# Phil's Cookbook Reads of 2021



## phatch

I've amassed a backlog of cookbooks--mostly of Asian influence--to read. I thought a thread might be of interest and if nothing else is a shared catalog of what I'm reading and thinking of these books. I'd be interested in seeing such lists from other members in their own threads as well.


_Cooking South of the Clouds_ by Georgia Freedman. I heard of this book through a marketing email I get from Mala Market last year. They're a good source of specialty Chinese ingredients and share interesting recipes, They spoke highly of the book and so I added it to my list. It languished there for quite a while particularly as it was slow to come to market in the US. I got motivated to read it because of another Yunnan regional cookbook I'll talk about below. Overall, I liked this one better for it's greater variety of flavoring approaches. Yunnan is known for it's air cured hams and includes the region we call Tibet in the rise to the Himalayas. Thus the South and Clouds. Seasonings seem to focus more on preserved/pickled foods and chilies though the common soy sauce and oyster sauce do make appearances, just less than you might expect. Fried and boiled squash leaves dishes stuck out to me. I'd not seen those cooked before. I didn't know they were edible. I've eaten the blossom, which are just a specialized leaf so it makes sense. This is the better of the two Yunnan focused books in my opinion.
_The Yunnan Cookbook_ by Anabel Jackson. I get weekly cooking emails from the South China Morning Post as well. One of those emails included an interview with Anabel Jackson who has written more on the food of Macao than most anyone else and how that cuisine is fading away. So I've been looking for her books on Macau and she's written some on Vietnamese food and a few on China. And so now I had two Yunnan focused books to read and contrast each other. This is a pretty and elegant book and is missing page numbers on pages with recipes. Where she's talking about a region or category of food, those pages get numbers. This is annoying to me. I usually write notes in the front end-papers with a recipe name and page number that I'm interested in trying out. Couldn't really do that here. And no index either, but without page numbers I suppose that is reasonable. The recipes are very simple and short for what you may have come to expect for a Chinese recipe. Not as much caught my eye as in Cooking South of the Clouds. A zucchini and dried shrimp dish stood out to me and a pumpkin soup. I've seen hard squashes steamed but not made into soup in Chinese cuisine.
_Chinese Cooking: The Food and the Lifestyle_ by Anabel Jackson. This one sat strangely with me. She covers most of what you'd expect, usually with a bit more exotic content. However there are dishes overly simplified--Hot and Sour Soup-- for a non-Asian reader, but others that were surprisingly unadapted. The Egg Fu Yung, Fu Yung just means eggs, is a fried rice dish and not an omelet in gravy as Westerners might expect. Considering its publication in 2004, I think it runs behind the times even when published for sticking closer to traditional ingredients. This feels like it was from 10 years earlier or more. I found her vegetable section the most interesting with some dressed cold vegetable dishes (cabbage and cucumber one looks good) and even a stir fried potato and cilantro one. There's a scallion pancake recipe that just reads wrong to me. This isn't the flour based one (she includes one of those too) but the more rolled eggy style. The picture shows what I think to be an 8 inch non-stick skillet rolling up a pancake. The instructions say to put in 1 tablespoon of batter, cook it, roll it up and cut in three pieces. I just don't see the pancake shown coming from 1 T of batter. Based on the volume of ingredients and suggested yield, it must be more. Not a must have unless you're an Anabel Jackson completist.
On Tuesday 1/19, Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food is released. The original Chinese Soul Food is a good Chinese cookbook and is worth trying out. I don't think this new one will land right on top of my reading pile though.

Expect updates.


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## butzy

I'm currently alternating between a number of books
- Pok Pok (bought yesterday as the kindle version was affordable). I'd been eyeing the book for a long time.
- Hot Sour Salty Sweet and
- Burma, rivers of flavor. Both from Duguid and Alford. I made a couple of recipes from "Burma" and I liked them.
I like their writing style as well.
- How to brew hy John Palmer. My go-to brew book


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## slayertplsko

butzy said:


> I'm currently alternating between a number of books
> - Hot Sour Salty Sweet and


I love that one! Have it as kindle and keep coming back to it. It's a wonderful story of an (American I think) family living throughout the region over the years and the recipes are much more accessible than, say, David Thompson, but don't feel dumbed down in the least (which is sometimes euphemistically called ''adapted for ... "). It just feels like homey food from the region. Definitely one of the all time best for me, of any cuisine.


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## phatch

_Indian and Chinese Cooking from the Himalayan Rim_ by Copeland Marks. Most of this book is based in ethnic dishes of groups in Calcutta with some other adventures into more distributed groups. The first group is Hakka Chinese and is pretty Chinese. If Hakka diaspora cooking is of interest to you, The Hakka Cookbook is an excellent resource, this book less so, though the local context with the more Buddhist view of the Hakka was interesting. The author says the Buddhists among the Hakka do not use garlic, onion or scallions which is similar to restraint among the Marwari Jain the author also writes about. I've read elsewhere this is to not arouse the passions (for food I assume). I wonder if that's where it came from. The Marwari dishes frequently called for asafoetida which does have a sort of onion-truffle flavor when cooked. The other interesting food restriction was that egg whites were allowed and the yolk not.

Then a section on Jewish pickles, though they are distinctly Indian to my view, just sourced from the Jewish community in Calcutta. Maybe there's more going on there in Calcutta but it didn't come through to me as a reader the ties that were particularly Jewish about this.

Fourth, a Christian immigration from Armenia that had a lengthy stopover in Persia along the way. This was distinctly Eastern Meditteranean ideas that had picked up some tweaks along the way and from their new homeland. A clear variant of Tzatziki does appear called Jajik.

Next a section British-Indian cooking though again it was a bit lost on me how the British influence played through compared to the Indian influence. Perhaps its a heavier meat emphasis.

Now, leaving India he discusses the food of Bhutan, Sikkim, Kashmir and another Jewish group, the Mizos. I was a bit surprised at the number of offal dishes here as those usually get skipped over.

I'm not excited about the food here really. I enjoyed the cultural explanations more as shown in the food than the food itself. I think there are probably better books on all the topics--though I've never seen as much about the Jain in one place before, and that was still pretty minimal. But if you want an overview, this would serve the purpose.


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## phatch

_Sheet Pan Chicken_ by Cathy Erway. I liked her earlier book, The Food of Taiwan, particularly her use of black vinegar which is not referenced so often in other books. I like black vinegar as much as balsamic, maybe more because of my preference for Chinese food. So when a sample recipe popped up in my feed last year--when I say feed I mean the News app by Google which you can configure to supply new content from various sources--probably from Bon Appetit, this book quickly got added to my list.

So the gimmick is clearly chicken and a sheet pan.

She pulls ideas from all over the world. Russia, Japan, China, Thailand, India, the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America, Europe... You'll probably find a recipe that appeals to your preferences.

I like how she treats various greens on the sheet pan, particularly the Kale Crown idea. She strips out the ribs, rubs with oil, seasons and onto the pan for the last 15 minutes of a fairly high heat roast to finish. I mean, that's how your roast most anything on a sheet pan, but figuring out the timing is a bonus I reap the benefit of.

I like her method of cooking a sauce at the same time, though I'd just put in a small sauce pan or 8 inch skillet in the oven along side rather than bother with the parchment separation she uses.

I was disappointed how many of the dishes didn't lend themselves to a sheet pan meal, a practice I've adopted from books like Sheet Pan Suppers by Molly Gilbert.

The recipes that made it into my to-try list on the first time through
Bang Bang Crispy Chicken-a Chinese idea that includes black vinegar
Paprika Chicken-the Kale Crown's first appearance
Chicken Schnitzel My mom did oven fried chicken and I liked it growing up. Lets see how this adaptation works in comparison.
Roasted Ceasar including roasting the Romaine.
Soy Chicken-A roasty glaze for this dish seems like a good idea.
Saltimboca Just to see how it compares.

There are some ideas I already did before hand such as the Sumac and Za'atar dishes she does. Mine are similar though her tahini yogurt sauce sounds good.


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## phatch

_A Chinese Street Food Odyssey_ by Helen and Lise Tse. Street food usually is harder than it looks. If it's easy then you'll make it yourself and they don't have a business. They have to walk the line between hard enough you won't make it and easy enough to turn a profit on with a compelling price. They might use a long simmered broth or a specialized skill to make great dumpling skins or something. So I wasn't really expecting to make much from this book. And I didn't, but more because they dumbed things down so much, the best part was often lost.

Rou Jia Mo or Chinese Hamburgers for example. I've made this a couple. of times. I've even cheated on the Mo bread with a thin sandwich roll though it did lack some of the quality of the original. Here are three worthwhile versions of this from my Chinese Youtube mainstays:













These guys went with ground pork, no soy sauce or rice wine and did more of a stir fry than a braise. I can see where this could be pleasant enough, but it's quite a departure from the real thing. They also fry the bread kind of like it was an oily english muffin rather than the dry toasting step it usually is. They seem to cut corners like this all the time in recipes where I have experience enough to recognize it. So I don't really trust the recipes that are new to me.

It's also pretty clear in the Shrimp wonton soup using chicken stock with a drop of soy sauce just really doesn't cut it.

I did like the idea of eating scallion pancakes with XO sauce. I'll have to give that a try. But really, skip this book.


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## phatch

Saltimbocca was dry. She used wetter veggies so there would be more juice and steam. I think the method has merit but watch the chicken closely. Breast is finicky that way.


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## phatch

I'm now in to _The Adobo Road Cookbook_ by Marvin Gapultos. Not as far in as I'd like. I'm really not familiar with Filipino cooking so I have a tougher time thinking through the flavors and a number where I really can't. Even the ingredient discussion section has been quite new to me. Coconut vinegar, OK, I've seen that, I thought it was more of a Thai thing--clearly I'm not well versed in Thai cooking either. Cane vinegar. I think i've seen that (I have). Mutant Coconut. That's new. A coconut variant that is jell-like through out, no liquid center, usually Jell Coconut.

I want a picture of can that says Mutant Coconut if I can find it. And Google will suppy something if I can't find it in person.










The Asian grocer that has all those nice Phillipine vinegars, does have Jell Coconut in the can. but no Mutant Coconut labeling. However, they all carry The California Proposition 65 label for lead and cadmium.

I can't qualify why that bothers me more than the usual prop 65 cancer label I see on my seaweed, but it does.

My Philippine dining is limited. I've eaten some greasy lumpia, some lackluster pancit and some good turkey tails. I look forward to better things.


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## butzy

I got the adobe cookbook as well.
I haven't cooked very much from it, except 1 or 2 adobe recipes.
He has a blog as well, although no current posts. Google ' burnt lumpia"


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## phatch

I'm looking forward to some of those adobo dishes too. There are a few other Filipino cookbooks to come as well.


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## phatch

Finished Adobo Road last night. I was glad he included a sisig recipe though I'd have liked to have the pork belly/jowls version he supplies as well as one that gave amounts and directions for the ear, snout and jowls traditional version. Not sure I could source those easily, but learning how to use those ingredients would have been interesting in their own right. And Mike Chen speaks highly of the ears in the versions he's eaten on his Youtube channels. There is another dish that uses ears in the finger food section so it seems it's a long simmer to soften the collagen/gristle of the ear, then grilled in that dish. I like tendon so I suspect I'd enjoy ear too. I bet a pressure cooker would simplify cooking ears.

The various adobo look pretty good and I think I'll be trying some of that soon. I was pleased he supplied a version of longganisa to make at home. That will be useful. 

I'll pass on the grilled chicken feet. I'd certainly eat them, but they're one of those things I would rather let someone else do the work for. Braised Oxtail in Peanut Sauce struck me as iffy. First, most of my family doesn't like peanut sauce things. I do, but it means I skip most peanut oriented dishes. Second, the non-traditional addition of cocoa powder sits off kilter with me. Maybe it's like chili where it can work and its only a minor amount. But the other hurdles for family acceptance mean I'll likely not know. 

For a first entry for Filipino cuisine in my collection, it seems worthy. I'll let you know how I think it stacks up as I read others this year. 

Next up is The Best of Singapore Cooking by Mrs. Leong Yee Soo.


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## phatch

The ebook conversion of The Best of Singapore Cooking is worthless.

It seems the book was laid out with ingredients in the left column and a marking line and letter in the right column to show how those ingredients are grouped for cooking. She'll then say to combine or maybe stir fry A. Sometimes there is a B section too.

On most recipes you can kind of figure it out by some spacing breaks, but not always.

Another time the ingredients list includes some pork ribs and tails. They might be part of A but it doesn't seem likely. The instructions say to add them back in at one point. They were never obviously added in the first place and never instructed for removal at all even if they were added with A.

Ok, I reread the recipe yet again. If they're part of A, then you do strain them out. The rest of the straining is not returned. The formatting made me think they were not part of A, but they must be. Very confusing conversion.

And just to niggle some more. The char kway teo recipe uses cockles, no shrimp. The photo is with shrimp.

So this is pretty much a disaster, at least in ebook form. And i suspect the physical form is problematic at best.

Did not finish.


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## phatch

Now I'm into Homestyle Malay Cooking by Rohani Jelani. It's going much better. And right early in there's an interesting congee type dish but it's very out in the ordinary in my experience of congee.

Bubur Lambuk (Savoury Rice Porridge)
200 g (1 cup) uncooked rice
2 ½ litres (10 cups) water
1 cinnamon stick (4 cm/1 ½ in)
1 star anise pod
4 cloves
3 cm (1 ¼ in) fresh ginger, scraped and bruised
150 g (5 oz) lean beef, minced or very thinly sliced 
100 g (3 ½ oz) boneless chicken, diced
150 g (5 oz) fresh medium prawns, peeled, deveined and diced
185 ml (¾ cup) thick coconut milk (optional)
¼ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons deep-fried shallots, to garnish
1 spring onion, sliced, to garnish

1 Wash the rice in several changes of water until the water runs clear. Place in a pot with the water and bring to a boil.

2 Add the whole spices, ginger and beef. Reduce the heat, partially cover with a lid and simmer gently, stirring several times, for 1 hour until the rice is very soft and mushy. Add a little hot water if the porridge threatens to dry out.

3 Discard the cinnamon, star anise and ginger. Add the chicken and simmer for 10 minutes. Then add the prawns and simmer for 5 minutes.

4 Add the coconut milk, if using, and season with the salt. Simmer for another minute, then serve hot, garnished with fried shallots and spring onion. The rice should be cooked until the grains are broken and the texture is smooth and very soft.

Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 mins

The spices, the coconut milk, the trio of meats, is all a departure from what I think of for rice porridge. If my family will help me eat it, we'll have to give it a try.


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## butzy

Funny that, as that wpuld be what I sort of expect from.rice porridge/soup


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## phatch

I don't know a lot about this kind of cuisine. One thing I've noticed about Malay/Singapore cookbooks is they call out different sorts of curry powder as though they commonly available such as fish curry powder. But I've only seen recipes for these online. The books never give them nor have i seen any for sale.

The braised pepper chicken looked particularly accessible.a couple of different fish curry caught my eye. I wish they would have included a chili crab. They give a chili shrimp, I wonder how similar they are?

Anyway, it's not a big book but there were things i noted to try out and look forward to.


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## butzy

I've seen that too, in some Singaporean cookbooks ("Singapore heritage cooking" There even was a call for Rendang powder!)
I haven't seen this in any of the Indonesian cookbooks I got. 
There are a lot of similarities in Indonesian and Malay cooking, so maybe this has something to do with "foreign" influences on the different Malay styles (Perankan/Nyonya, Indian, European etc)?


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## phatch

Binging with Babish by Andrew Rea. I enjoy his youtube channels. I'm not a subscriber but I enjoy his technique and deadpan delivery. The food though has never made me want to replicate it. I haven't seen most of the TV or film the food is inspired by and so I have no particular resonance with it.

So this seemed sort of like a stunt cookbook, a performance of food styling. Nothing really stands out to me as something i must try or do differently than i do. I guess i was hoping for technique insight more than anything.

Better visuals than victuals, at least for my interests.


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## phatch

_Chinese Feasts and Festivals_ by S. C. Moey. This book sits in my mind against another I read some years ago, _Good Luck Life_ by Rosemary Gong. Both are guides to celebratory food and the cultural behaviors around particular events and holidays. It could be just the fading of my memory in time, but I'm liking Feast and Festivals better. I think it has better cooking information and more details about the beliefs of the celebration.

A quick scroll (most of the books I'm reading this year are epubs, as is my copy of Good Luck Life) through Good Luck Life shows it is less about cooking and more about the ritual and meaning and calendar structure. More of the myths and legends too. So my memory wasn't super accurate.

An example from the cooking front, most of the whole fowl preparations also include an accenting sauce recipe for use at the table. Usually this gets a short cut of just plum sauce, hoisin sauce, or commercially prepared duck sauce and often no suggestion at all. Moey offers interesting sweet and sour dip and many other combinations for accenting the eating.

On the traditions regarding eating the whole fish, the senior at the table who gets first pick of the fish, also has the duty to properly prepare eating the other side of the fish after eating the top part. This is by removing the skeleton from the fish rather than simply turning it over. Turning it over is bad luck, perhaps spilling your fortune or overturning the fishing boat.

As this is celebration food, the recipes are more involved and usually involve more expensive ingredients, so I don't have a particular set of dishes I'm planning on. I do plan on using some garnishes and dips for other purposes.

If you want to learn some more about Chinese New Year and other celebrations, both of these books are worthwhile. If food is more to your interest, Chinese Feasts and Festivals strikes me as the better of these books.

The Lunar New Year celebrated by the Chinese occurs this year on 2/12. My plan is not to cook from this book, but something like a Grill Pot and some dumplings.






If you're looking for some ideas for your own celebration, a few have come through my feed recently that are worth looking at.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/lif...anghai-noodles-trevor-lui-shares-his-take-on/
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/02...ish-and-rice-cake-recipes-for-year-of-the-ox/
https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/02/01/lunar-new-year-recipe-firecracker-sesame-noodles-with-prawns/
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021846-chile-crisp-dumplings


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## phatch

I made the Classic Chicken Adobo from the Adobo Road cookbook above. Very good and easy.



> Everything is thrown into a pot and simmered, the sauce is boiled and reduced, done. It is adobo in its simplest, most basic, and perhaps best form.
> But don't confuse basic with bland. As the sauce for this dish finishes and boils, the bubbling helps to emulsify the liquid with the chicken fat in the pan, creating a simple yet flavorful glaze. And even though the chicken isn't browned or seared, it still achieves a beautiful brown sheen from the luscious sauce.
> 
> Serves 4-6 as part of a multi-course meal
> Prep Time: 5 minutes
> Cooking Time: 45 minutes
> 
> ¼ cup (65 ml) soy sauce
> ½ cup (125 ml) white Filipino cane vinegar, or distilled white vinegar
> 6-8 cloves garlic, smashed with the side of a knife and peeled
> 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
> 2 bay leaves
> 6 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
> 
> Place the soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, black peppercorns, and bay leaves in a large, nonreactive sauté pan, and then nestle the chicken thighs, skin side down, into the pan. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, and then cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Turn the chicken over, and then cover and simmer for another 10 minutes.
> 
> Uncover the pan, and then increase the heat to high and return the sauce to a boil. While occasionally turning and basting the chicken, continue boiling the sauce, uncovered, until it is reduced by half and thickens slightly, 5-7 minutes. Serve with steamed white rice.
> 
> VARIATIONS: While the sauce is reducing, transfer the chicken thighs, skin side up, to a foil-lined sheet pan. Brown the chicken thighs underneath the broiler for 3-5 minutes.
> Use freshly ground black pepper instead of whole peppercorns. For a "drier" chicken adobo, you can reduce the sauce until it is almost completely evaporated. The chicken will then begin to fry in its own fat that is still left in the pan. This is how my grandmother finishes her adobo.
> For a saucier adobo, double the amount of soy sauce and vinegar.
> To make this adobo as an appetizer, use 2 lbs (1 kg) of chicken wings instead of thighs.


I made it with ground pepper, double sauce, and broiled the thighs, all ideas from the variations list. I did skim some fat from the sauce as i know my digestion wouldn't do well with the full fat dose. There was no shortage in the finished dish still.


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## butzy

I've made it with the chicken pieces grilled on a charcoal braai.
Very tasty as well and as far as I can remember, not difficult at all!


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## phatch

Today's entry is _Gok Cooks Chinese_ by Gok Wan.

I thought this was a pretty good Chinese cookbook. It has a distinctly modern slant drifting into fusion. So instead of salt and pepper pork, you get salt and pepper pork chops. And while I know the Chinese do use fish sauce, I've never seen it show up so often, even in the mapo tofu and also some ostensibly vegetarian dishes as well.

The Garlic Chicken and Sichuan Chicken both struck me as simple and worthwhile approaches to those flavors.

There are odd things like 4 chicken breasts that manage to only weigh 500 grams total for Dad's Drunken Chicken. His hot and sour soup is unlike most anything else of that name. Happiness in a Bowl is just shrimp wonton soup but that naming needlessly complicates finding what is otherwise a common recipe. And bonus points for making shrimp shell stock for that soup.

Organizational choices mean all categories of cooking are scattered throughout the book. I did enjoy the one-pot chapter as that's a different but useful way for a westerner to think about a Chinese meal for simple cooking.

There are some occurrences of sexual language and ethnic perjoratives that strike me wrongly for a cookbook. Perhaps that's part of his public UK persona but it was in poor form I thought.


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## phatch

I forgot to mention two other recipes i wanted to call out, both steamed eggs. He does a regular version of steamed eggs with shrimp. It's good to see this dish cropping up more frequently.

The other was eggs cracked into a bowl, not mixed or whisked, topped with meatballs and steamed. This was a new variation for me and I look forward to trying it.


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## phatch

Been out sick. Covid test was negative. Hope to get back to my reading again soon. Still caught workingin my backlog of life that builds up while sick.

Xi'an Famous Foods is almost done. It was on many best of 2020 cookbook lists last year.


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## butzy

Hope you get better real quick!


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## phatch

_Xi'an Famous Foods_ by Jason Wang (and others).

The food of Xi'an has become more mainstream in the last 5 or so years. Probably more than that, but I live in a culinary backwater. Sure, we have a disproportionate representation of cuisines for our size -- I credit the Mormon Missionary program for people bringing back a love of a foreign cuisine and some related immigration as well. But hand pulled noodles have penetrated America's Test Kitchen so it must be more mainstream.

The organization of the content is fairly biographical. They start in Xi-an, move to America, move around a bit while Dad works the Chinese restaurant circuit. You can read about this circuit in Jennifer 8 Lee's _Fortune Cookie Chronicles_. They start a food cart, They grow. The author returns to Xi-an and realizes they're cooking a snapshot in time as Xi'an cuisine has evolved as Xi'an has grown and become important.

In the middle, he gives recipes and directions for a number of popular dishes they serve at the restaurant. A lot of this relies on some seasonings they make in bulk and dole out in various amounts to other recipes. Chili oil, XFF Noodle Sauce, XFF Liang Pi Sauce, XFF Dumpling Sauce. These mostly riff on black vinegar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, star anise, bay leaves, sugar and so on in different proportion to each other. This makes a lot of sense for restaurant production. It makes a lot less sense for a home cook making a single recipe here or there.

As to Liang Pi, knowing how to make my own gluten is interesting. You do use the starch water leftover from making the gluten for making the noodles. And I've watched Souped Up Recipes do it on Youtube a few years back. But I can buy gluten/seitan. I can buy wheat starch, how about some simplification here? https://misschinesefood.com/the-wheat-starch-cold-noodle/ for example. But as I've not eaten Liang Pi from scratch, maybe the difference is worth the extra work. I respect preserving the traditional knowledge. But some modernization options would have been appreciated by me at least.

When Jason returns to Xi'an, the cooking simplifies to more approachable home cooking levels and the is the part of the book that most interested me. Soup, hash, a sort of spaetzle noodle I'd never seen in Chinese cooking before. This Liang Pi skips washing out the gluten and just steams the batter directly and is dressed in sesame sauce. I'm not chasing down lamb heads or spines...

I do think this is an important cookbook. Both for capturing that snapshot of what Xi'an cuisine was and the core techniques, but also for recognizing that things change. Both are good. There's not a lot here that I've seen in elsewhere in print. What I've seen of this regional cuisine is mostly Youtube cooks. I don't know for sure what to try out. It's all quite new and the flavors and unclear to me in many ways. I should Mix up some core sauces and try out some hand pulled noodles and cold skin noodles it seems.


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## phatch

# 14: Chinatown Kitchen: From Noodles to Nuoc Cham - Delicious Dishes from Southeast Asian Ingredients by Lizzie Mabbott.

The subtitle has more to do with this cookbook than the main title. Except that you go shopping in Chinatown to find the ingredients. This is a pan-Asian cookbook with a bit more focus on the spicy cuisines of Southeast Asia. Japan and Korea do make appearances. Further, this is highly modernized and adapted, and in a number of cases diverging sharply from what you might expect of a dish of a particular name.

Lizzie grew up eating primarily Chinese food in Hong Kong but didn't learn to cook it in her youth. She self-educated herself on the topic later while living in England. Her book is organized by ingredient category, but this sometimes creates an odd mishmash of dishes in a particular chapter with savory and desserty sweet type items side by side. I can respect the organizational approach though as the cuisines of Asia tend to mix sweet and savory in ways uncommon in the West. 

