Steamed Pork Patty with Salted Duck Egg

You know that I do have a recipe category under "Cindy's Homemade Food-No Fuss Cooking." This pork patty with salted duck egg is one recipe that fits the description. In fact, many of the steamed dishes can be listed under the no fuss cooking category.

It's mostly easy prepping, but the key lies on the easy cleaning part. You see, steaming means no oil splashing around the stove area. And since I'm using the Taiwan Tatung electric steamer, basically there's no cleaning work needed in the end. Maybe just wipe-off the residual water on the inner lid and keep everything air dry in the end. Not like I hope for all the kitchen work to be that easy, but once a while it surely does reduce some workload in the errands-filled life. 

Steamed pork patty with salted duck egg - 

Ingredients?

• 2 salted duck eggs
• 500 to 600 grams ground pork
• 3 water chestnuts
• 1 talk scallion
• 1 small chunk ginger
• 1 teaspoon aged Shaoxing wine
• 1 teaspoon white sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon potato starch
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

How?

Scrape and chop the water chestnuts to smaller pieces. Scrape and finely chop the ginger, we will need about 1 teaspoon of prepped ginger for this recipe. Destem and chop the scallion, separate the white and green parts.

Peel the salted duck eggs. Separate the yolk and the white. Smash the yolk till paste-like texture. Chop the egg white (as you can tell from the picture that I'm not an expert in peeling the eggs).

Transfer ground pork to the bowl or deep plate that you'll be using for steaming. Measure in 1 teaspoon of aged Shaoxing wine. Increase up to 1 tablespoon if stronger Shaoxing aroma sounds like your type of food.

Also add 1 teaspoon of white sesame oil, finely chopped ginger, chopped water chestnuts, chopped duck egg white, 2 tablespoons of chopped scallion white, 1 teaspoon of potato starch, and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. 

Blend till evenly mixed together. Clean up the sides and make sure the pork mixture looks nice and clean as a whole chunk sitting on the bottom of the bowl or plate. Simply let the whole thing rest under room temperature for about 10 minutes.

After that, smear the duck yolk paste to the center of the pork mixture. Like forming a smaller circle, a round area on top of the pork. Into the steamer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Once ready, carefully remove the bowl or plate from the steamer and not to let any water drops into the dish. Garnish with chopped scallion greens before serving. 

Have you noticed that I didn't use any salt nor soy sauce for this recipe? Just like the name suggests, the salted duck egg can be quite salty already, so I intentionally avoid using more salt to this dish.

However, if you prefer a darker, more soy sauce like look, perhaps just add a little bit of dark soy sauce to the ground pork mixture. Dark soy sauce is more so for the color only, it's not as flavorful and salty compared to the regular soy sauce, so there's no need to worry too much about the over-salty result in the end.

Other no fuss cooking recipes:

• Shabu pork salad in homemade miso dressing
• Salmon and dashi takikomi gohan using brown rice 炊き込みご飯
• Chinese spicy sauce and shrimp rice using rice cooker
• Japanese pickled napa cabbage with shio kombu 白菜漬け
• White bean and tuna salad (insalata di tonno e fagioli)

Asian Shrimp and Pork Meatball Noodle Soup

This soup noodles recipe tastes a bit like pho, but has a more homey tone to it. Perhaps due to the handmade shrimp and pork meatballs, the rugged edge somehow spells quality and all-natural in my mind compared to the perfectly round machine-made meatballs.

Asian shrimp and pork meatball noodle soup - 

Ingredients (about 4 to 5 portions)?

• 4 to 5 portions Asian glass noodles (wider kind)
• 10 cups chicken stock
• 1 stalk scallion
• 1 chunk ginger
• 1 pack or two big handful bean sprouts
• 1 small bundle cilantro
• 1 lime 
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• Some salt (optional)
• 1 to 2 medium red chilies (optional)

Meatballs (about 16 meatballs):

• 400 grams ground pork 
• 300 grams shrimps
• 1 stalk scallion
• 2 medium garlic cloves
• 1 lime (need the zest only)
• 2 teaspoons potato starch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

How?

Bring out a big pot and pour in 10 cups of chicken stock. You can use some water if there's not enough chicken stock, but the final flavor will be on the lighter side as a result.

Scrape then slice the ginger, we will need 4 ginger slices, about 1mm thickness each. Destem one stalk of scallion and try to tie into a bit knot.

Add the ginger and scallion to the stock and bring to a boil. Keep it boiling for two more minutes. After that, lower the heat and keep the stock at a small to medium bubbling stage. Cook for 15 more minutes.

