Stir fried pork with charred bok choy

Veggies, and such.


Pork, sliced into strips.


Ginger, garlic, soy, mirin, rice vinegar, nam pla, seseme oil. Oh, and some scallions.


Wash and dry the bok choy, and throw under the broiler until lightly charred.


In an extremely hot pan, add a bit of oil, and stir fry the pork for about a minute, reserving marinating liquid.


Wipe out pan, add a little more oil, and sautee onion, garlic, serrano, and ginger. Return pork to pan to heat through. Remove.


Add some stock to the liquid, and add to the pan and bring to a boil. Add a slurry of cornstarch and water, and cook until thickened.


Drizzle sauce over pork and bok choy, and top with cilantro and sesame seeds.

Pan-seared trout and spinach salad with smoked sable

Ok, this is pretty much what it sounds like. For the salad, we have spinach, shallots, and tomatoes.


There was some smoked sable available (it has a creamier texture than smoked salmon or trout).


Season trout fillets with some cajun seasonings, or just salt and pepper, if you want.


In a combination of butter and oil, and on high heat, sear the fish flesh side down for a couple of minutes, then flip and sear the skin for another couple of minutes.


The salad dressing is 1 Tb lemon juice, 2 Tb olive oil, salt, 1 tsp mustard, and pepper. Whisk until emulsified, and then toss the veggies together. Shred the sable, and arrange on top of the salad.

Sausage, anyone?

Good morning, sunshine.

Let's make some sausage!

Ok, go and get this:


Dump it in a bowl.


Ok, ok... I'll be nice.
1 lb ground pork
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sage
1 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp rosemary
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp smoked serrano
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Freeze half, and make small patties with the other half. Place in medium pan, and brown.


Have some eggs, while you're at it.

Pork cutlets with kumquat

Sounds exotic, yes? Well, it's pretty easy. The Main Players:


Season the pork, and lightly dust with flour. In a medium hot pan, add olive oil and brown on both sides, about 3-4 minutes a side, depending on thickness.


Remove, turn heat down, and add the garlic, shallots, and kumquats. Sautee to soften a bit.


Turn the heat up, and deglaze with white wine. Add a bit of butter at the end to smooth the sauce out.


Spoon sauce over pork. Serve with a vegetable, or something.

Chicken-Tomato Soup with Hominy

So, we've got all this stock, what to do?

Start with chicken, of course. Salted.


Season, brown, and remove.


Sautee Serrano pepper, onion and garlic. Season with cumin, smoked Serrano (or chili powder), and salt.


Deglaze with white wine.


Quarter some tomatoes. I got a variety pack of small ones.


This is Hominy. Or at least it's a can.


Add tomatoes, hominy, and chicken. Add chicken stick. Season with bay leaf, oregano, and nam pla. Simmer for 20 minutes.


During the last 5 minutes, add lime juice. Serve.

Chicken Stock

Well, it's time to make some chicken stock.

First, the veggies.


I give them a rough chop, and then brown them in a pan with no oil, and no salt.


Dump into your crock pot with these aromatics.


If you're like me, you've been keeping chicken carcasses in the freezer. Toss them in the stock pot, and add water to cover.


Turn on the stock pot, and walk away. Go to sleep, go to work, whatever you want. Check up on it every once in a while, and add water if the level goes down. You're not looking to boil the liquid down, you're looking to extract the collagen from the bones.


You know it's ready when a chicken bone crumbles in your hand like this.


Time to separate the liquid from the solids. Using tongs, dump the bones and stuff into a colander over a pan to catch the runoff (shown: a pasta pot with removable colander).


Pour the liquid into a separate pot through a sieve. Place the put in a pan full of icewater to cool. If you feel like ruining a couple of plastic bottles, you can use the Alton Brown trick of freezing half-full (clean) plastic bottles of water and putting them straight into the pot. Clever, if not a bit messy.


Ladle some of the stock into a fat separator, and fill individual cup and half-cup Tupperware, and freeze.

Breaded Chicken with a Savory Cauliflower Sauté

What you see here: 4 chicken thighs, bone in, skin on; one egg, beaten with lemon juice, salt, and pepper; breadcrumbs with oregano.


Dip thigh in egg, then in breadcrumbs. Place in roasting pan, roast at 350 for about an hour, or until internal temp is 165 (it will go up to 170 as it rests, don’t worry about food death).


Chop up some cauliflower, season with olive oil and salt, roast with chicken for about 30 minutes.


For the sauté, you’ll need red onion, garlic, anchovies (however you can get them), red pepper flakes, and parsley. Not shown: more lemon juice.


When the chicken has reached 165, pull it from the oven and let rest, covered. Then, put all ingredients except parsley and lemon in a cold pan with some oil, and set the burner to medium. Stir as the pan heats up, being careful not to burn the garlic.


The cauliflower is done when it caramelizes slightly.


Toss it in the pan with the aromatics, and add some lemon juice.


Top the cauliflower with parsley before serving.

Asian Roast Beef with Quick Kimchee

Well, I didn’t have 5 years or so to bury some cabbage in the back yard, so we’re going to do this the easy way (oh, and thanks to dear old mum for the idea). First, get some Napa Cabbage, Bok Choy, and scallions.


Slice thin, place in colander, and toss with a couple of tablespoons of kosher salt. Let sit for several hours, allowing the cabbage to wilt. It might help to place the colander in a bowl, because it will give off a lot of liquid.


While we’re letting that sit, we put together the marinade.


The garlic and ginger should be run through a microplane. You don’t need too much brown sugar, and be careful with that Korean garlic and chili paste. Mix in bowl, and then add a beef sirloin roast. Marinate for 6 hours or overnight, turning every couple of hours (inquiring minds, rejoice! This roast weighs 3 pounds!)


Place roast in pan on a rack. Roast 30 minutes at 500 degrees, flipping every 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 250, and roast an hour a pound, turning every hour. Remove to your carving board, and let rest for 15-20 minutes.


Meanwhile, dump the marinade liquid into a pot, and bring to a simmer. Add chicken stock and a bit of cornstarch slurry, and season to taste. I added some fish sauce and cumin.


Time to finish up the kimchee. The dressing contains:


I usually end up with a teaspoon each of the chili garlic paste and the sriracha, but add more if you like the taste of burning. Toss with cabbage, and chopped mint or basil.


Since you let it rest, the meat’s juices have retreated back into the roast, which is why you don’t get the bloodpool when you slice it.


Serve with the sauce lightly drizzled over top.