Radish Sliver Omelet

Does anyone else have a hard time making omelets? No matter what I try it seems I always end up with scrambled eggs. It tastes just as good, but doesn't look right. Well that happened again when I tried to make this Radish Sliver Omelet. I should have know that if I have such a hard time making an omelet in a regular pan that I would be even more challenged using a wok!

Still, I love using daikon and the more I work with it the more versatile I can see that it is. I mean radish and eggs? Normally not something I would salivate for but since I know the daikon has a mild flavor I thought I'd give it a try. And I'm glad I did because this is a nice, light omelet that is even kind of fresh in flavor. Perfect for lunch! And speaking of lunch, even though I originally made this for dinner, I had the leftovers cold, right out of the fridge, with an English muffin and it was awesome!

Radish Sliver Omelet luo bu si jian dan 10 oz. Asian radish (daikon) salt and pepper 4 eggs 5 scallions, green parts only, finely sliced 3 Tbsp. peanut oil

Cut the radish into very thin slices, and then in very fin slivers. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt, mix well, and leave for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the eggs with salt to taste. Add the sliced scallions and set aside.

Squeeze as much water as possible out of the radish slivers.

Heat the peanut oil in a wok or skillet over a high flame. Add the radish slivers and stir-fry for a few minutes to dry out some of the remaining moisture. Turn the heat down a little, add the eggs and mix gently to incorporate. As the omelet cooks, gently push in from the edge so the egg forms soft, loose folds. When the underside is golden, turn the omelet over and fry the other side until also golden. Serve with a sprinkling of pepper to taste.

Peruvian-Style Fried Rice

Jaden of Steamy Kitchen recently posted Meat Fried Rice - Four Ways which really got me thinking about how versatile fried rice can be. When I saw this recipe for Peruvian-Style Fried Rice in the May, 2008 issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray Magazine I knew I wanted to give it a try. Anything with shrimp and chorizo sounds good to me. This recipe takes a traditional Chinese dish and gives it a Latin spin.

One warning I have for you if you make this recipe is that a large skillet is simply not large enough. I used a large skillet and it was filled up with the onion, shrimp and chorizo. There was no room for the rice! I ended up using a large dutch oven and that worked out really well.

This recipe yields a HUGE quantity - I have enough for about 6 meals for myself here. The nice thing is that it reheats really well. But one can only eat so much of the same thing! The doggies are loving the fact that I have so much left over because they get it (it's not spicy, just a bit rich, but so far so good).

Peruvian-Style Fried Rice Serves 6 Cooking spray 2 large eggs, beaten 3 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil 1 lb. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined 2 cups chopped chorizo (about 8 oz.) 1 onion, cut into 1/2-inch pieces 4 cups cooked white rice, cooled 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 Tbsp. sherry Chopped cilantro, for garnish

Heat a medium nonstick skillet over high heat and coat with cooking spray. Pour half of the eggs into the pan, swirling to coat the bottom, and let cook until set, about 1 minute. Remove the skillet from the heat, flip the eggs and cook for 1 minute more. Transfer the egg "tortilla" to a cutting board and repeat the process with the cooking spray and the remaining egg. Roll up each egg "tortilla" and slice crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick strips.

In a large skillet, heat the sesame oil over high heat. Add the shrimp, chorizo and onion and cook, stirring, until the shrimp is just opaque, 1 to 2 minutes. Mix in the rice, soy sauce and sherry. Cook until heated through. Stir in the egg strips and top with cilantro.

Dinner for a Chinese New Year

I made a small feast for dinner tonight. My CSA box contained bok choy and snow peas so I found two recipes to use these fresh vegetables. Since it is Chinese New Year's I turned to My China and Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong. She is one of my favorite Asian cookbook authors.

The shrimp in the picture is with a packaged sauce that I got at the Asian market. Basically just stir fry the shrimp with the sauce. But with the veggies I got to make my own sauces. I love playing with Asian ingredients and I think they both turned out well.

