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Breakfast Grits

Breakfast Grits

Rich and creamy grits are always welcome in this household. I usually keep a box of instant grits because slaving over a stove babying cornmeal isn’t exactly how I would like to spend my mornings. While the grits is cooking, the sausage is sizzling in 

Kitfo (Ethiopian Beef Tartare)

Kitfo (Ethiopian Beef Tartare)

You all know I’m a fiend for tartare–beef or fish. So any time there’s a tartare on the menu, I will usually get it just to try. Ethiopian steak tartare, called Kitfo, is aromatic and delicious, spiced with niter kibbeh, clarified butter that’s been infused 

Melty Pork Over Rice (Lu Rou Fan)

Melty Pork Over Rice (Lu Rou Fan)

This particular dish has a fond place in my memories–a national Taiwanese specialty, it brings me back to days when my grandparents used to take us out into Flushing for lunch or dinner. My version is a bit more decadent than traditional ones you might find at restaurants or in street carts, using a portion of ground pork belly to create a melt in your mouth texture. My husband and the kids go nuts for it, and it’s wonderful fragrance fills the house as it sits on the stove simmering.

Normally, the hardboiled egg is cooked with the braised meat, but I decided to do it in the form of ramen eggs, with a softboiled yolk. Did I mention decadence is my middle name?



 

If you don’t have Shao Xing wine, baijiu, or a splash of a very dry sherry (or, worst case scenario, sake) will do nicely too.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 pound ground pork
  • 1/2 pound roughly ground pork belly (or chopped)
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 3 tablespoons Shao Xing Wine/sherry/sake
  • 1 piece star anise
  • 1 slice ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon five spice powder
  • Pinch of black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon Chinkiang Vinegar/Rice Wine Vinegar
  • 1 whole red onion, diced
  • 8 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 6 eggs, softboiled and peeled
  • Cilantro, for garnish
  • Hot white rice
  • Pickled daikon radish (optional)
  • Togarashi pepper flakes (optional)
1. For softboiled eggs: Add raw eggs carefully to boiling water and boil for 6-7 minutes. Remove and place into cold water. Peel and set to the side.
2. In a pot, heat vegetable oil over medium high heat and sautee onion and garlic together until onion is softened and caramelized, about 7-10 minutes, careful not to burn.
3. Add ground pork and pork belly and sautee and until cooked.
4. Add Shao Xing wine to deglaze the pot–scrape all that goodness off the bottom and mix around.
5. Add soy sauce, water, star anise, ginger, five spice powder, and brown sugar.
6. Cover and allow to braise for an hour, or until pork belly pieces are melt-in-your-mouth.
7. Remove from heat and add eggs to pot, allow to sit for another 30 minutes so that the eggs can marinate in the sauce.
8. Scoop over hot rice, add an egg, garnish with cilantro, togarashi, and pickled daikon radish.
Easy Peanut Chicken Side Dish

Easy Peanut Chicken Side Dish

This is a really easy side dish for those hot summer days when you just have very little appetite for anything else. I sometimes make this if I have leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge, since it’s a fast and family-pleasing way to use it 

Ethiopian Style Breakfast with Spiced Pureed Chickpeas and Fresh Farmer’s Cheese

Ethiopian Style Breakfast with Spiced Pureed Chickpeas and Fresh Farmer’s Cheese

So here we are on an Ethiopian cuisine binge, mainly because my injera dough has finally fermented into the tangy and deep flavor its known for. I’m still experimenting with it (combining it with barley vs. wheat, fermentation time, etc.) but using my sourdough starter 

Ethiopian Spiced Fresh Farmer’s Cheese with Crusted Okra

Ethiopian Spiced Fresh Farmer’s Cheese with Crusted Okra

Fresh farmer’s cheese is a snap to make and it’s absolutely delicious dusted with mitmita, an Ethiopian spice blend that’s heady, fragrant, and packing quite a bit of heat that contrasts nicely with the creamy cheese. It’s called Ayib Be Mitmita (so if you see it in a restaurant, don’t hesitate to order it!) It’s great as a snack with some injera and some spice crusted okra. I finally perfected my injera recipe to taste like what we get at restaurants–turns out the secret is making sure you have a sourdough starter! The recipe comes after the crusted okra below.

