Glazed Pork Riblets

First, pick up a rack of baby back ribs, which should weigh between 2 ½ and 3 pounds (St. Louis style will work as well, if that’s what your shop has in stock). Ask for them to be halved lengthwise so that you have two long strips, and then cut between each rib bone to make individual ribs.

In a large bowl, whisk together ½ cup unseasoned rice vinegar, 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, 1 cup maple syrup, ¾ cup English (or Dijon) mustard, and ⅔ cup gochujang until smooth. Season the ribs with kosher salt, toss to coat, and transfer to the marinade. Turn to coat ribs, and let sit 1 hour.

Preheat your oven to 375°. Transfer the ribs to a rimmed baking sheet and pour about 1 cup of the marinade over. Roast, uncovered, for 15 minutes, then baste with the reserved marinade. Roast for 15 minutes more, then turn the ribs over, baste again, and set timer for 10 more minutes (that would be the 40 minute mark, total). At this point, check the riblets. You should be able to see rendered fat on the pan, and around the edges some of the marinade may be reduced, bubbling, and starting to get dark. The ribs should be shiny, glazed and tender, with meat that has pulled back from the bone. Try one! If you think they need to be even more glazed, baste a final time, then roast 5–10 minutes longer (the ribs will eventually dry out if overcooked). Meanwhile, turn the marinade into a dipping sauce: Combine any extra marinade and ½ cup water in a medium sauté pan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat; cook 5–7 minutes, stirring occasionally, to slightly reduce (this step is important since the marinade was in contact with the uncooked ribs). Riblets, like wings, benefit from crunchy cold things alongside. I serve these with celery sticks that have been tossed with fresh lime juice and flaky salt—you could do the same with cucumbers, carrots, or jicama. Pour the extra marinade into a little bowl and pile the ribs into a perfectly imperfect pile. If you’re going to take a picture for Instagram, I suggest you use portrait mode and come in on a slight angle, which will give you that epic, retro Martha soft-focus vibe. It’s that combination of trashy and classy that sold me on riblets way back when, and it still really does it for me. Carla Lalli Music Food Director Bone Appetit Blog

Eggs Cooked in Pressure Cooker

I came across Facebook group "Vietnamese Instant Pot Recipes" and there I discovered the very best and easiest way to cook soft or hardboiled eggs. Very simple method and eggs peel in one continuous strip.

 I have modified a large steamer rack so that I could lift it from the pot without steamer opening and dumping eggs on floor.

 

All I had to do was to pass copper wire through two adjoining sections of a steamer in 4 places (relatively evenly apart) and bend the wire over.

Recipe is simplicity itself:

Pour half a cup of water into Instant Pot (IP), place basket with eggs inside stainless steel pot, cover making sure that release valve is in close position (tab facing front), plug the IP in, set on Manual, set timer to 3 minutes and let it do its job.

When done unplug the IP and after additional 3 minutes release steam . Open the lid, remove basket and plunge bowl in cold water to rapidly cool the eggs. When cool, peel as usual. You will be pleasantly surprised how easy the shell and membrane come off, basically in one piece.

Perfectly cooked eggs. Enjoy!



Rice Paper Rolls

Rice Paper Rolls is another Summer staple on our table. It can be prepared 100% vegetarian or you can add shrimps, chicken, beef or even pork. The meat I always cook simply in frying pan with my own Teriyaki Sauce that is a bit on sweet side with the use of Mirin and Maple Syrup.

Vegetables for the roll are pretty much standard:

Carrots, lettuce, cucumber and red pepper with rice noodles and peanuts as another standard. I have included shaved asparagus cooked in Teriyaki Sauce and garlicky shrimps.



Wrapping these ingredients in rice paper that was just very quickly dragged through water in large bowl can be quite tricky because the rice paper is very brittle when dry and tears easily when wet, there is no happy middle.

Make small pile of vegies at one end and if using shrimps slice them in half lengthwise and lay them flat at other end so that they will show through just one layer of paper. Make about 2 tight turns, fold the sides over and finish the roll.

For dipping sauce I use a mix of smooth Peanut butter, Hoisin Sauce, Sriracha and Soy Sauce.

