Fermented Sticky Rice - Jiu Niang - 酒釀

Because people keep asking me what this is. Jiu niang is fermented sticky rice. You can think of it as an alcoholic rice pudding. It can be used in cooking anywhere you would use rice wine. It’s usually eaten in a sweet soup, for dessert or breakfast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiuniang - for a more in depth explanation.

Jiuniang is made with a special starter - called jiuqu or yeast balls. It is also called jiu bing - 酒餅. Or literally wine biscuit/cookie/cake. It’s not just yeast. It’s also has some sort of mold or fungal culture mixed in. Apparently, you can’t ferment rice with yeast alone. You can read all about it here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q%C5%AB
It looks like this, not the red stuff in the article. That’s for red rice wine. They look like pingpong balls. Some are larger some are smaller. The bag I got was filled with smaller packages of 3 balls each. Combined they looked about the size of the packs with 2 golf ball sized balls. But hey... it’s yeast, I figured if I underestimated it’s like bread, it would just have to sit around longer. Some of websites I’m seeing, (mainly Singapore and Malaysia) the jiubing, is literally cookie shaped. So they look like discs instead of balls.

yeast balls

I used my father’s recipe.

This recipe is pretty close. http://carolynjphillips.blogspot.com/2011/05/homemade-fermented-rice.html

This recipe has the best pictures:
http://userealbutter.com/2015/02/04/chinese-fermented-sweet-rice-jiu-niang-recipe/

From people who have used the rice cooker. It’s too wet and it makes the rice too mushy. I steamed the rice in metal steamers.

I find this site to be fairly reliable as well. https://thewoksoflife.com/2018/01/sweet-fermented-rice-jiu-niang/

Since my father’s instructions were a little lacking in detail. I sort of skimmed a bunch of other recipes to get a better feel for the procedure. I found the first link to be the most informative and closest to my father’s recipe. My father uses sugar and flour mixed with the ground up rice balls. She uses cornstarch instead. I think her method of SOAKING yeast balls to soften instead of grinding it up is probably easier. I threw the yeast balls and rock sugar in the spice grinder and ended up with a fine powder all over the kitchen. Read the comments and explanations by her and other people. Mostly, the thing I found the most useful was... TASTE IT, after a few days and see if it TASTES right.

And yes... it really is that easy.

Rinse the sticky rice well. about 3 or 4 times until it runs clear. Soak it overnight.
Steam it in cheesecloth lined steamers trays for 1 hour. Let cool. Put it in a clean container. Mix in the ground up flour, sugar, and yeast ball. Make a hole in the center of the rice. Add some water to rice. How much? I have no idea. I just put in enough to wet the rice. And I used the water I steamed the rice with since it had been boiling for an hour. I covered my plastic bucket with a piece of plastic wrap and put the lid on, but I did not seal the lid tightly.
I wrapped the bucket in a blanket and put it in the warmest room in the house. I checked every day for mold. The 2nd or 3rd day I smelled alcohol and saw liquid at the bottom of the hole of rice. The following day, I took a big metal spoon and mixed everything together. and tasted the spoon when I was done. SUCCESS! Left it for a few more days and put the whole bucket in the fridge.

The carolynphillips site says she only uses filtered and boiled water. I have no idea where she is located. I’m in NY and we have good water. I just washed and soaked the rice in tap water, since I knew I was going to STEAM IT FOR AN HOUR. If that’s not sterilized I don’t know how else to do so in home kitchen.

How to serve?

1. Eat it with a spoon straight.
2. Use it instead of cooking wine.
3. 酒釀湯圓湯 - Fermented rice sticky rice dumpling soup.
   1. For 1 serving.
   2. Boil about 1/2 cup water.
   3. Add a heaping tablespoon of jiuniang to the boiling water. Stir and wait for it to come to a boil again. Taste the soup. You might need more jiuniang, it depends on the batch. You may need to add sugar.
   4. add 2 or 3 sesame sticky rice dumplings. Boil according to the directions on the packaging.
   5. Crack 2 eggs into the mixture. Poach until yolk is soft but not raw.
   6. Serve.
   7. Most of use prefer to break one of the dumplings so the filling flavors to the soup. We also break one egg, so the soup gets all yolky and eat the other egg straight. The egg whites should take on the flavor of the jiuniang.
   8. If I am making more than one or 2 servings. I will scramble an egg into make “egg flowers” or egg drop soup type egg to enrichen the soup.
   9. Optional, osmanthus flowers can also be added to soup.
   10. Here is an online recipe, which is kind of similar. http://www.thehongkongcookery.com/2017/01/tong-yuan-dumplings-in-/osmanthus-sweet.html

3/3 batch - double batch of rice - 10lbs - added osmanthus flowers steeped in hot water to the rice at the same time as the yeast mixture.
Comments:

1. Dissolve the rock sugar in hot water or to the osmanthus flowers. It’s easier than trying to grind or beat the sugar in a bag with the yeast.
2. Rice fermenting in the same room as the kimchi from the previous day. Will this affect the fermentation? Flavor?
3. Added more water than last time. Hopefully it will be less pudding and more soupy.

