[Sca-cooks] Chinese duck eggs and other items at our oriental market

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Wed Feb 21 21:06:37 PST 2007


On Feb 21, 2007, at 11:31 PM, Saint Phlip wrote:

> To cook rice A's way, all you need do is place 2 waters to 1 rice in a
> saucepan and cover. Cook on low heat. When it's close to done, pop the
> sausage in on top. Do you slice it, A?

I think our standard steamed Chinese rice uses a little less water  
than 2:1, but it's probably close to that, all told. We wash it to  
remove surface starch and any impurities (there are those who live in  
fear of things like rat poison added to rice by people who can't read  
labels printed in English; this is a minimal concern for me), add the  
rice to the pot, and cover it with water to the depth of the first  
joint of my little finger, so ~ 3/4 inch, I suppose. Place over high  
heat, bring to a boil, continue to boil hard until the foam subsides,  
the water boils away and/or is absorbed, and you just begin to hear a  
sort of snap-crackle-pop rice-crispies sound, and detect a toasty,  
but not burned, aroma. Stir the rice well to fluff, plop your  
sausages (or whatever, you can even steam a small porcelain or pyrex  
plate of something like canned fish or salted duck eggs) on top,  
cover tightly, reduce the heat to minimal, and steam this way for  
about 20 or 30 minutes. When it's done, your steamed food will be hot  
and/or cooked (don't get too ambitious on mass of raw foods for this  
method), the rice will be done, and nicely fluffy but still sticky  
enough to pick up wads with chopsticks, and there'll be a lightly  
toasted crust on the bottom of the pan. This, when the rest of the  
rice is removed, is detached with boiling water and served to the  
elderly or to small children, as it is considered easier to digest.  
Or, the crust can be cooled, removed in one piece with a spatula, and  
deep-fried the next day to make dishes calling for "sizzling rice  
crusts", generally soups and casseroles.

We often don't slice steamed lop cheung, unless it's part of a mixed  
dish, like, say, steamed chicken with lop cheung.

> Myself, I'd like it if while you're looking around, you could try to
> find out what types of dried sausages your Mexican neighbors use.
> While I like the Chorizo and others you've brought up to Pennsic, I'm
> figuring they ought to have some great dried ones.

Goya Foods makes a chorizo that's dry and firm in texture packed two  
to a little vacuum-sealed packet, not unlike lop cheung, but although  
they tend to do sort of pan-Latino, these are not Mexican chorizos,  
these are probably more in a Dominican, Puerto Rican, and/or Cuban  
model. But they'd probably hold up pretty well at Pennsic without  
refrigeration, especially if wrapped in their vacuum seal, and  
they're very good sliced and tossed into rice dishes.

Adamantius



"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread, you have to say, let them eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04






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