19 replies to this topic

[fireball]

Btw, the best recipes are generally the ones without an exact measurement. When my mom taught me how to make this disk, she used the measurement of one big piece of pork, half rice bowl of Shao Xing wine, x Chinese soup spoons of soy sauce, etc.

The one big piece of pork is about the size what they usually sell in the Chinese market. The rice bowl is the standard rice bowl that was sold in Taiwan when I was growing up (not the current modern ones), and they measured exactly 1 cup of the western measurement. Half of that rice bowl means the liquid needs to be about 1 finger section less from the rim of the bowl because the bowl is narrower at the bottom and wider at the top. There are no standard Chinese soup spoons, so the sizes are a little different. I need to use the kind that my mom usually use, and it was sort of (could be) close to a western table spoon. When I asked how much sugar I should put in, she said, "Just enough!"

I have another very wonderful cook book written by an excellent chef. The style of writing is not like a cook book, but a collection of essays on various delicious Chinese dishes. Everything I tried from this book was wonderful. The type of the seasonings for each recipes are listed -- Thank God! However, the amount of the seasonings to be used are .... in the author's words, "season it to taste!" Everytime I use recipes from this book, I have to check for ingredients' measurements in other cook books for similar dishes and guess the rest. I generally ended up with 3 or 4 cook books all opened while cooking one recipe from this book.

Edited by fireball, 17 November 2007 - 09:32 PM.

[fireball]

Sorry, I just remembered one important thing about the ingredient. You should use a special kind of soy sauce, called Lao Chou (老抽). The regular soy sauce are usually Sheng Chou (生抽). Lao Chou (老抽) is the darker soy sauce and has less salty flavors and is generally used in Chinese stews and red-cooked dishes, such as Dongpo Pork. Sheng Chou (生抽) is more salty and has lighter color than Lao Chou and is generally used in other cookings, like soups, stir fries, etc.

I think Lao Chou might improve the color of your Dongpo Pork. You can get Lao Chou in Chinese stores and maybe other Asian stores. I think it might be labeled as the Darker soy sauce.

Edited by fireball, 17 November 2007 - 09:30 PM.

[MC420]

Thank you very much for your sharing of ideas and experience from making traditional Chinese foods. I'll follow and adopt the traditional method first before thinking of different ways to improvise it with our modern equipments and techniques.

Regarding the cleansing step for basic meats such as chicken or pork; I thought it's necessary in the US since we wouldn't know how long the grocers have kept these meats on their shelves .... therefore boiling the pork or chicken in salted water for few minutes then rinse before braising or cooking would not only be safe but also to get it those unpleasant odor as well. Freshly butchered meats which they would sell daily in Asia .... we would not need to carry out such step since they are so fresh already.

Regarding the basic measurement of sodium level to certain amount of meat; Per the US measurement, I've come up with basic ratio ... such as 3 tbsp of soy sauce or fish sauce (equivalent to about 1 tsp of salt) for one pound of meat. We could also add in 1/2 amount of sugar to balance out the taste (or a bit more sugar if we desire). With such measurement we could do away with the "season to taste" as suggested by my Asian cooks though!

[kaiselin]

Btw, the best recipes are generally the ones without an exact measurement. When my mom taught me how to make this disk, she used the measurement of one big piece of pork, half rice bowl of Shao Xing wine, x Chinese soup spoons of soy sauce, etc.

The one big piece of pork is about the size what they usually sell in the Chinese market. The rice bowl is the standard rice bowl that was sold in Taiwan when I was growing up (not the current modern ones), and they measured exactly 1 cup of the western measurement. Half of that rice bowl means the liquid needs to be about 1 finger section less from the rim of the bowl because the bowl is narrower at the bottom and wider at the top. There are no standard Chinese soup spoons, so the sizes are a little different. I need to use the kind that my mom usually use, and it was sort of (could be) close to a western table spoon. When I asked how much sugar I should put in, she said, "Just enough!"

I have another very wonderful cook book written by an excellent chef. The style of writing is not like a cook book, but a collection of essays on various delicious Chinese dishes. Everything I tried from this book was wonderful. The type of the seasonings for each recipes are listed -- Thank God! However, the amount of the seasonings to be used are .... in the author's words, "season it to taste!" Everytime I use recipes from this book, I have to check for ingredients' measurements in other cook books for similar dishes and guess the rest. I generally ended up with 3 or 4 cook books all opened while cooking one recipe from this book.

That is how mom taught me to cook, all the recipes passed down from both sides were all done by sight, and touch. I use certain bowls for particular dishes because I know its proportions. I rarely use measuring spoons when putting in spices.

I do the same thing with taking a bit from one cookbook and a bit from another. Sometimes having all my cookbooks out as I check what seems the proper way to prepare the dish.

[fireball]

Regarding the cleansing step for basic meats such as chicken or pork; I thought it's necessary in the US since we wouldn't know how long the grocers have kept these meats on their shelves .... therefore boiling the pork or chicken in salted water for few minutes then rinse before braising or cooking would not only be safe but also to get it those unpleasant odor as well. Freshly butchered meats which they would sell daily in Asia .... we would not need to carry out such step since they are so fresh already.

Ah ha! This is the first time someone is able to explain to me clearly why do we need to use this cleansing step. Thank you, MC420!