Chinese Eats at Home (Part 3)

[Dejah]

Dejah - the soup of course looks immensely comforting. I am curious about the stuffed items The edge of the pepper appears to have some browning on it. How was the dish prepared?

Heidi: I pan fried evereything meat side down at med. heat, turning to brown all sides. Then with the non-meat side down, I added a splash of chicken stock, set the steam going with the lid on, then let it cook off to crisp everything up again - much like wardeep (potstickers).

Then I took everything out, added more chicken stock and scraped up all the bits on the bottom of the pan. Added some oyster sauce then thicken a little with cornstarch slurry.

[Dejah]

Can never resist eggplant when I see them in the market - so pretty! These have been languishing in the fridge, so I finally got around to cooking them up for supper. These I just sliced, pan fried until "softened", then stir-fried with sweet bell peppers, and a couple of leftovers from the stuffed trio I made a few days ago, with some toban sauce. Hit the spot as my students will attest...

[naguere]

Just great Dejah , nifty photos . After seeing those dishes, who would ever open a tin?

[C. sapidus]

Dejah – I may steal your eggplant, it looks fantastic.

Tonight’s experiment - stir-frying on the Big Green Egg. Advantages included abundant heat and breezes to carry away the chile fumes. Disadvantages included less than optimal heat control and awkward access to the wok.

I think I’ll stick to stir-frying indoors.

Gong bao chicken, stir-fried zucchini slivers with garlic, and jasmine rice. We had extra teenaged boys, so Mrs. C made bacon and then fried crescent roll dough in the bacon grease.

[Dejah]

Bruce: What do you use for your gong bao chicken? Dried chilis and black beans? Any toba sauce? cashews, eh? My hubby would like that...

[C. sapidus]

Bruce: What do you use for your gong bao chicken? Dried chilis and black beans? Any toba sauce? cashews, eh? My hubby would like that...

Cashews instead of peanuts because that is what we had, but otherwise straight from Fuchsia Dunlop's Land of Plenty - recipe here:

http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/cooking/

Edit: It was pretty zippy - much rice was consumed, and a few glasses of milk . . .

Edited November 17, 2012 by C. sapidus (log)

[Dejah]

Haven't made this for a long time! This was #112 on my Soo's Restaurant menu.

Shanghai noodles with char siu, shrimp, sweet bell peppers, green onion, oyster sauce, sweet /hot chili sauce, beansprouts at the last minute.

The "heat" may be adjusted to diner's tolerance...

[liuzhou]

More years ago then I wish to remember, I studied in Xi'an, home of the Terracotta Warriors.

For the year that I was there, I survived mainly on 牛肉孜然夹馍, or beef and cumin sandwiches. These were known to the expat-community and the more savvy Chinese students as "Xi'an hamburgers". Lamb versions were also available, but pork was rare as Xi'an has a large Muslim population.

All these years later,I have occasional cravings so I make them myself. And that's what happened last night

The first thing I have to find is the correct bread. Fortunately, a couple of local supermarket bakeries do them.

The are sort of like somewhat chewy pita bread.

Then then I get my beef, slice it across the grain and marinate it in garlic, ground cumin, a Thai chilli pepper,Chinese rice wine, light soy sauce and a splash of dark soy sauce. This lot sat for about two hours.

Just before cooking, I get a green chilli pepper and slice it diagonally

and chop some Chinese chives.

The meat is then stir fried till nearly tender, the green chilli is added then the marinade is added. If it begins to dry out, a splash of water helps.

The bread is opened.

The Chinese chives are scattered across the meat mixture and it is carefully placed on one side of the bread.

I wrap them in a piece of kitchen paper as they are juicy and can get messy.

Eat then assemble another one!. After that, finish dinner off with a lovely bowl of strawberries and cream. It's strawberry season in China

Edited November 21, 2012 by liuzhou (log)

[rotuts]

why use both light and dark soy? Ive never understood this. dont you just get 'soy' flavor as the darker cancels out the light?

[liuzhou]

why use both light and dark soy? Ive never understood this. dont you just get 'soy' flavor as the darker cancels out the light?

They don't cancel out. The light gives flavour. The dark gives colour. lt is a very common combination in Chinese cuisine. I would say, in this dish, I use about 80% light and 20% dark. I'm not a careful measurer.

[liuzhou]

Dark soy sauce does have less salt, but low salt varieties of light are available here. Don't know about where you are.

[Dejah]

That cumin beef looks great! Wish we could get the buns here, but maybe I should make some using mantou dough. It would be good even with naan. I actually enjoy cumin lamb more, a drier version. Do you use whole cumin seeds at all? I like crunching down on them.

You don't cook the Chinese chives?

