Empanadas!

What's a boy to do with pork shoulder and time on his hands? Why, enter the dangerous world balancing baking, cooking, and terribly addictive foodstuffs, of course. First, we'll need to toast and crush some pasilla chilis. These are fairly mild to medium heat chilis, so you can go nuts.
 Next, cube your pork shoulder, and throw it in a pot with a tall boy of beer, and the crushed chilis. Yeah, they sell Yuengling up north now. Funny enough, it tasted better when I was a kid, and knew less about beer. No matter, it does its job. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and let it cook for a few hours.


 While that's going, lets work on some beans. Start by rendering bacon. Good start.

 We'll also dice up some garlic, onion, and jalapeño. Throw those into the pot when the bacon is crispy. No, leave the bacon fat in there. We need that.
 


 Add some cumin, and throw in a can of black beans. Don't drain them, that liquid is useful.

 Add tomatoes and a bay leaf, and let that simmer for a while. Season to taste; I like a bit of fish sauce, because fish sauce is awesome, but salt will do well, too. Lime juice helps, as well.


 So, let's see how that pork is coming alo-- Good lord.
 
 Looks like we're ready for the next step. Still simmering, poke, prod, and shred the pork, allowing the liquid to cook off, giving you something amazing.


 I can't wait. I'm making a taco like, right now. Heating up a tortilla, slicing cabbage, chopping up cilantro, scallions, and cojita cheese.



 What you do not see in this picture are shredded carrots and sliced radishes that have been quickly pickled by pouring boiling white vinegar over them and allowing the whole thing to cool.

Anyway, put all that stuff on the tortilla, and stuff it in your face.

 Ok, onward. I made a dough in the food processor using flour, water, and butter. Yeah, it was so easy, I forgot to take a picture of it. Imagine white stuff whirling around a plastic cylinder until it clumped together. Roll it out, and use a bowl to cut out circles of dough.

 Put a small amount of the pork, or the beans, or the cheese, or the pork and cheese, or the beans and cheese, or the pork and beans, or the pork and beans and cheese, fold them over, and crimp the edges. If you're very tired right now and want to go to bed because you ate too many tacos, you can wrap them in plastic and put them in the fridge until tomorrow.


 Yes, those crimps are pretty miserable. This is reason #173625 I am not a baker. So, when you're ready to go, heat up the oven, beat an egg yolk, and brush the yolk over the empanadas you've placed on a baking sheet.

We wanted to make a dipping sauce of some sort, so we took labneh, which is a thick yogurt cheese, and mixed in cumin, crushed dried chilis, and lime juice.

Bake the empanadas until they're golden brown. The great thing is, you've already cooked the meat and beans, so your goal is simply to get the dough where you want it.

Eat, finally, with the sauce, and the cabbage and pickled veg to brighten things up. Try your best not to scarf them down at a rate not fit for polite society.

Chilled Soba noodle salad with Chicken

Something light and easy for lunch.  Start with chicken breast, seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  Sear it in a sautee pan, let cool to room temperature.



For the vegetables, slice up bell peppers and scallions.



Trim green beans, shell some fava beans, then blanch in boiling water for about a minute, and shock in ice water.  Drain and dry them off when cool.



Toast sesame seeds lightly.  These are black sesame seeds.  If you're using the usual stuff, do NOT let them get to this color.



Do the same thing to some soba noodles.



Here's where the magic happens.  What is in this jar is a combination of scallions, garlic, star anise, red pepper flakes, and ginger.  Heat that, plus a half cup of vegetable oil, until the garlic starts to brown.  Let cool, then jar it.




Combine soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and a pinch of sugar in a bowl.




Throw in the veggies, sesame seeds, soba noodles, and chicken.  Toss, and serve with cilantro.

More Adventures in Thai Cooking

Two salads, sort of.

So, there's this word in Thai, "Yam".  It roughly translates as "salad", but often has no real connection to how we would understand it.  Case in point: "Neua Naam Tok", which is a steak salad that's pretty much just steak and herbs.  For those of you in Boston, this is very similar to the "Tiger's Tears" at Myers and Chang.

Slice up some of the tender parts of lemongrass, and smash them in a mortar.  Yes, this seems very... what's the right phrase... "Martha Stewart-y" maybe?  A bit of "faux-authenticity", perhaps?  Whatever.  It's what the book calls for, I happen to have a mortar and pestle, so.  Smash the lemongrass into a paste however you want to, along with some black peppercorns.




Scrape it into a bowl, and add some soy sauce.  Less than you would think, like a teaspoon or so.


I'm using skirt steak, here.  Massage the marinade into the steak, let it sit for about half an hour to an hour.



While we're waiting, let's get the rest of this going. Throw a couple of dried chilis into an unoiled wok, and toast them until they're brittle and very dark.  Let them cool, break them open, discard the seeds, grind them into a powder.  Combine some of the powder with lime juice, fish sauce, stock, sugar, and sliced lemon grass.  Again, you don't need much, just about a quarter cup, total.





More prepping: Shallot, mint leaves, cilantro.




Also, cover sliced chilis with fish sauce, and let that sit.


It's not yet grilling season (read: the new place does't have a grill yet), so I broiled the steak, let it rest, then sliced it thinly.  Note: As it turns out, this isn't thin enough.  We're talking 1/8th of an inch, here.



Throw the dressing into the wok, and heat it until warmed through.  That's it, just so it's warm.  Throw in the steak, and the rest of the veggies.  Turn off the heat, and toss to combine.  Dump everything onto a plate.





Ok, that's a hell of a lotta meat.  Let's go the other way.  This is a lot more like a salad.

These are dried shrimp.  They are salty, and funky.  Rinse a few off, pat them dry, and throw them into an un-oiled wok and toast them until crispy.



This recipe asks for us to use a Thai clay mortar and pestle.  That's something I don't have: a large, deep, clay or wooden mortar with a wood pestle, for smashing and bruising stuff.  What I do have, however, is a plastic bowl and the pestle from my china cap.  To work!  Pound out garlic, chilis, and agave until you have a sludge.  Note: The chilis I'm using is the discarded pulp from when I made my own sriracha (But that's for another post).



Quarter some limes, throw them in, smash them up.


Add the shrimp, gently bruise them (don't smash).


Add green beans, bruise 'em.


Add cucumber and tomatoes, bruise them, too.  Notice that you're not turning these into paste, you're just beating them up a bit.  This is the closest they'll see to cooking.  Bruising the cell walls will help absorb the flavor.Anyway, toss in some peanuts, stir to combine, then toss the whole thing on top of a bowl of cold vermicelli noodles.



Serve family style, with the fish sauce chilis to be dumped over the steak salad (or, hell, over whatever the heck you want).