The Cook Book

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Acjade

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #15 on: September 30, 2007, 12:22:03 AM »
You can buy cooking wine from the supermarkets. It's usually near the vinegar or the cooking sauces. Liao4 jiu3

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Lotus Eater

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #16 on: September 30, 2007, 03:08:43 AM »
Why not use the good stuff?  I always did in Oz, and it means you can sip and cook at the same time.  The food tastes better when you use the good stuff.

I spent 1700Y at Metro yesterday - mainly because they had good Oz wines at relatively cheap prices.  Stocked up.  And later on this week I will go out to a friend of mine who has a winery outside Xi'an and stock up with more good stuff.  He also imports Oz and French wines, so I can pick up a couple of those as well.

Get the decent stuff - do your taste buds good.

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Mr Nobody

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #17 on: September 30, 2007, 03:21:23 AM »
My theory for western cooking - Never use a wine you wouldn't drink and enjoy in your cooking. It is true in one sense that you don't need wines THAT good for cooking, but cheap wines make for bad food, I think.

I have no idea if that extends to Chinese wine and Chinese cooking, but I fully intend to continue this for western cooking here. Which basically means most wine based recipes will have to wait until I find decent Chinese wine. I would love to cook some boeuf bourguignonne or however it is spelled. Burgundian beef, anyway. I think I could fake most of it with local ingredients, but worry about the red.
Just another roadkill on the information superhighway.

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George

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #18 on: September 30, 2007, 03:39:47 AM »
Don't get tooooo precious about the wines you use in cooking. Adjust the flavour yourself. I often splash beer in to whatever I am concocting, or whatever wine I have handy. There is absolutely no need to stick to a written recipe as though it is the Golden Rule. Improvise!
The Girls took me to a XinJiang restaurant the other day, and we had the "famous" chicken dish. I made my own version of it the following night with the ingredients I had on hand.
Advantages? The chicken was sliced and diced and had no hidden, sneaky bones.
Disadvantages? I didn't have the same spices, but the stuff I used was acceptable.
I don't buy Foreign wines in China. I am always suspicious about how they have travelled, and how they have been stored since arrival. Being a cheap bastard, I will always prefer a 30-50 RMB bottle of local red over a 100 RMB bottle of imported Jacobs Creek!!
The higher they fly, the fewer!    http://neilson.aminus3.com/

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Acjade

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #19 on: September 30, 2007, 02:50:45 PM »
In my opinion the only substitute for Chinese cooking wine in Asian styled cuisine is dry sherry. You could omit it altogether but you would miss an undertone of flavour. Red wine is for European/ Western style food.

But overall, use what's at hand. I don't keep a wine cellar and I'm not going to buy an expensive bottle of red just for cooking. The yellow Chinese wine sells for about 8RMB a bottle. Dry Sherry might be available at Metro but I haven't looked.


Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #20 on: September 30, 2007, 06:07:03 PM »
No dry sherry at the Metro in Dalian.  I looked and asked and looked.  bibibibibi
Be kind to dragons for thou are crunchy when roasted and taste good with brie.

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Mr Nobody

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #21 on: September 30, 2007, 06:33:48 PM »
I honestly think cheap wine spoils the taste of western food, whether in it or with it. Good wine improves it. If a person can't tell the difference, then, that's fine, but I think I can. I also don't usually use a cup for red wine recipes but use a full bottle and reduce it down, so maybe that makes a difference.

I also think full malt beers taste better in cooking than the thin potations usually on offer in China, and that long cooking is often needed to drive off the hops where it isn't appropriate, so beers not using very bitter hops are more preferable to bitter beers. Saaz hops make better beers anyway, IMHO.Here I usually use Peterlance, which is Chinese but tastes sort of like a European Ale, maltier and less bitter. Beer duck for example tastes a LOT better with Peterlance than with anything else I have tried so far. It seems to have about double the malt residue when reduced.

I haven't stuck to a recipe as written past the first time I cooked it since I was a teenager, and I don't even do that if I don't have all the 'right' ingredients, or already know how I prefer it.
Just another roadkill on the information superhighway.

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Lotus Eater

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #22 on: September 30, 2007, 08:11:09 PM »
And there is nothing more convivial than having a couple of people sitting chatting to you in the kitchen while you cook - and cheap wine wouldn't work for that! Even tiny Chinese kitchens can accommodate at least one person to sip with while you stir.

As my old gran said - "If you're going to do it, do it properly".

Reducing the wine is a good idea.  When I ever get around to cooking again I'll do that.

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decurso

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #23 on: September 30, 2007, 09:08:35 PM »
 I have been pretty successful at duplicating New England Clam Chowder here. Here's my recipie of sorts...

Ingredients
lots of clams...2 jin at least,more if you can afford it
bacon (if you can't find bacon in packages at your supermarket ask for xun rou, wu hua rou or la rou at your local butcher shop.It's all basically bacon)
potatoes
celery
a small white onion
at least 1 liter of milk

Step 1-boil the clams.while you're doing this you may as well chop up your veggies.When the clams are done strain the water into a seperate container and rinse the slain shellfish in cold water.Then you have the fun task of de-shelling the little buggers.

Step 2-chop up some bacon and fry it with the onions and (if you have it) a smidge of butter in your soup pot.

Step 3-Fill your pot with 60 per cent milk and 40 per cent "clam death water". even in Beijing you won't find clam nectar anywhere so this is as good as you're going to get.It works.

Step 4-add clams and veggies and cook on low until potatoes are soft.keeping it low is important because the clams will disintegrate on high heat.
 

Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #24 on: September 30, 2007, 10:27:26 PM »
Decurso - How long do you cook in step one??
Be kind to dragons for thou are crunchy when roasted and taste good with brie.

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AMonk

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #25 on: September 30, 2007, 10:42:16 PM »
Not strictly Chinese.....my son's grandmother developed this in Malaysia.....good in any country....

SWEET N SOUR PORK

1-2lbs (up to 0.5-1.0kg) pork
2 medium onions
2 eggs
bread crumbs
1 teasp ginger, 1 teasp sugar, 1 teasp flour, 1 Tablesp vinegar
1 - 1 1/2cup (can be 12oz tin) ketchup/catsup/tomato sauce
oil for cooking

Heat oil in skillet.  
Cut onions into larger slices.  Fry till cooked clear.  Remove (onto paper towels) and save.  
Cut pork off bone.  Cut into cubes.  Dip in beaten eggs.  Toss in breadcrumbs.  Fry till golden, turning as needed.  Remove amd save with onion.
Drain oil from pan.

Blend ginger, sugar, flour. Add vinegar to make paste.  Stir in tomato.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  Pour into frypan (same as you just cooked onion and pork in).  Low heat.  Add back in the onion and pork.  Mix well to coat evenly.

Serve over rice.
Moderation....in most things...

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AMonk

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #26 on: September 30, 2007, 10:44:16 PM »
Decurso - How long do you cook in step one??

Usually until they open by themselves....then the clams are "done".




Note:  NEVER use clams that are already open....they are "bad".
Moderation....in most things...

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decurso

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #27 on: October 01, 2007, 03:51:53 AM »
Decurso - How long do you cook in step one??

Until the shells open. Don't eat 'em if they don't open. Usually takes 15-20 minutes. You can also substitute tomato juice for the milk to make Manhattan style.

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Acjade

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #28 on: October 01, 2007, 04:28:13 AM »
Decurso: can I make fish stock to replce the kill'em clam water?

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Acjade

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Re: The Cook Book
« Reply #29 on: October 04, 2007, 08:11:03 PM »
Yes Please! bfbfbfbfbf