Chinese Eats at Home (Part 2)

[prasantrin]

This is my "semi home-made".

In Cantonese cooking there is a dish called "yau lum gai", which literally means "oil poured over chicken".  The basic idea is laying some shredded green onions on top of a cooked and chopped chicken, and then splashing on some fumingly hot oil, and followed by dashing in some light soy sauce.

Some restaurants make the chicken steamed, some deep-fried.  Mine was a store-bought Cantonese Fried Chicken, chopped.  And I did the easy part. 

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This is one of my favourite dishes! Could you tell me the name of the steamed version? I prefer the steamed one, but it's not usually on the menu of the restaurants I frequent (the fried one is). They sometimes let us special order things, though, so I could ask for it by name, it would be helpful. I've tried ordering it by asking for the fried one, but for them to steam the chicken, but the last time I did that I got steamed boneless skinless chicken breast pieces that were steamed in a dish with the oil and soy sauce, or something like that. Not what I wanted for sure!

[Dejah]

Rona:

You can ask for "bak jam gai" - literally "white chopped chicken". This is poached and usually served with fine threads of ginger and shredded scallions. Or, you might ask for "yeem sui gai" - salty water chicken". This is the yellow-coloured cooked chicken you'd see hanging at the BBQ shop at Sun Wah and other BBQ places. When I buy this, it always comes with little containers of grated ginger in seasoned oil.

Ah Leung has a pictorial on the latter if you want to make it yourself.

[Dejah]

A grim, reassuring meal, on a cold evening in September, when we're homesick and bored and poor and in immigration limbo and wish we were anywhere but in the middle of Canada and not happy at all and we eat food to comfort us and make us feel at home in a place we don't feel at home:

Dylan: I'm sorry that you are feeling so lost in your new home. It must be difficult to leave all that is familiar to you.

You mentioned being in the middle of Canada. Are you on the prairies? Are there no other Chinese people in your area? What about Chinese restaurants? If you search them out, I am sure they would try to make you feel at home, and maybe even cook you something that is familiar.

Look on the bright side, you can really explore your cooking skills, and adapt your recipes to whatever ingredients are available here. These days, most of what we need for homestyle cooking is available, even in small cities like mine - with only +45,000 people. Imagine what it was like for those who came before you! We had access to only cabbage, onions, celery, and dried and preserved ingredients are what we were able to bring with us when we left China.

By the way, your "reassuring meal" does look reassuring, and delicious!

As it is fall weather, I am preparing "Red-Cooked Beef Shortribs" from a new book: The Shun Lee Cookbook.

Good Grief! I just checked the ingredients and it calls for five (5) cups dry sherry or red wine for 2.5 pounds of shortribs!

It'll be more like "Drunken Beef Shortribs" or drunken cook.

[hzrt8w]

.....Good Grief! I just checked the ingredients and it calls for five (5) cups dry sherry or red wine for 2.5 pounds of shortribs!

It'll be more like "Drunken Beef Shortribs" or drunken cook.

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Unless they meant the tiny Chinese tea cups.

[Dejah]

The red-cooked beef shortribs were very good. I only used 1/2 cup of red wine (homemade chokecherry wine, actually), soy sauce, star anise, ginger, scallions, cinnamon, rock sugar, dried tangerine peel (sent from China!). For the last hour, I added chunks of lobak. It was braised in the oven in my sandpot. My Mom loved it, and it was even better at lunch today over cheung fun. The meat was tender, flavourful, and I loved the burst of citrus when I bit on the piece of tangerine peel.

[junehl]

made some char siu. Had my mother's recipe for the marinade, but was feeling lazy and used the flavor packets from the store. It didn't come out right, had to call my mom to see what I needed to add to the flavor packet to make it taste better. Thanks to mommy everything seemed to look and tasted pretty good.

Charsiu and Gai Lan

Char Siu Bao

Inside Char Siu Bao

Char Siu Fried Rice (had to use up the remainder of the char siu)

Dumplings

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June

[junehl]

Dejah, I think i'll try and make your red cooked beef short ribs, I have everything around the house, but it's been hard trying to find a market around here to get some of the cuts of meat to cook.