Stir-Fried Snow Peas with Garlic 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil 1/2 tsp. sea salt 8 oz. snow peas, trimmed 4 garlic cloves, roughly crushed 1/2 tsp. brown sugar 1/2 cup chicken stock or water 1/4 tsp. sesame oil Heat vegetable oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add salt and snow peas and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute, stirring constantly to ensure garlic does not burn. Add sugar and stir-fry for 10 seconds. Pour in stock or water and simmer for 2 minutes or until snow peas are tender. Lastly, stir through sesame oil and serve immediately.

Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce 1 bunch bok choy, cores removed 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil 2 Tbsp. oyster sauce dash of sesame oil 1 Tbsp. peanut oil Separate bok choy leaves and wash thoroughly. Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Stir vegetable oil, add bok choy and simmer until bok choy i sbright green and tender - this should take about 1 minute. Using tongs, immediately remove bok choy from water and place on a platter. Drizzle with oyster sauce and sesame oil. Heat peanut oil in a small frying pan until moderately hot and carefully pour over bok choy. Serve immediately.

Mongolian Beef

I've never had Mongolian Beef with ground beef before, but that is exactly what Kylie Kwong suggests in her recipe for it in her Simply Chinese Cooking cookbook. I would prefer to learn a recipe using flank steak or something similar to what I get when I order Chinese takeout, but I agree with Kylie, the ground beef gives this dish a light texture and it hold the flavor really well. I don't think it tasted the same as it does when I order takeout, but I liked it anyways.

This is a dish I think everyone will love. It's kind of like tacos. Just good flavor with ground beef. In fact, I used the leftovers for some breakfast tacos. So I crossed cuisines from asian stir-fry over to tex-mex. It seems like you can put anything in breakfast tacos, so I thought "why not"? I scrambled a few eggs and then mixed in the leftovers while reheating and then wrapped them up in a flour tortilla. It was really good. Look for a roundup of this month's Leftover Tuesdays at ceres & bacchus next week.

Mongolian Beef (serves 4) 1 lb. 4 oz. quality ground beef 5 cups finely shredded Chinese cabbage 2 teaspoons sea salt 1/4 cup vegetable oil 2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce 1 tablespoon oyster sauce 1 teaspoon malt vinegar 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil 1 small carrot, peeled and finely sliced 1/2 medium-sized red pepper, finely sliced 3/4 cup finely sliced scallions Marinade: 2 tablespoons shao hsing wine or dry sherry 1 tablespoon light soy sauce 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 tablespoon finely diced ginger 3 garlic cloves, finely diced 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Combine ground beef with marinade ingredients in a large bowl, cover, and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, place cabbage and salt in a large bowl, mixing together well with your hands to combine. Stand for 15 minutes then rinse under cold water and drain. Use your hands to squeeze out any excess liquid.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add half the marinated beef and stir-fry for 30 seconds, breaking up any lumps with a wok spoon. Remove from the wok with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add remaining oil to hot wok, stir in remaining beef and cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Return reserved beef mixture to the wok with wine or sherry, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, vinegar and sesame oil and stir-fry for 30 seconds.

Toss in reserved cabbage, carrot and pepper and stir-fry for a further minute. Stir through scallions, reserving just a little to garnish, and remove from heat.

Spoon beef into a serving bowl, sprinkle with remaining scallions and serve.

Ming's Mom's 3-2-1 Shrimp

I've been really into Simply Ming lately. I started recording it everyday and then having a Simply Ming marathon on weekends. I love the format of the show. He prepares on "master recipe", which is usually some type of sauce, and then he prepares three recipes using that sauce. In addition, he asks one guest chef to prepare one of their own meals using that sauce. Everyone from Rick Bayless to Sara Moulton to the Two Hot Tamales have appeared on his show.

I decided to make Ming's 3-2-1 Saute Sauce and his Mom's 3-2-1 Shrimp. On the same episode he also used the sauce to make Seared Monkfish with Sweet Onions and Peppers and Crispy Chicken Livers and Scallions. Emeril Lagasse was the guest chef and he made Sauteed Shrimp and Udon Noodles.

