Pork Served 4 Ways

Ah...the pork.  Who does not love pork?  There is no bad way to cook it or wrong way to eat it!  With this mind set, I spent a 5 day process to prepare this plate.  I used a couple different techniques and different cuts of pork.

The plate for the night included several pork related components:

• Pork Belly Confit
• Cured Pork Tenderloin
• Chicken Liver Pate Stuffed with Pork
• Apple Bacon Jam

Pork Belly Confit

First off, I have never confit anything before.  Most recently I had it served at a Korean pop up.  With that in mind, I was all for doing some pork belly confit!  From what I have read online, confitting is one of the oldest techniques to preserve food.  Whoever invented this process is my hero!  

For the pork belly confit, I had to brine the pork belly, but it had to be done properly.  I could not let it sit in the brine too long because then it would get to salty.  I suppose all the fat in the pork belly is just like a sponge.  I did this the night before and rinsed it the following morning before work and just let it dry out in a way in the fridge throughout the day.  The key to a confit is low and slow.  When I got home from work, I began the long 6 hour process.  I had to use lard because I did not have any pork fat lying around.  I melted the lard and let the pork belly submerged in it and tossed it in the oven.  

After 6 hours of it, I let it cool and placed something heavy on the pork belly to compress the fat for two reasons: to press out the fat and to make a better presentation.  

The day of plating, I had let the pork belly confit get to room temperature because the pork belly is stored with the lard to keep it "preserved".  To serve it, I scored the fat and rendered it in a hot pan until the fat crisped and finished it in the oven.  

Cured Pork Tenderloin

For the second component of the plate, I cured a pork tenderloin.  I have been on a curing kick ever since I learned how to make my own bacon.  If I could, I would have cured meat hanging all over my apartment.  I did a quick cure and only did it for four days and slowly roasted it in the oven on the fourth day.

Apple Bacon Jam

The third component of pork is an apple bacon jam that I prepared the prior night before plating.  This came abouts because I had a couple apples lying around that needed to be used.  Compared to the pork belly confit and cured pork tenderloin, this was a quick process of only a couple hours.  

Chicken Liver Pate stuffed with Pork

The last pork component of this is the chicken liver pate that I had added some ground pork to in the middle.  This was the first time I have prepared a pate and cooking chicken liver in general.  I have always loved pate, but I do not see it readily available around the markets near me.  This did not take long to prepare.  I had to let it set overnight.  

Red Bean Cheesecake with Matcha Green Tea Powder Whip Cream, Raspberry Gelee, and White Chocolate-Sesame Brittle

Having been so inspired by making my first real dessert a couple weeks ago, I wanted to make another.  This time, I knew I wanted to make a cheesecake, but then thought about the plating as well.  

Plating a slice of cheesecake would just be so blah.  Imagine just a regular slice of cheese cake sitting on a plate.  Yes, it can be appealing because it is cheesecake and there are so many variations of it.  Lets face it, who would not drool over a picture of cheesecake.  I wanted to take it a step further with it.  This was the easy part for me compared to what kind of cheesecake I wanted to make.  I did not want to do traditional flavored cheesecakes so I thought outside the box a bit and went with Asian flavors.  

Red beans came to mind and I know I have never seen a red bean cheesecake because I have eaten my fair share of them.  What I did was, pureed some red beans and sweetened it and mixed it with a basic cheesecake mix.  I was hoping more for a deeper red color, but it turned out perfect because it would have just blended in with the other component of the plate...the raspberry gelee.

Thinking of more Asian flavors, I though of a green tea whip cream.  To achieve different colors ofnthe plate, I turned to matcha green tea powder for color and flavor.  

To go a little bit more of an Asian flare, I melted some white chocolate and added some sesame seeds to it and made a white chocolate sesame "brittle"

The cheesecake was of course prepared the night before for plating the next day.  I had a slight idea on how I wanted it to be plated, but did not expect it to turn out the way it did.  

All the flavors played very well together.  I thought it turned out pretty well considering my lack of experience with dessert!

Asian Braised Short Ribs with Daikon Cake

I recently had beef short ribs on the cruise I was on a couple months ago.  Was highly disappointed, but I have heard so many great things about beef short ribs.  I have been telling myself for a while now that I was going to make it at home, but never remembered to purchase when I am at the market.  

All I knew was that beef short ribs are tough piece of meat and requires a long slow process to prepare.  The other dilemma was what am I going to pair it with to make it a complete dish especially the Asian marinade that I had planned for it.  

The night before, I marinaded the short ribs and set it in the fridge.  I thought long and hard about what to pair the short ribs with.  Then something clicked in my head and it was to make the pan fried daikon cake found at most dim sum restaurants.  I luckily did have a daikon in the fridge that I needed to use and happen to have dried shrimp and Chinese sausage as well in the freezer.  