They're usually prepackaged stuff. And the closest Asian market around here is about 30 minutes away.

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June

[Dejah]

Dejah, I think i'll try and make your red cooked beef short ribs, I have everything around the house, but it's been hard trying to find a market around here to get some of the cuts of meat to cook. 

They're usually prepackaged stuff.  And the closest Asian market around here is about 30 minutes away.

June

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You don't need an Asian market for beef short ribs. This is the season when they are readily available at meat counters.

If you can't get short ribs, you can use beef chuck or blade roasts - something with some fat and gristle. I like the gristle part.

Your char siu and baos look great! Do you use pre-mixed flour or your own recipe for the baos? How about the dumpling skins? Commercial or home-made?

[Dejah]

Another version of baos: chicken and mushroom with lap cheung:

I think your bao pastry is fluffier than mine.

[junehl]

The markets around me don't really have those cuts of meat, the beef short ribs they have some, but it's not always in good supply. I can't even find a blade roast! I guess they're going for the precut boneless pieces of meat now.

My first batch, I had forgotten to turn all the heat up high, so the first batch were pretty flat and the dough was pretty chewy, but after I cranked up the heat it turned out a lot better.

Both the dumpling and bao dough are homemade it's from my dad's recipe.

The fiance really likes his baos fluffy, so next time i may try more milk or maybe use a combination of cake flour and all purpose flour to make it even fluffier.

your baos look great, i think my mom would like your filling a lot. She loves mushrooms and lap cheung,

We used to make the dai bao. with pork, lap cheung, and egg. or the gai yze bao? Egg custard with coconut milk which I love.

We used to spread that egg custard over sticky rice. and sometimes sprinkle some toasted coconut and sesame seed on top.

[Dejah]

The markets around me don't really have those cuts of meat, the beef short ribs they have some, but it's not always in good supply.  I can't even find a blade roast!  I guess they're going for the precut boneless pieces of meat now.

Both the dumpling and bao dough are homemade it's from my dad's recipe. 

The fiance really likes his baos fluffy, so next time i may try more milk or maybe use a combination of cake flour and all purpose flour to make it even fluffier.

your baos look great, i think my mom would like your filling a lot.  She loves mushrooms and lap cheung,

We used to make the dai bao.  with pork, lap cheung, and egg. or the gai yze bao?  Egg custard with coconut milk which I love. 

We used to spread that egg custard over sticky rice.  and sometimes sprinkle some toasted coconut and sesame seed on top.

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June: Would you share your Dad's bao recipe?

Boneless pieces are ok. Just don't use "stewing beef". I find they fall apart, but stringy and never melt in your mouth yummy. It's the bits of fat and gristle that makes red-braised beef so delicious.

Our Soby's had leg of pork on sale @ 1.00/lb. I use this cut for red-braised pork when I can't get pork belly. These cuts were skin-on. This layer really melts in your mouth, oozing-down-your- chin goodness, cholesterol, and saturated fats!

[Ce'nedra]

Ok I just figured out how to do it lol!

Anyway, here is one of my more successful meals (trust me, I've had so many failures I lost count). Everyone on the dinner table seemed to like it so I guess this one is ok to share haha.

My homemade Claypot Chicken Rice!

[Trikko]

made some char siu.  Had my mother's recipe for the marinade, but was feeling lazy and used the flavor packets from the store.  It didn't come out right, had to call my mom to see what I needed to add to the flavor packet to make it taste better.  Thanks to mommy everything seemed to look and tasted pretty good.

Inside Char Siu Bao

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June

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I didn't think I was hungry until I saw that!

I just made my first char siu tonight, and I think I now have my next adventure. Were those steamed or baked?

[Ce'nedra]

I have been really lazy lately.  More so than usual so my camera has been sitting in the corner collecting dust and looking very cross at me. 

So, the other day I was craving Korean food and I figured I would make a Chinese/Korean mock bibimbap with whatever ingredients I had in my fridge.

I made a quick shredded beef with diakon radish stir fry and then fried an egg.  Simple, not really Korean since the beef was a Chinese but non the less it had some Korean flavors.  It was very, very good and satisfied my craving.

