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Last weekend I had the opportunity to try some Szechuan peppers. Yeah, the numbing ones. I didn't hate them, but the sensation wasn't particularly good either. I don't know why people claim it is almost as good as having an orgasm. (I read that on wikipedia.)
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Dec 30, 2011 20:32
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Hungry Gerbil posted:Last weekend I had the opportunity to try some Szechuan peppers. Yeah, the numbing ones. I didn't hate them, but the sensation wasn't particularly good either. I don't know why people claim it is almost as good as having an orgasm. (I read that on wikipedia.) This is no laughing matter, I can't climax unless me and my partner are thoroughly rubbed down with ground Szechuan pepper before coitus.
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Dec 30, 2011 20:42
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Hungry Gerbil posted:Last weekend I had the opportunity to try some Szechuan peppers. Yeah, the numbing ones. I didn't hate them, but the sensation wasn't particularly good either. I don't know why people claim it is almost as good as having an orgasm. (I read that on wikipedia.) Trying them by themselves is pretty boring. It's almost like biting on a regular peppercorn and expecting it to taste good. Go eat it in a food.
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Dec 30, 2011 21:33
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GrAviTy84 posted:Trying them by themselves is pretty boring. It's almost like biting on a regular peppercorn and expecting it to taste good. Go eat it in a food. Yeah, I wasn't eating them by themselves. We were eating some excellent hot pot. The peppers were novel and interesting, but not something I'm looking forward to tasting again.
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Dec 30, 2011 22:02
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As someone who really likes Sichuan food, I like Sichuan pepper a lot, but like any other spice it needs to be used in moderation. It's a cool, unusual, tingly sensation. It's fun to drink iced water after having a lot of Sichuan pepper flavor, because it produces the sensation that the water is lightly carbonated. Orgasmic though? Huh? Weird.
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Dec 31, 2011 05:54
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Perhaps you guys can clarify something for me. I grew up in Anchorage, and as a result fell in love with the "Chinese" food there. The flavors seem to incorporate a lot of caramelized sugar. I've noticed that with my experiences in Hawaii and California it tends to be the same way. But the further I move east, to places like Detroit, St. Louis, and Florida, the flavors are much less what I'm accustomed to (absolute worst: St. Louis "Chop Suey" rooms where your meal is passed to you through a wheel of bulletproof glass). It obviously seems regional, but I didn't know if it was regional to the U.S. or China. If there a name for the type of Chinese food I enjoy?
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Dec 31, 2011 18:14
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sixdeadpandas posted:Perhaps you guys can clarify something for me. I grew up in Anchorage, and as a result fell in love with the "Chinese" food there. The flavors seem to incorporate a lot of caramelized sugar. I've noticed that with my experiences in Hawaii and California it tends to be the same way. But the further I move east, to places like Detroit, St. Louis, and Florida, the flavors are much less what I'm accustomed to (absolute worst: St. Louis "Chop Suey" rooms where your meal is passed to you through a wheel of bulletproof glass). It obviously seems regional, but I didn't know if it was regional to the U.S. or China. If there a name for the type of Chinese food I enjoy? I can't really answer you question but I can say I loving love Chinese food in AK. I was in Fairbanks and while take out was a little more expensive than down here in TX it was so much better. Pagoda in North Pole is still the best Chinese food I've ever had out. I miss Pagoda 
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Dec 31, 2011 20:25
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Shanghainese cuisine uses a lot of sugar, usually rock sugar or caramelized sugar. Could be another cuisine, the use of sugar is by no means restricted to the Whore of the Orient but it's the place that is the most known for it.
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Jan 1, 2012 15:26
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Does Beijing use any specific cuisine? I've always wondered this, and only get links to "Peking duck" when I search for Beijing cuisine. Anyways, I got myself a ricecooker because I am extremely (I am not kidding) useless at making food, and always burns the rice when I make it. So, buying one of these I was figuring I could make rice a bigger part of my diet. I was wondering which easy, and I mean really easy, Chinese recipes I can go for, one that uses rice in it would be nice. It would also be nice to use some ingredients that are sort of specific to the Cuisine to make it abit more "exotic", if you catch my drift. Cheers, goons!  Great thread.
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Jan 3, 2012 20:24
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Beijing cuisine, or Mandarin cuisine since it's the cuisine of the capital, is distinctly influenced by the other cuisines of the North and features both rustic staple dishes as well as traces of former aristocratic glory with refined and elegant presentations at the restaurants who specialize in it. Staples are noodles and bread instead of rice. Other dishes include The hot and sour soup and mu shu pork. Lamb and beef dishes. Potato dishes. Cabbage and bok choy, sometimes pickled. Guo tie (potstickers) are popular over most parts of China but could arguably be identified as typical of Mandarin cuisine.
