Potstickers

This started innocently enough. I had dinner at a Chinese dumpling house with my friend Dave Gilbert instead of watching the "Presidential" debate. I was left with a hankering for some more. I like them so much. And my favorites are steam fried

As it happened, Madame had found an amazing deal on pork chops - we had some pan fried with an onion/apple side, another time we had some with a smoked paprika dusting - again pan fried but with apple, green beans, almonds garlic on the side. And still we had some left over - about 12 oz as it turned out.

I had also made a very hearty beef stew for a friend who is very ill. So had a chunk of salt pork too. Now all I needed were the wonton (gyoza) skins, kaffir lime, lemon grass, Napa cabbage, hot peppers, soy sauce, sesame oil, sake, ginger, and scallions As it happens all that I had to buy were the skins, scallions and the Napa cabbage. Everything else either grows in the garden or is a pantry staple.

Now I am generally lazy, so I was looking for a way to get everything to the size I wanted. The meat grinder (mincer) attachment to my stand mixer did the trick. Who knew that you could put the various ingredients in, and let it do the work?

Ingredients

2 cups Napa cabbage, shredded, salted and drained

12 oz lean pork cubed

5 oz salt pork, cubed

2 stalks lemon grass, cut into 1 inch lengths

1 1/2" piece of ginger, peeled and cut into small pieces

2 kaffir lime leaves - woody spine reoved

6 scallions - white and light green parts cut into 1/2" pieces

2 hot Thai peppers - minced

A couple of grinds of white pepper

2T toasted Sesame oil

36 Wonton skins

1T neutral oil for frying the dumplings

Method

Pass half of the salt pork through the grinder. Follow with the ginger. Then half of the lean pork. Follow with the lemon grass. Add the rest of the salt pork then the scallions, kaffir lime leaves peppers. Finish with the rest of the lean pork. Doing them in this order means that the meat has the opportunity to push the aromatics through the grinder. Once all the ingredients have passed through the grinder, add the seame oil into the bowl. Mix up the contents until almost pasty. It wants to be quite tightly textured. Break off a small piece of the mixture and microwave on high for 45 seconds (until cooked through). This will allow you to check the seasoning.

Unfortunately I could only find square wonton skins, so had to improvise. 

I placed the wonton skins onto a cutting board. 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling into the center. Brush all the edges with warm water, and fold to look like this

Cover with a damp cloth until they are ready to cook.

To cook them, heat the neutral oil in a skillet until almost smoking. Place the dumlings into the hot pan, flat side down. They will take about a minute to brown. Check the bottom for doneness. When they are suitably brown, put in 3T of water and innediately cover the pan tightly. Steam for 90 seconds, remove the lid and allow the pan to dry out. Then another 3T of water, tight covering and 90 seconds. Remove the lid and evaporate the water. 

Serve immediately with a dippimg sauce.

Ingredients - Dipping Sauce

1/4 Cup soy sauce

3T Mirin

3T Sake

1T Toasted sesame oil

2 Thai chillis finely chopped

The green parts of the scallions from above

Method - Dipping Sauce

Combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and leave to stand for the flavors to meld.

Spicy BBQ Sauce

The only reason that this recipe is interesting is because the standard recipe (from seriouseats.com) that I intended to follow required Worcestershire sauce, and I didn't have any. So I had to improvise. And it came out surprisingly well! Of course, what normal person would have mango chutney, but no Worcestershire sauce?

Ingredients

2T Mango chutney - use mostly the liquid - the fruit is too pulpy

4T Fish sauce (I use Red Boat)

4T Dark soy sauce

1/2 t Toasted Sesame Oil

1/2 t Ghost pepper vodka (can substitute Tabasco or other pepper sauce, US srirarcha, etc. in appropriate quantities)

2 Cups Tomato Ketchup

2T Prepared yellow mustard

1/4 Cup firmly packed brown sugar

2T Molasses

1/4 Cup Cider vinegar

1T Smoked Paprika

1/2 T Garlic Powder

1/2 T Onion Powder

1/2 T Black pepper - ground finely

1t Cumin - ground finely

Method

Make up the fake Worcestershire sauce by combing the chutney, fish sauce, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and hot sauce. 

