Chinese Eats at Home (Part 3)

[handmc]

Sorry but I have to ask what is fuyo, is it a sauce or paste and if so, can it be made or where could I buy it?

[Dejah]

Fu yu is cubes of tofu aged in rice, wine, salt brine and spiced with chilis. It's also called "Chinese cheese".

They are sold in jars in Asian stores.

[Ce'nedra]

Fu yu is indeed great with the beans but I only eat it that way (smashed fu yu with sugar in a small dish for dipping the beans into) when mum cooks this seafood-tofu-long bean hotpot (the sizzling kind, not broth based).

Otherwise, a simple stir fry (as I described above) of the beans with a tiny bit of minced prok is just divine. One of the best ways to prepare the beans imo.

[Ben Hong]

Fu yu is indeed great with the beans but I only eat it that way (smashed fu yu with sugar in a small dish for dipping the beans into) when mum cooks this seafood-tofu-long bean hotpot (the sizzling kind, not broth based).

Otherwise, a simple stir fry (as I described above) of the beans with a tiny bit of minced prok is just divine. One of the best ways to prepare the beans imo.

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I do both quite frequently. Agree with your opinion on fuyu with beans...or zuchini...or cucumber...ong choy...amaranth...peashoots etc... drool*drool* .

[Ce'nedra]

Fu yu is indeed great with the beans but I only eat it that way (smashed fu yu with sugar in a small dish for dipping the beans into) when mum cooks this seafood-tofu-long bean hotpot (the sizzling kind, not broth based).

Otherwise, a simple stir fry (as I described above) of the beans with a tiny bit of minced prok is just divine. One of the best ways to prepare the beans imo.

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I do both quite frequently. Agree with your opinion on fuyu with beans...or zuchini...or cucumber...ong choy...amaranth...peashoots etc... drool*drool* .

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Ever tried it with toasted bread? I'm thinking of giving it a go

[CaliPoutine]

Gee, they look good!!!! I can almost smell the lucious aroma!

Don't go away until you give us a recipe -- you hear??

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Hi jo-mel, sorry for the EXTREMELY late reply. Have had alot of work to do lately.

There's no real measurement as it's a family recipe that my mum taught me on the spot so here goes...

1 tsp five-spice powder

8 drumsticks

salt

sugar

soy sauce

fish sauce

crushed garlic

water

* I know this isn't specific but there should be a good deal of soy sauce and fish sauce!

Maybe this could help...

Marinade for at least 2 hrs in the fridge.

Pan-fry the drumsticks (both sides obviously) until well browned. At this point, mix the remaining marinade sauce with some water (I'd say enough to allow the mixture to reach approx. 1/2 the width of the drumsticks).

Taste and season with salt/sugar accordingly.

Let the drumsticks simmer in the mixure until the sauce boils, in which it will soon reduce and thicken.

Serve with steamed rice (spooning the delicious bronze sauce over)

I'm looking for a recipe for Honey Glazed Walnut Shrimp, anyone have one?

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I'm not sure if we're referring to the same recipe...but do you mean the one with sweet mayonnaise sauce laced with honey? Like this

I tried to recreate this at home but we didn't use honey (which would be mistake #1 ) and the results weren't the same as the Chinese restaurants...although it WAS fairly good.

Very simple (my version at least):

I used about 500 g tiger prawns, peeled and cleaned. A pinch of baking soda (hey it's not bad in small quantities ), mixed through the prawns thorougly and left in the fridge for about 2 hours.

Afterwards, I would dip the prawns in egg whites and then into flour. Deep-fry the prawns. Leave in a bowl covered with serviettes to soak up the oil.

In the meantime, mix the mayonnaise with sugar (add bit by bit according to your own taste). Just before serving (since you want to keep the prawns as crisp as possible), pour the sweet mayonnaise over the prawns and then sprinkle with plenty of walnuts. Btw, the walnuts are NECESSARY for the contrast in taste and texture.

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I just saw this reply now. Thats the one I'm talking about, but I didnt realize it had so much mayo. I have a bag of glazed walnuts so I was thinking they'd be good for this recipe.

[hzrt8w]

Ever tried it with toasted bread? I'm thinking of giving it a go 

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Go girl! I eat that all the time! Fu yu as a butter substitute... But I am in weird school...

