“Li Ziqi (Chinese: 李子柒)was born in the remote mountain village of northwestern Pingwu, Mianyang city, China. (Sorry, we can’t release much more personal information of her for protecting this beautiful girl.) She did not have a happy childhood like most of the children. When she was little, her parents got divorced and his father died early. Then, she started living with her grandparents. Their life was poor, but it was also relatively stable. Li Ziqi’s grandfather was a cook working in the countryside. When there was a ceremony going on, be it a wedding or a funeral, her grandfather would be in charge. In the videos, she showed how to cook various dishes, which she had learned from her grandfather. Besides cooking, she also learned how to make bamboo baskets, fishing, growing vegetables and doing carpenter work from her grandparents…”
Posts Tagged ‘cooking
Peaceful few minutes…
comfort food…
‘A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat.’ East coast proverb
Kitchen’s Open Cupboard….
The cupboard’s open
to pull out the
vessels for creations
Recipes (In your head?)
In the rush last night to prepare a dish, a traditional holiday treat, my wife could not recall the proportions of the ingredients. This is a dish she makes maybe three times a year. She has never written down the recipe…it all was in her head. After several calls to friends, with whom she had previously shared the recipe, she lucked out and got the details.
My dear, departed Mom made, without question, the best Potato Salad I have ever tasted. Nothing has ever been close. Problem is my Mom never wrote down the recipe and for whatever reasons never shared it with the women in her life. I never thought to ask. She passed on and the recipe didn’t. Lost. Yes, attempts have been made to mix and match ingredients to replicate the dish but really no success.
So, you already know where this is going. Write down the recipe. Share those recipes. You can enjoy someone else attempting to match your special dish or, shudder to think, improve upon it. Some of you have very special dishes that were handed down to you. Share the knowledge and as I said write it down. Should your memory suddenly fail you, the simple card will save you.
Food Network Recipe via Paula Deen
I followed this recipe and added spicy Italian sausage and spices to suit family sensitivities to heat…frigging good!
One of my all time favorite dishes….this is comfort food and more. Check out the recipe by the Ranting Chef for specifics on the Jambalaya and many more excellent food recipes.
Cooking: Rust, Rustic
As I have alluded to before, my family & friends have committed to a couple massive hoarding cleanups within the family over the last five years or so. Always in the mix of stuff were many rusted sets of iron cookware. I grew up with such fry pans and never paid any attention to how they were maintained. My Dad, in particular, loved to cook with several different fry pans. I have never been able to mentally invest the energy to use such cookware, although a part of me, for nostalgia’s sake, wishes I did. Some helpful how to’s on maintaining and salvaging cast iron cookware.
Food: Comfort Time
An image that suggests, to me, comfort foods being prepared over the flame/burner, especially this time of year. Soups, Stews, Beans, Pastas all giving warmth and comfort.
Turn away Vegans and/or PETA types. Last night, my wife and I were doing some late night grocery shopping. As often happens, we divide up and go our separate ways to grab this and that and rejoin along the way. I was in the meat section perusing the ridiculous price increases over the past few years when I came upon a food item I had personally never seen in my citified life time: chicken paws. Freaky looking! Obviously, my non-farming/ranching/sanitized food prep existence has denied me some realities of food prep. But, the Chicken Paws brought me to a halt.
My humor button was pushed, so I put the Chicken Paws in the cart and proceeded to look for my wife. She returned to the cart and in her normal distracted manner didn’t see the Chicken Paws. I casually drew attention to the paws and her response was beyond my wildest prankster expectations!
She became quite verbal, quite audible, quite animated! Wow! Who knew Chicken Paws could draw forth such a response?
I mean we think nothing of frying up some drumbsticks and savoring that fine meat wrapped around that bone. But Chicken Feet or Paws do seem to elicit a mind tweak of sorts. So to give Chicken Paws their supposed due, here is the food, cooking, recipe low down on Chicken Paw usage.
Simply Recipes: “The “Eww” factor of chicken feet I think comes from the fact that chicken feet look a lot like our hands. Silly eh? Especially when we consider that making stock from chicken feet has been a human activity for thousands of years. Most of our grandmothers or great grandmothers used feet in their stock as a matter of fact. They would laugh at us today to see us cringe. Stock made from chicken feet is fabulous, and incredibly good for you with all that gelatin.“
Now no offense to any visitors here from China/Vietnam, but if you are going to try the Chicken Paw recipes, buy locally produced Chicken Paws!
“Chinese police have uncovered an illegal food storage site in China’s southern city of Nanning that reportedly contained chicken feet nearly a half century old. According to the South China Morning Post, more than 20 tonnes of expired meat were seized in the raid, including beef tripe, cartilage, and the aforementioned chicken feet, some of which dated all the way back to 1967. The site was busted back in May, though the details of the operation have only been made public recently.
A Xinhua report cited by the South China Morning Post notes that the chicken feet were smuggled across the border from Vietnam still frozen. Once in China, they were processed with various chemicals, including bleach, to add weight and improve their coloring, making them appear fresh.” (The Telegraph UK) & HuffPo