Combine the made up Worcestershire sauce with all the other ingredients in a non reactive pan. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring often. Simmer/low boil for 15 minutes to allow to reduce and thicken. Stir almost continuously to prevent the sugars from sticking and burning.

Fish out any pulp from the mango chutney (if some had accidentally found their way into the sauce.

Allow to cool, and refrigerate. According the the Serious Eats web site, this should keep for a long time.

This sauce is very intensely flavored, so if using it on delicate meat (aka a pork loin), be sparing.

A tale of too much pork

If there were such a thing as too much pork, this would be it. We had done a pork shoulder on the egg for a work party. And it was pronounced delicious. The trouble is, Costco's pork shoulders come in packets of 2. Each weighing about 5lbs. So one was smoked, shredded, sauced and eaten. The other was sitting in the fridge looking at me, desperately in need of some love and attention. So what to do?

Pork tacos, of course. But sadly when getting that ready, we ended up with too much meat for the dutch oven, so had to step down to yet another dish. Fortunately there was all sorts pf stuff in the fridge - and we have a great Mexican supermarket (Fiesta) nearby.

Ingredients (Paste)

6 ancho chiles stalks removed and seeded

8 chile d'arbol - stalks removed and seeded

Juice of 4 limes

3T sugar

Method (Paste)

Cover the dried chiles with boiling water, weigh them down under a plate and leave to stand for at least 30 minutes. Put all ingredients into a blender with some of the reserved liquid and blend until you have a smooth paste. It will need between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid.

Ingredients (Pork Taco Meat)

3T Vegetable oil

2 Large Onions sliced

6 garlic cloves crushed

2T ground cumin
3T ground coriander
1T ground allspice
2T Mexican Oregano (dried)
3 Bay leaves
12 oz bottle of dark beer
4/5ths of the above paste

4 lbs pork shoulder - cut into 4 1lb pieces

Method (Pork Taco Meat)

Salt the pork and rub with the paste. Leave to stand for 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a large Dutch Oven until shimmering and add the onions, garlic and the spices. Soften the onions and garlic - about 5-10 minutes or until the spices are nice and fragrant. Add the beer, bring to a boil and put the pork into the pot. Cover tightly. Put into the oven for 2 1/2 hours (maybe a bit more or a bit less) until the pork is tender.

Strain the liquid and separate the fat. Shred the pork and add the strained liquid back into it. Serve immediately or allow to cool and serve over the following few days.

Ingredients (Pork Stew)

2T vegetable oil

6 Shallots - crushed

3 Garlic cloves - crushed

3 Celery ribs

1 Apple - diced

1/5th of the paste

1 lb pork shoulder - cut into 3/4 inch cubes

8 oz beer (anything but light/low calorie. We used Fireman's 4)

1/4 cup bitter orange marmalade

Method (Pork Stew)

Salt the pork and rub with the paste. Leave to stand for about 30 minutes. In a 4 quart saucepot heat the oil until sizzling. Turn heat to low and add the celery, shallot, apple and garlic. Allow the shallot and celery to soften.

Transfer the celery/shallot/garlic/apple to its own bowl. Add a little more oil and start to brown the coated pork. Do this in batches to avoid simply steaming it.

Add the seared pork to the vegetables. Deglaze the pan with the beer and add the range marmalade. Add the pork and vegetables back into the pan. Stir, put the lid onto the pan and simmer gently on the stove until the pork is tender (about 90 minutes).

When it is cooked, serve over plain white rice, garnished with Mexican Oregano.

Mixology Party

We decided that it would be fun to have a party that was themed around cocktails and food. Often hard to do because the flavors can clash. However after much conspiring with cocktail meister extraordinaire, Chris Dempsey, we came up with a menu and an approach that would work. Next trick was to find victims (I mean guests) who could be forced to try the food and drinks. Yup, we managed that too. So now we had to do it.
Chris has a portable bar, so it made setup really easy.

