Tripe Dim Sum

Anybody that reads my blog on regular basis must have noticed that I like tripes. Yup, I like tripes a lot! On my last visit to supermarket I passed by meat isle and the Styrofoam tray of tripes was so irresistible that I had to take it home. The second I laid my eyes on it I knew how I am going to cook it – Steamed Tripe Dim Sum. Actually, it is a trice cooked dish: boiled for 2 hours, then briefly stir fried and finally steamed. Lots of work for something that is inhaled in minutes, I have to say. One important note: Traditionally, this dish is done with book or bible tripes but since they are not available in my small town I have to use what I have.

Ingredients:

1 lb tripe

2 green onions cut in 1” pieces, green and white parts separated

1-1/2” piece of ginger, smashed and julienned

1 large clove garlic, chopped

Hot pepper flakes, to taste

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/4 cup salt

Directions:

Blanch the tripes in plenty of boiling water for 3 – 5 minutes.

Drain and wash the tripes and pot.

In a same pot with fresh water place tripes, salt and vinegar and bring to boil on high. Lower heat to simmer and cook for 2 hours or till tender but still with some crunch left.

Drain, cool and let dry. Previous steps can be done in one day and following 2 steps next day.

When tripes are dry, heat a wok with a bit of oil and when hot drop in garlic, ginger, pepper flakes and white parts of green onions and stir fry briefly.

Add tripes and stir fry till all ingredients are well mixed.

Remove to steaming dish, place in a steamer, cover and steam for 20 minutes.

Serve with the bamboo steamer with green onions sprinkled on top of tripes.

Happy Lunar Year of a Cat to Vietnamese friends and Year of a Rabbit to Chinese. Mind you, we have an issue with destructive rabbits in our garden!



Char Siu Pork with Crispy Noodles

Chinese Barbecue Pork Chow Mein

Even though the actual stir-fry takes about 3 minutes to make the two main ingredients take a bit longer. The Char Siu pork can be done few days ahead and noodles will take just over half an hour and they too can be done ahead.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 cup Char Siu pork, shredded into larger pieces 1/4” thick

3 Chinese mushrooms

1/2 carrot, julienned

16 – 20 Snow peas, ribs removed

2 green onions, sliced diagonally

1 large clove of garlic, chopped

1” piece of ginger, chopped

2 tsp peanut oil

Sauce:

1/2 cup mushroom soaking liquid

1 Tbs. Hoisin sauce

1 Tbs. Oyster sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp corn starch

In a small bowl mix all ingredients till well combined

Noodles:

Chinese egg chow mein noodles, 2 bundles

1 Tbs. peanut oil

1 tsp. sesame oil

Boil noodles according to instructions on a package drain well and divide into 2 equal bundles.

Heat 1/2 Tbs. of peanut oil and 1/2 tsp. of sesame oil in nonstick frying pan, add noodles and spread evenly. Cook till light brown crust forms on bottom. Turn over and crisp up other side. Place on cookie sheet lined with paper towel and place in 200 °F oven. Repeat with second bundle of noodles.

Stir fry:

Soak the mushrooms till soft, remove stems and julienne. Reserve soaking liquid for sauce.

Heat oil in a wok till very hot. Add oil and coat sides of wok with oil using steel spatula. Add garlic and ginger and stir fry for few seconds. Add mushrooms and carrots and 1 Tbs. of soaking liquid. Stir fry for few seconds then add shredded char siu, snow peas and sauce. Cook till sauce thickens a bit and snow peas turn light green.

Place noodles on preheated serving plates, pour wok contents on top and garnish with green onions.

Char Siu Pork

Chinese Barbecue Pork

Ingredients:

4 Pork Tenderloins

3/4 cup Hoisin sauce

1/2 cup Soy sauce

1/2 cup Rice wine or dry sherry

1/3 cup Honey

1 tablespoon Sugar

1 Tbs. minced garlic

1 Tbs. minced ginger.

2 tsp. Chinese 5-spice powder

For Marinade:

Put all ingredients (except pork ) in small sauce pan on low heat and simmer, covered, for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain through strainer to remove any solids and let cool. Reserve 1/4 cup for Glaze.

