Your Feedback
I
get so many interesting emails from
readers, both with questions and comments, that I've decided to share some of them.
Here's a sampling of what people have been talking about in the subject of
Chinese cuisine since I first became a Guide in September, 1998. (Note: I
haven't published last names, email addresses, fax numbers, or anything else
that would give away the writer's identity).
Allergic to Lard
Brown Gravy
Finding Ingredients
General Tso's Chicken Recipe
Hot Mustard
Origin of Spring Rolls
Search for Sheefan
Substitute for Tahini Paste
Sweet Rice
Culantro or Cilantro?
Questions from a Beginner
Egg Roll Ingredients
General Tsos Chicken like a Restaurant
Allergic
to Lard
Hi I am allergic to lard is there any substitute for it?
***
You could try
replacing the lard with equal parts butter and
vegetable
shortening (i.e.. 1 cup butter and 1 cup vegetable shortening for
2 cups lard). The only thing is you'd want to verify that whatever you're allergic to in
lard isn't also in vegetable shortening.
Brown
Gravy
I am a
vegetarian of sorts (against my true will, my mom makes me eat fish
and chicken!) and I'm interested in trying to learn Chinese cooking (some of it). I'm looking
for some kind of sauce that will suffice on stir-fried
vegetables over rice and I think I've heard of something called
"Brown Gravy" and even have (in an old Telephone Pioneers cookbook)
heard of someone using "Bead Molasses" in Chop Suey. It's hard--I would like to
come up with a total vegetarian version of a good sauce.
Even Oyster sauce--well, it has animal products in it.
****
That's great that
you're learning Chinese
cooking - it's very compatible
with a vegetarian diet. I believe there was a product called bead
molasses that used to be sold in the southern United States - I've
seen older recipes calling for it as well. In
many Asian markets you can find a product called "thick soy sauce"
- made with soybean, wheat, glutinous rice, and sugar - some
brands use molasses as well. It goes by a number of other names
as well, including brown gravy. Restaurants often use it on fried
rice to give it a darker color. I
also have a few recipes if you want to make it at home on my forum
at http://forums.about.com/ab-chinesefood/messages/?msg=416.1
I hope this helps. Also, did you know that Lee Kum Kee makes a vegetarian oyster sauce? It's flavored with mushrooms instead of oyster meat.
Finding
Ingredients
I saw a recipe that requires
bean curd sheets. Do you know where I can buy
that online?
***
Oriental Pantry sells them - their URL
is
http://www.orientalpantry.com
If you
click on "groceries" on the left-hand-side of the page, and then
ask to see all, it's
about half-way down the list, under "Miscellaneous - Bean curd
(Dried Sheets). Several
people I know have used them and reported that they're very quick
and reliable.
General
Tso's Chicken
I would love a
general
Tso's
chicken recipe. Thanks.
***
I have a good recipe by cookbook author Eileen Yin-Fei Lo at
http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blrecipe044.htm
Hot
Mustard
...I make it
with white wine, as well
as a little water, or ginger wine, or a good dry sherry. I rarely make
a sweet mustard, even though I have a fantastic recipe for sweet German
mustard, rarely do it anymore since I found out about my diabetic tendency.
I also always add a few grains of salt, which, of course, adds to
the
flavor.
Origin of
Spring Rolls
I read with interest
your Internet page on Chinese cooking, particularly the
part about Valentine's day. I
have a quick question for you. A colleague of mine asked me why spring rolls
were called spring rolls. I didn't know, but the obvious answer is
that they are served in spring. But maybe this is not the real origin. I
wonder if you could light my candle and let me know where spring rolls came
from, why they are called
spring rolls, and if there are summer rolls, autumn
rolls and winter rolls to? Thanks
very much. I look forward to hearing from you."
***
Thanks for sending a very
interesting question. According to my sources, the word spring roll probably does come from
the fact that they are associated with spring
in China. Normally they are made with bean sprouts, which would
be ready in the spring. Also, in southern china spring rolls are called
"Chun Guen" - and chun means spring.
There are a number of recipes for Asian summer rolls (also called garden rolls). However, in this case it refers to the fact that they are meant to be served cold, providing a refreshing snack during hot summer days.
Search
for "Sheefan"
My
(half-Chinese) Mom has talked about eating a dish
at nearly every meal as a child growing up overseas.
She pronounces it "sheefahn" (but has
no idea how it is spelled) and described it as
an extremely thin, watery rice dish, almost a soup.
It was prepared for them with almost no seasoning,
though she says when made properly it
has bits of meat and vegetable and some spices. The
only reference I have been able to find is in this excerpt
from a description of modern Chinese prison...Do you know anything about this
dish, and perhaps what would
be the correct spelling? Thanks
in advance!!!
***
Is there any chance that your mom might be thinking of jook or congee?
