Chinese Eats at Home (Part 1)

[hzrt8w]

[...] I love this "Old Woman sauce"!!  (I told my non-asian friends what Lao Gan Ma means and now they call it Old Woman Sauce.) 

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The term "Gan Ma" in Chinese actually means something equivalent to "Godmother" in the western world. Not just an old woman. May be "Old Godmother" sauce is more appropriate.

Edited December 14, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[XiaoLing]

The term "Gan Ma" in Chinese actually means something equivalent to "Godmother" in the western world.  Not just an old woman.    May be "Old Godmother" sauce is more appropriate.

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LOL...yes, I know. I told them that the brand translated in english is "Old God-Mother" but they found that strange so they just call it the "Old Woman" sauce.

And they thought she looked like a man.

[XiaoLing]

Hmmmm....

:-b.....

What is the flavoring for this dish?

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The flavoring is quite simple. It's only basically three ingredients: salt, pepper, and thin soy sauce.

The reason why I kept it so simple is because the onions and the sausage is really flavorful so I didn't want to add anything to over power it. Its a really simple dish but the tast is extremely good and complex.

The key is to cook everything in steps.

1) fry eggs and remove from wok

2) carmelize white vidalia onions in wok with residual oil (add salt to help draw out the moisture and carmelize)

3) add sausage with onions and cook until sausage is done

4) add eggs back into wok to reheat

5) add soy sauce (prefer pearl brand) and pepper to taste

6) remove from wok and serve

You really get to taste the natural sweetness of the onions and sausages in this dish.

[Kent Wang]

Chinese cuisine is the only one that I know that incorporates scrambled eggs into so many dishes. One of my favorites is tomato and scrambled eggs. I'll make that in a few days and post pics.

[aznsailorboi]

dinner was Mu Pad Prik King, long beans and ground pork sauteed in red panang curry paste and loaded with kaffir lime leaf chiffonade and thai chili slices.

then I made a simple soup on the side, wintermelon and hamha in a rich flavorful broth.

and for dessert...tadaaaaa Ma Lai Gow with a tall glass of jasmine milk tea(not shown lah!)

my highlight for the night was the ma lai gow, i could care less about the long beans and the wintermelon soup, haha but they're all ok. the batter itself was sooo good I was licking the rubber spatula that I used to fold in the ingredients and the bowl. and of course the finished product was awesome.

sheetz the cake wasn't too dense, it was actually like an inbetween a buttercake and genoise, buttery heavy but not too heavy, like a genoise because of the millions of bubbles, created by the B.Soda and B.powder. I was kinda worried because of the amount of chemical leavening agent, it might taste funny, but it didn't, sifting it helped distribute the baking powder, so there were no chunks of baking powder. all in all it was very good. dries out really quick though. soo eat up, i'm such a pig .....i've chowed down on a quarter of the cake already.

[Dejah]

The ma lai goh looks perfect, and I guess it was delicious if you ate a quarter of the cake beofre you posted!

It's really important to sift and mix in the baking soda and powder really well. There's nothing worse than getting a bitter mouthful when you are expecting sweet,. moist goh.

Did I mention the addition of glutinous rice flour into the recipe? My elders told me to replace 2 Chinese soupspoonfuls of AP flour with equal amount of glutinous rice flour for that "chewiness" texture of really good ma lai goh.

[sheetz]

aznsailorboi that ma lai goh looks incredible! Some of the other cakes I've seen are an even darker shade of brown and I wonder if it's because they use Chinese brown sugar sticks.

My elders told me to replace 2 Chinese soupspoonfuls of AP flour with equal amount of glutinous rice flour for that "chewiness" texture of really good ma lai goh.

I'd never heard of this before but it sounds like one of those "tricks" that cookbooks usually miss that's needed to make something just like "ah pah" made it.

[peony]

Abacus Beads..

a lght dish for lunch or dinner...

it's a Hakka traditional dish for the lunar new year..

the beads are made of mashed yam stir fry with veggi...

[sheetz]

Eggplant with Minced Pork

[Dejah]

Here are acouple of the dishes I made over the last week:

Chinese Cuisine: Wei-Chuan's Cookbook series: black bean garlic chicken

(edited to change source from Ms. Dunlop's Land of Plenty)

It's different and "lighter?" the way I usually make it, and I enjoyed it very much.

Ah Leung, I added the chopped fresh chilis just for you - my Kylie touch!

Chop Suey: Wish the colours were brighter, but it was simple and went well with the chicken and rice. There were beansprouts, onion, celery, green cabbage, fresh mushrooms, and green onion. My daughter likes to eat chop suey the day after it was cooked.

Edited December 16, 2006 by Dejah (log)

[Dejah]

After my meeting in Winnipeg, I took a friend shopping in Chinatown. It was quite an experience for my Icelandic friend Inga.

Here are some of the items I picked up at the Asian grocery store.

Can you pick out all the items?

We also went to Maxim's Bakery (They're everywhere!) I bought lo po bang, dan tat, beautiful crumbly walnut cookies ($5.00/doz, the size of a silver dollar!), and a pastry with a duck egg yolk. On the way out of the city, we stopped at De Luca's, a well-known Italian grocery store. I've always wanted to go but never made the time. Not sure if this was a good idea this trip as I couldn't resist the persimmons, at $1.49 EACH!

