Hi,

I have used more vinegar in cooking due to the influence of this thread. Last year when a coleslaw just was missing that unperceptible something, I added rice vinegar to finish it off nicely.

While in NW Indiana recently, Rene G and I visited the local Meijers to see what products were new to us. Rene G immediately recognized Essig Essnz by Surig, a German-made concentrated vinegar at 25% acidity. Our normal off the shelf white vinegar is 6% acidity in comparison.

The label instructions are intriguing:

Mix it Yourself: Add one part Surig Essig-Essenz (as indicated on the bottle by embossed markings) with 2 cups water. Vinegar is now ready for use. If necessary, dilute further to taste.

Surig Essig-Essenz diluted with white or red wine, champagne, sherry, etc. instead of water, gives a delicious dressing for the perfect cuisine.

It was the do-it-yourself alternative vinegars that really impressed me, especially if you need just a small quantity for one-time recipe. I still have champagne vinegar from a wine-pairing dinner long before there was an LTH.

Does anyone have experience using this highly concentrated vinegar product?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:

Mix it Yourself: Add one part Surig Essig-Essenz (as indicated on the bottle by embossed markings) with 2 cups water. Vinegar is now ready for use. If necessary, dilute further to taste.

Surig Essig-Essenz diluted with white or red wine, champagne, sherry, etc. instead of water, gives a delicious dressing for the perfect cuisine.

It was the do-it-yourself alternative vinegars that really impressed me, especially if you need just a small quantity for one-time recipe. I still have champagne vinegar from a wine-pairing dinner long before there was an LTH.

Does anyone have experience using this highly concentrated vinegar product?

I've used this vinegar before, I found it at Bende, and it's something that my in laws use quite regularly. It's VERY strong but the nice thing about making it yourself is that you can adjust it to your own tastes. I did make an attempt to make champagne vinegar as the bottle suggested but I don't think that I got my ratio right because I never really felt the champagne taste shined through enough.

Hi C2--

I always have a bottle of Essig ("essisch" is the Rhineland pronouncation, "essick" is what the Berliners would say around--it is very useful to have, esp. for use in Asian recipes. For example, if you need to acidulate a dumpling sauce (Chinese black vinegar is pretty sweet) without adding much flavor, a few drops of essig will do the job. It doesn't have much flavor--it's acually not a *vinegar*, but a food-grade lab acetic acid.

Every good Asian grocery store carries it.

Geo

I just got a copy of "Land of Plenty: Authentic Sichuan recipes personally gathered in the Chinese province of Sichuan" by Fuschia Dunlop from Paperbackswap.com (drop me a PM if you plan on joining -- bonus points for referrals), and I feel like I've finally been able to reproduce restaurant-tasting Kung Pao (Gung Bao) Chicken. How? Vinegar.

I'd tried everything: more oil, more peppers, chile paste with garlic, chile bean paste, sambal (which LoP says is an acceptable substitute for pickled sichuan chiles), sriracha, more sesame (paste and oil), increasing onions, garlic... and it was always missing something, which turns out to be Chinese black vinegar.

Her recipe is simple: chicken, scallions, peanuts and dried peppers all in equal-sized pieces, sliced garlic and ginger, and Sichuan peppercorn. Marinade is salt, soy, starch, water and rice wine (sherry), sauce is sugar, starch, soy, sesame oil, a bit of water and a tablespoon of black vinegar. No peppers, no onions, (and certainly no celery!)

There is no doubt in my mind that it's the vinegar that made the dish work. Definitely a secret ingredient.

I'm looking forward to exploring this book some more. It's got a Dry-Fried Chicken, and a Chicken with Chiles (la zi ji) --neither of which quite resembles Tony's 3 Chili Chicken in ingredients, but Asian Bistro's similar dish is called La Tsi Chicken.

JoelF wrote: No peppers, no onions, (and certainly no celery!)

I've heard this celery antagonism before as it relates to Chinese food, and I have to say, I don't get it. I'm no expert in the cuisine, but I find that a little celery adds great crunch and harmonious flavor component to many Chinese dishes. Including this one:

Delicious free starter on every table at the very authentic-seeming Southern Mini Town:


Southern Mini Town Restaurant: San Gabriel, CA:



Southern Mini Town Restaurant
833 W. Las Tunas Drive
San Gabriel, CA
626-289-6578

Kennyz wrote:

JoelF wrote: No peppers, no onions, (and certainly no celery!)

I've heard this celery antagonism before as it relates to Chinese food, and I have to say, I don't get it. I'm no expert in the cuisine, but I find that a little celery adds great crunch and harmonious flavor component to many Chinese dishes.

Is this where I say "Well, that tells me all I need to know about you"? Because I haven't figured that meme out yet.

Celery has its place, but not cooked in sichuan food. That starter 'salad' looks good, I'd eat it, but I don't like celery in dishes such as Kung Pao or Egg Rolls, two places it seems to show up in frequently. It's stringy when cooked, and loses the crunch. Give me a bok choy, gai lan, or another broccoli if you have to put something green in.

I shopped in a *lot* of Chinese markets in several provinces, and never once saw even a hint of celery. Never had it in a meal in Mainland China, either. So my biggest objection to it is that, so far as I know, it ain't Chinese.

Now there's lots of places in China I didn't go, so maybe it's used there. (Guangdong, for example, I didn't spend any time marketing there.) But from what I know, I know no celery.

