Category Archives: Cooking

Cooking

A Japanese meal

Despite being Taiwanese, my family is probably more into Japanese food. Time to make some.

 

Oyakodon (chicken and egg on rice)

I like this dish so much that I used to order it at all sorts of Japanese restaurants, even forgoing other delicacies. Last year, my mom taught me her version, which is like a Taiwan/Japan hybrid with lots of egg. This time, I’m aiming for more traditional: steaming in the sukiyaki broth, following justonecookbook.com. (last updated 8/29/17)

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    • In a small pan, 1/4 cup dashi (1/8 tsp hondashi in boiling water), 1 tbsp mirin, (1 tsp sake), 1/2 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar.
    • Add 1/2 small onion thinly sliced in single layer.
    • Add on top 1-1.5 chicken thighs cut into bites obliquely and seasoned with salt and pepper.
    • Simmer covered on medium for 10 minutes.
    • Drizzle in 1 egg. Stir around to distribute. Garnish with scallions/mitsuba. Simmer for 2-3 minutes, until egg is just set.
    • Slide onto bowl of white rice.

 

Chawanmushi (savory egg custard)

My mom makes it with chicken broth instead of dashi. Huh?! Tracking this japancentre.com recipe, with input from here and here.

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  • 3 eggs, beat gently
  • 1 cup dashi (1/2 tsp hondashi powder in 1 cup boiling water), 1 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp mirin, 1 tsp sugar, pinch salt.
    • can substitute with about 1 cup (equivalent of 1.5x volume of eggs) warm chicken broth.
  • Mix into egg slowly. strain through fine sieve.
    • Can add shiitake mushrooms, kamaboko fish cake, carrots, marinated strips chicken shrimp. arrange in bowl and pour egg around.
  • steam 5 minutes medium bowl, then open pot to let out steam, then steam 3 more minutes, until clean toothpick.
    • Can garnish with scallions/mitsuba at halfway point of steaming.

 

Miso Soup

Following instructions on the miso packaging, haha

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  • miso paste, sugar, dashi (ratio?), water.
  • serve with scallions, tofu, kombu.

I also stir fried lotus root.

 

For the grand finale:

Castella (Japanese Honey Cake)

I followed this recipe from justonecookbook.com/castella to the letter. Paraphrased here.

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  • 3 eggs, at room temp. Beat thoroughly.
  • Add 1/2 cup sugar, with electric hand mixer beat at highest speed for 7+ minutes, until quadruples in volume.
  • 2.5 tbsp honey, diluted with ~2 tbsp warm water, mix in for 30 sec at low speed.
  • 3/4 cup bread flour, double sifted. add in thirds, mixing 15 sec at low speed in between, 1 min at end. Don’t overmix.
  • Pour batter into parchment paper-lined 9×5 metal pan. Dredge with toothpick to break large air bubbles. Drop on counter to level.
  • 325 F, 35 minutes, until clean toothpick.
  • Wrap tightly in plastic, refrigerate overnight upside down.
  • Cut off sides, serve in slices.

updated 3/25, fixing a typo.

Cooking

Dumplings

Happy New Year! Woo, roosters!

Appropriately, we made chicken cabbage dumplings. Also, pork and chive potstickers. Flashback to my Harvard Taiwanese Cultural Society days and our Dumpling Workshops, where we would buy huge bags pork and other ingredients, mix it with our hands, teach 100+ people how to wrap 1000+ dumplings, boil in three vats of water, and just have a great big happy family.

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left bowl experimenting with alternate wrapping shapes
  • combine 1 lb ground meat, like 1oz chives, tiny bit of minced ginger and scallions, a splash of soy sauce, some cooking wine, dash of sesame oil.
  • with friends, wrap around 40 dumplings.
  • in a big wok with some oil, steam off a thin layer of water, then fry two surfaces.

Sorry, there’s no way to write an intelligible terse recipe, haha

Cooking

Lu Rou Fan, Nian Gao

To celebrate Lunar New Year, we made nian gao (stick rice cake). And because I don’t have steaming capacity yet, we baked it. And because I don’t have steaming capacity yet, I made lu rou fan (braised pork rice) instead of turnip cakes or other traditional dishes.

Lu Rou Fan

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Ahh, one of my favorite Taiwanese comfort foods. What’s not to like about animal fat and soy sauce on white rice? Halfway through frying 8 shallots that I had painstakingly peeled, I realized that fried shallots is a prefabricated ingredient I have in a jar sitting in the pantry. Tracking this recipe, with input from others.

Edit 8/29: I don’t like this formulation. Consider it defunct.

    • Fry 8 shallots finely sliced. Pat dry.
    • In leftover oil, brown 2-3 lb ground pork or pork belly chopped to 1/4″.
    • Add 3 cloves garlic minced, then the shallots.
    • Add 1/4 cup dark soy sauce, 1/4 cup light soy sauce, 1/2 cup cooking wine, 1 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp five-spice powder, enough water to cover.
    • Simmer for 3-4 hours to reduce sauce.
      • Optionally add peeled hard-boiled eggs halfway through.
    • Serve on rice topped with scallions.

Nian Gao

Oops, I bought red bean paste instead of red bean beans. Turns out sticky rice cake is sticky.

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  • Whisk together 16oz box of Mochiko sweet rice flour, 6 tbsp butter, 2.5 cups milk, 3 eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking soda.
  • Spread half of batter on 9×13-in pan, spread over 15oz can of red bean paste, cover with other half of batter.
  • Bake at 350 F for 40-50 minutes, until set.
Cooking

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup, Thai Mango Sticky Rice

Testing the waters and deciding what I want each post to look like.

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

Working off this recipe and, you know, being Taiwanese. This is one of my favorite comfort foods. It turned out well.

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taiwanese beef noodle soup
  • in stock pot and 2 tbsp oil, stir fry 1/2-inch of ginger, 3 cloves garlic, 6 white half of scallions.
  • add 2 tbsp bean paste, some hot sauce, 3/4 cup soy sauce, stir fry.
  • add 2lb cubed beef, 2 tbsp cooking wine, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 star anise, 8 cups water.
  • Simmer 1.5 hours, then remove meat. Dilute the concentrate around 2:1 to make the soup.
  • Serve with noodles, blanched veggies, green half of scallions,

Thai-Style Mango Sticky Rice

You don’t want to know how much sugar goes into it. Okay, I’ll tell you. A lot. It is not mango season. Oops.

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mango sticky rice
  • 2 cups Thai glutinous rice, 2.5 cups water. soak for 1 hour, then steam in rice cooker.
  • mix rice with 1.5 cups coconut milk, 1 cup sugar, .5 tsp salt.
  • for sauce, boil 1/3 cup coconut milk, 3 tbsp sugar, then chill.
  • serve rice with mango, sauce, toasted sesame seeds.

 

 

 

One puzzle I need to solve: how am I supposed to light these photos without putting it on our gross stove?!