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Is there any reason not to get a induction cooker and a matching wok? Gas is not an option.
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May 31, 2011 17:34
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Vlex posted:What's with the split pot? All I can think of is that mail-order cereal bowl for "nerds" brand cereal, where you got 2 flavors in 2 separate bags in the box, and you'd pour a half bowl into each side and then lift the separator tab in the middle, mixing your grape with your strawberry flavors or whatever. I'm sure this mail order device had been re branded and then re branded further until the whole sugary cereals thing took a giant dive once Saturday morning cartoons died. Also I remember this being 1984-85, it may well have been made of melmac.
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May 31, 2011 17:57
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Bob_McBob posted:Sichuan hot pot Need to pick up a bunch of the numbing sichuan peppercorns so I can make this.
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May 31, 2011 18:10
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Alex Earl Cash posted:Is there any reason not to get a induction cooker and a matching wok? Gas is not an option. I really, REALLY hate my electric stove/range. Gas is so much cheaper and gives much better results on time vs results and consistent heating in the oven. On an electric range, I don't see buying a wok. I see maybe getting a flat bottomed thin steel or copper fry pan with at least a 4 or 5 inch deep set(how much the edges come up from the bottom) You can't really shove the vegetables up the side to slow cooking, but if you layer your cooking times; then the end result is probably going to be the same as a wok-like vessel on a gas range, as typical gas ranges aren't rated for the BTU output a real wok needs. In cases of actual wok cooking, I have no idea. I assume you toss in the meat, as it takes the longest to cook, and then you toss in the appropriately sized vegetables in a cascade of 'when they will be doneness'. Possibly sugar-coat that in an American style sugar/vinegar sauce or some kind of soy/vinegar sauce. I swear to god, my local Safeway here in Federal Way has a Chinese food buffet, adjacent to the typical deli food buffet, and all the meat, pork chicken, beef, its all breaded with donut batter and then rolled in sugar before its deep fried and then served in some kind of soy sauce mixed with maple syrup concoction that is supposed to be 'sweet n sour'.
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May 31, 2011 18:12
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Anyone have a good homemade recipe for char siu? There's no butcher around here that sells it and all the times I've tried myself to make it have been lacking. I'm jonesing pretty bad for a fix.
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May 31, 2011 23:14
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Victor F. M.D. posted:Anyone have a good homemade recipe for char siu? There's no butcher around here that sells it and all the times I've tried myself to make it have been lacking. I'm jonesing pretty bad for a fix. http://www.goonswithspoons.com/Home_Baked_Char_Siu_Bao_%28Hum_Bao%29
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Jun 1, 2011 00:22
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Mmmm, that looks really good. Thanks.
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Jun 1, 2011 03:33
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feelz good man posted:La Rou Fan This sounds like a very mild version of the stuff inside zongzi and what we make at home, but still pretty tasty. What could really improve this is the addition of sticky rice (60:40 ratio of sticky:normal- beware of indigestion if you go too high) and a few other seasonings such as cooking wine, oyster sauce, sugar, sesame seeds, sugar and/or white pepper. Diced shiitake mushrooms are also nearly essential, not sure about greens in a rice cooker unless you do a quick stir-fry after cooking and add them in then. I'm not sure whether this recipe belongs in a wok thread (always use a rice cooker), but it's a tasty and easy recipe for anyone looking to replicate the flavour of zongzi. Always soak your sticky rice and mushrooms for a few hours before you cook (keep on adding water to the rice as it will eat that to no end). To keep this post relevant, amazing thread and tons of great recipes! My dad hates Pearl River brand soy sauce because he says it's 'too thin' (something about it not staining the sides of the glass), but the stuff we're using at the moment (Lee Kum Kee) has the same problem and tastes only average. Do you have any reasons why you prefer Pearl River? We haven't tried the brand in years so we might be switching when our bottle runs out.
