i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
This is a recipe I’ve been wanting to do for a while–I had convenience store purin when we were in Japan and they’re so addictively delicious. Smooth and creamy, and not as rich as flan, it makes for the perfect dessert, portioned out in little …
I reserved the heart and liver of the two muscovy ducks that we processed, because I am a fiend of offal and really wanted to make a pate. Due to the muscovy’s large size, foie gras de canard (duck fatty liver) is usually made from …
This might be a bit beyond some modern western palettes (so if you’re squeamish, I suggest you stop reading now. You have been warned!) but duck blood and pig’s blood is a part of traditional Chinese and Taiwanese cuisine. Blood cake is a mixture of the animal’s blood and glutinous rice. For some reason, these days it’s almost impossible to buy pig’s blood cake in the supermarkets in NY (and instead, you’ll find a substitute–seaweed cake which is a poor imitation) but you can still get it at some hotpot restaurants.
I love it steamed or grilled, slathered with oden sauce, crushed peanuts, thick soy sauce, and cilantro, with a Togarashi shaker on the side. Or in hotpot, Mongolian, Szechuanese, sukiyaki, shabu shabu, what have you! You can normally find it as a tasty street food in Taiwan–especially at the night markets.
Just thinking about it is making my stomach rumble.
Today, we had to process two of my ducks–they both had bad frostbite on their feet this winter (the only two out of my flock, which, considering what temperatures had been like, isn’t too bad), which will eventually cause an infection, the limbs to fall off, and death. I had been hoping they would heal, but once their feet turned black, I knew I was only delaying the inevitable. Also, since they are kept in a mixed gender flock, they would likely be picked on and harassed the most by both their flockmates and the males, so I decided it would be more humane to process them (which I normally wouldn’t do for hens since I keep them for eggs.) I had never processed poultry before so I enlisted the help of one of the members of the local Facebook homesteading forum I’m on, and she processed them with me. It was a painful thing for me to do, but I’m glad I did it–I firmly believe that if I am to eat meat, I should be willing to do the hard parts of it too. I also believe that I should feel the responsibility for this animal’s life.
I dislike wasting any part of an animal, especially since it gave its life for our food and so I decided to do the most traditional form of blood cake–Duck’s blood cake. Duck blood cake, while it was the traditional animal to use, became too expensive (and chicken’s blood does not coagulate in the same way), so pig’s blood became the norm.
The problem is that I couldn’t find any detailed recipes on how to make it! Or at least any in English that I could understand (while verbally fluent in mandarin, my writing and reading comprehension is around a 3rd grader’s, probably less now that everything’s in simplified form). I had to call my mother, who, after getting over the initial shock of her daughter processing ducks, eagerly imparted what she knew about making it.
And here is what we came up with. It’s important that you soak the glutinous rice and have it ready when you’re bleeding the carcass–this way it doesn’t coagulate before you can mix it in.
Duck Blood Cake
1. Soak the glutinous rice in hot water and salt for 3 hours prior to processing the ducks.
2. Drain the water and place the glutinous rice into a large bucket in which the duck blood will be collected in.
3. Depending on your method, direct the duck blood stream into the bucket. Once the carcass has been bled out, mix the rice and the blood together (quickly so that the blood doesn’t coagulate into large pieces) and place into a crock.
4. Steam the crock/ramakin until the blood cake has just set (approximately 10 minutes), remove and cool. Slice right before use for hotpot, grilled, steamed, etc.
Taiwanese Night Market Duck Blood Cake Recipe
1. Thread duck blood cake on bamboo skewers. Place into the simmering broth and cook until tender.
2. Remove, slather on sauces to your taste, top with crushed peanuts/peanut sauce, and garnish with cilantro. Serve hot!
We waited another 2 days before resolving to give our eggshell sprout heads a haircut–follow this link if you want to read about this super fun craft. By then I already had the sandwich lined up–a traditional egg and cress sandwich that’s popular during English …
This is an easy sweets recipe from my childhood in Taiwan–Bing Tang Hu Lu. Of the memories that I could see in my mind’s eye, my dad coming home with a skewer of hawberry tang hu lu sticks is one of the most vivid of …
When I was little, I had this big book of arts and crafts suitable for kids and one of the things I always wanted to do was sprouts growing in an empty egg shell and then draw faces on them so that when the seeds sprouted, it would look like hair. Then we could give them a “haircut” and have sprout sandwiches.
