CHINESE - Cuisine of the Quarter, Winter 2021 (Jan-Mar)

Made steamed bean curd rolls 鮮竹卷 last night, usually considered as Cantonese dim sum. Minced meat, dried Chinese mushroom, carrot (replaced bamboo shoots), mince garlic, soy sauce, Shaoxing Wine, corn flour, salt, pepper, and of course bean curd sheets.

XO sauce, prawn and broccoli stir fry

Chinese sausages fried rice. 5 spices lap cheong, dried shrimp, dark soy sauce, mung bean sprout, egg.

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Looks sooo good @naf! Don’t think I’ve ever eaten that kind of wrapper before. Will have to order some; any tips for using?

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Beautiful food and photos, as always @Presunto; did you make your own wrappers/pancakes to go with the char siu?

No, I’m not “hardcore”. Anything involving measuring, kneading, baking is not for me. They are Peking pancakes. I use these pancakes as wraps for all kinds of thing. I like the chewiness and they are quick to steam.

Fish “tacos” with the same pancakes :joy:

You can even make fried dumplings with the pancakes. I ran out of dumpling wrappers one day and just used the pancakes.

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You’re making me hungry now! Those dumplings look great BTW. Will have to see if I can track some down, or make. Thanks.

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Bean curd skin is really versatile, you can use it as a wrapper to make rolls to pan fry or deep fry, or to steam. You can tear the sheet up and put in certain stews or dishes…
Examples

Actually it’s the main ingredient used for the vegetarian dish, mock meat.

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They are as easy to use as those ready made dumplings or spring roll wrappers, should moist them slightly when wrapping. But I didn’t wet it yesterday, as the one I had was soft enough.

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Thanks @naf!

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I remember his shows! Yan can cook, so can you, something like that?!

I’ve cooked some of Yan’s recipes on his old website, like general tso’s chicken.

Found his videos.

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His other show was Wok with Yan. :slight_smile:

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Some fried rice with bacon, egg, broccolini, eggs, lettuce, and green onion.

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I bought these once at our Asian grocery to make the same pork and mushroom stuffed bean curd rolls from dim sum. My bean curd sheets were very large, very dry, and the package said give them a quick dunk before trying to roll them, to soften them up. The package had been handled roughly and lots of the sheets were broken. I saved all the broken shards and threw them into my next pot of hot and sour soup, which worked very well.

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I’ve experienced this before. One has to check carefully for cracks in stores and handle with care when transporting. The one I’ve bought, it was the first time I saw this “softer version” tofu sheets, the brand is Dali (made in Zhejiang). It is slightly thicker than the crispy hard version. I find it easier to work with.

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Lion head’s meatball (獅子頭) - the recipe I used has a lot of chicken broth mixed into the meat before cooking, it was super tender and moist. Usually I cooked with daikon radish, substituted by leek since I didn’t have it. The seasoning of the meat: soy sauce, sesame oil, chive, minced ginger, minced garlic, salt, pepper and oil.

Like @Mr_Happy, I also made fish fragrant eggplant. Very weird name as there is no traces of fish nor animal in this dish. In Sichuan, the cooking involved a particular pickled chili pepper which is commonly know as “fish chili”, it is used in the past to season and cook fish. I didn’t use the pickled ones, nor the red but the green chilis.

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Last night’s dinner; the potstickers are from frozen.

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Tomato and egg stir fry with rice. I added some MSG, makes it better.

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You “guys” are killing it! Beautiful plates here!

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I seriously love this dish.

I think if I could pick one savory dish to be buried alive in, this would be it.

Just in case anyone is ever curious about giving this classic comfort food dish a bit more comfort, consider the following:

  1. Use peeled tomatoes
  2. Add a pinch of miso
  3. Use an extra egg yolk
  4. Add some lap yuk (or short of that, just regular bacon will do)
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Fancy!

Ah, nature’s MSG.

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Mapo tofu with beef.

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