Chinese Eats at Home (Part 3)

[dcarch]

Instead of making meatballs, I decided to make soup buns.

dcarch

[mgaretz]

Tonight I made home-baked tofu with yu choy, red pepper, onion, cabbage and carrots stir-fried with a soy-oyster-cream sherry-orange sauce. Served with basamati rice.

[David Ross]

Deep-Fried Riverbarb with a sauce of Ginger, Garlic, Sesame Oil, Chili Oil and Black Vinegar-

Beef Chow Fun-

(Sorry the noodles are buried under the beef). I typically "velvet" meat in a mixture of cornstarch, liquid and egg white, but I've read some recipes that also call for a bit of baking soda. The mixture for the beef included baking soda, cornstarch, soy sauce and Chinese rice wine-no egg white. That bit of baking soda must have caused some sort of reaction because this was the most tender stir-fried beef I've ever had.

[David Ross]

Tonight, a Chinese-style treatment of Copper River Salmon. We've had, and continue, to have a very productive 2011 Copper River Salmon season in the Pacific Northwest. (Read about it here).

I marinated the salmon in soy, ginger, garlic and some "Crisp" chili oil with Soy Protein. Not sure where the "Crispy" element comes in, but that's what it said on the bottle. It was mildly spicy and didn't overpower the salmon. Steamed for about 11 minutes to a nice medium-rare.

Steamed Copper River Salmon with "Crisp" Chili Oil-

[Dejah]

Finally a supply of good long beans. Hubby is not a big green bean fan unless they are cooked with fermented tofu (fuyu - aka CHinese cheese). Topped the beans with stir-fried chicken breast and Thai basil flowers and chopped leaves.

First trip to the local farmer's market - not much in the way of produce. Everything is late because of the flooding in our area and rainy spring. I did manage to pick up some of the last garlic scapes and a big basket of local strawberries. Found a partial bag of squid tentacles, so stir-fried them up with the scapes, lots of ginger, and toban jian - chili bean paste. Loved that burst of garlicky flavour of the scapes.

[threestars]

Hot pot and BBQs + Spaghetti from a friend!

[Prawncrackers]

We had some Chinese friends visit this weekend. They live a distance away in Kent and it was the first time that we've had them round. Now it seems that I have a few signature dishes that I'm known for, especially Chinese ones, and every time I cook for someone for the first time it's always these dishes that they ask for. One of them also said that she wanted to eat till she fell over, so I was happy to oblige.

First up was lobster noodles and steamed razor clams with black bean sauce:

I don't cook with dried seafood often but I fancied recreating one of my mothers Hakka dishes for my friends. It's one where you simply steam some reconstituted dried scallop, cockle, squid and tiny fish with some ground pork - one of my favourites. I also made Chicken rice, golden sand prawns, choi sum with crab, mekong catfish (Ca Kho) and ox cheek rendang. The last two dishes are not Chinese but were special requests:

A couple of hours later when we could manage it, we had Matcha Cheesecake for dessert. Again, not Chinese, but with the Mah Jong made it feel sooo Chinese!

[Genkinaonna]

Wow, Prawn! That's quite the spread! That cheesecake looks especially delicious.

[janeer]

That is an absolutely beautiful banquet! Lucky friends!

[sheetz]

Gorgeous banquet, Prawn! I need you to become my food stylist--I've never been able to chop chicken as beautifully as that.

[threestars]

That lobster looks beautiful and yummy!

[Dejah]

Amazing food, Prawn! I am inspired to try my hand at the Golden Sand Shrimp, but it's easier to just order it in the restaurant.

For the crab and Choy Sum, did you do up crab meat in a creamy sauce?

I am intrigued by the steamed rehydrated seafood and ground pork. Can you give a little more detail? Sounds like a nice dish for our wintery weather.

I had a dish of lightly battered deep-fried tiny fish while in Vancouver. Really enjoyed it.

Another dish I had in Vancouver confused me. It was deep-fried chicken knuckles. Very tasty with a nice bit of crunch, but chicken knuckles?! Do you know anything about these knuckles?