However, my parents, who were immigrants from Taiwan, lacked the resources and language ability to know where to purchase a lot of things that we, as US-born citizens, take for granted. And this was something that my sister and I knew inherently, so we rarely ever asked them for things outside of what we were given, unless expressly asked. And even then, we would stick with places and things we knew they had knowledge of. Sprouting seeds unfortunately, would have been beyond their comprehension.
I love my parents, who are amazing, loving, wonderful, and very interesting people (who have now relocated for most of the year to their farms in Costa Rica–some people’s midlife crisis involves motorcycles, my parents’ involved going to a new country where their Spanish proficiency is even less than their English, purchasing land, and becoming farmers) and would not have changed my childhood for anything.
But a teensy part of me really, really wanted to sprout things in eggshells with faces. One night when I was thinking of how to make sprout sandwiches, I remembered the book and the entry, and realized that I could fulfill one of my simple childhood desires with my own children.
This is an easy craft, and all that’s necessary is some sprouting seeds, a couple of cotton balls, water, and some spent egg shells. Permanent markers are better so that the ink doesn’t run when you water them, but you can use regular watercolor markers–you just need to be careful about how you water them.
My 4 year old was obsessed with the egg shells, looking at them everyday and helping me water them, even reminding me to water them in case she thought I forgot. It was a great small “responsibility” for her and introducing her to growing her own food.
Supplies
1. Reserve your spent egg shells from your kitchen, making sure to crack at the narrow end of the shell so the “face” area can be bigger.
2. Wash the inside of the egg shell and then leave to dry.
3. Once dried, fluff up a cotton ball and put into the bottom of the egg shell. Water until cotton ball is moist.
4. Sprinkle a pinch of whatever sprouting seeds you are using, and water twice a day.
5. Once the sprouts have grown to the desired length, use markers to draw faces on them!
6. Give them a haircut when you’re ready to use and compost the shells.
In an effort to not use as much oil or have to wash pots and pans as often, I ventured into the world of microwaving eggs. And I’m never going back. It’s quite simple–a round bottomed bowl, a light wipe of oil, covered and zapped …
This particular dish involves a lot of chopping. A lot. But it’s my husband’s favorite style of antipasto. I first learned of this particular style at a Thanksgiving dinner hosted my my in-laws–it’s the husband-unit’s Italian grandmother’s recipe. I prefer this style because every bite …
I was, for some reason, craving cold noodles. I usually make it during the summer, when the heat dulls our appetite and the tangy sauce stimulates my palette. I’m not a stickler for ingredients, and often interchange the noodles. Traditionally, it uses ramen noodles but I find spaghetti a reasonable substitute. Peanut butter in place of sesame paste is also a fun change of flavor!
I used Abokichi’s Chili Miso Oil but you can use sesame oil with doubanjiang instead if you don’t have. You can opt for a vegetarian version by replacing the shrimps and ham with other vegetables like squash and carrots!
Ingredients For Noodles and Toppings
1. Prepare noodles according to instructions, then drain and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes.
2. While noodles are chilling, use one egg and beat, heat over oiled pan on high until thin omelette is set. Alternatively, you can oil a plate and pour the egg onto the plate, swirl to cover, and heat in the microwave for 45 seconds (or until omelette is set.)
3. Devein, shell, and boil shrimps. Slice tomatoes.
4. Matchstick cucumber, ham, and egg.
5. Remove noodles from fridge and place on a plate/bowl. Arrange toppings on noodles. Add a tablespoon of sauce at a time until desired saltiness and mix. Enjoy while cold!
Ingredients for Sauce
Optional Toppings
1. Mix hot water with sesame paste (or peanut butter) to thin so it incorporates into the sauce more easily.
2. Combine thinned sesame paste with soy sauce, dashi powder, lemon juice, vinegar, and Chili Miso Oil (or 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil and 1/2 tablespoon doubanjiang)
I had some leftover eggplant from making tempura and I haven’t roasted anything in my woodstove recently (which is pretty much roaring 24/7), so I decided to do a roasted eggplant dip. If you don’t have a wood stove to impart the delicious smokey flavor–a …