Day 16: Braised Short Rib

Short Rib Ragu

My parents have been extremely influential in teaching me how to be a wonderful host to friends and family.  They’ve taught me how to cook, be gracious, and welcome people in to one’s home.  Their whole focus and philosophy is to always cook family style and always cook a lot of food for anyone who wants to come by.  They always had a set of three practices that they would live by.

 

1)     Have a stocked fridge. You never know who will stop in and need a comforting meal.

 

2)     Always cook family style. You should never limit a friend or family member to a certain portion or a small amount.  If they want more food or eat more, we shouldn’t judge them (unless it’s soy sauce)

 

3)     Serve a diverse amount of dishes.  Everyone has different tastes and everyone has dishes they are more inclined to, so everyone deserves to have at least of their options be a favorite, something that reminds them of home, introduce them to new flavors and textures, and begin new memories.

 

I’m glad my mom taught me these practices and instilled them in me as I watched her plan, prepare, and share her dishes with her family and friends. With this style of cooking, I’ve been amazed at how my mom has become a master at leftovers.  She is able to plan the meal, take into consideration people returning for seconds and thirds and still end the dinner without having any food left over to last more than one day.  I’ve heard rumors that Asian mothers have a certain sixth sense for these things; amongst knowing how to find a bargain, wear a perm in any weather, sneak meat into a vegetarian dish, and insult someone shrouded in a compliment.

 

As I started this blog marathon, I found myself having to prepare the week’s posts in one day because of my work schedule.  With the help of some very hungry housemates and friends, I’ve been able to host weekly dinners at my place and, surprisingly not have too much left over.  Unfortunately, last week I didn’t follow one of my Mom’s rules for hosting dinner.  I didn’t diversify.  I feel my mother saying “I taught you better” as she reads this.  I ended up wanting to share a bunch of meat dishes with you that week, so, the menu included pork belly, ground pork, roasted chicken, and braised short rib.  It was no wonder why I had so much of the ribs left over.  So, here is what I did with said ribs, in order to give it life, a new feeling, and a dish to pawn off on my housemates for their lunch the next day.

 

~stuff

2 tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 medium carrots, chopped

2 medium celery stalks, chopped

2 cloves of garlic

2 lb short rib, shredded or pulled

½ c braising liquid or broth

1 14.5 oz can whole tomatoes

1 tsp black pepper, ground

6 basil leaves, sliced

salt to taste

1 lb rigatoni

 

~steps

sauté onions, carrots, and celery in a large dutch oven until fully sweated, about 10 min

add garlic and short ribs and stir until fully cooked and fragrant

stir  in the rest of the ingredients except for cheese and simmer on low until flavors have fully developed, about 20 minutes

cook pasta based on package instructions and until al dente or slightly firm

add additional fresh basil leaves and cheese and stir right before serving and toss with pasta

 

-serves 4-

Day 15: [video post] Durian and My Momma

Day 15 has arrived. The top of the hill is here and now, for the rest of the month, I can see the finish line. I’ve reached that point in my posting that I realize that everything is last minute. I’m reminded of every paper I wrote in college.

There would be times that I would spend 24 hours in the library trying to finish three books in order to write a comparative paper on the presence of the color red in the clothes of the dominant characters in the story line. Sound like bs? It was most times. But I always had an end goal and I always accomplished it.

This year, it’s the dragon list. I must, no, I will accomplish at least half of the list by the deadline. Procrastination and resistance will only win partially and I will finish the year with more knowledge, skills, and experiences than last year. I’m excited to move forward and I can’t wait for the day when I get to look back at my lists, my posts, my life and evaluate where I have been and where I will be going. It’s been a great journey and there will be more to come, I know.

So as I do a mini halftime celebration of this marathon, I wanted to share with you one of the pivotal moment of my blog and me coming out of my comfort zone. I started doing video posts, I tried durian, and I involved my parents in this part of my world.

Now, I want to challenge my readers. Who wants to join me in a lunar New Years list? It’s coming up in a month and we should start planning the accomplishments we want to achieve next year. Maybe you could add durian to your list?

Day 14: Taiwanese Braised Pork Belly with Pickled Vegetables

Yes, I will always eat pork belly.

