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
Grand Fromage
Jan 30, 2006

L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?


Gai lan can be cooked like any leafy green, my favorite way is the Cantonese style. Braise in stock until just barely tender then slather with oyster sauce.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Bald Stalin
Jul 11, 2004

Our posts
The best thing about gai lan, is how its so cheap to buy and make, but if you get it at a dim sum joint it's suddenly an 'Extra Special' dish that costs $9. Meanwhile the har gow is only $4...

emotive
Dec 26, 2006

I need some more vegetarian friendly Chinese recipes that aren't just stir fry.

Help me, goons!

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


I would like any stir fry Chinese vegetable dishes. I'm low on that!

Grand Fromage posted:

Gai lan can be cooked like any leafy green, my favorite way is the Cantonese style. Braise in stock until just barely tender then slather with oyster sauce.

I tried this, and it came out way too salty. :pwn: How much stock are you supposed to use, and how long to braise? I may have also put too much oyster sauce...

Ranter posted:

The best thing about gai lan, is how its so cheap to buy and make, but if you get it at a dim sum joint it's suddenly an 'Extra Special' dish that costs $9. Meanwhile the har gow is only $4...

I'm loving amazed at gai lan and yu choy being like 97c per pound. I stock up on them every time I go to H-Mart.

Rurutia
Jun 11, 2009

Pollyanna posted:

I would like any stir fry Chinese vegetable dishes. I'm low on that!


I tried this, and it came out way too salty. :pwn: How much stock are you supposed to use, and how long to braise? I may have also put too much oyster sauce...


I'm loving amazed at gai lan and yu choy being like 97c per pound. I stock up on them every time I go to H-Mart.

Are you salting your stock? Your stock shouldn't be salted before you use it and then the dish should be salted to taste.

paraquat
Nov 25, 2006

Burp

emotive posted:

I need some more vegetarian friendly Chinese recipes that aren't just stir fry.

Help me, goons!

I love this eggplant salad (steamed, so not greasy)
http://www.chinasichuanfood.com/chinese-eggplant-salad-recipe/

Make it as a side dish to this vegetarian/vegan mapo tofu and it would make even a non-vegetarian (like me) happy!
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/02/the-best-vegan-mapo-tofu-recipe.html

paraquat fucked around with this message at 16:01 on May 31, 2016

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Rurutia posted:

Are you salting your stock? Your stock shouldn't be salted before you use it and then the dish should be salted to taste.

I'm using Better than Bouillon base, which apparently has 680mg of salt per teaspoon. :eyepop: I'm gonna guess I shouldn't be using this?

Grand Fromage
Jan 30, 2006

L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?


That's your problem. Oyster sauce isn't particularly salty (that I've had anyway) so it must be the stock. Save some bits and make some homemade, it's pretty easy. Freeze it in ice cube trays and then you can just pop out a few at a time for this sort of thing or making sauces.

I often braise Chinese vegetables in a shaoxing/rice vinegar/soy sauce mix if I'm not bothering with stock, that's a pretty basic flavor profile that fits most Chinese dishes. I do like my vinegar though, it may be too vinegary for normal people.

SubG
Aug 19, 2004

It's a hard world for little things.

Pollyanna posted:

I know I asked about yu choy earlier, but I picked up some gai lan and I'm wondering how to cook those, too. Most recipes on the internet seem to say that the basic idea is to sautee them in garlic and oil for a bit, then braise them in some chicken stock. Is that a good option, or is there a better use for them?
I've been getting about a half a pound of gai lan out of my garden every week, and I think my favourite approach is to blanch/steam them for just a minute or two---enough so the stems are still crisp but tender---and then throw it in at the last minute with some fish fragrant [protein].

Hexigrammus
May 22, 2006

Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.
I'm jealous. I've had no luck trying to grow gai lan over the past year. It stays small and stringy and seems like it bolts shortly after the plants push out of the soil. I think my soil might be too low in nitrogen.

Grand Fromage
Jan 30, 2006

L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?


It's a Chinese vegetable, so try adding cadmium or cesium to your soil.

Nickoten
Oct 16, 2005

Now there'll be some quiet in this town.

Grand Fromage posted:

It's a Chinese vegetable, so try adding cadmium or cesium to your soil.

I laughed out loud after googling this to understand it.

