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eG Foodblog: Dejah - Dejah of the Canadian Prairies


Dejah

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Mmm...pie!  Do you make your own crust?

Jenny,

Yup, I make my own pie crust,, but I have been known to use frozen shells from the store. I use the old Crisco shortening recipe: 4.5 cups flour (less than what they say), 1 block of Crisco, 3/4 cup ice cold water, 1 tbsp vinegar, one egg beaten and salt.

Jo-mel,

Atticus (Atti, Woofie, Muffin, Snowball) is very polite when it comes to human food. Whenever we are eating, he sits, usually beside Bill as he is easily swayed, waiting patiently. He drools something fierce, and belches until he gets his morsel. You can come and visit anytime, jo-mel. I know you can teach me quite a few things about Chinese cooking!

Phaelon: Thanks for the compliment! :wub: I have a great camera and sidekick to help with the pictures.

Ben: I'll guard the rest of the joong until you get here. :laugh:

Jason: I will post the recipe for my wontons. You might have to scale it down a bit. : :laugh:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Dejah, would you care to share your wonton-stuffing recipe?

Jason,

Here's the recipe I used when I had the restaurant. Now, I make up five lbs each time, and portion it into Ziplock freezer bags. I pat each bag of meat flat so it is thin and will thaw quickly.

I order the ground pork from a local butcher who was my supplier. The pork has 15% fat content. The shrimp and waterchestnuts used to be hand-chopped with 2 cleavers. My son was a whiz at that. It was my daughter's job to get her hands into the tub of cold meat and fixings and get it all mixed up thoroughly. She's quite happy to have lost that job. :laugh:

40 lbs. lean ground pork, one commercial size can of sliced waterchestnuts, 5 lb box of small shelled and deveined uncooked shrimp.

Seasoning: Using a Chinese porcelain soup spoon:

7 spoons of sugar, 10 spoons of salt (same for MSG option), 2 spoons white ground pepper, 7 spoons EACH of oyster sauce, sesame oil, soya sauce for colour, 1/4 cup veg. oil, about 1/2 cup of cold water. Work the mixture for a few minutes with your hands. This produces a really nice texture and makes sure the seasonings are well distributed. These days I use my KitchenAid with the paddles to do the mixing.

To test the seasoning, put a small ball of meat in a bowl. Add acouple tbsps. of water, cover with platic film and microwave for about 15 seconds. Taste and adjust if needed.

When I make war wonton soup, I sometimes put a small shrimp inside the dollop of meat.

This mixture can also be used for sui mai if I don't have time to make plain pork filling. I may add a bit more water and beat it again for a more "elastic" texture ... not sure if that is the right description for the texture.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Uh, can you scale that down to the 5lb recipe? I think even in this house, there will be some difficulty consuming 40lbs of wonton filling.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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Dejah, I'm pleased to meet you, and I'm looking forward to your blog. It's a busy week here too, so I might not be able to post many comments, but I will be following it with great interest.

I am interested in reading about the Chinese influence on your food. When I moved to Florida three years ago, I bought this house from a Chinese woman who has a restaurant in the area, and it expanded my interest in both the food and the life philosophy.

Many thanks for sharing your busy week with us!

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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All that looks so good! From the won ton soup to the pot roast, biscuits and that banana cream pie! to the sticky rice and the description of the dim sum that's for dinner. What a treat this blog is! Thanks!

"I just hate health food"--Julia Child

Jennifer Garner

buttercream pastries

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Apologies for no-show posts from last night. Have pics but need text.

Schedule's a bit cramped at the moment . . . doing interpretor job via 3 way phone with

American company this morning, as well as trying to get stuff ready for lunch . . . as well as rehearsing with daughter and the gang. Will catch up when I get a "clear window" later.

Sorry :sad:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Well, supper was a bit of a rush as rehearsal for tomorrow's show was called for 8 p.m. Good thing I had the salmon with all the fixings preped and waiting in the fridge. I tend to forget time when I am making stuff :angry:

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Instead of our usual jasmin rice, I cooked basmati, and steamed some asparagus. To prevent the banana leaf from burning, I placed the salmon bundles on top of foil on the BBQ. Thirty minutes over medium flame, it was ready to eat! I just drizzled melted butter on the asparagus and added a sprinkle of coarse salt. Diet Sprite worked well with fish :rolleyes:

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Didn't get as much done as I wanted 'cos the phone kept ringing! I do have a cookie sheet full of beef meatballs. Made some sweet 'n' sour chicken drumettes from a Canadian cookbook series called Best of Bridge. I already had sticky rice in lotus leaf and bao in the freezer. Perhaps with some congee, this will suffice for lunch tomorrow.

Got home about half an hour ago. Having acouple of homemade old fashioned oatmeal, pecan and cranberry cookies with a glass of milk while we wait for our Japanese five-string bluegrass banjo player, Mitsu, to arrive. Will probably run over his feature numbers before heading off to bed.

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Daughter China will be playing Celtic harp and electronic bagpipes on the show. Guess we'll go over her slections when she gets home from her midnight to 8 a.m. shift!

Until tomorrow . . .

Edited by Dejah (log)

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Japanese five string blue grass banjo player??! I bet there aren't too many of those around. :biggrin:

Sounds like you have a very interesting band!

The salmon looks wonderful. I love using banana leaves on the bbq, and the foil underneath definitely does help. Thanks for taking the time to blog when you are so busy. :smile:

Barbara Laidlaw aka "Jake"

Good friends help you move, real friends help you move bodies.

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Sneaking in another few minutes before leaving for warm-up practise, at drummer's house today.

Jake:

Mitsu is quite unusual . . . plays a mean five strings and sings too! :cool: He also brought his congas and various percussion instruments. We've jammed several times but he is not a full time member of our family band.

Daughter is just going over her pieces with her brother on the Celtic drum (bohran). He drove in from Red Lake, Ontario late last night to make the gig. (8 hour drive)

I am trying to put the kitchen back to order before I leave :wink:

Breakfast was quick this morning. Grabbed acouple slices of toast, smothered with crunchy peanut butter and a marvelous marmalade. The marmalade was from an elderly friend, a war bride from England. The recipe has been in her family for years. I haven't made any but if anyone is interested, I will post the recipe later.

Lunch was various dim sum items and silkened chicken congee.

Will add details perhaps after our show this evening.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Good thing I had the salmon with all the fixings preped and waiting in the fridge

Looks amazing! A very similar treatment to what my family did when I was growing up ... although Norwegians don't know what banana leaves are, let alone what to do with them!

Question: In Manitoba, do you get Pacific or Atlantic salmon, or both?

Made some sweet 'n' sour chicken drumettes from a Canadian cookbook series called Best of Bridge

This blog is making me smile a lot. I think we have about 4 or 5 of the Best of Bridge cookbooks in our library.

Yes, please post the marmalade recipe! Any chance of posting a recording of Mitsu??? :wink: For the Canadian readers ... is that the same Mitsu who sang "Bye Bye Mon Cowboy"?? :laugh::hmmm::laugh:

DA

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It’s Sunday morning . . . thunder is rolling overhead, and rain. I can see a bit of blue to the south, so maybe it will be clear by the time the festival opens at noon. We are on stage at 1 p.m.

I’m going to backtrack a little and catch up on Saturday’s (yesterday) lunch, or dinner to the U.S. readers. :raz:

Dim sum was the order of the day. Ran out of time last night due to rehearsals, etc, so I knocked up the har gow and sui mai in the morning.

Pulled the sticky rice, beef meatballs, and baos from the freezer. I started the jook (congee) before I had my breakfast: a cupful of rice, slices of ginger, and lots of fresh chicken neck bones and backs. The necks give the best flavour, and the bits of meat works all through the congee. As my family doesn’t like watery jook, I silkened thinly sliced chicken breast and added it just before serving.

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The beef balls were steamed for 20 minutes. They still had that pink tinge inside. This came up in the China and Chinese cuisine before:

Why do the meatballs stay pink no matter how long they are steamed!?

Jo-mel thought maybe the cilantro was the culprit. I liked cilantro A LOT, so it got to stay ;-) The meatballs were bouncy and chewy, as dim sum meatballs should be. Kept these warm in the oven while the har gow and sui mai were steaming. I zapped the already steamed baos and sticky rice in the microwave.

Hubby picked up the wrong gage strings last night. This is what happens when you try to find the “freshest” from the back of the rack :laugh: While downtown, he picked up “deep fried devils”, Chinese long donuts, yow tieu? for the congee. I really appreciate the Real Canadian Superstore for carrying this item. Now, if they’d just bring back the egg custard tarts!

