Roast Pork Hash

After eating the Roast Pork Shoulder for several days in a row for lunch and dinner, both Porgy and I were getting bored with it so I had to figure out what to do with the 2-lb meat leftover. I remembered reading a NYTimes article on hash and, interestingly enough, one of the recipes was called Country Pork and Apple Hash which uses Pernil-style Roast Pork. Unfortunately, since I do not have any cast-iron pan, I had to use my non-stick pan to cook the hash so it was hard to get the meat and potatoes crisped. All in all, it was a delicious dish and it was specially satisfying to be able to eat it with a sunny side-up egg on top for a Sunday brunch.


Ingredients:
4 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced
Salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 onions, minced
2 pounds roast pork, leftover or pernil from Latin American restaurant
1/2 cup chicken broth
4 sprigs thyme, leaves only
Poached or sunny-side-up eggs, for serving

Directions:

• In a large pot, cover potatoes with cold salted water, bring to a simmer and cook until barely tender (do not overcook, or boil rapidly). Drain.
• Melt butter in a very wide skillet. Add onions and cook, stirring, until softened and golden around edges, about 10 minutes. Add pork and broth; cook over medium-high heat for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add potatoes and thyme leaves and cook, stirring occasionally and pressing mixture in pan until hot and edges are crisped. Serve topped with eggs, if desired.

Roast Pork Shoulder

I was so confused on what to make for this week’s lunch. I knew I wanted to cook the Minestrone soup for dinner because of the cold weather but bringing the soup to the office is somewhat out of the question because of potential spillage issue. After browsing online, I decided to make Roast Pork Shoulder – which can be used for lunch with some kind of side vegetables and carbs or for the toppings on our dinner salad – using a recipe from this blog My husband cooks.

It seems that the trick of making a good roast of a big piece of meat are 1) marinate at least overnight and 2) cook it slow and steady in a low oven temperature. I knew about the importance of marinating but stupid me I didn’t read the whole cooking instructions on the site until Sunday afternoon when I found out that it needed to be cooked for 9-10 hours at 250F. After scrambling around to do some more online research while preheating the oven, I found out from Simply Recipes that I can cook it in a much shorter time and still get the caramelization that I want by first cook it uncovered in a 450F oven for 30 minutes and then cook it covered in a 325F oven for 3 hours. Phew! The roast pork shoulder turned out to be super tasty and moist – thanks to all those pork fat!


Ingredients:
4 lbs pork shoulder (boneless)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 cup of dry white wine

Directions:

• In a small bowl mix together the brown sugar, salt, paprika, cumin, red pepper flakes, cayenne, and turmeric.
• Pat dry the pork shoulder with paper towels and rub the seasoning mixture evenly over the pork shoulder inside and out.
• Wrap the pork shoulder tightly in plastic wrap to hold the marinade against the skin, put it in a large bowl and marinate overnight. It will give up a cup or more of liquid so make sure your container is big enough to prevent spillage.
• 1 hour before cooking, take out the pork shoulder from the refrigerator.
• Preheat the oven to 450°.
• Place the pork shoulder on aluminum foil wrapper roasting pan (so it’s easier to clean) and roast uncovered for 30 minutes.
• Turn the oven heat down to 325° and add the wine and cover the roasting pan with another sheet of aluminum foil and slow roast for 3 hours until the pork shoulder is very tender and pulls apart easily when probed with a fork. If you want, you can add some more white water every hour or so to baste the pork shoulder.
• Transfer the pork shoulder to a serving plate and drizzle the pan juice over the meat.

Alton Brown's City Ham

If you are going, what is City Ham? Is it made from urban pigs? Here is what chef/scientist/nerd Alton Brown has to say about city style ham: A city ham is basically any brined ham that's packed in a plastic bag, held in a refrigerated case and marked "ready to cook", "partially cooked" or "ready to serve". Better city hams are also labeled "ham in natural juices".

Simply put: those big wrapped up hefty chunk of ham you see in grocery stores that's not labeled "lunch meat." I will suggest though, get a piece with a bone in it! They yield a much tastier result.

