Snow Day = Day to make braised pork belly

When I was younger, I didn't really like pork all that much. Or at least I thought so. The reason is because American pork is all over-salted or tasteless - bacon, ham, chops. Even SPAM - probably the best American pork is almost like not really pork. And I never made the connection between the Chinese pig meat I loved - char siu, feet, shoulder, and especially double-layered fat belly - and "pork." As I got older, I made the connection that these were in fact all different parts of the same animal. I mean...I knew that, but I didn't KNOW it. (Until this day I have a similar confusion over the difference between sheep, goat, and ram because they all have the same word in Chinese. It's not even like I'm fluent in Chinese, I'm just very easily confused.)

But it gets me upset when I think about the way we in America disrespect the meat we eat. People don't want to eat pig feet or ears or chitterlings or anything that is easily identifiable as part of an animal. We don't even call it pig, but pork. We don't want to eat cow, but want to eat beef and steak and burgers and Rocky Mountain oysters. And of course it's veal instead of calf, or more accurately - infant cow.

In my mind, when it comes to eating meat: stakes is high.

I can stand eating vegetables that aren't cooked that great because they are vegetables. But human beings do not need to eat meat in order to survive or even to thrive - so there is no reason we should ever eat meat that is not cooked to perfection. When we eat meat, we should make it worth it. You know what I'm saying?

Pork is - to me - the perfect meat. I could live without beef or chicken or even fish - but I don't think I'd ever stop eating expertly-prepared pork. So that having been said I used the snow day from work as an excuse to make some braised pork belly with ALL the fat still attached. Mmm. (Read this Slate.com article about why eating lard is not as bad as you thought it was.)

Step by step. (Oooh baby.)

This is some pork belly cut up into pieces maybe an inch (?) thick. Marinate it in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and a little sugar plus a minced bulb of garlic. The dark soy is the key. We also ended up throwing some pig ears in there too.

 

S has this really clever technique when braising meats - that's to put sugar on the bottom of the pot and burn it until it's a deep brown color - that gives the deep rich color to the final product and probably lends a little bit of smoke to the taste. Unfortunately, i did it wrong and the sugar liquefied instead of burned - I guess I should have used a different pot - regardless, after it became syrup, it browned a little so I just kept going.

After that, you throw your pork and marinade into the pot and saute a little. No need for oil because of the thick layers of lard. Mmmm. After it's cooked a short while, dump in some water. S's style would be to fill it halfway and continue to refill as necessary. I am lazy so I just basically filled the pot. But my mom always braised stuff starting with a full pot so I wasn't concerned; although she would do it starting in the morning - not in an hour.

After the water has basically boiled down all the way, it will look like this. Notice we threw some hard boiled eggs (shells removed) in earlier, and see the whole pig ears on the bottom of the photo. At this point, you might as well taste the liquid in the pot and see if the flavor feels right or not. If it's too strong, then add some more water and cook it down a little more; if it's too weak, you'll need to add flavoring.

As I sliced up the ear, I listened to "Stuck in the Middle with You" by Steeler's Wheel.

 

This is screaming to be eaten with white rice. But given that it's basically eating straight lard, I opted for the slightly healthier brown rice.

Guest Post / Bok Sadai (#5 Style)

it's G here. hi. two weeks until S gets back.

the dish i never tasted before S was bok lahong (papaya salad), as well as its variants like bok sadai (green bean salad), and what we call "bok mango" - which is self-explanatory. But the term "bok" in khmer doesn't mean salad, it means the method by which you make these dishes, by crushing all the ingredients in a huge mortar and pestle thing.

i am something of a connoisseur. i can pick out my wife's bok dishes out of anyone's in the world. it's pretty unlike anything i grew up eating, so i set out to learn how to make it. after working on it for months, i have determined myself to be the #5 best bok-er in the world. yeah i said it.

so before she left, we done did this. check it:


these are the ingredient for making bok sadai: fish sauce, shrimp paste, garlic, lime, MSG, smoked fish, hot peppers, beer. (missing: green beans and sugar)


then you toast this smoked fish for a little while to bring out the flavor. it's still in the package here, we bought it in revere or maybe lowell. at this point, you should also drink your beer. if you need more, go ahead and get more.


cut up the green beans into little pieces like this. check out how fast my knife moves - it's a blur! i think this was the day i sliced off the tip of my finger.


BOK the smoked fish. break up the bones!


add the fish sauce, lime, shrimp paste, garlic, peppers, msg, and sugar. BOK that! my steez is to add a little at a time of fish sauce, lime, and sugar and taste along the way and add more of each accordingly. the flavor has to be a balance of salty, sweet, sour, and MSG-y. all those flavors should be strong too. you can only know if you know.


add the sadai and keep up the BOKing.


blacken some chicken. dark meat is highly preferred - but that's always preferred in my opinion.


typically, most people like to BOK the sadai to the point where it's more pasty than this. but my style is to keep them more whole, i like the texture that way.


eat with rice. holla.

Guest Post / The Legendary 4 Onion Cha

hi readers! every now and then I'll be featuring entries from guest bloggers.

today is my first guest post from my husband, also known as Grouchy G. (everyone seems to love that new nickname for him. except him!) since i'm away for 4 weeks, he'll be handling updating duties for me. don't mess up honey!

---

a few weeks ago, i had a dream in which i invented a new dish called "Four Onion Cha" - with onions, leeks, scallions, and shallots all fried together with pork. I couldn't stop thinking about it and so on S's last weekend here before her trip, I brought that dream into reality.

I'm lazy, so here is a very poor rendition of that recipe in pictures. It tasted better than I dreamed it to taste! word!

you all know how to stirfry with a wok, so do this:

sweat this much scallions:


add this much leeks:


throw a little bit of sugar and dark soy in there. when the leeks start to kinda wilt on the edges, throw this much onions:


and this much shallots:


more dark soy, more sugar and a healthy dose of regular (light) soy. remove all that vegetables to a dish, add several cloves of crushed garlic (more oil if you need of coruse) then this much pork:


that should have been marinated for at least 30 mins in wine, dark soy, sugar, corn starch, and crushed garlic.

then hit it with a cornstarch/water mixture. once that thickens, drizzle the sesame oil. toss it a couple times, turn off the heat and lay out that pork and sauce on top of the 4 onions.


holla. eat with chili oil and beer. that picture looks less good than it tasted.

Yellow Dessert for the Revolution

Since I haven't been feeling well, giles has been baking to cheer me up. I have a sweet tooth but as i mentioned earlier in my blog, I am a poor baker because I am bad at following directions. Baking is like science, you have to follow a formula, too much of this can turn into something else, and I was never good in science! When I cook, i can taste along the way, but you can't do that with baking.

For those of you who don't know Giles, you'd be surprised that he is a superb baker! How could someone so grouchy make something so sweet? He is a dessert snob too. All ingredients must be fresh and he bakes from scratch. I used to use duncan hines and betty crocker mixes all the time, but after eating his dessert, i was ruined!

Recently giles baked blondies and brownies and renamed it Yellow Brown dessert for the Revolution. Since I only took a picture of the blondies, i will share with you his recipe.

melt the following in double boiler:
2 cups of brown sugar
10 1/2 tbs butter

mix in:
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

add the following ingredients to mixture:
2 cups of flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt

set in a pan, add white chocolate chips and crushed almonds over mixture. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.