Spicy Pork Sausage & Rice Cakes (Momofuku)

• 1/2 cup grapeseed or other neutral oil
• 3 large yellow onions, cut in half and thinly sliced
• 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 pound ground pork
• 2 very loosely packed cups (1 1/2 ounces) dried red chiles
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons toban djan (jarred Chinese fermented bean and chile sauce) or ssamjang (the Korean analogue to toban djan)
• 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon kochukaru (Korean chile powder)
• 6 tablespoons waters
• 1 tablespoon usukuchi (light soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cups sliced or coarsely chopped Chinese vegetables, such as Chines broccoli or bok choy
• 8 long cylindrical rice sticks, cut into 1-inch lengths [I found these rice cake at about that size already, but they were cinched in the middle.  I remember actually having it at Momofuku and their way is definitely an improvement]
• 8 ounces silken tofu, drained
• 1 cup sliced scallions, greens and whites
• 1/2 cup packaged Chinese fried shallots [All the varieties at C-Mart were labelled as "Red Onions"

Mise en place.

Caramelize onions for 30 minutes.

Raw ground pork over medium-high heat.

Jab at meat with edge of spoon just until it loses its pinkness.

Heat chiles and dried garlic until fragrant.

Stir in chile bean sauce, Sichuan peppercorns, and kochukaru.

Stir in chopped greens and cooked until stem are just tender.

Whisk silken tofu until creamy.

 

I don't quite remember having this at Momofuku being quite as big a pain to eat with pulling out the fragments of chile and accidentally chewing on one way too often.

I've found that processed rice noodles really do not hold up as leftovers and the dish was basically inedible by the third day.   I admit the dish has personality but its not suited to my needs.

Miso Soup with Bok Choy, Soba, and Broiled Tofu (FM)

• Salt
• 8 ounces soba noodles
• 1 block firm tofu
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon five-spice [freshly ground, even] or chili powder
• Black pepper
• 1/3 cup any miso
• 1 pound bok choy, stems separated and chopped, leaves cut into ribbons
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted if you like
• 1/4 cup chopped scallions [I flaked on this]
  

Mise en place.

Blanching the soba noodles.

Tofu, sliced, seasoned, and ready for the broiler.

Reserve 2 cups of pasta boiling water. Combine one with a quart of fresh water and bring to a boil. Add bok choy and cook until silky.

Whisk miso with remaining cup of pasta water and add with noodles into bok choy and cook until just heated through.

I wasn't really bowled over by the dish, but Jimmie R liked it.

The Never-Ending-Chicago-Winter Beef Stew

from Stephanie Izard's Girl in the Kitchen

• 3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
• 3 pounds beef, cubed
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pineapple, finely diced
• 1 apple, peeled and diced
• 1 pear, peeled anddiced
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 quart chicken broth
• One 16-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 3/4 cup fich sauce
• 3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard [Oops, mine expired]
• 1 tablespoon sambal paste
  

Cutting a pineapple for the first time. Hardly a perfect spiral but a good first attempt.


Mise.


Browning the beef.


It would've been painstaking to brown the beef well (and the recipe didn't call for it anyway). I knew the recipe would have a 4 hour braise.


Sweat the onion and garlic.


Stir in the fruit and wine and decrease the liquid by half.


Add back the beef and everything else.


The flavors were definitely a nice blend of serious Southeast Asian flavors and more European ones, but I wouldn't quite call it a beef stew.
I'm thinking that maybe the family will get a kick out of it for Thanksgiving though Ropa Vieja would be a sure hit.

Preserved Lemons 1.0

from Girl in the Kitchen by Stephenie Izard:

•  2 1/4 cups coarse salt
• 9 lemons
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups vodka
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Boiling the lemons in batches for five minutes.

I never managed to get this crazy amount of salt and sugar to dissolve into such a tiny amount of alcohol.  Sure, I've super-saturated pickle brine with salt and sugar many times, but I don't use alcohol to do it.

Throwing the jar down my bedroom floor for two weeks.  Crossing my fingers that they don't come out smelling ammonia-y like Mark Bittman says they could get if something's gone wrong.

I also wound up using bottled lemon juice to top off the liquid so the lemons would be submerged.

Strips of the result muddled with some club soda.  Pretty awesome beverage.  If I was in the mood or I had company, vodka certainly wouldn't be out of place.  And hey, it's not full of sugar and chemicals and is WAY more interesting that water with a squeeze of lemon.

I titled this entry 1.0 because I have recently read three different techniques for preserving lemons recently.  Partly due to fear of failure (stupid salt and sugar), I admit, and largely through curiosity, I definitely want to try Bittman's recipe when I run out of this batch.  Izard's had a longer shelf life and seemed more interesting in terms of spicing (oh I guess I could've played around myself) so I went with that first.

Zak Pelaccio's recipe in Eat wtih Your Hands (which I recently read and will inevitably cook out of) doesn't involve a liquid at all but involves packing the lemons with salt.  This techniques demands fridge space though and I'd have to be in the right moment for that.  I see myself making one of his two recipes for bacon soon...

Thai Green Curry with Chicken, Broccoli, and Mushrooms (CATKTV)

Green Curry Paste

• 1/3 cup water
• 12 fresh green Thai, serrano, or jalepeno chiles, seeds and ribs removed, chile chopped coarse [Finally using a significant amount of peppers off the jalapeno plant my parents gave to me.]
  
