Another batch of fresh pasta and a second tiramisu left me with more egg whites to use up so, naturally, I made another pavlova. The last one was delicious, but I wanted to try out something different this time. My original plan had been to do a vanilla meringue topped with coconut yogurt, passionfruit, and peaches and mangoes. Unfortunately the grocery store was all out of passionfruit, so that plan was out the window. But I still had the mango and the egg whites to use up. TF suggested just doing the same pavlova minus the passionfruit, but it felt a little lacking to me so I went hunting for inspiration.

Most of the mango recipes that I found didn't really appeal to me, but I did hit upon a couple that paired mango with ube (purple yam). Now that sounded like a good idea! And I loved the look of the pretty purple meringues. Of couse, that required either ube powder, ube extract, or both, neither of which I had. What I did have though, was frozen grated ube.

Some quick Googling said that I should be able to dry out the frozen ube in the oven and then just grind it into a powder for baking. It meant adding an extra day of prep time to the pavlova while I waited for the yam to dry, but now I have a bowl of ube powder, so I'd say it was worth it!

Ube Pavlova

Inspired by some recipes I saw online, but not actually following any of them

Ingredients

• 6 large egg whites
• 330g sugar
• 2 Tbsp. ube powder
• 2 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (or ube extract if you have it)
• 8 drops blue food colouring (optional)
• 6 drops red food colouring (optional)
• 500g coconut Greek yogurt¹
• 1 ripe mango, peeled and sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 120°C (250°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Beat the egg whites until foamy and beginning to thicken.
3. Continue beating the egg whites while adding the sugar 1 Tbsp. at a time.
4. Add the ube powder and cornstarch 1 Tbsp. at a time while still beating.
5. Beat in the cream of tartar, then beat in the vanilla.
6. If you would like a stronger purple colour, beat in the food colouring at this point.
7. The meringue should be at the "stiff peak" stage by now. If not, continue beating until it forms stiff peaks. (This can take up to 10 minutes.)
8. Scoop the meringue out onto the prepared baking sheet and shape it into a thick disc with a deep depression in the middle.
9. Bake at 120°C (250°F) for 90 minutes.
10. When done, turn off the oven and leave the meringue in until completely cooled. (Overnight works well.)
11. Just before serving, top the meringue with the coconut yogurt and fresh mango. (Add a bit of toasted coconut as well if you'd like.)
12. Serve immediately!

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¹ I found the coconut to be the weakest component of this pavlova. I think next time I'd try making some sort of coconut-flavoured custard and garnishing with toasted coconut. ^Back

I bought a bag of quinoa ages ago, just to try it out. But I just never quite got around to using it. I've since discovered some quinoa dishes that I really like. But even so, I never seem to end up making them at home.

I did apparently use a least a little out of the bag at some point because when I went to get it out of the pantry, I found that it had already been opened. But I can't have used very much, because the bag is still basically full.

Anyway, I found this breakfast quinoa recipe and figured it was worth trying out. It's pretty similar to oatmeal or cog or any other sweet breakfast porridge, just made with quinoa instead of oats or corn. If nothing else, it uses up a bit more of my quinoa supply!

In the end, I think sweet quinoa is not for me. I like it better as a savoury salad than as a sweet porridge. It's fine. It's not bad. It's just not my jam. I'll stick to oats and corn and rice for my morning slurries. But, if you're big on quinoa and don't have the same biases as me, this is probably worth giving a go.

Breakfast Quinoa

Slightly adapted from Modern Proper

Ingredients

• 400mL lite coconut milk
• 100mL water
• 1 c. quinoa, rinsed
• ~2 Tbsp. unsweetened dried shredded coconut
• ~2 Tbsp. sliced almonds
• 1 c. frozen (or fresh) mixed berries
• 1/4 c. maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine the coconut milk and water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. (You can rinse the quinoa while waiting for the water to boil.)
2. Add the quinoa and allow to return to boil.
3. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 15-20 minutes.
4. While quinoa is cooking, toast the coconut and almonds in a dry pan over medium heat.
5. Once quinoa is tender and most of the liquid is gone, stir in the berries, maple syrup, and cinnamon.
6. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
7. Top with toasted coconut and almonds and serve.

