Chinese Eats at Home (Part 4)

[Dejah]

[Host's note: This topic forms part of an extended discussion which grew too large for our servers to handle efficiently.  The conversation continues from here.]

 

 

Supper: Yeem Gok Gai:

Mock Fried Rice - grated cauliflower

Baby Shanghai Bok Choy and ginger

Edited September 14, 2016 by lesliec
Added hosts' note (log)

[dcarch]

Chinese eats at home?

Eats at home, yes, Chinese? Questionable. :-)

dcarch

Paper thin Chinese sausages fried in sweet vinegar and rice wine, on tofu

White and red fried rice, Meyer lemon flavored. (trying out some Valentine dishes)

[Toliver]

Mock Fried Rice - grated cauliflower

Dejah, can you speak more about the grated cauliflower? Did you use a food processor to grate it? And then I'm assuming the golden color I see on it came from cooking in your wok/pan, correct? Thanks in advance.

[Dejah]

Toliver: Yes. I used my Cuisinart food processor, with the grater blade.

Cut the cauliflower into chunks. Feed into the shoot and grate. One head fills up the bowl pretty good.

The cauliflower is microwaved for 4 minutes in my corningware dish with a lid on. Do NOT add any liquid.

Beat eggs with salt and fry up into a pancake. Chop and set aside.

Meanwhile, dice sweet bell peppers, Spanish or green onions, really, any veg that you'd have on hand or want, along with a bit of garlic and fresh ginger. Stir-fry the vegetables with a bit of oil and seasonings.

Take the vegetables out; rinse out the wok.

Heat up the wok and add just enough oil to give the wok a light coating. Add the "rice". Stir and toss which air dries the cauliflower a little bit more, but leave it in contact with the HOT wok just enough to allow a bit of scorching.. This gives it a bit of "wok hei".

Season with a sprinkle of salt.

Add the vegetables and egg back in. Mix well and eat.

The yellow colour may have been from the vegetables, egg as well as the frying in the wok. NO soy sauce or curry was added to this batch.

You can add diced cooked meat to this as well as curry powder for a change. I sometimes add Chinese chili oil.

This really is a good substitute for rice if you are on a no carbs diet.

This keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days.

I have tried cauliflower "mashed potatoes" and cauliflower rice. This adaptation is much more appetizing.

Here's another one that I made earlier in the month.

[Toliver]

Toliver: Yes. I used my Cuisinart food processor, with the grater blade...

It sounds easy to do and the end result looks quite tasty. Thank you!

[annachan]

I have a bamboo steamer. So does my mother, and most of my aunts. Not my sister, she doesn't cook

My sister does have bamboo steamers. But she is in the UK.

My point was that I have never seen them in a domestic kitchen in China. I wouldn't even know where to buy one here. Kitchen supply shops certainly don't have them. Nor do the local markets.

Thinking back, that is true. Never seen bamboo steamers in households when growing up in Hong Kong. Grandma always steamed in the wok or in the rice cooker. She managed to steam buns, fish and just able anything at home without bamboo steamers. Never seen them at our friends and relatives places either. The only time I saw them was at the dim sum restaurants. I don't remember noticing them in cooking supply stores either....

I have some bamboo steamers (in Australia)....need them as I don't have a lid for my wok....

[liuzhou]

Bitter melon with pork.

苦瓜炒肉片

[Dejah]

Needing salt...so...pork ribs steamed with brown soy bean paste and brined plums. Satisfied the need!

[patrickamory]

That looks really good, Dejah. Did you brine plums yourself, or are they a prepared product?

[Dejah]

patrickamory: No, these were a commercial product. I just pull a few out of the jar, pop the pit and scatter the pulp over the ribs.But I throw the pits in too.. There is always some pulp left on the pit and, like the dry salted plums sold as snacks, these are tasty to suck on - just as long as I remember they are in there!

[C. sapidus]

Dinner from Revolutionary Chinese Cooking

General Tso’s chicken (Taiwan version) – Chunks of chicken thighs, marinated with light and dark soy sauce, egg yolk, potato flour, and peanut oil, and then deep-fried. Stir-fried garlic, ginger, and dried chiles with a sauce of tomato paste, potato flour, light and dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, and stock, boiled to thicken, tossed with the chicken, and then finished with scallions and sesame oil.