[jo-mel]

CaliPoutine -- I thought I had put in the Shrimp/Walnut recipe that I've used in my classes. But maybe I didn't click on "post"?? (This was some time back)

(And thanks for the drumstick recipe. I will be using it this summer!)

The sauce I use for the shrimp/walnut dish is sweet, but tangy. There are also 2 alternate sauces and both have a tang to the sweetness. I like the one with the concentrated pineapple juice as it seems more like the one I've had when eating this as a banquet dish.

SHRIMP WITH CANDIED WALNUTS

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound large shrimp (31 to a pound)

Salt –( kosher preferred, as its roughness helps ‘scrub’ shrimp)

MARINADE: ½ tsp. salt

2 tsp. cornstarch

1 egg white

SAUCE: 1/3 cup mayonnaise (Hellmann’s preferred)

1 Tbsp. honey

1 Tbsp. frozen concentrated pineapple juice

3 cups oil for cooking – peanut, corn, canola or soybean oil (vegetable oil)

½ - 1 cup shelled, candied walnut halves (see recipe for preparation below) (or buy prepared)

PREPARATION:

---Prepare candied walnuts as below.

---Peel shrimp. Make shallow cut down the back and remove sand vein.

---Add a couple Tb. salt to shrimp and rub in well. Rinse well, drain, pat dry. (this step removes ‘gunk’ and refreshes the shrimp. Rinsing well removes added salt taste.)

---Mix shrimp with marinade.

Cooking:

---Heat a wok to smoking, Add 3 cups oil and heat to 350’

---Add shrimp to oil, stir to separate pieces.

---Cook about 1 minute or until they change color and become firm.

---Remove shrimp and drain

.

---Pour off oil from wok and turn off heat.

---Return hot shrimp to still hot wok and add the sauce, mixing to coat shrimp.

---Place shrimp on platter and top with walnuts. Serve.

CANDIED WALNUTS - 2 cups shelled walnut halves / ½ cup sugar / 1/3 cup water / 2 cups oil.

------Heat a wok, Add the sugar and water and stir to dissolve sugar. / Bring to a boil and cook on low heat until the the syrup becomes a little thick. / Add the walnuts and cook until they are well coated. Remove walnuts to an oiled plate.

------Wash wok, heat wok and add oil. Heat to 300’. Add cooled walnuts and stir until they start to become golden in color – about ½ to 1 minute. Remove and drain. Separate them when they have cooled.

ALTERNATE SAUCES:

3T mayo / 1/2T honey / 3 t. lemon juice / 3 T coconut milk

or

3 T. mayo / 2 T. honey / 1T. lemon juice / 1/2T. cond. milk

[Ce'nedra]

Ever tried it with toasted bread? I'm thinking of giving it a go 

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Go girl! I eat that all the time! Fu yu as a butter substitute... But I am in weird school...

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Aha! So my suggestion wasn't so whacked out after all! I guess I'll join in your weirdo gang

[Ce'nedra]

ALTERNATE SAUCES:

3T mayo / 1/2T honey / 3 t. lemon juice / 3 T coconut milk

or

3 T. mayo / 2 T. honey / 1T. lemon juice / 1/2T. cond. milk

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Would the coconut milk version be too heavy in coconut flavour? It does sound very delicious although I don't recall ever tasting coconut whenver I had this dish at Chinese restaurants (but then again, my tastebuds aren't exactly refined).

[Ce'nedra]

Ha cheung -cheated since I bought the rice sheets

[Prawncrackers]

Not posted on here for ages but tonight i spent ages making Gau Ji from scratch, i only made 24 but it took over 2 hours! How fast can you guys do them? It was a bit of bravado by me thinking i could throw these out quickly as a light dinner but it was past 9pm when they were done. They were really tasty but felt like a PITA near the end!!!

[C. sapidus]

Beautiful dumplings, Prawn.

Two-wok dinner from Land of Plenty: tai bai chicken; stir-fried shiitake mushrooms; stir-fried Swiss chard with garlic; and jasmine rice.