There are certain ingredients that I will always equate to Taiwanese food.  They are ingredients that make up dishes that bring me back to my childhood and remind me of a time when I was innocent, eager, and always ready for culinary adventures.  And that’s one of the main reasons that i started this blog, to share with you the moments when I fell in love with certain dishes.  These ingredients are sticky rice, preserved vegetables, the Taiwanese braising combination, and pork belly (or any gelatinous dish).  The moment any of these things touch my mouth or the smell of them cooking fills the air, I’m reminded of when I was younger when I was full of energy, excitement, and culinary adventure.

I had to get some help when purchasing the ingredients for this dish though.  Also, it’s gone through a few different attempts before I finally figured out the right recipe for it.  The key item in this dish is not the pork belly.  Although, the pork belly is the star in my books with it’s beautiful unctuous texture and rich flavor.  Before I salivate all over my keyboard, let’s get back to the point: the key ingredient to this dish is Mei Gan Cai.  It is preserved mustard greens that are made by drying, salting, squeezing, steaming, and fermenting the greens and stalks.  The long process gives the pickled vegetables a delicious earthy flavor with a subtle sweetness to round out the salty flavor that comes from it.  You can usually find this at larger Chinese supermarkets.  But make sure you bring a picture of the product or the characters when you go shopping.  It will help, I promise.

Here are the things I learned while working on this dish:

1) bring a friend who can read Chinese to the market with you.  I thought I would be able to go by sight when picking out the vegetables for this dish, but I’ve actually never bought it in it’s raw form before.  Luckily, I had a friend with me who reads Chinese so she was able to pick it out for me.

2) wash the vegetables and soak them multiple times before you cook it.  The first time I cooked this dish, I treated the pickled vegetables like the dried turnips or zha cai and just washed it once.  That with the soy sauce in the liquid made it unbearably salty.  The second time I made it, I washed the vegetables four or five times and then soaked it in hot water for around 45 minutes to release the salt from the vegetables.  With a final rinse before cooking, you will finally be set to cook the dish.

3) cut the pork belly into 1 inch cubes if you are in a hurry.  And when I mean hurry, I mean like you need to have dinner ready in 3 or 4 hours from start of braise time as opposed to 6 to 8 hours for a whole piece of bork belly.

4) don’t be afraid of sugar in this dish.  If you think about it, your putting in soy sauce, preserved vegetables, and rice wine which all contain a high amount of salt.  Of course you are going to need a lot of sugar to help balance that out.

~stuff

2 lb pork belly, sliced in 1 in chunks if you want

1 tsp oil, canola, vegetable, or peanut

2 c mei gan cai, rinsed, soaked, and chopped

5 slice of ginger

2 medium scallion, minced

4 cloves garlic, sliced

1 c soy sauce

3/4 c sugar

1/2 c rice wine

1 c water

~steps

sear pork belly in a large pot or dutch oven on high with oil

add preserved vegetable, ginger, scallion, and garlic and stir until fragrant

pour the rest of the ingredients in the pot and stir

braise on low heat until pork belly is completely tender, about 4 hours

-serves 4-

Day 13: 404 or Mrs. 404

Hello Ma’am. I’m glad to meet you.

a lost pig in search

of stories, recipes, posts.

a drink to revive

This haiku is how I feel today.  So here is a drink as I work through this random bout of writers block.

 

It’s called a 404 or Mrs. 404.  A great drink that sells well at the restaurant I work at.  This is a refreshing, subtle, smooth, and a great drink for the winter days and days when you hit a creative block.

 

Some thoughts on ingredients:

 

Aperol: An Italian aperitif with a deliciously bittersweet quality similar to grapefruit.  It’s citrus, light, fun, and a beautiful color.  Great with soda.

 

St. Germain: Elderflower liqueur.  Great floral and tropical quality that reminds me of lychee.

 

Vodka:  It’s vodka.  It’s good.