When time's up, pick out the ginger and scallion. Zest one lime and add to the stock, then squeeze in half of the lime juice to brighten up the flavor. As for the remaining lime, you can slice into wedges and serve with the noodle soup in the end. 

Taste the soup and season with fish sauce instead of using salt. I added 1 tablespoon of fish sauce here.

To make the meatballs, peel and devein the shrimps first then give the shrimps a few rough chops. Mix that with ground pork along with destem and chopped one stalk of scallion, zest of one lime, 2 peeled and chopped garlic cloves, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, and 2 teaspoons of potato starch. Mix till evenly blended.

Use two spoons to help forming the mixture into oval-shaped meatballs. Make one first and drop that to the soup. One by one, repeat till using up all the shrimp and pork mixture. Meanwhile remember to keep the stock at a gentle boil, and continue to simmer till all the meatballs have been fully cooked through. Scoop out any foamy bits if there's any floating on top.

Have another medium pot of water ready. Bring to a boil and add in bean sprouts. I actually picked out some of the threads on the tips before using. Not necessary but it'll give you a cleaner bite later on. Cook for couple minutes. Drain and set the cooked bean sprouts aside.

Still using the same pot, add more water again. This time cook the wide glass noodles according to package instruction or your preference. Once done, drain and transfer to serving bowls.

Scoop in some of the soup and meatballs. Garnish with bean sprouts. Chop some cilantro and add to the bowl too. If you can take some heat, destem and slice the red chilies into rings, add that to the noodles.

I also have one or two more lime wedges ready. Personally, I think for such pho-like noodles, more lime always sounds like a great and delicious idea. If the final noodle soup is not salty enough, you can choose to add more fish sauce or simply add some last minute salt flakes will do. 

What if you're only making the soup noodles for one or just two people? No problem. You can prepare the soup and all the ingredients as it is, but only cook enough noodles with smaller portion. 

Simple store the soup and the sides in the fridge. All you have to do is to cook the noodles again later on, and just heat up the soup with a bit assembling work to make a complete meal next time.

That's what I did actually. Since it's only me and Mister most of the time, there's no way we can finish everything in one single meal. Don't worry about the taste difference after a day or two though. Mister was actually super happy with the pho-like comforting food two days after. Especially with freshly squeezed lime juice, it has that magic to make overnight ingredients tastes like fresh off the stove again.   

Other Asian soup noodles recipes:

• Braised noodles with luffa gourd and chicken meatballs 絲瓜貢丸雞湯煨麵
• Pork and Chinese chives glass noodles 豆瓣韭菜豬肉粉絲

Curry Beef Using Curry Powder and Turmeric Powder

It might not seemed as an extreme case in America, but beef in Taiwan can be much more expensive compare to other red meat options. Like you can really feel the price gap there. Good thing is that I'm more of a pork, poultry, and fish person when it comes to home-cooking.

So it's kind of a rare occasion that I cook beef at home. If that's the case, might as well go a little bit beyond when choosing the ingredient. As good as wagyu sounds, but it doesn't really work that well with my curry recipe here. Sirloin would do, price is still just about acceptable and the fat versus lean meat proportion should be great for curry.

The best part is that the frozen sirloin steak was on sale. Buy one get one free, totaling 900 grams of beef, perfect. 

Curry beef using curry powder and turmeric powder -

Ingredients?

• 900 grams sirloin steak (or other part of beef)
• 1 purple onion
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon potato starch
• Some extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 3 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 tablespoon turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• Some potato starch and water mixture (optional)

How?

Trim-off excess fat from the beef you're using. I'm using sirloin steaks here, and it's ok to leave a bit of fat close to the lean meat. In fact, that little fat will make the whole curry even more delicious.

Transfer beef to a bowl and add in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon of potato starch, and 1 tea of extra virgin olive oil. Massage and marinate the beef for at least 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel and slice the onion to wedges. Destem and remove the piths and seeds for both the green and red bell peppers.

Bring out a wok or a big pot, drizzle 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (regular olive oil will do) and switch to medium high heat. Once warmed up, add in the beef and give it a quick stir-fry. About 70% cooked-through, scoop out for later use.

Still using the same wok or pot, drizzle more oil if needed. Still using medium high heat too. Add in the onion and cook till the onion pieces get a nice golden brown char on some parts.

Add in 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds along with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper. Stir-fry for one more minute.

Add in all the bell peppers and continue to cook for couple minutes.

Add 3 tablespoons of curry powder and 1 tablespoon of turmeric powder. Give it a quick mix under the same heat for 30 seconds, be careful not to burn the spices. Pour in 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock.

Bring to a boil then lower the heat to keep the whole thing at a medium bubbling stage. Keep cooking for 5 to 8 minutes.

Towards the end, add back the semi-cooked beef. Give it a few swirls to make sure everything has been evenly blended to the curry sauce. Cook for about a minute. 

Check on the consistency. If too watery then you might need to lower the heat and mix in some potato starch and water mixture. However, I didn't use any this time, everything looked perfect to me. Do a final flavor test and adjust with salt if needed. Curry beef should be done by now.

It's proven that frozen steak can be a good alternative when buying beef, especially beef that might require a big stir-frying or short braising time. Especially for the sirloin steaks I got, the meat was still tender and packed with enough beefy aroma.

Other curry-related recipes:

• Summer vegetable curry
• Kuku paka coconut chicken curry
• Curry flavored beeho0n/rice vermicelli stir-fry 咖哩炒米粉
• Tomato curry and chorizo spaghettini 番茄咖哩義大利麵

Shrimp and Artichoke Pasta (Using Canned Artichoke Hearts)

Question first, why this recipe is often called shrimp and artichoke pasta instead of artichoke and shrimp pasta? In the beginning I was like maybe I should go with alphabetical order, so putting artichoke before shrimp. However, after a quick search online, most of the recipes are titled shrimp and artichoke, with shrimp in the front.

Why is that? Or it's like way too normal and too common so no one ever thought about it? Not like it's super important but it'll be nice to know the reason behind. I'm a little curious cat here.

Shrimp and artichoke pasta using canned artichoke hearts - 

Ingredients (about 3 to 4 portions)?

• 290 grams (60 grams solids) canned artichoke hearts
• 360 grams linguine pasta
• 16 to 20 shrimps
• 30 small or 20 medium cherry tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 small bundle flat leaf parsley
• 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• Some extra virgin olive oil
• Some salt

How?

Have a big pot of water ready and bring to a boil. Season with few good pinches of salt and add in the linguine pasta. Cook till almost al dente. Before draining, save about a cup of pasta cooking water on the side, then proceed to drain out the water.

Try to calculate the pasta cooking time so when the sauce is ready, the pasta should be just about finished cooking too, then you can simply drain and dump into the sauce right away.

Peel and slice the garlic cloves. If the cherry tomatoes are on the bigger side, cut into half. Peel and devein the shrimps. Zest the lemon before slicing it in half. Chop the flat leaf parsley, do not use the stems if appear too tough. Remove the artichoke heart from the jar and give it a few chops.

Bring out a big pan and drizzle 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Use medium heat and add in garlic slices along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Sear till slightly golden then add in halved cherry tomatoes. Swirl the pan once a while and cook till the tomatoes seemed about to burst or slightly charred on some sides.

Add in shrimps and cook for about 30 seconds. Add in artichoke and continue to cook for a short moment.

Pour in 1/2 cup of dry white wine, also add all the lemon zest we prepared in the beginning, squeeze in juice from half of the lemon. Also add 1 teaspoon of salt and most of the chopped parsley. Swirl and toss to make sure every ingredients are evenly mixed together. Taste and adjust with salt if needed.

Check and see if the sauce is enough. If not, pour in some pasta water that we saved earlier. I added about 1/4 cup here. Then I transfer drained pasta over. Swirl the pan and try to blend in some air to the sauce.

Cook till the sauce looks slightly thickened, and the oily part appears binding with the sauce. Give it a last couple rounds of extra virgin olive oil drizzles. Toss a few more times. Plate and garnish with the remaining chopped parsley.

You know what? Canned artichoke heart ain't bad at all, it's actually quite delicious. Especially with all the hard prepping work being dealt with, the only job we have is to utilize the tender hearts into our cooking.

And using canned artichoke heart for pasta was such a great option. A slightly tangy touch worked really well with lighter-tasting shrimps. Not just shrimps, flat leaf parsley also balanced well with canned artichoke hearts. 

Extended reading:

• Thick cut bacon and lentil ragu
• Pasta all'ortolana (healthy pasta with lots of vegetables)
• Tuna and olive linguine for two
• Oyster and shiso peperoncino
• Paccheri with tuna in red bell pepper sauce

Soft Batter Taiwanese Breakfast Egg Pancakes 軟粉漿蛋餅

Calling it Taiwanese "breakfast" egg pancakes is in fact quite an accurate description. No matter where you go in Taiwan, you can always find some breakfast joints selling egg pancakes. Some places even extend their opening hours till early afternoon for working crowd coming out during lunch time, seeking for a cheap and lighter lunch option.

So basically there are two types of Taiwanese breakfast egg pancakes texture-wise. Usually you'll find thinner and sometimes slightly crunchy on the edges for the wrapping. However, traditionally there's also this thicker and softer type of wrapping, like this recipe here. 

The soft batter wrapping is not as main steam as the thinner type. Partially I suspect that the thinner version is cheaper and easily accessible with factory premade product, and that's what you'll find at most of the little breakfast joints.

Soft batter Taiwanese breakfast egg pancakes 軟粉漿蛋餅 -

Ingredients (about 3 to 4 pancakes)?

Batter: 

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch 地瓜粉
• 1/2 cup potato starch 太白粉
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1 stalk scallion (green part)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Others:

• Some eggs (1 or 2 per serving)
• Some mixed shredded cheese
• Some canned corn kernels (optional)
• Some olive oil
• Some soy sauce or soy sauce paste (optional)
• Some chili sauce (optional)

How?  

To make the batter, measure 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 cup of tapioca starch, 1/2 cup of potato starch, and 2 1/4 cups of water to a big mixing bowl. Whisk till evenly blended.

Destem and chop the scallion. Add the green part to the batter along with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Mix till evenly blended. The final consistency for this type of "soft" batter will be somewhat similar to thinner pumpkin soup.

Bring out a pan, I used non-stick pan because it'll make the job a lot easier. Drizzle some olive oil and switch to medium heat. Wait till it's a bit warm and make sure the oil spread throughout the surface. Scoop some batter over and swirl the pan to form an even round sheet with a little thickness to it. I used about 3 ladles per sheet.

It'll take about 2 to 3 minutes for each side, and don't try to move around the batter early on. The batter will start to set and since I'm using non-stick pan here, it'll be very easy to "detach" and flip to the other side.

So also 2 to 3 minutes on the other side, or till slightly golden brown color. Once ready, transfer the sheet to a plate. Repeat the process and continue to make more sheet/wrappings. Depending on the size of the pan you're using, my recipe should give you about 3 to 4 medium sized sheets, with some thickness that is.

To finally make the breakfast egg pancakes. Drizzle some oil to the pan to cover the surface again. Still using medium heat. Crack one or two eggs in a bowl first and beat it. Pour the beaten egg to the pan and try to swirl the pan to spread out the egg.

Before the egg sets, top with the sheet we just made. Give it a few gentle presses using a spatula, helping the egg binds with the sheet. Flip and add your preferred fillings to the center but a bit towards one side of the sheet.

I used lots of cheese here. Then try to fold in the sheet to make a log in the end. Maybe use some force here to give the log some pressure in order to hold the shape.

Transfer the log to a cutting board, slice to medium pieces then move to serving plate. Serve with some soy sauce, soy sauce paste, or chili sauce if desired. 

If you happen to have more sheets in the end, you can stick one sheet of parchment paper in between and store the sheets stacked together. Seal tight in a big Ziploc bag and send to the freezer. Just defrost for like 30 minutes or so before cooking the next time.

And if you're really not up for the challenge and make the sheet yourself, you know sometimes you can find the prepade sheets in the frozen food aisle in the supermarket. Just note that it'll most likely be the thin kind, not this special soft batter version. I've never seen the soft batter version sheet being sold as frozen product anywhere.

Also flavor-wise, I focused on oozing cheese this time so mixed shredded cheese is key here. You can play around with the fillings. In Taiwan, some of the most popular fillings you'll see at the breakfast stand are pork floss, tuna, and Chinese basil, cheese or without cheese is optional.

Extended reading:

• Basic scallion pancakes 基本款蔥油餅
• Pan-fried Chinese beef pie 牛肉餡餅

A Brush of Romantic Pink - Mentaiko Scallion and Sesame Seeds Onigiri

Here's my confession. At first I was imagining rice balls with chunks of mentaiko throughout, like clear white colored rice and red chunky mentaiko color contrast. Little did I know that once I removed the mentaiko roe from the membrane, there's no way I can keep these little roes intact.

So I ended up with mini roes scattered throughout the rice grains, thus the romantic pink hue everywhere. Definitely not what I have in mind, but with such pretty tone in the end, not bad actually.

Mentaiko scallion and sesame seeds onigiri - 

Ingredients (about 4 servings)?

• 60 grams mentaiko
• 4 portions cooked white rice
• 1 stalk scallion
• 1 large nori sheet
• 1 tablespoon white sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon toasted white sesame seeds

How?