I cooked this one up a while ago, using Chinese bacon as the stand-in for the pork belly, but forgot to write it up (or take a photo, apparently).

Doenjang Ramen

Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• ½ yellow onion, sliced
• pork belly, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tbsp doenjang or miso paste
• 1 packet ramen
• ½ tbsp gochugaru
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1 hard-boiled egg, bisected

Directions

1. Cook pork belly and onion in pot. Remove and buffer.
2. Add garlic and doenjang. Cook low until fragrant, ~1 minute.
3. Add 2½ C water, ⅔ seasoning powder, and flakes, and bring to a boil.
4. Add gochugaru and noodles and cook for ~1 minute each side.
5. Drain and garnish with pork belly, yellow and green onion, and egg.

鸡肉米粉 (Chicken Rice Noodles)

This was posted on Woks of Life as "Chicken Mei Fun", so I'm kind of guessing at the Hanzi. I think that's probably what it'd be called in Chinese, but I can't swear to it. As far as I can tell "mei fun" is an alternate spelling/pronunciation of "mǐfěn", which is the Pinyin for 米粉 (as far as I know). 米粉 is "rice noodles" (or possibly sometimes "rice flour") and I've seen recipes for other dishes such as "Singapore Mei Fun" and "Chow Mei Fun" that use the same two characters, so I think I've probably got that right. From there I just prefixed 鸡肉 (chicken) to turn it into (I hope) "chicken mei fun". I just wanted to be very clear that I am guessing at the name here and there's a very real possibility that I got it wrong. So, you know, don't go asking for this at a restaurant or something!

I appreciate how quickly this dish comes together. As with many wok-cooked recipes, it's very important to get all your mise en place done first. But there's not too much to do for this one. Quickly prepapre a few rice noodles, a very quick chicken marinade, and chop a few veggies. Nothing major. And once you've got all that done, it only takes about 5 minutes to go from "the wok has finished warming up" to "dinner is served"!

I bumped the veggies up quite a bit when making this, but I think it could've easily tolerated even more. I think I'd also be tempted to do something a little different with the green onions next time. I found the bottoms weren't as cooked as I'd prefer, so I think next time I'd keep the tops in big 5cm pieces, but chop the bottoms smaller and add them earlier so they can soften up a little more. Other than that, it was great! Very fun and tasty recipe!

Hanzi/汉字: 鸡肉米粉
Pinyin/拼音: jīròu mǐfěn
English/英文: chicken rice noodles

鸡肉米粉

Slightly adapted from Woks of Life

Ingredients

Chicken

• 200g skinless boneless chicken¹, sliced
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1/2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 2 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)
• 1/4 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. five-spice powder
• 1 tsp. vegetable oil²

Noodles

• 200g rice vermicelli
• 1 tsp. oil³
• 1/2 tsp. dark soy sauce

Stir-Fry

• 2 slices ginger, julienned
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small onion (~70-80g), quartered and thinly sliced
• 3 green onions, whites and greens separated, whites chopped and greens cut into 4-5cm pieces
• 1 carrot (~100g), julienned
• 250g cabbage, shredded
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 3 Tbsp. peanut or other high smoke point oil

Directions

Chicken

1. Combine the sliced chicken with the cornstarch, water, oyster sauce, wine, pepper, five-spice powder, and oil (or Laoganma/老干妈) and set aside for at least 20 minutes.

Noodles

1. Cook the noodles according to package directions (or your preferred method). I like to pour boiling water over them and let them sit in the hot water for 1-2 mintues before draining.
2. Drian the noodles and toss with the oil and soy sauce. Set aside.

Stir-Fry

1. Prep your ginger and garlic and set it aside. (In the same bowl is fine.)
2. Prep the onion and set it aside.
3. Prep the green onions, keeping the whites and greens separate.
4. Prep the carrot and cabbage and set it aside. (Carrot and cabbage can share a bowl too.)
5. Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, and pepper and set it aside.
6. Heat the wok over high heat until smoking. (Be sure to turn on your kitchen fan if you have one!)
7. Drizzle oil into the wok and swirl to coat.
8. Add the chicken, ginger, and garlic, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
9. Add the onion and cook for another minute or so.
10. Add the white parts of the green onions and cook for another 10-20 seconds.
11. Add the carrot and cabbage and cook for 1 more minute.
12. Add the soy sauce mixture and toss the veggies to coat them in the mixture.
13. Add green parts of the green onions and the noodles and continue cooking and mixing until heated through and well-combined.
14. Remove from heat and serve.

