Chinese Eats at Home (Part 4)

[Katie Meadow]

Recently discovered a wonderful vegetable: the market calls it choi sum, and after a little research (correct me if I am wrong) I learned that there are dozens of varieties. The variety Berkeley Bowl market sells seems to be either dwarf white choi sum, or baby white stalk choi sum. The shape is similar to baby bok choi but the leafy part is a darker green and crinkly and the stalks are whiter. I love it in stir fry--the taste is sweeter and more intense than bok choi and it's more tender.

[Dejah]

Lunch was wonton soup with shrimp and char siu:

 

 

Supper: Steamed beef with preserved vegetables: zai choy and mui choy with chopped fresh jalapenos for heat, stir-fried Shanghai Bok Choy, Jasmine rice.

 

[liuzhou]

Recently discovered a wonderful vegetable: the market calls it choi sum, and after a little research (correct me if I am wrong) I learned that there are dozens of varieties. The variety Berkeley Bowl market sells seems to be either dwarf white choi sum, or baby white stalk choi sum. The shape is similar to baby bok choi but the leafy part is a darker green and crinkly and the stalks are whiter. I love it in stir fry--the taste is sweeter and more intense than bok choi and it's more tender.

 

I'm not sure about "dozens of varieties but it certainly comes in different colours and maturities. There is a purple version as well as white and the more regular green. The name 菜心 (Cantonese coi3 sam1; Mandarin cài xīn) literally translates as 'vegetable heart'.

[Dejah]

This is about as traditional Toisanese comfort food as it gets! Fermented wind-dried salted fish (ham yeu), steamed with ground pork and loads of ginger. Finished off just before serving with smoking hot oil. 

 

 

 

[Dejah]

Char Siu Pi-Gwut: Pork ribs marinated in Hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, 5-spice powder, etc - same as the char siu pork butt I made earlier in the week.

 

Eaten with mung bean noodles ( fun see) with fuzzy melon and slivers of char siu. Would have preferred ha mai (dried shrimp) but forgot to put it to soak earlier. Still a favourite.

 

[Naftal]

Hello- I don't know if this is the place for this question, but....

     I enjoy learning how to cook Chinese  Home-style recipes. My current repertoire includes:

                                                                                                                              congee

                                                                                                                              eggs and tomatoes

                                                                                                                              rice- plain and fried

                                                                                                                              noodles-plain and fried

                                                                                                                              shuijiao

     Does anyone have a suggestion for a similarly basic recipe? I would like to learn more dishes.

                        thanks!

[Anna N]

Hello- I don't know if this is the place for this question, but....

     I enjoy learning how to cook Chinese  Home-style recipes. My current repertoire includes:

                                                                                                                              congee

                                                                                                                              eggs and tomatoes

                                                                                                                              rice- plain and fried

                                                                                                                              noodles-plain and fried

                                                                                                                              shuijiao

     Does anyone have a suggestion for a similarly basic recipe? I would like to learn more dishes.

                        thanks!

We used to have a member whose screen name was hzrt8w Who posted many many recipes and how to which were amply illustrated with photographs on Chinese cooking at home. If you use the advanced search technique and plugged the word "pictorial" in and select to search only on titles you will bring up most of his posts. They may be just what you are looking for. Or perhaps you are already aware of them.

[liuzhou]

     Does anyone have a suggestion for a similarly basic recipe? I would like to learn more dishes.

                        thanks!

 

A look through this and the many other threads in the China forums should provide many suggestions.

 

Simple recipes for stir-fries are easily found through Google etc.

 

What do you like to eat?

 

[Shalmanese]

Hello- I don't know if this is the place for this question, but....

     I enjoy learning how to cook Chinese  Home-style recipes. My current repertoire includes:

                                                                                                                              congee

                                                                                                                              eggs and tomatoes

                                                                                                                              rice- plain and fried

                                                                                                                              noodles-plain and fried

                                                                                                                              shuijiao

     Does anyone have a suggestion for a similarly basic recipe? I would like to learn more dishes.

                        thanks!

I've found Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice the best cookbook for home style Chinese food. There's some great, simple recipes in there.

[Anna N]

I've found Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice the best cookbook for home style Chinese food. There's some great, simple recipes in there.

Let me lend my support to Every Grain of Rice. I do love that book.

[Naftal]

I've found Fuchsia Dunlop's Every Grain of Rice the best cookbook for home style Chinese food. There's some great, simple recipes in there.

 

Let me lend my support to Every Grain of Rice. I do love that book.

This sounds like a book I need to get.