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Jun 13, 2011 08:40
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Fall posted:This sounds like a very mild version of the stuff inside zongzi and what we make at home, but still pretty tasty. What could really improve this is the addition of sticky rice (60:40 ratio of sticky:normal- beware of indigestion if you go too high) and a few other seasonings such as cooking wine, oyster sauce, sugar, sesame seeds, sugar and/or white pepper. Diced shiitake mushrooms are also nearly essential, not sure about greens in a rice cooker unless you do a quick stir-fry after cooking and add them in then. I'm not sure whether this recipe belongs in a wok thread (always use a rice cooker), but it's a tasty and easy recipe for anyone looking to replicate the flavour of zongzi. Light soy sauce isn't supposed to stain the sides of the glass. If he wants the glass staining, look into dark soy sauce. PRB makes a dark soy, too, and should be what you are looking for. I also prefer the taste of PRB, it just tastes better to me, I don't know how to describe it other than that, give it a try again.
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Jun 13, 2011 09:05
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Thanks for the info! I'll try PRB light soy again, definitely. Our dark soy stains the sides of the glass but our light soy doesn't so you're probably right about that.
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Jun 13, 2011 09:38
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First of all, thanks to Gravity and all the contributors for this thread. It's a tremendous introduction and resource, and helped me get over my fear of my wok. The shredded pork with Sichuan garlic sauce was killer. Holy crap. Secondly, if wrestling with a dining partner with some hang ups, is there any real alternative to oyster sauce? Are the vegetarian oyster sauces worth exploring? Their texture and aroma seem to be a big compromise. How about leaning on something like additional soy sauce and maybe a little hoisin sauce for something like PorkFat's beef and broccoli recipe?
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Jul 14, 2011 17:20
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impossible! posted:... soy sauce and maybe a little hoisin sauce for something like PorkFat's beef and broccoli recipe? That idea is sound. I would use dark soy sauce and hoisin but the extra dark soy sauce will add a bitter almost molasses (without the sweetness) flavor that some might find objectionable. I've tried vegetarian oyster sauce made with mushrooms. It was pretty good, certainly not something to scrap a recipe over. In fact, I would use it over a homemade substitute. ForkPat fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Jul 14, 2011 |
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Jul 14, 2011 22:00
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My vegetarian relatives use the mushroom sauce as an alternative to the oyster sauce. I will describe the mushroom sauce as not as fragrant/pungent as the oyster sauce but it is the alternative.
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Jul 15, 2011 01:00
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Hey, I think I'll contribute to this thread again! Mapo Tofu  One of the most well known dishes out of Sichuan province, firey hot, aromatic, and absolutely delicious. If you think you don't like tofu, you've never had this before. I mostly follow Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe with a few changes that I will mark. Ingredients 1 block bean curd (She doesn't say what kind, I prefer silken for this application), cut into cubes 3 cloves garlic, minced equal amount of ginger, minced (she doesn't have either garlic or ginger, I think they are sorely missing from the recipe) 3 scallions, sliced thin on the bias 1/3 lb of beef (she says beef, I prefer pork) 2.5 tbsp Sichuan chili bean paste 1 tbsp fermented black beans, lightly crushed 1 cup stock of your choice, chicken is fine 1 tsp sugar 2 tsp light soy 1/2 tsp roasted Sichuan peppercorns, ground dash white pepper cornstarch slurry toasted sesame oil or chili oil (optional, she doesn't use it, I think it rounds out the dish a bit) 1 tbsp minced Sichuan pickled vegetables (optional, she doesn't use it, I think it brightens the dish considerably) ground dried hot peppers, to taste, I like about 2 or 3 ground chile japones (this is quite spicy) In a hot wok, add a bit of neutral oil, swirl. Heat till just barely smoking, add ground meat, stir fry breaking the mince into small clumps. Add garlic, ginger, sichuan peppercorn, ground chile, white pepper, and black beans stir and allow to get fragrant. Add bean paste, tofu, soy sauce, and stock. Bring to a boil, and add enough cornstarch slurry to make the sauce glaze the tofu. Serve garnished with scallions.