3/4 day 1 update. Nothing seems to happening except the rice grains have swelled. The bucket definitely smells more peachy-apricoty. I wonder if it’s because the flowers have fermented as well or if the alcohol hopefully being produced is extracting more flavor from the flowers.

3/5 day 2 update.

There is liquid in the hole.

Tasted it. It's not quite there yet and not as sweet as the previous batch. It has a touch of bitterness at the end. Not sure if it's from the flowers.

I don't smell the osmanthus (peachy-apricoty notes) as much as yesterday. But I'm also more congested.

After I mixed everything together.

Eric Rhude says his batch:
The liquid smells slightly yeasty and is a bit sweet. the liquor is yellow and think. No white or black mold.

It has a yellowish hue like rice wine.

Mistress Jadiwiga says that the fruity favor is probably due to the flowers fermenting as well was the alcohol from the rice extracting those notes.

3/6 day 3 update - much wetter. Going to put it in the refrigerator. Not as sweet as the last batch.

3/21 update - it’s gotten sweeter the longer it’s been sitting in the fridge. it’s almost sickly sweet eating it straight.

Ready for the fridge

The dark specks are the osmanthus flowers.

The grains have pretty much disappeared.

Two Zongzi* （粽子）Recipes (Sweet & Savory)

What are zongzi?  https://oriquilt.blogspot.com/2019/02/what-are-zongzi.html

Please note: This is a multi-step and possibly multi day process especially the savory version.  Please read through the entire recipe(s) before starting.

Sweet adzuki bean paste zongzi

Filling: (You can also buy canned red bean paste in Asian grocery stores)

Ingredients:

• Dried adzuki beans 12oz bag
• 4 – 8 oz of rock sugar to start
• Neutral tasting oil (I used canola, lard was probably used in period, unless it was for a Buddhist observances.)

Directions:

1. Rinse the adzuki beans and pick through them.
2. Soak the beans for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.  Depending on the weather you may want to soak them in the fridge.
3. Rinse the beans again.

Method 1 Stovetop.

1. Place the beans in a saucepan; fill it with water until the beans are just covered.
2. Bring the pot up to a boil.
3. Add about 2oz or one big chunk of rock sugar.  Stir until it dissolves.  Simmer for about half an hour. Add water as needed so the beans do not dry out, stirring occasionally.
4. Taste the mixture.  Add more sugar if necessary.
5. Continue simmering until the beans mash easily against the side of the pot with a spoon.
6. Taste and see if it needs more sugar.
7. Mash the beans with a potato masher or wooden spoon.  You can also use a blender or food processor, but I prefer a more lumpy paste for zongzi.
8. Continue simmering the beans until it is the consistency of stiff mashed potatoes.
9. Add about a quarter cup of oil the beans and mix it together.  The oil is so that the paste does not resemble spackle after it cools.  Basically, the same reason you add butter or cream or milk to mashed potatoes.
10. Allow the bean paste to cool.

Method 2 Rice Cooker method. (This method is much easier, since constant monitoring and stirring is unnecessary).

1. Place the beans in the rice cooker pot, fill it with water until the beans are just covered.
2. Turn on the rice cooker.
3. Cook until the beans mash easily.
4. Add sugar to taste and mash.
5. You may have to transfer the beans to the stovetop to simmer off the water.
6. Same as steps 8 – 10 of Method 1.

The dumplings.

• 4 cups of sticky rice
• The bean paste you just made or
• 1 18oz can of Chinese brand red bean paste
• 1 7 oz can of Japanese brand prepared red bean
• Mix these 2 together.
• Half a bag of bamboo leaves
• A ball of twine

1. Rinse and soak about 4 cups of sticky rice overnight.
2. Soak 1 bundle of bamboo leaves.
3. You can also soak everything in hot water if you don’t have time to soak it overnight in cold water.  It still takes about an hour for them to become pliable enough to use.  The leaves need to bend without cracking.

