Green Sweet Rice Cakes with Salted Duck Egg Yolks and Pork Sung

中文菜谱： 咸蛋黄肉松青团，芝麻花生馅青团

Between late March and early April, there is a traditional Qingming Festival in China.  Family members get together on this day and visit their ancestors’ and passed love ones’ graves.  They are there to tidy up graves and show their respect and love.  It is a day of remembering and sharing. 

Usually food is also an essential part of this ritual.  What food items to bring really depend on local traditions and family preferences.  Besides chicken, duck, and pork, there is one item most people bring and love: green sweet rice cakes.  The green color is from fresh young mugwort plants.  It is popular because of good herbal grassy flavors as well as medical purpose to refresh up both body and mind. 

As time goes by, people like these green sweet rice cakes more and more that they are no longer just a food item used in Qingming Festival ritual.  They become a daily snack / dim sum.

And the sweet rice cake fillings are evolving too.  The traditional ones include red bean paste, black sesame, peanut and brown sugar.  A couple years ago, some restaurant in Shanghai invented a filling with salted duck egg yolks and shredded pork and it instantly became a huge hit.  People stand in a line for hours and hours just to purchase several sweet rice cakes.  Wow, foodies!  O(∩_∩)O~

I tried many times.  It is just very hard to get hold of fresh young mugwort plants in United States.  So I substitute with spinach puree and matcha green tea powder.  Spinach puree brings the dark green color and matcha green tea powder adds a mild herbal, earthy and grassy scent and flavor.

Ingredients：

250 g sweet rice flour
30 g rice flour
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup granulated sugar
spinach puree
water
2 to 3 teaspoons matcha green tea powder

For salted duck egg yolks and shredded pork fillings:

10 to 12 salted duck egg yolks (salted duck eggs are available in fridge aisle in most Asian grocery stores)
1 package of dried shredded pork/ pork sung (4 oz)
3 to 4  tablespoons golden syrup

For sesame and peanut filling：

1/3 cup dry roasted black sesame seeds
1/3 cup dry roasted peanuts
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Directions：

With a spoon, scoop egg yolks out salted duck eggs.  And then crush them with the back of spoon.

Mix with shredded pork and syrup. 

Combine roasted black sesame seeds, peanuts and brown sugar in a coffee grinder.  Do this in two or three batches to get even and smooth grind each time.

Smells really good

Soak and clean 6 to 8 dry bamboo leaves, which are sold in most Asian grocery stores too. Lightly grease them with vegetable oil.

If you don’t have bamboo leaves available, substitute with parchment paper.

Blanch the spinach; add to vitamix along with some water; puree on high speed until very smooth. 

Add sweet rice flour, matcha green tea powder, vegetable oil and sugar.

Combine everything together and knead into a ball of green sweet rice dough.  

Divide the dough into equal-sized small pieces.  Press down and thin out with palms.

Add salted duck egg yolks and shredded pork filling.

dd black sesame and peanut filling.

Wrap up and gently round them up between palms.

The ones topped with black sesame seeds mark sesame and peanut fillings.

Transfer sweet rice cakes in a bamboo steamer lined with greased bamboo leaves, one inch apart from each other.

Steam over high heat inside a cast iron wok for 10 to 15 minutes

Remove from heat and allow the sweet rice cake balls to cool down a little bit.

Aren’t they cute? O(∩_∩)O~

Both fillings are very tasty.

Asian Style Hot and Spicy Crawfish

中文菜谱：

蒜蓉麻辣小龙虾

Finally, it is crawfish season! 

More and more restaurant s and stores are selling crawfishes.  Every seafood market stores in Seabrook have huge signs “live crawfish” on the outside. 

And more excitingly, there are all kinds of festivals on weekends to celebrate these delicious “mud bugs” across town too.

I love dining out to enjoy Cajun flavor crawfish boil.  I also love make very hot and spicy Asian style crawfish boil at home.