Steamed snow peas with ginger – with salt and chicken stock. Simple and good. Jasmine rice and unpictured salad.

[patrickamory]

How was that General Tso's chicken Bruce??

[Kouign Aman]

Chinese inspired, eaten at home.

bokchoy, onions, mushrooms - stirfried together

mahi mahi chunks cooked with black beans, ginger, szechuan peppercorns.

rice

[C. sapidus]

How was that General Tso's chicken Bruce??

Chicken was wonderfully tender. Sauce needed a bit more flavor to my taste - next time I'll increase chiles, soy sauce, and vinegar. Younger son and Mrs. C liked the sauce and chicken as is.

I am interested to try the other version of Gen. Tso in RCC and compare.

mahi mahi chunks cooked with black beans, ginger, szechuan peppercorns.

Kouign - That sounds delicious! I love that combination of flavors.

Edited February 12, 2013 by C. sapidus (log)

[Prawncrackers]

Happy Chinese New Year of the Snake everybody. We had a hot pot over the weekend to see in the new year and yesterday we made some dumplings. Pork and prawn potstickers (鍋貼) to be precise. The unbleached flour and the light in my kitchen made them look particularly golden!

Edited February 13, 2013 by Prawncrackers (log)

[patrickamory]

Stunning photography as always Prawncrackers... also those dumplings are remarkably uniform in size and shape.

[Kouign Aman]

They are so pretty. And sound delicious.

[liuzhou]

Pork with Green Chillies 青椒肉片. Still steaming from the wok.

I usually only eat this in Chinese fast food restaurants*, but tonight made it myself. A very common, simple, but delicious dish here in southern China.

It was served with the usual rice and some braised mixed mushrooms which I neglected to photograph.

*Nothing like western fast food restaurants. It means more like 'informal dining'.

[Jason Perlow]

What was your recipe for that pork and green chiles?

[liuzhou]

What was your recipe for that pork and green chiles?

I'm not sure that calling this a recipe isn't lending it a dignity to which it does not aspire, but here goes. It is a basic stir fry.

First I should explain the chillies. I used two varieties.

The larger ones at the back are the ones I usually use, but the batch I have now are a bit on the mild side, so I augmented them with the thin hot type at the front. The thin one was finely chopped and the large ones sliced.

I sliced the pork thinly then marinaded it in Shaoxing wine and corn starch. I stir fried some garlic and ginger for a few seconds until fragrant then added the pork and the hot chilli. When the pork was half done I added some dark soy sauce and the sliced chillies and continued cooking until the pork was done. Added chopped Chinese chives and a splash of sesame oil and served.

[patrickamory]

liuzhou - yum, that sounds delicious. What cut of pork did you use?

I'm a beginner but after making the chicken with sichuan peppercorns from Grace Young twice tonight (12 oz of meat each time), I felt brave enough to improvise with some asparagus.

Heated the wok until water vaporized in a second, added oil till just smoking, added dried evenly diced asparagus, stir-fried for about a minute, and removed to a bowl. Let the wok heat for a bit and added thinly sliced garlic, ginger and scallions. Stir-fried for about 15 seconds, then re-added the asparagus, plus some light soy sauce and Shaoxing wine - the sauce reduced and coated the vegetables almost instantly, decanted to bowl, and served.

No photos, but it was a success! I feel inordinately pleased with myself, since I'm not a great improviser in any cuisine.

[liuzhou]

liuzhou - yum, that sounds delicious. What cut of pork did you use?

Ah! Every time I post, I dread that question.

Butchers in China do not use the same cuts as those in western countries. In fact, it often seems that they just chop away at random. For this type of dish, I just look for a fresh looking, reasonably lean piece of meat. Something like this.

[rotuts]

doesn't that random chop-chop just kill you!. you have to get to the right place in the line to get the right piece.

" No, please. You go ahead, Pleeeeeeeeeese!"

[liuzhou]

you have to get to the right place in the line to get the right piece.

line? in China?

Dream on! The concept has never caught on.

[rotuts]

OK the right spot in the crowd

i have noticed a certain lack of 'protocol' at the butcher counter (s) in chinatown come to think of it.