The sauce is so yummy! It took a while to prepare because you have to reduce it. But it is super easy to prepare and would be good with any stir-fry. I hope I have to time to try out one of the other recipes or do something else with the leftover sauce.

Dong'an Chicken

Fuchsia Dunlap, author of Revolutionary Chinese Cooking, states that Dong'an Chicken is one of Hunan's most famous dishes and may date back as far as the 8th century, during the Tang Dynasty. According to legend, it was invented by three old ladies who ran a restaurant.

One evening, so the story goes, some merchants called and demanded dinner at a time when the women had sold out of almost everything, so they had to slaughter a couple of chickens and rustle up a new dish on the spot. The resulting recipe was so extraordinarily delicious that the merchants spread the word far and wide, and the dish entered the canon of classic Hunan delicacies.

Unfortunately, this did not turn out as well as many of the other recipes I have tried from Revolutionary Chinese Cooking. But that is my own fault. The recipe clearly lists a free-range or corn-fed chicken. I couldn't find one so I just bought a regular chicken. To me it tasted like plain boiled chicken, which is kind of boring. I wanted there to be a bunch more sauce. I was surprised since all the other recipes in this book have been so amazing, but then I realized that if I would have used a free-range chicken it would have made all the difference. This dish uses such simple seasonings that the taste of the chicken itself is really the highlight. I can't wait to try it again, this time with a fresh chicken!

Dong'an Chicken dong an zi ji About 4 qt. water or chicken stock 1 free-range or corn-fed chicken, about 2 3/4 lbs. 1 3/4-inch piece fresh ginger, unpeeled 3 scallions 1 fresh red chili 3 dried chilies (optional) 2 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine 2 Tbsp. clear rice vinegar 1/2 tsp. Sichuan pepper oil or 1/2 tsp. whole Sichuan pepper Salt to taste 1 tsp. sesame oil 4 Tbsp. lard or peanut oil for cooking

Bring the water or stock to boil in a large saucepan over a high flame. Add the chicken and return the liquid to a boil, skimming the surface as necessary. Crush half the ginger and one scallion with the flat side of a cleaver or heavy object, then add to the pan with the chicken. Reduce the heat and poach the chicken for 10 minutes. Remove the chicken from the cooking liquid and allow it to cool; reserve the cooking liquid. The chicken should be about three-quarters cooked.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the flesh from the carcass and cut as far as possible into bite-size strips, along the grain of the meat.

Cut the fresh chili in half lengthwise and discard the seeds and pithy part, then cut into very fin slivers about 1 1/2 inches long. Peel the remaining ginger and cut it into slices and then slivers similar to the chili. Cut the green parts off the remaining 2 scallions into slivers of a similar length; set aside.

Heat the wok over a high flame until smoke rises, then add the lard or peanut oil and swirl around. When the oil is warming up but before it is smoking hot, add the fresh chilies and ginger, along with the dried chilies and Sichuan pepper, if using, and stir-fry until fragrant, taking care that the seasonings do not take color or burn.

Add the chicken and continue to stir-fry. Splash the Shaoxing wine around the edges of the chicken. Add the vinegar, Sichuan pepper oil, if using, and salt to taste. Add up to 1/2 cup of the chicken poaching liquid (if the chicken is very juicy no additional liquid will be necessary), bring to a boil and then turn the heat down a little and simmer briefly to allow the flavors to penetrate the chicken, spooning the liquid over.

Add the potato flour mixture to the liquid and stir as the sauce thickens. Throw in the scallion greens and stir a few times. Remove from heat and stir in the sesame oil. Serve.

Stir-Fried Noodles with Chicken Slivers

I had a little bit of a hard time with this recipe for Stir-Fried Noodles with Chicken Slivers from the Revolutionary Chinese Cooking cookbook. It was because of the noodles. I found Ho Fun Rice Noodles at the Asian market. They are dried and in one of the many noodle packages you have to look through. This package is mint green colored. The recipe instructions mention "soaking" the noodles but I chose to follow the instructions on the noodle package to cook them first. I think this is what you need to because I don't think you can stir fry them without them being cooked. Does anyone one know the traditional way to stir-fry noodles?