For Glaze:

1/4 cup Marinade

1/4 cup Honey

1/4 cup Hoisin sauce

Mix till well combined

Preparation:

Pierce tenderloins with a serving fork in several places to allow marinade to penetrate meat.

Place meat in sealable bag, pour marinade (minus 1/4 cup reserved for Glaze) over the meat, squeeze out as much air as possible and close. Place in refrigerator and marinade at least 8 hours or up to 2 days. Occasionally massage the meat to redistribute the marinade.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275°F.

Place a cooling rack over baking pan and pour in about 1/4” of water.

Place meat on oiled rack and roast, place in middle rack in preheated oven and roast for 20 minutes.

Turn the pork and reduce the temperature to 185°F and roast for another 15 minutes. Baste every 5 minutes or so.
Remove the pork and turn the broiler on high. Coat the pork with the Char Siu Glaze. Broil the meat for five minutes or till the glaze caramelizes. Remove the meat, turn over and repeat.

Note: Since Pork Tenderloin cooks quickly it is easy to over cook it to a point where the meat dries out.

When edges are charred and meat is golden brown remove and let rest.

Use immediately in your favorite recipe or vacuum pack and freeze for later use.

Broccoli Soup with Tomato

Actually, it is sort of cream of broccoli but without cream being added. I had a small head of broccoli and pot of ham stock on hand so it wasn’t hard to figure out what I will do with it.

Ingredients:

4 cups stock

1 head of broccoli, stalk and head chopped very fine

1 small or 1/2 large carrot, chopped very fine

1 small onion, chopped very fine

1 baking potato, peeled and chopped very fine

1 tsp. curry powder

2 ripe Italian tomatoes, coarsely chopped.

Bring stock with all vegetables to boil, reduce to simmer and cook for 1 hour. Place pot into sink and liquefy with submersible blender or transfer to blender and liquefy.

Put soup back on burner, reheat and season with curry to your taste.

Pour into individual bowls and garnish with tomatoes.

Veal Shoulder Chops – Osso Buco Style

It has been such a long time since we had Osso Buco, meal that we both love. Reason is simple. We just can’t get 3” thick veal shanks here. Acceptable solution for us is to use thick veal shoulder chop instead. Of course the favorite part of Osso Buco is the marrow, a part that we will have to do without but taste should be similar.

Ingredients:

1/2 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds bone-in veal shoulder chops

Salt and pepper

2 medium carrots, chopped

2 medium stalks celery, thinly sliced

1 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 cup canned whole tomatoes in juice

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 cup chicken broth

1 bay leaf

1 Tbs. lemon juice

1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel plus additional for garnish

Gremolata:

1 Tbs. grated lemon peel

1 tsp. finely chopped garlic

3 Tbs. finely chopped parsley

Mix till well combined.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In wide-bottom Dutch oven, heat oil on medium-high until very hot. Sprinkle veal chops with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper to season both sides. Add veal chops to Dutch oven and cook 8 to 9 minutes per batch or until veal is browned on both sides, turning over once. Transfer veal to plate once it is browned.

After all veal is browned, add carrots, celery, onions, and garlic to Dutch oven, and cook on medium 12 minutes or until vegetables are lightly browned and tender, stirring occasionally.

Return veal, and any juices from plate, to Dutch oven. Stir in tomatoes with their juice, wine, broth, and bay leaf. Heat mixture to boiling on high, stirring and breaking up tomatoes with side of spoon.

Cover Dutch oven and place in oven. Braise 2 hours or until veal is very tender when pierced with fork. Transfer veal to platter. Skim off fat from liquid in Dutch oven.

