Hey guys, a few notes: 1. In the title we went with “Congee without rice”, because that’s what Steph’s friend in college would refer to it as. We felt it kind of told the story of the dish, BUT this term - ‘congee without rice’ - is actually more commonly used referring to the Shunde-style congee hotpot, which is made from accumulating the rice cooking liquid. This stuff: www.misstamchiak.com/congee-legend-hotpot/ 2. My using two small seabass in the video is undeniable a… luxurious version. Cost wasn’t too bad or anything (~50 rmb or ~8 USD for the fish), but I’d grant that it might go a bit against the essence of the dish - wanyu/Asian carp here is like a quarter of the price for the same quantity. To be completely frank, the biggest variable for me is that I really like the seabass vendor at my local market, and they do a *bang up* job killing, cleaning, and filleting the fish. Just makes my life easy, and hey, I like bass. 3. Any white, flaky fish will do just fine. Just make sure that you can get the whole fish, bones and all. Use what makes sense in your area - if that’s tilapia, use tilapia. 4. Note on the seasoning: recently, both me and Steph have been on a white pepper kick. The seasoning we went with is quite high on the pepper - feel free to halve or skip the white pepper, and serve it with pepper on the side for people to add to their own bowls to taste. 5. Speaking of seasoning, I always like when stuff’s local to where we’re living because I can just go down to the market and ask people how they make it. Always a good way to get some tips. This time, I apparently inadvertently started a civil war at the dried seafood shop asking about the seasoning - one person was adamant that you shouldn’t add white pepper (“all the restaurants add too much white pepper these days!”), another added MSG, another added a touch of sesame oil (eliciting cries of “what? How could you add sesame oil??). I always love these sorts of dishes. In any event, gotta zoom with the family. I’ll edit some more notes in a bit when/if we think of some :)
I made this recipe today! It is so good! I managed to find all of the ingredients except the dried scallops, but I used a little bit of Maggi seasoning in its place for the umami boost. I've been feeling kind of down lately, and good soup always helps. Thank you. :)
Hey guys! This video reminded me of something I watched a long time ago that might interest you. It's kind of a weird take on a southeastern american classic "shrimp and grits" but done by Wylie Dufresne. Not sure if you guys check comments on older videos so I'll comment this on your newest video as well. Might be a cool thing for you guys to mess around with just for your own fun/enjoyment since you guys are clearly very passionate about food. I really love what you guys are doing and it has been EXTREMELY influential and helpful as a chef myself. I reccommend your channel to all my chef friends who are of the "hardcore chef" variety lol. Anyways here's the link, hope you guys enjoy@!!! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-spXEqrjAvTE.html
The most striking part of this channel isn't *just* the amazingly thorough recipes, but the actual *philosophy* behind the food. It's not just educational on a "make tasty food" sort of culinary level but the actual reasoned breaking down of regional cuisine that makes this channel something really special. The quality and depth of this channel is not often found on youtube, and I think few people realize this. So, what I'm trying to say is: I'm deeply grateful this channel exists. Keep being amazing.
That's why I like this channel so much and wonder if there's any ones that have similar content for other cuisines. Like I'm assuming most people watching this, I really enjoy cooking and like to try out different cuisines to increase and refine my skills. When making something for the first time or first couple of times, I try to do it as authentic as possible so that I can understand what the dish is, then make adjustments to find out what is integral to the dish/what each component does to the dish so I can figure out what things I can tweak and what I can use elsewhere. Reading up on the history also really helps with that. This channel serves all of that up on a silver platter and it is amazing.
It's funny you mention that - I come from this culture so eating hot congee in tropical heat is perfectly normal for me. I should like gazpacho, but... I kind of can't get my tastebuds around it for some reason! It's what you grow up with and take as the standard I guess.
Texture-wise, luffa gourds are closer to courgettes/zucchinis than cucumbers, or at least what I was thinking when I try courgettes for the first time.
Totally. Luffa adds some light freshness to the soup though, which is why we felt like cucumber might be appropriate. Tested it out, we liked it, just personal opinion though :)
I'm really appreciative of the new "overview on a black background" section of the video. It makes hard recipes less intimidating. I probably won't make this one(congee and fish aren't easy for me to make right now) but I did try big bao, in part due to the overview.
