r/chinesecooking

What’s your favorite dumpling?

Guangzhou cuisine

My mother found these things that my grandmother bought a while back before she passed. My mom has no idea what these are. I asked Chatgtp and it said its dried bamboo pith or 竹笙. My mom doesn't think its that. Anyone know what these are and what benefits they have? Thanks!

I am in Guangdong area and i’m eating this kind of fried fish. Do y’all know how to make it? Crispy on the outside, soft and flakey on the inside. Thank you.

Sometimes supermarkets sell awkward sizes for prepping for 1 person, e.g. I have 2.5 lb flank steak for this cumin beef recipe which can probably feed ~5-7 servings (and sometimes even more). To ensure by the 7th serving it is still consumed fairly fresh, what would you do? I don't use a vacuum sealer (maybe I should invest in one but I wonder if there are any silicone ones that work well) and I'm not sure it's worth it to take the it out of the original packaging to divide them into portions and develop freezer burn.

For example, the recipe doesn't require marinade and uses baking soda to tenderize--I assume baking soda to tenderize works best up to say 24 hours so maybe pre-cut all the meat and divide them to portions, using baking soda only on the portion to be consumed within 24 hours? And for the wet and dry seasoning, I can premake them all at once and just keep in fridge?

In recipes that marinade, what are the general rules for how long you can marinade? I suppose I can also premake the marinade all at once, potentially lasting as long as 1 week, and marinade them portions at a time within a day of consuming. Or maybe marinades slow down the rate of precut raw meat from going bad in the fridge by the end of week?

Interested in all tips to optimize for meal prepping to save some time/stress and curious if any particular Asian food does well to go back in freezer, e.g. dumplings and spring rolls are awesome, lo sui stock always at hand for really quick and easy meals by just heating in saucepan and tossing in raw chicken pieces (maybe even from frozen, haven't tried), etc.

crawfish was like 20 cloves of garlic, some butter, sichuan peppercorns, dried peppers, soy, oyster, and a can of beer.

classic snails in black bean sauce

the squid was good but the sticky rice fell apart it made good for the sauce but braising it made the rice lose its consistency. it was an idea that popped in my head. not what i expected but not a complete fail.

solid meal. fed 4 people for 25 dollars

I purchased these to greens today. Just wondering if I steam them and for how long?

Also, anyone can share the names so I can look up recipes. Thank you!

Bonus pic of my meal 😋

marinated chicken
1kg 2.3 lbs chicken
3 tablespoons of light soy sauce
2 tablespoon of curry powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 egg
The following used cuz literally all i had to fry with
4 tablespoons cornflour
4 table spoonse tapioca starch

Other ingredients

20g of chopped dried shrimp (soak in 1/2 cup of water - keep water for later use)
1 bulb of chopped garlic
5 pieces of chopped shallots
2 tablespoons Doubanjiang (all i had but worked really well) or you could use 5 pieces of chopped dried red chilli
Skipped lemongrass
1/2 cup of dried shrimp soaking liquid (as above - see dried shrimp)
3 tablespoons of oyster sauce
2 teaspoons of sugar

Topping used what i had

Large handful deep basil and mint which i deep fried . Also some fresh green onions

Natural vegetable dyed dumplings full of nutrition! Delicious juicy filling, cute colorful look that all kids adore. Say goodbye to picky eating, healthy homemade meals for little ones.

It's really hot the last few weeks so I don't wanna make a video showing the differences. But one thing is ace clear. You really need a high powered induction wok burner if you want to get towards high quality restaurant grade Asian food....

Pictured here is a standard 3.5kw (actually 2.5-2.6kw measured draw) on top wok induction burner 28cm diameter -4cm deep like you get around 100-120euros on AliExpress. Touchscreen is a pain in the ass and while it's leagues above the fully underpowered ones like Abangdun, Nuwave or other toys, especially the 120v versions, there's a huge step up to a 6000w (actually 5.3-5.4kw) restaurant grade unit.

That was my first buy but I just couldn't ever get it hot enough, tiny portions weren't even possible and the heated area with a ln effectively 22cm coil is too small.

So step up to a 6KW concave induction burner with magnetic slider. It again doesn't hit the real power levels but it gets to 5.3 or 5.4kw power. About 1/3 what I have seen and was allowed to use in a starred Sichuan Michelin restaurant in Shanghai for a dish and what I know is used by some high class restaurants in Taipei. Yes 15kw induction, foot operated power dial, and 46cm wok I've seen the chef do two portions at once, and get wok hei so good everyone would say they must have used a 200k BTU or higher gas wok burner. But with a little over actual 5kw power you can easily get restaurant grade wok hei without gas at home. You can dial it to the max for a few minutes to get oil actually self igniting but it's a bit of a mess indoors with fire alarms tripping virtually in your neighbours flat and even with great ventilation it will take a few hours for the smoke to really clear your flat.... What you do get that is virtually impossible on the small burner is crispy veggies, smoky taste from sauces/oil slightly burning off instead of half stir fried half steamed veggies which is about as good as you can get on the small burner. Price wise you look into about 160-170euros from Taobao or Alibaba,plus 30-40 Euros shipping, plus toll, plus VAT and plus the toll processing cost charged by your postal operator. All together like 300 Euros.