Boiling crawfish at home is quite easy and simple.  My secret weapon is hot pot soup pastes which are sold in most Asian grocery stores.  If you are into Asian style hot and spicy flavors, look for the authentic hot pot soup paste/ base manufactured in Sichuan Province, China.  

Ingredients：

8 to 10 lbs crawfish
2 to 3 heads of garlic
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 beer
1 package of Dezhuang hot pot soup paste (300g)
1 package of Hot Space spicy hot pot soup base (320g)

Directions：

A lot of stores sell crawfish by whole sack.  One single sack weighs from 30 to 35 pounds.  But Asian market sell them loose; which means you can pick your own crawfish one by one with a thong.  So if you go to the store early, you can get largest and most active ones.

And don’t forget to bring a cooler for crawfish.  Ice is available at meat/ seafood department.  Anyone who works behind the counter would be glad to hand you a couple bags of ice if you ask nicely.

As soon as we get home, I transfer crawfish from cooler to the sink.

With a clean toothbrush, scrub each single one crawfish under running water.

I sincerely doubt they would do that in restaurants.

The easiest and quickest way to devein a crawfish is by removing the center part of its tail. 

All the crawfish has been cleaned and deveined.

These are two of our highly recommended and favorite hot pot soup pastes.  I use one of each to boil 8 to 10 pounds crawfish. However, 8 to 10 pounds crawfish is too much for a single pot.  I always cook them in two batches.

If you are not into spicy flavor like I do, just add the paste to your own taste.  But do remember to add some salt if you cut back on the soup base.

Peel the garlic cloves and add to a small food processor

Finely chopped

Heat a light weight cast iron wok over high heat.  Add oil and garlic.

Sautee the garlic for 1 minute or just until the garlic turns slightly golden brown.

Add two kinds of hot pot soup paste

Add crawfish

Stir fry for a couple minutes; add beer.

Cover with lid and continue to cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally so that crawfish would be cooked and seasoned evenly.

This is the first half crawfish.

And this is the second half. I use a cast iron Staub perfect pan which is perfect for the job.

Serve hot immediately, maybe in a wok O(∩_∩)O~

Bon appétit!

TSINGTAO beer is very famous and popular across mainland China.  It tastes very smooth, a little bit on the light side.  It goes great with most Asian foods.

Brenham Wildflowers and Blue Bell Ice Cream Store

中文版： 春天到Brenham看野花，吃冰激凌去

The most exciting events in spring for us are wildflower touring and crawfish festivals.  We make plans to going to Brenham and Austin to see wildflowers every year.  The plans don’t always get carried out because the wildflowers’ peak time is very short.  Besides, wildflowers are affected by many other factors like temperature and rainfall. 

This year, we finally have a perfect wildflower tour to Brenham during bluebonnets peak time.  Hooray！

Bluebonnets are literally everywhere!  You can spot them along the highways, country roads, parks, farms…you name it.

The very first stop we make in Brenham is of course the Blue Bell ice cream store.

They are not open during weekends anymore.  There are no more factory tours either.  But the ice cream store is still there selling delicious ice cream for a very reasonable price.  

You can still peak through the glass from observation deck on the second floor.  No photos are allowed in that area.  To be honest, you don’t get to see much from observation deck.

A lot of people come here in large groups.  The parking lot is full of cars and buses.

The ice cream store is on the second floor, same as observation deck.

Look at the flavors they produce

There are flavors sold the store

Did I mention the price is very reasonable? O(∩_∩)O~

rocky road  and mocha almond fudge

moo-llenium crunch  and strawberry cheesecake

The ice creams here are a bit too sweet for us.  And I wish they could be creamier.

Peachy peach

It is surprisingly good.  There is an intense peach flavor, and very sweet and creamy with large peach pieces.

There is also a visitor center right next to the ice cream store where you can experience blue bell history.

I guess this is the oldest ice cream machine O(∩_∩)O~

It is peak time for bluebonnets.  You can spot them everywhere.