The next day:

1. Drain the rice using a colander.
2. Wipe down the leaves with a cloth or paper towels and place the leaves in clean water.
3. While you are wiping down the leaves, take a close look at them.  The top face of the leaf is smooth, shiny, and slightly waxy.  The bottom of the leaf should have a raised vein and may be slightly fuzzy.  This is very important.  When you wrap the dumplings the top smooth side needs to be on the inside of the dumpling, otherwise the STICKY rice will adhere to wrappings, which makes it difficult to eat.  Some internet sites will tell you that the outside of the zongzi should be shiny so the fuzzy side should be on the inside.  It’s up to you whether you want pretty shiny food or food you don’t have to fight with to eat.
4. Measure out about 4ft of twine.  Use this as a template and tie up 8 strings to form a bundle.  You will probably need 3 bundles or 24 strings.
5. Before you start wrapping the dumplings.  Start heating up water in a large stock pot for steaming/boiling.  The amount of water is going to depend on your steaming setup.  Please note that most bamboo steamers are too shallow to steam zongz i.  You may want to boil additional water if your setup will require refilling the water in the middle of cooking.  Remember, every time the water cools and needs to reheat will add to your cooking time.  I prefer to steam the sweet ones, otherwise all the sugar ends up in the water and not in the zongzi.
6. Warning: Wrapping zongzi takes practice.  The size and shape of your finished product depends not only on the leaves but your skill.  It will probably take a few attempts before you manage to make one  that will hold together.  So make sure you are wrapping your zongzi over a plate or other receptacle to catch any accidents.
7. Align 2 leaves so that they overlap. The top leaf can be smaller than the bottom one.
   
8. Bend the bottom leaf so if forms a cone.  The sides will overlap and be folded to the side.  The leaf should resemble the way the envelope is folded underneath.
   
   
   
9. Tuck the top leaf into the cone.
   
10. Place a heaping tablespoon or two (it depends on the size of the leaves, start with smaller quantities to be on the safe side) of sticky rice in the bottom of the cone.  Then add about a tablespoon of bean paste.  Since we are working with natural materials I cannot tell you exactly how much to add.  Since we are working with natural materials I cannot tell you exactly how much to add.
11. Cover the bean paste with sticky rice until the cone is filled to about half an inch from the brim.
12. See how Jenna ChildSlayer is folding down the brim in Step 9?  Fold down the edge closest to you.  Then fold the vertical sides down over the filling.
    
13. There will be a long piece sticking straight up.  Fold this down over the 3 previously folded edges.  
    
14. Wrap the string tightly around the middle of the dumpling to secure it.  If you tie a half bow, so that unwrapping is easier, make sure that the end that is pulled to untie the bow is the CUT END of the string.  Not the piece attached to the bundle.  See how they are being held?  This is how we place and remove the zongzi from a hot steamer.  If the “live” end is attached to the bundle, the zongzi will unroll when they are lifted!!!  So make sure your half bow is the SHORT end of the string.  Can we say HUGE mess?!
15. Once the dumplings are made, steam them for at least 2 hours.
16. Cut one off the string and open it to test for doneness.

(Photo by Godiva Eclipea)

Filling for Tainan (Southern Taiwan) style savory meat zongzi
(Please note that the measurements are only guessimates.  I tend to start with a 5lb bag of rice and whole ham.)

Ingredients*:

• 1 lb. ham** or pork belly
• Fried shallots/onions/scallions (allium) to taste
• 16 chestnuts (frozen or dried)
• ½ cup raw dried peanuts
• 8 dried shitake mushrooms (this will depend on the size and quality of your mushrooms)
• ¼ cup dried shrimp
• Sauce from making soy sauce braised meat (Recipe will be in the soy sauce chicken and egg article)
• Optional : salted duck egg yolks (I’ve never used them.)
• Oil for sautéing (I’ve used everything from, corn to canola to olive oil).

