Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
AriTheDog
Jul 29, 2003
Famously tasty.
Ooooh that looks really really good. I love turnip cake. Do you have a good recipe for chee chong fun/rice rolls/whatever they're called?

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

indoflaven
Dec 10, 2009

GrAviTy84 posted:

Lo Bak Go (Turnip cake)


I applaud your effort, but what is daikon radish and chinese bacon? Any substitutes?

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

indoflaven posted:

I applaud your effort, but what is daikon radish and chinese bacon? Any substitutes?

Do you really not know what a daikon radish is?


I guess you can use any other mild soft radish, like a white icicle or french breakfast radish, but really, it shouldn't be hard to find daikon.

Chinese bacon is just spiced cured pork belly.

The one in the middle. They should have it at your local Chinese or Asian market. If not you can substitute Chinese preserved ham (not pictured) or Chinese sausage (pictured, on left and right of bacon), as I mentioned in the post. If you honestly can't get any of these, you can probably substitute regular bacon, fried crisp and glazed with some brown sugar. There are recipes for making your own Chinese bacon out there, but I haven't ever tried doing it.

GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Apr 12, 2011

AriTheDog
Jul 29, 2003
Famously tasty.
I've had it made with just Chinese Sausage, which should be easy to find, and it's really good that way too.

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

AriTheDog posted:

Ooooh that looks really really good. I love turnip cake. Do you have a good recipe for chee chong fun/rice rolls/whatever they're called?

I wish. Maybe one day I'll give it a try, looks tough.

Edit: Of course I say this, then poke around the interwebs for a bit, then see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OQlOYNo3wQ#t=1m

KaoliniteMilkshake
Jul 9, 2010

Frosted Ambassador posted:

Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook?

This is my go to resource. It's a great book.

That said, I've been stuck on electric stoves all my life, and have been using workarounds, so there is that.

mich
Feb 28, 2003
I may be racist but I'm the good kind of racist! You better put down those chopsticks, you HITLER!
I made the fish fragrant pork yesterday and it was delicious! The amount of sauce was a bit much for my taste so in my second batch I used half as much sauce and then mixed the two batches together and it was perfect. Thanks so much for the recipe. :)

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

mich posted:

I made the fish fragrant pork yesterday and it was delicious! The amount of sauce was a bit much for my taste so in my second batch I used half as much sauce and then mixed the two batches together and it was perfect. Thanks so much for the recipe. :)

Glad it worked out. Yeah, I like mine pretty saucy to go on my steamed rice, but I'll amend the recipe with your suggestion for less sauce, thanks for the tips!

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

Hong Kong Egg Custard


These little dessert tarts often seen on a dim sum cart are actually relatively new. Wiki says they started showing up around the 40's, and they bear striking resemblance to a Portuguese tart called "Pastel de nata." They are really great, light, not too sweet, delicious.

Crust:
3 cups flour, sifted
1 1/2 sticks butter, cut into cubes
warm water (5-6 tbsp)
pinch of salt

Custard filling:
3 Eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk

In a bowl or pyrex cup with a spout, beat eggs, mix in milk and vanilla, and dissolve sugar. Set aside.

With dough cutter, cut butter into flour until mixture resembles pebbles. Gradually add warm water a tablespoon at a time until dough just barely comes together. Refrain from adding too much water. It should still feel quite fragile and should just barely hold itself together. Preheat oven to 425F. Dump onto a big work surface and lightly knead a few times to form a ball. Cut ball into halves and roll out to about a 1/4" thick. Grease tart molds, mini cupcake tins, or full size cupcake tins. Cut out an appropriately sized circle to line the inside of your mold of choice, if using full size cupcake molds, you may want to only go up about 2/3rds of the way up the wall. Pour filling into crusts and fill to about 1 mm below the top, a pyrex cup with spout is great for this. Place in the oven for 10 min. Then rotate the trays, reduce heat to 375F, and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until just barely set. As with all egg things, done in the pan means overdone on the plate so you want the centers to still be just a little bit wiggly but not runny. Pull them and cool in molds for about 10 min, then remove and cool on rack to room temperature.

That Girl
Jun 21, 2004

Oh my god, I can't believe it never occurred to me to learn how to make egg tarts. I am so doing this!

