Archive for the ‘Entree’ Category
How t Does Ramen
t says: The other day, a, v, g, and I were discussing childhood foods that we still enjoyed eating today … even if they are a little – shall we say – “unrefined”. For instance, a has found himself eating Spaghettios once or twice a year; I find this to be revolting. I, on the other hand, have been known to eat a Pop-Tart or two in my day (Cherry is the best); a finds this is ridiculous but not necessarily surprising (I believe his exact words might be: “you would … you would!”). g has a secret crush on sugar doughnuts filled with strawberry jelly (she can resist a lot of sweets … but not that one). This is when v reminded me of one of her food weaknesses: ramen. Mmmmmm. Ramen. I, too, love ramen. But not just any ramen – for me it has to be Sapporo Ichiban:
Sapporo Number One! ... Ichiban!
This is the brand that I grew up on – no “Cup-o-Noodles” or “Smack Ramen” (both of which are gross) or anything like that – this is the real deal. And, if you haven’t had this brand before, I strongly advise you find your nearest Asian convenience store and buy it (don’t mess around with the “flavored” Sapporo ones, either, as the “original flavoring” is by far the best).
Back in the day, I’d drop an egg or two into the boiling water to add a little “something extra” to the noodles and MSG goodness. Now, years later, I will cook the ramen using the full seasoning packet but avoid ingesting too much broth (that’s where the salt is). And lately, I’ve been playing around with my ramen toppings by adding some leftovers:
ramen with leftover Chinese food (shrimp and broccoli), leftover kimchi jige, some sauteed spinach, and a hard-boiled egg
No, it’s no Momofuku ramen, but if I close my eyes, I can pretend that it’s a balanced lunch (it’s got three pieces of broccoli in there, right?). One day, I do hope to master David Chang’s ramen, and maybe then I won’t need Sapporo Ichiban anymore … (but I’d still eat it anyways).
I’m back, baby…
g says: t had taken over most of the dinner-making duties for the past couple of years as my work schedule became more challenging (read: i get home late and t is hungry before then). i very much appreciate him stepping up to the plate, but i do miss the meals i used to create when i was the first-string dinner-maker of our home — they were creative, they were delicious, and i plated each one with care (t interjects: my dishes are a little more … “rustic”)
now, t is a bit more busy and i am stepping back in when i am home early enough from my new(er) job. one such meal was the beauty shown below — rosemary lamb sausage (procured from an excursion to the italian market with a and v), sauteed with red bell peppers, spinach, apples, and cinnamon, served on a toasted roll and topped with fresh pecorino.
t says: she loves to add cinnamon to everything…
g says: shut up, t. cinnamon is delicious… (and very versatile!) this time i used the fancy china cinnamon that lr gave us as a gift. that’s right, there are different kinds — and i am all about finding out how many ways i can incorporate each of them into my diet!
anyway, this was a fantastic sandwich and i wanted to share. please feel free to use this idea to spice up your own weekday dinners.
lamb sausage sandwich
j puts bacon everywhere
t says: If kp, j, and me had a fight, and the winner was solely determined by who loves bacon more, I’m not sure who would win. kp’s got the culinary mastery over j and me (he makes bacon-covered breadsticks), but I can claim that I ate a heaping plate of bacon 6 days a week for 6 months straight (and to be honest, it wasn’t even that delicious a bacon – it was at my college cafeteria). I’ve decided to give j a bit of an advantage of her own by gifting her a bacon-centric cookbook for her bday. These were her first attempts:
BFF ... beautiful from far-away ... (I'll give $1 to the first person who can tell me where I'm stealing that from - cast members not permitted to guess)
If you add mussels and snow peas, it's now considered "healthy", right?
j says: Okay so it is bacon and salmon poke (top picture) and pork tenderloin wrapped with bacon with mussels and sugar snap peas (bottom picture)
t says: was it tasty?
j says: sooooo good. i used salmon intead of tuna bc the tuna didnt look fresh. and i of course added my own variations. bc i didnt want to deep fry wonton wrappers so i used triscuits. and [boyfriend’s name] doesnt like regular peas so i opted out. and they didnt have fresh clams so i used mussels. you want me to blog about it? i feel like i will be more likely to do it bc it was good and i made it.
t says: lol – nah, go study or something. what’s the title of the book?
j says: I love bacon
t says: is that a statement you’re making, or the title of the book?
t steals the mic: It turns out that “I love bacon” is the name of the book. Furthermore, it is the center of some kind of controversy as it may or may not be a follow-up to “I <3 Corn”. Check it out. Corn? Seriously? I mean, I love me some SoJo corn just as much as the next guy, but unless it’s that corn dish from Fond, I have a hard time loving it even one-tenth as much as I love bacon.
