Pork Belly on Steamed Buns with Gojujang Sauce and Pickled Cucumbers

If you haven't eaten all of your pork belly yet and haven't grown weary of my pig jokes...I know, I'm asking a lot.  I have another recipe for you.  Pork Belly on Steamed Buns with Gojujang Sauce and Pickled Cucumbers.  What is gogjujang you may ask?  It is a fermented red pepper paste from Korea.  It's a little spicy plus sweet and smoky and I can't get enough of it lately. 

 Now, here's the thing.  You'll probably only find gojujang at an Asian grocery store or I'm sure you could order it online.  Once you've acquired it, make this sauce below.  Make it a lot.  Use it for these pork belly buns and then make more and toss it with noodles. Bake or fry some chicken and slather it with this sauce. Use it as a dip for egg rolls or dumplings. Add it to your scrambled eggs.  You get the idea.

There are many recipes out there to make your own steamed buns but I bought mine at the Asian market in the freezer section and thawed, then steamed them in a bamboo steamer.  And although the package says you can microwave them instead, don't.  Trust me, they are not good.

The final element, the quick pickled cucumbers add the acid and crunch that the pork belly needs.  And these are so dead simple, they'd make a great side dish at any meal. 

 Here's a thought.  Serve these Pork Belly Buns at your Super Bowl party.  People may miss some of the game when they take a bite and their eyes roll back in their heads.  But that's a risk you'll have to take.  And let's face it, they could get buffalo wings and sliders anywhere.

Pork Belly on Steamed Buns with Gojujang Sauce and Pickled Cucumbers

1. Take pork belly slices out of refrigerator and let come to room temperature.  Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.  Warm pork belly slices in the heated pan starting with fat side down first.  Then turn to warm sides of pork belly, 2-3 minutes.  Do not cook the belly, just warm it.

2. Fill wok with an inch of water and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.  Set bamboo steamer over wok.  Line steamer with a piece of wax paper and fill with steamed buns.  Do not let them touch each other.  Put lid on steamer and steam for 10-15 minutes.

3.  Slice open steamed buns down the center of the top of the bun, rather than on the side of the bun.  Fill with warmed pork belly, gojujang sauce and pickled cucumbers.  Serve immediately.

Slow-Cooked Pork Belly
Recipe here

Gojujang Sauce
5 cloves of garlic
1 1-1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
3T gojujang paste (Korean red pepper paste)
1T honey
3T soy sauce
1 1/2T rice vinegar
1T sesame oil

In a food processor chop garlic and ginger.  My tip: Turn the food processor on and then drop the garlic and ginger down the feed tube and watch the magic happen.  Add gojujang, honey, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil and whiz until combined.

  
Pickled Cucumbers
2 small Kirby or baby seedless cucumbers, slice 1/8 inch thick
1T sugar
3/4T kosher salt
2T rice vinegar

Combine sliced cucumbers, sugar and salt in a bowl.  Mix and let sit for 5-10 minutes.  Rinse salt and sugar off cucumber and pat dry.  Add rice vinegar and serve immediately or keep refrigerated for up to 4 hours.

Roasted Eggplant with Saffron Yogurt

The tree is laying sadly out by the curb and the Christmas decorations have been put away.  Spring is a long way off. The gym parking lot is filled with those "resolutioners" who will be gone by March but will take all my parking spots in the meantime.  It's a good thing I'm not bitter. 

I need a little ray of sunshine which I found in eggplant, pomegranates and saffron and yogurt.  The dish is beautifully balanced with the smoky eggplant, peppery arugula, the acidic lemony yogurt plus you get the pop of the pomegranate seeds and the crunch of pine nuts.  Served with roasted potatoes, it makes a great meatless meal.

This recipe is adapted from Ottolenghi The Cookbook which is filled with gorgeousness.  If you are of the vegetarian persuasion or just want to feel exotic AND healthy, give this cookbook a whirl.  In the meantime, I've converted the recipe from grams and Celsius to US measurements. For my method of seeding a pomegranate without making your kitchen look like a crime scene, click here.

Roasted Eggplant with Saffron Yogurt
Adapted from Ottolenghi The Cookbook
Serves 4

2 medium eggplants
2T olive oil plus more for roasting eggplant
6 oz. non-fat Greek yogurt
2T Meyer lemon (regular lemon is fine too)
1 garlic clove, crushed
small pinch of saffron threads
3T very hot water
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
4 cups arugula
3T pine nuts
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.  Cut eggplant into 3/4 inch slices.  Brush both sides with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.  Roast on a baking sheet for 20 minutes then turn over slices and bake for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown.  Set aside and let cool.
2. Crush the saffron threads and combine with 3T of very hot water.  Let sit for 5 minutes.
3. In a small bowl, combine yogurt, lemon juice, 2T of olive oil, garlic and a generous pinch of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  Add the saffron liquid, first straining the threads out of it and whisk all ingredients together.
4.  Plate a few slices of eggplant with the arugula, pine nuts and pomegranate seeds.  Drizzle with the saffron yogurt.

