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indoflaven posted:I realized today there is just no reason for me to make some stuff myself. There is no way I could make a huge mound of chicken/shrimp/pork lo mein for $7. I feel like this about my favorite thai dish, som tum, the green papaya salad. The dressing for it seems to a gigantic pain in the rear end to put together, in terms of finding ingredients, and I can get a good sized plate of it from the place down the street for $6.
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May 7, 2011 05:19
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I like turtles posted:I feel like this about my favorite thai dish, som tum, the green papaya salad. The dressing for it seems to a gigantic pain in the rear end to put together, in terms of finding ingredients, and I can get a good sized plate of it from the place down the street for $6. Som tam is incredibly easy to make. All it involves is mashing a bunch of ingredients to varying degres in the same mortar and pestle, then seasoning with sugar, tamarind water, lime juice, and fish sauce.
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May 7, 2011 05:50
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Sichuan question: currently I often make "Sichuan food" by just getting various Sichuan ingredients from the Chinese grocery and just combining them however. For example, I'll get some "bracken pickle" (tasty, but no idea what it is), some salted black beans, and then just stir-fry them all up with some noodles, vegetables, etc. I guess it's "Sichuan" in the sense that anything involving white bread, ground beef, processed cheese, and mayo is going to end up tasting "American" regardless of what you do to it. Anyone got a better technique (short of actually following recipes, I like to make shite up) to better capture the flavours which distinguish Sichuan from other regional cuisines of the Red Chinee? Related question: I love wood-ear mushrooms, those black frilly things, but are the ones they serve in restaurants reconstituted from dried mushrooms, or is there just no way to make store-bought dry woodears have awesome taste/texture?
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May 8, 2011 00:12
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Related question: I love wood-ear mushrooms, those black frilly things, but are the ones they serve in restaurants reconstituted from dried mushrooms, or is there just no way to make store-bought dry woodears have awesome taste/texture? Maybe the stuff you're getting is old? Is the package covered dust in the store? You just soak them in boiling water for a bit and add them to whatever you're making. I use them all the time to make Korean japchae and they taste just like or better than the restaurant. If they aren't rehydrated properly or cooked well they can be very tough and almost plastic like in consistency.
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May 8, 2011 02:50
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:Sichuan question: currently I often make "Sichuan food" by just getting various Sichuan ingredients from the Chinese grocery and just combining them however. For example, I'll get some "bracken pickle" (tasty, but no idea what it is), some salted black beans, and then just stir-fry them all up with some noodles, vegetables, etc. I guess it's "Sichuan" in the sense that anything involving white bread, ground beef, processed cheese, and mayo is going to end up tasting "American" regardless of what you do to it. Well, it sounds to me like you fell into the Chinese Takeout Menu trap of thinking that calling something 'Sichuan', 'Cantonese' or whatever actually covers properly a whole style of food. This could just be me projecting since I hate bad chinese restaurants though  In the very very broadest sense this may be true but calling for one method to make any main ingredient you have on had end up as 'Sichuan' seems odd to me. It's a very broad family of ingredients and techniques. I guess the question is how genuine you want to be? Personally I still don't know a huge amount about Chinese cooking and the various families of it but I'm not sure there's a good answer to your question. I guess I'd start with some genuine classic recipes first and only then make shite up on that basis later  That's the best way I've found to get a little bit of a grip on a style of cooking/taste.
NLJP fucked around with this message at 04:16 on May 8, 2011 |
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May 8, 2011 03:37
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TapTheForwardAssist posted:
Gravity posted two excellent & classic sichuan dishes in this thread, dan dan noodles & fish fragrant pork (eggplant is also often used with this sauce). I'd also look for recipes for ma po dofu, kung pao & tea smoked duck/pork & sichuan hotpot with either beef or whole fish. Other excellent sichuan styles include cold meats dressed with five spice & soy dressing, poached vegetables with garlic sauces (also cold) & the more rare braised meat & root vegetable stuff i think they call wet cooking. The main flavours in my mind are hot, spicy, numbing & cold.