1. Soak the shitake mushrooms, shrimp, and chestnuts if using dried in hot water.  By the time you are done with step 2 they should be rehydrated.  If not you can always skip ahead to step 6 & 7 and come back to the mushrooms and shrimp.  Alternatively, you can soak them in cold water overnight when you soak the other stuff.
2. If you are using ham cube it into one inch chunks.
3. If you are using pork belly, braise it in soy sauce.  Cube the meat into 1 inch pieces.
4. Cut up the mushrooms into half inch pieces.
5. Chop up the shrimp about 1/4” to 1/2".
6. Heat up oil with some of the fried shallots. (If you are using really fatty meat, you may just want to throw a couple of pieces of fat into the pan instead and let it melt).
7. When the oil is pungent with the shallots brown the meat.  Remove and set aside.
8. Sauté the mushrooms and shrimp and set aside.
9. Sauté the peanuts and set aside.
10. Sauté the rice, add liquid from braising the meat.  Keep sautéing until the outside of the rice is translucent but the middle is still opaque.
11. Mix all the other ingredients together with the rice.  (Most methods do not call for mixing all the ingredients together; Mom does this because she would always end up with leftover meat, or too much rice.  Opening a zongzi and only finding rice is sad.)
12. Allow rice mixture to cool.
13. Wrap and tie them the same way as the sweet ones.  If you are making both sweet and savory or have some in the freezer, you may want to tie them with different colored string to differentiate the two different flavors. (See how I totally worked string into the dayboard!)
14. Steam these for 3 hours, if boiling cook for 2 hours. 

Some tips and warnings:

1. It may seem like there is a lot of salt in the dumplings, but please remember, if you boil them most of the “flavor” ends up in the water.  If you are steaming them, please adjust the amount of soy sauce accordingly.  
2. Also, it looks like a lot a fat and oil, but sticky rice absorbs it.  If you do not add fatty meat or oil to the filling the zongzi will be dry and tasteless, especially if they are steamed.  
3. As for the cooking method, I would highly recommend that for the first couple of batches to steam the zongzi.  It’s is a much gentler method and until you gain proficiency in wrapping them steaming means they will be less likely to fall apart.  
4. Please keep in mind that sticky rice softens and expands as it cooks.  There is a limit to how many dumplings you can stack on top of each other before the bottom ones are crushed during cooking.  Ask me how I know!
5. IMPORTANT: Zongzi fillings and wrapping techniques have many regional and personal variations.  Please keep this in mind if you at a Chinese friend’s house and his or her family is making these.  Do not tell them they are doing it wrong, because you read some article written by a SCAdian.  Really, my mother learned from her college roommate.  My sister and I learned from our mother, yet none of us make them are exactly alike.  They are similar, but we each add our own personal touches and adjust ingredients to what is available and personal preference.
   So, please add your own personal flair.
   Some suggestions include:

• Red bean zongzi – adding orange peel and or ginger to the bean paste.
• Savory zongzi – dried jujubes and Chinese sausage are also common ingredients
• Lady Maria Noret mka Mary Otten used duck instead of pork.

* http://redcook.net/2009/05/27/zongzi-secrets/ I used the measurements from this website, since I really have no idea how much is in my handful.  Please note that this recipe says 32 bamboo leaves.  The author is assuming that every one of them is perfect and will not rip or tear.  Soak MORE leaves.  This way you will have bandages to patch up the ones that split before they are cooked.  And so you can pick and choose nice leaves to start with.  Remember, leaves are CHEAP!

**The ham is probably a substitution for Yunnan ham that was not readily available in the US in the 70’s and 80’s.  

Editing & Fact checking & Photography Assistance provide by:

Lady Asa in Svarta – editor extraordinaire- for help in editing & revising innumerable drafts.

Lady Alys of Atlantia for grammatical support.

Lady Ceandra Paizi & Lady Li Anhua for double checking facts, and confirming common knowledge and legends.

Photos courtesy of Barbara the Nearly Naked Frisian mka Barbara Krooss, unless otherwise stated.

Pictures of ingredient packaging: (I took these).

What are zongzi? 粽子

What are zongzi?  Zongzi are a leaf wrapped dumpling made of sticky rice.  Zongzi fillings and shapes vary from region to region.  They are also called Chinese tamales, sticky rice dumplings, zongzi in Mandarin, or joong/jung in Cantonese and Toisanese.  The wrappings include bamboo, lotus, and banana leaves.  Modernly, they are found from China through most of Southeast Asia.  This article will only cover Chinese style zongzi, in particular the Southern Taiwan style.

Traditionally in China, zongzi are made and eaten for the Double Five Festival (Duanwu Jie 端午節).  The festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar.  The origins of the Duanwu Jie, or the Dragonboat Festival as it is known in the west, are shrouded in legend.  The holiday is meant to commemorate a virtuous poet statesman from the Warring States period, from the State of Chu called Qu Yuan(屈原343?–278? BC.)  According to the Sima Qian’s Li Shi, Qu Yuan was a minister to the King of Chu.  Qu Yuan remonstrated with the king and tried to advise him wisely.  Due to the jealousy of a rival who turned the king against him, he was banished from Chu.  In despair, Qu Yuan threw himself into the Miluo River and drowned.  Sima Qian attributes the eventual downfall of Chu and the conquest by the Qin to Qu Yuan’s banishment, as the remaining ministers were afraid to remonstrate with the king as openly as Qu Yuan.  (Sima, 435-443). 

