Mmm, Honey Pale Ale

Tonight's quaff of choice...Home Brewed Honey Pale Ale

One of the things I learned about home brewing over the past few years, you gotta let some brews sit. This one is one of those, totally disjointed 3 months ago, delicious tonight.

Spam Pineapple fried rice

I can't decide where to put this, so it will probably be a dual blog post. It is the ultimate fusion, and of course, it is inspired by that great melting pot of Hawaii. I first saw a version of this made by Chef Sam Choy and have adopted it for myself.

First there is the smoked Spam, the essential ingredient and cultural icon of Hawaii gets a BBQ spin with a hour and a half in the kettle, over apple wood and citrus wood charcoal, some briquettes thrown on for fun. I rubbed the Spam with a salt free Dizzy Dust rub, I mean, there is no need to add more salt to Spam. Here it is, and I might add, Spam looks more delicious smoked

  

This was allowed to rest overnight, let the smoke settle in while I ate other stuff. Note the bacon? Yes, applewood bacon. Next are the aromatics and spices, chopped onions, celery, lemon zest, Red Boat black pepper, garlic chives and some chile powder. 

 The onions and celery were sauteed in the wok until translucent. Then the meat, comprised of a little bit of smoked Spam and some crumbled bacon were added and heated through. The rice, a jasmine rice from Thailand was cooked then cooled on a bamboo mat, as drier cool rice makes for a better friend rice. I slightly undercooked the rice to get the right texture and to prevent it breaking down in the wok. The cooling on a bamboo mat or strainer allows for air circulation and prevents mushiness, this also works great for noodle to be fried.

The rice was tossed into the wok and tossed a few times to heat through. Then I added the spices (shown above) to season it all up. I then added a flavoring blend of 1 teaspoon each of Red Boat Fish Sauce, Liquid Amino Acids and Japanese Worcestershire sauce. Anyone who has followed my cooking knows it is all about layers of flavors and playing the idea for raw or crispy off of cooked and tender, so the final additions were some chopped kimchi and come fresh pineapple chunks. 

The whole mixture was tossed in the wok for a minute then loaded into a bowl, obviously there was far more than one serving. Some was tossed in a bowl and topped with a fried egg. 

Take a look at that egg and the mixture underneath. Yes, a fried egg, sunny side up, no I am not worried about getting food poisoning. Another beauty shot.

The egg I got from my sister's chickens, the rich yellow yolk and see how it stands up, you know that is a good egg. I like to add the egg to the top and then let the yolk flow down and flavor the rice. As a child, I hated raw yolk, but, now, I love the warmed yolk on hot rice, there is something about the richness of the yolk and how it sits on rice that is just perfect.

Smoked Spam

Yes, I gave in to my most base urges and I smoked a Spam. It is now resting in my refrigerator. I have plans for it. Tomorrow. Tonight, it rests and the smoke infuses into the porky goodness that is Spam.

Chicken Ka-Babs of an Asian Persuasion

Tonight was chicken night, it was also low carbohydrate night and it was Bob needs to eat more veggies night as well. My sister has been sending me photos of kabobs she has been cooking, so I decided to make them, cause they were in my head. Well, here goes.

The  Aromatics:
1/4 cup each onion, celery and carrots, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
7 or so slices of ginger

Mash the aromatics lightly and set side.

Liquids:
1/4 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acid
1/8 cup water
4 little packs of Truvia
2 tablespoon coconut infused white balsamic vinegar (I got mine from Victorino Olive Oil in Livermore)

Blend all ingredients along with aromatics. This forms the marinade for the chicken. I added one skinless, boneless breast of chicken cut into chunks. This was covered and allowed to marinate for 6 hours. The salt in the fish sauce will be enough to add some moisture and pull the marinade into the chicken over this period of time.

Chicken added and ready for chilling.

Later that day, some veggies were prepared for the kabobs, I chose to go with onion, baby shittake mushrooms, red bell pepper and Thai sweet basil, which I put against the chicken to get one final layer of flavor added.