Fried Rice

Another food court favorite for us is Fried Rice.  I have done it many times before but it was never as good as in a good restaurant. I have always blamed my stove but when I got thinking about technique I realized that it will be possible to replicate this dish even though my gas stove is nowhere near as hot as restaurant's burner. The secret in great texture of fried rice is water content and that was where I started to experiment. I am pleased to say that first experiment was fantastic and yes, it was the ratio of water and long grain rice in rice cooker that made all the difference. High heat is very important as well, of course.

Here is size and shape of my flame. The reason that I use large frying pan instead of wok is obvious here; there is no flame at center, just edges. Most important part of the wok, the small bowl at center, will also be coldest part. Not good at all.

Back to fried rice. Almost all fried rice recipes tell you to use overnight refrigerated rice and I wholeheartedly agree. Been there, done that. On this experiment I used 1 cup of rice and 1-1/4 cup water after washing and draining the rice 4 times. After rice was cooked, about 20 minutes in Panasonic rice cooker, I spread the rice on baking sheet and let cool for about 2 hours. In a plastic container it went, making sure that it is loose and not packed, and transferred to refrigerator overnight. Next day I used large stainless steel bowl to loosen and oil the rice before stir frying. I have also added about teaspoon of Madras Curry Powder for color and heat. If you want to have it mild use plain Turmeric instead.

Next, I had to decide what ingredient is cooked first and what will follow. I really want to keep things simple in my kitchen, The KISS Principal rules supreme there! So many recipes will tell you to cook every tiny piece of vegetables separately and than combine them at the end...not for me, way too much work and you can't taste the difference anyway. My vegies don't see a frying pan till the very end, they are all nuked, some together, some separately and some stay raw. It doesn't take more than 3 minutes total!

In this version for vegies I used broccoli, green onions, carrot, red pepper, green peas and roasted peanuts and eggs. Of course I could have used bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, baby corn, canned mushrooms (much better in stir-fry than fresh ones) and whole lot of other ingredients but I like to keep their number down to 4 - 5 so I was already over "enough". Only broccoli got cooked in microwave for half a minute before the final combine and ginger and garlic were cooked with rice.

As for sauce it is a bit simpler than chow mein noodles; all that is needed is Soy Sauce, Hoisin sauce and Sriracha (everything to taste, of course).

To get the rice to just right texture and dryness took just 5 minutes or so because the rice was already fairly dry. I did stir-fry the garlic and ginger first before adding the rice.

When the rice was done in went the vegies and pieces of 2 egg omelet that was cooked in separate small frying pan. For more substantial version I have added chicken thighs and shrimps. The sauce went in right after vegies were mixed in and heated. You just want taste and keep the rice dry so don't use too much.

I'll post my recipe for stir-fried chicken and shrimps in separate blog. They can be used in chow mein or fried rice.



Food Court Noodles

Is it really 3 years since I blogged last time? Really?

 

As far as I know most major shopping malls have a place set aside where all fast food vendors set up small kiosk and every one of the malls we have visited here in Canada and Eastern States have at least one of Chinese fast-food chains represented. Not one of them failed to have a warm or room temperature vegetarian chow mien noodles on their menu. My guess is that at least 8 out of 10 times this is what we would order.
Since it is such a favorite of mine and also for so many other people I think, I thought that there will be hundreds of recipes on the Net replicating the taste but after trying few none was what I was looking for, there was always something missing. So, I have decided to give it a try and do my own version, I have done that dozens of times before after all and done quite well.
Most important part in this great and simple meal is the noodle and I knew that I will have to find them but problem was that we don't have Oriental Supermarket or even a small Oriental food store so I am dependent on local supermarkets: Zehrs, Metro and Sobeys, all of which do have Oriental Food section. As we talked about this meal on our weekly grocery shopping trip, I found fresh (actually previously frozen) noodles in fresh pasta refrigerator at our Zehrs Supermarket. They were exactly what I was looking for! In other part of the supermarket you are likely to find Sesame Oil, Soy Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, Oyster Sauce and Sriracha (all were already in my very well stocked pantry) which will make sauce. Other ingredients for this vegetarian version were in my refrigerator so it was off to the kitchen!

It is difficult to write a recipe where all ingredients are basically “to taste”; some like it hot, some like it mild and same goes with salty or sweet. Some like broccoli, some can’t stand it and same for onions that I just can’t imagine not to have in my pantry and use them! So, this will be more of a list of suggested ingredients followed by some important procedures or techniques then a real detailed recipe. 

