Oink!

During lunch time at work I usually sit in front of my computer eating soup and salad from the cafeteria and entertain myself with a few websites that I cannot live without. Perez is my first stop, something about minding other people's business just makes life so much more entertaining. Taste Spotting is my next stop where I can indulge in all these photos from food blogs all over the place. Just by looking at these yummy food pictures my soup and salad all of a sudden becomes so much more tastier than it really is. It also gives me alot of inspirations for creation. One picture that I see often attempted by food bloggers is Momofuku's Pork Belly Bun. So much hype about this $5 mini Chinese hamburgers... which I personally think is completely over priced. Momofuku's Pork Belly Bun is a pillowy Chinese flour bun sandwiched with a slice or couple of slices of the roasted pork belly, some hoisin sauce, green onions and pickled cucumbers. I've personally never been to Momofuku but I have seen similar items served at ippudo. With a slab of pork belly that's $6, store bought buns that's $2.50, cucumbers and green onions together about $3, $11.50 brings you about 10 pork belly buns.

This is a time consuming but really easy project for me. Putting the pork belly into the a salt and sugar brine took about 5 min. Waiting time is about 1/2 day to 1 day. After the pork is brined, stick the pork belly into a roasting pan for 2 hours or so. Beginning with 450 degrees for 1 hour and ending with 250 degree for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. There really is more waiting time than having to stay in the kitchen babysitting the pork. While sitting in my living room chatting away, I can hear the sizzles from the fatty layer of the pork belly and the smell is to die for. I did save the grease from the pork belly for some 豬油飯 pork oil rice. This does not sound appetizing, but when my parents were growing up, this was the best treat ever.







So once the pork is ready, it only takes about 10 min or so to make the pickled cucumbers. The cucumbers are tossed in sugar and salt, let it sit for about 5-10 min, rinsing off the excess salt and sugar in a colander and voila, you have your pickled cucumbers.

These turned out to be quite exquisite. It's also a nice change from the traditional braised pork belly buns that my mom used to make during holidays!

Lastly I'd like to thank bubbe7ea for keeping me motivated in putting out new posts. Now, it's your turn!

Happy Year of the Tiger

Happy Chinese New Year

Back to my Roots

I want to start out by saying that this post is dedicated to my mom!

The snow of the century had forced myself to stay home for numerous days which got me to challenge myself to some 鍋貼 guo tie and 蔥油餅 scallion pancakes. I drove out into the snowy roads just to get ingredients for the guo tie.

Scallion pancakes, made out of the simplest ingredients… flour, water, scallion, oil and some salt. Yet, something so simple can be oh so delightful.

The dough of the scallion pancakes is the same with the one used for the guo tie. I normally don’t post recipes, but since the hot water dough is so basic and useful, I think it’s nice to have it.

Ingredients:

3 cups of flour

1 cup of hot water (around 170 F)

1/2 cup of cold water

Directions:

1) Put water in bowl. Pour in hot water and stir to form a loose dough.

2) Slowly mix in cold water.

3) Prepare a separate bowl, grease it, then put dough inside. Let is rise for about 20 min.

You can use this for many different dumplings and Chinese style pancakes.

For the guo tie, I had made a shrimp, pork and cabbage filling. I wanted to use some yellow chives, but it wasn’t available in the grocery that day. Was a little bummed about that! But these turned out pretty good. What I would probably change next time though is to make the dough a little thicker so when you fry it in the pan, the bottom part does not get too crispy.

So, here goes..