The legend around Qu Yuan says that he was much loved by the common people and after his death zongzi were made and thrown into the river so that he would have food in the afterlife.  Another version says that the zongzi were for the fish so they would not eat Qu Yuan’s remains.  These are the versions of the legend I heard as a child.  According to Huang, the people of Chu originally threw bamboo tubes containing rice in river, which eventually became zongzi (Huang, 118-119).  Some of the ethnic minorities in Yunnan province still cook rice in this manner, as well as some of the aboriginal people in Taiwan.  It is possible that this was one of the first methods of cooking grain. 

Ilmann says although Qu Yuan is from the Warring States Period, there is a sizable gap between his suicide and the start of the dragon boat races.  Predictably he does not say WHEN the dragon boat races begin.  He also says there part of the legend may include “the idea that men who fell into the water during the races were once regarded as sacrifices to the river god.” (Ilman, N.P.)  I have never heard this particular part of the legend.  I wonder if Qu Yuan’s legend and the chapter in Romance of the Three Kingdoms where Zhuge Liang crosses the river by throwing buns in lieu of people into the river to appease the river god may have gotten mixed up.  (Luo, 694)  This story will be discussed in more depth in the meat bun article.  Who knows, maybe people were sacrificed to rivers throughout medieval China.  My senior thesis was about the cannibalistic nature of traditional Chinese culture.

In modern times, the celebration of the Double Five festival centers around zongzi and dragon boat races.  Teams row elaborately carved and decorated canoes shaped like dragons, containing rowers, a drummer, and zongzi.  They race to an endpoint where the zongzi are thrown into the water, then race back to the starting line.  The drumming not only keeps in the rowers synchronized but is also meant to frighten away any evil spirits.

In any event, there is archeological evidence of zongzi as grave offerings.  In 2005, the Xinhua News (China’s official news agency) reported that archeologists found zongzi in a tomb in Jiangxi (a province in Southern China).  The tomb dates back to 1274 AD (Southern Song Dynasty).  The article does not mention what the bamboo leaves actually contain.  The shape described resembles the ones I learned how make as a child. 

So¸ there existed some sort of leaf wrapped dumpling in China, during the period covered by the SCA, whose outward appearance at least resembles the dumplings that people still make today and can be found in many Chinese grocery stores.  I chose to make these dumplings because they are in keeping with the festival theme of the event.  This year Duanwu Jie fell on June 2, 2014.  Our event was on June 7^th, so it was also seasonally appropriate.  

The question remains, what is in them?

The single commonality of zongzi from the various parts of China as well as Southeast Asia is that they all contain sticky rice.  Some versions are just plain sticky rice, which can be dipped in sugar or eaten with sugar syrup, but they all have sticky rice in them.  So, I just extrapolated that zongzi in period also contained sticky rice.  The truth is I have no idea, but I had to start somewhere.  The other common denominator among modern Chinese zongzi is that the fillings tend to consist of dried or preserved foods, like beans, cured meats, dried mushrooms, shrimp to name just a few examples.  These ingredients makes sense since the festival falls usually in late spring or early summer, so while there is fresh food available people are still relying on winter stores.

I chose to make a sweet version for a few reasons.  The first reason is because I needed a dessert item aside from fresh fruit.  The second was for budgetary concerns.  It doesn’t get much cheaper than rice and beans.  Also, sticky rice is notoriously filling.  When I visited China in 2002, I went to the Xian.  The tour took us to the Xian city gates, which were built in the Tang dynasty.  Our tour guide explained that the city walls were made from a combination of pounded dirt mixed with sticky rice.  Yes, sticky rice is solid enough to be used as building material.  It is true that it will sit like a brick in your stomach.  Due to its solidity, eating sticky rice is not recommended prior to heavy exercise.  Since, it was a dessert item; I could serve them after the heavy fighting was done, because I did not want to deal with fighters with tummyaches! 

