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EVG posted:I picked up a packet of these at the asian grocer on a whim and have been a little confused on how to consume them. Any advice other than the above? Chinese sausage is really fatty and has a rich, sweet-smoky flavor that's not unlike really good maple-cured bacon. I usually slice it thin, crisp it up in a bit of oil, and add it to fried rice (or whatever stir-fry-ish dish I'm making at the time).
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Sep 3, 2012 01:54
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EVG posted:I picked up a packet of these at the asian grocer on a whim and have been a little confused on how to consume them. Any advice other than the above? I've always believed that they came uncooked, but I can't read Chinese either. That's what my folks always say though. In any case, Devil's right. It's often used as a topping or garnish for other dishes to add flavor. It matches well with stir fries, as a topping for noodles, a filling in joong (those things that look like tamales), etc. The best ones are flavored with various Chinese wines and stuff like rose water.
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Sep 3, 2012 04:21
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Mach420 posted:I've always believed that they came uncooked They, like italian salumi, are dry cured with a nitrate and therefore technically raw, but you can eat them as is if you so desire.
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Sep 3, 2012 04:32
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GrAviTy84 posted:Pickles I made these when you first posted them, but they ended up too salty, I think. I'd eat one and the saltiness would be entirely overwhelming. What's the coarseness of the sea-salt for the 1/4 cup? Or do pickles taste less salty as they ferment and saltiness gets in the pickles? I ended up prematurely ending their fermentation after a day or so by putting them in the fridge since our water heater broke and we had a bunch of fans blowing humid, hot air around, which I guessed would be a really bad environment for spontaneously fermented pickles.
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Sep 3, 2012 04:45
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GrAviTy84 posted:They, like italian salumi, are dry cured with a nitrate and therefore technically raw, but you can eat them as is if you so desire. That's good to know. I was always afraid I'd get sick if they weren't fully heated.
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Sep 3, 2012 11:56
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EVG posted:I picked up a packet of these at the asian grocer on a whim and have been a little confused on how to consume them. Any advice other than the above?
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Sep 3, 2012 12:20
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Jeek posted:Slice it thin and stir-fry it with Kai-lan or choy sum. Perfectly authentic and tasty. Beat me to it. Also they are indispensible stuffed into things like nuomi ji/lo mai gai and zongzi.
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Sep 3, 2012 20:34
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The best lap cheung preparation is stir fried with garlic chives, yellow preferably. It's pretty great with scrambled eggs too.
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Sep 4, 2012 06:26
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Eeyo posted:I made these when you first posted them, but they ended up too salty, I think. I'd eat one and the saltiness would be entirely overwhelming. What's the coarseness of the sea-salt for the 1/4 cup? Or do pickles taste less salty as they ferment and saltiness gets in the pickles? I ended up prematurely ending their fermentation after a day or so by putting them in the fridge since our water heater broke and we had a bunch of fans blowing humid, hot air around, which I guessed would be a really bad environment for spontaneously fermented pickles. I don't really think they're meant to be eaten plain or as is or whatever. I've only ever seen them as a condiment or garnish in a larger dish.
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Sep 4, 2012 06:28
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My favorite lap cheung cooking method is steamed and eaten with rice or steamed fish. That's the way my grandma used to/still does prepare it.
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Sep 4, 2012 07:57
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Devil Wears Wings posted:Chinese sausage is really fatty and has a rich, sweet-smoky flavor that's not unlike really good maple-cured bacon. I usually slice it thin, crisp it up in a bit of oil, and add it to fried rice (or whatever stir-fry-ish dish I'm making at the time). Ditto, on the fried rice. I also use them in sticky rice balls to freeze for lunch, sauteeing them to get rid of some fat so my rice isn't a grease ball. Mostly, I think they are an accent or a "god I am so lazy, start the rice cooker and throw a lapcheong on it." With regards to buying it, most of the lapcheong packages have a list of ingredients in English to comply with food selling standards or something. If you are not fond of organ meat, you need to read the ingredients of the sausage and check for things like liver and heart, etc. I do not like the taste of liver (except in liverwurst, oddly), and bought a pack of liver-ed sausages by mistake.
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Sep 4, 2012 21:54
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squigadoo posted:Ditto, on the fried rice. I also use them in sticky rice balls to freeze for lunch, sauteeing them to get rid of some fat so my rice isn't a grease ball. Mostly, I think they are an accent or a "god I am so lazy, start the rice cooker and throw a lapcheong on it." Oh yes, the liver ones. I've never liked those because their mealy texture grossed me out as a kid. The regular lap cheong? Firmer and meatier.