[Prawncrackers]

Hey cheers folks it's nice just to be cooking again after my mandolin accident. Looking back at that meal there was a lot for just five mouths, it could have easily fed eight of us. I deliberately chose the smallest chicken I could find and pared back all the plates too. The number of hot dishes is probably the maximum my kitchen can produce! I think if I ever get round to hosting a Supperclub evening then this would be my ultimate home banquet menu, how much do you think I could charge?

Auntie Dejah, after poaching my tiny chicken I put some chicken wings and an Iberico ham bone to boost the stock and make a facsimile Shanton broth. I used this to cook both the rice of course, and the lobster and crab dishes. The crab meat was freshly picked that day, flavoured with the usual stuff and thickened slightly with potato starch. I'm not a big fan of thickening with egg, is this what you mean by creamy sauce? The steamed seafood dish is very simple but so delicious. The only thing to consider really is how long to soak each item. After advice from my mum, it was cockles and squid soaked overnight, scallops soaked in the morning, the little fish were really tiny and all they need were rinsing. It all gets mixed up with hand minced pork shoulder, some ginger, soy and steamed gently for 20 minutes. So good with rice.

Sheetz, there is a cheat with making chicken look presentable. No matter how badly you chop the legs up, just take the breasts off the bone, remove the inner fillets, press the breast down before slicing them on a slant. Now cover up the legs with the neatly sliced breasts, hiding all the carnage underneath! But that's not what I do, of course...

[percyn]

That lobster looks beautiful and yummy!

Prawn, can you please share how you prepared the lobster? Is there a recipe?

[patrickamory]

Red-braised pork.

My first attempt at making Chinese food in a few decades. I cook a lot of Thai and Indian, but never Chinese. However I was enraptured by Fucshia Dunlop's book of memoirs about learning to cook in China, and then I bought Land of Plenty.

So I invested in a Joyce Chen wok (from the recommendations on Serious Eats - a bit heavier than I expected), seasoned it, went to Chinatown and bought the few necessary ingredients I didn't already have (pork belly from the Chinese butcher - it came with a few ribs attached which I marinated, dried and deep-fried for a Thai snack), and Shaoxing rice wine, and then made Dunlop's recipe for red-braised pork (hong shao rou).

Everything appeared to be proceeding nicely, and the dish certainly looks correct (see photo ab0ve), but I wasn't blown away by it. I greatly enjoy fat of all kinds, but it just felt a bit too fatty, and not just in the pork belly but in the sauce. Maybe I should have degreased or reduced the sauce more? And the dish felt strangely underseasoned for a Chinese dish. I THINK I've had red-braised pork in good Sichuan restaurants but perhaps not, and maybe I was expecting a more assertive flavor profile, like many other dishes from the region.

The only other things I can think of are that the pork belly was not the best, or the Shaoxing rice wine was an off brand (Yu Yee brand - only $2.19 for 750ml).

My partner quite enjoyed it by the way, but I thought something was missing.

Any suggestions or advice?

Edited November 16, 2011 by patrickamory (log)

[Will]

Tonight, made a vegetarian "twice-cooked pork" (Ok, so it's neither twice-cooked nor pork) with fresh garlic stems (蒜苗), and some blanched bitter melon stir-fried with fermented beans, dried chili peppers, and some of the bulbs from the fresh garlic.

[threestars]

Oh bitter melon! I love it with beef!

[djyee100]

Any suggestions or advice?

This EGullet thread talked about red-cooked pork.

[sheetz]

Sheetz, there is a cheat with making chicken look presentable. No matter how badly you chop the legs up, just take the breasts off the bone, remove the inner fillets, press the breast down before slicing them on a slant. Now cover up the legs with the neatly sliced breasts, hiding all the carnage underneath! But that's not what I do, of course...

Clever! Thanks for the tip!

[sheetz]

Everything appeared to be proceeding nicely, and the dish certainly looks correct (see photo ab0ve), but I wasn't blown away by it. I greatly enjoy fat of all kinds, but it just felt a bit too fatty, and not just in the pork belly but in the sauce. Maybe I should have degreased or reduced the sauce more? And the dish felt strangely underseasoned for a Chinese dish. I THINK I've had red-braised pork in good Sichuan restaurants but perhaps not, and maybe I was expecting a more assertive flavor profile, like many other dishes from the region.

Any suggestions or advice?