What was the point of this post? Three-fold:
1) To show off j’s cooking skills.
2) To make kp salivate.
3) To make certain vegetarians queasy at the thought of bacon-wrapped pork (you know who you are).
If j feels so inspired, she’ll send me the recipe. If not, then you’ll just have to deconstruct it, yourself.
Kimchi Jigae (for Real)
t says: A while ago, we posted a kimchi jigae recipe, but it was kind of a cop-out – it used a pork shoulder that was cooked for another dish and then added the leftovers to kimchi … That needed to be fixed – kimchi jigae deserves its own recipe. ha has her own way of cooking it, but even she admits that it’s something she thought up – not a formal recipe. Plus, sometimes the meat just ended up very tough to chew. So I set out to re-do kimchi jigae, but this time in the method of a braise … but it had to be done outside because cooking kimchi indoors for hours on end produces an ugly smell. I did some experimenting and this is what I’ve come up with. It’s a piece of pork, a piece of brisket, and some tofu, braised over a long period of time. While using just one or the other is permissible, I kind of like having a mix of meats so this way I can eat the same dish over a few days and not get bored of it.
Ingredients:
__ 1 package of kimchi (from Hmart … the older/stinkier the better)
__ 1 slab of pork shoulder (will be determined by vessel size)
__ 1 slab of brisket (will be determined by vessel size)
__ 1 slab of extra-firm tofu (will be determined by vessel size)
__ 1 box of beef stock (~26 oz)
__ salt, pepper
__ oil (to sear the meats)
Methods:
-2) Find a Dutch oven that will fit on your grill – ideally with the cover closed (therefore emulating a real oven) – or find an outdoor burner capable of low heat (a lot of outdoor burners may heat the Dutch oven to way too high a temperature for an effective braise – you’re aiming for ~300 degrees F.
-1) Season meats with salt and pepper and allow to stand at room temperature for at least a half-hour. At the end of this time, preheat the Dutch oven on the grill/burner with high heat.
0) Add oil to Dutch oven and sear meats and set aside.
1) Lower the heat of the grill/burner and add just enough kimchi to cover the bottom of the Dutch oven. Stir around the kimchi to soak up those brown bits.
2) Return the meats to the Dutch oven. Pour the remaining kimchi on top. Add enough beef stock to just get half-way up the side of the meat. Place lid. If you have a Dutch oven with a domed lid (like the Le Creuset we used), you may be well-served by adding a sheet of parchment paper between the lid and the vessel so the moisture will fall back down the center of the vessel and not just down the sides – it also tightens the seal of the lid, too.
3) Cook at the lowest heat needed to just keep a light simmer in the vessel going – peek under the lid every fifteen minutes or so in the beginning to ensure that you’re not boiling too vigorously (the meat will be tough if you do).
4) Wait several hours. Flip every hour or so.
5) For me, the pork shoulder gets done first, well before the brisket, so I remove the pork shoulder and the kimchi when the pork shoulder gets to that ridiculously tender stage and falls apart as you try to flip it. I leave the brisket and liquid in to go longer (for me, the brisket needs to go about an hour longer for a comparably sized piece of meat).
6) When done, remove the meats, and eat! … OR, allow to cool to room temp and stick back into fridge to allow the flavors to meld together and eat the next day. Both are acceptable!
PB&J Cereal
t says: The other day I wanted lunch. But there was no food in the house. I spied some PB and J, so I figured that I’d make myself a sandwich. Unfortunately, I forgot about a critical ingredient – there was no food in the house … including no bread. Darn! I cursed my luck as I stared at the jars of PB and J sitting on the counter. Also on the counter was a box of Multigrain Cheerios (left out from earlier in the morning). And then it hit me. What if I had PB and Jelly cereal. Blasphemy, right? But why’s it song wrong? Cereal’s kind of like a grain! And it’s fortified! Maybe it’s even better than bread! So here’s what I did.
Ingredients:
__ 1 spoonful of PB
__ 1 spoonful of jelly/preserves (strawberry rules!)
__ a microwave-safe bowl
__ some cereal
__ some milk
Methods:
1) Put the PB into the bowl. Nuke for 30 seconds.