Lizzie likes her spicy hot dishes more than I do and this can manifest in weird ways. She offers a Red-Braised Ox Cheek for example. Red-cooking is usually about a master stock heavy with spices, soy, sugar, rice wine and dried tangerine, a sweet-savory simmering technique where you re-use the stock over and over and develop an ever richer base. She offers up a recipe based in doubanjiang and yellow bean baste, a bit of rice wine and minimal star anise. And I think it would taste pretty good but I don't see the red-cooking connection really. It would certainly kick with heat and fermented bean taste in a way unlike red-cooking.

Where she got her Bo Kho idea is completely lost on me. Kho usually indicates a Vietnamese savory caramel cooking base, or at least a good dose of sugar. Here it become a beef curry based in curry powder and no sugar to be seen. Again, it seems a perfectly fine dish, but it's not what the name would indicate.

The book strikes me as highly personalized and adapted rather than representative of any particular cuisine or experience. I'm likely the wrong audience for this book as I'm more interested in tradition and practice than she is. If you want something pan-asian with fusion-ist ideas and a modern approach to the tastes, this seems pretty reasonable.


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## phatch

Beans, Greens, & Sweet Georgia Peaches: The Souther Way of Cooking Fruits and Vegetables by Damon Lee Fowler.

Fowler is my preferred author for topics of Southern Cooking. Not that he has covered everything there is to cover or knows it all, but he digs pretty deeply into the past and has a good palate.

In this book he argues that produce is the backbone of southern cuisine rather than the meat the produce surrounds. And really any cuisine really. I was once taken to task for lamenting the sad sides at a particular barbecue restaurant. The people I was talking to said that you go to barbecue for the meat. In my mind, I went for the meal. Most meals are produce-centric for economics, optimal nutrition and yes, taste. Except for salt, our seasonings and aromatics are plants or parts of plants. Fowler doesn't have to convince me of the claim.

With produce as the topic, he logically organizes the book seasonally for when the food is in season. There are a few stretches to this concept. He gives some accompaniment such as corn bread and grits that aren't seasonal. And the South covers a broad geographic and climate range so there are things that struck me oddly because I sometimes don't think of Florida as the South, though it clearly is. That particular dish was Grapefruit and Avocado Salad. Something about that combination knocked me out of a Southern mindset entirely and that is my bias on display as they are grown in the south though not natively originally.

I was introduced to a broader range of cooking for many vegetables. The artichoke options included an interesting braise and an artichoke and oyster soup. That is not a combination I'd have come up with. I was surprised at the number of ways he offered for edible flowers. I wouldn't have thought that was particularly southern, but it seems to be practiced more than I knew.

A gumbo for Okra of course, but a few other stews and soups also. I struggled with its use in a salad. He points out you need young pods so that there is no goo/slime. I only ever see mature or frozen in my market so this option never occurred to me either.

Peanuts get some interesting entries, but again some require a fresh peanut I'll never see in my area. That's OK. It's good to know what's possible with optimal ingredients or what to look for if you're traveling in the right season.

I've made and enjoyed some fruit soups and salsa before. He calls out a particular Georgia Peach Soup in a more savory approach than I've ever seen before.



> *Georgia Peach Soup* SERVES 8
> 
> Fruit soups are not intended to be sweet. They are served, not as a dessert, but as a first course in much the same way as a fruit salad. This particular one is popular in Georgia hotel dining rooms and in restaurants that cater to visitors. Though it is sometimes served warm, and I've given directions for serving it that way, it's more usually served well chilled, and is best that way.
> 
> 6 medium, ripe yellow peaches (about 2 pounds)
> 
> 1 lemon, cut in half
> 
> 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
> 
> ¼ cup chopped shallot or yellow onion
> 
> 2 cups Chicken Broth (page 21) or 1 cup canned broth mixed with 1 cup water
> 
> 2½ cups heavy cream (minimum 36 percent milk fat)
> 
> Nutmeg in a grater
> 
> 1 tablespoon bourbon
> 
> 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
> 
> *1.* Put the peaches in a large heatproof bowl or a stockpot. Bring a large teakettle of water to a boil and pour it over the peaches. Let them stand in the hot water for 30 seconds and then drain. Rinse them with cold water, slip off the peelings, and then halve them and remove their pits. Cut into thin wedges and put them into a glass bowl. Squeeze the lemon juice over them, then toss to coat them well.
> 
> *2.* Put the butter and shallot or onion in a heavy-bottomed 3½- to 4-quart saucepan over medium heat. Sauté, tossing often, until softened and transparent but not in the least colored, about 4 minutes. Add all but 1 cup of the peaches and stir until warmed through. Add the broth and let it come to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the peaches are tender, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.
> 
> *3.* Puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor, and return it to the pot. Cut the remaining peaches into small chunks and add them to the puree. The soup can be made several days in advance up to this point. Let it cool uncovered, and then cover and refrigerate it until needed.
> 
> *4.* To serve it cold, stir in 2 cups of the cream and season to taste with a few generous gratings of nutmeg. Stir until smooth. To serve it warm, gently reheat it over medium-low heat, stir in the cream, and just let the cream heat through. If it's too thick once it warms (which may happen because of the acid reacting with the cream), thin it with a little milk. Just before serving, stir in the bourbon.
> 
> *5.* If serving it cold, whip the remaining ½ cup cream until it forms soft peaks and garnish each serving with a spoonful. If serving it warm, don't bother to whip the cream, but simply drizzle a spoonful into each serving. Top with a sprinkling of mint and freshly grated nutmeg.


He retreads a few ideas he's used before. He recycles mayo-based potato salads in a baked casserole. And that's not a bad dish, just one he's talked about in other books.

I think this book will introduce new ideas and treatments to most cooks. I fully recommend his other books, particularly _Classical Southern Cooking_, _Essentials of Southern Cooking_ and _New Southern Baking_. He also wrote the _Ham_ book in the ever-increasing topical set of books in the _Savor the South_ series.


----------



## phatch

Lao Style Recipes by Barbara Riddle.

This is a short book introducing you to Lao cuisine. It's the first Laotian cookbook I've read and I don't really have any other exposure to the cuisine so it's very difficult to judge how Lao it is. It seems to hit those flavor points bridging Vietnam and Thailand that I would expect, with some crossover sorts of dishes like Pad See Ew which I've seen in Thai books and restaurants. This book alleges it's a Chinese Fusion concept and it does show some Chow Fun with added vegies approach.

There are some ingredients that are poorly explained. A section on specialty ingredients is not in the book. Yanang extract for example, but you're using a 14 oz can of it?. At a later point the actual yanang leaves are used, or the canned extract can be substituted. So there is a bit of round about explanation. Ivy Gourd leaves are another I'd have like to have a substitute for.

Other times there are calls for what seem a likely ingredient, but then get a restriction. Coconut, semi-mature for example. I don't know how what that means for coconuts and it isn't explained. Or making two milk extractions from a coconut and using the resulting different milk in different ways. I have a guess as to how this is done, but I'd prefer instructions. And couldn't I use canned coconut milk or thin it with water?

At another point, you're de-shelling shrimp and instructed to reserve the tomalley. I don't' think I've ever seen shrimp described as having tomalley. I wouldn't know what to save.

The cuisine features a fair amount of pounded or ground aromatic pastes. So have a mortar and pestle ready if you want to cook and eat Laotian cuisine.

It does seem to have been written for cooks with a basis in Lao food which I am not. I thought this Chicken Salad dish looked simple and interesting for a first effort. I do have the ground toasted rice on hand already.



> *Minced Chicken Salad - Laab Kai*
> This dish is tangy and fragrant, with little to no fat, so it's perfect for summer dining. You can make it with chicken, as in this recipe, or with shrimp, duck, pork or beef.
> 
> *Makes* 4 Servings
> 
> *Cooking + Prep Time:* 50 minutes
> 
> *Ingredients:*
> • 4 boneless chicken thighs
> • 1 bunch of cilantro
> • 1 bunch of basil, Thai
> • 4 scallions
> • 1 small onion, red
> • 2 lemon grass sticks
> • 1 fresh lime, juice only
> • 1/2 cup of broth, chicken
> • 1 tbsp. of fish sauce
> • 1 tsp. of sugar, granulated
> • 1 tsp. of flour, toasted, rice
> • Optional: 2 chili peppers, red, hot
> • Kosher salt
> • Ground pepper
> 
> *Instructions:*
> 
> 1. Cook chicken in large covered pot of salted water at a boil on med. heat for 25-30 minutes.
> 
> 2. Chop Thai basil, cilantro, scallions, chilies, red onion and lemon grass.
> 
> 3. Firmly chop chicken.
> 
> 4. Mix all and add chicken broth.
> 
> 5. Add fish sauce, lime juice, sugar and ground rice flour. Combine well.
> 6. Serve warm with glutinous rice, cucumber slices and mint leaves, or as desired.


----------



## butzy

That recipe sounds real close to Thai Larb/laap 
Actually sound like an interesting book to me, but then I like SE Asian food


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## phatch

It was interesting. I just need more information to cook from parts of it.


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## butzy

If you have somebtime, check out
Shesimmers.com and vietworldkitchen.com
Both sites that I really like. Unfortunatelly, shesimmers hasnt been posting new entries.
Lots of info on SE Asian cookinh in both


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## phatch

Virtworldkitchen is one I've read before. She simmers is new to me.


----------



## phatch

Tomorrow, I add two more books to my list.

Mister Jiu's in Chinatown


My Shanghai: Recipes and Stories from a city on the water


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## phatch

My Shanghai is not available yet in ebook format.

Anyway, today is about _Fried Rice: 50 ways to stir up the world's favorite grain_ by Diane Centoni.

She starts discussing cooking rice of various lengths with a few types of flavored rice she'll use later on in book, from plain rice to coconut rice, or dashi, or tomato or lemon rice. Also a few specialty ingredients and garnishes. Most of the rest of the book is organized in broad geographic swaths of Asia, America, Africa, and Europe. And a final mostly off topic chapter of sweets.

There is a pretty good version of cha shu fried rice and then she starts riffing across the region. The Pho fried rice and Banh mi fried rice were stand out ideas to me. But they begin to show her methodology for most of the rest of the book. That is the dishes start to become more like a " salad" based on a fried seasoned rice that is then layered with other ingredients prepared separately. To me, the idea of fried rice is much more like a US style hash.

I'd have liked a few more established forms of fried rice too. She offers a kimchi fried rice but only with bulgogi. Kimchi fried rice deserves more exploration than that including simpler versions and their meatier variations.

I also liked the Indian style fried rice she demonstrates. I'd have appreciated some notes on regional variations she alludes to but didn't explain. She takes mujadara from a casserole of rice and lentils into a fried rice variation. Ok, but this seems like extra work. Still I'm intrigued.

I found her Eastern European ideas more appealing than her other parts of Europe. I struggled particularly with some of the Italian. ideas. Carbonara fried rice seems to miss the synergy when reduced to bacon fried rice with cheese and fried eggs. While not a fried rice, I'd probably approach it more like a risotto shakshuka with the eggs maybe poached separately and slid into place. I thought the Arrancini was a bit of a cheat. Yes, it's rice and it's fried but it's not fried rice in the hash style.

Some of the American ideas settle back into a better groove. The Buffalo Chicken rice looks like a fun jumping off point. I'd probably change it to match my hot wings preferences. The cheeseburger one seems pretty good too.

Adding pineapple to Spam fried rice and calling it Hawaiian seems a bit weak considering the places Spam fried rice crops up such as in kimchi fried rice or in the philippines. But it is certainly done in Hawaii too, even without pineapple.

And the sweets chapter can just be ignored in my opinion.

There's a lot of inspiration to me in adapting rice hash to other cuisines. If that sounds interesting to you too, give this book a closer look.


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## rbrad

phatch....if you are interested in Macanese cooking you might like (The Adventures of) Fat Rice if you haven't read it. The style is quite fun and it covers quite a bit.


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## phatch

I'll have to look for it


----------



## phatch

Reading in Food of Singapore. Sweet black sauce is listed as a type of soy sauce in addition to the common light and dark types. I'm thinking they mean kecap manis or thick sweet soy as koon chun sauce factory would call it?

They don't really explain it.


----------



## butzy

Yeah, I would say it is, or similar to, kecap manis (ketjap manis).
What recipe do they use it in? Can you give an example?

On a different note: did you read/ go through "phoenix claw and jade trees" and "beyond the great wall" from Alford and Duguid?
Just curious what you think.
Same of Ken Hom


----------



## phatch

Beyond the great wall as I remember was more of a skim. Not much actual cooking. Unless i am misremembering.

Phoenix claw i reference but haven't gone through everything. I respect it but it doesn't resonate strongly with me as other books do.

Ken Hom, I'm actually going through his Chinese Cookery right now alongside The Food of Singapore. The Food of Singapore has not held my interest well though the recipes are interesting, I've covered a few other cookbooks while only looking at FoS in short bursts. I may have read Cookery years ago but it's not sticking out to me that way yet.

Hom's poverty upbringing seems to have influenced his approach to food in a way that emphasizes less bold flavors. Theres a cookbook autobiography he wrote at one point that was pretty sad food of a desperate family. And this is food that he identifies with in a strong way because it was formative and important to him. I saw notes of that in this recipe last night.



> watercress soup
> Regions: Canton and Fujian
> Here is a soup from my childhood. My mother used to make it with pork pieces and its delightful fragrance emanating from the kitchen signified good things to come. I would remove the pork pieces from the soup and dip them in soy sauce before eating them. Then I would pour some of the soup into my rice bowl to flavour the rice. In our family restaurant, this soup was a favourite at staff meals because of its wonderfully delicate flavour and because it is so easy to make. Nowadays I prefer it plain, without any meat added. Use only the leaves of the watercress for a delicate taste.
> Serves 4
> 1.2 litres (2 pints) Chicken Stock ( here )
> 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
> 1 teaspoon sugar
> ½ teaspoon salt
> ¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
> 150 g (5 oz) watercress, stems removed
> 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
> 3 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions
> Bring the stock to a simmer in a large pan. Add the soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper and simmer for 3 minutes. Then add the watercress leaves, ginger and spring onions and continue to simmer the soup for a further 4 minutes. Serve at once.


Something like that without the meat and cress but with iceberg lettuce sticks out in my memory from that autobiography.

My focus on Chinese food started in the 80s, a time in the US of Martin Yan on PBS. Ken Hom had some programming then too though not as much. He has a place in my library from being an early influencer.

Simple flavors can be great and Hom is not locked into it only. But it does seem to run through his favorites at least in my view.


----------



## phatch

Sweet black sauce example


> Tauhu Goreng
> 
> Deep-fried Tofu Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing
> 
> A popular dish at food stalls in Singapore, especially in the morning, the fried tofu is usually halved diagonally and stuffed with a mixture of blanched bean sprouts and raw cucumber, and drizzled with a delicious Spicy Peanut Dressing.
> 
> 2 cakes pressed tofu or firm tofu (about 500 g/1 lb total)
> 
> Oil for shallow-frying (about 3 tablespoons)
> 
> 1 cup (75 g) bean sprouts, rinsed and blanched in boiling water, then drained
> 
> 1 small cucumber, sliced into thin shreds
> 
> 2 spring onions, sliced into thin shreds, to garnish (optional)
> 
> Coriander leaves (cilantro), to garnish (optional)
> 
> Spicy Peanut Dressing
> 
> 2 tablespoons oil
> 
> 8 shallots, sliced
> 
> 5 cloves garlic, sliced
> 
> 2-5 red finger-length chillies, deseeded and sliced
> 
> 1/2 teaspoon belachan (dried prawn paste)
> 
> 2 tablespoons sweet black sauce
> 
> 2 heaped tablespoons tamarind pulp mashed with 1 cup (250 ml) warm water, squeezed and strained for juice
> 
> 1 cup (175 g) coarsely crushed fried or roasted peanuts, or 10 heaped tablespoons crunchy peanut butter
> 
> 1 To prepare the Spicy Peanut Dressing, heat the oil in a saucepan and stir-fry the shallots, garlic, chillies and belachan for 5 minutes until fragrant. Then add the sweet black sauce and tamarind juice, and cook for another minute. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. When cooled, grind the mixture to a paste in a mortar or blender. Add the crushed peanuts or peanut butter and mix well.
> 
> 2 Shallow-fry the tofu in about 1 cm (1/2 in) of oil over medium heat in a skillet until light golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side Remove from the oil and set aside to drain and cool. When cool enough to handle, cut the tofu into bite-sized pieces.
> 
> 3 To assemble, arrange the bean sprouts, cucumber and spring onions (if using) on a plate. Top with the fried tofu and pour the dressing over. Serve garnished with coriander leaves. Alternatively, serve the dressing in a small bowl on the side with another bowl of freshly sliced spring onions if desired.
> 
> Note: To save time, prepare the Spicy Peanut Dressing in advance. If sweet black sauce is not available, substitute black soy sauce sweetened with sugar.
> 
> Serves 4 Preparation time: 20 mins Cooking time: 10 mins


----------



## phatch

Speaking of desperate food, my mom would nostalgically eat bread in milk with a side of spring onions and radishes dipped in salt. This was something she ate growing up in the depression. I always found it inedible as a kid but i didn't grow up the same way.


----------



## butzy

phatch said:


> Sweet black sauce example


Yeah, I would say that is kecap manis.
It fits the recipe!


----------



## phatch

Looks like I want to add this book to my list too. Masala Lab

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56066970 An algorithmic approach to Indian cooking rather than recipe based.


----------



## phatch

The Food of Singapore: Simple Street Food Recipes from the Lion City by David Wong & others.

For some reason, the early part of this book just didn't click with me. The last third held my attention pretty well.

First, the recipe intros are quite short. My preference is for more understanding of the context and history of a dish, but not a family history or travelogue by the author. So for my preferences, this is not as much as I want. But there's nothing wrong with the amount offered.

I liked that they point out that Singapore imports most of its food and water. I'm struck by the contrast of a city state without the available land to have it's own food heritage from the local soil. Though seafood is much more locally harvested. The import nature struck me with the Oxtail soup recipe. I don't see a lot of beef recipes from Singapore and to have a street food focused on the tail when the rest of the animal is not so often seen just shows how the import situation can work out.

The ingredients lists of the recipes here ran a bit longer than many others I've read this year. Perhaps because of my Chinese food fascination I found that reassuring. I was excited to have a Chile Crab and Black Pepper Crab/Crayfish recipe finally on offer. Those have been missing from my reading. I'll have to compare the Chile Crab here to the Chile Shrimp in that earlier book and see how they compare. There's a sort of hacked soy sauce chicken cooked in a bowl lined with par-cooked potato slices that caught my eye as well. I've certainly had Tandoori Shrimp at Indian restaurants. I've not seen fish cooked tandoori style that I recall, but that makes an interesting appearance. There's also a tea smoked fish which I usually think of duck or chicken for that preparation.

And then there's a new years dish that isn't street food at all, a New Year Raw Fish Salad. This looks pretty good and while there's some knife work in the preparation, not to difficult. They don't give sashimi instructions for freezing fish properly yourself or buying from a vendor that has already done this so keep that in mind. This is mostly eaten against seasonings like plum sauce, sesame oil, and fruit vegetable shreds.

I've mentioned in another post their use of the term sweet black sauce for kecap manis. As is common, various curry powder variants are considered commonly available. So meat curry powder and fish curry powder are things you'll have to figure out on your own. I'll give you a starting point which is all I've got for myself as well.

https://www.bawarchi.com/recipe/fish-curry-powder-recipe-ojykEIgjebeih.htmlhttps://www.stepbystep.com/how-to-make-fish-curry-powder-54598/https://mag.the4blades.com/recipe/malaysian-curry-powder/
You'll also have to be on the lookout for some scarcer ingredients. Barbecued Stingray is probably not going to be something I can cook here in landlocked Utah very easily.

There's an interesting coconut mango custard in the dessert section. I'm a little put off by the amount of starches used, but I can't say If I think it will work out or not, It just strikes me strangely. Let me know what you think from the recipe copied below.



> Tropical Fruits in Steamed Coconut Custard
> 
> These steamed cakes made with jackfruit (or other tropical fruits) make a delicious snack or dessert.
> 
> 1 cup (150 g) rice flour
> 
> 1/2 cup (60 g) tapioca starch
> 
> 3 cups (750 ml) thin coconut milk or 1 cup (250 ml) coconut cream mixed with 2 cups (500 ml) water
> 
> 1/2 teaspoon salt
> 
> 3 pandanus leaves, tied in a knot, or 1/4 teaspoon pandanus essence
> 
> 11/2 cups (200 g) diced jackfruit or mango or sliced banana
> 
> 16 pieces banana leaf, each about 20-cm (8-in) square
> 
> 1/2 cup (125 ml) coconut cream
> 
> 1/2 cup (125 ml) Palm Sugar Syrup (page 73)
> 
> 1 Prepare the Palm Sugar Syrup by following the instructions on page 73
> Note: To prepare Palm Sugar Syrup, bring 1/2 cup (100 g) shaved palm sugar and 1/2 cup (125 ml) water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add a pandanus leaf or a drop of pandanus essence to the water, if desired. Then reduce the heat and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes until the liquid thickens and becomes syrupy. Strain, discard the pandanus leaf (if using).
> 
> 2 Combine the rice flour, tapioca starch, coconut milk, salt and pandanus leaves or essence in a saucepan, and cook over very low heat, stirring constantly, until the creamy mixture becomes very thick, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and discard the pandanus leaves (if using). Allow the mixture to cool, then add the fruit and mix well.
> 
> 3 Place one piece of banana leaf on top of another and spoon 2 tablespoons of the cooked mixture onto the centre, then spoon 1/2tablespoon each of the coconut cream and Palm Sugar Syrup over the mixture. Fold two opposite sides of the banana leaves over the filling so they overlap each other, then seal the two ends with toothpicks.
> 
> 4 Alternatively, roll the banana leaf into a cone and spoon 2 tablespoons of the cooked mixture into it (see photo). Serve the coconut cream and Palm Sugar Syrup in small bowls on the side.
> 
> 5 Steam the bundles for 25 minutes in a bamboo steamer or on a steaming tray inside a covered wok. Remove from the steamer and allow to cool to room temperature or chill before serving.
> 
> Serves 4-6 Preparation time: 15 mins Cooking time: 35 mins


----------



## butzy

I'll have a look at my notes for banana-coconut desert, steamed in banana leaf (from a cooking course in Thailand), as it sounds somewhat similar. As far as I remember, they were very filling. This may also had something to do with the 7 other dishes that we cooked and ate 

I had a look at the Malaysian meat curry powder and it seems very high in cloves....


----------



## phatch

Could easily be. These are just what I've found.


----------



## phatch

Rodney Scott's World of BBQ by Rodney Scott.

This has been getting a lot of hype. James Beard Award for the restaurant in the first year and so on.

Very straight forward and even simple in the recipes for South Carolina whole hog barbecue and related items The specific technique, that's harder. He cooks over direct but low heat for his barbecue.

He gives instructions for building a suitable cinderblock pit and burn barrel. You're cooking a few feet above the coal bed and that helps moderate the heat. The burn barrel is the other half of the system. This is the hardwood coals generator for building and maintaining the coal bed. He burns fairly fresh downed hardwood of the usual smoking sort: oak, pecan, hickory. And every 15 minutes or so you add a shovel full of coals to the pit where its needed. Cooking times are pretty traditional as the heat is about the same, just direct instead of indirect. You have to have the heat just right which helps control the grease fire flare-ups. He advocates dousing flare ups with vinegar.

But dripping grease and juice flashing into fire and smoke is the key to the resulting flavor. He's cycling the meat juice back in as smoke by-product for taste. He mops about a gallon of vinegar and pepper based sauce on while cooking a whole hog. So there some added juice and flavor for the drippings. And he's an advocate for high grade hog breeds too.

The barbecue recipes are very Carolinas. A local Carolina's style BBQ joint says this about their food. https://www.crcbbqut.com/home



> *We make no apologies...*
> *O*ur food is Southern. This means that no dietitian, nutritionist, or novice health aficionado for that matter, would recommend anything we serve. Well, maybe our kid's meals. They are moderately healthy. Almost everything we serve is made with copious amounts of butter, salt, sugar, milk, fat... and tastes great, as a result. Upon reading this warning/disclaimer you will be prepared to make an informed decision. We refuse to calculate, let alone publish the amount of cholesterol, calories, etc., in the food we serve, as it would undoubtedly be incriminating.
> For those of you still confused,
> *"Bless Your Heart"*


Scott's is in that vein too. Maybe less sugar. My taste in US barbecue is eclectic. My favorite sauce is usually a Carolina's mustard sauce, a Memphis dry rub rib, a no sugar coleslaw, low sugar no flour cornbread. That belongs to no one place and certainly not to Scott's. He's all about the vinegar sauce and sugar. And I do like that too, it's just not my favorite.

I'd happily eat his Q. But it's not what I'm persuing in my barbecue.

I opened this up just to look and finished it all last night. It definitely held my interest. Lots of biographical content and pictures, a bit short on recipes. Great for Carolina's centric Barbecue lovers. Less so for others.


----------



## phatch

Chinese Cookery by Ken Hom. 

This is a bit of an update of parts of some of his other books dating back into the 80s and forward until 2001 when it was first published. I think it shows some age. He often speaks of adapting recipes, or giving his version of a dish. It seems that hinges on his view of ingredient availability and I can certainly respect that. However, from my perspective 20 years on with pretty good product availability, this is showing some age. About the most rare ingredients called for are chili bean paste and yellow bean paste. 

Additionally he shies away from what I consider traditional naming practices such as calling Ma Po tofu" braised pork with beancurd". And he may not give any indication of a traditional name at all though he does with the Ma Po recipe.

So a technical digression. Most of the books in my to-read "stack" are electronic, epub format by preference. Most ebooks use some form of the epub, format sometimes with some proprietary tweaks for DRM and reader software compatibility. The core conceit of an ebook, beyond reading it on a screen, is that it is reflowable. This means that the text paginates itself based on your preferred settings for font, size, margins and the like. Unlike a PDF which is focused on a fixed page centric layout and display default. For text, reflowing is a good thing. For an art book, probably less so.

Chinese Cookery has an excellent epub conversion. The linking to recommended menu choices is consistent and functional. Recipes are laid out to focus on the current recipe, and load a new "page" for the next recipe. For older books, you are often lucky to get a reasonable text conversion. I have one from Eileen Yin Lo Fei on Chinese Chicken that messed up most every fraction in the conversion as they did no re-editing or correction. 

There is a mix of photos and drawn technique illustrations. I tend to prefer cookbooks with fewer photos than more. Cook's Illustrated books are close to my ideal with key drawn technique info and light photo count if any. I think Ken Hom hit a pretty functional balance. The photos help you identify ingredients, learn knife skills or give you an idea of the ideal result. Rodney Scott's book above went for lots of photos, and many of people which gives you some idea of the cooking or people focus of that book. 

I also commented above on Hom's like for cooked lettuce. Besides cropping up in soup, there is a blanched iceberg with oyster sauce. My Japanese friend grew up calling this sort of thing "Dead Lettuce" so I suppose it's more prevalent than I would have guessed from just books. When I've cooked lettuce, Romaine is the only type I thought took to that technique, though there are a few types I haven't tried it with. Iceberg just fails for my taste. I've seen Pepin use lettuce greens in similar ways a time or two as well. 

I liked a number of his fish dishes, I've been cooking a bunch of tilapia the last two weeks, so the recipes were timely and good. Most of them are based in par-fry technique and finished in the sauce. A few are fried to completion, and of course there are steamed recipes too. 

I like his calling out fresh orange use for some of the orange flavored dishes rather than relying on dried tangerines. It's a reasonable and easy substitute here in the west. 

It's certainly approachable versions of Chinese cooking, and "authentic" to immigrant experience in many places and times of the Chinese diaspora. I think it's a good choice for a person just starting to cook Chinese and will yield pleasant dining. There are Hom books I like better such as Ken Hom's Top 100 Stir Fry Recipes. 

There is a similar sounding book of his, Simple Chinese Cookery, that is a version of Foolproof Chinese Cookery that was produced to go with a BBC cooking series. Those books are more step-by-step photos and directions if you want something similar but with more detailed instruction.


----------



## phatch

100 Techniques: Master a Lifetime of Cooking Skill from Basic to Bucket List by America's Test Kitchen. 

For being a technique book, it's sadly short on theory and still mostly about specific recipes. 

Right off the start, in their first section on salting food, they give no guidance. If you're going to talk about the technique of salting, talk about. No discussion of salt types and uses. No discussion of how much salt. I mean if you give me a 2 inch steak and a chicken breast, I'm going to salt them differently from each other. So some discussion of how much salt per volume of meat cooked or even surface area should be present in a discussion of salting technique. 

What you do get is a suggestion to lift the skin of chicken to season beneath it because the salt doesn't penetrate the skin. This is true and of use. 

They also espouse using a salted liquid to season carrots before grilling or for seasoning shell on shrimp. But they offer no direction at all about concentration of salt in liquid. They do give an example for the shrimp where they add salt to Shao Hsing wine. However, most Shao Hsing wine a US cook will encounter is already salted somewhat. Some discussion of proper concentration would seem in order. And it all strikes me as pointless as the dish they use is Salt and Pepper Shrimp where the fried coating is salty and you eat the shrimp shell and all.

Further, they talk about salt penetrating the cell walls of the vegetables. At least they didn't say by osmosis which salt does not do, but they do just a few pages later. They also say osmosis is from high concentration to low--that's diffusion. Osmosis is special because it is from low concentration to high.

And as long as we're talking salt seasoning, why is brining off on it's own late in the book? Why is pickling in another section? Or salt wilting vegetables? I think they were short on identifying 100 techniques. If they had focused more on the theory of applying techniques, this would be a much better book.

It's not all bad or wrong. 

They try to simplify dark roux with a hands off oven baked method. Yes, that's simpler, but not any time savings. And it's not particularly hard to make a dark roux in 5 or so minutes. You just have to pay close attention. 

Similarly, they bake the rice for idiot proofing. But saucepan stovetop rice requires only a timer and making a few heat setting changes. Not worth the extra time and hassle IMHO for the oven. And why does tadiq get its' own section as a technique?

The section on a two level grill fire is good. Oven braising is useful and hands off. 

The aquafaba section was interesting but they mostly focused on things I really don't do. Cupcakes, frosting and alcohol. 

The section I like most was actually on cakes and the reverse creaming method for a flatter even rise. Here at a mile high, cakes really like to dome. 

My judgement is that this book was a way to recycle content they had already written and sold in other books and wrap it up under a new title. If you have other content of America's Test Kitchen, this book is a pass. They failed to really go into technique level detail and explain how to apply the technique beyond the demonstration recipes.


----------



## phatch

Next book in my non-fiction stack is not cooking related, Lost Christianities by Bart Ehrman. So expect a slight delay before the return to cooking. 

On the fiction side, I got bogged down in Master of Poisons--too heavy handed, but that's done now too.


----------



## phatch

That one took a while. But there was some time consuming car travel in there too. Back to cookbooks. I'm starting into Nina Simonds _Simple Asian Meals_. I discovered her on a list of significant Chinese cookbooks some years back that included a lot of out-of-print cookbooks. The book on that list was _Classic Chinese Cuisine_ and it is a great Chinese cookbook. Not too hard to find used, especially if you can tolerate some wear.

In her more modern work, she tends to simplify and fuse cuisines more for achieving weeknight meals in the west. And I think she does it better than most others. I've criticized Bee Yin Low's work for simplifying too far and also Christopher Kimball's Milk Street series he's currently making. I think the difference is that Simonds is not trying to recreate particular dishes and experiences, but riffing on particular flavor combinations and techniques.

In that vein I also like her China Express cookbook. I was a bit disappointed in her Asian Noodles. I find many of the Asian noodle meals are too noodle centric and lack the vegetable matter to really satisfy my tastes and preferences.

That is today's update.


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## phatch

So what about Simple Asian Meals? 

I like her recognition and endorsement of shortcuts. Pre-fab slaw bags, rotisserie chicken, using leftovers, cooking extra amounts of some things like rice and portioning and freezing for later fast use. I have the luxury of time for the most part so it doesn't benefit my particular form of cooking much. But my younger kids transitioning to their first adult independence will find these ideas more useful. I do indulge in rotisserie chickens though.

I was a little concerned with two soup recipes that used fish sauce in amounts disproportionate to my experience. The Vietnamese Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup calls for 5 1/2 tablespoons of fish sauce to 6 cups of water. This is the only sodium source so it could work, but it seems pretty high. The Soothing Saigon-Style Chicken Noodle Soup (chicken pho) also hits 5 1/2 tablespoons of fish sauce to to 7 cups of liquid, 4 of which are "low" sodium carton chicken stock. I was also put off by the rice wine in this version, it just strikes me wrongly for a chicken pho. She adds no other sweetener so it might provide some of the sweet balance. 

I like the fairly heavy vegetable load of most of the dishes. For a quality fast meal, it still needs to tick off the nutrition and flavor checkboxes and vegetables are good for that. Her lettuce cup/wrap is pretty simple. I'd probably go with eggs instead of the tofu just for simplicity. It's also a common ingredient in many versions so I'm kind of suprised she didn't mention the variation. 

Probably my favorite section is the Stews and Casseroles. These are pretty straight forward and simple dishes. 

I was disappointed at how often balsamic vinegar came up. And not as a substitute for black vinegar. For that substitution she recommends Worcestershire sauce. No, these are sort of Italian ideas, sometimes with a fusion twist and sometimes not. In the Seared Ginger Balsamic Salmon dish, uses the balsamic on the fish. The recipe also includes a hot and sour slaw using black vinegar. I actually like balsamic and black vinegar together as the acid for a vinaigrette. And that could play out in this dish. But it just doesn't seem to be well thought through here. 

Balsamic-Soy Swordfish seems like black vinegar would work maybe better to my taste. 

Red wine and balsamic braised short rib gets some soy sauce instead of salt but otherwise is pretty Meditteranean. And out of place really. 

There's also balsamic sweet potato fries. 

Many recipes get health notes informed mostly from Chinese traditional medicine. I didn't know that asparagus contains a diuretic aspargine and thus is considered good for the kidneys. I don't put much faith in such forms of medicine, but if you do, you might like these notes. 

I don't consider this a great cookbook. If you enjoy the particular niche of quick meals with an Asian slant, it's useful. I found that I already do a lot of similar things. Still, Pepin's two Fast Food My Way books were more impactful in teaching me quicker cooking techniques and ideas. If that's your focus, do start with Pepin over Simonds. Save Simonds for later.


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## phatch

And a separate idea for Butzy. Lao Gan Ma is a hot oil/chili crisp condiment brand ,that has recently taken off in the US. The main chili crisp is a bit bitter and one-dimensional. Not bad to spike up a dish though. However, there is a variation packed with fermented black beans that I really like. And the fine folks at Chinese Cooking Demystified have a guide for making your own. As Butzy is a fan of chilis, this seems something you might like.






a written version can be found at reddit. Which for some reason the link inserts the whole post for me this time. Kind of odd, but OK then.

__
https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/dzjyo1


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## butzy

Going to check it out 
Got an abundance of chili's .....


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## phatch

Northern Chinese Favorites by Daniel Reed. This is part of series of Pan-Asian cuisine books by Periplus/Tuttle publishing, often with a Mini prefix. I only have a handful of these. I think there are 44 in total, according to Amazon.

A short cookbook covering a less well known region of Chinese Cuisine.

Highlights for me included some cold dishes labeled in western parlance as salad. The western idea of a salad of fresh greens really isn't part of Chinese cuisine, most likely because historical hygiene didn't serve that practice. But you'll find peeled vegetables like cucumber can sidestep that and crop up as a sort of salad. Additionally, cold dishes of this type bring another item to the table that to add diversity without being stirfried -- something that a westerner may mistakenly perceive from eating in a Chinese-American restaurant.

Other ideas for this from the book are a sweetened walnut appetizer, a tofu and preserved egg presentation or, very new to me, cilantro/coriander itself as the salad.

Being a book of northern cuisine, wheat flour plays a more prominent role. Think dumplings, pancakes, buns and noodles. A pan-fried bun is offered, something I've seen eaten in videos about the cuisine but don't recall seeing a recipe. I may be mis-remembering on that, but it struck me as a first. The cooking technique is sort of like for a pot-sticker with a low fry, then pan steamed. But with a thicker wrapper, the fry is a low heat affair, as is the steaming.

Soups, he offers up a reasonable version of Hot and Sour but with a little tomato and frozen peas and a small shot of ground sichuan pepper. So a bit different than you might normally see. A more interesting soup to me was whole chicken seasoned with a number of whole garlic cloves. Very simple, but intriguing.

Touching on noodles, I want to discuss his version of Zhajiangmian, fried bean sauce noodles. Wikipedia notes many regional variations of this dish, even as it jumped to Japan and Korea. Most will use a yellow bean or ground bean sauce along with sweet bean sauce tianmianjiang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianmian_sauce (which has no beans but it now increasingly called sweet flour sauce). The version here is with black bean sauce which is more of a Korean take on the dish to my understanding. And no tianmianjiang. This dish is sometimes translated as black bean sauce noodles, but I think that's more descriptive of the appearance of the dark sauce rather than the beans used.

In the meats section, the north is known for using more beef and lamb than the other regions. And those do appear here. I had hoped for cumin grilled lamb skewer, but was denied that recipe. That's more of a street food I suppose so its exclusion is reasonable.

I enjoyed a fresh take on a less popular (in the west) part of Chinese Cuisine. There are a number of recipes that made it to my to-try list. Recommended.


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## phatch

Chopsticks, Cleaver, and Wok by Jennie Low

This is a real physical book, not an ebook. First published in 1987 and again in 1997, the book is showing some age in its contents but is still relevant, even insightful in ways. I discovered it on a list of recommended Chinese cookbooks a few years ago. I've picked up most of the other books on that list over the years, but had skipped this one for some reason. That oversight has now been remedied.

Other books of note on that list

The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kuo quite good, but with some overstatement.
Classic Chinese Cooking by Mai Leung--my copy is New Classic Chinese Cooking, an updated version, but still excellent. This book changed my use of dark soy sauce dramatically.
The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking by Barbara Tropp- a classic of the genre
Mrs. Chiang's Szechwan Coookbook by Ellen Shrecker--I like this one but it bothers me on some social guilt level. Shrecker is the employer of Chiang for household duties.
Chinese Gastronomy by Hsiang-Ju Lin I like this one particularly for some of its theory more than the recipes.
As to the book at hand, it has some outdated Pinyin that will likely be more confusing than helpful to the modern reader. This is also true of many of the other books in the above list.

She gives a pretty good list of ingredients and descriptions. Her cutting instructions and diagrams are good. There are no photos. At the beginning she summarizes the techniques and tools so spend some time there for sure as the instructions at the recipe level assume you read that section. I actually like seeing that collected as it's a good way to see the ideas as a whole rather than trying to piece them together from descriptions among the recipes. But at the recipe level is useful too when you refer back to a book later looking at a specific recipe.

One of the stand-out features of the cooking here is her callouts for sugar and salt in the recipes. Most traditional kitchens in China have a condiment jar set. This is most often sold as a three jar set, sometimes two, sometimes four. The local asian grocer carries two and three jar sets in plastic inexpensively. They'll be filled with sugar and salt. For three jars, add corn starch. For four, add MSG. In the US, i've not seen a box kit as in the following video. Chinese Cooking Demystified talks about this a bit starting at about the 20 second mark in the video






Salt, sugar and corn starch crop up in most every recipe in a "Seasoning" section along side the more usual suspects. And while I see it now and then in other cookbooks, it's really only come together for me in the last couple of years as a quintessential concept in much of Chinese cooking. Low describes the purpose of cornstarch as helping seasoning adhere to the food. I suspect its more a textural effect, or at least that's the explanation I see most often. Specifically, the corn starch buffers the food from the direct heat so it cooks more gently. And when coupled with egg as in velveting, it interferes with the binding and constriction of the protein creating a silky slippery texture.






Anyway, it's worth looking at the ratios of primary ingredient of a dish--usually the protein--and the amounts of salt, sugar and cornstarch. Then consider those against the soy and oyster sauce and such to see how the dish is seasoned as a whole. I've never seen a theory of flavor described that covers how the Chinese use these ingredients together but you'll start to develop your own feel for it looking at it this way I think. And this book gives you a lot of material to analyze.

As to recipes, I like the detailed variations she offers for congee--though I think she uses too much water. Her Egg Flower Soup includes flank steak chopped finely which I thought strange. And I've never seen Chicken Whisky Soup anywhere else. And as I often talk about the Hot and Sour Soup entries, this one is very 1980s using white vinegar and omitting dried lily buds. Bonus points for focusing on pepper rather than chiles

She gives 5 or so clay-pot dishes which is more than you'll usually see. Her Dan Dan noodles were of the time and lack a lot of the heat and sesame paste I would expect to see today.

The reasons I like this cookbook are more for the theory to be gleaned than most of the actual cooking. Recipe wise, I think her congee variations and clay-pots are the ones I'll refer to for my actual cooking. For it's time, it was ahead of its time. But it's dated by today's standards overall I think. Certainly worth the priced used and cheaply shipped.


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## phatch

Lots of my reading time this month has been hijacked by prep and some fitness training for a return to the Buckskin Gulch and some other backcountry travel later this year. And a general increase of covid-delayed things that are now ready to process.

Cookbooks will return with what looks to be a pretty useless tome by Doreen Yen Hung Fen, The Joy of Chinese Cooking from 1992.


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## phatch

*Bress 'n' Nyam gets added to my wishlist. Always good to see the Gullah/Geechee ways preserved before they're gone.*


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## phatch

phatch said:


> I'm not chasing down lamb heads or spines...


Discovered a new Middle Eastern Grocer today out on 7200 South. My excuses are running out.


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## phatch

Adding Makan to the list. This releases on July 13 in the US. I can see it jumping to the top of the reading list.

Looks like "Uncle Roger"on YouTube has an advance copy lurking in his YouTube background.


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## butzy

Makan?
As in Selamat makan? (Bon appetite)?
Going to google it


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## phatch

I suspect you found it but if not and for anyone else


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## butzy

Yep. Found it.
It is available in the UK already (and in continental Europe).
It looks interesting!


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## phatch

That would explain why Uncle Roger has a copy. Give us a review with your early access if you can.


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## phatch

The Joy of Chinese Cooking, by Doreen Yen Feng, Hippocrene Books, New York.

My copy is from 1992, but it seems it was first published in 1984, but by a different press.

The recipes themselves look pretty normal and straight forward, as far as I can understand them.

The problem comes down to what seems to me to be self-stylized pinyin and failure to use common words for things in English. This(1984) was a time when the earlier pinyin was still pretty common in US cookbooks, the switchover happening starting in 1978 or 79 from memory. This was when Peking became Beijing in the new preferred pinyin for example. If this is originally from 1992, the pinyin choice makes even less sense.

During the specialized ingredients description, there are a few stand out entries of HUH? The entries offer the pinyin and chinese characters, then the common english word. So Jook Sün are bamboo shoots. And the recipes generally follow along the same way, just skipping the chinese characters.

Tiem Jook / Fooh Jook get no English words. The description is "Products of the soya bean. The soya bean milk when boiled separates in to various layers. The rich cream that rises is called fooh jooks, and the settling sediment is called tiem jook. When dried they look like stiff boards glazed with enamel but after they have been cooked, they become creamy and gelatinous. Tiem jook is used in fish dishes; while fooh jook is usually cooked in soup."

I'm guessing this is dried tofu/bean curd skin. But the description provided matches nothing I've seen sold as a differentiator. And does that mean flat sheets or the crinkled sticks? And what about fresh bean curd skin?

Hoy Sien Jeung Another famous red sauce which delights the palate. It is often used in cooking shelffish and ducks. Many People remember it as the delicious sauce that is served iwth Peking Roast Duck.

That seems she's talking about Plum sauce or Duck sauce but I suspect it's really Hoisin based on the pinyin even if I wouldn't have called it red. But hoisin as a word seems to have been in common use at the time the book was written based on books I have from the 70s. And certainly by 1992.

Mei Jing, The Essence of Flavor is the english used for it. White powder in small quantities has no flavor of its own but helps to bring out the natural flavors of the cooking.

So probably MSG, and searching on Mei Jing does bring up MSG as a match. But at another point in the book, it gets parenthetically called "gourmet powder" In 1992, these descriptions are useless. There's also another for what seems to be Five Spice Powder.

Other ingredients are deemed not worthy of description as they're obvious. Maybe.
Plain flour seems pretty obvious. Yet when another recipe calls for wheat flour, that would seem to indicate to use whole wheat flour? But the recipe itself is for transparent dumpling skin, and that would seem to mean wheat starch based on my reading of other books.

Because of this sort of confusion throughout the book, unless you can read the chinese characters, you're likely to have real trouble with the recipes. And in the case of the wheat flour, no chinese characters were provided.

I don't feel right about donating this book for others to read or buy. The confusion is just too damaging. I'll be recycling my copy with other paper scrap.


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## phatch

Added Recipes From Yey to my list. This is Cambodian cooking. Don't have a release date for this that i can find.

https://montreal.eater.com/2021/1/28/22240587/chanthy-yen-touk-montreal-cookbook-cambodian-king


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## phatch

CHINESE FOOD: Adventures in the World of Eating by Lilu Junru

is not a cookbook. This is more a cultural overview of China via food. It reads a bit like propaganda or maybe travel hype, but it made me recognize a bias of mine. Just how do you write about a culture via food without judging against another and not sound strangely positivist? Nor is it particularly deep, but it covers territory I've not seen covered before.

I had certainly seen the issue of entertaining guests of different philosophical food limitations, particularly in books on Indian food. And while I had seen explanations of food restrictions various cultures within China may have, I had not seen them addressed together in the ways I have of Indian food.

Published in 2010 in English by a Chinese press, it speaks well of Uyghur people and a few other Muslim minorities. Xi doesn't take office until 2013 and it shows in the different portrayal than I guess I'd get if written today. The last section is on trends in current dining. While I'm not in China to judge, I suspect this is now outdated.

If you're looking for an overview, this is worthwhile. It wasn't what I was particularly thinking of at this time and I don't remember why I picked this up anymore. It wasn't especially impactful to me, but I don't think I have the right mindset right now to get the most out of this book.


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## phatch

Wok On by Ching-He Huang

I read her debut book (I think it was her first) Ching's Fast Food about the time it came out in 2011. I recall liking it well enough. The dish that sticks out in my mind to this day was a Peking Duck "sushi" roll.

Since then, she seems have published a number of books based on BBC cooking programs including one traveling in China with Ken Hom. I've almost picked that one a up a few times, but glancing through it seemed repetitive to other content I've seen.

Her gimmick seems to be simplification towards fast and easy in a pan-Asian cuisine. This book strikes me as having a more health-oriented take but also with a Western approach to flavor in cooking.

So about the health orientation. Every recipe gets a cutting board icon with a number representing prep time. A wok or saute pan icon with a number for cooking time. And then round dots with VE for vegetarian, GF for Gluten Free and DF for I'm still not sure what. Searching brings up Dairy Free as the most likely candidate but that doesn't seem to fit. She usually lists hydration and marination times separately from prep. I can understand that. She makes this call out in big print by the other numbers so it's clear what your time commitment is.

She uses tamari over soy sauce even though you can see Kikkoman soy sauce bottles in a few of the pictures. As a substitute, she recommends low-sodium light soy which tastes nothing like tamari. And her explanation for soy sauce is that it is used instead of salt in Asian cuisines. Which she should know better than to say. Her recipes here do take that approach though so she's consistent. It seems she leans on tamari to hit the Gluten Free thing, but doesn't really call out that reason with her recommended substitution.

She happily uses dark soy which she says is aged a lot longer. Except that isn't factual in modern production. It's usually just light soy hit with molasses/caramel color and some other things varying from brand to brand. It seems historically, it was a sun dried version of light soy but that concentration would make it more salty, not less which it usually is in contemporary bottles. Still, I do see plenty of writers who say dark soy is more salty than light even when the labels don't bear this out generally.

Additionally, there is no sugar to be found though "runny honey" abounds.

Some quotes regarding the style of cooking and the recipes. 


> Balance the aromatics - the awesome foursome!
> 
> I like to use a combination of garlic, ginger and chillies - what I call The Holy Trinity - but now I sometimes add spring onions to the mix too. Holy Trinity was so last year - now it's all about the Awesome Foursome! I have been accused of adding garlic, ginger and chillies in almost all my dishes, but this is because I try to inject their healthful, anti-bacterial properties into my cooking as much as possible, so that I am getting the maximum healthful nutrients in any one meal. But it is entirely up to you and you can vary what you add to suit your likes and mood, of course.
> 
> 'Compartment' cooking
> 
> Compartmentalise your ingredients - group aromatics together, also the vegetables, and seasonings. Think of your protein and treat it separately - what flavours are you trying to achieve? Finally, think of your garnishes and ways to inject some freshness into the dish at the end. So, break the recipe down. Sometimes the dish looks like a long list of ingredients but actually most are store cupboard ingredients, and garnishes. So, the dishes are not as long or as difficult as they may first 'appear' - after all - appearances are deceptive!


To me, this strikes me as a Western approach. In more traditional approaches, the ginger, the garlic, the scallions, the chiles all serve to "correct" a perceived flaw in the flavor of the ingredient. Perhaps the gaminess of the meat, the grassiness of a vegetable and so on. The above approach seems more western in starting with "aromatics" as a flavor base and working through the recipe to the end. For her goals of quick and easy, this would diminish the in and out of the pan thing that can happen in some recipes.



> Quick homemade sauces and seasonings
> 
> From sriracha and oyster to garlic hoisin, you can create sweet, sour and spicy sauces that will complement your dishes, whether you use them as cook-in sauces or dressings on the side. Think of your condiment cupboard like a bar, where you are the mixologist, creating your own sauces.


Again, this strikes me as a naive western approach to more stuff is better I often see among the casusal cooking of my friends. And I admit, that I have a few stand-by recipes in this genre so it's not all bad.

The first section of recipe is Vegan/Vegetarian. On it's own, its the largest chapter, thought the multiple chapters of meat and such do dwarf it. The Vegan Hot and Sour soup picks up some extra flavor from some Sichuan preserved vegetables which I can see working out. She's getting more heat from chiles than white/black pepper but the flavors look about right. I don't quite agree with her idea of making it a more substantial meal by adding noodles or pour onto steamed rice. Noodles yes, the rice, no.

In the seafood section, her Cod Laksa stuck out to me. I've never made Laksa from scratch and her approach is simplified compared to some others I've seen. I think she hits on the critical flavors though and do want to try it out.

For the most part, this just isn't so much in my style of cooking. I was interested in her Westernized approach to the cuisine, as a contrast to try and pick out what I might do differently. We don't think about the food from the same angles at all. She's had an opportunity to eat more widely than I have and so there are things I think I can learn from her. I prefer her simplifications over those from Bee Yin Low (Rasa Malaysio blog). They're more to my taste. I prefer her cooking when she's less "health" focused though so take a look at her earlier work over this one imho.


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## phatch

At the Chinese Table I'm not sure if I want to add this one or not. All Under Heaven was a bit confusing as i recall. Have to see how reviews of this develop.

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/bo...ble-is-both-cookbook-and-delicious-love-story


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## phatch

Mr. Jiu's in Chinatown by Brandon Jew

In the same vein as Xi'an Famous Food and Rodney Scott's World of Barbecue, this book is about recreating restaurant dishes. And like the food of those other two, lots of the cooking is really project cooking, not daily kind of cooking. I get more personal use from a more daily oriented kind of cooking, but these project sorts are certainly interesting and educational in another way.

As with the other two books, there's a fair amount of family story about how the food came to be what it is and how it evolved from certain family practices. Jiu's food is certainly more involved than the others though. The lobster jook takes 4 days of fermenting barley and demonstrates the more fusion approach of the restaurant by adding cognac, tomato paste and Korean roasted barley tea. You will also deep fry some red vermillion rice. Don't forget the fermented Kohlrabi, which takes at least a week or up to a month of fermenting itself.

And I was excited to see a recipe for salted egg yolk, until I got to the part where he dehydrates them for 2 days. So the cooking is deeply involved in lots of techniques, age and time and even equipment. Project cooking.

So from my perspective as a daily home cook, what's good here. The sour dough green onion pancake is doable, but also on the complicated side.
The soups are simpler, except for the Hot and Sour that goes on a path of its own. He starts off with a sizzling rice soup and keeps it pretty straight. Corn and squash blossom is a bit more seasonal and simple. So let's look at that Hot and Sour Soup.


> HOT AND SOUR SOUP
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Our version of this soup will taste familiar but new to anyone who has ever tasted Chinese sour-hot or Chinese American hot and sour soup. We use sharp and pungent white vinegar, as well as earthy black vinegar for its rich, deep molasses acidity. The only "hot" quality comes from white pepper for a slow warming heat. Grind the pepper super-finely so that it dissolves into the soup, then give it a few minutes to steep and bloom before you taste. Pepper and vinegar change as they infuse a hot broth. Keep tasting and adjusting until both the "sour" and the "hot" come through. You may need one last tweak with vinegar right before serving. It will all come together as a singular flavor and delicately punch you in the face. Garnish with cilantro and nasturtium leaves and flowers for a special touch.
> 
> Active Time - 1 hour
> 
> Plan Ahead - You'll need overnight for soaking, and 2 hours for simmering
> 
> Makes 8 servings
> 
> Hot and Sour Broth
> 2½ lb / 1.1kg white-fish bones and heads
> 1 oz / 30g dried flounder
> 2 qt / 1.8L water
> 2 cups / 340g ice cubes
> ⅓ cup / 30g diced celery
> ¼ cup / 25g diced fennel
> ¼ cup / 40g thinly sliced leeks (white parts only)
> 4 oz / 115g ginger, peeled, sliced, and smashed
> 1½ tsp ground white pepper
> 1½ tsp toasted sesame oil
> ¼ cup / 60ml light soy sauce (生抽, sāng chāu)
> ½ tsp dark soy sauce (老抽, lóuh chāu)
> Kosher salt
> 24 dried lily buds or flowers
> 2 Tbsp neutral oil
> ¼ tsp celery seeds
> 1 cup / 100g trimmed fresh nameko mushrooms
> 1 cup / 70g fresh wood ear mushrooms
> Kosher salt
> 4 oz / 115g firm doufu, cut into ¾-inch cubes
> ½ cup / 80g cooked, shredded crab meat
> ¼ cup / 60ml distilled white vinegar
> 3 Tbsp Chinese black vinegar, plus more as needed
> To make the broth: Trim away and discard any guts and large blood vessels from the fish bones and remove and discard the gills from the heads; rinse the bones. Place everything in a large bowl, cover with cold water, and let soak overnight in the refrigerator.
> 
> Preheat the oven to 300°F
> 
> Place the dried flounder on an oven rack and toast until fragrant, about 5 minutes.
> 
> Drain the fish bones and then place them in a 6-quart or larger pot. Add the dried flounder, 2 qt / 1.8L water, and ice cubes and bring to a simmer over medium heat, skimming off any foam that floats to the top and never letting it come to a boil. Add the celery, fennel, leeks, and ginger; turn the heat to medium-low; and simmer, skimming occasionally as needed, until intensely flavored, about 2 hours.
> 
> Fit a fine-mesh strainer over a large bowl and then strain the broth and discard the solids. Stir the pepper, sesame oil, and both types of soy sauce into the broth. Taste, season with salt, and let cool. (At this point, you can transfer to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or in the freezer up to 1 month.)
> 
> Bring a kettle of water to a boil.
> 
> Place the lily buds in a heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water, and let soak for 10 minutes.
> 
> Meanwhile, in a large frying pan or wok over medium heat, warm the neutral oil for a few seconds. Add the celery seeds and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add all the mushrooms, season with salt, and cook until just tender, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
> 
> Drain the lily buds. Divide the sautéed mushrooms, lily buds, doufu, and crab among serving bowls. Bring the hot and sour broth back to a simmer. Add the white and black vinegars, then taste for balance and re-up the black vinegar as needed. Ladle the hot broth into each bowl (at the table, if you feel inspired) and serve immediately.
> 
> ON HOT AND SOUR
> In 1945, Buwei Yang Chao wrote How to Cook and Eat in Chinese, a book introducing the diversity of regional Chinese cuisines to American home cooks. In it, she-with help from her daughter and husband-coined the terms "stir-fry" and "pot sticker" and described "sour-hot soup" (酸辣湯) as "a very famous soup that sometimes will help you get rid of leftovers."
> Most readers had never tasted anything such as sour-hot. Spicy Chinese food didn't enter mainstream American consciousness until after 1965, when a critical mass of people with roots in Sichuan and Hunan, among other provinces, made this country home. In San Francisco, Cecilia Chiang served a version when she opened the Mandarin on the other side of the hill from Chinatown in 1961. Chiang's restaurant was among the first to introduce the crossroads cuisine of Beijing, with its pan-China, Muslim, and Mongolian influences, as well as the regional cuisines of Shandong, Zhejiang, and other northern provinces. "Mandarin" (until then, the term for the language of imperial court officials and a type of orange) became synonymous with northern Chinese cuisine, which essentially came to mean anything other than what the first wave of immigrants had been cooking in Chinatown. New restaurants capitalized on the perception that some cooking was more "authentic" than others.
> In 1974, California Living magazine explained that this new regional cuisine tended to have "a dry texture" that required chewing long enough to "taste all the underlying explosions within it." The primer suggested earning your server's trust by not trying to order Cantonese-style food and promising not to send back dishes that were too spicy.
> Sour-hot was one of the earliest of the so-called authentic, regional Chinese dishes to catch on in this country. At first, cooks made it as close as they could to what they knew, using available ingredients-numbing, lemony, green Sichuan peppercorns were technically banned from import by 1968 for more than four decades. The Sichuan version was a mix of white and red rice vinegars, white peppercorn, and smuggled Sichuan peppercorn, perhaps topped with fermented mustard greens and soft sheets of pork blood. Beijing-style included white pepper and black rice vinegar and bits of ham and seafood, with wontons or noodles. Soon it appeared, mellowed, alongside Cantonese staples in Chinatown-the gateway spicy dish.
> As customers developed preferences, chefs edited and found flavor in new sources. But eventually, sour-hot's American identity converged toward a standard-strips of pork and doufu, egg ribbons, mushrooms (usually mu'er, a black tree fungus), and dried lily buds in a broth of black peppercorn and white vinegar. It became "hot and sour," not "sour-hot," rebranded to emphasize what seemed to matter most. In the United States, with a new form and a new name, hot and sour came to represent a cuisine that didn't exist before in the old country.


It sounds good, but its a bit much to put together for a quick dinner or lunch.

I like the vegetable section a lot. Good photographs of different things so you know what to look for. There are also some handy tables for light greens and another for hearty greens. each with name variations, what to look for, prep instructions and general seasoning guidelines. He offers some salads in the Western style with interesting fusion vinagrettes, a vegetarian Kung Pao and more. The Mapo variation happens to be in the Vegetable section. I think that is in error, but it might be because they make their own tofu from yellow soybeans?

The fish recipes strike me as perhaps too specific to a source of particular fish than is as adaptable as I would need some 1000 miles from the ocean. I'd have appreciated some generalization but then it wouldn't be a recipe from the restaurant I guess.

In the meats section, there are a number of really interesting dishes. The White Cut Chicken goes french fusion into a gallantine. Detailed instructions and photos for each step. It's a beauty.









And to show you what's going on, here's step 14 where you've deboned and skinned your whole bird, created your farce, have various other cuts of the chicken in strips for the center texture while getting ready to roll.










White Cut Chicken has never seemed as tempting. So White Cut Chicken is a classic I've not made as it sounds really bland normally. I've made Hainanese Chicken which shares a lot of methods and results, but with a punchier sauce. They use a similar sauce of green onion and ginger but without the chiles that often show up for the Hainanese Chicken.

I was again excited for a couple of short recipes in the Hot Pot topic. He offers an Herbal broth and a Spicy broth. The Herbal was more interesting to me as I've not seen one broken down before. There are a lot of spicy versions out there. He also gives a recipe for Sesame-Garlic sauce. The sesame sauce I've seen is clearly not just the sesame paste. it's thinner and has other flavors going on and now I know one approach to making it. He makes his own Shacha which is much like a shortcut XO sauce. Those two are the basis of most dipping sauces for hot pot, even in the Korean variations.

I liked this book. It's interesting. If you're not into project cooking, I don't think this is really the right book for you. It's not the right book for me to cook from generally either. But there was a lot of interesting things going on. Anything complicated is well documented. But read the instructions carefully. Special equipment or fermenting time may be lurking anywhere.


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## phatch

Added How to Grill Vegetables by Steven Raichlen. 

I like his books. He usually does some good deep research and uncovers a couple of winning ideas for me to keep and use.


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## nicko

@phatch what a great thread. The dialog between you and @butzy is like two old friends on a Saturday morning having coffee and sharing stories.

My latest reads have been

Modern Greek Cooking by Pano Karratassos
http://www.chefpano.com/project/cookbook/
and

Live To Eat by Michael Psilakis
https://www.michaelpsilakis.com/live-to-eat/


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## phatch

Smoke & Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen by Edward Lee

I don't feel I can do this book justice. It had chatty introductory stories that didn't work for me; an eclectic mix of food with an erratic blending of cuisines, many of which would be stretch to call southern.

Editorial/Reviewer Hat On: A cookbook is a narrative, though not in the way a novel is. This is more of a sales narrative to connect the book to your narrative to excite you about ideas and the food. So you'll incorporate those things into your life and feel fulfilled in some way, maybe that the dish was a success or something.

This book has an aloofness to the narrative that doesn't invite you in or at least didn't invite me in. One of the early stories is about how he got into graffiti as a kid. While there is some identity in a tag, the graffiti itself is usually anonymous and temporary. It will be replaced soon by someone else's graffiti. That vibe of temporary aloofness was the main impact on me. It was as if he didn't really care if I cooked or liked the food somehow.

Hat Off.

I do like his analogy of graffiti to food. Your previous meal is replaced by your next one. Each meal is fleeting. It's just the nature of fueling our biology.

The first two dishes are rice and remoulade. You'll return to these two items over and over as the themes of most of the chapters start with a rice bowl,l topped with theme items and some variation on remoulade. He prefers his rice to have a crusty bottom and so recommends cooking it in a cast iron pan. Interestingly, he turns off the heat to let it steam, a common approach. Then turns it back on to work the crust to his standard of crust perfection.

A little more on the story. Lee is a Korean American, The title is tied to his view that Smoke and Pickles are essential elements of both Korean and Southern cuisine. I can see the relationship, but it didn't seem to serve as the actual theme of the food he offers. The recipes strike me as being in the more is more vein of cooking. A little of lots of things to punch the flavor. It just wasn't working for me. This may be partly in that Korean food doesn't really excite me either for reasons I've not yet quantified. Maybe the hot sauce recipe will exemplify things.



> HOT SAUCE
> MAKES ALMOST 4 CUPS
> 1 pound mixed red jalapeño peppers, fresh Thai bird peppers, and habanero peppers
> 6 garlic cloves
> 2 cups apple cider vinegar
> 1 Red Bull (an 8.4-ounce can)
> 1 cup water
> ¼ cup hoisin sauce
> ¼ cup sugar
> 4 teaspoons fish sauce
> 4 teaspoons Asian sesame oil
> 1 Trim the stems from the peppers. Combine all the ingredients except for the Asian sesame oil in a medium pot and bring to a boil, cover, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
> 2 Transfer the contents of the pot to a blender and puree until smooth, adding water as needed to create a smooth sauce. Add the sesame oil and blend well. Transfer to a jar and store in the refrigerator. The sauce will keep for up to a month.
> 
> We drink a ton of Red Bull in my kitchen. It keeps us going through the sluggish afternoon hours. Some days, it seems to be the most prevalent ingredient in the kitchen, which always gets me thinking about ways to use it in a recipe. I used to put ginger ale in this hot sauce, but I like it better with the Red Bull. It's sugary, citrusy, and loaded with caffeine. What's not to like? If you are one of those people who are wary of the product, you can substitute ginger ale or Sprite.


It just seems kind of all over the place without a real starting or finishing point. When he uses Hot Sauce in the recipe, he usually specifies Texas Pete. So why did he include this?

I couldn't find the point of it all. It's gotten pretty good press and placement in the book stores. Maybe your narrative is a better match to his.


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## phatch

Parwana Recipes and Stories from and Afghan Kitchen by Durkhanai Ayubi

I've eaten in Afghan restaurants only a handful of times. I don't know the cuisine well. My favorite thing is a stuffed flatbread streetfood, bolani, available with different fillings and sauces.

Here, we have a family, fleeing Afghanistan in the mid 80s. Into Pakistan, and then migrating to Australia where they open Parwana after a few years. The food is broken up into different sections reflecting different time periods of their experience. So there are some traditional dishes and some seemingly adapted from their restaurant service for home cooks.

Early, I was struck by the use of garlic powder. It's only used a few times actually, and mostly early in the book. It just struck me as such a western convenience ingredient. I don't see it in India, or Persian recipes. The time it was used on a fried freshwater fish makes some sense. But I do think this usage is something brought to Afghanistan by the turmoil thrust upon it rather than a long traditional practice.

Similarly is the frequent use of curry powder. It's not always used, many times a recipe being built up from the common spices of cumin, coriander, fenugreek and so on. But it was a very frequent ingredient. Again, I wonder if this is something they adopted while in Australia as an easy shortcut or if it's one brought to Afghanistan by the various external forces.

There are also ingredients new to me. Brown onions seems to be what we in the US call a yellow onion. Dried russian olives (sinjid)--here in the Western US, Russian Olive is a thorny invasive tree. and not something eaten. I've never noticed this in the ethnic grocer so I'll have to see if I ever see it. Sella basmati rice is basmati rice par-cooked in the husk and then dried. Again, nothing I've noticed in the grocer, so I'll have to pay more attention.

Among the Bolani fillings are a Leek filling, substituted with garlic chives as the particular leek isn't available. I wonder if this is a "Shandong" leek? The folks at Chinese Cooking Demystified talked about how they had been translating to the English Leek, but the actual leek used is different species, Narrower, somewhat different flavor. I see them in my asian market as a "Shandong" leek.

There is also a potato filling, a chicken filling and a pumpkin/squash filling. A yogurt dip and some chutney/relishes are suggested for the sauce.

Bolani, like many street foods, are labor intensive.

Another thing that stood out to me is the heavy hand with oil. For a while it seemed like it was in vegetarian dishes and I was thinking it was about calories to fuel a hard life. But then it cropped up with lamb, chicken, and various beans. The first dish I noticed it in was tokhme banjanromi--something akin to a shakshuka or maybe a Chinese Tomato and Eggs stir fry.


> TOKHME BANJANROMI
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> This recipe is for traditional Afghan-style breakfast eggs, which are cooked in a sauce of onion, tomato and chilli, absorbing the complementary flavours. As with most Afghan meals, particularly breakfast, fresh naan breads (see here) served on the side are essential. Afghan breakfast spreads also typically include shir chai, a traditional milk tea that, with its dairy base, provides a calorie- and protein-rich start to the day.
> 
> My mother recalls having this dish for breakfast during family day trips, such as to Mazar-i-Sharif for the red tulip festival during the spring equinox. It would be made in a beautiful copper karayee, a shallow, heavy-based pan used in Afghan cooking. The karayee would be placed directly over a portable kerosene burner, where the eggs, vegetables and spices would bubble away. The large karayee was then placed in the middle of the breakfast spread, surrounded by naans and various chais, for everyone to help themselves.
> 
> This is an easy dish to scale up, to feed as many guests as you need.
> 
> SERVES 4
> 
> AFGHAN BREAKFAST EGGS
> 
> 250 ml (1 cup) sunflower oil
> 1 large brown onion, halved and thinly sliced
> 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
> 3 ripe tomatoes, halved and thinly sliced
> 1 fresh long red chilli, thinly sliced
> 4 large eggs
> 1 teaspoon chilli powder
> Coarsely chopped fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, to serve
> Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over high heat and fry the onion and garlic for 5 minutes, or until softened and browned. Add the tomato and fresh chilli, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomato is softened, but still intact, then stir in 2 teaspoons salt, or to taste, to combine.
> 
> Break the eggs into a bowl then pour evenly over the tomato and onion mixture in the saucepan. Break up the yolks gently, if that's how you prefer them, then cover the pan with a lid. Reduce the heat to low and cook the eggs slowly, shaking the pan occasionally to avoid sticking for 5-10 minutes, or 10-15 minutes for medium-soft, or until the eggs are cooked to your liking. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, the chilli powder and coriander to taste, and serve hot - straight from the pan.


My digestion is not ready for this amount of oil. If this book is any guide, the practice is well entrenched in the cuisine.

The approach to naan seems westernized, prepped on parchment lined rimmed baking sheet, and patted to fill the sheet, then baked. Another Naan is done in rounds, but is thicker than I think of naan.

The section of rice "casseroles" ( my term) is lengthy and varied. A number of different rice types are used including sticky rice, regular basmati and the sella basmati.

Parwana makes me think the cuisine is in flux. The upheaval and foreign influences in Afghanistan are unlikely to leave the cuisine unmarked. This family existed in the midst of it. Even if their adaptations are primarily for dealing with the realities of a western kitchen, the practice of diaspora cooking is well established in world cuisine, and even revered in some cases. It's at least a snapshot in time, and filled with aromatic flavorful things.


----------



## phatch

Night+Market by Kris Yenbamroong

Not a review, just a skim because it was hitting all the wrong notes for me. I'm not getting paid to go through a book no matter what. It has to hold enough interest for me to invest my time. On that scale, Smoke & Pickles is a comparative success.

It starts off with lots of pointless chitchat, a declaration that an order of a single bottle of wine would be a success (this in a restaurant based cookbook) and other digressions.

Anyway, I was hoping for more of a Thai night market kind of thing, but this is an overseasoned Los Angeles ego trip mostly on Thai food. And a Mexican food truck, a quick flight to Hawaii for Poke and some other oddities with no rhyme or reason. All stir fries recipes are for one serving. You are instructed to not scale up but cook each serving separately. I can sort of see the point, but that rings the failure bell in my head for a cookbook for home cooking.

I have found the delete key in my Calibre library software. I have used it.

https://calibre-ebook.com/ it's freeware, and very capable. It works on Apple, PC, Linux.

Next up Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. It's already better.


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## butzy

I have hot sour salty and sweet on kindle.
I like it.
It has some good recipes in it, although the indexing could be better!
I think I would have preferred the real book.
Curious to see what you find of it


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## phatch

Even just that first recipe for ion/lon--hard to tell in print sometimes, It's simple, straight forward and feeds the group. And reads as pretty tasty. 

Night + Market gets rave reviews, but it just isn't oriented to cooking for a group or a family. It's for one or two people for the most part. So if you live in group situation, it just isn't practical, but becomes more of a food performance. It doesn't scale to my reality. 

Night Market opens with Pad Thai, punching the sour and sweet with white vinegar and processed sugar rather than the tamarind and palm sugar. I can see where that would capture the US taste for sweet and sour, but it lacks the nuance, the tradition, the terroir of the origin. It definitely shows the terroir of Los Angeles.


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## phatch

I find myself mentally revisiting Diane Kochilas excellent Greek cookbook, The Glorious Foods of Greece. In that book, she is intentensely regional in the organization and I recall thinking it would be handy to organize the similar "pies" together or give a basic pie and then break out the regional differences as variation on the base pie.

And now in Hot, Sour... where the organization is putting like with like, I find myself wanting to see the food linked more regionally. I want both.

I need a dynamic ebook that I can re-organize by tags. I can do a pass by regional tag with the recipes from that region together, and then jump to a salad tag to see how different regions interprets that salad idea. So rather than a book per se, it would become a tagged database that the reader organizes by how you have selected tags, with a default layout to deliver the overall perspective of the original author too.

I can dream.


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## phatch

Elizabeth Haigh, author of Makan has a Youtube channel. Worth a look.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ChefElizabethHaigh/videos


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## phatch

Finished up with Hot, South, Salty, Sweet by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.

I like the cooking here, the Thai less so than some of the rest. But that probably reflects my tastes more than the cooking specifically. It did seem to fall back on simple Thai dishes focused chile, lime, lemongrass and fish sauce without some of the other flavors as much as I might have preferred. If I were a bigger chile-head, I'd probably have liked those better. My family is even less chile oriented so that influences me too.

The book takes the Mekong River as its organizing theme, but not strictly so. They frequently reach out of the Mekong drainage basin to reach further into Thailand, particularly Chiang Mai and a few other places. Nor do they follow the Mekong from the headwaters on down as an organizing principle itself for the food, but more for the stories.

There are a lot of stories. But more than travelogue, it is a peoplogue about the people who took care of them, taught them dishes and demonstrated their culture. Still more story than I want, but tastes differ.

I liked the Morning Market Noodles and its easy variations built from parts of other recipes in the book. This recycling gives you a built-in path for leftovers and simplifies your next meal besides just tasting good. Similarly, the various ways to build a noodle bowl (Vietnamese Noodle Combos). I've done similar things so these plugged into my notes and practice as convenient augmentations and variations.

I mentioned the lon a few posts back. Simple and good.

There's a ginger beef dish using ginger as a vegetable I'm intrigued by but probably can't pull off. It needs the young pinkish ginger to be tender and I so rarely see it. 


> *KHMER STIR-FRIED GINGER AND BEEF*
> 
> *[saiko cha k'nye-CAMBODIA]*
> Sao Pheha (see Phnom Penh Nights, page 242) introduced me to several easy dishes from the Khmer home-cooking repertoire. This was perhaps the simplest, and also the most surprising. It's a stir-fry in which ginger has the role of featured vegetable, warming and full of flavor. The ginger is cut into julienne twigs and then fried with a little beef. The result is a mound of beef slices and tender ginger, all bathed in plenty of gravy, a great companion for rice.
> 
> Be sure to buy firm ginger for this dish (ginger with wrinkled skin will be tough and stringy), and, if there's a choice, young ginger rather than the tan mature ginger. Serve with a sour stew or soup, such as Khmer Fish Stew with Lemongrass (page 181) or Buddhist Sour Soup (page 58), and some simple greens, such as Classic Mixed Vegetable Stir-fry (page 151).
> 
> *Generous ½ pound boneless sirloin, eye of round, or other lean beef
> ½ pound ginger, preferably young ginger
> 3 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil
> 3 to 4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
> 2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
> 2 teaspoons sugar*
> 
> Thinly slice the beef across the grain and set aside. Peel the ginger, then cut it into fine matchstick-length julienne (this is most easily done by cutting thin slices, then stacking these to cut into matchsticks). You'll have about 2 cups.
> 
> Heat a wok over medium-high heat. Add the oil and, when it is hot, add the garlic. Cook until golden, 20 to 30 seconds. Add the meat and stir-fry, using your spatula to separate the slices and to expose them all to the heat, until most of the meat has changed color. Add the fish sauce and sugar, toss in the ginger twigs, and stir-fry until just tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Serve hot with rice.
> 
> *SERVES* _4 with rice and another dish_


Butzy has lamented the index. I too have the ebook, so it's not a hardship to do a whole text search. Within the text, as shown above, it's usefully cross-referenced to related or compatible dishes.


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## phatch

Added Hong Kong Local to the list. For being published in 2020, this is only available in physical print. I found this book as a result of my searches on two classes of eatery: dai pai dong and cha chaan teng. Wikipedia defines them both pretty well. Cha chaan teng also have a kind of reverse American Chinese food. Things like macaroni soup, fried rice with hotdogs and ketchup, baked pork chop on fried rice covered with cheese, a French toast variation and so on.

Have to see if it's any good.

This book is part of a "series". Others so far are Penang Local, Bangkok Local and Tokyo Local. I don't know if there are more entries planned or not.


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## phatch

This is bothering me in "My Shanghai". In the introdcution, she throws around the word pure more than I find myself comfortable with. For example:



> To coax out that pure, deep flavor, some dishes take a bit of time to prepare and cook, such as Suzhou Pork Belly Noodle Soup, which simmers on the stove for hours after a lengthy curing process. A look at the ingredients shows that the pork belly is only lightly flavored with aromatics, both fresh and dry, cooking wine, and a touch of soy sauce. Like all good food, it's all about layering. Layering-from the initial prep to seasoning while cooking and the final garnish-builds up the flavors seamlessly. It's no wonder that this is one of the most famous dishes in Suzhou, beloved for its pure flavor and delightfully melty texture.


So what is a pure flavor? How does 5 hours of cooking not alter a flavor, render it therefore less pure? Here are the ingredients.



> 1¾ pounds (800 g) skin-on pork belly
> 4 tablespoons kosher salt, plus more as needed
> 1 bunch scallions
> 4 slices fresh ginger
> 3 whole star anise
> 4 dried bay leaves
> 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
> 1 tablespoon soy sauce
> 1 tablespoon rock sugar
> 1 teaspoon salt


The weakest flavor there is the scallions IMHO. The rest are plenty to season some pork belly to significant degree.

How is the result purer than the starting point from a flavor perspective? I'll quote from Chinese Gastronomy for what these ingredients are considered to do in Chinese cooking.

Sugar: restores or improves Hsien flavor (Hsien being the "sweet natural delicate flavor" as of fat pork)
Ginger, spring onions: suppresses offensive flavours
Wine, Spirits: suppresses rank flavors
Soy sauce: impart meaty taste

Salt: added for texture control, removing excess water--may not apply here particularly, but worth noting.

Boiling (the long simmer): Extract fat.

This particular idea of purity then seems to focus on what tender fatty pork can become rather than what it is--the pursuit of Hsien flavor. You have to mask the natural but off flavors, amplify it with sugar and soy, purge water, fat and its' natural toughness through long cooking as textural elements are also part of "flavor" in this case I think.

I think the use of pure is meaningless to an English audience, and sloppy writing and editing. Betty Liiu is writing from within a view and experience of a culture we as outsiders can only struggle to understand. She's too close to the culture to see that what this word means to her is not what it means to the rest of us. And her editor didn't catch the idea differences either.

I live within a regional religious culture where "purity" has a particular meaning I find on the oppressive side so I may be overly sensitive to its use here. But I struggle to see the usage of pure flavor when it is so distinctly altered. She should have defined this usage and cultural ideal so the reasons for the seasoning and techniques become clear.

I wouldn't have really clued in without having read Chinese Gastronomy.


----------



## phatch

My Shanghai by Betty Liu

Plenty of detailed instructions, a lot of new dishes, and fun tweaks on well known ones.

I'm going to quibble with the organization principle of seasonality. I think it's a great way to cook generally, healthy, inexpensive, less planetary impact and all that. But when you're writing an ethnic cookbook for a not-that-ethnicity-nor-location audience, the seasonality basically ceases to exist. I can't get hairy crab from Yang Cheng Lake in October. I'm happy to read about them, but you better give me good substitutions. And she does, recommending blue crabs.

There's a lot of bamboo in here. I like bamboo. I can't find the kind of bamboo she talks about. She differentiates between winter and spring bamboo, the winter being more often used, probably because of availability. I can't go into the local forest and forage spring bamboo. She's less good about substitutions here, talking about using dried or frozen winter bamboo quite often. Except I've not found dried or frozen bamboo of any season in my markets. I can buy fresh of some sort in the produce section, a vacuum sealed variety in the refrigerator case and canned bamboo.

Some of her preferred greens are equally scarce, though she gives options there.

Anyway, there's quite a bit of new content for me. Stuffed lotus, pig trotters, a soy-black vinegar radish pickle, various new vegetable ideas and plenty of "red" cooked dishes.

The red cooking is a departure from what I've seen in the past. My past reading is that you build a master red cooking stock and use it again and again, tweaking the seasoning as it evolves with use. And don't use it for fish as that will change the flavor beyond recovery. Here she builds a comparatively simple broth most of the time and uses it just the once. And she red cooks fish too. There's also a fun variation on Lion's Head Meatballs that get red cooked. I think that sounds like a good idea.

There are few bao dishes that rose to the level I actually want to try. Bao have usually struck me as too time intensive. These seem a bit faster, and perhaps my life has discovered more availability for cooking time from covid. The Morning Pork Bao and the similar Pan-Fried Pork Bao appealed to me.

The Scallion Pancake is the first I've found in writing to use You Su--the flour oil paste that has worked well in my other cooking of these. It also crops up in another dish, the Mooncakes, which I don't recall with other Mooncakes off hand. Her pancake builds a scallion oil for the paste which is a good technique.

Scallion Oil actually figures more than you might think in the cuisine generally. it's one of the core things made in Eileen Yin Fei Lo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking. As for Liu's book under discussion here, she does include the classic Shanghai dish of Scallion Oil noodles. and also a Scallion Oil-Poached chicken. I've avoided making the noodle dish in the past as I don't digest oily dishes all that well. Her version isn't as oily as most I've seen, such as Mike Chen's.






Liu's includes some dried shrimp and black vinegar as well.



> *Scallion Oil Noodles*
> 葱油拌面 | cōng yóu bàn miàn | _Makes 2 servings_
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> You haven't experienced Shanghai until you've had a bowl of scallion oil noodles. It's a quintessential old Shanghai dish, a humble, yet extremely satisfying, bowl of noodles. This dish highlights the secret of that complex umami flavor used in many of Shanghai's signature dishes: scallion oil. Scallions are slowly fried in oil so that their flavor infuses it. This flavored oil serves as the base of this dish. Dried shrimp is an excellent addition that supplies an extra bit of umami. If you're craving something with more protein, fry some ground pork in your scallion oil until browned and crisp, then turn off the heat and proceed with the recipe.
> 
> *NOTE:* You can also make scallion oil ahead of time. Quadruple the recipe (everything but the noodles) below and follow the steps. Let it cool and pour it into a sterile jar; it will keep in the fridge for up to 1 month. Use it anytime to elevate any dish you're making.
> 
> 1½ teaspoons dried shrimp
> 6 to 8 scallions, cut into 1-inch (2.5-cm) segments
> 3 tablespoons neutral cooking oil, such as canola or grapeseed oil
> 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
> 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
> ½ teaspoon black vinegar
> 1 tablespoon crushed rock sugar or granulated sugar
> pinch of ground white pepper
> ½ pound (225 g) fresh Shanghai-style thin noodles, cooked to al dente (or 2 servings of any dried noodles-I've used soba and ramen noodles to great effect.
> 
> 1.Place the dried shrimp in a small bowl with hot water to cover and soak for 30 minutes. Drain and pat dry with a paper towel.
> 
> 2.Smash the scallions with the side of a meat cleaver. Pat dry with a paper towel to avoid water droplets causing the oil to splatter during stir-frying.
> 
> 3.Heat the oil in a well-seasoned wok over medium-low. Add the scallion segments and let them fry slowly, so they turn yellow without burning. Stir occasionally so the segments brown evenly. This slowly rendered-out flavor is essential to this recipe-be patient and let the toasty flavor infuse the oil. I usually let the scallions cook for 20 to 30 minutes, but for a deeper flavor cook them at a lower heat for longer, even up to 1 hour. Reduce the heat to low, add the shrimp, and cook for another 5 minutes.
> 
> 4.Meanwhile, mix together the dark and light soy sauces, vinegar, and sugar.
> 
> 5.Increase the heat to medium and immediately pour the soy sauce mixture into the wok. Fine bubbles and foam will form in the sauce (if it bubbles too much, your heat is too high) and begin to caramelize. Stir to dissolve the sugar and let simmer for 2 to 3 minutes to thicken. Turn off the heat. Add the white pepper. Add the cooked noodles to the wok and toss to combine. Divide the noodles between two bowls, making sure to scoop up the scallion segments.


And there's plenty of black vinegar, it shows up in many dishes which excited me. There is also pork lard in a lot of dishes, frequently as a sort of melted garnish. She doesn't specify the kidney fat often called for in teaching you to make lard. Westerners select that if available because it lacks the flavor possible in some other pieces of fat. So there will be more flavor to this lard than what a westerner might think of. And there's enough pork belly getting cooked that you could trim out some of the fatty parts just to use to make lard for the other dishes.

And yes, "pure" flavor continues to crop up throughout the book.

The recipes show more of a localized flair than you'll see in a general book of Chinese cooking. And the instructions and background info are pretty good. I do recommend this for fans of Chinese cooking. Probably not the best first book unless your focus is Shanghai.


----------



## phatch

I forgot to mention" exploding into flavor". Liu is only the second author I've seen to mention this method of stir frying. The other is Irene Kuo, author of The Key To Chinese Cooking. Liu's explanation is better, emphasizing a short high heat fry to generate the flavor. For the most part on a home stove, its really not so distinct in my opinion. But it's fun to get this insight into the cultural view that is likely based on traditional live fire technique.


----------



## phatch

Masala Lab by Irish Ashok

Entertaing but didn't contribute to my understanding of Indian food because I don't have the knowledge assumed by the author for ratios of spices, particular words and meanings and so on. And his recommendation of base gravies in the freezer isn't a good match for my cooking style. Unless you already cook Indian food somewhat instinctively,/habitually this book isn't likely to help


----------



## butzy

That actually made me want to check it out


----------



## phatch

It's getting rave reviews. You might have what it takes to get up to speed with it


----------



## phatch

Added The Wok by J. Kenji Lopez Alt, available 3/8/2022

Bit surprised it's already listed. Wouldn't be surprised if that date shifts later in the year.


----------



## butzy

That one sounds interesting as well.
Did you read the books from Grace Young? Breath of a wok and stir frying to the sky's edge?

And another one that you might enjoy: the science of spice. A bit of a novel way of looking at spices


----------



## phatch

I've read young's books. I like her Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen too. I'll have to look at the spice book.


----------



## phatch

Hong Kong Local by Archan Chan

While I picked this up looking for more info about Cha Chaan Teng and Dia Pai Dong, it does not go in to them much. Organized along the time of day you might eat the kinds of things presented and a final chapter covering some of the mixed condiments and such, it covers ground fairly well covered elsewhere for me. This is not a failing, just that i've become kind of jaded I think. 

Early, they offer some different congees, the fried "cruller" bread, fresh soy milk, milk tea, rice rolls, noodles, common dim sum entries, soup, egg tarts and a few other sweetish offerings. The cruller I've mostly seen videos for, so it was good to see a written description. I don't recall a milk tea "recipe" before. Theirs is much stronger than I would have supposed--full disclosure, I'm medically proscribed from caffeine so if I indulge, its' usually Diet Coke. I had the impression from other discussions that milk tea was milder. 

The Cheung Fun rice roll is from scratch rather than trying to cludge some other rice product into the role, and the seasoned soy sauce is more complex than most with some cooked off ginger and spring onion in addition to the sugar. Nice touch.

Hong Kong French Toast makes an appearance, a classic Cha Chaan Teng dish. The primary departure from western versions is the kaya jam addition. Savory versions are also described. 

Sa Cha Beef noodles were fun to see in print. I rarely see sa cha sauce used in books outside of mentioning it for seasoning the dip sauce for hot pot. Taiwanese cuisine seems more prone to using it than other regions of China.

Now that it's Midday, we have some more Dim Sum entries, a fried rice, more sweet things. A pepper steak, another of the western dishes adopted into Chinese cuisine One new to me is the "double-skin" custard set with egg whites alone. Also a ginger custard with eggs. I've seen one once that use "old" ginger juice which is acidic enough to curdle the warm milk directly. Never tried either of these though. 

Late starts off with a number of shellfish dishes. Also a poached goose an ingredient I rarely see discussed. Poached fowl holds a place in Asia that westerners really don't have presented to them in restaurants. Then chicken from poached, white-cut, hot pot, salted, baked, soy sauce style, lemon, kung pao... A few stir fries and back into sweet things. 

As far as Hong Kong goes, these do strike me as things I've seen described as popular there. It's not a deep dive, but is good at what it does.


----------



## phatch

Makan by Elizabeth Haigh.

Much more approachable than the other Singapore/Malay books I've read this year. While this may be because I read those other books, I think it is also a deeper explanation of ingredients, technique and steps. And that it's already Westernized to a degree by what folks in the UK can likely access.

It is not without its hurdles though. The book is unabashedly Metric without Imperial equivalents alongside the measurements. There is a pretty useful table of conversions in the back of the book, but not a big deal generally. I just have to push a button a few times to set my scale to Metric.

There are of course some language usage disconnects. I sometimes get confused which is which with courgettes/aubergines and zucchini/eggplant. She uses the term laksa leaves. I just thought it was a dish, but it refers to what is sold as rau ram in my markets, Vietnamese Coriander. She uses HP sauce at one point, which I've never heard of. It's a British tomato-tamarind condiment. I can certainly get it on line, but its only used once and not in a dish I'm likely to make soon.

The organization system didn't make any particular sense to me. So everything is kind of scattered around through the book.

I liked the Mee Soto. It's not too exotic of a dish. I'll have to see how well my tools will blend for the rempah. I only have a hand held blender and food processor which may not go finely enough for the rempah. I can do it by hand I suppose in the mortar and pestle.

I've encountered a few versions of Hainanese Chicken Rice lately and I might give it a go again now that i have more interesting sauces and some better tips on the rice. Hers looks like a good start. I will probably use different sauces though.

Her Cabbage Rice looks like it would go over well with my family.

The Char Shu looked a little weak, lacking some of the pungency I would expect. But easier for the shorter ingredient list.

The food styling for Braised Chicken with Black Fungus and Shitake seems a little like a mixed plate of organs to me. Usually black fungus gets shredded so you don't get those organic dark blobs folding through the dish. Maybe I'm just channeling the motile intestine scene from the movie Annihilation.










She offers a chili crab, pretty similar to the one from The Food of Singapore I wrote about earlier in this thread. Hers is a little less strongly seasoned. I find it a bit odd they both used ketchup in the same amounts. I guess it's a consistent ingredient for the dish.

I enjoyed the callout to Uncle Roger for the egg fried rice. You can watch him cook his version in her restaurant. If you've never seen Uncle Roger, it is satire and colorful.





And she gives a Fish Curry Powder recipe as well as a general curry powder recipe. First Fish Curry powder I've seen in print.

This is the better starting point to the cuisine I think than some others. She gets right to the core of cooking the dishes. Light on tradition and culture compared to some of the others. Also only for the Chinese heritage Nonya style cuisine.


----------



## butzy

Sounds interesting.
The book is just still a bit on the expensive side for me. Will wait a bit.
Glad it is metric though


----------



## phatch

The Mee Soto








Fairly intense broth experience. Flavor is good and unlike anything I've had before. I'd probably cut back on the white pepper and coriander seed next time just for my own taste preference. And there will be a next time.


----------



## cheflife0812

slayertplsko said:


> I love that one! Have it as kindle and keep coming back to it. It's a wonderful story of an (American I think) family living throughout the region over the years and the recipes are much more accessible than, say, David Thompson, but don't feel dumbed down in the least (which is sometimes euphemistically called ''adapted for ... "). It just feels like homey food from the region. Definitely one of the all time best for me, of any cuisine.


I am going to have to buy that one, sounds like an awesome read.


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## phatch

I made Haigh's Hainanese Chicken. No pix. It was pretty good, better than other versions I've tried. I did not have her "required" Pandan leaves and I should try it with those. I think I can find them. Many recipes do not list the Pandan leaves so I thought it would be an acceptable omission.

The praised and valued gelatinous skin was not a highlight of the dish for us.

I served it with Lau's Scallion Ginger Sauce. My condiment averse daughter liked that sauce a lot. Said she would even eat dumplings with it.

I've not been reading much this week. I've got the first few pages of Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes. This is a pan-asian cookbook, but I've not reached any actual cooking yet. Will be traveling next week and that will limit my reading as well. I tend towards motion sickness if reading in motion.


----------



## phatch

Looked through a couple of books by Kylie Kwong at the public library in Flagstaff Arizona. My China A Feast for All the Senses is more travel than cooking. She had an interesting lamb skewers recipe I copied down.

And in her cookbook with simple in the title the egg section had some ideas I'll want to look at again. I'll have to find it in my local library for a deeper dive.

I found it interesting she recommends malt vinegar to substitute black vinegar.


----------



## phatch

Here's her Xian Lamb Skewers. I was surprised by the turmeric.

1 kg (2 lb) lamb fillets, cut 1 cm (1/2 in) cubes
1 tablespoon sea salt
2 lemons, cut into wedges

Spice paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon sweet paprika powder
1 teaspoon ground fennel
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon roasted and ground Sichuan pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoon dried chile flakes
1/3 cup vegetable oil 

First make the spice paste. Combine all the spices in a large bowl, then add the oil to form a paste. Add meat and mix well, cover, place in refrigerator leave to marinate for 4 hours. minutes.

Soak sixteen 25 cm (10 in) bamboo skewers in cold water for 30 minutes

Thread lamb onto skewers and cook on a hot grill. Serve immediately, seasoned with sea salt and with lemon wedges alongside.

serves 4 (makes about 16 skewers)

You can also use beef steak or chicken thigh.

My two local library systems (city / county) have none of her books. I'd have thought one of them would.


----------



## phatch

Finally finished Lucky Peach 101 Easy Asian Recipes. The finally isn't about the quality of the book, rather the quality of my August.

What attracted me to this book was the lighthearted approach to the food. And it fulfills that with entertaining snark and humor throughout. I'm not on board with a lot of their simplifications, but it's not without it's value.

This is a pan-asian cookbook and they acknowledge that some countries don't get equal representation. Their goal was to simplify tools and pantry and they mostly accomplish this. They seem a bit focused on the green papaya salad that they get into the mortar and pestle, at least a mandoline for the cutting and dried shrimp they only use one other time. They value that salad more than I do.

As they give the rundown on specialty ingredients, they mention (and link in the ebook) to recipes that will use that ingredient in an important way. For the dried shrimp, they clarify it is only used in two recipes in the whole book. I appreciated this kind of clarity to help a reader grasp the usefulness of the ingredient to the book as a whole or to their interest in a particular recipe. If I write a cookbook, it's something I think I'd add and hope that other writers would add this value to their books too.

Some snark quotes


> When we call for Chinese sausage we are calling for the basic pork variety, though you can substitute others as you like. The kind made "with wine," as some of the packages say, has a nice, buzzy, old-man-with-_baijiu_-breath flavor that I like,





> Real talk: Preserved black beans stink like a dead animal left out on hot asphalt. Another truth: They add an incredibly delicious umami note when added in even tiny amounts to a dish.





> People often invoke the slurping of the first raw oyster when they talk about how crazy it is that we humans eat such a wide range of flora and fauna. For me, I think of the first crazy bastard who stood over a barrel of anchovies covered in rainwater that had been sitting out in the summer sun for weeks and thought to himself, "Oh yeah, I'm gonna sprinkle that juice all over my dinner tonight!"
> 
> But he was a genius and I doff my cap to him.


So, the recipes. The Hot and Sour Soup looks like something out of the 70s, and not in a good way. Just plain rice vinegar for the sour, even though they use black vinegar elsewhere. No bamboo, no lily buds and sriracha instead of white pepper.

The Miso clam chowder was beyond my brain's apprehension. I just couldn't quite combine cream miso and clams in my head.

The Rotisserie Chicken Ramen looked worthwhile for a dish of efficient re-use.

The Garlic and Greens dish was straightforward, well executed and is a good one. I've used Barbara Tropp's version many times over the years and this one is even simpler.

And one of my favorite sauces, Irene Kuo's Odd Flavor Sauce makes an appearance with a few slight tweaks. She even gets credited.

If you enjoy food writing, this is fun. If you are serious about asian food, this will probably rub you wrong multiple times. But there is value in a simplified approach. I think this would be an excellent book for a young adult on their own for the first time who is interested in Asian flavors. The book teaches efficiency and re-use of ingredients from one meal for another and provides flavor and texture in the Asian style.

I have another book of theirs on sausage coming up. I'm not sure if I should anticipate or fear it.


----------



## phatch

bowls! by Molly Watson

I like the idea of bowls, but too often they're health food fodder chew fests with only a semblance of enjoyment. And this is certainly more in that vein. I would like to see the idea driven more towards simplicity and enjoyment.

Organization is mostly about how to cook the different base ingredients. So various grains and roasted veges, some protien and a sauce, usually a vinaigrette. The cooking is competent and basic. Then there are a some basic combination ideas reflecting various cultures, regions, ethnicities and flavors. Nothing particularly complex though you do dirty a few pans along the way to serve it all in one dish.

The cooking picks up more interest in part 3 full bowls where the recipe is designed together from the ground up with out all the mix and match of the first parts. I still felt like there was a focus on getting all the health categories into play rather than on the design of the food itself, but there were things that were more to my taste.

The Black Pepper Tofu Bowl captures a lot of south east asian flavors and you could sub in some other protein pretty easily. I might change out the brown rice for rice noodles too but I'm not devoted to fiber counting in my diet as much as the author.

Also the Spanish Shrimp looked pretty good though I think the corn was out of place.



> *Spanish Shrimp*
> red lentil quinoa pilaf + smoked paprika shrimp + escarole salad + corn
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *ORDER OF OPERATIONS*
> 
> 
> 1. Cook the pilaf
> 2. Make the salad
> 3. Cut corn kernels from cob(s)
> 4. Cook the shrimp
> 5. Assemble the bowls
> 
> *red lentil quinoa pilaf*
> 2 Tbsp olive oil
> 1 cup [180 g] quinoa
> 1/4 cup [30 g] pine nuts
> 2 garlic cloves, minced
> 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
> 1/2 cup [105 g] red lentils, rinsed
> 2 cups [480 ml] chicken broth
> 
> *escarole salad*
> 1 tsp cumin seeds
> 1 garlic clove, minced
> 1 Tbsp sherry vinegar
> 3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
> Salt and freshly ground black pepper
> 1 head escarole, cored and torn into bite-size pieces
> 
> *smoked paprika shrimp*
> 1 garlic clove, minced
> 1 tsp hot paprika
> 1 tsp smoked paprika
> 1/2 tsp salt
> 1 lb [455 g] peeled and deveined shrimp
> 1 Tbsp olive oil
> 
> Kernels from 1 (or 2!) ear corn for garnish
> 
> FOR THE PILAF: In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the olive oil, quinoa, and pine nuts and stir until the quinoa and pine nuts are lightly toasted, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and pepper flakes (if using) and continue stirring until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the lentils and the broth and bring to a boil. Cover, turn the heat to low, and cook until the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa and lentils are tender, about 20 minutes. Uncover and fluff with a fork. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
> 
> FOR THE SALAD: Heat a small frying pan over high heat. When the pan is hot, add the cumin seeds and cook, shaking the pan constantly, until toasted, about 1 minute. Transfer the cumin seeds to a mortar, let them cool slightly, and crush them with a pestle (or put them on a cutting board and crush them with a meat mallet or the bottom of a small, heavy frying pan).
> 
> Put the crushed cumin seeds, garlic, vinegar, and olive oil in a large bowl. Whisk to combine, then season with salt and pepper. Add the escarole and toss to coat evenly. Set aside.
> 
> FOR THE SHRIMP: In a medium bowl, stir together the garlic, hot and smoked paprika, and salt. Add the shrimp and toss to coat evenly with the spices. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the shrimp and cook, turning once, until they are pink and opaque, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
> 
> TO ASSEMBLE: Divide the pilaf among four bowls. Arrange the shrimp on top of one side of the pilaf and the escarole on top of the other side. Scatter the corn kernels over all and serve.


It was worthwhile but pretty mechanical in the first parts of the book. I liked Buddha Bowls by Kelli Foster better for this topic. Still pretty health focused there too. I seek something more indulgent in the category. And I think Asian cuisine is well suited to the task.


----------



## phatch

In a similar vein, I skimmed _bowl_ by Lukas Volger. This is billed as vegetarian recipes for Ramen, Pho. Bibimbap, dumplings and other one dish meals. This is more to my thinking about bowls although still twisted more healthy/vegetarian than I would approach them. But the Asian focus is a good start.

The organization is wheat noodles, then rice noodles and rice, then other grains, dumplings, and basics. I'm seeing this more and more lately where the oft repeated steps for stock and such is moved to the back. I think this helps limit skip reading gets readers into the more interesting topics.

The Rice noodles and rice was the more interesting to me. Lukas give a vegetarian pho variation for the goods available in each season, some bibimbap and then with the rice two bowls I work with now and then already. A kimchi fried rice bowl and chirashi (sushi bowl) The kimchi bowl gets some par-fried lettuce-an iffy addition in my book but with romaine lettuce I can get on board with the idea. Lukas gives some good advice/instruction on the adding of the soy sauce, about it hitting a hot spot in the pan so it can go through the chemical changes of high heat cooking, bringing out its flavors and complexity.

Kenji calls out this point while making egg-fried rice over three different stoves





Back the to kimchi fried rice, Lukas also makes a quick cucumber pickle. I'm not sure how I feel about this as the kimchi is already pretty acidic. But checking quantities, he only adds 1 tablespoon of the kimchi juice/brine and I've normally added more. So I guess it depends how much kimchi and juice you're using.

The Sushi bowl gets a sort of teriyaki glazed sweet potato that looks to work well. I'll be using that idea to punch up the vegetable content in my sushi bowls. The teriyaki glaze is the sauce.

In the other grains section, he lost me with the black rice burrito bowl. You lose the spanish rice flavors and the presentation is all kinds of wrong.

