Chinese Eats at Home (Part 1)

[sheetz]

sheets: Did you make the yao tiu? I want some and the store is closed!

←

Yes, I make my own. It's just a basic yeast dough with some baking powder for leavening. Other recipes use ammonium bicarbonate and I do that sometimes. My little Chinese grocery only carries these mass produced machine made ones from Chicago which are just awful. I'd rather fry up the Pilsbury dough in a can than buy those.

[Tepee]

Hubby tells me I need to record my "good settings" for the camera. Who's got time when all I think about is cooking and eating?

Yup! I am given 10 secs flat to be done with the shooting. Or I'll get a messy dish to photograph.

Most of the pics are taken at night. It's so much easier during the day with natural light. Anyone with suggestions for better lighting? I usually have overhead incandescent lights, then I try with and without flash.

I used to hate to take dinner pix because it meant taking under artificial lighting conditions; it is always more flattering to take pix in natural lighting. But, all is not lost. Adjust the white balance setting (assuming that your camera is not the most basic point and shoot) to tungsten or flourescent accordingly. I now have a good dSLR camera and a prime lens which I'm very happy with; don't need much light to take pix. Just got an external flash yesterday...a be-early christmas prezzie fm DH...apparently, a flash is wonderful if you know how to use it. Will consult my sifus this weekend.

Also, how can I centre the pictures or place them side by side?

←

Well, I haven't tried it myself, but I'm sure it's to do with the size of the pix. Make them smaller to fit side by side. Dunno about centering.

Photography is fun! To be more precise, FOOD photography....

p/s Tip: Most dishes look good at an angle of around 45 degrees.

Edited December 5, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[Pan]

[...]I made this during the weekend...ping pei rolls. The top is lotus seed paste and the bottom is black sesame seed plus winter melon. A very well-received sweet.

←

Great pastries, as usual from you! They look great, and I only wish teletaste existed!

[mizducky]

Heh. I haven't been posting because I was busy all weekend with totally non-food-related stuff.

I do make myself a bowl of congee nearly every day for late lunch/snack, including today as a matter of fact, but as they all look pretty much alike I hadn't bother to document them. Next time I do an especially nice one, though, I promise to post a picture.

(I've never bought or eaten thousand-year eggs before. I'll happily accept any pointers on how to select good ones.)

[peony]

You were busy and yet you made such a nice balanced meal? Lucky grandson indeed! 

←

huh? I though bento is an easy way out for a meal. I always have a pot of something in my fridge. so just fried egg n veg only ...or use whatever left from previous meals to make the lunchbox.

[Tepee]

Oh...I thought they were freshly made.

[Kent Wang]

I made scrambled eggs with oyster sauce. Is that weird? It sure was delicious.

[Tepee]

Ooookie. Was the oyster sauce beaten into the egg, then fried? Or was the oyster sauce drizzled on the fried egg? Haven't been using oyster sauce...ran out and never got any to replace. I usually season the egg with white pepper, light soy sauce and a pinch of salt. Hmm...oyster sauce, eh?

[Tepee]

Sigh....I think some of you must be tired of seeing my again. East Meet West tonight.

Carrot Pumpkin Soup served with Sour Cream

Chinese Marinated Siew Pai Kuat (Roasted Pork Ribs) done Long Time Low Temperature, then a quick and high heat stir fry with more dark soy sauce and honey in the wok before serving. Half-eaten pic.

Salad of Long Beans, Tomatoes and Starfruit dressed with sesame oil, calamansi juice, sugar and fish sauce, sprinkled with chopped toasted peanuts and sesame seed.

Edited December 5, 2006 by Tepee (log)

[C. sapidus]

Teepee: Your photography is amazing, and your dinners look delicious (especially the pork ribs). Please keep posting.

Our dinner may have been fusion rather than Chinese, but we had “Genghis Khan” beef and Sichuan dry-fried yard-long beans. The beans were nearly authentic (including ya cai – Tianjin preserved vegetable), except I used our abundant supply of Italian sausage instead of ground pork.