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Aug 5, 2011 23:50
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branedotorg posted:Happy to throw out some advice too if/when required. I'm using one of those cheap portable cooking rings with the butane bottles in it, which really doesn't give enough kick when wok cooking. Anything you can recommend that fits in my kitchen aside from like 'a bigger gas range'?
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Aug 6, 2011 04:06
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GrAviTy84 posted:Hey, I think I'll contribute to this thread again! Mapo Tofu is easily my favorite Sichuan dish. Thanks for this. I'll be making it just shy of "immediately."
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Aug 6, 2011 04:07
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The trick to a good mapo tofu is getting the right brand of chili sauce and tofu, really. I made some more braised pork belly recently (actually been making it drat frequently) and I think I perfected my personal secret recipe. I'll post pics later.
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Aug 6, 2011 05:14
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ShadowCatboy posted:The trick to a good mapo tofu is getting the right brand of chili sauce and tofu, really. I usually use the lee kum kee toban dai chilli bean sauce. I've tried a few other random chinese ones & a few of the pre made sauces but they aren't quite the same. For ma po dofu i would use 'silken firm' tofu. Silken is good although it should be poached to firm it up after cutting or it wont hold shape when folded in to the sauce.
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Aug 6, 2011 08:24
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branedotorg posted:Silken is good although it should be poached to firm it up after cutting or it wont hold shape when folded in to the sauce. You just need to be more gentle.
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Aug 6, 2011 08:52
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GrAviTy84 posted:You just need to be more gentle.
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Aug 6, 2011 10:14
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feelz good man posted:Here to save this thread from the downward spiral of soy sauce argument douchebaggery is I made this tonight with some Chinese sausage thrown in as well, along with a stir fry of corn and sweet peppers, and some Sichuan dry-fried green beans. Very tasty. My Chinese bacon isn't nearly as good looking as yours is though - any brand recommendations, or am I going to have to make it myself?
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Aug 16, 2011 05:50
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Thread necromancy time. Does anyone have a reliable/preferred guide to making hand-pulled noodles? I've tried a bunch of different methods from random youtube videos and that kind of thing, but all of those have turned out eh. There are two or three bread-making bibles. Is there a Chinese noodle bible?
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Sep 7, 2011 00:48
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SubG posted:Thread necromancy time. Reliably? You're going to need years of experience under your belt. Hand-pulled noodles and a tender smoked brisket are two of my holy grails. My pulled noodles end up turned into kalguksu out of frustration.
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Sep 7, 2011 05:38
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PorkFat posted:Reliably? You're going to need years of experience under your belt. I'm absolutely down for throwing that much practise at noodle making. There just don't seem to be the same sorts of resources available for Chinese noodle-making as there are for, e.g., baguette making. PorkFat posted:Hand-pulled noodles and a tender smoked brisket are two of my holy grails. If you can reliably maintain a consistent temperature in your smoke chamber and you can handle the above, you should be able to get a tender brisket every time.
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Sep 7, 2011 06:46
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic_chives Can anyone comment on the availability of these in the USA? Im currently in Beijing and these are just about the tastiest things in the world. Make amazing Jiozi.
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Sep 7, 2011 17:19
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If you have an asian supermarket nearby they should have it. I buy them all the time.
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Sep 7, 2011 17:41
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You can also buy seed packets and grow them yourself.
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Sep 8, 2011 02:05
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Hey folks. I have a 4 year-old who has started to show some interest in trying new foods. Since everything Chinese is awesome to her, she has asked me about making some Chinese food. Could you all suggest an entry-level dish for me to make for her to try? She will eat almost any meat and will try some veggies. Broccoli is okay. She doesn't handle spicy just yet. I would just like to find something to introduce her to real Chinese food.
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Sep 8, 2011 03:05
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Walk Away posted:...4 year-old ... Broccoli is okay...doesn't handle spicy...Chinese food. So, beef and broccoli?
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Sep 8, 2011 03:45
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Well, I guess that would be the obvious choice, but I was hoping to find something a little more novel that might broaden her horizons a bit.