I usually serve red cooked dishes the following day so the fat can solidify and be easily removed after a day in the fridge. Also, if the dish tastes underseasoned you can boil down the sauce until it's reduced enough for your tastes.

I haven't tried that recipe but usually Ms Dunlop's recipes are spot on. Could it be that you bought the wrong kind of soy sauce? Could you list the ingredients here for us to see?

[patrickamory]

I usually serve red cooked dishes the following day so the fat can solidify and be easily removed after a day in the fridge. Also, if the dish tastes underseasoned you can boil down the sauce until it's reduced enough for your tastes.

I haven't tried that recipe but usually Ms Dunlop's recipes are spot on. Could it be that you bought the wrong kind of soy sauce? Could you list the ingredients here for us to see?

Hi sheetz,

Here are the ingredients I used:

1 1/2 lbs fresh boneless pork belly with skin

2-inch piece of fresh unpeeled ginger, crushed slightly

2 scallions, white & green parts, cut in to 4 sections

2 cups chicken stock (just a homemade stock I had in the fridge)

1 tbs Pearl River dark soy sauce

2 tbs Yu Yee brand Shaoxing rice wine

3/4 tsp salt

3 tbs brown sugar

1/2 of a star anise (4 segments)

2 dried red chiles (not in Dunlop's recipe)

I will definitely try refrigerating & reducing more next time, thanks for those tips. I wonder whether the Pearl River & Yu Yee brands were not the best for the sauce?

djyee100, thanks for the link to the other thread - going to check it out now.

Patrick

Edited November 17, 2011 by patrickamory (log)

[sheetz]

Patrick, Your ingredients look OK so I'd definitely try it again using the suggestions I gave.

[Prawncrackers]

If you are looking for a more powerful flavour then you could try this recipe for Dong Po Pork in the RecipeGullet, posted by yours truly. In the Sichuan restaurants here you always get this more "glamourous" version of the dish rather than the standard red-braised pork.

Percyn, lobster noodles recipe; i always get asked for this. When i get the chance i'll put it up on the RecipeGullet!

[patrickamory]

Thanks for the tips guys! I'm going to try it again.

[patrickamory]

Thanks everyone. I made the recipe again, combining Prawncrackers's version with Dunlop's, and came up with this:

It was fabulously tasty. I only braised for two hours, and the meat still had a bit of chew to it, but in a nice way. The pork belly came from Eataly instead of Chinatown this time and was a bit less fatty, which I think was to my taste. The flavor of the reduced sauce was explosively delicious and unctuous. Looking forward to trying the leftovers tonight.

I've put my hybrid recipe below if anyone wants to try it. I was running low on brown sugar so added palm sugar as well (did not have any yellow).

vegetable oil

1 1/2 lb boneless pork belly, skin still on

2-3 inch piece unpeeled ginger, smashed with a cleaver or heavy pestle

3 scallions, cut into 3 pieces each (white and green parts)

1 whole star anise

2 dried red chiles (I used Thai chiles)

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 1/2 tbs palm sugar

1/3 cup light soy sauce

1/3 cup dark soy sauce

1/2 cup Shaoxing rice wine

1 1/4 cup good brown chicken stock (ours was homemade from an old Gourmet recipe)

Bring a pot of water to the boil, blanch pork in boiling/simmering water for 10 minutes total.

Fill wok with enough oil to half submerge pork belly. Over highest possible heat bring to 325-350 F. Put pork belly carefully in oil, and deep-fry top for 1 1/2 - 2 mins, then carefully turn over and deep-fry the bottom for about the same time, keeping temp in that range as best as you can, also maybe 30 seconds on the sides and the thicker end of the belly if necessary. Remove pork to a plate with paper towel and allow to cool. (Prawncrackers said to pat meat dry at this point but I forgot.)

Cut belly into 2-3-inch chunks, leaving each piece with a layer of skin and a mixture of lean and fat.

Heat 2-3 tbs oil in a Le Creuset dutch oven or similar over very high heat, add ginger and scallions, and stirfry for 1-2 mins or so; add pork chunks, continue to stirfry for 1 min or so, add the rest of ingredients (the liquid should just barely cover the meat - adjust quantities for your pot, keeping proportions - do not dilute the mixture too much with the stock), bring to a boil, then let simmer gently over a low flame half-covered or uncovered for at least 2 hours.