1. dried mushroom sauted with chicken wings. Why sauted? Cooking chicken wings for a long time will make it a bit mashy. I don't recommend cooking chicken for a long time over 20-30 minutes for a whole or 10-15 minutes for parts. However, dried mushroom should be shimmered for quite a long time. So how these can go with each other? So I would first pan fry the chicken wing (after marinating with some sea salt and a very light touch of wine - to take out the frozen smell.), until it's brown. Use a non-sticky pan and you don't need to put oil for the pan frying. After a while the chicken wing will release some oil back to the pan. So leave that chicken oil on the pan and put some garlic and ginger in it and get it burnt. So before doing this, soak the dried mushroom (best to use the smaller "flower" dried mushroom - 花菇). The smaller one is easier for being soaked and it gives a good aroma of dried mushroom. The bigger one is good for double boiling and for longer time of cooking. So the first round of soaked water should be drained away and rinse it again and soak for the 2nd time. Then drain the mushroom and keep that 2nd round of soaked water. Cut out the stem part and put some sugar, very small amount of cornstarch to marinate the soaked mushroom. This way is to get the mushroom texture better and besides to absorb a sweeter taste. Dried mushroom easily absorb salty taste; so this method is to avoid the mushroom getting salty. Then put the marinated mushroom in the pan and stir fry it a bit. Put some wine but meanwhile put the 2nd round soaked mushroom water in it (this is a very quick step - but better not put the wine into the water. It needs to be wine first and right in a second put the water. This way it will give a nice aroma of wine while it wouldn't lose the wine aroma immediately when putting water in a second afterwards. Then put a very tiny yellow rock sugar in it and some oyster sauce to shimmer the mushroom for at least 10 minutes. Then put back the chicken wings in the pan and cover it for a few more minutes. So no need to thicken the sauce as the chicken's wing collagen and the mushroom's cornstarch will have a sort of thickening after cooking for a few minutes. Then put some sesame oil on finishing the dish.
2. Preserved veggie meat patty 梅菜蒸肉餅. So this is a very home dish for many HK people. I chose the sweeter preserved veggie. Soak the veggie in water for 10 minutes and rinse it thouroughly. Then chopped it as tiny as possible. So for the ground pork, you can either chop it by yourself or have it ground on the butcher's table. Of course, hand-chopping is better. However, if you don't have time, the machine-ground pork is still ok but the key point should be with your hand to mix the ground pork and chopped veggie. You need to stir/massage the ground pork with the chopped veggie well until you feel the patty is sticky enough. Why hand-chopping is better is because of this "sticky" texture. So you can still make it by stirring/massaging it well. So I would put some yellow wine, sugar, soy sauce, white pepper, sesame oil, cornstarch into this process of stirring/massaging. Recommended by my grand mom, I steam the patty over the steamed rice. When the rice cooker is to release some steam, you just place a stand on it and put the dish of patty on it, and let it steam in the rice cooker. This way the patty will absorb the rice aroma. At least I can still recall my grand mom. recipe from this. Not because I listened to her. It's because it saved my time for going out. :)
15 comments:
Both dishes are my favorites.
Also the salty egg steamed pork patty too.
Looks appetising. I think t should taste better than what you had at Lai Poh Heen. What is yellow wine? I just did up my kitchen at home. Trying to cook again!
SS, I wonder why you move to US when your eating habit is still very Hong Kong....:) The salty egg pork patty is my father's favourite dish and he enjoyed so much for the one I had done for him as he would take 2-3 bowls of rice with that. Actually he did make me so proud of myself for cooking.....at least at his last days he still remembered the soup he taught me and how I made the best of it.
Android, yellow wine is from the Shaiso Zhing town in Canton province. In Chinese, the writing is 紹興酒 and I think you can get it in some KL's grocery and if you see it, try the brand of 花塔牌 . This yellow wine is good for various Cantonese cooking. It's good for you to cook again because from cooking, you know more about food. Please also show some of your local home cooking.. :)
Yes SEA. My life style is very very HK. All my favorite dishes are from HK, such as Lup Lup, Salty Egg Pork Patty, steamed soy bean baby pork rib, the Scholar Congee, Pig Lung soup, Black herbal jello, Piggy Bun, Pineapple Bun etc. I just ate 3 small pineapple chicken buns(come in a dish) at dim sum place yesterday for my friend's birthday.
