Chinese Eats at Home (Part 3)

[Prawncrackers]

I can only get frozen soft shell crabs and yes they are very wet. The only way round it is to thaw them on a rack or lots of changes of kitchen paper till they are sufficiently dry. There's only cornflour (cornstarch) in the coating and when I deep fry them it takes up to five minutes to get them crispy. It's kinda counterinituitive as you normally fry fish or shellfish very lightly but those soft shell crabs can take some serious frying. Try not to use too hot an oil.

[rotuts]

Interesting problem with frozen soft-shell crabs. I had to use them once, and it helped after they were thawed to spin them vigorously in a salad spinner.

[Carolyn Phillips]

Oh man, Prawncrackers. I want to go to your house and eat.

[Shalmanese]

Dry fried chicken wings -- 乾烹雞翅 Ganpeng jichi

Makes 6 wings

Mmmm, just made these. They were delicious!

[Carolyn Phillips]

Thanks, Shalmanese!

[Carolyn Phillips]

Made a wonderful Cantonese dessert tonight, just milk that is gelled up with fresh ginger juice. Easy and really delicious!

Ginger milk pudding -- 薑汁撞奶 Jiangzhi zhuang nai

Makes 4 servings

1 large finger of fresh ginger, either young or brown-skinned

Large pinch of sea salt

4 tablespoons agave nectar, plus more for the topping, or sugar to taste

2 cups fresh, organic, full fat milk

1. Grate the ginger. Squeeze the pulp over a fine grater placed on top of a small measuring cup until you have 4 tablespoons of ginger juice. Set out 4 dessert bowls with little more than half a cup capacity. Stir the juice and pour a tablespoon into each bowl.

2. Add a small pinch of salt to each bowl, as well as a tablespoon of the agave nectar, or a teaspoon or more of sugar.

3. Heat the milk in the microwave or on the stove until it almost boils, and then pour half a cup of the hot milk into each of the bowls. Don't stir the milk, as it will mix with the ginger juice and sweeteners as it pours into the bowl. Let the bowls set up, which only takes a minute, and don't stir or disturb them. Serve the puddings either warm or cold with a swirl of agave nectar on top, if desired.

[Kouign Aman]

Jioazi, with pork and cabbage filling

boiling before frying

Everyone creates their own dipping sauce

We cant get over our attachment to crispy bottoms ala potstickers / gyoza

Served with steamed broccoli, and these little gems for dessert.

I cant for the life of me remember what they are called, but the filling is black sesame seed.

[Will]

I cant for the life of me remember what they are called, but the filling is black sesame seed.

Tang Yuan?

[Kouign Aman]

tang(1) yuan(2)! Yes thats the name! Thank you!

[SusieQ]

Wow, this looks delicious! Thanks for the photos.

[Will]

A couple recent meals featuring a bunch of stuff from Fuchsia Dunlop's new book (out in UK, should be out in North America soon). Sorry for any typos.

This is what my wife cooked up last night:

Smacked Cucumber in Garlicky Sauce (Suan Ni Pai Huang Gua 蒜泥拍黄瓜) (p34)

Silken Tofu with Soy Sauce (Xiao Cong Ban Dou Fu 小葱拌豆腐) (p41)

Also (not from the book), some lotus root cooked with serrano and habanero peppers from our yard, a little soy sauce and mirin, and chayote shoots (long xu cai (龙须菜); lit. dragon whiskers vegetable), stir-fried with shaoxing wine, garlic, and salt.

Tonight's dinner, cooked by me....

Tofu "Bamboo" with Spring Onion-Flavored Oil (Cong You Fu Zhu / 葱油腐竹) (p46)

Stir-Fried Garlic Stems with Smoked Mushrooms (vegetarian variation of Stir-Fried Garlic Stems with Bacon － La Rou Chao Suan Tai - 腊肉炒蒜薹) (p206).