Hexigrammus
May 22, 2006

Cheech Wizard stories are clean, wholesome, reflective truths that go great with the marijuana munchies and a blow job.

Grand Fromage posted:

It's a Chinese vegetable, so try adding cadmium or cesium to your soil.

:vince:

Adult Sword Owner
Jun 19, 2011

u deserve diploma for sublime comedy expertise

Grand Fromage posted:

It's a Chinese vegetable, so try adding cadmium or cesium to your soil.

Aw dang

totalnewbie
Nov 13, 2005

I was born and raised in China, lived in Japan, and now hold a US passport.

I am wrong in every way, all the damn time.

Ask me about my tattoos.

Grand Fromage posted:

It's a Chinese vegetable, so try adding cadmium or cesium to your soil.

:rock:

Fleta Mcgurn
Oct 5, 2003

Porpoise noise continues.

Grand Fromage posted:

It's a Chinese vegetable, so try adding cadmium or cesium to your soil.

:china:

SubG
Aug 19, 2004

It's a hard world for little things.

Hexigrammus posted:

I'm jealous. I've had no luck trying to grow gai lan over the past year. It stays small and stringy and seems like it bolts shortly after the plants push out of the soil. I think my soil might be too low in nitrogen.
For whatever it's worth I'm growing the Green Leaf Gai Lan from Baker Creek Seeds. I don't know if it's a particularly prolific cultivar, but I just direct sowed the seeds over a 2' x 2' patch of raised bed and let them fend for themselves---didn't do any hand thinning or anything like that, just let them grow and now I've been harvesting bunches of the stuff as it starts to flower. A few of the plants are starting to get woody in the stem, so I've started another patch of them in another bed (vertical garden this time). They seem to be taking off pretty well too. About the only problem I've had with 'em is that something's just recently decided it like the taste of gai lan, so I've been loosing a leaf here and there to pests. Otherwise it's not anything I can take credit for or anything, poo poo just seems to want to grow.

Flim-Flam
Jan 18, 2006
My wife has been making this lately...very different and awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPh3p0LlnF4

Bald Stalin
Jul 11, 2004

Our posts
So I found some cured pork belly aka chinese bacon aka lop yuk at the asian market near my new house. I assume I use it in similar ways as I would Chinese sausage?

Grand Fromage
Jan 30, 2006

L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?


Depends what you mean by that. Generally it's sliced thin and used mainly as a flavoring for other stuff rather than a food by itself. Chinese bacon tends to be very intense, when I use it in a soup my whole apartment will smell like smoked meat, and I have to triple bag it or it will make the entire fridge/freezer smell like smoke. Throw it into anything you want a big smoky flavor bomb in.

It is my favorite thing for a lazy soup since you don't need a stock, if you throw in a generous handful of Chinese bacon plus some onions and garlic you get a solid flavor base right away. Add a little soy sauce and you're ready to go.

Bald Stalin
Jul 11, 2004

Our posts
That soup sounds good thanks.

net work error
Feb 26, 2011

I bought some chili black bean paste the other day because why not but I'm not sure how to use it. Any tips on how to cook with it?

Pookah
Aug 21, 2008

🪶Caw🪶





If its the laoganma chili black bean sauce, you can make this:

https://www.cooked.com/uk/Fuchsia-D...d-chilli-recipe

I make a version of this lady's Ants Climbing a Tree - where she has black bean paste and yellow bean paste, I switch in a heaped teaspoon of LGM black bean/chilli and a teaspoon of ladoubanjiang, also some black rice vinegar (because it is delicious)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8wyLM8BApM

Its very tasty :)

SubG
Aug 19, 2004

It's a hard world for little things.


My bitter melon vines have decided to produce like crazy this season. Apart from just using them in stir fry (which I'd have to do every day to keep up), what's a good/cool/interesting way to use a bunch of 'em? I'm thinking of pickling a bunch but don't have any existing recipe and was planning on just winging it. Are there any standard ways of preserving them, or are they just always used fresh (which is how I've always had them)?

anakha
Sep 16, 2009


SubG posted:



My bitter melon vines have decided to produce like crazy this season. Apart from just using them in stir fry (which I'd have to do every day to keep up), what's a good/cool/interesting way to use a bunch of 'em? I'm thinking of pickling a bunch but don't have any existing recipe and was planning on just winging it. Are there any standard ways of preserving them, or are they just always used fresh (which is how I've always had them)?