 

~stuff

1.75 oz vodka

.75 oz lemon juice

.5 oz st. germain

.5 oz aperol

lemon or orange twist for garnish

 

~steps

shake all ingredients in a shaker until cold

strain over a large ice cube or in a chilled martini glass

 

-serves 1-

German Lager Braised Short Ribs

German Lager Braised Short Ribs

Growing up in Orange County, there where things that I had to do in order to be like the rest of the peers in my class and community.  It wasn’t written in law or made a school policy, but for some reason it was what everyone else was doing and marked success.  Or at least it marked a person’s journey to eventual success.  These things ranged from academic programs to extra curricular activities and included musical instruments, sports, languages, and so on.  My parents offered me many opportunities to take part in these activities in order to see me succeed in the way they where told what success was.  And that’s why they’re pretty awesome.  For this week’s posts, I’m going to talk about these requirements that where “forced” on me by society and my journey through them. 

“You must learn a useful language that will get you far in life and in business.”

Growing up in Southern California as a Taiwanese American, it was expected for you to know multiple languages in order to be set on a journey of success.  And, it couldn’t just be any language of your choosing.  The four languages were Taiwanese, Mandarin, Spanish, and/or Latin.  Now, if you could master all four, then that would mean that you are set for life, but three was sufficient enough to barely get by.

My parents taught me Taiwanese by communicating with me at home, so that covered the conversational skills and half of one language.  Fortunately for me the written language is the same to Mandarin, so I went to “Chinese School” on Saturdays for the rest.  I would  wake up every Saturday morning and begrudgingly go to classes every week.  I would whine and complain the whole time by reminding my parents that it wasn’t fair because all my other friends didn’t have to go to Chinese school on Saturdays.  They’re response?

“It’s because they are not Chinese”

“It’s because they are not Chinese”

The logic never made sense to me.  Nor did going to school, so I ended up not doing very well.  However, I did retain enough of the language to be able to order food in Chinese and have a basic conversation about beer and wine.  I’ve got the important parts covered.

Now, for my third language it was more of my choice.  We where required to take two years of a language in high school and everyone was choosing between Latin and Spanish.  The choice should have been easy for me, either choose something that will help me understand the English language much better in life or Spanish, a language that was important not only in my current community of Southern California, but also for the future of America.  The problem is, I was given a choice.  So, I decided to take German.

You know, that common language that is spoken all over California, especially in Southern California.  You hear it all the time on that German network on tv or when you listen to German music blaring on the radio in the streets of LA.  It was so useful for my future.

Now that I am MUCH older, I realize that I don’t remember any of my German education for two reasons:  The first reason is that I didn’t understand what I was learning and couldn’t figure out why we conjugate verbs and what was feminine, masculine, and neutral nouns.  One time, when I got the gender rules wrong on an exam in class, I argued with Frau Strauss that in order for there to be gender equality in society, we must  challenge gender roles in all levels of the world, including language.  She was impressed at my reasoning , thanked me for my response, asked me to translate my excuse into German.  I did, with the proper rules, and then she gave me the points for the wrong answers.  Unfortunately I still had to learn the gender rules.

The second reason was that I couldn’t practice it outside of school.  There was only two times that I ever used my German in

general conversation.  The first was to speak to my uncle who lives in Taiwan and spent three days in Germany for work.  The

Wir dürfen nicht zulassen Geschlecht zu bestimmen, wie wir über die Gleichheit in der Gesellschaft und Sprache zu denken.

conversation turned out to be one sided and I am sure painful to hear by any outsider or German person.  It was mostly of me asking him basic questions about the location of a library, where a generic boy named Frans lived, what his favorite fruit was, and to talk about the political environment for gender neutrality in Germany.  I was trying to repeat whatever German I remembered from my classes.  His response was to stare at me, as he tried to figure out if I was speaking in English, Taiwanese, Mandarin, German, Spanish, or Latin.  The second was with a family friend from Ohio who comes from a German family and it was to order pierogi (which aren’t even German).

I do have to say though, out of the two years of classes, I did enjoy watching “A Fish Called Wanda” (with subtitles) and listening to 99 Luft Balloons (the English version).

This braised short rib is super easy.  The key is to keep a slow and low cooking process and you will finish with some beautifully unctuous short ribs.  Most of the braising liquid comes from a light lager; specifically a German style lager to not mask the flavor of the beef and vegetables but adding a subtle nuttiness and umami to the dish.  Also, most of us have some sort of German style pilsner lying around in our house.  I used Singha.

And, do you see the connection to this dish and my story now?