Photograph Courtesy of Andrea Willis

Photograph Courtesy of Jim Brewer

The cocktails were Caribbean inspired

Photograph Courtesy of Jim Brewer

so the food had to be as well.

This is the escabeche that we served with the Ginger in the Islands cocktail

Photograph Courtesy of Jim Brewer

for which this is the recipe http://seabirdskitchen.blogspot.com/2015/03/escabeche-or-escoveitch.html

The little numbers on the place cards were the initial seating positions. There were 14 people at 2 tables - 1 for 10 people and the "kids table" with 4 more. To make sure that the "kids" weren't left out, we wanted to make sure they were rotated into the grown-ups table. So, each place card had a number on the inside too. At the end of the course, the guests looked at the number on the inside of the card to see their next seat. Then adjourned to the bar where Chris made the next cocktail and talked about it. We scurried in the background clearing plates/making sure glasses were clean, etc. for the new seatings.

The napkins changed colors too - each course had one of the Jamaican flag colors.

The next course was a jerk pork dish - Usain Bolt's Aunt'a recipe no less. Served with red/yellow sweet potatoes and flour/corn dumplings. http://seabirdskitchen.blogspot.com/2015/03/jerk-pork.html

For dessert we made lemon pots au creme - but with a slight twist. We infused some star anise into the dish as well, and served the dish with pernod in small liqueur glasses and a single ice cube to get the cloudiness.

Photograph Courtesy of Andrea Willis

The basic pots au creme recipe is here - http://seabirdskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/09/lemon-pots-au-creme.html . The difference being 5 star anise pieces and rum instead of brandy. The recipe was scaled up to use a US quart of cream.

Jerk Pork

This dish is, apparently, Usain Bolt's favorite. It is adapted from Jamie Oliver's recipe which in turn is inspired By Usain Bolt's Aunt Lilly. It is unbelievably rich, but very tasty. I guess that the sprinter requires a lot of calories. By the time you have added dumplings and yams (well in our case sweet potatoes) you have a potentially very high Calorie course. Again this was done for a good sized group of people, so the amounts look huge. Starting with 10lbs Pork Belly. Fortunately we have a good connection (Ali Morgan at rare edibles in Dallas). She was able to source a big piece of Berkshire pork belly for us. So big that I will be using some of it to make bacon.

Ingredients (marinade)

16 green onions (trimmed, but both the white and green parts)

2 heads garlic

3 Habanero peppers

24 stalks of thyme - leaves only

8 fresh bay leaves - no stalks

2 t ground cloves

2 t ground all spice berries

1 t ground nutmeg

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup Jamaican rum

2 T honey

Ingredients (bonus flavor)

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

12 whole allspice berries

1 habanero sliced thinly

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/4 cup water

1 t kosher salt

Ingredients (everything else)

10 lbs pork belly. Remove some of the exterior fat, but you do want to make sure that you leave plenty. Do remove the skin if the pork still has skin on.

6 large yellow onions sliced.

12 fresh bay leaves

6 lbs sweet potatoes (mixture of yellow and red) cubed into 3/4" cubes

8 oz AP flour

3 t baking powder

pinch salt

2 oz masa harina (corn flour, usually used for making tortillas)

1 cup water (for the dumplings)

2 oz unsalted butter

oil for frying (unmeasured, but generally shallow)

Method (marinade)

Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. If it won't blend, add a little oil. 

Method (pork)

Cut the pork into 1 12" cubes. Cover with 1/2 of the marinade and leave to sit overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 300F. Oil a saute pan, heat the pan until you just see some wisps of smoke. and start to brown the pork. At these quantities, you will want to work in batches. It is important to get the meat browned. Better to do in 3 or 4 batches than to overcrowd. Place the browned meat into a dutch oven with a tight fitting lid. With the last batch of meat, add the onions to the pan and stir, scraping the brown stuff off the bottom of the pan. Add a little salt at this stage. It helps the onions release some liquid which in turn deglazes the pan somewhat. Pick the meat pieces out and add them to the dutch oven. Continue to sweat the onions until they are soft. Add the rum and cook down. I suggest that you briefly turn the heat off, add the rum, and then turn it back on. You don't want the rum catching fire and spreading. When the rum is almost dry, add the remainder of the marinade. and 2 cups of water. Stir to combine.