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Variations

Vegetarian Version

Ingredients

Chicken

• 200g extra-firm tofu or 五香豆腐干 (five-spice dry tofu), sliced
• 1 tsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1 Tbsp. water
• 1/2 Tbsp. vegetarian oyster sauce
• 2 tsp. 绍兴酒 (Shaoxing wine)
• 1/4 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. five-spice powder
• 1 tsp. vegetable oil²

Noodles

• 200g rice vermicelli
• 1 tsp. oil³
• 1/2 tsp. dark soy sauce

Stir-Fry

• 2 slices ginger, julienned
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small onion (~70-80g), quartered and thinly sliced
• 3 green onions, whites and greens separated, whites chopped and greens cut into 4-5cm pieces
• 1 carrot (~100g), julienned
• 250g cabbage, shredded
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 3 Tbsp. peanut or other high smoke point oil

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¹ The original recipe suggests chicken breast for this. I used two thighs and that seemed to work very well too. I think pork, shiitake mushrooms, or tofu would also be good. I think 五香豆腐干 (five-spice dry tofu) would work particularly well. ^Back
2 I'd be tempted to swap out the oil for 老干妈 (Laoganma) next time. It's still got a lot of oil in it, but the salt and chilies would give the chicken a bit more kick. ^Back
3 The original recipe suggests a neutral oil here, but I opted to swap it out for sesame oil. (Yes, you get to add sesame oil later in the recipe toward the end up cooking, but I really like sesame oil, okay?) ^Back

I based this on a recipe I found online, but tweaked it a bit to serve my purposes. I've included a proprotional recipe as well as one that uses absolute measurments. I like the proportional/ratio-based one because it's easy to scale for any amount of chicken. But if you prefer just having a set list of measurements, that is also included below.

General Purpose Chicken Marinade

Adapted from Mom on Time Out

Ingredients (Proportional)

• 1 part white peppercorns, ground
• 2 parts garlic powder
• 2 parts Italian seasoning
• 6 parts Dijon or Roman mustard
• 12 parts Worcestershire sauce
• 24 parts light (regular) soy sauce
• 24 parts olive oil
• 24 parts balsamic vinegar

Ingredients (Absolute)

• 1/8 tsp. white peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 3/4 tsp. Dijon or Roman mustard
• 1/2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Add your chicken, cover, and chill for at least 30 minutes.
3. If possible, mixt the chicken around once or twice during marinating time.
4. Cook your chicken as desired (grill, bake, fry, etc.)

I've made this tiramisu twice now. (I've made tiramisu before, but I foolishly did not write the recipe down so I had to go hunting for instructions again.) Anyway, the first time I made this, I followed the recipe as written. The second time I made a few tweaks. I definitely prefer the results from the second attempt, so that's what I'm sharing here.

Tiramisu

Slightly adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 3/4 c. very strong coffee
• 1 Tbsp. + 1/3 c. sugar, divided
• 1 Tbsp. dark rum
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp. water¹
• 1/2 c. mascarpone cheese
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream, chilled
• 22-24 ladyfingers

