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ashgromnies posted:edit: actually that stuff was really easy to find but I couldn't find just plain fermented black beans. There were a ton of "fermented black bean sauce", "black bean sauce with garlic", etc. but no just "black beans"... I wound up finding a jar of fermented black bean paste(soybean, not mung bean, I know that sometimes "black bean paste" means mung bean paste) and used that. Seems okay. You might be able to find it in the fridge section, or in the dry goods section with other dry beans. They might also be labeled salted black beans or something like that.
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Nov 14, 2011 05:18
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Captain Stinkybutt posted:"doh-bahn-jahng" is the closest I can come to describing it. Lee Kum Kee brand has toban dai written on the label
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Nov 14, 2011 06:07
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These ingredients should be available from even a Safeway. The English names are not standardized so just google up the traditional Chinese characters of the ingredient and check it against that at the store.
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Nov 16, 2011 10:31
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branedotorg posted:Lee Kum Kee brand has toban dai written on the label Old-fashioned transliteration? Better ask the Chinese thread about that.
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Nov 16, 2011 13:37
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If I wanted to make dumplings like you get at any Chinese restaurant, will the dim sum recipe earlier in the thread work or is there another option?
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Nov 16, 2011 22:42
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vxk5004 posted:If I wanted to make dumplings like you get at any Chinese restaurant, will the dim sum recipe earlier in the thread work or is there another option? There could be an entire megathread dedicated to Chinese dumplings. The shumai earlier is but one example. Which kind of dumplings are you trying to make? If I had to assume, I'd say you're looking for jiaozi. The filling is very similar to the filling in the shumai. The wrapping is different. I can write up more when I get home unless someone wants to address it before me.
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Nov 17, 2011 01:10
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This is completely below this thread, but I would love any guidance on lo mein or chicken wings a la takeout joint. The cravings, you know? And thanks for everything else--I live in close proximity to a massive Super 88 and work near the restaurant supply store for half of Boston's Chinatown so I've been geeking out over Asian cooking experiments for a while. Makes me want to get a wok ring for my turkey fryer and push the BTU's my poo poo apartment stove won't
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Nov 17, 2011 02:57
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GrAviTy84 posted:There could be an entire megathread dedicated to Chinese dumplings. The shumai earlier is but one example. Which kind of dumplings are you trying to make? If I had to assume, I'd say you're looking for jiaozi. The filling is very similar to the filling in the shumai. The wrapping is different. I can write up more when I get home unless someone wants to address it before me. Definitely. Dumplings and dumpling sauce is one of those infinite variation everyone's own region kind of thing. My family makes the wrappers with 1 cup water to 3 cups dough. You mix it, knead it (not too far!), chill it and roll it out nice and thin in little circles. For filling, ground pork, green onions, soy sauce, chopped up salted/drained nappa. Mmmm and sauce is soy sauce, garlic, chili oil, sesame oil.
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Nov 17, 2011 03:20
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Awesome thread. I was just browsing through the Filipino food thread and saw a few interesting foods of Chinese origin I had no idea were so well-known in Filipino cuisine. Chinese cooking is really diverse, especially where it meets other Asian styles. For example: - The popiah/runbiah (润饼 / 薄饼) of Fujian province is all over Southeast Asia (as Filipino lumpia, Taiwanese popiah, Singaporean & Malaysian popiah, Vietnamese bo bia, Thai por-pia, etc.), but the flavors and condiments vary a lot between them. Up till now I hadn't realised lumpia was originally the same thing as popiah (mostly because I haven't actually had any lumpia before). - Filipino pancit bihon (便食米粉) is the same thing as bee hoon in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. and Cantonese mai fun (all being the same Chinese word, basically). The fried form looks basically the same wherever you go, though the flavors change I bet. Same goes for the various other noodle types, which show up repeatedly in Hongkong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc. under differing names and guises. - Then there's Flip sio pao (烧包)/ Thai salapao, which is of course virtually the same thing as the baozi varieties found in any Chinese community. As a Singaporean I have to say I prefer our Chinese street food to the other Chinese styles I've tried - our oyster omelette beats Taiwan's, and our sweet, lard-fried 河粉 hefen/horfun (aka char kway teow) is more my thing than the bland preparations in some Canto and Thai places. The Chinese food we get here is influenced by Malay/Southeast Asian cooking (awesome) and so flavors are somewhat stronger than in China (chilli sauce or belacan goes with everything). When I visited Jiangxi in China last year I was let down by the generally bland, barely fried breakfast chaofen 炒粉. Two Lanzhou noodle-type dishes I tried were better, as was the restaurant food. I'm not so sure about northern dishes, but from what I've read they seem light on the palette to me.  Wet, sticky, eggy, salty-sweet, slightly charred, larded, sausaged, be-cockled I still love trying stuff from different regions, though (wontons in peanut sauce, zhajiangmian, mapo doufu, yu xiang yu/rou are winners in my book). Gonna eat my way through proper Taiwanese night markets when I go next month. I have high hopes (any recommendations are greatly appreciated). tl;dr Chinese food sure is diverse creamyhorror fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Nov 17, 2011 |
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Nov 17, 2011 18:03
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GrAviTy84 posted:There could be an entire megathread dedicated to Chinese dumplings. The shumai earlier is but one example. Which kind of dumplings are you trying to make? If I had to assume, I'd say you're looking for jiaozi. The filling is very similar to the filling in the shumai. The wrapping is different. I can write up more when I get home unless someone wants to address it before me. Jiaozi sounds perfect - I just wanted to be sure to have the right filling. I'm not exactly looking for the typical Chinese restaurant fare, but I want to be as authentic as possible. nonanone posted:My family makes the wrappers with 1 cup water to 3 cups dough. You mix it, knead it (not too far!), chill it and roll it out nice and thin in little circles. This sounds great, I'll be trying it tomorrow, thanks!
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Nov 17, 2011 22:06
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if you need a demo of how to fold the dumplings, this vid is a good one, albeit very noisy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g5alhvDZ0c
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Nov 18, 2011 01:51
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We made Red Braised Pork tonight, and it was lovely! Very reminiscent of Indonesian Babi Ketjap, but better flavour-wise (I guess from the shaoxing wine). Yesterday we did the fish fragrant pork, which was also very good. Thanks for the recipes, Gravity! Asian-food-wise, I've mostly done Korean, Indonesian and dutch-chinese (yeah that's avery specific thing and quite different from american-chinese apparently), but after visiting Hong Kong and with all the nice big Chinese supermarkets here in Edinburgh it's fun to start cooking more proper Chinese food 
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Nov 21, 2011 00:58
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pim01 posted:dutch-chinese What's included in this? I've found Korean-Chinese to be quite different from American as well. No heavy, gloopy, sweet sauces. Plus, Chinese made for Korean tastes tend to be right up my alley anyway.
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Nov 21, 2011 01:11
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It's mostly a weird fusion of Indonesian and Chinese that's billed as 'chinese'. I guess this came about since Indonesia used to be a Dutch colony so it's food was already vaguely familiar to the Dutch. When Chinese immigrants arrived, they incorporated this into their own style of cooking and we ended up with a sort of mish-mash. Some typical dishes include (random recipe links for clarification, they're close enough so you get the gist of the dishes): Babi Pangang and Babi Ketjap Foo yong Hai Bami Goreng and of course Satay and Sambals in their many variations. Looking back it's actually more Indonesian than Chinese..
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Nov 21, 2011 01:31
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Well thanks to this thread I tried my hand at some Char Siu and it was fabulous. I was wondering what to do with a small pork loin I had in the fridge when I recalled this discussion. I love Char Siu but since my family doesn't we never order it when we're out. Next time I'd use a slightly fattier cut, the loin is so lean it doesn't have that nice ribbon of fat you often get in Char Siu. Still, thanks for the various pointers, it's delish. Apologies for crappy iphone pic, I only thought about taking a snap after we'd eaten a bunch. 
squirrelzipper fucked around with this message at 04:18 on Nov 22, 2011 |
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Nov 22, 2011 04:14
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vxk5004 posted:Jiaozi sounds perfect - I just wanted to be sure to have the right filling. I'm not exactly looking for the typical Chinese restaurant fare, but I want to be as authentic as possible. Well a popular variety of Jiaozi in Beijing is Leek (Garlic Chives Sans flowers) and scrambled eggs with various spices. I scramble 2 eggs and really mash them up into as small of pieces as you can. Chop the garlic chives into small pieces as well and mix with the egg. Add a splash of oil, 5 spice, soy sauce, and if you like - salt (easy to make them too salty so be careful). I hardly ever make the wrappers because they are a giant pain in the rear end, but it is really just flour and water. Many supermarkets will have frozen "Giaozi" "Jiaozi" or round "Wonton" wrappers, they all work. Folding is up to you. Most places I get Jiaozi at don't fold them fancy. I just fold over and put 3 pinches to keep them shut. Others put many different pleats.   Just cook in boiling water until they begin to float and expand. The wrappers will be slightly translucent. I don't like dipping sauce with Jiaozi, but many places will serve dark vinegar with soy sauce. You can add in dried red pepper and chili oil to make it spicy. In the USA most Chinese joints serve vinegar, soysauce, and sugar. Other types that I've had are Fennel, egg, and meat Meat, egg, and leek Meat and cabbage Three treasure (Mushroom, Fish or meat, and leeks)
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Nov 25, 2011 05:41
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Hey Gravity, my mom recently gifted me with a Chinese clay air pot (direct translation, she called it a qi guo). I can't seem to find any info on it, got any tips/resources? I was thinking about doing a short rib or octopus braise.