To the skewers, I choose to use two skewers to avoid twisting, I find the two skewers work well for keeping the meat in place and avoiding loss of meat on the grill. I made sure to layer things to create as much interplay of the flavors, making sure the basil was next to the chicken.

I did a little something different with the kettle tonight, since I was looking for a little heat, but, not wanting to mess with the kettle setup too much, I left the smoker baffle in place and loaded the entire side of the kettle with charcoal and got it going nice and hot. The effect was a more vertical fire that was throwing heat across the grate. I added the skewers so the heat ran across them, A few changes of position and they were done. I did try a baste, using more fish sauce, cider vinegar, coconut white balsamic vinegar and Truvia. I ended up with these.

The baste worked pretty well in giving the meat a shiny finish and added just one more layer of flavor and aroma to the final product. Here is a close-up for those who need a little more detail.

I only ate one and a half of these, not all three. It was a good dinner and although some Jasmine rice would have been nice, it certainly wasn't missed. Plus, I ate too much at lunch anyways.

Hawker Fare in Oakland

Went to a new restaurant in Oakland, Hawker Fare, which I had high hopes for. The experience proved two axioms, one is that who you dine with matters more than what you eat, the other is to be wary of the high expectations driven by anticipation. First, to my dining companions.

One of the perks of blogging and being connected (however vaguely) to the food business is that you get to meet other people that share your passion. Often, these are very interesting people that can make any dining experience more enjoyable. One of the folks I ate with today was my friend Rob, he of Red Boat slinging fame. The other was Mai Troung, whose blog Flavor Boulevard is a very passionate and intelligently written journal of her dining experience. If you have a taste for good food in general, and Asian food in specific, I recommend you click on the link. As for Mai and Rob, they made for excellent dining companions, I would gladly share a table with them in the diviest of dives.

Onto the food, from the time I saw the menu of this new place in downtown Oakland, my old work-hood, I wanted to eat there, I had visions of food that spoke of the street, that combination of flavors, individuality and independence that colors street food, at it's best, as singular, gritty, notably of the street. This was not to be. What I was thinking was BBQ sold off the side of a smoker, carnitas and giardinare tacos off the back of a pickup or odd pieces of chicken on rice with kitchen gravy, the kind of food I love. What I got was good food, food that if I worked anywhere in downtown, I would certainly walk over for.

Main had 24 hour Pork Belly, which looked very good. Reports were that it was good. It sure looks good.

All of the dishes came with a nice dipping sauce and interesting vegetable or herbs to accompany the meat. Rob had Lemongrass chicken which he also felt was good. It is very attractively plated.

And I ordered the Beef Short Rib, which was also quite tasty and had the added interest of a fried egg, an option that I will always take if offerend. The dish was very well flavored and certainly good.

It all ended with soft-serve ice cream, one a sundae and the other ice cream with a side shot of espresso. This is Strauss Creamery soft serve, there is clearly no lack of passion by the owner to present high quality food, in a nice setting with great flavors. This is something they do well, if you are looking for this, then this is a good place to go.

For me, as I said, if I still had my office in downtown Oakland, this place would make the rotation. But, as I said, to some degree, I had allowed my mind to gear up for something that I had no reason to expect, to that degree, this was a pleasant food experience with very interesting people filled with talk of food and cooks who are pushing the limits of what a restaurant can do, what I had hoped I had found here.

Making a BBQ Sauce

I decided to have a pulled pork sandwich for dinner tonight. I cooked the pork butt yesterday, pulled it and gave it a little extra seasoning. But, what is really going to make the sandwich work is going to be the sauce. Now, I have a plethora of commercial sauces for testing and others that I have come to consider 'house' sauces, but, since I want this sandwich to be something special, I decided to make my own sauce. First up, I need ketchup that is low in sodium and without standard sugars common to commercial ketchup. I made this.