And finally, adzuki bean, called red bean in Chinese, is the second oldest legume after soybean grown in China (Huang, 40).  While, I cannot find documentation for red bean paste, it doesn’t get much simpler than boiled mashed beans, with sugar and oil.  Additionally, moon cakes are found in period and bean paste is one the traditional fillings for them.  (Ilmann, N.P.) Bean paste is also a much simpler assumption for the filling than the complicated meat based savory fillings many other types of zongzi contain.  However,the choice of adzuki bean paste may not have been a good choice for the season, since adzuki beans are considered a hot element, but I was already using mung bean sprouts in another dish.

My personal feeling is, based on the lack of recipes for this item outside of internet blogs, zongzi are a very traditional and “low” class or street food type of food.  There are no recipes because people learned how to make these from their families.  There is no need for recipes because “everyone” knows what they are and how and to make them.  I think it is with the advent of internet that people are slowly writing these family recipes and sharing them.  Also, with the global community and increasing number of overseas Chinese communities, the “younger” generation is beginning to record these recipes and techniques for their children and friends, and to share with the curious before they are lost.

*Note: The Chinese is transliterated in this article using pinyin (the official system in mainland China) and Mandarin pronunciation, unless otherwise stated.

Thank you everyone who helped with the fact checking and editing.

This “documentation” is by no means complete or even 100% accurate.  I am simply sharing all the information I currently have.  Much of it is conjecture, folklore, and common knowledge.  My mom told me.  “It is known, khalessi.”  I checked and compared notes with Lady Ceandra Paizi mka Susan Troy and Lady Li Anhua mka Maxine Lee, and they both remember similar stories.  However, we are Chinese Americans with families from Southern China.  Lady Li and I wrap ours differently.  I suspect that Lady Paizi does as well.

Recipe: https://oriquilt.blogspot.com/2019/02/two-zongzi-recipes-sweet-savory.html

Editing & Fact checking & Photography Assistance provide by:

Lady Asa in Svarta – editor extraordinaire- for your help in editing & revising innumerable drafts.

Lady Ceandra Paizi & Lady Li Anhua for double checking my facts, and confirming common knowledge and legends.

Photo courtesy of Barbara the Nearly Naked Frisian mka Barbara Krooss.

Bibliography

Anderson, E. N. The food of China. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Print.

llmann, Thomas O., and Karen Margolis. The land of the five flavors: a cultural history of Chinese cuisine. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. Kindle.

Huang, H. T.. Biology and biological technology: part 5 : fermentations and food science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Print.

Luo, Guanzhong, and Moss Roberts. Three kingdoms: classic novel in four volumes. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 20011995. Print.

Newman, Jacqueline M.. Food culture in China. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004. Print.

"Oldest traditional food found in Jiangxi tomb." . Xinhua News Agency, 8 June 2005. Web. 15 June 2014. <http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-06/08/content_3059901.htm>.

Sima, Qian, and Burton Watson. Records of the grand historian: Han dynasty. Rev. ed. Hong Kong u.a.: Columbia Univ. Press, 1993. Print.

Smoky's Letter to Lada Monguligin

Smoky a giant angora rabbit has developed a deep love for Lady Lada Monguligin.  This a transcript of the love letter he has written her, which traveled through many perilous paths to reach Lady Lada at the Siege of Kiev.

To my dearest  love Lady Lada Monguligin, Il-Khatun of Ostgardr
From your ever faithful worshipper Evergreen Darkest Dawn, called Smoky,

My sweet, I hope my missive does not find you PINING for our reunion, but the dastardly Suuder does PLOT to keep us apart!  I have prevailed upon the neighborly Shriek the Hawk of Hawke’s Reache to bring my letter to my kinsman Sir Hopsalot, the Cony of Brokenbridge, to deliver my missive into your fair hand.  I fear that it shall be intercepted by the minions of your fearsome Lord. 

My dearest for I cannot contain myself! Since receiving a sign of your regard in the form of your signature upon our joint likenesses.  I must confess my deepest passion for your beauteous person.

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
Thy gown of wool will be of mine own wool,
To cushion and caress thy every move! 

For you are my sun! My moon! My starlit sky. Without you I dwell in darkness. I love you! Your power has enchanted me, I stand helpless against it. Come to me, now. Tonight, let me worship you in my arms. I love you! How can I stop the beating of my heart? It pounds like never before. Death, next to love is a trivial thing. Your touch is worth 100,000 deaths.  I will not fear your fierce lord with the deadly arrows and evil appetite for hasenpfeffer!  For am I not a rabbit? A fleet and tricksy creature?  That Aesop spoke BASE FALSEHOOD of my ancestor!  For it is not possible for as sluggish and clumsy a beast as a TORTOISE to DEFEAT my fleet and agile kind!

