China Moon cookbook by Barbara Tropp

Has anyone else used this cookbook?

In general, what have you tried and what is your opinion?

Specifically, I'm curious about the"velveting" technique she uses for the stir-frying chicken.

Velveting the chicken is a process of :
First: marinating the chicken in a mixture of egg white, rice wine, rice vinegar and corn starch.
Second: pre-cooking the chicken in either hot water or oil until 90% cooked.

The chicken is drained and then added to the stir fry after all other ingredients.

Has anyone else tried this process? If so, what consistency should the marinade be? A watery or paste-like consistency?

Yes, I love this book. I came to Tropp at a very low ebb. I was bored and frustrated with the Chinese food I was eating in Connecticut and found the cookbooks out there just didn't click.
And here's this tiny woman from New Jersey telling me to pitch-toss a whole duck into boiling oil. I did. It was delicious.
I've velveted chicken in water and in oil as she's outlined. It works and there's a slight textural difference you can play on.
I love her sparerib stew and her potsticker recipe from the first cookbook (get that too).
Her recipe for salmon cakes is the best, as is the directions for corn cakes.
For me, the appeal of Tropp came in the recipes, the descriptive head notes and the logical, calming, detailed directions. Someone called her the Julia Child of the Chinese kitchen and they were right.
Some of the products, especially the sauces, called for in China Moon Cookbook are a bit distracting...I have worked around them, simplifying them, without too much being detracted from the finished dish.

Bill Daley
Chicago Tribune

OK, so I read the recipe for shu mai. Looks good to me, I say. Of course I have to modify things just a teeeny bit. That is (as my students in Wuhan, Hubei Province, taught me: you *have* to have a bit of cabbage in the dumplings), I added two stalks of bok choi, finely chopped, to her recipe. Plus, since they're growing great guns in the kitchen garden, I put in a couple of blades of green garlic 'leaf' and a couple of chives.

Be sure to stir (using a bundled pair of chopstix) very vigorously until the shrimp begin to break up and form a goo. It's the goo which forms the substance of the dumpling, when cooked.

Took a couple (...well, alright, four) tepins from the freezer to put in the sauce.

Yummmmm. House simply reeks of all those wonderful flavors. Dang.

Geo

My China Moon Cookbook is falling apart from heavy use. Lots of great recipes, but my favorite is the Brined Loin of Pork with Hoisin-Maltose Glaze. However, I use boneless pork butt instead and roast it in the smoker. I slice it and serve it on sandwiches made with Sesame Encrusted Flatbread.

Also, the Ten-Spice Powder, freshly toasted and ground is like 5-spice on steroids.

Open the book to any random page and you'll find a winner.

Bill/SFNM

I love this cookbook. However, to love this cookbook means you have to be willing to tackle her China Moon infusion. When I first got the book, the infusion looked ridiculous. I tried a couple recipes using just the China Moon stock. Very ordinary. However, after making the infusion and repeating the recipes, God appeared. Shortly before her death, I met her and waxed poetically about her restaurant, book and the infusions I was making. She laughed and said it's been years since she took the time to cook like that.

Anyways, my favorites from the book(not all involve the infusion) are as follows: all the chili oils, szechwan pepper-salt, strange-flavor eggplant, stir-fried chicken in hot bean sauce, spicy fish toasts(probably the best you've ever eaten), stir-fried spicy beef with summer tomatoes and spicy basil, spicy beef salad with crispy rice sticks and fried peanuts, stir-fried wild rice with wild mushrooms, and pot-browned noodle pillow, one of the best side dishes ever! The best dessert I make is the plum frangipane tart. It tastes fantastic and looks like a masterpiece. Only use great plums in season. Winter plums won't work nearly as well. I also like the raspberry frangipane tart, yin-yang tart, and pecan-chocolate nuggets.

KatDug,

Barbara Tropp's China Moon Cookbook is one of my favorite cookbooks, as evidenced by multiple food stains and bent pages. Not only are the recipes delicious, but China Moon is a learning experience as well. I'd never heard of mushroom soy, or thought of using chicken breast bone for stock, didn't know there was such a thing as a fresh water chestnut and many, many more.

Tropp's Chili Oil was a revelation, which I've slightly adapted and adopted as my own, Noodle Pillows, Strange Flavored Eggplant, Spicy Fish Toast, recipe after recipe that seemed custom made for my taste. Crisp, spicy, layers of flavor, building on a simple base, nuance here, blast of amped up flavor there.

I think it might be time to ring up one of the live poultry places, ask them to hold me 15-20 lbs of breast bones, which is what she recommends for making stock, and have at a big batch of Double Stock and China Moon Infusion.

I once had the pleasure of meeting Barbara Topp. My wife and I ate at her China Moon restaurant and it was so incredible that, even in San Francisco, one of the best restaurant cities in the world, we went back a second night. She was sitting at the bar/open kitchen area while we were leaving and I stopped to say hello. She seemed distant at first, maybe she was distracted, maybe she was not feeling well, but after I mentioned I had cooked quite a bit from her book she became engaged in the conversation.

She asked me a few pointed questions, to see if I was fibbing, and when I said I had made the double stock infusion, she smiled, stood up and gave me the tiniest of hugs.

Specifically to KatDug velveting meat prior to added to a stir fry to finish cooking is not a Barbara Tropp invention, it's common practice and referenced in most, if not all Chinese cookbooks. The velveting marinade should not be watery, nor like paste, it should easily, and thoroughly, coat the meat and not have unincorporated clumps of corn starch.

My suggestion, cook from China Moon whenever possible, you will become a better cook, develop a greater appreciation for Chinese food, and food in general, and learn a thing or two in the process.

Enjoy,
Gary

Hi,

My first introduction to Barbara Tropp was via her first book The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking. I found it at my local public library and kept taking it out over and over again until I finally bought a copy.

I recommend both books.

I just ordered a used copy of the China Moon cook book from Amazon for a little over $3. I know some people have an aversion to buying used merchandise online, but I've picked up many "classic" older cookbooks in this way and I've never been disappointed. Hard to go too wrong for $3 plus s&h. There are about a half dozen copies available for $5 and under if anyone is tempted.

rien

Half.com (owned by ebay) is another good choice for used books. They've got china moon cookbook in "very good" condition for $2.75. Powell's, is, of course, also good, but half and amazon marketplace tend to be singificantly cheaper.