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Drank pots of Oolong tea with lunch. One of my Taiwanese student’s family is in the tea business. He gave me a gift when he returned home.His last words were “Anytime, Teacher, you need tea, e-mail me”!

The whole band was here now, so it was “going over the song list” once more. China-Li was trying to keep her harp in tune. High humidity plays havoc with her strings. Then it was: I need a new 9-volt battery for my electronic bagpipes! Scramble, scramble through a multitude of drawers . . . At the end of the session, Adrenolin was pumping and we headed off to the fair grounds, where the festival was held.

Our show was titled “A Folk Odyssey” . . . Celtic, Canadian folk and cowboy songs, Aboriginal, Appalachian, bluegrass, blues to gospel . . . as mixed up as some of my cooking! :blink:

Supper was in the performers hospitality tent. I didn’t need to cook for the first time this week! There were BBQ burgers, hot dogs, vegetarian items that I didn’t get to, trays of fresh vegetables and dip, fruit, a huge tray of apple crisp, various cakes and cookies, coffee, tea, etc. My camera was already filled with pictures, so no pictures of the food here.

The festival ended shortly after midnight. China was volunteering with the St. John’s Ambulance First Aid Brigade until midnight, and then she dropped me off and headed for her midnight to 8 a.m. shift as an attendant in a group home. I crashed. The guys went to an after-show bonfire at a country home.

They are still in bed, so breakfast will be brunch before heading out for our 2nd show at 1 p.m. Bill and I are on stage with two other couples. It’s a workshop, Musical Partners, Musical Friends. Bill and I will have been partners for 38 years this August 29th. :wub:

What’s for supper? Ummmmm…Let me think about that. I DO know that two cakes need to be baked and decorated by tomorrow. One is for my school’s Administrative Assistant’s birthday, and one for the little boy next door.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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That food looks delicious!

By the way, not to sidetrack the thread (we could discuss this further in another thread, if people are really interested), but lunch is "lunch" where I come from. Somehow, I think there's been a previous thread about which meal is called "dinner," but I wouldn't be too sure how to search for it.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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That food looks delicious!

By the way, not to sidetrack the thread (we could discuss this further in another thread, if people are really interested), but lunch is "lunch" where I come from. Somehow, I think there's been a previous thread about which meal is called "dinner," but I wouldn't be too sure how to search for it.

The way I thought it was is that 'Dinner' is the main meal of the day. If you have it late in the day, then the meal between it and breakfast is 'lunch'.

If you have 'dinner' in the middle of the day, then the lighter meal at the end of the day is 'supper'.

I grew up on breakfast/lunch/dinner. Some have breakfast/lunch/supper --- with the terms dinner or supper, in those cases, about the same.

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Japanese five string blue grass banjo player??! I bet there aren't too many of those around. :biggrin:

never heard of shoji tabuchi? he is one of the most amazing fiddle players i have ever had a chance to hear....

dejah - i am salivating over the meatballs and shumai but mostly over the joong. another engineer my husband works with and i have a deal: i make fudgy bourbon brownies for peggy(her americanized name) and she keeps me supplied with joong. it is a great arrangement. :biggrin:

love your pictures.... thank you.

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

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Are the yow tieu made from gluten? They look like the gluten balls I see in my local store, but I've never seen those before. Beautiful dim sum - now I'm craving dumplings something fierce!

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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Dejah is so busy this weekend, let me play as her assistant for a minute. :smile:

Those shown in the pictures are Gluten rice in lotus leaves, not joong (which is gluten rice and mung beans and lap cheung etc. wrapped in bamboo leaves). They taste similar but different.

Yow tieu is made from wheat flour, not gluten flour. Yow tieu (salty) is eaten mostly as breakfast and snack. The gluten balls (sweet) you mentioned, with sesame on the outside and lotus or redbean or mung bean paste on the inside, are usually eaten as dim sum or dessert.

Edited by hzrt8w (log)
W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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The gluten balls I was thinking of are very airy and hollow, with no flavor (salty or sweet) added. They are sold in bags at the store near me, but I can't read the label beyond the "gluten" penciled in on the price tag :unsure:. So are the Yow tieu more like a fried puff pastry? Trying to get a handle on the taste and texture, which is so hard to convey via photographs.

