Egg Preservation: Giam Neng / Salted Duck Eggs

"Giem Neng" basically means 'salted egg'. It is delicious served with congee! Duck eggs are traditionally used for "giam neng" but you can use chicken eggs as well.

Ingredients

Duck (or chicken) eggs
Sea Salt
Water

Method

In a saucepan, boil enough water to cover the number of eggs you have. Add salt until no more dissolves in the water. Allow the water to cool to room temperature. Arrange your eggs in a non-reactive jar. Cover the eggs with the brine. Make sure that all the eggs are totally submerged in the brine solution. Allow the eggs to brine for 30 days.

Hard boil the eggs before serving

Homemade Kim Chi

In effort to increase our nutrient intake, I decided to make some kimchi. Fermented foods are one of the highest nutrient content foods you can consume. However, because a lot of commercially prepared fermented foods are cooked after fermentation, the pro-biotics are often already killed by the time you consume them.

Ingredients

1 large Napa Cabbage or 2 small heads, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced or 2 Tbsp garlic powder
1" piece of ginger, peeled and minced
6-7 green onion stalks, sliced (I used Egyptian Walking Onions)
2 Stalks Rubarb, sliced (optional)
2-3 Tbsp dried seaweed (optional)
1 c sugar or applesauce
1-2 c water
5 Tbsp chili powder
1/4 c sea salt

Method

Wash the cabbage in a 1/3 vinegar and water solution. Rinse well. Place in a large bowl and add the salt. Mix well and allow it to stand for about 4 hours.

Rinse the cabbage in water well and allow to drain. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. Add the mixture in a non-reactive container. Make sure that all the ingredients are submerged under the liquid. Cover and allow to stand at room temperature for about 24 hours. The longer it sits at room temperature, the faster it will ferment.

Transfer the mixture to the fridge. Refrigerating slows the fermentation process. If you don't want it to be too sour, consume the kimchi more quickly. It will last for about a month in the fridge.

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Homemade Worcestershire Sauce

This is some much better than commercial brands. It's not expensive to make, but does require quite a number of ingredients, as well as some time to make. However, I guarantee that it is delicious and gives many dishes the extra taste complexity without high fructose corn syrup and other crap that commerical brands use.

Worcestershire sauce traditionally includes anchovies but I omitted it without any problems with the final flavor.

You can find tamarind concentrate in packets in Asian stores. They are normally from Thailand and are found in the spice aisle. Otherwise you can get it from Amazon as well.

Ingredients

2 cups distilled white vinegar
1⁄2 cup molasses
1⁄2 cup soy sauce
1⁄4 cup Tamarind Concentrate
2 tbsp. mustard powder
3 tbsp. sea salt
1 tsp. whole black peppercorns
1 tsp. whole cloves
1⁄2 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp cardamon powder (or 5-8 pods)
6 dried chilies
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1  1" stick cinnamon
1 anchovy, chopped/ 1 Tbsp fish sauce (optional)
1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1  1⁄2" piece ginger, peeled and crushed
1⁄2 cup sugar

Method

In a saucepan, bring all the ingredients except the sugar to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10 min.
In a separate pan, cook the sugar over low heat until it caramelizes and becomes syrupy. Add it to the vinegar mixture. It might clump up. Just keep stirring until the sugar dissolves. Transfer into a clean glass jar with tight fitting lid. Allow to cool before screwing the jar shut.

Refrigerate for about 3 weeks then strain the liquid into a bottle. It will last for about 8 months in the fridge.