Pulled Pork

A very good friend of mine from Eh-Spain once told me his dream was to come to America, go to the southern states and eat pulled pork. Whilst most things involving porky delights is generally excellent, i never really understood his primal and somewhat strange urge towards pulled pork. To be fair the only memories of pulled pork that i really remember is from Hard Rock Cafe - acceptable but not the OHHH DIOS reaction that this Eh-spanish friend had, whom i shall address as P.

Anyway E, the roommate requested me to make pulled pork, so P, you had all the chicken rice but not the pulled pork (in joke).

The dilemma came about in whether to brine or not. Research has taken me to a route where it seems a brine will develop a more "hammy" flavor with a slightly different texture as from what i''m told, the brine denatures the proteins. Sure.

I opted out for the brine because that meant more work also the piece of meat i have has a nice layer of fat already in it so i'm not worried about it drying out - the main point of a brine i feel. So a dry rub was deployed. The flavor profiles was something I wasn't too sure about but looking it up most of the rubs out there more or less had repeating factors: cumin, rosemary or thyme, coriander, fennel etc. So in no particular amounts, i used a mixture of paprika, cumin, ground coriander, dried rosemary, sea salt, pepper, a little all spice and a little nutmeg - basically i threw in every dried ground spice i had in the cupboards. The pork was left overnight in the fridge and when i woke up in the morning i took it out of the fridge, got ready for school etc and then placed it in the oven at 225F when i left.

Came back after 4 hours, pork was on its way and got the bbq sauce ready. Used a bottle of the pumpkin spiced home brew, some extra water, left over spice rub, ground cinnamon, parsley stalks, ketchup, tamarind extract, siracha sauce, serrano peppers, light and dark soy sauce, salt and of course, pepper (peppercorns actually).

Basted it every 30mins for another 2 hrs and it was ready to be pulled though not after picking at it. Made a quick slaw of cabbage, onions, tomatoes, celery and parsley dressed with a little lime, olive oil and sesame oil. Served everything on a hoagie roll. Damn that was a fine dinner and its time for a nap.

 Oh yea, ever wonder what happens when you leave egg whites uncovered for 2 months in the fridge?!

When life gives you durian... make durian bread?

So a rather stroke of luck (depending on who you ask) meant a run into an entire Durian, though frozen, at the Asian supermarket in Seattle. "We should get it I said to W!", he enthusiastically agreed. $20 and a 6 hour drive back to Pullman, the durian was smelling like durian alright. The next day we cracked it open (it was conveniently split open at the end into quarters already) and extracted its golden custardy flesh. Not the best of course being frozen and what not. J gagged and threw it up into the sink where it still resides and festers into something nasty. P tried a bit then said no. E being the man that he wanted to be forced a nice chunk of it down which was videoed rather amusingly. W said it was weird and wasn't quite sure what to do with it whilst L surprisingly said it was good in a strange way.

Anyway durians are a big fruit and no way was i going to finish that behemoth off by myself in the next 3 or so days and i dont think anyone else was going to help me either. So a thought came to W's mind - zucchini bread but... without the zucchini and durian as a substitute. Yeah... why not.

The recipe as follows for zucchini bread which is awesome anyway thanks to a certain persons mother. It also lasts alarmingly long in the fridge - almost an entire semester. I had about one and 3/4 of a cup of durian flesh which was packed into the cups so i pretty much halved the recipe. Everything else was the same. I used walnuts and toasted coconut flakes which i had lying around.. Er, i would suggest adding just a little more sugar though.

3 c shredded zucchini
1 2/3 c sugar
2/3 veggie oil
2tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3 c flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c nuts
1/2 c raisins
Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans are center. 350 deg.
Grease bottoms only of loaf pans or 9x5" loaf pan with shortening or spray.
In bowl, mix zucchini, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs.
Stir in remaining ingreds, except nuts and raisins.
Stir in nuts and raisins.
Divide batter evenly between the 2 pans or the one 9" pan.
Bake 8" 50-60 mins, 9 " loaf for 1 hour and 10 mins. or till pick comes out clean. (I baked it in a 8x8" pan and 55 mins was about 5 mins too long, so check after the 45 min mark).
Cool 10 mins on wire racks in pans.
loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove and place top sides upon wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing.

G said it was strange. I don't quite know what to make out of it. Eh, a little ice cream and im sure its all good. Tea helps. 

Pork belly

Possibly one of the greatest cuts of meat there is out there, pork belly is so versatile, satisfying, guilty, comforting and all around delicious. You can stew it, roast it, grill it, render its fat out, use it as a center piece of a composed dish, as a slab for a family dinner, see it in the form of bacon.