My noodles stuck to my wok. It was hard to stir-fry them. I was able to save most of them but then I had to completely clean out my entire wok before re-heating and cooking the rest of the dinner.

The end result is really tasty though. I like the "chicken slivers" but cutting up the chicken in really long and thin strips. I brought the leftover for lunch and my friend enjoyed it too. I was a little concerned it would be too oily, but it reheated just fine.

If you can find Ho Fun noodles, definitely give this one a try!

Stir-Fried Noodles with Chicken Slivers ji si chao fen 2 boneless chicken breast halves (12 oz. total) 4 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked for 30 minutes in hot water from the kettle 1 1/2 lb. soaked Ho Fun Rice Noodles (about 5 oz. dry) 3 scallions, green parts only 2 tsp. finely chopped fresh ginger 2 tsp. finely chopped garlic 2 tsp. chopped salted chiles (can substitute Sambal Oelek) 2 tsp. soy sauce Salt and White Pepper 5 oz. bean sprouts 2 tsp. soy sauce Salt and white pepper 5 oz. fresh bean sprouts 1 tsp. sesame oil 5 Tbsp. peanut oil for cooking for the marinade: 1/2 tsp. salt 2 tsp. light soy sauce 1 1/2 tsp. potato flour (can sub cornstarch) 1 tsp. Shaoxing wine 1 Tbsp. Water

Cut the chicken breasts along the grain of the meat into fine slivers. Place a bowl with the marinade ingredients and mix well; set aside.

Drain the mushrooms, squeeze dry, and remove the stems, then cut into fine slices. Cut the scallion greens into thin slivers about 1 1/2 inches long; set aside.

Heat the wok over a high flame until smoke rises, then add 3 tablespoons of the oil and swirl around. Add the drained noodles and stir-fry until hot and fragrant; set aside. (If you have deep-frying oil at hand, you can deep-fry instead, which is faster.)

Rinse the wok if necessary, then reheat with 2 tablespoons fresh oil. Add the chicken slivers and stir-fry until they separate. Add the ginger, garlic, salted chiles, and mushrooms and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the hot noodles and continue to stir-fry, adding the soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste.

Stir in the bean sprouts and stir-fry until they are piping hot. Finally, add the scallion greens, stir-fry a few times, then remove from the heat, and stir in the sesame oil. Serve immediately.

Variations: The same dish can be made with egg noodles, and you can use pork slivers instead of chicken if you prefer, or a mixture of mushrooms if you are vegetarian.

Junshan Chicken with Silver-Needle Tea

Ah, back in my kitchen after vacation. I couldn't wait to get back to my Revolutionary Chinese Cooking cookbook. Tonight I made Junshan Chicken with Silver-Needle Tea. It looks bland because it is so white, but it is delicately tasteful. There is a slight tea flavored sauce which seems to enhance the tender chicken. I didn't want to eat this with rice because I didn't want the rice to over power the natural flavoring.

I have never prepared a food recipe with tea before, but it has been on my list of things to do. I visited Teavana this past week and purchased several types of loose teas, including silver needle (which is known to have a high amount of antioxidants).

Many of the recipes in this cookbook call for chicken with the skin on. I can not find it anywhere, be it the thigh or the breast meat. It's boneless and skinless or boned and with skin. So I either have to make the recipe without the skin or mess around cutting it up. Tonight I went with the boneless chicken so there is no skin. And it still tasted great.

This was a fun recipe for me to prepare. I liked that I got to "wash" the tea as I have seen in tea ceremonies. And it was also fun to "double" fry the chicken by cooking it twice. It probably isn't that good for the waist-line though because of all that peanut oil.

Junshan Chicken with Silver-Needle Tea jun shan ji pian 2 boneless chicken breast halves with skin 1 Tbsp. Chinese Yellow or Green Tea Leaves Salt 1/2 tsp. sesame oil 1 1/4 cup peanut oil for cooking for the marinade: 1/4 tsp. salt 2 tsp. Shaoxing wine 1 Tbsp. potato flour 1 large egg white

Holding your knife at an angle to the board, cut the chicken into thin slices. Put the slices in a bowl, add the marinade ingredients, and mix well. If there is any excess egg white that does not cling to the chicken, discard it.