This is actually more of a Filipino dish and not a Chinese one, but you can absolutely pickle them. Reference recipes below:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/60652/pickled-bitter-gourd-ampalaya.html
http://panlasangpinoy.com/2013/02/13/ampalaya-salad-recipe/

SubG
Aug 19, 2004

It's a hard world for little things.

anakha posted:

This is actually more of a Filipino dish and not a Chinese one, but you can absolutely pickle them. Reference recipes below:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/60652/pickled-bitter-gourd-ampalaya.html
http://panlasangpinoy.com/2013/02/13/ampalaya-salad-recipe/
I made a batch of pickles and they came out pretty well. Both of those recipes seemed a little thin, so I pretty much just did it by ear: shitload of bitter melons, sliced thin and then brined in a 5% brine for an hour or so, a shitload of minced garlic, a bunch of microplaned ginger, a handful of green Thai birds from the garden, just a little bit of sugar, pickling vinegar. Knocked it together more or less as a quick pickle, tried some after a couple hours and they're pretty tasty---definitely still bitter melon, but not overpowering even though they're raw, and the sour and pepper flavours work pretty well with it.

Need to try a few other variations as I get more bitter melons---going to have another pound or so off the vines by the end of the week.

Oae Ui
Oct 7, 2003

Let's be friends.
Is there anyone in this thread that lives in Sichuan currently? I heard Fuchsia Dunlop talk about Sichuan soy sauce recently, and how it was different from more general Chinese light/dark soy sauces, and I'm curious what makes it different. I'd like to know if anyone has had any experience with it, or if they currently live in Sichuan, if they'd be willing to ship some (and be fairly compensated), since it seems impossible to source online.

Grand Fromage
Jan 30, 2006

L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?


I live in Sichuan. I have no idea what she's talking about, I've never seen or heard of special Sichuan soy sauce. Do you have more details, or a specific name to look for?

Ailumao
Nov 4, 2004

Oae Ui posted:

Is there anyone in this thread that lives in Sichuan currently? I heard Fuchsia Dunlop talk about Sichuan soy sauce recently, and how it was different from more general Chinese light/dark soy sauces, and I'm curious what makes it different. I'd like to know if anyone has had any experience with it, or if they currently live in Sichuan, if they'd be willing to ship some (and be fairly compensated), since it seems impossible to source online.

I googled this and asked a few Sichuan friends (I also live in Sichuan) and they all kinda gave me puzzled looks and said "maybe it's Deyang Soy Sauce?" which is just a locally produced (and well liked) brand. I have one friend who is an amateur Sichuan chef I can ask later.

Grand Fromage
Jan 30, 2006

L-l-look at you bar-bartender, a-a pa-pathetic creature of meat and bone, un-underestimating my l-l-liver's ability to metab-meTABolize t-toxins. How can you p-poison a perfect, immortal alcohOLIC?


The only Sichuan specific sauce I can think of is Pixian doubanjiang but that's definitely not soy sauce. It does involve fermenting beans?

4 inch cut no femmes
May 31, 2011
She has a recipe for spiced soy sauce in one of her books maybe that's what she meant?

large hands
Jan 24, 2006

Humphrey Vasel posted:

She has a recipe for spiced soy sauce in one of her books maybe that's what she meant?

I made some of that, it was super rich and spicy but really tasty in small doses with dumplings

Hopper
Dec 28, 2004

BOOING! BOOING!
Grimey Drawer
So I asked a buddy who was on business in Sichuan (spelling?) To bring me back some Sichuan pepper. He brought back a boatload of other spices as well, which a local colleague picked out as stuff worth having if you want to cook like they do. Now I have a load of spices with funny symbols on and only a vague idea of what they are, as said colleague speaks littleEnglish and couldn't provide translations. All I know is I have 2 kinds of Sichuan pepper and some spicy beef jerky and beef jerky candies. The rest is a mystery.

Would it be OK to post pics of the labels and see if you guys can tell me what I have?

Rurutia
Jun 11, 2009
Why just labels? Post pics of labels with spice!

Hopper
Dec 28, 2004

BOOING! BOOING!
Grimey Drawer
Yeah that's what I meant sorry, I'll do it tomorrow, I am still hung over from a wedding yesterday and can't think straight let alone take pics.