It sounds a lot like that. I have some recipes at
http://chinesefood.about.com/cs/breakfastcongee/index.htm
and another at
http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blrecipe303.htm
***
Thanks for your reply! I think it is basically congee. The recipe pretty
well matches what she told me. We also got some additional
info from another Chinese person we know...He instantly recognized it. We
regularly have lunch together and I've seen him eat it often, but I
didn't recognize it because he
has always referred to it as Congee, a variant
that has 8 ingredients added to the basic Sheefan (peanuts, various cereals,
etc.). He usually buys it already made in a can, but sometimes makes it at home.
He says it's good because it makes a little rice go a long
way.
Substitute
for Tahini Paste
I have a recipe that
calls for Tahini Paste? I can't find it what could I use
as a substitute?
***
Tahini is a type of sesame paste. It's more common in Middle Eastern
food but it is used in some Chinese dishes. For a substitute try
using peanut butter mixed with a bit of sesame oil.
Sweet
Rice
We bought some Sweet
rice at the local Chinese grocery store, cooked it according
to directions and it came out gooey and real
sticky. What do you do with sweet rice?
***
That's the way it's
supposed to come out. Sweet rice is often used for
stuffings and desserts. I can give you a few recipes for desserts
and main dishes.
Peanut Sticky Rice
http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blrecipe157.htm
Eight Precious Pudding
http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blrecipe100.htm
Pearl Balls
http://chinesefood.aboutc.om/library/blrecipe031.htm
How do you feel about the broad leaf cilantro? It is very common in Spanish - Caribbean cuisine, particularly Puerto Rican cuisine and that of The Dominican Republic. It is commonly called "cilantro grueso." Some older people call it "culantro," differentiating it from the other, looser-leafed cilantro, which is called "cilantrico", the "co" being common in the Caribbean and being the same as the suffix "to", in Spanish.
Its taste is even stronger- perhaps muskier, or earthier- the leaf being a dark green and about 4" in height and almost an inch in width. Is it just similar or related to cilantro? Or another "species"?
***
To be
honest, I wasn't familiar with broad leaf cilantro, so I went to the Internet to do a bit of research. Culantro is related to cilantro, as both are members of the parsley family. Asians sometimes refer to culantro as Long Coriander, which makes sense as you'll also find Asian cookbooks calling cilantro either fresh coriander or coriander leaves. Other names are Mexican coriander, Puerto Rican coriander and Saw Leaf herb (based on the shape of the leaves). Culantro is used more than cilantro in Southeast Asian cooking, particularly in Malaysia and Singapore. It definitely has a stronger taste - unfortunately people unfamiliar with both often confuse the two in recipes.You might want to check out
the following links
http://newcrop.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1999/v4-506.html
and
http://www-ang.kfunigraz.ac.at/~katzer/engl/generic_frame.html?Eryn_foe.html
for more information. (The latter includes two photos).
Questions from a Beginner
(This
is an excellent email with several questions.
My answer is quite lengthy as
well,
so I've put it
on a separate page.)
Egg Roll Ingredients ***
What are the normal ingredients in an
eggroll?
Normally, an egg roll is made with ground or shredded pork, although ground beef can be substituted. Vegetables include ones that have a crunchy texture, such as bean sprouts, and celery. Some recipes also call for dried black mushrooms. As for seasonings, rice wine (or dry sherry), sugar and soy sauce are used, with perhaps a bit of salt added.
I
hope this helps. I have a recipe for egg rolls at http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blrecipe305.htm
*** Restaurant chefs often their own special way of making a dish,
so it's hard for me to know exactly how the chef at the restaurant you
like is preparing the dish. However, one mistake a lot of recipes (and possibly other restaurants) make is using light soy sauce in the
sauce. It's important to use dark soy sauce, which doesn't have that
salty flavor. Also, the amount of sugar used in recipes varies quite a
bit. If you find a recipe isn't sweet enough, you could try increasing
the amount of sugar, or even adding a bit of brown sugar.
I hope this helps - General Tsos Chicken is one of my favorite
General Tsos Chicken like a Restaurant
I love Chinese
food and have been experimenting with cooking it for quite some time. My favorite Chinese restaurant makes the best General Tso's chicken I
have ever eaten (and I eat at a lot
of Chinese restaurants). But none of the recipes seem to be quite like it. It's the same type of dish - coated chicken,
deep-fried, with a thick sauce and hot
peppers. However, all the recipes I can find use a lot of soy sauce and taste a bit salty (much
like some of the General Tso's chicken I've had in Richmond, VA). At my favorite
restaurant it has more of a sweet taste...any suggestions on how I might be able
to make this the way I like it?
Thanks for writing. Have you tried my recipe by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo? It's at
http://chinesefood.about.com/library/blrecipe044.htm