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Jan 3, 2012 20:56
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Baibai Kuaikuai posted:I was wondering which easy, and I mean really easy, Chinese recipes I can go for, one that uses rice in it would be nice. It would also be nice to use some ingredients that are sort of specific to the Cuisine to make it abit more "exotic", if you catch my drift. Cheers, goons! Ma po tofu is a good easy dish, there are two recipes in this thread for it that are linked to in the OP.
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Jan 3, 2012 22:41
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Really really really easy Chinese rice recipe: By weight 1 part rice to 10 parts water. Boil poo poo out of until turns into thick soup. Eat for breakfast with a little soy sauce, fried bread strips, fried eggs with soy sauce, pickles or even just plain like it is. Congratulations, you are now partaking of Zhou Almighty. Wanna go fancy? Use chicken stock instead of water. Or add boiled bits of pork innards. Or hundred-year eggs in pieces (those are very good in a completely non-machismo kind of way).
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Jan 3, 2012 22:48
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Made the beef and broccoli with oyster sauce from this thread today, breaking in a new wok in the process. It was extremely fun, though the fish fryer burner was not hot enough, meaning I had to throw it directly on a pile of coals in one of those metal fire pits. Worked rather well, but I think I just didn't get things quite hot enough. Not a ton of that smokiness you get from a good Chinese place, but then again this was the first time I ever did it, and it did have some at least. I had one of those thermometer heat gun things on hand. On the fryer the wok got to about 600 at most, whereas on the coals I let it get to about 700 before I started. Was this not hot enough, or is it just a matter of inexperience and a lack of a cure to blame for it not being all smokey? Any tips on how to get coals mega hot, or are they generally hot enough by default? I made a bit of a 'platform' out of logs that were still sort of wooden to put the wok over - would I have been better off having it literally touch the coals? I'd also like to suggest that plastic squeeze bottles of pre-made sauce, oil, and water, as in hindsight that would have been much simpler than having to spoon everything around. Also, on a whim, I got some the sichuan pepper corn oil and used it, and it gave a nice numbing that went well with siracha squirts as a condiment. What's the proportion ratio of the oil to peppercorns? Or is it just 'eyeball and if it's tasty do that again'?
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Jan 4, 2012 05:33
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It is my understanding that a good deal of the smokey flavour comes from the wok hei or seasoning, so if you were breaking in a new wok it stands to reason that would be lacking.
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Jan 4, 2012 05:57
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You can get a lot of smokey flavor by throwing in whole dry red chiles into the oil with the other aromatics. They'll get toasty, roasty, and brown in just a few seconds. Careful, they burn easy as poo poo.
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Jan 4, 2012 06:41
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So, pull them out, or add in something with enough moisture to keep them from burning in the oil before they burn? Thanks for the tip! What's a good 'wok temp' anyway? Is it normal that the wok would cool down to about 250-300 once you empty it out? Stupid pyrometers making me measure things. Speaking of the cure, meat still sticks a bit when first put in. Will that ever really change? Also, having done this outside and having it turn out that the outside lights did NOT work on that side of the house, don't do this in the dark. My girlfriend had to run around with a light bar to keep things safe, and walking into a plume of smoke from the fire pit with a smoking wok was also not exactly the safest thing ever. Just really drat fun.
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Jan 4, 2012 09:08
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2banks1swap.avi posted:So, pull them out, or add in something with enough moisture to keep them from burning in the oil before they burn? Thanks for the tip! I'd try to keep it right around the smoking point of the oil, so maybe a bit above 400F? Read my posts with the videos above for an idea of how to get good wok hei. I don't think you'll be able to get the oil vapors on fire via the flames coming off the charcoal, but if you can, all the better. Be careful though. It's always good to get the coals hotter, but at a certain point, you'll have to use the temperature control techniques of ladling water or having a spot to set the wok away from the heat. If you have a Weber style grill, try to think of a way to rig up a fan blowing into an aluminum air hose, blowing into the air vents in the bottom of the grill. Keep the coals a slight distance away from the sides of the grill or else the high temperatures reached by the coals could craze and crack the enamel paint on the grill bowl. Think of an expanded metal coal ring, like you'd see on a Weber Smokey Mountain or something.
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Jan 4, 2012 11:29
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Sjurygg posted:Really really really easy Chinese rice recipe: Chicken salt works well too. Other popular variations are millet (小米） and corn (玉米）。 I like millet best because it has a richer flavor without needing to add a bunch of salt of butter or whatever suits your taste. Corn is a lot like grits with a bunch more water. Also, 皮蛋 (century egg)  2banks1swap.avi posted:Speaking of the cure, meat still sticks a bit when first put in. Will that ever really change? Whenever I first put meat in my wok, I make sure that I am always moving my wok slightly so that it does not stick at first. I've never been able to make it not stick without keeping the meat moving. Aero737 fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Jan 5, 2012 |
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Jan 5, 2012 05:55
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Mach420 posted: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. What is velvetting the meat?
