i hope you eat good food, grow beautiful things, and have more love than you know what to do with.
It’s winter, with quite a bit of snow on the ground, so there’s very little for me to do in the garden, This means I can focus on a hobby I had abandoned after I had kids: Kyaraben (or “charaben”) making. Since it’s been a …
As you all know, I’ve been slowly getting rid of the plastic in my life in an attempt to be environmentally friendly as well as becoming more self sustainable–and in the event of the collapse of society/apocalypse, I would much rather have a kitchen well stocked …
I first learned how easy it was to make pastry cream from my sister (The Chef) two Thanksgivings ago. She made choux cream puffs which is a little more involved than just filling a graham cracker pie crust with pastry cream and piling berries on top.
Recipe for the Pastry Cream
For the Pie
There’s a restaurant in Flushing that I introduced my husband to called Debasaki–their specialty being deep fried wings stuffed with cheese and either kimchi, vegetables, or corn. It’s delicious but… far for me, terrible parking, and expensive (close to $20 a dozen pieces!) I prefer …
I had been dying to try this recipe since I have a can of sweetened red bean in my pantry that will expire sooner or later. It was a huge hit with everyone in the house, and I absolutely loved how pretty it came out. …
All while growing up, I loved congee, especially with an egg swimming in it, the last bite bursting with yolk-y goodness. Making and eating it reminds me of my childhood and it’s comforting when you’re sick and have no appetite for anything else.
You can add meat or fish to it as well if you so choose to–there are so many variations of congee to be had!
Recipe
1. I did this in my pressure cooker but you can do it stove top as well. Cook rice and water together with chicken/pork stock, pork tallow, whole ginger slice, and 1/2 the chopped spring onion covered, on low heat, until rice has become a porridge consistency. About an hour. Stir every so often to prevent the bottom from burning.
2. Separate the egg yolk from the white and drop in egg white until fully cooked. Place egg yolk in the bowl you will be using to eat.
3. Spoon in hot congee, covering the egg yolk carefully (this will soft cooked the egg yolk). Salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with matchsticked ginger and remaining chopped scallions. Serve piping hot.
One of the plants I was super excited to get my hands on this year was Crocus Cartwrightianus, otherwise known as Cartwright’s crocus or wild saffron. It’s widely accepted as the wild ancestor of our modern saffron, before it mutated into the sterile triploid form …
The last of the dandelions are holding on as the cold weather moves onto Long Island. I saw them as I worked in the yard yesterday, and knew that if I didn’t nab them now, I wasn’t going to see them until next spring. They …
You never have kimchi when you need it–especially when you’re craving kimchi fried rice and all the other things you could make with it! This week I set out to make my own from scratch, as I think the work and love I put into it makes it taste all the better to me and my family. The good thing is, after buying all the ingredients that can be stored in the pantry, I can make multiple servings whenever I feel like it, with whatever vegetables I desire.
I followed Maangchi’s recipe but halved it (and had to make some replacements because I didn’t have fish sauce or salted shrimp.) If you haven’t checked out her Youtube channel yet, you really should, I could watch her and her delicious Korean recipes all day!
If you grow your own carrots, daikon, scallions, and garlic chives, then you’ll know why kimchi is traditionally made before winter to store (because all these cool weather crops ripen around this time.)
Ingredients
1. Quarter the napa cabbage and run under cold water to rinse away any sand and dirt particles that may have accumulated. In a large bowl, salt the napa cabbage with a generous amount of kosher salt, rubbing it between each leaf. Leave in the bowl while you work on everything else so the moisture can be drawn out.
2. In a pot, mix 1 cup water, 1 tablespoon flour, and one tablespoon sugar. Heat until the mixture is thickened, about 1-2 minutes once it reaches boiling temperature. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Place onion, garlic cloves, and ginger into a food processor and finely mince.
4. Place cooled flour paste, 1 cup Korean dried pepper flakes, fish sauce, salted shrimp, and minced garlic mixture in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Fold in diced scallions, garlic chives, radish matchsticks, and carrot matchsticks.
5. Return to your cabbage–it should have somewhat wilted by now and rinse under cold water. Squeeze out excess moisture. Some people let it sit for an hour, some people let it sit for two. I just let it sit for however long it takes me to prepare the other ingredients.
6. Rub (or spoon) pepper paste mixture in between each cabbage leaf and place into a container (I would prefer to use glass mason jars, with the cabbage rolled up, but I didn’t have enough so I used one of my remaining large tupperware.
You can eat it immediately, or let it sit for a day or two in the fridge to ferment. Kimchi is such a healthy thing to have!
When we get deep into the fall and almost winter, I start dreaming about saury. It’s one of the fish that most symbolizes the Autumn, when it migrates outward into the ocean. In Asia, it’s a delicious treat, while in other parts of the world, …