One hundred and one years ago today (10-10), Taiwan was founded.
Lisa - age 4 - in Kenting, TaiwanWe enjoyed celebrating the Ten-Ten holiday while living in Taipei. It was a big-deal at school, then the entire country shut-down for a few days. Really not so different from America's 4th of the July - except the Chinese have way-better fireworks.
No one invited us to a 15-course Chinese banquet this year, so I improvised and steamed up a few dumplings and made vegan Miso Sweet Potato & Broccoli Bowls from Smitten Kitchen. Is it is an interesting (or sad) commentary that I only had to pick-up broccoli and a sweet potato at the grocer to make this dish?The recipe was nice, but a bit too sweet for our tastes. I would swap-out fried tofu cubes for the roasted sweet potato next time.
I did a lot of cooking this week, including one of the most popular dishes from one of the year's most popular new cookbooks - Jerusalem - by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. Best friends and Israelis - one Jewish, one Muslim - the two men operate the famed Ottolenghi restaurant in London.
I prepared (a half-recipe of) Chicken with Arak & Clementines (arak being anise liquor). Chicken (I used whole legs), fennel bulbs and sliced Clementine oranges marinated all day in the liquor, honey, fennel seed, lemon and orange juices, brown sugar, thyme, olive oil and grainy mustard.
It was easy enough to prepare the marinade and even easier to dump it all in a baking dish 45 minutes before dinner to roast. Chef Yotam suggests serving the chicken with rice. I forgot to cook rice. We had plenty, but next time I can imagine rice would be super delicious, soaking up all that lovely sauce. I highly recommend this recipe.The path project is nearly complete. "After" photos will be posted soon.
Until my next update, I remain, your ten-ten correspondent.