Place Dutch oven on burner on top of range, and cook sauce on medium-high about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally. Add lemon peel and lemon juice and cook 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook noodles till al dente and keep warm.

To serve, pour little sauce on bottom of preheated plates, then noodles, more sauce and then meat. Spoon sauce over veal and place tablespoon of gremolata on top for garnish.

Monthly Garden Season Update #1

Trailing Snapdragon seeds that I started January 19 are now 1” high on average. They are under full spectrum fluorescent lights 24/7. I planted 18 seeds in 9 Jiffy style pots and 13 have germinated, that’s 72.2% rate. Johnny’s Seeds had printed 60% on the seed packet so I guess I can’t complain. Now I have to find out how long should I keep them under the light. I am new to this, this is only my second year that I started flowers from seeds. It is a bit different then herbs and vegetables. Time to post some questions on Garden Web, I think. I really want that trailing snapdragon for our front porch hanging basket.

Trippa alla Romana

Roman style Tripe with Penne Rigate

Last Sunday I bought package of beautiful super white beef tripe already blanched and cut into strips so I had to make a decision as to how I will cook them: as usual in a soup (my favorite) or do I try Italian, French or Chinese recipe. Since I wanted my wife to finally try and taste tripe dish I have decided on Roman style where the tripe almost disappears because they are chopped into small pieces and blended with thick tomato sauce. Did she eat it? Yes, and not only that, she wants me to make it again. She really liked it but she would have preferred not to know what she was eating. North Americans have this mental block when it comes to offal, I guess.

This dish is very easy to make but it does take time.

One note to anybody that never cooked tripe before: the tripe shrinks a lot when it is cooked or boiled. See the pictures of before and after boiling. My guess is that volume of cooked tripe is less then half of fresh ones.

Ingredients:

1 lb cleaned and blanched honeycomb beef tripe

1 Tbs. olive oil

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp. dried rosemary or 2 tsp. fresh, chopped

1 cup Dry Marsala wine

2 cups chopped or crushed tomatoes

1 Tbs. Balsamic vinegar

2 Tbs. chopped parsley

3 bay leaves

6 whole cloves

6 whole allspice berries

Penne Rigate

1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano

Process:

You have three options to cook the tripe: on the stove in regular pot, slow cooker or pressure cooker. In all cases use salted water and small muslin bag or tee egg with bay leaves, allspice and cloves. On stove top bring to boil, lower the heat and simmer for 2-1/2 hours. Slow cooker low 6 hours and pressure cooker 1 hour.

When soft, let cool so you can handle the tripe and chop into pieces about the size of dime and reserve.

In a frying pan or sauce pan heat olive oil and sauté garlic and rosemary till fragrant.

Pour in Marsala and reduce to 1 Tbs.

Add tomatoes and chopped tripe and simmer for 45 minutes.

10 minutes before serving add balsamic vinegar and parsley and mix till well combined.

Cook penne in salted water till al dente, strain and place on individual preheated serving plates. Pour sauce over pasta, sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Root Vegetable Soup with Ham

This soup is truly a full meal, especially if you use a lot of ham as I did. As is usual with any dish done from scratch the mise en place is a bit tedious because of all the chopping but after that it is a breeze.

Ingredients:

5 cups ham stock

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/3 cup each of chopped onions, carrots, parsnip, green beans

2 Roma tomatoes, roughly chopped

1 cup chopped ham

1 cup cooked barley

1 clove garlic, crushed and chopped

1/3 cup Acini de Pepe or other small shape pasta

1 Tbs. chopped parsley

1/ 2 tsp dried basil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 Tbs. chopped parsley for garnish

Direction:

Heat olive oil in heavy bottom pan and add onions and garlic, sauté till translucent. Add rest of vegetables except tomatoes and barley and sauté briefly.

Add hot stock, pasta and bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add ham, barley, tomatoes and parsley and simmer additional 5 minutes.

Check if pasta is cooked and serve garnished with chopped parsley and few drops of olive oil.