This recipe does require hours of work, waiting for the ham to slowly roast in the oven. It's perfect for big get-togethers, like Thanksgiving, where you are hosting a large number of people, and will be stuck in the kitchen making food all day anyway. After all, City Ham is a very low maintenance dish. Prep work doesn't take very long, and it makes a very beautiful and delicious entree.

Ingredients:
1 city style (brined) ham
1/4 cup brown mustard
2 cups dark brown sugar
1-ounce bourbon (poured into a spritz bottle)
2 cups crushed ginger snap cookies

Directions:

• Heat oven to 250 degrees F.
• Remove ham from bag, rinse and drain thoroughly.
• Place ham, cut side down, in a roasting pan. Using a small paring knife or clean utility knife set to the smallest blade setting, score the ham from bottom to top, spiraling clockwise as you cut. (If you're using a paring knife, be careful to only cut through the skin and first few layers of fat). Rotate the ham after each cut so that the scores are no more than 2-inches across. Once you've made it all the way around, move the knife to the other hand and repeat, spiraling counter clockwise. The aim is to create a diamond pattern all over the ham. (Don't worry too much about precision here.)
• Tent the ham with heavy duty foil, insert a thermometer, and cook for 3 to 4 hours or until the internal temperature at the deepest part of the meat registers 130 degrees F.
• Remove and use tongs to pull away the diamonds of skin and any sheets of fat that come off with them.
  Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Dab dry with paper towels, then brush on a liberal coat of mustard, using either a basting brush or a clean paint brush (clean as in never-touched paint). Sprinkle on brown sugar, packing loosely as you go until the ham is coated. Spritz this layer lightly with bourbon, then loosely pack on as much of the crushed cookies as you can.
• Insert the thermometer (don't use the old hole) and return to the oven (uncovered). Cook until interior temperature reaches 140 degrees F, approximately 1 hour.
• Let the roast rest for 1/2 hour before carving.
  

Eggplant and Minced Meat with Thai Peanut Butter Sauce

When I first started to cook this dish, I wanted to make stuffed eggplants with some kind of South East Asian flavored mince meat. However, when I made the stuffing, I noticed that the peanut butter sauce was too creamy to be used as stuffing so I improvised and cut up those eggplants into bite-size pieces and mix them with the mince meat. It turned out pretty good - though now I'm on a hunt for a good stuffed eggplant recipe!


Ingredients:
3 eggplants, cut into half and then into 2-inch sections (I used Chinese eggplants)
1 lb ground pork
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 stalk lemon grass root, finely chopped
1 green chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 cup coconut cream
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 teaspoons brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Directions:

• Heat up the oven to 400F degree and bake the eggplant slices in the oven for 25-30 minutes until cooked.
• Mix the peanut butter, coconut cream, fish sauce and brown sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
• In the mean time, stir fry the pork with a couple tablespoons of oil over medium high heat for a few minutes until well colored.
• Add chopped garlic, shallot, lemon grass and green chili pepper and cook for 2 more minutes.
• Add in the peanut butter sauce mix and cook for several minutes until the mixture thickened.
• Stir in the eggplant pieces and chopped parsley, adjust seasoning and serve over white rice.

Broccolini with Sausage and Shitake Mushroom

Here's a simple quick stir-fried vegetable dish that I made over the Easter weekend. It's delicious and healthy – just make sure to get young broccolini so it's not too tough or too stringy.


Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 shallots, finely chopped
1-inch ginger, finely chopped
1 lb broccolini
2 uncooked sausages
10 fresh Shiitake mushroom, destem and cut into slices
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing cooking wine
2 tablespoons chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• In a large pan, quickly stir-fry the garlic, shallots and ginger with olive oil over a medium heat for a couple of minutes until fragrant.
• Take the sausages out of the casing, crumble them into the pan and cook for 5 minutes until they are almost cooked.
• Add in the sliced mushroom and cook for 3 more minutes.
• And then add in the broccolini along with the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and chicken broth.
• Stir well, lower the heat, cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes or so until the broccolini is tender.
• Adjust seasoning using salt and pepper.
  

