Crème brulee

中文：焦糖布蕾

Crème brulee recipe was posted before.  It is here: http://www.yankitchen.com/blog/2014/11/1/-2  

I have one egg yolk left from macaroon earlier, so that is a perfect excuse for making crème brulee!

O(∩_∩)O~ 

I halve this recipe since I have only one egg yolk and only two of us in the house.  There should be enough to serve two to three people.

Ingredients:

2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla exact (vanilla beans are preferable)
1/4 cup sugar (increase sugar amount if you have a sweet tooth)
1 cup heavy cream
sugar to sprinkle on top

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300F/150C.

In a medium bowl, add egg yolks and sugar; beat until they are well combined. The mixture should be creamy and light yellow color. 

Add heavy cream to a small saucepan, heat over medium low heat until the cream becomes hot but not yet boils.  Remove from heat and spoon over onto egg yolk mixture. Whisk while adding the hot cream.

Divide the cream among two to three shallow ramekins.  Drain the cream to get rid of any big air bubbles if necessary.

Fill the baking pan with hot water.  Place ramekins in the center of the baking pan.  Bake 28 to 32 minutes.

Refrigerate them for at least 2 hours.

Refrigerate for another 30 to 40 minutes.

Diced spinach and dried smoked tofu salad

中文：香干拌菠菜

It is a very easy and simple Chinese side dish.  The most popular versions are made with wild vegetable found in the field in spring season.  I made simpler by using spinach because it is more accessible in America. 

Ingredients：

2 pieces dried smoked tofu (available in any Asian grocery store and some American grocery stores too)
1 bunch spinach
1/3  to 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2  to 1 teaspoon sesame oil
salt to taste
water for blanching spinach

Directions：

Dice the smoked tofu into small pea size pieces. 

Rinse the spinach under running water.  Blanch it in boiling water for 5 seconds and then shock it in icy or cold water.  The vibrant green color can be kept by doing so.

Add spinach, tofu, sugar, sesame oil and salt to a medium bowl.  Mix well with a fork or wooden spoon until everything is well combined together. 

It can be served immediately, but the longer it sits, the better it gets. 

Sichuan pickled vegetable and minced pork

 中文：超下饭的四川泡菜炒肉末

Sichuan pickled vegetable is comfort food for a lot of Chinese people.  It is also the key and soul in Sichuan cuisine.  I learned how to make Sichuan pickled vegetable years ago.  But I haven’t been quite successful until I brought back a Sichuan style pickle jar from my last trip back to China.

Making Sichuan pickled vegetable is like making Korean people making kimchi.  Every family has its own secret and special flavor and taste.  I learn from the best one I know: my mother-in-law who has been making them for dozens of years.  Well, I will write another article on how to make Sichuan pickled vegetable at home.  Today, I just want to focus on this popular minced pork dish which is quite popular on my family’s dinner table. O(∩_∩)O~ 

Ingredients：

1 bowl of pickled cabbage (about 1/5 to 1/4 head cabbage)
10 to 12 red pickled chilies
200 to 250 minced pork
2 gloves of garlic
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
8 to 10 dried chilies (yes, I know, we love spicy food)
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 to 4 tablespoon cooking oil

Directions：

Dice the pickled cabbage, pickled chilies and dried chilies.  Peel and slice the garlic.

Heat a wok over high heat.  Add oil, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, dried chilies and pickled chilies.  Sautee for a minute, add minced pork, black pepper, cooking wine and soy sauce.  Stir fry them over high heat until the pork is golden brown.  It is time to add diced pickled cabbage, sugar and salt.

Stir fry everything together on high heat for 2 to 3 minutes; remove from heat and serve immediately. 

This dish goes really well with cooked rice.  Remember to prepare extra rice when making this dish because the rice will go really fast! O(∩_∩)O~

Chicken Soup with Pearl Barleys and Ginkgo Seeds

中文： 薏米白果鸡汤

When the weather gets cold, I am always automatically set to soup mode.  And my kitchen is always filled with aroma from all kinds of soups.  I cannot go through long cold Michigan winter without a bowl of hot soup, just like we cannot tolerate the whole summer without ice cream.   How boring would life be without these seasonal delights!

I bought an organic free range hen from Chinese grocery store, and I intend to make a pot of good chicken soup with it.

Ingredients：

1 organic free range hen
1 piece of ginger, crushed
12 ginkgo seeds
1/4 cup pearl barleys
10 lotus seeds
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon sugar
water
salt to taste

Directions：

Rinse the hen and dice it into 2 by 2 inches pieces.  Soak them in a large pot of cold water for 30 to 60 minutes.  Change the water twice in between.  Drain well. 

Add diced hen, ginger and rice cooking wine to a medium cast iron pot.  Add enough water to the pot, about 3 to 4 inches above the chicken.

Heat over high heat; when the soup boils, keep it boiling over high heat for 5 to 10 minutes.  Use a spoon to get rid of any impurities coming to the top.

Cover with lid; reduce the heat to simmer for 1 hour.

Add lotus seeds, pearl barleys and ginkgo seeds, and crank up the heat to medium high.  When the soup boils again, reduce to simmer for another hour or so. 

10 minutes before serve the soup, add sugar, white ground pepper and salt to taste.  Boil the soup over medium high for 10 minutes.

Serve immediately. 

It is like liquid gold on top the chicken soup.  All the aroma and fragrance come from that thin layer of golden chicken fat. That tells you this is a pot of good chicken soup.  And it is exactly the chicken soup I had when I was growing up in southern China. 

Daikon Kimchi

 中文： 萝卜泡菜

It is some sort of tradition for most Chinese families in our town to stock up on napa cabbage and daikon before winter comes.  We get them from a nearby farm where a Korean/American family grows and harvests Asian napa cabbage and daikon ever year.  They are fresh and taste so much better than the ones you can get from regular grocery stores.   

There are so many ways to cook them.  They both have a mild nutty grassy flavor, so they go well pretty much any other ingredients. 

My top three favorite ways to Daikon is making soup with them, stir-frying with pork and of course kimchi!

Here is a stir-fried daikon with pork recipe I posted before. 

http://www.yankitchen.com/english-blog/stirfriedasianageporkbellydrieddaikon

And now let’s make some Daikon kimchi. 

Ingredients：

1 large Daikon (weighs between 3 to 4 pounds)
2 to 3 tablespoons salt
3 to 4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 head garlic
1 large piece of ginger root
1 small bunch of green onions
2/3 to 1 cup Koeran chili powder
2 to 3 tablespoons crushed red peppers (optional)
2 tablespoon fish sauce
4 to 5 tablespoons soy sauce

Directions：

Peel the daikon and dice it into half inch cubes.  In a large bowl, add daikon cubes, salt and sugar.  Mix well and let it sit for 2 to 3 hours.  Drain the extra liquid.

Peel the garlic and ginger; chop them finely. 

Coursely chop green onions. 

Add ginger, garlic, green onion, chili powder, crushed red peppers, fish sauce and soy sauce to the daikon.  Mix with a wooden spoon until everything comes together. 

Store in clean glass jars.  Cover tightly and allow them to ferment for a couple weeks.