Left Over

[muckefuck]

Yesterday was almost exactly like a sick day for me except that (a) I was in perfect health and (b) I wouldn't've gone into work anyway. That is to say, I spent most of it in bed reading intermittently and did only minimal chores. And I had soup--but fortunately not nasty canned chicken noodle.

No, instead I took the last lion's head from the soup monshu had made along with its associated broth and cabbage and heated it up. I added some more broth, freshly-chopped napa and scallions, the last crumbs of pork tenderloin he'd simmered in master sauce, and a healthy amount of the sesame noodles he'd brought over for lunch. Voilà! Tasty pork sesame noodle soup. (My previous trick was making rice pudding using only milk and...rice pudding: I scalded the last of the milk, added chunks of the steamed eight precious sticky rice pudding monshu had made, and stirred until it was uniform in temperature and consistency.)

I could get used to this kind of cookery. Alas, I probably only have another day of it. There should be enough roast duck left to make a stir fry of tonight with the rest of the cabbage and noodles. After that, there's nothing but the leftover arhat's delight, which would probably not be a bad thing to take into work. Oh, and the tea eggs. Tea egg salad, anyone?

I was hoping that the rice pudding would make me sleepy so I'd nap, but I forgot to turn off my phone and got awakened just as I had drifted off. This left me too drowsy to join niemandsrose at the movies or to read anything more challenging than Cormac McCarthy. After filling and emptying the dish drainer three times, I was only about halfway through the dishes and so decided to call it a day and go over to monshu's for...more leftovers!

At least we finally watched Donnie Darko; even if monshu didn't particularly understand it, he enjoyed watching it.

Comments

[areia.livejournal.com]

I love rice pudding. I just made a batch of the Flemish variety over the weekend. 4 cups of milk, 1 cup of rice (I use broken rice, but you can use whole), a good pinch of saffron. Simmer until all of the milk is absorbed. For traditional presentation, pour onto dessert plates for maximum skin development; the skin is the best part.

Some people sweeten it, but I grew up eating it brown sugar on top instead. The saffron completely changes the flavor compared to the American variety of rice pudding. It's wonderful stuff.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I will suggest that to monshu; we both still have a hefty amount of saffron that was given to us at different times. He mostly uses his to flavour roscón (Spanish King's Day bread).

[areia.livejournal.com]

Rijstpap (technically rice porridge, but pretty close to rice pudding) is high on the list of what my countrymen would consider typically Flemish dishes. Possible because of images like Breughel's Farmer's Wedding. Also, when Flemish people go to heaven, they reportedly get served rijstpap with golden spoons every day. Great. The muslims get 72 virgins. We get rice pudding.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I've known some virgins in my time. I'll take the rice pudding, thanks!

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Er. You're eating lion's heads? in soup?

This is ... some kind of plant?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Omigod, if only meatballs did grow on trees!

At dinner, I mentioned the official proposal to replace "lion's head" with "pork meatball" on restaurant menus. (One of the 2,753 suggested standard translations in a list published by the Beijing Tourist Bureau last August. I was sure I'd posted about it at the time, but I can't find the entry now.) All my guests agreed it would be a shame to lose such a colourful name for a tasty dish.

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

What are tea eggs?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

These are tea eggs. monshu likes to use lapsang souchong and leave the eggs to steep in the tea mixture for days after the second boil.

[joliecanard.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, it looks just as delicious as I hoped! I'm going to make those soon.