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gret posted:It's a recipe from Mission Chinese, which is a trendy "Chinese" restaurant founded by two western chefs. I've had their mapo tofu and it was pretty good, but definitely not traditional. I've lived all over China for 3 years now and had mapo tofu in like 12 different provinces and 30 different cities. It was an entirely different dish in each one. Sometimes it had meat, sometimes it had none. Sometimes it was spicy, sometimes kind of sweet. Sometimes it was really watery, sometimes it was in a really thick sauce. I have no idea what traditional mapo doufu is.
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Sep 18, 2013 12:03
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mania posted:Mostly I think it's a thing that people did a long time ago because of whatever reasons (maybe the reason wiki gives), and people continue doing today because that's how it's always been done. I'm sure it's a "grandma did it therefore it is unquestionable" thing. And it was sensible back when water was gross and full of poo poo, the boiling would kill that. Now with safe water and safe eggs you wouldn't have to worry about it.
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Sep 18, 2013 12:15
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I have a cold and I want some congee, but I don't want to spend hours making it  I have a rice cooker, does anyone have any simple recipes?
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Sep 18, 2013 15:45
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Shnooks posted:I have a cold and I want some congee, but I don't want to spend hours making it When you make a soup put some clear brooth ( maybe with a bit of meat and cut vegetables) in your fridge in a box or something. Then when you get sick: Pot the broth, some vegs and spices and some rice in a pot ( or your rice cooker ). For the unprepared: Put some random vegetables, soup powder, soysauce, salt and rice in a pot of water, maybe also shredded chilis. Use twice as much water as you would for normal rice. If the vegtables are hard ( like carrots) boil the soup without the rice for 15 minutes. If you don't even have soup powder, cannibalize some form instant ramen packages. Then boil in your pot or rice-cooker until the rice gets mushy. I personally prefer to make congee in a pot instead of a rice cooker.
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Sep 18, 2013 16:08
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Shnooks posted:I have a cold and I want some congee, but I don't want to spend hours making it Can you get some decent ready-to-use chicken stock? I'm thinking you could use that if you put some bashed garlic, whole peppercorns and sliced ginger into it to slowly infuse on a low setting for an hour or so, then put in your rice/fried garlic/onions/meat etc afterwards to cook til mushy and delicious? I'm only used to making chao ga which is a bit different from congee but very delicious indeed (I had it for breakfast).
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Sep 18, 2013 16:36
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Hello sick goon, I'm not feeling so great so I just went across a few blocks and got some! But Mexican food is much harder to get here  The comedy option to make congee hassle free and burnt free is to get a huge gently caress off vat and dump a wooden spoon in it. When the liquid gets boiled up, the convection currents can actually spins the spoon which in turn keeps the congee from boiling. I suppose those high school heat spinners work as well  For congee, you can also use a pressure cooker too. The newer fancier rice cookers have a congee setting so many that works? I don't know I always made it the old fashion way. It's ok for it to be a little burnt, it tastes like home cooking that way Congee is made differently, and it depends on how you like it. I prescribe a 10 cups of water to 10 cups of rice rule, but others like 15:10, or 6:10 if they like it thick. Fujian, or Chaozhou make it even more water at like 20:10 and barely cook the rice. It's more of a 泡饭, pao fan (soup + rice). If you really want the salt, I would avoid salting the congee base and just use cured Chinese ham, or use salted pork shoulder. Lather the pork with salt on both sides, let it sit for 10 minutes, then boil for a little bit. After briefly cooking the pork and getting rid of the guts and excessive blood, dump it into your congee. Do you have dried scallops or mushrooms? Use those. After some light congee, down your self a cup of 24 herbal tea  Pookah posted:Can you get some decent ready-to-use chicken stock? Swanson's. It's not too expensive and lots of housewives swear by it without breaking the bank. caberham fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Sep 18, 2013 |
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Sep 18, 2013 16:52
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caberham posted:Chinese ham  What kind of ham or pork shoulder has guts in it?
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Sep 18, 2013 16:57
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Oh I was referring to pork shoulder. I was thinking about the initial blood and liquid which makes the pot turn brown. And of course, add some Maggi at the end.
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Sep 18, 2013 17:06
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I kind of threw something together and it came out OK. I'm not sure about authenticity. Basically I used some Better Than Bouillon stock and threw it in my rice cooker with some rice, two cloves of a garlic and a huge chunk of ginger. I threw in like a 1/4c of mung beans last minute which have effectively turned to mush, but I expected that. My rice cooker has a porridge setting, but I'm dumb and put half the amount of water I was supposed to, which is why I think it came out more like oatmeal and less soup-y. I added some shiitakes I rehydrated along with some scallions and bonito flakes. Put some oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame seed oil and chili pepper oil and I'm enjoying it in bed with my cat and a mug of jasmine tea. The only thing to make this perfect would be some lap cheong. I'm actually vegetarian but I'm throwing that out the window today.
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Sep 18, 2013 17:12
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Why do people keep mentioning Maggi? What is this sauce thing? Why did someone say that all 'real Chinese food people ate' is food with Maggi? As far as I can tell it's by Nestle? I'm so confused  Whenever I make congee, I literally just throw a chicken carcass, some rice, some water, ginger, garlic into a rice maker. Raw scallions, white pepper and salt to taste. Finish with some combination of rousong, sesame oil, chili oil, and thousand century egg. But I always have some sort of carcass/stock making ingredient in my freezer.
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Sep 18, 2013 17:30
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Rurutia posted:Why do people keep mentioning Maggi? What is this sauce thing? Why did someone say that all 'real Chinese food people ate' is food with Maggi? As far as I can tell it's by Nestle? I'm so confused It's fairly similar to soy sauce in flavor profile, except it has a fuckton of MSG. When you add Maggi, the goal is generally to get some MSG into whatever you're cooking.
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Sep 18, 2013 17:44
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Be aware that caberham is from Hong Kong. They have all sorts of crazy southern Chinese sauces and ingredients that don't exist in other parts of China, and vice versa. China has huge culinary diversity.
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Sep 18, 2013 17:48
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Shnooks posted:I kind of threw something together and it came out OK. I'm not sure about authenticity. You might get some improvements by cooking the mushrooms, the bonito, garlic and ginger and maybe some of the spices for a bit before adding the rice. Rurutia posted:Why do people keep mentioning Maggi? What is this sauce thing? Why did someone say that all 'real Chinese food people ate' is food with Maggi? As far as I can tell it's by Nestle? I'm so confused It really goes very well with all clear soups. For some similar reason Japanese really seem to lie Worcestershire sauce. Nicol Bolas posted:It's fairly similar to soy sauce in flavor profile, except it has a fuckton of MSG. When you add Maggi, the goal is generally to get some MSG into whatever you're cooking.
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Sep 18, 2013 17:56
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Shnooks posted:I have a cold and I want some congee, but I don't want to spend hours making it 10:1 stock:rice. simmer for forever and season to taste with salt or fish sauce (can add ginger, onions, and bay leaf to the simmer if you want it to be filipino arroz caldo). garnish with any or all of the following: cracklins, century egg, hard boiled egg, scallions, cilantro, angry lady sauce, xo sauce, braised tripe, pork mince, pork floss, sichuan pickled mustard, shredded chicken. Zojirushis have a porridge mode fwiw. GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Sep 18, 2013 |
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Sep 18, 2013 17:58
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tonberrytoby posted:
Well, that explains a lot. We just throw some real MSG on our food in my house. Like real Chinese people. GrAviTy84 posted:Zojirushis have a porridge mode fwiw. Yeah this is what I use. It's awesome. Zojirushi forever and ever and ever. Always comes out the right consistency and really flavorful. I don't make congee authentically because I'm not from HK though. But I consider HK food an almost entirely separate realm than mainland Chinese food. Where I'm from, our porridge is always just with water and flavored after the fact with soy sauce etc. Rurutia fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Sep 18, 2013 |
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Sep 18, 2013 18:01
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Rurutia posted:I don't make congee authentically because I'm not from HK though. But I consider HK food an almost entirely separate realm than mainland Chinese food. Where I'm from, our porridge is always just with water and flavored after the fact with soy sauce etc. I totes get this. I'm filipino and porridge always tastes wrong to me unless it is made like Arroz Caldo or lugaw
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Sep 18, 2013 18:08
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Rurutia posted:I don't make congee authentically because I'm not from HK though. But I consider HK food an almost entirely separate realm than mainland Chinese food. Where I'm from, our porridge is always just with water and flavored after the fact with soy sauce etc. Same here. Chicken stock in porridge just seems so alien to me (but I think I'll try it one of these days). I love the porridge Cantonese restaurants serve though. It is so amazingly smooth.