I got about a pound of pork belly cut into two long strips with a bone in one of them (nothing wrong with that) that looked fantastic. Pinkish skin with white layers of marble fat intersected with meat. The utilization of the meat would be wide, but crackling was the first priorities.

The Cantonese style of siew yok is perhaps the best. A top layer of golden brown crackling that pops and crackles in your mouth like no other, fat rendered out leaving behind a layer of ivory fat that imbues the meat below with a godly realm of porky delights.

Easiest way i know how to prepare it: get your slab and stab the skin all over so that when it roasts, the fat is able to render out (ensuring crispy skin). Make sure though, that you don't pierce the meat since that means a loss of juices which will make you and I sad. If you washed your piece of meat since it was dropped on the floor or somehow you thought it was offensive, make sure its thoroughly dried with some paper towels. Salt and pepper that bad boy, spice it if you can be bothered (5 spice power is the traditional route) and then whack it inside the oven, skin side up at about 450F for 20 or so mins. Come back later, lower the the heat to 400 and let it cook for another 30. Check at the 15 min mark. The skin should be bursting with crackling here and there and ideally, shatteringily crispy. If its a little tough, and you know your meat is drying out, you can try to sear it on the stove top skin side down. I hear that a lot of times, the skin is actually burnt so what they do is just scrape it off - makes sense i guess. Either way, even if the skin isn't crackling (and what a shame if it isn't!), theres still that belly meat. Oh god, i just ate it for dinner not too long ago and just thinking about it makes me want more... With all that fat you have very little chance of your meat drying out and that precious fat, oh so luscious and marble-y smooth, it just bastes the entire piece of meat for you.  I should have taken a photo but i got impatient from the waiting. Sorry. Serve with whatever you like - for me it was noodles with a little bit of this and that. Who cares, its the pork thats the star.

Another way to go and a somewhat more comforting and i guess, easier route is to stew it. This isn't really chinese considering what i put into it but like a lot of my food its a mish mash of this and that. To about half a pound of pork belly, my strip was cut in half and quickly blanched since it was starting to smell... old and gives it a 'cleaner' flavor i think. Placed in a large bowl and marinaded with a nice large hunk of minced garlic, about 4 thbps of shing shao rice wine, 2 thbsp of light and dark soy sauce and a thbps of sesame oil. Let it sit for as long as you can, the more the better. Oh and cracked black pepper (freshly grounded or else a child is crying somewhere). I did it for just the amount of time to write a 1/4 of a paper and put rice into the rice cooker. To a pot, place about 2 cups or so of water, and everything in the bowl into the pot. Add 2 kaffir lime leaves for that confusing citrus note at the back of your head, a thbsp of tamarind that will get people asking what that sour component is, and another thbsp of honey or palm sugar or just regular sugar. Make sure theres enough liquid to just cover the pork. Let it come to the boil and then let it simmer for about an hour or so. By then the liquid should have reduced to a nice saucy entity which you should taste and adjust for sweetness, saltiness and sourness. So add more soy or sugar or tamarind. The meat at this point should be pretty tender. The skin will likely be somewhat gelatinous which i think is awesome (im gonna try to cut the skin out and pan-fry it, see what happens next time) and of course that fat! That fat is going to taste of all the delicious stuff you imbued it with plus the magicial porkiness of pig fat. GARRRRGH. Serve over white rice with steamed/boiled (whatever is easy) vegetables - i had brocolli, cabbage and some lettuce.

Fuck that was a good dinner.

A little halloween, a little cream cheese snickerdoodle macaron

Meringue

So i thought ill try to show the different stages of whipping a meringue up to stiff peaks for those who are unsure. The photos aren't great (all taken with my phone) but hopefully you get the idea. So doesn't really matter what the proportions are but just make sure your equipment is as clean as possible.

So here we go, about speed 6 on my kitchenaid and this is after a min or so. Nothing interesting happening yet, some bubbles forming, thats about it.

 After about 4 mins or so, see how its getting white? Thats good!

 Maybe 5 or so mins, at this point your gonna hit soft peaks soon.

 Pretty much at soft peaks. See that kinda 'tail' or so from the tip of the whisk? It aint stiff that means its not gonna stay and will drop back into the bowl.

 This is just coming out of the soft peak stage. It's still kinda fluff, not too much structure too it yet and see how it doesn't look exactly dry?

Nearly there...

 Here we go, stiff peaks. See how a 'beak' is formed on the whisk and in the bowl? That's a good sign. It should be nice and glossy also.

 Turn the bowl upside down - if it's stiff, it won't fall out!