I got home just at supper time, so we had a throw together supper with the ha mai har fun, char siu, and chow yu choi mu.

Hubby and I each had a persimmon. They were beautiful. The dan tat was for a snack later. All the other pastries went to my mom.

[C. sapidus]

Fushia Dunlop's black bean garlic chicken from Land of Plenty:

Dejah: That looks delicious, but I could not figure out which recipe you made. What is it called in the Land of Plenty? Thanks!

[Dejah]

Fushia Dunlop's black bean garlic chicken from Land of Plenty:

Dejah: That looks delicious, but I could not figure out which recipe you made. What is it called in the Land of Plenty? Thanks!

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Sorry about that! It's actually from Chinese Cuisine, from the Wei-Chuan cookbook series.

It's unusual also in that the chicken pieces are marinated in soy sauce, cooking wine and cornstarch, then deep-fried. The other ingredients; green pepper, onion, garlic and black beans are stir-fried, then the chicken pieces are added back to simmer and thickened before serving.

I had Ms. Dunlop's book out at the same time, and that title stuck in my mind...as it should!

[hzrt8w]

Ah Leung, I added the chopped fresh chilis just for you - my Kylie touch!

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But you used green chili not red ones!

[hzrt8w]

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Your persimmon seems a different variety than the ones we typically see in Northern California. So red, big, tall and pointy. Ours is smaller, light orange and a bit flat.

Hope your shopping bill is not out of control every time Dai Ga Jeah goes into town!

[Dejah]

Ah Leung, I added the chopped fresh chilis just for you - my Kylie touch!

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But you used green chili not red ones!

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Don't be so vain and put your bifocals back on lah! The green ones are sweet peppers cooked with the chicken. I diced and sprinkled the red Thais on top! Unappreciative scoundrel.

We can get two varieites of persimmons: the flatter, orange and firmer ones called fuyu, and these which become soft - hachiya. Both are products of USA.

[Kent Wang]

Peony, your last two photos are terrific; they really capture the textures of the foods.

Imitation pork intestine (wheat gluten) stir-fried with mushrooms and bamboo. Anyone interested in a pictorial recipe for this? It's pretty simple.

[Domestic Goddess]

Kent - I am!!! Please post and share the recipe please.

[peony]

thanks, kent..

walnut sweets : actually I dont know what they r really called in english...I just coined the word...

but they r made from walnut and maltose /malt syrup bind together. then left to set. Think easily get in HK and China.

[XiaoLing]

People have been sick with the 24 hour flu bug recently so I made the simple but very soothing chicken soup with rice noodles.

Of course in my bowl I had to add something spicy.

Edited December 18, 2006 by XiaoLing (log)

[hzrt8w]

People has been sick with the 24 hour flu bug recently so I made the simple but very soothing chicken soup with rice noodles.

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Looks good! What kind of rice noodle did you use? Fresh ones or dried ones?

[XiaoLing]

There's just something about eating a big bowl of noodle soup in a cold winter's night.

Ben-Let me know the next time you feel under the weather and I'll ship a bowl of this soup to you FedEx!

Ah Leung- The noodles I used are actually Mung Bean noodles. I was typing too fast and wrote rice noodles. It's actually dry noodles that I don't even have to reconstitute. I just drop it in boiling soup and it reconstitutes in the broth without any starchy residue. The usual mung bean noodles will deteriorate pretty quickly in hot soup but this particular brand I purchased is extremely resilient. It was boiling in the soup for a long time because I was taking care of all the other soups and grill cheese request but even with that much cooking, it still retained it's chewy texture. I actually don't have the package anymore but I remember that it is a red package from Taiwan with the letters "Q,Q,Q,Q" on it. "Q, Q" in Taiwan is used to described a chewy and tasty texture in food.

Here is a pic of the noodles:

Edited December 18, 2006 by XiaoLing (log)

[hzrt8w]

Ah Leung- The noodles I used are actually Mung Bean noodles.  I was typing too fast and wrote rice noodles.  It's actually dry noodles that I don't even have to reconstitute.  I just drop it in boiling soup and it reconstitutes in the broth without any starchy residue.

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Interesting! The mung bean noodles you chose seems quite a bit thicker than the ones we use in Cantonese cooking.

[Dejah]

Ah Leung- The noodles I used are actually Mung Bean noodles.  I was typing too fast and wrote rice noodles.  It's actually dry noodles that I don't even have to reconstitute.  I just drop it in boiling soup and it reconstitutes in the broth without any starchy residue.

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Interesting! The mung bean noodles you chose seems quite a bit thicker than the ones we use in Cantonese cooking.

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They actually look like the potato starch noodles used in Korean food.

[eje]

Your persimmon seems a different variety than the ones we typically see in Northern California.  So red, big, tall and pointy.  Ours is smaller, light orange and a bit flat.

Hope your shopping bill is not out of control every time Dai Ga Jeah goes into town! 

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Ah Leung,

You must try Hachiya persimmons some time! They are the absolute best. You leave them until they are soft, and then can spoon them out like pudding. So delicious.

If you have the patience, you can also leave the flat (fuyu) persimmon until they are soft and very ripe. Also quite delicious!

Nature's caramel custard.