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?!

Medicine

Life Goes On

I’m drafting this post in my family’s hotel room in a resort on a beach in Cancún, Mexico. Before arriving, I didn’t realize that Cancún is on the Yucatán peninsula, where 65 million years ago a big-ass meteor caused a mass extinction that nearly ended all biodiversity on the planet.

But life went on.

I’m here passing some time during my two-week winter break. It’s a welcome change of pace. I feel as if I’ve just emerged, gasping for breath, at the surface of a deep dark pool of clerkships. It’s a suitable analogy not just because I went snorkeling in brilliantly clear cenote water but because last year actually felt like a protracted dive into the depths of medicine. When you’re submerged underwater, you’re acutely aware of each second of precious oxygen escaping, but each dive is over before you realize it. And when you emerge, you might be surprised to find yourself far from where you started, pushed askew by the powerful currents underneath.

When I was busy this year, life continued on around me. Continue reading Life Goes On →

piano, photos, prose, photons