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May 8, 2011 05:02
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I feel like unless you make a few recipes at least you're not going to be able to do a lot better than "Sichuan ingredients in a pan + fire" in terms of making real Sichuan-style cuisine. I understand the desire to improvise, but you've gotta do a lot of drilling before you're good enough to actually improv well.
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May 8, 2011 07:06
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Cold Sliced Meats: Numbing and Hot One of the most popular Sichuan appetizers, usually served cold. Its sauce is really easy to make and can be served with anything from the beginner friendly chicken and turkey leftovers to braised beef shank, tendons, or tripe.  1 lb meat, poached or braised until tender in water with scallions and ginger, cooled and sliced thin, or into uniform chunks, reserve broth for another use 8 scallions, sliced thin, on a bias 1/2-1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, depending on how numbing you want it, toasted and ground 4-5 tsp sugar (I like mine with 5) 3 tbsp light soy sauce 3-6 tbsp chili oil with chilies, 3 is usually plenty 2 tsp toasted sesame oil 1 clove, garlic, minced fine (I like mine with garlic) Salt to taste Dissolve sugar in soy, add the rest of the sauce in a bowl, add half of the sliced scallions. Making the sauce ahead of time will allow the flavors to meld. Drizzle over sliced meat and toss, top with scallions. You can also let this marinate for a few hours before serving. 
GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 08:52 on May 9, 2011 |
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May 9, 2011 04:57
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Does anyone have a really loving good recipe for General Tso's sauce? Every time I make it...it just doesn't taste quite like the stuff you can get at the restaurants.
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May 9, 2011 05:24
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I had that cold sliced meat dish made with stomach lining and what I think was beef heart the other day (not really sure) and it's very good, even with strange meats. I might try and make it with less strange stuff so it moves more towards delicious and farther from adventurous.
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May 9, 2011 05:53
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Fu qi fèi piàn (夫妻肺片 - "married couple offal sliced", don't know the etymology) can be made with tongue, tripe (stomach), sometimes liver or any other type of beef offal (fèi) or just meat. I wouldn't skimp on using offal, it's quite tasty in a dish like this. Beef liver might be a bit too much for most, but tripe and heart is certainly nothing to be afraid of.
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May 9, 2011 09:22
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Sjurygg posted:Fu qi fèi piàn (夫妻肺片 - "married couple offal sliced", don't know the etymology) can be made with tongue, tripe (stomach), sometimes liver or any other type of beef offal (fèi) or just meat. I wouldn't skimp on using offal, it's quite tasty in a dish like this. Beef liver might be a bit too much for most, but tripe and heart is certainly nothing to be afraid of. Heart and tongue are both like regular beef but firmer and more delicious. white meat : dark meat :: beef : heart/tongue. Just try not to think about where it's coming from if that bothers you. Also, tendon is freaking delicious but I can see how that might not be as universally appealing, it's like a very very firm gelatin.
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May 9, 2011 15:12
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Sjurygg posted:Fu qi fèi piàn (夫妻肺片 - "married couple offal sliced", don't know the etymology) can be made with tongue, tripe (stomach), sometimes liver or any other type of beef offal (fèi) or just meat. I wouldn't skimp on using offal, it's quite tasty in a dish like this. Beef liver might be a bit too much for most, but tripe and heart is certainly nothing to be afraid of. At a local Sichuan place and they have this with beef tongue and tripe. The waitress referred to it as the "bride and groom".
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May 9, 2011 23:05
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GrAviTy84 posted:Shredded pork with garlic sauce Roughly made this last night. Used pork butt, and made it with bell peppers and white mushrooms instead of the bamboo and whatnot, and used mirin instead of the shaoxing because I couldn't find it in the 30 seconds I was at the store. Turned out great though.
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May 10, 2011 17:41
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I think the key to Chinese cooking is that you can pretty much do whatever you want with it. Especially stir fry. My family has never followed a strict recipe for anything, it's always just been eye-balling a fist full of this, a dash of that and replacing one ingredient for another if something isn't on hand.
