Chinese Eats at Home (Part 1)

[Tepee]

LOL, aznsailorboi, I like how your mind works as you put together a one-dish meal.

Doong at my parent's. We were a bit late, so I only snapped pix of the dishes which were still more or less intact. The others not pictured here at Pak Cham Gai (steeped chicken) and Deep Fried Fish with Sweet and Sour Sauce, and Kolrabi Soup with Red Dates.

Black Pepper Marmite Prawns

Stuffed Braised Duck

Edited December 23, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[Dejah]

A quick stir-fry with beef tenderloin, red and green peppers, zuchinni, onion, and jasmine rice. It's a late lunch/early supper. We've packed our gear and ready to set off on a 2.5 hours drive to play a 4 hour gig!

If I don't get back on line before Xmas, I wish everyone in the eGullet family a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Good Health, Fortune, and Great Cooking in 2007!

[Domestic Goddess]

For Christmas lunch, we went chinese.

I fixed Mapo Tofu for the first time.

Thank you Ah-Leung for the very informative pictorial.

And bean sprouts pancake (okoy) to cut the heat down a little...

[hzrt8w]

This is not very Chinese either. Dinner in Christmas Eve. Saving the stomach for the big Christmas turkey dinner at the in-laws...

My recreation of the Malaysian (or is it Indonesian) "Sam Moot" (???) - a sauce that is made from minced shrimp and chili, with chicken.

[hzrt8w]

This was made a few days ago:

BBQ Pork Stir-Fried with Rice Pasta (Lai Fun) (三絲炒瀨粉)

(Pictorial recipe here)

[Domestic Goddess]

Ah Leung - once again, I'd like to thank you for teaching me how to fix this amazing recipe (Mapo Tofu). I roasted and ground my own Szechuan peppercorns. After that, cooking it was a breeze. I gave some to my best friend (who raved about it later) and now am having leftovers over rice. I can't believe how good it taste cold too.

[mizducky]

Happy New Year, everybody! Last night instead of venturing out among all the partying drunks, I stayed home and cooked. One more whack at the red-cooking thing, this time with pork belly and daikon:

That should keep me in leftover pork belly for a little while at least. I've got some congee simmering right now, which I'm going to top with some more of this stuff.

[C. sapidus]

Mizducky: That looks delicious! In a similar vein (probably both of us were inspired by sheetz) . . .

. . . we made Sichuan red-braised beef short ribs with daikon, and stir-fried Swiss chard with garlic. We simmered the short ribs with beef stock, Sichuan chile bean paste, Shaoxing rice wine, ginger, scallions, dark soy sauce, star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and cardamom. After two hours we removed the beef, skimmed most of the fat, and strained and reduced the remaining sauce. We then cooked the daikon radish until tender in the reducing sauce. This was the first time I made a red-braised dish, but it won’t be the last.

I don’t have access to cao guo, so I substituted green cardamom pods. Does anyone know how the taste of cao guo compares with that of cardamom?

I had mixed feelings about skimming the fat – it had a lot of flavor, so I drizzled a little over the beef on the plate. Are Chinese braises normally skimmed and strained, or is that more of a European thing?

Red-braised beef with daikon (hong shao niu rou), stir-fried Swiss chard with garlic, and microwaved“Texas mashed potatoes”

[Kent Wang]

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That pork skin and thick layers of fat is so beautiful!

[peony]

braised soya sauce pork too with carrot.

[C. sapidus]

Szechuan dry-fried chicken (gan bian ji). Yes, again. This time we followed Ms. Dunlop's suggestion and substituted leeks for celery. Leeks are definitely better.

[hzrt8w]

... substituted leeks for celery. Leeks are definitely better.

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Bruce: did you use the American (thick) leeks? Or Chinese leeks (much thinner)? I have seen Chinese leeks occassionally in my neighborhood Asian markets. The flavor seems stronger. They look like big green onions.

[peony]

make more tang yuen on New Year day.

[C. sapidus]

... substituted leeks for celery. Leeks are definitely better.

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Bruce: did you use the American (thick) leeks? Or Chinese leeks (much thinner)? I have seen Chinese leeks occassionally in my neighborhood Asian markets. The flavor seems stronger. They look like big green onions.