Ah!!! Your touch! How I long for the touch of your hands when you hold me and pet me.  I must restrain myself from sinking my teeth into your lovely, lovely flesh.  For I fear the taste of your blood will cause me to forget myself and fall upon you like a wild beast! 

O my love, I must relate to you my situation for it is fraught with danger.  The EVIL MOLLY MONSTER dwells with Mommy and me.  The dread beagle Molly who was the downfall of my dear cousin Sir Hopsalot.  Poor Hoppy, he shall hop with a limp forever more from the attentions of that most fearsome hound.  I implore you!  Please rescue me from her despicable habits of devouring my leavings with INDECENT abandon!

My dearest since we cannot be together.  I have sent a small token of my regard.  It is camouflaged as the arms of the Canton in which you reside, so your dread lord will not suspect.  Please remember me fondly as my fluffiness caresses your tender brow and protects your delicate ears from the cruel winter winds as they sweep in from the eastern ocean.  Know too, the same eastern wind will have ruffled my floof in Hawkes Reache before it caresses your cheek and in this manner we may be briefly united!

Let the tail of our love will ring through the ages like that of Jessica and Roger Rabbit!

I pray that my words will not be met with indifference or disgust, but I can no longer remain silent upon receiving the sign of your favor when you autographed our picture. 

Forever in your service (and I hope your deepest affections),

Evergreen Darkest Dawn
Your very own darling “Smoky”

April 9, Anno Societatis LII

Canton of Hawkes Reache, Barony of An Dubhaigeainn

Wow…  Smoky is a terrible, terrible plagiarist!  lol

Kit Marlowe is rolling in his grave.  And George Lucas would probably be horrified if he knew about this.  

Chinese style custard buns

I've been experimenting with the steamed custard buns from dim sum places.  So far this is my favorite version.

I started with this custard recipe, since every other one I've found starts with a custard or pudding mix.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/29/steamed-recipes-chinese-egg-custard-buns-spotted-dick-recipe-ruby-tandoh

This is my version which bears very little resemblance to the original.

1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 13.5oz can of unsweetened coconut milk
1/4 cup sugar
8 egg yolks - beaten
1 generous teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/4 cup of coconut flakes, or to taste I use it more for a little texture, it also hides the lumps in the custard.

1. Pour milks and sugar into a saucepan.  Stir until it simmers.
2. Add vanilla & nutmeg.
3. Stir in egg yolks careful it doesn't curdle.
4. Keep stirring to prevent lumps.
5. Add coconut flakes.
6. Cook for about a minute.
7.  Let cool,

Use your favorite steamed bun dough or for baking favorite enriched bread dough if baking.

stuff the buns.
Steam or bake.

Eat.

S2S+BBQ - Planning - Finding a lamb

So I have a tentative agreement for a cook which was confirmed at the CT Sheep & Wool Festival in 2013.  (I think it's because his wife is a fiber geek & foodie too and the chance to combine both at one party helped her convince her husband to assist in the insanity!)  So now that I have adult supervision, I felt more confident in starting to search for local farms that might possibly sell me fleece(s) and a freezer lamb.  I started collecting business cards from farms in NJ, PA, CT, & Southeastern NY (Long Island & around Westchester) at fiber festivals.  Since we were going to host this fiasco at Harry's house I was really hoping to find someplace on Long Island.

After Rhinebeck last year, I moved in with Harry.  I started looking for a CSA (community supported agriculture) to join.  As I was digging through websites and news articles as well as asking local friends for recommendations the Garden of Eve kept popping up.  So I went to their website and saw they were offering a winter share and it included eggs and meat which was what I was looking for.  I took a closer look at their website and noticed sheep!  Then I read "one show-winning purebred ram named Infinity, who I brought back from Maryland on a charter tour bus."  Wait a minute!  I HEARD about this on a local spinning list.  OMG! This farm is OWNED by the woman who brought a lamb back from MDSW on the bus.   I read on further and the site says they sell both lambs and fleeces.  The meat share says it could include chickens or lamb from the farm.  This is exactly what I was looking for my birthday.  A farm with dual purpose sheep that sell both fleeces and freezer lamb.  And as an added bonus the shepherd is a fiber person so spinner's flock!