I have here now a 32cm, 7.5cm deep 6kw model with magnetic slider control. Yeah you could go for a dial but trust me the magnetic slider is much more intuitive and faster. The coil was wound at 26.5cm actual width but I plan to rewire it sometimes to 28cm or so to spread out the heat on the sidewall a bit more. But while it's easy to open the bottoms it's hard to take of the protective metal casing for rewiring the coil.

Yeah as visible in the introduction picture, you need a lot of space for it, and you will need to either hard wire it to 24A - 230v or you get a CEE plug combo so it stays mobile and your plug doesn't go up in fire... And you want at least 2.5mm² cabling or thicker all the way to your breaker box.

The wattages I measured are 500w on level 1 pulsing. 1000w pulsing on level 2, 2000w steady on level 3 then rather continuously up to 5.3kw. 500w is quite a lot for keeping dishes warm, that's not optimal but the pulsing is quite fast, so fast you cannot see it on a standard 1sec interval shunt meter.

The actual levels I use are usually 1,2,3 or 8. You don't really need any of the intermediary steps. If you want to keep something warm it's deciding 0 or 1... 2 is already easily hot enough to keep something cooking/steaming/frying and 3 is hotter than your Abangdun will ever get. Then whenever you need power it's flick the slider to max and get stirring fast. Yes you still may need to cook even single portions in 2 batches. Otherwise you end up with some ingredients burned with others just starting too brown. Say Sichuan green beans I make a single portion in two batches for the beans on max heat, then fry the rest on setting 3, then add back both portions of beans, up to max and add the sauces and dry it off.

What you do get is really crunchy veggies and meats that have nice char to them. Something basically impossible on any gas burner <50K BTU, and impossible on all the consumer grade induction burners.

What is not too like besides the size and the electric side? You really need a wok that fits. I always prefer my Yoshikawa 36cm over my Oxenforge 34cm for ease of maintenance and cleaning up. But the Oxenforge has a too big cold spot right in the middle here because it is too flat and bigger. The Oxenforge still has a small coolish spot of 3cm diameter or so right smack in the middle but that is not a worry. You would not be happy on a 36cm Oxenforge I believe as it will sit too high.

I somewhat need to hammer my yoshikawa into form, but not sure that will work smoothly. Too bad yoshikawa has no fully round version.

I've added some water boil pictures to show the difference. Yoshikawa has the additional handle, Oxenforge doesn't.

So yeah, you don't want a too thin wok on induction. You will inevitably miss some reactivity Vs gas an super thin wok, you will not be able to toss food, and you really need to find a wok that fits nearly perfectly. So get a 36cm diameter induction wok for 36cm wok. I'm not kidding for those 7-8cm deep cookers. The big advantage over the 4cm deep ones is much better heat up the sidewalls. You want it deep but it will make wok selection hard.

And why not save 10-20euro and get a version with knob? It's much harder to get the knob from 8 two 3 and being sure you hit 3. Any second you need to check is degrading your food.

So vs dedicated wok gas burners. I would say it beats any 50k BTU dedicated burner. If however you can install a 100k or stronger BTU wok burner, cook outside, it beats the induction burner here. My kitchen only has 25A-230v, so I cannot get a 18-20kw induction burner and the crazy ventilation you would want for it in my kitchen. This is the best compromise for me. It's a huge step up from the smaller old so called 3500w induction wok burner. But there's still enough moments where I would just like to have those 20kw instant firepower. Actually the chefs told me they prefer their 20kw induction over gas for indoor kitchen. They are even faster than 200k BTU gas, you don't have bad air quality and for their health it's just much better. Outdoors go gas, indoors just go for the biggest induction burner you can afford. It the pros can get a Michelin star for a Sichuan restaurant serving loads of stir fry dishes, you don't need to compromise your health and use a gas wok burner indoors. Also with gas you can use any kind of wok and showcase your tossing. You'll learn however to move food with spatula not much worse.

Oh yeah - takes about 5 seconds for my 2mm Oxenforge 34cm to hit 250° Celsius when empty. It took 15 seconds on the small burner. Even though it's only twice the actual power, it's three times as fast empty as there is less time for the wok to lose heat to the air.

Oh and another plus, it doesn't stop ever if you take the wok off. Cut power, plug it in it will always directly fire away on the level chosen if a wok is present. I think the consumer grade all stop and start making annoying noises to remind you they are on. Restaurant grade means your job to switch it off. No standby nothing. As soon as the metal gets contact it fires away.

Bartscher for example has a 5kw model. I'm sure it's good but the touch controls simply destroy it. That's why for a 3.5kw model I think GGM Gastro is as good as it gets (the one with a knob dial, they also have a touch one). Deeper is always better but makes it more problematic fit - meaning harder to choose the right wok.

My boyfriend and I went out for some spicy hot pot. This place is my favorite. We pick the ingredients we like—like beef meatballs, sausage, beef slices, and tofu—and put them on a plate. Then we have the staff cook them, stir them in the seasoning once they’re done, and mix it all together. I like to add some sesame paste to make it even tastier. We make our own dipping sauce and dip the food in it, which makes it even more flavorful.🤤❤️❤️❤️

I had Peking duck at a restaurant in Guangdong. There, the duck meat was dipped in white sugar and sauce, then wrapped in a flatbread along with sliced cucumber, honeydew melon, and scallions. The combination created a uniquely complex texture—and, of course, it was absolutely delicious.🤤❤️❤️❤️