Category: Cooking

Sometimes even I give in to impulse buying. I saw Pork Hocks (the lower portion of Mr Piggie's front leg) on sale for 79 cents a pound at 99 Ranch Market. I couldn't resist….. I bought three, which came out to a shade over $3.25!

Meet the piggies…..

So what to do with these? I decided to do straight forward Red Cooked Pork Hocks. For us, anything Red Cooked means a 3-phased meal plan. First we eat the meat, second, after straining, comes the boiled eggs, and third phase would be some chicken(first browned than) stewed gently in the remaining liquid with some tuberous vegetable. In theory, you could keep the braising liquid(aspic) going forever, by adding water and other liquids, seasonings, straining and skimming, and refrigeration. I've read accounts of braising liquids and soup being perpetuated in this endless cycle. I once mentioned this to a friend, who was so grossed out over this idea, that she stopped eating with me. I'd better not tell her about sourdough starter since she's a bread lover!

Red Cooking is usually associated with Shanghainese Cuisine, though the Missus recalls it being used in Her household growing up. It is a pretty easy cooking technique, and pretty much lives up to the "sweet, salty, and red cooked" monnicker often used with regards to Shanghai cuisine. There are basically 2 types of red cooking, the first is a short cooking approach, which uses a sugar-based caramelization technique of melting sugar in oil to start things out. This is used with cuts such as pork belly, and takes from 40 minutes to an hour. Since I was using a much tougher cut of meat, I used the slow braising technique, which starts with a "browning step", in the case of the pork hocks, an "oil blanching", with the Oxtails, a pan searing.

So here goes….. I know many familes have their own "secret" recipe. Here's my not-so-secret, but real easy recipe. I let the pork hocks and oxtails rest overnight before eating.

Red Cooked Pork Hocks
3-4 Pork Hocks, rinsed, patted dry with paper towels.
2/3 Cup + 2 Tb Soy sauce
1/3 Cup Dark Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar + up to 1/4 Cup reserve
2/3 Cup + 1Tb Shao Xing Wine
5 cloves garlic roughly chopped
1-2 1/2" knobs of ginger smashed
3 Star Anise broken in half
4 Scallions – white part only, roughly chopped
1 piece dried tangerine peel broken in half
1 2-3" cinnamon stick
4-5 Cups Water.
2 Tb Canola Oil
3 Cups Canola Oil for frying

1 – Rub Shoulder with 2Tb Soy sauce and 1Tb Shao Xing, and let rest for 15 minutes.
2 – Heat oil in a wok until a temperature of 375 degrees. Place pork hock into oil, and fry, ladling oil over the exposed side of the pork hock for about 1-2 minutes. Turn and repeat.
3 – Remove pork hock from the oil and place on a plate lined with paper towels.
4 – Repeat for all the other pork hocks.
5 – In another pan or wok heat 2Tb, and add the garlic and scallions and saute until fragrant.
6 – Add 2/3 Cup Shao Xing wine, and bring to a boil.
7 – Add Soy Sauces, ginger, 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, star anise, tangerine peel, and cinnamon, and bring to a simmer.
8 – Add 3 cups of water, and place pork hocks in liquid. Add water to cover up to two-thirds of the pork hock.
9 – Bring to a low simmer.Turn pork hocks every hour. After 3 hours taste the liquid, and adjust sugar or water as necessary. I doubt that you'd need more soy sauce.
10 – Cook for another hour, or more as necessary. (These hocks took me 5 hours) The pork should be tender, and close to, but not falling off the bone. Or as the Missus says, "ewww, it's starting to look like an Old Man's neck."
11 – Let the hocks cool in the liquid. Once the liquid is cool, remove the hocks and place in a container and refrigerate.
12 – Strain braising liquid, and refrigerate overnight.
13 – Heat liquid (now an aspic), and place pork hocks into pot.

14 – Remove the pork hocks when heated, cut meat off the bone and chop into pieces. Use the braising liquid as the sauce and pour over meat and rice. Of course you can always go "Flintstone" and grab the whole bone and gnaw away……
15 – Place 6-8 shelled boiled eggs into braising liquid…..and so forth…..