~stuff

3 tbs vegetable oil

5 lb short rib, bone in

1 medium onion, chopped  (about 1 c)

2 medium carrots, peel and chopped (about ½ c)

2 medium celery stalks, chopped (about ½ c)

3 cloves garlic

1 tbs tomato paste

2 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 bottles of beer, I used Singha

1 c water to cover the ribs completely

salt

fresh ground black pepper

~steps

sear short ribs in a large dutch oven or large heavy pot with oil on high heat and set aside

sauté onions, carrots, and celery in dutch oven until fragrant and onion is translucent, about 5 minutes

add tomato paste, thyme, and garlic and stir until incorporated

place ribs on top and pour in beer and water into the dutch oven or heavy pot

braise ribs on low heat for at least 4 hours or until meat is tender

season to taste

-serves 6-8)

Day 11: Korean Style Roasted Chicken

Gochujang Roasted Chicken

My housemates on the second floor inspired this dish. I may have shared with you in a past post, but I live in a special situation where everyone in my building is a friend or family member of mine. On the third floor you have my brother and sister in law, second floor are our friends from before we all lived together, and then first floor is my closest friend from college and myself. Or, as my roommate likes to call it: Uptown, Midtown, and Downtown. Together we make up a dysfunctional commune of eaters, activists, acupuncturists, techies, creatives, students, and drinkers. The first and last reside Downtown.

It is because of my friends on Midtown that I was introduced to so many Korean flavors and dishes. There have been many times that I would visit the second floor for lunch and dinner and they would share a variety of Banchan made by them or their mother. It was an awesome experience and opened my eyes to the complexities of Korean flavors and the thought that goes into creating a well-rounded meal of small sides. It also made me discover what an abundance of kimchi in one’s diet will do to a human’s plumbing system. No, seriously, it was like three weeks straight of just kimchi. I think I may have discovered the new celebrity cleanse.

Second floor also taught me about the amazing qualities of one of the most important condiments in a Korean kitchen: Gochujang. This delightful and bright paste is made from fermented soybean, rice, salt, and chili peppers. The rice and soybean in the beautifully red paste imparts sweetness from the fermentation process of the starch. The process of creating gochujang is very similar to creating miso paste, with the addition of chili powder. A paste of soy bean and rice is left out to ferment in giant jars that are laid out in the in sun. One of the main different between the two pastes is the addition of spice to the Korean version. After it’s introduction to Koreans in the late 16^th century by the Europeans, chili was added to the paste to create one of the staples of Korean kitchens. If you can’t get Gochujang, you can substitute it with red miso paste and chili sauce mixed together. It’s not going to be the same, but it will get the general flavors for this chicken recipe.

You can grill the chicken if you would rather have that charred flavor to it, just make sure it is on medium high heat and extend the cooking time to ensure the chicken is cooked through.

~stuff

1 5lb chicken, broken down

½ c gochujang

2 tbs soy sauce

3 tbs sesame oil

1 c scallion, minced

4 cloves garlic, sliced

3 tbs sugar

½ c onion, minced

1 tsp gochugaru (Korean chili powder)

2 tsp salt

~step

mix all ingredients in a bowl and marinade for at least 3 hours, better if you can do it overnight

preheat oven to 450°f

place chicken pieces on a roasting pan and roast for 30 min, or until the meat is cooked through

-serves 4 to 6-

Day 10: Taiwanese Stewed Ground Pork with Pickles (Lo Ba)

Taiwanese Stewed Ground Pork

This post does get graphic. I want to warn you.

My dad comes from a family of farmers in southern Taiwan. He used to live in a small farming township called “Yanpu” that only has about 25,000 people in it. The rest of his family still live there and continue to manage the farm that my grandparents started decades ago. One of the amazing values that my parents wanted to instill in my brother and me is the importance of family and knowing where you come from. To do this, we would travel to Taiwan every winter holiday and visit all the relatives from Northern to Southern Taiwan. This wasn’t a very easy feat, and I commend my parent’s planning skills, because they both come from a family of 7 children. But the great thing is it allowed me to really experience the country that I miss now.