It's often a wonder what is more important in journey's; the physical aspect or the emotional? Can you have a journey involving just emotions without the physical? Of course, but often, the physical is what makes the emotions real.

The reality that we inhabit is what we perceive as our mind tells us. Perhaps what I see as white you see as green; just that we both agree it's white. So to what extent are our senses and emotions working in tandem with each other to create our perception of reality, and what is good, bad, real or fake?

I thought this was an interesting topic to ponder about after dinner tonight at Swilly's, the restaurant in downtown Pullman which is a lot more swanky then I first thought. The question in particular is about the substantiating satisfaction to what a meal should consist and how one should feel weighing in factors of price, flavor, enjoyment and what primal expectations are for that meal in question.

This arose from a discussion of Le Bernadin in New York where many a guests have complained about leaving not satisfied, physically and to an extent, emotionally - but are the two not connected when it comes to food? Scientists often do tests to subject humans in isolating key components of what is perceived as good or bad to us and we all well know the power of packaging and a way food is sold to us. Emotions are sometimes forgotten but we can never truly re-create that meal in the back of our minds when our mothers fed to us when we were five. These emotional journeys back into ones mind are truly both a physical and sensual experience.

I remember when I was young and probably up until I was about fourteen or fifteen, my mother would dry my hair after I showered. It is perhaps a period of time when the rest of the world could be hell bent on fire, chaos and destruction and nothing would matter knowing the maternal embrace would forever protect me. Losing myself was an option for I knew I would always be found.

So perhaps with food, one can lose oneself into it and be found again. The question of what would your final meal be illicit one answer for me: a plate of steamed rice, a fried egg and soy sauce with a little cut chili. Perhaps my mother made this for me, probably not, probably it was the other mothers I had, maids that made sure we were fed, cleaned our rooms and washed our clothes.

It is perhaps an inconceivable way and need to show respect to those that were there but not always recognized. A perfect plate of steamed white Thai jasmine rice is a thing of beauty. The steam that comes of it is mesmerizing and intoxicating if you put your head over the rice cooker. A perfume that resonates through the mind of the physicality involved in thousands of years of human agriculture. The texture is neither too hard nor too soft and it is the fine threshold too which only someone who has been cooking rice for a long time can achieve. It's not just a ratio and numbers, well, perhaps it is. But to the mind its also these emotional connections to one's food. Jasmine rice is perfumed, but on it's own it is sweet and just yielding. It's flavor is never oppressive but always encourages bonding, for it is rice that will always find friends with others being a character that is never too demanding for anything, and always accepting of everything - a quality that my mother had for me.

A flawlessly fried egg is also a thing of pure joy, beauty and ecstasy. The textural contrasts of a molten hot crispy white imbued with the soft pillow of  just set whites in juxtaposition to the creamy, rich and transcendental over flowing yolk speaks of many things. Those sharp crunches are perhaps the difficulties in life, the physical and emotional when things look tough, when one is sick and the points of which if over done results in a terrible fried egg. But these blisters amidst the soft albumin speaks of character and of journeys not wrought for simply abandonment. Much greater pleasure is to be had if there is a contrasts - work hard and sow the rewards for what is to come. The soft whites then, those fields and plains of which a thin threshold can fall over to recklessness and futile abandonment to self preservation and happiness. It is in these that a fragile existent exists, one knowing all too well that an over cooked egg, is a sad and depressing event. So we come to the yolk, a pure golden flow of fat and protein that can bind together the worst of enemies, temper angers and in its greatest form will always comfort or provide pure pleasure and bliss. The yolk is both dirty and salvation. Perhaps the more primal part of the dish, it is always the good things in life that can metaphorically describe the yolk - pleasure in an orb that can so easily fall apart if not looked after though perhaps, it is the breaking of the yolk which is more pleasurable. The act of bursting open the all that joy, all that hope and all that life has to offer to over flow over the rest reminds us that if we have a good thing amongst us, let it not go to waste ever. All the highlights of the worlds be it past, present or future lies in this very substance, one that cannot be trifled with and should command respect from the greatest of humankind.

To that we have the soy sauce. Again, a process of human ingenuity to find something that is tasty and that can keep - not enough appreciate the fermenting steps that many of our foods have. Wine, cheese, pickles. All great accomplishments which like they say, "are best friends - highly thought off, but often forgotten". The salty component which always accentuates its companions brings a certain joie de vivre to the plate, reminding us of each characteristics and what we have come to achieve. The rice is that much sweeter and toothsome, the egg whites are more crispy, sharp and dimensional whilst the silken yolk elixir becomes richer and that much more rewarding. Yes you can have life without fun, but what kind of life is without the pleasure of those around you which merely wish to have as much joy as you do and are willing to bring it?