Jo Joestar
Oct 24, 2013

Oae Ui posted:

Is there anyone in this thread that lives in Sichuan currently? I heard Fuchsia Dunlop talk about Sichuan soy sauce recently, and how it was different from more general Chinese light/dark soy sauces, and I'm curious what makes it different. I'd like to know if anyone has had any experience with it, or if they currently live in Sichuan, if they'd be willing to ship some (and be fairly compensated), since it seems impossible to source online.

In Every Grain of Rice, she mentioned that Tamari soy sauce is very similar to the variety of soy sauce made in Sichuan, more so than standard light soy sauce. My understanding is that Tamari contains much less wheat than standard soy sauce, so perhaps that's the difference?

Jo Joestar fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Sep 11, 2016

Ailumao
Nov 4, 2004

Hopper posted:

So I asked a buddy who was on business in Sichuan (spelling?) To bring me back some Sichuan pepper. He brought back a boatload of other spices as well, which a local colleague picked out as stuff worth having if you want to cook like they do. Now I have a load of spices with funny symbols on and only a vague idea of what they are, as said colleague speaks littleEnglish and couldn't provide translations. All I know is I have 2 kinds of Sichuan pepper and some spicy beef jerky and beef jerky candies. The rest is a mystery.

Would it be OK to post pics of the labels and see if you guys can tell me what I have?

Still post pics, but I'm guessing you have red and green sichuan peppercorn. Red ones are the more common ones and have a stronger flavor. Green ones have a more "refined" flavor I'm told, but really they just seem to have a lot less kick to them imo.

Hopper
Dec 28, 2004

BOOING! BOOING!
Grimey Drawer
OK, here is what I was given. It would be great if you guys could identify some things so I can google them by their English names to figure out how to use them.
Some of the things look familiar but except for the red and green Sichuan pepper I am not sure what the others are, though I have some idea what some could be, just by looking at the spice and smelling it.

1.
Red Sichuan pepper

2.
Green Sichuan Pepper

3.
Looks like Fennel to me

4.
Some kind of dried mushroom maybe?

5.
Some powdered spice

6.
Apparently this is a base for making hot pot?

7.
Looks kinda like bay leaves?

8.
This is apparently a mix of ground chili and spices?

9.
Looks almost like cinnamon bark to me

10.
A spicy paste is all I know. Has chilis in it by the look of it.

11.
This is a dead ringer for star aniseed imho

12.
Some sort of spicy paste, apparently my friend's colleagues took this into a restaurant and dipped their food in it?

13.
This one is easy, it is a blatant attempt at my life.

If you have any idea, I'd be grateful if you could share it, as really I don't want to let any of this go to waste just because I don't know what it is.

paraquat
Nov 25, 2006

Burp

Hopper posted:

OK, here is what I was given. It would be great if you guys could identify some things so I can google them by their English names to figure out how to use them.
Some of the things look familiar but except for the red and green Sichuan pepper I am not sure what the others are, though I have some idea what some could be, just by looking at the spice and smelling it.

3.
Looks like Fennel to me

9.
Looks almost like cinnamon bark to me

10.
A spicy paste is all I know. Has chilis in it by the look of it.


No hable chinese, sorry, but I will take a shot at some of these.

3. although it could be fennel, there are a number of seeds with the same shape (caraway, cumin, idunno): wait for a translator or taste the stuff

9. you should be able to smell cinnamon through the plastic if it was cinnamon bark

10. that's chili bean paste...and not just chili bean paste, but REALLY famous chili bean paste from pixian, lol
I can see great Mapo Tofu in your future!
just google chili bean paste or doubanjiang from Pixian

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Hopper
Dec 28, 2004

BOOING! BOOING!
Grimey Drawer
My buddy knows I really like cooking (and he profits a lot in terms of dinners) , so when I merely asked for him to bring back "one pack of Sichuan pepper", he instead asked one of his Chinese colleagues over there, who regularly blows everyone at work away with his food, to go shopping with him. He even coerced a second colleague to come along and translate as number 1 spoke no English. So they went and the guy started picking things and happily babbling in Chinese, only a tenth of which got translated apparently. That's why I don't know what any of this is. But I am sure this stuff is great and useful.

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