Mom’s Steamed Chicken written 10/4/22

It’s been a little over a year since Mom passed away. I regret that I was unable to be with my siblings, our kids and our kids' kids as they got together to commemorate the anniversary of her passing, but I thought of them all and Mom quite a bit recently. For the last few weeks, I have been thinking of Mom’s steamed chicken too. I was determined to try to make it or a close facsimile soon. I finally tackled it. The result was close, but it needed more ginger and some oyster sauce. Mom told me how to make this before, but she just told me the ingredients - not the quantities. Mom did not measure. So like previous times that I made this, I used Johnny Kan’s Eight Immortal Flavors”Steamed Chicken with Grass Mushrooms” as a guide. This time, I thought maybe I should try to document the recipe for myself.

As I was making this dish and dinner, I thought about Mom. I thought about her not knowing how to cook when she came to this great country of ours. That, to me, is a strange fact since her Dad was a partner in a restaurant in Shanghai. So many things she told me went through my head as I began to make this dinner. I should tell my kids about these things. . . Hmmm... There's no time like the present. Here are some things Mom told me (in no particular order):

• Her family lived in the Cantonese area in Shanghai, but after the Japanese invaded China, her uncles helped move her family to the French Concession. It sounded like her uncles were well connected.
• Due to blackouts and curfew during WWII, her Dad would sometimes stay at the restaurant overnight because he could not get back home. She said it was scary during these times of blackouts and air raid sirens.
• They lived in a building a few stories high. She recalled that one of the tenant’s above them smoked opium.
• There was a girl that worked for a family nearby. The family did not give the girl much to eat – rice and fish bones. My Mom said ‘yum gung’ (Cantonese – I don’t know the translation, but it means something like oh, so awful or what a pity/shame!).
• Mom said there were these street vendors that would walk along the street selling food. It sounds like the people in the movies carrying a long bamboo stick with baskets/containers hanging from both ends. She said she had the most wonderful wonton from one of these vendors. She exclaimed, “The skin was so thin”.
• Mom’s mother sounded very mean. Mom said one of her brother’s was bad. Her Mom would beat him. One time, it was so bad that the other 3 children got on their knees and begged their Mom to stop.
• Mom doesn’t know why, but her Mom had many miscarriages or births where the baby died. When Mom was born, they put an ankle bracelet on her. It was a superstition to keep her alive (like connected to the Earth). Mom wondered if the Tao surname is not so common due to health reasons.
• Mom told me that one time, she and her siblings saw a great-uncle on the street. They all ran home telling their Mom that their great-uncle was home, their great-uncle was home, their great-uncle was home. Their Mom told them that their great-uncle was dead, but Mom and her siblings swear they saw him.
• Mom only had education to 8th grade. She knew money was an issue and told her father it was okay. It was more important for her brothers to get an education.
• Mom worked at the Shanghai restaurant as a waitress or hostess (I think). This is where she encountered Dad. Dad kept hounding Mom. She and another waitress went out with Dad and his friend. They ended up in the Phoenix area and Mom and Dad in the SF Bay Area (Oakland, Ojai, San Francisco). By the way, Mom had a boyfriend before Dad came along.
• Mom and Dad worked at the Thacher School in Ojai for Grandpa. Grandpa was a cook there. Thacher School helped get my Grandma to the U.S.

More Mom stuff at a later date... That’s all I can remember for now and I am starting to think of Grandpa's history. On to the recipe. . .

Mom’s Steamed Chicken (for 2 or 3 people as one of the dishes in a meal)

• 6 or 7 dried Shitake mushrooms – soak overnight or until soft
• a small handful of Black fungus – the soft type, not the crunchy type – soak until soft
• a small handful of dried lily flowers – soak until soft then if long enough tie in knots
• 4 Chinese dried dates (hoong Jo) – soak 15 minutes
• 1 piece dried Mandarin orange peel (gaw pay) about size of a quarter – soak until soften, julianne
• ginger root about 2” x 1”, peeled, sliced and julienned
• 3 large chicken thighs, skinned, boned and cut into large 1 ½” cubes
• ½ teaspoon salt
• dash of sugar (next time omit and replace with 2 teaspoons oyster sauce)
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• ½ to 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Mix everything together and spread into a steaming platter. Rest for 30 minutes.

Place dish in your steaming utensil (steaming pot, wok with trivet or deep pot with trivit with plenty of hot water). Bring to boil and steam for 30 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice.

For the rest of the dinner . . .
I needed to add a soup to the meal. I was unprepared, but I raided my freezer and came up with a chicken back bone, a steak bone, some shrimp shells, a few dried shallots, a couple pre-soaked dried shitake mushrooms and cilantro roots. put this in a pot, bring to boil along with a celery top and a few slices of onion. Lower to simmer for an hour or two. Drain. Cut up the shitake mushroom into slices and put it back into the broth, added 1 washed dried red date. Bring to a boil. Wash a couple handfuls of rinsed dried seaweed (the kind that is for soup – dried and sold in a round shape). Boil for 10 minutes. Take one egg, mix up in a bowl and pour into the hot liquid stirring. There you have it, seaweed soup… I had to add some soy sauce.

For the veggie dish, I had some Shanghai bok choy in the fridge. I took out a portion of beef for stir-fry that I had in the freezer, defrosted it slightly in the microwave, sliced the beef and marinated it in a sprinkle of salt, cornstarch, oil and oyster sauce. In a wok or frying pan, add oil and stir fry beef. Remove before it is done. Add oil and bok choy in a pan at high heat, stirring and turning as needed. Sprinkle in a little salt. I wanted a little gravy (jup) so I added a little chicken broth before it was done, added beef and a mixture of cornstarch with water to thicken. Top with a few grinds of white pepper.

Of course, there was steamed white rice.

WA written: 2022-Oct-04: Cooking, Mom, Chinese, History 
WA Pub: 2024-Jun-04: