Taiwanese Tea Eggs

I had too many eggs at home and I've watched a travel documentary about Taiwan.

Now I prepared these eggs. Until this report I only ate Japanese Ramen eggs and Korean Mechurian Jangjorim eggs. And I vaguely remember the "1000 years eggs" I ate in China.

First step was filling my egg cooker with 7 eggs and getting in enough water to hard boil them. Use roomtemperature eggs.

Then they went in a ice cold water bath. Then cracked all around with a small spoon.

Next I cooked the marinate and cooled it down a bit. The eggs went in.

Now comes the labour of love. Simmering at very low temp the eggs in the marinate for 2 hours.

Eat them with a cup of tea as a snack or on rice or chopped on some salad. Store them in the fridge.

Marinate:

3 cups water

2 tbsp dark soy sauce

2-3 tsp black tea (I had Gunpowder and black Turkish tea)

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

1/2 tsp Szechuan peppercorns

2 tsp honey

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp 5 spice

Berliner filled with ground Pork Eastern European style

On Saturday I had a Berliner/Donut filled with raw seasoned pork and red onions. Today I was out and went to a Mix Markt- an Eastern European Supermarket.

At the bakery section I saw Berliner and read the sign: filled with strawberry jam. They were covered in the regular sugar. Beside them were some without the sugar on top. I thought great, they are unfilled.

But I am lucky that I had checked the sign: filled with pork and onions.

At home I heated them in the microwave. Very tasty, but the filling was a little sparse. As a side I had the Korean carrot salad. This can be found at the pickled veggie isle in every Eastern European supermarket.

 

Sweet Chicken Asado Filipino style

I do not know why but I am a huge fan of Filipino cuisine.

Shredded chicken over rice with sweet and savoury sauce.

This recipe is from Panlasang Pinoy and he has a huge list of recipes available. The only problem is, his YT videos are in Tagalog.

Chicken and pork are my most cooked meats and the Filipino kitchen favours both.

This Asado recipe is super easy to prepare. 

Recipe for 2:

4 chicken thighs

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp sugar

3 crushed garlic cloves

1/4 tsp 5 spice powder

1/4 tsp Szechuan pepper ( my bought spiceblend only had regular pepper)

2 star anise

1 1/4 cup chicken stock

1/4 tsp salt and pepper

Rice

Salt the chicken thighs on both sides and let them rest 10 min. Heat up the oil and brown the chicken on both sides for 5 min each. Take them out of the pan.

Discard the excess oil and put in the garlic to get it lightly brown. Add star anise, 5 spice powder and Szechuan pepper and fill up with stock and soy sauce. Bring to a boil and get the chicken back in.

If you have bone-in cook for 35 min, if bone-out 25 min. Add sugar and lots of fresh ground pepper. Serve over rice.

 

Pancakes au Yaourt French style

Today is pancake day, tomorrow Lent starts.

There are so many pancake recipes on Pinterest. I haven't baked one with yogurt yet.

Many different French versions are offered. I took inspirations from some of them.

A spiced plum jam as a topping worked great with the pancakes.

Recipe:

150 g flour

250 g Greek yogurt

2 eggs

Pinch of salt

30 g sugar

30 ml vegetable oil

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 tsp vanilla sugar

Oil and butter for the pan.      

Prepare the batter and let it rest 15 minutes. On medium heat in oil and butter bake the pancakes until golden. 

Chicken Wings in Asian sauce

Today is the 17th of Februar and Happy Chinese New Year, the Year of the Horse.

A plate of chicken wings can be spiced in all different kinds around the globe. Chinese or Asian style is pretty easy.

Air Fryer wings in their basic form are my go to. Just seasoned and coated with potato starch and baking soda and some spritz of oil.

This works fine every time. The sauce gives the direction then for the wings.

I used ketchup, ketchup manis, soy sauce with yuzu, tamari and a gluck of water. Adding the white of a spring onion and sesame seeds. That went in the microwave for 60 sec ond 800 W.

Poured over the wings and tossed with the greens from the onions.

Finger licking good.

Sauce:

3 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp ketchup manis

2 tbsp soy with yuzu

1 tbsp tamari

2 tbsp water

1 green onion

Sesame seeds

 

Yum Yum Salad

Yum Yum Instant Noodles are the reason this salad has got its name.

I went out in the morning to pick up some Yum Yum package with Chicken flavour. But I only found Chicken Ramen flavour.

Many prepare the salad with Napa cabbage, I had some chicory/endive in the fridge. Over the finely chopped chicory goes the crushed up noodles. The seasoning package is added to the dressing. If there is a small oil package inside, just throw it in the trash.

The noodles will give some crunch to the salad, but that is not enough. Dry toast sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds for the final touch.

Recipe:

1 Yum Yum Chicken Ramen Instant Noodles

1 head Chicory

3 tbsp sunflower seeds

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp grapeseed oil

2 tbsp sweet vinegar

1 tsp agave syrup

Pepper

1 spring onion

2 tbsp fresh dill

Chop the salad and crush the noodles in the package. Combine the ingredients for the dressing and pour them over the salad.

Mix well and let it sit 20 to 30 min for the noodles to soften. Add onion and dill and the toasted seeds.

Pizzoccheri della Valtellina or Buckwheat Noodles

My BFF was in Northern Italy on a short trip from Switzerland and bought these special  buckwheat noodles.

In the valley of Valtellina in the Lombardy buckwheat is grown since the 1600s. It is usually eaten with some kind of cabbage and potatoes. To enrich it, cheese and butter are added.

I used Savoy cabbage for this dish. The recipe is from Tavolamia and I found it on Pinterest. The buckwheat noodles are very dense and they need a long time to cook. But be careful, they are very hard a long time and then from one moment to the other they are soft.

Butter and a little garlic is in the recipe, I used more butter and three times the amount of garlic. But that was my interpretation of the recipe and I loved it.

Recipe for 2:

145 g Pizzoccheri

240 g Savoy cabbage

3 small potatoes

6 garlic cloves

75 g butter

3 tbsp fresh dill, 2 tbsp fresh parsley, 1 tsp fresh basil

125 g cheese like Fontina or Taleggio ( I used Kraxler, a semihard aromatic mountain cheese) look for Valtellina cheese.

Salt and pepper

In a large pot with salted water start the cubed potatoes in cold water. Cook them 3 minutes and add the shredded cabbage. Cook 2 minutes and add the Pizzoccheri. Cook fir 12 to 15 min, check the noodles. Drain in a colander.

While this cooks, put an empty baking dish in the oven at 100 C to warm through.

In a small pan melt the butter and add the chopped garlic. Cook it on medium to get soft, but not burn. Cube the cheese in smaller pieces and chop the herbs. 

Take the baking dish out of the oven and start layering so that the cheese has the chance to melt. Butter with garlic helps. Add pepper and a little salt. Stir in the herbs and fold everything. Serve hot, cheese pull is included.