'm humbled by the awesome meals upthread

Ah-hem! Your meals look simple, but there's elegance in simplicity! I could devour both your dishes easily.

Last night, we had good old Canadian baked ham and scalloped potatoes just so the kids could have big doggie bags going back into the city. But, we did have fresh bak choi/carrot/celery soup simmered with a whole chicken carcass, dried honey date, and pork tenderloin slices. I used the outer stalks for the soup, and saved the more tender core leaves for a stir fry later.

Not sure what's in store for tonight. I have to braise a couple more pork shoulders for our final potluck/Xmas party this Wed with the students, so I may sneak some and stir-fry the bak choi. Exams start on Thurs, so the kids will need bolstering.

[peony]

we have boiled chicken smeared with sesame oil

sauté beanspout

and those little balls are rice balls.

the soup is from the water used to cook the chicken in it. Just add abit of sesame oil, tung chai and sping onion.

[Kent Wang]

Sheetz: Very nice flaky crust on those tarts.

Sichuan dry-fried chicken (gan bian ji).

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Beautiful! Do you have a recipe?

[hzrt8w]

Sichuan dry-fried chicken (gan bian ji).

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I always associate gan bian with beef. Typically shredded beef. I never thought of making gan bian chicken. I gotta try this!

Looks very good Bruce! You must like the gan bian style quite a bit as you have both beef and chicken (in the same meal?).

[Dejah]

This thread is coming along very nicely!

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You must be thrilled Da Ga Jeah! Just 2 days this thread is already on the 2nd page. Let's play catch up and try to match the "Dinner!" thread, huh? It has *only* 599 pages. Com'on, show us more what you got!

Where are the rest of 1.3 billion Chinese when you need them?

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Where's my gai mo soh! Dah say na lah! Ah Leung.

C. Sapidus actually posted several meals, Ah Leung. I'm glad to hear the recipes are in Fushia's book. I have it and will try the chicken soon. It looks like the Korean buldak (fire chicken). I saw that in the Elsewhere forum, and my Korean student brought me the spices for it. Man! We have winter now; snow is falling and staying. So, these firery dishes will serve me well.

Peony: The rice balls in your post with boiled chicken and beansprouts - are they solid balls of rice flour? I wonder if they are what we call rice cakes/balls - gau lan yuen. I have a package of rice sticks, and they need to be soaked to soften before stir-frying.

[Tepee]

Dai gah jeh, those are chicken rice balls. See recipe here and an article on chicken rice balls. A method of measuring how much rice you can eat.....by the balls!

Edited November 28, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[hzrt8w]

Dai gah jeh, those are chicken rice balls. See recipe here and an article on chicken rice balls. A method of measuring how much rice you can eat.....by the balls! 

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Are these the same as the famous hoi nam gai fan [Cantonese] 海南雞飯? There is no picture in the web page.

Question: Why roll the rice into balls? This would compact the rice a bit, right? Why this extra step? Just to add to the presentation?

[Tepee]

Yes, it is hainanese chicken rice, Ah Leung Gaw. Ahh, we need Ben Sook to spin a romantic yarn on how the balls came to be....like some dutiful wife of some farm folk packing a dozen balls for her partner to take to the fields....etc...etc....but wait a minute...isn't it the women folk who work the fields??

I think it's just some genius marketing gimmick which worked. The chicken ball shops are really popular.

Edit: Found some theories.

Edited November 28, 2006 by Tepee (log)