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Sep 5, 2012 01:35
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Food truck here in Boston slices em thin and serves in tortillas with fried rice and black bean mayo. Very tasty. Also show up in rice at dim sum
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Sep 5, 2012 05:42
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King Bahamut posted:Also show up in rice at dim sum Cross posting from the "what did you cook last night?" thread: my favourite use for lap cheong.   lotus leaf sticky rice. I used this random recipe and it turned out great. I doubled the recipe and substituted thigh meat for chicken breast. I would probably soak the rice for longer than an hour next time, as it was a touch on the dry side, though still tasty.
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Sep 10, 2012 02:29
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so bob_mcbob and casu_marzu just called me out on irc for not posting in here about my ICSA prize. Since I have knives, I opted for the jet cooker recommended by feelzgoodman earlier in the thread instead. I've been getting great use out of it and wok hei comes a plenty. Pretty affordable, too. and 185,000 btu  
GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Sep 10, 2012 |
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Sep 10, 2012 08:48
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Congrats, but it must have been hard to get this shot before your wok rocket (wocket?) blasted off the face of the earth.
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Sep 10, 2012 22:38
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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It's a wocket ship  Also sexy
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Sep 10, 2012 22:53
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Why is it so hard to find a good cast iron wok..... in China?  All the woks here are more expensive and crappier than the one I had in the states.
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Sep 11, 2012 05:31
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Magna Kaser posted:Why is it so hard to find a good cast iron wok..... I don't really care for cast iron woks. They're too stable, part of wok cookery is how thin they are and the ability to quickly manage the temperature in the wok. Also they're heavy as hell so it's hard to toss and flip. I think carbon steel woks are superior.
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Sep 11, 2012 05:35
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Is there any other kind of steel? The only reason to ever get a cast iron wok is if you want your left arm to be 3 times the size of your right arm, I think.
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Sep 11, 2012 05:53
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Stainless steel? Basically, yes there are other kinds of steel, you muppet.
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Sep 11, 2012 06:10
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GrAviTy84 posted:I don't really care for cast iron woks. They're too stable, part of wok cookery is how thin they are and the ability to quickly manage the temperature in the wok. Also they're heavy as hell so it's hard to toss and flip. I think carbon steel woks are superior. The problem is more that they all have nonstick crap on them and crappy plastic handles everywhere. The really good ones are either hidden somewhere or well over what would be 100 USD. I cannot find cheaperish ones in any of my local appliance stores, supermarkets or smaller local shops. That said I'm going to be taking cooking lessons from a fairly accomplished Sichuan chef here in Chengdu in exchange for English lessons, so I'll share some recipes once I get them. Maybe some before that as I've been in this place for 3 years and have picked up a fair amount of stuff already. totalnewbie posted:Is there any other kind of steel? I'd obviously switch off and use my right hand too to even poo poo out. That's like weightlifting 101!
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Sep 11, 2012 09:30
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pork never goes bad posted:Stainless steel? All steels contain carbon  It was just a joke, a lot to myself, admittedly, regarding the term "carbon steel". The term "plain carbon steel" is preferred by ASM as it is a bit more precise. But okay, sure, there are low alloy steels, high alloy steels, or you can classify by structure, etc. I just find the term "carbon steel" to be like the word "bike". People usually know what you mean but bicycle or motorcycle are better. Back to woks, make sure it is not teflon coated. Those are annoying and not so good.
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Sep 11, 2012 15:51
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totalnewbie posted:I just find the term "carbon steel" to be like the word "bike". People usually know what you mean but bicycle or motorcycle are better. ... If I'm talking to my friend about what I did this weekend, I'm going to say that I rode my bike. Not that I went for a brief trip around the aerodrome on my lovely bicycle going "tra la la". Distinguishing between a bicycle and motorcycle is only necessary when the distinction is relevant, or the statement/context is sufficiently ambiguous that you can't figure it out and would like to. In the wok context, distinguishing between wok types is important, and the common terms used are cast iron and carbon steel. Perhaps we should use iron and steel instead, or possibly ordinary cast iron and plain carbon steel, or 90/10 steel or whatever. But that's not what people use, and so it would actually be more confusing to start making up our own terminology rather than just using the accepted trade terms.
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Sep 11, 2012 16:28
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 I stir fry with my dandy horse, good sir!