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Ohh so cool! Do you have a recipe?

[Ce'nedra]

Kinda quiet around here – is everyone still recovering from CNY?

Tonight we cooked our first meal from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province. The fish was delish – rainbow trout fried and then braised with chile bean paste, chile flakes, ginger, garlic, vinegar, dark soy and a cup of chicken stock, all cooked down to a glaze and finished with Thai basil, scallions, and sesame oil. Mrs. C would been satisfied with the stir-fried bell peppers, flavored with garlic, salted black beans, vinegar, chicken stock, and sesame oil.

While cooking dinner, I enjoyed the intoxicating aroma of beef braising slowly with ginger, cinnamon, star anise, and chiles. That will be Tuesday night’s dinner. The soup was delicious, but not Chinese.

Tangerine Island dry-braised fish (ju shou gan shao yu); stir-fried peppers with black beans and garlic (dou chi chao la jiao); beet, carrot, and turnip soup; and jasmine rice.

...

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OMG I saw that book on sale and I was contemplating on whether or not to buy it...now that I'm back, it's ALL gone! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

[junehl]

Trikko - those buns were steamed, I've fried, but have yet to try and bake the buns using this recipe. I've baked bao before, but I was using another dough that had yeast in it.

Ce'nedra - The claypot chicken rice looks good, reminds me i need to go get lap cheung. We used to make something like that with black mushroom, chicken, and lap cheung, but we get lazy and just throw it all into the rice cooker.

Dejah - Of course. A word of caution on it, my dad used to make the bao for the restaurant, and he's an oldtimer, so he never subscribed to using concrete measurements (cups, tsps, etc). He used the serving bowls. So when I first got the recipe, it was 3 large serving bowl of this, 2 large serving bowl of this, and 4 chinese soup spoon of that. I've started to put better measurements around it. If it's not light enough for you, you can add some more milk or baking powder. Or even use some pastry flour.

4lb all purpose flour

1lb sugar

2.2 lb milk

10.7 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp oil

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June

[prasantrin]

4lb all purpose flour

1lb sugar

2.2 lb milk

10.7 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp oil

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June

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Thanks for posting this! I've been craving char siu bao since I got back to Japan--no good char siu bao here (but lots of bao with ground pork inside!).

About how many bao would that make? I'd be making my bao for one, so I'm thinking I'd get more than enough if I quartered that recipe. And do you really mean 2.2 lb of milk, or 2.2 litres? Or....

Care to share your char siu recipe, too? I have yet to find one that I'm happy with, even after going through all 5 pages of the char siu bao cook off!

[Ce'nedra]

Ce'nedra - The claypot chicken rice looks good, reminds me i need to go get lap cheung.  We used to make something like that with black mushroom, chicken, and lap cheung, but we get lazy and just throw it all into the rice cooker.

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Why thank you!

I've just uploaded the recipe here in case anyone is interested http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r2029.html

Edited September 19, 2007 by Ce'nedra (log)

[Dejah]

Ce'nedra - The claypot chicken rice looks good, reminds me i need to go get lap cheung.  We used to make something like that with black mushroom, chicken, and lap cheung, but we get lazy and just throw it all into the rice cooker.

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Why thank you!

I've just uploaded the recipe here in case anyone is interested http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r2029.html

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Just read thru' your recipe, Ce'nedra. I'll have to wait until the weekend before I make my clay pot rice.

A little suggestion for you to consider: Instead of cooking the lapcheung separately in a pan of water until the liquid is reduced, I would suggest cooking the lapcheung - whole - in with the rice. That way, the flavour is cooked into the rice. You can slice and mix when the rice is cooked and you're adding the other ingredients in.

Sometimes, I just make chicken claypot rice - chicken meat - bone in or boneless, marinated with ginger, salt, oil and cornstarch. Cut some lapcheung into slivers and add to the rice just after it comes to a boil.

You will have to reduce the rice cooking water just a little or the juice from the chicken will make the rice too mushy - unless you LIKE mushy rice.