Adjusting for Oxtails:

You can us the same basic technique as my Chinese style Braised Oxtails. Basically searing off the Oxtails seasoned with salt and pepper first.

Adjust cooking times as necessary.

I think I like these even more…..

Remember to wait a day (if you can), it'll be worth it!

mmm-yoso!!! is the blog.  About food.  Written by Kirk, ed(from Yuma), Cathy and a few others.  Cathy is writing today so everyone else can recover from Christmas festivities.

Hi.  I'm back to writing about a meal for two for $5 or less, using ingredients on sale this week.  This time, since many people are having quite a few days in a row off from work, and the ingredients used are on sale this week, I thought I'd show what we did for breakfast today.

It is the day after Christmas and many 'Christmas-y'  items are at least half off.  This year, many items were half off before Christmas.  I bought six Panettones ( usually described as Festive Italian Bread-really it is a bread made with at least raisins and orange and lemon peels and zests) at Fresh and Easy and also some bacon and eggs. 

The bread is baked in paper shells which peel off easily.  Panettone looks like a giant muffin, but do not use or eat it like it is cake.  It is abread, made with yeast.

 I noticed almost every market has Farmer John brand  bacon on sale for $3 a pound this week.

So, cook the bacon first. Leave the grease in the pan.

Soak some slices of Panettone in an egg-milk mix. 

Then fry the slices (I cut each circle of bread in half)  in the bacon greased pan.  

Flip over to cook the other side.  

A 'proper' French toast should have a crispy exterior and soft, creamy interior.  That is why frying the soaked bread in the bacon grease helps.

I served the French Toast with the bacon and some tangerine segments, fresh from the yard.  Tangerines are also on sale this week.

I hope everyone is have a wonderful Holiday Season and thank all of you for your good wishes and hope all of us have a wonderful year ahead!!!

Cathy's French Toast

Sliced dry bread, 2-3 eggs, milk. Frypan with bacon grease and/or butter to cook.

If using plain bread, can add orange juice or vanilla extract to egg/milk mix.

Soak long enough that the center of the bread is soft. You should only flip the bread once one side is cooked and when the second side is cooked, it should be finished-don't keep flipping it.

Happy anniversary, sweetie

This one is for FOY "Liver" in hopes that he did, or will soon get his Big Kahuna Burner!

Every so often, when I check referring sites, searches, and other stats, I will without fail, always notice that someone has been using one search engine or another using the phrase "high BTU burner" or "Big Kahuna". And it always seems that I'll get at least one comment on any post where I've used my Big Kahuna (why does that just sound wrong). Even though Amazon seems to have replaced the Big Kahuna with another Eastman Outdoors product called the Outdoor Gourmet New Revolution Burner, it looks like Eastman Outdoors still sells the Big Kahuna. With that in mind, I've created a category called the Big Kahuna Files. My high-heat cooking experience has been limited to various stir-fry and noodle dishes, and I usual don't bother to post. Those posts would contain an ingredient list of only oil, dried shrimp, garlic, salt, and "insert green leafy vegetable of choice". I just let her rip…….and high heat will do her thing.

But for a change, here are a couple of other items I've cooked with the Kahuna recently:

Shrimp Chow Fun:

This came out waaaay better than expected, even with the lousy noodles I picked up at 99 RanchMarket. The shrimp were also too large, I had 12-16U, and smaller shrimp would have suited me better. One more thing, I also tried out Lee Kum Kee brand Seafood XO Sauce, which should be renamed, "rancid, second rate chili oil…." Better to go with sesame oil, or even better, make your own XO sauce…. but that's another post.

Some key points – at least for me:

 - Don't crowd the wok, more is not necessarily better.

 - Have your mis "en place". Have everything, including seasonings within easy reach.

– Control of the heat is important.

– Don't disregard your "nose" it'll tell you so much.

The Recipe – though I don't think you'll need one! Let's just call this a "pseudo-recipe"….

1/2 lb Chow Fun Noodles
4 Tb Canola Oil
1/3 Pound Shrimp

For Shrimp:
2 Tb Shao Xing wine
1 Tb Light Soy Sauce
Salt

1/2 Onion Sliced
1 Cup Bean Sprouts (I didn't bother to pick through them)
Up to 1 cup vegetable of your choice sliced. (i.e. celery, green bell pepper, etc)
2 Stalks Scallions, green parts only, sliced in 1" lengths.