I am thinking of moving back to HK or BKK later. Seriously.
SS
In fact, the chopped "Yau yu"(the dried big squid that you can make soup) with minced pork patty with "Tung Choy" also tastes good.
And of course the salty fish pork patty is gorgeous too. But I cannot cook this at home since no one will eat this except me.
SS
absolutely LPH chefs shall attend Sea cooking class, but sorry that Sea only cook for passion, no class for them :)
Tonight I had steamed salty egg pork patty, preserved veggie with fat pork(Mui Choy Guo Yolk), Kai Lan with Tai Day Fish, and bitter melon omelette for dinner. All Cantonese dishes.
SS, I still owe a dish demonstration - the stir fried "lup lup". Will see if I can find the Chinese string bean this coming Thursday holiday. Mmh.. too bad the season is almost over for string bean. My father's choice for my cooking is the steamed spare ribs with soybean paste and salty/sour plum 梅子蒸排骨. Will see if I can make it again soon. SS, re the dried squid pork patty and the salty fish pork patty are so good to go with rice. Have you tried the cuttlefish (ink fish) pork patty 墨魚蒸肉餅? Mmh... seems like I am now starting to recall the various steam patty. Need to write down before I am too old to recall it....:) If the market near to my place is like the one in Shaukiwan or Ap Lei Chau, I think my memory of some lost dishes would come back.
SS, you can get Dai Tay fish in LA - the sunny dried one? So for the Mou Choy Guo Yok, how long did you stew the Gou Yok? BTW, do you know there is another alternate way of this dish with chicken thigh so that you feel less guilty..:)? I can tell you how to do this one in a faster and healthy way.
TC, thanks for the compliment. I think the chef at LPH is very experienced, but just his administration of the kitchen is very lousy. There are things I understand in a professional kitchen, the chefs need to prepare everything in advance. I raised this point to a friend of mine who started a Taiwanese chain restaurant. I told him to tell his staff to use a covered container to store the chopped scallion/garlic/ginger...etc. Those ingredients are very easy to lose their aroma without being covered or put in a cool temperature. I think this important part is often neglected by many chefs in kitchen as they think those things would be used fast and don't bother with it, or they would think "use more then". That's also what I told the others - cooking while preparing. Don't prepare the food in advance and put those things in the small bowls, like the cooking show on TV. That's why I like Jamie Oliver so much. He cooks while preparing, and he doesn't say 1/2 teaspoon of this or that. All by experience.
Hi SEA,
No hurry for the Lup Lup if the string bean not in season.
String bean is always in season here in LA. I get this every other week. Just stirred fried the string bean with dark soy sauce and "Choi Po" already good(oh add some dried shrimp skin too). Only take 5 to 10 minutes for this dish.
Yes I can get the dried Dai Day Yu here. Chris likes this dish with Kai Lan.
No I never try octopus meat patty, will try later as I like the ocotpus a lot. Good idea.
By the way, the octopus stewed with pork and boiled egg in dark soy sauce is gorgeous(Mud Yu Lo Chu Yolk with Lo Egg). This is a Shanghai dish.
The Mui Choi Guo Yolk's meat part shall take 2 hours to "mun" or "lo".
Yes please show me how to do the Mui Choi Guo Chicken SEA. Thanks.
Oh, forgot to share with you SEA. Your first dish above, I always to dump all those ingredient to the cooker and cook with rice(add some dried scallop too) as the "Tung Cool Wat Kai Fan". I could eat this for 2-3 days when I stayed in the apartment with my roommate. She usually ate 3 bowls of this when she came home(she worked in a famous Chinese Seafood restaurant with free meals).
Same method for the Pork Chop Choi Fan(a Shanghai dish in fact). One dish and rice together in the cooker can last me for 2 days.