Rurutia
Jun 11, 2009
Grav, between this and the dinner thread, I have the biggest crush on you. :allears:

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

Rurutia posted:

Grav, between this and the dinner thread, I have the biggest crush on you. :allears:

hehe thanks :D

I like turtles
Aug 6, 2009

I'm excited, as the CSA I just joined is renting out an old Chinese restuarant with a kitchen that is still fully intact. They'll be using it as a distribution point, and for cooking classes, but the lady that runs the whole thing says there's a probably 25' long stove with wok burner after wok burner.

Maybe I'll get a chance to horribly burn myself practice cooking Chinese food

The Macaroni
Dec 20, 2002
...it does nothing.
Resurrecting the soy sauce discussion from page 1: I made ma po tofu with Pearl River soy sauce, and my wife was like, "Nuh-uh, switch back to Kikkoman." It wasn't bad by any stretch, but we're so used to the bonus sweetness/alcohol taste of Kikkoman that the cleaner taste of Chinese soy sauce is weird to us. I'm a terrible person. :(

I also learned what happens when you make a stir-fry with a bunch of garlic but no ginger (we were out): your farts smell like burning rubber for about a day.

dcgrp
Jun 23, 2008

The Macaroni posted:

Resurrecting the soy sauce discussion from page 1: I made ma po tofu with Pearl River soy sauce, and my wife was like, "Nuh-uh, switch back to Kikkoman." It wasn't bad by any stretch, but we're so used to the bonus sweetness/alcohol taste of Kikkoman that the cleaner taste of Chinese soy sauce is weird to us. I'm a terrible person. :(

I also learned what happens when you make a stir-fry with a bunch of garlic but no ginger (we were out): your farts smell like burning rubber for about a day.

Hmm, I took the Pearl River advice and tried the Pork with garlic sauce recipe from page one and it kicked rear end. That particular recipe uses sugar and rice wine so maybe try something like that with your Pearl River stuff.

And now a question. I'm on an electric stove, so I tried making the above mentioned recipe on a few different occasions using my trusty cast iron pan. The second time I tried it I decided to crank it all the way up to see what cooking at that setting was like. Anyway, the canola oil caught fire right away and I had to let it cool down a bit before I finished cooking.

I know that the guy in the wok video on page one was getting flames. But these were pretty constant, and I didn't really feel comfortable cooking at that temp.

Can someone used to cooking at "wok" temps elaborate on whether or not I'm just a wimp at the stove or if my electric stove just isn't good for cooking at the highest setting (as in, I would have a different experience on a gas stove at the highest setting).

AriTheDog
Jul 29, 2003
Famously tasty.

The Macaroni posted:

Resurrecting the soy sauce discussion from page 1: I made ma po tofu with Pearl River soy sauce, and my wife was like, "Nuh-uh, switch back to Kikkoman." It wasn't bad by any stretch, but we're so used to the bonus sweetness/alcohol taste of Kikkoman that the cleaner taste of Chinese soy sauce is weird to us. I'm a terrible person. :(

I also learned what happens when you make a stir-fry with a bunch of garlic but no ginger (we were out): your farts smell like burning rubber for about a day.

I just found this brand called Ohsawa a few weeks ago at my local natural foods store. It's an organic soy sauce made in Japan and aged in cedar casks (two varieties, with wheat, or just soy) and it's far and away the best I've ever had. Nothing else I've tried comes close. It's a little bit more expensive, but I don't really go through soy sauce fast enough for it to be an issue.

I'd personally recommend going with a Japanese brand over a Chinese one after a lot of the horror stories that have come out in recent years. I believe it was Pearl River (among others) that was being made with human hair, although I can't find the article online anymore. That said, the government has cracked down on this kind of thing since the tainted milk incident, so who knows, you're probably OK buying whatever. I certainly used to buy Pearl River Light Soy Sauce, and it works great for Chinese cooking.

branedotorg
Jun 19, 2009
It wasn't pearl river, it was hong shaui made with human amino acids. It's not exactly hard to find on google.
Personally i only use chinese soy in chinese dishes & keep the japanese & korean sauces for appropriate dishes.

gret
Dec 12, 2005

goggle-eyed freak


I didn't particularly care for Pearl River's soy sauce, but maybe it's because I grew up with my mom using Kimlan soy sauce, which is a brand from Taiwan, and which is my current preferred brand.

indoflaven
Dec 10, 2009

dcgrp posted:

And now a question. I'm on an electric stove, so I tried making the above mentioned recipe on a few different occasions using my trusty cast iron pan. The second time I tried it I decided to crank it all the way up to see what cooking at that setting was like. Anyway, the canola oil caught fire right away and I had to let it cool down a bit before I finished cooking.