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Sep 8, 2011 04:35
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Walk Away posted:Well, I guess that would be the obvious choice, but I was hoping to find something a little more novel that might broaden her horizons a bit. Get her to try gai lan (chinese broccoli). Steam some and top with oyster sauce and broccoli beef will lose all of its appeal.
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Sep 8, 2011 07:15
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Eggs and tomatoes is pretty kid friendly and a Chinese classic that you don't see in restaurants much.
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Sep 8, 2011 15:57
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Walk Away posted:Well, I guess that would be the obvious choice, but I was hoping to find something a little more novel that might broaden her horizons a bit. If you have access to Lee Kum Kee sauces, and most supermarkets will have it, you can make black pepper beef stir fry with the black pepper sauce. I don't think it's spicy at all, but I am not sure about your daughter. Stir fry thin slices of onion and bell pepper, add beef and sauce and fry til cooked. If you have a steamer, steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce over tofu is nice. Again, a Lee Kum Kee sauce. Slice tofu and layer it into a casserole dish. Take short ribs (Asian markets will cut them short), cut to about 2-3 ribs per piece, coat lightly with sauce, put on tofu, and steam. It's fatty, but skim the fat. It's done when the pork feel soft when you poke it with a fork. It should almost fall off the bone when you eat it. All over rice, of course. I do not mean to shill for Lee Kum Kee; it's just what I'm used to using. My mom does have the stuff to make sauces from scratch, but I cannot find them in MA and she never, ever remembers the name of the stuff. Just the jars. Not helpful, Mom. Or if you have access to a Chinese BBQ place (or you will try making the cha siu from scratch mentioned in this thread, which I swear I will do), simply get some cha siu but don't let them cut it. Take it home and use a good knife to cut it as thin as possible. Cut it at an angle so that you get nice big thin slices. When you cook some rice, put the sliced cha siu on top at the end (rice should be cooked) and let it warm up the cha siu with the steam. Eat with gai lan! Yum, comfort food. squigadoo fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Sep 8, 2011 |
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Sep 8, 2011 16:09
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Just got a nice carbon steel round bottom wok and a wok ring, and I'm ready to season it. There clearly seem to be a bunch of different methods that people prefer, but something that keeps popping up is the salt method, which seems like the hardest to screw up, and least likely to result in gummy oil spots. What are people's thoughts on it?
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Sep 8, 2011 18:15
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GrAviTy84 posted:Hey, I think I'll contribute to this thread again! I made this for dinner tonight and I must say, it was a beautiful thing. I overdid the cornstarch just slightly (I would've preferred it a bit thinner), but otherwise it was fantastic.
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Sep 15, 2011 04:32
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Zha jiang mian ("Fried sauce noodles") So I promised grav a write-up on this, and I may as well contribute. What you have here is essentially spaghetti with meat sauce. It is wildly popular in the North of China, and has also spread into Korea where it has turned into the national dish under the koreanized named of jjajangmyeong. I much prefer the Chinese original, though - the Korean version is way too "saucy" and is cut with sweet potatoes which I don't care for in this dish. There is no set recipe, but the principle is this: ground pork (or chicken or turkey) and a load of chopped scallions are sautéed in oil until the meat is slightly browned. To this we then add and fry further bean sauce ("jiang4"), soy sauce, and some seasoning. Bean sauce is usually in the form of "yellow bean sauce" or "sweet bean sauce". Koon Chun is a well-known trademark, with their distinctive hourglass jars and blue-yellow labels.  