The farm that my grandfather started was mostly sugarcane. However, when the market was getting rough for sugarcane, he saved all his money and slowly turned it into a pig farm. It began to gradually expand; and eventually my grandfather owned two different farms with hundreds of pigs on each. All my uncles and cousins worked on the farm and I commend them for the hard work to help build my grandfathers legacy to what it is today. I haven’t visited the farm in years, but I will always have memories of the farm and the pigs, as they are a very important part of my life. Here are the ways they are important to me.

• I was born in the year of the pig
• I like pork belly
• I like pork ears
• I like pork tails
• I like pork loin and chops
• I like pork neck bones
• I like pork hocks/feet
• I love ground pork

Now, I’m going to be honest with you, I’m surprised that I’m not more of a vegetarian because of all the jokes that my relatives played on me. I was one of the youngest of all the cousins in our family so it would make sense to pick on me. Let’s see if I can recount them all for you without going into shock or seeking out professional help after this post. Some events may have been exaggerated, but I’m running off the memory of a scared little boy who can never unlearn what he saw. To give context, all of this probably happened between 7 to 10 years of age.

Memory #1

“Hey Dad, where are we goin’?”

“We’re going to go visit your uncle at the farm first. He said that we should go see him before we get to the house”

“Ok, cool”

At the farm, the pigs are all separated by age, and I notice we are going to my favorite part of the grounds, which is the piglet section. Because, who doesn’t love a baby pig? As we get closer, I begin to hear loud screams, which is not anything different from what I remember in the past, because pigs scream out of excitement for food or company. We get closer to my uncles and I notice he has an iodine stained apron and a facemask on. In one hand is a shiny object and in another hand is a liquid bottle with what I now know as iodine. I don’t really think much of it, until I see all my 8 year old and 10 year old cousins chasing after little pigs, picking them up, and bringing them to him. At first, I wanted to join them in chasing the pigs but then I realize what is happening.

I am witnessing a mass neutering of the piglets.

Memory #2

My brother is walking around the grounds of the farm. He pulls me over and tells me to look into a red bucket that is by the front gate.

“Sure, I’ll go look at the red bucket.”

My older brother couldn’t possibly want try to scare me. I notice a small bucket on the floor and slowly creep up to it. Suddenly my instincts kick in and I fear my brother is playing a trick on me. I step closer and I don’t see anything moving, so I ease my anxiety a little and look in. I scream louder then a piglet getting neutered or birthing pig and run away. My brother had led me to a bucket of still born pigs.

Memory #3

My uncle asks if I want to go see piglets.

“Yes! Of course! I love piglets!”

“Ok go down this aisle to the very end, your other uncle is there now.”

“Dad will you go with me?

We walk down to the end of the aisle. I hear loud screaming, but clearly I did not learn from previous experiences that screaming should be my warning sign. We get to my other uncle who is hunched over on the floor. I asked my dad what he was doing and he said that the pig was giving birth.

“I get to see a BABY pig?! Amazing!”

We get closer and I noticed why my uncle was hunched, his hand was up to his elbow inside a pig. There was a problem with the birth and he had to help it along. Before I had a chance to even react, out came the babies.

“Um, Dad? So they don’t come out furry and cute when they are born?”

My uncle asks if I want to touch the slime and blood covered babies.

“…no…”

My dad still continues to tell me stories about growing up in a small town that had less people then my college campus and what it was like growing up in a poor farming family. I treasure each one of them, and hope to be able to share them with you in many future posts to come. I’m proud of my dad. He was the first person in his family to graduate college, the first in the town to go to grad school and complete it, and the first one to move to the states. I took for granted the road he took for us and through some reflections I’ve had in the past couple of year, am grateful for the sacrifices he made for my brother and I. Because, if it where not for him and his ambitions, I would probably not have had the creativity or drive to create this blog and instead, would be neutering pigs.

~stuff

1½ ground pork

1 tsp oil

2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 c scallion, minced

¼ c soy sauce

1 c soy sauce pickles (you can get this in any Chinese market), sliced

5 tbs pickling liquid

1½ c water

½ c Chinese rice wine

~steps

brown pork in a large saucepan or pot with oil on high heat

add scallion and garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute

turn heat on medium high heat and add the rest of the ingredients

simmer on medium for at least 30 minutes

serve with rice.

-serves 6-