The beef was cubed flank steak with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sambal oleek, sesame oil, scallions, Thai chilies, and about a head of sliced garlic. Next time I’ll give it a bit more heat by increasing the sambal oleek or mincing the chilies.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why Chinese stir-fry recipes (at least those in English) often call for whole chilies? I understand that the chilies are supposed to flavor the oil, but that can be done much more efficiently by mincing (or even bruising) fresh chilies or by reducing dried chilies to a paste or powder. Those methods allow the chile flavor and heat to spread uniformly through the dish, rather than remaining concentrated in chile land mines to surprise the unwary.

ETA: oops, forgot the picture.

Edited December 5, 2006 by C. sapidus (log)

[Dejah]

Ahhh Tepee, you're so cruel to your Gah Jeah. I haven't had breakfast yet, and now, I want those ribs.

Whenever a recipe calls for chilis, fresh or dried, I always fry them in the oil before adding any other ingredients. This way, the oil is infused with the flavour and the heat. Otherwise, you're right, it's hidden until the unwary takes the big bite.

With fresh chilis, I do chop them or smack them with the flat of my knife, again frying them in the oil before anything else is added.

[Tepee]

Awww....thanks, shaya and C. sapidus. I guess I, myself, wished to see other cooking besides my own, which most of the time, isn't 100% chinese. I use grapeseed oil, hardly use oyster sauce, and try to use as much organic products as I can. The idea is half the time, we eat out or pack home (where I have less control...lol, a conscious choice), so the least I can do is try to balance out on the 'health issue'. But, that's just me.

On using whole chillies vs other ways of using chillies...I would suggest you start a thread on it. Never really noticed it until you mentioned it. Interesting.

[Dejah]

I made scrambled eggs with oyster sauce. Is that weird? It sure was delicious.

←

Doesn't strike me as the least bit weird at all. Does that mean I'm weird?

←

Sounds like an Ah Leung trick - oyster sauce. So, would that be considered weird?

[Kent Wang]

Ooookie. Was the oyster sauce beaten into the egg, then fried? Or was the oyster sauce drizzled on the fried egg? Haven't been using oyster sauce...ran out and never got any to replace. I usually season the egg with white pepper, light soy sauce and a pinch of salt. Hmm...oyster sauce, eh?

←

I don't beat the eggs before cooking. I just drop them into the pan, drizzle the oyster sauce and then stir it around a bit with the spatula. I like it more this way as the eggs are not so uniform; I like having patches of yolk and white here and there.

[hzrt8w]

←

This is most excellent, sheetz! I really mouth-watch over the yau zha gwai (Deep-Fried Dough(??) - how should we translate it?)

I never thought we can make it at home! What makes the flour expands and have such big air pockets? I must ask you on this one, as I may make this secretly (when Mrs hzrt8w is not watching)... what's the recipe in making yau zha gwai?

We sure know who are the Chinese bakers in our forum!

[Ben Hong]

Yau ja guay = deep fried devil. Legend has it that it was a private insult to the Manchu Dynasty used by some would be insurgents.

I have tried Martin Yan's recipe (don't ask me to link) and found it to be quite satisfactory. He uses alum along with baking powder.

[hzrt8w]

Also, how can I centre the pictures or place them side by side?

←

Not sure about centering. Remind me later to play with it and let you know.

For side-by-side: cut out the empty lines between the 2 image tags. (Sorry to be technical.) Like this:

Normal one picture after another:
[img=http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1165289518/gallery_13838_3935_51622.jpg]

[img=http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1165289518/gallery_13838_3935_4944.jpg]

For placing pictures side-by-side:

Pictures side by side:
[img=http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1165289518/gallery_13838_3935_51622.jpg[/img][img]http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1165289518/gallery_13838_3935_4944.jpg]

The result will be this:

Edited December 5, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[hzrt8w]

I made scrambled eggs with oyster sauce. Is that weird? It sure was delicious.

←

In the Kylie Kwong's "Heart and Soul" series, she showed exactly that: Fried eggs. Use an excessive amount of oil (but not as much as deep-frying), break 5 to 6 eggs and fry them. It is like an "over easy" but never flip the eggs. After the eggs are removed from the wok, she breaks up the yolks and pour oyster sauce on top with some chopped green onions.

[hzrt8w]

(I've never bought or eaten thousand-year eggs before. I'll happily accept any pointers on how to select good ones.)

←

Unfortunately the TYE that I bought in the US Asian grocery markets are mostly crappy. Dry (inside) and bland-tasting.