Note: Eggplant can be roasted up to 3 days ahead.  Let it come to room temperature before composing salad. 

Brussel Sprouts & Mushrooms-So Wrong, It's Right

What happens when you take two things a lot of people downright despise and put them together?  A little piece of heaven, I tell ya.  I am one of those people you've read about who actually like Brussel sprouts.  A lot.  I even ate them as a kid.  A lot.  Thanks, Mom!

Now mushrooms....um....not so much.  I have an occasional culinary hot flash where I'll purposely eat something with mushrooms and like it but the rest of the time I avoid them.  Why then, was I inexplicably drawn to this recipe?  I just knew it would be delicious.  And it is.

Seriously, with cream, white wine, shallots, earthy mushrooms and roasted Brussel sprouts it is luxurious and rich and perfect for your Thanksgiving table.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Wild Mushrooms and Cream
Serves 8
From Fine Cooking

1 1/2 lbs. Brussel sprouts (pick the smallest ones you can find), cut in half
5T olive oil
3T unsalted butter
3/4 lb. mix of wild mushrooms
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup heavy cream
salt & pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. 
2. Toss Brussel sprouts with 3T of olive oil and transfer to baking sheet.  Spread out and season with salt. 
3. Roast for 15-25 minutes until tender and browned.
4. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and add 2T of butter and 1T of olive oil. Add mushrooms and cook until tender and any liquid has evaporated.  About 5 minutes.  Season with salt and transfer to bowl.
5. Add the remaining 1T butter and 1T olive oil to hot skillet and add the shallot with a pinch of salt.  Cook until golden, about 3 minutes.
6.  Add wine and cook until reduced by half.
7. Add mushrooms and Brussel sprouts back to the pan.  Pour in cream.
8. Stir and cook until cream thickens and coats the vegetables, 3-4 minutes. 
9. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.

BTW, if you have any leftovers: These are dreamy with a poached egg over them.

Green Garlic and Happy Accidents

I have been trolling the farmer's markets lately, chomping at the bit for them to hit their stride.  I'm impatient for summer corn and heirloom tomatoes, watermelons and green beans.  Fortunately there are some early vegetables that have such a short season that when I find them I feel like I've won the lottery.  It's like finding a fabulous pair of shoes on the sale rack and it just happens to be your size!  Except, that never happens to me in real life.  Where are all those people who wear a size 5 shoe, anyway?  Plenty of sale shoes left for them.

Sorry, lost focus...back to food.  If you find rhubarb, ramps, fiddlehead ferns or green garlic, scoop them up while you can.  Their growing season is short and sweet so fill up now.  I came upon some beautiful green garlic at the Union Square Farmer's Market.  Green garlic is young garlic, before the cloves have formed.  It looks like big scallions with white bulbs and green stalks.  It's sweeter and more mellow than mature garlic.

I had a craving for roasted garlic which is done with wrapping a whole garlic bulb in foil with olive oil and oven roasting until soft and spreadable.  I thought, why use the same technique with the green garlic?

Plan A,  roast it and spread it on warm bread.  I put the green garlic, bulbs and stems in some foil with olive oil and salt and roasted it in a 400 degree oven until soft.  It smelled so good.  I then took a loaf of foil wrapped bread from my freezer and popped that in the oven to warm.  I couldn't wait to slather the soft roasted garlic onto that bread.  I took the warm bread out of the oven and unwrapped it to find this.  Doh!  It was my spare loaf of Easter bread.  A sweet bread that would not pair so well with my roasted garlic.  Wah Wah.

On to Plan B.  There's always a plan B, right? Otherwise known as make-it-up-as-you-go-along.  I had a sheet of puff pastry languishing in the fridge.  I took the roasted green garlic and put it in my mini food processor with a little more olive oil until I had a sweet, warm, green, garlicky spread.  I slathered that on the puff pastry and then sprinkled the whole thing with some grated Cacio Roma cheese. 

Baked for 15-20 minutes at 400 it came out of the oven golden and bubbly.The crispy, buttery pastry combined with the sweet garlic. The creamy, melty Cacio de Roma was mild enough to not overpower the green garlic. The verdict, way better than Plan A would have been.  Now, if only I were so lucky in the shoe department.

