i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
Mugwort—just the name drives gardeners into a fearful frenzy because of how insanely invasive it is. From just a small root grows a dense, waist high perennial that covers the ground in a span of a season. It’s difficult to get rid of once established, …
Disclaimer: The following post contains accounts of raising and processing poultry for food. If that makes you uncomfortable, please navigate away from this page! We had a quail processing day (guide to raising quail) which is always a somewhat somber and work heavy day. A …
Yes yes, this dish is normally done with chicken or fish, but I’ve been experimenting with vegetables and seafood to delicious success. Nanbanzuke is the Japanese version of escabeche, a Spanish and Portuguese dish of cooked fish marinated in a spiced vinegar sauce which was believed to have been brought over by the Portuguese some time in the 16th century.
It’s best eaten a day or two after making, chilled in the fridge so the breading soaks up the sauce, and is an absolutely delicious side dish for rice during the summer time (or any time.) This round I used shishito peppers, shimeji mushrooms, sweet potato, regular potato, and oysters but you can easily use lotus root, carrot, eggplant, bell peppers, shrimp, chicken, fish (salmon, mackerel, herring, etc.), taro, broccoli, shredded cabbage, quail eggs, etc.
My kids love potatoes in most, if not all forms—so warm, crispy Japanese potato croquettes disappear quickly in this house. It’s pretty easy to make with a rice cooker that can steam the potatoes, and also easy to jazz up by mixing in different things: …
Well that’s a mouthful… quite literally! Today is Chinese New Years Eve and since my parents and sister are in Costa Rica, I won’t have as much to do (nor as much to eat)—so I decided to treat us and make a quilt bento. I …
I love both pupusas and arepas (but must confess I didn’t really know the difference until recently)–they’re both corn cakes made from corn flour, but pupusas are stuffed before they are grilled, while arepas are stuffed after. They also use different flours, with pupusas using Masa Harina which is corn that has been nixtamalized (soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution) and Masarepa (pre-cooked non-nixtamalized corn flour) for arepas.
The nixtamalization makes the corn flavor much stronger and more fragrant, which is what I really love about this and using instant Masa Harina makes this a recipe that can be done in less than 15 minutes. I use milk and sugar to take it to a slightly more sweet and savory level, but you can just use water and omit the sugar. I am also of the opinion (like with my pao de queijo recipe) that butter is the far superior fat for cooking this. I like stretchy cheese but traditional cheeses can be used too–some people also stuff it with beans and chorizo.
The kids love these mini ones, even though they’re a bit more difficult to make but it really makes for a delicious and quick snack. You can make it bigger for sure, if you prefer.
Persimmons are a fun fruit to grow, the trees get pretty big and loaded with bright orange fruits and remain productive for decades. In the Fall when they drop their leaves, the fruits stay on, looking like bizarre Christmas ornaments against the bare branches. There’s …
A single lobster goes through many iterations in my household, until every last drop of flavor gets extracted from all its parts—lobster bisque being the last stop on that train. The first of which was ganjang lobster (soy marinated tail meat and tomalley, raw), next …
Not to brag or anything but I do make a mean lobster salad, lightly dressed with mayo, with herbs from the garden, a hint of Old Bay, and some salt cured lemon for when I’m having that hankering for a lobster roll. It’s cheaper than going to a store, where a lobster roll may be $28 per (a 1.5lb lobster was $14 at the time of posting at my local supermarket.)
Save the shells for bisque, since I’m very low food waste and prefer to use all parts of the animal.
You can use a roll or brioche toast points, I don’t judge. I prefer steaming the lobster so there’s less water content, but you’ll still need to squeeze out the meat so it doesn’t become watery. This isn’t a difficult recipe, but picking all the meat out of the head can be a bit of an ordeal, so I suggest putting something on Netflix while doing it—I get into every nook and cranny to extract as much meat as I can.
Obligatory disclaimer that there is a risk of eating food raw, especially seafood. Proceed at your own risk. Also included is the disclaimer for safely eating the tomalley (cooked or raw) of crustaceans, also proceed at your own risk. I have been craving ganjang gejang, …