I know that the guy in the wok video on page one was getting flames. But these were pretty constant, and I didn't really feel comfortable cooking at that temp.

Can someone used to cooking at "wok" temps elaborate on whether or not I'm just a wimp at the stove or if my electric stove just isn't good for cooking at the highest setting (as in, I would have a different experience on a gas stove at the highest setting).

Don't stir fry with canola oil you silly goose: http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/collectedinfo/oilsmokepoints.htm

hotsauce
Jan 14, 2007
Made in Japan Yamasa soy sauce is awesome. I use it over anything else.

feelz good man
Jan 21, 2007

deal with it
Here to save this thread from the downward spiral of soy sauce argument douchebaggery is

La Rou Fan


1 cup rice
6 1/2" chinese bacon
1/2 Tbs light soy
1 cup water
Sliced green onions for garnish

Optionally you can throw in shiitake mushrooms or chopped up baby bok choy. Both make tasty additions.

Prepare rice like you normally would. The fat will seep down and create a crispy, porky crust on the bottom and will flavour the entire dish. This is a simple but tasty way to try out chinese bacon if you've never had it before! I threw mine in a rice cooker because I'm lazy.

Brainfart, right sounded like rice to me at around midnight

feelz good man fucked around with this message at 02:27 on May 3, 2011

AriTheDog
Jul 29, 2003
Famously tasty.
That looks really really good. In the same vein, does anyone know what the hell to do with Chinese dried duck? There's a place right near the big parking garage in SF Chinatown where an old man makes Lap Cheung and a few other dried meats, and I really want to figure out something to do with his dried duck.

indoflaven
Dec 10, 2009

feelz good man posted:

Prepare right like you normally would.

Huh?

ZetsurinPower
Dec 14, 2003

I looooove leftovers!
i could throw together a pretty authentic Mapo Dofu recipe if that is something you all would be interested in, also my roommate has a lot of authentic cantonese dinner staples that would fit well here

Nine of Eight
Apr 28, 2011


LICK IT OFF, AND PUT IT BACK IN
Dinosaur Gum
I'd love the Mapo Tofu recipe, I've spent way too much money on mapo tofu at the chinese hole in the wall near my university building.

gret
Dec 12, 2005

goggle-eyed freak


Not to step on ZetsurinPower's toes, and I would also be very interested in his mapo tofu recipe, but I usually follow Chen Kenichi's mapo tofu recipe, which is very tasty. However when he says firm tofu I believe the soft tofu sold here in the U.S. is the closest approximation.

ForkPat
Aug 5, 2003

All the food is poison
Does anyone have a source of Szechwan pepper online? I cannot find it locally in the asian markets and online I find it only for insane prices or for large amounts.

branedotorg
Jun 19, 2009

gret posted:

Not to step on ZetsurinPower's toes, and I would also be very interested in his mapo tofu recipe, but I usually follow Chen Kenichi's mapo tofu recipe, which is very tasty. However when he says firm tofu I believe the soft tofu sold here in the U.S. is the closest approximation.

I use firm-silken. Sometimes i blanch it, sometimes not.

Chemmy
Feb 4, 2001

PorkFat posted:

Does anyone have a source of Szechwan pepper online? I cannot find it locally in the asian markets and online I find it only for insane prices or for large amounts.

http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeysszechuanpeppercorns.html

GrAviTy84
Nov 25, 2004

Dan Dan Mian



Named after the pole street vendors use to carry buckets of noodles and sauce around on, dan dan noodles are a staple of Sichuan province. There are many different versions, some are hot and soupy, some are room temperature or cold and just lightly sauced, some are anywhere in between. I prefer mine room temperature and heavily sauced but not swimming.

Asian wheat noodles, fresh if you have access to them

Sauce:
3 parts Light soy
3 parts Dark soy
3 parts Black Vinegar
3 parts Chili Oil
3 parts toasted sesame paste, or peanut butter
1 part sugar (Fuchsia Dunlop's version does not have sugar, I like adding it because I think it tastes more balanced.)
1 part sichuan peppercorn, toasted and ground

Toppings (any or all of the following):
Minced Sichuan pickled vegetables
Sliced scallions
cooked minced pork marinated in a little light soy

Cook noodles, rinse in cool water, toss in a bit of sesame oil to keep separated. Top with sauce and toppings.