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Sep 18, 2013 18:21
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Happy Full Goon festival everyone! I'm going to go home and post some pictures of moon cakes. Hopefully this year there won't be any moon cake food safety scandals like a couple years back. People were caught bleaching rotten lotus paste with industrial chemicals  GrAviTy84 posted:I totes get this. I'm filipino and porridge always tastes wrong to me unless it is made like Arroz Caldo or lugaw I just did a google image search on Arroz Caldo  Oh my goodness, my family is not filipino in any way but my the consistency of my mom's congee looks pretty similar to Arroz Caldo! I really want to go try some. Authentic congee or not, that's the way I like it. Standard authenticity is over rated anyways, just like standard Mandarin accent mania posted:Same here. Chicken stock in porridge just seems so alien to me (but I think I'll try it one of these days). If you want the quick and dirty way to make your porridge smooth, just grind up the rice in a food processor and then cook it. Cheaper diners in Hong Kong do that to make congee for the morning crowd. Restaurants also add a splash of oil before serving to give that silky texture. I don't think anyone else uses Chicken stock for porridge, it's too big of a waste really. My mom just uses like to use broth instead of plain water for extra flavour. She's a bit of a food snob when it comes to Chiense. No food processors, Scallions must be finely chopped in a certain way, ginger should be julienne at a set length, etc...
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Sep 19, 2013 04:26
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I still have to buy moon cakes, thanks for the reminder.
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Sep 19, 2013 05:35
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caberham posted:I don't think anyone else uses Chicken stock for porridge, it's too big of a waste really. My mom just uses like to use broth instead of plain water for extra flavour. She's a bit of a food snob when it comes to Chiense. No food processors, Scallions must be finely chopped in a certain way, ginger should be julienne at a set length, etc... Well, my mom never did. Just water and rice in a pot. Throw some pork fu, soy sauce, and a preserved egg in and call it a day. For that matter, we never used Maggi; wasn't even on my radar till reading this thread. Or MSG. Though after making ramen, my mom would save half the msg powder with a clothespin on the foil packet to use later. Mom was pretty cheap.
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Sep 19, 2013 05:52
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hallo spacedog posted:I still have to buy moon cakes, thanks for the reminder. My coworker brought in Durian mooncakes 
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Sep 19, 2013 21:13
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We made wonton instead of jiaozi. My wife makes the worlds best wonton hands down.
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Sep 19, 2013 21:38
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Shadowhand00 posted:My coworker brought in Durian mooncakes Out of all the hilarious and (in)considerate things to bring in an office space, that might be one of the top. I like the "original": lotus paste & egg. Delicious, super-caloric, what more could one want?
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Sep 19, 2013 21:47
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I've always bought super crappy mooncakes because I'm poor, but one day I'll try the expensive fancy ones. Especially those snowskin mooncakes, they look delicious.
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Sep 20, 2013 02:17
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I just experienced a southern (maybe Fujian?) moon cake. It was the size of a dinner plate and was basically a block of dough, grease, solid bits of pig fat, sugar, nuts, and green onions. My god it was delicious. Excuse while I go die of a heart attack.
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Sep 20, 2013 02:20
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I had an orange jelly one. It was good and conventional.
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Sep 20, 2013 05:08
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My favourites are Teochew flaky skin yam mooncakes. So good, but they're best eaten straight after frying, once it's cold it's not so tasty. I just nab fresh samples each time I pass by their booth at the mooncake fair. This year we had bamboo charcoal skin mooncakes. Tastes the same to me, but it did look nice.
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Sep 20, 2013 06:08
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So I hear spam is one of the most popular food products in Korea. I swear, every time I hear about that country it's something weirder. Can anyone confirm or deny?
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Sep 20, 2013 06:22
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Anywhere the US has military bases, SPAM tends to integrate itself into the local food culture.
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Sep 20, 2013 06:40
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Confirm, its loving delicious. especially Kimchi Fried Rice.
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Sep 20, 2013 07:21
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Spam owns, put it in all the soups.
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Sep 20, 2013 07:44
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But ~Black Label~ spam that costs $100 per can? Seriously?
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Sep 20, 2013 08:27
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Oh whatup spamchat. I like mine sliced and just a touch crispy on the outside. Also, spam and egg fried rice with some Maggi chili sauce on the side, yis yis. Well, it's not actual SPAM, it's that "Ma-Ling Pork Luncheon Meat" stuff. Saltier and greasier than SPAM, but goddamn it, it's the taste I crave.