Pipa Doufu - 琵琶豆腐 (p78)

The tofu skin sticks (fuzhu) with scallion oil came out Ok. I made a quick stock with soybean sprouts and carrots; despite using unsalted broth and what I thought was a smallish pinch of salt, it came out a tiny bit salty, so I'll probably use even less salt next time. I'm not sure if they're supposed to retain their chewy texture (which I love in braised dishes), or if I needed to simmer it a bit more slowly. It did seem to take forever to cook down the stock. Good, but not mind-blowing. However, it's really pretty.

Got fresh garlic scapes, so decided to try this stir-fry. My first time working with this type of garlic scape( though I've used green garlic stalks before). Maybe I didn't trim enough of the base on some, or else they didn't cook perfectly evenly, because some of them were more tender than others. I decided to make some tea-smoked shitakes and marinate them, rather than use button mushrooms, which was her suggested vegetarian variation. I thought it worked pretty well - captured some of the flavor of bacon, though not the saltiness.

Lastly, Pipa Doufu (so-named because the little tofu puffs are supposed to roughly resemble the pipa, a Chinese lute) -- I really enjoyed this one - I've been talking about it ever since I saw the picture. Actually came out pretty well! I had thought about making it eggless, but decided to use a duck egg white since I had some around. The dish is kind of what I expected taste-wise, and mine came out looking fairly close to the picture in the book (at least considering that I don't have a professional food stylist either). Conforting, kind of like HK café food, with a typical gloopy Cantonese style brown sauce. I added a little vegetarian oyster sauce to the base, but otherwise pretty much used her recipe. Accidentally got silken tofu instead of regular tofu, but it worked fine (I pressed it for a bit longer than I would have otherwise). The puffs are slightly crispy after deep-frying, but become soft when simmered in the sauce. Great flavor and texture.

[Dejah]

Haven't been posting much - nothing as pretty or intricate as Prawn's, WIll's or Kouig's, but here's tonight's supper:

This is a relative of the wolf berry plant, except there are no berries on this one. The leaves are stripped from the stalk and used for soup. I consider this my spring tonic as they are very early. After stipping the leaves, the stalks can be stuck back into the ground for next year's crop.

I made a stock with pork riblets, added the leaves, and a salted egg just before serving. This was my childhood favourite and still is.

Saw some nice Chinese eggplant, so made Stir-fry eggplant with toban sauce.

We also had steamed spareribs with black beans...the sauce is so delicious on rice!

[Will]

My wife and I made dinner for my in-laws tonight. We have been trying out a bunch of stuff from Fuchsia Dunlop's new book.

First up was Smoky Eggplant with Garlic (火烧茄子, p63).

I've been intrigued by this one since I first saw the recipe, since it's so different from the usual ways (deepfried, boiled, 'xiao chao', etc.) you usually have Chinese eggplant. My in-laws say that they make a similar dish in Shanghai, but just seasoned with soy sauce and sugar, instead of the Sichuanese version in the book. I think this is actually one of my favorite recipes I've made so far (charring the eggplants is a bit time-consuming, though). It is also a good "make-ahead" kind of recipe, which is one reason I picked it. The eggplant has that same great smoky flavor you get from baba ganouj. I wasn't sure the seasoning would be balanced, but the flavors worked well together.

Second dish was fresh "dong sun" ("winter" bamboo shoot).

Since I think it's a bit past the season, this was a bit tough. I was trying to copy the recipe from a local restaurant - I stewed it in rice-rinsing water with ginger slices, jalapenos (intact, with their seeds), and a little salt / sugar. Came out with more spice than I expected.

Also, I made a salted duck-egg / white bittermelon dish that I copied off of a TV cooking show.

You cook the (cooked) duck-egg yolks for a bit in oil, add green onion whites and the egg-whites, then add blanched bitter melon (preferably white) and cook together; then add some water or stock. After the water cooks down, you add some rice wine (salt, if any more is needed, and MSG if you want), and finish with some sesame oil.

Then "Silken Tofu with Avocado" (鳄梨豆腐; p42).