Directions

1. Brew the coffee and add 1 Tbsp. of sugar and 1 Tbsp. of rum. Mix well and set aside to cool.
2. Put a little water in a pot and bring it to a boil over medium heat.
3. Place egg yolks, remaining 1/3 c. sugar, and water (or wine) in a heatproof bowl.
4. Place the bowl in the pot so that it sits over the boiling water.
5. Beat the yolks on medium to medium-high speed for ~7 minutes. The mixture should become pale and increase in volume significantly. It should form a slowly dissolving ribbon when drizzled over itself. Once this stage is reached, immediately remove the bowl from the heat.
6. Add the mascarpone to the saboyon (yolk mixture) and beat until thoroughly combined and smooth.
7. Set the mixture aside to cool.
8. If you would like to be able to turn your tiramisu out, now is a good time to prepare your pan. Brush an 8.5x4.5" loaf pan with oil and then line it with plastic wrap (leaving a significant overhang). If you don't care about turning it out, then you can just assemble everything directly in the pan, no oiling or lining required!
9. In a clean (preferably chilled) bowl, whip the cream. Start at low speed and very gradually increase the speed to medium-high. Beat until cream is stiff.
10. Add the cream to the cooled saboyon mixtured a bit at a time: Scoop out ~1/4 of the whipped cream and gently fold it in to the saboyon. Repeat until all the cream has been incorporated.
11. Dip a ladyfinger into the coffee mixutre. Give it a few seconds to soak in. I soaked mine for ~8 seconds per side. Place the coffee-infused biscuit into the bottom of the loaf pan. Repeat process until entire bottom of loaf pan has been lined with biscuits.
12. Spread ~1/3 of the cream mixture over the biscuits.
13. Repeat the biscuit-dipping prodecure to create a second layer of biscuits.
14. Spread another 1/3 of the cream mixture over the biscuits.
15. Do one more layer of biscuits and top with a final layer of cream.
16. Cover and chill for 6-12 hours.
17. Uncover the tiramisu.
18. If you would like to turn it out, place a plate or serving platter over the loaf pan and carefully invert the assembly. Carefully and slowly lift the loaf pan up. You may need to gently hold or pull the plastic wrap to encourage the tiramisu to leave the pan. Once the pan is off, remove the plastic wrap.
19. Dust generously with cocoa powder and serve.

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¹ I meant to try swapping out the water for white wine, but I completely forgot. Something to try next time! ^Back

Rice Pudding (Early Modern -- with Flour)

I was craving dessert last night but I didn't want more tiramisu and we didn't have anything else easily to hand. At first I was thinking of making some sort of hot chocolate but, as usual, I wandered off on a bit of a tangent. I went from hot chocolate to possets to pudding and eventually settled on rice pudding as an appropriate midnight snack.

I found that Cooking in the Archives had done a couple of rice pudding recipes. One that pretty closely resembles a lot of the modern European rice puddings that I've seen: rice, cream, sugar, cinnamon, egg... The only major differences were that the early modern recipe contained no vanilla (which I would normally expect to see in a modern rice pudding) and did contain a few ingredients that would now be considered unusual, exotic, or down-right weird: breadcrumbs, rosewater, bone marrow, and ambergris.

That recipe sounded pretty interesting -- and I probably will give it a try at some point (minus the ambergris) -- but for now I focused my attention on the other rice pudding recipe. It looked very different from any modern rice pudding recipes I've seen (European or otherwise). Mostly because it called for rice flour rather than whole rice grains. It also called for a lot more eggs and butter than I'm used to.

In the end it came out almost like a flan (minus the caramel, of course). It was wobbly and custardy. Fairly bland, lightly sweet, and went very well with a quick mixed berry compote.

Rice (Flour) Pudding

From Cooking in the Archives

Original Recipe

To Make a Rice Pudding

Take six ounces of rice flower a quart of milk set them over y^e fire & stir them well together while they are thick, then put in half pound of Butter six eggs one nutmeg sweeten to y^r tast, Butter y^r Dish that you bake it in /

Modern Recipe

(Halved from original)

Ingredients

• 85g rice flour
• 2 c. whole (3.25%) milk
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 3 eggs, beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 23cm (9") pie plate or similar baking dish. (one that won't leak!)
2. Combine the rice flour and milk and cook, stirring constantly, over medium-low heat. I chose to add my sugar at this point as well rather than waiting for the mixture to thicken. Either way is fine.
3. It will seem like nothing's happening for a while and then the mixture should thicken quite suddenly all at once. Remove from heat.
4. Mix in the butter. I chose to do this 1 Tbsp. at a time.
5. Mix in the nutmeg.
6. Mix in the eggs. (I mixed them in one at a time.)
7. Pour the mixture into the prepred pie plate and bake for 40 minutes. It will still seem very jiggly and wobbly, but it should be nicely browned on top.
8. Allow to cool (I definite did not follow this instruction), slice, and serve with your choice of toppings: fresh fruit, jam, compote, whipped cream, etc.