Edited by tejon (log)

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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Wow, the food in this thread just all looks incredible. I very much admire those who can cook asian dishes... the delicate balance and the artful presentation just completely befuddle me.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Yow tieu or deep fried devils are deep fried wheat flour "crullers".

Dejah, forget the food when I visit, I want music :raz::biggrin: . I know that I would love your eclectic brand of music. "Japanese five string bluegrass banjo player", shoot, ya can't get more esoteric than that. :laugh::laugh:

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Dejah is so busy this weekend, let me play as her assistant for a minute.  :smile:

Those shown in the pictures are Gluten rice in lotus leaves, not joong (which is gluten rice and mung beans and lap cheung etc. wrapped in bamboo leaves).  They taste similar but different.

hzrt: Thanks for the help! Mucho appreciated. :biggrin:

In the lunch photo, it was, indeed, sticky rice in lotus leaf. These ones had lap cheung, Chinese mushrooms and peanuts. suzilightning probably saw the joong from Friday's lunch.

I should have left the deep-fried wheat flour cruellers (Thanks Ben! I couldn't remember what you called them before. :blink: ) in their original length. They are about 12 to 14 inches long. Would have been less confusing. I cut them so they'd fit into the soup bowls. They are a little crunchy, a little chewy, and a lot of bad cholestrol . . . :laugh: Can't have jook without them!

suzilightning: I'll trade you joong for brownies . . . I can't make these and I love them. :wub:

"never heard of shoji tabuchi? he is one of the most amazing fiddle players i have ever had a chance to hear...." This guy is incredible. I have seen him on TV, from Branson. Mitsu, our banjo player loves sui mai. I wonder if Shoji likes dim sum?

Ben, I hope you are musical. My guests always have to "sing" for their supper. :laugh:

jackl10 "What are electric bagpipes?? " Are you a piper? This is indeed a chanter with a microphone and electronic drones. I'll post a picture once we get them downloaded.

BTW, it is nearly midnight. We got home from the festival around 10. I have a carrot cake in the oven for a bday party tomorrow at 10 a.m. The cream cheese icing is made, and some of it coloured mauve - our Ad. Assistant's favorite colour.

Daddy-A : The aforementioned carrot cake is another recipe from Best of Bridge. It's called Karrot's Cake . . . it's one of my most requested cakes. Of course you'll get a photo of it tomorrow! :laugh:

I will have today's menu up soon. Just waiting for the photos.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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DAY 4 ~ SUNDAY

The family finally all got up around 10 a.m. I still had a few biscuits left in the fridge, so I made my version of egg McMuffins for brunch! Some of us slathered salsa on the eggs, just to give us a kick start before the show. A juicy peach made the brunch complete.

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On our way to the festival, thunder roared across the city, and it poured as we humped our equipment to the stage. Luckily, our first performance was an entertainers' workshop under the big top: "Partners in Music." One of the questions posed was "When do you rehearse?" My answer, of course, was "while I am wokking" ;-) Over the years, Bill and I learned a lot of songs while I cooked.

During the afternoon break, we came home for lunch. Son Robin, our bass player, was home from his I.T. job, an eight-hour drive from Brandon. One of his favourite foods is Shanghai noodles, with a twist. I cooked the noodles with smashed fermented black beans, garlic, Habanero peppers, chopped mint, BBQ pork, and deep-fried julienned wonton skins. These are SO GOOD! :wub:

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Spent the rest of the evening back at the festival. Supper was from Morden Munchies truck, a familiar sight at many outdoor functions in Manitoba. I had a smokie dog, and shared a family sized tub of chips. The grease was hard to resist. :wink:

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Dessert was a single scoop of cookies 'n' cream ice-cream, a dish of apple crisp from the entertainers' tent, and many cups of coffee.

A few pictures from our evening show:

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Edited by Dejah (log)

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Thanks for including pictures from your show! I just returned from our trip out of town for the weekend, and caught up on your blog. The food photos have me drooling, and now I'm wishing I could sample your music as well as your cooking. Wonderful... congratulations!

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Sue-On, you have an absolutely lovely, talented family. I can only marvel at the pictures depicting you and husband and your two children sharing the same stage. My hat's off to all.

If this is not Canada, I don't know what is... a harmonious mix of cultures and races playing music together. The symbolism is huge.

PS: this is not intended to sound maudlin.

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