Ketchup Recipe
2 cups cider vinegar (in my case, organic Spectrum Cider Vinegar)
1 tablespoon oil (can be olive oil, I used canola oil)
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground Phu Quoc Black Pepper
8 whole cloves
2 small bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon cayenne or chile powder
1 teaspoon ground mace
2 large cloves garlic, coarsely chunked
1/2 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1/8 cup Bragg's Amino Acids
1/8 cup Red Boat Fish Sauce
32 oz. can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
8 little packs of Truvia Sweetener ( I really need to find the spoonable stuff)

Bloom spices in oil over medium heat until aromatic, I add the powdered ingredients at the last moment. Then add the garlic and onions and sweat until translucent. Add vinegar and bring to simmer for 15 minutes. Once slightly reduced, remove bay leaves and cloves, then blend until desired texture is achieved. I like a little bit of texture left. Return to pot (unless you used a stick blender) and add fish sauce, Amino acids and San Marzano tomatoes. Cook over low for 10 minutes. Add Truvia to taste. Allow to cool.

Here is the sauce made, after the addition of 1/8 cup of Black Currant infused balsamic vinegar, 1 more packet of Truvia and 1/8 cup more cider vinegar and a teaspoon of Lucky Dog hot sauce. This remained uncooked.

The above ketchup recipe creates a spicy flavor with distinct tomato and savory flavors and a nice sweet heat on the finish. I really want a rich tomato flavor to ring through on the initial taste. This is not at all as thick, sweet or salty as commercial ketchup, it is more of a ketchup sauce. The additions for the BBQ sauce punches up a few of the flavors and adds a fruity character as well. Here is a close-up to show the thickness and texture of this sauce.

This sauce is closer to the pork sauces you see in the south, thin with a distinct tang and a little heat. It is a sauce designed for pork. And this was it's final destination.

 A pulled pork sandwich, soft white bread, sweet pulled pork, spicy red sauce and some cole slaw and green tomato relish to round it all out. This is what a nice pork cooks ends up being all about.

Pulled Pork, oh the tradition

I made pulled pork today, not some fancy plated braised in stout pulled pork or raised by loving hands of Russian maidens and allowed to eat only Italian acorns pulled pork. Just plain old traditional pulled pork, from an unnamed pig, slow cooked over charcoal and wood. I chose to use a mix of "Cherry Rub" and "Sweet and Spicy Rub" made by Steph Franklin from Simply Marvelous BBQ, Steph is making some of the best rubs out there and it is my go to rub. I mixed these two half/half mostly because I wanted to rub heavily and I didn't order soon enough to have a full bottle of either.

I had the kettle set up for off-set heat, settled in at 275F and waiting for the pork. I had purchased a 3.5lb partial butt, since my usual folks that I dump my leftover sack-O-pork on are traveling. It was a mediocre piece of butchering, but, an excellent piece of pork. Here it is with the first coating of rub.

As you can see, the butt is a little loose, it was partially separated in the fat vein and at the bone, I had to practice a little butcher twine work to get it to a more or less uniform shape (depending on your feeling in uniform). In this next image, the pork has been tied and sat for 40 minutes with a fan running, this sets a skin (pellicle) to adhere the second coating of rub to. The combination of sugar, salt and the proteins drawn from the meat forming the pellicle allows for adhering the rub without using any other ingredients. Next image is with the second rub.

Basically, once this was done and the rub was set a little more, I placed the now well coated hunk of meat into the kettle at 275F for the next 6 hours, this created a very nice bark, a deep rich color and a very tender pork butt. Here is it just prior to resting.

I wrapped into the foil, then inside of a warmed towel to rest and continue to cook slowly and cruise down to pulling temperature. This process takes an hour, believe it or not, an hour is really minimal for this part of the cook. Then I pulled the meat into chunks for cooling and storing, as I intend to eat tomorrow.

Initial taste testing and snacking indicates that this is some terrific pulled pork, I actually added in some more of the original rub mix and will allow to cool. Tomorrow, I will reheat for sandwiches, I can't say how many at this point. Here is a close-up showing the texture, which I hope you can see, is not the least mushy.

A funny aside, I forgot that I had tied the butt, so when I went to pull it, the meat would not pull. My first thought was 'oh no, I pulled a rookie mistake! How could I do that?'. But, no, it was then I noticed the string, cut it and the whole thing came right apart. Whew!