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Sep 11, 2012 18:21
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Magna Kaser posted:The problem is more that they all have nonstick crap on them and crappy plastic handles everywhere. The really good ones are either hidden somewhere or well over what would be 100 USD. I cannot find cheaperish ones in any of my local appliance stores, supermarkets or smaller local shops. Have you checked out Asian food stores? They usually carry a small but decent selection. Actually close by me (it is in Madison Heights, MI), there is an Asian (restaurant) supply store. Maybe there is something near your area? And post what you learn, for the love of all things tasty...
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Sep 11, 2012 21:56
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totalnewbie posted:Have you checked out Asian food stores? They usually carry a small but decent selection. you're an idiot, and he's in loving china asian food stores. what in the christ
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Sep 11, 2012 22:07
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I misread here in chengdu for from chengdu, don't get your panties all in a bunch. vvv calm down totalnewbie fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Sep 11, 2012 |
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Sep 11, 2012 22:48
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The previous post was much more explicit - you clearly did not read it in your haste to post something silly that ignores a very simple fact about the way that jargon and natural language interact, well, naturally all the time.
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Sep 11, 2012 23:56
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pork never goes bad posted:The previous post was much more explicit - you clearly did not read it in your haste to post something silly that ignores a very simple fact about the way that jargon and natural language interact, well, naturally all the time. Talk to some restaurant owners or chefs. They'll know what you need - the range of actual practical woks between the cheap teflon crap and hand hammered keepsake woks for the new money.
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Sep 12, 2012 01:11
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Or hey, English lesson number 1: "Where can I buy a good wok?"
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Sep 12, 2012 01:59
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Magna Kaser posted:Why is it so hard to find a good cast iron wok..... Maybe ask your ayi to buy one for you? Or head down to the area of town where there are lots of small family-style restaurants. There is nearly always a kitchen supply store nearby.
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Sep 12, 2012 07:37
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This is from Korea but I've found it virtually impossible to find anything non-teflon coated. Koreans believe that the Maillard reaction = immediate cancer and tefloning everything is one of the ways searing/crusts are avoided. I dunno if that's a Korean thing or from Chinese medicine. However, there's usually a restaurant supply store tucked away somewhere that has real equipment. Definitely ask the chef or go to street markets, don't bother with major stores. I finally found a plain no-teflon pan--in Japan, but still, it was the same way there. Had to go to a restaurant supply area and a specialist store. This may all be useless but from what I saw in Beijing, China and Korea have a lot of similarities in this kind of thing. I feel your pain though. I didn't bring over tea stuff assuming it's Asia, I can get good tea and a pot easily. And the endless quest for soy sauce that isn't terrible fake poo poo.
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Sep 12, 2012 07:45
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You can't even get real soy? Like, the teflon coating I can sort of understand due to culture changes and such but struggling to find soy seems so strange
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Sep 12, 2012 09:03
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Scott Bakula posted:You can't even get real soy? Like, the teflon coating I can sort of understand due to culture changes and such but struggling to find soy seems so strange Maybe he means naturally fermented? There is a lot of soy sauce made with some sort of protein, not always soy, and a chemically based hydrolyzing process with coloring added to make it dark brown. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_sauce#Acid-hydrolyzed_vegetable_protein
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Sep 12, 2012 09:08
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Scott Bakula posted:You can't even get real soy? Like, the teflon coating I can sort of understand due to culture changes and such but struggling to find soy seems so strange The natural fermented stuff is a bit difficult to track down, it took me a while. Tends to be expensive. I also for a long time didn't realize Korean soy sauce is different, the flavor is a bit different and it is salty as gently caress. I eventually found a brand of natural sauce that is reduced salt and actually edible, but it was a struggle for a while. Quality green tea is more expensive here than in the US.
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Sep 12, 2012 10:03
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Here in China they sometimes make the soy sauce out of human hair swept up off a barber's floor 
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Sep 12, 2012 11:38
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Grand Fromage posted:This is from Korea but I've found it virtually impossible to find anything non-teflon coated. Koreans believe that the Maillard reaction = immediate cancer and tefloning everything is one of the ways searing/crusts are avoided. I dunno if that's a Korean thing or from Chinese medicine. China and Korea do match up a lot on this kind of stuff. I lived with a Chinese dude for a few months who freaked out at me for sleeping with a fan on saying I'd die, blahdy blahdy blah. Also, I already thought about asking my chef bud, but he's in Tibet somewhere on vacation till sometime after the 20th and I wanted to get it nice and seasoned before he came back. I don't have an ayi to ask (I don't really get what that means in this context? Do some foreigners literally have a Chinese woman follow them around helping them over here?), but my two Chinese roommates are not any help at all. I spent a while talking to ladies in the bigger appliance stores and they do have good woks, but they're all far over 600RMB (90+USD), which might be worth it in the end. Ironically they're all imported from Japan. But enough of this nonsense, let's cook. Shizi tou （红烧）狮子头 Introduction Shizi Tou means "Lion Head", so you're gonna need to find one fresh lion head. After you get that toss that poo poo out because that's not what this is at all. Where did you even get a lion's head holy poo poo. Shizi tou is actually a kind of Chinese meatball. There are two main varieties of Shizi tou, Hongshao （红烧） and Yangzhou（扬州）. The difference is just what seasonings and stuff you use in the soup and the meatballs themselves. I'm going to show you the hongshao (aka soy sauce city) variety. Beyond that, there are two further styles of shizi tou. One is to make one or two gigantic softball sized meatballs, the other is to make several smaller-but-still-bigger-than-your-average-American-meatball meatballs. Unless you have a very large restaurant-grade wok, you'll probably be going the smaller route. Ingredients This is to feed about four people.