Pour these contents over the browned meat in teh dutch oven. Stir well to combine. Cover and place in the oven for 3-4 hours. Check every now and again to make sure it has not dried out. It will release a lot of fat. Depending on your sensitivities, you may want to pour some of the fat off.

Meanwhile make the bonus flavoring by bringing the liquids to a boil, adding the flavorings, simmering for a few minutes and allowing to rest. Strain the liquid and discard the solids. The bonus flavorings are there to boost the flavor of the dish as it nears the end of the cooking time. This was not in the original recipe, but the long cooking time had dulled the flavors a bit, so this boosted it back up. Add the strained bonus flavors at about 30 minutes before serving

Also, about 30 minutes before serving remove the prok from the oven and crank up the heat to 400F, Bring the sweet potatoes to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Drain and dry. Heat the butter and a similar quantity of oil in an oven proof (not nonstick, and make sure the handle isn't plastic) saute pan. Transfer the sweet potatoes to the hot saute pan and place in the hot oven. They will take about 15-20 minutes to brown and cook through.

Make dumplings by combining the flour, masa harina, salt and baking powder together with the cup of water. You will have a sticky dough. Knead a few times, and form into a log about 1" in diameter. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Break off pieces of the dough about the size of a ping pong ball. Roll into a sphere and then flatten the ball into a disk. Boil the disks in the water for 12-15 minutes. They wil initially sink, but then float. I flip them over about 1/2 way through. They become nice and puffy.

Transfer the pork to a warmed dish - bringing as much or as little of the fat as you want. Do make sure you get the thick, tasty onions and other juices, though. Serve with the dumplings in the dish and the sweet potatoes handed separately.

Barbecued Pork ...

My objective here was not to attempt to make pulled pork, I wanted something that was sliceable, tender, delicious, cheap and not require any sauce whatsoever. I am not a fan of BBQ sauces.

I had bought some pork shoulder at $1.99/lb from my local supermarket. It was from the blade end - still had the blade bone in it. I decided to practice the boning skills that I had learned at the hands of Chefs Christof Syre and Frederic Angevin at the 4 Seasons here in the Dallas area.

The Rub 

2T Very coarse sea salt

1T whole white peppercorns

2t whole coriander seeds

1 star anise - broken

2t whole all spice berries 

1t whole cloves

2t whole cumin

2t cardomom - whole, but just keep the seeds

2t smoked paprika finely ground

1t cayenne pepper finely ground

1t onion powder

2t garlic powder

2t dry ginger

1t dry mustard powder (Colemans)

4T kosher salt

2t white sugar

The Rest

2 pork shoulders - each weighing around 9 pounds

Soaking water

Jack Daniels oak barrel wood chips (about 1 lb)

Lump charcoal (unmeasured.)

Method

You will want to start this about 24 hours before you plan to eat!

In this case I boned and rolled one of the shoulders and left the other intact. This was an experiment to see if there was any benefit. The boned/rolled version was slightly spicier in flavor, but the whole one looked better. In future I will leave them whole. There was another slight concern - I wasn't sure they would fit in the egg if I left them both whole. I think they would have, but it would have been tight.

The reason there are 2 kinds of salt in the rub are because the very coarse sea salt helps the spice grinder to grind up the hard spices like the cloves, star anise, coriander, etc.

Place the sea salt and the whole spices in the spice grinder (an old coffee grinder in my case) and grind finely. Mix together this ground mixture with the spices that are already ground and the kosher salt.

For the shoulder that is boned, I butterflied it. Pat the surfaces of both pork shoulders dry, and rub all surfaces with the spice rub. Roll up the boned/butterflied shoulder and tie tightly with butchers twine.

Wrap each shoulder tightly in cling wrap and rest in the fridge for at least 12 hours. 

Soak the wood ships in water for at least 12 hours also.