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May 10, 2011 17:48
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bamhand posted:Heart and tongue are both like regular beef but firmer and more delicious. white meat : dark meat :: beef : heart/tongue. Just try not to think about where it's coming from if that bothers you. Also, tendon is freaking delicious but I can see how that might not be as universally appealing, it's like a very very firm gelatin. You have to be careful in how you cook heart or it's basically chewing rubber. Tongue needs to be scraped and cleaned or the mouthfeel is disgusting. But yeah, both are awesome if done right.
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May 10, 2011 18:48
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I've usually had it pressure cookered til it's nice and tender. And yeah, there's that prickly layer of tastebuds or something on the tongue that needs to be scraped off.
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May 10, 2011 19:10
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I live in an apartment with only a small and rather flammable balcony. Is there any kind of decent high heat burner that can be used indoors?
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May 10, 2011 20:53
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Halal to the Chief posted:You have to be careful in how you cook heart or it's basically chewing rubber. Tongue needs to be scraped and cleaned or the mouthfeel is disgusting. Yeah, heart is very lean so it needs to cook slow and low, or quickly. Tongue is peeled after boiling, no scraping.
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May 10, 2011 22:31
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Goddamn posted:I live in an apartment with only a small and rather flammable balcony. Is there any kind of decent high heat burner that can be used indoors? The electric woks on Amazon don't seem to have bad reviews.
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May 11, 2011 00:11
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gret posted:Not to step on ZetsurinPower's toes, and I would also be very interested in his mapo tofu recipe, but I usually follow Chen Kenichi's mapo tofu recipe, which is very tasty. However when he says firm tofu I believe the soft tofu sold here in the U.S. is the closest approximation. ok theres no point in me posting a recipe, this one looks better.
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May 11, 2011 01:25
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Salt and pepper (stuff) Seasoning: 1 tsp kosher or sea salt 1/2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and ground 1/2 tsp black peppercorns, toasted and ground Garnish: Chopped hot peppers (jalapeno, serrano, or thai bird, up to you) scallions, sliced thin 1 lb pork: pork spare ribs cut against the rib into 1.5 inch lengths then cut again into cubes. pork shoulder steaks cut half inch thick then cut into manageable pieces pork loin sliced against grain into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices  Sprinkle 1 tsp baking soda over pork and mix to coat each piece. Let it sit for 1 hour. Rinse off baking soda thoroughly, pat dry. Add 2 tsp dark soy to pork, stir to coat evenly. Dredge in corn starch. Fry in neutral oil at 375 F until golden brown. Drain. Season with salt mixture, top with garnishes, serve. Variations You can also do this with chicken wings, squid (cut into rings), firm fleshed white fish like cod (sliced into bite size pieces), head on shrimp, or the San Francisco favorite, Dungeness Crab (broken down into individual legs and body segments, dredged then fried). Skip the baking soda and soy treatment for these, just dredge in cornstarch, fry and top with salt mix and garnishes   Vegetarians can also do this with tofu. Drain and press the tofu for 20 min or so. Cut into cubes, season with salt and a little bit of light soy. Let marinate for an hour or two. Drain then dredge in corn starch. Deep fry, top with salt mixture and pepper garnish. GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 23:43 on May 12, 2011 |
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May 11, 2011 03:52
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Sjurygg posted:Yeah, heart is very lean so it needs to cook slow and low, or quickly. Huh, I always scraped it after peeling (yeah I forgot that step), guess I can save myself some work.
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May 11, 2011 03:57
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GrAviTy84 posted:baking soda VVVV - ah, cool, good to know. Hauki fucked around with this message at 04:08 on May 11, 2011 |
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May 11, 2011 04:01
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Hauki posted:What purpose does this serve exactly? I've never heard of doing that before. Tenderizes, gives the meat a sort of soft spongy texture. Good for making something like pork shoulder tender, even for only cooking for a minute or so.
