Roasted Pork belly

My lovely wife gave me a request to cook up some pork belly. She also picked up some chestnuts that I roasted and failed at, but this turned out great. She was thinking I would cook it in an Asian style but I put an Anglo Saxon (British if you will) spin to it. Roasted pork belly with thyme and pan gravy. 

Uncured pork belly

Make shallow cuts on fatty side. Rub salt over all sides and get it into the cuts. Then brush off what ever is not going to stick to the meat and add a little thyme.

Not to much thyme you do not want to over power the flavor. Put in roasting pan or cast iron pan and into a 425 F oven for half an hour.

After half an hour it will look like this. Turn down oven to 350.

Add onion, garlic, carrots if you have them. Dang we were out of carrots! Back into oven for on hour.

It will look like this after an hour. Garlic will be soft, onions caramelized and the pan will have nice roasted bits on it to make pan gravy with. Pour off excess fat and use corn starch/water or chicken stock to make gravy.

I served it with peas and mashed potatoes. It was a hit! Very rich and lucky that she only bought a small piece of pork because it is hard restrain your self from eating MORE!

Thanks Honey for inspiring me to make some thing new.

Lion Head Soup

Lion Head Soup is traditionally pork but turkey works just fine. The name describes how the napa looks around the meat balls resembling a lions mane. 

Start with Napa, ginger and green onion. 

Mix ground meat, green onion, egg, 1/2 tsp salt, and a good amount of corn starch. I add more until it becomes quite sticky. Mix it and make meat balls, set aside.

Ginger about this size to toss in the chicken stock. I use two large containers of chicken stock if I do not have home made on hand. The ginger flavor dresses up store bought stock nicely. 

Every one in the pool!

I start with the napa and bring it all to a boil then add meat balls so they hold together.

Add some green onion to the bowl and that is it. Meat balls are tender, soup has a mild ginger note to it. Great for a cold night or if some one is feeling under the weather. Easy and quick week night dinner.

Meat Loaf fit for a Queen

OK, so I was in need of some comfort food and this is a simple dish I make that the wife likes. It may not be pretty but it is easy and left overs make great sandwiches. 

Start with grated carrot, a small onion diced, a healthy squirt of yellow mustard and 3 eggs in a large bowl. You can add celery,parsley, green onion. What ever make it your own!

Ground turkey or pork or if you are rich and evil veal. I have used bulk sausage but in my opinion it over  powers the flavors.

Ground beef

Secret ingredient quick oats. One heaping cup or just eye ball it. Seriously this is not rocket science just add a good amount.

Every thing in the bowl

Now to get dirty! Take off your rings and  mix by hand. I like to make two smaller loafs. One for dinner one for sandwiches. Now into a 350 oven for an hour and a half. 

While the meat loaf is cooking peal and boil some potatoes. Smash/whip if you like or pick up this little kitchen gadget a "ricer" I think this one was $4 and makes fluffy potatoes every time.

It is kind of like the play doh barber shop. You squeeze the hot potato threw the holes

It looks like this before you add butter and a splash of milk and mix.

Look perfect mashed potatoes! 

Once the meat loaf is done spread catsup on top and back in the oven for a little bit. 

Dinner fit for my Queen!

Salad and a little burger.

For the salad I have arugula, oak leaf, speckled lettuce and red dandelions from the yard.

I added some nasturtium flowers to the salad. Also made a red wine vinegar baby potato salad.

Turnip greens

I decided to plant some turnips between the tomato plants this year. They sprouted and grew fast!

They look like this.

After picking/washing the greens I discovered that my family fed me the last of the bacon the morning before. So I used some Italian sandwich meats. What the hell? I'm sure ham would work fine or just saute it in some oil.

I then discovered I only had red onions. 

After frying the meat, remove it and add the onion to pan. Add the greens, cover and cook ten or fifteen min. Then add 1/2 tsp sugar, lemon juice. One tsp salt.

serve with the cooked meat, rice and a hard boiled egg.

It may not look like much but it was tasty!

Stir fried rice cake and vegetables

This is one of my favorite discoveries I have made in the last 2 years. Korean rice cakes! They are cheap ($1.50) freeze well and are like a gnocchi when cooked. They are supper versatile, and can be added to soups, stir fries, just fried on their own and dressed with a little soy sauce is yummy.

On the left is the beef marinade. On the right is green onion, garlic(crushed) covered in mirin. If you do not know Mirin is a sweet cooking rice wine.

Beef Marinade

4 Tbsp dark soy sauce

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 Tbsp sesame oil

I used skirt steak that I froze for an hour then sliced thin. 

These rice cakes are HARD! So they need to be blanched for two min. then rinsed well and then coat with sesame oil to keep them from sticking.

Heat the pan over medium heat and add beef. When it is almost done add onion and rest of ingredients.

Add carrot, shitake mushrooms, cucumber(remove seeds) and rice cakes.

Cook until the sauce thickens and becomes sticky. Stir from time to time to get every thing coated.

Transfer to a dish and serve immediately! 

Serve with some pickled daikon, pickled mushrooms or kimchi 

Pickled Shitake mushrooms

Rehydrate in HOT water for half an hour. Clean veins of any grit, remove tough stem and cut into smaller pieces. Reserve 2 cups of steeping liquid.

Combine 2 cups of reserved steeping liquid and,

1 cup sugar

1 cup light soy sauce

1 cup sherry vinegar

Two 3 inch knobs of fresh ginger peeled

Bring to a  simmer gently over medium heat. Just lazy bubbles not a hard boil. Stirring occasionally for 30 min. 

Let cool then put in container pour enough liquid to cover. Refrigerate and they are good for one month.

They make a nice sweet pickle that counter balances spicy things.