Finally it is the cut chili's, a tang of pain which is always the guilty pleasures. You feel terrible but you can't stop. Why? Perhaps it is that negative emotion that we so wish to tap into, a darker place in the soul where opening the door can make you lose yourself. To know that pain in someplace is perhaps better then pain elsewhere. Schadenfreude? Perhaps. Guilty pleasures are the greatest - stealing food from someone always taste better then the stuff you craft or had to pay for. Sadists will be happy in this then, a plate that can compose the will of humanity and destroy its dreams at the same time.

A perfect plate of food that encompasses a physical and emotional journey, through its every crack, trough, spine and valley.

The perfect meal for ones end.

Tomato sauce, ragus, pizza, brrr its getting cold.

 Look at those clouds, arent they just the fluffiest looking things in the world? My goodness, P town a few days ago had perhaps one of the nicest days for the fall season. Too bad its slowly going away - the a couple of trees are starting to look extremely sad and I've had to add an extra layer of clothes on to me. Oh yea and the sickening frost is out in the morning, how terrible!

Never mind, a very recent efficient shopping trip got me a couple of things which I've been meaning to do: tomato sauce, stock, pizza dough, perhaps a ragu for pasta - things that can keep and be frozen easily. What I like to do is basically make a relatively large batch of these essentials which I feel enhance or act as a base for most meals that can be popped in the microwave for 2 - 4 mins and you just saved yourself 30 mins making something from scratch. Also its somewhat cheaper and better tasting then the store bought stuff. Below is the pot of tomato sauce I made, marinara sauce as Americans would  call it.

Let's see, if I calculated it correctly, that pot you see below shouldn't have cost me more then $5 and that's enough sauce to last me for at least another 2 weeks or so. I mean, as much as I like it, I'm not sure if I want to eat it at every meal. The 'recipe' I'm going to give you below is a very rough  guide of what I like to do. There are always extra things you can add in or leave out, it's really all up to personal taste.

Big pot of tomato/marinara sauce
1-2 Large Onions
As much Garlic as you want (I'm a garlic fiend so i used like a billion cloves)
1    Can of anchovies in oil (Optional... but.... i think its much better with it)
1-2 Generous thbps of oil (whatever you like - if you have, use bacon fat, or duck fat. Er.. whatever fat that you think is tasty)
1-2 Carrots 
1-2 Celery Sticks
3-4 Bay Leaves
1.5 Thbps of tomato paste
4 Dried shitake mushrooms re-hydrated in hot water for a couple of mins, or any fungi you can find although if your using something like button mushrooms just use the stalks.
3 Big cans of crushed/whole tomatoes (up to you, it's all gonna break down)
1 Cup/glass of wine
As much as you want of Herbs (rosemary, parsley, tarragon, thyme etc. Any 'hard' herbs are good for this 'long' kind of cooking. I had parsley stalks lying around going limp so they went in. If you want to get all fancy make a bouquet garni but i just fish it out when I'm done).

Other good stuff you could add in
I was thinking oyster sauce?
Bacon - fry the bacon first, drain, reserve and sweat the vegetables in the fat.
Sausage meat - same as above but your basically making a meat sauce then.
Other dried mushrooms - whatever you can find, the umami flavor from them is fantastic.
Tamarind paste - I think this would add a definite tang to the sauce and at the same time, a sweetness most people won't be able to place.
Paprika - I saw some in the cabinet, so why not
Stock - If you can, always use stock in replace of water. I use a stock cube cause, you know, I have other things to do also.
Citrus peel - lemon peel, lime peel gives it a nice refreshing kick


So, if your using the bacon, see above, if not, put your fat into a nice big pot, hopefully one that won't burn easily over medium high heat. Dice your onions, garlic, carrots, celery as fine as possible - it's not a stew remember, its a sauce. Add the onions and garlic in first along with the bay leaves and your anchovies, oil and all. Sweat and stir around for let's say 4 or so mins. The anchovies should be giving off a really tasty salty smell right now. Mmmmm... Toss in your carrots, celery and mushrooms and whatever herbs you've found in the cabinet. Now you basically want to saute all this good stuff until some caramalization is happening at the bottom of your pot. If it doesn't, no problem, just wait until everything is looking kinda nice and brown or when you think, "hold on, my stuff is gonna start burning" and then deglaze the pot with your glass of wine leaving some for yourself after. Let the alcohol burn off for a bit so you can turn the heat to high for like a min or two. At this point throw in your stock cube and your canned tomatoes and stir. Put the lid on and let it come to the boil, after that, turning the heat down to a low simmer. Put the lid on but let it sit so that some steam escapes (as in not a full seal) and do something else - wash up or whatever. Just stir the thing every so often to make sure nothing is burning at the bottom.