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May 11, 2011 04:02
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GrAviTy84 posted:Tenderizes, gives the meat a sort of soft spongy texture. Good for making something like pork shoulder tender, even for only cooking for a minute or so. Is that what they call "velveting" or am I thinking of something else? I'm guessing by over doing it, it will end up like how some cheap Chinese buffets have chicken that turns to mush in your mouth even though it was stir-fried?
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May 11, 2011 04:29
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Baking soda makes things slightly basic which speeds the maillard reaction: http://blog.khymos.org/2008/09/26/speeding-up-the-maillard-reaction/
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May 11, 2011 15:20
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GrAviTy84 posted:Tenderizes, gives the meat a sort of soft spongy texture. Good for making something like pork shoulder tender, even for only cooking for a minute or so. This sounds like bullshit to me. How could a little baking soda sprinkled on the meat significantly change the internal texture of the meat in any way?
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May 11, 2011 15:41
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:This sounds like bullshit to me. How could a little baking soda sprinkled on the meat significantly change the internal texture of the meat in any way? Whitebait is also excellent with a similar batter.
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May 11, 2011 18:27
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This kind of explains why baking powder (not soda, as it apparently imparts a metallic taste) can aid in the rapid browning of meat.
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May 11, 2011 19:26
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Do you know a recipe for lo mai gai?
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May 12, 2011 14:38
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GrAviTy84 posted:Pork and Shrimp Shumai These look really good, and I'm thinking of making these this weekend. Do you have a recipe for a good veggie dumpling too?
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May 12, 2011 15:40
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bolo yeung posted:These look really good, and I'm thinking of making these this weekend. Do you have a recipe for a good veggie dumpling too? As in completely vegetarian? no. I think I've seen some filled with pea shoots sauteed with a bit of garlic, soy, and sesame oil. I believe these were wrapped in the tapioca starch wrapper like har gow. I've no experience working with that dough, but I'll post a recipe for the wrapper and you can try it if you like: quote:Dough I've watched videos of people making the wrappers. They form a ball, and use the side of a cleaver in a swooping motion across the cutting board to make a skin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS8hxtB8O6Q#t=2m50s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V73_npaaL4s I recall these pea shoot dumplings usually have shrimp in them, but maybe you can get away with just shiitake mushrooms. They are also closed differently. I think they are like little triangular shaped pouches. Ziir posted:Do you know a recipe for lo mai gai? No I don't. They are so cheap at local Asian markets and restaurants that I never bothered. I may try it sometime though, for the purposes of  .
GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 22:59 on May 12, 2011 |
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May 12, 2011 22:57
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PorkFat posted:Is that what they call "velveting" or am I thinking of something else? I'm guessing by over doing it, it will end up like how some cheap Chinese buffets have chicken that turns to mush in your mouth even though it was stir-fried? Velveting refers to the saucing of certain dishes. When you take those little deep fried chunks of goodness and throw them into a wok with hot, tasty sauce, tossing to coat, you are velveting.
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May 13, 2011 05:55
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I'm pretty sure velveting meat is done with corn starch. http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/04/velveting-meat-asian-cooking-technique-cornstarch.html
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May 13, 2011 06:17
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GrAviTy84 posted:Hong Kong Egg Custard However, it made far too much egg filling. Around twice as much as was needed was made.
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May 13, 2011 18:30
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Sashimi posted:Just tried out this recipe and it turned out really well, thanks! Awesome, glad it worked out well. I think the proportions of filling to crust is really dependent on how thick you make the walls and the geometry of the molds you use. When I made these I had a little bit extra crust.
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May 13, 2011 20:01
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Sichuan hot pot
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May 16, 2011 08:47
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What's with the split pot?
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May 16, 2011 12:29
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Vlex posted:What's with the split pot? It's called a "Yuan Yang Pot" (AKA "Ying Yang" or "Yin Yan"). One side spicy, the other plain. Edit: Sometimes one side will be mushroom based, and the other fish based. Any combination is possible. LOO fucked around with this message at 13:13 on May 16, 2011 |
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May 16, 2011 12:56
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