2 Tb Dark Soy Sauce
3-4 Tb Light Soy Sauce
White Pepper
Sesame Oil to Taste

1 – Shell and devein shrimp, marinate with wine, soy sauce, and salt for 10-15 minutes.
2 – Remove shrimp from marinade and use 2 Tb oil to cook over high heat for a few minutes. Remove from wok.
3 – Replace oil and add vegetable (in this case all I used was 1/4 of a red bell pepper) and onion to wok.
4 – Stir fry for 1 minute, or until vegetable starts to barely soften.
5 – Move the veggies to the side of the wok using your spatula. If the bottom of the wok is too dry, add another Tb of oil.
6 – Add noodles separating them as you place in the center of the wok. A clump is a no-no.
7 – Let the noodles sit for a few seconds. You'll notice that they'll start to caramelize and blister. Using a pair of long chopsticks, mix noodles, add dark soy and 3 Tb Light Soy and mix. Don't do the "pour around the rim of the wok" thing, unless you want to add a burnt soy flavor to your noodles.
8 – Lower heat to medium and add bean sprouts and shrimp while using chopsticks to combine ingredients.
9 – I add the scallions last, as I like them crisp, with a bit of a "bite". Keep on stirring.(Keep them chopsticks going….)
10 – Lower heat, taste, add white pepper to taste, and more light soy sauce if necessary.
11 – Remove from heat and add sesame oil to taste.

All of this will take just a few minutes…….

Stir Fried Morning Glory:

It just seemed like we couldn't get enough of this during our trip. The Morning Glory in SEA is much more tender than what we have here in the states. The prep is simple, and I guess this is another pseudo-recipe. The results are wonderful:

In this case, I didn't use any sugar, and just a few drops of fish sauce, mainly for the fragrance.

1/2 bunch Morning Glory (aka Ong Choy, Pak Boong, Kang Kung, Kang Kong, etc, etc, etc…)
3 – 12(!!!) Thai Bird Chilies.(The 12 is out of respect for Joy from Tamarind, who told me, 12 chilies is Lao heat)
2 Tb Canola Oil.
4-5 Cloves of Garlic sliced
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
1 Tb Oyster sauce
Fish Sauce (optional)
2-3 Tb Light Soy Sauce

1 – Slice rinsed and dried morning glory into 1 1/2" lengths
2 – Remove green stem from chilies, and slice garlic. Alternately, you could bruise the chilies and garlic in a mortar – this will make them significantly hotter.
3 – Mix together Oyster Sauce, sugar(if using) and 2 Tb of the Soy Sauce.
4 – Heat wok over high heat. Add oil, then chilies and garlic. Stir quickly.
5 – When the garlic starts to soften (sometimes in a few seconds). Add morning glory and stir fry.
6 – When morning glory starts to wilt, lower the heat to low, and add oyster sauce mixture.
7 – Taste and add Fish Sauce(if using) and additional soy sauce if necessary.

They'll be no more excuses for soggy Ong Choy…….

You know, I haven't been very delicate with my Big Kahuna….. it sits on the back porch, at the mercy of the elements. I should probably treat it better. But it has held together rather well. During their last visit, I cooked a few simple stir-fries using the Kahuna for the In-Laws. They proceeded to tell the Missus that She "shouldn't bother learning how to cook anymore since I've taken my cooking to a whole 'nother level."

Oh the joy of 65,000 BTU's……

Okay, here's an easy one. The Missus requested the "eggplant dish" from Okan, without the miso. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't made this before. Having had some previous experience with simmering eggplant, I know they tend to disintergrate and get mushy quickly. So I turned to Shizuo Tsuji's classic book, Japanese Cooking: A Simple art. Even though this recipe is not from the book, I consider it a must for any Cooking Library. In the book, eggplants are scored lengthwise and fried in a pan before subjecting it to the simmering liquid.