On a related topic, are Szechuan vegetable mustard leaves?

[Shalmanese]

On a related topic, are Szechuan vegetable mustard leaves?

You need to be more specific. There's a couple of different ingredients that get translated as Sichuan vegetable. Most common would be ya cai (preserved mustard greens) or zha cai (pickled mustard root), maybe even dong cai (Tianjin pickled cabbage).

edit: Check out The Mala project for great Sichuan recipes and resources.

Edited March 31, 2015 by Shalmanese (log)

[Naftal]

You need to be more specific. There's a couple of different ingredients that get translated as Sichuan vegetable. Most common would be ya cai (preserved mustard greens) or zha cai (pickled mustard root), maybe even dong cai (Tianjin pickled cabbage).

edit: Check out The Mala project for great Sichuan recipes and resources.

Thanks- I went to the site you suggested and realized that the Sichuan vegetable I was interested in was indeed ya cai.

[huiray]

Thanks- I went to the site you suggested and realized that the Sichuan vegetable I was interested in was indeed ya cai.

 

Be aware that if your local "Asian" grocery is Cantonese or Southern Chinese (or Vietnamese) and you ask for "yacai" you may be directed to the mung bean sprouts.  You need to ask for Szechuanese/Sichuanese "yacai" to get what you are thinking of. Especially if you look up Fuchsia Dunlop's books and copy down the Chinese characters (芽菜) for this "yacai" you are actually after - because this same term "yacai" (芽菜) (Jyutping Cantonese: ngaa4 coi3) refers to mung bean sprouts in other places such as in many places in Southern China/Guangdong/Hong Kong as well as SE Asia.  Dunlop blithely ignores the fact that "yacai" means something completely different to many folks in some other dialect groups.

 

ETA:  It is only on her website, I think, regarding this ingredient - but not in her books, so far as I am aware - that Dunlop acknowledges "yacai" means beansprouts in many places outside Szechuan.

Edited March 31, 2015 by huiray (log)

[huiray]

...zha cai (pickled mustard root)...

 

zha cai (榨菜) is not pickled mustard ROOT.  It is made from the large swollen heads/stems of a type of mustard (formed by the plant above ground), not the roots.  See this image set.

[huiray]

One of my misgivings about how Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbooks are venerated by the English-reading/speaking crowd in certain quarters is that she might promote the idea amongst her readership that what she writes about (Szechuanese/Sichuanese food) defines what Chinese food is.  Ditto the terminology she writes about in her books.  That is unfortunate, as "Chinese food" and the terms involved encompass much more than what she promotes, no matter how eloquent she is about what she writes about.  Let alone cuisines that have evolved from pure/traditional Mainland China food, which she does not talk about.

Edited March 31, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Naftal]

...And herein lies my difficulty. I do search this thread. And I do search the Pictorials. But I am so unfamiliar with the terms that I still cannot follow a recipe!

[liuzhou]

One of my misgivings about how Fuchsia Dunlop's cookbooks are venerated by the English-reading/speaking crowd in certain quarters is that she might promote the idea amongst her readership that what she writes about (Szechuanese/Sichuanese food) defines what Chinese food is.  Ditto the terminology she writes about in her books.  That is unfortunate, as "Chinese food" and the terms involved encompass much more than what she promotes, no matter how eloquent she is about what she writes about.  Let alone cuisines that have evolved from pure/traditional Mainland China food, which she does not talk about.

 

She doesn't only write about Sichuan food. And when she does she makes it very clear that it is onlyone of many Chinese cuisines.

Nor is she only 'venerated' by English speakers.

 

 

...And herein lies my difficulty. I do search this thread. And I do search the Pictorials. But I am so unfamiliar with the terms that I still cannot follow a recipe!

 

Do check out Every Grain of Rice. She explains recipes, ingredients and terms very clearly.

Edited April 1, 2015 by liuzhou (log)

[Naftal]

Re: Every Grain of Rice- My local Library had to have it sent from another Library. It arrived today and I have not been able to pick it up yet.

    On another topic...

Can anyone here recommend a good/basic recipe using mackerel steaks?

[liuzhou]

On 12/04/2015 at 9:20 AM, Naftal said:

Can anyone here recommend a good/basic recipe using mackerel steaks?

 

Mackerel is not a fish that is commonly used in Chinese cuisine. I only see it very rarely.

 

Also, fish steaks are unusual. Chinse cuisine cooks nearly all fish whole and on the bone.

 

I think you would get better suggestions in another thread/topic. Or start your own.

Edited September 13, 2016 by liuzhou (log)