About 12 hours before you intend to serve, set up the smoker (in my case with the big green egg, I built a charcoal fire about 2 inches above the higher vents) and light the charcoal. Once it is properly lit, scatter the soaked wood chips over the charcoal, put the plate setter feet up, an aluminum drip pan 2/3 filled with water in the plate setter and then the grill bars on top of that. Close the lid and allow the temperature to come up to around 250F. When the thermometer registers 250, put the meat on the bars. Close the lid, watch the temperature so that it stabilizes at 250, adjusting top and bottom vents as necessary.

The first batch of charcoal held temperature for about 5 hours.

At 5 hours, I added more coals and let it cook for another 5 hours - all at 250F.

The internal temperature of the meat was 165 at that point. 

Take the meat off the grill, tent with foil and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes. Being a barbecued piece of meat, it is best served warm, and not grill temperature.

Sous Vide Part 1 Chicken Beef Lamb and Pork

In this posting, I am laying out those items I plan to do in the first week or so of the grand sous vide experiment. Madame and I went shopping for:

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Pork ribs
• Lamb chops
• Beef sirloin
• Leeks, peppers, celery

These are going to be turned into:

Chicken:

1. mushrooms, onion, cream, rosemary, thyme, salt, pepper
2. onion, fennel, indian spices, salt, pepper
3. ginger, kaffir lime, coconut milk, lemon grass, salt, pepper
4. cumin, coriander, star anise, cinnamon, clove, hot pepper sauce, salt, pepper
5. tarragon, salt and pepper

Pork Ribs

1. home made bbq sauce (ketchup, fish sauce, brown sugar, paprika, molasses, cumin ++)
2. fish sauce, lime (juice and zest) shrimp paste, mirin, palm oil, szechuan peppers
3. apple, calvados, cider vinegar

Lamb chops

1. mint, garlic, salt pepper, trace of grapeseed oil

Sirloin (prime)

1. salt, pink pepper corns, trace of oil

Vegetable Medley

1. leeks, peppers, fennel, carrots, basil,

here's hoping that at least some of these will come out well. The chicken will be set to cook at 65 C. The lamb and the beef at 50C. The pork at 60C. The vegetables at 80C. Since the dishes will be finished later (sauced dishes by reheating, non sauced dishes by searing), the final temperatures should come out properly, and in line with the FDA guidelines in the USA. The vegetables should concentrate their sweetness too, by finishing in the oven.
These dishes will all be frozen, and then brought out as dinners at various times this winter/spring. If I have to travel, then I want to make sure that Madame has tasty/nutritious items.
Subsequent postings will detail the experiments.



Pork with kale and beans - thanks to "the Chew"

I have to admit it, I watched some of the first episode of "The Chew" a daytime talk show on ABC in the USA. It features several excellent chefs - including Michael Symon who has inspired me before. This recipe is based on the recipe he did on the show, but with some minor tweaks which aren't terribly material. The goal was to make a dish that comes in at less that $7 per serving. This made that easily. For approximately $4.50 per serving, this lovely dish came out.

This recipe was to serve 2 people.
Ingredients
2T grape seed oil (or other neutral oil)
2 pork loin chops (about 5oz each), pounded thin (1/3 of an inch thick)
6 pieces of pancetta
a little parsley
salt/pepper for seasoning
a little flour to dust the meat
1 shallot minced fine
1 garlic clove sliced thinly
1 minced cayenne pepper
1 small can canellini beans (rinsed and drained)
1 bunch of kale, leaves stripped from the stalks and shredded
1/4 cup chicken stock
juice of 1 lemon

Method
For each piece of pork, lay it flat on the board. place 3 pieces of pancetta on each piece of pork. Add a little parsley. Fold the pork over the pancetta and pinch the edges closed. Salt and pepper the pork on both sides. Sprinkle lightly with flour. heat the oil in a skillet until shimmering. Place the pork pieces into the hot oil and fry about 3 minutes on the first side, turn over and fry 2 more minutes. After turning the meat, add the shallots, garlic, cayenne pepper and fry gently until softened. remove the meat from the pan, and add the washed jale. Stir and add the drained beans.Add the chicken stock and simmer until the kale is tender, and the beans warmed through. Add lemon juice and serve immediately on warmed plates.