Chinese "Leftovers" (September 2009)

Chinese herbs n' stuff

[ts]
Ack, we haven't been able to come up with posts during this week! I have pictures ready, but they don't have copy yet. I really don't know what's keeping us so busy.

So, in the meantime, here's another edition of "Leftovers" -- and I believe if you see the pictures, you'll see why they didn't get their own posts.

Sweet and Sour Pork
This is CSC's sweet and sour pork. It was very good! Unfortunately, these pictures were taken very early in our blogging career. Perhaps we will make this again and take new photos, then post it with the recipe.


Frying of pork


left: prepped onions & peppers, prepped sauce
right: cooking of the dish


Very good!

Frog Leg "Kung Pao"

So muscular!


The "kung pao" is in quotations because it didn't turn out quite right. The dish was still tasty, but in an "other Chinese" kind of way, not a kung pao way.

Honey Walnut Shrimp

Shrimp in a honey-sweetened mayonnaise sauce, with candied walnuts. Always a crowd-pleaser.


Mama's "Si Boot" (四物 Si Wu) Soup with Duck Leg

"si wu" blend

[ts]
四物 "Si wu" is a blend of Chinese herb-/medicine-y things. That up there has wolfberries (goji berries), white peony root, Chinese foxglove root, Chinese Angelica root, and Szechuan Lovage Root.

Actually, I only knew about the wolfberries; I didn't have the faintest clue what the other ingredients were.

This page was helpful:
http://www.sacredlotus.com/formulas/get.cfm/chinese_formula/si_wu_tang

"Si boot" is the Fujian (Hokkien) pronunciation of "si wu".

四 -- "Si" -- actually means "four", so I don't know if this pack that my mother bought is actually "si wu", or some other blend of ingredients, since it has 5 components.

But, all our life, Mama would call this concoction with wolfberries "si boot". So, who knows!

http://www.sacredlotus.com/herbs/get.cfm/chinese_herb/gou_qi_zi_chinese_wolfberry_fruit_matrimony_vine_fruit/highlight/wolfberry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfberry

Chinese medicine thingies are a big mystery to me. Because of that, and because of the fact that there is no picture of the finished product, we couldn't write a post about this soup.



Whatever this blend of "herbs" is actually called, making a soup is dead simple. There's some water, there's some meat... In this case, a couple of duck legs.



Boil, then simmer. Done!



Yes, it does get scary-dark like that. Honestly, I can't stand the Chinese medicine taste, although some people do like these medicine-y soups a lot.

That's all the Chinese "leftovers" we have for you today.

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