The daikon cake is a long drawn out process.  I grated the daikon and reserved the liquid and boiled it with some broth, the sausage and dried shrimp.  I let it simmer for a little while to fuse all the flavors together.  As the mixture is still hot, slowly add in the rice flour.  The mixture should be in a way, a very thick batter.  Pour into a mold and steam it for about 45 minutes it.  This needs to be done in advance prior to serving so it cools and sets.  Needless to say, I was up till about 2 AM preparing this.  

The next day after work, I began braising the beef short ribs for about 3 hours.  This was such a tease because I was starving and had to wait for it to braise.  

Once the short ribs are close to being complete, slice the daikon cake into rectangles and pan fry it until crispy on the outside.  

Between the daikon cake and short ribs, it was the perfect pairing.  Typically the daikon cake is served with soy sauce, but paired so much better with the marinade that I used to braise and then reduced to make the sauce.  The sauce was a perfect balance of salty and sweet and paired very well with the flavors of the daikon cake.  The beef short ribs turned out amazing too!  I am officially a believer in beef short ribs if done correctly!  

I could not decide which of the two plates looked better so I went ahead posted both.  I look forward to hearing some feedback on the plating!  

Beef Cooked 3 Ways

I was at my parents a couple Sundays ago.  While we waited for dinner, I ran down the street to TJ Maxx to go plate shopping.  I have been in need of new plates for pictures, but do not have much luck at the stores near my place.  My eyes laid on this one particular plate immediately.  It was a plate that had 3 separate bowls in it.  It was unique.

The next day, I was on a mission to create a dish so I can put this to use.  As I started taking the steaks out of the package, I started of coming up with ideas.  What if I did beef 3 separate ways?  The dinner that night took a while to prepare because I essentially was preparing three different dinners.

First, I cut a small portion and did a pepper crust to prepare the Pepper Steak Nigiri.  The most time consuming part of this was preparing the rice.  The rice has to be cooked then a solution of rice wine vinegar and sugar is added and needs to be cooled down to be "sticky".  The beef was simply seared.  I made a quick ponzu sauce for it.

Second, I thinly sliced the beef to prepare shiitake mushroom noodle soup.  The broth was composed of shiitake mushrooms and a vegetable stock that I had in the freezer.  I quickly cooked some bean thread noodles and laid thinly slices of beef on top of it.  The idea is to have the beef cook by pouring the hot broth over it.

And finally, we have beef kabobs.  I needed a protein to go with it, but wanted to be creative.  We have had a bag of quinoa laying around that we have not used.  On top of that, we have never had it before.  I read the basic instructions on how to cook it and started added my own ingredients to it.  I officially now love quinoa and love how it looks in pictures!

Breakfast Gnocchi

The following day after the Pork Marsala Gnocchi, I once again had some leftover ingredients in the fridge that I know I had to use before I had to toss it out.  I had to get a bit creative with this one because I did not have much to work with.

So I took some of my homecured Asian bacon and started slicing it up.  Cooked it down and set it aside.  With the bacon fat, I sauteed some onions and mushrooms.  I quickly poached an egg for breakfast.  As I started looking at the ingredients I had this great idea.

I know I needed a sauce for the plate, but had not come up with anything.  So then I grabbed the herb infused whip cream from the night before.

My idea was to break open the poached egg and mix the yolk with the whip to create a creamy sauce for the gnocchi.  The idea was executed properly and it was delish!  I will be making this again soon.

Pork Marsala Gnocchi with Herb Infused Whip

A couple Saturdays ago, we had laid around all day and all I did was play around in the kitchen.  A random thought came to mind in the kitchen when I saw some potatoes.  I had made gnocchi about a year ago, but it turned out to gummy because I overworked the dough.  I thought about it and was determined to try making it again but better.  I had taken some pork chops out of the freezer and was only going to make spring rolls with it.  Went a whole different direction with it instead.

The gnocchi was plain fun to make because I only made a small batch unlike the first time.  I did not know what I was doing and made gnocchi for days!  I boiled a couple potatoes and ran it through a potato ricer and started adding flour and eggs until it had the consistency I wanted.

The pork chops were simply seasoned and pan seared just to form a crust and set aside.  Then I thought about chicken marsala and grabbed the bottle of marsala wine and deglazed the pan with it.

 For the herb infused whip, I added parsley, garlic, and chili in some heavy cream and heated it up.  The second it started bubbling, I pulled it off the stove and set it aside to let all the flavors infuse.  I whipped the heavy cream to form a whipped cream.

For some added color, I took some asparagus and shredded it and simply seasoned it.

The dish was unique and flavorful.  The whip and marsala sauce was terrifc.  The whip cream added an awesome flavor from the herbs and made a creamy sauce.

Lemongrass-Ginger Pana Cotta with Raspberry coulis, Peach purée, Toasted Coconut, and Raspberry Whip

First off, I am not a big sweets person so I have never played around with it much.  But I was craving pana cotta for some reason.  My first experience with pana cotta was at Uni Sushi where they had a mango puree injection injected in the middle of it. 

I thought it was the perfect dessert.  I do not remember it being overly sweet which is great for me.  I think the perfect dessert is one that has a hint of sweetness in it.  