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Nov 25, 2011 18:27
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Rurutia posted:Hey Gravity, my mom recently gifted me with a Chinese clay air pot (direct translation, she called it a qi guo). I can't seem to find any info on it, got any tips/resources? I was thinking about doing a short rib or octopus braise.  If read it, mine came with this. I was told by a chinaboo friend that that it basically says. grav's friend posted:It's safety warnings--this is a breakable product, exercise care when using, wipe the outside of the pot dry of all liquid before putting it on your heating element, don't freeze the clay pot or put it on anything cold after heating it because it can break, use oven mitts when touching so you don't burn yourself, don't use the clay pot for deep-frying foods like tempura, you cannot use the clay pot on an electric hotplate, in a microwave oven, or in a conventional oven. After washing the clay pot, place it in an open, airy spot to dry safely.
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Nov 25, 2011 20:48
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Rurutia posted:...Chinese clay air pot ... Is that the thing that looks like a bundt pan?
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Nov 25, 2011 23:52
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A little yeah. Pics: @Gravity: Thanks for the translation, definitely can't read Japanese. I was wondering more of what you cooked in it though besides the obvious braises.
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Nov 26, 2011 00:33
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GrAviTy84 posted:you cannot use the clay pot on an electric hotplate, in a microwave oven, or in a conventional oven. So, what can you use to heat it? Just a gas burner?
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Nov 26, 2011 01:07
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My mother taught me to put it nestled on top of a pot of boiling water.
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Nov 26, 2011 01:16
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meh, I just put in on a gas burner. There are still people w/o gas burners out there? :P
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Nov 26, 2011 01:18
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GrAviTy84 posted:meh, I just put in on a gas burner. There are still people w/o gas burners out there? :P We have gas burners, I'm not sure why she does it the way she does, besides the fact that it works.
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Nov 26, 2011 01:22
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Rurutia posted:A little yeah. Pics: Oh! It is a Yunnan steam pot. It makes amazing chicken soup, too.
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Nov 26, 2011 03:18
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Is the inside unglazed? Won't it absorb funk if it isn't? Is there any concern for lead contamination? The whole thing looks interesting and I love new cookware, but cooking in unglazed Chinese pottery doesn't sit well with me.
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Nov 26, 2011 08:03
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So thanks to this thread I can have delicious, spicy, saucy food while away from home. However, I have one problem - I'll fry meat and then reserve it, and it'll be just perfectly tender. Then, however, when I add it back in with vegetables and then add sauce I think it cooks a little too long and becomes a bit tougher. I mean it's still good but it's not as delectably soft as when I cooked it by itself. I realize that I should probably cook it to just a bit before it's perfect before I reserve it, but I'm not sure how to tell. Is it okay if, say, chicken is still has some pink parts? Also, let's say I end up messing up and the meat is where I want it before I add it back to the pan. Should I add the sauce and cook the vegetables in it, then maybe turn the pot down to medium heat and add the chicken? I'm just wondering about the specific technique you guys use to avoid overcooking the protein.
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Nov 28, 2011 04:53
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If you're doing it little by little to make up for an underpowered heat source: the meat should still be rare-med rare when you reserve it, even chicken. You're just looking for some char/caramelization the first go round. Cook through when you replace it in the wok.
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Nov 28, 2011 05:12
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For most Chinese stir-fry dishes, you really shouldn't need to cook a sauce for more than 30 seconds or so. So first cook your meat until it's just caramelized, take it out, cook the veggies, add the meat back in, add the sauce, let the sauce reduce for 30 seconds or so, then scoop everything out. That 30 seconds of cooking in the sauce shouldn't overcook your meat that much.
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Nov 29, 2011 04:32
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GrAviTy84: Any chance you could post about that honey walnut shrimp? I'm guessing it's cornstarch and egg battered, and the sauce has mayonnaise in it...but that only gets me so close.
