Ham Yeu

[Dejah]

All this talk of ham yeu, jer yook beng... What kind of ham yeu do you like?

My Mom likes the " sam ga wong - mui fa yook" because the texture is soft and sorta melts in your mouth. I like these, but also, I like the kind that has a harder texture...makes one chew their food more.

My sister brings me bags of these little white dried fish, but I haven't tried to cook them yet. How? Deep fry? steam? cook with rice?

[Ben Hong]

The teeny tiny fishies are best steamed in a dish on top of cooking rice. Sometimes they don't seem to be salty enough, so you may want to add a little soy sauce. Hot oil of course is the finishing touch.

I love any kind of mui herng ham yu. The heavily fermented flesh just melts in the mouth releasing that burst of flavour.

[Tepee]

Bad. All this ham yue talk is bad for me and my on-the-high-side cholesterol level. But since my fav sook-sook likes mui heong, here's a recipe in the style of Fuichiu Hakkas (my stock). My paternal grandfather taught my mom (a cantonese) how to do it this way, and we don't want it any other way...cantonese style (ducking head) pales beside this. Even better eaten the next day.

For the harder textured ham yue, we chop them into tiny cubes and do like what Ben-sook describes.

[Tepee]

Another popular way to use ham yue (heheh...Sue-On and I spell it differently) is to add it to yau mei fun (tasty rice) together with pre-soaked dried scallops and other stuff.

[Ben Hong]

Saltfish head and dou fu soup.

TP, "yong towfoo" will be attempted when winter drives us indoors again.

[Dejah]

Saltfish head and dou fu soup.    

TP, "yong towfoo" will be attempted  when winter drives us indoors again.

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Yong towfoo...something to attempt on a winter's weekend.

Saltfish head and dou fu soup=huay fong tong. Stinky but yummy, with lots of ginger.

It's hard to save the head for the soup tho. I like chewing on it when steamed...so much flavour!

[hzrt8w]

But since my fav sook-sook likes mui heong, here's a recipe in the style of Fuichiu Hakkas (my stock).

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I read this recipe with intense interest. But it seemed that they use fresh fish meat and grind them to make a fish paste. They are not using ham yue though.

The technique seems very similar to the Cantonese style. Or perhaps we just copied from the Teochew style?

[Tepee]

Perhaps, you read it too 'intensely'? 3rd ingredient - 1 Tblsp Ham Yue...not exactly an amount to 'jump' at you.

Over here, the cantonese-style yong tow foo doesn't have spinach or ham yue in them. Well, cantonese cooking is all about 'clean' taste, isn't it?

Edited September 12, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[Ben Hong]

Well, cantonese cooking is all about 'clean' taste, isn't it?

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the topic is ham yue and you talk about "clean" taste. Good one, Teepee Mui.

[Tepee]

Looks like our fish paste is getting a bit mashed up here...

Our friend, hz, said the cantonese style YTF seems very similar to the Hakka recipe posted. "Can't be", says I to myself, because the cantonese style YTF in Msia tastes 'cleaner' sans ham yue and spinach. Note: I'm being very careful here not to generalize about cantonese style YTF being the same in HK, Msia or anywhere else.

Edited September 12, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[hzrt8w]

Perhaps, you read it too 'intensely'? 3rd ingredient - 1 Tblsp Ham Yue...not exactly an amount to 'jump' at you.

Over here, the cantonese-style yong tow foo doesn't have spinach or ham yue in them. Well, cantonese cooking is all about 'clean' taste, isn't it?

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Ah, you are right! Sorry I missed it. My eyes played tricks on me. They won't come out when I am not expecting them. When I saw the third line as "1 tbsp salt...", skipped right through it (thinking it's salt).

Cantonese YTF does have things mixed-in, sometimes. e.g. dried shrimp or diced black mushrooms. Pre-soaked and mix them in with the minced fish meat. Putty on green bell pepper, eggplants, tofu, melon (jeet gua) and fried. Served with soy sauce or oyster sauce.

[Seitch]

The teeny tiny fishies are best steamed in a dish on top of cooking rice. Sometimes they don't seem to be salty enough, so you may want to add a little soy sauce. Hot oil of course is the finishing touch.

I love any kind of mui herng ham yu. The heavily fermented flesh just melts in the mouth releasing that burst of flavour.

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Mmm, I'm with you Ben, mui herng is my favorite. But that's not to say I'd turn down the drier, chewier kinds of salted fish either.

For those tiny dried white fishes we steam them in a bowl, add hot oil and soy sauce after steaming and eat with rice.

[hzrt8w]

Dejah: it seems that we just had this discussion on ham yue (salted fish) not too long ago. You like it so much that you want to re-visit the topic every few months? Oh... perhaps that was a different forum.

Last week I was cooking some gai choy (Chinese mustard green). I usually just use garlic and oyster sauce. Stimulated by this thread, I just diced up some mackeral ham yue (the kind that's kept in a jar of oil... I know you like the dried kind), cook with some garlic over some cooking oil for about 15 seconds first, then throw in the vegetable. The result was very good. We like it! Gai choy is just so versatile. I probably wouldn't cook ham yue with Chinese brocoli or choy sum though.

[hzrt8w]

I was just reading this webpage about salted fish:

http://www.soa.gov.cn/kepu/changshi/123142.htm

The page was written in Chinese. I would just like to translate a couple of the sentences which I found helpful:

In general, there are 2 kinds of salted fish: "fermented fragrant" (mui hern [Cantonese] and "solid meat" sut yuk [Cantonese] (literal translations). The difference:

"fermented fragrant": raw fish are fermented first for 1 to 2 days, wait until the meat texture has changed and the body expanded, then add salt to cure 7 to 8 days. Sun dried. The salted fish would have a special fragrant, and the meat texture soft. Taste: salty and fragrant.

"solid meat": raw fish are cured by salt directly without fermentation. The meat texture is harder. Will not fall apart. Taste: salty but fresh.

[Dejah]

I was just reading this webpage about salted fish:

In general, there are 2 kinds of salted fish:  "fermented fragrant" (mui hern [Cantonese] and "solid meat" sut yuk [Cantonese] (literal translations).  The difference:

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So I was pretty much on when I used the term "fermented" rather than rotting!

I find that we don't eat quite as much with the firm variety. The juice from the steaming with pork and ginger is particularly good with "fan jieu".

My Mom loves to tell my kids how I used to sit on the stoop of our house in Toisan, a bowl of fan jieu in hand, one spoonful for my nephew, two for me.

[aprilmei]

I once ate fried ham yu at a Vietnamese place in SF - it was fabulous. It was served with lemon and pepper-salt. Does anybody know how it's made and what type of salted fish to use?

[mudbug]

The teeny tiny fishies are best steamed in a dish on top of cooking rice.

"...teeny tiny fishies"?

Isn't it usually a slice from a larger fish like mackerel?

[mudbug]

The following might be of interest to those who have been eating this regularly for generations:

Chinese salted fish linked to cancer

[Dejah]

The teeny tiny fishies are best steamed in a dish on top of cooking rice.

"...teeny tiny fishies"?

Isn't it usually a slice from a larger fish like mackerel?

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No. These are teeny tiny fishies. They are white and you can even see their pinhead -size eyes! The bag is still sitting in my pantry even tho' Ben told me to steam them. One of these days.....................

[Ben Hong]

The teeny tiny fishies are best steamed in a dish on top of cooking rice.

"...teeny tiny fishies"?

Isn't it usually a slice from a larger fish like mackerel?

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No, we were referring to the whole "teeny tiny fishies" that are about 1 inch long. There are several varieties, some are translucent white, some are silver, some are miniatures of a fish. All are delicious done the way I suggested and eaten with a bowl of plain rice.

[mudbug]

Right, but there is salted fish that is made from larger fish such as mackerel - correct?

[Ben Hong]

ANY fish can be made into ham yu....

[mudbug]

ANY fish can be made into ham yu....

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Good point Ben. Ok, so what are the top three most common fish used to make this in China?

[Ben Hong]

Depends on the regional availability, Grasshopper. China has many distinct regions.

[hzrt8w]

ANY fish can be made into ham yu....

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I would like to see salted shark.

Whole.

Edited June 22, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)