[liuzhou]

Yes, naan would work, although if I were home in the UK I'd use pita bread. Lamb works great with cumin, but I can't buy it here in sensible quantities. They only sell it wholesale to restaurants and you have to buy half the critter.

The Chinese chives sort of wilt/cook in the residual heat. I find they keep a fresher taste this way.

[Dejah]

Yes, naan would work, although if I were home in the UK I'd use pita bread. Lamb works great with cumin, but I can't buy it here in sensible quantities. They only sell it wholesale to restaurants and you have to buy half the critter.

The Chinese chives sort of wilt/cook in the residual heat. I find they keep a fresher taste this way.

True about the chives. Same goes for scallions, I guess.

For supper tonight: Toisanese style Fun See with shrimp, char siu, and moo gwa (hairy squash).

I can eat the whole plateful myself!

[Dejah]

Yesterday, when I took some of the set-aside fun see for my students, it was the first time they've had it Toisanese style. They've all eaten "Ants Climb the Tree" or in soup.

One of my students is "true Shanghainese", as she calls herself. She saw my Shanghai noodles and said the REAL Shanghai noodles were chunky, not like the ones I used. Can anyone enlighten me? I would love to be able to make it "authentic"...THAT word can start quite a discussion.

[liuzhou]

"Shanghai noodles" (上海粗面) are usually much thicker. Japanese Udon are the nearest equivalent I can think of.

[liuzhou]

Sorry. I should clarify. "Shanghai noodles" doesn't just mean noodles from Shanghai. You can get any kind of noodles in Shanghai.

"Shanghai noodles" are a specific type of noodles, found all over China, but especially in Shanghai. They are almost identical to the Japanese udon noodles.

Here are some I bought locally, 1,415 km from Shanghai.

I'm guessing that is what your student was referring to.

[liuzhou]

I'm copying this over from the Dinner thread as it fits in both. And hopefully to give this thread a bit of a prod.

Steamed Japanese Sea Bass (Lateolabrax japonicus) or Suzuki. In Chinese, 海鲈 (sea perch.) Although it's called Japanese, it is the most common sea bass in China too.

Mr Fish - all 570g of hm (before gutting)

Mr Fish gutted, descaled, rubbed with salt and stuffed with black garlic and ginger in the cavity and in the slits cut in the flesh. Sprinkled with chilli. Almost ready for the steamer. Will be dribbled with a little Shaoxing wine and soy sauce.

Spinach cleaned and ready for wilting / stir frying

Steamed fish garnished with Chinese chives and coriander leaf, ready to eat.

Dinner (fish, rice and spinach.)

(Please ignore the sour plum sauce left on the side from lunch time.)

Edited December 16, 2012 by liuzhou (log)

[Dejah]

Been hankering for dishes from our Canadian Chinese food menu from Soo's Restaurant:

#17 - deep fried pork spareribs - egg wash, coated with cracker meal, deep fried. Yummy chew! I have seen restaurants list these as Bon Bons in their appetizer section.

Simmered with our special sweet 'n' sour sauce, #17 became #13:

One of our daughter's favourite comfort foods: Beef and tomato with egg. Gotta have LOTS of steamed rice with this...

Simple lotus root soup - not quite as rich as the one posted by another eguletteer in the dinner thread.

[huiray]

Hainanese Chicken Rice for dinner tonight.

See: http://egullet.org/p1902527 for pic & description.

[huiray]

Some recent Chinese-type soups:

http://egullet.org/p1901720

• Lotus root soup w/ pork ribs & etc.

http://egullet.org/p1901252

• "Bak Kut Teh" ("Pork bone tea").

• Beef short rib soup w/ daikon & snow fungus .

• "Harm Choy Tong" (Pickled sour mustard soup ) with chicken.

• Soupy braise of sliced pork belly & salted turnip .

[huiray]

Some Chinese-type noodle soups or noodles-with-soups:

http://egullet.org/p1901166

• Malaysian-Chinese type: a sort-of "Penang Har mee"; a.k.a. Prawn noodle soup.

http://egullet.org/p1901503

• Roast duck, wontons, tofu puffs noodle soup.

http://egullet.org/p1901682

• Fish balls & spinach w/ wheat noodles in soup.

[Snadra]

...

One of our daughter's favourite comfort foods: Beef and tomato with egg. Gotta have LOTS of steamed rice with this...

This looks delicious! I'd love a recipe!

[huiray]

A couple of steamed fish dishes:

Cantonese-style steamed big mouth bass:

Full post: http://egullet.org/p1901465

Teochew-style steamed black sea bass:

Full post: http://egullet.org/p1903429

(also angled luffa & snow fungus soup)

Edited January 1, 2013 by huiray (log)

[huiray]

Another batch of Bak Kut Teh, with baby back ribs:

Full post: http://egullet.org/p1903156

Edited January 1, 2013 by huiray (log)