Tuesday, December 15, 2009

My cooking - Kai Lan stir fried with Chinese sausage 芥蘭炒臘腸/steamed spare ribs with salty plum and bean paste 酸梅麵豉排骨

When we go shopping food for making dinner, we should go to those shops we get accustomed to them. So you would know how sweet/salty/tasty those food would be and besides it had better stick to those earnest shop owners. Last night I made a mistake of being too lazy and in a rush that I visited a shop just on the way. The story goes as below:

1. Now it's the season for Chinese sausage and it's always good to stir fry it with Kai Lan - perfect combination since the oil from Chinese sausage would be absorbed by Kai Lan. Also, it's easy to cook this one. Slice the sausage. Cut the veggie in smaller pieces at adjacent angle. Get some ginger slices and slightly crush 1-2 garlic gloves. Heat the wok and turn to medium low heat. Put little oil and the sausage. Brown it slightly until the oil is out from the sausage. Put ginger/garlic and further brown it a bit. Get ready with the Kai Lan and some rice wine (better use Yuk Bing Siu 玉冰燒). Turn to high heat. Put the veggie and meanwhile the wine on the side of the wok. Put some salt and sugar (about 1/4 tea spoon sea salt and 2/3 tea spoon sugar for 1/2 catty Kai Lan). Stir fry it until the veggie gets semi-soft. Put a few drop of water as this time the sausage would absorb more water. Then cover it. Prepare a very light cornstarch thickening (about 1/4 tea spoon cornstarch to 1 tea spoon of water). When there is some steam jetting out of the wok, uncover it and put the thickening in it. Done. 2. Spare ribs with salty plum and bean paste. My mistake was that I was in a hurry that I didn't go to my regular shop for bean paste and salty plum. I visited a shop on the way home and that shop's owner cheated me for saying "oh, the salty plum is already in the bean paste. 3 dollars pls". I was puzzled a bit as normally it'd be 2 dollars with salty plum. As I was in a hurry, I trusted what he said. When I returned home and got smell of that bean paste, it's just simply bean paste. No salty plum at all. So it turned out this dish is just a spare ribs in bean paste. What a shame as this dish is my father's favourite one. He used to have 2-3 bowls of rice to go with it. Feeling kind of a disrespect for him... I wouldn't go back to that shop for a complaint as this kind of owner wouldn't know what the problem is.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow another home-cooking dishes

the steamed spare ribs with salty plum and bean paste is very classic dish and nowadays not many people can do this one

TC

Anonymous said...

I agree. this steamed spare ribs is almost lost. even no restaurant has this dish.

in the sea said...

I think not too many people like this one as it's quite sour and salty. This one is so good for going with rice.

Anonymous said...

i think u can incl. this dish for the upcoming BKK home-cooking show for Stella, both SS and Chris will enjoy this lost dish :)

TC

Stella said...

These 2 dishes I eat twice a month. The first dish is similar to your way(but no "Yuk Bing Siu").
The second dish we use the soy bean(Dull See) for the steamed spare rib. No salty plum at all.

in the sea said...

OK, a list of more choices for nostalgic dishes including some dishes of my Grand mom's favourites:

1. Salty fish pan fried in Beggar's bowl - my grand mom pan fried the salty fish in the clay bowl and put some sugar to caramelise the salty fish - she told me the technique as it's her regular dish for almost every night. I stopped making this one after she passed away as in the early 80's many old Chinese stuff were told to be cancer-this and cancer-that while lots of western stuff flooded in. Now I know it's rather an excuse of trade.

2. five belly pork steamed with shrimp roe cake

3. chicken steamed with preserved tofu

4. Dish of the day... :)

Wow.. so you would think I am making you all so salty.

SS the Chinese wine Yuk Bing Siu is good for stir fried with Chinese sausage... I like wine in various dishes though I don't drink.

Anonymous said...

salty fish for sugar? strange taste?

Stella said...

I like dish one and two.
What is preserved tofu? You mean dry tofu "kong"?

in the sea said...

To Anonymous 12:33pm, yes, but I would call it as caramelised salty fish. It's not strange at all if you know how the salty golden ham be caramelised by honey 蜜汁火坊. Why this Shanghai dish is so expensive is the whole day time of shimmering the golden ham in honey and so the honey taste gets into the golden ham to balance the salty taste.

OK, Chinese names from 2-4 are "蝦糕蒸五花腩", "腐乳蒸雞" & "是日精選"... :)