You can make this hot and soupier with the addition of chicken broth.

GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 22:08 on May 4, 2011

Brennanite
Feb 14, 2009

GrAviTy84 posted:

Dan Dan Mian



Named after the pole street vendors use to carry buckets of noodles and sauce around on, dan dan noodles are a staple of Sichuan province. There are many different versions, some are hot and soupy, some are room temperature or cold and just lightly sauced, some are anywhere in between. I prefer mine room temperature and heavily sauced but not swimming.

Asian wheat noodles, fresh if you have access to them

Sauce:
3 parts Light soy
3 parts Dark soy
3 parts Black Vinegar
3 parts Chili Oil
3 parts toasted sesame paste, or peanut butter
1 part sugar (Fuchsia Dunlop's version does not have sugar, I like adding it because I think it tastes more balanced.)
1 part sichuan peppercorn, toasted and ground

Toppings (any or all of the following):
Minced Sichuan pickled vegetables
Sliced scallions
cooked minced pork marinated in a little light soy

Cook noodles, rinse in cool water, toss in a bit of sesame oil to keep separated. Top with sauce and toppings.

You can make this hot and soupier with the addition of chicken broth.

You sir have brought me to tears. I love dan dan mian. I will make procure the ingredients and make it this weekend. I'm so excited; you've resurrected my will to cook. :woop:

Human Tornada
Mar 4, 2005

I been wantin to see a honkey dance.

PorkFat posted:

Does anyone have a source of Szechwan pepper online? I cannot find it locally in the asian markets and online I find it only for insane prices or for large amounts.

In my local Asian store they come in a big bag labeled "prickly ash" and it doesn't have the words "Szechwan" or "peppercorn" anywhere on it. Penzeys is good too though.

ForkPat
Aug 5, 2003

All the food is poison

Human Tornada posted:

In my local Asian store they come in a big bag labeled "prickly ash" and it doesn't have the words "Szechwan" or "peppercorn" anywhere on it. Penzeys is good too though.

I know what they look like and I've gone up and down every spice section looking for them. Unless they're in an opaque package?

Human Tornada
Mar 4, 2005

I been wantin to see a honkey dance.

PorkFat posted:

I know what they look like and I've gone up and down every spice section looking for them. Unless they're in an opaque package?

Mine weren't but I suppose they could be. thespicehouse.com also has them for a bit more, but I like them better than Penzey's. Everything I've gotten from them is super fresh.

Bob_McBob
Mar 24, 2007
The "prickly ash" stuff they sell in Chinese stores is usually crap, full of seeds and barely numbing at all. It's worth getting some from a decent place like Penzey's or The Spice House.

ZetsurinPower
Dec 14, 2003

I looooove leftovers!
fyi I've found the best way to work with Szechwan peppercorns is to make an infused oil and strain it. Grinding them in a mortar and peslte makes everything gritty. Maybe its better with a really fine pepper mill or spice grinder but in my experience making an oil works well and you can make extra so you always have some on hand.

angerbot
Mar 23, 2004

plob

PorkFat posted:

I know what they look like and I've gone up and down every spice section looking for them. Unless they're in an opaque package?

Mine were in a clear package but only had the Latin botanical name (and I assume Chinese characters) on them. Look for genus Zanthoxylum species X while you're at it.

e: I bought it because of the look, not because I like looking up the scientific names of spices. I got back home, googled it, and was all "what the hell, prickly ash!?" until further googling.

djbaseball24
Nov 27, 2006
man I love duck sauce, but Ive never seen it at a grocery store only with Chinese take-out, can I buy a bottle of it somewhere?

indoflaven
Dec 10, 2009
I realized today there is just no reason for me to make some stuff myself. There is no way I could make a huge mound of chicken/shrimp/pork lo mein for $7.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Bob_McBob
Mar 24, 2007

indoflaven posted:

I realized today there is just no reason for me to make some stuff myself. There is no way I could make a huge mound of chicken/shrimp/pork lo mein for $7.

Huge mounds of lo mein: The only authentic Chinese food ever.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply