another hong kong style cantonese chow mei made authentically

Yes. Blog is nearly dead, if not already. Because of it, I simply don't feel like writing much, except to post the photos which doesn't take much of my time. I don't care to create video for Youtube as it is simply not worth my while. I was a very early adapter in investing in HDTV as well as professional grade HD camcorders back before the HD TV transition. That was when the media and even the broadcasters said HD was something no one will want, and too expensive.

steak au poivre - part 4

For the last club members weekend at the track I signed up to prepare the dinner. There were going to be around committed seats of 30, I was told 3 days in advance so I could shop for the right quantity of ingredients. I wanted a dish with widest appeal so steak au poivre it is. By now I have made this dish a few times for myself and feel confident that I could scale it 30x without the need to measure or weigh.

steak au poivre - part 3

I still have a lot of the brined green pepper corns as well as the heavy whipping cream left for making steak au poivre. I bought more steaks when I was grocery shopping in town. Ideally the steak to use for this dish is filet mignon. I didn't want to spurge so I chose New York strip steak instead.

home made oyster sauce

I have always been very dissatisfied with store bought oyster sauce. The best ones I've ever tasted was during my youth and only in Cantonese wonton soup noodle shops. They are specialty oyster sauce not sold to the public except the trade. I had put up with store bought subpar oyster sauce for decades, and finally I decided the only way to get good ones is to make my own.

I don't need any recipe as it is very intuitive for me. It is all about using real ingredients, reduction and concentrate.

steak au poivre - part 2

While I made this dish a couple months ago, I didn't have green pepper corns nor Cognac. I went onto Amazon and ordered 2 cans of green pepper corns in brine. I also have a bottle of Hennessy. I gave this dish a go again without trying hard to make sure I have the other ingredients like reduced beef stock. I knew I can improvise and work around this minor detail.

happiness is authentic hong kong style chow mein

This is one of my favorite Hong Kong restaurant dish. It is a Cantonese fried noodles called chow mein. Even in Hong Kong this dish is often too oily and lack adequate and quality topping. A Google search on chow main returns a lot of images of the supposedly chow mein. Most I would not touch with a ten feet pole.

dim sum style pork rib mass production - part 1

My favorite pork rib is Cantonese dim sum style. I was shopping at Costco and I decided to buy a pack of St. Louis style spare ribs. It is a big package as always from Costco.

steak au poivre

I bought some ribeye steak in the recent shopping trip. I decided to make steak au poivre (pepper steak).

char siu mass production - part 2

 

This morning I decided to grill the rest of the marinated pork shoulder. I only have a medium Weber original grill that was given to me as a gift. I would prefer a full size one but it would be such a shame as this one will last indefinitely. Because I had to grill them in small batches. There is no thermometer to monitor their progress as each piece is of different size. Once you done it a few time you can pretty well judge the doneness by the firmness of the meat.

happiness is a nice refrigerator

I didn't intend to be in the market for a new refrigerator. I did consider buying one when my GE failed suddenly in January. I seldom browse the appliance area in Home Depot but this time I did while picking up some plumbing and electrical parts. None of the appliances caught my eye, except this LG side by side fridge. In the past I had pretty well decided that I would not want another side by side again. However having recently experiencing the most common French door with bottom freezer I grew to dislike the often need to open two upper doors, as well as how the cold drops to the floor when accessing the freezer.

char siu mass production - part 1

 

I stopped buying store bought char siu decades ago. None are acceptable to me. I took the matter into my own hands and taught myself how to make them by trial and error. Now I can make very good one and I don't use Chinese bean paste as I don't trust any from mainland China. I use Korean bean paste and they are extremely reasonably price as well as excellent quality. 

pork tenderloin served many ways - part 2

Preparing pork tenderloin is one of my more recent gained repertoires. Pork tenderloin is significantly cheaper than the beef counterpart. With each pack of them many meals could be prepared with the least of time and effort. These important for me now as I have more projects than time I have. My cooking of these few years mostly have been adjusted to be most time efficiency and simplicity.

authentic hong kong style chow mein

Out of all the noodles I had tried in the greater Portland area there is only one that I consider good for making authentic traditional Hong Kong tea restaurant style chow mein (a style of fried noodles).

an anatomy of a simple dish - part 2

I made this stir fried noodle dish, using the same marinated beef, shrimps and shiitake mushrooms as in part 1. I am just using what I have on hand for this dish.

an anatomy of a simple dish - part 1

 

Often when I make a simple dish for time and labor expedience there are more than the preparation time for that meal. Likely I use ingredients that are prepared ahead of time, and in bulk. A stock base and marinaded meat, seafood, and shiitake mushrooms are some examples.

carbonara

My first attempt to make authentic carbonara. A very simple dish when you have got nothing left to eat.

mexican rice

I made this approximation of Mexican rice. Very simple with no fuss.

home made char siu 叉燒 - part 2

Each time I make char siu 叉燒 the recipe is different. Also I now make a big batch in order to save time and effort. I pack the extra in vacuum bags and store them in freezer until I need more.

hambaagu - Japanese hamburger steak - part 3

 

I thought I would write a post of how I assemble a serving of the Japanese hamburger steak. I made 6 cooked petties which gives me six serving. My technique is what a restaurant would use. Everything is prepared ahead of time, and when the order comes in a dish is served up in very little time. This dish is quite complex if you try to make it from the start to the end. The idea is to take advantage of batch processing on the most labor intensive parts.

little clay pot rice - still more variation

Blog is dead. No one read blogs anymore. It is all social and videos now. The reason I continue my blog is the photos that I take alone do not adequately document some of the subtleties especially when it comes to food preparation. Sometimes a few words of annotations help me remember years down the road of the progress I make over time.