I spent a lot of time explaining what each dish was when having dimsum with my Dutch friends. We once concluded it's a lot of 'stuff filled with stuff'. Glad to see we aren't the only ones who reached that conclusion!
I really like the synopsis segment that you've added to your videos before the steps begin. It helps a lot to keep track of where you are in the process and is SUPER useful when rewatching before attempting a recipe that you shared.
1:23 Well, I give a clarification of this pronunciation on Ctenopharyngodon idella (鯇魚). In Standard Cantonese, it's pronounced as "waan5 jyu4 (Waan Yu)", but in Standard Mandarin, it is huànyú. Wanyu is okay but wanyu is old pronunciation in it. People recently pronounce those characters as "huànyú, not wanyu. So, that's my information........
I think the idea of "keeping the original flavour" does have meaning. It means to keep one flavour at the center of the stage and not overpower it, but complement it. It is like a one fish show with a few aromatic extras. In comparison to an ensemble of fish, gai lan, lap cheong. I agree that there are a lot of mixed dishes in the cuisine, that would certainly would not fit this definition. But perhaps the majority or older dishes have this sort of "major taste" feel, especially in comparison to neighbouring ones? Also perhaps some dishes were added after this concept of "keeping the original flavour" was a thing.
I love a good savory porridge. I grew up with shrimp and grits myself here in the US, so I was so ready when my friend's family introduced me to rice porridge. They dad and step-mom were moving back to Thailand and she basically gifted me her entire pantry. One of those items was instant congee. It was pretty good but having it homemade for the first time was something else. This fish "congee" seems like a perfect sick food without compromising flavor. Seems simple and delicious even if it takes a while to prep Thanks for another amazing video. You guys remind me how much there is to learn out there without ever making me feel bad for not knowing it yet
Also can we please have more luffa and other gourd recipes? I am always curious how Chinese cuisines handle these, but they seem like unglamorous and/or difficult to source ingredients that cookbooks in English rarely feature recipes for.
omg why did you guys view count take a dive!?!? this cant happen you guys are literally my favorite youtube channel. don't give up!! guys we gotta get the word out!!! LETS FUCKING GOOOOO
I have no intention of making 90% of the recipes I see on this channel, however I could sit and watch you cook for hours. I find this channel so relaxing, and I'm loving learning about new foods and about a culture that is different to mine. My favourite part is always the dog at the end! Thanks for doing what you do!
When you're browning off the bones/skin, are you trying to keep it a very light brown, or is it ok to go dark. Personally, I prefer really dark when browning bones/skin, but others have told me it overpowers the flavour of the dish. Do you feel the extra flavour would be too much for this soup?
I like to keep it to the point *just* before it blackens. I learned how to do it from Steph's Dad though, and he takes it slightly farther (you can check out the braised pomelo skin video for how he does it).
Hey, putting fish sauce in fish soup isn't weird and neither is water chestnut starch, I actually use both of those frequently because I'm allergic to wheat (in most soy sauces) and corn which would be in corn starch, diluted fish sauce is a great substitute for soy sauce if you can't get a gluten free soy sauce. Looks like good soup.
Yeah fish tofu's a pretty fun one. You can see some pretty reasonable overviews in English online already though (as it's also popular in the Straits) which's why it's been low on the priority list. It'll happen one of these days though
"I am lazy" can relate there, I recently learn how to make Iwashiyaki don, basically unagi don but with sardin instead.... but to prepare the fish take bunch of works, you have to gut the fish, chop off the head, remove the spine and pick off all those tiny bones, so I learn how to do it once and never done it again...
Do you think you could make videos based on the recipes from the newest season of Chinese Restaurant? This season they’ve been inviting top chefs from various places in China to teach them how to cook their dishes. I would looove videos breaking down the recipes, techniques, and just making it more approachable. I think some recipes were shown in Plus version of the episodes but I do have the membership and I’m waaaay more than happy to help with that!
You're not weird for adding fish sauce to it. I add Red Boat or 3 Crab fish sauce to chicken as a marinade. It's weird that fish makes chicken tastes more chickeny. It makes things taste better. The Roman world had something similar and it was worth more than its weight in gold. I put fish sauce in most anything any more, scrambled eggs for breakfast, soups, stew, smoked chicken fried chicken, grilled chicken, steak, ...... the list goes on. I have yet to add fish sauce to canned sardines, but tomorrow has not yet arrived.