Well I had this bright idea one night to make a lemongrass and ginger pana cotta.  What can I say, I was on a kick with lemongrass.  The pana cotta was very easy to make, but then I had to figure what I would pair with it to top it off.  The one thing I was nervous of is the pana cotta not setting right.  I was excited a couple hours later after I stuck in the fridge, it had set!

The next night, I had a late night at work, but I had to plate this.  I had been thinking about it all day and had an idea of what I wanted it to look like.  I ran out to the store late to pick up the ingredients that I needed.  

I picked up some peaches to make a peach puree, raspberry to make raspberry coulis, and white chocolate to make a tuile.  Now the exciting part!  I had so many different things going on in the kitchen, I quickly tossed in some shredded coconut in my little toaster oven.  It started catching on fire!  Who knew that would have happened.  It was only a minor set back.  

This may be the beginning of my dessert adventures.  I enjoyed the plating of it so much from the different colors to the different shapes that are needed.  And it is beyond tedious.  The little dots all over took so much time and patience.  

The end result was fantastic.  Individually, the three toppings paired well with the lemongrass-ginger pana cotta.  And then when you get all the different flavors into one bite, it is just like an explosion in your mouth!

Ramen Steak Banh Mi Burger

My little brother had spent the night a couple weekends and we were going to watch the football games at my place.  We went to the store to pick up food for the week and of course the game.  For the game, I had picked up some steaks and I was just going to pan sear it with some sides and call it a day.

I got to thinking, my little brother would enjoy something fun and unique especially after I saw him making himself ramen noodles that morning.  The steak was marinaded more of a teriyaki style.  As the steaks marinaded, I boiled several packs of ramen noodles and started forming it into "buns" and stuck it in the freezer for cooling and molding.  At this point, my brother had no idea what I had planned, but was very curious.

The reason for the "banh mi" in the title is because I used similar toppings for the ramen burger.  I had some pickled carrots and daikon in the fridge already, sliced cucumber, made a sriracha aioli, and then finished it with a fried egg.

The ramen did not take long to cool down and form its "bun" form.

Time to assemble the ramen burger.  The "buns" were pan fried until crispy.  The steaks were pan seared to a medium-rare doneness.  And I started packing on the toppings!

My brother was definitely surprised by the concept because he kept talking about it and how it was like something he had seen on television.  The ramen burger was definitely a success.  One thing I would have done differently is make the "buns" thinner.  What can I say...I got a bit to excited!

Miso Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin

I have always been one to not let food go to waste.  Although I am not a huge fan of eating leftovers, I am big on recreating it.  A couple days after I had made a ginger-lemongrass pork tenderloin, I had some extra for breakfast on a Saturday morning.

Breakfast was going to be interesting because I really had no idea what I was doing.  All I had in mind was a maple glaze for the pork and some potatoes.  After rummaging through the kitchen, I found some miso and put the maple glaze together with the miso.  I was definitely taking a chance on this.

I sliced some potatoes and fried them up.  Chopped up some mushrooms and sauteed it.  Soft boiled an egg for the first time (alot harder than it seems).  Thinking of  the red wine poached apple I had the other night, I figured a slice of apple would pair well with the dish.

There I am, a counter of ingredients and no idea on the plating.  I had my two plates laid out and started playing around with it and all of a sudden it started coming together.

All the flavors played very well together surprisingly.  The Miso-Maple glaze turned out very well with hints of salty and sweetness.  It went well with the leftover ginger-lemongrass pork tenderloin.

Ginger-Lemongrass Brined Pork Tenderloin with Red Wine Poached Apple

I was in Asiantown and happened to have bought some lemongrass.  I have always loved the flavors of lemongrass in pork.  Growing up, my Mom would add lemongrass to thinly sliced grilled pork called Thit Nuong.

Well this is not anything close to it, but I just wanted to bring back my childhood memories and cook with lemongrass.  This was the first I had made this, but figured brining is the best way to add moisture to meat and the flavors I want into it.  

The brine consisted of lemongrass, ginger, onion, parsley, whole peppercorn, salt and green onions.  When I do my brine, I make a very concentrated solution and let it all boil and infuse its flavors together for about 20 minutes.  The reason I make a very concentrated solution is that because I am impatient and cannot wait for the brine to cool down completely.  After about 20 minutes, I add in plenty of ice to dilute it to the concentration I need it to be and to cool it down completely.  

Here was my mistake, the reason I chose the brining method was because I thought I had purchased a pork loin and did not know I had bought tenderloin.  Oh well...I went ahead and did a 24 hour brine on the tenderloin.  I started it the night before and it was ready for me to roast the next day.

The next day, timing was perfect for the apple and the pork tenderloin.  By the time the pork got to room temperature to roast, I was finishing up poaching the apple in red wine.  

The pairing of the pork tenderloin and poached red wine was perfect.  I prepared a carrot puree to go with the plate as well.  The red wine that was used to poach the apple was spiced with a couple of spices that I had added.