Bring a kettle of water to a boil, and then let the water cool to 176 degrees before pouring 1/2 cups over the tea leaves. Strain off the water immediately, then add 5 tablespoons fresh water at the same temperature to the leaves, and leave to infuse.

Heat the oil over a medium flame until it reaches 275 degrees. Add the chicken nd swiftly separate the slices with a pair of chopsticks. When the chicken slices are pale but not completely cooked, remove them with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Drain off all but 3 tablespoons oil and return the wok to a high flame. Add the chicken and salt to taste and stir-fry. When the chicken and salt to taste and stir-fry. When the chicken is just cooked, pour in the tea infusion, leaves and all, and when the liquid boils, add the potato-flour misture and stir as it thickens the juices. Immediately remove from the heat, stir in the sesame oil, and serve.

#49: Fragrant-and-Hot Tiger Prawns

Another great meal I owe to my project to taste all the foods on Food & Wine's 100 Tastes to Try in 2007 list. #49 Hot Hunan Shrimp references the Revolutionary Chinese Cooking cookbook.

British cookbook author Fuchsia Dunlop was the first foreigner—and one of only four women in her class—to study full-time at China’s leading culinary school, the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. In February, she’ll publish her second book, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, about Hunan culture and cuisine. This stir-fried shrimp, like most of her recipes, is remarkably doable—and bracingly spicy.

The only problem I have with this book being on the list as it specifies Hot Hunan Shrimp as #49 and there are only 3 shrimp recipes in the entire book: Fisherman's Shrimp with Chinese Chives, Fragrant-and-Hot Tiger Prawns, and Noodles with Fresh Shrimp and Baby Greens. I decided to try the Fragrant-and-Hot Tiger Prawns because it seems to be the "hottest" of the three. And it was delicious!

One thing to note is that the cooking is SUPER-FAST. I had to read the recipe a few times so I could remember everything I was supposed to do before I started. I still had to glance back at the book now and then, but the recipe is pretty simple and it kind of cooked itself.

I really want to dive into this book alot more. But I have some family coming into town and we are going to be out and about for an entire week. I probably won't even cook at all. So I'm using this as my bed-time reading. It's really interesting to learn all about the Hunan way of cooking.

Fragrant-and-Hot Tiger Prawns xiang la xia 1 lb. tiger prawns or jumbo shrimp, thawed if frozen 1/2 tsp. salt 1 Tbsp. Shaoxing wine 1 tsp. finely chopped fresh ginger 1 tsp. finely chopped garlic 1 tsp. chili bean paste 1 tsp. chopped salted chiles 3 Tbsp. water 1/4 tsp. dark soy sauce 2 scallions, green parts only, finely sliced 1 Tbsp. finely chopped red bell pepper 1 tsp. sesame oil 1 cup peanut oil for cooking

Cut the heads off the prawns or shrimp, and remove the legs. Remove as much of their dark veins as possible.

Heat the oil in a wok over a high flame until it reaches 350 degrees. Shake the prawns dry. Tip them into the wok and deep-fry for less than 30 seconds, until they have turned pink and are partially cooked. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Pour off all but 3 tablespoons of the oil, and return the wok to a medium flame. Add the ginger, garlic, chili bean paste, and chopped salted chiles and stir-fry until the oil is wonderfully fragrant and stained a deep red by the chiles. Add the water and dark soy sauce and bring to a boil.

Add the prawns and then cook over a high flame to reduce the sauce, stirring constantly. When the water in the sauce has evaporated, add the scallions and bell pepper to give them a lick of heat. You should smell the fragrance of the onions after a few seconds, at which point remove the wok from the heat, stir in the sesame oil and serve.

Numbing and Hot Chicken

I'm in love! In love with another cookbook. Thankfully my current favorite, On Top of Spaghetti, won't get too jealous. I can cook one dinner from each of them each week. The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlap is really sucking me in. I spent a few nights before bed this past week actually reading this cookbook. I read the forward, the intro and about the Hunanese pantry and have learned alot.