Roast Pork Shoulder with Flageolet Beans

I am so happy because I keep finding interesting and delicious recipes in Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris cookbook. Today, I made a variation of her Roast Lamb with White Beans dish. Since my butcher did not have any boneless leg of lamb in stock, I used a slab of boneless pork shoulder instead and pair that with Flageolet beans from Rancho Gordo. I also decided to use ghee instead of olive oil because I think it made the beans taste richer. Since I usually find her recipe a bit saltier than my liking, I put less salt than what she specified in her recipe.


Ingredients:
1 lb of Flageolet beans, soaked overnight in the refrigerator
1 quart of chicken stock (or water)
4.5 lbs boneless pork shoulder
2.5 tablespoons minced garlic (6 cloves)
3 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, plus more for brushing
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
2 tablespoons ghee
2 cups chopped yellow onion (2 onions)
1 cup diced carrots (2 carrots)
1 cup diced celery (2 stalks) - i didn't have any so i skipped this
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
salt & pepper

Directions:

• Drain the beans, place in a large saucepan with chicken stock (or water) and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the beans in the stock for 30 minutes, until tender but not mushy. Add 1 tablespoon of salt for the last 10 minutes of cooking.
• While the beans cook, butterfly the pork shoulder to open it up flat. Combine 1.5 tablespoons of garlic, 1.5 tablespoons of the rosemary, 2 teaspoons of the thyme, the mustard, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper in a small bowl. Smear the mixture evenly over the exposed surface of the pork, roll it up and tie the roast neatly with kitchen string.
• Place the pork seam side down on a roasting pan. Brush the outside lightly with mustard, then sprinkle evenly with 1/2 teaspoon of each salt and pepper. Add the carrot chunks to the pan and roast for about 40 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 145F at the thickest part of the roast. Take out the roasting pan out of the oven, cover tightly with aluminum foil and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a large saute pan, heat the ghee then add the onions, diced carrots and celery (if you use it), and cook over low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, until tender. Add parsley, the remaining garlic, 2 tablespoons of thyme, 1.5 tablespoons of rosemary, and cook for a couple more minutes. Add the beans and 2 cups of the cooking stock and cook for 15 minutes until the stock makes a little sauce and becomes somewhat thicker. Adjust taste with salt and pepper.
• Remove the string and slice the pork. Serve it resting on the Flageolet beans and roasted carrots.
  

Herb-Marinated Pork Loin

After watching Ina Garten's show on Herb-Marinated Pork Tenderloins last Saturday, I knew that I had to make it one of this week because it looks so good and simple to make. I marinated the meat for 48 hours before cooking it and served it over a side of salad and couscous. Simple delicious and healthy dinner!


Ingredients:
3 lb boneless pork loin (or tenderloin)
2 lemons, zest grated
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from the 2 lemons)
1/4 cup olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

• Combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, mustard, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper in a sturdy 1-gallon resealable plastic bag.
• Add the pork loins and turn to coat with marinade. Squeeze out the air and seal the bag.
• Marinate the pork in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or overnight (I marinated mine for 2 nights).
• Preheat the oven to 400F.
• Remove the pork loins from the marinade and discard the marinade but leave the herbs that cling to the meat. Sprinkle the pork loins generously with salt and pepper.
• Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large oven-proof saute pan over medium high heat.
• Sear the pork loins on all sides until golden brown (approximately 4 minutes on each side).
• Place the saute pan in the oven and roast the loins for approximately 15 minutes until the meat registers 137F at the thickest part.
• Transfer the pork loins to a platter and cover tightly with aluminum foil. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.
• Carve in 1/2-inch-thick diagonal slices. The thickest part of the tenderloin will be quite pink (it's just fine!) and the thinnest part will be well done.
• Season with salt and pepper and serve warm, or at room temperature with the juices that collect in the platter.
  

