Shredded Pork in Red Chili

As much as I complain about the ending of summer, it's always exciting when the time to make cold-weather comfort food arrives.  This recipe seemed like the answer to that pork loin stashed in my freezer, and I was intrigued by the idea of a pork chili.  In my hurry, I shaved an hour off the cook time and the meat was still fall-apart tender.

I made a few changes.  For one, the recipe doesn't say how much hominy to use, so I just left it out.  Also, I'm not fond of yuca and didn't have any, so I substituted a sweet potato.  I felt the sweet potato absorbed too much salty flavor, and might be inclined to leave it out or cook it separately next time.  And as a spice wuss I cut down on the dried chiles and chipotle.  The verdict: Joe was crazy about this dish, and I thought it was OK.  It was good, but I didn't feel wowed, like something was missing.  And not just the tongue-sear from omitting some chiles.  I might give it another go, now that we're officially in Dutch oven season.

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

It's Memorial Day weekend, and that means a couple months of sweet corn, burgers, ribs, and pulled pork sandwiches.  This pulled pork recipe, like many others of its kind, calls for being made in an oven and not the grill.  I find that's also the case for ribs, and I've come to prefer making ribs in the oven to avoid that char you get so easily on the grill.  I also love how easy this pulled pork is -- just marinate, cover and bake for a few hours the next day, pull apart, and you're done.  And unlike other pulled pork recipes I've tried, this one is truly pull-apart tender; no shredding with your knife is required.  It's a great hot-weather dish.

And speaking of hot weather, my little vegetable and herb garden is taking off.  We prepared a raised bed for the first time in our yard.  Removing the sod was the hardest part, and we kept the rest simple.  No poured concrete or deep barriers, since it is a rented house after all.  We've got four varieties of tomatoes --Early Girl (top right), Sun Sugar (a yellow variety), Roma, and Grape -- along with parsley, chives, buttercrunch lettuce, and eggplant.  There was originally more lettuce, but some of the young plants got drowned in heavy rain, as did my strawberry plants.  I cursed Mother Nature and went off to get more strawberry plants, but the store was all out except for what they called these urban planters.  It was more than I planned to spend, but it's got almost a dozen strawberry plants, and a cool pot.  It already has some green fruit and beautiful white flowers.  I'm excited for my upcoming summer bounty!

That includes peonies.  I'm crazy about these flowers.  Too bad they're such slow growers and last so briefly.  I planted the one in the top right photo a few years ago, and it finally had one bloom this year.  Just one bloom.  I had gotten so impatient I bought a potted one (lower left), and it also yielded exactly one bloom.  I just can't win.  At top left is a shrub that blooms every spring, but I have no idea what it is.  The Sun Sugar tomatoes, at bottom right, have begun to sprout flowers that will bear the fruit.

So back to that pulled pork...

I used a tenderloin instead of the pork butt the recipe calls for, since that was what I had in the freezer.  I was concerned it might turn out dry because tenderloin isn't as fatty as butt (go ahead, snicker), but you might be able to see that this tenderloin had some fat.  It was also half the size the recipe called for, but that's OK for our household of two.  We've still got leftovers for today!  I also have a confession: I didn't use the barbecue sauce the recipe includes, or even make my own.  I resorted to a storebought bottled sauce, but it was still delicious.  Come on, I had to work Memorial Day weekend!

Beijing-Style Dumplings

What possessed me to make dumplings from scratch last night?  My back ached and there was flour and pork everywhere.  In the end, though, they were delicious.  But if you make these with storebought wrappers, I won't judge.  I won't tell anyone.  Heck, if you waited to go out for dim sum to eat these, I'd understand.  But if you undertake this mission, recruit some helping hands and think of the light at the end of the tunnel.

So unlike the dumplings of Southern China that I'm used to, with their meat and seafood fillings, the shui jiao of the North tend to have vegetables.  This recipe from the LA Times uses a pork and cabbage filling.  I think a pork-and-shrimp filling will always be my favorite, but this was a welcome change of pace.  The pork and cabbage are tender, the rice wine lends a hint of sweetness, and the ginger a little heat.  It's my new recipe for the New Year.

Daring Cooks Challenge: Potstickers!

I get asked a lot why I don't make more Chinese food. Well, I learned to cook after I left home, and there were far more resources on Western cooking. But one thing I did help make as a kid were won tons, so this potsticker challenge seemed very doable. But unlike some other bloggers, this isn't really representative of cuisine in Hainan (the island in China's south), Malaysia, or Singapore -- the places of my grandparents' and parents' birth. It's just what my family used to fill won tons and then tweaked by me. It's delicious, is what it is!

I've never made wrappers from scratch before, but I've got to thank Jen of use real butter for making it mandatory for the challenge! Once I got the hang of making them, it was relatively easy. I tried my hand at pretty pleats, but they were ugly so I proceeded with a simple fold-over. So the result was plain, but our cleared plates were testament to the tastiness!

My Filling:

It was funny measuring ingredients for this recipe. If your mom is like my mom, she measures and times nothing because she just has the instinct. That's led to some unsuccessful re-creations of her recipes (is "a little" a pinch or a teaspoon, ma?), but I always managed with this!

½ lb ground pork

½ lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tsp ginger, grated on the microplane or minced

5 scallions, chopped

1 tbs sesame oil

1 tbs soy sauce

½ tsp black pepper

2 tbs cornstarch

Pulse everything in the food processor until you get chunky bits. Or finely chop the larger ingredients and stir everything together. That ice-cream-like-scoop you use for cookie dough is useful here, too. Thanks to Lisa-Is-Bossy for the suggestion on using a pestle as a mini rolling pin! I was confused a bit at first on how thick and long to roll the dough logs, but if you have a scale, each dough chunk and rolled-out wrapper should average out to about 25 grams.

These get fried a bit so you get crunchy undersides, and then they sizzle in steam so they cook the rest of the way through:

The Challenge: Chinese dumplings/potstickers (aka gyoza in Japanese)

Reveal Date: June 14th! Good luck, Daring Cooks - woohoo!
It's a basic concept: a filling inside a dough wrapper, sealed, and cooked. This delicious theme runs through many cultures and is among the more popular bites at Chinese restaurants - especially dim sum. The recipe I provide is based on my family recipe. There is a lot of wiggle room and I encourage you to explore. If you've made them before - great! Now try something different!

The process goes a little like this:

You can (and should) reference instructional photos and discussion on my blog post here.