You can use milk for it, but if you use cream (or half and half), the curd to whey content will be higher, producing more cheese per cup of liquid.

Ingredients for the Farmer’s Cheese

  • 2 cups milk, cream, or half-and-half (depending on which one you use, the amount of cheese will differ)
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice (any acid will do–vinegar or lime if you don’t have lemon juice) You can add more if they aren’t separating.
  • Mitmita spice blend, to your taste
  • 2 teaspoons salt

1. In a pot, combine salt and cream/milk/half-and-half and bring to a boil. The milk will foam so be sure to control the heat and baby it a bit so it doesn’t boil over.
2. Once milk is boiling, add lemon juice and continue boiling until the curds and whey have separated. The whey is the transluscent part and the curds is the solids that is our farmer’s cheese.
3. Drain over a large bowl into a colander (you can line with a coffee filter if you’d like) and reserve the whey for other applications such as making bread.
4. Press gently with a spoon to remove liquid and place into a bowl. Top with mitmita spice powder and serve with injera, crackers, or bread.

Ingredients for Spice Crusted Okra

  • 10 okra, well washed
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch
  • 2 tablespoons butter

1. Combine garlic powder, onion powder, cardamom, salt, and corn starch together, mix well.
2. Wash okra but don’t worry about drying, it will help the corn starch mixture stick.
3. Place okra into the corn starch mixture and toss well until coated.
4. Fry gently in butter over medium heat (use clarified butter if you’re afraid of burning the butter) until crust is crispy. Alternatively, you can deep fry them but I like the flavor of butter with the herbs.

Ingredients for Injera

  • .5 cup sourdough starter
  • 1.5 cup water
  • .5 cup barley flour
  • .5 cup teff flour

1. Combine sourdough starter, water, barley flour, and teff flour together in a bowl. Cover and allow to ferment for 24 – 48 hours.
2. On a nonstick pan (or crepe pan) over medium heat, ladle some batter onto the pan, swirl to cover the bottom in a thin layer, and cover. Small holes (adorably called “eyes”) should open up and give your injera that classic holed texture. Once the batter has cooked (color will turn darker), remove from heat and place onto a plate. Eat with different dishes.

Chicken Liver Pate

Chicken Liver Pate

If someone were to ask me what I would most likely die of, the answer would probably be Vitamin A toxicity. I love liver (which has a whopping dose of Vitamin A per serving) and organ meat in general, but liver pate has a huge 

Sourdough Bread

Sourdough Bread

About a week ago, my sister gave me a batch of sourdough starter she got at a breadmaking class, and I got thrown into the weird and wonderful world of naturally leavened bread. It was both a terrifying and delicious undertaking, but I realized just 

Sesame Miso Shungiku Side Dish

Sesame Miso Shungiku Side Dish

It’s the season for shungiku (also called tong ho in Chinese, and edible chrysanthemum/garland daisy–not to be confused with Chrysanthemum nankingense) which means I can get a big bag of it for real cheap at the Asian supermarket. It has a distinctive herb taste but is absolutely delicious. I am never without it when I have hotpot.

Ingredients

  • 1 handful shungiku greens
  • 1 tablespoons sesame paste (or peanut butter, if you don’t have)
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon miso paste
  • 1 tablespoon pepper paste
  • 1 tablespoon hot water
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • Pot of boiling water, lightly salted
  • Bowl of ice water

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and quickly blanch shungiku greens, about 45 seconds. Remove from boiling water and immediately cool in ice water. Once cooled, remove and squeeze out excess water.
2. In a bowl, mix together sesame paste, 1 tablespoon hot water, sugar, soy sauce, miso, ketchup, and pepper paste until well combined.
3. Toss greens together with sauce and serve as a side dish.

Honey Rose Chia Drink

Honey Rose Chia Drink

I have a few bags of chia seeds in my pantry, and I realized I should probably use them before they go bad. One of the things I like using them for is making drinks with them. Not only are they very healthy, but the