We were out of pickled Sichuan or Thai chiles, so I cooked the chicken with pickled Serrano chiles and a bit of dou ban jiang. For whatever reason, the sauce simmered down to a particularly concentrated spicy-numbing glaze with a hint of sweetness.

Fat trimmed from the chicken thighs gave the mushrooms nice meaty punch.

[Ce'nedra]

Prawncrackers: Your dumplings look amazing! Seems to be quite a bit of juice galore going on (YUM).

Oh and speaking of the time length in cooking, I understand your position completely -well, perhaps I'm in the worse position here...my cousin and I once had dinner at 1 am -try beating that!

C. sapidus: I love how your cooking always has this colour of 'exotica' going on -deep reds and lush greens.

I myself haven't been cooking for a very long time. Sigh...

Edited June 16, 2008 by Ce'nedra (log)

[Prawncrackers]

Looks like it’s just you and I cooking at the moment Bruce!! Come on guys I know you’ve all been cooking and eating lovely Chinese meals – we need to see them.

I had put this Father’s Day meal for my in-laws on the Dinner! thread last night but didn’t have time to add much of a description.

Chicken Rice – I simmer for 20mins then submerge for 40mins before taking out. My wife is put off that whole pink bone thing you get in HK so this way the bone is just cooked through.

Steamed Leopard Grouper (thanks Adam Balic for the id) with Pork and Mushrooms – my mum cooked this last week and I was so impressed with it I had to try for myself. Not as good though as I used frozen instead of fresh (it was a Sunday after all)

Braised Nyonya Pork – a favourite from Cradle of Flavour.

Stir Fried Choi Sum – with oyster Sauce and a little of the chicken stock. Picked in the morning from my mum’s garden, delicious but on reflection I didn’t cook enough. The balance of the meal i felt was a little off due to this.

Lobster in Spicy Tomato Sauce – they always spring a surprise ingredient on me. Luckily I hadn’t defrosted the big king prawns I was going to cook so this was an inspired substitution, they should come round more often!

[Prawncrackers]

Prawncrackers: Your dumplings look amazing! Seems to be quite a bit of juice galore going on (YUM).

Oh and speaking of the time length in cooking, I understand your position completely -well, perhaps I'm in the worse position here...my cousin and I once had dinner at 1 am -try beating that!

Thanks Ce'nedra, i didn't catch your post before i'd put mine on. Yeah a few of those dumplings burst and as i'd used quite a fatty piece of pork there was a lot of juice left in the pan. I poured it all onto the plate anyway, thought they'd be ruined but they were actually really good. Just different to the usual potstickers i do.

[judec]

Made red cooked pork shoulder for a little get together last weekend (around 15 pounds)

It was really difficult to oil blanch (sear?) the whole thing before simmering it:

It barely fit in my 14-inch wok. I was so nervous that I might drop it in the hot oil and end up in the emergency room for 3rd degree burns. Had it barely simmering in the anise-cinnamon-soy liquid for 7-8 hours and used red rice for coloring. Delicious stuff.

[kbjesq]

Looks like it’s just you and I cooking at the moment Bruce!!  Come on guys I know you’ve all been cooking and eating lovely Chinese meals – we need to see them. 

I had put this Father’s Day meal for my in-laws on the Dinner! thread last night but didn’t have time to add much of a description.

Chicken Rice – I simmer for 20mins then submerge for 40mins before taking out.  My wife is put off that whole pink bone thing you get in HK so this way the bone is just cooked through. 

Steamed Leopard Grouper (thanks Adam Balic for the id) with Pork and Mushrooms – my mum cooked this last week and I was so impressed with it I had to try for myself.  Not as good though as I used frozen instead of fresh (it was a Sunday after all)

Braised Nyonya Pork – a favourite from Cradle of Flavour.

Stir Fried Choi Sum – with oyster Sauce and a little of the chicken stock.  Picked in the morning from my mum’s garden, delicious but on reflection I didn’t cook enough.  The balance of the meal i felt was a little off due to this.

Lobster in Spicy Tomato Sauce – they always spring a surprise ingredient on me.  Luckily I hadn’t defrosted the big king prawns I was going to cook so this was an inspired substitution, they should come round more often!

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Wow. Your dinner looks amazing. Can you please tell me more about the lobster dish and how it was prepared?