I was a bit skeptical of this one, but it was pretty good. I'm just sad we didn't have any wasabi (fresh or otherwise), because I do think it would have gone well with it. Obviously, this isn't a traditional dish. It's based on a dish featuring tofu, uni, and avocado that the book's author had at a restaurant in Southern Taiwan.

Pictured also in the wide shot:

Fava Bean and Snow Vegetable [xuecai] Soup (豆瓣雪菜汤, p244) -- second time making this, but a little closer to the actual recipe this time. I thought it was pretty good. Instead of chicken stock, we used a kelp / soybean sprout broth, along with a little shitake soaking liquid. These fava beans were frozen.

I also found fresh "king" fava beans at the farmers market. I think these are the kind you find as dry Chinese snacks (with garlic) - they're larger than the normal ones, and a more brown-red color. My wife cooked them with scallion slices, scallion greens, and some soy sauce.

And, reprised Pipa Tofu (琵琶豆腐) (see above).

Earlier in the week, we made some vegetarian 'xian bing' out of leftovers. Tasted pretty good - I need to work on my wrapping skills still, though.

[menuinprogress]

We made our first batch of tofu (using Andrea Nguyen's "Asian Tofo" book) and have been really happy with it.

Here is a batch of Mapo using it:

[Darienne]

That Mapo looks so delicious. I'm making some, along with other dishes, for weekend guests. From commercial tofu. And it probably won't look so excellent either.

[menuinprogress]

That Mapo looks so delicious. I'm making some, along with other dishes, for weekend guests. From commercial tofu. And it probably won't look so excellent either.

Thanks! We use Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe and it has turned out pretty reliably great.

[LynnFoodies]

Hi all, sorry to interrupt.

I am newbie and I love chinese food a lot.

My favorite:

Kungpao chicken and something called five flavors tofu! (Sorry if I didn't spell it right)

[LynnFoodies]

One of my experiments... ! Noodle with mushroom..

Edited July 5, 2012 by LynnFoodies (log)

[Darienne]

Welcome to eGullet, LynnFoodies. You'll enjoy it here in the Chinese East at Home.

Google Fortune Cookies and you'll come up with lots of recipes and videos showing you how to make then.

[aznsailorboi]

hi everyone! this was dinner last night red cooked pork belly

and we eat it in this manner, slit a steamed bun, insert a slice of pork belly, top with pickled mustard greens, sweet daikon pickles, ground peanut with sugar and fresh cilantro.... i have the bowl of the braising liquid as my au jus on the side.

[Hassouni]

First time cooking out of Land of Plenty in ages.

Gong Bao Ji Ding, done almost exactly to recipe, except using thighs

Tiger skin peppers (winged it, but I learned the technique from the book)

And, not Sichuanese, but some steamed broccolini with oyster sauce and garlic oil

[liuzhou]

My favorite: Kungpao chicken

The post just below yours gives a recipe. In Mandarin it is Gongbao Jiding.

Five flavors anything tend to be what the restaurant boss over-ordered that day and wants to move. It changes every day.

Edited August 22, 2012 by liuzhou (log)

[Kouign Aman]

Two recent dishes with baby bok choy:

onion, mushroom, fermented black beans and bok choy stirfried, served with shrimp

onion, lots of garlic, sesame oil, bok choy. I couldnt decide if this was better as is, or with soysauce so I ate a portion each way.

[Dejah]

Cold season is here, so it is hot'n'sour soup time - any time, really. This is my Caucasian daughter-in-law's request every time she has a bad cold. We had it with some store-bought sesame pancakes - same as scallion pancakes without the scallions. I just fried them up in a non-stick pan, and they were good - saves me a lot of work and time.

And we had ho fun for lunch earlier, with home made char sui and soybean sprouts.

[Dejah]

One of the dishes for supper tonight:

Chinese mushrooms braised with oyster sauce and chicken stock. Meant to add tofu puffs but forgot: out of sight, out of mind untill too late.

Started with a wintermelon soup with diced mushrooms. Didn't take a picture. We also had deep fried shrimp and sloppy BBQ sauce.