Chinese sausage

[Ben Hong]

All these "non-traditional" ways of using la cheung are very er, interesting to say the least. My thought is , if you don't like them why use them in anything?

Lap cheung is, to us of peasant stock, one of the luxuries reserved for special occasions back in Old China. It almosts distresses me to hear anyone disparaging them . Bunch of heretics.

[Jon Tseng]

Slightly off-topic: I once threw several roll-cut lap cheung into a batch of tomato spaghetti sauce that was a bit too acid. The result was delicious.

I've never tried to reduplicate that batch, but the "sweet and sour pasta" was wonderful.

BB

I made potstickers with chinese sausage, mozarella and fresh basil as a filling one (ie prosciutto, cheese and basil ravioli). they were quite nice, if I recall

J

[Chev]

lap cheung is just one of a whole array of wind-dried goods which were traditionally winter staples, hence the strong fat salty and sweet elements. the duck liver ones are actually called yun cheung.

when i was a kid, i would lap up the lap cheung slices but pick on the yun cheung ones which i found too strong for my liking. i consider both luxuries now, just thinking of them with plain rice cooked with their juices makes me drool.

i think lap cheung dishes represent cantonese cooking at its best - a good balance of both savoury and sweet at the same time.

both pork and liver sausages are quite actually versatile and are quick foods steamed and served up. i like lap cheung steamed with chicken, chinese mushroom and spring onion, especially for its rich winey gravy.

we have also have a 'home version' of thai fried rice with pineapples lap cheung eggs and peanuts.

[Dejah]

lap cheung bao!

This always works when I run out of char sui

[jo-mel]

If I had a choice, I would take the non-liver links. I simply like the taste better.

When I see a Sandy Pot dish on the menu, with sausage and chicken in it ----I get it! Wonderful winter dish!

Making Pearl Balls, I've always used the usual mix you find in any recipe: pork/mushrooms/ w/chestnuts and so on, but I saw one recipe using chopped Lop Cheung as a flavoring, and it is now in my staple Pearl Ball. I had both versions in a class, and the flavor of the ones with the sausage was the favorite.

I also like them just plain steamed (thin diagonal slices) and served with a dip as an appetizer.

And then there is stuffing with sticky rice; and there is sausage topping for potted rice; and braised with cabbage; and -----------------

Can you guess that I like Chinese sausage??

[Gary Soup]

Slightly off-topic: I once threw several roll-cut lap cheung into a batch of tomato spaghetti sauce that was a bit too acid. The result was delicious.

I've never tried to reduplicate that batch, but the "sweet and sour pasta" was wonderful.

BB

I made potstickers with chinese sausage, mozarella and fresh basil as a filling one (ie prosciutto, cheese and basil ravioli). they were quite nice, if I recall

J

Omigod.

Lap cheong Rangoon?

[hzrt8w]

I just went to a Chinese banquet Sunday night. The chef used Lap Yuk and fresh scallops, thinly sliced, to cook a fried rice dish. The taste was wonderful. The slightly salty, sweet and chewy Lap Yuk made an excellent contrast to the soft and relatively bland scallop.

[yushoe]

yum yum yum

i love chinese sausages cut into slices and steamed on top of the rice cooker...makes for a very easy and tasty meal

[Big Bunny]

Lap cheung is good in lo bahk go, too.

BB

[SobaAddict70]

So now you need to have Four Treasure Rice:

Soy sauce chicken, a fried egg (ideally sunnyside up), and sliced lap cheung over steamed rice. The lap cheung should have steamed with the rice so that it's infused with lots and lots of porky goodness. Oh, and maybe a thimbleful of ginger-garlic paste in sesame oil. (A little goes a long way.)

YUM! Hits the spot especially for lunch.

Soba

[JumpinJude]

What about the sausage in Sichuan: big chunks of pork and pork fat aggressively seasoned (read:spicy) stuffed into a casing, smoked over some wood until a thin film of creosote covers the links, then air-dried on people's balconies, storefronts, etc.

That sounds like my cup of tea! Do you know the name and if they are available in the US?

I like lop cheung broiled and will eat them all by themselves. I also love them broiled and cut into pieces and put in a Thai salad. My husband commenst on the sweetness every time, but still enjoys them, especially in the salad.

[jokhm]

HI

Sitting around now wondering why I bought so many of these sausages.. just in case I got the name wrong or I am referring to too large a group of sausages, they are the sweet guangdong style ones. I picked them up to fry them with garlic shoots and .. garlic. But haven't too many ideas of what else to do with the remaining ones. I remember having them a few times in HK baked with rice and pork on a super hot fire. mm, that was fantastic, but not sure I have the right tools to play like that.

THough I am working with a fully stocked chinese kitchen :)

(and boy is it fun)

joel

[Dejah]

Are these the wind dried ones sold in vacuum packets...lap cheung?

[jokhm]

mmm these weren't vacuum packed. But they are dried... wind dried? not sure. But they taste very similar to the ones I've had in HK. Lot of fat, not a chewy texture, just feels like it melts in your mouth.

[Tepee]

Add chopped into fried rice.