 

Now it's basically up to you to how thick you like your sauce - naturally the longer you let it cook the thicker its gonna get. If it's too reduce, dilute it with stock or water if you must. At this point you should probably taste the sauce for seasoning so go ahead and add as much salt and pepper as you like. Deploy as needed and when necessary. I like to keep this stuff by putting it in ziplock bags - get the small sandwich sized ones (like a 100 in a box) and they make relatively good serving sizes per bag if you fill them up to about just a little more then half of the bag. I store my sauce in the plastic 'box' container thing that I buy my salad mix in after I'm done with it.

So the other day at an open lab, some guy walked in with a slice of pizza at about 2pm or so. I'm thinking to myself... you know what, a pizza might be very good for dinner I feel. So I took the recipe from Epicurious which i think is a fairly easy dough to make with ingredients that aren't too hard to get and put some of my sauce (ah ha!) with some salami and salad greens. I didn't have any cheese which made me somewhat sad, but I discovered that putting salad greens on top of your pizza (which went into the oven at a blazing 550F on top of a cast iron pan that has been sitting in there for like 20mins that is now my "pizza stone", gives the greens this flavor very similar to dried seaweed. I'm talking about lettuce, rocket, spinach - that sorta stuff. Highly enjoyable. 

The dough however is nothing special and gives off a bit of a biscuity like texture after baking. I'm no pizza expert but I feel that the doughs which have a bit more chew require some extra kneading and stronger flour then I can be bothered with.

 The pizza dough which I just froze from the leftovers, I deployed again with the tomato sauce, this time however making a sort of a ragu with pork riblets (cheapest cut I could find at winco) that made a very satisfying stew. Anyway, rolled out the dough, sauce/stew/ragu, Boursin herb cheese which i found in the fridge, mushrooms and thinly sliced radishes gave us this result. I just love the earthiness of the mushrooms with the refreshing crunch of the radishes whilst the cheese imparts this creaminess that just puts so much depth into the ragu. Mmmmmm

A special walk in the fields

Pullman can sometimes be boring, sometimes sad and depressing (when its grey and nasty) and sometimes righteously ridiculous. Often times its mundane, repetitive and industrial, too many things look the same, too much food mediocre.

But sometimes Pullman can be a magical place, you just need a little help.

I got the recipie for this rosemary beer bread from sweet sugar bean and it was pretty easy to make and is fantastic with soup and a nice slab of butter once out of the oven. I added caraway seed for a little something exotic but it was all very good anyway. I didn't make soup though. Also great as a dense sandwich bread for school.

Beer and butter bread with rosemary and caraway
3 cups All purpose flour
3tsp Baking powder
1/4 cup Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Dried rosemary and caraway seed (more or less depending on how herby you like it)
1 can of beer or 12oz. I used a home brew which had a real hoppy flavor to it, though i dont know if that really adds anything to it
1/3 cup Butter


Preheat oven to 350F.

I know i bitched about using a weighing scale in the whole macaron making post but some recipe's don't really need it, such as this where precision isn't as big of a deal. So just throw all the dried ingredients into a bowl and make sure everything is nice and mixed up. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and pour in the beer. You can open the beer ahead of time and make it flat if you'd like to make the mixing somewhat easier to do. Now with a spatula or whatever, slowly bring in the edges of the dry ingredients into the beer until you incorporate everything. The mixture will be quite thick. Grease a 8x8 inch pan and pour your batter in. Melt your butter and pour over the batter. With a thin knife, run the knife along the edges of the batter letting the butter get into all the creaks and creases. Bake for about 30 mins, checking at 25 to make sure its not burning or anything. Poke a toothpick in the middle of the bread to make sure its done, the toothpick should come out clean.

Eat with soup or there and then with a nice slab of salted butter.

 Oh yea, i also made red curry.
I used the Mae Ploy brand of red curry paste which i think you can get quite easily anywhere. There's no real recipe but it involved some chicken, carrots, beet roots, onion, coriander, curry paste, coconut milk, palm sugar, fish sauce and that green hard looking bits on cauliflower that most people throw away. If you cook it straight like by steaming it, it just kinda taste like some green vegetable, with a texture similar to celery but not so stringy. Oh and straw mushrooms which  i got from a can. Excellent with rice on a cold day or any day for that matter.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures on a walk I took the other day!