Galantine

One of my favorite dishes growing up in Indonesia was Galantine. The Indonesian version is different from the French version's of de-boned stuffed poultry meat poached and served cold, coated with aspic. Ours is more like a meat rolade with hard-boiled eggs inside. I made mine using a mix of ground pork, ground chicken and liver paste and, for extra kick, I added fried shallots into the mixture. It turned out well and as good as what I had back home.


Ingredients:
1 lb of ground pork
1 lb of ground chicken
1 can of liver paste (~120gr)
6 tablespoons of bread crumbs
4 tablespoons of sweet condensed milk
1/4 cup of fried shallots
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons of salt
2 teaspoons of pepper
5 hard-boiled eggs
wax paper

Directions:

• Mix the ground meats, liver paste, bread crumbs, milk, shallots, eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper well in a food processor.
• Lay out the wax paper on a table, put about a third of the meat mixture on the middle of it to cover about half of the wax paper.
• Arrange the hard-boiled eggs on top of the meat mixture and top the eggs with the rest of the meat mixture so it resembles a log.
• Roll the wax paper to enclose the meat & egg log.
• Steam the galantine for 25 minutes.
• After it cools off, open the wax paper and serve the galantine with the tomato sauce.

Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
3 ripe tomatoes
5 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
5 shallots, finely diced
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon of corn starch
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Boil the tomatoes until they turn soft, drain saving 1 cup of the water used for boiling, cut the tomatoes into chunks.
• Fry the shallots using the butter over low medium heat in a medium pan.
• Increase the heat to medium and add tomato chunks, 1 cup of the tomato water, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Continue cooking until it boils.
• Remove the pan from the heat and let cool down a little bit before blending in a food processor into a smooth consistency.
• Strain the tomato mixture before returning to the pan.
  
• Cook over medium low heat.
• In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch using cold water.
• Add into the pan, stir and continue cooking until it boils again.

Sweet and Sour Spareribs

I finally dusted off my Chinese food recipe collection this weekend. I don't usually cook Chinese food that often because I think that they're too complicated for me. However, this Sweet and Sour Spareribs recipe seems pretty simple enough for me to follow and it looks so delicious because it's not like those sweet and sour dishes in Chinese Restaurant.


Ingredients:
1.5 lb of pork spareribs
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
2 tablespoons of rice wine
3 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
5 tablespoons of water
4 slices of ginger root
4 stalks of green onion

Directions:

• Wash and cut spareribs into 3 inches long each.
• Boil the spareribs in pan filled enough water to cover them.
• Remove the meat when the water boils.
• Drain the spareribs well.
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok and stir fry the ginger until fragrant.
• Pour all the seasonings, green onions and spareribs into the wok, bring to boil.
• Cover with lid and cook over low heat until the sauce almost gone (approximately 30 minutes), turning the ribs to baste from time to time.

Olive Fried Rice

I was looking at the photos from my vacation to Singapore and Indonesia a few years ago and was reminded of my first Olive Fried Rice and all its briny and saltiness goodness. After Googling around the web, I noticed that almost all of the recipes use salted Chinese olives. Since I could not find it in San Francisco Chinatown, I had to use chopped black Mediterranean olives and added a mixture of soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil instead.


Ingredients:
3 garlic, minced
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 lb ground pork
3 Chinese sausage, sliced
1 8oz can of black olives, chopped
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons fish sauce
6 cups of cooked rice (preferably a day old and on the drier side)
1 16oz frozen spinach, dethawed, squeezed and drained
a small bunch of parsley, chopped
3 green onion, chopped
4 eggs
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Mix the chopped olive with the sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce and fish sauce in a bowl. Set aside.
• Make a thin omellete using the 4 eggs. After it's done, cut into thin strips. Set aside.
  
• In a large wok or pan, stir fry the garlic and onion over medium high heat with 2 tablespoon of olive oil until fragrant.
• Add in the ground pork, stir occasionally until the meat is cooked.
• Add in the sliced Chinese sausages, spinach and the olive mixture. Cook for another minute or two.
  
