twentyfive and thrive

Thrive like baby Scratchy, who is receiving the most love and attention these days. 

What must that be like...?

Just kidding. Anyways. This is a cavernous hojicha and umeboshi loaf. Love the pink speckles of umeboshi. Do not love that I am not smacked in the face with nutty roasty tea aromas. We'll just have to do this one again.

I was sniffing around for dinner after confirming, with Emily's workout video, that I have neither arms nor abs. It was only 3pm. What is time? What is routine? What is anything? Why am I here?

Pushed away all those thoughts and any lingering responsibilities by making myself another picture of health in an effort to pretend like this is all fine. 

CSA romaine, charred treviso, and broccoli flowers. 

Tea eggs that I kind of forgot about and are definitely starting to ferment (the yolks were a bit carbonated... lol). 

Three-day cured and seared oyster mushrooms per Morgan (10% salt + 5% sugar + 1% liquid smoke + a few grinds of pepper). 

Sunflower seeds. 

Sourdough waffle croutons (at least the pieces that I didn't burn *face palm*).

Dressing: soy cured yolk with a couple spoonfuls of the curing soy sauce, black vinegar (a Taiwanese brand that I'm slowly getting used to, as opposed to the Chinese brand that I greedily drown my dumplings in), a dollop of honey, a couple little scoops of herb yogurt from yesterday, a bit of fish sauce, some drops of sesame oil and chili oil.

And jasmine green tea to round out the zen.

Eaten with chopsticks while reading Pachinko under the sun.

Second iteration of my red bean black sesame brownies. With egg. [Since we know that no eggs are a tragedy. And yes eggs are a delight.]

The initial motivation was to make some mochi red bean brownies with Mandy as my guide, but then I got too lazy to do the mochi part. Yet I somehow was not too lazy to run down to Joyce's to grab her lost and found leftover black sesame caramel. Because it was NECESSARY and well WORTH it. Let me explain.

Materials&&Methods

-melt 1 block ghirardelli baking chocolate (~113g) with 3T butter in bowl

-add 1/2c brown sugar and 1/4c white sugar

-stir in 2 eggs (I mean I only used 1, but I think it needs 2, you'll see)

-Mix in ~300g mashed red beans and 1/4t salt

-portion into mini loaf pans (I managed to get 6 babies), glob cold black sesame caramel into the center of each piece and tamp it down a little with spatula so that it just sinks below the surface, top with tricolor quinoa and toasted sesame seeds

-bake ~25min at 350F

And here's why you might need that extra egg:

These two babies did not make it out of the pan in one piece, but damn did the caramel look luscious spilling out all over the place.

This baby exploded out the top on me when I had the bright dumb idea to quickly invert them out of the pan one at a time.

This guy was actually the last to come out of the pan after I perfected the best method to slip them out but he did not gush a river of caramel like his siblings because his caramel reservoir turned into a canyon (that Joyce lovingly called a buttcrack) and runneth a bit dry.

But these babies oozed their sweet black molten gold when cut down the middle, and I was pleased. If brownies and lava cakes had an Asian baby, I think this would be it.

Erhm. I think this is the new yolk porn.