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Jan 9, 2012 02:13
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Treating the meat slices with a little corn or potato starch. It's a quite common way to treat meat in China.
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Jan 9, 2012 06:35
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Sjurygg posted:Treating the meat slices with a little corn or potato starch. It's a quite common way to treat meat in China. Right. Think of plain sliced homemade oven roasted turkey breast, how rough it can be, then think how much better the mouthfeel would be with a bit of gravy on it. That's what will improve by mixing a bit of cornstarch slurry into the meat slices before you stir fry it. It smooths out the mouthfeel of the meat, and also helps contribute to the natural gravy or sauce that coats everything in the stir fry.
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Jan 9, 2012 11:28
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Hungry Gerbil posted:Last weekend I had the opportunity to try some Szechuan peppers. Yeah, the numbing ones. I didn't hate them, but the sensation wasn't particularly good either. I don't know why people claim it is almost as good as having an orgasm. (I read that on wikipedia.) My favourite Szechuan pepper dish is cucumber and bacon salad. I'm at work so I can't transcribe the recipe, but this tastes awesome (if really hot/numbing). Maybe not orgasmic, but super-tasty (it's really smoky/salty/spicy and awesome).
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Jan 9, 2012 11:32
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Mach420 posted:Right. Think of plain sliced homemade oven roasted turkey breast, how rough it can be, then think how much better the mouthfeel would be with a bit of gravy on it. That's what will improve by mixing a bit of cornstarch slurry into the meat slices before you stir fry it. It smooths out the mouthfeel of the meat, and also helps contribute to the natural gravy or sauce that coats everything in the stir fry. Also it cuts expensive meat to make it go further, and makes the most of what little there is 
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Jan 9, 2012 23:51
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Sjurygg posted:Treating the meat slices with a little corn or potato starch. It's a quite common way to treat meat in China. I always thought velveting was briefly deep frying the meat in oil.
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Jan 10, 2012 03:14
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gret posted:I always thought velveting was briefly deep frying the meat in oil. I think it's both. Most of the time when I read about stir frying meat it's always "marinated" in a little corn starch (that's what Martin Yan calls it) and cooked in a decent amount of oil.
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Jan 10, 2012 03:17
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Baibai Kuaikuai posted:Does Beijing use any specific cuisine? I've always wondered this, and only get links to "Peking duck" when I search for Beijing cuisine. Basically the roast duck and Zha Jiang Mian (Fried Sauce Noodles) if you're looking for Beijing specific. As someone else has said, it's pretty much "Northern" since everything's been mixed together for so long. vvv excuse the double post totalnewbie fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Jan 17, 2012 |
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Jan 17, 2012 01:45
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Beef Noodle Soup The meat is an art. The shopkeep I used to go to got his meat from he-says-Chicago, but that was 7 hours away. The way it tasted though, I'd believe it. The key to having good beef noodle soup is to have as much connective tissue as possible and to simmer for as long as possible. You basically want to boil the tendons down so much that it's goo. But this is a lot easier. You will need:  ~1 lb top blade steak or chuck steak 10 cm ginger 6 cloves garlic 2-3 teaspoons chili garlic sauce star anise 1/2 cup soy sauce 1 yellow onion 4 sticks cinnamon 4 cups chicken broth (Also not pictured: green onion, (baby) bok choy, cilantro, noodles)  Sautee your onions in oil until they begin to turn translucent.  Add cinnamon + star anise for a couple minutes  Add garlic, ginger, garlic chili sauce for another minute  Add broth, soy sauce, 4-5 cups water, cover and bring to a boil  Did you find top blade steak? Didn't think so. Cut chuck steak so that there is connective tissue throughout the meat.  Add meat, bring to a boil, partially cover, simmer on low for 2 hours  Remove star anise, ginger, cinnamon (or just don't eat it if you find it in your bowl) Add chopped (baby) bok choy while you're simmering for maybe 5 minutes or a bit more Add some green onions Pour broth on pre-cooked (and strained) noodles Garnish with cilantro Eat!
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Jan 17, 2012 01:57
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What kind of noodles did you use? Looks like rice noodles.
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Jan 17, 2012 02:08
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I just used soumen because I have 10 lbs of it around but you can use whatever, I'm sure, as long as thin. Forgot to bring soumen to my buddy's when I made it there and we just used angel hair pasta. Worked out okay.