I liked the philosophical intro and cultural background at the beginning of the video! I'm curious as to why the hypothetical ten Cantonese chefs would have the mantra that "preserving the original flavor of the ingredients" is the raison d'etre of Cantonese cuisine. Is that just a saying that's been passed down from master to apprentice? Is there a historical reason for it?
im just a guy from diaspora but this is also something my parents say about cantonese food too, and i think its about keeping the original flavor but kinda amping it up? ive never interpreted that saying as being like. dont season your food its more like. we have good flavors that exist already in the main part of the dish and you just kinda make it More.
@@terriblepuns Interesting, thanks! I guess that's the trick to making good food in general, regardless of what region you're in. A good mantra to follow (even if it doesn't necessarily help the outsider understand what makes cantonese food unique).
it's a bit lost in the meaning, but preserving the original flavour are the individual flavours of the dish, as well as honouring the origins and why it's made a certain way and why certain ingredients pair with each other. it's not a dictatorship on authenticity, but also not some surface meaning of flavours or "freshness" either. made incredibly difficult when a lot of kitchens cut corners on defrosting, use cheap seasoning like modern day japanese factory-produced soy sauce that sours when heated, etc... that line in Chinese is 原汁原味, and it is difficult to apply in today's world where convenience and "trendy" trumps everything.
Your luffa gourd must be a different species of _Luffa_ than the ones we get in India, ours is called ridge gourd or peerkangai in tamil, and is much more... wrinkly? or ridged. The flavor is beautiful, yes, but I feel a bottle gourd would be a better substitute than cucumber or even courgette as has been suggested here; bottlegourd has a lot of the same fresh vegetal flavors with less water. You can also just add it at the same time you add luffa gourd. If you can get fresh or tender bottlegourd, you can even just boil it with the skin!
Yeah, we also get the sort with the ridges here as well. The one without ridges - what we used today - is called 'shuigua' (水瓜, 'water gourd') or 'qiugua‘ (秋瓜, 'autumn gourd'). It's interchangeable with the ridged sort.
In South Florida we have an invasive fish called the clown fish. The only way to butcher it requires you to use a spoon and turn the meat into a mush, so we make it into fish cakes. What are your thoughts on using clownfish in this dish
Because I assume it's not Nemo and Marlin cousins, wasn't it some kind of carps? Carps is first choice in the dish, but that probably depends on what the fish actually eating.
What's available to you that you can buy whole? I might get some flak for this (because they are a bit earthy, in fairness), but especially if you go heavy on white pepper/scallops/seasoning like we did in the video, tilapia would be *fine*. But really, any white flaky fish you you get your hands on - haddock, cod, trout, bass, carp, flounder, snapper, and so forth. Whatever makes sense in your area.
@@typhooonn what we call "sea bass" in Asia is not the same as the "sea bass" in the Americas, which is way more expensive. (Fun fact, there's also a third "sea bass" in Europe too lmao) anyway to answer OP's question, you may want to consider snakehead. It's known as a pest / invasive species so it's probably much cheaper than a "real" fish
Thanks very much for this recipe…. I can certainly make it …. am always looking for good soup recipes and this one certainly is…. I have a question: would it be ok to use egg slurry instead of water chestnut powder? Is this an acceptable variation or will it change the taste of the dish completely?
Yeah I wouldn't try to use egg to thicken. You can use any sort of root vegetable starch - potato starch would also be totally fine. Hell, I think a western style roux would also probably work too (though you'd definitely have to adjust the ratios downward)
I actually already have a jar of fermented tofu (I add a bit to my kimchi). What is that dish with the greens (water spinach maybe..?)pictured when you mentioned the fermentated tofu?
Yeah it's a very simple home-style dish. You blanch the water spinach, then you mix the fermented tofu with a bit of sugar, a bit of sesame oil, and smush it into a paste. Put the paste on top of the water spinach, and lunch is ready. (Well, that's how it's done in my family anyway!)
It wouldn't be close. Chowder is cream based and the potatoes also thicken the soup quite a bit more than what's achieved here. I'd say the shellfish flavours are also very different from this, which might be more...light? More fish-forward?
Yeah no worries, recent uploads have seemed to have glitchy public-facing view counts. If you're curious, the actual count is ~4500, similar as usual :)