Dumplings, there are some interesting base ideas, but they really call out for a sauce to accent and unify the ingredients.

Unless you're really looking for vegetarian interpretations of classic asian cuisine, I don't think this is the right bowl book for an omnivore.


----------



## butzy

You're going through a lot of books @phatch 
Time for me to go through the whole thread again and make a wishlist!


----------



## phatch

Thread Summary to date

This is the list as I've tabulated it. This includes the few I did not finish and are noted as such. Also shown separately are the books I just skimmed. *Bolded* books are the ones that I think had special merit for my knowledge and cooking. Red are books that I found of low value or just bad. These are judged on my personal valuation of the book, not as it may apply to others as much.

1 Cooking South of the Clouds by Georgia Freedman
2 The Yunnan Cookbook by Annabel Jackson
3 Chinese Cooking: The Food and the Lifestyle by Annabel Jackson
4 Indian and Chinese Cooking from The Himalayan Rim by Copeland Marks
5 Sheet Pan Chicken by Kathy Erway
6 A Chinese Street Food Odyssey Helen Tse
*7 The Adobo Road Cookbook by Marvin Gapultos*
8 The Best of Singapore Cooking Did Not Finish
9 Homestyle Malay Cooking by Rohani Jelani
10 Binging With Babish by Andrew Rea
11 Chinese Feasts and Festivals by S. C. Moey
12 Gok Cooks Chinese by Gok Wan
*13 Xi'an Famous Foods by Jason Wang*
14 Chinatown Kitchen by Lizzie Mabbot
15 Beans Greens & Sweet Georgia Peaches by Damon Fowler
16 Lao Style Recipes by Barbara Riddle
17 Fried Rice: 50 Ways to stir up the worlds favorite grain by Danielle Centoni
*18 Food of Singapore by David Wong*
19 Rodney Scott's World of BBQ by Rodney Scott
20 Chinese Cookery by Ken Hom
21 100 Techniques by America's Test Kitchen
22 Simple Asian Meals by Nina Simonds
23 Northern Chinese Favorites by Daniel Reed
24 Chopsticks Cleaver and Wok by Jennie Low
25 The Joy of Chinese Cooking by doreen-yen feng did not finish
26 Chinese Food: Adventures in the World of Eating
27 Wok On Ching-He Huang
*28 Mr. Jiu's in Chinatown by Brandon Jew*
29 Smoke & Pickles by Edward Lee
30 Parwana by Durkhanai Ayubi
31 Night + market Did not finish
32 Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffrey Alford
*33 My Shanghai by Betty Liu*
34 Masala Lab by Krish Ashok*
35 Hong Kong Local by Archan Chan
36 *Makan by Elizabeth Haigh*
37 Lucky Peach 101 Asian Recipes by Peter Meehan
38 bowls! by Molly Watson

Books I skimmed rather than taking more time with

Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong--I would like to spend more time with this book, but can't locate a copy in my libraries and I've not purchased it.
My China by Kylie Kwong--very travelogue
bowl by Lukas Volger
*Masala Lab was of low value to me. I think the book does a good job of bringing a western understanding of technique and flavor Indian food. The importance of browning reactions, that flavors are more soluble in fat and alcohol and such things. But I was hoping for a better understanding of the use and combining of spice mixes in Indian cooking. It did not deliver on my expectations. I don't consider it a bad book per se, just not what I wanted from the early reviews I read.

Currently reading Olives, Lemons & Za'atar by Raiwa Bishara.


----------



## phatch

Added:

Rice by Michael W. Twitty This is the latest release in the Savor The South series, focusing on specific ingredients, or dishes of Southern (USA) cuisine. I've really enjoyed this series of cookbooks. Twitty is best known for his book, The Cooking Gene. It's highly recommended in the foodie culture, but I struggled with it. It's about cooking culture in the south and the racism, not about cooking itself so much.

Japanese in 7 by Kimiko Barber. This is a series of cookbooks focused on using a reduced ingredient set to simplify often complex cuisines. I've seen a few others in this series such as Indian in 7 as well. Generally, this is not an approach I love, but I still find it interesting.

An: To Eat by Helene An, a Vietnamese cookbook


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## phatch

Olives, Lemons and Za'atar by Rawia Bishara

While ostensibly about Middle Eastern cooking, and it is, its' more focused on three things.
Her growing up in Nazareth and what they ate
Her restaurant In New York, Tanoreen which is reflective of her own preferences and customer demands.
Her preference for bolder than traditional flavors, especially cinnamon and allspice.

She does pull in some Morrocan and Lebanese and other things here and there, but things that have already drifted across borders in contemporary times as things do.

So it's not strictly traditional or authentic if those words have a specific meaning and value to you in ethnic cuisine.

She's a bit heavy with oil for my preferences--eggs in bread for 6 made with half cup of oil total--though eggs in olive oil with sumac is a worthy dish.

Sweet spices in savory applications especially cinnamon is not my preference. I find cinnamon very powerful and it often overwhelms a dish. So I struggled with this book in ways that are unfair to the content on its own.

For the most part, the ingredients are easy to come by. Mastic is probably the trickiest and it's used rarely.

Because I recently made Hainanese Chicken Rice, the Seasoned Chicken with Stock struck me with its similarities. It's a spice poached chicken with the meat and broth used separately. The main differences are the chicken is in parts, it gets an initial sear, and the spices are different. She doesn't serve this on its own though, just for use in other dishes.

There's a lot of stuffing of various foods. I appreciated her note in the Vegetarian Stuffed Cabbage about doing these kinds of dishes "lasagne" style in alternating layers of wrapper and filling. It does simplify the assembly and cooking.

I picked up a few pointers and saw some new things, but her approach and preferences in flavor just really aren't a good match to my preferences. If you enjoy the sweet warm spices in savory applications, you'll likely enjoy her food.

Next up, Hunan: A Lifetime of Secrets from Mr. Peng's Chinese Kitchen. Another restaurant cookbook, this time tilted to a stream of small dishes.


----------



## phatch

I neglected to comment on two red lentil dishes that caught my eye. One a pureed soup, the other a "stew" of lentils and butternut squash or sweet potato. The latter is likely a winner with my daughter who likes lentils and sweet potatoes.



> *Red Lentil and Butternut Squash Stew*
> *If you make this stew once, there is no going back. The butternut squash adds a mellow sweetness but it is also delicious with chunks of yams, carrots or even pumpkin. Use one of these vegetables or a mix to make this stew, and serve it piping hot, warm (my preference), or chilled.
> 
> SERVES 6-8*
> 
> 120ml olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
> 4 shallots, chopped
> 1 onion, chopped
> 8 garlic cloves, crushed
> 2 chillies, such as jalapeños or poblanos
> a large handful of chopped fresh coriander
> 2 tablespoons ground coriander
> 1 tablespoon ground cumin
> 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
> 2 butternut squash, peeled and diced
> 340g red lentils, picked over
> 
> Heat 6 tablespoons olive oil in a large casserole dish over medium-high heat. When hot, sauté the shallots and onion until soft and golden, 3-4 minutes. Stir in the garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds, then the chillies, coriander, cumin, black pepper, about 1 minute. Add the squash and stir to incorporate, then reduce the heat and cook, covered, about 10 minutes.
> 
> Tip in the lentils and 1 litre water, then cover and cook for about 12 minutes. If the squash has not softened, add 250ml additional water, cover and cook for a further 10 minutes.
> 
> Ladle the stew into serving bowls, drizzle with olive oil and serve.


----------



## phatch

Added Mooncakes & Milkbread by Kristina Cho--release Oct 12. It's about Chinese baking, sweet and savory items.

Sambal Shiok The Malaysian Cookbook by Mandy Yin, 11/2 another UK restauranteur.

These might not make it into my 2021 reading. We'll see.


----------



## phatch

Hunan: A Lifetime of Secrets From Mr. Peng's Chinese Kitchen by Mr Y. S. Peng

Really interesting cooking, very frustrating scale. The restaurant, Hunan, at the heart of this cookbook has a somewhat different method of operation. There is no set menu. And the food comes as a stream of small servings, diners often sharing 15-16 different dishes. The recipes reflect that small serving size.

He writes about using vinegar is an uncharacteristic way. He calls for white wine and red wine vinegar. I'm pretty sure he means regular rice vinegar and red rice vinegar. But I'm not positive.

He uses the term "slaked cornflour" for a paste of cornflour 3 parts water to 1 part flour. That's a strange usage of slaked to me.

I was introduced to a few new ingredients, mostly various pickled. dried, fermented vegetables. Mei cai for example is used in a particular pork belly dish. He talks about it in the intro. He talks about it in the directions. It never shows up with amounts in the ingredients list. So I'm assuming its intended to use a whole jar? And Dong Cai from Taiwan is something I'll have to keep an eye out for.

Oddities aside, the instructions are clear and well presented and the food appealing.

A sample recipe, Egg-wrapped Soup











> *Egg-wrapped soup*
> This dish is beautiful to look at; the way the crêpe opens up is like a flower, especially when you add the stock and the leaves float up like the petals in a water lily. It's really quite stunning and serene.
> 
> Makes 8 portions
> 
> 2 eggs, beaten
> 6 quail's eggs, hard boiled and halved
> 400g minced pork
> 3 water chestnuts, finely chopped
> 80g shredded meat from ham hock
> 6 dried Chinese mushrooms, reconstituted and finely chopped
> 12 mooli balls, made with melon baller
> 2 tbsp minced crab meat
> 1 slice ginger
> 1 spring onion stalk
> pinch of salt
> stock to cover
> 
> For the seasoning:
> 1 tsp ground white pepper
> 1 tsp sesame oil
> 1 tsp Shaoxing wine
> pinch salt
> ½ tbsp cornflour
> 
> To serve:
> ½ cherry tomato
> 
> Start by making a thin crêpe with just the eggs. Put a little oil into a frying pan and heat until nearly smoking. Put a thin layer of the beaten egg into the bottom of your frying pan and fry until set.
> 
> Mix all of the seasoning together in a bowl and adjust for flavour.
> 
> In a bowl, mix the finely chopped mushroom with the ham hock.
> 
> Put the minced pork in the bowl with the seasoning.
> 
> Line a large bowl, around 20 cm in diameter, with the crêpe. Place the crab meat in the centre at the bottom of the bowl on the crepe.
> 
> Arrange the quail's eggs in a circle around the crab meat, white side down.
> 
> Arrange the ham hock mix to the outer edges of the quail's eggs, without covering the eggs.
> 
> Put the seasoned minced pork on top of the crab meat, quail's eggs and ham hock in one uniform layer.
> 
> In the centre, you should have a void. Put the mooli balls into the centre and press down so that it's even.
> 
> If there's excess crêpe left, fold over the middle.
> 
> In the middle, add a pinch of salt, the ginger and spring onion.
> 
> Cover loosely with cling film and steam for 20 minutes.
> 
> Leave the parcel to rest for 30 minutes and then turn the pork mince parcel into a bigger bowl. You should now have an upturned dome.
> 
> Carefully cut the crêpe into eight equal portions, as you might divide a cake, without cutting through the whole parcel, and pull back the crêpe to reveal a flower.
> 
> Add warmed stock to the bowl until the crêpe leaves begin to float like a flower.
> 
> Garnish with the cherry tomato in the middle and serve.


Beautiful dishes abound with appealing flavors. For me, it's more about how does this kind of cooking fit into my life.

I'd like to see him write a family style cookbook. But as it is, I'll have to experiment with scaling these ideas up if I'm to cook as much from this book as I'd like.


----------



## phatch

Made the red lentil soup with lemon from Olives, lemons and Za'atar. Pretty good especially with a dollop of yogurt.


----------



## chrislehrer

phatch said:


> Hunan: A Lifetime of Secrets From Mr. Peng's Chinese Kitchen by Mr Y. S. Peng
> 
> Really interesting cooking, very frustrating scale. The restaurant, Hunan, at the heart of this cookbook has a somewhat different method of operation. There is no set menu. And the food comes as a stream of small servings, diners often sharing 15-16 different dishes. The recipes reflect that small serving size.
> 
> He writes about using vinegar is an uncharacteristic way. He calls for white wine and red wine vinegar. I'm pretty sure he means regular rice vinegar and red rice vinegar. But I'm not positive.
> 
> He uses the term "slaked cornflour" for a paste of cornflour 3 parts water to 1 part flour. That's a strange usage of slaked to me.
> 
> I was introduced to a few new ingredients, mostly various pickled. dried, fermented vegetables. Mei cai for example is used in a particular pork belly dish. He talks about it in the intro. He talks about it in the directions. It never shows up with amounts in the ingredients list. So I'm assuming its intended to use a whole jar? And Dong Cai from Taiwan is something I'll have to keep an eye out for.
> 
> Oddities aside, the instructions are clear and well presented and the food appealing.
> 
> A sample recipe, Egg-wrapped Soup
> View attachment 70868
> 
> 
> Beautiful dishes abound with appealing flavors. For me, it's more about how does this kind of cooking fit into my life.
> 
> I'd like to see him write a family style cookbook. But as it is, I'll have to experiment with scaling these ideas up if I'm to cook as much from this book as I'd like.


Could red vinegar be Zhejiang vinegar, and white be plain rice vinegar?


----------



## phatch

I agree that he's talking about rice vinegar most likely. The red vinegar is I think an actual red rice vinegar rather than black/chinkiang/zhejiang vinegar. He does use black vinegar and calls it as such.

https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-red-vinegar/
I suspect his usage is a carryover of westerners calling rice ferment products wine. It may also be an artifact of older UK usage that is less prevalent among younger UK writers.

This particular fungus that produces red yeast rice produces lovastatin at low levels and is used in the traditional medicine of China. A few of the popular mushrooms do as well.


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## phatch

Chicken & Rice by Shu Han Lee

The author is again a Singapore expat in the UK though she's not as strictly focused on Singapore/Malaysia. She also delves into some of her favorite Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese dishes. Additionally I would characterize her approach as diaspora cooking with local substitution for traditional cuisine. While this can be construed as fusion, this is more of an economic make-do home approach than a structured culinary effort.

There's some re-tread ground here of course. What stood out to me were the fish balls and fish cake recipes. I do have versions of these in my notes from a website some time back, I like having a book reference for them now as well. Additionally, my notes encouraged the use of commercial fish paste from the freezer case, so I could just as well have bought fish balls/cakes as the paste...

I was put off by her spring vegetable pho. If I become vegetarian, maybe I'll give it a go. but asparagus just doesn't sit right in my internalized expectation of pho.

She refers to the laksa leaf as Hot Mint, which I'm used to seeing as rau ram in my grocers.

I think it'a a pretty good book for a westerner approaching the cuisine(s) and I expect to refer back to it again.

Additionally, I did some skimming of The Curry Guy Bible. I stumbled across his blog, https://greatcurryrecipes.net/ while looking up info on the curry base to individual curry technique. He offers some ideas there. And the ... Bible has a section on British Indian Restaurant food that is where he discusses his approach to a curry base that you then convert quickly into various restaurant curries, in the manner restaurants actually use. 20 or so curries, 5 base recipes and seasoning mixes. Interesting stuff. Haven't tried any of it, but it looks like a good method for quick curry weeknight meals if you've already made the base.


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## butzy

I have the chicken & rice book as well (it was 0.99 £ as a daily kindle deal  ).
I haven't cooked from it yet, but it looks pretty OK to me.
Laksa leaf seems to go by a lot of different names. I am trying to get some to grow here as I think it will do well. It's not coriander (cilantro) at all, but it has a slight taste similarity and coriander doesn't want to grow here. It bolts when it is about 5-10 cm high!

As for "the curry guy", I've checked the books, but they do not really appeal to me. I do have another book that focusses on British Indian Restaurant curry and starts of with a curry base. "the curry secret" by Kris Dhillon Maybe check that one as well:


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## phatch

I'll have to take a look at The Curry Secret.

You might try to grow culantro, Mexican Coriander. I was mistaken that it was the same as laksa.

Next is Nom Wah. This was one I was excited about at the beginning of the year. It looks like a pretty serious Dim Sum cookbook. 

The Human Interest story on the radio news today was about Brai Day in South Africa. It made me think about your usage of the term.


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## butzy

I tried culantro.
I know it as sawtooth herb and pakchi farang 
It grows for a little while and then fizzles out. I have to try get seeds again.

Didn't know it was braai-day. Luckily I am going to throw some pork chops on it, so I am not losing out


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## phatch

And I can't even spell it. How embarrassing.


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## butzy

phatch said:


> And I can't even spell it. How embarrassing.


No worries, I've seen worse variations 
I know what you mean and that's what counts!


----------



## phatch

Another thing about Chicken & Rice, she uses shallot/garlic oil quite a bit. This is something I first picked up insight into with Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin Fei Lo. There she makes four oils as part of her idea of a basic Chinese Pantry, Hot Pepper oil, Scallion oil (see the review of My Shanghai for more on that), Onion Oil and Garlic Oil. Shu Han Lee gives instructions for her oils, and uses the crispy shallots and garlic bits in dishes as well. I'm glad to see this use of seasoned oil come out more.

On Youtube, I follow Taste Show. "Chef John" makes frequent use of his custom Aroma Oil--a custom sesame oil.






One thing none of them ever talk about is food safety. If not consumed "quickly" and stored cold, most of these are at some risk for botulism. --Most of the chile oils based in all dried ingredients have a long safe storage. But beware if you add fresh garlic. Make amounts you'll use in a few weeks.


----------



## phatch

The Nom Wah Cookbook by Wilson Tang

Some of the books this year had some pretty glowing press. This is one of those. Mr. Jiu's had a lot, Rodney Scott's World of BBQ got quite a bit. Bress 'n' Nyam (which I've still to acquire), Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food--my next read. 

Nom Wah didn't measure up. At least a third of it is just stories: growing up Chinese in the US, the prior owner, the tea vendor... And the dumplings were of limited variety. 

Oddities

The rice wrapper for the Cheung Fun is not just rice flour and water but a blend of rice, tapioca starch, wheat starch and potato starch without any real explanation of why. At least help me understand why you make the deviations so I can learn. 

A sweet and sour beef filet of sliced flank steak.

The Chinese Chopped Cheese dumplings,--basically a hacked up cheeseburger dumpling with a sauce of may ond ketchup. It sounds fine, but what does it really accomplish over eating a cheeseburger?

Arrancini--This is just leftover fried rice bound with eggs and potato starch, sort of like you would make a potato patty from leftover mashed potatoes. I get why he calls it arrancin being a fried rice ball, but it has no stretchy filling or any separate filling at all. I think the name doesn't really apply. Just call it a fried rice ball. 

Good things
I like the simple way he handles the master filings and even supports blending them for different results. Pork Master Filling, Shrimp Master Filling, No Pork No Shrimp Master Filling (vegies) Very flexibly used throughout the book.

The Soup Dumpling is not too complex and uses fairly easy ingredients. 

It may be a good dim sum joint, but the cookbook is just average at best. There's little explanation of why they do what they for particular results. Just do this. There are better and deeper dim sum books available.


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## phatch

Adding 11/23 Damn Good Chinese Cookbook
12/28 Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook


----------



## phatch

I'm starting to see the shipping problems crop up in the Asian sections of mainstream grocers and some of the smaller ethnic grocers. Bare shelves, selection and quantity limits. Produces seems pretty good still. I suppose a lot of that comes from US and Central American farms that aren't so cargo container constrained. Vietnamese things seems less impacted so far.


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## butzy

That is worrying!
Hope I will still be able to get fish sauce.
Most of the other stuff I can sub or make


----------



## phatch

Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food by Hsiao-Ching Chou

Leading contender for my favorite cookbook of the year by a good margin.

Excellent instructions on cooking, preparation and equipment. I learned a few new things. There were some helpful photos with a tape measure next to dried ingredients so that you can learn to properly scale what is available to you locally to what the recipes call for. Helpful labeled photos so you know what differentiates various similar vegetables.

A pretty good explanation of various tofu products available, and also more rice cake info than I've encountered before.

Good dumpling wrapping instructions, bao instructions, even a vegetarian soup dumpling. 

A section dedicated to steaming, such a rare topic. A dish of steamed cucumber and mushroom reminded me of the ubiquitous smashed cucumbers and garlic, just now a steamed variation. Also a section on making some simple pickles and using them. I had naively wondered why she was talking about canning jars and lids in the equipment section. I appreciated her discusions of mixing vegetables and seasoning them free-style. Any theoretical approach to cooking is something I appreciate. She also gave a section on adding meat to the various stir fries if you so choose.

I was surprised that soup dishes extended into the Rice and Noodles section and not the Soups section. I can see the reasoning. I think a note listing (or linking in an ebook) the extra recipes and their location would have been a good step for completeness. 

Seasonings seems a bit heavy on black bean garlic sauce and prepared sauce at that. I think it's better made for each dish, plus you get more control over the seasonings as you may prefer. The Hot and Sour Soup reached for white vinegar, a disappointment to me. 

But a major win for sharing cooking knowledge and technique for all fans of Chinese cooking, whether omnivorous or herbivorous.


----------



## butzy

I had a look at it on amazon. To me, her other book looks more interesting. Very interesting actually!
Unfortunately, you can't "see inside" the book. Just some pics but they are really small.
What measurements is she using? 
I really dislike cups/spoons and ounces/pints etc.
I am seriously imperially challenged!


----------



## phatch

It's all imperial. The first book is excellent also.


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## phatch

You can preview it on google books somewhat.

https://books.google.com/books?id=i...nepage&q=vegetarian Chinese soul food&f=false


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## butzy

Thanks
I'll have a look see
At the moment I'm going through my Indonesian cookbooks again.
Trying out recipes that I haven't tried before....


----------



## phatch

I just started Coconut & Sambal on that cuisine. She's doing fritters and crackers that are entirely new to me.


----------



## butzy

I've been eying that book for a while 
Some other good ones (a bit older)
Cradle of flavor by James Oselund and Indonesian regional food and cookery by Sri Owen

Fire island by Eleanor Ford looks interesting as well


----------



## phatch

I encountered Cradle of Flavor once and wrote it in my list. But I've not found it at a library or bookstore for a better deeper look to decide about. I suppose that your recommendation will suffice to put it in the acquire category.


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## butzy

My main (go to) Indonesian cookbooks are in Dutch, and I get a lot of my recipes from the internet as well. There are a couple of sites I trust. Again, the main ones are in Dutch, but a couple in English as well.
I don't want to hijack your thread (as it is about cookbooks, not websites), so just let me know if you want the links


----------



## phatch

I'll need to see how my interest develops to before its worth pursuing that I think. Thanks for the offer.


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## phatch

A press piece on Mooncakes and Milkbread. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2021/10/17/books/book-reviews/mooncakes-milk-bread/ Not a review by any means.

I'm finding I'm not really clicking with Coconut and Sambal at the recipe level. I'm thinking the writing and content is fine, I'm just lacking context for the flavors. Heavier ground spice content than I was anticipating and coriander at that. I like ground coriander seed, but it's heavy proportion is surprising me. Lighter on the fermented flavors I'm more familiar with.


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## butzy

I haven't got the book, so can't say if the amounts are disproportional.
Indonesian food is quite varied as they have loads of islands, all with their own regional food/habits etc
Generally, Indonesian food uses soy sauce, not fish sauce. Quite a bit of trassi (shrimp paste), not much coriander leaves. I've not noticed it being high on coriander seeds (some dishes are, but mostly not)


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## phatch

Food52 has a menu write up with linked recipes from the Red Boat Fish Sauce Cookbook
https://food52.com/blog/26686-red-boat-fish-sauce-big-feast-menu


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## butzy

Thanks


----------



## phatch

I've been doing better with the meatier sections of Coconut & Sambal. But there are what seem to me to be some odd westernizations. In the description, she talks about the tradition.



> SPICED BALINESE ROAST CHICKEN
> 
> AYAM BETUTU
> 
> For this dish, traditionally a whole bird is rubbed with a Balinese spice paste, then wrapped in leaves before being buried in the earth or a claypot and covered with hot charcoals and burning coconut husks. When ready, the charred green parcel is opened to reveal steaming, tender chicken that is succulent and smoky with Balinese spices.
> 
> My version uses these traditional flavours but an easier technique, just like my grandmother Popo used to do. The rendered chicken fat with the kale and the spiced crispy skin makes it one of my favourite dishes. Serve with Red rice and _sambal matah_.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Origin Bali
> 
> Chilli heat Moderate
> 
> Sambal suggestion Fresh Balinese sambal matah
> 
> Serves 4
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 4 skin-on, bone-in chicken legs
> 
> 400g kale, woody stems removed and leaves sliced
> 
> Sea salt and black pepper, to taste
> 
> Coconut oil or sunflower oil
> 
> For the spice paste
> 
> 8cm piece of ginger (about 40g), peeled and sliced
> 
> 6 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
> 
> 2 small banana shallots or 4 Thai shallots, peeled and sliced
> 
> 3 long red chillies, sliced
> 
> ¼ tsp ground turmeric
> 
> ¼ tsp ground black pepper
> 
> ¼ tsp ground white pepper
> 
> ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
> 
> 1 tsp ground coriander
> 
> ¼ tsp sea salt
> 
> ½ tbsp coconut oil or sunflower oil
> 
> Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7. Rub oil, salt and pepper onto the chicken legs. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and lay the chicken legs skin-side down in the pan (you may need to do this in batches, depending on the size of your pan). When the skin is crispy and golden, which will take about 12-15 minutes, turn the chicken over and cook it for a further 4 minutes on the other side. Reserve any of the rendered chicken fat for the kale.
> 
> Meanwhile, place the spice paste ingredients in a small food processor and blend to a semi-coarse paste. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and fry the paste until fragrant, about 10-15 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool.
> 
> Blanch the kale in a pan of boiling salted water for 3 minutes, then run it under cold water to cool. Squeeze out any excess water and press it between paper towels. Mix a quarter of the spice paste with the kale, along with the chicken fat and a sprinkling of salt, then spread onto a baking tray.
> 
> Brush the remaining spice paste on the chicken; it should spread nicely over the skin. Place the chicken legs on a wire rack above the kale (if you don't have a wire rack the chicken can sit directly on the kale).
> 
> Bake on the top shelf for 30-35 minutes. If the spice paste starts to burn on the chicken skin, cover any blackened bits with foil and continue cooking. To check if the chicken is cooked, the legs should reach 82°C. (If you do not have a probe thermometer you can also check by making a small slice into the thickest part of the chicken. The chicken is cooked when the juices run clear and the meat is fibrous inside, with no opaque pink flesh.)
> 
> Once cooked, arrange the chicken legs and kale on individual plates and serve immediately.


It would seem to me that a covered dutch oven would be the more reasonable westernization, Or wrapping in greens and then foil or such. And I'm not sure what part the kale is supposed to play as it doesn't seem you normally eat the leaf wrapping?

She does this often, discussing a traditional approach in passing then talking about her version that simplifies and departs.

There was an early Peanuts comic where Linus asks Charlie Brown what he's reading. It's a more famous book that's been "adapted for children". He then compares it to drinking adulterated root beer and tosses the book. I'm kind of feeling that.


----------



## butzy

In this case, the kale is supposed to be eaten 
The more standard version is with duck, but i've found plenty chicken variations.
Not with kale though, but with young cassave leaves. I understand the substitution. Some recipes don't use any leaves.
What I don't understand is why she wants to go for chicken legs, instead of a whole chicken. In that case, the leaf-spice paste is the stuffing!
The leaves she talks about initially have to be banana leaves as thats the traditional way of cooking, the chicken/duck is wrapped in banana leaves and cooked either in a hole in the ground or on a small charcoal fire.
I fully understand your confusion


----------



## chrislehrer

I agree with you both. The only saving grace here is her remark that this is the way her grandfather used to make it. Nevertheless it seems like an odd reinterpretation.

It sounds to me as though the original of this dish is not actually unapproachable, as compared with, say, Yucatecan _pibil_, where you have to dig a pit in the ground. I think if I were writing this cookbook, I might add a long paragraph just before the big about the grandfather, and explain in precise detail how to do the original dish. Then I'd say, "This is quite a production; fortunately for those who'd like to try the dish in a simpler, more approachable manner, my grandfather came up with...." Something like that.

How old is this cookbook? Seems like the kind of thing I expect in the mid-90s and back to the 80s, though I suppose it also depends a lot on the publisher.


----------



## phatch

This is published this year--got pretty good press, Coconut and Sambal.


----------



## chrislehrer

Weird. As I say, it seems like something you'd see back in the 90s, not now.


----------



## butzy

Ah well, I can take that one of my wishlist 
I did find a couple of the recipes online and wasn't very impressed. Also the substitute for kecap manis (sweet soy) was just given as soy + sugar. Since kecap manis is quite an portant ingredient in Indonesian cooking, I would have expected a bit more info or at least soy + palm sugar or syrup as a sub.

When you go to the older Indonesian ookbooks (esp the Dutch ones), you'll find a lot of substitutions as a lot of ingredients wete not available. It actually became a different "kitchen", Indisch vs Indonesian.
I suppose something similar happened with Indian food in the UK.


----------



## summer57

Wanted to let you know that I'm really enjoying this thread! Your conversations about the books are as worthwhile as the reviews. I've learned so much.
One little aside from me -- I got some Red Boat salt the other day. It was pricey, even for a fancy salt, but good. Useful for those times when I need a dry hit of that fish sauce taste.


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## butzy

Red boat salt?
Is that sort of a crystalised fish sauce?


----------



## phatch

It seems it's a salt that they add fish sauce to and then dry. Crystalized fish sauce sounds more interesting, but very strong.
https://redboatfishsauce.com/products/red-boat-salt?variant=31297865777285


----------



## summer57

phatch said:


> It seems it's a salt that they add fish sauce to and then dry. Crystalized fish sauce sounds more interesting, but very strong.
> https://redboatfishsauce.com/products/red-boat-salt?variant=31297865777285


It's good! But I put fish sauce in a pretty much everything, and I also eat a lot of fish.
I just bought Maenam by Angus An, my favourite Thai/SE Asian restaurant chef. Lots of opportunities for using (or overusing) Red Boat.


----------



## phatch

Coconut & Sambal by Lara Lee 

Did not finish.

I find myself avoiding reading it. I've lost faith in the quality of the content. Time to recognize this book is not for me. 

Moving on.


----------



## phatch

One Pan, Whole Family by Carla Snyder

I have three standby books in a similar vein. The Best Skillet Recipes--Cook's Illustrated, Cover and Bake--Cook's Illustrated, Sheet Pan Suppers--Molly Gilbert

So my attitudes and practices going into Snyder's book are already set to a degree. Indeed, certain dishes like Skillet Lasagna appear in both Cook's Illustrated content and in Snyder's. I prefer the less prepared ingredients approach of Cook's Illustrated personally. Snyder uses jarred pasta sauce, bags of precooked rice and similar convenience items quite often to keep it to just one pan and cut time.

And she likes sweeter counterpoints and additions to meals than I do.

I did find a few things I saved to try at a later time. A curried carrots and lentils dish with orange yogurt sauce. And a potato chard custard/gratin sort of thing.

The recipes are all pretty accessible. No odd techniques or equipment necessary. Every recipe gets three enhancements. A suggestion for a simple side to help feed Extra-Hungry Kids like rye bread for flavor and filling power. A tweak for Adult Taste Buds like cherry tomato halve, balsamic vinegar, fresh herbs. And an In The Glass suggestion for adult drinking and another for the youths.

She varies things from the skillet to the sheet pan to the dutch oven and soup pot. All types of one vessel cooking.

The book is fine. My cooking preferences are just divergent from the target audience.


----------



## phatch

Looks like Xiaoying Cuisine made the dish with meicai I mentioned in post 108https://cheftalk.com/threads/phils-cookbook-reads-of-2021.109407/post-621210

It's a dried pickle. Kind of involved process but interesting to see, beyond just reading about it.


----------



## phatch

The Vietnamese Market Cookbook by Van Tran and Anh Vu

This pair run a Banh Mi stall in the UK. The cooking strikes me as adapted and streamlined for daily European life. The beef pho is shortcut with beef stock (I too commit this shortcut) and simmered with the spices and charred aromatics. There are also some dishes that strike me Vietnamese influenced, but just using up old things around the kitchen. Pumpkin braised with coconut milk, and not much else in the way of seasoning. Similarly, a few eggplant dishes struck me as thrown together convenience food they happen to enjoy, but not with any real history in the cuisine.

The big learning points for me were gia vi and a language barrier mistake on my part.

This is my first encounter with gia vi which they describe as a basic spice mix. They give quick mix instructions when they call for it: 1 tsp gia vi (or a mix of 2 parts sugar, 1 part sea salt, 1 part ground black pepper, 1 part garlic powder) Googling for it turns up something similar. but usually seems to be intended more as a pho spice. Or maybe as a generic term for a spice mix for different dishes? And they do use theirs in the pho recipes and many other places as well.

Varying use of gia vi
(look at the fourth product image for the ingredient list
https://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2017/05/pho-spice-blend-recipe.html
In the US at least it doesn't seem as standardized or sugar-salty as they use. I'll have to see if my asian grocer carries something similar to their usage.

The language barrier cropped up early on in the first recipe. They were talking about and then making a shrimp and marrow soup. I was thinking beef marrow, they were thinking the squash marrow. It wasn't until they mention substituting courgettes that it dawned on me.

The book's organization strikes me as gimmicky. 

Sweetness and Happiness
Sourness and Change
Spiciness and Adventure
Bitterness and Perspective
Saltiness and Healing
Then further section on Kitchen Essentials such as stock and such. I've noted before that I like the moving of these topics to the end of the book. Anyway, this organization reflects some cultural things, but it doesn't make finding a recipe or topic helpful. And the food follows the topics only loosely to my taste as well. They have a pretty lengthy discussion of sweet flavor that reminded me a lot of Betty Liu's discussion of pure flavor. The other topics are not as explored.

The Market aspect of the title is explored a bit in the introduction and then dropped.

I like the various banh mi and rolls the best of the recipes. Much of the rest didn't really stick out to me. I think I've come away with more confusion than clarity on what Vietnamese cooking is. If you want a glance in a diaspora Vietnamese kitchen, this is that.


----------



## phatch

Made Betty Liu's Shanghai braised pork belly. Came out pretty good. I like her additions of boiled egg and tofu skin knots. There isn't enough liquid to simmer for three hours, at least as low as my burners go. But you do monitor it and stir it around to catch those things. Neglected to take a pic.

There's a whole variety of gia vi at the Asian grocer. From whole spice blends to ground powder cubes for different dishes.














This one seems pretty close to what they mixed up.


----------



## phatch

Sweetened prawn molasses? That's something new to me. I guess I can make it if I can't find it. Something else to look for at the grocer.

https://jackiem.com.au/2019/04/10/how-to-make-petis-udang-or-hei-ko-prawn-paste/


----------



## butzy

I wrote a reply some days ago, but it has gone missing 
I have been eying the market place cookbook, but decided I have too many cookbooks already!
My favourite Vietnamese cookbooks are (don't laugh) Australian woman's weekly "Vietnamese" and Andrea Nguyen's "into the Vietnamese Kitchen"


----------



## butzy

I've never made petis, but I've seen it used in some recipes.
Thanks for the link!


----------



## phatch

Freddie Bitsoie discusses the stories and food of the book New Native Kitchen, which is on my list. This is an audio interview, no transcript available.

https://radiowest.kuer.org/post/history-and-recipes-new-native-kitchen


----------



## phatch

Sambal Shiok by Mandy Yin.

Once again, a regional (Malay) expat now in the UK starts a restaurant and then a cookbook. I'm not complaining. I enjoyed this one pretty well, The cooking and flavors make sense though there is some adaptation. Her cooking is the source of my wondering about petis udang earlier as I'd not encountered that ingredient before (that I recall). Maybe I just hadn't seen it spelled out as prawn molasses.

She mentions adapting dishes here and there, though it seems that using coconut milk is one of her preferred changes. Particularly in the beef rendang where she goes for coconut cream for a more velvety sauce over the use of desiccated coconut, reserving that for garnish. It seems to be less chile intensive than some others, and that's likely reflecting the target audience.

I was struck by the use of garlic powder in a few places. She lists it as one of the ingredients in the section on ingredients and describes it as a convenience and a time saver. Those things are true, but I think she has some other ideas about using that may not be fully formed in her mind. Usually, it turns up in a dry spice blend--a reasonable place for it. But the Golden Fragrant Prawns it shows up alone just to marinate the shrimp before they go in to the pan. She also uses fresh garlic in the spice paste for the dish. So it just seems like using fresh garlic would be an improvement to cooking the shrimp than the powder where we're already dealing with fresh garlic. And the cooking time is short enough that fresh garlic should work.



> *GOLDEN FRAGRANT PRAWNS*
> Whenever I'm back in Malaysia I always schedule time for dinner at Meng Kee, a restaurant halfway down Jalan Alor, one of the great food streets in Kuala Lumpur's Golden Triangle. Meng Kee has a large menu with over a hundred dishes, from which you would first choose the type of seafood you want to eat, then choose a sauce to go with it. You will also find chargrilled chicken wings and an excellent version of stir-fried butter prawns (shrimp) with egg floss.
> 
> This recipe pays homage to their _kam heong_ sauce which goes wonderfully well with _lala_ sweet little clams. _Kam heong_ means 'golden fragrant' because of the many aromatics used: dried shrimp, curry leaves, garlic, yellow bean paste and black pepper.
> 
> Don't be deceived by its ugly, dark appearance. Once you've tasted it, you won't be able to stop eating the sauce alone with rice - the prawns in this recipe becomes a bonus!
> 
> This recipe can be used with a whole host of different proteins and seafood, such as clams, prawns, thin slices of chicken, pork or beef, and even lots of sturdy veg and/or fried tofu puffs. To make this vegan, replace the oyster sauce with mushroom sauce, and replace the dried shrimp with blitzed up _nori_ seaweed and a touch of tomato purée to add more umami.
> 
> *SERVES 4
> 
> 500g (1lb 2oz) raw peeled king prawns (jumbo shrimp) - you can choose to leave the tails on for presentation purposes
> 1 tbsp garlic powder
> 2 tbsp dried shrimp, first rehydrated in 100ml (scant ½ cup) water then drained, reserving the water for the sauce
> 100ml (scant ½ cup) oil*
> 
> 
> *SPICE PASTE*
> *2 tbsp curry leaves
> 2.5cm (1in) ginger
> 4 bird's eye chillies (if you want it less spicy, use 1 larger chilli instead)
> 4 garlic cloves
> 100g (3½oz) onion, roughly chopped*
> 
> 
> *SAUCE*
> *1 tbsp yellow bean sauce
> 1 tbsp oyster sauce
> 1 tbsp light soy sauce
> 1 tbsp dark brown sugar
> 1 tsp ground black pepper
> Reserved water from soaking the dried shrimp
> 
> 1.* Marinate the prawns with the garlic powder for 30 minutes.
> 
> *2.* Blitz the rehydrated shrimp with 50ml/1½fl oz of the oil into a paste and empty out into a small bowl. Blitz the spice paste ingredients into a fine purée.
> 
> *3.* Heat up the remaining 50ml/1½fl oz oil in a wok on high heat until smoking. Stir-fry the prawns quickly until just cooked (this should take no more than 2 minutes). Empty them onto a container or plate.
> 
> *4.* Using the same wok, turn the heat down to medium and stir-fry the shrimp and oil paste until fragrant, which will take around 1 minute. Then add the spice paste and sauce ingredients. Stir-fry until the oil separates, which will take no longer than 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt/sugar to taste.
> 
> *5.* Finally add the cooked prawns back to the wok. Stir to incorporate and serve immediately.


My one other ingredient complaint is for the Bak Kut Teh, Pork Herbal Soup where she calls for

"2 sachets herbal soup herbs (I use the brands Teans Gourmet or A1 - some will also come with loose dehydrated herbal strips in which case just add to the soup to infuse with the sachets and remove with a slotted spoon before serving)"

I'd have liked having the herbs broken out for me in the amounts needed. I have seen similar recipes that use these pre-fab packets, I'm just not sure they're available, but the individual herbs should be.

Here's a list for a different recipe for bak kut teh just as an example (from https://tasteasianfood.com/bak-kut-teh/)


> *The herbs: B*
> 
> 10g Angelica sinensis (当归 / dang gui)
> 
> 8g Rehmannia root (熟地 /shou di)
> 
> 10 g Ligusticum striatum (chuan xiong / 川芎)
> 
> 15g Polygonatum odoratum (玉竹 / yu zhu /Solomon's seal)
> 
> 20 g Codonopsis pilosula (Dang shen / 黨參
> 
> 1 tbsp goji berries
> 
> 
> 
> *The spices: C*
> 
> 
> 2 star anise
> 
> 2 bulbs garlic
> 
> 3 cinnamon bark
> 
> 2 tsp white peppercorn


She opens the book about street food and promptly offers a string of intriguing dishes. A chicken satay that looks pretty good, then a chicken satay burger that sounds better, simply for the easier production imho. Next a satay cauliflower fry up, fried chicken and gado gado. All seeming winners.

Recipes are well linked (cross referenced) to recurring sambals/pastes. Usually, these are not standalone recipes, but given within the recipe that first called for their use. They're clearly broken out in the ingredients and instructions so this is no hardship, and even fairly reasonable.

She finishes the book with a tourist eating guide to her favorite spots in country, organized by city.

Cooking from this book is likely to stretch a Westerner's pantry and shopping habits. I think that's a good thing. And so is this book.


----------



## butzy

I'll have to check this one out 
Interesting remark about her using coconutmilk instead of descicated coconut!
In my opinion it is the other way around with coconut cream or milk being the more common approach!
It might be a Malaysia vs Indonesia diffetence.
The trick with Rendang is to reduce the coconut milk/cream till the meat starts frying in the fat. I've never done this with only descicated coconut....


----------



## morning glory

butzy said:


> Interesting remark about her using coconutmilk instead of descicated coconut!
> In my opinion it is the other way around with coconut cream or milk being the more common approach


I think the Malaysian Rendang does usually contain toasted coconut (known as kerisik) but _also_ coconut milk or cream. The recipe I've seen of hers on Great British Chef website does indeed contain both as do most recipes that I've come across including this one from BBC Good Food : https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beef-rendang-turmeric-rice. This is a pretty reliable tried and tested UK website.

And here is another: https://www.singaporeanmalaysianrecipes.com/beef-rendang-daging/

So - whatever she says, I don't think what she is doing is exactly ground breaking or much different from the 'standard' approach.


----------



## phatch

How to Grill Vegetables by Steven Raichlen

Raichlen has written 31 books. I've read at least half at them, own probably 10 or so. I prefer his work on outdoor grill/barbecue to his lower calorie ethnic cuisine from the '90s.

He wrote an excellent book, How to Grill that taught me a lot. In 2011 he was a guest here at Cheftalk for 4 days, but I can't pull that forum up on the new software.

Raichlen is a bit chatty and wordy. I don't mind it so much here but I think that's informed from having watched his many PBS cooking shows where he's similarly loquacious. In this particular case, the layout of the epub and the wall-of-words content make finding things a little more work. Rather than breaking to a new "page" at the start of each recipe the next one starts right up with similar spacing and breaks and just bolded text to show the beginning. Yes, it works, but white space adds a lot to readability and friendliness of the text. Some of it has to do with my preferred ereader app, Librera. Librera is very tolerant of epub quirks and supports lots of ebook formats. It will open books my earlier preference, FBReader, will not. But its tolerance means some of this book's nuance gets simplified. When viewed on my PC in Calibre, the font and color and layout do improve. But I do most of cookbook reading on my phone so the app makes some layout tweaks for the device. I don't know how to resolve this issue as its the one of the trade-offs of reflowable text. Still a forced page break in an epub doesn't waste any paper so I would hope it becomes more standard.

In How to Grill, Raichlen gave detailed instructions and photos for setting up a grill for every recipe. It was highly repetitive, but I appreciated it for those times you are just coming back to look at a specific recipe. He never did it again that I've encountered. Instead, he's tended to start books talking about how to set up and use different kinds of grills and smokers to achieve the different temperatures and techniques he'll use in the book. A Weber Kettle type grill is probably the most versatile of these tools if you're looking for just one device. Dedicated smokers may not be able to lay on the sear or hit the higher temps of some of these recipes.

Anyway, the opening discussion is worth reading even if you're experienced with this sort of cooking. You'll know how he's using particular terms and temperature ranges for the recipes. Every recipe calls out the gear and the technique/method so you might have to look in the first chapter for an explanation of what he intends for the recipe.

The recipes tend to be a bit more complex than just oiling up the grates, seasoning the vegetables and grilling. For the Shitakes Channeling Bacon, you'll thinly slice the shitake, shallow fry in a fry pan, cool, then smoke and finally season at the end. Not that any of that is hard, but most of the recipes involve some extra steps in a similar kind of way. The starters chapter was a strong start to the book for me, with every recipe opening up new ideas. The bacon I just mentioned, Buffalo Broccoli, the grilled avocado dishes..

The Salad, Slaws, Soup chapter was probably the low point for me personally. Most of these ideas struck me as retreads. It only included one soup. I don't think he put much effort into this one. Minestrone, Hot and Sour would both lend themselves to some grill time or smoker just off hand. 
George Hirsh's PBS grilling prgrams from the 90s would help you in thinking this way. He tended to have pre-grilled vegetables ready to go for building these sorts of recipes in his programming.

Similarly with the next chapter for breads, these ideas are largely well established and practiced. Good to have for completeness though if you're new to the ideas.

Things pick up again as we transition to small plate ideas, then main dish kinds of things, then various accompaniments. The great thing about this is that you can pick a few different recipes to prepare simultaneously as many grills are big enough to support the task. Just make sure they share a similar temperature and cooking method.

I particularly enjoyed his eggs and cheese chapter. Eggs take to the grill and smoke surprisingly well. His cheese tends mostly to the grill rather than smoking. I'd have liked more ideas about smoking cheese and using it.

The desserts chapter wasn't so much to my taste. Smoke is often too much for these things and the grill can be tricky to avoid burning the sugars. Probably my favorite here were the Hasselback Apples, indirect grilled on a cedar plank.









He's not done though. The Appendices offer up a variety of sauces, condiments and such. And an alphabetic listing of vegetables that offers ideas on how to prepare each in a variety of live fire methods as a launching point for your own explorations.

Very much worth adding to your cookbook library if you like grilling and smoking. Or if you're thinking about getting into that kind of cooking, this will help you understand the versatility.

The original How to Grill is also a book I highly recommend.


----------



## phatch

Rice by Michael Twitty. This is part of an ongoing series of books, Savor the South. This is number 25.

This one is shorter than some of the others though none is long. I was surprised I was through it one go.. Most of that was not to my interest. It opens with discussion of rice coming to the Americas and a fair bit of Africa rice heritage talk.

The opening recipe is probably the most interesting to me of the book.



> *Kitchen Pepper*
> _Kitchen pepper is an old-school spice mixture that was very popular in early American cooking, especially in the coastal South. While it takes its main cues from quatre épices, a spice mix of pepper, cloves, nutmeg, and ground ginger common in French cooking, it also helped to preserve both medieval and Silk Road flavors in southern foodways, as well as the flavors of West Africa, where indigenous and Middle Eastern spices had long influenced the cuisine. This is my take on this classic. It has the complexity of garam masala without quite the punch and heat._
> 
> MAKES ABOUT ½ CUP
> 
> *2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
> 1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg
> 1 tablespoon ground allspice
> 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
> 1 tablespoon ground ginger
> 1 tablespoon ground mace
> 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
> 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes*
> 
> Combine the ingredients in a small bowl. Store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to six months.


And it gets used a number of times later on. I think I'd go with just teaspoons instead of tablespoons or I wouldn't get through it all before it ages out.

I was a little puzzled by his use of cloves in his chicken stock and vegetable stock. Not a flavor I would think of using there. He studs the chicken carcass with cloves prior to the cooking. Not something I remember seeing before.

The next section largely shows heritage rice dishes of Africa and such, though in modern guise. I can see why he wants to talk about it, but it doesn't meet my interests in this series. Felt out of place to me given the content approach of the rest of the books of the series. There are also a Thai rice dish and a Mexican rice dish seemingly because he's friends with the celebrity chefs?

Anyway, when we get into the more Southern dishes the book improves for me. It's a bit of tricky topic to discuss because rice is usually part of another dish or the key accompaniment. So how to present rice recipes without treading on the toes of other authors in the series? You really can't so he treads as lightly as he can with Jambalya, Country Captain, Pork Chops and Rice and so on. These sorts of things have shown up often in their own topics on Pork, Chicken and so on. It's certainly fair to revisit them from the rice perspective.

I was introduced to Limpin' Susan, the relative of Hoppin' John. And an interesting rice waffle.

But it's a short book. And not the best of the series for my interests. Too much Foreign than Southern than I was expecting, though of course US cuisine is heavily influenced by the people who came here, willingly or not.


----------



## butzy

morning glory said:


> I think the Malaysian Rendang does usually contain toasted coconut (known as kerisik) but _also_ coconut milk or cream. The recipe I've seen of hers on Great British Chef website does indeed contain both as do most recipes that I've come across including this one from BBC Good Food : https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beef-rendang-turmeric-rice. This is a pretty reliable tried and tested UK website.
> 
> And here is another: https://www.singaporeanmalaysianrecipes.com/beef-rendang-daging/
> 
> So - whatever she says, I don't think what she is doing is exactly ground breaking or much different from the 'standard' approach.


I have seen plenty recipes with toasted coconut. What I meant is that I have never seen a rendand with only (toasted) descicated coconut and no coconut milk
Unless, of course, if the descicated coconut is used to make coconut milk


----------



## butzy

phatch said:


> How to Grill Vegetables by Steven Raichlen
> 
> Raichlen has written 31 books. I've read at least half at them, own probably 10 or so. I prefer his work on outdoor grill/barbecue to his lower calorie ethnic cuisine from the '90s.
> 
> He wrote an excellent book, How to Grill that taught me a lot. In 2011 he was a guest here at Cheftalk for 4 days, but I can't pull that forum up on the new software.
> 
> Raichlen is a bit chatty and wordy. I don't mind it so much here but I think that's informed from having watched his many PBS cooking shows where he's similarly loquacious. In this particular case, the layout of the epub and the wall-of-words content make finding things a little more work. Rather than breaking to a new "page" at the start of each recipe the next one starts right up with similar spacing and breaks and just bolded text to show the beginning. Yes, it works, but white space adds a lot to readability and friendliness of the text. Some of it has to do with my preferred ereader app, Librera. Librera is very tolerant of epub quirks and supports lots of ebook formats. It will open books my earlier preference, FBReader, will not. But its tolerance means some of this book's nuance gets simplified. When viewed on my PC in Calibre, the font and color and layout do improve. But I do most of cookbook reading on my phone so the app makes some layout tweaks for the device. I don't know how to resolve this issue as its the one of the trade-offs of reflowable text. Still a forced page break in an epub doesn't waste any paper so I would hope it becomes more standard.
> 
> In How to Grill, Raichlen gave detailed instructions and photos for setting up a grill for every recipe. It was highly repetitive, but I appreciated it for those times you are just coming back to look at a specific recipe. He never did it again that I've encountered. Instead, he's tended to start books talking about how to set up and use different kinds of grills and smokers to achieve the different temperatures and techniques he'll use in the book. A Weber Kettle type grill is probably the most versatile of these tools if you're looking for just one device. Dedicated smokers may not be able to lay on the sear or hit the higher temps of some of these recipes.
> 
> Anyway, the opening discussion is worth reading even if you're experienced with this sort of cooking. You'll know how he's using particular terms and temperature ranges for the recipes. Every recipe calls out the gear and the technique/method so you might have to look in the first chapter for an explanation of what he intends for the recipe.
> 
> The recipes tend to be a bit more complex than just oiling up the grates, seasoning the vegetables and grilling. For the Shitakes Channeling Bacon, you'll thinly slice the shitake, shallow fry in a fry pan, cool, then smoke and finally season at the end. Not that any of that is hard, but most of the recipes involve some extra steps in a similar kind of way. The starters chapter was a strong start to the book for me, with every recipe opening up new ideas. The bacon I just mentioned, Buffalo Broccoli, the grilled avocado dishes..
> 
> The Salad, Slaws, Soup chapter was probably the low point for me personally. Most of these ideas struck me as retreads. It only included one soup. I don't think he put much effort into this one. Minestrone, Hot and Sour would both lend themselves to some grill time or smoker just off hand.
> George Hirsh's PBS grilling prgrams from the 90s would help you in thinking this way. He tended to have pre-grilled vegetables ready to go for building these sorts of recipes in his programming.
> 
> Similarly with the next chapter for breads, these ideas are largely well established and practiced. Good to have for completeness though if you're new to the ideas.
> 
> Things pick up again as we transition to small plate ideas, then main dish kinds of things, then various accompaniments. The great thing about this is that you can pick a few different recipes to prepare simultaneously as many grills are big enough to support the task. Just make sure they share a similar temperature and cooking method.
> 
> I particularly enjoyed his eggs and cheese chapter. Eggs take to the grill and smoke surprisingly well. His cheese tends mostly to the grill rather than smoking. I'd have liked more ideas about smoking cheese and using it.
> 
> The desserts chapter wasn't so much to my taste. Smoke is often too much for these things and the grill can be tricky to avoid burning the sugars. Probably my favorite here were the Hasselback Apples, indirect grilled on a cedar plank.
> View attachment 71271
> 
> 
> He's not done though. The Appendices offer up a variety of sauces, condiments and such. And an alphabetic listing of vegetables that offers ideas on how to prepare each in a variety of live fire methods as a launching point for your own explorations.
> 
> Very much worth adding to your cookbook library if you like grilling and smoking. Or if you're thinking about getting into that kind of cooking, this will help you understand the versatility.
> 
> The original How to Grill is also a book I highly recommend.


I like Raichlen's books, esp planet barbeque and bbq bible. His sauce book is pretty good as well
I got a scote of his books, incl "how to grill"


----------



## morning glory

butzy said:


> . What I meant is that I have never seen a rendand with only (toasted) descicated coconut and no coconut milk


Yeah - the thing is that her recipe contains coconut milk (well, cream) _and_ desiccated coconut although she says she is replacing one with the other. I don't know what she means about the way her mother made it. I suppose as you say, its possible to soak the desiccated coconut to produce milk. I've made curries using toasted coconut and no coconut milk, but they weren't rendangs.


----------



## phatch

Hawker Fare by James Syhabout

This turned into a skim and abandon. The cooking is diaspora Lao/Thai. There are celebrity introductions, then chapter after chapter of biography. This is what killed the book for me.

What I took away that might get me back into it later is his declaration that the more popular Thai foods are really from the Lao lands that the French didn't want and (then) Siam did. That the service worker of Thailand is Lao (or heritage Lao) from this region and they drive the street food and everyday cuisine. That there are three primary Lao cultures and thus Laos is the plural.

And to my taste preferences, Lao is more umami while Thai is sweet-sour.

But then there is just so much story in the way of the cooking. If it had been about the philosophy of the food, the culture surrounding the food, I might have made it through. The cooking ingredient lists look a little daunting. Banana blossom for example.

But I have no real idea as the cooking as I just didn't get that far beyond a glimpse. The wall of text stopped me. I admit the title drew me in thinking it was about street food. But it's the name of his restaurant in San Francisco. Burned again like Night+Market.


----------



## phatch

Mooncakes and Milkbread by Kristina Cho

A book focusing mostly on baked goods, or more accurately, that could be found in a Chinese Bakery this is a bit of an oddity, but a good one. When I hear milkbread, I think of Japan for no other reason than Mike Chen's videos on youtube. Apparently it was wider application.

There's a short discussion of a few different types of Chinese Bakery. She calls them Grab & Go, Specialty Shops--specializing in one or a small set of related items, Takeaway, and Sit Down Cafes. This variety gets you into some steamed, griddled and a few other non-baked goods that cross over with dim sum somewhat. Along the way through the book, she highlights different bakeries in different cities, I suppose like flavor text in modern card games.

As she then discusses baking ingredients you might not think you're reading an Asian cookbook at all. The evaporated and condensed milk entries begin to tip the hand though. Equipment wise, the only new things are the pineapple cake molds and the mooncake molds.

There are a few doughs that get introduced early on and used repeatedly for different applications. A technique new to me was



> *Tangzhong*
> Tangzhong is a type of roux, made with a 1:5 ratio of flour to milk. The mixture is stirred together and cooked over low heat until it reaches the texture of creamy mashed potatoes. Cooking the milk and flour together gelatinizes the starches in the flour and traps in all that moisture, which will in turn give your bread a beautiful, soft texture.


She doesn't use a lot of it in the dough but it's use is something I've not encountered. Note though that I'm not much of a baker at all.

She includes a sausage and cilantro pancake that is a variation on scallion pancakes. I think of this as a street-food item, not a bakery item, but I'm no authority. She prefers the sausage to the scallion version. No you su in her version. She has a technique for rolling them out thinly based on an oiled wooden cutting board. She claims this offers better grip on the dough. I've seem similar things for roti on oiled steel and stone counter tops. And Sarah Moulton does it for her sheetpan pizza. So I'm not convinced it's the wood that makes the difference. I've never succeeded with this technique for roti. I'll have to give it a try for scallion pancakes.

She does her Mo bread all in the skillet. Most versions I've seen combine skillet and oven. I'll have to try her all skillet method. She offers the cumin lamb filling recipe. I've only tried the pork filling version before and that's quite good.

There's an important diagram on page 48 that gets linked a few times. The diagram is for various folds for different bun styles. As an epub, there is no page 48 of course so I think the editing for the epub version was pretty quick. And the link is to the topic heading rather than the diagram. Some of the other linking I encountered was to the end of the referenced recipe.

Another strange reference was to make a particular dough through step 2. No recipe is labeled in steps. The closest I can figure is the second paragraph of the instructions where the dough goes into the first rest. I guess I'm critizing the functional editing of the book. There are some mistakes or problematic vagueness there.

I was probaly least interested in the semi-sweet buns. Most of these aren't too my taste. Sweetened red beans for example just hit my palate wrong. It hits me like it should be savory Mexican refried beans, but loaded with sugar. Pineapple buns are also not something I choose. She does include custard buns in this section and I do like those.

Some good bao options, including a chicken and chives I want to try. The Hot Dog Flower buns are the impetus that took this content from her blog to cookbook.

Next up are cakes and tarts but no steamed yellow cake. I'm still workingwith a Grace Young recipe for that and would appreciate some other perspective. A number of swiss cake roll styles that are quite common in Chinese Buffets. I do like those too. And egg tarts. Mooncakes too of course, though I've only sampled the commercial kind. Then cookies.

The last few chapters seemed out of place, but i don't frequent Chinese bakeries to be an authority. A breakfast chapter and a drinks chapter. Some steamed dumplings, some jook and Jian Bing. I've only seen these cooked by Mike Chen and Chinese Cooking Demystified. I'm sure you could find these by plenty of others, those are just where I've encountered this. Those two sources both stress the millet flour/mungbean flour as essential. She instead uses rice flour. She uses a 12" non-stick skillet instead of a large specialty griddle. She uses doubanjiang instead of tianmianjiang. I've wanted to make these for a while but now I've got some different versions to try and see what works at home.


> *Jianbing You Can Actually Make at Home*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I still have dreams about the jianbing stall a few blocks from my apartment in Beijing. I didn't go there nearly as much as I should have (there was so much new food I needed to try), but when I stopped by for breakfast, I couldn't imagine starting my day any other way. Jianbing are Chinese-style crepes, similar to French crepes, made on a big, hot flat top. The street vendor cracks an egg over the top and marbles the golden yolk and whites around the surface like a Jackson Pollock painting, sprinkling on chopped green onions and sesame seeds. When the eggs are set, he effortlessly flips the huge crepe without losing a single green onion, smears on a salty, funky, spicy fermented bean sauce (doubanjiang), and layers on crisp lettuce, crunchy bao cui (a fried cracker), and whatever other filling options he has handy. He folds it up into a neat package and hands you breakfast. It takes about five seconds to devour.
> 
> You can't quite achieve the exact same product at home, because who has a 30-inch crepe pan stored in a kitchen cabinet? With a few tweaks and nuanced substitutions, however, you can make jianbing that's just as satisfying and full of textural delight. I don't own a crepe pan and I probably never will, but a 12-inch nonstick skillet works fine. The batter is loose enough that you can spread it into a thin layer by swirling the pan or spreading the batter with the back of a spoon. But first, make sure the pan is set on low heat. If it's any hotter, the batter will cook too quickly and won't spread. From that point on, the process of making jianbing at home is essentially the same as at street stalls. If you want to practice your crepe-flipping theatrics in the privacy of your kitchen, go right ahead. When you add your fillings, I suggest substituting pork rinds for the fried cracker. I've seen other recipes use fried dumpling wrappers, but I couldn't resist a reason to have pork rinds for breakfast.
> 
> MAKES 4
> 
> _*For the Crepes*_
> 
> 345g (1 ½ cups) water
> 
> 150g (1 ¼ cups) all-purpose flour
> 
> 30g (¼ cup) rice flour
> 
> 2 tablespoon canola or other neutral-flavored oil, for brushing
> 
> 4 large eggs
> 
> 3 green onions, chopped
> 
> 2 teaspoons black sesame seeds
> 
> _*For the Filling*_
> 
> Spicy fermented bean sauce (doubanjiang)
> 
> Romaine lettuce, chopped
> 
> Pork rinds
> 
> Make the crepes: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk to combine the water, all-purpose flour, and rice flour until smooth. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour (or refrigerate up to overnight).
> 
> Brush a little bit of canola oil onto a 12-inch nonstick skillet. Heat the pan over low until warm. Pour about ⅓ cup batter into the pan and gently swirl to cover the whole pan, or use the back of a spoon to quickly spread the batter into a thin even layer to cover the interior of the pan. Increase the heat to medium-high and continue to cook just until the batter looks set, 1 to 2 minutes. Crack one egg over the crepe and use a spatula to break the yolk and spread it over the crepe. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons green onions and ½ teaspoon black sesame seeds over the surface. Continue to cook until the egg is set and the edges of the crepe are crisp and starting to curl up, 3 minutes. Flip the crepe and cook the other side until the egg is golden brown and crisp, 3 minutes. (If you want a crispier crepe, flip it one more time and cook another 1 to 2 minutes.)
> 
> Transfer the crepe to a cutting board, egg side down, and spread 1 ½ teaspoons bean sauce over the top. Layer on the lettuce and pork rinds. Fold the crepe into thirds and cut in half.
> 
> Repeat with remaining batter and other ingredients to make four crepes, allowing time for the pan to cool and brushing with more oil between each. Serve immediately.







They also do a Taco Bell fusion version for giggles, but it looks interesting.






Mike Chen's version






Her fusion pan fried bun of sausage egg and cheese looks pretty good too.

The drinks, mostly tea variations.

I like it. There's plenty of tempting ideas with pretty clear instructions and very few specialty ingredients on a topic that is only sparsely covered before. Until now.


----------



## phatch

Damn Good Chinese Food by Chris Cheung

Lots of snow overnight so I made it through another one.

Chris has worked for Jean Georges Vongerichten and a number of other restaurants. He has also run his own snack shop. He's been a judge on Chopped. He definitely has his own take on things, and goes heavy on the sauce compared to most Chinese cookbooks that aren't Chinese-American. And his Chinese-American chapter really lays on the sauce.

He uses Soy Sauce somewhat differently than most other authors, combining thin (light), dark, mushroom, and sweet. Usually it's just light and dark-though the dark is often a mushroom dark soy--and that's my preference as well.

This book too references pages in the hypertext and the linking is also a touch off. There is a strange editing fail of asterisked ingredients that are available in Asian grocers, often stacking up five or six deep at the end of a recipe. I think there's been an effort at automated conversion of a print books source file into the epub, but the bugs aren't really worked out.

Lots of good dumpling content. Once you get to the Chinese-American Chapter, I struggled a bit with some of his technique. Velveting uses the whole egg and baking soda as well. The passing through oil is a faster higher heat affair than is usually described. These seem like shortcut restaurant behavior not good home technique. Also no mention of water blanching the velveted chicken or pork. Beef does need the oil pass. He seems unaware of these more common practices of velveting and passing through oil.

The second recipe was on topic for this month's challenge:


> HOM DON YUK BANG (SALTED EGG MINCED PORK PIE)
> 
> This dish is an extremely popular dish in Chinese home cooking and has many different variations. It can be found on the Toisan table, Cantonese table, the Shanghainese table-we all love this dish. It's best steamed or panfried. Given its regional popularity, it can be compared to the American meat loaf, where almost every home has a different version sitting in its recipe box.
> 
> When I was kid, we would get hungry and very happy sitting at home, hearing the banging of the cleaver on the big wooden cutting board. It was a ten-minute constant rhythm of loud metal blows to wood, softened by chunks of perfect pork being chopped and prepared just to the right level of tenderness, where the texture after cooking holds in all the juiciness of the meat and yields just a touch of chewiness. Combined with water chestnuts, there is a particular snap on the first bite.
> 
> Traditionally, many love to top this dish with salted fish; others prefer mushrooms. The Toisanese, however, love their salted eggs.
> 
> 1 PLATE, SERVES 6 | PREP TIME: 30 MINUTES | COOKING TIME: 30 MINUTES
> 
> INGREDIENTS
> 
> ¾ pound pork belly, skin off
> ¼ pound pork butt
> ½ cup water chestnuts, peeled, washed, and small diced (fresh is preferred)
> ¼ cup thin soy sauce
> 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
> ½ tablespoon cornstarch
> 1½ egg whites, whipped to soft peaks
> 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
> 3 salted eggs*
> 1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and small diced
> 
> COOKING PROCEDURE
> 
> Hand chop the pork belly and pork butt, so it's finely minced. Mix the two meats together in a mixing bowl.
> 
> Next, incorporate the water chestnuts, the soy sauce, the oyster sauce, and the cornstarch, then fold in the egg whites.
> 
> Rub your hands with oil and mix all of the ingredients in the bowl, squeezing them together tightly until well combined. Place the meat mixture into a rimmed plate or very shallow bowl. Meanwhile, heat your Chinese steamer on high.
> 
> Separate the white and the yolks of the salted eggs, then cut the yolks in half and chop the whites. Put yolk halves and the chopped whites on the top of the pork and push into the meat slightly, then top with ginger.
> 
> Place in steamer for 30 minutes, or until done. You can stick a thermometer into the meat to make sure it's cooked through and 165°F.
> 
> Remove from the steamer and serve.


Variations on the steamed patty have been more common in cookbooks of late and on youtube as well. I tried one from Bon Appetit a year or so ago that was bland. That was my first attempt at this. These others have looked better. https://www.bonappetit.com/story/chinese-steamed-pork-patty

There are some interesting uses of dried fish. A fried fish addition to Mapo Tofu was a bit of a surprise. Also a Char Siu Black Cod. Things get more upscale and event oriented in the Birthday chapter with whole poultry cooking, whole fish, lobster and so on.

As to sweets, he shows a hotcake that was a waffle in Mooncakes and Milbread. It looks like it requires a specially shaped cookware, but neither shows the cookware. The description is more like a waffle iron.

I think the food looks pretty good. It's more restaurantized than I tend to cook I think. And not all of his technique is as well rounded as I think it should be.


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## butzy

I checked out the moon cakes and milk bread cookbook, based on your review.
To my surprise I found 3 books withthe se title.
I'm now contemplating purchasing this chinese baking book
"Chinese baking at home" by Petri Kones (I tried linking to it but somehow the Amazon http link gets turned into a media link and doesnt show(

Unfortunately, no reviews and I can't see if it is using imperial or metric measurements.


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## butzy




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## chrislehrer

The tangzhong method works brilliantly with things like milk bread.


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## phatch

That looks like an interesting baking book too.

Edited to add. The two US reviews are claiming plagiarism of Modern Asian Baking and Mooncakes and Milkbread. No publisher is listed. So it looks like self published piracy. And the pricing looks self-published too.


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## phatch

I'm not getting my reading time in very well with the holidays.

I'm reading New Native Kitchen by Freddie Bitsoie. Not done by any stretch.

If you're not in North America, you'll likely struggle with finding specialty ingredients. Even here in the US, I'd have to order a fair chunk of it.

Flavors are certainly modernized to contemporary tastes with plenty of the common Mediterranean herbs making appearances. I don't object to this as this is about contemporary interpretations on traditional foods.

The odd thing to me so far is a savory use of vanilla . The vanilla pod scrapings in Acorn Squash and Tepary Bean Soup and some extract in a Red Potato soup. Also while cooking amaranth for a salad and plenty of regular sweeter applications. I've not encountered this use before and it's kind of throwing my instinct for flavor in these dishes.


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## chrislehrer

Vanilla in lobster dishes is pretty well established.


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## phatch

I've not encountered that either. But I've only cooked lobster a handful of times.


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## chrislehrer

phatch said:


> I've not encountered that either. But I've only cooked lobster a handful of times.


I take it you don't live in New England....


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## phatch

From ages of 3-6 I was in New Jersey....


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## phatch

New Native Cuisine by Freddie Bitsoie

As noted, a book with plenty of specialty ingredients, and suggestions on finding them. Cholla buds, prickly pear juice, fresh cactus paddles and of course beans, squash and corn in all varieties.

Freddie is the chef at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
https://americanindian.si.edu/main/visit/washington/mitsitam-cafe/.cshtml
You'll note there is no fry bread recipe. He says in the interview I linked earlier that everyone's grandma does it better and there's no point to trying to present any best version. Probably a good solution to the topic.

He seasons things differently than you'll see generally, even though this book is portrayed as contemporary takes on the ways the native cultures cook. He also uses more readily availalbe and affordable beef over bison, chicken over game birds and so on. I'd like to see a cookbook from him with more discussion on his thinking about seasoning as it's very divergent from my approaches.



> *CHOCOLATE BISON CHILI*
> *Chocolate has a long, sacred history in Indigenous recipes beginning with the Mayans, Aztecs, and other communities of the Yucatán Peninsula, where cacao beans have always grown wild. Cacao has been integral to Indigenous ceremony and cuisine-from drinks to mole sauces and spice rubs. In 2000, the Chickasaw Nation became the only Native American community to create its own brand of artisanal chocolate; I had the pleasure of visiting Bedré Fine Chocolate several years ago and witnessed firsthand how the company instills their cultural passion into every delicious morsel. This recipe draws on ancient tradition to create a spicy, savory, herbaceous chili with a hint of that bittersweet goodness. This is the kind of fabulous-tasting chili that your friends will remember-and ask you to make again and again.
> 
> Serves 6 to 8
> 
> 1 tablespoon canola oil
> 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
> 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
> 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
> 3 sprigs fresh thyme
> 1 bay leaf
> 1 pound (455 g) ground bison
> Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
> 1 tablespoon tomato paste
> 1 teaspoon ground cumin
> 1 teaspoon ground coriander
> 2 teaspoons paprika
> ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
> 1 (14-ounce/420 ml) can diced tomatoes with juice
> 1 (14-ounce/400 g) can kidney beans
> 3 cups (720 ml) bison or beef stock
> 1¼ cups (225 g) semisweet chocolate chips*
> 
> In a heavy stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion, garlic, bell pepper, thyme, and bay leaf. Sauté until the vegetables are soft, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add the bison, season with salt and pepper, and sear the meat while breaking it up with a wooden spoon or spatula. Cook for about 8 minutes. Add the tomato paste and allow the paste to brown but not burn. Add the cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne, and diced tomatoes. Use the juice of the diced tomatoes to deglaze the bottom of the pot. Add the beans and stock and bring to a boil. Note: Do not boil hard or for too long or the beans will tear apart. Allow to boil for about 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to low and simmer. Add the chocolate and allow the chili to reduce until it reaches a nice stew consistency. Adjust the seasoning if necessary, then stir to make sure the melted chocolate is evenly distributed. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf, and serve immediately. This chili can be refrigerated for three to four days or frozen for four to six months.


There's little new about chocolate in chili. Bu this is quite a bit of chocolate, and slightly sweeter choice than I usually see. Some other interesting choices are the fairly light use of hot chiles, no mild chiles, just paprika and thyme over oregano and ancho. It strikes me as quite mildly seasoned except for the chocolate itself. I thought it interesting that here he opted for a canned bean instead of cooking an localized version from dry. Nothing wrong with it inherently, it's just interesting where he opts for convenience and where he doesn't. I suspect the target audience is not scratch cooking foodies, though we're also welcome.

He uses quite a bit of sumac, a non-native spice that has made itself at home throughout the contiguous 48 states and readily available naturally. It's one I use a lot as I like the lemon flavor and color it offers in a dry form.

I enjoyed learning about new (to me at least) ingredients and how they can be used. It's an interesting take on a cuisine that's often difficult to find and intensely regional. I don't suspect I'll cook from it often or that it will strongly influence my cooking. But it's certainly educational on topics new to me.


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## phatch

I talked a few times about the "burgers" on mo bread through this thread. I was able to eat pork, lamb and beef varieties yesterday at Big Dan Shanxi in Las Vegas. Before that, all the ones I had were of my own preparation and only pork.

The bread was thinner and drier than the version I made. A lot of Chinese doughs are quite dry in comparison to Western doughs and recipes for home cooks might carry a little more water just for simplicity and ease of doing it. Dry is not a criticism just a commentary because it worked just fine.

The lamb was intensely loaded with cumin and a good smattering of dried chilies. Greasy and juicy like a burger should be. I would not have expected that intensity from the cumin and I wouldn't have guessed that this was a Chinese dish. Quite different from anything else I've ever had and very good.

The beef had a little cumin and quite a bit of fresh chili that was pretty hot. It was good but the lamb and pork were both better, I think because they're fattier animals..

The pork was the juiciest but also the least seasoned. If I'd serve them to you without you knowing their origin I doubt anyone would guess they were Chinese.

And now I have a new standard of what these can be as an approach when I make my own.

One More Noodle House in Salt Lake has a version on their menu I haven't tried yet. Typos are theirs.

One More" Sandwich ( pork ) $5.50

Braised pork belly choped with cilantro and jalapeno that stuff inside a pocket bread
One More Sandwitch ( beef ) $5.49

Braised beef chopped with cilantro and jalapeno that stuff inside a pockedt bread


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## chrislehrer

phatch said:


> I talked a few times about the "burgers" on mo bread through this thread. I was able to eat pork, lamb and beef varieties yesterday at Big Dan Shanxi in Las Vegas. Before that, all the ones I had were of my own preparation and only pork.
> 
> The bread was thinner and drier than the version I made. A lot of Chinese doughs are quite dry in comparison to Western doughs and recipes for home cooks might carry a little more water just for simplicity and ease of doing it. Dry is not a criticism just a commentary because it worked just fine.
> 
> The lamb was intensely loaded with cumin and a good smattering of dried chilies. Greasy and juicy like a burger should be. I would not have expected that intensity from the cumin and I wouldn't have guessed that this was a Chinese dish. Quite different from anything else I've ever had and very good.
> 
> The beef had a little cumin and quite a bit of fresh chili that was pretty hot. It was good but the lamb and pork were both better, I think because they're fattier animals..
> 
> The pork was the juiciest but also the least seasoned. If I'd serve them to you without you knowing their origin I doubt anyone would guess they were Chinese.
> 
> And now I have a new standard of what these can be as an approach when I make my own.
> 
> One More Noodle House in Salt Lake has a version on their menu I haven't tried yet. Typos are theirs.
> 
> One More" Sandwich ( pork ) $5.50
> 
> Braised pork belly choped with cilantro and jalapeno that stuff inside a pocket bread
> One More Sandwitch ( beef ) $5.49
> 
> Braised beef chopped with cilantro and jalapeno that stuff inside a pockedt bread


I've had those lamb "burgers" in China and here outside Boston at Shaanxi Gourmet. My recollection of the native version is that the lamb was both greasier and gamier, and this somehow stood up to the cumin and chilies extremely well. This collection of flavors is very north central China, but unfortunately it's true, it has had little presence outside China until recently.


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