When TYE are flavorful, it has the "rotten" taste and smell. Like cheese. It may take some getting used to.

Skillful workers in HK can tell good ones from bad ones by a back-light shining through the eggs. But here, TYE are sold pre-packaged. Can't do that. And you can't pick and choose either...

[Dejah]

I always have to deal with the "steam" issue when taking my food pictures.  If anybody has any tricks (except waiting for the food to cool down), let me know...

←

A small fan at low setting softly blowing on the food from where the camera is will eliminate 99% of steam interference. So will judicious placement of background lighting, use a light or white backdrop etc.

←

Well, now that you have shown tibits of wisdom, you need to get your camera snapping and post some of your "stinky foods"!

Re-Chinese yau ja quay and alum: Is alum what we call chou fun - stinky powder?

Made them once while still operating the restaurant and had the big woks for deep frying. They were good while hot, but once they cooled off, they were hard.

[sheetz]

[

I never thought we can make it at home!  What makes the flour expands and have such big air pockets?  I must ask you on this one, as I may make this secretly (when Mrs hzrt8w is not watching)...  what's the recipe in making yau zha gwai?

Most traditional recipes like this one use an old-fashioned leavening agent called ammonium bicarbonate, aka "baker's ammonia" or hartshorn. If you've ever noticed a faint ammonia scent emanating from freshly prepared yau zha gai that's what it's from. The problem with using ammonium bicarbonate is that you have to rest the dough for quite a long time, at least 4 hours. I was in a rush so I made a basic yeast dough using instant yeast along with some baking powder to give it extra poof. Don't know the exact amount of ingredients because I do it by feel, but it's something like 1 1/4 tsp instant yeast, 1 1/2 cup bread flour, 1/2 cup water, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, some salt and sugar, and a tablespoon of oil.

Ammonium bicarbonate will make the fried dough crisper, but the inside will be drier. OTOH, baking powder and yeast will make the outside less crisp, but the inside will be moister and the time to make them will be much faster.

Oh, and I mentioned this before, if you're desperate and in a rush, you can even fry those Pilsbury pizza doughs in a can. They're not great by any means, but they still beat the stale ones you get at the supermarket.

Edited December 6, 2006 by sheetz (log)

[Tepee]

[...]

Our dinner may have been fusion rather than Chinese, but we had “Genghis Khan” beef and Sichuan dry-fried yard-long beans. The beans were nearly authentic (including ya cai – Tianjin preserved vegetable), except I used our abundant supply of Italian sausage instead of ground pork.

The beef was cubed flank steak with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sambal oleek, sesame oil, scallions, Thai chilies, and about a head of sliced garlic. Next time I’ll give it a bit more heat by increasing the sambal oleek or mincing the chilies.

[...]

←

Heh heh....I peeked at the Dinner Thread (yum!!) before you posted this and was just about to ask you (and Nishla, by the way) not to hold out on us.

Wow, you really can tolerate a lot of heat! Both the long beans and the Khan look and sound delish.

[Nishla]

My Chinese cooking seems to come in bunches...

Tonight we had bitter melon with black bean sauce and pork:

And some leftover braised pork belly from the weekend:

[C. sapidus]

Wow, you really can tolerate a lot of heat! Both the long beans and the Khan look and sound delish.

Teepee: Thanks! I do like some heat with my dinner, but the beef turned out to be flavorful but fairly mild. Heck, even our youngest son, the least chile-tolerant in the family, didn’t complain.

[Dejah]

My Chinese cooking seems to come in bunches...

Tonight we had bitter melon with black bean sauce and pork:

And some leftover braised pork belly from the weekend:

←

Oh Man! I need bittermelon! Not sure this thread was a good idea; it's killing me! The colour on the melon is wonderful. Do you blanch it before stir-frying? I don't because I love the bitterness. This would be so good on top of ho fun...or in soup with pork bones, ginger, chan pei, and dried oysters. Another item on my list.

How much is pork belly in your area? Nishla? I priced a piece about 3 lbs the other day: $25.00. Because I was cheap, I opted for pork shoulder picnic. It still had lots of fat and the skin intact. I DO want to try and make it like yours though.

I can hardly wait 'til the weekend when I can cook again. FREEDOM is at hand!