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The tops looked identical to thick leeks, but these leeks were thinner - probably about the width of a stubby carrot. Now that you mention it, they did look like green onions on steroids. Does that sound like Chinese leeks? I bought them from a regular grocery store, but I did not notice the label.

[Gastro888]

Forgot to take photos last night! D'oh!

I made:

Cha siu (well, my dad did and sent it home with me)

Braised cabbage & doong goo with bacon in a chicken broth(super simple and tasty)

Rice

[peony]

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peony: where did the orange, green, red colors come from in your tang yuen?

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u r so funny.

they come from food colors

these are all handmade by me from glutinuous rice flour knead with hot water.

inside is a filling of tiny bit of gula melaka

the sugar syrup these balls are dunk in is made of sliced ginger boiled with rock sugar n water.

[peony]

er, you mean the tang yuen over your place are not so colourful ah ?

here is pretty common to make multi coloured tang yuen

[rarerollingobject]

A bit of a Chinese/Thai hybrid: steamed chicken and prawn snowpea salad with coconut rice.

The dressing was a potent mix of Lao Gan Ma, coconut milk, palm sugar, a dash of soy sauce and healthy sprinkles of deep-fried garlic and shallots.

The Lao Gan Ma is my justification for it being in this thread!

[hzrt8w]

  u r so funny.

they come from food colors 

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i c. no i never thought of food coloring. i thought you made them with water melons (red), catelope (orange) and honeydews (green). u have the exotic tastes, u know!

yes the tang yuens i have seen were all boring white.

Edited January 6, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

I made Clams in Blackbean Sauce

I added some mushrooms and thinly sliced bok choy just to give it some color and texture.

[peony]

i c.  no i never thought of food coloring.  i thought you made them with water melons (red), catelope (orange) and honeydews (green).  u have the exotic tastes, u know!

yes the tang yuens i have seen were all boring white.

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well, we did made use of plants for coloring food in the good old days, but it was tedious. So nowadays, used food colouring.

as for exotic tastes, my maternal grandpa is a hunter. Every fruit seasons wld hunt for wild bats, wild boars, flying fox, hare, deer, snakes etc. So from young had eaten all these and more.

we, as children wld catch frogs, turtles, quails and pigeon. no need to tell what we did to these poor animals.

my father liked to drink blood from certain animals,( r we a family of vampires ?) and poor grandma had to cook the slaughter animals or they go to waste, right ?

altho, I don't eat the great white shark, but wld eat its other relatives, so won't post my Lunar New Year feast for fear of offending .

[Dejah]

Would love to see your Lunar New Year Feast, Peony - just don't post any pictures of your father drinking blood! I remember drooling over some of Tepee's posts last year!

My food has been looking particulary blah picture wise, but tasty. Maybe I should start using food colouring! Hubby's been wanting hot' n 'sour soup, dong gwa tong, gnow yuk jing mui choi, even jee juk jing ham yu - a real change from prime rib, sweet desserts, etc over the holiday season.

[hzrt8w]

This is a picture of some Chinese leeks. I placed a bundle of green onions at the lower left corner for visual comparison. Chinese leeks do look like green onions on steroids, don't they? Chinese leeks are thinner than regular leeks but their flavor is stronger.

[C. sapidus]

This is a picture of some Chinese leeks.  I placed a bundle of green onions at the lower left corner for visual comparison.  Chinese leeks do look like green onions on steroids, don't they?  Chinese leeks are thinner than regular leeks but their flavor is stronger.

Thank you for taking pictures Ah Leung - that is exactly what they looked like. Cool, I learned a new vegetable! I'll be interested to see if they are labeled as Chinese leeks next time I'm in the grocery store.

I cut the leeks on the diagonal and added them to the wok while the sauce was "dry-frying" - maybe 5 to 8 minutes total cooking over medium heat. They turned out nicely, and I liked the flavor. Are Chinese leeks typically stir-fried, or are they also prepared in other ways?

[hzrt8w]

...  Are Chinese leeks typically stir-fried, or are they also prepared in other ways?

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Chinese leeks are used in stir-fries, making dumplings (e.g. potstickers or the steamed version), and soup (e.g. Red Braised Beef Noodle Soup) as well as garnishing - cut in thin elliptical rings and throw on top. Very similar to green onions.