2) Mix the PB in the bowl so it’s nice and smooth (should be very soft). Add cereal and toss lightly until cereal is coated. It’s funky at first cuz it’ll seem like there’s not enough PB, but just keep on it and it should spread out.
3) Add the spoonful of jelly/preserves and toss – the jelly will end up thinly coating the cereal and hiding in some nooks and crannies – it’ll seem like there’s not enough – add more if you want, but try not to overdo it – it’ll be too sweet.
4) Add milk and enjoy!
Now, I know this doesn’t sound complicated. It’s not! It also doesn’t look pretty – but that’s ok!
PB and Jelly and Cereal
Who cares what it looks like? Eat it as you would cereal. I find that it adds some “oomph” to the cereal (i.e. it cuts down my AM cereal consumption from 2.5 bowls to 1) and is quite tasty. Give it a whirl once – chances are likely that you’ll more often have PB and J and cereal lying around than you will slices of bread!
Revisiting Braised Cow …
t says: I was at a new super-Walmart-atron the other day. I was surprised to find that they had beef cheek! No one else (i.e. no normal run-of-the-mill grocery store) has beef cheek! And now it was mine … for less than $2 a pound! So I bought some …
What did I do with it? I braised it, of course. I used our short rib pasta recipe. It … was … awesome.
It took a bit over 3 hours to braise a mere 3 lbs. I did trim the beef cheek substantially cuz there’s a lot of big pockets of fat. I did, however, save one huge piece of fat and stuck it into the Dutch oven to braise with the meats so it could add some luscious sweet deliciosity. The result was a wonderful pasta dish. Mmmmm.
It didn’t taste as gamey as a short rib or an oxtail – and the texture was even more tender, so I imagine I’ll continue to use it in the future (without telling anyone it’s “beef cheek” – that name might turn some people off). It’s also cheaper than the other two – even if you consider that approximately 1/4-1/3 of what you get is fat that gets trimmed …
Rock on beef cheek …
Pork Shoulder Sandwich and Kimchi Jigae (with pix)
t says: We once tried to make a pork shoulder, but it didn’t turn out right. We tried to braise the sucker, but the meat just ended up being too tough for my taste (which we tried to hide by shredding the bejesus out of it). The thing is, from the beginning, kp told us to forego braising and just roast it: put on the rub, stick it in the oven, and let it go at a ridiculously low heat for a long amount of time. I doubted whether this would actually work because that’s how my grandmom used to make her Thanksgiving turkeys, and although they were made with love, they were just a bit dry.
Well, flash forward a few months … I had the hankering to cook a large piece of meat this past weekend. Why large? Well, I wanted to cook something large in volume that I could slowly eat over a few days – I foresaw that I would have little time to cook. Then I remembered how whenever I go to the Wegman’s meat section, I always end up staring at the pork shoulder. It was my white whale. I’d curse silently under my breath, “why??? but I did everything right!”. Of course, there’s no real reason for me to hold a grudge against the pork, as at $1.30 per pound, what was preventing me from giving it another whirl? The more I thought about it, I realized that I basically owed it to myself to try it again – the meat was so cheap it might as well have been free!
But how would I make it this time? The braise last time was a disaster. I needed a change-up. So I opened up David Chang’s Momofuku Cookbook. He had a recipe for pork shoulder that he uses for his ramen. It was simple, straightforward, no frills … and it was precisely what kp said: put on the rub, stick it in the oven, and go. So it was settled. I was going to roast the pork and make sandwiches out of it. But one cannot live on pork and bread alone! (Ok, scratch that – one can live on pork and bread alone, but not even kp would consider this a healthy diet). I figured that pork is savory and salty, so I wanted some sour and spice to punch it up, some vegetable to keep my doctor happy, and some cheese to both quell the spice and add some mouth-coating texture (aside from straight-up pork fat from the meat). What I eventually decided on was an homage to the South, Korea, and Italy … and pigs.
Ingredients:
__ 4.5 lb pork shoulder (but any size will do – David Chang claims that it won’t change how long you cook the thing for – I don’t know about that, but what the hell do I know?)