A note on jiang4 For lack of yellow bean sauce, we can substitute hoisin sauce instead. In particular if we are using Koon Chun hoisin, which seems to be way easier to find than yellow bean sauce. Simply reduce the amount of sugar to add. Others use duck sauce, one jar per pound/500g of mince. There will no doubt be a load of comments on this recipe, and I welcome them all. Note: there is a reason my Chinese relatives, no matter if there's talk of hoisin sauce, sweet bean sauce/paste, yellow bean sauce/paste and so on, refer to them all simply as "jiang4" - they are all closely related, and one can usually easily substitute for another with the inclusion or exclusion of sugar and/or dark soy sauce and/or chili paste. Black bean sauce, on the other hand, is another animal entirely, with an intensely salt flavour where "jiang4" in it's various forms usually leans towards sweet umami-ness. Method Seasoning can be be white pepper, maybe a little MSG, a little salt if you use hoisin, and maybe a splash of rice wine. Maybe you need a little acid? Toss in some xinkiang vinegar or ordinary apple cider vinegar. I like a teaspoon of my black-tar Thai chili oil as well. What you are looking for is salty, sugary, fatty savouriness, with little morsels of meat and scallion suspended in the oil seeping from the cracked sauce, infusing the soft noodles, and cut by the freshness of the cucumbers. Nom nom nom. This is not a recipe, as I said, but a guideline. You get the idea, I guess. 4-500 g/1 lb ground pork or chicken 1 bunch scallions a bit of chopped fresh ginger (omit as you please) a good splash of oil Fry the above ingredients together in deep pan until meat is lightly browned. Add 3-4 heaped tablespoons hoisin or yellow bean sauce 1-2 tbs dark soy sauce, or to taste 1ts - 2tbs sugar, to taste salt to taste chili to taste 1/2 ts white pepper a cup of water and boil together for at least 15 minutes, stirring and scraping. Adjust seasoning, and server over freshly cooked wheat noodles with a heaped topping of sliced cucumber on top. Mix up and eat.  Variations This dish comes in as many forms as there are cooks in China. Personal favourites of mine are these : - cutting the meat/lightening the dish with some scrambled soft doufu, added at the end of cooking - using bean sprouts and/or shredded summer cabbage and/or radishes on top in addition to or instead of cucumber - using good fettuccine, linguine or spaghetti noodles instead of Chinese wheat noodles (I basically always do this - they're hella better) - using ground beef instead, making the sauce even heftier - adding some roughly chopped mushrooms (I always do this if I can) - adding some roasted peanuts to the sauce - If you have leftover zhajiangmian sauce, but not enough for a whole meal, it can make a royal sandwich topping, especially if it's made Vietnamese banh mi-style in a crusty baguette with lots of fresh vegetables and herbs.
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Sep 15, 2011 19:01
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Is there a secret to making the batter/crust for orange/lemon/general tso's chicken stay crunchy? I have tried every recipe out there with flour and cornstarch in various degrees but nothing stays crunchy. They all turn spongy within 2 minutes of cooking. I know its possible because Panda Express has orange chicken sitting in a steamer all day, soaking in sauce and that stuff is thick like lacquer and crunchy when I buy it.
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Sep 15, 2011 20:07
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Hopefully this wasn't covered, but I don't think it was. I am addicted to chicken w/ broccoli. How on earth can I make that uber bangin brown sauce on it? Is it the same as the beef w/ broccoli recipe in the beginning? I don't ever recall any kind of "oysterness"
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Sep 15, 2011 20:17
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kryptonik posted:Hopefully this wasn't covered, but I don't think it was. When you add fish sauce or oyster sauce, you really shouldn't be hit in the face with fish in the final product. It will add characteristics that meld with the rest of the dish. Oyster sauce itself doesn't have a whole lot of oyster in it; the overwhelming ingredients are sugar, salt and cornstarch and probably some glutamate containing ingredient. So yeah, the one near the beginning of the thread should serve you well for a chicken version. ForkPat fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Sep 15, 2011 |
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Sep 15, 2011 21:02
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There's a dish I've had at several chinese restaurants called, variously, "Singapore Mei Fun", "Singapore Chow Mei Fun", or just "Singapore Noodles". It has a very consistent flavor across several different restaurants in different areas. However, I've been unsuccessful in attempts to reproduce it at home. I've found a number of recipes online and most of them look accurate as far as I can tell. All of them involve curry (the dish definitely involves a light yellow curry). It seems like I can't find the correct brand or type of curry to produce the flavor I'm looking for. Does anyone have any experience with this dish?
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Sep 17, 2011 04:10
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