Lobak (radish) and Wu Tao (taro) goh (filling and topping)

[Dejah]

- steam the sausages, then wrap them up with dough to make lapcheung bao.

- dice and add them to a steamed pork or chicken jook bang with ginger and Chinese mushrooms

- slice them diagonally and steam with sliced chicken, pork, ginger, and again, Chinese mushrooms

- steam then deep fry quickly, slice and serve as an appetizer

- cook them with other wind-dried meats and rice for a one dish meal

- add to noi mai gai

- slice and add to tang yuen

and so on, and so on, and so on...

[Shalmanese]

Xiang Chang means sausage in Chinese.

[Pan]

Well, that answers that!

Sausages are good in congee, too. I haven't made congee, but I can sort of reverse-engineer what I've eaten: It would seem you should slice the sausages and, if desired, dice them into small pieces, and you can combine them with various other things according to your taste: for example ginger, fried onion, chicken, duck, lettuce, garlic, or/and century eggs. Boil the ingredients slowly with leftover steamed rice and water, and add some fresh cilantro, finely chopped scallion, and hot oil, if desired, right before serving.

Does that sound about right for cooking directions?

[Tepee]

Not really, Michael. I beg to differ.

The fried onion, chicken, duck, lettuce, garlic, or/and century eggs as you mentioned, oh, and plus the sausages, are better cooked separately and added to the cooked congee at the end. If boiled together, all the flavor would have been leeched into the congee...which isn't a bad thing coz the flavor would still be in the congee, only thing is the original meat, onion, etc. would be quite devoid of taste.

However, adding the ingredients like you said, would be OK if there's minimal boiling.

[hzrt8w]

- steam the sausages, then wrap them up with dough to make lapcheung bao.

- dice and add them to a steamed pork or chicken jook bang with ginger and Chinese mushrooms

- slice them diagonally and steam with sliced chicken, pork, ginger, and again, Chinese mushrooms

- steam then deep fry quickly, slice and serve as an appetizer

- cook them with other wind-dried meats and  rice for a one dish meal

- add to noi mai gai

- slice and add to tang yuen

and so on, and so on, and so on...

←

I think the sausage jokhm was talking about is not lap cheung. And in that case, these recipes may not apply.

Xiang Chang is definitely not the name for lap cheung. I may be wrong without seeing a picture, but I think he's talking other kinds of sausages popular in Hong Kong. One that is orange/red in color, about 1 1/2 inch in diameter and 8 to 9 inches long? (never seen lap cheung that big) One that we like to slice up diagonally and lightly fry in oil? This is more like luncheon pork kind of sausage?

[jokhm]

ah wow.. forgot i posted this. These ideas are fantastic. I still have a few left from last week so I'll see what works. And yes, these are definitely the same ones everyone's talking about. These are the 0.7 inch thick bright red/pink and sweet sausages. Next time I buy the fat sichuan ones that were sitting next to them.

[jo-mel]

Dejah--- I've steamed diagonal slices, and served them with a dip ---- as an appetizer. but never thought of deep/frying them after steaming. Sounds interesting. A better taste?

When I steam them, I use a smallish bamboo steamer and arrange them in a spoke, several slices deep --- leaving a space in the center for the dipping sauce dish. It is always a hit.

One of my favorite dishes is dark meat chicken and sausage in sandy pot (or regular casserole)

Another is to use the ground up sausage meat and mix it with my regular mix for pearl balls.

I'm getting hungry!

[Dejah]

Dejah---  I've steamed diagonal slices, and served them with a dip ---- as an appetizer. but never thought of deep/frying them after steaming. Sounds interesting.  A better taste?

When I steam them, I use a smallish bamboo steamer and arrange them in a spoke, several slices deep --- leaving a space in the center for the dipping sauce dish. It is always a hit.

One of my favorite dishes is dark meat chicken and sausage in sandy pot (or regular casserole)

Another is to use the ground up sausage meat and mix it with my regular mix for pearl balls.

I'm getting hungry!

←

When you deep fry the sausages, the skin gets a little crispy...yummy! We used to serve them as an appetizer...2 sausages for $4.00.

Whenever I make bao, I always have some dough left over. Sausages are so easy to throw into a bowl of water, cover with wrap and microwave for a minute or so. Cut into 4 pieces, roll in dough and steamed!

[yimay]

my mom used to put them in the rice cooker to be steamed with the rice. the rice then tasted AWESOME. we used it for stir fries, fried rice, oil rice, to stuff roasted/braised ducks. the simplest dish was to stir fry it with some broccoli. tasty!

[aprilmei]

When I was growing up in California, my grandmother, who was a great cook, used to make these delicious Chinese pork sausages. The meat was quite coarse and they had a lot of fat - small but visible pieces, which made the sausages very succulent. They were slightly sweet. These weren't air-dried sausages like laap cheung and yuen cheung (although she made them, too). Unfortunately, she passed away before I could learn to make them.

I've never seen these sausages in Hong Kong and I don't know the provenance of the recipe. The only place I've ever seen them is in Chinese roast meat shops in Monterey Park but they're not as good. I'm interested in making them myself - does anybody have a recipe or some tips on how to get started?

Thanks.

Edited September 27, 2005 by aprilmei (log)