While flipping through the recipes, Numbing-and-Hot Chicken was one of the first that caught my eye. Maybe it was the photo or maybe it was because the word "numbing" is in the title. The numbing attribute is intriguing to me. It ends up that this dish calls for sichuan pepper which I happen to have since sichuan peppercorns are #72 on Food & Wine's Top Tastes to Try in 2007. In fact, I heard about this book from the F&W 100 list. Hot Hunan Shrimp is #49 and the blurb recommended this cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlap.

Tonight is Chinese New Year's so I decided try this out tonight and make an event out of it. I had so much fun going to the Asian grocery store to stock up on ingredients. After I got home, I took a deep breath and went at it. I cranked up the music and went to chopping up my chicken and veggies but it didn't take nearly as long as I thought. My wok has been very under-used so it was very happy tonight double-frying the chicken and then stir-frying it all together.

I only got confused at one part in this recipe. "3 scallions, white parts only" are called for. But the instructions say to "cut them into 1 1/4- to 1 1/2-inch pieces". Anyone who knows scallions know that is about as long as the white part is in total, let alone cutting in into pieces. And the picture had some green in it so I cut the greens into the 1 1/4-inch pieces and diced the whites into smaller pieces.

Numbing-and-Hot Chicken ma la zi ji Ingredients: 12 oz. bones chicken thigh or breast half, if you prefer, with skin 1 small red bell pepper, thin-skinned if possible 1 fresh red chili, or 1 tsp. dried chili flakes 3 scallions, white parts only 1 tsp. whole sichuan pepper 1 tsp. sesame oil 1 1/4 cups peanut oil for deep-frying For the marinade: 1 Tbsp. Saoxing wine 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce 1/4 tsp. dark soy sauce 1 Tbsp. potato flour mixed with 1 Tbsp. cold water For the sauce: 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce 1 Tbsp. clear rice vinegar 1/2 tsp. potato flour 3 Tbsp. chicken stock or water

Instructions:
Cut the chicken as evenly as possible into bite-size cubes. Place the chicken cubes in a bowl, add the marinate ingredients and mix well; set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.

Discard the stem and seeds of the pepper, and cut into small squares to complement the chicken. If using a fresh chili, slice it thinly, discarding the stem and seeds as far as possible. It the scallions are slender, cut them into 1 1/4- to 1 1/2-inch pieces, otherwise slice them on a steep angle. Crush the Sichuan pepper using a mortar and pestle. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.

Heat the oil for deep-frying in the wok over a high flame to 300-400 degrees F. Add the chicken and stir briskly for about 30 seconds, until the pieces have separated and have become pale; remove from the oil with a slotted spoon. Allow the oil to return to 350-400 degrees F, then fry the chicken again until golden; remove and set aside. Drain off all but 3 tablespoons of the oil.

Return the wok to the heat and, working quickly over a high flame, tip in the red bell pepper, fresh or dried chiles, scallions, and Sichuan pepper and stir-fry briefly until they are wonderfully fragrant.

Stir in the chicken. Give the sauce a stir and tip it in to the wok. Stir briskly as the sauce thickens. Finally, off the heat, stir in the sesame oil and serve.

Hot Sour Soup and Cucumber Salad

I'm reviewing some recipes from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking for Paper Palate at The Well Fed Network. They sent three recipes and tonight I tried out the Hot and Sour Soup and Chilled Cucumber Salad. They were both really good, even though I didn't have all the ingredients for the Hot and Sour Soup. It calls for "black cloud ear fungus". I'm not sure that I want to add that even if I can find it at an Asian grocer. I will probably get some since I have to go there to get something for the third recipe.

Update: My review has been published.


This soup was really good and very easy to make so I'll make it again with this extra ingredient to check the difference. Also, the cucumber salad called for 5 small cucumbers and I got those tiny cucumbers. I think it just meant regular cucumbers that are small in size. I had way too much dressing! I'm timing my article to be published in time for Chinese New Year next week. I really like her style in explaining things in the recipes. The book just came out February 1, 2007.