Green Garlic Tart
 Serves 6 as an appetizer


3 stalks of green garlic
2T olive oil
pinch of kosher salt
1 sheet of puff pastry
2-3 ounces Cacio de Roma cheese, shredded

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Trim roots off of green garlic bulbs and cut green stems from bulbs.
3. Place bulbs and stems in foil.  Drizzle 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil over garlic and sprinkle with salt.
4. Wrap up green garlic and roast in oven until soft and fragrant, approximately 20 minutes.
5. Unfold puff pastry onto a sheet of parchment paper laid on a baking sheet.  With a knife, score a rectangle around the perimeter of pastry 1/4 inch from the edge.
6.  When garlic is roasted, transfer to a mini food processor and puree, bulbs and stems.  Consistency will be a little stringy/fibrous.  Add up to a tablespoon of olive oil to help blend together.  Taste and add salt if needed.
7. Spread green garlic paste inside perimeter of pastry.  Top with shredded cheese.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is bubbly and golden and edges and bottom of tart are golden.

 

Comparing Oranges to Oranges

I found a variety of oranges at my local Whole Foods this week.  Have you ever wondered what the side by side difference would be in the different varieties?  Let's investigate, shall we...

 L to R: Cara Cara, Blood Orange, Minneola

Let's peruse their innards...

The Cara Cara has fruit that has a light pink tinge to it.  It has bigger segments than the others or even a navel orange.  The taste leans towards grapefruit, it's not as sweet as the others.  It's a little past Cara Cara season which may have accounted for this one being tougher and less juicy than the other oranges.

Blood Oranges are distinctive by the blush of dark red on their skins.  The inside is a beautiful ruby red color.  I love blood oranges.  They are juicy and sweet but more tart than a navel orange.  They make a striking addition to desserts and salads.  Try making a blood orange mimosa or blood orange margarita!

The Minneolas are sold with the stem and leaves intact which makes them not only a great eating orange but a nice centerpiece too.  The fruit of the minneola was very juicy and sweeter than the other two varieties with a tangerine flavor.

You really can't go wrong with any of these.  Putting the oranges together gives you a nice range of color and flavors.  Cuz as my mama always said,
"When God gives you oranges, make ORANGESALADWITHPARMESANANDALMONDS." Or something like that.

Orange Salad with Parmesan and Almonds


3 oranges, any varieties
2 cups of arugula
1 ounce thinly shaved Parmesan
1 handful of smokehouse almonds
3t olive oil
Juice of the supremed oranges
Coarse Sea Salt & Pepper

1.  Supreme the oranges.  For a video demo of how to do that, click here.  Save the leftover orange carcasses and squeeze their juice into a bowl.
2. In separate bowl, toss the arugula with the olive oil and a tablespoon of the reserved orange juice.
3. Put the dressed arugula on a platter.  Arrange the orange segments, Parmesan shavings and almonds over the arugula. Drizzle on a little extra orange juice if you like.
4. Sprinkle a pinch of coarse sea salt over the salad and a grind of fresh black pepper.

Post-Holiday Stress Disorder

I have been quite the blog slacker.  What with the shopping, baking, wrapping, traveling and party going that makes up November-December, not to mention my paid work cooking for other people, I have been swamped.  I'll try to do better.

I've written many posts in my head.  A lot of good that does you, right?

Anyway...over the winter holidays we traveled to visit family which meant many restaurant meals and many parties.  Here's the thing about parties, the potluck kind at least.  'Tis the season to pull out your most decadent, ooey, gooey recipes.  Everyone makes that over-the-top, calorie-laden, delicious offering that usually contains butter, sugar or cheese as a main ingredient.  No one is bringing a light vegetable salad to the family party, at least not in my family.

By the time we returned home, all my husband and I wanted was a big plate of vegetables.  Our first meal at home was lunch and this perfectly fit the bill.  This was our entire lunch.  It was delicious.  We were on the road to recovery.  If you need a detox, I highly recommend this.

 

Steamed Asparagus with Mustard Vinaigrette

Serves 1-2 

 

1 bunch of asparagus, lower stems trimmed or peeled

1 hardboiled egg

2 teaspoons finely minced shallot

2t Champagne or white wine vinegar

1t Dijon mustard

4T extra virgin olive oil

pinch of sugar

pinch of salt & pepper

Steam asparagus until tender but NOT mushy, it should still have a "bite".  Mix shallots, vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt & pepper together.  Add olive oil then whisk until emulsified.  Drizzle over asparagus.  Cut hard-boiled egg in half and press through a strainer or potato masher so egg is crumbled over asparagus.  Add a crank of fresh ground pepper.