INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

I used Cornish Game Hens, but you could also use a cut up chicken. If
you can't get winter melon, watermelon will work.  Winter melon is
white, very mild tasting and a tad denser than watermelon.  I think
you could get away using something like Honeydew too.  Have fun!  Chef:
Yip Kwai-sing  Thirty-year-old Hong Kong-born Mr.  Yip has spent half
his life in  Cantonese restaurant kitchens.  He is best known for his
fai choy  chicken speciality and shark's fin dishes.  As the leader of
a South  Villa Restaurant team in one of the Display Classes, he won
also a  Culinary Award Bronze Medal.  Establishment: South Villa
Restaurant, 58-60 Cameron Road, Tsimshatsui  Kowloon.  Chinese Cuisine
Practical Class Platinum Award - Poultry  "Happy Bird Crosses The
Golden Bridge" presents an attractive image  featuring the pigeon, a
symbol of happiness to the Chinese.  The  inclusion of winter melon, a
summertime seasonal vegetable, as the  imagined "golden bridge" is a
culinary play on words:  the dish  combines two traditional dishes
providing a bridge between their  contrasting textures and flavours.
The garnish - flowering chives -  is more than an aesthetic detail,
symbolizing the greenery growing  along the water's edge.  To prepare:
Mix the marinade and coat pigeons with it for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove
skin of winter melon and cut 12 slices about 5 cms wide,  3 cms long
and 2 cms thick.  Make a slit sideways on the longest side  of each
piece and insert one ham slice.  To cook:  Deep-fry pigeons over a
medium flame until golden. Heat the wok or  pot, add 1 tbs oil.  When
it is very hot, stir- fry ginger and  shallots for 1 minute.  Then add
above stewing seasoning ingredients  and pigeons, cover and braise over
a slow flame for 20 to 25 minutes.  Remove pigeons. Reserve 1 cup of
the pigeon braising stock, to make  sauce later. Double the remaining
braising stock's liquid volume by  adding water, then immerse winter
melon slices.  Cook for 5 minutes,  then turn off heat. Cover wok,
leave winter melon slices for a  further 5 minutes (thus ensuring they
do not lose their shape through  excess direct cooking). Mix sauce
ingredients with reserved cup of  pigeon braising stock and heat.  To
present:  Cut pigeons into pieces and arrange across serving dish.
Place 6  overlapping winter melon slices on each side of pigeons. Pour
sauce  over, and garnish with flowering chives.  Makes 12 servings.
From "Champion Recipes of the 1986 Hong Kong Food Festival".  Hong
Kong Tourist Association, 1986.  Posted by Stephen Ceideberg; November
3 1992.  File
ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/cberg2.zip

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