• Try to loosen the grains of the day-old rice before adding it into the pan. Mix the rice well with the olive mixture and cook for several minutes until the rice is heated through.
• Add in the chopped parsley and green onion.
• Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and with any of the sauces.
• Serve fried rice with thin strips of egg omelette on top.
  

Italian Sausage with Beans in Cream Sauce

Yeay... I found out today that I have more than 10,000 unique visitors to my blog. Thanks everyone, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

I love making food spontaneously based on what I have in my kitchen and without following any recipes, especially after making multiple dishes over the weekend. It enables me to be more creative and to try out new combination of flavors. The only difficult part for me was naming the dish.


Ingredients:
1 package of uncooked sweet Italian breakfast sausages (take them out from the casing and crumbled)
1 clove of garlic
1 bunch of basil leaves, chopped
1 can of red kidney bean
1 can of garbanzo bean
1/4 cup cream
1 tablespoon of mirin
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

• In a large pan, cook the garlic over a low heat with 3 tablespoon of oil until fragrant.
• Increase the heat to medium, add in the crumbled sausage and cook thoroughly.
• Add in basil leaves, the beans and mirin.
• Mix well, cover and cook for 3 minutes.
• Uncover, add in the cream and cook for another 2 minutes.

R&G Lounge

Last night, I went to R&G Lounge with Danny, Mo-Fo and ShunBun after having a drink at Tunnel Top. I was supposed to go to the gym, have a good workout and eat salad at home but they twisted my arms so I had to oblige. =)

House Combination Chow Mein - Pan Fried Hong Kong Style


Ma Bo Tofu


R&G Special Beef


Water Spinach in Fermented Tofu Sauce

Indonesian Soy-Braised Pork

In the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about an Indonesian dish called Babi Kecap (Soy-Braised Pork) so I decided to call my Mom to get the recipe.


Ingredients:
1 lb of pork with some fats (I used pork butts), cut into 1-inch cubed
6 garlic - smashed
1/2 tablespoon of white pepper powder
3-4 tablespoon of sweet soy sauce
4-5 tablespoon of soy sauce
Salt, pepper and sugar - to taste
Water
Fried yellow tofu
Hard-boiled eggs

Directions:

• In a medium or large pot, stir-fry the garlic and white pepper powder until fragrant (30 seconds or so) over a medium high heat with a bit of oil
• Stir in the pork cubes, cooked for another 2-3 minutes until the pork is not pink anymore
• Add in both soy sauce and sweet soy sauce
• Add in the enough water to cover the pork plus 1 or 2 more inches extra and cook until it boils
• Add in the cooked fried yellow tofu and hard boiled eggs
• Cook until it boils again, lower heat the down and simmer for 1 hour until the pork cubes are soft
  
• Adjust the taste with salt, white pepper, soy sauces and a bit of sugar

Bar Bambino and Bi-Rite Creamery

Tonight, I went to Bar Bambino in the Mission District for dinner with Danny. We started with a mezzo (500 mL) of 2007 Sassotondo Rosso (Ciliegiolo, Alicante), a Prosciutto Plate from La Quercia Farms served with house made fruit mostarda (mustard-glazed apple chutney) and a plate of Arancinette - small arancinis with porcini and fontina.


Gnocchi alla Primavera - classic potato gnocchi paired with spring garlic, peas, pancetta, EVOO and parmigiano reggiano


Slow-Roasted Half-Duck with escarole and green olives (no picture here because it was too dark). This was my least favorite dish of the night because the duck was dry and the escarole was cold. Not sure what happened in the kitchen because the other dishes were great. It was a bad ending of otherwise a nice dinner.

For desserts, we decided to have ice creams at Bi-Rite Creamery. Danny had the Cinnamon Snickerdoodle and I had the Blood Orange and Meyer Lemon ice cream.


On the way home, I saw Marian and Vivian Brown, The San Francisco Twins, so I chatted with them for awhile and took a picture of them. They're so fabulous!