Ingredients (for large bowl)

Fresh Chow Mein noodles (I use half a pack)
Carrot, grated or julienned
Broccoli, flowerets only and blanched (I use microwave for 1 minute)
Green onions, whole onion chopped
Asparagus (in season, blanched and cut into short pieces)
Green or Yellow Beans (in season, blanched and cut into short pieces)
Any vegie that you like… 

For Sauce

Sriracha, Sesame Oil, Hoisin Sauce, Oyster Sauce, Light Soy Sauce (Kikkoman),

Directions
Prepare your sauce in a bowl or as I do in a glass measuring cup. Since I cook by feel and never measure, except in baking, it is difficult to give exact volume of the finished sauce. Also, it depends on amount of noodles as well. I start with:
1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp. Hoisin Sauce
1 Tbsp. Oyster Sauce
1 tsp. Sriracha
1 tsp. of Sesame Oil

Mix, taste and adjust. Set aside.

Very important part is to loosen and untangle the noodles before boiling. If you don’t, you very likely end up with a mess of noodles where all the knots will be undercooked; not a great texture to bite into.

Notice the tangle of noodle strands

All nice and loose...

To boil your noodles follow manufacturer’s suggestion. Mine called to boil for 1 minute and it is very close. I always have a bowl with cold water next to boiling pot to test for doneness of pasta and start tasting a bit past half the suggested time. Also, salt the water just like for regular pasta.

When done, drain, rinse under cold running water and then transfer to bowl with cold water. When they are cool, less than half a minute, transfer them to salad spinner lined with a tee towel. Spinning the cooked noodles in salad spinner will ensure that noodles will separate and be ready to absorb the sauce. Omitting this step will result in soggy, mushy noodles.

 

When noodles are dry mix in about half the sauce and taste. Add more sauce and mix again; hands are the very best tool to coat all the noodles with sauce.

Mix in the vegies and serve.

By adding stir fried chicken, beef or shrimp makes this into a real restaurant dish. I used just chicken thighs cut into strips and shrimps in this version.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crisp Skin Pork Roast Trick

For some reason only pork roast with bone in and skin on in all 3 supermarkets in my small town carry only narrow cut that is impossible to roast with the skin on top. The meat always falls on the wide, flat side with skin on side. You can never get a crisp skin, the reason I buy this cut in first place. I have come up with a solution to keep the roast skin side up. Since picture is worth thousand words, here are 2,000 words. Try it, you will be amazed how well it works. Make sure you are using strong bamboo skewers, though. I used recycled skewers from seafood kebab but they were just about adequate, not as strong as I thought they would be. Since then I bought flat bamboo skewers from Dollar Store and they are perfect.

 

How is that for crispy skin!

Schnitzel from Pork Tenderloin

Over the years I found that pork tenderloin makes the best Schnitzel regardless if prepared breaded or natural without any coating. Since it is so lean I shallow fry it in butter in less then 5 minutes. I usually serve it with boiled red potatoes so the meal is done in under half-an-hour. By the time potatoes are ready the tenderloin is cut up, flattened, seasoned and cooked. The browned butter from frying pan is the only sauce I serve it with. Sometimes I whisk in 1 Tbs. of hot mustard.

Here is how I divide and process whole small pork tenderloin with pointy ends cut off and used in other dishes like shishkebab.

Waffle Iron Potato and Zucchini Pancakes

I am always looking for new ways to cook healthier food. We just love latke and pancakes but I am turned off with the fact that in order to make them nice and crispy outside and soft inside I have to use quite a bit of fat; one reason that until recently they were not on my menu very often. Then, while cleaning my small kitchen appliance storage area it hit me: use an electric waffle iron! Not only is it healthier but also heck of a lot cleaner. Both of these points make it a real winner.

Ingredients

2 medium russet potatoes, coarsely shredded
2 medium zucchini, coarsely shredded
1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tsp. ground white pepper
1 large egg
2 green onions, chopped

3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Instructions
Place the grated zucchini and potato in a stainless steel bowl and season with salt and pepper. Let rest for up to 30 minutes. Place the mix in a kitchen towel and squeeze to remove some of the liquid. Transfer back to a bowl, mix in the beaten egg, green onions and flour. The consistency should be that of a thick pancake batter. If the mix is too thick, add some milk, if it is too runny, add more flour.

Preheat the waffle iron and cook the mix just like you would regular waffles. I cooked mine about 6 minutes but since every iron has a different power you have to experiment for the first time you make them.

Serve with plain sour cream or yogurt.