I made a batch of salted eggs early on and have been using it in quick boiled soups. Having successfully made cooked egg mayonnaise (eggynaise), I wonder using salted egg should turn out delicious too?
Well it worked, and the character of salted yolk is beautiful, unfortunately it is really salty. Better use 1 salted egg with a normal egg, or use less salted egg white. I used it up on plain blanched bolted white turnip stems, tasted good.
Weather is fine and decide to walk down to the lake to enjoy dinner there. Bbq chicken wings, cooking and eating slowly, simple happy experience. On the way back up, saw lots of pom-pom seed heads of dandelion, so cute.
Saw this recipe on internet and thought what a wonderful idea, I like mayonnaise but really don’t want to eat so much oil. This is an oil free high protein eggy-naise sauce, very smooth texture, a lot of possibilities to add other flavouring, like chop up fresh herbs.
With continuous ripening of tomatoes, I have to use them more to keep up, before transforming the excess to conserve. Other than using in lunch and dinner, also thought of serving in breakfast as Shakshuka, with my twists.
First I cut tomatoes into halves and bake for 10 minutes at 180˚C, much faster to use in meals and skin slips off easily.
-Baked Shakshuka with potato
Lately have been seeing a lot of photos of Shakshuka on social media, really eye catching colours. While in Budapest, finally able to see it on menu and ordered twice for tasting. Impressed with the colour and the ease of preparation.
Main ingredients are tomato sauce, season with sweet paprika, cumin, when boiling, add eggs to poach, cover with lid to cook until your preferred yolk consistency, I like mine like jelly, serve with pita bread.
In my breakfast version, I mix the sauce with long cooked mix bean, my current breakfast item, poach eggs and add fresh dill before serving. Indeed beautiful to look at, and tasty too.
Bought some duck eggs and try making salted eggs again. This time I added Badiane, clove and Sichuan pepper in the brine, to add fragrant.
I cook the first one after 4 weeks and the yolk is still hard. Waited for another 2 weeks and the yolk is lovely soft (sandy) and oily. There is a mild fragrance and the egg does not feel only salty.
Finally found a hunter of duck, wood pigeon, pheasant and deer who live nearby, and went to see his supply. Quite a small commercial operation with proper butcher area, cold room and packing facility, with 4 people working. 80% went to UK or other European countries, as Irish are not crazy with game meat. The rest to local restaurants.
He is happy to sell to individual customer in cash and we get the wholesale price. Wild Mayard duck is small and not fatty, good for a meal for 2.
I seasoned with salt and 5 spices powder, bake at 200˚C for 25 minutes and rested in the oven with the door ajar for another 10 minutes. The breast meat is dark and tender, while the thigh is tough and needs longer cooking/stewing. Next time I will cook breast and thight separately.
So easy to do smoking of food in the kitchen, and is the most effective method in imparting the fresh fragrance of rosemary to the meat.
Very hard to buy pigeon but found a shop that sells fried pigeon as its specialty in Sai Kung town. So decided to serve friends with smoked pigeon, saved a lot of work, and nice sweet rose smell.
1.Soak a small bowl of rice for a couple of hours
2.Soak black tea and rose buds for 10 minutes just before smoking.
3.On bbq stove, place a sheet of aluminum foil, on top is soaked rice, then brown sugar, wet tea leaves and rose buds. Turn the heat on, when smoking place halved pigeons on rack, smoke on medium heat for 15 minutes.
Spent 2 days to prepare a Xmas meal, for the fun of creation and for joy of sharing.
Aperitifs:
Debone duck, season with salt, soy sauce, miso, 5 spices powder and liqueur, stuff with cooked sweetcorn, mushroom, Chinese sausage and minced duck meat, rolled up. Skin had hot water treatment, brushed with vinegar and honey mixture and dried in the fridge for a day.
Baked at 160˚C for 45 minutes the 190˚C for 30 minutes. Meat is tender but skin not crisp yet. Probably need to increase temperature to 210 instead.
Cranberry sauce
Cook the bones of duck to form stock, add 500gm fresh cranberry, cook until soft, season with soy sauce, 5 spices powder, brown sugar, liqueur, sieve to remove bones and skin.
Sweet potato stack
Cheese platter
Plenty warm to have alfresco dinner, so the best is to have nibbles as starter, then bbq meat as mains, easy to prepare and to please.
Starter:
