Twice Cooked Pork with Fish Cake and Fuzzy Melon (節瓜魚片回鍋肉, Zit3 Gwaa1 Jyu4 Pin3 Wui4 Wo1 Juk6)

Twice cooked pork is a dish using pork belly and Doubanjiang, which is a spicy fermented broad bean paste. If you search on the internet for a twice cooked pork recipe, you’ll find many variations in the use of ingredients. This particular variation has fuzzy melon and fish cakes. The one common ingredient is Doubanjiang, which can be purchased at your local Asian market. Broad beans are fermented with spices and red chilies to produce this paste. The more famous producers are based in Sichuan Province in the People’s Republic of China. Broad beans are not soy beans, so soy bean based pastes does not have the same flavor as Doubanjiang. The sauce for this dish is the Doubanjiang and it should look dry (meaning that there’s not a lot of liquid).

Twice cooked means that the pork (or other meat) is first boiled and then stir fried. Pork belly is the traditional meat used and it’s ideal to make this dish. The pork belly should still have the skin attached and be a single (or large) pieces, i.e. the pork belly shouldn’t be sliced into pieces before being boiled. The pork belly can be boiled and then refrigerated one day before the dish is to be made. Cut the pork belly into thin slices before stir frying. What’s different about this dish’s preparation is that the sliced pork belly is stir fried in the Doubanjiang, after the Doubanjiang itself is stir fried to deepen the color and flavor.

Enjoy!

Korean-Style Pork Belly and Fish Cake Stew (韓燉魚片豬腩肉, Hon4 Dan6 Jyu4 Pin3 Zyu1 Naam5 Juk6)

I made this pork belly and fish cake stew using three basic Korean ingredients: hot pepper powder (gochugaru), hot pepper paste (gochujang), and fermented soybean paste (doenjang). I am fortunate to live in an area where there is a large Koreatown, so these ingredients (and the fish cakes) are readily available at multiple Korean markets. As with all ingredients, there are multiple brands that can be purchased. My criteria for picking a particular brand of hot pepper paste and fermented soybean paste was what ingredients were used to make them. All the brands’ pastes were made in South Korea and the brand I chose is unknown since the label is mostly written in Korean. I chose this particular brand because it didn’t have any added preservatives or sugar. It was amazing to see that many brands had corn syrup high on their list of ingredients! For the hot pepper powder, it comes in both a fine and coarse grind (I used the coarse), and from my limited knowledge of this ingredient, I picked the brand on sale and in the size that wouldn’t overwhelm me (this is used to make Kimchi, so you can purchase this in 10 lb. (5 kg.) packages and larger!).

Making this dish was a nice change in tastes for me using the Korean pastes and chili powder. The spiciness is controlled by the amount of hot chili powder used in the sauce, while the pastes provide the basic flavor. The amount of hot chili powder probably does not meet the level of spiciness found in Korean dishes, so feel free to increase (or decrease) the amount.

Enjoy!

Hot Bean Sauce Fuzzy Melon Lamb with Shredded Pickled Radish (辣豆辦醬榨菜大王節瓜羊肉, Laat6 Dau6 Faan6 Zoeng3 Zaa3 Zoi3 Daai6 Wong4 Zit3 Gwaa1 Joeng4 Juk6)

Here’s another lamb stir fry dish using meat from the lamb loin chop. Shredded pickled radish is added for a textural and taste contrast. More common (and cheaper) cuts of lamb can be substituted, such as lamb leg or shoulder. Lamb loin chops have two distinct pieces of meat separated by a bone as in a beef T-bone steak. The larger piece of meat is the loin and the smaller is the tenderloin. The two pieces of meat need to be removed from the bone, and then the loin and tenderloin pieces cut thinly using a very sharp knife. Meat from the lamb loin chop is very tender and even though there’s more work involved to prepare the meat for this dish, it’s worth the effort to make this dish if you can get the lamb loin chops for a decent price, otherwise use meat from the lamb leg or shoulder. You’ll need to purchase about 1½ lb. (750 g.) of lamb loin chops to get about ¾ lb. (375 g.) of meat after trimming.