__ Sugar
__ Kosher salt
__ Dr. P-I-M-P’s ‘Bama Backyard BBQ Rub <if you can get some>
__ Some wilted spinach (olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, crushed red pepper, toasted sesame seeds <optional>)
__ Some ggakdugi
__ Some Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
__ Some sesame-studded sandwich rolls
-2) Let me explain some things here:
A) What the crap is Dr. P-I-M-P’s ‘Bama Backyard BBQ Rub? It’s a secret concoction of herbs and spices that only kp can make. Actually, I’m not even sure he has it written down, as then it might fall into the wrong hands. The only way to get your hands on some is to send us an email and pray that kp will be able to whip you up a batch. Alternatively, you could try mixing your own blend of seasonings (chili, garlic powder, paprika, cumin, etc) – but in actuality, David Chang uses straight up salt-sugar in 1:1, so don’t fret if you can’t get any of Dr. P-I-M-P’s rub. But I will say that I suspect that David Chang uses a far coarser Kosher salt than Morton’s, so stick with 0.5:1 salt:sugar. The sugar makes getting a nice crust easy.
B) WHY ARE THERE NO AMOUNTS? Because everything will change based on how big a shoulder you get. To give you a ballpark, for our 4.5 lb piece, we used less than 1 cup total of the sugar-salt-rub combo. As for the spinach, ggakdugi, cheese, and rolls, how much you need will be based on the proportions you use to build your sandwich – just make it up as you go!
C) About that wilted spinach … Take some [very-meticulously-washed] spinach, put it in frying pan with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and red hot pepper flakes, and apply medium heat. When the spinach just starts to wilt, turn off heat, add the sesame seeds (if you have them), and keep tossing/turning the spinach. The very moment before the moment before (not a typo) all of the spinach reaches complete doneness, remove it from the warm pan and put it on a cool plate, leaves spread apart so it’ll stop cooking faster.
D) What the crap is ggakdugi? It’s radishes that have been mixed/pickled with/in a red hot chili solution. There’s no way I’d ever make it, myself (it’s an involved process that makes your hands reek for days), but it can be found at a lot of Asian/Korean grocery stores. Kimchi could also do the trick. If you’re afraid of the old Asian people at the market, just bring along one of your Asian friends and you’ll be ok …
-1) The night before you want to roast the pork, mix up the salt, sugar, and spiced rub in a 0.5:1:1 ratio. Rub down your shoulder in it. Stick it in the fridge, covered, for 4-24 hours. Apparently, if you go for more than 24 hours, the pork is too salty – I have no idea if this is true.
0) On the day you want to start roasting (i.e. 6.5 hours from when you want to begin eating), preheat your oven to 250 degrees.
1) Remove the shoulder from the fridge and place on an oven proof tray – something with sides to catch all the fatty goodness.
2) Stick it in the oven. Amuse yourself for 6 hours, taking breaks from your amusement every hour or so to baste the pork in whatever juices have fallen out of it (there won’t be much the first hour or two). I also like to rotate the pan in the oven in case there are any hot/cold spots. Bittman recommends flipping the shoulder over every hour – I forgot – but I’d totally do it next time; just be careful not to squeeze it too hard or you might ring the juices out of it. If you really want, at the one hour mark, pour about a half cup of some kind of aromatic liquid onto the pork (e.g. stock, wine, beer) – it smells nice and gives the shoulder a head start on having some liquid to baste with at the 2 hour mark.
3) Remove the pork from the oven after 6 hours of roasting. Let the pig rest for a half hour, covered with foil. Do NOT cut it. Do NOT prod it. Do NOT test its temperature. If you have faith in your oven reading 250 degrees, then after 6 hours, trust me, it’s fully cooked. Here’s a sneak peek under the foil …
And after it rested, I cut into it …
4) Slice off beautiful pieces and assemble sandwich. Here’s some inspiration:
Bottom to top: bread, ggakdugi, sliced pork, spinach, cheese
5) Leftover pork shoulder can be shredded and refrigerated (don’t forget to add some pan juices – but don’t add too much as there’s a lot of fat and salt in there) to be enjoyed over the next few days in more sandwiches, pastas, eggs, rice, etc. Either reheat it in the oven back to 250-300 degrees or try the microwave (but be careful with the microwave – if it gets too hot, then your pork will be tough!).
6) If you really want to be a Korean bawler (i.e. if you want to make your apartment smell really REALLY bad), take your shredded pork (but don’t shred it too finely – you still want something to bite into) and add it to a pot with some kimchi and a little bit of water, ginger, soy sauce (only a little! the pork is salty as it is!), and some extra firm tofu. Heat on low for a half hour or so (or at least until all of the components are heated through completely – you’re not trying to “cook” anything), stirring occasionally. This is a quick-and-dirty version of kimchi jigae – it’s spicy and stinky, but man is it tasty. And yes, it seriously smells very potent while cooking, so if you have a grill or something, cook it outside.
after dinner sneeze 