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Jan 17, 2012 02:29
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That stuff is delicious and one of my favorite comfort foods. Even better if you braise shank, tendon, and tripe and top with some minced zha cai (sichuan pickled vegetable). Also, a bit of rock sugar can help balance some of the saltiness, and a bit of fresh ground sichuan peppercorn at the end can add a lemonyness that brightens the whole thing. Edit: You can get the broth clearer by skimming the coagulated protein foam that builds up at the beginning of the broth making process, doesn't look like you did it, but it's really more of an aesthetic thing than anything. A little bit of a broth mouthfeel thing, too but it's no big deal.
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Jan 17, 2012 05:07
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Yeah, my kitchen is pretty sparse... I literally don't have an appropriate tool to skim with. I've been buying utensils as I needed them. I will definitely have to try a bit of rock sugar and peppercorn next time. Thanks for the tip.
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Jan 17, 2012 05:25
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I actually like to stew the szechuan peppercorns along with star anise and the other spices. It adds a nice background tingliness. I'll have to post my recipe next time I make a batch of beef noodle soup.
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Jan 17, 2012 06:17
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Hey, actually, anyone want to share your personal methodology for making hong shao rou (红烧肉)? I'm most interested in if/how you guys get a nice glaze on the meat.
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Jan 17, 2012 06:27
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totalnewbie posted:Hey, actually, anyone want to share your personal methodology for making hong shao rou (红烧肉)? I'm most interested in if/how you guys get a nice glaze on the meat. Make a really good caramel at the beginning and then reduce everything down to a really good caramel again at the end after you've finished braising.
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Jan 17, 2012 07:41
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Good quality dark soy sauce. Lee Kum Kee is our favourite. Lots of sliced ginger, too. If you can, use rock sugar.
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Jan 17, 2012 10:59
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What kind of fish filet is used in dishes like fish pieces in chili sauce with dofu, preserved egg fish filet soup, fish with spicy bean sauce? Please don't make me try and romanize or pinyin. I will fail. I've tried (frozen) tilapia from Shaw's, but the texture and taste were odd. Also, how long can one keep 1000 year old eggs? I have a box. Let's just say it's older than my milk and under a year old.
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Jan 18, 2012 18:20
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Century eggs will last about a month. Chinese fish dishes usually make use of semi-firm white fishes of either salt or sweet water variety. Codfish works nicely.
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Jan 18, 2012 18:38
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squigadoo posted:What kind of fish filet is used in dishes like fish pieces in chili sauce with dofu, preserved egg fish filet soup, fish with spicy bean sauce? Please don't make me try and romanize or pinyin. I will fail. Also, the egg white should be a nice and deep dark brown, almost black color. Once it starts turning greenish, like the yolk, it's getting old.
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Jan 19, 2012 00:34
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Sjurygg posted:Century eggs will last about a month. Bingo. Thank you. Mach420 posted:Also, the egg white should be a nice and deep dark brown, almost black color. Once it starts turning greenish, like the yolk, it's getting old. I don't dare crack open my eggs in case they smell, so I'll be getting a new box this weekend if I can figure out how one person can eat 6 of them in a month. (edit: while cooking for someone who doesn't like century eggs. Or porridge. Or tofu.) Question about the yolks though. I'm used to the yolks being solid, almost with the consistency of a hard boiled egg. If I cut it into 8ths, everything would hold into a slice form. However, every single pack I've bought recently has had runny yolks. Is this a bad thing, weird thing, okay thing? I find the runny yolk really off-putting and want the consistency of the solid one. Also, the West lake beef soup recipe was great. Boyfriend loved it, I liked it. We warred over how fine the water chestnuts should be chopped (me: finer, him: chunkier) and omitted the mushrooms since he dislikes them. We have a huge bunch of cilantro left that I'm going to try and work into a fish and century egg soup if I can google a way to make fish stock. And find fish bones. Or a fish head. squigadoo fucked around with this message at 18:59 on Jan 19, 2012 |
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Jan 19, 2012 16:50
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squigadoo posted:I don't dare crack open my eggs in case they smell, so I'll be getting a new box this weekend if I can figure out how one person can eat 6 of them in a month. Loads and loads of porridge. Apart from that, there's: Century egg and pickled ginged - an appetizer which is just slices of pickled ginger wrapped around slices of century egg. 3 egg spinach - century egg, salted egg and a normal egg stir fried with spinach (you can use less water then what the recipe states, also it's fine without the salted egg, though not as awesome). Tofu and century egg - chilled silken tofu topped with century egg and other stuff (ie: fried shallots, fried garlic, chilli, spring onions) in a sauce (ie: soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, oyster sauce) Steamed egg with century egg - the recipe I linked has pork and salted egg included, but steamed eggs are very awesome and you can either have it plain or have just the century eggs in, or fishcake, or dried shrimp. (Disclaimer: While I've eaten the above dishes before, the linked stuff are just the first results that showed up on google, though they're more or less the same as my family's.)
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Jan 19, 2012 17:36
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