Enjoy!

Grilled Annatto-Rubbed Pork Rib Eye Chops

I purchased a package of annatto seeds from my local Asian market some time ago with the intention of using them in a dish one day and put them into my cupboard. I recently rediscovered the package and decided that I should really do something with them. I found this recipe, Annatto-Rubbed Pork Chops with Salsa Recipe at cookthink.com, and changed it into a grilled pork chop recipe (without the salsa). Annatto seeds give a distinctive color to a dish. For this recipe, pork rib eye chops are rubbed with a spice mixture after being marinated overnight in a soy based marinade that I usually use with the addition of lime juice.

Enjoy!

Technique: How to Quickly Rehydrate Dried Shiitake Mushrooms (冬菇, Dung1 Gu1)

For the last posting of the Lunar New Year, here’s a technique to quickly rehydrate dried Shiitake mushrooms. In my recipes using dried Shiitake mushrooms, the instructions usually call for soaking in water that has been boiled for at least one hour. This is usually not a problem if you’ve been planning to make a dish ahead of time, but is a problem when you decide at the last minute that you need rehydrated Shiitake mushrooms. That’s exactly what happened to me, I needed rehydrated Shiitake mushrooms at the last minute and had to figure out how to quickly do this. So the technique that I came up with is to boil the mushrooms in the microwave after pouring boiling water over them.

I found that it is important to not fill the bowl with the dried mushrooms completely with boiling water. Leave a space of about 1-inch (2.5 cm.) from the top because the water foams once it reboils in the microwave. So the timing (at least for my microwave) is to turn the microwave on high for 1 minute to reboil the liquid in the bowl, and then use 50% power for another 4 minutes to rehydrate the mushrooms. Once removed from the microwave, the bowl is refilled to the top with more water since the mushroom rehydration liquid is usually used later in the recipe needing the mushrooms. So for the time it takes to boil water plus 5 minutes (rather than one hour), the mushrooms are ready for use.

Enjoy!

Szechuan Peppercorn Lamb (花椒羊肉, Faa1 Ziu1 Joeng4 Juk6)

A dry rub was used to marinade the lamb for this recipe using Szechuan peppercorns, cumin, black pepper, and dried Japones (Japanese) chilies. Most, if not all, of my previous stir fry recipes used a wet marinade. The dry marinade gives the lamb a spicier result in the finished dish. The amount of the sauce was also reduced from the normal amount used in my stir fry dishes.

I used thinly sliced lamb loin chops to make this dish. More common (and cheaper) cuts of lamb can be substituted, such as lamb leg or shoulder. Lamb loin chops have two distinct pieces of meat separated by a bone as in a beef T-bone steak. The larger piece of meat is the loin and the smaller is the tenderloin. The two pieces of meat need to be removed from the bone, and then the loin and tenderloin pieces cut thinly using a very sharp knife. Meat from the lamb loin chop is very tender and even though there’s more work involved to prepare the meat for this dish, it’s worth the effort to make this dish if you can get the lamb loin chops for a decent price, otherwise use meat from the lamb leg or shoulder. You’ll need to purchase about 1½ lb. (750 g.) of lamb loin chops to get about ¾ lb. (375 g.) of meat after trimming.

Enjoy!

Basil Chicken Wing Beer Curry (咖哩紫蘇啤酒鷄翼, Gaa3 Lei1 Zi2 Sou1 Be1 Zau2 Gai1 Jik6)

Beer and curry seem to go together, so why not cook a stew with the two ingredients? The recipe could have just as easily used garam masala powder to make a spicier version of this dish. The amount of the curry powder can also be customized to suit your tastes, so feel free to increase or decrease the amount used in the recipe. Chicken wings (midjoint or drumette pieces) are ideal for this curry dish because they cook quickly. All the ingredients, except for the corn starch slurry and basil leaves, are added to a Dutch oven in the beginning to make this quick cooking one pot dish.

Enjoy!