Egg Salad, Tomato, Watercress

Had a sudden craving for egg salad: 6 hard boiled eggs, 3 tbsp mayo, 1 tsp madras curry powder, 1 tbsp finely chopped celery, 1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro, salt, pepper (and some of my old quick pickled carrots, finely chopped). Ripe summer tomato, watercress, toasted sourdough.

Cold Beef Shank and Watercress Salad

Whenever I visit home, Mom always sends me off with some delicious food that will survive the flight. This time she gave me some beef shanks she had braised then chilled, and then frozen. These are typically served as a family style starter dish by thinly slicing and tossing in a spicy soy/garlic/cilantro type of dressing. If Szechuan style, add the numbing peppercorn-infused oil and hot peppers. But here's my take on it for dinner tonight:

cold beef shank and watercress salad

I had some watercress in the fridge, so I trimmed those up and decided to add them to the mix. Carrots, too. I finely julienned those. For the dressing I used equal parts soy sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar. A small bit of hot sauce. Chopped cilantro, finely shredded ginger, minced garlic. Some sugar. Toss with the sliced beef, watercress and carrots and there's a tasty salad!

Ain't No Thang

But a chicken wang! Obama agrees. I grilled these babies up yesterday and they got gobbled up by my half drunk friends. There was something oh so wrong about the preparation, though. I first let the wings marinate for an hour in soy, red pepper flakes and a lot of finely chopped scallions. After grilling them, I tossed them with pork jelly! That is, leftover liquid from the pork butt I had braised a while back, gelatinized. I enhanced this with sugar and grated ginger and oh my goodness, it was so incredibly good.

grilled chicken wings tossed in pork sauce over a bed of watercress