• 8 medium garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 medium shallots, peeled and quartered
• 2 stalks lemon grass, bottom 5 inches only, trimmed and sliced thin [Now, I realized I've gone too far with the peeling off of layers.]
• 2 tablespoons grated zest from 2 limes
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro stems
• 1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger
• 2 teaspoons coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon table salt
  

A large amount of prep went into all this this.


The paste was really blistering since I left all the seeds in ribs in. The recipe also left at least a cup of paste rather than a half cup the recipe calls for. I suspect that was due to my having used jalapeno pepper rather seeking out the more authentic and preferred Thai chiles.
Therefore half of it is sitting in my fridge.

Thai Green Curry with Chicken, Broccoli, and Mushrooms

• 2 (14-ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk, not shaken
• 1/2 cup Green Curry Paste or 2 tablespoons store-bought green curry paste
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed and sliced thin
• Table salt
• 8 ounces broccoli (1/2 small bunch), florets cut into 1-inch pieces
• 4 ounces white mushrooms, wiped clean and quartered
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/4 inch strips
• 1 Thai, chile, stemmed, seeded, and quartered lengthwise (optional)
• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon juice from 1 lime
  

Mise en place.

Whisk curry paste and 1 cup cream from the top of the coconut milk (it's weird how I haven't used coconut milk with really solid tops recently). Boil until almost all the liquid evaporates.

Add remaining coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar. Cook to meld the flavors and thicken the sauce.

Wound up using the pork loin I had from the earlier stir-fry recipe.

Everything looked all fine and dandy and then I decided to cover the pot even though I wasn't instructed to do so by the recipe. I was scared the broccoli wouldn't cook through, but it just might have. While allowing some the liquid the mushrooms were releasing to decrease.
Oh well, I still have 1/2 the Curry Paste to play with.

Even though trying to the curry paste before cooking the dish was blistering, the dish was remarkably mild and rather similar to what one would get in an average Thai restaurant. The pork was tough; maybe chicken will be better next time.

Lost my stage at L'Espalier for a stupid mistake I made that I would rather not talk about. For the last month, I have been miserable for several reasons that include the influx of interns there to roommate drama at home.
Maybe restaurant work isn't for me; particularly if my options are to start off as a dishwasher like Jen Y or spend $40,000 at culinary school and make less money than I do right now. Perhaps I'll wait a full year before enrolling in pre-reqs for nursing school; after that, clearly I'm never going to hear back again from America's Test Kitchen.
I'll continue trolling craigslist for opportunities. I nearly went to an interview today, but the distance from the train seemed far.

Chicken Braised in Vinegar (BRW)

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped pancetta or bacon
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• 2 fresh thyme sprigs or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly smashed
• 1 chicken, 3 to 4 pounds, cut into serving pieces, or 2 1/2 to 3 pounds chicken parts, trimmed of excess fat
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup good-quality red wine or balsamic vinegar
• Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish
  

Mise en place. Except for, notably, the chicken.


Browning the pancetta, herbs, and garlic in olive oil. An awful lot of olive oil.


Adding the rendered fat from the pancetta and browning the chicken, I was left with a crazy amount of oil left in the pan. After I reduced the sauce, it looked like all fat and I was right.
But one couldn't exactly pour out excess grease with all the aromatics.


The chicken was well cooked, but the sauce was quite useless. I accompanied it with some salted (to draw out moisture) and charred summer squash (at its peak in my repertoire, it's basically all I had for dinner).
If I was looking for a vinegar-y, Italian chicken dish, I'd probably just go back to the first dish I ever blogged about: Sweet and Sour Chicken, also from Bittman's The Best Recipes in the World. Though it was really really heavy.

Stir-Fried Pork, Eggplant, and Onion with Garlic and Black Pepper (CATKTV)

Sauce

• 2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
  
• 2 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 teaspoons juice from 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch

Pork and Vegetables

• 1 (12-ounce) pork tenderloin, trimmed of fat and silver skin and cut into 1/4 inch strips [I used pork loin because the only tenderloin at Stop and Shop is pre-marinated.]
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
• 12 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1/4 cup) [Peeling and microplane-ing this amount of garlic took ridiculous amount of time.]
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 medium eggplant (1 pound), cut into 3/4-inch cubes
• 1 large onion, halved and cut into 1/4-inch wedges
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
  

Between peeling and finely grating the garlic, hand-grinding the black pepper, and picking off cilantro leaves, the prep involved was INVOLVED.
The other prep was a breeze later in comparison, and stir-fries are the opposite of a 3-hour braise.


Cooking through the slivers of pork in about 2 minutes.


Browning the eggplant until it is no longer spongy. I saw some graffiti eggplant at Trader Joe's yesterday. I wish I had been playing with that.




In goes the onions.
Also keep in mind, that everything is being cooked in stages over high heat. Most things cooked in just a couple of minutes. The eggplant just took a few minutes longer.


Clearing out the center of the pan and cooking the aromatics (in this case, garlic and black pepper) in the center of the pan seems like it's a pretty classic technique for cuisines ranging from Southeast Asia to Italy.


A strong stir-fry. It didn't wow me, but it certainly tasted cleaner than oily thing I might hope to expect to order in a restaurant.
Plus there's about 3 more recipes worth of pork loin in my freezer now.