SS re the steamed cuttlefish, not sure if you know what I refered to. It should be that fatter one. If you do this one, just cut it in tiny pieces (around 0.7 to 1cm) and stir/massage it with the pork patty. Put some tiny chopped scallion in it and some sesame oil. If you can take white pepper powder, put some.
Re Mu Choy Guo Yok, do you first soak it in hot tea (e.g. Lon Zheng 龍井) for around 20 minutes. This will give a nice aroma to the pork. Then deep fry (or pan fry) it until it's brown.
Re Mu Choy Guo Chicken, use the common 惠洲甜梅菜 (if you can find in LA but this one is very common in HK). Actually the conventional Mu Choy Guo Pork, the Mu Choy should be Mu Gong Choy (梅干菜) - less salty/sweetness but a very nice dried veggie aroma and it's very different from Mu Choy. So this one Mu Choy Guo Chicken is a bit different from the conventional Mu Choy Guo Pork.
OK, first soak and rinse well the Mu Choy and cut it into tiny pieces. Marinate the Mu Choy with some soy sauce, sugar, little corn starch, sesame oil and yellow wine. Then use a whole chicken thigh or 2. Don't cut it but remember to dry it well. Marinate the chicken with little salt, soy sauce, yellow wine for 30 minutes. Then put little cornstarch and oil to seal it. Then pan fry the chicken thigh until it's brown. Then pan fry the Mu Choy with a bit more oil until it's a bit burnt. Put the chicken in a big round deep bowl with the skin part to the bowl bottom. Put the mu choy on top of chicken thigh and press it a bit to flatten it. Then steam it for about 20-25 minutes at medium heat. Then take it out and reverse it on a plate. Cut the thigh in pieces and put the mu choy on top of it. Done!
Thanks SEA for the cooking class.
The cuttlefish is the big "mud yu" used to sell at the "Lo Shui" store right?
The only Mui Choi I find here is the dried Mui Choi you referred to as "traditional". Will try the Mui Choi Guo Chicken as it is less fatty.
SS, yes, it's the "mud yu" I referred to but remember to get the fresh one. If you can bear it, smell it and even if you touch it, if it's a bit too sticky, don't buy it! Of course, if you can buy a live one, that's a preferred one.
Mmh.. don't get the Mu Gong Choy as it's only good for long time stew for over 1 hour and with plenty of oil to soften it. If you use this one with the pork patty or Mu Choy Guo Chicken, it's very dried and hard to chew. So if you can get Mu Gong Choy, then use this one instead of Mu Choy. Mu Gong Choy has a better aroma with fat pork.
Sorry no fresh or live Mud Yu but only the frozen one in the big freezer.
So you mean to use Mu Gong Choy or Mu Choy? Kind of confused.
Now I like the dried Mu Choy Gong to cook but the meat is quite dry.
SS, then don't try the Mud Yu steamed pork patty. Any frozen seafood is not good for steaming. Those frozen seafood should be first defrost at conducting heat (never put in salty water). You can place it on a metal plate or marble stone...etc. - those things which are easy to conduct heat from cold or vice versa. So cooking is sometimes not just about technique. You need to have some Physics/chemistry/biology concepts to understand the food. By way of such understanding, you would appreciate the food.
SS, I guess you may not have come accross Mu Gong Choy. This one is the original one for Mu Choy Guo Yuk as it can absorb much oil to balance the oily taste of pork and it should be stewed for a long time. However, not too many people differentiate Mu Gong Choy and Mu Choy. If I come across this one, I'll show you then. Guess I need to go to Shaukiwan once to get something I haven't seen for a long time. So re Mu Choy Guo Chicken
Anyway, Mu Choy is the common one we use for pork patty or steamed "Wan Yu 鯇魚". BTW, if you steam Wan Yu with Mu Choy. I would suggest you first marinate the Mu Choy like the way I told here for Mu Choy Guo Chicken. Then put it on the fish with ginger slices. If you want it more authentic, put some pork slices (marinated with some salt, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, cornstarch/oil) on the fish and then put the pan fried mu choy/ginger slices and steam the whole dish. After done, pour some boiling oil on it.
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