So I called Eve and asked about a winter share for the CSA and also asked her about market lamb.  At first she was a bit hesitant, so I explained to her why I was looking for a both fleece(s) and lamb from the same farm.  While chatting with her, I found out she belongs to the Spinning Study Group of Long Island, the guild I just joined.  And yes, she did sell both lamb and fleeces.  And yes I could tentatively reserve a lamb for next fall, depending lambing this spring.  She also shears in the spring after it gets warm enough for the sheep to be without their winter coats!  Yay!  I have located a dual purpose spinner's flock within a hours drive of Harry's house, which is a much better commute than I thought I would manage.  Before I spoke to Eve, I was trying to figure out the logistics of transporting a whole (hopefully frozen) carcass from either PA, S Jersey, or upstate to Long Island!  Another important question...  Um...  Eve, do you have butcher or someone who can process the lamb for me and how BIG do you estimate the lamb will be and how much meat?  Although, I'm trying to get closer to my food (the whole farm to table thing) I'm really really NOT prepared to have Harry trying to slaughter and process an animal in is backyard, never mind what his neighbors would say!  Plus...  um...  having an amateur slaughter the lamb kind of defeats the whole purpose of happy livestock living a nice free range life and before being humanely brought to the table.  Success! She uses a neighbor for her processing and gave me an estimate of the cost.  She said it's really hard to guess how big a lamb will by 4 - 5 months but gave me a range of 60 - 80 lbs live weight which would figure to about 30-50 lbs of meat.  WOW...  that's a lot of meat.  Eve told me to touch bases with her around March to ask about fleeces, lambing, her shearing schedule, and prices.  I thanked her and said I would follow up in March.

Yeah!  Two birds with one stone!  I have a farm share for the winter and source for fleece and lamb, who doesn't think I'm out of my mind.  Well maybe she does and is just too polite to tell me. :)

S2S+BBQ - Planning - Feasibility Study

So the first thing I did was to start looking at weekends in September of 2014 around my birthday.  My birthday would actually a Sunday, so for the convenience of everyone potentially involved I decided to pick the Saturday before as the day.

I foresaw a few obstacles to pulling this off.  The first was where to stage this fiasco.  The second was who could I get to oversee the cooking (adult supervision) so we didn’t set fire to whatever location was dumb kind enough to let me try this out and course produce a safe yummy dinner.  And finally what farm was going to sell me both a sheep AND a fleece for this project.

1. Find a cook.
2. Location
3. Find an understanding shepherd (preferably another fiber geek).

So the first thing I did was set about trying to procure myself adult supervision.  The whole project hinged upon finding someone with the knowledge willing to come supervise the cooking process.  I was not going to have an animal killed and then waste the meat due to complete lack of preparation and ignorance.  I sent out a bunch of emails to some friends who I figured might have a clue and interest and also asked them to offer suggestions on whomever else I might ask if they were unavailable.  Well, I love SCAdians.  I got a tentative agreement on my first try.  A friend of mine in CT said pencil me in and ask me again in January I will have a better idea then.  YAY!  It was reassurance that I wasn’t complete off my rocker.  After all, someone else has just agreed it sounded interesting and might potentially be willing to help pull this off.

For next step, I started putting out feelers to friends with sheep and explained that I was looking for both fleece(s) and a lamb from the same breed and preferably farm and why.  The other question was um…  if they are willing to sell me a lamb around this date do they also have a butcher that could process the lamb for me.  Because um… I’m really not prepared to get that up close and personal with my food.

Surprisingly, the friends with sheep didn't think I was mean, cruel, or evil.  They explained that even though they had mostly fiber flocks, ram lambs are a byproduct and there are only so many extra wethers and rams they can keep around eating their heads off or sell off to kids looking for 4H animals.  And while most breeders won’t advertise that they have freezer lamb available, especially where they might freak out fairgoers, but if I take business cards and contact them privately I would most likely be able to find what I was looking for closer to wherever I was holding the party.  I kind of figured that was case, but it was good to have firsthand confirmation.  They also answered my questions about cost of a lamb, estimated live weight to butchered weight to weight of meat on the carcass, as well as the cost of butchering and what to do with the hide etc etc.

Originally, I was going to hold this at my parents’ house.  They live up in Northern Westchester on two acres, plenty of space to have an outdoor party and to dig a firepit.  Plus, there are a fair amount of sheep farms within a two hour drive.  I should be able to get someone to sell me fleece and a freezer lamb.  Then Pennsic XL happened and I met Harry.  When I told him what I was planning he said, why don’t you have it at my place?  I have a big yard and I’ll even dig the hole for the fire pit.  How could I not love him?  And I figured I’d get less flack from him than from Dad.

So the initial feasibility study looked good for being able to pull this off in 2 years.