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Sep 20, 2013 09:32
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Arglebargle III posted:But ~Black Label~ spam that costs $100 per can? Seriously? Ha Ha really? They probably sell a lot of Johnnie Walker overpriced poo poo there then too. Spam, it keeps in a can. That's about it's only redeeming feature, that it can be kept in a cupboard for ever, just in case you need it one day. I do the same with tuna. Other than that, what's wrong with real meat when you are planning to cook something with it? Like bacon or ham hocks? Spam is not even justifiably cheap enough compared to them in order to choose spam as a substitute.
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Sep 20, 2013 09:48
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Arglebargle III posted:But ~Black Label~ spam that costs $100 per can? Seriously? I assume this is from the BBC article. It's not $100 per can, it's $100 for a gift set of nine cans. Not that this makes it better, but yeah. It's inexplicably common. There are also Korean home grown spams that are somehow more disgusting than actual Spam, one of the other teachers at my school often pops a can open and eats it for lunch. It smells exactly like cat food and it's gross as all hell. And Spam isn't cheap here, you can get real meat for cheaper.
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Sep 20, 2013 12:28
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Okay, I've got beef and a bok choy. What can I make? I've got the makings of a pork fried rice that I'm going to cook, but was wanting to see if there was a goon approved dish for beef and bok choy (outside of just stir frying the two together using the oyster sauce from the beef and broccoli recipe).
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Sep 20, 2013 17:27
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So I have a random assortment of ingredients and I'd love some advice before I try and throw it all together slipshod style. I've read the whole thread but it was over the course of a fair amount of time so it's hard to say what really sunk in and what just went in one ear and out the other so to speak. I love Sichuan style food and would like to make something at least partially in the vein of that. I sadly don't have any Sichuan peppercorns and won't be able to get any (or anything else I don't have for that matter, I have all of eleven dollars that has to get me gas and any other food my family of three needs until next Wednesday) so I know it will be anything but legitimate or traditional. What I have: A whole chicken that I was planning to cut the breasts off for this and roast the rest so we have just some general chicken for eating over the next few days. Green onion A green pepper Russet Potatoes A bag of white onions Garlic Carrots Lee Kum Kee Chili Bean Sauce (I know it's not the ideal choice but it's what I had access to) Oyster Sauce Hoisin Sauce Tamari Soy sauce (I know it's japanese but again, it's all I have) Seasame oil Rice wine vinegar Various whole spices (cassia, whole black peppercorn, cumin, etc. More accurately I guess would be to say I don't have star anise or 5-spice) Arbol Chiles (Not sure how close these are to Thai chilis but I wouldn't be surprised to find they aren't a good enough substitute) Ramen noodle or Jasmine rice for the starch component Edit* Oh, I also have plenty of delicious home made chicken stock which I remember seeing come up a fair few times in the thread I'm turning to you all because I'd rather not make a poo poo meal when we have so little to lean back on, I was thinking of slicing the chicken breast as thin as possible and stir frying in my cast iron with the pepper/onion/carrot and either the ramen or maybe some cumin rice to bed it on. If anything I'd just appreciate some suggestions on a good sauce and the ratios therein. Also, side question, when stir frying something like this would I cook the chicken/veg on it's own then add the sauce or sauce it up before cooking? That is to say, not counting any marinade that would be used before hand. Typhus733 fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Sep 21, 2013 |
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Sep 21, 2013 03:31
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Shnooks posted:I've always bought super crappy mooncakes because I'm poor, but one day I'll try the expensive fancy ones. Especially those snowskin mooncakes, they look delicious. For what it's worth the cheap mooncakes they sell at anyvsupermarket or 7-11 tend to be better than a great deal of the kind that come in pricy gift boxes.
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Sep 21, 2013 06:31
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Shnooks posted:I've always bought super crappy mooncakes because I'm poor, but one day I'll try the expensive fancy ones. Especially those snowskin mooncakes, they look delicious. For what it's worth the cheap mooncakes they sell at anyvsupermarket or 7-11 tend to be better than a great deal of the kind that come in pricy gift boxes.
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Sep 21, 2013 06:31
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Speaking of moon cakes: I'm currently in Taiwan right now on business. Will I be able to buy a gift box of moon cakes and bring them into the States without issue? I guess the ones that are filled with egg yolk or meat are no good, so as long as I stay away from those, am I good? OH and on a cooking related note: How do these Taiwanese people make what appears to be simply just stir fried cabbage/pea shoots so good? Is this one of those things that requires a blazing hot wok that's not practical to do in a home kitchen, too? canoshiz fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Sep 21, 2013 |
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Sep 21, 2013 06:52
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