This worked out better than expected. Scoring also helped the eggplant absorb the dashi. The Missus thought they were fantastic. The only problem now, is after making this, along with Gobo Salad  and Kabocha Nimono, the Missus no longer sees a need in visiting Okan! I'll have to figure something out…..

Nasu no Nimono (simmmered eggplant):

6-8 Japanese Eggplant
2 Tb Canola Oil
2 Cups Dashi
1/4 Cup Soy Sauce – This time I used Kikkoman whole bean
1/4 Cup mirin
2 Tb Sugar

1 – Chop off the stems of the eggplant, than cut fine slits about 1/4 inch apart along the length of the eggplant.
2 – Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add oil, turning saucepan to make sure it is evenly coated.
3 – Add eggplant and fry until the skins wilt. Remove the eggplant from pan when done.
4 – Heat dashi, soy sauce, and mirin in a pan over medium heat. Add egglpant nad bring to a boil, than lower heat to a mild simmer.
5 – Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes and taste broth. Adjust flavors and finish simmering for another 5 minutes.
6 – Remove from heat, cool, and place in the refrigerator overnight.
7 – Slice the eggplant into 2-3 large slices before serving, pour a few tablespoons of the broth over the eggplant as well.Serve warm or cool.

Man that broth is good……

Sometimes shopping can be dangerous….no I'm not referring to the aggressive older Asian women, who "shopping cart check", push past, or just plain run you over like a hard nosed version of Lorenzo Neal. I'm talking about when something calls to you.…..I'm sure it has happened to you.  On a recent shopping excursion to Zion Market, I was flagged down by some Oxtails.

"Hey stranger, going my way???"

Which I ended up purchasing. I had thought of making a nice Oxtail Soup….but this was vetoed by the Missus who said it was just too darn hot for soup. So what to make? In the end, I decided to throw together a Chinese influenced braised Oxtail dish. Taking ideas from various Chinese braising recipes, most notably Red Cooking.

It came out rather well, served with fragrant Jasmine Rice, and Pea Shoots quickly stir fried with garlic and salt using the Big Kahuna. Overall, it was very easy, pretty much just cooks itself over the course of 3-4 hours. Not as sweet as usual red cooked dishes, no use of dark soy either(I was out of Dark Soy), and of course the chilies take it in a totally different direction. Letting rest overnight is a key step.

Chinese Style Braised Oxtails

4-5 Lbs Oxtails
2/3 Cup Shao Xing Wine
2/3 Soy Sauce
3 Cups Water
4 Tb Dark Brown Sugar
1 Star Anise
1 2" piece of ginger crushed
4 Scallions – White part only chopped
5 cloves Garlic Roughly Chopped
2 Tb Soy Bean Paste
2 Pieces Dried Orange Peel
3 Tb Canola Oil
Salt and Black Pepper
2-3 Dried Chilies (optional)

1 – Season Oxtails with Salt and Pepper
2 – Heat oil in a Dutch Oven or Pot, and brown Oxtails.
3 – Once Oxtails are browned, remove from pot. Drain all but 2-3 Tb oil from pot.
4 – Add Dried Chilies(if you are using them). Once chilies are slighly blackened and fragrant, add garlic and scallion. Stir until soften and fragrant.
5 – Add Bean Paste and mix in briefly until fragrant.
6 – Add Soy Sauce, Shao Xing, Sugar, and Water. Mix until sugar dissolves. Bring liquid to a boil.
7 – Add star anise, ginger, and dried orange peel.
8 – Reduce heat to a low simmer and place Oxtails back into pot.
9 – Cover and simmer for 3-4 hours, turning Oxtails occaisionally.
10 – When Oxtails are very tender, remove from heat.
11 – Let cool, than refrigerate overnight.
12 – The next day, remove oxtails from braising liquid, and skim off fat as desired.
13 – Heat liquid, and strain.
14 – Place Oxtails back into braising liquid and heat.

Some other options – use the braising liquid to braise Fresh Shiitake Mushrooms, or you can thicken or reduce into a thick sauce, or just pour the liquid over rice and veggies like we did. I'm sure you can come up with many different combinations.

Enjoy some gelatinous-meaty fun!

By request; here's a really bad photo of the Bean Paste I used that I took in a rush this morning.