Geo

Geo wrote:I shopped in a *lot* of Chinese markets in several provinces, and never once saw even a hint of celery. Never had it in a meal in Mainland China, either. So my biggest objection to it is that, so far as I know, it ain't Chinese.

Now there's lots of places in China I didn't go, so maybe it's used there. (Guangdong, for example, I didn't spend any time marketing there.) But from what I know, I know no celery.

Geo

I wonder if part of the problem is the bastardization of celery in this country. The pale, bland, stringy commercial available celery available in this country these days bares little resemblance to the terrific celery occasionally available at farmers' markets. I suspect, as this website suggests, that you indeed saw celery in China, but it looked like real celery instead of Dole vegetable-product.

Yup, I know that stuff, Kennyz. Thought it was some Chinese special veg that, oddly enough, tasted like celery. Actually, it doesn't taste like celery, our celery tastes like IT but watered down ten- or twenty-fold. The stalks are teeny-tiny things. It's an entirely different animal to ours. Hmmmm, wonder what those seeds would do here?

Interesting, tnx for the heads-up!

Geo

Geo wrote:Yup, I know that stuff, Kennyz. Thought it was some Chinese special veg that, oddly enough, tasted like celery. Actually, it doesn't taste like celery, our celery tastes like IT but watered down ten- or twenty-fold. The stalks are teeny-tiny things. It's an entirely different animal to ours. Hmmmm, wonder what those seeds would do here?

Interesting, tnx for the heads-up!

Geo

There is "real celery" that does grow here in the late summer, and I suspect it approximates what one would find in China. I got some last year from Nichols Farm at the Daley Plaza farmers Market, and ate it with fresh whipped butter and sea salt. It was truly memorable, and so different from commercially available celery.

Here's how eatchicago described the Nichols Farm celery last year:

eatchicago wrote:I was delighted today to find Nichols Farm selling celery. This is not the thick, water-heavy celery that you'll find at the supermarket. It's thinner, tougher and jam-packed with celery flavor. Also, there's a TON of leaves. Since I've always treated celery leaves as somewhat interchangeable with flat parsley, I made a celery leaf chimichurri with my CSA's garlic.

Kennyz wrote:

Geo wrote:Yup, I know that stuff, Kennyz. Thought it was some Chinese special veg that, oddly enough, tasted like celery. Actually, it doesn't taste like celery, our celery tastes like IT but watered down ten- or twenty-fold. The stalks are teeny-tiny things. It's an entirely different animal to ours. Hmmmm, wonder what those seeds would do here?

Interesting, tnx for the heads-up!

Geo

There is "real celery" that does grow here in the late summer, and I suspect it approximates what one would find in China. I got some last year from Nichols Farm at the Daley Plaza farmers Market, and ate it with fresh whipped butter and sea salt. It was truly memorable, and so different from commercially available celery.

Here's how eatchicago described the Nichols Farm celery last year:

eatchicago wrote:I was delighted today to find Nichols Farm selling celery. This is not the thick, water-heavy celery that you'll find at the supermarket. It's thinner, tougher and jam-packed with celery flavor. Also, there's a TON of leaves. Since I've always treated celery leaves as somewhat interchangeable with flat parsley, I made a celery leaf chimichurri with my CSA's garlic.

Do NOT try and use this celery in a mirepoix. Its flavor is too aggressive and it gets even more bitter when cooked.

Kennyz wrote:There is "real celery" that does grow here in the late summer, and I suspect it approximates what one would find in China. I got some last year from Nichols Farm at the Daley Plaza farmers Market, and ate it with fresh whipped butter and sea salt. It was truly memorable, and so different from commercially available celery.

Here's how eatchicago described the Nichols Farm celery last year:

eatchicago wrote:I was delighted today to find Nichols Farm selling celery. This is not the thick, water-heavy celery that you'll find at the supermarket. It's thinner, tougher and jam-packed with celery flavor. Also, there's a TON of leaves. Since I've always treated celery leaves as somewhat interchangeable with flat parsley, I made a celery leaf chimichurri with my CSA's garlic.

I got some celery in my CSA toward the end of the year last year. I found it had a lot more celery flavor than the supermarket stuff, but also had quite a bit of bitterness, almost to the point of unpleasantness. Does anyone know if that's typical of real celery or if mine just happened to be extra bitter?

eli wrote:

Kennyz wrote:There is "real celery" that does grow here in the late summer, and I suspect it approximates what one would find in China. I got some last year from Nichols Farm at the Daley Plaza farmers Market, and ate it with fresh whipped butter and sea salt. It was truly memorable, and so different from commercially available celery.

Here's how eatchicago described the Nichols Farm celery last year:

eatchicago wrote:I was delighted today to find Nichols Farm selling celery. This is not the thick, water-heavy celery that you'll find at the supermarket. It's thinner, tougher and jam-packed with celery flavor. Also, there's a TON of leaves. Since I've always treated celery leaves as somewhat interchangeable with flat parsley, I made a celery leaf chimichurri with my CSA's garlic.

I got some celery in my CSA toward the end of the year last year. I found it had a lot more celery flavor than the supermarket stuff, but also had quite a bit of bitterness, almost to the point of unpleasantness. Does anyone know if that's typical of real celery or if mine just happened to be extra bitter?

I would definitely call it sharp. Perhaps bitter is right. I like it. Bringing this topic back on track, perhaps it would be good to cut some of that bitterness with a nice aged balsamic