We drive up north to Independence

There is Antique Rose Emporium right on highway 50.  We stop by every time.

They sell all kinds of roses, plants, bushes and herbs here.

Old Baylor Park

The bluebonnets are not very good here this year.  But it is still a very nice picnic spot.

On our way back to Brenham, we come across a very large field of blue bonnets.  I am totally amazed by its beauty and colors.

Indian paintbrush

Not sure what these blue/purple white flowers are.  They are also very lovely.

Sun is coming down.  I take a few more photo shots and head back to Houston  O(∩_∩)O~

Stir-fried Pork Belly and Dried Daikon

中文菜谱：

五花肉炒萝卜干

It is a dish I cook over and over again in my kitchen.  It is very simple, quick to make but loaded with tons of great flavors.  Whenever I don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking, I stir fry some pork belly with slightly dried daikon.

Pork belly is perfect for stir fry.  The daikon has been slightly dehydrated before cooking, which produces an extra crunchy texture. 

Ingredients：

1/2 pound pork belly, thinly sliced
1 large daikon (sold in any Asian grocery stores)
a handful dry chili peppers, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
2 gloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 small piece of ginger root, minced
1 to 2 teaspoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
3 to 4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil  

Directions：

Clean and peel the daikon.  Cut it into 3 mm thin slices.

Dehydrate daikon slices in a food dehydrator for about 4 hours.  The time needed here shall be adjusted according to daikon slices’ thickness and freshness.  

If you don’t have a food dehydrator, that is ok.  Just leave them in a sunny spot in your backyard or deck for half to a full day.  That shall do too.

Thinly slice the pork belly

Heat a cast iron wok over high heat.  Add oil, and then minced ginger, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns and dry chili peppers.  Sautee the spices in oil for a few seconds.  Add pork belly.

Stir fry until pork belly begins to turn golden brown.  Add black pepper, daikon, rice cooking wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and salt.

Continue to stir fry over high heat for 3 to 4 minutes.

Everything in the wok should be evenly coated with shiny, dark golden sauce.

Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Smashed Shrimp Paste for Hot Pot

中文菜谱：

虾滑和粥底火锅

If you like Asian style hot pot, you will love this smashed shrimp paste.    

Cooked smashed shrimps taste a lot better than regular cooked shrimps.  It carries on the shrimp flavor but with a smoother and slight crunchy texture, which makes eating these tiny shrimp balls so fun.

Ingredients：

1 lb shrimps
1 egg white
1 teaspoon corn starch
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 to 2 teaspoon rice cooking wine
salt to taste

Directions：

Peel and devein shrimps.  There are peeled and deveined frozen shrimps sold in the store.  However, all these extra factory processing weakens part of shrimp flavor.  I always buy whole shrimps and clean them at home.  That is some extra work, but well worthy in the end.

With a cleaver knife, finely chop the shrimps.

I really mean to finely chop O(∩_∩)O~

Try not to use a food processor here.  The texture would be a lot different.

Add egg white, corn starch, ground ginger, ground white pepper, rice cooking wine and salt to taste.

With a pair chopsticks or a whisk in hand, whisk well clockwise.  The trick is to whisk hard and always along one direction.  Do not whisk clockwise for 1 minute and counterclockwise for the next minute.

I whisk for almost 10 whole minutes.  It is hard work.  The texture of smashed shrimps depends on it.

Spoon the smashed shrimps to a shallow plate.  Smooth the top with the back of spoon. 

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

The smashed shrimps can be added to soup, braised, stir fried, deep fried or steamed.  My favorite way to eat it is hot pot.

Hot pot can be as simple as a pot of water, or it can also be as complicated as a pot of slow simmered broth with a lot of spices.  I am using rice porridge here.

Drop by teaspoonfuls into hot pot

Cook until they float and turn into pink color.

Serve hot immediately.  The smashed shrimp paste has been seasoned.  Any additional sauce is not required but always welcomed to add some extra flavors.