Day Thirteen - Page 52 - Slow-poached Eggs

The timing was a little tricky and I had to throw away two that were undercooked but I did get three eggs that worked. You'll know when they are done because they will easily slip out of the shells intact without leaving too much white behind. It's kind of amazing. As you can see, the yolk isn't perfectly centered inside the white but the egg would probably have to be turned around in the water for that to happen. I wonder if the restaurants use some sort of device to achieve that. We had crispy fried poached eggs in Yountville that might have used this technique to precook the eggs before dropping in a batter.


The recipe says that fried, "they're shaped like hard boiled eggs that have been lightly run over by a car. Here mine are served with a side of kimchi.

Day Twelve - Page 293 - Miso Butterscotch (and some sticky rice w/ mango)

Is this what was was intended? The recipe says, "The miso should be on the blackened side of browned and should have an incredibly appetizing burnt smell to it." I think mine got a little too black at the edges so I threw those bits away prevent my butter from being too bitter.

Having made the Miso Butter earlier, I had a pretty good hunch that this was going to be another really scrumptious spread. It's nutty, salty, and sweet. Blind tested, John thought that it was chocolate!

It turned out to be another good topping for boiled dok:


Then I made a panna cotta using a David Lebovitz recipe and
flavored it with about 1/4 cup of the butterscotch. I topped it with pieces of papaya. It was mildly sweet and somewhat salty. Not what you normally expect in a dessert panna cotta but good nonetheless.


Then, because I had the time and the ingredients I took a stab at making Thai sticky rice with coconut and mango. I combined a couple of recipes I found on the web and used canned coconut milk and fresh mangoes.

It took two tries but I found that the best way to cook the rice was to soak it in water overnight, line the basket of a steamer with a dish towel, place the rice on top of the towel, lightly drape the rice with the ends of the towel, and steam over boiling water for about 45 minutes. The rice will be translucent and soft.

While you are cooking the rice, make a sauce by heating the coconut milk and sugar until it is dissolved. How much sugar you use depends on how sweet you want your rice to be.

When the rice is done, put it in a bowl and pour a little of the coconut sauce over it. You don't want the rice to be swimming in sauce but all the grains should be nicely coated. Cover it and let it sit for a few minutes. so that the sauce is absorbed into the rice. You can mold it or serve it in a pile with some slices of mango. This disappeared pretty quickly.

Day Eleven - Page 59 - Roasted Rice Cakes

Another pretty sunrise - the spectacular kind that reminds us that it is still winter. There may be some turbulence on high but unfortunately it hasn't made it down here in any meaningful way so the drought continues.

Today I rushed home from work to whip up a dish of dok and dragon sauce. The denjang and kochujang (I combined them to make a ssamjang) were pretty salty and not as spicy as I wanted but a nice flavor boost for the dok. I know now that I will have to work on my dok frying technique to keep the cakes soft and chewy. These had a nice crunchy outside but they got kind of hard as they cooled. I'll have to experiment with frying times, different brands and whether they are frozen, vacuum packed, or fresh. I don't see myself pounding rice any time soon but I won't rule that out entirely if I can't get the right texture with manufactured dok.

Day Ten - Marathon - Pages 40, 73, 178

I was busy all day making three dishes. The ramen broth took several hours of watching the pot boil and I'm not sure if the result was worth it. It had nice flavor but I think that I would have been just as happy with a simpler broth that had just a couple of flavor components instead of the chicken, bacon, pork, konbu, shiitake, and other veggies that the recipe called for. Or maybe make the whole concoction easier by putting all the ingredients in at once rather than in succession and removing each depending on your taste. It will be worth trying that the next time but for now we will have something to go with our New Year's ramen.

I used the plumped shitakes from the broth to make pickles and then made Spicy Pork Sausage with Rice Cakes.

This dish is a little of "throw everything you have in the wok" which isn't necessarily a bad thing but again, like the broth, there may be too many flavors in one place. In spite of the full cup of dried chilies the heat was pretty mild and I used my Kitchenaid food grinder attachment to grind a pork chop which was really fun.

The dok (rice cakes) made for a very hearty dish but what I find really satisfying is this:

Boiled dok drizzled with a little maple syrup.

Day Nine - Page 294 - My Sources

Just got back from L.A. where I got Xmas loot from Ava and Sun that will help me cook from Momofuku using the real ingredients. Starting at the lower left and moving counterclockwise: kochukaru (chile powder), denjang (fermented bean paste), kochujang (chile paste), then left: rice cakes, yuzu juice. And I went to A1 Market on Sunset where I picked up shiro (white miso), Vietnamese bottled shrimp (still looking for Korean salted shrimp in a jar), and fish sauce.

Last night I threw out the first attempt at kimchi and started over using my new bag of kochukaru and followed the Momofuku recipe closely using the right amount of salt and sugar. Already it looked so much better - that first batch was positively anemic.

Lesson learned: don't substitute essential ingredients because it just won't be delicious and if nothing else, deliciousness is the main component of Chang's recipes. I will never ever again use cayenne powder for kochukaru but I am thinking of using the savoy cabbage that is in the garden for my next kimchi...

While we were in L.A. we got to try a Korean barbeque restaurant: Soowon Galbi. In addition to four kinds of meat and all the small plates we had a bowl of stew (kimchichigae). I'm looking forward to making the Momofuku version soon.

Day Eight - Page 94 - Cauliflower, Kimchi Puree & Bacon

Last week we had some freezing days and then it rained for two. Today I went outside to survey the damage and was surprised to see that the cauliflower plants survived and this one actually grew to a nice size during the harsh weather. This is my first attempt at cauliflower and I'm really happy that I now have a fall vegetable that I can grow successfully. Thanks to Ellen, who gave me the starts, they had a really healthy beginning.

The kimchi is just starting to get stinky so it seemed like a good time to try Chang's Brussels sprouts/kimchi puree/bacon dish and substitute the cauliflower for the sprouts.

The kimchi puree sounded like a sort of odd thing to do but it turned out to be a delicious sauce and will be a good staple to mix with anything on hand. Fish sauce, garlic, and chilies are always going to be tasty. This, along with a pan fried duck breast and fried rice, was dinner tonight. Yum!

Day Seven - Page 74- Napa Cabbage Kimchi

I wanted to do the impossible: make kimchi without all the salt. After some searching I ended up using a recipe by David Lebovitz and used less salt and left out the daikon. It is basically cabbage and onions, salt, cayenne pepper, and garlic.


And because one pickle leads to the next and I found some really fresh-looking gai choy at May Wah in the city, I made up some of Rhoda Yee's Pickled Mustard Greens (Suen-Gai-Choy) recipe.
Do you know how hard it is to keep the camera clean while licking pickling juice off of your fingers? What's impossible is to wait for these to be fully pickled.

And then this is what happened over Thanksgiving!


I've posted some photos of Oaxaca on Flickr: HERE