[Ce'nedra]

Thanks for the tip Dejah I'll definately try that next time. I do love flavoursome food -especially since I'm always complaining at the blandness of some dishes when I'm eating out ha!

Approx. how long do you think I should cook the lap cheung in the rice for? The only reason why I did it separately is because I tend to have this fear of uncooked meats bleh!

Your version of claypot rice sounds very promising! Have a try of mine and see what you think of it Just make sure you make alot of the sauce because that's the essential part of my version

Edited September 20, 2007 by Ce'nedra (log)

[Dejah]

Approx. how long do you think I should cook the lap cheung in the rice for? The only reason why I did it separately is because I tend to have this fear of uncooked meats bleh!

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I add the sliced / julienned lapcheung just after the rice comes to a boil. It is definitely cooked by the time the rice is ready.

[hzrt8w]

Approx. how long do you think I should cook the lap cheung in the rice for? The only reason why I did it separately is because I tend to have this fear of uncooked meats bleh!

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10 minutes or so will do. Bear in mind that the pork inside lap cheung is cured. Kind of like meat jerkies.

[junehl]

Dejah with your talk about red braised beef short ribs, i had to try my hand at making it. I went to the market and found a nice piece of meat.

The flavor was really good, but I had problems with the color of the meat and the liquid. After I was done cooking the sauce, it was nice and dark, but since I was trying to make noodle soup with it, I had to add more water to it. Also the sauce was very salty, so after adding more water it, the flavor came out great.

But do you normally brown the beef in the sugar/soy sauce for longer, to give it a deeper red color? The recipe I used only utilized 2 tbsp soy sauce for the initial browning. That could explain why it didn't turn out as dark as I would have hoped. Do you normally add more soysauce to the stock?

Also, one thing I found after it was done the meat was really tender, but so was the star anise, it pretty much broke into a lot of little pieces. I fished out what I could, but I was still crunching through chunks of star anise.

Red braised Beef with noodle, bamboo shoot, and carrot.

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June

[Dejah]

Dejah with your talk about red braised beef short ribs, i had to try my hand at making it.  I went to the market and found a nice piece of meat.

The flavor was really good, but I had problems with the color of the meat and the liquid.  After I was done cooking the sauce, it was nice and dark, but since I was trying to make noodle soup with it, I had to add more water to it.  Also the sauce was very salty, so after adding more water it, the flavor came out great.

But do you normally brown the beef in the sugar/soy sauce for longer, to give it a deeper red color?  The recipe I used only utilized 2 tbsp soy sauce for the initial browning.  That could explain why it didn't turn out as dark as I would have hoped.  Do you normally add more soysauce to the stock? 

Also, one thing I found after it was done the meat was really tender, but so was the star anise, it pretty much broke into a lot of little pieces.  I fished out what I could, but I was still crunching through chunks of star anise.

June

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June: I didn't brown the beef at all. I just blanched and rinsed it to remove any scum, bits and pieces. The recipe I followed used 1/2 cup of soy, but I didn't measure as I had more meat, different size pot, etc. I used as much dark soy (mushroom soy)as needed for a dark colour, then some light soy if it needed more salt. Added the star anise, ginger, orange peel, cinnamom stick, Sechuan peppercorns, Chinese rock sugar and a slab of Chinese brown sugar, 1/2 cup of sherry, red wine, or Chinese cooking wine, and about 4 cups of water. Brought all that to a boil, then added the meat. I put the clay pot into the oven at 275 and let it braise for hours.

If I were doing a whole piece of meat, such as a pork shoulder butt roast or leg of pork, I usually turn it after about an hour so the top is immersed then to cook evenly.

You can put your spices in a cheese cloth bag. That would keep all the bits out of your liquid.

Have never used the braising liquid to make soup It WOULD be might strong! I would have used another pot with water, then added enough of the marinade for flavour.

[rarerollingobject]

Breakfast - dou hua beancurd with black vinegar, sliced green onion, soy sauce and the lao gan ma chilli oil variety with whole black beans and sichuan peppercorns.

Usually throw in some preserved mustard tuber and a pinch of sugar too but am out of both. Now THIS is the breakfast of champions..none of those sugar-frosted soggy cardboard cereals for me!