Here’s a MEDITERRANEAN-ASIAN 'garnish' (to commemorate the Chinese New Year) that you could grate or thinly slice, the way you would with hard cheeses, on top of a preparation. 'Bottarga' is the salt-cured & dried fish roe that you may be familiar with but here we're using chicken egg yolks . It’s an idea from the East and the South (but not mine) and a great trick for using up those extra egg yolks when you’re making meringues or other desserts and only using the egg whites ...

I was watching a show on fish eggs like caviar, bottarga, tarama and all that stuff and it reminded me that I hadn’t cured egg yolks in salt in a long time. It obviously isn’t the same as the fishy-flavored & iodine-rich preparation but it’s a nice and inexpensive option for enhancing flavors of other dishes in these winter months.

It takes several weeks to slowly cure and dry and some choose to only salt or a half salt & half sugar mixture but I find that just a little sugar and a little smoked salt with the regular salt gives it a nice touch and great results. Some also like to partly oven-dry them after 1 week of salt-curing but I prefer the longer and slower method of air-drying in the refrigerator. 

So here’s also a clever way for me to schedule a weekly but very simple recipe post when I’m working such long hours and yet remain loyal to my blog followers.

Happy Chinese New Year (which is in a few days and fun for everyone) . . . :)