Precook some white rice for this recipe, preferably use bit less water than usual to get slightly drier bouncier grains in the end. You can use the rice while still a bit warm, or even overnight rice that's been stored in the fridge. Just remember to bring up the temperature a little before shaping into onigiri. 

Remove the mentaiko from its membrane. 

Transfer the mentaiko roes to a bowl. Destem and chop the scallion. We will only use the green section for this recipe. Add that to the bowl too, about 6 tablespoons. Also tear one big nori sheet into smaller pieces and add to the bowl. Lastly, add 1 tablespoon of toasted white sesame seeds and drizzle 1 tablespoon of white sesame oil too.

Fold in about 4 servings of rice and gently mix till evenly blended. Roughly mark four equal portions.

Take each portion and shape into onigiri, let it be round or triangle, whichever shapes are good. You can dip some drinkable water to your palms before working with the rice to prevent sticking. However, the most fool-proof way to do it is laying down a sheet of cling foil, scoop the rice mixture on top, grab the cling foil edges and tighten up, making the mixture into rice balls.

You might want to use a new sheet of cling foil for each rice balls. Also notice that I didn't put any salt to the list of ingredients? Mentaiko can be very salty so just by itself, the flavor should be salty enough.

Have you found out that this time we are not using the nori sheet to "wrap" the rice balls, instead we torn it into little pieces and mixed together with the rice. However, I suppose if you would like to keep the nori sheet on the outside, to wrap the rice ball, that should work too.

Just that the texture can be a little bit different. If using nori sheet as a wrap, usually the nori sheet sould still be crispy if being served right away. On the other hand, nori sheet as part of the mixing ingredient, it'll turn soft with almost unnoticeable texture. But that nori aroma will be evenly permeating the rice grains throughout.

So I guess in the end it's up to you regarding where to use the nori sheet. I do find it fun and a nice change once a while by using the nori sheet as part of the mix-together element though.

Other onigiri recipes:

• Komatsuna katsuobushi onigiri (rice balls with Japanese mustard spinach and bonito flakes)
• Sansho pork onigiri
• Misoyaki onigiri 味噌焼きおにぎり
• Egg scallion and shio kombu onigiri 蔥蛋塩昆布日式飯糰

Baby Sardines in Japanese Sweetened Soy Sauce いりこの佃煮

What I meant by baby sardine is the dried anchovy, also called iriko (いりこ) in Japanese. Not the much more delicate little white fish shirasu (しらす). You can find the dried anchovies in the supermarket usually around kombu, seaweed, or other dried seafood ingredients.

While in Taiwanese cuisine, dried baby sardines often used in stir-fry or chili sauce, I've also made congee with dried baby sardines, upgrading that umami flavor all around. And of course the classic Japanese tsukudani (佃煮) is one other great way for such ingredient.

Baby sardines in Japanese sweetened soy sauce いりこの佃煮 - 

Ingredients?

• 1 loosely packed cup dried baby sardines 丁香魚乾
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon toasted white sesame seeds

How? 

Usually the dried anchovies are stored in the freezer, at least that's what I do. So if that's the case, there's no need to defrost the anchovies the night before. Just use it straight from the freezer. Or if you happen to just bought the room temperature dried anchovies, use as it is too.

Right before cooking, quickly rinse the dried anchovies then pat dry with paper towel. Use a medium pot and add in the prepped anchovies. Switch to medium low heat to dry-roasting the fish for a short moment.

Still using medium low heat, pour in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of mirin, 1 tablespoon of rice wine, 2 tablespoons of water, and add 1 tablespoon of sugar. Slowly cook till all the sugar has been melted.

Continue to cook till the sauce has been reduced, almost to a sticky consistency in the end. Mine took about 10 minutes.

Towards the end, sprinkle some toasted white sesame seeds. You can serve as it is. For unfinished portion, simple store in the fridge. Serve the unfinished portion under room temperature later on and don't attempt to reheat the anchovies again.

It's sweet and savory at the same time, which can be a great little side dish for Japanese style breakfast, maybe serve together with congee too. I actually used it as a little flavor swap for curry rice. A little goes a long way. In fact, if the portion is too big, the somewhat sticky seasonings can be a bit overwhelming. Just a spoonful or two for each serving of main meal will do.

Extended reading:

• Japanese burdock root and pork stir-fry
• Kinpira gobo (burdock root cooked in Japanese seasonings)きんぴらごぼう
• Seared corn and seaweed fritters