[Prawncrackers]

For the lobster dish I actually used some tomato sauce that i had cooked for pizza the day before!! It had cooked onion, tinned tomato, tomato purée, ketchup, garlic and dried chilli flakes all cooked down a little then blitzed. So being thrifty i decided to use this leftover sauce for the lobster dish. It didn't have any Mediterranean herbs like basil or oregano so it was quite versatile.

Drain and clean the lobsters then chop them into pieces saving the livers and tomalley. Coat the pieces in cornflour and deep fry in batches for 1 minute. Put the semi cooked pieces in a colander to drain the excess oil. In a clean wok start frying ginger, scallions, garlic (and more chilli if required) add the lobster and enough tomato sauce to coat everything. Add some soy and a little chicken stock (or water) and sizzle everything down for a few minutes. Near the end add the mashed up tomalley and liver, this should thicken very quickly, as soon as that's cooked through it's ready to dish up.

The lobsters were sprung upon me at the last minute and i was going to this dish with big king prawns. But live lobsters take precedence over frozen prawns any time

[C. sapidus]

Two favorites from Land of Plenty: spicy braised fish with whole garlic (da suan shao yu) and dry-fried green beans (gan ban si ji dou), served with jasmine rice. Butterflied trout, three heads of braised garlic, and a delicious spicy sauce – what’s not to like?

I hand-chopped boneless pork rib meat for the green beans – I prefer the texture compared with ground pork.

[kbjesq]

For the lobster dish I actually used some tomato sauce that i had cooked for pizza the day before!!  It had cooked onion, tinned tomato, tomato purée, ketchup, garlic and dried chilli flakes all cooked down a little then blitzed.  So being thrifty i decided to use this leftover sauce for the lobster dish.  It didn't have any Mediterranean herbs like basil or oregano so it was quite versatile.

Drain and clean the lobsters then chop them into pieces saving the livers and tomalley. Coat the pieces in cornflour and deep fry in batches for 1 minute.  Put the semi cooked pieces in a colander to drain the excess oil.  In a clean wok start frying ginger, scallions, garlic (and more chilli if required) add the lobster and enough tomato sauce to coat everything. Add some soy and a little chicken stock (or water) and sizzle everything down for a few minutes.  Near the end add the mashed up tomalley and liver, this should thicken very quickly, as soon as that's cooked through it's ready to dish up.

The lobsters were sprung upon me at the last minute and i was going to this dish with big king prawns.  But live lobsters take precedence over frozen prawns any time

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Your description is even more tantalizing than the photo. This dish is on my must try list! Thanks for sharing.

[jo-mel]

kbjesq ----

What are in the two little sauce dishes -- especially the one on the upper left?

[Prawncrackers]

kbjesq ----

What are in the two little sauce dishes -- especially the one on the upper left?

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I'm afraid i have to take responsibility for that meal jo-mel! The little sauce on the left is my standard ginger/scallion/coriander oil and the one on the right is just light soy with some sliced bird's eye chilli. Both of them for the chicken dish.

[jo-mel]

kbjesq ----

What are in the two little sauce dishes -- especially the one on the upper left?

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I'm afraid i have to take responsibility for that meal jo-mel! The little sauce on the left is my standard ginger/scallion/coriander oil and the one on the right is just light soy with some sliced bird's eye chilli. Both of them for the chicken dish.

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OOPS!

Sorry 'bout that! I looked at the poster name on the side and not with the picture of that great meal.

It looks like chunks of ginger rather than shredded, or ginger just used as a flavoring in the oil --- along with the scallions. More like oiled ginger and scallions?

[Prawncrackers]

No no, the ginger is finely minced not in big chunks. Here's a better photo of that dip in the Dinner! thread. I use a fine microplane that almost turns the ginger into a paste, mix with finely minced scallions & coriander in a 3:2:1 ratio. Add salt, mix well then pour smoking hot oil all over it (use a bigger bowl than that pictured!). Finish with light soy. Bird's eye chilli is also a welcome addition if you like a little heat. Simply the best condiment for poached chicken.

It's really straightforward to make, just make sure to finely mince everything and use plenty of smoking hot oil (not olive oil) to take the rawness out of the everything. The worst kind of ginger oil has big chunks of raw stuff in it.