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Nov 30, 2011 05:36
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gret posted:For most Chinese stir-fry dishes, you really shouldn't need to cook a sauce for more than 30 seconds or so. So first cook your meat until it's just caramelized, take it out, cook the veggies, add the meat back in, add the sauce, let the sauce reduce for 30 seconds or so, then scoop everything out. That 30 seconds of cooking in the sauce shouldn't overcook your meat that much. GrAviTy84 posted:If you're doing it little by little to make up for an underpowered heat source: the meat should still be rare-med rare when you reserve it, even chicken. You're just looking for some char/caramelization the first go round. Cook through when you replace it in the wok. Thanks guys, by frying the chicken by itself for only long enough to caramelize it at the beginning (I still had some pink on a lot of the pieces), I was able to get it to exactly the tenderness I wanted to after I added it back in with the sauce! Best stir fry yet! I currently live in Japan and have a one-burner electric stove, a relatively small wok, and a tiny fridge so stir fry, donburi, and some home-style Caribbean food are pretty much the only things I've been cooking lately due to lack of variety of available ingredients. These recipes have basically been keeping my taste for spicy food intact since I live out in the country and there's not much in the way of spicy or non-Japanized Chinese food around here. So thanks a lot for letting me continue to enjoy Chinese food!
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Dec 1, 2011 04:03
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mania posted:Here it is! I saved the entire thread to send to a friend's dad to try out. Thank you so much for reposting this, I made a 6-pound pork belly this way and it turned out AMAZING. I didn't have all the same ingredients, so I made my marinade with fermented black bean paste, ground star anise, cinnamon, sichuan peppercorns, salt, fresh chopped garlic, chili garlic sauce, and sugar. Only now I have a ton of leftover pork belly, and I'm trying to think of creative ways to use it. I made a frittata this morning with onions, garlic, scallions, pork belly, red pepper flakes and ground sichuan peppercorns. I know it's not really chinese but it had some of that sichuan flavor and turned out perfectly. But what I'd really love to make is Ma La pork belly. Does anyone have a good recipe for Ma La sauce? I'm thinking that tossing the pork belly in that sauce would be great with a simple side of bok choy.
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Dec 5, 2011 20:22
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PainBreak posted:GrAviTy84: The chinese restaurant I work at has a fried shrimp with a sweet mayo based sauce and candied walnuts, so I'll tell you about as much as I can without copying the prep book wholesale and potentially being fired/sued. The shrimp is dusted in potato starch and fried, we add it to a mixing bowl with a portion of melon balls and candied walnuts, and the sauce we pour and toss with is a mixture of "japanese style mayo" (mayo, soy sauce, rice vinegar, celery salt, tumeric) that I think you can buy premade, sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, and honey. e: vv the melon is the worst part, in my opinion, but I don't write the menu
12 rats tied together fucked around with this message at 03:32 on Dec 6, 2011 |
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Dec 6, 2011 02:51
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Mine is basically like that, without the melon. The batter is beaten egg whites till foamy but not quite merengue, add cornstarch.Reiz posted:"japanese style mayo" aka Kewpie mayo
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Dec 6, 2011 03:06
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PorkFat posted:Is the inside unglazed? Won't it absorb funk if it isn't? Is there any concern for lead contamination? The inside of mine is unglazed, but it's a very fine-structured clay and I haven't had any problems with it picking up smells or stains. I do make sure to fill it with hot water before use and let it sit for a while, if that's worth anything. Most of these things are made of yixing clay, which I understand does not contain lead as a matter of course. As always you have to trust your manufacturer somewhat not to adulterate it, but if it's a big issue you could always run a leach test. Lead testing kits aren't too expensive, I think about $10-15 for a small pack. Sorry for taking so long to respond; I've been bad about keeping up on threads lately.
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Dec 6, 2011 15:09
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Kinuven posted:But what I'd really love to make is Ma La pork belly. Does anyone have a good recipe for Ma La sauce? I'm thinking that tossing the pork belly in that sauce would be great with a simple side of bok choy. I've seen ma la chili sauce that's basically ground Szechuan peppercorns steeped in chili oil.
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Dec 8, 2011 00:55
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gret posted:I've seen ma la chili sauce that's basically ground Szechuan peppercorns steeped in chili oil. I'll try doing that myself then, thanks!
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Dec 9, 2011 00:41
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How do you make the meat less chewy?
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Dec 13, 2011 02:15
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pisshead posted:How do you make the meat less chewy? What did you make? You probably sliced the meat too thickly and/or with the grain and/or overcooked it and/or used a cut that is not really appropriate for wokking.
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Dec 13, 2011 02:21
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pisshead posted:How do you make the meat less chewy? Tenderize with 1 tsp. of Baking Soda per pound of meat and and enough water to make a watery paste. Wait 20-30 minutes and rinse VERY well. Dry it, velvet the meat, and cook as usual. That is how restaurants achieve that texture with their beef.
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Dec 13, 2011 04:17
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