 All ingredients sans meat and sauces, ignore the broccoli How to cook it: Your first step is to deal with the lotus root.  Clean it and peel it. A normal peeler you'd use for carrots or potatoes will work fine. If you're not used to working with lotus root, a good one will be very firm with no weird soft spots are very black marks. Should be brown all over. Once you've peeled it, dice it finely.  still a ways to go! It will take a bit. Once that's done, take your eggs (one large egg or two smaller eggs) and mix them in a small bowl with some potato/corn/whatever starch, then mix it up with your finely chopped or ground meat. Once that's all together, add the diced lotus root and mix it all together again.  Then add some MSG, salt and soy sauce to taste. I added maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons of soy sauce? I never measure that stuff  Once your meat concoction is well mixed up, form it into some balls (丸子).  Mine were probably 1.5x the size of a golf ball. If you have a really big wok and want to make the more traditional shizi tou, I'd make 1 ball per 250g of meat. They're prepared in pretty much the same way. Now get your wok out, put a good amount of oil in it and get it nice and hot. You can add some garlic to the oil if you so desire. We're going to flash-shallow fry these suckers.  make fun of my bad wok! Only fry them for 2-3 minutes. Your goal is basically to brown the outside and make sure the ball shape is maintained during the next cooking phase, we're not cooking them all the way through at this point. Once all your shizi tous are browned, dredge them out of the pot and get rid of the oil. DO NOT CLEAN THE WOK, WE ARE MAKING SOUP... SORT OF. You want to get rid of the excess oil and that's it. Once you do that you can either add soup stock or plain water. Most Chinese people I know just use water and it tastes fine, but I'm a bigger fan of using a nice soup stock. Again, this is your choice. You want enough fluid in the wok so that the meatballs are all just about submerged.  This is when you add your green onions, ginger, garlic, a good amount of soy sauce and really whatever spices tickle your fancy to the pot. Turn up the heat (uncovered) and let it reach a boil. Once it's boiling let it simmer on pretty low heat for some time. The time is the biggest variance I've seen among my Chinese friends who have made this dish. If you're using stock 30 minutes might be fine, taste wise, but make sure the balls are cooked through. Normally 45 minutes to an hour is how long you let it cook. You want to do this uncovered for some Chinese tradition/culinary principle I don't understand. After you're done waiting and smelling how good this stuff is, dredge out the meatballs again and add in your cleaned and cut greens. Crank the heat up just a little bit and let the greens cook for a minute or two until they're wilted. Serve by putting 2-3 meatballs in a small bowl with some greens, and then ladling some of the soup into the bowl. This dish is supposed to be meatballs with some soup, not soup with meatballs.  Yum! That's about it. I really like these. It's very easy to make a bajillion and save them for later days. I had some extra lotus root, so I just made a quick lotus root and broccoli stir fry as a side dish.  Lotus root is a really versatile thing you should be using if you aren't. It can be used in just about everything and cooked about any way. It's easy to prepare and hard to mess up, so go nuts! Ailumao fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Sep 12, 2012 |
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Sep 12, 2012 13:57
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Magna Kaser posted:Shizi Tou recipe... Oh wow, very good post. My old boss made these once, but wouldn't disclose his recipe. These things are tender and tasty.
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Sep 12, 2012 18:23
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What does lotus root taste like and how do you use it other than these two recipes? Also, how does the dried stuff compare to the fresh stuff? To use the dry stuff do I just soak it in hot water for a couple hours? I've totally had a bag of dried lotus root in my pantry for ~6 years.
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Sep 12, 2012 19:32
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